"Earth spirits?"
"Apparently they're coming out of the geyser along with the steam. All I wanted to do was make a little hot spring, maybe turn a profit for once, but apparently that's too much to hope for."
Reimu was slumped over the kotatsu in the front room of her shrine, sitting beside Marisa with her arms spread in front of her and head down. It was a few days since our last visit and we were surprised to find that no sign of progress had been made upon our arrival at the Hakurei shrine. Speaking to Reimu now, the reason for that became clear.
"What exactly is an 'earth spirit?' Just the soul from something that lived on the earth rather than in the heavens?"
"No, they're spirits that are supposed to be sealed beneath the earth. Souls that were condemned to one of the hells for punishment, or evil things damned by the gods. They're not supposed to be able to get back to the surface. There must be some kind of leak."
"Your hot spring is leaking damned souls!? This I have to see." Renko declared, immediately standing up.
I grabbed her sleeve. "Renko, it's a hole in the ground spewing vengeful spirits from Hell. You can't go poking your head in something like that, it's dangerous. That's basically asking to get possessed."
"It's just ghosts, Merry! We've seen plenty of those by now. What harm could a disembodied spirit do? Reimu doesn't seem too bothered living next to them," she said, gesturing to the shrine maiden's limp form.
"It's not a big deal for me, but they could be dangerous to someone like you. The bigger problem is that they keep coming up. I could easily go exterminate them," she said, waving vaguely in the direction of the rack on the wall where her gohei hung, "but they'd just keep coming out, and I don't think I can stop them without also blocking off the hot spring."
"So they're coming up from below, eh? Hmmm." Renko sat back down, fiddling with the brim of her hat and ruminating. "I heard from the tengu once that there's supposed to be a big city underground somewhere that used to be part of Hell. Supposedly that's where all the oni and unwelcome or uncontrollable youkai went when they left the mountain. Could the spirits be coming up from there?"
"Oh, Suika mentioned something about that once. She used to live there, apparently. I suppose there might be some vengeful spirits down there still."
It had been a long while since anyone had mentioned anything on the topic, but this was indeed something we had heard about before, during the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons Every Three Days Incident. We had never gone underground to look for the rumored city, a bit of common sense that most people probably wouldn't consider unusual, but something for which I was rather grateful, given my partner's typical inclinations. Supposedly, the inhabitants of that place had been banished from the overworld of Gensokyo and had agreed to maintain a separate existence in a treaty signed by the youkai sage.
"Wait a minute," Reimu said, suddenly raising her head from the tabletop and knitting her brows. "Are you thinking this is all Suika's fault? I was going to ask her to dig out a pool for me, but she hasn't been around. Is she trying to give my hot spring to the oni of the Underworld or something? I'm going to go exterminate her."
"Eh? Someone mention oni? I feel like I'm being falsely accused," said a distorted voice from nowhere in particular. Slowly, a white mist began to seep into the room from under and around the door and collect near the ground. As more of it poured in, it once more compressed itself into the figure of a small girl with horns, reclining on the tatami beside Reimu, her weighted chains splayed out around her. She was still wearing the same outfit as usual, complete with its crudely torn off sleeves. I might have expected her to be cold in this weather, if not for her liberal application of eye-wateringly strong sake from the gourd at her hip.
"Oh, you've saved me the trouble of finding you," Reimu said. "Now go back outside so I can exterminate you properly. I don't want to ruin the shrine again."
"Hey, hold up a sec. I don' mind fightin' you, but what am I being accused of here? I don't remember doin' anything to you recently."
"Where have you even been for the last week?" Reimu asked, as she tromped over to the wall and pulled down her gohei. "I haven't seen you around since the geyser first shot up. Been back in the Underworld, with you oni friends, I take it?"
"I've been in Heaven, it's cold here. What's this about a geyser?" Suika said with an air of boredom. She hadn't moved a bit from the spot where she was resting on her side, her head propped up on one arm.
"A hole in the ground blew up just north of the shrine last week," Marisa explained. "Hot water's been shootin' out of it, and now a bunch a earth spirits have come up too."
Suika hiccoughed. "Earth spirits? That's weird."
"Oh, how so?" Renko asked, turning to face her. Even with her back turned to me I could hear the interest in her voice as her hunger for mysteries began to ignite once more.
"That treaty the oni signed way back when says no one's allowed to travel back and forth between the Underworld and the surface. That's especially true for earth spirits, as that's who the oni are down there to guard. There should be people watching that and preventing them from coming up."
"Well, clearly there are some exceptions to that rule. I mean you're here, for one."
"Enh, you worry to much about details. Oni make their own rules. Someone should be stopping the spirits though. The hells exist just to torment 'em. You've got me curious now, I'mma go have a look at that geyser."
There was a faint popping noise as Suika transformed into mist again and rapidly dispersed, flowing back outside through the cracks around the door. Reimu growled at the spot where she had been just a moment ago. Another moment passed before she let out a sigh and turned to replace her gohei on its rack.
"Hold on there, Reimu, don't you think you might need that? This sounds like an Incident for you to resolve, doesn't it?"
"Ugh, do you think so?" She groaned, "all I wanted to do was open a hot spring. The earth spirits haven't attacked anyone yet, they're just sort of floating around. Maybe I could have Suika dig a trench and we could channel the water to a pool a little ways away and let the spirits just stay over near the hole."
"Would that really count as resolving the Incident?"
"It's not an Incident yet. As long as I get my hot springs it doesn't have to be one, right? Incidents are a huge pain. Last time we had one my house got destroyed and the time before that I had to build a branch shrine and a new miko showed up to steal all my donations."
Until now, I had always thought of other people's characterization of Reimu as a self-centered mechanism for balancing Gensokyo that never moved until a problem affected her directly had been a little uncharitable. Seeing her state as much directly though, it was little hard not to credit the idea.
"Well, wouldn't it be to your advantage to take this Incident on then? Not only is it releasing dangerous spirits right near your shrine, but it prevents you from building your onsen."
"It doesn't have to. Like I said, maybe we can divert the water a little ways away from the earth spirits and have it be fine. We just would have to build a channel for it to flow down. Suika or Tenshi would be doing that work, so it's no different to me, really. Ah! I forgot to tell Suika to make a pool for the spring! I was gonna have her do that once I won our match!"
"I see. Well, what about you then, Marisa? You think you could take this Incident on?"
"I wouldn't mind it, but there's not much I could do about it. Wherever those earth spirits are comin' from, its gonna to be deep underground, whether or not it's the city of the oni. Suika might be able to turn into a mist and slip through tiny cracks in the earth, but I doubt there's enough space for me to go all the way down to the source in that hole."
"Aren't there any other entrances to the Underworld that you could use to go investigate?"
"Probably, but I dunno where any are. Besides, this sort of problem might go away on its own eventually, like that last Incident with all the phantoms. Spirits without bodies eventually fade away if they're not possessin' somethin', right? Isn't that what happened last time?"
Marisa was referring to an event from several years ago, the Sixty Year Cycle Great Barrier Incident. Renko had her own theories about why all the spirits had vanished at the conclusion of that Incident, but I won't bore you with them here. Read our agency's fifth case file, if you're interested in the details.
"Now that I think about it though," Reimu said, looking at Renko suspiciously, "why would you try and get me or Marisa to resolve an Incident for you? Don't you have that green girl for that?"
"You mean Sanae? She hasn't been coming by our office much. I think she's busy with something up on the mountain. She's only a part-time member of our agency, after all."
I thought of Moriya shrine, which must be covered in snow by now. We hadn't seen Sanae since before the geyser had erupted. I wondered if word of it had reached as far as the mountain yet. Certainly, its periodic eruptions should be visible from her shrine if anyone were to be looking out this way. The last time we had spoken to Kanako through the branch shrine outside our office, she had mentioned that they were busy working on plans to bring the convenience of Outside world technologies to more of Gensokyo, so I imagined that must be keeping her busy. Kanako, as always, seemed supremely confident in her plan, but if I were in her position, I can't imagine being so sure. If youkai had been pushed out of the Outside world due to the advance of rationalism and science, I can't imagine that the Administrator would allow them completely free reign to do as they pleased. Even something as simple as illuminating the village streets could have disastrous consequences for the fear that youkai depended on for survival.
Realistically though, I shouldn't have been worrying about such concerns. I had a much more pressing threat to my safety sitting right beside me, after all. I looked over at the eager, troublesome smile on my partner's face.
"Renko, would you like me to predict what you're thinking again?"
"Oooo, it's the magnificent Merry the mind-reader. I love this act."
"You're planning on trying to find an entrance to the Underworld on your own and sneaking down to city of the oni to see what's going on, aren't you?"
"Merry, peeking inside my head like that isn't going to do anything to convince Reimu that you're not actually just Yukari's three-dimensional shadow or something."
"Heck, go for it if you like," Marisa said with a grin. "I don't know how you would expect to find a place Reimu an' I have never heard of though."
"I've got some ideas," Renko said, grinning as usual. She leaned in close, cupping a hand in front of her mouth and whispering in my ear. "Aya seemed to know about such an entrance for one thing."
Reimu, who had taken her seat at the kotatsu again, glared at us. "I'm right here, you know. What are you whispering about?"
"Don't mind us, I was just whispering 'I love you.' Merry's a romantic." She said with an idiotic smile.
I reached over and grabbed her cheek, twisting the flesh as she yowled and batted at my hand. Reimu looked over at Marisa, then frowned at the two of us as I tackled Renko. She seemed like she might have been about to say something when suddenly another voice interrupted us as the door to the outside slid open behind us.
"Oh, Reimu. You are alive. I hope I'm not interrupting anything then," The line had been spoken calmly by Sakuya, who was now standing in the doorway, looking down at the both of us with an expression of cool disdain as I attempted to pin Renko down with one arm while grabbing her face with the other.
"She was being rude." I said stupidly, looking up at Sakuya and feeling my face redden.
"I noticed that there were a number of vengeful spirits near the shrine, and I heard screaming, so I came to check on you, but I see you're both just having some fun with miss Usami and miss Hearn. I'll leave you be then," she said, moving to slide the door shut.
"Hey, don't lump me in with them, I'm not a part of whatever... this... is." Reimu said, gesturing in our general direction.
"Far be it from me to try to ruin your good times, Reimu. I'll make sure not to let the mistress know."
"You know, your personality is a lot different when you're not here with her. If anything, I think you somehow get nastier."
"Learning the right way to address the people you meet in a manner appropriate to their station is a vital skill in any service position." She said, with the faintest hint of a smile. From the way the two of them bantered, I couldn't tell if Reimu and Sakuya had actually become friends or not. It didn't help that Reimu treated nearly everyone she knew in the same gruff way, or that many of her actual friends reciprocated. "Well, I see that you're all right, but if, by chance, any of those vengeful spirits outside belong to someone you killed, do let me know, miss Reimu. I could offer you a reasonable fee for a fresh human corpse."
"I haven't killed anyone. There's a geyser that came up just north of here that's releasing earth spirits from underground."
"From underground? Oh, I'll have to let lady Patchouli know. She'll be pleased to hear it."
"Huh? What would she want to know for?" Marisa asked, leaning forward.
"She's been curious about the city of the oni ever since first met one at the party."
"Hey, you don't think she'd come here in this cold wanting to see it, do you?"
"Well, as luck would have it, some rather important grimoires of hers seem to have gone missing recently, which has interrupted her research. I imagine she might well have time to come take a look."
"Right, about time I should be goin' then." Marisa said, scooting out from under the table and making for the door.
"Hey, you're chasing all my guests away, Sakuya." Reimu groused as Marisa brushed past the maid and grabbed her broom from the veranda.
"Well then, I'll just excuse myself as well. Good day Reimu. Try not to be killed by a vengeful spirit. If you think you might be though, try to let me know first. Milady would love to have you over for dinner one night."
"Just leave already." Reimu growled. Behind Sakuya, Marisa was jetting away on a stream of stardust.
Sakuya bowed elegantly and slid the door shut, being careful not to let it make a sound as it closed. As the clack of Sakuya's heels on the stone path leading to the torii gate receded, my partner suddenly jumped up, throwing the door open and calling to Sakuya from the veranda.
"Oh! Miss Sakuya! Actually, if it's not too much trouble would you mind flying us to the Scarlet Devil Mansion with you?"
She turned her head, looking back over at her shoulder at us icily. "I suppose I could. The mistress and her sister will still be asleep at this hour though. Are you just using me to get a ride half-way home?"
"Not at all," Renko said, poking her hat back on her head with one finger. "I just happen to have some urgent business to conduct with miss Patchouli."
