As we made our way out of the Underworld and back toward the shaft leading to the surface we crossed the bridge over the subterranean river again. Yuugi and Parsee were both still there and stopped us for a chat.
"So what's been happening on the surface lately?" Yuugi asked amiably.
"It's not been a great year. Lots of problems with weather and crops, which I guess isn't really something you have to worry about down here. There's been some political turmoil too and just lately it's come to a head with a bunch of riots full of wild dancing and fighting in the village and some confrontations between various religious groups that are all trying to profit from the turmoil in one way or another."
"A mob of people dancing and fighting in the streets? That almost sounds like a halfway-decent party. Maybe we oughtta bring some oni booze up to the surface and show 'em how it's really done. It's been a long time since I went up topside. What do you say Parsee? Wanna have a look around on the surface with me?"
Parsee's eyes darted up to Yuugi's for a moment, sweeping over me briefly before she looked away and back over the side of the bridge. "Why would you ask me? If you want to go waste your time on drunken hedonism, go by yourself."
Yuugi chuckled and tried to talk Parsee into leaving the bridge and coming into Former Hell to party with her instead, but it seemed like a roundabout conversation that they had had countless times before. Renko made some apologies and we excused ourselves to continue our investigation.
Although he complained the whole way, Genji was proving himself to be a very dependable mount and was able to fly both of us up out of the Underworld without issue, keeping pace with Kokoro the whole time. Renko and I discussed the idea of looking for Koishi in the village as we flew up the shaft, but in the end we both agreed that it would be easier to do that later and we ought to continue looking for the mask in other locations first. Ideally, we'd also have to find somewhere away from the village for Kokoro to stay for the time being as well, as Renko surmised that her spending the nights in the village searching for the mask probably made the effect of emotional instability worse for the villagers than it might otherwise be.
As such, it was decided that we should continue to look into other worlds connected to Gensokyo where the mask might have been taken. That meant that the first place to investigate was Makai, the entrance of which was closer to our current position than the entrance to the Netherworld. And so, despite some griping, Genji flew us north of the Hakurei shrine to the cave in the forest where we had been once before during the Treasure Ship Incident. As before we met Sara guarding the intimidating metal doors that marked the entrance to Makai but as this lead turned out to be a dead end, I won't bore you with the story of our conversation. Suffice to say she told us that no one had been in or out of the gate behind her in more than a month.
After speaking with her Renko and I were getting pretty hungry and Genji was getting quite tired so we agreed to leave Kokoro at the eastern edge of the Forest of Magic while the three of us returned to town temporarily for a respite. While we were there, we happened to run into Youmu, who was in town doing some shopping, fortuitously enough. Renko took the opportunity to question her about the mask, but she also claimed not to have seen anything like it. It seemed that Makai and the Netherworld were both dead ends. The number of leads we had to pursue was rapidly dwindling and the field of possible culprits seemed to be narrowing down to the one individual who both might have had the opportunity to have encountered Kokoro in the last week and could conceivably have taken one of her masks without being noticed -Koishi Komeiji.
While we were in town we also witnessed another disturbance -not a riot this time, but a crowd gathering to watch a danmaku match occurring in the skies over the southern edge of the village, out near the rice paddies. Apparently this match had been between Ichirin and Futo and by proxy between the Buddhists and the Taoists. Renko and I were inside a restaurant at the time the match occurred and didn't see it, but talk of it in the streets was unavoidable. From speaking to Youmu and numerous others we came to learn that conflicts like these were becoming both more common and more heated and had been happening at numerous locations, not just in and around the village but also at spots where youkai were likely to gather like the Genbu ravine as well. It seemed that the flashy battles were becoming something between exhibition matches and recruitment campaigns, with each side using danmaku rather than speeches to try to win over public opinion and recruit new followers not only from among the humans of the village, but from among the local youkai populations as well. At this rate, I imagined, it wouldn't be long before someone sent a representative down to Former Hell as well to further their recruitment efforts.
Given the heightened tensions within the village, bringing Kokoro inside the walls seemed like a worse idea than ever. It couldn't possibly be long before Reimu got involved at this rate and keeping her away from Kokoro was more or less the reason Mamizou had hired us. That left us with the question of what to do with her.
-.-.-.-.-
"There's been no reports that anyone has seen Tenshi recently and she's not the sort to lay low, so I think we can rule out the possibility of the mask being in the heavenly realms."
"Then it stands to reason it must be somewhere in Gensokyo. What should we do then, just wait for Mamizou or Nazrin to find it?"
"I'm not going to just stand around. I'll go find it myself." Kokoro declared from beneath the fox mask.
"...So are you three going to explain what this is about at any point or just keep talking around me?" Mokou asked.
Our location was the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, in the clearing just outside of Mokou's shack, where the three of us had emerged while still deep in conversation. We had decided that this was probably the safest place to bring Kokoro for the time being to keep her out of Reimu's sights, but we had been so busy talking as we walked into the clearing that we hadn't noticed that Mokou was up and about, busy chopping wood beside her firepit as we approached.
"I take it you're aware there's a strange youkai right behind you, Renko?" Mokou asked, shouldering her hatchet and arching an eyebrow.
Renko then took the time to explain everything, introducing Kokoro, telling Mokou the story of the missing mask and the recent disturbances in the village and finally explaining why Kokoro had to stay hidden from Reimu and was now here in the bamboo forest with us.
"Huh," Mokou grunted once Renko finally stopped to take a breath. "Well that explains why Keine hasn't come in to see me recently. It's a few days past the full moon already. She must be feeling awful. Maybe I should go into the village and bring her something for once. It sounds like she must have her hands full."
"I'm sure she'd appreciate that. While I have you here though Mokou, I don't suppose you remember seeing anything like a mask laying about in the forest recently, have you?"
"No, if I saw something like that I'd assume it had something to do with one of that rabbit's traps. I've definitely not seen anything like that recently. If Kaguya or one of her henchmen found it, they might have stolen it though." It was Mokou's nature to assume that just about anything unusual that happened in Gensokyo had to be the result of some sort of lunarian plot, it seemed. A detective who solves every case by always determining the crime to be the work of the same villain didn't sound like it would make for a very good story to me.
"I hope that's not the case," she continued, her expression turning dark, "If I find out that Kaguya has been causing enough problems in the village to make like difficult for Keine, then I'm gonna..."
"Let's leave that train of thought aside for the moment," Renko interjected. "I'm not ruling Kaguya out as a possible culprit, but we don't have any reason to suspect her right now either. If you're so concerned about the impact that these riots and clashes between religious institutions are having on Keine and the village, why not solve the problem yourself? You could enter the religious war as a new faction, settle down the situation in the village and keep an eye on Keine at the same time. That'd be two birds with one stone, right?"
Mokou blinked in surprise, snapped out of the dark mood she had been falling into by the absurdity of Renko's suggestion. "What? Me in a religious war? I'm not religious. And I'm definitely not suited to lead the village either. That should be Keine's job, she's good at organizing things. I'm just a pathetic lowlife of an immortal."
Renko blinked in surprise. "Mokou, you shouldn't talk about yourself that way. You could definitely enter the running as a god yourself if you wanted. Think about it, you're immortal, you can fly and use a bunch of flashy techniques and you've even got a noble bloodline. I bet it would be easy for you. I understand you not wanting to get involved, but imagine how much worse things would get for Keine if princess Kaguya decides she'd like to be worshipped as a goddess and starts gathering faith."
Mokou went silent for a moment. "...What?"
"I can just imagine it. She's already thought of as a legendary figure associated with the heavens. Plus she's got that unnatural aura of beauty going for her. If she were to walk into the village and proclaim herself a god, I doubt it would take much convincing to get people to worship her. Heck with Eirin's help she could even offer people blessings like health and longevity. I hear she's no slouch in danmaku either. I bet she'd be good competition for Byakuren and the crown prince."
"...You're saying Kaguya's going to take control of the human village?"
"Well, who knows? Anything goes in Gensokyo. Imagine, the kingdom of Eientei, ruled by the whims of its eternal princess. What do you think, Mokotan, you want to get involved now?"
Mokou snapped out of her brooding, glaze-eyed stare to glare at my partner. "Renko you're just teasing me aren't you? None of that's actually going to happen."
Renko laughed. "Ah, maybe. You got me."
"Don't joke about that!" Mokou yelled, but she was smiling, almost despite herself. I don't know how Renko does it, but I couldn't deny her talent. She has a knack for making friends.
"So what's the actual plan then? Do you just need me to look after this girl for a while and keep her hidden here in the Forest?"
"I think that would be for the best, if you're willing. Merry and I have one more lead to chase down, but it's in the village. Hopefully it won't take too long."
"Sure," Mokou said, turning to Kokoro. "You're welcome to stay here as long as you need to."
"Thank you very much," Kokoro said, bowing in a polite, feminine manner and wearing the mask of a smiling courtesan. "I promise to be nice," the mask switched to the withered-looking ube "and to try not to cause any problems."
"She's a little strange, isn't she?"
"She's a good kid. You'll get used to her."
-.-.-.-.-
And so Renko, Genji and I embarked on what I hoped would be our last journey of the day, back to the village once more. Our intention was both to get a better understanding of the state of the ongoing religious war and, if possible, to try to locate Koishi. We made our way back along the roads between the farmers fields and eventually came to the south side of the village. As we approached, the sound of cheers and the sight of a large gathering in the street told us that another commotion was already underway.
"Is it another danmaku match? Can you see who's fighting, Merry?"
"It looks like maybe one just ended, people are starting to disperse. Oh, is that Akyuu?"
Renko followed my gaze to spot the Child of Miare and ran off, leaving me and Genji behind to catch up.
"Akyuu! Did you see the fight? Was it another clash of religions?"
Akyuu seemed surprised to see us as she turned around but merely shrugged in response to Renko's question. "I'm not sure what that was," she was saying as I caught up to Renko. "I think the figures I saw were Toyosatomimi no Miko and Mononobe no Futo," she said, speaking formally in the proper cadence she used when appearing in public. "But I believe those two are both Taoists. What's more, they both seem to have just been defeated, but I couldn't see who, if anyone they were fighting."
