Please forgive me for beginning this casefile with a personal anecdote. This particular story has nothing to do with the Incident surrounding the resurrection of the prince, but it does provide a critical bit of background and introduce the newest member of the Hifuu Detective Agency, who would be a rather incongruous inclusion in the story if I didn't explain where they had come from. Like most disruptions to the status quo of our everyday existence, this change came into being as a result of my partner's curiosity.

"Merry, I think it's high time we found our own means of transportation."

This was the declaration Renko made one day while we were standing outside of our office, offering handfuls of seeds and dried fruit to the birds who had built a nest on top of our little storehouse and enjoying the brisk weather. It was a completely spontaneous and non-sequitur statement, but Renko spoke it as if it were an inarguable fact.

"What brings this on, Renko?"

"I was just thinking about how we've been lucky enough to have Sanae flying us around so much lately, but that's got to be annoying for her. Marisa has flat out told us she won't be our taxi anymore. Nearly everyone we know can fly, but if anyone wants to hang out with us, they have to arrange for a ride first. We should stop being a burden on them and pull our own weight, don't you think? Besides, in our role as the Hifuu Detective Agency, most of our cases have involved us leaving the village. Having a means of transport would expand our reach and make it easier for us to chase down leads now that Sanae has decided to become an Incident resolver herself."

"Well, you're right that it must be troublesome for Sanae to have to carry us around and try to fight at the same time. What did you have in mind though? I suppose we could go see if Korindo has any bicycles we could purchase, but getting new tires would be hard here and there are a lot of places we couldn't ride to, like the Forest of Magic or Youkai Mountain."

"No, we can't limit ourselves like that. We don't want to interfere with Sanae's efforts to gather faith, but we can't be a detective agency that only takes cases that happen to occur in easily accessible locations. We need a way to fly, Merry. Ideally, well enough that we can keep up with the major players during an Incident."

"Well that would certainly be nice. I always feel bad seeing you use the branch shrine to call up Lady Yasaka any time we want to see Sanae. If we could fly up to her shrine ourselves, we could at least be a little less blasphemous. How do you expect to achieve that though? Are you going to ask Reimu to teach you how to fly?"

"Hmm, being able to fly on my own would certainly be nice, but I don't think that would work, for a variety of reasons. Putting aside the fact that she probably wouldn't want to teach me, I don't think she'd be much of an instructor and I don't think I could fly using spiritual power like she does."

While we happened to know several humans in Gensokyo capable of flying, even here most humans couldn't. Even other humans with supernatural abilities like Akyuu couldn't fly despite being the Child of Miare. Being Outsiders ourselves, with no knowledge of magic, divine power, youkai sorcery, or alien technology, the idea of simply floating into the air as Reimu did seemed quite beyond us. I'll admit I had tried at one point, closing my eyes and imagining myself floating upward just to see if by being in Gensokyo I could, but evidently there was more to it than that.

"So what's your plan then? Ask Ichirin if we can borrow Unzan? I don't think that's likely to work. Or are you going to ask Byakuren to build us a flying ship? I'm not sure we could sail it the way Murasa does."

"Well, maybe I'd give that last one a shot if my plan doesn't work, but I'd like to try something that doesn't leave us so indebted to any of our acquaintances."

"Well what's your plan then?"

"I can't spoil the surprise, Merry." Renko said, waggling a finger at me. "I do have something in mind though."

"Do you actually?"

"Watch and see, dear Watson. Come on, the game's afoot!" Saying that, Renko opened the door and reached into our office, retrieving her trademark trenchcoat and passing me my cloak.

"Oh, are we going out? At least let me hang up the 'be back later' sign. Where are we headed?"

"You'll see, Merry, you'll see. I've just had a good idea."

I sighed as I hung up the sign and slid the door shut then turned to follow Renko, who was already walking toward the gates at the periphery of the schoolyard.

-.-.-.-.-

Renko had lead the way out of the village's eastern gate and down the road toward the Hakurei shrine. As we made our way up the stone steps she still hadn't told me what her plan was.

"Are you going to ask Suika to lend us some of her little versions to carry us around or pull a cart or something? She might do it if we paid her in booze, but I'm not sure traveling by oni would be particularly reliable or safe."

"Oh, that's an interesting prospect, but no, that's not the plan. It wouldn't be much use to have a transport system where your driver was always drunk."

Renko smiled at me, offering no hint as to what she was actually thinking. We made our way through the torii at the top of the stairs and Renko continued walking, turning away from the swept path without dropping anything in the offertory box and heading for the woods that surrounded the shrine. If she wasn't here to talk to Reimu or Suika, then she must be intending to speak to the three fairies of light. She couldn't possibly be imaging setting up some sort of harness to allow the three of them to carry us through the sky though. I'm not sure if fairies would even be strong enough for that, and the three of them might be even less reliable than Suika, albeit for different reasons.

"Alright, I give up then, what's you plan, Renko?"

"Come on, Merry. Think for yourself. We're nearly there anyway."

"You're going to talk to the three fairies. I know that much, but what are you planning on asking them to do? You must be after information rather than direct aid, but I don't know what you're planning to ask that you couldn't just ask Reimu."

"Oh, you're so close, Merry! For the record, I probably could have asked Reimu, but I'm not sure if she would have remembered, and even if she did she might not tell us. The fairies are more likely to give me a straight answer."

"A straight answer about what? What are we looking for, Renko?"

"Come on, think about it, what else could be back here? Do you remember what Marisa told us before, about when she and Reimu were kids?"

"That would have been before we ever got here. Did she mention anything about the past? Reimu said that Marisa was a lot different back then and Marisa said Reimu was raised by a turtle, didn't she? Is that what you're looking for, the turtle who raised Reimu?"

"Exactly. Marisa said that before Reimu learned to fly that turtle used to carry her around."

"Did she? I don't remember that."

"It was at one of the drinking parties with Tenshi. You might have been busy with Sanae at the time. But anyway, yeah. Supposedly that turtle was both Reimu's foster parent and how she used get around Gensokyo when she was little. He might even be the one who taught her how to fly."

"You heard all of that from Marisa though, right? You can't trust everything she says."

"Maybe not, but unless she was making up the turtle altogether, then somewhere around here there should be a flying turtle who's retired from looking after Reimu. If that's the case, maybe we could offer him a new job."

"Renko, we can't keep a pet like that. First off, where would it live?"

"They just put that new koi pond in at the school. Wouldn't a friendly turtle be a nice addition to it? We could teach the children about aquatic life cycles. Besides, old folks love being around little kids. If he's really retired, I bet he'd love the chance to hear children laughing all day."

I stared at Renko in disbelief as we walked. Surely she had to realize that any plan like the one she was proposing would require Keine's approval to enact. What's more, if this turtle could fly and had raised Reimu, it must presumably be a youkai turtle. I couldn't imagine such an entity would consent to be kept as a pet by a mere human, even if they had once served as the guardian of a young Hakurei miko. Before I could raise any further objections, however, we emerged from the thicket of trees into the clearing where the huge oak that served as a home for the three fairies stood. Renko wasted no time in calling out to the fairies as soon as we arrived.

As before, at the sound of Renko calling out there arose a great clattering from within the tree along with the appearance of several small faces all crowding into one of the windows built into the trunk. Moments later, three different doors at three different locations on the outside of the tree burst open and the fairies of light came fluttering down to meet us.

"It's those humans!" Sunny declared as she floated downward. "Have you come to play?"

"Reimu said they're teachers, Sunny," Luna declared, alighting a moment behind her. "Maybe they're here to teach us something."

"Maybe its both," Star reasoned, joining them. "They could teach us something new to play. That would be a good lesson."

"Actually, I was hoping you could teach me something." Renko interjected. "I've come to ask you some questions."

"Questions?" Sunny replied. "Ask me anything!"

"Ask Luna instead," Star suggested, pushing Luna forward. "You'll get a better answer."

"Why me?" Luna protested.

"Any of you can answer. I just wanted to know if there's an old turtle living somewhere around here."

"A turtle?" they all asked in unison.

Sunny took a step back and leaned toward Luna to whisper. "Luna, what's a turtle?"

"It's a really slow animal with a shell that looks like a kappa's backpack."

"There's one that lives in the pond, isn't there?" Star suggested.

"Is that thing alive? It never moves."

"I'm not sure if it's dead or not, it's been there a long time."

"I've seen it move. Just a little though."

The three fairies chattered amongst themselves, debating the identity of the creature.

"Maybe you could show it to me," Renko suggested. "If you can show me where it is, I'd be able to tell if it's a turtle or not."

"You can be our turtle-teller!" Sunny declared, "in case we ever need someone to tell us if something's a turtle or not."

"She's already a teacher, Sunny, she won't have time for that." Luna sighed.

"Then she'd be a turtle-tutor!" Star declared, clapping her hands together.

"Well with Merry, we'd be two turtle tutors," Renko added.

"Do we need two?" Sunny asked. "I don't know how often I'd need to know if something was a turtle or not."

"Well we could be part-time then. Temporary turtle tutors."

"Two temporary turtle tutors!"

"Two temporary turtle tutors tracking a trail towards tons of turtles."

"There's only one turtle though," Luna protested. "And I don't really know if it is one. It might be a rock."

"Two temporary turtle tutors tracking a trail towards a tricky turtle in torpor then."

"Renko, stop," I protested wearily.

"What's the matter, my Merry?" She asked, turning to grin at me. "Don't you want to try to track a tangled trail with a temporary tutor to triangulate a trajectory on a turtle in torpor?"

The three fairies looked up at Renko with something like awe as she slid her hat back from her eyes with one finger. I could only sigh in response, feeling like somehow our trip to the shrine had already become hours longer than usual.

-.-.-.-.-

And so the three fairies pointed us toward a pond. It was a still, shallow body of water that was technically on the grounds of the shrine, but being as it was surrounded by tall reeds that had never been trimmed and was located behind Reimu's newly rebuilt storehouse, it was easy not to notice. From here I could just see the edge of the veranda on the back of the shrine where Reimu often sat drinking tea, but there was no sign of her there at the moment.

"I never knew there was a pond here," Renko said as we pushed our way through the reeds. "I thought this was all just tall grass. Helllooo! Any turtles about?"

The pond was shallow but broad, perhaps a meter and half deep but stretching out roughly a dozen meters on a side. Without any fish to disturb the surface, its waters were calm and still, with mats of algae and lily pads floating undisturbed around a rounded, mossy boulder rising out of the pond's center.

"I don't think there's anything here, Renko. I don't see any turtles and this pond isn't big enough for them to be hiding underwater."

"You're off your game today, Merry. I see one, and I bet you do too."

"What's the trick, Sherlock? There's nothing living in this pond. I don't even see any bugs."

Renko grinned at me then took a step back, followed by another. I tilted my head inquisitively at her, but she said nothing, only giving me a cheeky wink before suddenly sprinting forward and leaping with all the force and grace she could muster onto the rock in the center of the pond. She landed perfectly - then immediately slipped on the moss and toppled over, bashing her knees before tumbling to the side and splashing into the water. She managed to wrap her arms around the rock to keep herself from getting completely drenched but her socks and half her trenchcoat were soaked. She pulled herself up onto the rock and sat cross-legged atop it, pulling off her shoes and emptying them into the pond before smiling bitterly up at me.

"Bravo, Renko. What was that all about?"

"It'll be worth it if I can negotiate us a ride home. Now, to work!" Saying that she raised the shoe she was holding over her head and began pounding its heel sharply against the rock she was sitting on. She whacked the stone repeatedly, calling out as she did so. "Hello there mister turtle, are you still alive, by chance?"

As Renko sat, banging on the rock, it began to move a little. I suppose at this point I should stop calling it a rock. Ever so slowly it began to rise up out of the water, revealing that it was plainly nothing of the sort, but instead the rounded and moss-covered shell of a surprisingly large turtle. With achingly slow movements, the turtle rose up and, with Renko still seated on its back, began to slowly march toward the shore of the pond. It was only once it had reached the water's edge and Renko had hopped off its back that a wizened, wrinkly head sporting surprisingly human-like features and a long white beard which floated on the surface of the pond emerged, ever-so-slowly, from the shell.

The turtle's head swung from side to side as he looked the both of us over, his wise, calm, yellow eyes peering at each of ours. At length he spoke, in a slightly wheezy voice. "Eh? Who's that there?"

It was a bit surprising to see a creature that, for the most part, looked exactly like a normal turtle speaking like a human. The only other youkai we knew who didn't take an at least mostly-human form was Unzan, and if he could speak at all, it wasn't in any way I had ever heard. Being able to talk with this creature would certainly make negotiation easier though.

"Hello there, it's a pleasure to meet you," Renko said, squatting down on her haunches to bring herself eye to eye with the turtle. "My name is Renko Usami, and this is my partner, Merry. We're friends of Reimu's who live in the human village. I understand that you were Reimu's caretaker when she was young, is that correct?"

"Oh, you're friends of lady Reimu's. How troublesome. I was hoping she had forgotten all about me. Yes, I'm Genji. I wouldn't call myself her caretaker. I was captured by lady Reimu many years ago and forced to serve as her valet. I had rather thought I could enjoy my retirement now."

Genji spoke slowly and clearly, but without anything that sounded like resentment in his voice. His statement seemed rather matter-of-fact. I suppose if he really had been forgotten in this pond for many years, he would have had ample time to come to terms with his situation. Regardless of how he felt about it though, it seemed clear that Marisa had indeed lead Renko at least partially astray. If Reimu had captured a youkai and compelled it to serve her as a child, then Genji was in no way her foster parent.

"I take it you retired because Reimu learned how to fly on her own and didn't need you any more?" Renko asked, rather inconsiderately.

"Yes, that's right. Once she started flying she had little use for me and hasn't given me an order years. I had hoped I might just lay down here and nap until she died. I suppose that's all over now. So, what do two humans from the village need of me?"

"Well actually, I've come to offer you a job," Renko said, grinning broadly.

"A job?" Genji's face was not particularly expressive. I couldn't tell if he was more bemused or bewildered by the prospect of employment.

"Yes. My partner and I are the operators of the Hifuu Detective Agency, the human village's premier team of private investigators. Occasionally, our work involves us assisting Reimu in resolving Incidents outside of the village. The work isn't frequent, but since neither Merry nor I can fly, we thought we'd ask if you'd be willing to chaperone us about. We would, of course, reimburse you for your services. I'd be happy to negotiate whatever form of payment you would find most agreeable."

In my mind saying that we 'assisted Reimu in solving Incidents' was bending the truth more than a little, but I wasn't about to ruin Renko's attempt at negotiation. Genji craned his head over to look at me and then back toward Renko. "So you're proposing that I should take a pair of humans as my new master?"

"Well I wouldn't phrase it that way, but you can see it like that if you prefer. To start with I can offer you three meals a day and a lovely new pond, located in a lively, family-friendly neighborhood to live in. Plus, you'll have total freedom to nap when not on an emergency dispatch."

Genji stared at her in silence for a full minute with what looked like a suspicious expression. I can't blame him. If a girl like Renko had come and woken me up out of the blue with such an offer I can only imagine suspicion to be the natural response.

"To be clear," Genji said wheezily, "I can't be expected to protect you. I can fly and I have my shell, but I'm not the sort to fight. If we were to be attacked by a youkai, it would not be within my power to fight it off. Is that still acceptable to you?"

"That's completely reasonable. Although I'm just a human, I'm widely known in Gensokyo, and as such there's little chance of being attacked by stray youkai. When it comes to Incidents and individuals strong enough to incite them, I leave the fighting to Reimu. You'd be perfectly safe."

Genji once again craned his head around to look at me. "Would the both of you be riding together?"

"Would that be a problem?"

"Perhaps for you. Lifting two girls would be no issue, but I'm not sure there's room enough for you to sit without a saddle."

"Well, I'll worry about figuring that out. Other than that, is the deal agreeable to you?"

"Where would you want me to live?"

"There's a freshly built pond in the yard of the village's schoolhouse. It might not be quite as large as this one, but it would be free of algae, regularly cleaned and I will see to it you're provided with all the food you need."

"Oh, I don't need much food. Did you say the pond would be at a school?"

"Yes, the Hieda Public Temple School in the village. We're teachers there in addition to being detectives. There's some ornamental koi living in the pond too, if you don't mind the company."

"That must mean there would be children there. Would the village allow a flying turtle to live inside the walls in a place like that?"

"I don't see why not. The school's administrator is even half-youkai. Human tolerance of youkai that aren't threatening has recently improved quite a bit."

"Ah, I'm not a youkai turtle though. I'm a turtle hermit."

"Oh, well pardon me then, I hadn't intended to insult you. In that case, you must have many hundreds of years of accumulated wisdom. You would be an invaluable asset to us not just as detectives but as teachers as well! Now I'm certain Keine would be overjoyed to welcome you into our facilities. If the idea of allowing humans to benefit from your wisdom is amenable to you, that is."

"Oh, please, no need to flatter me. I'm simply a turtle who has lived a long time. That said, this last decade or so has been a little dreary, just sitting in this pond without moving. I suppose a change of pace might be enjoyable."

"Thank you very much, mister Genji. I'm overjoyed to welcome you to the Hifuu Detective Agency!" Renko smiled broadly and ducked her head in an awkward bow.

Genji nodded faintly in response, grunting affirmatively. "What did you say your name was again?"

"Renko Usami, at your service."

"And that golden-haired one over there?"

"I'm Maeribel Hearn. If that's hard to say you can just call me Merry, mister Genji."

"Hmm. You're both rather strange humans. I feel like this isn't the first time we've met."

I looked over at Renko as Genji said that, but she just smiled at me and shrugged.