[3rd Tremor - 2 Days Until Disaster]
The day after the maddening scene at the Scarlet Devil Mansion was substantially quieter. That may have had something to do with the fact that Sanae didn't come by the office, but she wouldn't have found us there even if she had. Keine saw to it that most of our day was spent assisting the fire brigade and the neighborhood watch with their disaster prevention drills.
"You're not done inventorying these supplies yet? They're expecting you over at the neighborhood watch office to help with the evacuation practice runs already. Come on, you two, this was your idea, let's see some effort!"
Renko put down the wrapped bundle of dried and salted fish she had been hauling off of a high shelf and turned to Keine with a look of exasperation. "We were just gathering information, I thought that was our role in this!"
"You're teachers! If you find something that might put the students in danger you can't just tell someone and wash your hands of it! Don't you feel an obligation to protect the children however you can? Now come on, I've scheduled you to help the fire brigade with their rescue drills after you're done at the watch office." Keine was smiling at us as she chided. I couldn't help but think that punishment for our late-night excursions might have had some impact on her planning when it came to assigning us tasks. As her employees, however, there wasn't much we could do but put up with it.
After numerous drills, lectures, practice sessions and a final walking inspection tour with Keine and Kotohime around the perimeter of the village, we finally returned home. After a full day like that, I was far too tired to be looking for any more predictive signs of an earthquake. I had taken the time the evening before to affix our single chest of drawers to the wall, but we didn't have much else in the way of furniture to secure. Besides, if the roof collapsed on us, it wouldn't make much of a difference.
-.-.-.-.-
[Final Tremor - the Day Before Disaster]
That day passed without further incident and the next dawned. After the end of classes that day, we helped Keine close up the school, then accompanied her to the firehall. There, we joined with other volunteers and the members of the fire brigade to split up into groups and parade around the city, banging cymbals and clapping wooden blocks to draw attention as we yelled about extinguishing cookfires and dousing embers.
"Hey Renko?" I whispered to my partner in between shouted repetitions of the same tired safety slogans.
"Yeah? What's wrong, Merry?" Renko was walking just ahead of me, with Keine in front of her, clapping a pair of wooden blocks and shouting with full-throated vigor.
"Have you been getting the feeling that someone is watching us today?"
"No, but if someone is, it's probably just Ran, right?"
Ran Yakumo, the shikigami to the youkai sage had told us that she would be watching over us covertly on the sage's orders in order to keep us out of danger. We rarely ever saw her, but every now and then she would make her presence known. It was hard to know just how often she might be watching over us though. She had demonstrated on more than one occasion that she possessed the skill to go completely unnoticed even when standing in the same room as us.
"I'm pretty sure Ran doesn't watch us when we're here in the village. She said she doesn't, anyway. But what I'm feeling now is... more blatant. Ran's so good at hiding I can never be sure if she's around or not. If I knew I'd bother her about her tails more often."
"Well, I haven't noticed anything, but that doesn't mean there's nothing there. Your eyes are more sensitive than mine, and I think they're growing even more sensitive all the time. You spotted that invisible kappa twice last year and that wasn't even a boundary."
Renko seemed lost in consideration for a moment, missing the beat as the rest of us called out our message in time. Then she hustled a few steps forward to speak to Keine just as we were nearing the main street.
"Miss Keine, please excuse us for a moment. Merry needs the bathroom. We'll catch up with you in a few minutes."
"Oh, alright. I'm not sure who would have a toilet you could use right around here though."
"I'm sure we'll figure it out. See you in a moment. Come on Merry, let's not keep your bladder waiting."
"Oh, yeah, sure."
Renko took my hand and the two of us left the line, darting around the corner of a building and out of sight. Renko's intention had been to look for whoever had been watching us but... it could have been anyone. We had been standing in a parade line making noise, after all, so it was normal that the eyes of everyone in the streets would be on us. I turned my eyes over the crowd walking through the square, scanning the area behind us. There was nothing there but empty space -or at least, that's how it must have looked to Renko. To me there was a uniquely nauseating tell-tale blur just a short distance behind us, a swirl of reality that demarcated a neat rectangle of three-dimensional space directly between us and whoever was behind it.
"Reisen, is that you?" I called out.
The blind of warped space crumpled and wavered. "Shhh! How can you always see me like that?"
The wavering rectangle of distortion scampered over to one side of the road then ducked into the space between buildings. We followed along, darting into the narrow alleyway. The field of phase-shifted space surrounding Reisen swam and spun and then fell away, revealing the rabbit herself. She was dressed in a light blue short-sleeved shirt and a pleated white mini-skirt, a look that would have been completely unremarkable back in Kyoto, but would have called attention to her here in the village. She must not be here selling medicine like usual. Without the conical straw hat to flatten them, her long ears rose from her head, bobbing with her every movement.
Renko's eyes widened as she appeared. "Whoa! Had you been phase-shifting all of the photons bouncing off of you into the infrared spectrum? How do you manage to capture them all? What kind of energy do you have to expend to achieve that, and where does it go? We never really got to get that deep into testing the limits of your abilities last time, and I think I've got some new ideas for things we could try to measure with the tools I have available. Do you have time now?"
"Absolutely not." Reisen said, dismissively. Renko's smile fell at the offhand rejection. "More importantly, what are you doing leading all of these disaster preparedness drills in the village? Do the people here already know what's going on?"
Renko perked back up, her mind switching instantly from the mysteries of impossible physics to the mysteries of the ongoing Incident. "Ah, would you be referring to the possibility of an upcoming earthquake, by chance? Did Eirin ask you to investigate this, Reisen?"
"That's right. The unnatural weather and oddly colored clouds all seem to indicate a major disruption to the natural flow of energy here. Master wants to make sure that there's not going to be a disaster to disturb her work or tie her up with treating survivors in the village. I've been looking around, but the vampires at that red mansion don't seem to have any idea what's going on either."
"You went to the Scarlet Devil Mansion?"
"I tried to. I was attempting to sneak into the library, but my abilities don't do anything to mask smells. The vampire there pounced on me, and yelled at me about criminal confinement or something. She's really nasty." Reisen sighed heavily,
I can only imagine that with an invisible invader appearing in the mansion Remilia must have seen through Renko's flattery by now. If so, she would likely either be out trying to resolve the Incident on her own or sending Sakuya to do so. In either case, the likely result would be that whoever the Scarlet Devil Mansion had sent out, they'd be taking the standard, Gensokyo-style brute force approach to Incident resolution, fighting everyone they came across until the mastermind behind the Incident showed their face.
"That's why I was surprised to come to the village and see you in the middle of disaster preparedness drills," Reisen continued. "Do you know anything about what's going on?"
"Well, we've collected reports of numerous incidences of strange weather and scarlet clouds, and we've heard from Alice that all of this suggests some sort of disaster like an earthquake may be coming, but that's all we know. Everything you see here is just humans trying to err on the side of caution."
"Alice? She's one of the magicians who attacked Eientei that one time right? I really don't want to go talk to any more of those people..."
"So if Eirin sent you to look into this matter, that must mean she doesn't know when or where or if an earthquake is going to happen either, right?"
Reisen regarded Renko with confusion. "Master is a genius, but that doesn't mean she can predict earthquakes." It made sense, but I'll admit I was surprised to hear it too. Eirin, who's scientific mastery was so advanced as to seem magical, having to be at the whim of something as mundane as an earthquake seemed somehow surprising.
"So then, Reisen, how about you, what have you seen in your investigations?"
"I'm under no obligation to share that with you. And don't call me Reisen. You and I aren't close enough to be on a first-name basis, human."
"Seriously? We've known eachother for years now. You took care of me when I was injured. I'd say our relationship goes far beyond merely professional."
"Stop making insinuations like we're dating! Tewi and the princess already have enough strange ideas about the two of us. We're not even friends, you just keep following me around!"
"Excuse me, but I do believe you were the one following me around just now. I don't mind though. All I want to do is stare into your eyes all day, Reisen. You should really let me experiment with them."
"Ugh, please don't say things like that, you sound just like master, and that's even more disturbing."
"Well, then just tell me what those eyes have seen. I'm betting you've at least seen a bunch of anomalous weather?"
Just like that they were suddenly back on topic. I wondered how Renko could keep track of the seemingly numerous different paths her mind seemed to be pursuing at all times.
"Well... it was snowing in the Netherworld when I went. I don't think it normally does that there. Ever."
"Reimu mentioned that Yuyuko had been complaining about that, and that it had snowed at the shrine when Yuyuko came to complain to her about it. I wonder if the lady of Hakugyokuro might have gathered all the winter up into the Netherworld and unbalanced things here in Gensokyo? I wouldn't think there'd be any winter for her to gather just now though."
"Anyway, I get the feeling that you guys don't know anything that I don't. I shouldn't be wasting my time here." With that she edged to end of the buildings we were sandwiched between and peered around the corner, about to dart out.
"Ah Reisen, wait. Just one more question."
"I thought I asked you not to call me Reisen!" She said, whirling indignantly. I can't help but think Renko must have done it on purpose to get her attention. She had a talent for making herself the sort of person you couldn't ignore. In my less charitable moments, I might characterize it as a natural tendency toward being incredibly annoying.
Renko responded to Reisen's glare with a smile, fiddling with the brim of her hat as she did. "Would you mind just giving my regards to doctor Yagokoro the next time you see her? I'm planning on stopping by Eientei later."