Chapter 1: The Stolen Book and the Grumpy Miko
Night. The time of Youkai. Of course, some youkai are associated with the night more than others. Vampires, for example, are what springs to mind when most think of the 'Youkai of the Night', especially due to Remilia Scarlet's ego. Some would think of the Night Sparrow, or even Lunarians.
However, this is simply not the truth. There is one little youkai everyone should think of first when they think of the darkness of the night. She is not the strongest, the most fearsome, or the smartest. No-one is even clear on what sort of youkai she actually is... or much about her.
However, she is the Youkai of Darkness, nonetheless. She is Rumia, a child-like youkai grabed in a black dress and skirt, along with a white blouse, with a red tie, with two attached red orbs visible, like cherries. However, what is most interesting is the red ribbon upon her head, which she cannot touch, let alone remove.
The youkai flew aimlessly, as per usual, around the forest she lives in, in her usual cross-like pose, arms reached out, when she spotted something flying towards her. This something was something she hadn't seen for a while. A red and white Miko.
Most youkai knew better than to get in Reimu's way when she is flying at night-time, as this inevitably means that there is an incident, or else she would be sleeping at home. The fact Reimu had to do anything also was a sure sign that she is in a foul mood. Of course, Rumia was not 'most youkai', and the small, childish youkai, decided to fly in Reimu's path.
She broke her stance for a moment, to pull out from her pocket a frozen frog. A frog Cirno gave her that she froze earlier. The frog was close to being thawed by this time, leaving the youkai's pocket, and hands, wet.
"Reimu! Look at my frog!" she says happily.
Reimu stopped, and looked disapprovingly.
"Are you attempting to distract me so you can try and eat me again?" Reimu asks.
Rumia tilts her head. "I dunno. I hadn't decided yet." The youkai admits.
Reimu faceplamed at Rumia's honest response. "I don't have time for this. I need to find that book that got stolen from Remilia before she throws a fit and starts wrecking Gensokyo looking for it herself. Now get out of my way or else I'll make you." Reimu then mutters. "Although why she can't send Sakuya is beyond me."
Rumia blinks. "Is that so~?" she asks innocently.
The response was mixed with a bop over the head by Reimu's Gohei. "Yes."
The bonk on the noggin, however, was enough to stimulate the youkai's mind into coming up with a way to appease the grumpy miko.
"What if I help you?" she asks.
"What?" Reimu asked; surprised by the sudden offer.
"I'm gonna look for this book thingy!" Rumia repeats.
Reimu blinked a few times, internally doubting if Rumia even knew what a book was, before she grinned slyly. "OK, go ahead, knock yourself out. Go look for the book. But stay out of my way. It's faster if we split up."
The small youkai was oblivious to the fact that Reimu was just using this to trick her into leaving; however, she just 'bounced' up and down in the air happily.
"I'm gonna help Reimu~" she says, flying away. "I gotta tell the others!"
Now free of the youkai in her way, Reimu looked around, before flying towards Marisa's. As per usual, Reimu was relying on her intuition, which was telling her that if anyone stole from the Scarlet Mansion, it was Marisa.
"Aww, I can't find Mystia and Cirno..." Rumia sighed, as she entered a grove filled with fireflies, in the centre being the firefly youkai, Wriggle Nightbug.
Wriggle was the Darkness Youkai's closest friend. While she too was childish, and not strong, and not too bright, she was a level-headed, calm youkai. Certainly she was smarter than Rumia.
"Wrrrriggle!" Rumia shouted, startling her friend.
"Rumia? Why are you here at this hour? It's not like you to come to one of the brightest places in the forest at night." Wriggle said, indicating the fireflies swarming around, illuminating the grove.
"I'm gonna help Reimu with an incident! Wanna help?" the blonde said like a child going to Disneyland, sparkly eyes and all.
The insect youkai paused. "What kind of incident?"
"Someone stole something from the lady in the mansion near Cirno's place. Reimu's looking for it and Reimu was grumpy but I said I'd help and she'll leave me alone." Rumia replied quickly, waving her arms by her side.
Wriggle takes a few moments... and several slower repetitions, to understand what Rumia just told her.
"What was stolen? I can ask the bugs to look for it to help us." Wriggle says.
Rumia blinks a few times, before she breaks out into a huge, cheesy grin, from one ear to the other. "That's something Reimu can't do. Bugs are everywhere!" she says, before a loud croak comes from her pocket.
"What was that?" Wriggle says.
"It was a frog! I think I'll call it Dinner." Rumia answered blankly, of course, the original plan was that it was her dinner for the night, but with this whole incident thing, the airheaded youkai had forgotten that, and decided to call it Dinner as a name, and turn it into a pet of sorts.
"Well... keep it in your pocket around the fireflies or it'll eat them." Wriggle says.
Wriggle stood among the fireflies for a few minutes, which fluttered around her, a look of focus etched on her face, before she chuckled. Wriggle was communicating with insects.
"Rumia... the bugs say they saw... someone steal a book... out of Marisa's hands. Someone fast. So fast they couldn't tell who it was." Wriggle said slowly, translating from insect to Japanese.
"Someone stole from Marisa?!" Rumia exclaimed.
"Yes. And I think I know the only person fast enough to do that and get away." Wriggle comments. "That reporter bird who took photos of us a while back."
"Oh yeah, the crow that lives on the mountain!" Rumia says.
"Ribbit!" the frog croaked.
"Well, if the crow took the book, we gotta take it back! Let's go to the mountain!" Wriggle said, taking off.
"Yeah!" Rumia added, following, before she stopped abruptly.
"I don't know the way." She says.
Wriggle facepalmed. While used to Rumia's antics, it was annoying at times, even if Wriggle herself wasn't 'bright', she wasn't a moron either. "Rumia, the mountain is that huge thing over there."
"Oh yeah. I forgot. I don't leave the forest much." Rumia commented, before the duo... or trio if you counted Dinner the Frog, began to fly towards the Youkai Mountain.