"So what brings two humans from the surface all the way down here?"
It was almost two hours after Renko had started drinking with Yuugi that the question was finally posed. Renko had made good progress in ingratiating herself with Yuugi and the other oni in that time, while I had been very slowly sipping at my sake from my seat over to the side. Yamame had come by and picked up Kisume and her bucket some time ago, but the other oni and youkai hanging around seemed to be giving me a wide berth, possibly because my partner had so captured Yuugi's attention. Or maybe I just wasn't as interesting to them.
"I don't think there's any rules that say humans can't come down here exactly," Yuugi continued, "but I thought humans didn't like this sort of life. That's why we all came down here in the first place after all."
"Well, I may not be a typical human in that respect, but my reason for coming down here is mainly curiosity, not just to see what life is like down here, but also due to a recent development on the surface. You see..." Renko then proceeded to explain about the geyser and the surge of earth spirits around the Hakurei shrine. She told the story well, full of wit and charm, with even more panache than usual. I could only imagine she was going to be cripplingly hung over tomorrow.
"Earth spirits escaping to the surface?" That's definitely strange. The people in the palace should be preventing that.
"The palace?"
"Chireiden, the Palace of the Earth Spirits," Yuugi said, raising an arm to point deeper into the city. "It's a big mansion built on top of the entrance to the remains of the Hell of Blazing Fires. The people who live there were put in charge of watching over any vengeful spirits trapped below by the Yama. They're also supposed to control the flames that we use for heat and light. If there's new geysers appearing on the surface, that kind of sounds like the flames are out of control. Especially if those geysers are leaking earth spirits."
Renko giggled, in a way I had only ever heard her do while drunk. "I never thought of get to hear an oni saying that Hell's grown too hot. So even though it's not officially part of of the afterlife anymore, people down here have been keeping the Hell of Blazing Fires running all this time?"
"Well, we need some kinda light to grow rice for sake, don't we? And it's handy to keep the springs hot and the lanterns lit. If earth spirits are leaking up to the surface though, that's gonna be a pain."
"Because of the mutual non-aggression pact you have with the surface youkai, right?" Renko asked.
"The what now? Is that what they call it up there?"
"The deal between the youkai of the surface and the oni of the Underworld. You don't attack the surface and keep all the youkai who refused to play by the Administrator's rules prisoner down here. That was the alternative to extermination that the sage and surface youkai provided to you, right?"
"Who told you it was like that? Some tengu? I suppose it works out the same in the end, but no one chased us oni down here. We came down because the surface was boring. Humans are weak and fragile and tengu are stodgy and dull. The youkai sage told us about this city and said we were welcome to come down here and live however we want and that any youkai who didn't like her vision for the future were welcome to join us. We decided we liked it a lot better. There's no rules down here and everyone's free to live their own way. No one who lives down here would want to go back topside. This is the paradise of the despised!" Yuugi said, leaning back and spreading her arms to encompass the whole scene.
"What about Suika though, she chose to come back up, didn't she?"
"Yeah. Suika's always been a weird one, though."
"So there's no rules preventing you from going back up? No resentment toward the surface?"
"Well, the deal was 'as long as you stay down there, we won't bother you', so it would be a pain if a lot of people went back up. There might be a few people who are sore about it, but we don't want them ruining our fun down here, so if they raise a stink we beat it out of 'em. I guess that works out more or less like you described, but calling it a 'mutual non-aggression pact' sounds way too formal."
"I see, I see." Renko said, raising her cup in salute. "In that case, I'd like to ask about something else. Could you tell me more about this 'Palace of the Earth Spirits?' What's it like in there?"
A brief murmur of surprise went through the crowd at Renko's question. Even Yuugi looked taken aback. "Even us oni don't like going there. You're a very curious person, aren't you? That's not so bad. People who are curious before they're afraid are fun."
"Well, it's an honor to receive such a compliment from someone like you. Why don't the oni like going there though? Isn't the containment of earth spirits more or less the purpose of this whole place now that its no longer a proper part of Hell?"
"I guess from the point of view of the surface that's true, but we leave that sort of business to the people who live in the palace. Agh, how do I explain this... Oi! Yamame!" Yuugi turned and shouted. Yamame, who was drinking a few mats down with Kisume turned and looked back at her.
"Hoi hoi?"
"Long explanations bore me. Explain the situation with the palace to her."
"Oh, is it time for a lecture? Allow me to unfold the vast web of my knowledge before you, human," she said, standing and walking over to Renko. With a florid bow, she began the following explanation:
-.-.-.-.-
In the beginning, this place was originally part of Hell. Capital H Hell, the big one, with all the little ones as parts of it, where souls condemned by the Yama are damned to torment. Most souls only stay in whichever of the little hells they are sentenced to until their sin is worked off or burned out and then they get reincarnated. Sometimes though, a soul is so full of hatred and resentment that they get totally polluted. When that happens, they can never reincarnate again and they're supposed to stay in Hell forever. That's what a vengeful spirit is.
At some point, someone decided that this place was too troublesome to operate, or too small or something, and the gods of Hell made a new world. This Hell got abandoned, and this city along with it. Those souls that were condemned for eternity couldn't leave though. Vengeful spirits are dangerous. They get so mired in hatred they corrupt everyone around them and can easily possess people. That makes them too dangerous to transport. Ultimately, they were the sort of thing everyone just wanted to forget about. So they just sorta left 'em all here and sealed the place up. That's what the earth spirits are, Hell's worst leftovers.
Things stayed that way for a long time, until about a hundred years ago or so, when the youkai sage decided to put up her Great Barrier. She opened up these depths for anyone who didn't want to be part of the society she was building and made a deal with the Yama. People could live down here and use this space as long as they kept the earth spirits in check. That was when Kisume and I came here. The youkai who came down back then made the abandoned city into what it is now.
A whole bunch of strong youkai came down at that time. Not just the oni or us tsuchigumo, but lots of different types. Getting all of us together in one place got the surface youkai all scared, so they had their sage work out the current arrangement. As long as we keep the spirits from escaping, they don't meddle in our affairs.
Only problem was, how do you keep control over something that will possess any guard you set to watch it? The more powerful a guard you put there, the worse it would be to have them be possessed. The youkai sage and the Yama talked it over and it turns out there was one youkai who was perfect for the job. Satori Komeiji. They gave her the palace and put her in charge of the keeping the earth spirits at bay.
Do humans know what a satori is? They're youkai that can read minds. Even here in Former Hell, everyone hates 'em. They can see your innermost thoughts just by looking at you and blather on all day about things you didn't even tell them. They're perfect for dealing with vengeful spirits though. They can see through any plan and know every spirit's weakness instantly. They also know if someone's possessed just by lookin' at them, so vengeful spirits won't go near 'em. So as long as she's watching the seal to the lower chambers where the hells used to be, they can't get out.
Since she's the only one who can go down into the areas where the vengeful spirits are, we put her in charge of running the Hell of Blazing Fires too. She's got a bunch of pets who live in the palace with her to help her out of course. Hell ravens and kasha and the like. One of her pets is a kasha named Orin. She's always running around town, on the lookout for corpses to nab, so make sure not to drink so much you look dead, or you might wake up as fuel for the flames of the Hell of Blazing Fires.
-.-.-.-.-
"Aaand that's the end of my lecture. Did you like it? Any questions?" Yamame asked, bouncing happily.
"I have one," Renko said, raising her hand. "Doesn't that mean that this Chireiden isn't doing its job if we're seeing earth spirits up on the surface?"
"Yeah, I guess..." Yamame said, and looked over at Yuugi. "Someone should probably go yell at them before it causes problems for everyone, buuut..." the idea of even conversing with with the residents of the palace seemed utterly repellent to everyone present.
Yuugi looked around at the unhappy looks on the faces of the assembled youkai and grunted. "Enh, I'll do it. No need to hurry though." She smiled and cheerfully poured herself another dish of sake. "Drink first, fight later, that's the oni way. You drink up too!" Renko accepted the sake with a smile as Yuugi poured, but it seemed clear we wouldn't be allowed to leave until the oni had had their fill or the booze had run out. "You didn't come all the way down here just to warn us about that though did you?"
"Well, falling into the hole was a complete accident, but I did intend to come down here eventually, if I could find a safe way to do so. I just wanted to see what life was like down here. Now that I have, I'd like to the see the Palace of the Earth Spirits and maybe the Hell of Blazing Fires too."
"Hah! Completely unafraid. You're a rare human, Renko Usami. You've got more curiosity than a dozen normal humans but none of their fear. You know, I bet being curious like that you've picked a lot of information about the surface, haven't you?"
"Well, I do live there. I try to keep up to date on what's going on."
"There's someone else I should introduce you to then. A youkai that's been down here forever and is always looking for information on the surface. I should take you to meet them."
Renko shared a quick glance with me. I couldn't imagine what kind of youkai she might be thinking of, but as long as we were with Yuugi, we wouldn't have to worry about being eaten by Yamame at least.