"You must be sent to be my child, for I found you here among the bamboo where lies my daily work," said the old man, and taking the little creature in his hand he took it home to his wife to bring up. The tiny girl was so exceedingly beautiful and so small, that the old woman put her into a basket to safeguard her from the least possibility of being hurt in any way.
The old couple were now very happy, for it had been a lifelong regret that they had no children of their own, and with joy they now expended all the love of their old age on the little child who had come to them in so marvelous a manner.
From this time on, the old man often found gold in the notches of the bamboos when he hewed them down and cut them up; not only gold, but precious stones also, so that by degrees he became rich. He built himself a fine house, and was no longer known as the poor bamboo cutter, but as a wealthy man.
Three months passed quickly away, and in that time the bamboo child had, wonderful to say, become a full-grown girl, so her foster-parents did up her hair and dressed her in beautiful kimonos. She was of such wondrous beauty that they placed her behind the screens like a princess, and allowed no one to see her, waiting upon her themselves. It seemed as if she were made of light, for the house was filled with a soft shining, so that even in the dark of night it was like daytime. Her presence seemed to have a benign influence on those there. Whenever the old man felt sad, he had only to look upon his foster-daughter and his sorrow vanished, and he became as happy as when he was a youth.
At last the day came for the naming of their new-found child, so the old couple called in a celebrated name-giver, and he gave her the name of Kaguyahime, meaning Princess Moonlight, because her body gave forth so much soft bright light that she might have been a daughter of the Moon God.
-.-.-.-.-
-4-
-.-.-.-.-
"What's going on? Is everything alright?"
Renko was slumped, barely conscious, supported by myself and Keine as we came back through the door to Mokou's shack.
"What happened to her, is she ill?"
"Go take a look at the moon outside, but be careful," was all that Keine said to Mokou.
"The moon?"
Turning around, Mokou popped her head outside, staring skyward. Keine quickly laid out a futon over the tatami floor and I eased Renko onto it, where she lay moaning and covering her eyes. I knelt down beside her and laid my hands atop hers. She was breathing rapid, shallow breaths, sweating profusely with a flush to her face like a fever. I had never seen anything, much less merely looking at the sky affect Renko like this before, nor had I ever heard of anyone being affected in this way by seeing any sight, no matter how disorienting or dazzling.
"Renko..." I muttered, unsure of how to help.
"Hey what's with that moon? That's seriously messed up!" Mokou was shouting from the doorway, sounding alarmed.
"I don't know!" I called back. "But when Renko saw it she screamed and collapsed. I think that distortion affected her eyes..."
Renko gagged convulsively, half-sitting up.
"Mokou! Get a bucket and some water!" Keine called out.
The bucket arrived just in time for Renko to deposit her dinner into it. All I could do was rub her back.
"If this is a result of seeing that moon, then it should subside if she doesn't look at it for a bit," Keine said, hopefully. "Here, Renko, have some water..."
Renko heaved a few more times with nothing left to come out then took the glass. She gulped it back quickly and wiped her mouth on a rag Keine held out then curled into a ball with a groan. Moments later her body went slack as she lost consciousness.
Kenie sighed and ran her hand over Renko's forehead. "This isn't good. Mokou, do you think we could take her to that doctor in the forest?"
Mokou was outside, rinsing out the bucket with the left over water from the cooking. She came inside with a look of concern on her face. "That quack? I don't think they'd let me in there."
"I can't bring her back to the village under this moon, and we don't have space or medicine to care for her here."
An unhappy grimace warped Mokou's face as she groaned slightly.
"Please Mokou. I am well aware that you don't get along with the people over there, but this seems serious. Renko is my responsibility and I need to get her to care. We could benefit from their expertise, so I'm going whether you come or not."
"I can't guarantee they can help her, and when they see me, they may just attack on sight. You'll never find your way there without me though, especially at night."
"If it comes to that, I can protect her. I'll take responsibility for whatever happens. Please, Mokou." Keine bowed deeply. I didn't understand the situation, but I bowed my head too.
Mokou scratched her head, looking unsure. "Ah damn it. Things were just starting to seem peaceful. Come on, get up, there's no point in bowing to me, you'll need to save your groveling for them. I'll guide you though, let's go."
"Sorry to ask this of you, Mokou. Merry, let's go."
I helped Keine pick Renko up and settle her limply onto her back. With Renko unconscious, Keine had to hunch over slightly and support Renko's body with her hands behind her back, but the exertion of carrying another person didn't seem to bother her at all.
"Where is it that we're taking her?" I asked.
"There's a doctor who lives in this forest," Mokou said with an expression like they were discussing something deeply repellent. "Much better than any in the village, but she won't be happy to see me."
-.-.-.-.-
With no idea what was happening or what Mokou's history with this doctor might be, all I could do was follow along behind them as they strode into the darkness of the bamboo grove. Mokou led the way, picking out a path seemingly at random but with absolute surety from among the low hillocks and gentle, earthy slopes of the forest, threading their way past endless walls of identical stalks of bamboo that towered overhead, swaying gently.
In the deep moonlit shadows of the night, it was impossible not to be reminded of my dream, in which I had run though a place that, from the look of it, might well have been this very same forest, pursued by some sort of youkai rodent. It had been hard to see in the darkness, and I had initially thought it might have been a large rat, but thinking back maybe it was more like a beaver. Or a rabbit? I wasn't entirely sure what a real rabbit looked like. Cartoon bunnies were still common, but the actual animal had been extinct for years in my time. I remembered that one of the children had mentioned something about a youkai rabbit being spotted in these woods.
As I was walking forward, lost in thought, Mokou suddenly stopped short ahead of us, holding out an arm to halt us. "Hey, hold up!" I looked around, trying to find any sign of the creatures from my dream, searching the darkness for a hunched form with luminous red eyes.
"Mokou?" asked a voice from the darkness. "...and is that miss Keine?"
"Kagerou, is that you?" Keine asked, peering into the darkness.
As Keine spoke, a girl stepped out of the deep shadows, into a patch of moonlight. She was about my age, with long black hair that fell down to her waist and a pair of furry canine ears atop her head, like those of a white wolf tengu. She had an uneasy expression on her face, and on seeing me drew back into the shadows, as if to avoid being seen.
"Who is that?" the girl asked, shying away.
"A friend. No need to be afraid. I'd love to introduce you all to eachother, but we don't have time right now, we're transporting a sick person."
"A sick person? Where are you taking a sick person in the middle of a night with such a strange moon?"
"It's a long story. Look, have you seen any rabbits around tonight?"
"The prankster rabbits? No I haven't seen any at all tonight. I expect they're all hiding from this moon."
"The one time I actually want to see them..." Mokou grumbled.
"Do you have any idea what's going on with the moon?" The girl called Kagerou looked upward with an anxious expression, then quickly averted her eyes in disgust.
"No, but it did this to her," Mokou said, jerking a thumb at Renko's limp form. "You probably would be wise to avoid looking at it too."
"Yeah, that's a good idea. You and Keine should be careful too."
Without another word, she turned and disappeared back into the forest, quickly vanishing in the deep shadows.
"Keine, who was that?" I asked once we had started walking again.
"Kagerou Imaizumi. She's a werewolf who lives in this grove after being chased out of the village. As a result, she tends to be suspicious of humans, please don't take her reaction personally."
"Oh, no, I wasn't bothered, it's just not often that something shies away from ME."
Renko moaned woozily from Keine's back.
"That doesn't matter now though. Mokou, I don't think we have time to try to find a rabbit to give us an introduction. Please take us straight there."
Wearing a look of frustration, Mokou looked from Keine to Renko then back again. Swearing explosively, she turned and continued to march into the forest, this time taking a different heading.
-.-.-.-.-
After perhaps a quarter of an hour of walking, Mokou suddenly stopped.
"Past here they're sure to spot us, and I'm not sure how they'll react. Keine, watch over these two, I'll announce us."
"I understand. Please be careful, Mokou."
"I'll be fine. What's she going to do, kill me?" Mokou smiled grimly. Keine's expression at that remark seemed concerned, but was also twisted with an emotion I couldn't give a name to. Maybe something between pity and frustration. Hearing that, she motioned me to take several steps back, away from the small hill Mokou was standing at the crest of. Carrying Renko, she moved back too.
After watching us recede, Mokou reached her right hand out in front of her, as if she were grabbing something suddenly and turned her palm upward. There, a swaying red flame suddenly appeared, burning a few millimeters above her palm, suspended in midair, without any apparent source of fuel.
My eyes widened in surprise. A flame burning nothing, hovering in empty space. It was like something out of a fantasy manga. For Gensokyo it was, perhaps, not particularly surprising. But to see a phenomenon that violates the physical laws of the Scientific Century from which Renko and I had come demonstrated with such casual ease was still shocking. I'm sure if Renko had been her usual self, she'd immediately be trying to figure out how to rig up a calorimeter or spectroscope from available materials to interrogate the properties of the flame.
Mokou thrust her arm to the side and the flame began to spread, crawling up the length of her limb to the shoulder, burning hotter and brighter, but never quite touching her. Even her clothes remained unconsumed as the flame wreathed its way around her body. As it spread across her chest two jets of white-hot flame erupted from her back, generating twin fans of fire rippling outward in patterns like two great bird wings and scorching the green leaves nearby. The heat and light of the flames washed over me as Mokou rose into the air, her body held aloft in the center of an enormous bird made of flame.
"Come out already!" She roared, shouting into the darkness. Her voice was mixed with the crackling hiss of guttering flames. "I know you're here, Kaguya. Show yourself!"
In the darkness ahead, amidst the deeper shadows of the bamboo at the bottom of the hill something stirred. "Oh my goodness, Mokotan, did you bring a helper today?" Slowly the shape of a girl was emerging from the darkness.
Mokou pointed down toward where the voice had come from and a tongue of orange flame licked out and flickered in the air, hissing like a welding torch.
I gulped. By the guttering, flickering light of Mokou's flame I could see a beautiful girl.
No, 'beautiful' would be too weak a word to convey her appearance. She looked like something right of mythology, in a way I hadn't known was possible until just that moment. Her appearance was distinctly inhuman, not because of any one feature or trait that stood out like a horn on her head or the like, but simply the nature of her appearance filled the observer with a superhuman sense of awe, as if they were looking not at a person, but rather the very concept of beauty all dressed up and walking around. It was a cruel beauty though, one that seemed to cast the world around her in dingy, unhealthy tones even as it refined her every movement. Just by standing in the forest, looking up at the pulsing light of a flame she seemed like a diamond surrounded by filth, a glorious light that illuminated only rot and decay.
With a fearsome smile playing across those too-beautiful features she turned and regarded us. Still smiling, she spoke with a lilt of laughter to her voice.
"I hope you don't mind if I kill you all at once."
-.-.-.-.-
-5-
-.-.-.-.-
"I didn't come here today to kill or be killed, Kaguya." Her words roared and crackled, each syllable punctuated by a momentary surge of heat in the flames that surrounded her.
Still lit by the harsh light of the flame, but seeming almost to glow with a light from within as well, the girl called Kaguya turned back to Mokou, her eyes shining like stars as they widened in surprise. She wore an elaborate, finely embroidered kimono of luminous silk, and now she lifted one draping sleeve of the robe cover her mouth as she spoke. "Whatever do you mean? Do the two of us have any business together other than killing eachother?"
The entire spectacle, from the fire, to the sudden appearance of the eerily beautiful girl, to their disturbing exchange and behavior had dumbfounded me. Keine did not appear to be much better off. Her expression suggested she was acquainted both with Mokou's fiery abilities and this Kaguya girl, but despite that she had as much concern and as little surety about what would happen next as I did.
"It's not between us this time. Your servant is a doctor, isn't she?"
"Eirin? She's a pharmacist. What you might call an apothecary, not a doctor."
"That'll have to do. I have someone who's seriously ill, or maybe injured here. I need you to take care of them."
She tittered. Girlishly, unconcernedly. As if she hadn't a care in the world, as Renko moaned restlessly. "How ridiculous. We're not a hospital, you know."
She turned to glance at me. The moment she made eye contact I felt a terrifying thrill course through me. Here she was, playing with my partner's health like a toy and threatening both myself and two of my friends, but the moment she locked eyes with me was still enough to make my heart skip a beat. Looking at her, I instantly knew there was no chance she would let us through, the contempt and dismissal in even a momentary glance communicated well enough that our survival or demise was beneath her concern.
Before the situation could escalate further, Keine stepped forward. "Mokou is merely asking on my behalf, not for herself. I'm Keine Kamishirasawa, of the human village. This person on my back looked up at the distorted moon and was somehow injured by it. Is that not something within your servant's area of expertise?"
The girl called Kaguya tilted her head. Her mouth was still hidden behind her sleeve with a lilt of laughter in her voice as she asked "Injured by looking at the moon? Eirin, have you ever heard of such a thing?"
Another voice came from the shadows at the bottom of the hill then. "I can hear little else with all the racket you're making, I'm afraid." The voice was followed by a rather odd looking woman who stepped out of the shadows behind it. She was tall and slender, with hair in a long grey braid that reached to her knees. Her dress was oddly bisected, a deep midnight blue on one side and a flat, vivid red on the other. Her face looked at once youthful and aged, like a woman in her thirties who had lived a hard life filled with regret or a woman in her sixties who was remarkably well preserved. Her skin was smooth and unblemished, but her eyes had the hollow, haunted look of someone used to doing without sleep. As she came out of the shadows, she marched in a businesslike way up the small hill and toward Keine and Renko. "Mokou is an enemy of this household, and unwelcome within these walls. The same goes of her friends. If someone has been injured, however, its not unreasonable to call a temporary truce. And if that injury is the result of the moon's distortion, then I have no choice but to take responsibility."
Keine relaxed her posture as Eirin approached. "Take responsibility? For her looking at the moon? What do you mean?"
"A trade secret." Eirin said dismissively. "Now let's see that child."
Keine eased Renko's limp form off of her back and laid her gently on the ground under a patch of moonlight. Eirin wasted no time in examining her in a very matter of fact way, measuring her pulse, feeling at her forehead, peering into her mouth and finally prying her slack eyelids apart. As she craned over Renko, staring deeply into her eyes, she released a soft breath and muttered. "Well, what interesting eyes." A moment later, Eirin stood up and turned to talk to me. "Were either of you with her at the time she looked at the moon?"
"Yes," I volunteered. "I was right beside her."
"I assume she must have become disoriented. Did she fall? Any impacts to her head?"
"No, I caught her. She just covered her eyes and screamed in pain. Oh and there was some vomiting and a fever."
"I see. A rather interesting case, and a most unusual physiological feature. Very good. Let's get her into a bed then," Eirin muttered, seemingly more to herself than either of us. Then without another word she scooped Renko up in her arms and walked down the hill, carrying her limp form like it was weightless despite her slender build. "I'll show you the way, if you'd like to follow me," she called over her shoulder, her pace unbroken. I glanced at Keine for only a moment before jogging to catch up to her long strides.
As we passed by Kaguya at the bottom of the hill she turned to us, nose uplifted with a disdainful expression on her face. "Oh Eirin, are you sure? Bringing filthy humans into our home?"
"It's no worse than all of the Inaba trudging in and out all day." Eirin responded.
"I suppose that's true enough." Kaguya turned, no longer interested in the momentary distraction we had provided and went back to smiling at the fiery outline of Mokou's birdlike form hovering above the crest of the hill. She let her sleeve droop to her side, revealing a cruel, thin smile. "Well then, Mokotan, shall we kill eachother?"
"Absolutely not!" Eirin snapped, still striding ahead. "I expect you not to cause any mischief while I'm examining this patient. Miss Kamishirasawa, was it? Please see to it that they refrain from making a ruckus."
"Me?" Keine asked, glancing first to the fiery bird-shape illuminating the grove then to the frighteningly beautiful girl grinning up at it and finally to me with a look of concern. Eirin didn't respond, and kept walking. I glanced back at Keine for a moment, but I couldn't leave Renko's side any more than I could leave her in the care of this stranger unobserved. I hurried after Eirin as she carried Renko further into the dark woods, and a moment later heard Keine shouting indistinctly behind me.
I continued to follow along and perhaps a minute after that I heard the three of them come running through the forest behind me to catch up. They rejoined our procession without a word, Keine looking flustered, Mokou looking sour and Kaguya looking pleased with herself. Still, they fell into line as we marched behind Eirin. Eirin looked back over her shoulder with a disapproving scowl as Mokou rejoined us, but said nothing.
After we had marched a little further into the bamboo forest, I drew to a halt, suddenly unsure of the ground ahead of me. Looking forward I could see an unremarkable expanse of bamboo stalks swaying gently in the moonlight, but I could see something else as well, as if there were a spinning soap bubble superimposed over the patch of forest ahead of us. Peering into the gloom, I tried to make out the details, muttering to myself as I did so.
"...A barrier?"
It was definitely a seal of some kind, expertly crafted, but for subtlety, rather than strength. A seal designed not to prevent crossing, but to conceal it - to hide whatever was contained within from outside observation. I reached a hand toward it, unconsciously...
"You can see it?" Eirin asked from ahead of me, stopping in her tracks to turn and regard me.
"What kind of barrier is this? I've never seen one quite the same."
"You must have unusual eyes as well. I suppose the people of Earth are not to be underestimated." With that non-answer, Eirin awkwardly extended one hand while still supporting Renko. She twisted her fingers, somehow snagging the insubstantial material of the seal and pushed it aside. As she did, the scene in front of me changed completely.
After somehow grabbing the insubstantial and nearly invisible seal, Eirin had drawn it aside like a curtain, revealing an expansive clearing in the forest which contained a broad, square wall of cultivated bamboo planted so close together that the stalks grew touching eachother, like soldiers marching shoulder to shoulder. The wall encircled the grounds of a stately and traditional Japanese manor, with a second, inner wall of stone behind the bamboo. The architecture was reminiscent of the Hieda residence in the village, but where the Hieda manor was worn but well cared for with a sense of age and dignity about its grounds, this mansion, from the wood and iron of its gate to the slate shingles of its rooves looked brand new, as if it had all only been constructed the moment Eirin had twisted her hand. Eirin pulled the illusory curtain aside for us and motioned for us to enter. Where it swayed, the undisturbed scene of the empty forest swung back to overlay the scene seamlessly.
"So this is the hole you always crawl back to?" Mokou grunted.
"Oh dear, Mokotan knows where to find me now. Will we ever get the stink out, I wonder?" Kaguya smiled from behind her.
Eirin seemed to suppress a sigh, looking tired, though not from the exertion of carrying Renko. "Welcome to Eientei," she declared flatly.
As I entered, I turned to look at our procession. We were a strange group - an Outsider like myself, a half-youkai historian looking nervous but determined, Mokou, slightly singed all over looking unimpressed and Kaguya at the back, radiant in the moonlight. Seeing her smiling faintly against the backdrop of the bamboo grove, it was impossible to think she could be any other than the very Kaguyahime of the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter I had been reading with my students earlier.
"This way," Eirin said, guiding us toward the banded wooden doors of the gate. When we arrived, Eirin turned and pressed Renko's limp form into my arms. I hugged her body tightly, but despite the ease with which everyone else had been toting her around, having her warm, awkward weight pressed into my arms was too much for me to support. I ended up holding her up by the armpits with her feet dragging on the ground and her head lolling about until Keine was able to come and take her on her back again.
Eirin addressed us as she pushed the heavy gate aside. "Kaguya, please show Mokou and her merry band to my office, then go get Udonge. I'll be by shortly."
Kaguya swished past us, moving gracefully and smiling in a way that seemed both inviting and malicious. She lead us away from the larger buildings toward a detached structure off in one corner, from which light was spilling out onto the grounds. Stepping onto the veranda, Kaguya motioned to the sliding door with a poisonous smile, saying. "Please go ahead. There are no traps or anything."
Mokou and Keine took the time to glance at one another before Mokou walked ahead of us and slid the door open, peering around inside. Apparently satisfied that there were not, in fact, assassins hiding in the room beyond, she nodded for us to enter. I wondered just what the story was between her and Kaguya to warrant such expectations of animosity.
I followed Keine into the large room. Although it was like the office Renko and I used for our detective agency in that it was spare and without ornamentation, it could barely be thought of as the same sort of space. The room must have held 20 tatami mats or so, and they were all faded and somewhat worn. Compared to the rest of the mansion, which appeared brand new, this building seemed lived in, with scuffs on the furniture and floorboards suggesting daily use. Also, pointedly, there were no futons here. While I was looking around for somewhere we could lay Renko down, I heard the sound of footsteps approaching.
"Uh, princess, wait! What do you mean 'a medical emergency'?"
"I'm sure you'll figure it out. I'll leave the boring things to you and Eirin. Good night, Inaba."
With that, the door slid open and a new girl stumbled into the room. I caught just a glimpse of Kaguya's smile as she hastily slid the door closed again. Recovering her balance and trying to present herself with some measure of dignity, the new arrival looked up and took us all in with a pair of deep red eyes opened wide in surprise. Having lived in Gensokyo for more than a year now, I had seen several varieties of beast youkai. This was my first time meeting a rabbit though. Aside from the slightly disturbing shade of her of her eyes and the obvious, meter long rabbit ears protruding floppily from her head, the girl looked human, albeit strangely dressed. She was wearing a blazer and skirt that looked completely out of place compared to everything else I had seen in Gensokyo, but wouldn't have drawn a comment if worn by a high school girl at a private academy in the Outside world. She wore her purplish hair long and loose, where it hung nearly to her knees. By now I was used to the sensation of being in the presence of a youkai, but there was still something about her gaze that set me on edge as she looked from face to face among the four of us assembled in the room, eventually settling on Renko's slack features. She heaved a sigh, seemingly more out of frustration at having to care for a sick person then out of care for their condition, but seemed resigned to her fate.
"I'll lay out the futon for you," she said, by way of greeting.
Blanket and mattress were quickly laid out, with Renko between them. Her face was still flushed, but for now she had stopped groaning and seemed to be sleeping soundly. As we set up the sickroom, the rabbit girl was murmuring to herself. "A viral infection? No, master wouldn't bothering bringing her here for that." She turned to Mokou. "I think I've seen you before. You're a friend of the princess', aren't you?"
"Definitely not a friend!" Mokou barked.
The rabbit girl shrank back from the outburst with an awkward expression. Keine stepped forward with a sigh after shooting Mokou a look. "You've heard about Mokou from the princess, I'm sure. I'm Keine Kamishirasawa, a friend of Mokou's. This is Merry, and your patient is named Renko Usami. She lives in the village, under my protection. There's something unusual going on with the moon right now, and when this girl looked up at it she screamed and collapsed. It seems to have affected her in some way.
"Something weird with the moon? Do you mean..." she tilted her head back, thinking as she tapped her chin, a troubled expression on her face.
Before she could finish the sentence though, Eirin opened the door and stepped into the room saying "Thank you Udonge, that will be quite enough."
At the sight of Eirin's return the girl called Udonge sprang up, saying "Ah, master! Welcome," and retreating a few steps back to clear space for Eirin to work.
Eirin was carrying with her a small wooden chest which she carefully laid down beside Renko. Extracting a clear glass vial from it, she knelt over Renko's supine form.
"A drug? You know what's wrong with her then?" I asked.
"Just something to rouse her. She'll need to be awake to take the medicine." Removing a stopper, she waved the vial of clear liquid under Renko's nose. Slowly, Renko's eyes began to flutter, and she moaned. Eirin brought forth another bottle from the chest and lifted Renko's head and shoulders gently off of the futon, pressing the vial to her lips as she did so. Renko swallowed as the liquid filled her mouth but didn't open her eyes. When the bottle was empty she moaned again. Eirin laid her back down and she was instantly asleep once more.
At the back of the room Mokou had taken up a position away from the futon, leaning up against one of the timber wall supports. "For your sake, I hope you didn't just poison her," she said. Her tone suggested she didn't expect much from this treatment.
Ignoring the threat, Eirin turned to Keine and I. "Can either of you tell me anything about her eyes? They seem quite unusual."
I blinked in surprise. People were frequently commenting on how bizarre my eyes were, but I couldn't remember anyone ever noticing Renko's. I had wondered from time to time myself if there even was anything unusual about her eyes, or if it was merely a quirk of her brain that allowed her to gaze at the sky and act like a human GPS. That much of her, at least, I was sure was abnormal.
"...Renko says she can tell the current time by looking at the stars, and tell where she is by looking at the moon. I don't know how it works though."
Eirin looked at me and nodded. "Yes, that would explain it. Very unusual physiology, and very unfortunate for her to have looked at moon under these conditions."
"What do you mean?" Keine asked. "How can looking at the moon injure someone?"
"Hmm, how could I phrase this in a way that you would understand?" Eirin looked at the ceiling for a moment. "I suppose the short version is to say that her brain is overworked. This girl's eyes have a direct connection to her brain, allowing to her calculate information based on visual observation without the need for conscious thought. When she looked at the moon tonight, the visual jamming field in place utilizes spatial distortion to redirect any direct observation of the moon, meaning that attempting to read its position results in an infinite loop. To most people that just means that they see only a three dimensional shadow of the moon generated by the field's displacement, but to this girl, the direct linkage means she couldn't refrain from attempting to calculate angle, distance and momentum through the distorted brane of the compressed space field. Attempting to run such a calculation with just the hardware of the human brain would exhaust anyone, no matter how smart they were."
Keine stared at the other woman looking dumbfounded. "That makes even less sense! What does any of that mean?"
"It means she's overworked her eyes and head. Before she fainted did she complain of any pain in her eyes?"
"Yes," I volunteered. "She was holding them as if she had been staring at the sun."
"I suspect the excess information she observed overstimulated her nervous system, depleting several neurotransmitters and causing something like an electrical storm in the brain. The resulting symptoms may be somewhat similar to a concussion. I've given her a sedative to calm her nerves, but she'll need to rest and eat a lot of glucose to build her body's reserves back up. She can expect to lose her vision for about a week, and should avoid any attempts at strenuous thinking or calculation. With rest, she should eventually return to normal, however."
"She'll be blind?" I said in alarm. My brain was reeling, still trying to take in all of the details.
"For about a week, yes."
I looked down at Renko's sleeping face. She was sweaty from the fever and disheveled from having been tossed around like a sack of rice for the last hour, but the grimace of pain I had seen on her face earlier had slackened, and she didn't look any worse than she had the morning after our first party at the shrine. I supposed I should be grateful to hear that she would recover in time, but in truth I was terrified. Until now the thought of having to deal with life in this technologically backwards world while living with a disability like blindness had never occurred to me. I tried to imagine in my head how terrifying it would be to be without vision in a world full of youkai and what sort of support Renko would be likely to need.
Eirin stood up, smoothing out her red and blue dress as she did so. "You're welcome to stay here tonight. She should awaken tomorrow. If she does, you're free to go whenever you like. If you need anything during your stay Udonge will see to it." She nodded to the rabbit girl. "Udonge, I'll leave them in your care."
"Yes, master." Udonge nodded solemnly, which was not an easy feat given the comical way her ears bobbed and flopped.
Keine turned as Eirin moved to leave the room. "Doctor..." she called. "Thank you." She bowed her head deeply. From the corner, Mokou grumbled unhappily. "...Thank you for taking care of her," she managed. I thanked her as well, bowing fully horizontal.
Eirin smiled wryly as she walked out the door. "I never expected to live long enough to be thanked by you, Mokou. And I'm not a doctor," she added as the door slid closed.
We were left alone with the rabbit girl who sighed as soon as Eirin was gone, muttering "How did I end up taking care of sick humans on Earth?" to herself. Seeming to realize we could see and hear her she looked up and hurriedly said. "Ah, I'll uh, get you all some water," and left the room as well.
Letting out a sigh that was a little more choked than I would have intended, I squeezed Renko's hand, which was poking out from under the covers.
"Renko..."
Taking her limp hand in both of mine, I bowed my head and brushed her fingers against my face, cursing my helplessness. All this time since we had come here, I had relied on Renko, to set our course, keep us safe and provide direction. Both figuratively and literally she had been my compass. Without her, I knew with bone-deep certainty that I was lost.
Keine gently laid a hand on my shoulder, but I didn't look back, I simply knelt there, with Renko's hand in mine, as the night wore on.
-.-.-.-.-
-6-
-.-.-.-.-
At some point during the night I must have dozed off. Consumed with worry as I was, and though there was nowhere for me to lay or sit, holding Renko's hand and kneeling at her side, I had somehow felt at peace enough to briefly and shallowly sleep. I awoke some short time later to the sounds of Keine and Mokou talking anxiously in the doorway, while staring up at the night sky.
"Whatever that moon is, I'm worried about how it might affect the youkai. I think I should get back to the village. It's possible that the neighborhood watch could need my help, and I don't think there's much I can do here," Keine said, while fidgeting with the fabric of her dress. "Mokou, I know it's a lot to ask, but can I trust you to watch over the both of them and bring them back to the village when they're ready?"
"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'm not gonna pick a fight with her or any of her attendants. She'd enjoy that too much."
"Thank you Mokou. You're... a good person."
"Yeah, yeah. You'd better get going. Take care heading back."
"Sorry about this. You'll tell them I'm sorry when they wake up?"
"Just go already. I'm sure one of the bunnies can guide you to the edge of the forest."
As a member of the closest thing the village had to a police force, I can only imagine the responsibility Keine must have felt during times like these. I wouldn't have dreamed of demanding she stay, as reassuring as her presence could be.
As Keine was leaving, Udonge was just returning, carrying a large basin full of water and a smaller bucket. She set them down on the veranda. "Here," she said to Mokou. "You can use these for... whatever humans need to do. Oh, and here's this." She tossed something small into room. I glanced over as it landed beside me. It was a small, padded eye mask, the same as you might find for sale at an airport or train station. I wondered if it had come from the Outside world, or perhaps Korindo. "Master said she's supposed to rest her eyes. Oh and take this too." She handed Mokou a tiny bell. I'll hear that if you ring it, but I'd rather you didn't. I've already got plenty of work to do."
With that said, she turned and left. Her beside manner left a lot to be desired, but I suppose for a youkai to be caring for a human patient at all was notable and unexpectedly kind treatment. I wondered if she might have been the rabbit Youkai the children claimed to have seen in the forest. If so, I'd have to make a point of advising them to stay away.
For that matter, who were any of the people in this mansion, and why were they in a concealed enclave behind a barrier of illusions in the middle of the forest? The connection between the princess with the cruel smile and the princess Kaguya from the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter seemed too obvious to ignore, but to think she might actually be the girl from that story seemed insane. For one, that girl had returned to the moon by the end of the Tale, and for another the story was close to 1900 years old - a span so long that even for a youkai, for them to still be alive seemed unlikely.
Putting such questions aside, I slipped the eye mask onto Renko. Mokou apparently heard me move, as she closed the door and came in, tucking the bell from Udonge into a pocket of her monpe. Sitting down beside me she looked at Renko, then over to me, smiling wryly.
"Since you're friends with her, I bet you've got a bunch of questions you want to ask me about these people."
"Well, I had wondered," I admitted. "It seems like there's some history there."
Mokou leaned back and scratched at her head. "It's hard to know where to start. This is the first time I've ever come to this place, but Kaguya and her servant Eirin and I go way back. I guess you could say I'm their nemesis. I've hated them for... a long time."
I looked over at Mokou's face, staring into the middle distance with a troubled expression. I bowed my head to her. "Thank you then. For Renko's sake you were willing to put that aside and ask for their help. That can't have been easy, but from the sound of things, this isn't something an average doctor could have handled."
"Ah, don't worry about it. If nothing else, I know where they live now. I can make use of that the next time Kaguya tries to kill me. I should have known she'd be hiding in some hole like a snake this whole time."
I wondered just why the people of this mansion were living in such concealment. Somehow I doubted the fortifications, the secrecy and the seclusion were just to hide from Mokou. Despite how impressive her powers had seemed, she was just one girl. From its size, this estate could have been home to at least a dozen people.
I looked out the window. Beyond the wall tall bamboo stalks swayed gently, but the window was facing the wrong direction to see the moon. For Renko's sake that was probably for the best, mask or not. I wracked my memory, trying to recall exactly the technobabble Eirin had spouted when explaining the cause of Renko's collapse. I was sure that Eirin had mentioned a 'jamming field' at one point, and that the explanation had had something to do with Renko's brain trying to process information despite its interference. If that were the case, it suggested the the bizarre distortion was some sort of intentional process, intended to prevent observation or communication, much like the illusory veil covering the estate. Eirin hadn't seemed to concerned about revealing the true nature of that illusion to us. Could it be because with the moon like this, that level of concealment was no longer needed?
"Miss Mokou..." I began. After the help they had provided Renko I was hesitant to name the fear that was forming in my mind. "Could the people here have been responsible for... whatever happened to the moon and what it did to Renko? Eirin had said something about taking responsibility for this."
Mokou thought for a moment. "I wouldn't put it past them. They both come from the moon, though I don't know why they live here now."
"They come from the moon?" I asked incredulously. I had made the connection to the legend in my head, but for someone to assert that they had once lived on the moon so plainly was still not something I expected to hear outside of a story.
Mokou was about to reply when another voice interrupted the conversation.
"Is it easier to believe if she calls me 'Princess Moonlight?'"
We turned to see Kaguya standing in the door way, having approached and opened the door silently. "Or would you prefer 'the bamboo cutter's daughter?' That title hardly does me justice though."
I blinked in surprise. "So you really are the same Kaguyahime from the legends?"
"That's right," she smiled. "And Mokotan there is the daughter of the aristocrat who proposed to me."
At the time, the import of those words didn't occur to me.