The raven on the perch gave Yuugi a solemn, knowing look with its beady red eyes, then raised its head and cawed. Its tone struck her as derisive.
She straightened her back and ignored the bird in favour of its owner, who was seated a few feet away from her and whose eyes were narrowed on a long scroll unfurled on her lap.
Well, two of her eyes were. The third eye of Satori Komeiji, mistress of the Palace of Earth Spirits, affixed over her heart by a series of veins, rotated its gaze between every living creature in the room, from the raven to the pair of cats dozing languidly on the mosaic floor of the hall, then to the window into the inner courtyard where even more animals were spending a relaxed afternoon typical to their simple lives.
Whenever the gaze brushed across her, Yuugi kept her expression level. Not that it made the slightest difference.
Since her previous visit, Satori had had her hair hewn to chin height. It was a common look among oni, but curious on a satori, contrasting with the fine flower-patterned silks she wore. Still, it suited her.
"Thank you," said Satori without raising her gaze from the scroll.
Yuugi stiffened and reminded herself that her thoughts weren't her own. Of course, attempting to not think of something only made those thoughts more prominent and easier to pluck from her mind, but she could focus her thoughts on matters at hand, shortening the encounter.
Satori read this very desire the moment it crossed her mind, of course, and to her credit acknowledged Yuugi's wish. With a heavy sigh, she turned her two two normal eyes towards Yuugi. "That sounds like a serious complication. Can you give me the details?"
To someone who had never given a report to a satori before, this would have likely come as an invitation to speak. As it were, Yuugi folded her arms and did her best to move the relevant memories to the forefront of her mind.
Important though it was, she grimaced as she recalled what had happened. Her troops had found her where she had fallen several hours later. Parsee was long gone, and her wound had already healed on its own — if it had ever been real and not some mirage much like the Parsee she had known had proven to be.
She had sent her people after her, of course. The bridge princess was volatile and dangerous, and thus likely to send more visitors to Hell to their premature doom. If she couldn't be reasoned with, she could at least be captured or chased away. It had been with that in mind that she had sent her best sentries into the endless twisty passageways and narrow tunnels between the bridge and Hell proper.
Of the six groups, five had returned without so much as a sighting of the outlaw. The sixth failed to come back.
It was only several days after they were supposed to meet up with Yuugi, a whole day after she had sent a search party after them, that Makoto, one of the three, had stumbled back, alone, covered in dust, and incandescent with rage. Without warning, she had unleashed herself on her allies, pummelling both of the oni that had been with Yuugi at the time to the ground before being subdued.
It was only several hours and countless stiff drinks later that her inexplicable rage began to quell and she could give a report of what had happened. They had indeed discovered Parsee and attempted to catch her. No, the bridge princess hadn't attacked; she had fled at the sight of them, and kept eluding them for hours to an end. They would have caught her eventually, surely, but then things got weird: her two companions, Kanna and Touko, rivals in strength but usually great friends, had started hissing at each other about how they resented them for being more powerful. It had ultimately come to blows, and though Makoto could have stopped it, she felt a strange haze holding her back, the same haze that had made her want to attack Yuugi and the others. They were possibly still out there somewhere, but from what she had seen, it was more likely they had killed one another or fallen into the chasm.
At that point, it had been obvious to Yuugi what had happened, but how it had happened troubled her. Parsee hadn't even come close to them, Makoto insisted, and the few words she spoke between running away, with one exception of harshly telling them to keep their distance, had been mundane and even pleasant. Not once had she done anything that could be construed as an attack. From that, Yuugi had to conclude Parsee's newfound powers were a threat to anyone who approached her whether she intended them as such or not. The damage she could cause if she wandered into a populated area was nearly unthinkable.
But then, would she? Now that every oni in Hell was alerted to the danger, if she ever returned to the capital, they'd have her subdued before her poison could take effect. The real danger was if she decided to return above ground and walk amidst people who neither knew who she was nor had the strength to immediately knock her out. However...
Satori interrupted her thoughts. "How likely is it for you to catch her without casualties while she is avoiding you?"
"As likely as a fairy beating an enma." What they were facing was the kind of treachery oni loathed the most, specifically because it was so difficult to combat through their means. Parsee was light on her feet and could hide just about anywhere, and if she could infect Yuugi's crew from a distance, they had already lost. As long as the bridge princess dictated the terms of the encounter, all they could do was to wait for a day when she was willing to fight fairly and out in the open.
The raven cawed, nudging its beak against its perch as if to check if it were edible. Yuugi took the distraction as an opportunity to allow her thoughts to drift towards their surroundings. Despite the vastness and relative emptiness of the Palace of Earth Spirits, the warm glow that filtered through the stained glass windows and the lamp by Satori's side nevertheless created a sense of gentle calm, which made the place feel more like a home than any other official Ministry building. It wasn't Yuugi's idea of comfort, but she couldn't deny the palace's soothing atmosphere. The army of contented animals prowling about clearly appreciated it, anyhow.
All three of Satori's eyes were on her as she thought this, gleaning the remaining details of the situation from her skull as readily as she had read the scroll.
"If that is the case, this came right on time." Speaking of the scroll, she nodded towards it. After a pause, after which she remembered she was speaking to an oni and not a fellow satori, she picked it up and held it out towards Yuugi. "The Ten Kings have come to a decision. Hell is to be relocated."
Yuugi took the scroll and squinted at the elaborate calligraphy.
"It's not surprising, no." Satori replied to her unuttered thoughts. "There have been murmurs of inevitable overcrowding for two centuries now." She halted with a vague smile, evidently reading from Yuugi's mind that she was perfectly aware of the situation, working on the field and all. She moved on to answer her genuine questions. "They haven't decided where, exactly, but I assume they'll craft another realm modelled after this one. You're expected to help with relocating the residents, after which you can either follow them to the new Hell, or," she quirked her eyebrow, "you can take advantage of the offer written in there."
Yuugi rushed through the text till she found what Satori spoke of. As thanks for their long and excellent service, The Ministry of Right and Wrong was ready to leave rule of the Capital of Hell to any of its current workers who didn't wish to relocate and continue their jobs in the new Hell, though with the understanding the location would be permanently sealed underground to avoid any accidents.
She lowered the scroll. "This is..."
"Unprecedented, yes." The faintest smile crossed her face as she read the question on Yuugi's mind. "I will remain here. They were looking for someone from the administration to stay and ensure the maintenance of this area. Upon learning I was their first choice, I saw no reason to refuse."
That stood for reason. Surely it was more comfortable for Satori to stay in her ancestral home. Not to mention what a pain it would be to relocate all the cats.
"Indeed." Satori extended her hand to receive the scroll the moment Yuugi felt she had read all she wished to. "The bridge will be closed, of course. Since you think Miss Mizuhashi is unlikely to attack anyone who doesn't disturb her and hunting her down would lead to deaths, the safest thing to do is to leave her exactly where she is. Assuming she doesn't escape above ground before the sealing, that is."
"She won't." It was as unnecessary to say that out loud as it was to say anything around Satori, but Yuugi wished to emphasise the point. Even if everything she had known about Parsee had proven to be false, this one thing she would stake her life on; returning above ground would require bravery, and Parsee was nothing if not an abject coward. After all, hadn't she ignored the perfect opportunity to slay Yuugi while she lay unconscious? It couldn't have been a matter of honour, not from a creature who hadn't understood it even at the best of times, and so the only other possible reason was fear of vengeance.
Satori nodded. "Then do as you will." She stood up and walked over to the raven, gently stroking its head as the bird leaned into her touch. "The relocation will begin in a month. Plenty of time to make a decision."
Why she said that when they both knew Yuugi had already made her mind, she'd never know.
"I'll be off, then." She wished to tell her people the news as soon as possible, Many would stay: though the work wasn't bad, she knew many preferred the kind of carefree existence they had enjoyed before the tengu had driven them from the mountains.
She could already picture the future: they would renovate the capital from top to bottom and fill the streets with lanterns to make up for the lack of starlight. Every night, they could drink and wrestle and celebrate, bask in the subterranean hot springs, and test their mettle in a hundred different ways. Glory and honour reclaimed alongside joy.
For the first time in weeks, she felt like smiling.
She gave only a curt bow to Satori. Overt politeness was falsehood in the first place, and she could read her genuine feelings regardless.
Satori nodded back, with a curious tight smile that was at odds with her usual heavy-lidded gaze. Then, as soon as she turned to leave, she spoke up. "Yuugi."
She turned back. "What is it?"
"I'm sorry for your loss."
Yuugi had already opened her mouth in kind of a snarl, ready to demand how Satori was supposed to know anything about her situation, how reading her mind was nothing like actually feeling her thoughts, the way they tore into her flesh if she gave them the slightest foothold and flowed through her veins to invade every part of her body till she thought her heart would rip itself right out of her chest.
Her anger dissipated, however, as she saw Satori was looking elsewhere. Her eyes were on an elegant chair, identical to the one she herself was sitting on, standing in the darkest corner of the hall. Based on the heavy layer of dust covering it, even the animals avoided it.
Yuugi swallowed her words and turned away.
The raven's gleaming eyes followed her the entire way to the door.