東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 10:Urban Legend in Limbo

—28—


"You want me to do what?"

In the Great Library in the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the witch looked up from the dusty pages of her tome. The words just spoken by her visitor having been enough to rouse her from her reading, commanding her attention and giving her a puzzled expression.

"I must have misheard you."

"I was asking you to persuade Lady Reimilia to cause an incident, Miss Patchouli" Renko repeated, smiling casually. "Just a small one. It doesn't have to be anything as grand as covering Gensokyo in a red mist, just something big enough that the shrine maiden would take notice and have to leave her shrine for a bit. I think Lady Remilia would appreciate having the opportunity to fight Reimu again, don't you?"

Hearing that, Patchouli fixed Renko with a hard stare.

"What are you playing at, human?" she asked, her eyes narrowing even further.

—

It was a classic ploy. So classic that I'm sure Renko's ulterior motives were plainly obvious.

The two of us had somehow ended up in possession of something that might well be the 𝑔𝑜𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖 of the Hakurei Shrine. As such it was a pretty obvious first step for us to first confirm if that was where this amber properly belonged or not. If it really was what it appeared to be, then we had been told that it was a dangerous artifact which might destabilize the Great Hakurei Barrier in the wrong hands, so we couldn't be so careless as to let anyone else see it. Most of all we had to keep it out of Reimu's sight. Not only would it be bad if she started accusing us of being thieves, but she might well demand that we give it to her, at which point we would have lost what amounted to the only solid clue to the mystery of why my partner and I had ended up in this world that we had ever found.

We needed to make absolutely certain that Reimu didn't find out about the amber, but we also needed to verify Doremy's story, which meant we needed to have a look inside the innermost parts of the Hakurei Shrine. Given those two conflicting needs, this is the plan that Renko had come up with.

We had been to the Hakurei Shrine countless times over the years, of course, but we had only ever set foot in the residential part of the shrine where Reimu lived. That part of the shrine was always open to the public. The Innermost shrine of the Hakurei Shrine, however, was a place that none of us had ever seen.

Supposedly that's where the Hakurei god was actually enshrined, but the innermost chamber of any Shinto shrine isn't the sort of place that anyone can just walk into off of the street. Our only option was to sneak in without Reimu knowing, but that would be easier said than done. We didn't have Sakuya's ability to move during stopped time or Seiga's ability to cleanly pass through walls, nor even Koishi's ability to move about completely undetected. For a pair of normal humans like us it would be almost impossible to avoid Reimu’s keen intuition and sneak into the innermost shrine unnoticed.

Thus, our only hope was to sneak in while Reimu wasn’t at the shrine. I had suggested Marisa might be able to cause a distraction that could pull her away, but Renko had disagreed, saying "We can't ask Marisa about something like this. She'd probably be willing to help but she'd ask about every little detail and end up getting more involved than we'd like." That would definitely be bad, especially if she found out about the amber. Whatever the true nature of the amber was, there was no way Marisa wouldn't take interest in it.

The most reliable way to ensure that Reimu would leave the shrine would be to cause an incident. That meant we’d need to find someone among our acquaintances who was both strong enough to do that and bored enough to start a fight without any particularly compelling reason. Of course there was one person who obviously fit the bill.

—

Patchouli closed the grimoire she had been reading and let out a sigh. "What are you planning to do at the shrine? Steal from the offerings box? I sincerely doubt there's anything there worth stealing. I certainly don't see how I'm obligated to help you do something like that."

"Whether you're obligated to help us or not is certainly questionable, but the Hifuu Detective Agency would be happy to share information on certain highly sensitive topics with you in exchange for your assistance."

"Sensitive topics? What do you mean?"

"Do you have any interest in the 𝑔𝑜𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖 of the Hakurei Shrine?"

Patchouli's mouth drew into a deep frown at that.

"The shrine's 𝑔𝑜𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖? If the Hakurei Shrine even has something like that, why would you want it? Do you fancy yourself to be Nick Velvet now, only stealing worthless things?"

"That's a rather harsh way to talk about a god," Renko replied, grinning sarcastically back at her.

Nick Velvet was a character created by Edward D. Hoch, by the way. A thief who only steals worthless things and spends as much time solving mysteries as committing heists. Did Patchouli have his books somewhere in this library? I'd have to make a point of looking for them later.

"Recently, our investigations have revealed that the 𝑔𝑜𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖 of the Hakurei Shrine may have been involved in bringing my partner and I to Gensokyo from the Outside World," Renko continued. "If you recall, it just so happened that when we arrived here, we ended up landing in this very library rather than anywhere else in Gensokyo. That's an odd coincidence, don't you think?"

All hints of any expression disappeared from Patchouli's face. Seeing that, Renko tugged the brim of her hat down and grinned.

"So Miss Patchouli, let me ask you again: do you have any interest in the 𝑔𝑜𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖 of the Hakurei Shrine?"

—

Renko's reasoning for involving Patchouli in our plan was more involved than it simply being true that it wouldn't be difficult to get Remilia to participate. When we had first arrived in Gensokyo we had emerged here, in the Great Library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, not in the Hakurei Shrine. Ever since we had heard from Doremy that the amber was the Hakurei Shrine's 𝑔𝑜𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖 facts which had, up until that moment, seemed like an insignificant coincidence suddenly took on new meaning.

This was the theory that Renko had come up with after speaking with Doremy on the moon in the Dream World: if the amber of Gensokyo, which contained the spiritual power of the Outside World and the amber of the Outside World, which contained the spiritual power of Gensokyo were both keys that connected the two sides of the Great Hakurei Barrier, then anyone who travelled using one of the ambers should end up emerging wherever the other one was.

It was, of course, nothing but supposition. Speculation built on top of speculation. It wasn't even something you could reasonably call a 'deduction'. We didn't even have any definitive proof that there was a second amber. Even if every part of this wild guess was correct, it still wouldn't explain why we had travelled through time as well as the Great Hakurei Barrier. In short it was a wild shot in the dark. It was also the best theory we had.

My partner's so-called theory also tied into another of her questionable deductions. It suggested that the 'truth' she had uncovered in our investigation of the Scarlet Mist Incident might only have scratched the surface of what was really going on in this mansion.

I assume there wouldn't be anyone reading this casefile who hadn't read my first story, but just in case, I'll say that what follows here reveals and discusses my partner's conclusions regarding that case. I apologize, dear reader, for once again subjecting you to my partner's wild delusions on that topic.

—

Patchouli offered no response to Renko's question. Seeing that, Renko let out a theatrical sigh and began to pace back and forth, wandering about in front of the desk Patchouli was reading at and elucidating her points, looking every inch the great detective.

"This is something I should have investigated more thoroughly a long time ago, but why is it that we emerged here of all places when we arrived in Gensokyo? I remember at the time you gave us an explanation, or rather I should say, your little devil did so. She told us that we had fallen into the library through a hole you had left open when bringing this mansion into Gensokyo."

"But was there ever really any such hole? After all, this mansion isn't really from the Outside World, is it? If my theories are even close to correct, then this mansion has only ever existed in Gensokyo. But it's true that there was a hole in the barrier here. In fact, that probably is exactly how we ended up where we did. The question is 𝑤ℎ𝑦 was there a hole? I'm betting that when you found two mysterious strangers had suddenly showed up unexpectedly in your library you told your little devil to tell us that story about the hole being a leftover from the mansion's appearance without even thinking about it. But you're not sloppy, Miss Patchouli. Even if this mansion had been brought here from the Outside World, it would have been here for quite a while by the time we showed up in it. There's no way you would let something like a gap to another world stand open and uncontrolled in your library for that long. As such, the only conclusion that makes any sense is that the hole we fell through was something newly made. Most likely something newly made by you. The question is why would you open a hole like that in the barrier?"

"Hold on a minute. How can you talk about things that happened a decade ago as if they were yesterday? You're not the Child of Miare."

"Ah well, I can thank my wonderful record-keeper for that," Renko said, turning to me with a grin. I could only shrug in response.

Patchouli's chair creaked as she stood up and let out a sigh. She stretched her neck from side to side, looking unimpressed the whole while. "That's all well and good for you, detective, but those events were of no import to me and as such, I can barely remember them. What exactly is it that you're accusing me of?"

"I'm not accusing you of anything, Miss Patchouli. At least not yet. The fact of the matter is I don't have any more clues to go on at this point. If I'm right, this mansion really is an elaborate cage created by the Dragon God to trap a pair of powerful demons after they went on a rampage. If that’s the case though, then you opening a hole in the barrier seems pretty suspicious, doesn't it? Or perhaps you're really the mastermind behind everything that's happened to us here? Maybe we didn't end up in this library by chance and you pulled us from our own world to act as observers who could record the events you and Remilia were planning. What's the real story here, Miss Patchouli?"

"...A deduction based on a fantasy could never be anything more than a delusion, detective. You can’t deduce the truth from nothing but red herrings."

"That may be true but the question of which clues are valid and which are distractions is a matter of perspective. Based on the information available to me and what I know about the events surrounding our arrival, the conclusions I’m drawing are the most logical explanation. You said it yourself, Miss Patchouli, all those years ago: 'In this land of fantasy, it's the story, not the facts that are true, even when it isn't.'"

Patchouli remained silent, glaring at Renko.

"Now, before I come up with another outrageous story of my own, why don't you see if you can tell me something to recontextualize the clues I’ve gathered? If you know anything about why Merry and I ended up in Gensokyo, or even if you have any sort of a theory, could I ask you to share it with us?"


—29—


Patchouli stared hard at Renko as a silence that somehow both seemed long and short stretched on. Finally, she sighed wearily.

"Whatever answers you might be hoping for, I don't have them.Your aim in constantly sticking your nose into other people's business, Usami Renko, is to make the world a more interesting place, is it not?"

"That's the purpose of the Hifuu Detective Agency, yes."

"Well I'm sorry to tell you that the mystery you've located here has an extremely boring solution. Yes, it's true that I had in fact opened a hole in the Great Hakurei Barrier and that that hole was still open at the time that the two of you first showed up here. But my reason for doing that is not anything that would interest you. Do you really want to hear it? I guarantee you'll be disappointed."

"If you're going to keep dropping hints like that then I absolutely have to know." Renko smiled fearlessly, but Patchouli simply shrugged her shoulders and sat back down.

"I had opened a hole in The Great Hakurei Barrier so that I could go buy books."

"What? Books?"

"Yes. Outside World books, specifically. Every now and then I make trips there to add to this library's collections. The two of you tumbled through a hole that I had left open from one such shopping expedition."

Renko stared at the magician incredulously.

"I warned you that you'd be disappointed."

Renko groaned softly and tugged her hat down over her eyes. I could only shake my head and shrug as I stood beside her.

"...I see. Well thank you for that information Miss Patchouli," Renko grumbled. "As simple as that explanation is, I can't see anything that contradicts it. You do have a substantial collection of modern books from the Outside World here, after all. I don’t have any other explanation for how you would have come by those."

"I'm glad you understand. As you can no doubt intuit, my shopping trips had nothing to do with your arrival in this world. I was just as surprised as anyone else when you both showed up."

"Why did you have your little devil tell us that the hole was something that had been opened when the mansion came to Gensokyo then?"

"Because doesn't opening a hole in the barrier between fantasy and reality just to buy books sound a little silly? It would just be one more annoyance for me to have to deal with if the two of you thought that you had been here this whole time for such a silly reason. And don't bother asking Koakuma about it. I doubt she remembers anything from back then, but even if she does it's likely that I told her the same story I told you."

"So you have no information about why we might be here at all then?"

"I’m afraid the two of you and anything involving your presence here is outside of my interests. I don’t have anything to tell you, detective. If you ask me, the only reason either of you are in Gensokyo is probably just due to one of Yakumo Yukari’s whims. She probably found someone out in the Outside World who looked remarkably like her and thought it would be fun to bring you here."

"Isn't ten years a long time for her to have brought us here just for fun?"

"Take any complaints you have to the Youkai Sage. There’s no point in haranguing me about it."

With that, Patchouli opened her book back up and turned her attention to its pages. It seemed there was nothing more to say. Renko shook her head slowly. Our visit had been completely in vain, it seemed.

We were just turning to leave when Patchouli spoke once more.

"Oh yes, about your first request, to have Remi cause an incident... The next full moon will be in four days. If you can wait until then, I might consider helping."

I hadn't expected her to seriously consider the request. Renko and I both glanced at each other then turned around to face her again.

"Oh, that's an unusually generous offer, Miss Patchouli. I expect you'll be wanting something in return...?"

Patchouli's eyes remained fixed on her book, and she spoke with apparent disinterest. "I am actually a bit interested in the Hakurei Shrine's 𝑔𝑜𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖. In fact, I've tried to discern just what exactly the god of the Hakurei Shrine might be on a handful of occasions, but I've never succeeded. So, if you're planning on sneaking into the innermost chamber of the Hakurei Shrine, I'd like to go with you."

"Oh, hmm. I guess that’s a reasonable trade. It would certainly be useful to have you with us."

As bargains go it was a small price to pay, though it meant that there would be more people who would know exactly what we were up to. I suppose that couldn't be helped though.

"Oh, and one more thing..." Patchouli raised her head from her book to look our way again, but this time it was me she was staring directly in the eye. "What exactly is that odd object you're carrying?"

I couldn't help but flinch when singled out like that. Renko let out a small sigh and poked the brim of her hat. "You can sense that, I suppose."

"I would expect that even the gatekeeper would be able to tell if a human who should be completely powerless walks in radiating that much spiritual energy."

"But Meiling let us in without saying anything."

"What a useless gatekeeper." Patchouli let out a small sigh.

I glanced over at Renko. There was no point in hiding it anymore, I supposed. My partner nodded and I withdrew the gleaming amber jewel from my pocket. Patchouli's eyes narrowed as soon as she saw it.

"..This feels like the power of the Outside World. Is this some sort of Power Stone from beyond the barrier?"

"Probably."

"I presume this power stone has something to do with what you're planning at the Hakurei Shrine?"

"We were hoping that if we go to the Hakurei Shrine we'd be able to find out more about it. We've been told this stone is a tool that can be used to open a hole in the Great Hakurei Barrier."

"...I see. So then you're intending to leave Gensokyo while Reimu's attention is elsewhere? I won't stop you, but you do know that you'll need a means of opening a hole from the other side of the barrier if you intend to return here, right? I suppose there’s no harm if the two of you want to go back ...Wait, aren't the two of you supposed to be from the future?"

"That's right. Neither Merry nor I should have been born yet."

"Are you planning to meet your ancestors, then? Travelling to the Outside World hardly seems worth the risk for you, especially if you don't have any means of returning to Gensokyo."

That gave Renko pause, but only for a moment. "I don't know. To be honest, I’m at a bit of a loss as to what we should be doing right now."

A troublesome grin blossomed on her face.

"Actually, Miss Patchouli, would you be able to help us out if we end up getting transported to the Outside World from the Hakurei Shrine? We’d very much appreciate it if you were willing to help us out."

"I don’t see why I should have to go that far…"

Patchouli sighed once more.

"...But I suppose it would be a problem if Remi’s little sister got upset because her favorite playmates suddenly disappeared. I do know how to get through the barrier on my own, so I suppose I may as well lend you a hand."

"Thank you very much" Renko said with both a deep bow and an insufferable grin. I bowed as well and Patchouli let out a weary sigh, the universal sound of someone who had let themselves be caught up in one of my partner's maddening schemes.

—

After that, we walked around the library for a bit with the amber in hand. I had hoped perhaps that if we could find the spot where we had first emerged into this world, a hole in the barrier leading to the Outside World might open up on its own, but nothing like that happened. Ultimately, the question of how or why we had come to be in this world remained a mystery.

And so, we left the library, walking up the stairs and down the candlelit halls of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"Renko, do you think Patchouli was telling us the truth?"

"It's awfully convenient, isn't it? It felt sort of spur-of-the-moment to me, but she does have a lot of books from the Outside World in there—"

"Like that original copy of 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑊𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑁𝑜𝑛𝑒 that I found."

"Oh, that's a title that brings back memories. Even if Patchouli was lying and she did have something to do with us showing up here though, it still wouldn't explain anything about how we went backwards in time. Even with Sakuya's help, I don't think she could have done something like that. Moreover, I can't imagine any reason why she would want to."

"Oh, am I being made a suspect?" A voice directly behind us made us both jump. Having Sakuya appear without warning wasn't unexpected by now, but to have someone instantly appear just behind you was still startling.

Renko turned and smiled at her. "No, no, nothing like that. It was just a thought experiment. I was wondering just how much you can alter the flow of time."

"Well I can't go back to the past. Which means I’m definitely innocent of having anything to do with the two of you coming here."

She must have been listening in on our earlier conversations. It's always best to assume the walls have ears when visiting the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"If something like that is even possible, then the only person who might be capable of it would be Yakumo Yukari."

"Every road keeps leading back to her..." Renko sighed.

She was right. Since the moment we had first arrived in Gensokyo, the Youkai Sage had been our prime suspect. But we had never managed to secure any conclusive evidence that could pin the crime of our spiriting away to her. The fact that she had never appeared in front of Renko likely had something to do with that.

"I'm guessing that the two of you are looking to learn why you showed up in the Scarlet Devil Mansion and how you managed to travel into what you believe to be the past, is that what you were asking Lady Patchouli about?"

"You have the makings of a great detective, Miss Sakuya."

"Well if I'm acting as a detective and expert on matters of time at the moment, may I be so bold as to offer my own theory on what happened to the two of you?"

Renko nodded and Sakuya smiled elegantly. "My theory is that the process must have been a two step phenomenon. That would make it much simpler. In that case you would only have had to cross the barrier by one means and cross time by another. Your journey is much simpler to explain if you break it up that way."

"Wait... are you suggesting that we wandered into Gensokyo on our own back in our time, then once we were here someone transported us into the past?"

"Wouldn't that be much neater?"

We could only stare at each other in bewilderment.


—30—


It was something we had never considered before, but when you thought about it, Sakuya's two-stage hypothesis made a lot of sense.

The amber in my pocket was supposed to be a tool for crossing the Great Hakurei Barrier, after all. No one we had talked to had ever mentioned anything about it being able to move through time. If someone had somehow interfered with our journey and dragged us into this era, that would at least come closer to explaining this impossible inconsistency.

Considering things in that light also meant that there was no need to explain why either Yakumo Yukari or Usami Sumireko would want to drag us from the Outside World of the Scientific Century to the Gensokyo of the early 2000s.

"The only problem with that theory is that I don't have any memory of ever having seen Gensokyo in the future. Merry you don't remember anything like that, do you?"

"No, the first thing I remember after Sumireko's room is waking up just beside you in the library here at the mansion."

—

Later that night, after we had returned home, Renko and I got to discussing the idea Sakuya had posed again.

"Is it possible that the Youkai Sage might have sent us back in time the moment we arrived in Gensokyo? If that had happened then we wouldn't have had a chance to see any of this world in the future."

"Why would she do that? Do you think there's something in the future of Gensokyo that she wouldn't want us to see? I really have no way to know what your lookalike might be thinking."

"Well it's not like I know either. Maybe in the future Gensokyo is much more dangerous so she brought us to the safest period in this world's history."

"Are you suggesting that the Youkai Sage has been trying to protect the two of us since the moment we first arrived? If that were the case wouldn't it make more sense for her to just kick us back to the Outside World instead of transporting us through time?"

"Hmm, that's true."

As always, attempting to intuit the motives of the Youkai Sage seemed all but impossible. We'd never know if we were correct unless Yakumo Yukari herself were to suddenly appear before us to confirm our suspicions. Unfortunately, the mystery we were currently embroiled in hinged on that most inscrutable of topics.

This is why most mysteries are written as whodunnits, rather than whydunnits. Determining the motivation of a mastermind is only ever possible if that mastermind acts in a rational and consistent way, after all. Whimsical, irrational, or impulsive actions weren't the sort of things that could be deduced, and since you could never be sure that anyone would act in a predictable, logical way, it provided a difficult dilemma in writing a whydunnit so that it could be solved. Worse still, the Youkai Sage was someone who everyone we met tended to describe as 'unpredictable' or 'the sort of person where you never know what they're thinking.' Having met her myself I was inclined to agree. But given that, how could anyone possibly hope to intuit her motivations?

It felt on the one hand like we were making some progress, but at the same time it seemed like that progress had just led us in circles. It was as if we had charged into the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. There was no Mokou to guide us here either.

"Hey Renko, if you could go back in time and meet a past version of yourself, what would you tell her?"

"A past version of me? That's a tough one, Merry," Renko narrowed her eyes as she looked at me. "If I met a version of me that was from before I met you, I'd tell her to look forward to meeting the perfect partner in university. Someone who would be worthy of her immense intelligence."

I laughed sardonically. "Well if I met a version of myself from back then I'd warn her to prepare herself to be followed around by a megalomaniac who's going to drag her into all kinds of crazy trouble."

"But you wouldn't tell her not to go? You wouldn't tell her to run away from that megalomaniac?"

"What would be the point? If I did that, you'd chase her, wouldn't you?"

"I sure would. Wherever she went, no matter how far she ran." Saying that, Renko crept up behind me and wrapped her arms around me. Feeling her weight resting on my shoulders, I could only let out a breath and clasp my hand over hers.

—

—I wish we could stay like this forever. That we could just keep running around in circles like this. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't what I wanted.

I don't think I want to solve this mystery.

I couldn't help but feel that we were to solve this mystery, if we could really come to understand for what reason we had been brought to this world... then that would be it. My life of happy, carefree days running around Gensokyo with Renko would have to come to an end after that.

I don't want it to end. I want to keep uncovering the mysteries of this world with Renko. I think maybe—that might be the only thing that's ever really made me happy.

The Youkai Sage. Usami Sumireko. These people don't really matter to me.

I just want to watch my partner, her eyes shining as she stares down some new mystery head-on, confidently spouting another senseless delusion.

Is that too much to ask for? Too extravagant of a dream for this world of fantasies?

It already feels like we've been doing this forever...forever? Yes, always and forever.

After all, we've been in Gensokyo for a long time. A very long time indeed.

...And that's what we've always been doing.

—

That night, I shared another dream with Renko. The location we found ourselves in this time was not the Lunar Capital, but the strange, inorganic and empty space we had visited once before. Lifeless black earth was divided into an endless grid beneath us by red lights. Doremy Sweet was waiting for us.

"Hello, hello again, you two," she said cheerily. "There was something Sagume wanted to ask the two of you, but she couldn't come herself so I'm intruding on your dreams to ask on her behalf."

"Oh, we're being summoned by the Administrator of the Dream World herself to answer questions? Can you bring us back to the Lunar Capital? We never got to say goodbye to any of those rabbits."

"Absolutely not. That place is for authorized personnel only."

"That's a shame, I wanted to ask them about the Hourai Elixir and all of that."

Doremy glared down at us, crossing her arms and floating slightly higher. "If you stick your nose into that kind of thing out of curiosity, it's likely to get cut off. Don't play with important matters you don't know anything about."

Renko flashed her most annoying grin up at Doremy, who glowered at her, muttering "These humans really are a pain..." to herself. Then she took a moment to re-center herself, cleared her throat and said "I’m here to ask you about something Sagume wanted to learn more about. Personally, I didn’t want to get the two of you involved, but you are knowledgeable about the Outside World, so she thought you’d be the best people to ask…"

"About what?" My partner replied, tilting her head.

"She wanted me to ask you about rumors from the Outside World. Specifically, about rumors about the moon. Are there any stories about there being a hidden civilization there or anything?"