"Well then, Yimi, you head back to Reimu's for now. Remember to come on time for weekend lessons. I still have a few things to discuss with this young lady here."
"Bye-bye."
The houses in this world were built low—perfect for cats to run along the rooftops.
Yimi stared up at the eaves of the Human Village, a route already mapping itself out inside her head.
She didn't actually follow through with it. She swung her little wooden stick and walked back toward the shrine instead. Must have been genuine luck, because the whole trip along the Youkai Trail—there and back—she hadn't spotted so much as a shadow of a youkai, and she returned to the shrine without a scratch.
Below the shrine stretched a long flight of stone steps, not particularly friendly to child-sized legs. Fortunately, Yimi could transfer that exhaustion elsewhere.
Back at the terakoya.
"Stop playing the victim. You went way too far this time, and I'm not going to coddle you like before." Keine was merciless when the situation called for it.
Mokou flopped face-first onto the desk and refused to budge no matter how much she lectured. "No, seriously, my legs suddenly feel twice as tired for no reason. Am I getting old?"
Keine had a true teacher's spirit—she'd even volunteered to test Yimi's knowledge level and given her a full set of textbooks.
Knowing Reimu's personality, she'd also told Yimi to bring along some skewered meat and good tea as a gift. Once Reimu accepted food from you, she'd find it much harder to say no.
By the time Yimi made it back to the shrine, though, dusk had already fallen.
She found Reimu—who seemed to have accomplished absolutely nothing all day—laying out her futon, ready to go to sleep early and greet yet another day of sweet idleness.
"Why are you back again? Don't tell me you went off to organize an incident."
Reimu fixed her with a dead-fish stare, visibly irritated.
"I'm going to the terakoya." Yimi scrambled up onto the shrine's veranda, looking left and right for somewhere to sit. "Keine-sensei said a one-year-old needs to get an education."
There wasn't even a chair. Reimu had literally laid her bedding straight on the floor.
Back when Rayleigh built that log cabin, at least he'd thrown together some furniture while he was at it.
"One year old—were you born right here in my shrine yesterday or something? But what does any of that have to do with me?" Reimu pulled out her gohei and lightly bopped Yimi on the head.
"Keine-sensei told me to get your permission."
"Why would you need my permission for something like that? Didn't they take it upon themselves to run security in the Human Village?" Reimu stood with her hands on her hips, watching as Yimi wordlessly burrowed into the futon she'd just laid out.
She liked the big cat's blankets. Warm.
Reimu grabbed the edge of the covers and shook the cat loose. "What do you think you're doing? Who said you could climb into my futon with your shoes on?"
"Oh." Yimi kicked off her shoes and flopped right back down.
"I didn't say you could come back just because you took them off! I should just exterminate you already!"
She wasn't really born from something in the shrine, was she? There wasn't a single cat-shaped object around.
"Mm?" Yimi sat up, suddenly remembering the things Keine had asked her to bring.
She pulled the skewered meat and tea out of her storage space and held them out to Reimu. "For you."
She'd already peeked at the tea packet. It wasn't the kind of grass that smelled nice, so she wasn't interested. The skewers, on the other hand—half of them had already disappeared en route.
The anger on Reimu's face eased noticeably. "Rather than giving me this, just give me money."
She opened the tea bag and took a sniff. "What's this fragrance? It smells like something expensive... You stole these, didn't you? You definitely stole even more! Hand it all over!"
"Keine-sensei told me to give these to you!"
Wrongfully accused, Yimi kicked Reimu's ankle in protest—but having just removed her shoes, the blow lacked any real force.
Not eating all the skewers on the way here was already showing incredible restraint, and you still say that about a cat!
"Why would she give me these? Unsolicited gifts always come with strings attached..." Reimu was starting to piece it together. This was Keine's doing—asking her to let this apparently helpless little cat youkai stay here.
What was her shrine, a homeless shelter? Had the terakoya run out of beds or something?
Reimu grudgingly tucked away the tea. "What else did she say? Don't they have room for you?"
What else had she said?
Yimi thought hard. All she could recall was Keine's parting words.
She told Reimu: "She said she needed to talk to the person who can't die, and told me to come find you first."
Reimu folded her arms and mulled that over.
"The person who can't die" was the Hourai Immortal—apparently on quite good terms with Keine. If the two of them needed to discuss something privately and couldn't let this little cat youkai stay for the night...
A faint blush crept across Reimu's otherwise expressionless face.
"Fine, I'll let you stay one night for the tea. But you're gone first thing in the morning, got it? You're disrupting my thriving busin... my offerings."
Reimu went to fetch a spare futon.
Huh? She was suddenly letting the cat stay?
Yimi's ears twitched.
Well, if there was a place to sleep, she certainly wasn't going to refuse.
Yimi tugged at Reimu's sleeve. "Then can I go to school?"
"Go wherever you want, what's it got to do with me? If you grind your teeth in your sleep, I'm throwing you out."
Yimi could go to school now, which meant she could become the Hakurei Shrine Maiden.
The little cat settled contentedly onto the bedding Reimu had laid out for her, closed her eyes, and fell asleep in one second flat.
"That fast... Whatever. Just don't bother me."
It wasn't as if overnight youkai guests were anything new. After incidents were resolved and the banquets wrapped up, someone always picked a spot and passed out, and the lightweights might even throw up somewhere.
Reimu dragged her own futon to a safe distance from Yimi, making sure she wouldn't be disturbed, and lay down to sleep as well.
In the middle of the night, rustling sounds nudged Reimu half-awake.
Then she felt something heavy settle onto her.
"What are you doing?"
The little cat was purring away, apparently having rolled the entire distance in her sleep to end up in Reimu's covers.
She liked sleeping pressed up against someone. Warm and cozy.
Reimu closed her eyes again. She'd better fall back asleep before the drowsiness faded. Too lazy to shoo her away.
...
And so she would come to regret last night's moment of seemingly "inexplicable softness," because Yimi's sleeping posture was absolutely horrendous—and she might knead in her sleep.
Come morning, Reimu—dark circles under her eyes—chased Yimi out with a broom. The only reason she didn't whack the cat directly was that Yimi genuinely was younger than her.
"Go, go, go! Get out of here!"
She must have been out of her mind to let a youkai spend the night.
Yimi dusted off her backside and looked at Reimu unhappily.
Big cats really were creatures that liked to turn on you.
She pulled her own perfectly straight wooden stick from her storage space and pressed it into Reimu's hand. "For you."
"What's this supposed to mean—you think I didn't chase you hard enough with the broom?" Reimu snatched the stick and tossed it on the ground.
Yimi shook her head, didn't answer, didn't pick up the stick either. She turned and ran off toward the Youkai Trail.
That stick was one she'd hand-picked—the straightest wooden stick she could find. It was just an ordinary little stick, but to a cat, it held extraordinary sentimental value.
Once she'd put some distance between them, the little cat produced an even straighter stick, this one adorned with white paper streamers.
Reimu's gohei.
(^_^)
So exchanging it for another straight stick was perfectly fair.
"How—how is this possible... Damn it! No way—that stupid crow was making things up again!"
Walking along the Youkai Trail, Yimi faintly caught the sound of angry shouting. She padded over on her little legs, curious.
It was someone she'd seen the day before—the black-and-white woman who'd nearly crashed into Reimu.
Marisa clutched the newspaper, hands trembling, mouth covered in disbelief.
Hearing Yimi's footsteps on the grass, she glanced back. Her gaze lingered on Yimi's face for a moment, slightly dazed, then drifted down to the gohei in her hand.
"..."
"WAAAAAH! IT'S TRUE!!"
Marisa wailed and flew toward the Hakurei Shrine at top speed.