Visiting Hidea no Akyuu proved to be mostly fruitless for Keine's investigation. Not like she was expecting a lot out of it anyway. She was back at square one with nothing but observational notes about this evasive man. A bit tedious on her end but she's fine with it. It's manageable.
She doesn't have much of a lead right now and she's slowly getting a tiny bit uncomfortable with spying because of Akyuu's random teasing of all things so there's one other choice. Ask the man himself. A couple of questions would knock that curiosity of her out of the park-- except she tried that before. It was actually her first choice of action when she started.
The only problem was she didn't have the opportunity to ask, at all. Tried to approach him in a friendly manner, he disappears at the next corner he turns. Knock on his front door, no one was home every time she did. Literally stayed up, screwing her sleeping schedule just to see him come home extremely late at night.
When she first started her investigation, she was expecting it to just be nothing and she was being a tad bit paranoid. Now? She was super convicted to further press on. It's like he was purposely avoiding her but why? Why was he doing all of this? He's definitely hiding something.
She sighed, keeping her slow pace amongst the crowd of villagers.
Until she can finally approach him without him seemingly running away from her, she's going to be stuck where she was.
With a slightly sour face from frustration, she continues her weekly shopping. Of course, some of the stores where Keine was a regular at questioned why she was acting a little peevish. Her default response was always "Oh, it's nothing much. Just a little under the weather." with a polite smile fastened every time.
But as she was about to return home, she stumbles upon another person, or rather kitsune was appearing to be a bit frantic.
"Ran? Is something wrong?" Keine decided to approach out of concern. The youkai averts her attention to her, waving her hand while smiling.
"No, no, it's nothing. Just Chen disappearing while we go out shopping... again." The blonde fox answered. "And I forgot to bring some catnip on me to lure her back to me so now I'm stuck searching for her... again as well."
"Ah, I see..." The historian nodded. The kitsune standing in front of her was pretty well-known in the village, one of the few youkai that can walk in broad daylight in the village without causing any discomfort for the humans. She's been coming in and out of the village over the decades that they simply got used to her. Not to mention she's never shown any form of hostility ever towards them unless provoked that is.
Keine was of course, fairly acquainted with the blue Yakumo. If you pass by the same person for a couple of decades, you'd get fairly close to them.
"By any chance have you seen Chen?" Ran asked.
"No, I haven't. I'm sure she'll be fine on her own so you shouldn't be that worried." She assured but the kitsune shook her head.
"I'd rather not be irresponsible and leave her in the dust. As much as Chen can be... difficult at times, I don't have the heart to be cold towards that little cat of mine."
"Hmmm, you were always kind-hearted." Keine smiled. "I'm sure one of the villagers will find her and turn her up to you. I can help you too if you'd like."
"Ah no, that would be asking too much of you, Keine." She politely refused. "It's not the first time she's disappeared on me. I think I know where to look-- Ah! Speaking of looking."
Ran peers behind Keine before walking past her. The half-beast turned around and there he was. The source of her stress and investigation. Just standing a couple of feet away from her with a bakeneko carried piggyback.
"Ran!" The little shikigami of Ran called once she saw the yellow fox approached hastily.
"Chen! I've been looking for you. Where did you wander off this time?" The nine-tailed fox asked but the brown cat youkai seemingly ignored her question.
"Look, look! I found Y--" Abruptly, her mouth was muffled by the man that was carrying her. One hand was covering her mouth while the other lifted her off of his shoulder effortlessly. Now, Chen had the physique of a child but that is an impressive feat for a human at least.
"Now, now, Chen, you should go back to Ran. You've caused her to worry a bit, haven't you?" Hanzou ushered, gently nudging her towards the blonde youkai after taking his hand off of her.
"Eeeeehhh..." The little brunette protested. Ran merely shook her head with a lighthearted sigh.
"Thank you for bringing Chen back, Hanzou. It saved me quite a bit of time." The nine-tailed fox thanked, smiling.
"Ah, it's fine. When I saw her carefreely wandering around the village, I assumed that she drifted away from you because she saw a butterfly or something." He replied. The two soon chatted away for a bit while Chen looked at both of them back and forth like an actual child trying to keep up with a conversation that her 'mother' was having with her friend.
Keine who was looking from afar as they were conversing, was making mental notes. He was surprisingly close to the Yakumo's considering by the casual and friendly manner they talked with each other. Just another mystery to this odd man.
"I guess that settles that." The historian decided to chip in. She needs to make sure her neighbor doesn't decide to disappear.
"I suppose so." The kitsune nodded. "Let's go, Chen."
"Aww... But I wanna stay with Y--"
"Cheeeen." Ran said her name firmly, snuffing out any rebellious thought from the child-like bakeneko. Like a mother scolding her child for misbehaving.
The youkai cat shrunk. "Okay..."
The yellow fox lends her sleeved hand to her shikigami and the youkai took her hand reluctantly. The blue Yakumo glanced at the two villagers and smiled politely.
"We will be going now." She bowed. "Thank you again for everything."
"It's fine. Safe journeys." Hanzou replied. The two youkai soon walked away hand in hand. Chen took a moment to turn her head around while walking.
"Bye-bye!" She waved her tiny little hands. In return, the four-eyed male waved his back with the same friendly smile. Keine's eyes were darting back and forth between the two Yakumo's and him, curiosity enveloping her mind.
"You're quite close to those two." She remarked. "Especially with Chen, I see."
"Well, I AM quite fond of children although they may be a bit troubling at times. You're a teacher, Keine, you should know." He replied.
"Of course." She nodded. Back when she was first starting off as a teacher, she had to quickly get used to their shenanigans, or else she'd lose her temper way too fast. She didn't want to be that strict teacher that the students fear, teaching her pupils with an iron fist.
No one would even want to enroll in her school in the first place!
"Either way, I will be taking my leave as well. Goodbye--"
"Wait a second." She instinctively grabbed him firmly by the shoulder. "I have something that I'd like to talk with you."
"Really? Can't this, erm, wait? I have something impor--"
"No no no, I INSIST." She said with a wide, closed-eyed smile. A smile that sent off red flags for some not to mention her rather forceful tone of voice.
Her grip on his shoulder tightens. Enough to break the supposedly calm man into a cold sweat. Like she was holding onto dear life and if she even let's go for even one second, he'd vanish in front of her eyes.
She's gone through enough nonsense trying to just ask a couple of simple questions. Mokou better be grateful that she's doing this even though she's not supposed to know at all.
The male awkwardly laughed as if to ease the tension from her iron hand and the weird stares they were getting. "I guess I can't say no if you're this determined to not let me go, hahaha..."
"I only have a couple of questions that I need to ask." She firmly said, serious down to her core.
"Oh, if that was the case you could've just knocked at my doo-- OW OW OW!!" He suddenly yelled and groaned in pain as Keine moved her hand upwards and pulled him by the ear like he was one of those misbehaving students she had to deal with back then.
With a comical angered vein mark on her head, she basically dragged him across the crowd of staring people until they reached her house.
Hanzou, to the historian's benefit, didn't decide to show much resistance. She wasn't sure whether it was because she was overpowering him due to her being a half-youkai or that he was too embarrassed to talk back and just accepted his fate. Either way works for her.
"You know..." He finally speaks after Keine had released her hold. "You're pretty strong for a woman, dragging me across the village shamelessly like that."
"A-ah..." She stuttered as if she actually realized what she just did. "Well, I apologize but I was feeling a bit frustrated about... well, I'll explain inside."
For a moment, Hanzou just looked at the half-beast like he was processing her words. "...Keine, I know we just met but don't you think we should take things slow?"
Now it was her turn to stare, blinking rapidly before she understood what she just said.
"Gods, I don't mean it that way! I just want to talk, cut and dry." She corrected. This whole investigation thing is actually taking a toll on her.
"About our possible future?" He joked, winking playfully at her. Keine wore an unamused face.
"...Do you want me to drag you by the ear again?"
"Hahaha... it's just a harmless joke. I didn't mean anything by it." He raised his hands in defense. The were-hakutaku just shook her head with another sigh.
"Just come in before we both tarnish our reputations in this village even more."
Awkwardly, Keine let her suspect into her house, opening the door and letting him enter first. Jokingly, he retorts with "Ladies first." but the historian just shot him another unamused look. He sheepishly entered with a nervous smile and chuckle.
The sentence didn't even make any sense considering she was the one that opened the door but, that's not important. Gods willing this whole fiasco will ideally end on this day. But life likes to throw a nasty twist or two at times so she doesn't have much faith in that little wish of hers.
---
Back at the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, at a certain hidden and lonely house deep inside the maze-like forest, the residence of Fujiwara no Mokou was quite empty as it usually is during the day. But it soon was going to receive an unlikely and unwarranted visitor, hovering over to the backyard of the home with her long skirt dragging across the patches of grass.
"Mokou!" None other than Kaguya Houraisan called, leaning inside one of the empty rooms. Once realizing no one was there, she looked inside elsewhere.
"Mokou?" She said in the halls filled with fire charms.
"Mooooookooooouuuu~?" She called, wandering around the white-haired woman's house.
" My dear eternal nemesis?" Kaguya peeked her head inside another room, just as empty as the rest of the house. After finally realizing that the house was completely without its owner, the lunar princess huffed with her hands on her hips.
"Geez, I try to be nice and come to her house." She muttered, a bit frustrated. "Oh well, I'm done wasting my time at a dinky empty house. Time to go ba---"
She suddenly stops in her tracks when from the corner of her eye she saw something was hanging around the wooden beams.
"Ooooooo~! Dried persimmons!" Kaguya quickly went over to the dozens of dried fruit that were hanging by a thin rope. Considering the texture and the way they looked, it seems the hanging persimmons are ready to be taken off and eaten. The lunar princess smiled cheekily.
"Don't mind if I do~." She snatches one off of the wooden beams. Sitting on the ledge, she took a clean bite out of it, her tongue assaulted by the sweet flavor. It didn't take her long to finish one and to quickly "Yoink!" another one to consume.
After finishing her third fruit she was about to grab another generous dried fruit until a sudden thought occurred to her. Words coming from Eirin suddenly echoed into her mind.
"You shouldn't eat more than three at a time."
Her hand retracts a bit, groaning reluctantly. But it's been such a long time since she's gotten to eat some dried persimmons! The carefree lunar princess lapses into deep thought, thinking whether to follow her friend/caretaker's advice or to follow her own gluttony. After several moments of contemplating, her answer was:
"...Bah! Screw it! I'm immortal anyways!"
"Yes, you are."
Suddenly, a pellet of danmaku struck her in the back mercilessly. With a loud grunt, she turned around to see none other than the owner of the said home.
"Oh, hi." The Lunarian greeted casually.
"Don't 'hi' me, princess. Is Eirin not feeding you enough that you took the time to break into my house to eat MY food?" Fujiwara no Mokou said, her arms crossed against her torso.
"For the record, you DID leave them defenseless from any would-be thieves. I'm just protecting them in my stomach."
"Cut the crap." She scoffed. "Why did you even come here in the first place anyway? Because if you're just here to eat my persimmons then you better damn leave. A snob NEET like you wouldn't know the patience of waiting for these fruits to dry."
"I'm sorry but a woman that is the embodiment of piping hot fire is trying to lecture me about patience?" Kaguya retorted, covering her smirk with her sleeved hand. "Aren't you a walking hypocrite."
"...Get the hell out of my house before I rip your throat and shove it inside your mouth."
"See? One simple taunt and you're on the verge of trying to murder me." Said the lunar princess before she was suddenly strangled by her nemesis' hands.
"You know, it's pretty normal to be angry at random crooks who come into your house and start eating food that you've waited for weeks, WEEKS to dry." Mokou growled, the air around her starting to combust into little embers of flames.
"Aww... is the itty bitsy Mwokou... angwy~?" Kaguya croaked in between being chocked, her hands slithering to her enemy's stomach until the palms of her hands began to glow. Releasing a laser of danmaku, it punctured through Mokou's stomach and dorsal and through the roof of her house. Red liquid shoots through her mouth.
The white-haired woman staggered backward, releasing her hold and covering her wound from spilling her guts into the floorboards below. Kaguya's laughs reached her ears.
"Because I heard that a danmaku shot through the stomach is a quick solution~." She finished her sentence but Mokou could only respond in coughs and grunts as she sustained the pain.
"But," Kaguya spoke again. "in all seriousness, I didn't come here to just pillage your food supply. I've got a question to aUGH!!"
The Lunarian grunted when the firey woman had suddenly returned the favor by piercing her stomach with a flaming fist. Blood spurts onto her pure white hair as Mokou used every ounce of her strength to shove the now bleeding lunar princess onto the grass aside.
Leaning onto the wooden pillar for support while covering the hole in her abdomen that had started to regenerate, Mokou looked at the currently croaking princess in pain. "How's that... for size..!"
"Not... bad..." Her Lunarian blood and guts were spilling all over Mokou's backyard. "But did you... see this coming?!"
[Divine Treasure "Budd--]
BANG!!
A brief yet effective explosion occurred, not allowing Kaguya to activate her spell card properly as it launched her several meters away. From the smoke, a fully-healed Mokou approached the burnt and comically twitching lunar princess on the grass.
"Oi, don't try to use one of your fancy spell cards in my backyard. My house is not like Eientei, I have to fix any collateral damage myself instead of your convenient powers." She growled before taking a glance at her own home.
She held in a sigh when her red eyes saw the pool of red seeping into the crevices of her floor and dripping onto another puddle of blood that was on the grass with bits of her own fleshy organs as well. God willing how she's going to clean all of that up before it could dry and stink her whole house in sulfur. Not to mention the gaping hole in her roof. Kaguya really has outdone herself this time.
After fully recovering herself as well, Kaguya pushed herself off of the ground-- only to get yanked by the collar by her immortal nemesis.
"So," She scowled. "you've got ten seconds to ask whatever the hell was your question before I turn you into fresh barbeque."
"Ahahahahaha... Well, considering that this all turned out this way." She blasted a pellet of danmaku into the ground, causing dust to fly up into the air that obscured Mokou's vision. In her blindness, Kaguya managed to shove Mokou off of her and fly up into the cloudy skies.
She unleashed wave after wave of danmaku at where her nemesis was, proving to be futile as a pair of wings held together by an eternal fire launched the injured woman out of the dark cloud of dust and started retaliating with her own shots of flames as well. The Lunarian wears a wide smile.
"Then we may as well fight!"
[Divine Treasure "Life Spring Infinity"]
[Undying "Fire Bird -Feng Wing Ascension-"]
And so the two fought once again in the plane sky of Gensokyo, Kaguya soon abandoning the thought of asking Mokou about her first love being her Lunarian friend.
---
As per manners when there is a guest in your house, Keine poured some tea for the man she had invited in for a 'chat'. The historian could see that he felt a bit nervous given that his hand on the table was rubbing against themselves until they went over to receive the mug filled with the warm beverage.
"Thank you, Keine." He said after being awkwardly silent. "Although, I'd rather we both cut to the chase. I'm a bit busy today."
"Busy, huh... And what is it you're busy with?" Keine decided to prod.
"That's private." He replied quickly and defensively.
"Hmm, I see." The half-beast murmured. "Alright, I'm going to ask you a couple of questions. I promise you, it won't be long."
"Must be important if you were willing to drag me by the ear through the village." He remarked. Keine cleared her throat.
"I got too wallowed up in my emotions. I was being inexcusable so please forgive me."
"Well, I'm not exactly angry. More or less, just confused." He smiled politely. "So, you can stop apologizing."
The historian briefly laughed half-heartedly before exhaling. "Either way..."
"Go on."
"Let's start with something recent, how do you know the Yakumo's?" Her interrogation now began. "I know Ran is very mild-mannered and polite but the two of you seem closer."
"Ah, that? I can understand your reasonable curiosity." He said. "In truth, I've known the old-fox for maybe... decades? a century? I haven't been keeping track."
"Wait, a century?" Keine questioned, raising a brow. At this, Hanzou chuckled a little.
"Ahahaha... I know I should've told you earlier but I'm a hermit." He admitted lightheartedly.
"You're a hermit?"
"Yes, I lived in Youkai Mountain prior to returning back here in the village. You must've been suspicious of that in case I was a youkai under the guise of a normal human but really, it's nothing of that sort." He said. Although the historian was a bit taken aback, she wasn't too surprised.
As far as Keine has read and heard, hermits are beings bestowed with supernatural abilities through religious training. These people are biologically immortal. They may live for thousands and thousands of years but they can still die by natural or accidental means.
Although those who choose to become hermits can achieve pseudo-immortality or even possibly ascend to heaven and become a celestial if, given the chance, it does come with its own risks as well. The hermit must vigorously continue their training or else they won't be able to fend off the assassin sent from hell and be dragged into their fiery demise for extending their life span.
Not to mention that hermits are considered a delicacy; an animal that eats its flesh will become a youkai while a youkai who does so will ascend to a higher rank or form. So, logically, many youkai would hunt these hermits to consume their flesh. And, of course, the hermits have their ways to fend for themselves as well.
But Keine had questions.
"Alright, I suppose that makes sense by why would you suddenly take residence in the human village?" She asked, still suspicious.
"I wanted to reassimilate into human society for a short while after being isolated for a long, long time. Don't worry, I won't stay for long. Months at most." He answered before drinking the tea out of his mug. Keine quietly hummed in response.
She was getting concrete answers but she still had more to ask. Suddenly, the man stood up after finishing his beverage.
"Keine, I apologize but that's all the time I can spare at the moment."
"Hold on, I still have a lot more to ask." She instinctively stood up as well.
"I know, I promise that we'll chat some other time but I really have to go." And without warning, he quickly started walking to the door and slides it open, revealing the exterior corridor and the half-beast's backyard. Keine swiftly followed but as soon as he turned the corner and left her eyesight, he was mysteriously gone.
The historian stood outside, flabbergasted and confused. "He vanished again? Is this some sort of hermit sorcery that I don't know?"
She let out a deep sigh, placing one hand on her forehead. Although she was frustrated, she decided to look at the bright side. She did get some answers at least so it wasn't all in vain. She was getting somewhere with that alleged hermit.
She should take a well-deserved break...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, erm, hi. It's been a while. I know some of you have been waiting--
ONE MONTH OF HIATUS!!!
Ahahahahahahhahaa... I know I've been slacking very terribly, got smacked around, thrown off a cliff by the villain called "Writer's Block" but, uh...
Yeah, I have no excuse to throw at you. So here I am, on my knees, to say one thing.
I AM VERY SOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRYYYYYY!!!!