I walked toward the Fantastic Blowhole as quickly as I could. The winter chill was getting worse; every morning the ground was covered in frost, and the grey sky threatened snow that never seemed to arrive. I hugged my arms as I jumped to fly for a bit.

It was unfortunate that I’d have to set out in winter clothes, take them off before jumping in the hole, and then put them right back on when I got to the Old Capital. Patchouli and I were talking about the scrydome.

“Wiki didn’t want to wait until the next meeting,” I told Patchouli through the communications crystal. “He talked to Rick ‘out of session’ and they’ve already broken ground.”

“An admirable dedication to the cause,” said the librarian. “Is he following my plans?” Her voice warmed me a bit. I knew that she was watching me hurry to the underground alongside Nazrin, but Arnold and Sasha weren’t at the library. Instead they were climbing Youkai Mountain to perhaps encounter Urumi on one of her fish-selling trips.

“I gave them to him,” I said. “He said something about thicker beams.”

“The perils of construction without flight or telekinesis,” she said. “I suspect any alterations will result in distortions to the image, unless this ‘Rick’ happens to also be an unusually thorough mathematician.”

“As if the stacks don’t provide distortions.” I leapt into the air as I turned away from the road. I wasn’t trying to hurry, but truly, it was an ass-bitingly cold day.

“In the library we sit at the center for a reason. You obviously haven’t thought about the implications of a large audience, or the need for floorspace.” She spent a few minutes telling me about ellipsoids and equidistant surfaces.

“You could go help them, if you’re worried.”

“My time is better spent elsewhere,” she said. She was presumably reading as she watched me do this part of the expedition for the twentieth time.

“You’ve obviously given it a lot of thought,” I said.

“A little bit. Even so, I’ll let the humans handle it. I doubt they have anything better to do.”

“I’m not sure you understand how serious things are in the human village,” I said. “Strict controls started last week. We’re on two-thirds rationing, except for new and expecting mothers.” There weren’t many in the village, which made giving them extra feel obvious and easy. “We’re going to go down to one third, then nothing, before long. No exceptions for construction workers or students of danmaku.”

“Is that why Arnold asked if I had any ‘biscuits’ with the tea?”

“Probably.” I blasted a fairy with red danmaku. She and her clones retreated into a bush. “The reduced diet doesn’t seem to be affecting him much.”

“Hmm. Interesting.”

“If you can duplicate more vegetables after all, now would be a good time to say so.”

“I cannot,” she said, and I could hear the faint remorse in her voice. “We are also facing food shortages.”

“That must be why Miss Hong cancelled her classes,” I said. The fairies didn’t eat, and Patchouli seemed to subsist on tea, but perhaps Meiling was feeling the pinch of hunger.

It could also be the sting of literal teeth. I assumed Remilia had drawn blood from the probable-dragon the same day that she returned from Makai, and perhaps more than normal. It would be surprising if the Scarlet Devil Mansion’s food shortage was just their resident dragon not having enough blood.

“Who all eats at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, anyway?” I asked.

“I prefer that we not discuss that in public,” said Patchouli. “Also, twelve-o’clock.”

I saw a dark spot ahead. It made my hair stand on end, because at first it made me think of the hole in the sky. The shape grew in size as it drew nearer, a perfectly blank space that expanded like a swelling balloon. The sphere was moving semi-randomly, but in my general direction. At least it wasn’t the barrier finally failing.

I’d seen it before, on the first day I’d come to Gensokyo. I’d been inside it.

“That’s Rumia, right?” I asked. She was a youkai who could control darkness.

“Most probably,” said Patchouli.

“It is,” came Nazrin’s voice through the crystal. “I checked.”

“Show her that you are a danmaku user as soon as possible,” added the librarian, but I was already blasting the dark sphere with my red vector danmaku.

Rumia ate human flesh. To her I was either a danmaku user or lunch. Yukari had used the small youkai’s darkness to obtain some privacy for interviews all those months ago, but without Yukari’s influence, who could say whether Rumia would remain well-behaved. I hoped the danmaku rules would protect me.

It was not lost on me that if I used Okina’s help to escape it would put me further from the village rather than closer. I could see the unused outhouse in the distance. Rumia would probably find me again right away, if it even worked.

It was because of youkai like this that no human could reasonably be expected to survive outside Human Town. Even with danmaku you’d have to sleep eventually. I kept firing. The dark sphere shrank until I was looking at a little girl with ragged straw hair. She had a red bow, and a vantablack dress like someone had cut out the screen of the world to expose the theatre. The neck of her dress glinted strangely in the wintry light. She seemed unaccountably sad and lost, to me.

However, lots of youkai use the ‘lost little girl’ tactic to get people to let down their guard.

“You’re lonely,” said Rumia. Her voice was high and curious. “It tastes bad.”

“I mean, I have allies,” I said. I didn’t look at the crystal, but its ongoing presence helped me feel a bit better.

I’d never encountered Rumia on an expedition. She wasn’t one of the ‘six obstacles to my goal’ that Yukari had mentioned. Like Nitori, she happened to be on the path–but hopefully not permanently.

“You’re looking for someone,” she said. She kicked the ground. “Is that right?”

“Maroon,” I responded. “A lost fairy.”

“I’m also looking for someone,” she said. She lifted her arms to either side, almost like she wanted a hug, but I definitely wasn’t that stupid.

“Who?” I asked. Rumia didn’t answer. Instead she began emitting blue and green danmaku in two straight, easy to dodge waves. She swayed, pointing her extended arms at me. I dodged.

“You should leave this one,” said Patchouli. “She isn’t part of the expedition.”

“Battling people makes me stronger,” I said. “Besides, this isn’t so hard.”

“This won’t be repeatable.”

“Yeah, well.” I kept dodging her danmaku. “Does her dress look weird to you?”

“Blacker than black?”

“No. The front is shiny.” There was a sheen on her collar. A wetness, I realized. “If she eats humans, leaving her near the road is dangerous, isn’t it?”

“Removing dangerous youkai is not your goal, nor is it achievable.”

“I’m hungry,” shouted Rumia.

“We all are,” I shouted back. I spoke to the crystal. “Maybe I should try placating her? Helping her?”

“You are wasting time and resources.”

“I’m hungry!” She burst into darkness, and it expanded like a blast front. The world went pitch-black. It washed over me with a deep chill, not of winter or even of hunger.

The darkness was lonely.

I kept firing danmaku, even though I couldn’t see my own arm. My danmaku cast weak red light, but the shadows ate it, squeezing the last bit of glow out of each shot like the ketchup in a pouch. It was as uncanny as a neon sign flicking off right in front of my face. Frozen grass crunched beneath me as I took a step back.

“Where’d she go?” I asked. I spread my fire. I couldn’t tell if it was hitting her or not. I began to fire with both hands, at least. I was gathering strength for the upcoming battles.

“We cannot see,” said Patchouli. “Demon! Where is Rumia?”

“I perceive footsteps behind Mister Thorne,” said a koakuma. “To the North.”

I spun around, but not fast enough.

“I’m hungry,” moaned Rumia. I felt her hot breath in my ear, and a tongue touched my earlobe. I screamed and twirled again, blasting where she’d been. I hadn’t seen her at first, but when I hit her with danmaku she faintly glowed, flashing like an old-timey film.

The world was red and black. Something was wrong with her face. The youkai of darkness quickly retreated and evaded my fire, making her vanish.

“She isn’t using danmaku!” I said.

“She may be forgetting or ignoring the rules,” said Patchouli. “You should probably run.”

I sprinted away in the general direction of the Fantastic Blowhole. When I tripped I didn’t stop, I took to the air and kept flying as fast as I could. I collided with Rumia, who headed me off by flying even faster. She was two feet shorter than me, so our collision sent her twirling away.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The darkness fell away all at once. Rumia’s hideous face came into view. She had conical teeth and black eyes, and the front of her dress was smeared with saliva that poured out of her mouth.

I flew straight up into the air, putting distance between me and the monster.

“I’m hungry,” whined the youkai, her voice wet with spittle. She started to descend. “What should I do?”

Rumia fell to the ground beneath me and whimpered, her head in her hands. I fled toward the Fantastic Blowhole and threw myself in. She did not pursue me.

–

“Rumia is starving, like the other youkai,” said Patchouli through the crystal. “There isn’t much to be done.”

“But we have to do something about her,” I told Patchouli as I dodged yellow bullets. “Humans forage on that road!”

“Do something about me?” asked Parsee. She switched with Yamame, and I dodged green bullets from the new direction subconsciously.

“No.”

“Hmmph.” She shot me, and I felt her desire to break my legs, and to make me know she was better than me, which never really went away. “Don’t talk about someone else while we’re fighting!”

“Do you even want to work in the human village, by the way?” Parsee’s constant denials were annoying me, and she’d make a more reliable ally if I could get her to admit it, I thought.

“Yes!” shouted Yamame.

“I’d sooner die than help humans,” said Parsee as she bit her thumb.

“She’s lying,” said the spider youkai.

I agreed with the assessment. Parsee had helped humans half-a-dozen times, and even then she didn’t seem to be trying to dodge my danmaku. If anything she flew into it, making our battle shorter. It was like she wanted to be convinced to change her mind.

“Here’s what I’m going to do,” I called out to her. “Yamame’s compulsion will be to help the construction workers, and Parsee’s compulsion will be to go to town and hang out with Yamame. If you want to help while you’re there, that’s up to you.”

“Jerk,” said Parsee. “Jealousy of the Kind and Lovely!”

“Conviction Mines!”

I felt good about this course of action. As I dodged the green balls and the pink flower petals of Parsee’s danmaku, the two youkai flew into my mines and defeated themselves. I landed. They flew away without another word.

“About Rumia,” I said to the crystal as I pulled out my winter gloves. “Couldn’t we just feed her to reduce the risk?”

“Feed her what?” asked Patchouli.

“Danmaku, of course.” What else did we have?

“Perhaps, but wouldn’t that send the wrong message to hungry youkai?”

“That we want to help them?”

“That you can be imposed upon to help,” said the librarian.

“Who are we talking about?” asked Arnold through the connection.

“You’re back!” I said. “I take it you didn’t make it up Youkai Mountain.”

“Nope,” said Sasha. Both of them had returned to the library. “Momiji spotted us and sent us packing. Apparently without Nitori’s presence, we aren’t allowed.”

That was just great–to get to Urumi they had to go to the Moriya Shrine and Sanae, after getting past Momiji, which would require Nitori’s help. It was like an entire other expedition without fighting.

“We battled her, but she was too strong,” added Arnold. Okay, with a little fighting.

“Did you tell them you were pilgrims?” I asked. I flipped through my notebook; the tengu treaty allowed those, I was pretty sure.

“Shit. No.”

“Have you tried sending a letter to Urumi?” asked Patchouli. I put my notebook away and tuned them out.

Youkai of the earth were gathering ahead of me. Walking mushrooms and rock fairies attacked. I even saw a burning vengeful spirit, but it stayed further back.

The local youkai had noticed our preferred flight path, and made sure to be on it. I wasn’t displeased. Every enemy I defeated only made my run more powerful. Eventually oni were leaping over the walls to enter battle with me.

The oni were faintly disgusting to me, no matter their toned abs and copious cleavage. I frowned as I dodged danmaku bullets. One in particular had a lot of cleavage.

I defeated the busty one, then another oni nearby. There were almost twenty oni left in front of me as I flew toward Hot Spring Town. I’d looked too long at the curvy oni, apparently, because before long they all became curvy. I shook my head.

Youkai in general were seeming less attractive to me. Was it the oni’s cannibalism? Or my curse being lifted? Or perhaps the thought that they were secretly male? I watched one experimentally turn back into a muscular man, waggling his eyebrows.

Wiki had pointed out that basically any youkai’s gender was arbitrary, no matter the fact that they’d converged on female for whatever reason. If you could change your appearance so thoroughly, and weren’t born as anything in particular, and had no particular preference or desire for sexual relations, what did gender mean, anyway?

“Hey big boy,” said one of the oni. He(?) had forgotten to change his voice. I shot him with danmaku and he flew away in dejection.

“Oni are deceptive,” I said. He or she, they’d been bigger than me. I didn’t appreciate sarcasm at my expense.

“Howdy, hot stuff,” said another oni. Her voice was sweeter.

“They’re trying to butter you up,” said Sasha. “Don’t read too much into it.”

“No chance of that,” I said.

I’d never been interested in companion robots. I wondered if the same disinterest applied to ghosts and monsters, now that I was seeing them for what they actually were? My brain reflexively tried to find counterexamples, youkai that I still thought were attractive. It landed on two in particular, neither of which made any sense.

“You’re doing well,” said Patchouli. “It’s actually impressive.”

“Conviction Mines!” I shouted. Then I soared through my own danmaku, dispersing youkai as I went. The spell defeated three more of the oni. I was almost through them.

Why the fuck was I still attracted to the librarian? I knew she wasn’t interested in me in that way–she’d tried to pawn me off on a demon! I would be spending Thursday night at the library, ostensibly to read, and I was all but certain the librarian would pat me on the back and disappear to some hidden warded bedroom the moment I showed up. She always wore pajamas, so it’s not like she’d even have to change.

It had been hard to schedule a night for me to visit the library. Patchouli didn’t like Tuesdays and I was seeing the other attractive youkai on Wednesday. Sekibanki made even less sense as a partner. I hated my brain, just then. Or maybe the problem wasn’t my brain.

One of the oni struck me with danmaku and I felt a desire to eat steak that I wouldn’t even be able to smell. My stomach turned.

“Why do you eat each other?” I shouted as I blasted him. He didn’t answer. A different oni leapt into battle.

“You should try it before you knock it,” she said, firing bullets at me. “We’re really tasty!”

“They are,” lamented Sasha through the psychic connection.

“Have some more tea,” said Nazrin. It probably didn’t help that my roommate was hungry.

“Akiba Summer!” I shouted, bathing the oni in danmaku flame. She fell away. I twisted and defeated the last few of the youkai. I landed to catch my breath.

“Great work,” said Patchouli over the connection. There was a chorus of agreement. I stood up straighter.

“Thank you. You know, if eating them wouldn’t curse us, we could solve the human village food problem in a second.”

“What do you mean, curse?” said Hoshiguma Yuugi as she flew above the wall to Hot Spring Town. The muscular oni turned her head sideways, striking a pose and making her long single horn apparent. She had a sake dish in one hand, and was pointing down toward me with the other. “Becoming an oni is a blessing. We wouldn’t bestow that honor on just anyone in the human village.”

“Town,” I corrected her. Instead of her gym outfit, Yuugi was wearing a blue yukata, or half-wearing it. It was more open than closed.

“Damn,” said Arnold. There was a sound of spraying water. “Hey!”

“Sorry, a reflex from the fairies,” said Patchouli. She didn’t sound sorry.

“We should get a smaller spray bottle,” said Sasha. “I bet Kourindou has one.”

“He charges extra for contraceptives,” I mumbled. “I doubt it matters who you’re using them on.”

“Talk to the person in front of you,” said Yuugi, her expression hardening. She flicked a rock at the crystal, but it dropped out of the way.

“Nazrin?” I asked. Yuugi’s frown became a snarl. Before even setting out, we had agreed that it would behoove us to verify that Yuugi really was the second of six challengers.

“Over Hot Spring Town, and right through them,” said the mouse. “Sorry.”

“Them?” I asked, just as Suika Ibuiki showed up. “Oh. Well, I suppose that’s good.” I couldn’t take her gourd unless I fought her, I thought. The smaller oni seemed cheerful, and was wearing her normal clothes, a white shirt and purple skirt.

“Best of luck,” said the mouse youkai.

“What’s the matter?” asked Yuugi. “Can’t even enter battle without mommy’s pep talk?”

“Yuugi could be my–” said Arnold before he was cut off by the sound of splashing water.

“Look, insults are a waste of time,” I said. “Let’s talk out our differences like mature adults.”

“Doo-doo head,” said Ibuki Suika with a grin. “Dummy. Poopy butt.” She was right behind Yuugi, cradling the purple gourd and wearing a lazy smile. She took a long draw from the gourd and wiped her mouth with a forearm. “Baby.”

I felt an impulse to call Suika some choice names, but I held back. “Do oni feed on fear, or masculine bravado?” I asked with sudden insight.

“Feminine bravado,” growled Yuugi. She seemed affronted. The other oni had been very willing to transform, but Suika and Yuugi had never displayed that ability. I wondered about it.

“Hey Sasha, did Yuugi ever change her appearance while you were here?” I asked.

“No.”

“I think she’s actually female!”

Yuugi’s mouth fell open. Then she pulled open her shirt and flashed me. “What do you think, dumbass?”

“I meant psychologically!” I said. I covered my face, mostly to hide the redness. I definitely didn’t cover my eyes.

“I can’t make the signs any clearer without smothering you with them!”

“I can see why you guys worry about me,” said Arnold. Nobody responded to him; maybe they were also staring at the image. “Will we, uh, actually be able to broadcast this in the village? There are children there.”

“Do you really think there are indecency laws in Gensokyo?” asked Sasha.

“Look,” I told Yuugi as she covered up the goods. “We’ve had a miscommunication. The other oni obviously don’t care as much about gender, but I realized that you might want to be referred to as female. I’m sorry if I got it wrong.”

“Not yet, you aren’t!” shouted the oni. “Big Four Arcanum: Knockout in Three Steps!”

A ring of magic formed around her, and a surface of blue danmaku appeared. The danmaku were so abundant that they formed a solid wall. I flew back, and into a separate red surface of the same density. The compulsion wasn’t to join her for dinner, or even necessarily to submit. I felt my will faltering, because I’d taken one too many hits.

The emotion in the danmaku was complex. I got a sense of shame, and anger, and even an undercurrent of fear. Yuugi gestured, the chain at her wrist swinging widely, and even more danmaku materialized. She wanted something from me, but not something tangible like my presence at the table.

The rings of danmaku exploded outward. I dodged through a space that was so thin that my arms and head were struck. Only my core was truly vulnerable. I continued to taste the emotions of powerlessness and isolation. The spell card didn’t end. Instead more danmaku materialized.

“Okina!” I called. I was pulled away to safety as the second ring of danmaku exploded outward. A bullet struck me and my will failed.

Yuugi wanted me to become an oni, and for a moment I wanted the same thing for myself. I felt the fear that Yuugi hid underneath all that feigned disinterest and refusal to yield. A fear that made her strut, and show off her body, and even tempt humans. A fear that made her insult the people who ran or ignored her, a fear that drove her to resplendent indifference, a fear that made her ‘redistribute’ her subjects, a grasp at fairness.

Yuugi was afraid that one day she’d be the last survivor, or the second-to-last.

I contemplated this for several minutes, until the compulsion wore off. The outhouse door opened and I was deposited into pitch blackness.