So, back to the story in progress.
Just ahead of us, the young disciple of the village's best-known fortune-teller was sprinting down a narrow alleyway between tenements, panting heavily as he ran. Eyes watched from the windows of the surrounding slums as the three of us chased eachother through the streets, the apprentice in the lead, Renko pelting along behind him and me struggling to catch up. The apprentice emerged from the alleyway and barreled into a pedestrian who had been walking along the road, grabbing them and pushing them out of the way. He pivoted and dashed for another narrow alley, grabbing an empty wooden crate from a stack beside a roadside cart and throwing it blindly behind him as he went. Renko rushed out of the alley in pursuit, her trenchcoat flapping behind her and stumbled directly into the pedestrian who had been shoved toward her. She knocked him to the ground with a shouted "excuse me, sorry!" and leapt over the hurled crate as it came toward her. I took the time to briefly stop and bow to the person who was now laying in the road and help them to their feet, then I sprinted after Renko, who had followed the apprentice into the gap between tenements. By the time I got there they were both already at the far end of the alley and rushing toward a busier street. I put my head down and ran as fast as I could.
On the open street that they emerged on to, the apprentice turned and weaved his way through the crowd, out of breath and seemingly trying to shake us by darting into stalls and between shops. With the flowy, dramatic robes of the fortune-telling house he was wearing it was pretty easy to spot him though. Renko had more trouble moving through the crowd than he did, but people tend to make way for me, moreso now that I was wearing the armband of the watch. We were only steps behind him by the time he disappeared into yet another dim, stinking alley and Renko threw on a last burst of speed, yelling "gotcha!" as she leapt forward to tackle him.
The fortune-teller's apprentice went down like a puppet with its strings cut, collapsing in a heap with Renko on top of him and making a panicky wheezing noise like a smashed bellows as he hit the ground. I jogged up behind them, collecting Renko's hat from where it had fallen when she leapt forward and handing it to her before doubling over and resting my hands on my knees as I caught my breath. Renko had risen up to her knees and took her hat, panting excitedly. "Whew!" she exclaimed, "that was quite the chase."
I looked up long enough to glare at her.
"Oh come on, this wasn't that bad. We've been here for years now, Merry. How are you still this weak? You need to get out more or you'll wind up all sickly looking, like this guy."
"Anyone would be out of breath if you make them run that much with no warning. As for this guy, I think you might be killing him, Renko. Maybe stop kneeling on his back?"
"Hey, I'm not that heavy! Point taken though. Hey, mister fortune-teller, if I get off you are you going to try to run away again?" She turned around so that only one of her legs was on the apprentice's back but still kept most of her weight on him. The young man groaned and felt about with his hand until he located the glasses that had tumbled off of his face, then twisted his head around while still lying on his stomach to look at us. Now that we were up close to him, his face instantly triggered a memory in my mind. Not because he was anyone we knew, but because he strongly resembled a certain character in a manga of Sanae's that had left a strong impression on me. Though his face was younger and more gaunt he reminded me of a particular researcher from Fullmetal Alchemist, the one who created a chimera capable of speaking human languages and who dislikes clever children. If you know who I'm talking about, you can no doubt picture his face. If you don't, well, go ask at the Moriya shrine about it.
"Who are you two? What do you want?" He asked after looking us both over through the glass of his lenses.
"Well actually, we're just two people who were planning to ask those same questions of you." Renko said with a grin. "Hello there, by the way. We don't actually have any intention of harming you, but I do really need to ask you some questions, Mr. Fortune-teller."
"It might be easier to believe you if you weren't still pinning him, Renko."
"Well he was running away! If you can answer our questions without running off, I promise I'll let you up. What do you say?"
The man pressed his palms to the ground and tried to throw Renko off, but it was to no avail. After perhaps a dozen seconds of struggling, he gave up.
"Okay, now I'm a little hurt," Renko said, leaning over him. "I'm not that heavy. right?"
"I think this guy's just really weak."
"Alright. I'll answer your questions. Just get off of me. Please."
Renko obliged and climbed off of the young man's back, pouting a little as she did. I shook my head regretfully. Since when had my partner become the sort of person to tackle people in alleyways and crush them into the ground? I wondered if we had been hanging around Mokou too much or if this sort of thing was just a natural result of investing someone like Renko with whatever small measure of authority the armbands of the watch represented.
"People are starting to stare, Renko. It's good you caught him in an alley instead of on the street but we're going to be the talk of the town by dinner if we stay out here."
"Hm, that's a good point, Merry. Alright, is there somewhere we could have a private conversation around here, Mr. Fortune-teller? And could you maybe take off that conspicuous robe and cap? They sort of draw attention."
The apprentice climbed to his feet, where he stood only a centimeter shorter than me and glared down at Renko. Begrudgingly, he removed his dirt-stained robe and hat. "My home isn't far from here..." he offered, looking defeated.
Renko gave him a quizzical look. "A strange man inviting two ladies back to his place? I should probably mention that in addition to being members of the neighborhood watch, the shikigami of the youkai sage, the Hakurei miko and various powerful youkai are all friends of ours and would be displeased if anything were to happen to us. As I said, I mean you no harm, but I can't attest to how any of them might treat you."
The man's eyes went wide at threat. "You're the one who tackled me! I'm only interested in getting you both out of my hair as quickly as possible."
"Good enough for me. Let's go, Merry. Lead the way."
-.-.-.-.-
The tenement house where the fortune-teller's apprentice lived was indeed not far away. It was a run down building with packed dirt floors, paper-thin walls and cramped rooms. The smells of damp and sweat pervaded the place and I could hear the sound of someone coughing several rooms down through all of the intervening walls. Renko nonetheless uttered a cheery "sorry to intrude" as she stepped through the door and doffed her hat.
The tight confines of the apprentice's living space were made even more crowded by the fact that along the walls and on the lone table in the place every available bit of space was taken up by numerous books and bits of divining equipment. I saw several sets of cleromancy sticks, stacks of cards, and crystal pendulums. It was a bit at odds with the general shabbiness of the place. Our host must have been spending every coin he earned on furthering his skills as a fortune-teller. An oddly studious sort of person. The young man walked around to the far side of the cluttered table and fished out a pair of vaguely damp cushions. We laid them on the moldy tatami and sat down opposite him. As we did so, I noticed the apprentice quickly palm a small book off of the table and conceal it under his folded robes. I didn't say anything about it right at the moment though, hoping that Renko must also have noticed.
"So. Just who are you two? How do you know that name?" He asked, questioning us before Renko could begin interviewing him.
"By 'that name,' I assume you mean Sumireko Usami, yes?"
"Yes...You said that your name is Usami too, didn't you? I had heard that some of the teachers at the temple school were Outsiders, but I hadn't imagined that it might be someone related to..."
"That's right, she's a relative of mine. And we'd like to hear about how she's doing," Renko interjected, cutting him off. Mentioning that Sumireko was Renko's great aunt would raise a lot of unnecessary questions. This whole scenario would be hard enough to make sense of without bringing the fact that Renko and I were from the future into the mix.
"How odd. Well then, what did you want to ask me about her?" the apprentice asked, eyeing Renko suspiciously.
"Well to be honest, finding you was a bit of luck. We suspected that she might have made contact with someone here in Gensokyo, but we didn't know for sure. Thank you for confirming that much."
The young man stared hard at Renko, his glasses throwing back the dim light from a small window. "Then I take it you aren't in contact with her yourself. You're wondering what she's been up to recently, is that it?"
Renko sighed. "Look, Mr. Fortune-teller, what's your name? I can't keep calling you that and despite the circumstances of our meeting, I'm really not your enemy. I'm just trying to figure out what's going on here. I'm a bit worried that she might be involved in something dangerous."
There was no answer from the apprentice other than a sour, distrusting look.
"I could just ask around and find out, you know. Your neighbors would likely know or failing that, I'm sure your employer would. Or maybe I should just give you a name. What do you think of 'Shou Tucker?'"
"What kind of name is that?" He asked, baffled. It was the name of the character from Fullmetal Alchemist that I had been struggling to recall. Renko must have made the same connection I had.
"It's just the name of someone whose face yours reminds me of. Are you the sort of person who hates kids with good instincts?"
"...I don't get it. Call me whatever you like."
"Actually that's a rather distasteful character, come to think of it. What does Sumireko call you?"
He scoffed. "I told her I was a student of the mysteries of I Ching but she misunderstood me and has been calling me 'Mr. Easy' ever since."
"Then I will too. Now, Mr. Easy, were you the person who first told Sumireko about Gensokyo?"
"Why would you want to know that?" He asked, his eyes narrowing even further.
"That wasn't an answer. Should I take that to mean that you not only were, but that you have some dark secret involving Sumireko that you don't want us knowing about?"
In response to that, Mr. Easy's face became as expressionless as a mask as his mouth drew itself into a perfectly flat line. The practiced, indifferent face of someone used to lying to people on a professional basis. The moment we had first mentioned Sumireko's name he had vaulted a counter and ran out the door despite not being a particularly healthy person though, so it seemed pretty clear there was something up involving her. It was clearly too late for him to pretend he didn't know Sumireko at all, but getting anything more out of him at this point might be difficult. As mysterious as he was to us though, we must seem just as mysterious to him, two unknown visitors showing up with unexpected information out of the blue. We had the psychological advantage here, as long as Renko acted quickly.
A long moment of silence passed as the two of them stared across the table at one another, almost like two fighters sizing their opponents up. Mr. Easy was the first to speak, in a carefully neutral tone. "...I can't imagine what you might be implying. Was there something specific you wanted to ask me about?"
"Why don't we start with you just telling me everything you know about Sumireko Usami. You have my assurance that I'll keep anything you say private, no matter what it is. I'm just a regular human like you, so you can rest assured that anything you say to me won't go beyond the walls of this village. I'd advise you to try to be thorough though. If you tell me something and there are any obvious gaps that suggest you know more than you're letting on, then I'll be forced to conduct a formal investigation into you. Again, it's not my intention to do you any harm, but circumstances do require that I obtain certain information related to you. It could potentially be a matter of life and death."
It amounted to a form of blackmail. The words went unspoken but between the armbands we were wearing and Renko having mentioned that we were under the observation of numerous youkai there was an implicit threat that Mr. Easy's life or livelihood could be disrupted if Renko didn't get the answers she wanted to hear. I didn't exactly approve of Renko strong-arming a human villager like this, but to be honest, there wasn't much we could have said to him that wouldn't have sounded like an implicit threat, given our positions. Renko also wasn't wrong that this could potentially be life-saving information. It seemed justified at the time, I suppose you could say.
"I still don't see why you'd want to know about her. She's a distant relative, isn't she? You look too old to be her sister, but too young to be her mother."
"She is, but I can't go to the Outside world any more than you can. So I'd appreciate if you could tell me what you know. Unless of course you could do better and arrange for me to speak with her directly, that is."
At that suggestion Mr. Easy said nothing, but his carefully schooled poker face broke into a grim frown.