I ended that last chapter a little ominously, but in truth it was a while before things really started to get worse. For the time being, things were actually rather pleasant for a while. The next day, after our classes were over, Sanae came by to visit us at our office again. As always it was a pleasure to see her, but she seemed to be on guard the whole time she was here, glancing towards the door every now and then and fidgeting expectantly. It was pretty clear she was waiting to see if Mr. Easy would come back or not.
"Honestly, are either of you really expecting him to come back?" I asked. If I had been treated like he had been yesterday, I would have stayed far away from anything to do with us.
"Well, I'm hoping he will at least. Lady Yasaka might have come on a little strong, but she was essentially right. If his main complaint about Gensokyo is that it's boring and nothing ever changes, then he hasn't seen enough of it. There's plenty of change here if you know where to look. With any luck, he'll come by and we can show him that. If not... well I'll give him a day or so before I go looking for him again."
"If he does come, then I'll protect you." Sanae said, looking serious. "I've given up on trying to find that amanojaku. You both need me here more."
"We appreciate the company, Sanae, but you don't have to stand on guard. He's just a human."
"Yes I do! I'll protect you from evil youkai and evil men!"
"Oh how reliable. Aren't we lucky to have a friend like Sanae, Merry?"
"It's certainly nice, but aren't we being bad friends if we always need her to protect us?"
"That's just the duty of those with the strength to defend those weaker than them. It's ah... what do you call it... 'novellas obviate.'"
"...Are you thinking of 'noblesse oblige?'"
"I think that's it. I get 'noblesse', but what's an oblige? It's like a sled, isn't it?"
"That's a 'luge,' Sanae."
"Whatever. English is hard."
"This is French!"
As usual, our conversations were nothing more than idle banter. At least until the door to our office was opened without warning. Standing in the entryway, looking unhappy to be here was Mr. Easy. Renko stood up and walked to greet our guest with a big smile on her face.
"Hello again, friend! Nice of you to come by!" She said, extending a hand in greeting.
"I didn't really want to..." Mr. Easy grumbled. "...But now that I've lost my job at the fortune-telling house I find myself with an abundance of free time."
"Well I can see why you're here then. Having the luxury of free time spoiled by the misery of boredom is a waste. We here at the Hifuu Detective Agency strive to uncover the secrets of the world and make every day more interesting. You've come to the right place if your goal is to see Gensokyo from an more interesting angle." Renko winked at me as she said that. In the corner Sanae pouted but looked resolved to accompany us. "Now then, you already met Lady Yasaka yesterday, but that introduction was a little rushed, so why don't we take you to the Moriya shrine so you can be properly introduced. It will also be a chance to see Youkai Mountain for yourself. I bet you never imagined you'd get to do that, right?
"A shrine? I'm not really very religious..." Mr. Easy mumbled, looking surprised by the offer.
"Well, leave that to Sanae. Once she's shown you around you might well become a regular parishioner. Oh, or if you like we could take you somewhere else most humans never get to see. Where would you like to start? The Scarlet Devil Mansion? The Bamboo Forest of the Lost? The Forest of Magic? The Divine Spirit Mausoleum? Former Hell? We can take you wherever you like. Even to other worlds like the heavenly realms or Makai, if you like."
The man in the doorway stared at us, trying but failing to maintain a stoic, disapproving expression. "Just who are you people, really?" He asked at length.
Renko poked her hat back on her head with one finger and smiled. "Like I said, we're the Hifuu Detective Agency. A great detective and her friends, charged with a duty to uncover the secrets of this world."
-.-.-.-.-
I won't bother writing out all of the details of everything that happened after that. If you've been reading all of my casefiles to date, then it would only be retreading old ground. Suffice to say that Mr. Easy became Renko's new toy and we spent the next while showing him all around Gensokyo, taking him to see sights that had become familiar to us, but were mind-boggling and strange to him. It began with a trip to the Moriya shrine as Renko had suggested. Having never seen a shrine of that scale before he was amazed by both the grounds and the modern appliances Sanae demonstrated to him. We ended up going back several days in a row so that he could see everything. At one point on our last day visiting there we left Mr. Easy alone on the shore of the lake for a moment and came back to find him looking quite terrified and surrounded by a ring of more than a dozen frogs. Apparently, Suwako had manifested before him just long enough to warn him that if he should try and do anything to Sanae he would suffer the full measure of the diminutive curse goddess' wrath. After that Sanae made all of us promise that we wouldn't take Mr. Easy anywhere outside of the village on days when she couldn't join us for the outing.
As such, our trips became regular weekly excursions, typically on Sundays when we weren't teaching and Mr. Easy could take time away from the various odd jobs he had begun working to make ends meet. The Scarlet Devil Mansion was our next destination. There Mr. Easy received a cold shoulder from everyone we talked to. Meiling seemed even more distrusting of him than Sanae was, while Remilia and Sakuya seemed to simply find his presence distasteful. Upon meeting him Remilia had expressed her displeasure and in response, Sakuya had immediately produced the same long, eerily gleaming knife we had seen her wielding during the Tsukumogami Incident.
"Would milady prefer to receive our guest in the form of a pie?" Sakuya had asked, in the same calm tone she always used.
"Ugh, no he doesn't look like he'd taste very good." Remilia said with a dismissive wave. "Just see them out, Sakuya."
After that we left the grounds. As Mr. Easy was climbing aboard Genji to fly off Meiling was glaring at him the whole time and his eyelid was twitching nervously.
A week later we took him to the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, but we never made it to Eientei with him. We had asked Mokou to guide us there but on the walk over Mr. Easy somehow managed to stumble into four separate traps that had been set in the forest by Tewi or her subordinates. After being soundly mocked by the hare of Inaba, he had decided to turn back and we had lead him back to town.
We had similar experiences everywhere else we brought him. In the Forest of Magic, he had been carried off and nearly devoured by Rumia just outside the Kirisame Magic shop. At the Myouren temple he had gone to the well for a drink of water and nearly been drowned as a prank by captain Murasa. At the Divine Spirit Mausoleum a spat between Tojiko and Futo had resulted in a stray plate whirling toward Mr. Easy at a speed that might have been lethal if Sanae hadn't shot it down. When we went to go meet Wakasagihime at Misty Lake, Cirno had attacked us and a stray bullet came close to freezing him solid. We tried to take him to Former Hell once, but on bridge leading into the city that time Yuugi was present and rip-roaring drunk, stumbling about and looking for a fight. We left before that situation got any worse. No matter where we went, it seemed to me like only the absolute worst aspects of what Gensokyo had to offer were making themselves known to Mr. Easy.
Despite that though, little by little, his mood seemed to improve. We watched over the course of a few months as the light slowly came back to his haunted eyes. It was a simple enough story -a disenchanted young man was slowly broadening his horizons and learning that the world he had once felt imprisoned in was not quite so confining as he might have imagined.
-.-.-.-.-
We spent about three months showing Mr. Easy around in that way. During this time the hunt for Seija continued, but as both Sanae and Keine had long ago given up their pursuit we were not involved in any way. From what I heard even the combined efforts of the Myouren Temple, the Divine Spirit Mausoleum, The Scarlet Devil Mansion and Tenshi Hinanawi herself, making a rare return to the mortal plane hadn't been enough to capture Seija in the end. She had apparently eventually been chased out of Gensokyo but no one ever managed to apprehend her.
Spring gave way to summer, and then, in midsummer, our yearly two-week holiday from teaching. It was the morning of what was likely to be one of the last swelteringly humid days of the rainy season and already the air felt oppressive. Renko and I were sitting around in our office fanning ourselves when Sanae dropped by.
"Hello again," she said as she came in the door. "Mr. Easy should be coming by again today right? What's the plan? Are we going to fly somewhere with cooler weather for once?"
"Oh that might be nice," I said, turning to Renko. "Like maybe the Netherworld or Higan?"
"Higan? That's where the widdle Yama works, right? Are we going to get to see her again?" Sanae asked excitedly.
Renko crossed her arms, however, and let out a frustrated sigh. "I suppose we could," she said. "Mr. Easy probably wouldn't mind either. There's something I've noticed that's beginning to worry me though. Merry's probably noticed it by now too."
"You mean that big cowlick sticking up on the back of your head? It's not that bad, Renko. It's kind of cute."
"What? No, not that. Merry did you know that was here?"
"How did you not, Renko? It's sticking almost straight up."
"That's terrible, Merry. How could you let me go out like this? That isn't what I was talking about though," she said, pressing down on her curly hair with one hand. "I mean I've noticed a pattern on the sorts of places Mr. Easy has asked to go see. Have you noticed that there's one place he always ignores when we bring it up? I think it's about time we drag him there to try and find out why."
"What? What place is that?" Sanae asked, tilting her head.
I had indeed noticed Mr. Easy's reluctance to visit one particular location, and given all of the places I just listed you probably have too, dear reader. Given its proximity and how many times Renko had suggested it, it seemed almost impossible not to conclude at this point that he was consciously avoiding it.
Renko turned toward Sanae with a serious expression on her face. "The Hakurei shrine," she said simply.