And so we returned to the village. Having Genji with us meant we didn't have to worry about whether or not the village gates had already been closed or not anymore, but I hoped we could make it back before the restaurants closed for the night. According to Renko's eyes it was just before ten by the time we landed in the yard of the temple school, returned Genji to his pond then re-locked the school gates and headed out.

"Do you think those two will be okay?" I asked as we walked toward home.

"We'll probably find out one way or another. If they find the source of their power and it's friendly, they'll probably make their presence known. If they don't, or if it's unfriendly they'll probably come back here."

"Should we tell someone about them? I'm not crazy about the idea of them barging into our home again and ruining another dinner, even if they seem to have forgotten that we were supposed to be hostages halfway through."

"If they come back then we'll have a better bargaining position since they'll clearly need our help at that point. Now that I think about it though, they might actually just ignore us. Your boundary detectors didn't seem to be of much help this time around."

"That's why you shouldn't treat people like tools, Renko. My eyes aren't precise scientific instruments to be relied upon."

"Well actually, maybe they are. If we assume that the fact that you didn't notice any anomalies in the sky was actually indicative of a negative result rather than just the lack of a positive one then maybe that could be an important bit of information."

"How so?"

"Well there is definitely something influencing lesser youkai and creating new tsukumogami. Everyone we've met agrees about that and Narumi told us that it was some sort of magical wave. But you didn't see any tears in the barrier or other sources for this power despite it being able to affect the whole village and all of its surroundings, if not all of Gensokyo. That suggests that whatever is causing this phenomenon is not a result of power leaking from another world or any sort malfunction in the nature of Gensokyo but rather it's something that is new, but native to this world itself."

"Like a newborn youkai?"

"A young youkai wouldn't be powerful enough to do something like this from what we've seen. This reminds me more of the Scarlet Mist Incident. Someone somewhere is using the tools and powers that exist within the bounds of this world to try to change the balance of the elements that make up Gensokyo."

"That's a lot to surmise just from the fact that I couldn't see anything. My eyes aren't infallible, Renko. Maybe I just couldn't see any gaps because they were small and far away, or maybe I couldn't notice them in the dark."

"Well we'll have to check again tomorrow when it's light out, for sure. At least we know we should be looking at the skies to the west now."

"That's still pretty vague. I don't even know what I'm supposed to be looking for."

"It's all we've got, Merry. Your boundary detectors are our best tool. If you're getting old and need glasses then we'll have to make a disability claim."

Renko flashed a cheesy grin at me and opened the door to our place. We took off our shoes and coats and after putting them away I went into the kitchen and looked sadly down at our ruined dinner. I took the time to clean up quickly then turned to Renko and was about to suggest that we head out to get a meal when there was a knock at the door. Renko and I glanced at eachother. Could the Tsukumo sisters be back so soon? Renko walked over and opened it.

Happily, it was Keine Kamishirasawa standing in the doorway and not anyone else. She was holding a lantern and wearing the armband of the neighborhood watch, smiling faintly. "Oh good, you're home," she said as Renko opened the door.

"Hello Keine. Of course we're home, why wouldn't we be?" Renko asked with a grin.

"I was just thinking about how I had asked you to look into those missing instruments and it's nearly the full moon. There's been increasing reports of youkai and tsukumogami sightings all over town and I just wanted to make sure you two were staying safe. In fact, I was thinking of telling you to hold off on worrying about this case until things calmed down a little."

Renko shot me a quick grin before turning back to Keine. It had been a near miss. If we had been even a little bit later getting back we would have been in headbutt territory for sure. I wondered just how Renko would explain what we had been through. Would she brag that we had already found the missing instruments (other than the drums, anyway.) Would she ask for the neighborhood watch's protection to keep our house from being invaded again?

"So about that, Keine..." Renko began, "I'm afraid we don't really have any leads to speak of in that case. We know from interviewing people that the instruments disappeared some time in the last two weeks, but any number of people could have taken them in that time. I was going to suggest that we try engaging the services of the Myouren temple's watchman as an item-finder but if we can't leave the village then I suppose that option is off the table."

"Yes, I'm afraid I'd have to advise against that for now. Things out there are getting more and more unpredictable."

"By the way, Keine. Did you really need to come all the way here at night just to check on us? I appreciate the concern but were you really that worried about us?" Renko grinned, leaning forward slightly as Keine went pale, looking away from Renko's gaze. "Or is there some sort of Incident going on that you thought we'd get wrapped up in?"

"N-no..." Keine stuttered. "Not an Incident or anything, but there has been some trouble recently and so there's several people I thought it would be a good idea to check up on. You two just happen to be some of them."

"Ah, I see. And you're coming out at night with a lantern to check on them rather than doing so in the day, so I imagine a few of them might be the sort that are more likely to be nocturnal. Were you about to go visit Banki, perhaps?"

I had told Keine about our first encounter with Sekibanki shortly after it had happened. As much as Renko would rather have kept her presence a secret, I didn't think it would be fair to the other villagers not to let Keine know there was a youkai living within the village. To my surprise, she was already aware of the situation and had assured me that Sekibanki presented no threat to anyone but the local drunks and actually performed a valuable service. Keine had worked out a deal with her where her presence was tolerated within the village walls as long as she didn't injure any one and she did her best to scare people away from the canals at night. Apparently before her arrival more villagers had died of drunkenly stumbling into the river each year than were typically lost to youkai attacks. She wouldn't tell us anything more about Sekibanki or where she lived though. instead, she assured us that she was already in the habit of going to check on Sekibanki once a month to make sure that her secret hadn't been found out and that she was obeying the rules Keine had set out for her. If Keine knew about the nature of the current Incident, then I'm not surprised that she'd want to check to see if a youkai living within the village itself had been affected. For that matter, I wondered if Keine had been feeling the Incident's effects at all.

"Don't guess at other people's intentions, Renko. It's impolite," Keine replied with a frown.

"I'm a great detective by trade, Keine. It comes with the territory, I'm afraid."

Keine sighed and pressed two fingers to her temple. "Leave Sekibanki to me. It's not anything you need to worry about."

"Alright, fair enough," Renko said with a grin. "But since you're here I'd actually like to ask you about another acquaintance. Have you happened to see Kagerou recently by any chance? With how the number of belligerent youkai assaulting the southern gate has increased recently, I'm a bit worried about her."

"I haven't but I was planning to ask Mokou to check on her the next time I see her. I've been a bit worried about Kagerou myself. With how things have been we've not been letting anyone leave through the south gate to go harvest bamboo recently, so the only people who go down that road now are sick people looking to get to Eientei. No one has seen Kagerou at all in the last few weeks though. Even in light of the reduced number of people going through the forest I'm a bit concerned about where she might be, but there's only one of me and I have plenty to do here in town."

"Well if that's the case why don't we help you out, Keine? Banki and Kagerou are friends of ours too, I'd be happy to check in on them for you."

"Don't be silly, Renko. It's late at night, close to the full moon and you two are civilians. I can't let you come along to visit youkai given the current circumstances even if you do happen to know them."

"Ah, of course, you're right, Keine. We better not go out, even if it would be much safer for us to accompany you and stay where you can see us than it would be if we were to go and check up on our friends on our own late at night without telling you. Especially since all sorts of youkai have been acting crazy lately, which of course is very concerning. But if we were to go visit our friends after seeing you be worried enough to go marching about in the dark and get eaten you'd probably never even hear about it."

Keine glared at Renko for a while, opening her mouth as if to start speaking several times then stopping and adjusting her expression before trying again, her face becoming less incredulous and more irritated with each repetition. "Renko, are you using the fact that I'm concerned about your safety as a lever to get what you want?"

"Of course not, Keine! What do you take me for? I'm just trying to reassure you. You always go to such efforts to keep us safe and I want you to know that I appreciate it. We've always come back in one piece whenever we go to meet someone with you along, after all."

Keine's expression settled into something like a worried frown. "Renko, if I don't bring you with me to check on Sekibanki you're going to go see her on your own as soon as I'm asleep, aren't you?"

"No, not at all. But now that you've confirmed you're going to check on her, I am pretty worried. I hope I'll be able to sleep tonight. Well if not, I'll just do what I always do when I have insomnia and go for a walk along the canal. I'm sure that'll help."

Keine heaved a sigh. A sigh I had heard on a number of occasions before, usually when she was scolding an unruly child that didn't understand the impact their behavior had on others or seemed determined to persist despite that.

"It's still staying inside the village, so there's no harm, right?" Renko asked needlingly. "It's not like I'd take a midnight stroll into the Bamboo Forest of the Lost to go check on Kagerou or anything."

"Alright fine. You can come. Just to check in on Sekibanki though, then you're going straight home."

Renko turned to grin idiotically at me. I could only bow my head in apology to Keine.