"You okay, Merry? How'd it go?"

"...I'm not sure. She ran away."

After making that ominous suggestion, Koishi had disappeared from right in front of me and vanished without a trace. I had looked around for her for only a moment, then sprinted down the corridor, back toward Renko and Orin by the dim light of the spirit orbiting me. Whatever it was about me that allowed me to detect Koishi when others couldn't, it didn't seem to be reliably effective. If Koishi wanted to, she could apparently avoid my sight too. I could only hope that staying near Renko and Orin would be enough to keep her away.

"I asked her if she wanted to play with us, but as soon as I included you in the discussion she refused. I think she might hate you Renko. Be careful not to let your subconscious be manipulated."

"Why would she hate me? What did you tell her, Merry? And how can I guard my subconscious? Maybe she read my mind and found something she didn't like?"

"I don't think so. She said she doesn't read minds anymore." I then proceeded to relate my conversation with Koishi to them both. Renko's eyes widened in surprise at my mention of Koishi visiting the surface and interacting with children in the village, but she didn't say anything until I had finished.

"Well, that's quite the story, Merry. I'm not sure about your conclusion that Koishi might be becoming a zashiki warashi or some other kind of youkai, but I suppose if a human could become a youkai, it might be possible for a satori to become an imaginary friend. What do you think about that, Orin?"

"I don't know anything about that, but I'm impressed that you were able to talk to her, sister! Maybe miss Satori will hire you on permanently to act as an interpreter for miss Koishi."

It was a rather sudden invitation. If given the choice I wouldn't choose to spend the rest of my life working in the Underworld in the employee of a mind reader, but if it was a choice between that or being eaten by Yamame, I could hardly be ungrateful. Before I could respond, however, Renko threw an arm around my shoulder and squeezed me into her side.

"No can do," she said, "Merry is already my partner full time. She's not available."

"Are you sure? Working for miss Satori can pay pretty well if you like gold. The vengeful spirits leave a bunch behind when they burn. If you can get Koishi to listen to you, that would make miss Satori really happy. We could use someone with a skillful tongue like yours."

"It's non-negotiable. I claim exclusive rights to Merry's tongue and all of its skills."

"What about her eyes? Just being able to see Koishi and know where she is would be a huge help."

"It's a package deal, I'm afraid. The Hifuu Detective Agency uses the whole Merry. I'm claiming all of her."

"Get off of me Renko, I'm keeping my body to myself." I said, shoving her off of me.

Both Renko and Orin looked away and clicked their tongues in disappointment, seemingly for different reasons. I could only look at them both in a state of utter bafflement.

"All of that aside," Renko said, fiddling with the brim of her hat, "it seems like Koishi is just looking for someone to play with. That suggests that her ability to avoid detection isn't something she's doing on purpose, more like it's automatic. If that's the case I imagine she must be pretty lonely. We can't worry about that right now though, we need to concentrate on dealing with Okuu for the time being. We'll return to the Koishi case later. Orin, please proceed, the sooner we can find a way back to the surface, the sooner we can help your friend."

"Alright, let's go this way. This passage leads to an entrance just outside the city, past the bridge. I know someone there who often goes to explore the shaft that leads to the surface. They might be able to help you."

I looked over at Renko, then to Orin. "Orin, this person you know wouldn't happen to be a Tsuchigumo named Yamame, would it?"

"You already know her, sister? Well then, this should be easy, nya? The Underworld's a big place, but a small world in some ways, I guess."

"We know her alright. She's the one who brought us into the city. She's probably waiting for us just outside the palace still. As far as I know she was planning to eat us once we were done here. I don't think she'd help us escape."

"Oh, is that all? Don't worry about that, I'll talk some sense into her, you're too important to eat now. Come this way, we can get up to the plaza from right over here."

-.-.-.-.-

Orin lead the way, climbing up a short set of stone rungs set into the wall and pushing aside a heavy flagstone before emerging from under the street and into the plaza. By the time we followed her, Yamame and Kisume were standing beside the exit, watching us all with surprise.

"Hey Orin, what are you doing paling around with my meals?"

"A whole bunch of stuff has happened lately, sister. I need to borrow these two though, they've got some important work to do for miss Satori. Do you think you could escort them back to the surface?"

Yamame and Kisume looked at eachother in silence as I climbed to my feet. Renko, who had emerged from the passage ahead of me was brushing dust off of the sleeves of her coat. "Sorry to disappoint you, miss Yamame," she said, "but I'm afraid this really is a task of the utmost importance. I need to get above ground as soon as possible."

Yamame paused for a moment, then looked over to Orin shrewdly. "Does this have something to do with the earth spirits they mentioned leaking out?"

Orin looked away, scratching at her chin absentmindedly. "Mmmaybe. A little. It's a whole big situation and we don't have time to explain, sister."

"I should have known you'd be involved in this. What are you planning? And why do I have to give up my meals for it? Live human is really rare!"

"Like I said, it's a whole situation, sister! Do you really want me to have to explain all the details? If I did, you'd have to keep the whole thing secret from the oni, by the way."

"The oni? You mean like big sister Yuugi? She already heard that earth spirits are leaking. She was planning to come talk to Satori about it, I just got here first."

"What!? You can't let her know! We have to keep her busy! Don't let her come here and ask. Just for a day or two, okay?"

"Wait, first you want me to let these humans go, now you're asking me to lie to an oni? To big sister Yuugi?"

"Don't lie, just keep her busy. Throw a party or something. I'll sneak you some booze out of the palace's stores. Miss Satori barely drinks anyway, she won't miss them. Help me out here, sister! I'm begging, nya!" As Orin said this she clapped her hands together and bowed deeply in front of Yamame, eyes down in a position of supplication.

Yamame released Kisume's bucket, which hovered in mid-air, to cross her arms and look down at Orin. She remained silent for a moment, then sighed. "If these humans are all tangled up with Satori, and the oni and whatever business is happening with the earth spirits leaking then I have a feeling I don't want to be involved anyway. If we're going to throw a party, I'll need the both of them to show up at the beginning though, or else Yuugi will think I just slipped off and ate them. I can sneak them up to the surface after the first toast. Oni parties won't stop just because a few guests go missing as long as there's still booze. Speaking of which, you better bring some good stuff, Orin. And plenty of it. I expect at least two fresh humans worth of premium sake!"

"I've got just the thing. There's some bottles left in the palace of stuff from Heaven that the Yama left here back when the place belonged to the Ministry. They've never been opened. I'll bring that and whole wheelbarrow full of other stuff. You just get the party started, I'll go fill up a cart and find you wherever is noisiest. You two go with Yamame, sisters. I'm counting on you both to help out with what we discussed."

"Just leave it to us. The Hifuu Detective Agency is on the case, Orin." Renko flashed her biggest grin and gave Orin a thumbs-up. Orin in turn looked slightly nauseous with worry as she jogged off toward the palace, looking back over her shoulder twice as she went. We watched her go for a bit, then Yamame picked Kisume's bucket back up and lead the way back toward the populated streets of Former Hell.

"So you two went into the Palace of the Earth Spirits and came back out alive. That's got to be pretty rare for a human. I figured you'd either come out insane and I'd have to eat you right away or else something in there would eat you and I'd have to ask Yuugi to go get me a refund. If Orin comes through with all of that booze, then I guess I kind of got that."

"The palace wasn't so bad. It wasn't nearly as scary as the Hell of Blazing Fires."

"You went down there!? And came back alive?"

"Hell's flames hold no heat for the virtuous, I suppose," Renko said with a grin. "I can see why you didn't want to go in there though, there's no way to hide anything from Satori, is there?"

"Are you what a virtuous human looks like? I wouldn't have guessed. There's no way to keep a secret from Satori though, no. Other than not letting her see you, that is. That's why no one goes to the palace. At least she talks quickly and doesn't waste time with chitchat though, so whatever annoying thing she's going to say doesn't take too long."

"I feel bad that we're having to put her case on hold for the time being in order to solve this one for Orin. Once everything's said and done though, I suppose it will be easy to explain things to her, she'll see it all in our minds when we go back."

"Wait, you're planning to go back there? You two really are strange people. I thought you were a rare treat when you fell into my web, but you're even rarer than that. Too rare to eat, maybe. What kind of human isn't afraid of any sort of youkai, even those despised by others of our kind? I'm glad now I refrained from nibbling on you. You still do look pretty tasty though. You could probably still do whatever it is you need to do with one leg, couldn't you?"

"Afraid not. I'll need both of us intact to pull this off, and eating any of us now would cost you a measure of what Orin's bringing too. I've never eaten human, but I've tried some of the sake from Heaven. I think you'll probably like it better."

"Really? That good, eh? Well, you do look pretty bony for a human. I wasn't going to say anything because it's so rare to get any human to eat down here, but I wouldn't have bothered with you if I was snatching someone out of a crowd."

"You made a wise bargain. I have it on good authority there's not a single part of me that feels good to touch."

"Well, how about your partner then? She looks like she might have some tasty bits."

"Absolutely not. I've also been told just recently that she's unwilling to share any part of herself, no matter how much you might want to put it in your mouth."

"Tch, you two are no fun."

Renko continued to banter with the earth spider as we walked through the streets, in search of the oni. I have no idea how she could manage to discuss such an upsetting topic with such ease and fluidity, but it was all part of her unique charm. If Renko ever ends up becoming a youkai herself, I wonder if she'll even notice? Certainly, she'd fit right in in their company.

We continued to walk and talk in this way until we found ourselves back in the market square close to where we had first entered the city. As we strode through the bustling streets, Yamame reached out, seemingly at random, and grabbed the robes of a passing youkai, twisting them around to face her.

"Hey, do you know where I can find big sister Yuugi right now?" She asked, casually.

The youkai she had grabbed, a frightened looking woman, extended an arm to point toward a tunnel set in one of the cavern walls. As she did so, her sleeve slid up her arm, revealing that the limb was covered in dozens of tiny, blinking eyes, like those of a bird. "She went out of the city, towards the surface shaft a while ago."

Yamame released her and and turned in the indicated direction, leading us along behind her. "She must be visiting Parsee, she does that from time to time. She really does try to be everyone's big sister." Yamame said, with what sounded like a mix of awe and pity. "Or maybe in this case it's more like feeding a stray cat because it looks lonely."

"Yuugi seems to care about everyone down here, and everyone likes her right back," Renko said conversationally. "Even here in the paradise of the despised there's a sense of camaraderie and people care for their neighbors. Do youkai even feed stray cats, by the way? Or would you just eat them?"

"It depends on the youkai and their mood, I guess. Certainly there's a lot of pets at the palace, right?"

"I suppose so. Now that we're headed back toward this surface shaft though, it's got me thinking. It's a long way up, are you alright with carrying us that far, Yamame?"

"Well, I can't go all the way to the surface with you, but I can get you close."

"How close? Merry and I can't fly, you know."

"I'm sure I'll figure something out. It might just be a little bumpy for you." She turned and grinned mischievously at us, but said no more, leaving my imagination to race to all sorts of unpleasant guesses about what that could mean.