And so, with our journey to Makai on hold for the moment, Murasa took the helm once more and we set out, flying slowly around Youkai Mountain in a widening, ascending gyre, peering over the sides of the ship for any trace of the dismembered fragments of the mast.
"Even shattered, that mast is a holy relic, and a fragment of a sacred temple infused with Mother Byakuren's power. The fragments should all be able to float on their own using the same power that's currently keeping us aloft. All we have to do is look for floating pieces of wood," Ichirin had explained.
"Well, that'll at least make it obvious once we find a piece. Chunks of wood don't normally levitate on their own," Renko admitted. "But depending on how small the pieces are, 'the entire sky' is one heck of a haystack to be searching for splinters in."
"Until we can find Nazrin, we don't have any better options, and we've no leads on where she might be either. With any luck, she may end up finding us." Ichirin sighed. "I also don't like the idea of leaving that nue alone up here. If she really did come up with us, who knows what sort of trouble she might get into on the surface."
"I don't like the idea either," Murasa replied, "but finding the pieces of the Holy Palanquin has to be our first priority." Ichirin and Unzan nodded as one, their faces equally set with expressions of grim determination.
"A nue?" Renko asked, "That's a youkai with the head of a monkey, the body of a tiger and the tail of a snake, right? A sort of chimera? We had heard that there was a unknown youkai who was known to hang around your ship in the Underworld and prank people. She even got me and Yamame at one point. Is that who you're thinking sabotaged the mast?"
"An 'unknown youkai' is a good way to describe her." Ichirin replied. "Most people don't have any idea what she really looks like. I think I saw her undisguised once or twice, but that could have just been another of the appearances she wears. For whatever reason she doesn't seem to like us. She used to come by and cause problems for us all the time while we were working on repairing this ship. Usually it was just annoying pranks though. I never thought she'd go this far. You two should be careful too. Now that she knows you've worked with us, I wouldn't be surprised if she singles you out as well."
"Well, I appreciate the warning but it's hard to be on the lookout for someone if no one knows what they look like. I'll definitely let you know if I see anyone who looks like a chimera."
"For the time being, we need to keep looking for those fragments. The longer we delay, the further away they get. Humans like you will need to sleep and eat though, and I can't guess how long this might take. We should let you go. I'll find a way to contact you once we have the mast back in working order. Where would be best for me to drop you two off?" Murasa asked.
"That's a good question," Renko said, fiddling with the brim of her hat. "I had hoped that this would be a quick and easy journey, but now that the ship is going to be flying around for a few days we don't want to go anywhere where its appearance would raise too many questions."
"Do you really think it would be a big deal, Renko?" I asked. "Nearly everyone who knows what this ship is or used to be is long dead now. Except for the Yama, of course. I know the Hakurei miko of 1,000 years ago was involved in sealing Byakuren away, but it's not like Reimu would have inherited her memories, right? She's not the child of Miare."
"Well, Reimu is a bit of a concern, I'll admit, but I was actually more worried about Sanae."
"Sanae? Oh, I see. Yes, that could be awkward."
"Suwako and Kanako still haven't told her about any of this, and we promised not to either. If she sees a ship like this flying around we can't exactly do much to hide it though, especially if she sees us aboard it." She sighed and pulled the brim of her hat down over her eyes. "I don't like keeping secrets from a friend and fellow member of the Hifuu Detective Agency, but if she gets involved things are definitely going to get more complicated."
My mind flashed back to our meeting during the last Incident with the Yama. Against any expectations or logic, Sanae had reacted to the Yama's lecture and warning against acting selfishly by scooping the girl up in a hug and snuggling her like a stuffed animal. If Sanae were to catch wind of a giant sailing ship flying through the sky, I have no idea what she would do, but I knew it was sure to be unexpected. She had a unique genius for disrupting any sort of straightforward plan.
"That's not even the worst of it though," Renko continued. "We definitely can't go anywhere near the village. Can you imagine what would happen if Keine saw us?"
As soon as Renko mentioned the possibility, I felt the pit of my stomach dropping. "If she saw us here, she'd conclude that we were the ones responsible for all of this, wouldn't she..." I asked. In my mind I could see the image of horns growing out of Keine's head as her face contorted in growing anger.
"She's pretty good at guessing how these things go by now. I'm not sure I could convince her otherwise..." Renko muttered.
"That's a terrifying prospect. Let's not risk it," I agreed, nodding solemnly.
"Alright then. Who can we talk to safely to do our best to ensure that the pieces of the mast can be found as quickly as possible? For all of our sakes?"
"Well, at least some of the pieces of the mast were taken by fairies. We could go talk to Cirno on the lake, but I don't know how useful that would be. She doesn't really seem like the type to grab a chunk of wood just because it floats."
"She lives in an igloo on the edge of Misty Lake. That would probably be a safe place to set down, but you're right in that I don't think she could tell us much. When you mention the idea of collecting strange items though, there are some other fairies who come to mind."
"Oh, you mean those three? Do you think we can find them?"
"We may as well try. Head east, captain. We don't want to go quite as far as the Hakurei shrine, but we'll do what we can to try to track down some of the pieces for you."
-.-.-.-.-
I say 'those three' as there could be no question about who I might be referring to in my mind, but it occurs to me that there has been no mention of these particular fairies in these records so far. The trio in question is a group of fairies who lives somewhere near the Hakurei shrine. We had encountered them at various times over the years as they often showed up, uninvited, to parties at Reimu's place. They would occasionally appear at other times as well, usually to play harmless pranks on the shrine maiden or her visitors or occasionally to steal something and run away giggling. Marisa in particular was familiar with all of them and would occasionally even assist them in pranking Reimu. We had been properly introduced to them shortly before the beginning of the Vengeful Spirit Incident, but I'd never had the opportunity to write about them as their antics never rose to the level that might be considered relevant to an Incident.
At any rate, we had Murasa fly us about half-way to the Hakurei shrine, before descending down to the road on Unzan's back to walk the rest of the way. The Holy Palanquin kept its distance, high enough up in the sky so as not to be immediately noticeable unless you happened to be looking that way. I could only hope that would be enough to keep it from drawing too much attention. We waved our goodbyes to Unzan and set off at a brisk pace. It wasn't long before we found ourselves climbing the stone steps up the hill and passing through the torii toward the shrine. As we looked over toward the still new-looking main building, Suika Ibuki suddenly rolled and tumbled down from her usual sleeping spot on the crossbeam of the torii and landed in front of us with a clatter. The stumbling way in which she arrested her fall always made me wonder if she was falling off of the torii intentionally and just recovering in mid-air at the last second, or if it had been a unplanned dismount with a sloppy, drunken landing.
"Good afternoon, little miss Watermelon," Renko said with a smile. "Just enjoying the scenery up there?"
"It's still too early for cherry blossom viewing but Gensokyo's pretty anyway. If you're looking for Reimu she's probably on the back porch drinking tea."
"Actually, I have a question for you today, Suika, if you don't mind."
"Oh, what's that?"
"It's about your ability to split into lots of little Suikas. When you do that, you can have the little versions of you go and gather things for you, right?"
"Sure, I use it to help Reimu clean things up, sometimes."
"Are there any restrictions on what you can gather that way?"
"Restrictions? What do you mean? It has to be something the little versions of me can pick up, but that's a lot by human standards. Us oni are strong."
"I meant more in terms of finding things. For example if I took that pot over there and smashed it on the stairs, could you find all the different pieces of it?"
"If I had a piece of it to look at, probably. I don't know why you'd want to bother though, even if you had all the pieces you couldn't put a pot back together."
"Ah, so you need a sample to work with. That makes sense. I should have thought to get you one, shoot."
"Is there something you're wanting me to put back together for you?"
"Hmmm, not directly. An acquaintance of ours is in a spot of trouble. Something very important to her has been broken and the pieces of it have been lost."
"What kind of thing was it?"
"I don't suppose there's any harm in telling you, you used to live in the Underworld after all."
"The Underworld? You mean Former Hell? What's that have to do with anything?"
"When you lived down there, did you ever happen to visit the old ship that was entombed near the Lake of Blood?"
"The one with the ship phantom and the nyudo living on it? Yuugi was friends with them. I stopped by to fight the nyudo occasionally, but I don't really know them."
"You've heard of them though, that's good. Well, Yuugi and I and some others have been working on a plan for a few months now to try to lift that ship of theirs out of the Underworld and back to the surface. We mostly succeeded, but on the way up the mast broke apart. That's what we're looking for now."
"You did what? Are you crazy, or am I drunk?" Suika asked. She had been half-way toward bringing her gourd to her lips but now lowered it, exhaling out a strong cloud of vapor as she did so.
"It can be both," Renko said with a grin. "But don't tell Reimu, please. I'd like to try and clean this up quickly without getting her involved."
"That's quite a predicament you've got there. I'm not inclined to help though, to be honest. It sounds like a lot of trouble. Yuugi was interested in their story, but I never cared much. I certainly don't owe them anything. I'll not mention anything to Reimu though. In fact, I think I'll make myself scarce. Anytime there's anything going on with Former Hell, Reimu always blames me first." With that, Suika faded into a mist and began to flow away, scattering across the hillside and down toward the road.
"Renko, did a youkai just turn you down? Have you just been getting lucky getting everyone to cooperate this far? I thought you had some sort of ability to make powerful creatures do ridiculous things."
"I'm as surprised as you are, Merry. I must have used up all my mojo bringing together oni, gods and youkai on the same project. I guess I need to do some good deeds to recharge my virtuous karma."
"Virtuous? You? Why would you assume the ability to make friends with man-eating youkai would even be a result of good karma? Wouldn't that be a sign that you're closer to becoming a devil?"
"Sinner or saint, that idea's a bust. I don't have any sort of lever I can use to make Suika help if she doesn't want to. Maybe Yuugi would, but trying to get her up here or Suika down there would be a pain. Let's continue on and do what we came here to do."
Showing no signs of being discouraged, Renko marched forth, walking steadily into the woods surrounding the shrine without bothering to look around back for Reimu.
"Renko, do you have any idea where you're going? We know the three fairies live somewhere around here, but we have no idea exactly where, right?"
"There's only one way to fix that, Merry. We've got to go find them," Renko said as she stepped into the underbrush between the trees, never once looking back.
I felt my shoulders fall in dismay as I let out a heavy sigh, then collected myself and ran after her.