"And then she tried to hit me. I was being so nice and she still tried to hit me."
Having almost never experienced a falling-out with a friend, Yimi held a serious grudge. She rattled off Chen's misdeeds without restraint, hands never stopping as she stuffed snacks into her mouth.
"Mm-hm."
Yuuka Kazami stood behind her, weaving her now considerably longer hair into two thin braids, gathering them neatly in the middle, and finishing with a fresh flower tucked beside her ear.
On occasion, when she had nothing better to do, Yuuka would grab some weak youkai or fairies, sit them down here, and dress them up. As long as they didn't resist, Yuuka was perfectly gentle.
Today Yimi had come out wearing an autumn outfit from Reimu's closet. Compared to the little dress Marisa had given her before, the autumn skirt actually felt uncomfortable—the long hem kept snagging on grass as she walked. Marisa clearly hadn't accounted for the fact that Yimi couldn't fly.
"This is for you. Not for Chen." Yimi swung her legs, which didn't quite reach the ground, and handed Yuuka a cut of Kyubey meat.
"The smell is somewhat off-putting. Oh well—it'll work as flower fertilizer." Yuuka rubbed Yimi's head.
The Forest of Magic was enormous, and Yimi's sense of direction was purely luck-based. She hadn't found Marisa's house and had ended up at the flower field instead. She'd originally come to look for Green Bug at Yuuka's place, only to discover Green Bug didn't live there.
She worried that one day Green Bug might accidentally get eaten by Mystia.
"What do you do for fun at home?" Yimi stood on a stool, gripping the table's edge to peer at the flower pots on top. "Can you grow plants that can chase Diego away?"
Yuuka lifted her gently back down. "Girls shouldn't climb all over tables."
"Congratulations, Host! Achievement unlocked: 'Feudalism Is No Good.' Reward: portal energy +5%."
"Meow?"
Another phrase Yimi couldn't make sense of, but she pointed at Yuuka: "Feudal Yuuka."
"..." Yuuka gave her a light pinch.
Marisa's house was hidden absurdly deep. Two days of searching and still no luck. Had she gone back to her hometown?
Leaving Yuuka's place, Yimi headed back into the Forest of Magic—only to find that the rock Chen had been sleeping on yesterday had somehow appeared in front of the flower field.
Yimi kicked it.
"Ow..."
The little cat crouched down and clutched her toes, hastily activating Love Train.
"Doesn't hurt at all."
She wagged her tail a couple times to shake off the brief palpitation, then noticed her tail wasn't swishing at its usual frequency. She gave it two smacks to remind it who was in charge.
"Hey, little girl—don't just go attacking someone's inventions!" A blue-haired girl in twin braids and a green cap popped out of the bushes, glaring at Yimi.
"Invention?"
Yimi looked from this stranger to the boulder—taller than she was—in astonishment, then jabbed a finger at the girl:
"You invented rocks!"
"What kind of leap in logic is that? Although this particular one is my invention, and it's not actually a rock." Nitori Kawashiro pulled out a remote control that looked wildly out of place in Gensokyo and pressed a button. The boulder beside Yimi promptly unfolded, revealing mechanical components within, and transformed into a little cart roughly Yimi's size.
"A certain reporter who shall not be named said certain individuals' news was hard to dig up, so she paid me to build this disguised surveillance camera. I didn't expect her to plant it somewhere this dangerous—if it gets discovered, I'm the one who'll catch the blowback."
Originally she'd planned to make it look like a smaller, more inconspicuous rock, but after the prototype was kicked by that ice fairy and smashed into Wriggle Nightbug's face, she'd scaled it up—and yet it was still getting kicked.
Nitori grabbed the cart and headed off.
Yimi scampered after her, eyes glued to the cart.
"Wh-what?"
"Can't it move on its own?"
"Of course not. When it's deployed, both the texture and weight are more or less like a real rock. If I added more features, a single tap would give it away." Nitori waved her off dismissively. "Shoo. I'm very busy."
Yimi was thoroughly unimpressed. She pulled out Xiaobai and led it on its leash, planning to parade her pet in front of Nitori to show off—only to find the robot vacuum's wheels spinning uselessly on the grass.
"What is that thing?"
She'd successfully caught Nitori's attention. Nitori set down the cart, picked up Xiaobai, and examined the underside with interest.
"Its name is Xiaobai."
"Hmm..." Nitori fished a screwdriver from her oversized backpack and rapidly disassembled the robot vacuum's base plate.
"Xiaobai!" Yimi drew her bloodstained spear in alarm.
"Calm down—this is obviously a machine." Sensing danger, Nitori hurriedly reassembled Xiaobai and handed it back.
"If you're that attached to this thing, you might want to be nicer to me. If it ever breaks down, I might be the only one in Gensokyo who can fix it."
"Are you a doctor?" Yimi stroked Xiaobai. Still lively—the wheels were still spinning wildly.
"A doctor? Well, for machines, that's more or less what I am. See, when you set it down just now, the wheels got jammed with grass. I couldn't have cleared that without taking it apart." Though her actual goal had been to study the thing's inner workings.
Nitori's gaze drifted. "Anyway, this one's on the house. If you ever need maintenance done, come find me. I do business with your mom from time to time."
"You and Mama do business?" Yimi stared at her in shock.
"More or less. When the Hakurei Shrine holds events, I help out occasionally, and Reimu lets me set up a stall there."
Otherwise, running into some unfamiliar youkai on her own would send her running.
The little cat's excitement fizzled, but she still handed over a Kyubey. "Here, this is for you. If Xiaobai ever gets sick, I'll bring it to you."
"I'd rather have a cucumber." Nitori accepted it with distaste, then turned it over curiously. "This looks like some kind of artificially created organism—what's the deal?"
"It's Kyubey. It doesn't taste very good."
"Huh, you're actually judging this creature's value by taste? Kids really are kids..." Nitori fiddled with it a moment longer. "And it's got some sort of pattern on its back, like there's a secret inside. If I could pry it open... It shouldn't be a magical construct, right? Magical items aren't worth researching. Then again, if it is magic-related, I could sell it to some loaded, gullible magician for a decent price..."
She wandered off muttering, Kyubey in hand.
What a weird person. With that bizarre getup, her new nickname would be "Green Cap."
The little cat shook her head and tucked the restored Xiaobai back into storage space.
Time to go visit Marisa. Once she'd seen Marisa, she'd leave this world. Stupid Chen—Yimi rarely came back for a visit, and all she got was an unpleasant memory.