The Secret History Files

A Touhou Project Fic in the Danmakuverse by Achariyth

Chapter 3: Little Drop of Poison

I hate disguises. Not because I despise sneaking around, but because my pale tresses and bows are the first things I have to hide. Do me a favor and don't say who a slender figure and floor-length raven princess-cut hair reminds you of. I don't need to hear it right now.

Add Kotohime's purple and pink robes, and not only do I look like that other princess of rabbits, I become the spitting image of those court ladies my worthless father couldn't keep his hands off of.

I need a drink. Good thing this bartender serves bourbon.

"Go easy on that," my 'cousin', Kotohime, said. "Most of the guys here are waiting for you to fall off your stool." Many in Gensokyo love the taste of Old No. 7, but few have the head for it. Sorry, boys, but a hundred years of drinking it builds up quite a tolerance. No one's going to be escorting Mokou Fujiwara, I mean, Koyomi Nakatomi, home tonight. You'd have better luck if Miyako was still alive...

I shook my head and drained my glass. I'd never been close to my older half-sister Miyako, preferring instead the company of my youngest half-sister Tahino. It seemed odd to dredge up ancient history here and now, especially of the elegant, disapproving empress who introduced Kaguya to my father.

"They're here," I whispered. The Secret History Association was consumed with beginnings, and Miyako's court intrigues were mine.

This wasn't my idea. As you might have guessed, Mr. A vanished before Kotohime could unlock my jail cell. I wanted to go full Hakurei out on the streets, but my minder wouldn't let me. Something about not being a menace to the peace. Anyway, I had to listen to Kotohime; else I'd languish back in that cell. Her plan meant I had to play her cousin Koyomi from the Outside as we "went to where the people were." She rattled off other homilies before we came here, but I tuned them out while I ran the dye through my hair.

For a madwoman, she's shockingly sensible. The Secret History Association would be watching for me. That is, for a tall girl with long pale hair and a hair-trigger temper. I just didn't expect her to drag me to the nearest bat in some deranged girls' night out. But if it meant finding Akyuu so that Keine could come back to me, I'd endure.

Somehow.

"Where?" Kotohime said. She nursed a drink that she called an "Arizona iced tea." Expecting something like a Long Island iced tea; I had taken a sip earlier and shivered. Who wanted to drink cold tea mixed with enough sugar to sate Kaguya's sweet tooth for a month, much less four of them in one night?

I closed my eyes. The sense of history long buried didn't act like a compass. Any of the clusters of men eying Kotohime and I while pondering divide and conquer strategies could be Secret History goons.

Try as I might, that familiar thread of nostalgia eluded me. Granted, I don't remember most of my half-sisters fondly. Infighting not once but twice to claim the privilege of the Emperor's bride ruined whatever memories I had of most of them. No one wants to remember what they once lost.

I missed the worst of it. Too young for the first squabble, I was too far gone in my rivalry with Kaguya Homewrecker to pay much attention at the second. At least not until Tahino burst into my room after Nagako and Komyoshi spread rumors of a tryst-

There it was, faint in the background and fading away. "Is anyone leaving?" I asked, trying to hold on to the image of my favorite half-sister in my mind's eye.

Kotohime tapped my shoulder. I opened my eyes and followed her pointing over to the exit. A raven-haired woman in dark robes stepped outside. I might have thought her a crow tengu, but she had her hair pulled back so that her human ears were showing. "Let's go, 'Koyomi," the policewoman said, sliding a thick stack of bills and coins across the counter.

We lost her immediately under the gaslights lining the midnight streets. It was like chasing kappa, except without the river youkai's penchant for shelling pursuers after they vanish. One of these days, I'll figure out how these Secret History acolytes elude me. I have some of Kaguya's classic entertainments in mind for when I catch one. Assuming I ever do. Until then, Kotohime has me going from group to group, chatting idly as I search for that lost nostalgia feeling of someone working with history. And I have to do it in character.

"It's for Keine," I repeated under my breath. Struggling to keep a smiling mask intact, I reached out, my hand brushing the arm of the Motoori's eldest son. As I searched the streets for hidden Secret History, there was no Mokou under these midnight tresses, only Kotohime's cousin. Koyomi was a notorious flirt, worse than the courtiers and courtesans that my mother and I caught sneaking into my father's house. My mother warned me against acting like them, now, if she saw me, I wasn't sure if she'd weep or cheer.

Merchant's son or not, my guess is that she'd schedule the wedding right then. The Motoori family had married for love, and found handsomeness as well, even if none of the booksellers' sons were a patch on my father. Although, if his shoulders were a touch broader, I'd be swooning under the moonlight instead of Koyomi.

I clung to that mask. I'd die over and over again if anyone saw me acting like this. The pride of the Fujiwara was too strong. Koyomi was unrestrained by such silliness, and no one saw past her spirited personality and low-cut robe to see the woman within.

Kotohime scowled, her hands wrenching her skirts as I wrapped more than an arm around the bookseller's son's. For a moment, I thought I saw Miyako's practiced sneer in the policewoman's features. She never liked to take the direct route in courtship. My mother had taught me better, in the days before the moon wretch ruined everything, but I hadn't kept up with the fashions of poetry and calligraphy. I snuggled tight against his side; I needed to distract him until I knew if he was Secret History.

If he was, I'd scream.

Maybe I'd scream anyway. I wanted to. But it's for Keine, so I'd endure. And maybe afterward...

I squeezed his arm tighter, cooing as I smiled, bright-eyed and every bit the pampered toy I loathe. Not Koyomi, this time, but me. He smiled back, his rigid reluctance melting away. I preened shamelessly, cooing and fluttering my eyes. No one told me how much fun this could be. Yet, he only saw Koyomi, and not me.

Now I really wanted to scream.

The breeze shifted, bringing cold air and the faintest hint of something familiar. It took me a moment to place it; while the Motoori boy smelled of hard work and old books, the wind brought the scent of moldering bones.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

I didn't know what to say. Koyomi doesn't know Keine well enough to recognize the smell of history changing. And she definitely wouldn't know anything about the Secret History Association. Not that many know them as anything other than nutcases. My mind spun as I struggled to say anything other than the dreaded "It's not you, it's me."

I jumped as a hand seized my arm.

"Would you excuse my cousin?" Kotohime yanked me away and wrapped her free arm around my shoulders. "I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about, but she has to wash her hair."

"What-" Her arm slipped off of my shoulders and cinched around my neck.

"Don't worry; I'm sure she'll be around for a very long time." As Kotohime dragged me away, I watched his face fall. "Auntie Kamohime can be so strict."

I froze, watching as the Motoori disappear as Kotohime pulled me around a corner. "How did you know Aunt Kamohime?"

"It's the first name to come to mind," Kotohime said. She let go of me, but kept her body between that corner and me.

Believe me, I wasn't going anywhere in a hurry. My personal history was leaking all over. Oh, I'm sure someone might have studied enough of the Fujiwara line to know my father's wives. They still wouldn't find me in the family tree; Miyako pruned me from it as soon as I drank the elixir. Also, no normal historian would have a clue that Aunt Kamohime always had Miyako's half-brothers and half-sisters call her that.

"Why'd you pull me away?" I snapped.

Kotohime laughed and pointed out into the street. People drifted away in small clumps and laughed with each other. "You drew a crowd."

I poked my head around the corner, even as heat flooded through my cheeks, and not the familiar phoenix burn. As the streets emptied, Komachi Onozuka stood firm and scowled at me. Embracing my inner Kaguya, I blew a raspberry at the tall reaper. I'd been thumbing my nose at death for so long, I couldn't resist.

"Stay here." Kotohime pulled me back and spun me further into the alley she had dragged us into. Then, the policewoman slipped out into the road, probably to harass a drunk. I waited about five heartbeats and ducked deeper into the alley. With luck, I could make it out the other side before she came back. I'd find Keine and Akyuu on my own, without the embarrassment.

Before I could make it half-way to my freedom, though, a piercing rhythmic clatter stopped me in my tracks. I knew that high pitch rattle, like the chattering of teeth on a cold winter's night. The bones. Youkai used to play the bones in their nightly revels, back in the days before doing so brought down a rain of fire. It's a simple instrument, just place two rib bones between your fingers and shake your hand to make a pleasant clicking rhythm. Youkai prefer human ribs, though, whenever they can get them.

This pair, swung around in spirals by a skilled hand, grated on more than just my ear. The timbre was human, that much was unmistakable, like the growing chill down my spine. I wrung the sides of my robe in my hands lest my fingers run down my sides, counting each rib by feel.

"Do you know the history of these?" The bones kept clattering while a woman's voice, my voice, spoke. I spun around and blood and warmth drained from my face. My reflection smiled and her hand spiraled in the air. No, not quite my reflection; I'd been that lean only once in my life, during the feral years. Her hair even matched my own now jet black tresses. I hadn't dyed my hair to match the wisteria flowers until after I had returned to civilization. "A silly noble child ran out into the forest one year and shivered out her days in a cave until something else found a better use for the body she wasted. A bloody end for one with so much blood on her hands."

My lips curled and the first flashes of heat danced across my skin. I bit back the flames; Kotohime forced me to leave the charms that protected my hair and clothes back at the jail. Where was that crazy policewoman? "Set those down and step back if you want to keep that hand."

"Really, Great Aunt, did you think a little charcoal in your hair would hide you from us?" My twin held my ribs up and rattled the bones. "These tell such interesting tales to those who have an ear to listen. You could have been Empress."

I ground my teeth and rolled up the sleeves of my borrowed robe. Already, the air filled with hint of smoldering ash. I'd proudly march home naked if it meant destroying those bones, but I doubted that Kotohime, wherever she was hiding, would let me. Besides, these robes would be expensive to replace. "You must be one of the mothers. Where's the Miare?"

My reflection waggled her hand in my direction, clicking her disapproval with my own bones. "You of all people should know the price of obsession. So many decades all alone." She smiled and ran her free hand down her side. "You don't know how many times you could have ended that with a simple smile."

Flame leapt from my open hand, searing the expensive cloth on my arm as it flew towards my Secret History shadow. She closed her eyes and the ribs in her hand glowed. The fireball vanished like a spark in a cold wind. For a moment, my earlier self vanished and another woman glowered at me, her face a mess of lines and gray locks. I stormed towards her, smoke rising from my arms.

"I have no time to waste on a mere girl unwilling to act her age," my reflection hissed. She held the ribs in both hands now, forming a sign. It glowed, and an unseen force seized me and squeezed my ribs like a vise. My lungs burned, but I couldn't gasp down a breath. "You were warned to leave the Child alone, for her safety. We would have let you be. But your obsessions now threaten the entire village. So, for the good of everyone, I have to break you."

I'd felt this before. Bone magic. Never this strong though, not even a thousand years earlier when some... thing made a collection of my parts. Since then, I burn anything left behind after my resurrections.

"Did you know that you look like your father's favorite courtesan?" With one hand, the mother held the bones in that cursed sign. She traced a slender finger down the side of a rib. "Eri, he called her. A blessed prize indeed. So pliable, like I must make you."

Miyako's best friend. Before Kaguya cursed us with her presence, all my hatred had been aimed at that simpering fool.

My reflection pulled out a steel flask from her sash. "You see, I found one more of your bones." She tapped the metal with her middle finger. "Open wide."

If I was able, burning lungs and all, I'd have thrashed my way loose or passed out trying. I'd seen my father break an obstinate horse once with a slurry of ground bone. He never raised a hand to the beast. One draught, and the bucking fiend lost its spirit. It never did much of anything after that, except when spurred. Good deal for the rider, horrible for the horse, and a nightmare for me. I'd be little more than a brood mare.

Forget the robes, I'll find a way to pay Kotohime back.

Before I could summon the phoenix flame, Kotohime lunged out of a deep shadow, quick and silent. She swung a thin metal baton at my reflection's wrist, and then whipped it around, striking the woman's shoulder and hip.

The bones clattered against the ground and I fell forward, sucking in huge breaths as I tumbled. The world spun as I rolled to my feet, panting. My eyes searched the dirt path, darting between stones.

The flask flew into the air and sprayed potion everywhere. Kotohime knelt on my twin, one knee pinning the woman's neck as the policewoman chased after flailing arms. Her captive blinked, appearing behind Kotohime in the same stance she had been in before the crazy rabbit princess tackled her. The flask reappeared in her hand. She stoppered the flask, kicked Kotohime over, and lurched for the rib bones at her feet.

My fire was faster. The air shimmered as dull red flame licked at my discarded remains. Kotohime bellowed and rolled towards the alley wall. The imposter hopped away, shook her hands, and blew on her fingers. I flung myself at her, but she blinked again, appearing behind me. But before I could spin around, she darted through the dying fire, fading into the air as she ran.

No matter how hard Kotohime might stamp her feet, it takes considerable time and effort to make bones burn. Keeping it from becoming a spectacle makes it take longer, even with a convenient crate hiding everything from wandering eyes. Thank the gods for the box; even with Kotohime over my shoulder, any onlooker who wandered in on me cremating human remains would run to call the real cops of Gensokyo.

By the way, Reimu and Marisa hate it when people have to wake them up at night.

Finally, the bones stopped crackling in the heat and only ash and dying embers remained. I rocked back on my heels and brushed ash and dust off of my robe.

Kotohime hauled me to my feet and wrenched my arms behind my back. I staggered as she spun me about and shoved me out into the main road and frogmarched me past the last lingering groups of people clumped under the gaslights. The streets emptied. No one wanted to stick around to see if this girl with the floor length hair was a troublemaker or a curfew breaker.

I dug in my feet as best I could, but to no avail. Look, I'm immortal, not immune to pain. Arms aren't designed to twist like that. "Let me go!"

Kotohime turned her wrist and jerked my hand past my shoulders. I rocked up onto my toes. "You need to cool your head, cousin. A night at the station should do the trick." Her voice boomed over my gasps.

"But Keine and Akyuu-"

"Come along quietly." Kotohime relaxed her grip and my nails no longer scratched the base of my neck. "I'd hate to make this professional. You wouldn't want me to think you're resisting arrest."

"Since when-" I bit my lip as stars exploded in my eyes. "I can still find them. They know who I am. I can be bait."

Kotohime dragged me off the road and into the alley known as Ballerina Leap Lane. She spun me around and shoved my back against a wall, pinning me in place with her knee. A hand clamped across my mouth. "I haven't forgotten about Lady Akyuu. We've tried it your way and it didn't work. Now we'll do things my way. You can be bait all you want, but you'll do it at the station."

She lifted her hand before I could snap at her fingers. "And if I say no?"

"You should have read the fine print before you agreed to be my deputy. Or do you want to go back to being my prisoner? Either way, we're heading back to the jail."

I slumped against the wall. "Did you have to march me past the Suzunaan bookstore?"

Kotohime flashed a set of wolfish teeth. "No."

I worked my free shoulder as best as I could pinned up against the wall. Maybe that would hide my grimace. "You done dragging me around yet? Or are we going out for another round of street theater?"

"Are you done ruining my robes?" Kotohime said. I looked away from the brown and black spots on her robes and nodded. Her knee moved and I dropped from the wall. "We're being followed."

The old familiar slow burn welled up once more. Even when I was young, I was gifted in tracking and centuries dodging youkai and crazy moon aliens had honed the skills beyond a knife's edge. There's no way I would have missed that, if Kotohime hadn't frogmarched me through the streets. "Let's do what we did last time. Go hide."

Kotohime shook her head and pulled one my sleeve. "That won't work again."

"I'll double back and-"

"Come one. It's too easy to trap us in here," she said, walking further down Ballerina Leap Lane. "Stick to the plan."

I lumbered after her as fast as I could in these robes, reminded once again why I had traded skirts for pants centuries earlier. "I would, if you'd bother to tell me the plan for once."

Author's notes:

Thanks to Mephiles666, Wolfsbane706, and Captain Vulcan for prereading.