The seasons changed without warning in Gensokyo. Just last month, before Yimi's arrival, Cirno had been the apple of Reimu's eye—but now, as long as Reimu had a manga in hand, she refused to budge from her futon.
The shrine was old, but it held heat well enough once you shut the doors tight. Even so, you could still get woken up by a chill—like the draft that hit when Yimi wriggled out from under the covers.
"So cold. Why are you up so early?"
"Studying."
Yimi transferred the cold she'd brought out of the futon onto Cirno and sat down on Reimu's pillow to get dressed.
"Huh? You don't have class today, do you?"
Reimu rubbed her eyes and shoved Yimi's tail off her face, then closed her eyes again, trying very hard to think about absolutely nothing and fall back asleep.
But the rustling noises beside her made that impossible. She cracked one eye open and—sure enough—Yimi was fumbling around trying to thread her tail through a hole.
Sleep thoroughly murdered, Reimu sat up and pulled Yimi over to her side.
"How many days have you been wearing those? Change your underwear and socks." Reimu fished out a pair of pink panties that Ran had delivered yesterday. They had a cutesy little cat embroidered on the front, with a hole in the back for the tail.
Just one hole. So these weren't hand-me-downs from Chen—that was actually pretty thoughtful.
"Lift your leg." Reimu helped her thread her tail through, hands-on. "You need to wash and change these regularly, understand? If you ever make my shrine stink, I'm selling you off."
"Mm." Yimi turned this way and that. Nothing uncomfortable.
She trotted toward the door on her little legs. "I'm heading out."
"Hold on—it's not even the weekend. Who are you going to study with? Mukyu?"
At the last banquet, Patchouli had seemed interested in examining Yimi's magic and wanted to chat, but Wriggle had ticked her off so badly she'd stormed out. Genuinely angry—her face had flushed red all the way to her ears.
"Keine-sensei?" Yimi bent down and pulled on her little leather shoes by herself. "She said if I study with her, I can become the Hakurei Shrine Maiden."
But two days a week was way too slow for a kitten, and one of those days had been lost to the incident. She wanted to see if Keine-sensei would teach her a bit extra.
She walked out.
"..."
Reimu watched her retreating figure, mulling it over.
Did she actually believe she could become the Hakurei Shrine Maiden?
"Meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow..."
Yimi tapped along the grass with the gohei she'd previously traded to the Ancestor of Catnip in exchange for its offspring, and scampered all the way to the Human Village.
She'd given the gohei to the Ancestor of Catnip as part of that deal, but since Ran had burned the Ancestor to ash, the gohei had ended up right back in Yimi's hands.
"Meow?"
Coming the other direction, she spotted Chen sneaking around behind a tree, peeking furtively into the village. Her two tails swished back and forth.
Yimi tiptoed over and—"Chen!"
"Wah!" Chen jumped a foot in the air. "What are you doing?!"
"What are you doing?" Yimi stood at her vantage point and peered curiously toward the Human Village, where an orange tabby lay sprawled in the sun, fast asleep. It hadn't even stirred at her shout.
"I'm looking for a runaway cat! This guy right here—there's perfectly good food and entertainment waiting for him back at Mayohiga, but he keeps sneaking over to the human village to eat their scraps." Chen glared at the orange tabby, teeth clenched.
"Then why don't you just... go grab him?" Yimi didn't see the problem.
"Because if I go into the human village, I'll probably get arrested." Chen's eyes darted sideways. She was exactly the type of cat who'd harass the Human Village for fun with nothing better to do.
Not that you could blame her. Cats were naturally lazy and restless and couldn't keep their paws to themselves.
Besides, Ran-sama had said that as long as she didn't go too far, it was fine—it was all part of the balance between humans and youkai.
"This is the third time he's escaped. I'm thinking, since he hates communal life so much, maybe I should just find him a different owner."
Chen turned to look at Yimi and patted her shoulder. "This mission is now yours!"
"Meow?"
"You agreed to be my shikigami, remember? I give you treats, you help me fi—...do chores." Chen pulled out a bag of premium freeze-dried cat food, tore open the packaging, and waved it under Yimi's nose.
It smelled incredible. Leagues above those cheap processed scraps.
She'd claimed she couldn't even produce decent catnip, yet she'd been sitting on goodies like this the whole time.
"Consider it done." The kitten accepted the job.
She walked over and tiptoed toward Big Orange the same way she'd snuck up on Chen.
"Meow?" Big Orange's ears twitched. Unlike earlier, nothing else held his attention, and he easily picked up the sound of little leather shoes on the ground.
He opened his eyes, looked at the small child creeping toward him with both hands shaped into grabbing claws, and didn't move a muscle.
Yimi scooped him up. He still didn't move—just shifted his head around to find a comfortable position.
"How is that fair?!" Chen clawed at the tree in frustration.
Yimi trotted back with the cat and held Big Orange up to Chen's face. "Caught him."
Chen reached for him.
"Mrow!" Big Orange immediately kicked his hind legs and tried to squirm free.
Chen withdrew her hands.
Big Orange went limp in Yimi's arms again.
Ever since he'd tasted the big-big-cat's leftover scraps, he refused to go back to eating rotten fish and stale shrimp.
"Damn it, most cats actually like me!" Chen's ears drooped, and she pretended not to look at Big Orange.
"So now what?" Yimi dangled the cat, swinging him left and right. Big Orange's hind legs, suspended in midair, swung left and right too.
"It kills me to say this, but if he'd rather live with humans, then find him an owner. A stray cat on its own won't survive the winter." Chen shot Big Orange one last glance and shoved the promised freeze-dried treats into Yimi's hands.
"I can't get near the Human Village, so this is on you too. When you get back, I'll give you some of Ran-sama's homemade cat strips."
"Mm."
Side quest accepted.
The little girl carried the orange tabby into the Human Village, looking around helplessly. Ever since learning that cats and humans were actually two different things, she'd developed a new perspective on both.
"Looking for something?" That same voice—slightly husky, slightly stern.
Yimi turned around. The kind man who'd sent truffles through her to Marisa. Marisa had said he was her father, though they weren't close.
He crouched down to Yimi's eye level—the kind of gesture that put children at ease.
Yimi looked down at the orange tabby in her arms, then held it out to him. "This is for you."
"?" The man didn't understand, but took the cat on reflex.
Yimi reached up and patted his arm. "From now on, you're not a stray anymore."
"?"
The man stroked Big Orange. The tabby lay in his arms, perfectly content to be petted.
A stray... as in someone all alone? Is this something Marisa...
The furrow in his brow softened just slightly. He looked at Yimi. "Would you like to come sit in my shop for a bit? There are some dolls and snacks in there."
"Snacks." The kitten was tempted.
But she shook her head. "I'm here to study."
"Study?" The man glanced at the tail swishing behind her. "You usually come for the weekend classes, right? The weekend sessions move at a faster pace—you probably won't be able to follow along."
Keine would certainly welcome any student who voluntarily wanted to attend. She'd never even turned away the occasional fairy that wandered in.
"Then—I'll find the person who can't die." Yimi raised her hand.
Mokou was a good teacher too. Like that "holy shit"—she still remembered it to this day.
"The person who can't die... you mean the Vigilante Corps captain? I think she lives on the outer edge of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, but if you go in too deep, it's easy to get lost. Want me to show you the way?" The man handed the orange tabby to a hired hand nearby.
"Yes."
He held out his broad right hand. "Hold onto my hand."
Yimi grabbed his finger with her little paw.
The man went still for a moment—as though he could see another child through her.