It only takes about 10 minutes to reach their destination. Reimu had led Yuuka to the bar she had brazenly left earlier. Apparently, it not only sells saké but also grilled fish and other moderate meals. Mostly just grilled fish, though. When she and Yuuka come in, the people sitting around almost turn to greet her but notice Yuuka and instead just turn back around, fall silent, and scoot a little ways away from her general direction. It makes a convenient straight path to the bar counter, though. They walk over there with Yuuka hanging her head low and trying to not attract any more attention.

They settle each in a chair when she asks, "What do you want me to get you, exactly?" Her tone is a little somber, but otherwise apathetic.

"Hokke Yakizakana. With green tea." she answers almost immediately after, as if she already knew what she wanted before coming in.

"Right..." Yuuka seems a bit annoyed, but is still glad that it's at least quicker than browsing a menu for several minutes. She shakes her head from thought and calls the waiter at the counter over. She tells him what to get but gets an unexpected reaction. The waiter starts to stutter and freak out a little from what is presumably the sight of her. He runs off before she can say anything further.

"Does he have no charisma or something?" Reimu asks rhetorically.

They wait a while for the food to be prepared fresh. While they do, they both notice how quiet the entire room is. They then realize that everyone is vaguely staring in their direction but not making eye contact with either one. Reimu is visibly bewildered but doesn't say much else. Additionally, Yuuka is now personally confused by Reimu's expression! She turns to look at her, and the two are now staring right at each other without knowing exactly why. They keep staring until it becomes awkward and then slowly look down on the counter.

Eventually, the dish is delivered along with a couple cups of tea. Another oddity is that no price is asked of them.

"Hey, what's this?" Reimu calls to and asks the person who delivered the dish, referring to the extra cup.

"Oh, it's complimentary!" he hesitantly responds.

"Weird..." Reimu comments before she starts to leisurely eat.

A minute or two in, Yuuka finally asks, "Did you notice that?"

"No?" Reimu has no idea of what she's referring to.

"They didn't charge us."

"...You're right!" Reimu suddenly realizes after about 10 seconds of thinking on it.

"Well...I guess that's good. I didn't bring any money." Yuuka quietly admits to her. Reimu just stares at her with a glare of disappointment.

"Don't you mug people for a living?" she asks. Yuuka flicks her head hard enough to make her head bob backwards. Reimu chuckles despite the pain and continues to eat. Soon enough, she realizes that Yuuka didn't order anything. "Hey, you want some?" she asks, sliding the wooden plate towards her. Yuuka declines with a hand gesture.

After another 5 minutes of Reimu taking her sweet, sweet time, (much to Yuuka's displeasure) she finally finishes. She waits a bit for some reason or another, then gestures for them to slip out. They both get up and leave together, out the front door.

"What the hell was that about?" Reimu asks, again, rhetorically, but with more confusion than before. She also says it rather loudly. Yuuka says nothing and even starts to walk away, but Reimu stops her to remind her, "Hey, you still need to tell me what's up with you." She puts emphasis on the "you".

Yuuka looks back at her and asks in an odd, almost disgusted voice, "In public?"

"Well, not if you don't want..." Reimu concedes, realizing that denying the implied request would be pretty damn cold and unsympathetic. She suggests that they go to her shrine, which Yuuka agrees to, then turn to leave. However, they then notice another green-head standing around in the street and blatantly advertising the Moriya Shrine.

The atmosphere around Yuuka suddenly becomes so intense that even Reimu's usual apathetic attitude can feel it. Yuuka just starts to scowl and grit her teeth at the simple sight of the girl. Her entire body just looks like it's about to explode at any minute.

"Hey, hey, calm down..." Reimu begins to tell her, grabbing onto her shoulder. Yuuka twitches angrily and flings Reimu's hand away with her arm.

"I'm about to wreck a bitch..." she says with utter hatred as she begins to quickly stomp towards the display. Reimu stops her just moments into the walk and gives her a hard tug. Yuuka stops for just a moment and is about to react rather violently, but then stops to think for a moment. She settles down a bit and refrains from starting another fight at the expense of bloody satisfaction.

Without another word, they head off in the opposite direction and cut through a few alleys to get to the path on towards the Hakurei Shrine. They fly up the steps instead of walking and save a dozen or so minutes. Getting there, Reimu rushes to get inside and fling her shoes off.

"So sloppy." Yuuka comments.

"And whose house is overgrown with trees and infested with bugs?" Reimu retorts with a rather snide smile but a very serious tone. Yuuka just scoffs and takes her shoes off as well.

They make their way into the quaint little building and are met by Suika sleeping on top of the Kotatsu. Reimu scoffs this time and kicks Suika until she rolls off. That is, around 2 or 3 dozen times. "It's sore now..." she says afterwards. She sits down and Yuuka follows, first punting Suika out of the way again. They sit on opposite ends of the table and only Reimu sets her head down. They just sit there for a bit until she finally asks, "Well? You're not shy, are you?"

Yuuka puts her elbow on the table and cups her head in the corresponding hand. She sighs and waits a bit more before asking, "Did you notice anything missing at the lake?"

Reimu has to think about this one. She gives it a minute, but then it clicks. "I remember you had that little girl with you."

"Right." Yuuka confirms.

"But she was just gone and you looked real-" she stops suddenly and then finally gets it. "Ooooooh!" Or so Yuuka thought. "I don't get it." Reimu then admits haphazardly.

Yuuka groans in disappointment, then elaborates, "She just disappeared when we went to the lake."

"What, you mean you liked her or something?"

"I guess you could say that. She was at least cute."

"Looked like it. So you don't know where she went?"

Yuuka suddenly looks more depressed, "No..."

Reimu raises her head up finally, "Why do you like her anyways?"

Yuuka snaps at her, "I already told you."

Reimu insists, "Come on, it can't just be 'she's cute', you gotta have a better reason than that to get attached to a little kid in less than a day."

"I..." Yuuka starts to speak, but can't quite come up with an answer that she likes.

"Kids don't really like you too much, do they?" Reimu says without thinking.

As one might expect, Yuuka gets visibly upset. She doesn't say anything besides a quiet, "Why you..." without an ending. At the same time, she thinks to herself, "She has the fucking nerve to say that!? Thoughtless damn humans." However, she says the last sentence aloud.

"Oh, sorry." Reimu apologizes half-heartedly. Yuuka is about to respond, but Reimu quickly changes subjects to avoid an altercation. "So why do you suddenly hate Sanae so much? I know she can be pretty annoying and childish at times, but it looked like you were about to tear her apart."

Yuuka jumps up and yells at the mention, "That little brat is the reason that everybody fucking hates me!" She says it very quickly and concisely, but still has to nearly pant to keep herself from going into a rage.

"Jeez, calm down." Reimu very, very simply suggests as if the anger is misplaced.

Yuuka is still angry and shows it by clenching her hands into a fist so hard that her nails pierce the palm and make blood start seeping down it. "That's easy for you to say." she says in a poor attempt to calm down again.

Reimu stands up and walks over to her, then grabs both of her shoulders and shakes her a bit, "I said calm down. You'll end up killing somebody else-" but she is once again interrupted by Yuuka who just shoves her to the side and takes a few steps towards the exit.

She turns after that and faces her, "I don't want to hear it!"

She's about to turn to leave, but a collection of annoying people come by and one familiar person yells, "Hey Yuuka!" She does turn, but also does so with her right fist clenched as hard as possible and still bleeding. She prepares to slug whoever is standing in the front door, but stops abruptly when she realizes who it is: Takara, Cirno, Daiyousei, and some other fairy holding a sunflower assembled together. Cirno is floating, and Yuuka just missed her head by a few centimeters to the side. She could feel the wind pass her. They all freeze completely and fall silent. Droplets of blood are dripping and falling on Takara's face, running down her forehead, nose, and cheek. Looking back, Reimu was reaching out in an attempt to stop her, but is now also frozen. Everybody is just standing there, not sure of how to react. Especially Yuuka, who looks figuratively pale as a ghost.

"T-Takara, you liar! She's not nice!" Cirno yells at her, breaking the silence before flying off in a temper. Daiyousei follows close behind.

Yuuka takes her hand slowly back and opens it, letting the rest of the blood drip onto the floor before it begins to scab over. Takara is still standing completely still, looking up at her with a...look; just a blank stare. Yuuka holds her bloody hand against her chest and holds it tightly, then apologizes quietly. The sunflower fairy carefully approaches her, but suddenly flinches and flies a bit backwards when Yuuka reaches out to her. She also brings her hand back and gives a light gasp. The sunflower fairy gets spooked and flies away.

"Wh-what just happened?" Yuuka asks with sincerity and a low, shocked voice. Of course, nobody answers.

Reimu doesn't know what to say, Suika's asleep, she can't answer herself, and Takara doesn't even know what blood is despite witnessing murder, as indicated by her next dialogue, "What's this red stuff?"

Yuuka chokes up a little, but holds back and picks her up with a simple answer to speak, "Blood. It comes out when people hurt." She hugs Takara closely to finish, making the blood on her hand stain Takara's white dress.

"Are you hurt?" she asks. Reimu can feel how hard that hit from several feet back. Yuuka just cringes and nearly tears up.

She holds it back, however, and just replies, "Yes...let's just go home." She lets Takara down and tells her to go ahead and wait at the torii. She does so, and Yuuka turns back around to face Reimu. She approaches alone and gives Yuuka a very sympathetic hug. Yuuka doesn't hug back, but just sighs and says goodbye. It's only just now that she realizes that it's become sundown.

Yuuka proceeds towards the torii after retrieving her shoes, in a leisurely stroll that is indicative of her usual self, still trying to take in everything that happened today. Just as she's about halfway there, however, Reimu calls out to her again as she runs forwards, "Wait, one more question!" She gets there in a few seconds and Yuuka stops to hear her out. "How long has it been like this?"

Yuuka thinks for a moment, but can't come up with an accurate answer, "I don't know. Maybe since the end of winter."

Reimu nods and lets her go on her way. She does and meets Takara at the top of the steps. She picks her up and takes a moment to stare at the sunset and cheer herself up a little. It lasts for a few moments until she decides to finally leave. Given that Takara doesn't like flying, Yuuka just hovers, low, down the steps.

Reimu smiles and is convinced that this was an okay end to the day. She's about to go back in but is suddenly stopped by none other than Aya Shameimaru. Aya throws her arm over Reimu's shoulder and stands on one leg while staring off at the same sunset. She whistles and says, "The tip that witch gave me was right. That shot was amazing; it'll definitely be on the front page! Imagine it, a wide, beautiful sunset aligned within the torii of the Hakurei Shrine with a mysterious silhouetted woman and child standing by, looking off into it! That's some art right there."

"You're a journalist; what do you know about art?" Reimu insults her.

"How rude!" Aya yells. The two continue to bicker about art for the rest of the evening.

On the way back home, Yuuka decides to ask, "Were those your friends?"

"Yeah." Takara answers.

"Cirno and…?" she trails off after the "and".

"Dai-chan and Kona-chan." Takara sounds a bit sultry, but Yuuka can't see her face as it's hoisted over her shoulder.

"Right. Aren't they pretty...stupid?" Yuuka tries to not sound insulting.

"Kind of..." Takara admits "...but they're nice."

"Define 'nice'." Yuuka asks, intending a bit of humor.

"They usually are." Takara corrects herself.

They stop talking for a few minutes, at least until Yuuka apologizes. "Why?" Takara raises her head up and asks.

"I scared them off." Yuuka answers without looking back up.

Takara can't say anything in return, so she just rests her head again and waits a little longer.

They say nothing else the entire trip. Yuuka simply assumes that the entire time Takara was missing, she had just met those three and spent her time with them. She figures that they either followed her to the shrine or the fairies just know the land, so to speak, better than they let off. She's more or less relieved that she now knows where the child was, but also a little perplexed at how she could be attached to her after such a short time. "Could she just be cute? Is that really it?" she begins to think "I know there haven't been a lot of things around lately, but it's not been that long. What the hell is up with her? How can she act so innocent, how...HOW!?" She just keeps questioning everything that has happened so far with about as much confidence as a puppy with two broken legs. She starts to get frustrated but doesn't give in the desire to let loose just yet. A ton of "random" thoughts cross her mind the rest of the time, but are of negligible importance. They're just there to distract her: things like what tomorrow will be like, how long until autumn, whether there will be rain, what kind of flowers she'll see when she stops thinking about all of this stupid shit. Then Sanae comes to mind again, but only for a split moment, but just long enough to make her grit her teeth again, stiffen up, and slow down to nearly a stop. She stops thinking about it and takes her mind to what the newspaper may say tomorrow. "It's really the only thing that's been keeping me up-to-date recently, isn't it?" she realizes.

They finally arrive just when twilight can be easily seen. Takara has just about fallen asleep again. "She sleeps a lot. I wonder if she'll stay awake tonight." Yuuka thinks to herself. She whispers it as well, though. She walks in and lets out a heavy sigh of relief to be back home. She sets her parasol down by the door where it usually goes and takes her shoes off for the last time of the day. She carries Takara up the stairs and down the halls to her bedroom, then lays her down there. She doesn't wake up quite yet. While she's still asleep, Yuuka slips out of her daytime attire and into her nightgown and cap. By now, the entire bedroom is almost completely black aside from those hauntingly pretty night bugs lighting up the walls. The entire atmosphere has switched from incredibly tense to tired and calm in just one trip. It makes her greatly appreciate having such a home. At night, it looks dank and dark but is actually quite comfortable and spacious to those with an open mind. Yuuka climbs into her bed and pull Takara up to a comfortable position, which actually wakes her. She panics a little from the darkness until being held by Yuuka, who calms her by shooting up a ball of light into the skylight above. It illuminates the room in a cyan light and makes the mansion look briefly like a lighthouse from afar. The two settle down and get comfortable.

Yuuka tries to tell her to get to sleep, but Takara is a bit concerned, "Is it really okay to sleep here?"

"Why not?" Yuuka simply says.

Takara still doesn't want to sleep quite yet, "C-can we at least talk a bit?"

"It's been a long day..." Yuuka complains. Takara gives her a look that she can just barely see, but is still heavily affected by; she easily gives up, "Alright, but just a little." Takara stops making the face and hugs Yuuka, who blushes and hugs her back. "Dammit, she's just too much." she thinks.

When they part, Takara almost immediately asks, "Who was that girl you were talking to?"

"Oh, that's Reimu. We go back a long ways. Let's just say she's one of the more important people here." Yuuka explains.

"Her clothes are weird." Takara bluntly comments.

Yuuka makes a slightly snide comment as well, "Sometimes I think she's an exhibitonist. Those aren't even traditional." She chuckles afterwards.

"What about the other one?"

"What other one?" Yuuka looks puzzled, but that's not quite apparent in total darkness.

"The one with the wings and the camera and the funny shoes!" Takara explains, now clearly referring to Aya.

"Oh, Aya. Wait, where was she?"

"Behind the other girl."

Yuuka is a little annoyed that Aya was spying on them, but not really surprised. She seems like the sort of youkai that would stalk people. "Odd." she simply says. "Well, she's the Tengu that writes for the newspaper. Don't mind her."

"Newspaper?"

"Do you not know what- Never mind." Yuuka begins to ask, but the question is answered before it's asked. "A bunch of papers with pictures and words that tell you what's happening."

"Oooohhh." Takara coos at the thought.

"Yes, but don't believe whatever it says. She's been known to...exaggerate things." This is an understatement. Aya is very prone to exaggerating things for publicity. Then again, that's politics, and Gensokyo politics make even less sense than the outside world's. That being known, she eagerly drops the subject of Gensokyo Politics for something that a child (or any sane person) can understand, "So what were you doing with those three?"

"They were showing me some things."

"Like…?"

Takara elaborates with just a little visible excitement, "There's a huge building on the other side of the lake with a dragon guarding it. There's also this huge mountain near it. They told me there's a shrine on top where the frog god lives."

"So you're all friends?"

"Yeah."

"Did you...tell them about me?" There's a silence after Yuuka says that. She eventually assumes that the answer is 'yes' and asks, "What exactly did you say?"

"That you're nice. That you helped me with things and...you know." Takara sort of trips over her words and ends up not being very informative, but Yuuka understands what she's trying to say. She also feels a bit worse about what happened earlier.

"So what else?"

Takara rambles on about how cool the fairies are and what the humans they met were like. She recalls them being a bit creepy but still nice except for a few who would scream "Oni" when they saw her and would try to pelt her and her friends on sight. In her rambling, she doesn't notice how Yuuka simply falls asleep in the middle. She does as well, but much later. Luckily, Yuuka doesn't snore, so her feelings aren't hurt. They both end up asleep, curled up against each other in a lazy, laid out manner. In the hallways of the mansion, giant balls of eerie light float around freely as restless spirits and illuminate the entire house. They dance around in happiness and let out pleasant dreams to reward the two for their long day. Even as the moon reaches high, they linger and grow until they fade into ether and embody the night. Soundly, Gensokyo manages to sleep despite the unrest; even nocturnal youkai are somehow calmed, some thinking that it foreshadows good luck. In short, it is a peaceful night made to juxtapose the hectic day where most of the energy was spent for some reason.