Eiki waded through the spider lilies spreading out of Muenzuka, keeping an eye out for any sudden flashes of blue amidst the red. She hoped none of the veins in her head would pop.
She had long since accepted that although Komachi was a woman of many sterling qualities, she simply couldn't be relied upon to remain at her post for her day-to-day duties. That wasn't the same as saying Eiki could let it slide: for both the sake of the souls Komachi was meant to ferry across and Komachi herself, when Eiki finally found her, she was going to give her an earful or five about her uncommonly long absence from the river.
She hoped the search wouldn't take much longer. Already she had scoured the more populated areas of Gensokyo with no success, which usually meant Komachi was napping somewhere a bit out of the way. This particular hidden meadow next to Muenzuka seemed as likely a place as any.
She heard the fairies before she saw them. She followed their peals of laughter to an ancient cherry tree with exceptionally dark leaves. Four fairies were gathered around a prone figure lying amongst its roots, whispering to one another only to break into giggles loud enough it was strange they didn't wake up their victim.
Alerted by the sound of footsteps, a dark-haired fairy raised her head and locked gazes with Eiki. Pristine silence fell across the meadow for a single instant before the entire group of fairies scampered away in a half-flight, half-run.
Eiki shook her head as she walked over to where Komachi was still slumbering within a cradle of roots. Playing harmless pranks on people was a good deed for fairies and thus nothing she would have scolded them for. Oh well.
Looking down at Komachi, the pranks had been harmless indeed. The fairies had tied Komachi's bangs into a dozen small braids complete with blue ribbons and had been painting squiggles on her face when they had been interrupted. A half-formed spiral on her cheek trailed off into a thin line down towards her ear, which in turn led to a still wet calligraphy brush lying next to her on a bed of dead leaves.
Eiki knelt by Komachi and absent-mindedly rubbed at the pale brown ink with the heel of her palm. It came off easily enough. She wiped her hand on her leg before returning her attention back to Komachi. Somehow, she was still fast asleep.
"Komachi." She nudged Komachi's shoulder, then shook her in earnest when Komachi didn't so much as flutter her eyelids. "Komachi?"
There was no response. Usually when interrupted during deep slumber, Komachi would at least murmur and turn to her side. More often than not, she awoke at the first touch.
Eiki hauled Komachi's prone body upright until she was more or less sitting up, then shook her by both shoulders. "Komachi! Wake up!"
As soon as she let go, Komachi flopped back onto the flowers like a rag doll.
Eiki did her best to ignore the shudder rushing up her spine. Something was wrong, but there was no reason to panic or to let the worst case scenarios that had flashed through her mind to control her actions. If Komachi were truly dead, she would already know.
Still, to assuage her fears she leaned closer, bending her head over Komachi's face. When she neither heard nor felt a breath, she forced herself to remain calm and placed her fingertips on Komachi's neck.
There. A decisive thrum of a pulse, slow but steady. Was the beating of Komachi's heart always this languid? Combined with her utter stillness, it seemed ominous.
Eiki straightened her back and stared down at Komachi. It wasn't often that she found herself at such a loss as to what to do.
Still. She had to do something.
Eirin peered into Komachi's left eye before allowing her eyelid to fall back down. "It's not an illness."
"It's not?" Eiki frowned at Komachi, who was currently lying flat on her back on the tatami of one of the endless rooms within Eientei.
"Whatever is wrong with her is not caused by a physical ailment. At a guess, I would say she is possessed."
"I see." Eiki studied Komachi's prone form more closely. She had been sleeping close to Muenzuka, after all. The possibility made an awful lot of sense. "I'll seek out an exorcist."
"It seems unusual, of course." Eirin walked over to where she had been at work when Eiki had first entered the room and resumed combining curious-looking powders together. "You would imagine a spirit eager enough to possess someone would do so for a more active purpose than taking a nap."
"Indeed." Eiki hauled Komachi back onto her back, hoping Mokou was still outside to guide them out of the forest. She had never anticipated a situation where she would have to give Komachi a piggyback ride, but there was a first for everything. "Thank you for your time."
Eirin barely looked up from her work to acknowledge their departure.
The Hakurei Shrine courtyard was disconcertingly devoid of shrine maidens. Eiki set Komachi down on the porch and sat down next to her to consider her options. She still had two hours before she absolutely had to return to Hell, so she could wait for at least an hour. Still, but with no clues suggesting when Reimu might return, perhaps she ought to try another expert—
The door behind her slid open.
Marisa stepped onto the porch with a teacup in one hand and a plate of snacks in the other. She choked on the rice cracker in her mouth as she locked gazes with Eiki.
"Ghkk." She struggled against the cracker and finally managed to dislodge it without dropping anything. She spoke up after some furious chewing and swallowing. "Hi. I'm totally not helping myself to Reimu's food without permission."
"And you believe lying about that will somehow reduce your karma instead of digging you deeper into sin?"
"You can come back and lecture me 'bout it a hundred years from now." Marisa sat down while eyeing Komachi. "I'm guessin' she's in for a scolding before I am."
"Do you happen to know where Reimu is?"
"No clue. If I had to guess, I'd say Kasen dragged her off somewhere." Marisa took a sip from her tea before tilting her head to the side. "Depending on what ya need, maybe I can help ya instead. I've seen Reimu doin' her thing enough times that I can sub for her." She cleared her throat, then continued in a gruff, tired voice. "If you don't have any donations, you can just get out."
"I'm afraid we need an exorcism."
"Komachi's possessed?" Marisa tilted her head at Komachi. "Are the ribbons meant to keep the ghost in?"
Eiki had almost forgotten Komachi's new hairstyle. She began undoing the ribbons one by one.
"I didn't even know shinigami could get possessed," Marisa continued. "Are you sure she ain't just takin' an extra long siesta?" Before Eiki could respond, she suddenly grinned. "I've got a plan either way. I bet all you've gotta do to wake her up is kiss her."
Was it Eiki's imagination, or did Komachi's body suddenly vibrate? She didn't investigate the matter further, as she was too busy staring at Marisa. "No."
Marisa shrugged. "I'll do it if you don't wanna."
"I said no."
"What, are ya jealous? It's just meant to wake her up."
"It would be wrong. You can't simply kiss someone while they're asleep."
"Even to help 'em? Doesn't it make a difference?"
"Yes, but not enough to make it right under these circumstances. It would be a different situation if it were a matter of life and death and we had exhausted our other more viable options."
"Guess that tracks." Marisa plucked another cracker from the plate. "Does it make a difference where ya plant the kiss? Cuz maybe it doesn't need to be on the lips."
"Oh." Eiki studied Komachi's sleep-smoothed face. "Yes, that is fine as is."
"Right. Go right ahead."
Eiki was already leaning over Komachi when she hesitated. "Do you have any reason to believe this will actually work?"
"It's a fairytale thing, right? It can't hurt."
At any rate, Marisa wasn't lying for once. Trying to ignore the sudden uptick in her heartbeat, Eiki gave Komachi a chaste peck on the forehead.
Nothing happened.
Marisa shrugged. "It was worth a try. Want some tea while we wait for Reimu?"
Eiki managed a polite smile. Silly as it sounded, for a moment she had genuinely believed the kiss might work. "Are you in a position to offer me a cup without committing theft?"
"Sure! Reimu doesn't mind if I brew tea here as long as I help with the chores every once in a—"
A deep groan resonated from within Komachi's throat.
Eiki snapped her attention back to Komachi. She was still prone, but she was suddenly shaking, starting from her arms and rapidly spreading all over her until her entire body rattled.
No, that wasn't right. Komachi wasn't shaking at all. Rather, there was something translucent overlapping with her body that game an illusion of complete movement.
"Seriously?" The voice came from Komachi, but her lips weren't moving, nor did the petulant tone much resemble hers. "How can you get on the right track so quickly and then completely drop the ball?"
Eiki leapt to her feet. From the corner of her eye, she saw Marisa had already drawn a spell card to her hand.
They both looked on as a greyish, wisp-like shape rose from Komachi's chest. It assumed the shape of a woman with a bob cut and the pale robes of the spirits of the dead.
"I mean seriously." The spirit folded her arms and scowled at Marisa. "How did you immediately hone in on kissing being the right thing only to come up with some nonsense about not doing it on the lips? How's that even possible?"
"Comin' up with nonsense's one of my many talents." Despite her casual tone, Marisa kept turning her spell card around in her fingers.
Eiki relaxed her shoulders. While the spirit remained a potential threat, perhaps she could be reasoned with. "Who are you? Why have you possessed Komachi?"
"I'm guessing that's her?" The spirit pointed down past the swirling mist where her body ended and Komachi's began. "I didn't mean to, really. It was an accident."
The words rang true. Curious. "An accident?"
Marisa leaned against the porch. "Maybe it'd help if ya told us yer full story?"
The spirit mimicked drawing a deep breath as though she had been waiting for someone to ask that very question. "So I'm not really sure where we are now, but when I was alive I used to work at a flower shop."
"Not the one down at the village, I suppose?" Marisa asked.
"No way! I lived in a big city! Anyway, I had the same co-worker for years and years. We'd come up with new bouquets together and help each other out with all kinds of stuff." The spirit covered her cheeks with her hands. "After some time, I realised I was in love. For the first time ever!"
Marisa grinned. "Congrats!"
"It was wonderful, even if it was scary." The spirit dropped her hands. "But that's where all my troubles began. I didn't know what to do about it. What if I told her how I felt and it turned out it just me feeling that? How could I have kept working with her after something like that?"
"And so you simply held onto the feeling," said Eiki softly.
The spirit nodded. "For ages and ages. It got really awkward, but I still couldn't say anything. It went on like that till my co-worker gave notice. She was going to move back to her old home town. In a month, we were gonna be living hours away from each other."
Marisa whistled. "So ya finally confessed?"
The spirit looked away. "No. My co-worker did. It turned out we'd both... well, I suppose we were both scared." A wistful smile blossomed on her face. "It was a little late, of course, but we agreed to go on a date on our next day off. I kept thinking about it for the entire week. It was going to be my time going to a movie with someone I loved. My first time eating at a restaurant with someone I loved. And maybe I'd even finally have my first kiss."
Eiki allowed the spirit a moment of blissful reverie before asking, "And then?"
"I don't actually remember what happened. I was on my way to our meeting spot when things got really fuzzy. The next thing I knew, I was dead and hanging around in a weird place full of ghosts and spider lilies. I've just kinda been drifting around since then."
"I'm sorry." Still, the situation could have been worse. The spirit's sins were few and far between, and she would make it through her judgement with little more than a brief reprimand. "If you will come with, I can ensure—"
"But I can't go now! I still haven't had my first kiss!"
Eiki blinked. "Excuse me?"
"All my life, I was too scared to make the first move and hoped someone would finally like me enough to kiss me. Now that I finally have another chance, I'm not going to let it slip away!" The spirit gestured at Komachi. "We're kinda the same person now, so if someone kisses her, that's good enough! I can finally rest in peace!"
Restless spirits had a tendency to fixate upon a single issue to the point where no common sense could reach them, but Eiki still had to point out the obvious. "And what about Komachi's opinion on the matter?"
"What about it?" The spirit refolded her arms. "She's asleep anyway! Who cares about what she thinks?"
"We do."
"Oh." The spirit glanced from Eiki to Marisa, then glowered. "Well if you care, maybe you should just do it." She pointed at Eiki. "It's all your fault, anyway! Maybe if you'd spent more time kissing her in the past, she wouldn't have been dreaming about doing it so strongly that her mind just about sucked me in."
Eiki blinked. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me! I could practically see images of her dreams floating above her head. That's why I floated closer and ended up here. So my point is that she wants a kiss from you and you should just do it!"
Spirits frequently lied to get their way, but the words felt true. Eiki's cheeks heated up even as she shook her head. "You shouldn't be telling us this."
"I don't care! I want a kiss! Someone kiss me! Someone kiss me right now!"
Before either Eiki or Marisa could react to the demand, a newcomer crossed the remainder of the courtyard with a determined stride and stepped onto the porch.
Ignoring everyone else, Reimu stepped right in front of the spirit and clapped her hand roughly where her translucent shoulder hovered in the air. Without further ado, she kissed the spirit on the lips.
"There," she said as she pulled back. "Now get a move on."
"That's..." The spirit closed her mouth and tried again, her already wide eyes widening until her pupils were little more than minuscule dots. "I... wow." Her smile spread across her face even as it grew more indistinct. "Thank you..."
With her final words, her form evaporated into wisps of fog that melted into the air.
Reimu sighed and sat down next to Marisa. "There." She frowned at Eiki and Marisa. "How come neither of you thought of doing that?"
"Yer the spirit expert, not us." Marisa picked up the plate and held it out towards Reimu. "What does kissin' a ghost even feel like?"
"Like putting your lips on an already melted icicle." Reimu grabbed a rice cracker, then frowned at Komachi. "Are you sure she hasn't just been napping all along?"
"Quite sure, yes."
Reimu shrugged. "Want some tea?"
Komachi showed no signs of waking up during the time it took for Reimu to duck indoors and return with three more cups, but at the very least she was visibly breathing again. In fact, Eiki could almost have relaxed as she drank her tea and waited for Komachi to open her eyes if not for the spirit's words regarding Komachi's dreams circling her mind over and over again.
"Sooo..." Marisa had kicked back and was happily munching on more snacks as she eyed Reimu. "Do ya kiss anyone who clamours for it loudly enough?"
Reimu didn't look away from her tea. "Try it and find out."
"I'll pencil that into my schedule. Anyway, are we sure Komachi's gonna get up by herself without another smooch?"
As if hearing the words, Komachi suddenly flopped over to her side. Within moments, she was yawning and stretching her limbs like she was waking up after a particularly satisfying night of sleep.
She stilled as she realised three people were staring at her. Her gaze flitted from one face to another until she gave a resigned half-shrug, followed by an awkward smile.
"You'll never guess what the dream I just had was about."
Despite everything, Eiki almost found herself smiling back. "Perhaps we could make an educated guess."
"And she just left my body after that?"
"Yes. She's most likely already at the river."
"Huh." Komachi tried to straighten out the kink in her neck as she and Lady Eiki continued walking towards the Road of Reconsideration. She felt almost thankful to the spirit: Lady Eiki's lecture about Komachi sneaking into Gensokyo had been unusually truncated, no doubt thanks to the hassle of the exorcism. "I always imagined getting possessed would come with some side effects, but I feel fine. Or at least I'm not hearing colours or smelling sounds."
"I'm glad to hear it."
If Komachi hadn't already cottoned onto something being wrong, Lady Eiki's subdued response would have made it plain all by itself. She only had hazy images of what had happened after the spirit invaded her body, but they offered some suggestions for why the atmosphere between them was suddenly so charged she half expected a miniature thunderstorm to break out.
"This will be the fairest course of action," Lady Eiki finally continued. "I will do my best to forget what the spirit told me about your private thoughts. They are none of my business."
Komachi nodded, trying to look casual even as her cheeks grew warm. Right. That confirmed that. The cat was out of the bag now.
Still. As awkward as it was having her secret out in the open, neither she nor Lady Eiki had spontaneously combusted yet. It didn't necessarily mean much, but...
"For future reference..." As she spoke, she took a keen interest in the flowers of early autumn blooming by the side of the road. "If we ever wind up in this situation again, you're free to kiss me."
"Thank you. I will keep that in mind."
Heavy silence reasserted itself.
"Likewise..." Lady Eiki paused just as abruptly as she had spoken up again. "If something like that was to happen to me instead, you too have the permission to kiss me."
"Good to know." Komachi was amazed that her voice remained so steady even as the inside layers of her skin caught fire. She wasn't just imagining this, was she? They were talking about the same thing, right?
She swivelled her gaze to the side. Lady Eiki stared directly ahead, her posture as upright as ever. Her cheeks were glowing with a blush so vivid its blaze would have put most lanterns to shame.
Okay, fair enough. They were talking about the same thing.
It would be wiser to just leave off, to forget the entire day had ever happened and maybe one day to be able to truthfully say there was nothing unusual and unspoken going on between them. But Komachi didn't want to be quite that wise. "So, are there other situations where I might kiss you?"
And here she had thought Lady Eiki's blush couldn't grow any brighter. "Do you have some specific scenario in mind?"
"Let me think. How about when we're walking in Gensokyo together with nothing but flowers and the sunset to witness us?"
Several more moments passed in perfect silence.
Komachi wasn't sure how it happened, exactly, but one moment she and Lady Eiki were walking within an arm's length from each other, and the next they were practically rubbing shoulders. They halted on the same step and turned to face each other.
Komachi hesitated. Was she still dreaming? It all felt just a little too good to be true.
That was what she thought until the shadows at the edges of Lady Eiki's eyes cleared out, leaving her irises looking like shards of pristine sky. She gave Komachi a gentle suggestion of a smile, then leaned closer.
Komachi quickly followed suit.
In all, the kiss lasted for maybe five seconds. It felt like five minutes of bliss.
By the time Lady Eiki stepped back to break the kiss, Komachi was seeing stars. It took her several more moments to make a coherent statement, and even as she spoke, she was far more aware of the fireworks bursting within her head and neck than the words leaving her mouth. "...That was nice."
"It was." Lady Eiki turned towards the road. "We really should head back now."
"I'm with you."
It was just one small kiss, Komachi told herself as they kept walking. One small kiss to put a capstone on a day weirdly focused on them. She made a decision not to read too much into it.
Still. When she tentatively held out her hand, it only took a heartbeat for Lady Eiki's fingers to curl around hers. She promptly tossed out the decision and gave the fireworks free rein as she grinned at the beauty of the sunset ahead.