東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 10:Scarlet Weather Rhapsody

—28—


[𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐢 𝐒𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐩𝐬𝐞]

"Okay Kotohime, what happened?"

"Right in the middle of the re-opening ceremony the Youkai Sage showed up out of nowhere and picked a fight with the Celestial, right in front of everyone. All she said was 'a shrine like this one should be destroyed' and then, boom, danmaku everywhere. She was going all out too. Everything that missed the Celestial hit the shrine, and it ended up totally ruined."

We all listened to Kotohime's story with bated breath. Just as my partner had predicted, it seemed the Youkai Sage wasn't about to let Tenshi's plans go off without a hitch.

We all ended up shouting over each other at once. "What about all of the spectators?" "Is everyone safe?" "What about Reimu?"

"Yeah, we made sure everyone was out, Reimu's fine."

"Well, in that case, as long as the villagers are all fine, this is technically just a duel between two youkai outside the bounds of the village," Keine said, resting her hands on her hips and sighing. "Did you make sure that everyone made it back alright?"

"Yeah, everyone's okay." Now that Kotohime had calmed down a little, her usual lackadaisical nature seemed to be reasserting itself.

"Alright then. It seems like there's nothing more that we need to do just now then. Thank you for all of your hard work Kotohime. I'll go and check on Reimu myself after school."

"Ah. Okay. Is that it then?"

"Dealing with the Youkai Sage will be up to Reimu. We might want to consider closing the east gate for today though. I'll leave that decision up to you and the rest of the watch, just make sure to let everyone else know what happened."

"Alright then, I guess I'll go tell everyone at headquarters then." Kotohime sighed, nodded her head then turned and headed out of the school. Keine left the staff room just behind her clapping her hands together to command the attention of the children who had crowded into the hallway to listen.
"Alright, everyone," she called, "we'll be starting third period as normal. No cause for alarm, it's just a regular school day."

"Right," Renko said, putting her hat on. "I don't have class for third period, so I'll go check up on the shrine in your stead, Miss Keine." Without bothering to wait for an answer, she headed for the door. Keine reached out and grabbed her by the collar, halting her in her tracks.

"Renko, you're going to be my teaching assistant for third period today."

"Ack! Gah! This is too cruel!" Renko choked, tugging at her collar as Keine turned and dragged her back down the hall.

"You won't be able to achieve anything by going to the shrine right now and you're a teacher. Part of your job is being a good role model for the students, and a good role model wouldn't leave the school while classes are still in session."

Renko twisted, freeing her collar from Keine's grip with a grunt, but Keine's hand darted like a striking cobra, catching Renko by the ear before she could bolt. Her pleading eyes turned to me as her heels dragged along the floorboards.

"You deserve this, Renko," I said, waving goodbye as Keine dragged her into the classroom.

—

Finally, afternoon classes finished for the day. After dismissing the children and locking up the school, Renko and I headed for the Hakurei Shrine. Keine headed to the watch office first and Sanae hadn't shown up today, so Renko and I headed out the east gate together, just the two of us. Renko wanted to set off as soon as possible and hurry the whole way, but personally I didn't see the point as we were guaranteed to be far too late to affect anything no matter what.

"Once again I've missed my chance to meet the Youkai Sage."

"You never know, Renko, she might still be sitting there when we arrive."

"Oh, that would be nice, Merry. Maybe she’ll have a big surprise waiting for me."

"What kind of surprise? And why would she set aside a surprise for you?"

We were having this conversation while climbing the stone steps up the side of the hill at the end of the trail, when we heard the sounds of several voices coming from the shrine grounds. Could the reconstruction have already begun?

Cresting the hill and looking at the scene framed by the torii gates, we once again saw the collapsed wreck of a shrine, looking much as it had just after the earthquake. That seemed almost inconsequential next to what we saw surrounding the ruin though.

"Oh hey! You guys came, too? Come join us!"

The words had been spoken by Marisa, who was sitting on one of several rush mats laid out in the yard of the shrine grounds. Youmu, Sakuya, Suika and Reimu were all sitting beside her. Reimu was sulking, staring at the wreckage of the shrine, while Marisa and Suika were smiling and ladling sake into cups from a large cask. Youmu looked awkwardly uncomfortable sitting beside them, and Sakuya was elegantly serving snacks as usual. With the extraordinary scene of the shattered shrine as a backdrop, the party had a surreal air to it, as if the whole thing were a piece of avant-garde art.

"What's going on here?" Renko asked, sounding genuinely confused.

"We're havin' a party to kick off the reconstruction of the shrine! And now you two are part of it!" Suika said, pouring a cup for each of us. She pressed them into our hands as soon as we approached. I looked over toward the wreck of what had once been a shrine. The shattered timbers looked in no way reconstructed.

"I heard that the Youkai Sage got in a fight here, but this can't have been an accident. What happened?" Renko asked.

"We were right in the middle of the re-opening ceremony and suddenly that purple hag showed up... then..." Reimu waved her arm despondently at the wreckage.

"This time I’ll be the one rebuilding the shrine instead of Tenshi." Suika added.

"Why'd it have to be destroyed again though?"

"Well Yukari asked me to check on the keystone, and when I told her about it, this is what she did."

"So the Youkai Sage must have intended to destroy the shrine all along then."

"Probably. Who knows what that Celestial was up to? The keystone is real though. Don't take it out or it really might destroy Gensokyo."

"So what happened to Tenshi then?"

"She ran back to Heaven. I don't think we'll see her for a while. After Yukari finished with her, just as she was gettin' up, the little rabbit from Eientei came along, and she kicked Tenshi's butt too!" Suika guffawed raucously and slapped her knee, laughing out a cloud of alcohol vapor.

"Reisen!? She was here too?"

Suika was still too busy laughing at the memory to respond, so Youmu answered instead. "She seemed to be doing some research of her own into earthquakes." Had Reisen been investigating this Incident the whole time? I remembered she was looking into the scarlet clouds weeks ago, but those were long gone now. I wondered if there was still some cause for concern that Eirin was aware of. If she got here and had seen the keystone, her task must be finished now.

"What about the Youkai Sage, where did she go?" Renko asked.

This time Reimu answered. "Yukari? She up and vanished just a little bit after she finished beating up Tenshi. The next time she shows her face here I’m gonna let her have it."

"Forget about it, Reimu," Suika said, clapping the shrine maiden on the back. "She must have had her reasons for doing it."

"If she did, why didn't she do anything before Tenshi finished the shrine? There's no reason for her to wait until after the reconstruction was finished."

Suika considered for a moment. "Yeah, that's true. She'd been chasing that Celestial for a while now. I wonder why she struck today? Maybe it took Yukari a while to find her."

"She could just open a gap directly to wherever they were whenever she felt like it, couldn't she?"

"Well she'd have to know where the Celestial was first, wouldn't she? Or maybe not." Suika shrugged. "Honestly I've got no idea how she does things with her gaps."

"Me neither."

"Well whatever her reason for attacking now was, Yukari was really mad. It's been a long time since I've seen her get so serious. She was all 'You shall leave this earth beautifully, yet cruelly!'" Suika guffawed at the memory. "I can't really blame her though. That keystone that the Celestial put down is like a landmine planted at Yukari's feet. That’d be enough to set anyone off."

If the keystone really could be thought of as a bomb planted at Yukari's feet, then Tenshi was still holding the detonator it seemed to me. She could return at any time to set it off, and Reimu would be living right on top of it.

"I wonder what this is all about?" Reimu grumbled. "She never tells anyone what's going on. Always being talkative, but never saying anything important. Most of the time I think she'd just doing it to try to seem mysterious, but every now and then she'll do something like this."

"It's probably jus' part of some plan you can't picture, Reimu." Marisa quipped. "You're too straightforward to see how someone like her thinks."

"What exactly is she capable of?" Renko asked. "You all seem to think she's got the situation under control and the 𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑘𝑦𝑜 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒 makes some pretty outrageous claims about her, but how much of that is true?"

𝐼𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑦 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑜𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡. 𝑇ℎ𝑢𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛. 𝐼𝑡 𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑎 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦, 𝑜𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑛𝑒.

𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑘𝑎𝑖 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑠, 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑔𝑜𝑑𝑠. 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑔𝑎𝑝𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒, 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑡 𝑏𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑎 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑒𝑟. 𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠, 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟'𝑠 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠.

—𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑘𝑦𝑜 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒, 𝑁𝑖𝑛𝑡ℎ 𝐸𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝐻𝑖𝑒𝑑𝑎 𝑝. 49

That's what the 𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑘𝑦𝑜 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒 has to say about the Youkai Sage's abilities. Frankly, it had always struck me as absurd. The ability to move into dreams sounds fantastical but it is at least somewhat similar to the abilities of my own eyes, only much more advanced.

"Hmm. I'm not sure." Reimu replied. "I think only Yukari herself really knows what she's capable of."

"She appears all the time without warning using her gaps. I wish she wouldn't." Youmu added, smiling faintly.

Apparently Yuyuko had been a friend of Yukari for many lifetimes so as her servant Youmu probably had more experience with the Youkai Sage than any of the rest of us. It was disconcerting to know that even after years of seeing her, her appearance could still be a shock.

"I've even gone through her gaps once, but I don't know what they are or how they work." Renko and I had both been through one of her gaps during the Spring Snow Incident. We had gone from standing in the forest outside Alice's house to three distinct locations in Hakugyokurou, separated and alone in an instant.

Suika was the next to answer. "She talks about it sometimes. She just replaces the space between two places with a gap, then goes from one side of the gap to the other. For her, distance almost doesn't matter."

"She's always using gaps to stick her hand out of nowhere and grab snacks off of my table." Reimu grumbled, hunching her shoulders. I suppose even the most unbelievable of abilities could still be used pettily.

Renko shook her head. "It almost sounds like she can generate wormholes on demand. Maybe she's using microscopic singularities to distort space and cross dimensional barriers? Could she even use something like that to enter dreams or stories though? Reisen and Sakuya’s abilities were already ridiculous, but the Youkai Sage’s seem downright absurd."

"Should I take that as a compliment, I wonder?"

"Gah!" Renko flinched as Sakuya appeared instantaneously directly behind her. Sakuya herself was the prime example of someone capable of ignoring distance. I remember that Renko had once mentioned to me that space and time were inseparable, and as such Sakuya's ability to manipulate time must be functionally identical to the ability to distort space. Whatever the case, to my eyes, whether it was Sakuya's control of time, Reisen's manipulation of wavelengths, Marisa's ability to fly on a broom, Suika's ability to grow enormous or split herself into multiple entities or even Youmu's nature as a half-human half-ghost, all options were equally improbable and inexplicable from the point of view of the Scientific Century.

"Renko, I thought you would have learned by now that there's no point in trying to explain the nature of Gensokyo with the science of the Outside World. Except for us, everyone here can fly in the sky without the need for any sort of tools or external power source. There's clearly different rules for reality here, right?"

"Come on, Merry! You could try to be a little more supportive, couldn’t you?" She sighed, resting one elbow on top of her knee and resting her cheekbone on her fist. "If the Youkai Sage really does have the ability to manipulate the boundaries that define what things are on a conceptual level, I don't see why the keystone would be a problem for her. She could just negate the distinctions between it and a normal rock or any other number of solutions."

"Well, the fact that she hasn't done any of that suggests that she can't, doesn't it? Maybe there are limits we don't understand about her abilities." I suggested.

"Yeah, maybe." Renko said, tucking her chin to her chest and pondering.

After that, the party continued much as many others we had experienced in Gensokyo had, drifting on into an evening filled with raucous laughter and plentiful booze.


—29—


After the conclusion of the party at the Hakurei Shrine, we returned to our home in the village. As we arrived at home, she began grumbling irritably to herself.

"What's wrong, Renko? Does your stomach hurt?"

"More like my head, Merry. I feel like my brain's going to short out trying to process all of this."

"In other words, you're busy cooking up another grandiose delusion."

"I wish! I can't get any of the pieces I have to fit together. Even with everything we've learned about the Youkai Sage, I don't know how any of it connects to this incident."

"Do the two things have to be connected?"

"I’d like to think they are. Remember what Ran said about Yukari, how she's always searching for what's best for Gensokyo? This turmoil had to either bring some benefit or avoid some harm to this world, and it had to do so in an important enough way for the sage to really care about it. I don't see what destroying then rebuilding the shrine again achieves, or what beating up Tenshi accomplishes for that matter. Despite everything that's happened Heaven still has dominion over the earth and Tenshi still has the sword. Gensokyo is ultimately still at her mercy."

"Well, alright, but try to keep the grumbling down."

In my role as Watson to Renko's Holmes, I had no choice but to wait for her to finish ruminating. That said, I had a feeling she’d be needing me to summarize everything we had learned so far, and so I sat down at my desk and began to write. The incident had probably begun early in the summer, at the start of the rainy season. Sanae had said that the rains had continued longer than expected, and had first complained to us about it four days before the initial collapse of the Hakurei Shrine. That was when we had begun our investigations, but I won't needlessly repeat my descriptions of them here.

As I outlined the major events of this case as I saw them, something occurred to me and I looked up to face my partner.

"Hey Renko, Tenshi told us that she saw Reimu resolving incidents by exterminating the youkai responsible and wanted to try making an incident of her own, right?"

"That's what she said, yeah."

"Which incident do you think she would have seen Reimu resolve?"

Renko stopped her pacing and turned to look at me. "That's a good question, Merry. There really hasn't been a traditional, large-scale incident since the Eternal Night Incident. Tenshi was imitating something with a clear mastermind where all that's needed is a straightforward response from the Hakurei shrine maiden to exterminate the youkai responsible. It's been a while since we had any incidents like that. Reimu didn’t really exterminate a mastermind during the Great Barrier Incident."

"True..." I thought I had managed to find a clue that Renko had overlooked, but I suppose I don’t have the talent to be the sort of great detective these stories are about. Not that lacking Renko’s ability to hatch megalomaniacal delusions is anything to be upset about. "So I guess the real question is why has Tenshi been allowed to keep the Sword of Hisou as long as she has and do as she pleases with it? Why hasn’t anyone from Heaven tried to take it back from her?"

"That’s a good question, Merry. Hmmm. Grraah!" She groaned loudly in frustration as she paced back and forth. If anyone was going to get yelled at for disturbing the neighbors I think it was more likely to be Renko.

"Well staying here and groaning like that isn't going to help anyone. Why don't you head over to the bathhouse before they close and have a soak. Maybe you can get your thoughts together once you're more refreshed."

Renko made one more pathetic groan in my general direction, then grabbed her hat from the hook and headed for the door.

It was two days later that Renko's delusions finally bloomed. This time, the trigger came not from our normal resident lunatic nor from her faithful assistant, but from our new part-timer, herself a burgeoning lunatic-in-training.

"I've just thought of something amazing!" She had said, bursting into our office one evening without bothering with a greeting. At this point, such abrupt and unannounced entrances had become, if not commonplace, at least unsurprising. I turned around to watch, sipping my tea as she kicked off her boots and ran over to Renko's desk.

"Well, don't keep me in suspense, Sanae, what is it?"

"It's a big project! Something we could only accomplish with the combined powers of the Hifuu Detective Agency and the Moriya Shrine. If we can pull it off though, it will change the world! It's not even just about building faith or anything this time. If we do this, we could even make a glorious return to the Outside World!" Sanae's eyes were shining with excitement as she giggled giddily.

"What are you talking about, Sanae?"

"All we have to do is find Tenshi and get her to help us. I know that's a tall order, but we'll need her co-operation!"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute. Let's hear the details first. What exactly are you planning?"

"Okay," she said, taking a steadying breath and trying to organize her thoughts. "It goes like this..."

—

Sanae then proceeded to explain her scheme. I will omit it here though, because if I were to relay it now, it would spoil the conclusions that my partner came to and betray the proper denouement of this story. However, if I were to completely avoid all mention of the project, then it would be impossible to explain the events that came next. Therefore, dear reader, I will give the barest of hints in the next chapter. But before I do though, and before I write my usual challenge to the reader, I hope you will indulge me in including a second challenge here, as a test.

Perhaps, if you have been following all of my stories to date, your imagination has, by now, grown used to the convolutions and proclivities of Renko's particular brand of megalomania. I would wager, however, that Sanae's brand of insanity is still entirely new to you, and so I encourage you to once again to stretch the muscles of your imagination, perhaps far beyond the bounds of rational-minded comfort. I ask you only this:

What exactly is the grand project that Sanae proposed to us that day?


—30—


"No, Sanae. We can't do it." After hearing Sanae's proposal out and spending several moments in consideration, that was Renko's response. "It might be the humane thing to do, but it's not like we could just..."

Suddenly, Renko froze, mid-sentence, her mouth still hanging open. We both looked at her in confusion for a moment before she swallowed and shut her mouth, continuing to stare, unseeing into space. "No way..." she muttered.

"Miss Renko? What's wrong?" Sanae asked. Rather than responding, Renko's hands slowly crept to her head, her fingers twining themselves in her hair.

All at once she exploded into a flurry of motion, frantically ruffling her hair before slamming both of her hands down on her desk. "Agggh! I can't believe I overlooked something so simple! Could this really be it? We were so close to the answer this whole time!" Saying that, she flopped over backward, kicking her legs out under her desk and laying flat on her back on the tatami.

"What's going on, Miss Renko?" Sanae was new to these sorts of outbursts and so she scooted over on her knees, looking down at Renko's upturned face with concern.

Renko covered her face with her hands and sighed. "Sanae, your idea is a good one, and the motivations behind it are admirable. But we can't do it. I hate to sound like a cliché, but if it's even possible, we can't predict what the outcomes would be. It would be dangerously irresponsible. We still don't even know how Merry and I managed to get here."

"That's true, but you're here now. Don't you…"

"Sanae, let me ask you something else instead. I’ve been meaning to ask you sooner, but it never came up." Renko sat up off of the floor, turning to regard Sanae with a serious expression. "How is it that you and the goddesses at your shrine came to Gensokyo, exactly? What was involved in crossing over the barrier from the Outside World?"

"Oh. I don't know all the details, but it seemed like teleportation to me. It was a big ritual. Lady Kanako and Lady Suwako showed me how. The three of us worked together. There was a lot of light and wind, then it all died down and we were on Youkai Mountain, along with the whole shrine."

"Did either of the goddesses tell you anything about the ritual?"

"Um... they said that on the other side of a barrier there's a world of fantasy and illusion and the ritual would pave the way to get there."

"From Nagano directly to Gensokyo?"

"Yes. It didn't even feel like we moved. It was more like the ritual changed everything outside of the shrine."

"...I see." Renko tucked her chin to her chest for a moment then suddenly stood up. "Sorry Sanae. It's a neat idea, but we'll have to talk about it some other time, alright?"

"Uh, okay." Without another word Renko spun on her heel and stepped into the entryway, slipping her feet into her shoes.

"Hey Renko, where are you going?" I asked, climbing to my own feet.

She didn't bother turning around as she answered. "To see Miss Akyuu," she said, sliding the door open. I looked over at Sanae in surprise as she stepped out of the door, then dashed up to put my own boots on, leaving Sanae alone in the office as I chased after Renko.

—

We found Akyuu sitting in her room, drinking tea when we came by.

"The maids told me you said it was urgent this time. What's gotten you so worked up?" she asked, amiably.

"Miss Akyuu, there's something I've been meaning to ask you for years, but I've always figured you wouldn't tell me. I may as well try now though. Will you hear me out?"

"Whatever is it?" She asked, setting down her teacup and turning to give Renko her full attention.

Renko eased herself into a sitting position beside her and looked her directly in the eye as she asked "Where exactly in Japan is Gensokyo located?"

Akyuu closed her eyes and sighed. "I can't tell you."

"You can't, or you won't?"

"I can't. It's not that I don't want to, but it's something I don't actually know. It's a rather conspicuous blank spot in my memories from any of my previous lives, and it's been erased from any record I've ever seen kept by the Hieda. It hardly matters though. Ever since the creation of the Great Hakurei Barrier, we've been completely cut off from the Outside World. It's been more than 120 years since that happened, so you won't find anyone in the village who remembers and all of the youkai have likely forgotten as well."

"It does matter though, doesn't it? Even though Gensokyo is separate from the Outside World, it's still connected to it. Animals and natural things like sunlight and wind pass freely through the barrier, don't they?"

"They do. That's because the barrier is not a physical thing. If a human from the Outside World were to come to the physical location of Gensokyo, my understanding is that they'd be able to cross these lands without issue, but never set foot in our world. If a creature whose natural home is in the realm of fantasy came here though they would only see Gensokyo, not whatever might be there in the Outside World. If they knew the right procedures, they could even enter Gensokyo even if they were far from its physical location."

"Yes, you mentioned that to me a long time ago —'if they knew the right procedures' then someone could get in from the Outside World. What 'procedures' would those be?"

"Procedures for allowing someone to pass through the barrier. I don’t understand all of the details, and I don’t think you could use the same procedures to get to the Outside World from the inside, but the gist of it is that since the barrier was made using the Youkai Sage’s abilities, it shares properties with her gaps. All I know for certain is that if a creature defies the common sense of the Outside World and belongs in the realm of fantasy, they can come here, no matter where they are in Japan."

"So you can get to Gensokyo from anywhere in Japan if you know how."

"That's my understanding, yes."

"Alright then, thank you. I just have one more question then, on a different topic. The origin of earthquakes is the flopping of a giant catfish underground, is that correct?"

"Yes, any school child knows that."

"And there are quakes in places other than Gensokyo, right?"

"As far as I know, yes."

"So then it stands to reason that there must be giant catfish under the ground elsewhere in this world as well, right?"

"There are multiple catfish all over the world as far as I know. Sometimes when one of them goes on a rampage, it sets off other ones, and chain reactions like that are what cause the most devastating earthquakes. In the Outside World, they have different explanations for earthquakes though."

"Alright, then let me ask you this: in the 120 years since the Great Hakurei Barrier was erected, has there ever been a catastrophic earthquake in Gensokyo?"

"No, never." Akyuu said as she shook her head. "Nothing I would call severe at all."

[𝐀 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐓𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫]

And so, after all of that, we've come once again to the challenge. If you have read my other books leading up to this one, you may be surprised, as I have not included any summary of our mysteries as would be typical. After all, it's hard to find an answer when you don't know what questions are being asked.

The answer to that riddle, however, is simple. I have not included a list of questions this time, because there was only one mystery, consisting of two parts for you (and Renko) to solve:
• What was Sanae's plan?
• What was the conclusion Renko arrived at upon hearing it?
Such open-ended questions may seem like they would be impossible to answer to the readers of Gensokyo. That is because the solution that Renko arrived at is something that only the mastermind behind the mystery and the two of us, with our unique circumstances, could possibly have discovered. I believe readers who know us well, and who have followed along with all of our stories to date may be able to guess, however. Indeed, the solution was something we had nearly reached already, but had passed by without noticing its import at the time.

It is possible that this question I pose to you, requiring as it does only a single, short logical leap to discover is too simple for a proper mystery. But as a recorder of these stories, I can't really be sure how much knowledge my readers possess, or what they might or might not be able to call to mind at a moment's notice. At any rate, you can rest assured that all of the information that led my partner to her conclusions can now be found within this record alone.

And so, as always, I wish you the best of luck.