"Is this the place?" Nazrin waded into the wetland at the edge of Muenzuka before even hearing the answer.
"I thought so, but now that I look around..." Lady Shou frowned as she observed their surroundings, first looking up at the gleaming red of the sunset and then down at the streaks of blood it painted on the water. "I wonder if I have this place confused with wherever I actually was."
"I'll look around just in case. There's always something to be found here." Nazrin had long since learned that when it came to most worldly things, it was best not to trust either Lady Shou's directions or her memory. Besides, even if she hadn't dropped the Jewelled Pagoda of Bishamonten in Muenzuka, things both within and without Gensokyo had a tendency to drift there anyway.
Lady Shou remained at the edge of the water, keeping a wary eye on the crop of spider lilies and the bare cherry trees. The trees had discarded their yearly bounty of blossoms only days earlier and so freed the spirits drifting nearby, meaning Muenzuka was currently as safe as it could ever be. That wasn't the same as saying it was actually safe, of course, but that didn't explain why Lady Shou looked so troubled. Perhaps she was sorry for having lost the pagoda yet again. Or perhaps the line of trees circling them reminded her too much of a cage.
Either way, the faster Nazrin searched the area, the better. She began her usual methodical sweep, walking steadily forward until guided to a target.
Her dowsing rods first pointed her to a soft black bauble on a metal ring which lit up red for a moment as she pressed it. Next came a cylinder with similarly soft buttons, a tattered book, and a small orange square with metal bits riveted onto it. None of the items seemed particularly valuable at first glance, but she hauled them over to dry land regardless to rest under Lady Shou's curious eye.
The sunset had become a rim of deep orange limning the trees by the time Nazrin decided that while there were some choice curios to be found that night, the pagoda wasn't among them. She sighed and headed back to Lady Shou. "We won't find it in the water. I'll check between the spider lilies, but after that I'll have to expand the search."
Lady Shou gave her an absent-minded nod. She had opened the still dripping book and was staring at something she had found in it.
Nazrin walked to her side and squinted at the book. It was an old book of poetry from some distant foreign land. The reason for Lady Shou's fascination became clear as soon as she saw the illustration. "So it's about a tiger."
"Well, yes," Lady Shou said slowly. "I suppose it must be about a kind of tiger."
Nazrin shrugged and left to scour through the flowers. When she next looked up, Lady Shou was still staring at the book.
After another fruitless search, Nazrin returned to Lady Shou, who, yes, was still standing there with the book in hand. It was starting to get weird. It wasn't unusual for Lady Shou to get lost in her own little world, but whatever her faults, vanity wasn't one of them. If a picture of a tiger was giving her this much pause, there had to be a reason.
Leaning against Lady Shou's arm, Nazrin studied the illustration with greater scrutiny. She was never going to admit just how long it took her to see the issue: she had been so focused on the idea of a tiger she had failed to actually look at the bizarre animal in the book. "I see. It's a tiger born from imagination."
Lady Shou simply nodded in response.
Nazrin considered the painted tiger's perfectly circular eye and the strange colours of its fur, the yellow and the red and the dabs of blue mingling with the black pattern on its back that could only barely be called stripes. In retrospect, it was obvious the illustration was the result of similarly fantastical notions of tigers as those which had breathed Lady Shou into life. She looked at Lady Shou for comparison's sake and saw her looking unusually pensive, far more guarded than she usually bothered to be when it was just her and Nazrin.
"Lady Shou?"
"Hm?"
"Does it bother you?"
"No. It's just... humbling, I suppose."
Was it because it reminded Lady Shou just how precarious her existence would have been if not for Lord Bishamonten? Nazrin decided to change the subject. "You think there are tiger youkai looking like that running around where this book's from?"
That made Lady Shou smile. "I hope so."
Nazrin pictured Lady Shou with round eyes and bright blue stripes in her hair, then shook her head to disperse the image. Enough dallying. Weren't they on a treasure hunt? "You can keep the book if you want."
"Are you certain?"
"It obviously means something to you, and I have no use for it anyway." Besides, it was rare to see Lady Shou so intrigued by a mundane object that the novelty alone made it more than worth it.
"In that case, I thank you." Lady Shou closed the book and stashed it beneath her arm. Then, without further warning, she reached out to stroke the top of Nazrin's head. "You're really a very kind person, aren't you, Nazrin?"
Nazrin did what she could to keep her feelings from showing, which in this case meant funnelling them into a frown. "Not really."
"If you say so." Lady Shou's bright smile belied her words, as did the way she kept mussing Nazrin's hair.
For several centuries, Nazrin had submitted to this kind of affectionate petting without saying a word, all too aware that for all her great qualities, Lady Shou could be amazingly oblivious. Maybe it was something about the air in Muenzuka, but all of a sudden, she knew it couldn't go on. It would be a shame to forswear these moments — she enjoyed them more than she cared to admit — but it was time to make her feelings clear and so stop courting disaster. "I mean it. I'm not nearly as kind as you think I am."
With that, she rose to her tiptoes and kissed Lady Shou.
It was a brief kiss, like a blink or a breath, but it was fully on the lips and so Nazrin knew she had made her meaning clear. She descended and for a moment looked at Lady Shou's shoes instead of her face. What kind of an expression would she see from her next? A flummoxed one? A horrified one? Would a pitying one be worse than either?
She drew a deep breath and looked up.
Lady Shou's smile remained wholly unaltered, almost as though someone had slashed the past twenty seconds out of existence. "You shouldn't say things you don't mean." Suddenly, she leaned down and nuzzled her face against Nazrin's cheek. "You're so sweet I could gobble you up!"
Nazrin's mouth fell open. It was a struggle to close it again.
"Anyway, it's getting dark." Lady Shou was beaming as she straightened up. "Would you like to drink with me tonight?"
Nazrin made an effort to compose herself. "...What about the pagoda?"
"Oh no. I had completely forgotten about that." Lady Shou sighed. "And here I was looking forward to a fun evening with my girlfriend."
"...Your what?"
"We'll just have to do it after we have solved this conundrum, I suppose." Lady Shou was scanning the horizon as though hoping the pagoda would simply pop into view if she believed in it hard enough. When that didn't pan out, she turned to give Nazrin a hopeful look.
Nazrin stared back at her. At length, she raised the dowsing rods and began following their lead away from Muenzuka, feeling like she was sleepwalking. Lady Shou followed in her wake.
"...So let me get this straight. I'm your girlfriend?"
"Well, yes?"
"And how long do you think we have been dating?"
"A few years, I suppose. Do you remember the morning we watched the sunrise on the temple roof and you told me you would always stay by my side?"
Nazrin did in fact remember that. "And you decided that meant we were a couple?"
"It wasn't simply that, but... yes."
"And you didn't think I needed to know this because..."
"Because I thought you knew. You always seem so annoyed when I clarify things you think are obvious." Lady Shou came to an abrupt halt. "...Was I completely off the mark?"
Nazrin sighed. She stepped back until they stood side by side, then hooked her arm around Lady Shou's and leaned against her shoulder. "Guess."
And based on the gentle kiss Lady Shou placed on her forehead, she guessed correctly.