The Bamboo Forest of the Lost. True to its name, anyone who entered was liable to lose their way entirely. If an ordinary human wandered in, they might never find the way out again.
Deep inside sat Eientei, the home of the physician Marisa had been looking for. There also lived a woman said to be the most beautiful in all the land, a legend famous enough that even people in the Outside World knew her story: Princess Kaguya.
According to the tale, she was a princess exiled from the Moon—the Sinner of Eternity and the Instantaneous.
"Are there people on the Moon?" Yimi looked up at the man telling her the story. Her understanding of the Moon was limited to "a glowing ball that comes out at night."
"Probably."
"What about on the Sun?" Yimi tilted her head up and squinted, trying to stare directly at it. Not a comfortable experience.
"Probably not."
Yimi frowned. "You've never gone to check?"
"I can't exactly go there. The Sun's too hot."
"Dummy. Just go at night."
"You know what? Why didn't I think of that."
Mokou's house sat at the forest's edge. She'd chosen this spot partly because she hadn't been keen on dealing with people, and partly because of her considerable grudge with the princess deeper in.
Her family name was Fujiwara. Her father, Fujiwara no Fuhito, had been one of Kaguya's suitors. When Kaguya challenged them to bring her impossible treasures and he tried to cheat, she exposed the fraud. Her mocking poetry humiliated him so thoroughly that he took his own life.
Mokou had only been a sidelined child nobody pinned their hopes on, but her father dying over his pursuit of that woman—of course she'd carry the hatred.
The irony was almost poetic. The only reason she'd survived long enough to hold that grudge was the Hourai Elixir, and that elixir was something the princess had discarded.
"I'll leave this child in your care, then. I'm sorry for the trouble, but please bring her home before dark. If it's too far, my shop is fine too—I'll pay you for it."
Mr. Kirisame gently nudged Yimi toward Mokou, who stood in her doorway rubbing her eyes like she'd just woken up.
Not many non-human beings in Gensokyo had the villagers' trust. Mokou, who passed well enough for human, was one of the few.
She hadn't always been approachable. In the early days she'd been cold toward humans, doing little more than guiding lost travelers out of the Bamboo Forest before vanishing without a word. But after a few occasions of dropping by Keine's place and offhandedly chasing off some youkai causing trouble, everyone—including Mokou herself—had somehow started treating her like the Vigilante Corps.
"What do you mean, 'leave this child'?" Mokou looked baffled, watching Mr. Kirisame's back retreat into the trees until it vanished.
She looked down at the kitten, who was craning her neck upward, gazing at Mokou with eyes full of expectation.
What was she expecting, exactly?
Mokou bent down and grabbed both of Yimi's cheeks, pulling them left and right like taffy. "Why am I seeing your face on a day that isn't the weekend?"
"Studying."
Yimi shook her head free, clutched her textbook, ducked right under Mokou's arm, and walked inside.
"Rua!"
And came right back out, pinching her nose shut.
"What's that supposed to mean? Are you saying my room stinks?" Mokou sniffed the air, offended.
"Smoke. It smells bad." The kitten shuffled her feet away from the doorway.
"What do you know? This is just how adults are." Mokou scooped her up with one arm and hauled her inside.
The harder Yimi resisted, the more determined Mokou was to drag her in.
The place was actually fairly clean, aside from the clothes heaped on the chair. The house was small enough that you could see everything from the entrance.
Yimi pressed her sleeve over her nose, voice muffled. "How come you don't have a bed?"
Reimu's shrine at least had futons to lay out, even without a proper bed. Mokou's place didn't have so much as a blanket in sight.
"I'm not used to sleeping lying down. I can doze off just sitting in a chair. I only ever lie down in bed when I'm sleeping with someone else."
"Who do you sleep with?" The little girl blinked her big eyes, genuinely curious.
"Ahem! What did you say you wanted to study?" Mokou changed the subject with all the subtlety of a brick.
"Knowledge." Yimi placed her textbook on the table and opened it.
"That's clearly Keine's job, isn't it? I've got my own schedule to keep." Mokou pointed to her calendar on the wall, where each date had her itinerary penciled in.
The 24th—Beat up Kaguya.
The 25th—Beat up Kaguya.
The 26th—Make offal stew with the preserved ingredients.
...
"Offal stew?" Yimi stuck a finger in her mouth, drooling already.
"You don't have to be curious about everything." Mokou's expression darkened as she clamped both hands on the kitten's face and squished it flat, then round.
"Fire—Chicken!"
A shout came from outside, making Mokou click her tongue in irritation.
She smacked the window open with one hand. "What, already insatiable today? I haven't even gone looking for you, and you dare come to the great me?"
"Insatiable? 'The great me'?" The kitten held up two fingers.
Mokou was so cultured. She just tossed out two words Yimi had never heard before.
"'Insatiable'—currently used to describe someone who can never be satisfied and always wants more. 'The great me'—laozi, originally the name of an ancient Eastern sage. These days, certain people use it as a crude first-person pronoun to assert they're above everyone else."
"Above everyone else?" That spawned yet another phrase Yimi didn't understand.
System: "Like being... a cut above the rest."
The kitten didn't quite get it. She turned to look out the window at the dark-haired woman, who was grinding her teeth and clutching half a manga. The pages had scorch marks on them.
This was the one they called the most beautiful woman in the land—the Bamboo Princess. Kaguya Houraisan.
If Reimu had been there, she probably would have recognized the half-destroyed manga as the very same one she'd tried to commandeer from Kourin yesterday.
Kaguya had gone through several Inaba—rabbits—as intermediaries to purchase it from Kourindou. The cover featured fan-drawn scenes of her favorite character, and as for why she'd gone through such elaborate steps... she'd known from the start that this Bird Without Wings manga was somewhat risqué, the kind of thing that would give Eirin the wrong idea.
Eirin had been in a foul mood lately, and Kaguya didn't want to poke that particular bear.
To avoid social death, she'd spent a good chunk of pocket money setting up multiple relay points, perfectly disguising the purchase as a mother buying reading material for her child—ensuring that no one could trace the final destination back to her.
Then this morning, she heard the delivery rabbit had been beaten up and the goods stolen.
Mokou glanced at what was in her hand and snorted. "So it was you who bought this. I thought it might be some interesting new manga, but it's nothing but stuff that's not suitable for children. Want me to sell this little scoop to the tengu for cheap?"
"I'll kill you!"
"Wait—I can't fight you today—dammit, listen when I'm talking! Groin Kick!"
"That move again?!"
While they were going at it, Yimi bent down to pick up the scorched half of the manga.
Mokou broke away from the brawl mid-swing, sprinted over, snatched it from her hands, and burned it to ash. She turned Yimi around and gave the back of her head a push.
"Go home. What comes next is going to be very not suitable for children."
As if to punctuate the point, a Spell Card stabbed into the back of Mokou's skull, sending a long streak of blood spraying out.
Mokou plucked the Spell Card from her head as if removing a stray hair. "Bastard—can't you see I'm talking to a kid?"
Their style of fighting was scarier than anything Yimi herself had ever been involved in.
"..."
Yimi covered her eyes, clutched her textbook, and tiptoed away.
The kitten hadn't gotten to study much of anything.
She wandered back the way she'd come, conflicted. Despite only having walked the path once, her EX Luck kept her from getting lost. She made it back to the village center without a hitch—and even had the good fortune of arriving right when the terakoya was on its break.
"Yimi? What are you doing here? Running an errand for Reimu?" Keine smiled and greeted her youngest student.
Yimi puffed out her chest and deployed her newly acquired vocabulary: "The great me is here to study."
"..."
The kitten felt a chill run down her spine.
She found herself snatched up, forced into eye contact with Keine's hollow, lifeless stare.
"Who taught you that?"
Yimi shrank her neck. "The person who can't die."
"Don't ever say that again. Understand?"
"Understood."
Keine set her down, softening her voice as much as she could manage. "Where is she? Did she teach you any other words?"
Yimi counted off on her fingers, tallying the new vocabulary she'd memorized today.
"She also taught me 'insatiable.' Mm... and then she said she only lies down in bed when she's with someone else. And then she said she likes being on top. And then a dark-haired woman came looking for her. And then she told me to go home. And then she said what came next wouldn't be suitable for children..."