The summer was strange.
Of course, saying that something was strange in Gensokyo was like saying that water was wet. Something phenomenally odd had happened at least once every two years as far back as Rie could remember, and though she had spent all her nine years within the walls of the Human Village, she had heard enough of the world beyond the Great Hakurei Barrier to know incidents out there were rather different from the ones she was used to.
In any case, she quickly forgot such musings as she blazed down the street, ignoring the curious on-lookers and instead focusing on using her ability to suppress the sound of her footsteps. The gift of silencing her movements the gods of luck had bestowed upon her at birth was a meagre one, but if it helped her maintain her title as the Hide-And-Seek Queen, she wasn't going to complain.
As she ran past the flower shop, she spotted an excellent hiding spot: someone had left a huge barrel in the wedge-like alley between the shop and the bar, with just enough room for her to squeeze herself next to it and crouch either behind it, or, if she managed the climb, inside it. She dived right in, sucking in her stomach and holding her arms glued to her sides, and though the barrel turned out to be full of fish bones she didn't feel like mingling with, she managed to make her way past it and made herself as small as possible. Ryuunosuke had his work cut out to find her.
As she settled down for a long wait, she heard arguing voices approaching. A group of angry grown-ups had exited the bar and halted just before the alley Rie was hiding in.
Rie's shoulders rose to her ears. Though it was nice to have some extra camouflage, and whatever they were fighting about was unlikely to have anything to do with her, there was always a chance they had spotted her entering the alley and had at the same time finally figured out who had painted stripes on the dragon statue just before New Year.
However, it quickly became clear the grown-ups were upset over a more recent incident.
"Armyworms in one field and mole crickets in another! At this rate, if we can't save more of the harvest, we'll starve to death come winter!"
"It's not that dire yet."
"Not that dire?! And what of the eastern storage? Half the grain lying on the floor, and the rest scattered who knows where!"
Rie suppressed a sigh. Of course they were talking about the bug problem. It was the only thing any of them could speak of anymore. Even her mother, when handing over Rie's breakfast bowl, had warned her with a dark look that she ought not to waste it, because there was no way of knowing if there'd be any rice at all the same time next year.
"It's serious, of course, but I don't see how it's related." A third grown-up, with a haughty voice, sniffed. "It sounds more like a prank by some very ill-mannered children."
"A prank beyond the pale," another villager whined. "I had to spend the whole morning rearranging my wares."
"Whichever kids are responsible for this are going to have their hides tanned when I catch them!" A new voice growled.
Rie retreated deeper into the shadows.
"Don't be a fool. This is the work of youkai. Youkai!"
"Youkai or not, this is really turning from a nuisance to an incident," the second grown-up Rie had heard speak said in a thoughtful voice. "Why won't the Hakurei do something?"
A new speaker snorted. "You expect the Hakurei Shrine Maiden to do something? Please. If you actually want some divine assistance these days, you're better off visiting the Moriya Shrine." His voice turned dreamy. "The shrine maiden there is a real beauty. Nothing like that dull-eyed Hakurei."
"Leave it to you to grade shrines based on the attractiveness of the shrine maidens," commented a familiar voice. "If you want real assistance, you ought to go the the Myouren Temple. They really listen to you there."
"That nest of youkai? Forget about it! I'd rather eat my own arm than negotiate with them. Especially when I can go and speak to Toyosatomimi no Miko and her crew. They actually care about humans, unlike the rest of them."
"You have obviously never visited the Myouren Temple," said the previous speaker, her voice dripping with ice. "If you had, you'd know they care for all living beings. They're sure to sort this thing right away." Suddenly, she raised her voice. "Rie!"
Rie wished to vanish into the shadows, but there was nothing to it, now, and so she got up and pushed her way to the other side of the barrel. How could her mother always tell where she was?
She shuffled over to where her mother was standing while the other grown-ups stared at her. "Yes, Mother?"
"Go to your aunt and tell her you're spending the night at her house. I will go and ask for assistance at the Myouren Temple." She turned to glare at the other members of her little circle. "If anyone here believes there's a better course of action, they should feel free to take it."
Without further ado, she turned around and strode away with her chin held up high. Sometimes, Rie wondered if her mother had been a queen in a previous life.
The other adults had fallen into a sombre silence at her departure. A couple glared at Rie, like she was responsible for her mother's words, but most simply ignored her.
Rie ignored them right back, lost in thought. She didn't like staying at her aunt's: she was friendly enough and fun during brief visits, offering Rie tea and cakes like she would to a grown-up, but she was a stickler for cleanliness. She'd make Rie was wash behind the ears and scrub her from head to toe herself if she wasn't satisfied with her efforts. And for all that, her spare futon smelled like rot.
Rie shuddered. Myouren Temple wasn't even far. Why did her mother always have to stay there overnight whenever she went there? Sleeping in a building teeming with youkai was just asking for trouble, even if her mother insisted they were courteous people who would never eat a human.
Before she could think of an explanation, someone slapped her on the back. She whirred around to see Ryuunosuke, his scruffy hair even more dishevelled than usual, with a victorious smile so wide that if it wereany bigger it would have split his face.
"Found you!" he exclaimed.
The grown-ups, who had reformed their circle to exclude Rie while she had been lost in thought, turned their heads to glare daggers at him.
Rie ignored them and gave Ryuunosuke her best irritated sneer. "I'm not even hiding!"
"Too bad for you! The rules of the game say you have to stay hidden until you're found or the seeker gives up." Ryuunosuke crossed his arms, still grinning. "You lose."
Rie swallowed the rebuttal on her tongue; it would have to wait until they were away from the grown-ups.
Regardless, the remaining grown-ups were still all eyes, giving the two of them a look one would more commonly give to weevils. Rie wasn't sure which one of them had suspected kids for sacking the eastern storage, but now each of their faces said that while youkai were the most likely culprit, no-one was above suspicion until the case was cleared.
"Ready for another round, loser?" Ryuunosuke asked, clearly sensing the shift in atmosphere. He began jogging back towards the school building before waiting for her response, then pulled at his eyelid and held out his tongue.
"Knucklehead." Rie ran after him and emphasised her words by punching his shoulder, but her mind was elsewhere. If her mother had asked her to tell Aunt Michiko she was staying there overnight, her aunt didn't actually know about it yet. So, as long as Rie kept mum, nothing was stopping her from staying home and having the house entirely to herself that night. Sure, there'd be words if her mother ever found out, but that was a problem for another day, and till then, she could do as she pleased. She could cook for herself and stay up the whole night! She could even...
She slowed down as her line of thought moved to new waters. If no-one was there to stop her, who said she had to stay home? She could even go to the fields and catch the culprit behind the recent crop failures herself! The chief had appointed guards after the storage incident, but she and her classmates had found a kid-sized hole in the village walls ages ago, and if she succeeded, it wouldn't even matter if she got caught afterwards. She'd be a hero!
There was a tingling sensation at the back of her neck, but it wasn't one of thrill. Rather, she felt someone watching her.
She looked around, but saw nothing amiss. A couple of shopkeepers who hadn't been a part of the argument were chatting by the teashop, and Teacher Keine was lecturing a pair of her classmates just within earshot.
Maybe it was nothing?
Before she could convince herself either way, Ryuunosuke shoved at her arm. "Wake up! You're not gonna reclaim your title by dozing off like that."
"Reclaim?" Rie asked incredulously, but Ryuunosuke was already running away laughing.
She ran after him. It was still hours till twilight, after all. "Just you wait! I'll always be the Hide-and-Seek Queen, and I'm gonna show you why!"
The waxing moon shone brightly from above as Rie crept along the wooden wall of the village, as silent as a cat youkai. It was hours past her usual bedtime, but she had never been more awake.
The shoddy part of the wall wasn't too far from one of the food storages, and when she reached it, she made sure to stay in the shadows. There was only one guard, pale in the lantern light and looking more sleepy than intimidating even with a spear in hand. He yawned, and Rie couldn't really blame him: though the loss of food was the first direct attack on the human village during her lifetime — assuming it was one, anyway — it must have been awfully dull sitting there all alone when everyone else was either sleeping or at the bar.
Well, it was no concern of Rie's. She sneaked by as the guard let out another mighty yawn, then tucked herself away behind a maple tree. From there, it was clear sailing to the hole in the wall.
It wasn't really surprising to her none of the grown-ups had found it yet: only one pillar had rotted through, and only at the bottom, held in place by intact pillars around it and covered by grass and hay to boot. As she wriggled through it, she wondered if the culprit had found its way into the village through it, too. She should probably warn the grown-ups about it, but that could wait till tomorrow. First, it was time to investigate.
The outside world looked different wreathed in night. Rie rarely strayed far from the walls, anyway: apart from visiting the fields a couple of times, the most she usually did was compete with the other kids to see who dared to run the closest to the lone cherry tree standing on the meadow towards a nearby forest, now starkly black against the dark blue sky. Several times, Rie had ran all the way over and touched the trunk, but that was the furthest she had ever been from the village alone.
Well, that was about to change, wasn't it?
She gathered up her courage and looked around. Where to start?
It was only then that she noticed the cavalcade of insects crawling at her feet, just barely visible now that her eyes were adjusting to the dark. They came forward from the meadow in a single black line, then split apart just inches before her feet, only to join up again after passing her by. Slowly, they made their way through the hole and into the village.
Rie stared. She had never seen so many different kinds of bugs — centipedes, worms, pillbugs, even a couple of massive cockroaches — all at once, let alone working together. Though she had never feared insects, something inside her shook at the sight.
At the same time, she understood how lucky she was. Wherever the bugs came from had to be where the culprit of the current incident was, and if she followed the line back to its point of origin, she'd capture the bad guy red-handed!
Flush with fresh excitement, she stepped over the insects and began following the stream of bugs towards the source.
Just then, someone screamed behind her. If she had to guess, the cavalcade of bugs had reached the drowsy guard.
She hurried onwards.
The river of bugs came to an end as soon as she reached the outskirts of the forest. She looked on as the last of the bugs scurried to the village and gave them silent thanks. They had brought her far enough.
The woods were darker than the meadow had been, and silent but for the distant cries of nightbirds. At first, the murkiness of her surroundings made her fidgety, but as moments ticked by with nothing bad happening, it became easier to breathe again. She waded into the undergrowth, pushing saplings and ferns aside, deciding to simply walk ahead till she found something of interest.
As soon as she thought that, she stepped on something with a sickening crunch.
She froze, then raised her foot to reveal a large pillbug that had been crushed under her sandal. Its body was broken and its legs flailed feebly in the air.
She grimaced and moved on.
The further she went, more bugs emerged, first in ones and twos, but it wasn't long till an entire army of worms made its way past her, wriggling like the tentacles of an octopus. She stared in awe. Imagine if she had brought Ryuunosuke along! They could have harvested enough worms for an entire year's worth of pranks.
Still, she ignored the impulse to grab some of them and kept going. She was on a mission, after all, and something told her she was closing in on the source of all the bugs.
She had just finished thinking that when she saw lights ahead, partially obscured by tree trunks. They were soft and beyond numerous, and if it hadn't been for the orange glow among them, she would have immediately pegged them for firefly lights, even if she had never seen so many fireflies in one place. As it was, she approached gingerly, double-checking to make sure her ability was working as intended on every other step.
Finally, she got close enough to the clearing see what was going on, and immediately hid herself behind a nearby maple tree.
The lights, which she could now see was indeed created by hundreds upon hundreds of fireflies, showed the air of the clearing was thick with insects of all kinds; spindly critters with gossamer wings, flies both black and metallic, sparkling dragonflies; moths and butterflies spotted the trees, brown and yellow and mottled and every kind of colour Rie had ever seen, joined by small ladybugs and even smaller mosquitoes. The ground was equally packed, with maggots and larvae crawling everywhere between the stones and leaves. The droning of the insects was almost deafening.
In the centre of all this stood a green-haired girl, perhaps a few years older than Rie, dressed like a boy and wearing a black cape shaped like an insect's wings. Rie vaguely remembered seeing her at summer fairs, and as the girl turned so that she could see her profile, she spotted a pair of antennae growing from her head, black and bendy. She swallowed.
Curiously, not all light came from the fireflies. In front of the youkai's feet, in a small circle stripped clean of all plants and leave, stood a single plain candle, its faint flame flickering in the night air.
The youkai had her eyes closed and her hands clasped together, like in prayer. As Rie watched, she let out a long, profound sigh, like a spirit leaving her body.
She opened her eyes.
"I know."
The youkai straightened her stance and turned her head in a way which allowed Rie to see the entirety of her face. The candlelight was reflected as will-o'-the-wisps in her eyes.
"They must be running for the hills, huh?" For a short, heart-stopping moment, Rie thought the youkai spoke to her, but before she could back away and thus reveal herself, she noticed the youkai's attention was instead on a large moth fluttering next to her.
The moth made some elaborate circles in the air, then fluttered to hover by the flame. The youkai nodded and put her hands in pockets.
"Good." The youkai's expression darkened. For a moment, she looked much older, even older than Rie's grandparents. "They should be."
She raised her head. For a moment, her eyes brushed close to where Rie was hiding. Rie's heart jumped again, but the youkai seemed none the wiser, and with a twirl of her cape turned and crouched down by the flame.
Her pulse still pounding in her ears, Rie leaned away from the shadow of the tree for a better view. Something about the way the youkai sat all hunched up made her look less dangerous and more like any other kid.
"They're all gonna pay," the youkai hissed. "All of them. And then no-one will ever trample on you again, or swat at you, or..." Her breath hitched. "Use... that thing..."
To her amazement, Rie realised the youkai was sobbing.
She stared in amazement. Her heart, till then held back by apprehension, was filled with sudden compassion for this supernatural creature. Clearly she couldn't be too different from a human if she could cry.
The youkai angrily wiped her eyes, then stood back up. "It won't matter after tomorrow. Because tomorrow will be the last day of humanity."
Rie stiffened.
"That's right!" The youkai was grinning now despite her red-rimmed eyes, eyeing the army of bugs like a general preparing her troops for battle. "We'll destroy them for good, and they you can live there in peace and eat everything they've left behind! It'll be a new paradise!"
The droning grew so loud Rie wouldn't have been surprised to learn it reached all the way to Heaven.
Just then, a small, black moth with a red head suddenly flew right by her ear. It made a beeline for the youkai and fluttered by her ear.
The youkai spun around, staring straight at Rie.
"Human!" She yelled, pointing an accusing finger at her.
Though frozen in place by shock, Rie was less terrified than she had expected to be. The look of indignation on the youkai's face was identical to the one Ryuunosuke sported whenever he failed to find Rie's hiding spot before nightfall.
Summoning all her courage, she stepped towards the light. Maybe she could calm the youkai down by talking like she did with Ryuunosuke, too? "I am. Got a problem with it?"
The youkai gave her an ugly look, but didn't move to attack her. Rie decided to take it as a promising sign. "This is my turf, not yours. Shove off."
Rie folded her arms, hoping it would give her a look of confidence she didn't at all feel. "I can't if you keep messing with our grain. The grown-ups are blaming me and my friends for it, you know."
The youkai pulled a face. "Serves you right. I won't matter after tomorrow, anyway."
She turned towards the insects after that, as if Rie was less interesting than an armyworm.
Time for another approach. "What's your name?"
The youkai continued to look away. "Wriggle Nightbug. What's it to you?"
"I want to know who I'm addressing, that's all." Rie walked ever forward until she was mere two feet away from Wriggle. "Why are you sending bugs after us, anyway? We haven't done anything to you."
"You haven't done..." Wriggle's shoulder stiffened. She whirled back around, her eyes aflame and her mouth twisted into a snarl. "Tell me, how many bugs have you squashed just this week? No point pretending you haven't, 'cause you totally have!"
"Huh?" Rie's mind flashed to the pillbug she had accidentally crushed earlier that night. "I— I don't know."
"Exactly." Was it her imagination, or did Wriggle's eyes glow? "You lot stomp around kill bugs all day long, and no-one bats an eye. Who gave you the right?"
Rie blinked, shock giving way to indignation. Bug youkai or not, Wriggle's rage seemed way out of proportion. "Look, it's just bugs, right? There's a million of them, and they only live for a couple of weeks."
"Right. There's lots of them, and their lives are short." Wriggle's voice was dangerously low. "That also describes humans, you know."
Rie took a step backwards.
Wriggle snapped her fingers. Before Rie could take another step, her way out was cut off by a drove of insects so thick they seemed like one solid mass than a cloud of separate entities.
"You arrogant humans, thinking your lives are worth more than anyone else's are." Wriggle took a threatening step forward, her words barely audible over the bugs buzzing so close to Rie's ears. "Who gave you the right to cut so many lives short? How many times have you killed a mosquito without giving it another thought? Enough!" She growled, revealing sharp teeth no normal insect had ever possessed. "It's time insects took back what belongs to them! We pollinate the crops, so why shouldn't we eat them, too? Why should a human life have more value than that of the insect? You're all the same to us!"
Rie could only back away half a step without risking colliding with the wall of insects. "Wait..."
"Why should I? The last time you squished a fly, did you stop to think if she had a family?" Wriggle tilted her chin upwards. "I've changed my mind. Why should we wait until tomorrow? We're taking the village tonight." Her eyes flashed. "And as for our revenge... we're starting with you."
Even more insects appeared, blotting out the moon. Panicked, Rie looked for an escape route, but wherever she turned her gaze, another pack of bugs blocked the way. The only other thing she saw except the endless army of constantly-moving black shapes was Wriggle, staring at her face with an uncertain, but rapidly growing smile.
"That's enough, Wriggle."
The wall of insects fell down to where Rie could see around herself once more, lowering and turning into a whirlwind around her knee level rather than encapsulating her. She probably could have jumped over it, but instead she spun around in the direction of the newcomer. The voice was awfully familiar, one which she heard almost every day of her life, but why would she be there?
But it was indeed Teacher Keine, holding out a spell card and flanked by a mesh of blue lasers. The light of her spell made it look like she herself glowed, as bright as the sun and moon put together.
Wriggle glared at her, unperturbed by the light. "What do you want?"
To Rie's surprise, Keine allowed her hand to drop. The spell dissipated, leaving nothing but candlelight and fireflies to light up the woods.
Rie blinked to readjust to the darkness. The smile Keine wore as she looked at Wriggle was the same one she used in class after she had asked a question and half the class raised their hands. "I'm glad to see you're well."
Rie's eyes darted towards Wriggle. Surely her teacher wasn't friends with youkai?
Wriggle's sneer suggested they were not. "What is it to you? Anyway, don't butt in."
Before Rie had time to think about just how little it turned out she knew about her teacher, Keine folded her arms, just like she did in class when someone in the back wouldn't stop making noise and was only moments away from being head-butted. "This girl is one of my students, and therefore under my protection. Moreover, as you well know, you're to leave the villagers alone."
Wriggle kept scowling, but Rie noticed she had taken a step back. "So what? Just because you treat insects with respect doesn't mean I owe you anything. If anything, you should've taught her not to trample on us!"
To Rie's shock, Keine bowed her head. "Yes, her ignorance is my shame." Just as Wriggle flashed a victorious, if bitter smile, she raised her head, as unmoved as steel. "But do you truly wish to compound my error by making a far more grievous one of your own? Have you forgotten the spell card agreement?"
Wriggle began to wriggle.
"I assume you haven't, then. I'm sure the Hakurei Shrine Maiden will be very interested to hear that you attacked a village resident with your true powers."
This struck Rie as a strange move. The Hakurei Shrine Maiden was a friend to youkai, wasn't she? Why would she care? Somehow, however, Keine's words deflated Wriggle. She stood with her head hanging low, much like Rie had done the week before when Keine had scolded her for neglecting her reading.
"I just want justice," the youkai finally hissed, her hands curling into fists.
Keine sighed. "I understand. I will teach the children to leave insects alone from now on, and do what I can with the adults. As for what has already come to pass...we can negotiate reparations of some kind, assuming you're not satisfied with the damage you've done so far."
Wriggle didn't look satisfied with these promises, but after momentary consideration she gave a stiff nod. "Fine. But you'd better keep your word or I'm marching my armies in whether you call for Reimu or not."
"I will." Keine glanced in Rie's direction and added, "I must also insist you allow my student to leave these woods freely. You can rest assured she will be punished accordingly."
There was a wicked glint in Wriggle's eye. Rie almost liked her less now than when she had thought Wriggle would kill her. "Good." With another dramatic swish of her cape, she turned her back at them, blocking the candle from view. "Don't forget this night, brat."
"Who's a brat?!" Rie exclaimed before she could stop herself, but she did so to empty air: Wriggle had melted into the darkness.
The candle flickered and died out, revealing itself not to have been a real candle at all: the flame had been a cluster of fireflies, probably made to look more like fire through Wriggle's magic, which now dispersed into the night. The bugs around Rie's feet left too, scattering towards the trees. In a moment's time, only a few stragglers and Rie and Keine remained.
Keine sighed, tucking her spell cards away. "She always was a stubborn one."
"Teacher!" Ignoring propriety, Rie rushed over and hugged Keine, burying her head into her chest. "I'm so sorry!"
Keine sighed again, then placed a soothing hand on Rie's head. "At least you're safe." Her voice turned strict. "Why were you here in the first place? Haven't you been told to stay in the village enough times already?"
Surely she couldn't put Rie into detention when what she had done wrong hadn't happened in class? Still, one look at her teacher's face told her that even if she couldn't, she'd absolutely try. "I... I was worried about the village. I thought I could find the culprit and catch them and stop people from blaming my friends."
"And so you thought you'd wander off on your own in the dark without telling anyone, on a night close to a full moon, where you must have suspected you would encounter a youkai if you succeeded?"
"...I won't do it again." The severe look in Keine's eyes suggested detention was the least of her worries. By the looks of it, she'd go as far as to tell her mother, and if there was anyone who would mete out harsher penalties than Keine, well... "I promise, teacher."
Keine retracted her hand, but her angry look faded. "I suppose tonight has served as lesson enough. Do you now understand why we tell you to stay away from youkai? Even the weakest of their kind are dangerous."
"Yes, teacher." Rie's mind drifted to Wriggle before she had spotted her. "She wasn't what I thought youkai were like, though. She was crying."
Keine sighed yet again, softly this time. "Wouldn't you cry if someone killed your friends?"
After the stress of the night, the mere thought was enough to make Rie's eyes water. "I'll never kill bugs again."
"Perhaps that's for the best." Keine ruffled Rie's hair, her earlier severity replaced by tenderness. Rie had never been close with her, but in the moment, it felt a lot like being embraced by her mother.
"Um, teacher..." Though most of her just wanted to go home, something was still bugging her. "How did you know her?"
Keine let out an exhale that was close to but not quite another sigh, the kind of sound she made when someone in class gave the right answer but without enough detail. "This is far from the first time Wriggle Nightbug has decided to avenge her kin. It likely won't be the last, either. She has a short memory, but long grudges."
Rie blinked. "You mean..."
"I wasn't here only to take you back, no." Keine's eyes rose towards the skies and the pale moon above. "Miss Hakurei can't always be here for us. Sometimes, we have to guard our own fortunes."
For a while, Rie stared at her in amazement. Much like she had when wreathed by her laser, Keine suddenly looked so different from the dusty old teacher she was used to.
Keine finally turned back down to look at her with a thin smile. "I know you're a clever child, Rie, even if you don't always show it in class. I don't have to tell you to never wander off again."
Reluctantly, Rie nodded. She hesitated. "Not until I can help out, anyway."
For the first time she had ever seen, her teacher looked genuinely surprised. "You wish to guard the village?"
"Of course! I live there."
She half expected a rebuke, but Keine smiled the kind of smile she did when Rie gave a better than expected answer in class. "Walking the perimeter is rarely safe."
"I'm not—" She had almost declared she was no coward, but she had been afraid, hadn't she? She thought about something less obviously false to say. "I mean, it's important, right?"
Keine looked at her in silence, then shook her head. "You're much too young to act as a sentinel."
"I'll grow up!" She would have to learn to use spell cards first, of course, and how to interact with youkai like Keine did. "But I wanna make sure the village stays safe." That was what it all boiled down to in the end. "I mean, if humans can do it..."
Keine's smile returned, though only for a moment. She glanced up at the moon again.
"We'll see," she said at length. "In any case, it's time for you to go to bed. There's school tomorrow, isn't there?"
Usually, Rie cursed summer school, but she only managed a mumble as protest as Keine gently turned her towards the village and began leading her home. Now that the excitement was over, it was difficult for Rie to keep her eyes open. She stumbled across the path, relying on Keine's help to stay upright, longing for her cosy futon and fun dreams.
However, she wasn't too sleepy to make sure she didn't step on any bugs on the way.