"You two know Mamizou, right?"

It was winter, not more than two months after Reimu had asked us to begin keeping an eye on Kosuzu when Reimu had asked us this. She had shown up at our office unexpectedly one day, and after knocking on our door had stomped inside, shaken the snow off of her shoulders and asked this question. As Renko responded to her, I offered her a mug of hot tea which she accepted with a nod as she settled under our kotatsu to chat.

"Mamizou Futatsuiwa, right? From the Myouren temple?" Renko had asked.

"That's right."

"We've met her once or twice. I wouldn't really say we know her."

"You might have met her more than that. Did you know she has a habit of disguising herself as a human and entering the village?"

"It's the first I've heard of it, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. She's a bake-danuki, after all."

Learning that a youkai was entering the village wasn't that big of a surprise, though it was slightly unexpected to find out that Reimu was aware of such practices. We had seen numerous other youkai in the village from time to time. There was Ran, of course, who frequented the village's tofu shop and occasionally visited other stalls in the marketplace but she was a bit of a special case as everyone recognized her as the Administrator's shikigami and servant. Beyond that we'd seen Yuuka Kazami come into town once or twice to visit the florists and Reisen made regular, bi-weekly visits to peddle medicine. In general, youkai seemed to be tolerated in the village's market district as long as they didn't harm anyone and at least made some effort to disguise themselves as human.

"So, I assume since you're asking about her, miss Mamizou's been causing some sort of trouble in the village?" Renko continued.

"It's not that she has, it's that I'm afraid she's about to..." Reimu frowned and rested her chin on the table. "She's been visiting Suzunaan a whole bunch lately."

Renko snapped her fingers suddenly and tried to leap up, bumping the table and nearly spilling Reimu's tea. Apologizing, she sat back down while talking rapidly. "Ah, sorry, sorry. I've got it though, it's that rich lady with the spectacles, isn't it? I knew I hadn't seen her around town before and she has such a mischievous smile!"

Thinking back to our last visit to Suzunaan, I could picture exactly who Renko was thinking of. I had seen this woman come in once or twice and thought she looked odd myself. Rather fancily dressed, but with an unexpectedly casual way of speaking. She hadn't felt like a youkai when I had met her, but she did feel 'off' in some non-specific way and we had met several non-human individuals by this point who had demonstrated the ability to partially or completely suppress the sense of predatory otherness that most youkai exuded.

"Maybe," Reimu replied. "I'm not good with faces and she transformed back into herself when I caught her. I think she's aiming to get her hands on Kosuzu's collection of youma books. Did you guys hear anything about the trails of foxfire seen around the village in the last few weeks?"

"Not at all." Renko replied with a grin. I suppose technically that was true. Certainly no one had told us anything about the recent foxfire sightings, but that wasn't to say we hadn't investigated them. After a series of strange lights and noises had been reported at various locations both inside and outside the village in the middle of the night for several days running, Renko had dragged me away from a warm bed to stand watch in the dark and the cold and try and find the source. It was from that outing that we had discovered that the origin of the noises and marching lights was a night parade of several dozen small tsukumogami carrying torches. Our efforts had ultimately been in vain however, as we had only spotted the procession at a distance that first night and they had left the village before we could catch them. Renko had wanted to continue the stakeouts further, but I had caught a fever from being outside in the weather all night and so our club activities had been placed on hold. By the time I recovered, the strange nighttime apparitions had ended on their own.

"But let me guess," she continued. "The foxfire turned out to actually be a night parade of tsukumogami?"

Reimu frowned at her. "I'm guessing Marisa told you that?"

"Was Marisa looking into it too? No, we discovered that much on our own. I'll admit I never discovered who the culprit behind the tsukumogami was though."

"There wasn't a culprit." Reimu said with a frustrated sigh. "The cause of it all was a Hyakki Yagyo scroll with multiple youkai sealed inside it that Kosuzu acquired. I think Mamizou's trying to get it off of her. I went and told Kosuzu not to sell it to anyone, but especially not to her."

"I see, so now let me make another guess. You're here to ask that in addition to keeping an eye on Kosuzu to make sure she doesn't break the seals on that or any other youma book, you want us to watch Mamizou at the same time to make sure she doesn't find a way to trick or coerce Kosuzu into giving that scroll up."

"That's more or less it. Do you think you can watch them both?"

"Well I wouldn't mind it, but that seems like a rather roundabout solution to me. Why not just tell Kosuzu that Mamizou's a youkai?"

"That would make it look like I'm friends with a youkai! People would start asking questions about how I could let someone like her get into the village in the first place. It's my job to exterminate youkai, remember? It'd be bad for my image if people thought I was soft on them." I did my best to not be obvious in looking at Reimu askew. In my opinion it was far too late to salvage her reputation on that front.

"Well then how about I tell her?" Renko asked. "We could say I figured it out, then you can swoop in and kick her out of the village. That'll help people's impression of you, won't it?"

"She's been coming into town for months at this point, so people would still ask questions. She's not the only youkai who does either. If Kosuzu catches on that there are other youkai living in the area, I'm worried what she would do."

"Ah, I see. In the worst case scenario, she might decide to seek them out on her own."

"That's what I'm trying to avoid. I'd like not to have to exterminate Kosuzu, but humans who become fascinated with youkai tend to end up losing their humanity and that can't be allowed to happen. I don't want her to end up like you two, so close to the border of youkai and human that she could fall over at any minute."

"Hey, come on Reimu, Merry and I aren't that far gone."

"You're both the most abnormal humans I've ever met." Reimu replied without missing a beat, glaring at each of us in turn. I cringed away as she turned toward me, but Renko just smiled and shrugged.

"Geniuses such as myself are often seen as eccentric."

"Eccentric or not, I'm expecting reports from you. Keep an eye on both of them, and let me know if anything seems dangerous."

-.-.-.-.-

And so, now it was summer and we were still keeping an eye on both Kosuzu and Mamizou. That said, it seemed pretty likely Mamizou was aware that we were watching her. Occasionally Kosuzu would mention having seen the woman with the spectacles Renko had described, but she never happened to be in Suzunaan while we were there. By Renko's logic, that meant that as long as we kept regularly and unpredictably stopping in at the shop, Kosuzu would be safe from her influence.

All of this historical information is just background though. In the present, we had just said our goodbyes to captain Murasa after confirming the location of all of the villagers and then headed back to town, walking past the graveyard and then following the road south back through the gates. Immediately beyond the gates on the north side of town were the twisting streets of the village's entertainment district, which was mainly comprised of bars. It was on these streets that one of the outbreaks of ecstatic dancing had occurred earlier, but there was no sign of any disturbance now.

The streets were quiet and sparsely populated as this district really only became lively once the sun went down. Seeing a large number of people dancing through these streets singing and chanting must have been quite a bizarre scene for the people who lived nearby. I was lost in thought, trying to picture what it would have been like when Renko, who was walking alongside me suddenly stopped and turned. Without a word she let go of my hand and sprinted off, chasing something I hadn't seen.

"Renko?" I asked turning to follow her. I barely caught sight of someone wearing a red ribbon in their hair rounding a corner as Renko chased after her. Could that have been...?

"Hey Banki! Wait up!" Renko shouted as she ran around the corner as well.

I chased after Renko just in time to see that the person she was pursuing was much faster than her and about to leap over a fence into an alleyway.

"Hey, rokuro-" Renko started to shout.

The girl she was chasing froze in the middle of climbing over the fence and whirled around to glare at her, red eyes flashing angrily above the collar of a maroon cloak that had been turned up so high and clasped so tightly that it hid their mouth. "Don't say that out loud!" the girl hissed.

"Then come over here and talk with me so I don't have to shout." Renko replied with a grin.

The girl dropped down to the ground and stomped over to us, fixing Renko with a cold stare. She was someone we had met a few times before, though I suppose this is the first time I've mentioned her in one of these records. In order to maintain this individual's privacy, I'll refrain from describing her too much here, but she's a rare sort of youkai who lives in the village full time in the guise of a human. She's not particularly dangerous and is able to get what she needs to live merely by frightening the occasional passerby within the village, which, along with generally keeping a low profile had, thus far at least, spared her the wrath of the Hakurei miko. Frightening people was easy enough for her as she was a rokurokubi -a type of youkai that appeared human at first but was capable of safely detaching its head and sending it flying about on its own as a sort of grisly remote appendage. The name she had given us for herself was Sekibanki.

We had initially met her, predictably enough, while walking around the village late one night. It was late enough that most people were at home in their beds at the time but my partner and I had been out walking and talking after chasing after some delusional fantasy of Renko's. We had encountered her standing by the edge of one of the canals in the market district, looking out over the water and holding a bamboo umbrella. We had nearly passed her by without noticing when she had suddenly whirled around, ripping her head off of her neck and hurling it us. Our initial response had been surprise of course, but Renko and I were far more accustomed to youkai than most people, so after flinching back for a moment, Renko's immediate reaction had been to start asking the floating head questions. Ever since then Renko had made a point of greeting Sekibanki whenever we saw her out and about, something Sekibanki seemed to find extremely annoying.

"You again," she growled as she stomped towards us. "How many times to I have to tell you to leave me alone?"

"Don't be like that. You're friends with Kagerou, right? Well we are too, so that practically makes us your friends!"

"You're not my friends! How do two teachers at the temple school know Kagerou?"

"Through Keine. You knew that Kagerou is friends with Keine, didn't you? Keine goes outside the village to check on her every now and then or even invites her to dinner. How do you know her, Banki?"

Sekibanki seemed to be stunned for a moment, or perhaps considering how to respond, but rather than saying anything she suddenly turned and sprinted off again. Renko seemed to have anticipated such a reaction and chased right behind her. Sekibanki was quick, but both Renko and I have longer legs than she does. It wasn't long before we caught up with her. We cornered her in an alley between two buildings, where she gave up the chase and leaned over, hands on her thighs as she caught her breath.

"Just what do you humans want anyway? You're too weak to be youkai hunters."

"I just have some questions is all." Renko said between pants as she caught her breath. "You're an interesting person. I'm just a human with only one head, but I've seen you operate several at once. How does that work for vision? Or for thoughts for that matter? Do all of your heads think at once? How do you decide which one is going to say something?"

"Why would any of that matter to a human? Why do you want to know about me, so you can come up with a plan to hunt weak youkai like me?"

"No, no, no. Humans are just curious creatures. We want to know things even if we don't have any use for the information. Besides, we're the only animal capable of combining information together, so it makes sense to know as many things as you can. They might end up being useful later."

"Well I have no interest in being useful to you."

"Oh come on, it could benefit you too!"

"How?" she asked, scowling incredulously at Renko.

"Well, if I could better understand your ability to multitask, I might be able to help you make use of it. For instance, if you could read a different book with each set of your eyes at once and retain all of that information, you could learn new things much faster than a human could. Wouldn't that be amazing? You could do something much better than just surprising humans if that were the case. I know a magician who would love to be able to read multiple books at once. Honestly, I'm kind of jealous of you. Just think how many more ideas I could come up with if I had multiple heads, Merry."

"I'll admit, that's a properly terrifying concept."

"She's being snarky, but I'm serious, with the amount of raw processing power available to you, you're wasting your talents just spooking people as a youkai living in the village. If you could make full use of your heads, you might become more knowledgeable than the youkai sage. Wouldn't that be something?"

Sekibanki just stared at Renko. She wasn't trying to run away anymore, but the look on her face seemed to be somewhere between incredulity and confusion.

"Being the smartest person in the village would be no challenge at all, I'm sure, but imagine it. Sekibanki: the smartest youkai in Gensokyo. I bet with brains like that you could even become a power secretly manipulating people and events to dance to your tune. A true mastermind, controlling not only the village but even the youkai sage herself, the puppet-master of Gensokyo, perched like a spider in her web, playing the tune that human and youkai alike all dance to. At that point people would have no choice but to look up to you with respect."

There was a long pause as Sekibanki looked Renko over. "There's something wrong with you, isn't there?"

"I'm being serious! Aren't you the least bit dissatisfied with your station in life? You're a youkai with the intellectual capacity to be on the top but you're sitting here, basically just jumping out at people and yelling 'boo!' What kind of a life is that for a youkai? Living here in the village it's almost like you're a weak and powerless human, isn't it? Do the other youkai make fun of you for living here? I bet none of them have ever had to pay rent or worry about waking up the neighbors when they come home late at night. Just take a moment to dream with me. All of Gensokyo bowing down to you, if only you applied yourself. Tengu. Oni. Shinigami. Celestials. All it would take is some study and you'd be the one on top, looking down on everyone else and snorting. You'd be able to dismiss them while muttering 'fools' and they couldn't even claim you were wrong! Doesn't that sound like something worth working with a human like me to achieve?"

There was a long pause, and Sekibanki almost seemed to be thinking it over, drawn in as so many others had been to believe the impossible just due to the sheer earnestness with which Renko could imagine it. "You're trying to scam me, aren't you?"

"No! I have no intention of deceiving you whatsoever. Why don't you just come by the school sometime after hours? Our school has done adult education seminars from time to time."

"You're wanting me to get caught by that were-hakutaku, is that it? She's marked Kagerou and now you want to keep tabs on me too? Is she some sort of youkai hunter?"

"No! This has nothing to do with her. My partner and I are usually found in the office around the back until the evening. If you knock on our door, I could give you some private lessons. Would that be better?"

"I don't want to learn anything from you, you're crazy!" Saying that, Sekibanki straightened the collar of her cloak and turned to leave.

"Wait, Sekibanki, just one more question," Renko pleaded, reaching out to her. "Did you notice any sort of commotion around here earlier today?"

"You mean all those humans dancing all crazy?" she asked, pausing for a moment. "I had nothing to do with it."

"Oh, I never suspected you. I just wanted to know if you saw anything odd while it was going on."

Sekibanki turned to face Renko again, then suddenly let out a hearty laugh. "...You don't know about what's been going on here, do you?"

"'Going on?' What do you mean?"

"Do your own thinking, teacher. I bet you'll never figure it out." Saying that, Sekibanki hopped away from us and floated into the air, quickly ascending to the roof of one of the buildings bordering the alley, then scampering out of sight.

Renko and I were left alone in the darkened corridor, staring at each other and wondering what she could have meant.