When we came into the dining room early the next morning, Suwako was already sitting at the table, looking every bit like one of the students in my class eagerly expecting a field trip. Except for the unsettling hat, which seemed to watch us as we filed into the room.

"Sanaaaaaaaaae, I'm hungry!"

"Suwako? If you're here you can help out in the kitchen. We don't want our guests to think you're a lazy goddess, right?" Kanako called from around the corner.

"No, no, ever since yesterday I'm an outcast who doesn't get invited to help make food, I'll have to just sit here and complain like a poor beggar in my own shrine."

"That's no excuse! It's even your turn to cook this morning, but I got up and started it because I didn't want our guests to go hungry!" Kanako said, leaning into the dining room. "Oh, good morning, Renko," she said, noticing we had arrived.

"No, no, I know when I'm not wanted. I wouldn't want to mess up your perfect divine image by burning the eggs. Oh, good morning, Merry."

"This is extortion. You'd think a curse god might have thicker skin."

"Here you go," Sanae said, hustling back from the kitchen. "I brought you some rice porridge. You can have that while you wait for the rest of breakfast."

"Rice porridge? You get to eat sukiyaki and I get rice porridge? I see how it is."

"Don't be obnoxious, Suwako. Rice porridge is full of divine virtues, and this was prepared as an offering of faith." Kanako called out before Sanae could apologize.

"Is flavor not a divine virtue? Is nutrition? Is your faith in me so meagre I only rate gruel?"

"It's plenty nutritious, and known to be good for digestion. Now eat quickly, I need to get these two home in time for work," Kanako chided as she came to the table, carrying several dishes of food.

"Oh, that's more like it! This omelet looks good!" Suwako's chopsticks darted forward in a blur, snatching the rolled egg before the dish could even be set down.

"Suwako, that was my omelet!"

"Then you should have been quicker! A god who doesn't guard the treasures in their charge is sure to lose them!" She opened her mouth and swallowed the omelet in one enormous bite. "Ahhh, the first one to eat wins, Kanako."

Kanako sighed heavily. "Suwako, please try to show at least a sliver of divine majesty in front of our guests. The rest of you, please go ahead and eat, while there's still some food left."

"Thank you very much Lady Yasaka, we appreciate you going to the trouble of feeding us," Renko said, beaming. "Here, Merry. I grabbed you some miso and an omelet."

"Oh, thank you, Renko. They look wonderful."

"They came out nicely today, didn't they? I'm very proud of them."

"Oh? Even gods have trouble getting the eggs to roll then? I had always thought that would be strictly a mortal problem. Sanae, can you pass me the soy sauce?"

"She's not the goddess of eggs, Renko. Here you go."

"Oh, you have no idea, you should have seen what happened the first time she tried to make okonomiyaki. Hand me the kinpira gobo, would you?"

"Some stories are not for the ears of uninitiated. That can be one of them. Sanae, no need to rush, I'll take these girls back to the village myself, then eat when I come back."

All in all it was the same sort of lively conversation as one might have found around any family table at breakfast. It would have been easy to forget that this was not a normal family and instead a wind priestess and the two goddesses she served that we were eating with. Perhaps in Gensokyo facts like that are not enough for this situation to be considered abnormal though. Thus far we had met demons, flying humans, monsters, aliens, ghosts and gods. As far as I knew, all of them ate breakfast. For all I knew the same scene might be playing out at Hakugyokuro, Eientei or the Scarlet Devil Mansion right now.

"Merry, you're grinning from ear to ear. Do you really like tamagoyaki that much?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, though these eggs are certainly good."

"Well, what is it that's got you smiling then?" Renko asked, giving me a nudge.

I slurped at my miso soup, exhaling a cloud of hot breath before answering. "I was just thinking how nice it is to be sitting around a family dining table enjoying a lively meal."

"I'm hurt, Merry! Are you saying meals with just me are boring? As bad as being alone? Now you'll have to eat with a sad Renko, that'll be even worse."

"Oh come on, you know I didn't mean it like that."

"No? Oh, is this your way of proposing to me then? We could start a family together and have a dozen little Renkos and Merrys running about, wouldn't that be fun?"

"Don't say something like that in public! Why are you like this?" I said, giving her a smack on the back of the head.

"Ah, you'd rather I save that sort of discussion for when we're alone then. I gotcha, Merry," she said with a lascivious wink.

My next smack caught her while she was drinking her soup and Renko dissolved into a spasm of spluttering coughs.

Sanae and the others laughed, with Sanae commenting happily. "Renko, I had no idea you and Merry were so close."

-.-.-.-.-

Before coming to Gensokyo, I had been alone in Japan. I had no close friends other than Renko and no relatives anywhere in this country. I lived alone in a small, rented apartment. I didn't even have a pet. Since coming to Gensokyo I had enjoyed the few occasions we had had to gather around a table with Keine and Mokou and their friends more than nearly anything else.

Those gatherings had a different air than this one though. As dear as those nights among friends had been, this was something else. A feeling that I hadn't felt in a long time, surrounded by people who didn't see me as a stranger or even as strange. It felt like having a family, but with Renko as a part of it. Was that such a terribly unnatural thing to want?

-.-.-.-.-

"I know it's quite a trip to get here, but I hope you'll come visit us again."

"Thank you very much for your hospitality. I'd love to do just that, should we get the opportunity."

"Thank you for having us. I apologize for any trouble Renko may have caused."

"No harm done, and thank you for teaching Sanae about Gensokyo!"

"Alright, that's enough goodbyes. If we don't get going, you two are going to be late. Take my hands and hold on tight."

After breakfast, Sanae had insisted that she be the one to fly us back to the village so that she could get a chance to see it. Suwako and Kanako had come as far as the shrine's Torii to see us off. Standing between us, Sanae took our hands and the three of us once more sailed into the sky carried on a buffeting cushion of fierce wind, just like before. The air was crisp and clear, and beneath us all of Youkai Mountain was arrayed in the beautiful colors of autumn. If not for the constant threat of our hats being blown off or our skirts being blown up around our shoulders, it would have been idyllic.

"Thank you both for coming," Sanae said as the scenery rolled past. "It's been a while since I've seen Lady Kanako and Lady Suwako both looking so happy.

"Oh? Was that happy for them?"

"Very much so. Ignore the bickering, they're always like that. I think they've been at it so long they don't know any other way to talk to eachother any more. Before they came here they had no one but me to talk to. Almost no one else could see them. Though, I think maybe they forgot there are some things you shouldn't say right in front of people." She added this last sentence with a grumble that faded into a pout.

If anything, the goddesses' overprotectiveness and Sanae's reaction to it only made the three of them seem more like a family. Divinity and its implications aside, there's no mother anywhere who doesn't fret over their child's wellbeing, and no child of Sanae's age who doesn't find their concern annoying.

"I do hope you'll come visit us again soon."

"Well, I'd like to, but the mountain isn't easy to climb, and I don't think the tengu would let us cross through their territory. Why don't you plan to come and visit us at our office instead?"

"Oh, would that be OK?"

"Of course."

"A priestess of a remote mountain shrine paying a visit to a detective's office. It sounds like the start of a murder mystery."

"Please don't feel obligated to commit a murder just to see us again. Besides, you're probably the only person living at that shrine who could be killed, Sanae."

In the short time it had taken us to discuss such things we had made it as far as the little cemetery north of town. Sanae descended here, and we watched as the wind she expelled kicked up a tiny cyclone of dust and whirling leaves as our feet touched down.

"Was that quick enough?"

"It should have been. I can see the gates are open, so if we hurry, we should be there before the first bell. Thank you for everything, Sanae, we'll see you around."

"It was my pleasure. Tell everyone about Moriya shrine, and don't be strangers. Goodbye!"

Sanae was rising back into the air even as she waved at us, and a swirl of dust and leaves stung our eyes as she turned and accelerated away. Renko and I did the same, albeit at a much lower altitude, hot-footing it back toward the town square.

We stopped by home just long enough to grab our teaching materials before running over to the school and arriving mere minutes before the first bell. Renko had her advanced math class first thing this morning and I was scheduled to teach Japanese to the lower class at the same time. Most of the children were already seated in the classroom.

"Oh there you are! You two are cutting it close. I was about to go ring the bell and call both classes together so I could try to make up a lesson for both of them. Did you oversleep or something?"

"Yes, sorry, real late night last night," Renko said, as she dashed toward the newer classroom. As she passed me by she gave me a wink. It seemed the two of us had made it back safely, if only barely.

"Night is the time of youkai, not teachers, Renko. You're doing the children a disservice if you can't be ready in time for class!" Keine called down the hall as Renko's footsteps receded.

Renko opened the door and leapt inside, leaning back into the hallway just long enough to doff her hat and say "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind!" before slamming the door.

I made my way to my own classroom as well, doing my best to pretend I didn't feel Keine's glare boring a hole in the back of my head as I did.

-.-.-.-.-

"Bye, miss Merry, bye miss Renko!"

"Yes, goodbye. See you tomorrow."

"Hey, don't forget that homework!"

"Alright, good work today you two. I need to head to the neighborhood watch office, so gather up anything you need, I'm going to lock up the school."

"Oh, busy day for you. Let me just grab my things." While Renko darted inside to pack up I was left to talk with Keine for a moment.

"I suppose preparations for the harvest festival keep the watch busy this time of year, eh?"

"Yes, but it's important work. With so many people out of the village late into the night for the festival we have to have a plan in place to make sure everyone is accounted for. People who've gotten drunk and wandered through a farmer's field, thinking it's a shortcut, have wound up in the river in years past. Back before I joined the watch it wasn't uncommon for one or two people to disappear after a festival. Some of them would turn back up a day later, but some never did."

"The village is lucky to have you working so hard to keep them safe then."

"Well thank you, but if you think so, please show it by trying not to make me worry all the time. When you and Renko hadn't shown up yet this morning I thought maybe you had decided to go climb Youkai Mountain again or something."

I scratched my cheek awkwardly and tried my best at an innocent smile as Renko returned from the classroom. "Oh, speaking of which Keine, I heard something recently. Apparently a new god has appeared atop the mountain. Have you heard about it?"

"A new god? No, this is the first I've heard of it. Are they from the Outside world? I suppose even the gods can end up spirited away."

"Apparently so. The tengu on the mountain are all up in arms about it. We heard about it from Reimu, apparently they sent a messenger to the Hakurei shrine the other day."

"That's worrying. When the tengu have problems, it tends to become everyone else's problem sooner or later. I hope it's not an evil curse god or something. Thanks for letting me know, I'll see what I can find out." She stopped then, in the middle of fixing the padlock to the door of the school and turned, fixing Renko with a cold stare. "I'm warning you now though, Renko. Don't even think about going up into the mountains on your own to try to check this out. Youkai Mountain is a very dangerous place."

"I understand completely. I assure you, I have no plans to head up into the mountains any time soon," Renko said, replying with an easygoing smile. She was still wearing the same clothes we had climbed the mountain in yesterday. Keine narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but said nothing more. After finishing locking up, she departed for the neighborhood watch office with a wave.

"Why do you always push your luck like that, Renko? You just about stepped on a landmine telling Keine about the Moriya shrine."

"Give my scheming a little credit Merry, it's all part of the plan. Now if Sanae should happen to come into town or Keine should find out about the shrine via some other means we have an alibi. We met Sanae at the Hakurei shrine, where we heard about the new god. If anyone asks, we can end the conversation quickly with that."

"I suppose that's true, but I don't like the idea of lying to Keine."

"That's why I made it so we don't have to. We did meet Sanae at the shrine after all, and we did hear about the god on the mountain from Reimu, the details of what happened after that don't render either of those facts untrue. But enough about the past now, you and I need to make plans for the future and decide what's next for our investigation."

"Our investigation? Is there more you're planning to pry into? We got the whole story from Kanako, didn't we?"

"We got a story from Kanako, but who's to say if it's the whole story? I'd like to start by learning everything I can about the traditional religious practices surrounding the worship of the hidden god of the Suwa Grand Shrine in the Outside world. All the materials I had gathered on it for the Hifuu Club are back in the Scientific Century though, and I can't connect to the web from Gensokyo."

"Well the Hieda family might have historical records of practices in the area, that might be a place to start."

"Hmmm, yeah, that seems more likely than finding something relevant in Suzunaan or the library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Let's go talk to Akyuu later then."

And so, while discussing our plans we opened the door to the storehouse behind the temple school. We had expected that, as usual, our office would be deserted except for the songbirds that had made their home on its roof. Instead, upon entering we found someone already waiting for us, sitting on the cushions in front of Renko's desk.

"Hello you two, sorry to have come in unannounced."

"Sanae?"

She giggled, smiling up at us from the floor. "I decided to come visit right away, I hope you don't mind."