東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 10:Double Dealing Character

—28—


"So a tsukumogami is feedin' off of power from the Outside World after replacin' its body with one that was made there? Huh. Well that's unexpected."

It was the day after we had left the Tsukumo sisters in Raiko's care. We were standing in the cemetery near the Myouren Temple, talking with Futatsuiwa Mamizou. The very first thing Renko had asked her about was whether Raiko's proposed method of saving the Tsukumo sisters had a chance of working or not. That had, of course, required us to explain everything we had discovered about the incident involving the Miracle Mallet to her first.

"I'm just not sure if I understand how doing something like that would be possible," Renko said, crossing her arms. "Could tsukumogami do something like that to themselves?"

Mamizou crossed her arms and leaned back thoughtfully, tapping ash from the bowl of her pipe onto the ground. "It'd probably help if I started by explainin' what tsukumogami really are. They’re divine spirits livin' inside of tools. That means that ultimately, they’re the same things as gods. They exist to answer some sorta prayer, bringin' benefits of some kind to the people who give them faith. That sorta give an' take is the most rudimentary basis for all religion."

"What do you mean? Tsukumogami answer prayers?"

"Sure they do, just like any other tool. Take a pair of chopsticks for example. They're just a pair of wooden sticks on their own. But if a human thinks to themselves 'I need somethin' to eat rice with' then those sticks can answer that prayer an’ become somethin' more than they were."

Renko chuckled. "I think I get it. Gods need people to believe in them and tools need people to recognize them as having a purpose. I suppose they’re similar in that regard."

"Exactly," Mamizou said, punctuating her speech by thrusting the stem of her pipe at Renko. "A person who buys a drill is lookin' for a hole, not a drill. Tools are only tools because they answer some sorta prayer when you use 'em. An' for doin' that, they receive faith from their users."

Hearing her explain it like that, it sort of made sense. So tsukumogami weren't really youkai then, but tools that had gathered up enough faith from regular usage to become minor gods?

"As that faith builds up through prolonged use, the spirit of a tool gets stronger. Eventually it gets strong enough that it starts to have a will of its own. But while that's happenin' the body of the tool grows old. The user might decide to throw their tool away an’ replace it with a new one, but they’d feel guilty about it after usin’ theirs for such a long time. Those feelin’s end up soakin’ into the tool, an’ they change the nature of the spirit growin’ inside of it. The once-useful tool becomes somethin’ like a burden they can’t throw away, somethin’ they resent carryin’ around. Or maybe they do throw it away, but then feel guilty for not takin’ better care of it. Either way those feelin’s flow into the tool and make it turn into a youkai. That’s what a tsukumogami like Kogasa is."

"Oh, that's sort of like how you get curse gods from fear of a disaster rather than hope for a blessing, right?"

"That's right. T’put it simply, what turns tsukumogami into a youkai is the amount of hope or guilt their user gives ‘em. Feelin’s like that are a kinda faith, and they become a source of power. Once a tool like that becomes a tsukumogami, it can live on long after its master has departed by gatherin' up fear. That's why Kogasa's always hungry an' tryin' to scare humans. She's gotta eat now that she has no user anymore."

When Mamizou laid it all out like that it was enough to make me feel sorry for Kogasa. Though she would probably prefer that I be surprised than sympathetic.

If the power of a tsukumogami depended on the faith it had gathered from its previous user, then I suppose that also explained a bit about Kokoro. According to Renko’s theory, she should be quite a young tsukumogami. To be as powerful as she was despite that would only make sense if her previous user had been exceptionally strong. A secret god would definitely qualify, I imagined.

—So in that case did that mean that whoever the person who owned the drum that Horikawa Raiko had used as a body was someone living in the Outside World who was similarly powerful?

"Now, let's bring this back around to the current incident. Those tsukumogami of a biwa and a koto that you mentioned weren't created by their owner’s desire or the like. Instead, you’re sayin’ they got made into tsukumogami by the power of the Miracle Mallet, meanin’ that once the power of that mallet was removed, they started to fade away, yeah?"

That would certainly seem to be consistent with what we had seen of the sisters. Just as they had feared, their lives really were in danger.

"If that's the case, then d’ya think transferrin’ their spirits into new tools’ll be enough to keep ‘em around?"

"If I were to go find Kogasa and transfer her spirit into somebody's beloved umbrella, then she wouldn't be Kogasa anymore, would she? Similarly, even though Merry and I are both humans, if you were to take my soul and put it into Merry's body then I wouldn't be Merry, but I wouldn't be me either, I'd become someone else, right?"

"That’s jus’ somethin’ you’d jus’ hafta accept might happen. Did that drum tsukumogami tell ya she was a former taiko drum when you met her? The moment she changed her old body for the new one, a part of her nature woulda changed. If she knew that and was alright with the change then she’d probably be jus’ fine, but there’s no way it didn’t affect her at all."

As the two of them were talking, I raised my hand to interject. As far as I could see there was still one key question that Mamizou’s explanation hadn’t answered.

"Um, how would a tsukumogami even separate their spirit from a tool to begin with? That's their body, right?"

That was the bit that didn't make any sense to me. If Raiko really was the tsukumogami of the taiko that had gone missing from the storehouse, then how could she move her spirit out of her body and into a different tool?

"Yer thinkin' too much like a human. For you, body an' mind probably seem inseparable, but think about where tools come from," Mamizou replied.

"Where they come from?"

"When does a tool become a tool? When do two wooden sticks stop bein' that and become a pair of chopsticks?"

"...The moment the craftsman finishes making them? Or maybe when they're first sold as chopsticks?" I ventured.

"I don't know either," Mamizou said with a shrug. "But one thing I know fer sure: the moment they're thought of as chopsticks, they stop bein' just a pair of sticks. They're a tool from then on."

"So the moment they first get thought of as a tool, that's when the divine spirit comes to reside in them, right?"

"That's right. Once a human thinks of a thing as a tool, the spirit comes to live within it from the outside. It wasn't there before, and the chopsticks were just sticks. Human desire is a type of divine spirit. Usually, a craftsman’s desire to make somethin’ useful is what ends up given birth to a new spirit and then that goes an’ lives in the finished tool."

"But if there were a tool that were made without being possessed by a divine spirit..."

"Then a tsukumogami could move right on in. That's why that drum tsukumogami told ya to look for instruments from the Outside World. Out there, there's hardly any faith in the gods any more. It's rare that any sort of a tool made there would end up with a spirit inside of it."

I was starting to see where Mamizou’s reasoning was headed here.

"There's still a problem though," Renko interjected. If a tool from the Outside World didn't have any sort of spirit in it then how could it gain any faith from its owner? Especially if it's a tool that ended up here? For an object to end up in Gensokyo, it has to have been forgotten by everyone in the Outside World, right?"

"Not so," Mamizou said with a sly grin. "The Great Hakurei Barrier is a barrier of sense. Anythin' that doesn’t have a mind can cross it jus’ fine. You'd be surprised what I've managed to get smuggled in here already. Of course anythin' that needs electricity is just about useless, but I bet that shrine on the mountain has a bunch of modern things, right."

That made sense. There were definitely things like televisions and video game consoles that were too modern to have already been forgotten at the Moriya Shrine.

"So a tool from the Outside World could get here easy. An’ if one did, it wouldn’t have to be one whose user had forgotten about it. Meanin’ that the power of that tool’s user could flow across the barrier jus’ fine too."

"And it’s the strength of a user’s feelings for their tool that acts as the source of power for tsukumogami, right?"

In other words it wouldn't have to be someone from the Outside World with magical powers who had owned Raiko's drum, just someone who felt strongly about it, who thought of it often... That alone would be enough to empower a tsukumogami once it crossed over the Great Hakurei Barrier. It felt like I was finally starting to understand how everything worked.

"Miss Mamizou, in a situation like that where a tsukumogami had never met the person they're drawing their power from, do you think they'd know anything about the person in the Outside World they're connected to? Would they be able to see them or anything?"

"Hmm? That's an odd question. I'm not a tsukumogami myself so I don't exactly know." She narrowed her eyes as exhaled a cloud of smoke into the wind. "When someone becomes dependent on a tool, to the point where they use it as if it was part of their own body and care for it just the same, then sometimes the spirits of the tool and the user can end up mixed, or even becoming one. If a tsukumogami was able to channel the power of the Outside World like that, they might be able to act like a conduit."


—29—


Of course we were worried about the Tsukumo sisters, but the real reason that Renko and I had been talking to Mamizou was to determine if anything Raiko had told us could be trusted.

It stood to reason that if her plan to save the Tsukumo sisters wasn't a lie then everything she had told us afterwards was more likely to be reliable too. As far as we knew, she had no reason to lie about any of it, but when it came to what she had told us just before leaving...

"Well Renko, what do you think?"

"I don't know what to think, Merry."

Renko scratched at her head as she hunched, cross-legged on the floor of our office. "At the very least I can't imagine any reason why she would lie to us about something like that. Until we have reason to believe otherwise, I think we should assume that everything Raiko told us is true."

"So then you really believe that her user in the Outside World is... someone who knows Usami Sumireko?"

"That might be going too far. All we know is that her user knows someone who looks like me. That could be anyone. Tenshi confused me for Reimu once, remember?"

"That was about your temperament, not your appearance."

Usami Sumireko. For us it was a nostalgic name. A name that had started us off on the road that would lead us to this world and the place we now occupied within it. If we had never heard her name back when Renko and I were just the Hifuu Club then we would never have investigated the rumors of her supernatural powers or explored her room in Renko's grandmother's house. Consequently, we would never have found the notebook titled 𝐻𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑢 𝐶𝑙𝑢𝑏 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑑 and would never have encountered that amber jewel with an insect trapped inside of it. Meaning we would never have been swallowed up by a gap between barriers and we would never have emerged here in Gensokyo.

We’ve been living in this world for so long that thinking about the lives we led back in Kyoto almost felt like trying to recall something you had long ago forgotten. It was as if the Scientific Century and our memories of it were nothing more than a dream. After all the time we had spent here, I had long ago simply assumed that both Renko and I would live out our lives as villagers and eventually die here in this world for things forgotten by humans. And who would complain about that? This place felt as real to me as any other I had ever been in.

This is where our friends were—Keine, Sanae, Reimu and Marisa. If the choice were mine to make, I'd want to keep running around this mysterious world with Renko by my side and our odd little found family around us forever.

But Raiko's simple, casual observation had suddenly thrown us right back where we started.

I thought back to the discussion Renko and I had had just after Raiko had first mentioned Renko's look-alike in the Outside World.

◆◇◆

"Your name is Usami Renko, right? Huh. You really do look a lot like her."

When Raiko had said that, Renko had leaned forward suddenly.

"Tell me all about this person!"

"—I don't know anything else." Raiko had replied, a bit surprised by the intensity of Renko's interest. "I can only see the Outside World sometimes, not interact with it or anything."

Renko let out a sigh as her shoulders slumped in disappointment. "This has to mean something..." she muttered to herself. "There's got to be some kind of connection..."

"If you figure something out, come see me, I’ll lend you an ear." Then, having said that, Raiko gave us one more smile and turned to catch up with the Tsukumo sisters.

A drum from the Outside World. A girl who looked just like Renko but younger, seen through the eyes of the drum's owner. Who else could it have been but Usami Sumireko?

◇◆◇

"Hey Renko... Your great aunt Sumireko, she was still in a coma when she died, right?"

"That's what I heard."

"Do you think that coma could have had anything to do with Gensokyo?"

"There's no way to know... but if the person that Miss Raiko is talking about really is my great aunt... Well, it would be hard to imagine that her mysterious death would have been entirely unconnected to us being here."

Could the user of the drum that had become Raiko's body really be someone who had a connection to Renko's great aunt? If so then Sumireko would have had a connection to Gensokyo before we had ever heard about her. It was from Sumireko's room that we had first come to this world, and the hidden god, Matara Okina had told us that she had suspected that we had been brought here by the Youkai Sage, Yakumo Yukari as part of some scheme...

Who was really responsible for us having been spirited away? Could it have been Usami Sumireko who had led us here from beyond the grave? Or was she just another of the pawns in some inscrutable game being played by Yakumo Yukari, who refused to allow herself to be seen by Renko? What possible motivation could either of them have had for bringing us to this world?

Ever since our encounter with the secret god, it seemed like the mysteries of our presence in this world had gone from being an inexplicable curiosity to a central feature in the events we frequently found ourselves caught up in. At the same time, it also almost felt like too little too late. When we had first arrived in Gensokyo, we had been eager to understand why we were here and how we might return to the Scientific Century, but in the years since then we had put down roots. Personally, I found it hard to muster even the least bit of enthusiasm for the idea of returning to the world we had left.

But what did Renko think about all of this?

"Hey Renko, do you think we should..."

"You don't even have to ask, Merry. We're the Hifuu Detective Agency. Our duty is to reveal the secrets of the world. It would be a disgrace to our agency's name if we didn't try to solve the question of the biggest mystery in all of Gensokyo."

"...I should have expected you to say something like that."

I let out a sigh. Whatever happened, I suppose I could rest assured that Renko would do her best to get to the bottom of it. If she were the sort of person who could ignore a situation like this when it was right in front of her, then we wouldn't always be getting wrapped up in incidents.

"But for now, let's work on tying up all the remaining loose ends for the current incident."

"You mean the question of where Seija went? Is there anything else left to discover?"

"There's lots going on. I still have a whole bunch of questions rattling around in my brain."

I couldn't imagine what she was talking about. The mastermind and the motive behind this incident were both already obvious. I didn't see how there was any question about what Seija had been trying to accomplish. So then was she talking about something to do with Raiko?

"Anyway, we need to get going. Let's head out, Merry," she declared, suddenly rising to her feet and moving to grab her coat and hat from the pegs near the door.

"What? Where are we going?"

I looked up at Renko as she threw her trenchcoat on and then turned to smile her troublesome smile at me.

"To the Hakurei Shrine, of course!"


—30—


And so we made our way once more to the Hakurei Shrine. Everything seemed completely ordinary as we arrived. We found Reimu around the back of the shrine drinking tea on the veranda, with Shinmyoumaru sitting beside her, drinking tea from a thimble. It was actually a kind of adorable scene.

"You two again. What are you planning this time?"

Even the look of open suspicion that settled on Reimu's face as soon as she saw Renko seemed entirely ordinary at this point.

"I'm not planning anything, Reimu. Not for today, anyway," Renko answered, smiling that same troublesome smile that, if you knew her, you would expect to warrant suspicion as well.

"You know, I'd really be doing myself a favor in the long run if I just exterminated and sealed you now before you start another incident."

"Reimu, that's a terrible thing to say. Preventative detention and punishment is a violation of an individual's inalienable human rights."

"I don't know what any of those words mean. What do you want?"

"I just had a question for you. What would you tell me if I asked you to let me out of the barrier and into the Outside World right now?"

"Absolutely not."

The answer had been immediate.

"Seriously?" Renko whined. "You wouldn’t even consider it?"

"No. There's no room for consideration at all. Absolutely not happening."

"Why not? Merry and I are Outsiders, after all. Isn't it part of the Hakurei shrine maiden's job to escort Outsiders back where they came from?"

"You're from the future. What would you even do if I put you in a world that's from decades before you were born?"

"What if I only went out for a daytrip?"

"Rejected. Out of the question."

"Why?"

Reimu let out a heavy, almost exaggerated sigh and shook her head back and forth. "It's out of the question because Yukari specifically told me not to let you out."

"The Youkai Sage?"

Renko looked at me in surprise. What could that mean? Why would Yukari want to prevent us from leaving Gensokyo? Especially after she had gone to the trouble or taking me beyond the barrier herself...

"I didn't need her to tell me that though. I wouldn't let you guys out now even if she hadn't said anything. For the same reason I wouldn't let any human who was born here out."

"And why is that?"

"Why do you think? People who come from here don't exist according to the Outside World. If people like that cross over to the Outside World, they wouldn’t last long on the other side. Sooner or later they'd end up right back in Gensokyo. When that happens, it weakens the barrier and makes a lot of work for Ran to patch up."

"Hah! I see, I see. So by that logic, being as we're from the future and shouldn't exist yet, you figure the same thing would happen to us, right?"

"Who knows. In your case it could be even worse. If I were to let you go outside I’m not even sure if you’d be able to return to Gensokyo. You might end up back in your own timeline, or somewhere else entirely. There’s no telling what would happen."

I didn't like the sound of that. Did that mean that when the Youkai Sage had sent me to the Outside World she had actually been putting me at great risk? Or had she expected that and prepared some kind of countermeasure?

"So then how about Sanae?" Renko asked, interrupting my train of thought. "She came from the Outside World and ended up here. Could she go back if she wanted to?"

"I have no idea. She could try, I suppose. If there were still traces of her out there, she might be able to stay. If not, she'd probably end up coming back."

Did that mean that when Sanae had come here, any records of her existence would have disappeared as well? I found that disturbing to think about.

"So anyway, that's why. What made you suddenly decide you wanted to leave?"

"I thought I might look for someone, I had the urge to try to meet with one of my ancestors."

"Forget it, it's not happening. I don't know how it works with people from the future, but something like that is bound to end badly."

That was certainly a good point, but I was more concerned about what such a meeting might do to Sumireko if it ever were to happen. If Sumireko was already aware of Gensokyo, then she might end up coming here eventually and end up face to face with Renko regardless of if Reimu let us out or not. There was no denying that possibility.

"So it's totally off the table then?"

"Yes. And if you try to talk some youkai into trying to help you leave, I'm exterminating them, and you along with them."

"You'd be wise to listen to Reimu in this case," another voice added. We all turned toward the side of the shrine it had come from in time to see Ibara Kasen rounding the corner. I've only mentioned Kasen a few times in these case files but we had met her on several occasions now. She tends to show up at the Hakurei Shrine and the Human Village from time to time so we had exchanged a few greetings with her.

"Oh, hello there, Miss Kasen." Renko waved as Reimu turned and frowned.

"Hello. Just as Reimu said, I wouldn't recommend that you go to the Outside World for any reason, but especially not just out of curiosity. You two have both spent too much time around youkai to be able to comfortably return. If you went back there now, you'd be treated like a contaminant invading a host body. Sooner or later, you'd be expelled. Is finding out about your relatives worth risking your life?"

"Well hearing it put that way certainly does make me a little hesitant. Do you know much about the Great Hakurei Barrier, Miss Kasen?"

"Let's just say I'm someone interested in maintaining the order and structure of Gensokyo."

It was a rather non-chalant sort of answer. Who was she to toss off a detail like that so casually? Actually, now that I think about it, there’s a lot we don’t know about her.

"What are you here for?" Reimu asked with a sigh.

Kasen's eyes darted down to where Shinmyoumaru was sitting beside Reimu on the veranda. "I came to make sure that you're keeping a close eye on the rebels who tried to overthrow Gensokyo's order in a coup-d'état."

"Oh her? Don't worry about her, she's learned her lesson." Reimu said dismissively, unceremoniously picking the inchling up by the back of her obi as she did so.

"Whoa! Hey, careful!" Shinmyoumaru yelped.

Kasen stared down at the tiny, dangling girl and sighed. "What about the amanojaku? Have you found her yet? Are you even looking for her?"

"Why would I? We have the Miracle Mallet right here, so she's powerless. Amanojaku aren't a threat. All they can do is lie and get trampled by Bishamonten."

"She may not be a threat on her own, but she could find another youkai to seduce into some evil scheme."

"If she does that then I'll just exterminate her again." Reimu replied. She released Shinmyoumaru, who dropped back down to the veranda and landed unsteadily. "I don’t have time to exterminate every youkai who gets an idea you don't like into their heads. I only go after the ones that cause problems in the village. Or here at the shrine. Or who get in my way."

"You're just sitting here drinking tea right now!"

"Sitting and drinking tea is an important part of life, just as important as eating, sleeping and bathing. If you've got enough time to come here and harass me about it, why don't you go hunt down that amanojaku yourself?"

Kasen's brow knitted with anger and she took a step forward, inhaling deeply to begin a proper lecture. "Reimu! You are the most indolent, irresponsible, incorrigible shrine maiden I've ever seen! Do you even realize..." Reimu blew faintly on her mug of tea and continued to sit with a calm, almost bored expression on her face. I got the feeling that they were both going to be there for a while.

As Kasen's lecture got into gear Renko crouched down and waved Shinmyoumaru over. The three of us retreated to the far side of the veranda so that we could talk without interrupting her.

"Hey Shinmy, my apologies for bombarding you with questions every time I see you, but would you mind answering a few more?"

"Hmm? About what?"

"About the Land of the Oni where you came from. You've told us that your people lived there, as did the oni, but were there any other sort of youkai there? Tsuchigumo, maybe? Or hashihime or even satori?"

Shinmyoumaru blinked at her in surprise. "I don't think there was anyone like that there, no."

So wherever Shining Needle Castle had been before it came here wasn't the Underworld then. That made sense. If there had been an entire upside-down, floating, medieval castle underground, I'm sure someone would have at least mentioned that to us at some point. Yamame in particular prided herself on being well-connected and well-informed.

"But Seija lived there, right?"

"Of course, amanojaku are a type of oni, aren't they?"

"—They absolutely are 𝑛𝑜𝑡! They're not oni at all!" Kasen suddenly interrupted, looking scandalized. Reimu cocked an eyebrow at her. She had apparently interrupted herself mid-lecture to make this pronouncement. As we all turned to look at her, she cleared her throat and shifted awkwardly, attempting to regain her composure.

"Miss Kasen?"

"...Calling an amanojaku an oni would be like saying that tsuchigumo and hashihime are oni too. If you’re going to cast that broad of a net you may as well say all youkai are oni."

"I see."

I wonder why Kasen had found that particular misconception vexing enough to interrupt the lecture she was giving Reimu. Having said her peace she had now turned back to Reimu and resumed that lecture as if it had never been interrupted. Seeing that, Renko turned back to Shinmyoumaru and continued her questioning as well.

"So Shinmy, other than oni and inchlings, were there many other types of people in the land of the oni?"

"Hmm," Shinmyoumaru tapped her chin in thought. "Actually, now that you mention it..." she began.

And then she said something. Something which provided the single most important clue we had come across in the entirety of this whole incident.

If I were to reveal it to you now, dear reader, I fear that I would be utterly spoiling the game for you. The moment Renko heard her say it, her eyes gleamed in surprise and I could almost hear the gears in her head begin to whir madly as ideas fell into place as a new and grandiose delusion was born.

"Renko? Are you in there? Hello?" Shinmyoumaru asked, staring at her. My partner ignored the princess' question, but was now muttering to herself, her hand busily fiddling with the brim of her hat as she did so.

"Issun-boshi... He must have got the Miracle Mallet from.... But it's an oni tool... Made to grant wishes... That only an inchling could handle... No, that wouldn't work, it needs to recharge its power... Which means the mastermind behind all of this must have... And the castle's completely upside down now... The Land of the Oni... An amanojaku living there...., Along with oni... No way! That's it!" She stood stock still and perfectly erect, as if she had just been struck by lightning. "Is that what she meant? Could it be? But then it makes no sense..."

She stumbled slightly, holding her forehead as if suddenly dizzy.

"Renko, are you alright?"

"Ah, sorry, Merry. My brain cells are just overheating a little." She paused for a moment and took a deep breath, then turned back to Shinmyoumaru. "My apologies, Princess. I didn't mean to worry you. I'm perfectly fine. In fact I think I finally understand just why Seija decided to mastermind her revolution.


[𝐀 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐓𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫]


So that's it for this story.

Just to be clear, the mystery that I'm challenging you to solve is just the one involving the incident orchestrated by Seija and Shinmyoumaru. You don't have to worry about the events involving Usami Sumireko for the moment.

That said, I've hidden the biggest clue we found while investigating this incident from you, meaning that it will probably be very unlikely that any of you will come to the same conclusion as our great detective did.

With that in mind, I will give you a small hint instead.

You may have noticed there is no usual summary of questions and unusual occurrences to be found in the casefile this time. There’s a reason for that.

For one thing, the details of this incident, its perpetrators and their actions are well known. The culprits here are Kijin Seija and Sukuna Shinmyoumaru. Their revolution was intended to create a paradise for the weak and overturn the ruling powers of Gensokyo. That much is not in question.

Thus, revealing what part of that story is being called into question would essentially be the same as telling you Renko’s entire delusion. Everything hinges on that one question.

I'll give you one more hint. There is an important contradiction in some of the things that Shinmyoumaru told us that is easy to overlook. Finding that contradiction will allow you to re-contextualize many of the events that occurred throughout the course of this Incident. Find it, and a new picture may well begin to emerge.

It's a difficult problem to pursue. I can't tell you what you're looking for of course, nor where to find it, but if you ask the right questions I'm confident you should be able to find your way there. Determining which questions to ask is more than half of the solution in this case. But not knowing where to start makes things very difficult. So. If you want to match wits with the great Usami Renko, I'll give you one last hint to focus your thinking and act as a guide for your own inquiries:

Who set the events of this incident in motion, and what was their aim?