[x] The Bamboo Forest of the Lost.

"This was a really bad idea."

Here I was, exhausted and tired. I had been carrying an unconscious girl on my back, and while it was pleasant for a short while, the novelty soon wore off. I had been walking for what had been almost an hour, and I was well aware that the footpath had vanished several minutes ago. Backtracking was useless. The bamboo forest looked the same from every direction. I couldn't find anything that I could use as a landmark.

"Stupid bamboo forest," I grumbled "How am I supposed to get through this place without getting lost!?"

Oh, right. This place was named the 'Bamboo Forest of the Lost', wasn't it? Now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen any clearings ever since I set foot in this place. To make things worse, the bamboo seemed to grow in strange directions, making it impossible to navigate. Even if I tried heading straight back where I came from, I only ended up making several twists and turns. And that wasn't the worst part.

I was pretty damn sure that we were being followed. It was only for a second, but I saw something move from the side of my eye. No, that wasn't right. I saw several things moving behind us. This couldn't possibly mean anything good. I swallowed nervously as I stepped through the thicket.

"Hey," I whispered. "A little help here?"

"T-that tickles, Sakuya-nyan! Ehehe..."

"Umm, Meiling?"

"...zzzzz...."

Ugh, damn. Meiling was completely out of it. I nudged her several more times, but she just continued mumbling stupid things in her sleep. The gate guard was completely unaware of our current predicament. And during the worst time, too. I sighed loudly.

After finding the closest thing to a small clearing, I gently put the gate guard down. She continued sleeping soundly, as if the hard ground was a comfy bed. I tried shaking her and calling out loudly, but it was no use. Meiling must have drank too much. Clearly, I couldn't count on her tonight.

"..."

Well, I didn't have the heart to blame this on her. After all, it was my 'brilliant' idea to seek shelter in the Bamboo Forest. Now that I thought about it, I never visited Eientei by foot before. And we were travelling at night time. Yep, this must rank pretty high among the 'Top ways to get yourself killed in Gensokyo'.

Too bad I didn't plan on dying tonight.

Very slowly, I pulled out my rifle from the shoulder holster. Then, I turned around and aimed carefully into the bamboo stalks behind us. It was very faint, but I saw the tiniest glow of red eyes in the distance. 'Good thing I kept this gun loaded,' I thought.

"BANG!"

A loud screech echoed in the forest. The silhouette of the creature became clear as it flapped its wings. A giant beast crow? I quickly prepared to take another shot. The creature was soaring straight for my head with its claws.

"BANG! BANG! BANG!"

The fourth shot connected with the creatures head, and it finally fell down and stopped moving. I kept the gun on the crow until I was sure that it was a corpse. Then, I sighed in relief. Looking at it closer, the bird was large enough to swoop down and carry away a full-grown cow from the Human Village. A damn dangerous beast indeed.

"Zzzz... Munya~"

"..."

I glanced at Meiling. She managed to sleep through all of that? Unbelievable! This was getting ridiculous. If more of those things came and attacked, we'd be in real trouble -

"Caw! Caw! Caw!"

Like right now, apparently. I looked up to see several giant crows circling us from above. None of them looked any smaller than the one I just killed.

"Ah, shit."

I reloaded the rifle as quickly as I could. And as I raised it up at them, I saw that they were already swooping down at us. There were too many. I knew that at heart. But still, I didn't run. Instead, I aimed at the closest one and fired.

"BANG! BANG!"

Got one in the wing. It swerved and crashed into the bamboo stalks.

"BANG!"

Hit another one in the beak. That looked painful.

"BANG! BANG!"

And with that, I was out of ammo. There wasn't enough time to reload, so I changed my grip on the rifle to swing it like a club. It was probably a futile effort, but I wasn't going to die here without a fight.

"Damn," I muttered.

Just then, I felt like giving Gensokyo the finger and a big 'fuck you'. Facing a bad end like this without warning? Well, shit! I closed my eyes, tightened my grip on the rifle and rushed forward, hoping that I could club the brains out of one of those things before they tore me apart.

"... wait, what?"

It took me a couple of minutes to realize that something was off. First, I wasn't dead or in extreme pain. Second, I didn't hit anything as I swung the rifle. Third, something smelled like grilled chicken. I slowly opened my eyes.

"You have guts, facing those beast crows like that."

A girl stood before me with fiery red eyes and light violet hair that reached her ankles. She wore a discolored brown shirt and a pair of red overalls that had a number of paper charms on them. Her hair was tied with those same charms. 'Such an odd costume', I thought.

Then, I looked around the area. Several charred crow corpses littered the area. Some bamboo stalks looked burnt as well, though none were on fire. I immediately realized that this girl was very dangerous.

"So then," she said. "Where are you two idiots headed this late at night?"

I frowned at the newcomer.
[ ] "We are heading to Eientei."
[ ] "We need a place to stay."
[ ] "We got lost in the forest."
[ ] "We aren't telling you."
[ ] "We don't need your help."
[ ] "We are here to murder you."