The moon was still visible when they reached the surface, a pale looming shadow against a sky which could no longer be called entirely dark. None of those who had seen them off remained by the spring.
Tewi hopped at once further ahead and watched Mokou and Eirin clamber up. Once on solid ground, Mokou gently placed Rin on a nearby patch of grass. The kasha hadn't stirred once during the journey. Now, in the cool air, she reverted to human-like form, her eyelashes fluttering.
"You should secure her in place," said Eirin without once looking away from the corpse.
Mokou frowned. "With what? Why did we even take her with us?"
Meanwhile, Tewi jumped all too eagerly to the task, conjuring a length of silvery rope with an uncanny resemblance to Eirin's braid seemingly out of nowhere. As soon as she wrapped the rope around Rin's body in a manner that more suggested a fashion accessory than a restraint, the kasha practically leapt upright.
"Wha-" Her eyes widened as they flitted from Tewi to Mokou and finally Eirin. "Hey! The corpse is mine!"
"Then why do we have it?" Had Tewi smiled any more widely, her face would have split.
"Because you stole it!" Rin wriggled against her bonds. Mokou was relatively certain she could've torn them off with barely a thought. "Thieves!"
"I won't comment on the hypocrisy of that statement beyond what is necessary." Finally, Eirin glanced at Rin. "Natural to you or not, you stole the corpse from its rightful resting place. We were tasked with returning it. That is all there is to the matter."
"You think I'm gonna believe that? You just want it for yourself, sis. Anyone can see that."
"We're not going to keep it," Tewi declared before Mokou could confirm that she at least had every intention of returning the corpse to the river. "We're going to dress it up and sell it to the Hakurei Shrine as a goshintai."
Rin smiled with a considerable amount of teeth. "Doesn't matter anyway. You're all screwed."
Mokou leaned in. "How, exactly?"
"Ya really should leave corpses to the expert, sis." Rin was presumably addressing Mokou, but her eyes drifted to Eirin. "You think you're really smart and that this is some treasure you can just use as you please. That just means you're as blind as if Okuu had eaten your eyes."
She got up. The rope slid off her at once, forming a circle around her. "You know that corpse shouldn't exist, right? If you look at it for more than a sec, you can tell there's something wrong with it. If I had had the time to figure out how to burn it, I could've harnessed its power and everything would've been fine, but now..." She shook her head. "I can tell ya this much, sis. If you don't give it back to me or take it back to where it comes from, it's gonna destroy everyone who's ever touched it."
"I shall take your warning under advisement," said Eirin. She turned around and strode towards the path to Eientei with her usual poise. "Farewell."
She was quickly swallowed up by the lingering shadows of the night.
Mokou remained behind. She watched Rin sigh and spruce up her plaits. "Look, I'll do what I can to make sure the corpse goes back to the river."
Rin dropped her hands. "Maybe you will, sis. I don't know you." The look she gave Mokou was very tired. "But I think I know what your friends are like."
"They're not my friends."
"I'm gonna go back to hang out with mine, anyway. Good luck with the whole not dying business."
Mokou was about to make a sardonic comment about her many deaths when she recalled Rin already knew about her circumstances. Somehow. So instead, she watched in silence as the kasha vanished underground with her tails between her legs. She was curious to see when and how the water would well back into the spring, but was distracted by a tug at her elbow.
It was Tewi, looking suspiciously innocent. "Aren't you going to come? We don't want to miss the show."
Mokou couldn't picture the follow-up at Eientei being grand theatre, exactly. Even so, she followed Tewi through the bamboo forest to see how the exchange would pan out.
The Watatsuki sisters had already returned on their rainbow bridge when Mokou and Tewi reached the tail end of the rabbit audience. Mokou would have settled there, but Tewi took her hand and guided her to the porch, where Kaguya sat observing the proceedings.
Kaguya glanced at Mokou and sniffed. "You reek of sulphur."
"And you look like you need a punch in the mug." Mokou sat down next to her and craned her neck towards the garden, seeking out Reisen. She was back, standing at soldierly attention, holding back a barely suppressed grimace. "What did I miss?"
"Not much." Kaguya nodded towards Eirin, who stood further back holding the corpse, the rainbow's colours reflecting off of her hair. "Not that there's going to be much, either. It's a simple exchange."
Mokou nodded absent-mindedly. Even an idiot could have seen the only logical way for things to play out, and Eirin had the kind of frightening intellect that often came across as an ability to see into the future. It was a done deed.
And yet, as Eirin turned her head, metal glinting in her eyes, Mokou had to wonder.
Toyohime's attention was likewise glued to the corpse. From the way her eyes bulged, she looked just about ready to land on Earth's impure soil to grab it.
"Good." Yorihime at least made a pretence of focusing on Eirin, but her gaze too kept straying down to her arms. She stepped back. "Leave it on the edge of the bridge."
As Eirin walked closer, Mokou found herself wondering what exactly was happening. What was the corpse? Why would any Lunarian want something tainted with death, let alone a body of all things? The more she thought of it, the more convinced she was the corpse had in fact never died, if only because it had never lived.
Still, that didn't really explain anything.
It most definitely didn't explain why Eirin suddenly halted and took a step backwards.
Yorihime frowned. "What is it, Lady Yagokoro?"
"After some consideration, I have decided that I would rather proceed with our initial arrangement."
Just about everyone present gave a start. The chorus of rabbits began at once gabbling, gathering in small circles to discuss this newest development.
"Master!" Reisen looked heartbroken. Mokou felt a sudden urge to go over and put her arms around her. "Why?"
If Yorihime was miffed, she hid it well behind a mask of stoicism. "That's... not what we expected."
Toyohime, on the other hand, twisted her face into a grimace. "We cannot accept that response."
"It is my final response, however."
Fabric rustled as Kaguya stood up and walked to the edge of the porch. "Eirin, are you sure? What about the key, not to mention—"
"Besides," Mokou interjected, recalling her promise, "the corpse is supposed to go back to the Sanzu."
"Take your key now," said Eirin without looking at either Kaguya or Mokou. "This corpse too is a key. I cannot relinquish it."
"A key to what, Eirin?" Kaguya asked, obviously baffled. She stepped into the garden and to Eirin's side, but this too failed to rouse Eirin's interest or make her provide an explanation.
Mokou had just gotten up when the skies suddenly shook. All eyes turned towards the rising dawn.
A vast, lithe figure snaked across the skies, all silvery fins and undulating curves. A dragon. A small one, with its whiskers only the length of Mokou's body, but a dragon nonetheless. And it was heading towards them.
Many of the rabbits squealed and scattered in all directions. Others cowered in place. All of the major players were either too baffled or indifferent to do anything but wait.
Mokou squinted. The dragon wasn't alone. It appeared that someone was actually riding on the dragon's back. A figure with rose-coloured hair and a skirt the colour of fresh leaves, both of which fluttered in the currents.
"Huh," she said as she recognised Kasen Ibaraki.
She watched the dragon drop the hermit down amidst their situation, so hastily both Reisen and Eirin had to back away, then fly beyond sight once more.
The hermit straightened herself up, her imperious gaze sweeping across the entire gathering like they were all peasants come to seek favour from the emperor. She then focused on Eirin. "Exactly what do you think you're doing with that corpse?"
Eirin didn't so much as blink. "Nothing which should concern a hermit."
Kasen brushed the comment aside like it was a piece of lint. "The object you are carrying is extremely dangerous. If you insist on clinging to it, it will destroy you and everything you hold dear."
"Yes, so I have heard. Can you explain why I should believe that?"
"You could see it too if your judgement wasn't already compromised." Kasen eyed the corpse as though it had personally insulted her. "That thing doesn't belong in this world. It barely exists here as is. It's only a matter of time before its presence cleaves Gensokyo in half."
Toyohime and Yorihime exchanged puzzled looks. They weren't the only ones confused: the remaining rabbits were getting louder by the moment, and Kaguya looked like she thought the hermit had lost her mind.
Amazing as it was, a part of Mokou agreed with Kaguya. Clearly the corpse existed. It was right there. And while she was willing to entertain the possibility that it was indeed dangerous, could a single not-exactly-dead thing pose a real threat to a land teeming with youkai and gods?
Eirin, however, appeared to be taking Kasen's words with due consideration. "You believe it will tear through the barrier? How, precisely?"
"As you know, if too many things that belong to the Outside World drift into Gensokyo, the barrier gets thinner. The same principle applies to this thing. While we don't know exactly where it comes from, we know it has no place here. The collision between Gensokyo and that thing's place of origin would almost certainly spell the end of Gensokyo."
"I see." For the first time since Kasen's arrival, Eirin was looking directly at her. Her expression was unreadable. "I thank you for your input."
Kasen looked like she had considerably more input left in her, but instead, she looked around once more. Mokou avoided her eye. She had heard enough lectures from presumably well-meaning know-it-alls to last her an entire year.
"I meant every word I said," Kasen eventually said. She stepped back and raised her hand towards the sky. The dragon reappeared, sparkling in rainbow colours as the first rays of morning light struck its sleek body. Kasen alighted onto the dragon's back with agile grace, then turned to give her parting words. "If you don't sort it out at once, someone else will."
She and the dragon rode towards the sunrise. Soon, only the suggestion of something iridescent in the horizon mirroring the Watatsuki sisters' rainbow suggested that either had ever existed.
That, and the stunned silence which made Eientei seem even more static than it always was remained. No-one looked certain about how to proceed.
"...Very well." With stately, almost rehearsed-seeming movements, Eirin advanced back towards the rainbow and lay the corpse down on the ground beneath it. "Do you still wish to accept the bargain?"
"We do," Toyohime hastened to say as her sister opened her mouth. She ignored Yorihime's stare and gestured at Reisen. "Go on. You're free to go."
Reisen's blinked, suddenly uncertain. The next moment, however, she was already rushing towards the gaggle of rabbits. Several hurried to greet her, all racing to give her a hug.
As the sea of rabbits closed in around Reisen, the corpse rose upwards until it was at eye level with Toyohime. She plucked it from the air and held it as reverently as if it were an aspect of the sun.
"I'm not sure about this, sister." Yorihime's voice was low, low enough Mokou suspected no-one but Toyohime was supposed to hear her. "It's not exactly impure, I know, but should we really bring something like—"
"We will discuss it later." Toyohime, who till then had sounded mostly jovial, now didn't have a shred of humour in her voice. Her eyes possessed the same strange gleam Mokou had observed in Rin and Eirin's. Without another word, she turned and began climbing up the rainbow.
Yorihime gave one last frustrated look towards the ground, then strode after her. "Sister—"
Their voices, too distant to be understood, echoed to the ground till the sky swallowed them. Unlike the previous time, their rainbow lingered, growing fainter but remaining visible as dawn took hold.
Eirin let out a deep sigh, then smiled at Kaguya. "Would you like some breakfast, Princess?"
Kaguya blinked slowly, like awakening from a dream. "...Yes. It's about time."
They retreated within without so much as a glance towards Mokou. In fact, Mokou soon discovered she was the only one left in the garden: the rabbits, Reisen included, had dispersed wherever they were wont to go.
Mokou sighed and walked to where the corpse had last touched the ground. She put her hands in her pockets and gazed lazily up at the rainbow bridge. She wasn't entirely sure what had just happened, but she guessed it wasn't exactly good. She could at least hope it was better than what might have happened otherwise. She liked Gensokyo just fine as it was.
A child-like titter rang from behind her. "What fools."
Mokou turned to see Tewi rocking on the balls of her feet, smiling up at her. "Am I included in that number?"
"Not you." Tewi's smile widened. "After all, we're one and the same."
Mokou stared at Tewi, convinced she had never met anyone more unlike herself.
"It's the rest who are stupid. They think they're as eternal as the Lunar Capital." Tewi giggled. "And they are."
Before Mokou could decide what to make of this strange proclamation, Tewi rushed over to her and climbed up to sit on her shoulders. After the initial shock of the sudden weight, Mokou barely noticed the small hands sinking into her hair and the mouth leaning closer to whisper in her ear.
"Let's stick together. We'll get back at them yet. We'll burn them all."
Mokou meant to come up with a rebuttal or else at least dislodge Tewi, but she was distracted by a new arrival.
"Oh no." Komachi stared up at the rainbow, her expression dropping as her gaze crept upwards. "Don't tell me they took it with them."
"I'm afraid so. I told them it was yours, but—" Mokou couldn't exactly shrug with Tewi on her shoulders, so she settled for extending her arms to her sides.
"I believe it." Komachi sighed as though she was training for the world championship in the sport. "I'm know I'm going to get scolded for this somehow."
"I can't help you avoid that, but maybe I can help you numb the pain beforehand." Mokou smiled at Komachi and patted Tewi's foot, doing her best to forget how strangely the rabbit had behaved. "Let's go get drunk, the three of us."
And so they went. And if something further was ever heard of the strange golden corpse that wasn't supposed to exist, well, that was a tale for another day. It wasn't like those were in short supply.