東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 10:Mountain of Faith

—28—

"You're looking for myths and folklore of the Suwa region?"

"Yes, especially anything concerning Takeminakata's invasion of Suwa and defeat of the native gods. Or anything about Yasakatome, Takeminakata's wife."

It was the day after our talk with Tewi. After classes, we had returned to Hieda manor and this time found Akyuu at home. We sat with her, the reincarnation of the 𝐾𝑜𝑗𝑖𝑘𝑖’s author enjoying freshly brewed tea as quiet music played from a spring-loaded phonograph.

"Well, I'm sure I have something that would be of use to you, but why the interest in Suwa?"

"My apologies, but I'm afraid I can't reveal my reasons right now."

"That's a pretty suspicious reply..."

"I promise that once the time has come, I'll explain it all to you in detail." Renko said, raising a hand pleadingly.

Akyuu sighed but began to read from the records in her head. "First off, this Yasakatome doesn't appear anywhere in the 𝐾𝑜𝑗𝑖𝑘𝑖 or the 𝑁𝑖ℎ𝑜𝑛 𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑘𝑖, so I've got no record of her. My guess would be that she might have been one of the native gods of Suwa that Takeminakata conquered and deposed as he claimed the Suwa region.

"Alright then, what can you tell me about Takeminakata and his invasion of Suwa?"

"The story of their battle is recorded in the 𝑆𝑢𝑤𝑎 𝐷𝑎𝑖𝑚𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑗𝑖𝑛 𝐸𝑘𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑎, which is a series of medieval picture scrolls... according to the story they tell, Takeminakata was an invader from another land who came and battled the native god of the Suwa region. It is said that when they clashed, the native god bore a pair of iron rings into battle, but Takeminakata was able to dispatch them using nothing more than the branch of a wisteria tree"

"And that native god, that was Moriya?"

"Ah, that's a little complicated. The legends say that the god was called ‘Moreya,’ or possibly ‘Moriya.’. Later on, all of the native gods of the region, including Moriya, came to be worshipped as one entity. That collective god was then called Mishaguji as well so I see how you might get them confused."

Renko leaned in close to whisper to me. "So Lady Moriya really might be Mishaguji then."

Sitting back upright, Renko spoke to Akyuu again. "So what sort of god was Moriya?"

"Hmm, I don’t have much information on that. There is a mount Moriya in the Suwa region though. My guess would be that Moriya was originally the native god associated with that mountain."

"So then Moriya wouldn't be a divine spirit but a myriad god born from nature worship, right?"

"Presumably, yes."

"I heard recently that divine spirits have the ability to be in any number of places at once but myriad gods can't do that, right?"

"You'd probably be better off asking a question like that of Reimu, but yes, that's my understanding as well."

"That's the bit I don't get. Why is it possible to divide a divine spirit infinitely, but not a myriad god?."

Akyuu rocked back in her seat, tilting her head as she considered the question. "Hmmm, look at it this way. Let's say that you wanted to worship the original writer of the 𝐾𝑜𝑗𝑖𝑘𝑖, Hieda no Are."

"Hah, praise be to thee, oh wise and esteemed Chronicler."

"It's just a thought exercise, please don't actually start worshiping me. That illustrates my point though. Hieda no Are isn't me. Are is long dead and no longer exists as a physical entity. I may have some of her memories, her skills and her knowledge but I can’t really know what she was like. What remains of her is just those things that can be duplicated endlessly without any loss: ideas and knowledge. The Heida no Are that exists in your mind as an object of worship might even be completely different from the real person. If you started a cult and everyone started worshiping her, then there could be as many different versions of Are being worshipped as there were worshippers. That's what it means for a divine spirit to be divisible —they're a concept of a person who doesn't exist any more or maybe never existed, so since they're just an idea, they can be anywhere and everywhere, and can exist in multiple places without being diminished."

"For natural objects though, it's a different story. If instead of Are you were to start worshipping Youkai Mountain, then that's something that has a more solid presence. Mountains have been worshipped for a long time, which makes sense as they can be a source of both blessings like water, food and lumber and disasters like landslides and flash floods. Because a mountain is only in one place, belief in it becomes indigenous to that region. If you started a cult worshipping the mountain, then everyone would have to agree on which mountain was being worshipped and what it was like. Similarly if a member of that cult moved somewhere where they could no longer see the mountain, we wouldn't expect them to keep worshipping it. If multiple different people all started different cults worshipping the mountain though then they wouldn’t have to agree at all. If they did that then members of one cult wouldn’t see members of one of the others as followers of the same religion even if they were both ultimately worshiping the same thing."

"Ah, I see what you're getting at," Renko replied. "In other words, the difference between divine spirits and myriad gods is the presence or absence of the object of worship. Worshipers of a divine spirit are essentially worshiping the idea of a person rather than that person themselves. Essentially the divine spirit that they’re worshiping was a copy of a person or a thing to begin with, that’s why it can be copied or split as often as needed."

Although it was a difficult concept to wrap my head around I suppose such things weren’t unprecedented. Sugawara no Michizane was a real person while he was alive, but after his death he came to be revered as Tenjin, the god of learning. If I was understanding correctly, what people are invoking when they pray at his shrines was not the man who would later be venerated as a god, but a spirit of learning born from him, which is what is enshrined as Tenjin.

"So then living humans who are worshipped as gods would be unable to replicate themselves as well then. If I started a cult that worshiped you, Hieda no Akyuu rather than Hieda no Are..."

"Then I would still be here, and people would be worshipping a physical thing."

"If you were to die though..."

"Then supposing you enshrined my spirit, I suppose I might become a divine spirit who could be worshipped anywhere."

"I see." Renko crossed her arms and thought about that for a moment. "I wonder if it's the same for the myriad gods? If people were to worship a sacred tree, for example, but that tree got cut down, would there be a divine spirit that could be enshrined?"

"Usually, if the natural element tied to a practice of worship vanished then that faith would vanish too. Natural objects do not gain a divine spirit even if people were to worship them. For natural objects, it would be like the situation I mentioned earlier with the worshipers creating the spirit they worship from their memories of the natural object."

"That explanation makes sense for the Outside World where no one can see myriad gods or divine spirits, but what about here in Gensokyo? Here, the fertility gods that come to the harvest festival every year take human forms, right? Aren't they myriad gods being worshiped as individuals then?"

"Indeed. The god of autumn, the god of rice fields, the god of rice itself, the goddess of harvests... Taking on human form is just a way for those gods to raise their profile and attract faith. However, they don’t really get worshiped as noteworthy individuals. Do you remember Lady Aki Minoriko? She's a harvest god who smells like sweet potatoes."

We nodded in agreement. Minoriko Aki was not a particularly popular goddess. She has a cheerful and earnest demeanor, and while I hadn’t written about it, we had met her at a previous harvest festival.

"She's a goddess born from faith in autumn harvests," Akyuu continued. To the farmers she's a manifestation of good harvests and autumn foods. Even if sometimes she drinks and dances with the villagers and wears fruit on her hat, she's still not really a person, just the concept of the harvest, personified. Really, the concept she personifies is so broad that it’s hard for her to effectively gather faith, especially compared to the god of a specific crop.’"

"Alright then," Renko said, nodding again. "Myriad gods don't become divine spirits, it sounds like. What are divine spirits actually like though? They also possess a physical presence in Gensokyo, right?"

"Strong divine spirits can have a physical presence, yes. However, since a divine spirit is basically just a phantom that receives worship, weak divine spirits are too insubstantial to manifest a physical presence. Those divine spirits rely on shrine maidens like Reimu to hear them."

"So when a divine spirit with a physical body appears in multiple locations at once how does that work? Does each copy also have their own physical bodies?"

"No, duplicating themselves like that only makes an identical copy of their essence, creating another spirit similar to a phantom. The divine spirit is able to hear and see everything all of their different copies do and could even go on to create another physical body for themselves if they were strong enough, so effectively it’s not that different than if their body had been duplicated."

I tried to tumble the implications of all of this around in my head. If a branch shrine to Kanako were to be erected on the Hakurei Shrine's grounds, Kanako would be able to hear everything going on there, and even materialize there if she wanted to. While doing so she would still be able to hear everything going on back at the Moriya Shrine as well. So far I hadn't seen any detail that contradicted anything Kanako had told us herself.

As I was puzzling it out, my partner raised a finger, asking "Well then what about ghosts? Like the lady of Hakugyoukurou or the Prismriver Ensemble. I know those two are different sorts of entities, but what if people started worshipping either of them?"

"...I don't have any examples of that ever having happened. My guess is that they would probably become powerful divine spirits."

"I see. So a myriad god can't become a divine spirit, but a ghost could. What about the other way around? Could a divine spirit become a myriad god if they became associated with a particular place or thing?"

"What an interesting question," Akyuu said, pondering it. "I don't think I've ever heard of anything like that happening either, but there are some divine spirits that are quite similar to myriad gods in some ways. Watatsumi, god of the sea for example. He's one of the sons of Izanagi and Izanami. Since he rules over the oceans, he’s similar in nature to a myriad god, but he’s a divine spirit, not a god born of worship of the ocean itself. As a result, faith in the ocean wouldn’t empower Watatsumi and vice versa."

"I see, I see. Thank you Miss Akyuu, you've helped me learn a lot about gods today. Let's get back to my original question. Takeminakata is a divine spirit, capable of replicating himself and being in many places at once, while the myriad god of Suwa that he conquered is one of the Mishaguji and not capable of the same, is that right?"

"That’s correct."

"And for myriad gods the form they choose to appear in is meaningless, right? They can appear as anything."

"They can take any form that falls within their domain, but I wouldn't call their choice of form meaningless. As gods of the land, they would want to take the shape of something that was associated with their lands and capable of inspiring belief from humans, I would think. If a myriad god were born from the worship of snakes or a land full of snakes, for example, then they would probably appear as a snake."

"So in the case of Mishaguji then...?"

"Well Mishaguji is a conglomeration of various different native gods of the Suwa region. So in their case taking a physical form would actually be detrimental to them. Mishaguji represents all the different myriad gods of the Suwa region, so taking just one form would be limiting, reducing the faith they could gather down to just what faith there was in whatever form they took."

"But if Mishaguji did want to take a physical form it could be any sort of form they wanted, right?"

"I suppose so. Why all this interest in Mishaguji’s appearance though?"

"Hmmm, well I suppose you'll probably find out soon anyway..." Renko began.

"Does this have to do with the new god that appeared on Youkai Mountain? Keine was talking about that at the meeting."

"Impressive, Akyuu. I should have guessed the information network of the Child of Miare would be quick to pick up on the latest rumors."

"I assume then that this new god has some connection to Suwa and Mishaguji? Can you give me any details?"

"Ah, not yet I'm afraid. I can't be sure of any connections or lack thereof yet. That's why I'm asking all of these questions."

"It almost sounds like you've been in contact with these gods already."

"I can neither confirm nor deny such an allegation."

Akyuu fixed Renko with an even stare for a moment then sighed. "Fine, I'll just ask Miss Reimu about it then."

"Thank you for your understanding," Renko said with a grin and a nod.


—29—


"This mystery just keeps getting deeper..." Renko mumbled as we walked home, holding her hat in her hand and fiddling with the brim as she walked.

"What do you mean, Renko? After all of that, don't you have all the answers now?" I asked, looking over at my partner's profile. "We just got a solid hour's worth of explanation about the nature of the goddesses' identities."

"Oh? Have you managed to put it all together, Merry? Don't keep me waiting, what's the secret you've uncovered?"

"Well, we know the story of Takeminakata invading Suwa is true, at least in Gensokyo. Lady Yasaka herself claimed to be a divine spirit, and when you asked Lady Moriya if she was Mishaguji she said you might as well consider her to be. So either she’s a physical incarnation of Mishaguji or she’s one of the many myriad gods who got clumped together to create Mishaguji. Lady Yasaka is probably associated with snakes and Lady Moriya is probably associated with frogs because of the relationship between Takeminakata and Mishaguji. If form is meaningless for a myriad god then her taking the form of a frog shouldn’t present any issues, right?"

"Oh quite right, that's a perfect explanation, it wraps everything up very neatly." She continued to fiddle with her hat as she walked, her head down.

"So what's missing then, what are you trying to figure out?"

"There's one big problem with the story."

"What? What problem?"

"It's Sanae’s explanation. She said that Kanako is the goddess of the mountain. But Akyuu said divine spirits don't become native gods and vice versa. How can Kanako be Takeminakata AND the goddess of Youkai Mountain. Those are two different types of gods." I gasped, reflexively covering my mouth with my hand. Sanae had indeed said something like that to us. But what did that mean, then?

"I'm going to need to burn some calories figuring it out." Renko said, pointing to the dango shop just off of the main square. We ordered ourselves a skewer of dango and a cup of tea each and had a seat on the bench in front of the store.

"Now," said Renko, as she sat down beside me and took a sip from her cup. "If you think about everything we heard from Tewi and Akyuu, then I think it would make the most sense to assume that Lady Yasaka is indeed a divine spirit and Lady Moriya is a myriad god. But if that’s the case then the one who should benefit from worship of Youkai Mountain would be Lady Suwako, not Lady Yasaka."

"That makes sense. Maybe Sanae misspoke when she said Kanako was the goddess of the mountain?"

"Sanae is a wind priestess and has lived with those two like they were her parents for her whole life. I don't think she would make a mistake like that. It’s more likely that Sanae means what she says. At the very least, I think she thinks that faith in the mountain is equivalent to faith in Lady Yasaka."

"But in actuality, given that divine spirits and myriad gods are completely different entities, faith in the mountain would be faith in Lady Moriya, right?"

"Right, and faith in Lady Yasaka would be its own separate thing."

I groaned. She had a point. "...Maybe it works the same way as it did at the Suwa Grand Shrine in the Outside World. Kanako is the goddess shown to the public and Suwako is the secret god. Lady Yasaka is the visible one and claims to be the goddess of the mountain. People end up worshipping her and the mountain both, which leads to faith being gathered for both her and Lady Moriya. That could be how their situation works, couldn’t it?"

"Not bad, Merry. That does explain things nicely. Except..." She had put her teacup down and was back to fiddling with the brim of her hat, the dango sitting unnoticed on the bench. "They have no reason to go through any of that. Why bother having a public facing god and a secret god? It seems a roundabout way of doing things and there’s no guarantee people would end up worshiping Lady Yasaka at all. If they are operating that way, that actually kind of flips the power dynamic. Kanako would be acting as Suwako's messenger and servant then, even though Lady Yasaka is supposed to be the victor."

"Maybe they're just doing things that way because that's how it was when it was the Suwa Grand Shrine?"

Renko's shoulders dropped as she stared at me, disappointment written across her face. "Oh come on, Merry, you know better than that. Have you forgotten the heart of this mystery already? Why change the name of the place to 'Moriya Shrine?' if they’re going to do that? They could have kept calling it the Suwa Grand Shrine and just kept everything just as it was. We don’t even know if they have enough of the shrine buildings to have an Omiwatari up there."

"So we're back to that again?"

If the Moriya Shrine used to be Suwa Grand Shrine, then why did they only bring part of it here? If it wasn't Suwa Grand Shrine, why did they go to the trouble of making it look like it was? If Suwako was the goddess Moriya and Kanako was Takeminakata then it would explain why the Moriya Shrine operated the way it did, but not why only part of it had been brought to Gensokyo. It was an endless, paradoxical loop that kept turning itself over in my head. I sat and ate my dango, chewing as I considered. As I tumbled the facts over in my head, an outlandish idea came to me. The sort that could only be a result of Renko's bad influence on me.

"Hey Renko," I began. "What if you're making a bad assumption not about the Moriya Shrine, but about Suwa Grand Shrine?"

"That sounds like a question with a story behind it. What are you thinking, Merry?"

"Well, the problem you're hung up on is that there's only one shrine complex and part of a lake up there, which means Omiwatari can't cross over to the other side. But what if the lake isn’t there for the Omiwatari?"

"What do you mean? If they didn't want to continue the yearly Omiwatari miracle, why bring the lake at all?"

"Hmmm, you're asking the wrong question, Renko. This isn't about the miracle, this is about the nature of the faith underlying the miracle."

"The nature of the faith?"

"Yes. The Suwa Grand Shrine is supposed to be home to a number of different gods. Takeminakata and Yasakatome are the main ones, but Mishaguji is secretly worshipped there too. Outwardly, Suwa Grand Shrine is dedicated to a pair of divine spirits, but truthfully it venerates a native myriad god, right? According to Akyuu, native gods are tied to their land. You can't worship a native god in a place where they aren't and they can't be somewhere that isn't the place they embody. That means that the only way Morya can be worshipped is if people are worshipping the lands she's a part of. That could be why Moriya Shrine resembles Suwa Grand Shrine so closely. People here will never have been to Suwa, but maybe the goddesses need them to worship Suwa all the same."

I had managed to say all of that in one breath. I had never realized how difficult it must have been to spit out one of Renko's wild monologues. I watched expectantly as Renko sipped her tea thoughtfully and nodded her head.

"That's not bad, as explanations go, Merry. It fits the facts pretty well. I'm not buying it though."

"What? Why not? Not crazy enough for you?"

"I just don't see how this shrine having a surface-level similarity to one on the Outside World would lead to people revering a place they had never been. A copy of something can be impressive, but it can't be the original. It's an interesting idea, but no one here knows what the Suwa Grand Shrine is or what it looks like, so it wouldn't matter if Moriya was a copy of it or not if that was their aim. If people here did know about the Suwa Grand Shrine, then they would also know of Mishaguji and there would be no reason to hide Suwako behind a barrier."

I sighed. I suppose as a mere assistant to the great detective I should know better than to try to imagine any sort of scenario as all-encompassing and ridiculous as the sorts of theories Renko dreams up. To be honest though, I wouldn’t want to be known for having an imagination as out of control as hers.

"It all comes back to the same thing," Renko was still grumbling, her chin tucked tight to her chest. "There’s no reason for the Moriya Shrine to look so much like the Suwa Grand Shrine when it’s so far from Suwa, but if they went to the trouble of making a replica, there’s no reason for them to call it anything other than the same thing."

"Maybe there was some circumstance that made them want to do both…" I suggested, though to be honest I couldn’t think of what sort of circumstance that might be. I sighed and leaned back against the bench, allowing my head to flop backward and my eyes to tilt toward the puffy clouds. My hands mindlessly toyed with the empty dango skewer as I stared into the autumn sky. Sanae, Suwako and Kanako. Two gods and their wind priestess. Or, if Sanae was herself worshiped as a living god, was it just three goddesses? What could have brought three people like that to Gensokyo? If Suwako really was an aspect of Mishaguji then surely she had nothing to fear from the loss of faith in the Outside world. Secret ceremonies worshiping Mishaguji had continued even in the Scientific Century where we had come from. Was all of this really just an attempt to turn Sanae into a normal human girl? Was there nothing more to the story than that?

As I was staring at the sky, I managed to catch a glimpse of a streak of black as it soared over the village, headed east, carried on a pair of raven wings.

"Hey Renko! Look! Isn't that Miss Shameimaru up there?

She followed my gaze, bolting up from her chair to follow as the distant form dwindled to a speck. "She's headed to the Hakurei Shrine!" Perhaps by now Aya had heard the story of the confrontation between the two shrines and was headed to Reimu's place for an interview. "Come on, Merry! This is our chance to finally find out what's going on in the tengu village!"

"Right, right. I should have figured you'd want to hike to the shrine to interview the interviewer."

Renko shouted a hurried "thanks for the food!" toward the back of the restaurant and dashed off, eyes gleaming with excitement. I followed close behind her as we rushed toward the village's eastern gate, following the trail the tengu had cut through the sky just moments before.


—30—


"Ayaya. You can yell at me all you want, but it's not my decision to make."

"Then tell whoever can make that decision. I'm just delivering the message."

"Why are they contacting us through you, anyway? That alone is pretty suspicious."

"Well you can’t just keep avoiding them forever. Besides, you’re one to talk. You lost our fight on purpose and led me and Marisa to that Shrine didn’t you? That’s suspicious too."

"Ayayayaya, I’ll admit you’re right about that."

As we pounded up the stone steps to the shrine, we heard the tail edge of a conversation carried on the breeze. We crested the stairs, panting and sweating as both Aya and Reimu turned to stare at us.

"Well, well, well! It's the detectives. I wouldn't think this shrine would be the sort of place anyone would be in a hurry to get to." Aya said, smirking as we doubled over beneath the torii.

"You—shut up about my shrine. You," Reimu said, as she waved her finger at the two of us. "—what are you both getting up to this time?"

Aya tilted her head, only mildly surprised by Reimu's blatant hostility. After managing to catch her breath, Renko raised her hand then stood up. "Nothing to do with you or your business this time, Reimu, I just wanted to talk to Miss Shameimaru before she left."

"Speaking of which, I've hung around here for too long already. I'm on an important assignment, after all. If you'll excuse me."

"That assignment wouldn't have anything to do with the Moriya Shrine, would it?" Renko called out hurriedly.

Aya's attention snapped back to us immediately. "And how do you know about that?" She asked, her pen and notebook instantly in hand.

Reimu sighed in exasperation. "These guys were both at that shrine on that night."

"Ayaya, I saw that there were some other humans there, but I didn't bother to get a look at them. I should have guessed it would be you."

"Yes, I know you're in a hurry, so I'll get straight to the point. Miss Shameimaru, why have none of the tengu newspapers published an issue in the last month? And why are the tengu village's border guards on high alert? For what reason, exactly, are the tengu so wary of the newcomers at the Moriya Shrine?"

In reaction to Renko's barrage of questions, Aya's smug grin immediately faded.

"Usami Renko," she began, after a moment's delay, "would it be accurate to say you're already acquainted with the gods of that shrine and their shrine maiden?"

"Yes, I think it's safe to say we're friends."

"What is the purpose of that shrine? Who is that god and what is she up to?"

"I don’t think that’s for me to say. As far as I know, their only goal is to gather faith and promote religion in Gensokyo."

"Hmmm." Aya pressed the top of her fountain pen against her chin thoughtfully.

"By the way, Reimu. What were you and Aya discussing just now?"

"Kanako asked me to get in touch with the tengu for her. She wanted me to invite them to a party. Apparently none of the tengu will talk to them directly."

"A party?"

I remember that Kanako had mentioned that she intended to gather faith among the youkai of the mountain before starting on her plans for the Hakurei Shrine. I suppose this was the next step in her plan to do that.

"Like I keep saying though, I don't have the authority to make a decision like that on my own."

"I don't know why you're being so cautious,the people at the shrine don’t seem that bad, do they?"

"It's still not a wise play to brazenly walk into their territory."

"If you're so concerned about that, why not arrange to hold the party on neutral ground?" Renko suggested.

Aya and Reimu both spoke at the same time. "Neutral ground?"

"Sure. We could use the Hakurei Shrine, for example. If Reimu's present, then neither side can try anything funny, right? You could even have Merry and I be here as impartial third-party witnesses so that no one can dispute any agreements after the fact."

"Hmmm, that's worth considering."

"Wait a minute, I didn't agree to any of this, why is it being held at my place?"

"You'd just need to provide a venue, Reimu. I'm sure we can ask both parties to bring their own food and drink. It'd be a free meal for you."

"Alright, I'm in."

In Reimu’s case at least the promise of free food seemed to be a more convincing negotiator than Renko could ever hope to be.

"It's an idea with merit." Aya admitted. "I'll bring this offer to Lord Tenma. I can't make any promises as to how long it will take upper management to make a decision though. Now then, it seems I have several messages to deliver." Aya flexed her wings, turning toward Youkai Mountain to the north.

"Hold it one minute, if you would, Miss Shameimaru," Renko said, reaching out toward her.

"Ayayaya. What now?"

"As a fellow professional dealer of information I hope you won't mind me saying that I would like to be compensated for giving you the idea to host your meeting with the delegation from Moriya Shrine here. My fees are not exorbitant, I'd simply like to know what it is that has kept the tengu so busy and guarded for the last month."

The reporter turned toward Renko with a clack of her geta on the cobblestone path and crossed her arms, her black wings folding around her then flexing backward in what looked like it must be a tengu gesture of annoyance. "So now it's a tit-for-tat arrangement, eh?"

"Not really. Telling me would actually be to your benefit. I already have a general understanding of the Moriya Shrine's position and needs. If you can't give me a picture of the struggles the tengu have been contending with, then it will be more difficult to act as an unbiased third party during your upcoming negotiations." She beamed her most infuriating grin at Aya.

Aya looked her over for a moment. After a few seconds of calculation, her face folded into a grin that was a mirror of Renko's.

"Alright, alright. There's not all that much to tell though. Ever since the departure of the oni, we tengu have ruled the mountain. Now along comes a powerful and mysterious god without warning. It's only natural that my people would see her presence as an invasion."

"That much I expected, but is that alone really enough of a concern to keep tengu management tangled up in negotiations for a month?"

"Ayayaya. It shouldn't be. There just happens to be a difference of opinion between two powerful factions. Tengu society is not monolithic. One group is in favor of accepting the new gods and benefiting from their blessings and the other will accept no hierarchy that puts anything above the tengu. That's why I led Reimu and Marisa to the shrine, so I could conduct some information gathering."

"Well, if that was your goal, why not just interview the priestess and goddess of the Moriya shrine directly? That would've been a lot quicker, wouldn't it?"

"Ayaya, if I were to interview them the other tengu would accuse me of trying to publish an article before they could. There are more important people than me writing newspapers and if I want to keep the right to publish stories I need to keep them happy."

"And that's why there's been no new edition of the 𝐵𝑢𝑛𝑏𝑢𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑢 in a month?"

"I’m in a very difficult situation here! The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the pen isn’t something that can really help right now. My reporter’s instinct has been screaming at me to conduct an interview, but I also don’t want to incur the wrath of my superiors. And all of that is on top of the question of what might happen to me if I were to confront this mysterious newcomer god without any backup. This has been a very stressful month for me as a reporter!"

"So all of this caginess is just because the god of the Moriya Shrine is an unknown entity?"

"Ayaya—To put it simply, yes! Not even Lord Tenma has heard of her. We have no idea who she is or where she’s from. And for such a new goddess she seems very powerful."

"When you say a 'new' goddess, you mean new to Gensokyo, right?"

"Aya? No, I mean a newly ascended god, one that clearly used to be a human. There's a goddess like that living in that shrine, isn't there?"

"Do you mean Sanae? Do the tengu see her as a god rather than just a human?"

"What? The priestess? No, she's just a human borrowing the power of a god, isn't she?"

"Of course she is. That’s not who I’m talking about. I mean the powerful one."

"Who are you two talking about?" Reimu interrupted.

"The goddess," Aya declared firmly.

"I’m telling you, she’s a human." Renko countered.

"The one who controls wind?" Reimu asked, looking between them.

"Exactly."

"Well she’s just borrowing that ability from her goddess though."

"Not her, the one who’s the god."

"You mean the green haired one, right?"

"She’s a god?" Reimu asked, even more confused now.

"No, she’s a human," Aya replied.

"That’s what I’ve been saying!"

"Then who are we talking about?"

"The god!"

"The human!"

Renko and Aya turned from Reimu to glare at each other then both sighed in exasperation. "The tall lady who wears a shimenawa. She clearly used to be a human who's been enshrined as a divine spirit. Didn't you know that?" Aya huffed.

"...She told us she was both the god Takeminakata and his wife Yasakatome combined into one."

"Takeminakata? No, impossible. I'd bet my left eye she's a much younger god than that. Despite being so young she seems to be quite powerful though. That's why management is so worried about her. If Takeminakata were here, the tengu management would have welcomed him. Takeminakata is a wind god,and has some connection to us Tengu—. Ayayaya. Renko? Are you alright?" Aya was looking quizzically at my partner, whose slack face was staring sightlessly into the middle distance.

Recovering herself, Renko closed her mouth and swallowed audibly. "No way...." she muttered. "No way, could that really be what this is all about?"

"Renko? Hello? Anyone home?" I asked, shaking her shoulders. As I shook her, she snapped back to herself. She looked at me for a moment then pulled her hat down to shade her eyes and turned back to Aya.

"I get it now. Thank you very much, Miss Shameimaru, your insights are much appreciated. Please consider your debt paid in full. Merry and I will happily attend and facilitate any negotiations between the tengu people and the Moriya Shrine."

"Aya? Well that's good, I guess. If there's nothing more, I've got places to be."

"Hey, don't just ignore the landlord!" Reimu said as the tengu turned again to leave. "I'm providing a venue for your meeting so I expect compensation."

"We'll make sure to bring enough food for you to have some too."

"I'm talking about offerings."

"Ayaya, I'll see what I can do..."

While the two of them were busy haggling over the details I took the opportunity to whisper to Renko. "Renko, what's up? Have you figured something out?"

Renko turned away and began to walk with me toward the stairs we had just rushed up, a strangely vague smile on her face. "I think I've just solved the mystery of the Moriya Shrine. If I'm right though... then we can never tell Sanae."


—


[𝐀 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫]

Well, it's that time again. What is the hidden truth that Renko came up with? Again, if you want to compete against Renko it will have to be in a battle of imaginations. I advise you to focus on devising a story that answers the following three questions:

1.Assuming that what Aya said was true, who is Lady Yasaka Kanako?
2.Why does the Moriya shrine half-heartedly imitate the Suwa Grand Shrine of the Outside World?
3.Why did the Moriya Shrine and its inhabitants come to Gensokyo?

If you wish for another hint, I will give you this: Sanae never lied to us about her past. However, the version of her past she gave to us was only her view of it.

The "truth" that Renko discovered was one that could never be revealed to Sanae. Is your imagination up to meeting the challenge of Renko's delusions?