"Tsukumogami of instruments? I can't say as I remember having seen any recently, but even I don't know every tsukumogami in Gensokyo. There have been a lot of new ones being born lately."

It was about one in the afternoon on a Sunday and we were in the graveyard near the Myouren temple once more, talking to Mamizou. She exhaled a cloud of fragrant smoke from her pipe, swinging her legs as she perched on a headstone. We had heard from Marisa that the parade of tsukumogami that had been marching through the town last year carrying torches had been headed for a bonfire party being held by Mamizou and her tanuki. Apparently, attending these parties helped the tsukumogami develop minds and bodies of their own and helped Mamizou by getting a growing number of young youkai into debt with her.

"Come to think of it," Mamizou said, grinning slyly, "I've had a lot of new recruits showing up lately. More than usual. I wonder if maybe Kosuzu is playing with that Hyakki Yagyo scroll of hers again?"

"Mamizou, you haven't stolen that scroll from her or something, have you?"

"Perish the thought. You know I wouldn't do somethin' like that. Unless I wanted to of course, but I don't at the moment, so she's fine. I'm sure if you go ask Kosuzu she'll have it right in hand."

The Hyakki Yagyo was a rare picture scroll that had come into Kosuzu's possession some time ago. According to Reimu it had several lesser youkai sealed inside of it. Reimu had specifically instructed Kosuzu not to read it or to sell it to anyone and then had further instructed us to make sure Mamizou didn't get her hands on it.

"Besides," Mamizou continued, "this doesn't feel like the tsukumogami from that scroll this time. The ones that've been comin' up recently are stronger than those ones. Rowdier, too. I think there's somethin' else goin' on."

"You sound like you know something," Renko said, grinning as she leaned forward in interest.

"Well nothing I'm sure of, but it does seem like somethin' strange has been happening lately."

"Oh?"

"You know that youkai get stronger under a full moon, right? The get a little more ornery too, usually. Lately, I've been noticing a lot of weaker youkai and tsukumogami are like that all the time. That's probably why there've been a couple who've tried to attack the village recently. But... it's strange..."

"Strange? In what way?"

"It's only the weak youkai that're gettin' uppity. I haven't felt a darn thing. Byakuren and Shou don't seem to have noticed any either. Kyouko though... The other day she yelled 'good mornin'' at a human walking up the path to the temple so loud she knocked him clean out. What's more, when Byakuren scolded Kyouko over it, the little pup actually growled at her."

If Mamizou's story was true, it was certainly strange. Kyouko Kasodani was a yamabiko who was in training to become a nun at the temple. She was generally a kind but excitable youkai who had never shown any interest in harming humans as far as I was aware. If anyone at the Myouren temple were going to be implicated in having injured a human I would have expected it to be Nue, or perhaps Murasa.

Mamizou tapped ash from the bowl of her pipe and exhaled a last long plume of smoke up toward the bright sky. "I get the feelin' somethin' may be about to happen," she said.

Renko grinned even wider at her. "Mamizou, are you going to try to resolve an Incident before Reimu can again?"

"No need to go that far. That Incident with the menreiki was the exception. Kokoro turned out to have too much of a mind of her own to listen to me much anyway. If a bunch of unusually strong newborn tsukumogami are poppin' up all over the place now though, then that could be a good opportunity for us tanuki. No, I don't see any need to resolve this Incident, I don't think. The shrine maiden'll probably step in sooner or later, but I've got until then to claim some ground." Mamizou put her pipe away and hopped up off of the headstone. "Sorry ladies, I think I just realized there's somethin' I need to be doin'." Saying that she turned away from us and waved her huge tail then vanished in a puff of smoke. I heard the sound of something scurrying through the grass, and then she was gone.

"Renko, did you just start another Incident?" I asked, turning to glare at her.

"I can't have, this Incident was already underway. Besides, I don't think Mamizou's as nasty as she likes to pretend she is. She helped out a whole bunch with Kokoro, didn't she?"

"Wasn't that only because she though she could use her to control the village?"

"Who knows? She could have been worried about Kokoro and wanted to control the village. She seems like the type to just try and take whatever opportunities present themselves."

When dealing with someone as crafty and resourceful as Mamizou, I'm not sure if that made her more of a threat or less.

-.-.-.-.-

After getting scolded by Byakuren, Kyouko had apparently run away from the temple. She was expected to return before long, but with her location being unknown at the moment, we couldn't go ask her about the incident. Although Mamizou had said that whatever was happening wasn't likely to be related to Kosuzu's youma books, Renko thought it would still be a good idea to check in on her. As such, we headed straight over to Suzunaan afterwards. When we got there, however...

"Temporarily closed?" Renko read, looking at the sign stuck to the closed door. "Merry, you've been coming her for longer than me, does Suzunaan close?"

"Not since Kosuzu's been old enough to run it while her dad's out collecting dues, I don't think. Maybe she's sick."

Renko scowled for a moment then pressed her ear flat against the door, dislodging her hat. "I hear something inside. A lot of somethings, actually. It's like a sort of flapping noise..."

"A flapping noise? You shouldn't be listening at doors, Renko. It's rude."

From somewhere inside the store came a loud clatter and the sound of something metallic falling to the floor.

"Well I wouldn't need to to hear that. It's suspicious, Merry. Let's go."

"You can't just sneak into a closed store, Renko. Maybe they're doing renovations or something. This is trespassing!"

"There's no laws against that in Gensokyo. Besides, who's sneaking? Charge!" Renko cried as she threw the door open, then stepped inside, shouting "Please excuse me" as she did so. I sighed and counted to three before following her through the door.

Kosuzu was nowhere to be seen at the counter and none of the lamps were lit, making the store much dimmer than usual. From somewhere behind the counter the loud flapping noises we had heard before continued to sound, accompanied by the occasional dull thump.

"Kosuzu? Are you in here?" Renko called as she made her was toward the curtain separating the front of the shop from the back.

There was another flurry of bumps and then Kosuzu stumbled into view in the doorway, looking frazzled.

"Sorry, we're closed today!" she blurted.

"Yeah, I know, I saw the sign," Renko said unapologetically, jerking her thumb back toward the front door. But what's going on in here? Are you doing renovations? I can help you move stuff."

"Um, no! Not that. I'm just uh..." Kosuzu shook her head from side to side, looking panicked. At this point the situation was beyond suspicious. It had to be the Hyakki Yagyo again, despite what Mamizou had said. Our suspicion must have shown on our faces because Kosuzu shrank back from us, waving her hands to ward us off. "No, I'm fine. I'm good back here, I'm just..."

Whatever she might have been about to say was cut short as something suddenly and unexpectedly struck Kosuzu in the back of the head. She toppled over with a grunt and lay on the ground clutching her head and whining. Where she had been standing a moment before the object that had struck her continued to hover in the air before darting into the room and rising up to the ceiling to flit between the rafters.

Renko stared at it in wide-eyed shock. "What!?" she exclaimed. I hadn't said anything but my thoughts were just the same.

The object that had sailed through the doorway, flapping heavily as it climbed in the air toward the darkened ceiling was a book. A book with a leather cover, spreading its pages like wings and beating its way through the air with a loud rustling sound. As we looked up at in wonder several more smaller books, ranging from feather-light pamphlets to traditional Japanese bound books with cloth-wrapped boards as covers darted through the doorway, all of them arching their pages as they fluttered about.

Kosuzu was climbing to her feet, but rather than trying to explain she shouted "Aaah! Merry, close the door!"

I looked and saw several books about to fly out of the shop's entrance. I dashed over and slid the door closed, just in time for two books to thump against it and fall to the floor. I waited a moment, then seeing that no more of the books were coming I bent down and picked up one that had fallen. At first glance it appeared to be a perfectly normal if rather old traditionally-bound book with a thin, twisted cord woven through its pages. The writing within it appeared to be hand-painted brush strokes, but the glyphs were of a sort I had never seen before. It had to be a youma book written in a non-human language. Something from Kosuzu's personal collection, no doubt.

A great rattling arose as the rest of the books in the room began beating themselves against the walls and ceilings, flying madly about, seeming to search for some way to escape. Every now and then one would collide with a rafter particularly hard and then come plummeting to the ground and lay still. As soon as this happened Kosuzu darted forward to scoop up the book and tie it shut with a length of twine pulled from a pocket of her apron. As soon as she had finished she darted over and did the same to the book I was holding.

"Kosuzu, what's going on?" I asked as I handed the book to her.

"I don't know, I don't know! It's been like this since this morning. All of my books are flying around on their own if I don't tie them up. I thought it was just one or two at first, but as soon as I caught those more started fluttering around and I haven't been able to open the store. I've been trying to catch them but they keep flying higher than I can reach. I had just finished herding them all into the back with a broom when you came in."

To Renko and I the idea of a book flying around on its own was certainly unexpected but as far as Kosuzu was concerned it seemed more like an annoyance than anything else. Her tone as she recounted the story was exasperated rather than frightened. Maybe that's what comes of growing up in a place like Gensokyo... or maybe that's just Kosuzu.

The rattle of the books fluttering about and knocking into the ceiling was surprisingly loud. Being a book lover myself I couldn't help but worry that the various tomes might damage themselves by flying in a cramped space like this. Judging by her face Kosuzu looked to be equally worried about that.

"Merry, you're tall. Help me catch these!"

"I can't reach the ceiling, Kosuzu. I don't think any human could catch a bunch of flying Tsukumogami..."

"I can think of someone who could. Wait here!" Renko suddenly exclaimed.

Saying that, she turned and dashed out the door, shutting it quickly behind her. Kosuzu and I were left staring at eachother as the books continued to turn in circles over our heads.

-.-.-.-.-

Renko returned perhaps ten minutes later, dragging someone along with her. They opened the door, rushed inside then quickly closed it behind them.

"Oooh this is a nasty situation. Are you sure it's not a poltergeist?" asked Kotohime as she stared slowly around at the flying books. She had the black armband of the neighborhood watch on over the sleeve of her kimono but otherwise looked much as we had ever seen her, laid-back and seemingly half-asleep. "Are they all tsukumogami? There's a lot of them," she drawled.

"They seem to be and they're pretty weak too. Kosuzu was able to catch a few and if you tie them up they don't seem to be able to escape," Renko said, grinning as she looked up at the fluttering pages overhead.

"Okaaay. Leave it to me." Saying that, Kotohime smiled and brushed her bangs out of her eyes. She looked up at the books fluttering overhead for a while, not moving at all.

Kosuzu stared at her, smiling expectantly at first then slowly beginning to look more worried. She was just about to open her mouth to say something when Kotohime suddenly launched into a flurry of action. I was able to see her kick off of the ground and leap upward, but that's all I can be sure of. The was a blur of motion and she seemed to be in several places at once, then suddenly she was standing in front of us with a dozen books pressed cover-to-cover in her arms. "Got 'em" she said with a lazy smile.

Kosuzu's eyes widened in wonder. Kotohime had told us before that she was descended from a long line of youkai-hunters and we had heard Keine tell us she could fight before but it was still surprising to see someone with such a small stature and a lazy demeanour strike so decisively. If you happen to see Kotohime walking about the town show her some respect, she's stronger than she looks.

"Are there any more?" Kotohime asked as Kosuzu struggled to wrap her twine around the whole stack of books.

"Um yes, there's probably still some in the back."

"Okay. I'll go catch 'em. Newborn tsukumogami are really weak, so just put some rocks on these or something and it should be fine." Kotohime said that, then thumped her stack of squirming books on the ground and sauntered into the back. I helped Renko hold them down as Kosuzu finished tying them up. She had just finished wrapping the twine around them then hopped up to sit on top of the stack for good measure when Kotohime came back through the curtain, carrying another armload of books. "Is this all?"

"Um, yeah, that looks like all of them."

"Okay. If you run out of rocks I guess you can tie 'em up like that, but just be careful they don't slip out. If you seem 'em start to wiggle just give 'em a whack or two," Kotohime said, knocking a heavy leather-bound grimoire against the counter demonstratively.

"Oh... okay." Kosuzu replied hesitantly. She moved over to begin tying up the books Kotohime was carrying.

"That's a lot of old books to all go tsukumogami at once. If it keeps happening maybe have Reimu come and seal them for you. She might decide to just burn 'em though."

"Um, yes, it's a little odd," Kosuzu agreed nervously.

Kotohime was silent for a moment as she looked over the stacks of defeated books. "These are all youma books, aren't they?"

Kosuzu turned a shade of greyish-green and grunted unhappily.

"It's fiiiine," Kotohime said, waving her hand dismissively. "I won't tell Keine. It doesn't look like there's anything really dangerous here anyway. I like digging up strange things like this too. Next time I get a chance I'll come by and show you some of my collection."

"Oh." Kosuzu said, swallowing audibly. "Um, thanks."

"Be careful though. If something gets lose from one of these, Keine would get pretty mad. You wouldn't like her when she's mad." Kotohime said, placing two fingers on top of her head like oni horns.

"Um, okay."

"Anyway, if that's all I'm gonna go." And with that Kotohime slouched over to the door and left without another word.

After the door had shut behind her, Kosuzu stood blinking in silence for a moment before turning to Renko. "Is she really a member of the neighborhood watch? You know so many cool people, Renko! What kind of things does she collect?"

"I'm not really sure," Renko said with a grin. "She's never shown me her collection. She must like you, Kosuzu."

"I wonder what it will be..." Kosuzu said, staring off into the distance. As she did so she released the youma book she was holding, a small sheaf of letters tied together with a cord. Instantly they began to flutter around her, brushing past her hair. "Oh. These guys are kind of cute now that they're under control, aren't they?"

"You don't seem bothered by them at all now that they're not in danger of going out the door, Kosuzu."

"Why would I be?" she asked as she snatched the bundle out of the air. "This is all perfectly ordinary, isn't it?"