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takerfoxx · 4 years

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IM Swiftly Descending Darkness, Chapter 10

One of the most galling things about being the Hakurei Shrine Maiden is that, despite being humanity’s most stalwart protector against supernatural forces that were beyond their ability to defend against, despite having resolved numerous incidents that had put all of Gensokyo in danger, and despite having saved countless lives, Miko Hakurei was not well-liked.

There were of course many unfair reasons for this. Miko lived far from even the roughest Human settlement, and Humans tended to be distrustful of those who dwelt alone in the Wilds. Also, she had working relationships with many youkai, even a few friendships, and youkai were not especially popular these days.

However, perhaps the most immediate reason for her poor reputation was that Miko Hakurei simply was not a people person. In fact, she had a reputation for being kind of a hardass.

It was to be expected. She was getting on in years, her life hadn’t exactly been comfortable, she regularly put herself in danger so others wouldn’t have to, and was rarely thanked, so she tended to be gruff and cynical in her dealings with others. Also, there were only so many times one could see a ravaged body out in the Wilds and not just view it as evidence to be examined. Yes, yes, I am very sorry for what happened to your daughter, but could you please hurry this along and let me see what’s left of her, so I can possibly prevent it from happening to someone else?

But though her heart was hardened, it wasn’t gone. There were still a few things capable of biting through her prickly demeanor and igniting a sense of righteous indignation. Learning that the Aoki Yume’s Children’s Home’s defenses were being sabotaged by other Humans, leaving them vulnerable to attack was one of them. The fact that one of the children had already been murdered as a result only made it worse.

As she flew through the air toward the orphanage, Miko wondered what she was going to find. Tewi Inaba had said something about some of the kids being cursed now, though she hadn’t any specifics to give. Now, Miko tended to be skeptical of anything that Tewi Inaba said even at the best of times, but something about the obnoxious rabbit’s message rang true. Miko had a very bad feeling about this.

As she neared the orphanage, she saw that her intuition had been correct. Something had happened, something bad. From the look of things, the whole building had been evacuated, and a sort of makeshift camp had been set up in the field, with several sleeping mats laid on the ground and a few pavilions erected. Milling around them was pretty everyone that lived there, the overwhelming majority of them children with a handful of adults.

Miko’s heart fell. Though she was still too far away to make out any details, the way that the kids were huddling together told her that something bad had happened.

Even with so many people around, Fujiwara no Mokou’s bright red outfit stood out. She was standing by herself on the edge of the camp, facing outward. Miko turned toward her and increased her speed.

Mokou had one hand in her pocket, the other with two fingers around the lit cigarette she had in her mouth. As Miko came down for a landing, she calmly took the cigarette out and breathed out a cloud of smoke.

“There you are,” she said. “Got lost?”

Ignoring the jab, Miko looked over the children. The ones that had noticed her approach were rising up, hope on their faces. The others were sitting on their sleeping mats, seemingly lost in their own little worlds. “What happened? Tewi said something about a curse?”

“Oh yeah, that’s definitely still a thing. But we have something a little more immediate for you to look at first.”

From the other end of the camp, Satoko Yume had noticed Miko’s arrival and rushed toward the pair. “Lady Hakurei, thank the spirits you’re here!” she exclaimed. “We are…in desperate need of your help.”

“I can see that,” Miko said. “What’s going on?”

Sticking the cigarette back into her mouth, Mokou tilted her head to the now-empty house. “Let’s go for a walk.”

As the three women headed for the house, Mokou started to explain. “Well, it’s like this. Tewi probably already told you about how someone took out all our charms and wards, right?”

“Right,” Miko said. “Any idea who?”

“Quite a few, but as weird as that sounds, that’s actually third in line of our current problems. But anyway, apparently some youkai had known that we would be left undefended and mounted an attack.”

“I heard. The spiders, right? Muffet’s clan?”

“You know them?” Satoko said.

“Of them,” Miko corrected. “They’re kind of on the list of usual suspects whenever trouble comes out of the Youkai Forest.”

“Those are the cunts,” Mokou said agreeably. “Anyway, they came out of nowhere, still in broad daylight, and made off with five of our kids.” Her face twitched. “We got four of them back.”

Miko frowned. “Those would be the cursed ones, right?”

“Them, and two others. But that’s actually number two. Number one is something of an…oh, let’s call it an unexpected side-effect. And we have it trapped over here.”

They stopped in front of the house.

The actual house of the Aoki Yume’s Children’s Home was a pleasant two-story white building, one with a slanted roof, large windows, and a wide porch. At all hours of the day and most of the night, lights would be streaming through those windows, smoke rising from the chimney, and children would be everywhere: out playing in the field, or sitting around on the porch, or hanging out of the windows. The air was constantly filled with the sound of children’s voices, the sound of them talking, shouting, laughing, and fighting. The Aoki Yume Children’s Home was a place bursting with life.

Not now though. Now it stood dark, empty, and silent. The windows were all shut, the rooms beyond darkened. The front door was shut tight as well, and all around the building a ring of Mokou’s charms had been stuck to the walls.

That told Miko quite a lot about the situation. Something had gotten in, something that they hadn’t been prepared for, and so the only thing they had been able to do was get everyone out and seal off the building to keep the invader trapped inside.

“The kid that the spiders ate was named Eiko Goto,” Mokou said. “And she died in a bad way. Bad enough to leave a mark.”

Miko nodded. “The ghost came back with you, didn’t it?”

“Yup. And it is pissed.”

“I assume that whatever it was that took out your outer defenses also wiped out whatever you had in the house itself?”

“Anything we already had set up. All the extra charms we had in storage were fine, but by the time we knew we had a haunting, it was already in the house. And…yelling at us.”

“Ghosts will do that,” Miko murmured. “Especially fresh ones.” She shook her head. “So, on top of everything else, you also need me do some pest control.”

“Pest control?” Satoko said, her voice testy.

“What else would you call it?”

“A little girl died, Miss Hakurei. I appreciate that you see far more corpses than we do, but even so-”

Mokou laid a hand on Satoko’s shoulder and shook her head. Satoko scowled in indignation, but said nothing further.

“We would have taken care of it ourselves,” Mokou said. “Except we don’t exactly have any ghost extermination stuff on hand. And the places that sell it don’t sell to us anymore.”

That got Miko’s attention. “Oh reallllyyyy?” she drawled.

“We were recently banned from the village communal market,” Satoko said flatly. “And this is after we were banned from the Human Village altogether.”

Miko looked over to Mokou. “Does this have to do with you insulting Gendou Sonozika to his face?”

“Yeah, turns out he holds a grudge. Wonder where he gets it from?”

No answer to that question was needed. Miko was well aware of how many of Gendou Sonozika’s ancestors met an early grave thanks to Mokou. “Well, I’ll put that on my to-do list,” Miko growled. Grudges or not, cutting an orphanage off from all help was beyond the pale. And sure, Human affairs might be outside of her jurisdiction, but fuck it, the bounds of her jurisdiction were murky even at the best of times, and it wasn’t like there was anyone to report her to. “In the meantime though, I’d better get to cleaning house.”

Mokou motioned toward the house in question. “All yours.”

Miko stepped toward the front porch. Actually, even though this wasn’t going to remove her other problems, she was a little relieved that she was starting off with something like this. Cleaning out hauntings was dull routine to her. Maybe it would help focus her thoughts for the real issues.

“WAIT!” someone cried. “STOP!”

Miko paused. Then she, Mokou, and Satoko all turned.

Two little girls were running toward them, the one in the lead the taller of the two, with honey-blonde hair and golden eyes, and the other with shortly cut green hair and blue eyes.

Before Miko could question what they wanted, she was suddenly struck with a wave of…something! She had no idea what it was, but it felt thick, cold, and suffocating. It was emanating from the two girls like the cloud of smoke from a funeral pyre, the stench of rot from a mass grave. It was so strong that she had to take a step back and avert her face.

Taking no notice of her reaction, the two ran right up to the trio of women. “You’re the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, right?” the blonde said. “You’re here for Eiko’s ghost?”

The stink was making Miko’s eyes water. “I…”

“Please, don’t hurt her! She doesn’t know what she’s doing, and I’m sure she doesn’t mean to hurt anyone!”

“Oh no,” Satoko said softly. Shaking her head, she knelt down in front of the two. “No, girls. That thing in there isn’t Eiko. Eiko’s in the Netherworld, where all good souls go. That ghost is just an echo of the pain she felt, and when Miss Hakurei here takes care of it, all of her hurting will be over.”

“But it’s all that’s left of her!” cried the other girl, the one with green hair. “You can’t just-”

“Come on, come on,” Satoko soothed as she gently, yet firmly, led the two away. “It’s all right. Come on now.”

“But you can’t!” the green-haired girl protested. “Please, just let us talk to her, I’m sure we can calm her down!”

As they left, Mokou turned to Miko. “You all right?”

Sniffing, Miko pulled out her handkerchief to wipe at her watering eyes and running nose. “Uh, I guess so. Who the hell were they?”

“Haruko Kamijima and Hayate Maeda. Eiko’s friends, if you haven’t already guessed.”

“I figured. They the ones?”

“That’s them. You felt it, I’m guessing?”

Miko nodded.

“So…?”

Miko breathed in deeply, and then started coughing. The air tasted normal, but the spiritual stench still hung thick. “Oh, they have a curse all right. A big one too.”

“No shit. What kind?”

“Not sure. I’ll have to examine it more closely.” A job that, while necessary, she was not looking forward to. “Do you know how it happened?”

Mokou shook her head. “Nah, we found them on the edge of the forest, totally out cold. And when they woke up, they couldn’t remember anything.”

Frustrating, but not surprising. “Nothing at all?”

“Well, nothing about what or how it happened. The spider stuff they remembered, especially the one that was awake to see her friend get eaten. That was the blonde one. She saw the whole thing.”

Miko sighed. “Well, ain’t that all kinds of fucked up. You sure Muffet’s clan is gone for good?”

“Yeah, about that…” Mokou drawled. “I’ve got something I need to show you.”

“What?”

“Later. For now, ghost. Then we can focus on the curse.”

“Fine, have it your way.” Miko turned back toward the house. At least her first problem was an easy one. As frightening as they might be to the uninitiated, for her they were dull routine. And this one sounded as straight-forward as they got.

…

Satoko and Mokou stood and watched as Miko Hakurei walked up the porch stairs toward the front door of the haunted orphanage. She didn’t immediately enter though, instead walking back and forth across the porch, one hand outstretched, fingers brushing against the wall.

“What is she doing?” Satoko asked.

Mokou reached into her pocket and pulled out her packet of cigarettes. She lit one with her finger, took a deep drag, and breathed out the smoke. “Getting a feel for things,” she said. “She can’t sense the ghost through the charms, so she has to get in close get any kind of read.”

“Oh. Um, and you’re sure she can…deal with this?”

“Sure. I mean, this part’s just her regular job. It’s when she’s done with the ghost that things get complicated.”

“You mean the curse?”

Mokou blew out another, longer cloud of cigarette smoke. “Yup,” she said.

Satoko anxiously rose up and down on the balls of her feet. She was, under normal circumstances, a paragon of patience and tolerance, but the current situation was anything but normal. “And that’s why she, um, you know, reacted the way she did to Haruko and Hayate?”

“Yup.”

Satoko looked away from the house toward the immortal at her side. On the surface, Mokou was the perfect picture of calm, with one hand in her pocket, the other holding her cigarette to her mouth between two fingers, shoulders slightly slouched, and face almost looking bored. However, there was a harrowed look around her eyes, a worrying intensity in how she stared at the house.

That more than anything was reason to be scared. “Mokou,” Satoko said in a low voice. “Are you sure she can handle this curse?”

Mokou exhaled smoke from her nostrils. “No,” she said after a long silence.

Satoko started. “No?”

“No. But she’s the best bet we have.”

That was less than reassuring. “Mokou, how can-”

The house’s front door suddenly open and Miko Hakurei hurried out, hastily slamming the door behind her. She power-walked down the steps and across the grass toward the two women.

“You have a problem,” the shrine maiden said briskly.

Oh no. Oh, no, no, no. Not another problem. Not another wrinkle. Satoko had already endured more than she could stand. Was it bad enough that the rest of Gensokyo was systematically cutting them off little by little, that they were being purposefully sabotaged by their neighbors and invaded by flesh-eating youkai, that six of their children were currently either possessed or cursed or maybe both by something they didn’t understand, that their strongest ally was really a centuries-old murderess with a tendency to make enemies every time she went out, that they had to abandon their home because the ghost of a murdered child was seeking revenge for Satoko’s failure to protect her? And now there was a new problem with that?

“What is it?” Satoko said. “Oh, wait, let me guess: the ghost is really a legendary blood demon, sent to devour our souls! Or that it’s already so powerful that the only way to get rid of it is to destroy the house!” Her voice started to rise in pitch and volume. “Is it not enough that the people that are supposed to be our neighbors have exiled us, that monsters are kidnapping and eating our children alive, that we’re being cursed by unknown evils, but now we can’t even be haunted without it being somehow worse!”

“Satoko,” Mokou hissed. “Get a grip.”

“Get a grip? Get a grip? How can you expect me to get a grip after everything’s happened? What am I supposed to grip onto in the first place? Odds are it’ll just turn out to be covered with poisoned thorns that-”

Mokou seized her by the shoulder and forcibly muscled her into taking a seat.

“Save it for later,” Mokou growled. To Miko, she said, “So, what new bad news awaits us?”

“Well, maybe problem is too strong a word,” Miko amended. “But it’s definitely a complication.”

“Just tell us already,” Satoko said wearily, her face in her hands.

“Can’t, because I don’t really understand what it is. You need to see this for yourself.”

“Yeah, well, what else is new?” Mokou grabbed Satoko by the bicep and pulled her back to her feet. “Come on, Satoko. Let’s see the new addition to the Everyone Hates Us Club.”

Miko led the pair back to the house. As they approached, Satoko felt her anger and frustration melt together into a rising sense of dread, and that just upset her all the more. That house was supposed to be her sanctuary, their sanctuary, but now even it had shut itself off from them and become a den of evil. There was literally nowhere that was safe for them.

Sure enough, as soon as Satoko stepped past the threshold of the charms, she felt the temperature immediately drop several degrees. Every alarm bell in her head went off as she began picking up on several things wrong. Her sense of balance started to get all wonky, her sight refused to register anything as being the size that it actually was, the air around her felt oppressively thick, and her ears filled with the sounds of whispers, all sure signs of a haunting.

Maybe too many of them. Either Eiko’s ghost was unusually strong, which was a strong possibility given the circumstances of her death, or it had brought friends.

Miko laid a hand on the doorknob. As she did, it suddenly frosted over, cold vapors rising up from the frozen metal. Wincing, she quickly withdrew her hand.

“Here, let me,” Mokou said. Her palm rose in temperature until it was faintly glowing and the air around it became fuzzy. Ice hissed and sent up a cloud of steam when she grabbed the knob, but she was able to turn it and push.

First Miko went in, with Mokou not far behind. Satoko hung back, not wanting to follow, not wanting to see Eiko’s mutilated face or hear her accusatory screams.

“Oh,” she heard Mokou say in surprise. “Well, huh.”

“Yup,” Miko said in a grim tone.

Satoko glanced over her shoulder. Their small camp was a fair distance away from the house, but even so, she could see that everyone there was watching them.

Watching her.

Satoko took a deep breath to steady herself. No. No matter how bad things were, her responsibility was clear. And if she had to walk right into the domain of an angry spirit in order to protect those under her care, then she was going to do it. Satoko stepped over the threshold and into the house.

What she found inside wasn’t exactly what she was expecting.

Oh, she had anticipated ghostly shenanigans, with horrific images, screams, and Eiko’s butchered body being displayed in all manner of stomach-churning scenarios.

Instead, she found themselves staring at row after row after row of grey faces, all gazing solemnly at the trio.

The entrance room was packed with people, most of them children but a few adults here and there. The children were all wearing some variation of the grey uniforms that the orphanage provided. The design had changed little throughout the years, but there were some differences among them. The adults all had on more normal clothes, mostly the simple kind that was often donated by local farmers or the nearby villages. They filled the room, the connecting hallways, and even had more perched on the stairs.

There had to be a couple hundred of them at least, far more people than had ever been in the house at one time. Satoko’s hands went to her mouth as she gasped. This was…well, she had no idea how she was supposed to react to something like this. Was she afraid? Well, she supposed so, but mostly she just felt stupefied. Thus far they had been dealing with dangers and threats that were…mostly known. Evil youkai they understood. Ghosts they understood. Evil-hearted people they understood. Even the curse, while certainly of unknown origin, was just something that people expected from the Youkai Forest.

But this…this was new.

Satoko shot a glance over to Miko and Mokou, both of whom probably had numerous encounters with ghosts, spirits, poltergeists, and all manner of undead in her time. However, the supposed expert ghost exterminator Miko Hakurei looked very put out, while the centuries-old renegade Fujiwara no Mokou was ill at ease, warily rising on the balls of her feet as her gaze darted this way and that. She held her hands to either side, fingers curled and arms loose. There was a sudden whoosh, and twin balls of flame ignited around her hands.

“So,” Miko said, sounding more irritated than afraid, “I was given to understand that you wanted me to clean out one ghost.” She swept an arm toward the ethereal audience. “This looks way more than just one ghost.”

“Miko,” Mokou said as she warily edged back toward the door.

“I mean, I guess it’s still doable, but for something on this scale, I’m gonna have to start charging.”

“Miko, cut the crap and explain.”

“Me? This is your house, Mokou. These are your ghosts, you explain!”

As the two argued, Satoko continue to look over the expressionless faces silently watching them. Who were all these people? Why were they there? And why were they all dressed in the same uniforms as her kids?

Then she saw a face that she recognized and her heart nearly stopped.

“Tobi?” Satoko whispered. “Tobi, is that you?”

Mokou spared her half a glance. “Satoko, who are you talking to?”

Satoko pointed to the right of the room. “Her! That girl there. Tobi, can you hear me?”

There was a pause, and the shimmering grey bodies shuffled about, and Tobi stepped forward. She had been seven years old when she died, and save for her grey complexion and semi-transparent quality, she looked the same, with hair hanging down her back in a tightly woven ponytail and a ribbon tied around her head with a large bow on either side of her head, just over her ears.

“Tobi, can you hear me?” Satoko said. “It’s me, Miss Satoko.” She started to move forward, only for Miko to thrust an arm across her chest.

“Don’t,” Miko said.

Satoko shot her a pleading look. “But-”

“Satoko, who’s Tobi?” Mokou said in a low voice.

“She was one of our kids! But…she died, before you came. Before even Joshua came, actually. She got lost during a snowstorm and…Tobi, please! Can you hear me?”

Tobi’s face was as blank as her companions, though she did tilt her head to one side, as if trying to listen.

“You recognize anyone else here?” Mokou said.

Satoko looked the crowd over. She did, actually. Most of the faces were new to her, but now that she was looking, a few jumped out to her. “I…I think that’s Miss Oa over there. She was one of the caretakers when I was a girl, but she passed before I took over. And that…” She inhaled sharply. “Oh no, Kale?”

Now she was looking up at the stairs, specifically at a tall boy that was almost a man. He had spiky hair that was messily combed back and a rather prominent nose.

“And he is?” Miko said.

Satoko’s eyes misted over. She blinked a few times and stuttered, “M-My best friend. When I w-was growing up. But…he d-died when I was sixteen. Flash flood. And…and…”

She could say no more. In life, Kale had robust and full of energy, a fun-loving boy that saw their lives as a never-ending adventure. They had grown up together, played together as children, crashed through those bewildering gates of puberty together, and had shared their first clumsy kiss with one another. At the time, Satoko had considered herself the luckiest girl in the world, and she been distraught when that adventure had been cruelly cut short, and for a time it seemed as if the

If their friendship meant anything to the dearly departed Kale, he made no sign, content to remain staring along with everyone else.

Then she saw something that made even her wince. She nudged Satoko with her elbow and pointed. When Satoko saw, she inhaled sharply through her nose but said nothing.

Eiko Goto was there, standing and staring as silently as the others. She was near the door to their left, no longer screaming, no longer spitting up spiders, but she was there. An older woman stood behind her with her arms around Eiko’s front, holding her in a protective embrace. The message was clear. She’s ours. Do not touch.

The more Mokou learned about their current situation, the less she liked it. Had all of these spirits been here this whole time, held back by the foundational wards? And did they have any particular opinions about that?

Then a very strange voice said, I think I can explain.

Again the ghosts shuffled around, allowing one of the adults to step forward. She seemed to be somewhere in her mid-forties, with a pleasantly plump body and a round face. Her hair was tied back in a tight bun, and she had the shoulders of someone accustomed to labor.

It was she that had spoken, if what she had done could be described as speaking. Truth be told, Satoko wasn’t even sure if the ghost had made any noise at all. It was like a whisper from a fading dream, a memory of a conversation that had never happened. And yet Satoko had no trouble understanding her at all.

“Who’s that?” Mokou asked.

“I…” Satoko shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Then the ghost woman smiled kindly at her, the first actual emotion any of them had expressed. Hello there, granddaughter.

Satoko choked. “Wait, granddaughter?”

Sort of. It’s close enough. The ghost woman bowed low. I would apologize for startling you, but you did come in unannounced. My name is Aoki Yume, and this is my house.

…

Alone in a crowd. Alone with your family. That was how Melissa felt.

The whole of the orphanage’s household was abuzz. The Hakurei Shrine Maiden had finally arrived, and had gone to deal with Eiko’s ghost. And after that, she would deal with Youkai Forest curse. Things were going to return to normal! Or at least, some semblance of normal anyway. They were still banished and isolated from the rest of the Humans, but at the very least their problems would be of the mortal variety. No one was going to have to worry about screaming ghosts hanging from the ceiling spitting up spiders or having their throats cut by their possessed friends anymore.

Or at least, that was what the grown-ups had said.

Truth be told, very few of them believe that. When the Hakurei Shrine Maiden had arrived, Melissa had been profoundly disappointed. Some rough-looking lady in a worn red-and-white outfit was supposed to save them all? Everyone half-expected the ghost to chew her up and spit her bones out of a window.

Melissa was one of them. There was a ghost in their house. Their friends were possessed. Most of the strange types of magic in Gensokyo had been nearly incomprehensible to her, but those two she fully understood. And judging by how scared everyone else looked and the way they were whispering to one another, she wasn’t alone.

Except she was, because at least everyone else had someone to whisper to. Everyone was in their own little groups, talking in hushed tones to their friends. Even the grown-ups were talking to each other. But not Melissa. The only two people she felt comfortable really talking to was Kana, her only real friend, and Mr. Joshua, who was the only other person from the Outside World and understood enough Spanish whenever Melissa’s still incomplete grasp of Japanese wasn’t enough. And Kana was one of the possessed and Mr. Joshua was engaged in a hushed conversation with Miss Shion, leaving Melissa by herself. It was just like her first few days until Kana had started following her around, and outcast among the outcasts.

So with nothing else to do, she tried talking to God.

It was something Mr. Joshua had suggested whenever she felt alone. Certainly she knew how, given she had spent most of her life in a Catholic mission, but truth be told she had never really felt close to God, even then. The way that the priests and nuns had described him made him seem scary and unapproachable, someone you needed to book an appointment with weeks in advance and had to mind your P’s and Q’s when that meeting actually took place, not really the sort of person you’d want to open up to. Why else would he have so many rules and punishments?

She liked the way Mr. Joshua described him better, as more of a big brother who was always more than happy to just sit down and listen whenever you needed him. Certainly that was how he talked to him. Melissa would often hear him having long conversations with nobody whenever he was working. They would often be in English, which nobody at the orphanage understood, so it was more than a little weird, but the other kids seemed used to it, and she had to admit it did sound appealing to just be able to open up about whatever was bothering you whenever you wanted.

Except that God felt more distant than ever. Gensokyo was a world separated from Earth, so Melissa didn’t even know if God could hear her. Did he get prayers from this strange, offshoot country? Wasn’t that kind of like someone from Mexico trying to write the President of the United States a letter? It just seemed like it would be outside of his jurisdiction!

Besides, Gensokyo had gods of its own, and a lot of them. One could literally go to their shrines and have a face-to-face conversation with them. And while they had rules too, those actually made a lot more sense. Make an offering at their shrine, and have a prayer answered. Someone was sick? Make an offering. It hadn’t rained in a long time and the crops were drying out? Make an offering. It was all very straightforward.

Still, she didn’t know any of those gods. They had taken visits to shrines before, and she had seen the gods there, but had never spoken to them. She had just been too nervous. What did one say to a god? They hadn’t seemed like gods to her, more like rock and roll stars, normal people but with weird clothes and big personalities, still not someone she felt like she could just approach. With God, if he could hear her, all she had to do was talk, maybe even just think! Whatever, it wasn’t like she could do anything else.

So, as she paced back and forth across the camp in agitation, she tried talking to God.

“Um, our Father, who’s in Heaven, hallowed be thy…uh…hallowed be thy name,” she muttered. “They will come, they kingdom be…uh, no. No, it’s the other way around.” Damn it, she used to know the whole thing! It wasn’t like she had much of a choice back then, but it had been so long since she had last recited the Lord’s Prayer, the lines were all mixed up in her head.

So she tried something else. “Hail Mary full of grace, and…” Her mind drew a blank.

Just as well, Mr. Joshua had always said that praying to Mary was weird anyway. Fine. Forget the memorized prayers. She was just going to talk, like Mr. Joshua did.

“All right,” she muttered. “God, can you hear me? It’s Melissa Garcia! You know, the girl that got lost and wound up here. In Gensokyo.”

Dai and Yoshi were wrestling all over the sleeping mats up ahead. Melissa altered her course to give them a wide berth.

“I don’t know if you can hear me here, if you even care about anything that happens here, but I’m scared. I’m stuck here and I’m scared. I mean, Gensokyo just seemed so much better than where I came from. It’s prettier, the orphanage is nicer than the mission, the food’s…okay, it tasted a little weird at first, but it’s actually better. And they have magic here! I’m actually learning how to fly! I mean, I was, but…” She coughed. “Um, people back…back home would probably just call that witchcraft, but is it though? I mean, you had to make magic too, right?”

She had reached the end of the camp, and since she didn’t like the idea of striking off by herself across the field where someone could grab at her, she reversed course and headed back the other way.

“But, um, things are bad now. One of the kids here got…eaten, and now her ghost is haunting the place. A real ghost! I don’t know if we had them back home or if they all got put here, but I saw it! And now some of the others are, I don’t know, possessed or something? Or just cursed? Something bad. But my best friend’s one of them, and they won’t let me talk to her, but she’s been coughing a lot, and I think she’s sick, and I don’t know what to do.”

She had to stop suddenly, as Miss Haruna was walking across her path, and Melissa almost walked right into her.

“Whoa, careful there, kid,” Miss Haruna said.

Melissa cringed. “I’m…sorry. Very sorry, I wasn’t-”

“Easy, easy, no-” Then she said something too fast for Melissa to catch, followed with, “Just be careful, all right?”

“Okay,” Melissa said, then she resumed her pacing.

“Anyway, I don’t know if you’re even allowed to change anything in here, even if you can hear us, but if you can, please, please, please help them! Help Kana. And, I don’t know, help us! No one else is!”

She reached the other end of the camp, spun on her heel, and set off again.

“Besides, there’s this group of men. Bad men. They say that they’re doing your will, but all they’ve done is make things hard for us! They’re out there trying to make everyone else hate us, and they’re doing it in your name. So, shouldn’t you, you know, do something about it? Isn’t this your responsibility? Mr. Joshua’s the only good Christian I know, and he’s on our side! Can’t you do something for his sake? Or are you just going to leave him to fend for himself just because-”

In her rising anger and agitation, Melissa had forgotten to watch where she was going and walked right into someone who was equally preoccupied.

“-oof!”

She stumbled back, nearly fell, and only just recovered her balance in time.

The other person, who was noticeably larger and heavier than her, might have done the same, had a rolled-up sleeping mat not ended right behind his foot.

“Ow.”

To Melissa’s horror, she found herself looking down at Noba Fujinami, who had sprawled out in an untidy head.

“I’m sorry!” she blurted out, forgetting in her agitation to use Japanese instead of Spanish. Realizing this, she corrected to, “Um, sorry, sorry!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Noba grunted. Melissa reached down to help him up. Their hands grasped, and…

Oh.

Wow.

Noba straightened up and brushed himself off. “Sorry about that,” he muttered. “Was kind of preoccupied.”

“Oh, it’s…good!” Melissa said, hoping he hadn’t noticed how flustered she had become. “Um…how is…” Damn it, now she was forgetting simple words! “…your…face?”

Noba stared blankly at her.

“Head!” Oh, if a youkai felt like kidnapping her, now would be the time! “Sorry. Head! How is your head?”

“Oh,” Noba laughed. “Yeah, um, funny thing. Ever…” Then he said something long and kind of rambling. Melissa listened intently, trying to grab onto all the words she recognized and use that context to figure out what he was trying to say.

Noba must have seen the look on her face, as he then let his words trail off. “Oh,” he said, more slowly this time. “Sorry. Was I too fast?”

“No, it’s okay,” Melissa was quick to say. She felt as she had caught the gist of it. “You…feel better after, uh, after they locked the…” Oh damn. “The ghost! They locked the ghost in the house.”

“Yeah, that’s it,” Noba said. “I guess that knock to my head made me more…” a word that Melissa didn’t know yet, probably “sensitive” or something like that, “…to magic stuff.”

“Maybe,” Melissa said. “I don’t know. I never met a ghost before.”

Noba made a face. “Me neither. It’s freaky.”

“Yeah.”

The two fell silent, though on the inside Melissa anything but. In fact, her mind was screaming at her memory, begging for it to upload every bit of Japanese she knew, right now, thank you!

Fortunately Noba broke the silence first. “So, who were you talking to?”

Unfortunately, he had decided to break it with someone embarrassing. “Oh, no one,” Melissa said by reflex. “I just…” Then she sighed. Oh, why not? “To God.”

“God?”

Melissa winced and shrugged. “Yes.”

“A god came here?” Noba said, his handsome face scrunching up in puzzlement. “To help?”

“No,” Melissa said. “To God. To…” Her memory failed her, and she gestured helplessly in Mr. Joshua’s general direction, hoping that would get her point across.

Fortunately it did. “Oh, you mean your god, from the Outside World? The same one Mr. Joshua’s always praying to?”

“Yes,” Melissa sighed in relief while wondering how to turn the conversation away from religion. “Him.”

Noba tilted his head to one side. “Does he ever talk back?”

“I don’t know,” Melissa said honestly.

“Okay.” Sighing, Noba scratched the back of his neck and looked around. “Uh, hey, are you all right?”

“Uh…why?”

Noba shrugged. Well, Kana’s your friend, right. You must be worried about her.

“Yes,” Melissa admitted. “Yes, I am.”

Noba nodded. “Well, don’t worry. The Hakurei Shrine Maiden will help her.”

Melissa swallowed back the lump she felt forming. “How do…How do you be sure?”

“Well, it’s what she does,” Noba said, frowning.

Was it? Was it really? Some old woman she had never met before was supposed to save them all? “We have ghost!” Melissa said, struggling to find the right words to put her fears to speech. “We have…curse! Youkai eat us! Everything is bad!”

Her throat seized up, and she felt hot tears starting to form. Feeling hot in the face, she hastily turned away before Noba could see her.

She had screwed up. She had screwed up and made things worse. Noba had actually gone up to her and talked to her, and she had acted like a total spaz. And she was still scared, was still worried sick for Kana, God wasn’t doing anything, and now Noba probably thought that she was-

Then a large, strong hand slipped around hers.

Melissa gawked up in shock to see Noba standing next to her. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I guess this would be scarier for you.”

Well, that was true enough. “You not scared?” she blurted out.

“Oh yeah,” Noba said with a bitter laugh. “Very. But not of the ghost. And not of the curse.”

“Why?”

Noba shrugged. “Because there are always ghosts and curses and youkai. But we know what to do about them. Those…” he said another word that Melissa had heard several times but had never learned the meaning, though it sounded very derogatory, “…that attacked us in the market, that knocked me out. Them I’m scared of. That’s different.”

Melissa knew what he meant. That was one thing that hadn’t changed, one thing that was the same no matter what world she was in: people with ugly hearts doing ugly things. “Why are they like that?”

“Wish I knew. I thought it was their weird god, but you’re nice, and Mr. Joshua is nice, and…” Then he went red in the face. “Oh, sorry. That wasn’t very polite, huh?”

“It is fine!” Melissa quickly changed the subject. “You really think they will try to hurt us again?”

At this, Noba thoughtfully rubbed his chin with his free hand. He had a dusting of stubble on it, and over his cheeks. It gave him a cool, mature look. “You know, back when my head was hurting all the time, I kept having these weird dreams. Bad ones, where the house would be on fire, and we’d be trying to get out, but all the doors and windows would be stuck and…” His voice trailed off.

“That…That sounds…bad.”

“Oh yeah. But in those dreams, it was never youkai that was setting everything on fire, not ghosts, not demons. It was Humans. Other Humans.” A flash of anger crossed his face. “I mean, youkai are youkai. That’s what they do. What are those people’s excuse?”

“They are bad,” Melissa said flatly. “They are bad men and bad women. Bad people do bad things.”

“Well, if so, then it ought to be them that the youkai carry off! We didn’t do anything! We didn’t…uh…”

“Uh what?”

Noba pointed with her free hand. “Who the hell are they?”

Melissa looked. And then her heart fell.

There, across the grass, on the other side of the fence, three people were coming down the road toward the gate.

Three people dressed all in brown.

“They’re back,” Noba whispered.

…

“This. Friggin’. Sucks!”

The group now dubbed the “Black Circle Six” sat in, well, a circle, one that was set apart from the rest of their family, well on the other side of the field. Normally Miss Mokou would be with them, but even she was gone, having entered the house with Miss Satoko and the shrine maiden.

Rumia hated being cursed. It was worse then being sick. At least when you got sick it just meant that you felt like crap for a few days and didn’t get to play with anyone and didn’t have to do chores in the meantime. All that was true about being cursed, but it wasn’t something you just got better from, and everyone kept looking at her like she was going to snap and kill everybody.

Maybe I should, she groused to herself. Not seriously of course, but she was in a bad mood. Show them for looking at me like that. Like it’s my fault some big evil magic coughed on me. Like it’s my fault that stupid voice keeps saying-

Give in.

-that. That it keeps saying that.

“I hate this,” Rumia continued to grumble out loud. “What’s taking them so long? Shouldn’t they try to fix us first?”

Hayate glowered at her, her eyes red and blotchy from crying. “Will you shut up? It’s not your friend that they’re going after.”

Rumia groaned. “Oh, for the last time, it’s not Eiko! It’s just her stupid ghost!”

“Are you sure?” Kohta said, his face pale. Despite everything that had happened to them, the arrival of Eiko’s ghost had shaken him the most. “It might be her. She might be mad at us for not saving her too.”

“Oh, now you believe in ghosts, huh?” Rumia snapped.

“Shut up, Rumia!” Haruko yelled at her.

“Don’t tell me to shut up, you shut up!” Rumia yelled back.

Haruko leapt to her feet. “You’re happy about this, aren’t you? You’re happy she’s dead, you’re happy that they’re killing her again, and you probably wish the spiders killed us too!”

A moment later Rumia was on her feet as well, fists balled and ready to swing. “We saved your life, numbskull!”

“But you didn’t save hers! If you hadn’t gotten there so late she would still be alive!”

“Enough!” Keine roared. She had been mostly silent all day, groaning and rubbing her head like it was paining her. But apparently even she had a breaking point. “Enough, enough, enough! Gods, it’s bad enough that we have all this other crap going on without you two yelling at each other!”

“Keep out of this, shrimp!” Haruko’s voice rose to a shriek. “We didn’t ask you for-”

“Ah!” Keine curled into a ball and grabbed at her head with both hands. “Please, just stop yelling!”

Rumia rushed to her side. “Keine, are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay! I’m cursed, my head feels like it’s going to explode, my stomach won’t stop hurting, and you all won’t shut up! Of course I’m not okay!”

Her anger cooling into guilt, Rumia sat down next to her. After a moment both Haruko and Hayate did too.

“What’s wrong with your head?” Kohta said at last.

Keine shot him an irritated look. “Seriously? You guys don’t have it too?”

Kohta shrugged. “Well, I mean, my hand’s still all prickly, and I got that whole voice in the back of my head going all, Give in, but I don’t have a headache. Or a stomachache.” Rumia had to admit, his imitation of the curse’s black voice was pretty spot on.

“So it’s just me then?” Keine sighed. “Oh, that just figures!”

Haruko cleared her throat. “Maybe it’s just, you know, your…” Her voice got small. “Womanly…issue.”

Kohta stared. “Her what now?”

Rumia sighed and buried her face in her hand. She loved Kohta dearly, but he could be just so stupid sometimes.

“It’s not,” Keine said flatly.

“Are you sure? Have you even had your first one yet?”

“Her first what?” Kohta said. Rumia elbowed him in the side.

“Shut. Up. Haruko!” Keine hissed.

Then Kana piped in with, “Perhaps she is dying as well.”

That got a groan from everyone. “Oh, for crap’s sake,” Rumia said. “Really, Kana?”

“It is a possibility,” Kana said calmly. “We still do not know the origin of this curse. It may be fatal.”

“Well, thanks,” Keine said as she continued to massage her head. “Appreciate that.”

“You are welcome,” Kana said without a hint of sarcasm. Then she started coughing again.

Then Rumia frowned. “Wait, what do you mean ‘as well’? Who else is dying?”

“Me,” Kana said after her most recent fit had quieted. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“No,” Rumia said immediately. “You’re not dying. You’re just sick because you got more spider venom than everyone else. Once the curse is gone, you’ll start feeling better.”

“Oh, I don’t believe so,” Kana said, in that bewilderingly serene manner of hers.

Rumia glared. “You’re not dying.”

“I think I am,” Kana said. Then she brightened. “Oh, that reminds me. After I’m dead, would you please ask that the shrine maiden not exterminate my ghost? I would hate to have to die twice.”

“See!” Haruko said, pointing at the frail weirdo. “Even she knows this is wrong!”

Keine winced. “If you guys don’t shut up, I’m actually going to give in and find out what the fuss is all about.”

“No,” Kohta said, his voice firm. He laid a hand on Keine’s shoulder. “No, you’re not. None of us are giving in, and Kana, you’re not dying. The shrine maiden will clean up the house, she’ll get rid of the curse, and we can all move back in.”

“That’s nice of you to say so,” Kana said. “You are wrong though.”

Hayate swallowed. “What if she’s right? What if the shrine maiden can’t fix us?”

“Huh?” Rumia said. “It’s her job, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, okay,” Rumia sighed. “Kana? You’re not helping.”

“Was I supposed to help? I apologize, but no one has explained what my responsibilities are.”

“What if this is too big for her though?” Hayate said, as if the others hadn’t spoken. “What if it infects her too?”

“She’s the Hakurei Shrine Maiden though,” Rumia said. “She deals with this stuff all the time.”

“As far as we know! What if this one gets her? Then who’ll save us?

“Who are they?” Kana wondered.

“What, the Hakurei Shrine Maidens? Gods, Kana! I know you’re an airhead, but this is dumb even for you!”

“No, not her, them!” Kana pointed across the field toward the camp of everyone who wasn’t cursed, or to be more specifically the gate that lay beyond them. “Those men there. I don’t recognize them.”

When Rumia saw what Kana was pointed at, she hissed through her teeth.

A trio of men was striding across their field toward their family, men wearing brown robes, the same as the ones who had crashed Eiko’s funeral.

“Is that them?” Hayate asked. “Are they back?”

“Oh, they’re back all right,” Rumia said. “And you know what?”

She abruptly stood to her feet, and before anyone could stop her she started to make her way across the grass.

“Hey, wait!” Kohta called after her. “Where are you going?”

“Those are the same assholes that did all this to us!” Rumia called over her shoulder, not slowing her gait in the slightest. “It’s their fault we got banned from everything, it’s their fault we got attacked, it’s their fault Eiko is dead, it’s their fault we’re cursed, and it’s their fault we can’t even sleep in our own house. So you know what? I’m gonna go over there, and when I do…”

Give in.

“…I’m gonna find out if this curse really is contagious!”

…

Four elderly women sat together at the dining room table.

To be clear, the term “elderly” is not to imply that they were in any way weak or frail, but to state that they literally were elders of their respective worlds, matriarchs who had done great things and had earned their authority and respect.

Satoko Yume was the youngest of the four, but she was still soon to exit middle age, and had devoted her life to caring for the lost children of Gensokyo, running its only orphanage as its chief matron and ensuring that those under her care were given the best life possible.

Miko Hakurei was the second youngest, and she would not be considered a young woman by any mortal metric. True, her family was especially long-lived, but even by the Hakurei standards she was just starting to get along in years, enough to give her the odd wrinkle or grey hair that had nothing to do with her harrowing job. And she was also the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, a very important role indeed, if often underappreciated.

Aoki Yume was, as she appeared, a ghost, one that was generations old, and as the original founder of the house that bore her name, she had ensured that her legacy was a good one, and one not soon forgotten.

Mokou was Mokou.

But despite all of them having lived a full life, such as they were, and despite all of their respective accomplishments, it did not feel like a meeting of equals, as evidenced by how they each felt about those who they shared the table with. Aoki, despite very much being a spirit of the dead, was totally at ease, as if she were nothing more than a kindly grandmother entertaining the ladies of the village to tea. Miko, who had brought them all together, was wary and slightly irritated, as she often was when an incident that she had been brought in to resolve had developed unforeseen complications, as they often would. Mokou was more curious than anything. She wasn’t afraid, and she had certainly seen stranger phenomena in her time, but even she hadn’t expected the literal ghost of Aoki Yume herself to appear. At any rate, their little haunting problem was looking to become an unexpected advantage rather than a danger, so she intended to hear this new specter out and figure out how to turn things to their advantage.

Satoko, however, was both awed and terrified. True, it was still technically her house, and she was very much used to being in charge, but having one ghost around was bad enough. Learning that there were actually a couple hundred floating about and oh yes, they’re represented by your long-dead and highly revered great-to-a-significant-exponent grandmother was, to put it in layman’s terms, blowing her brain. She was sitting stiff and still, not even daring to blink, the only movement of hers being the trembling around her forearms and calves.

Aoki looked around at those gathered. Sorry I don’t have anything to offer you, she “said.” And by that, her mouth moved and the other three understood her well enough, but later upon reflection none of them could confidently say that they had actually heard anything. But you did take most of the food when you ran out, including all the tea.

Mokou shrugged. “Yeah, well, dead girl shows up on your ceiling and starts vomiting up spiders, you tend to not want to stick around.”

Still. Rude. Aoki then turned her attention to Satoko, who was sitting directly across from her and, it should be noted, had yet to blink. Dear, please. Your eyes will dry out like.

“I-” Satoko finally closed her eyes and opened them again, albeit much slower than a natural blink would have. “I-I’m sorry, I still don’t understand. You’re my, ah…”

Don’t bother counting all the greats, dear. Even I lost count.

“Oh, um. But still. You claim to be Aoki Yume? The Aoki Yume?”

I claim nothing. I am who I am.

Miko let out a long and irritated sigh. “Okay, look: this is all very fascinating, but can we speed this along? Because I’d really like to know-”

Aoki’s grandmotherly smile thinned a bit. Speak when spoken to, young lady. And do not interrupt your elders.

Miko’s head actually jerked back in surprise at the reprimand. But then she smiled. “It’s been a long time since anyone’s called me ‘young lady.’”

My hair is far greyer than yours is. I’m entitled.

“A’ight,” Mokou said. “But she has a point.”

Now Aoki was starting to look a little put off herself. What did I just say?

Mokou smiled that slow, lazy smile that a few unlucky individuals had learned to fear. “You’re not my elder, not by a longshot. Hell, the list of people in this weird little country that can be called my elder is in the single-digits.”

At this, Aoki’s face started to look a little more figuratively grave than literal. No. You’re right, I’m not. She paused, and then said, You are not a good person.

Both Satoko and Miko shot looks at Mokou, as if expecting her to take extreme exception to the blunt observation. However, she wasn’t even ruffled. “Oh, no. You’re right about that: I’m not. My soul is as pure as the driven yellow snow. But even if I am a monster, I’m one that’s on your side. And you need me, young lady.”

That got a ghostly smile. Yes, I suppose that’s true.

Mokou rolled her wrist. “You know our questions. What’re the answers?”

That I cannot properly explain. You must be shown. Only then will you understand.

“Huh?” Satoko sat up straighter. “Show us what?”

Aoki stood up. Follow me, please.

“To where? Grandmother, what are you showing us?”

Instead of answering, the shade of the orphanage’s founder walked over to the large double-door that connected the dining room to the hall, the same they had come through. It was closed shut. She laid a shimmering hand on its frame.

Mokou and Miko exchanged a look. The shrine maiden shrugged, and they both rose. After a moment of hesitation Satoko followed.

Understand, I am not adding to your problems, Aoki said. But you need to understand that what you protect is far more precious than you had ever known, and I know you already held it dear.

“What?” Satoko said. “What are you talking about? Is there some kind of, I don’t know, ancestral treasure hidden here?”

Something like that, yes. With that, Aoki opened the door, and golden light poured out.

...

Y’know, when I was first planning this story, I told myself I would rein myself in and restrict myself to ten chapters.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Until next time, everyone!

#The Touhou Project #touhou #rumia #Fujiwara no Mokou #mokou #miko hakurei #imperfect metamorphosis #fanfic

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