東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 12:Imperishable Night

𝐵𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘒𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘢 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡 ℎ𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟, 𝑠ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑟, 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑔𝑖𝑓𝑡. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑢𝑛𝑎𝑟 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑎 𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑓𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑟, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑗𝑎𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑥𝑖𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑘. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑢𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒.

𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒, 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘒𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘢 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑒, 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑜𝑛𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑓 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑥𝑖𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑗𝑎𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠, 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑟'𝑠 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑒 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛. 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑, 𝑎𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑟, 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑜𝑜 𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 ℎ𝑒𝑟. 𝑁𝑜𝑤 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ, 𝑑𝑜𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑓𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠. 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑛𝑜 𝑓𝑢𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑, 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑢𝑑 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑, 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑢𝑛𝑎𝑟 ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑡, 𝑎𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑘𝑖𝑒𝑠.


—34—


A month had passed since the Eternal Night Incident.

It had been a largely uneventful month. We had taught our classes and helped out at the temple school and afterward we had retired to our office which had not seen a single visitor in that period. Time moved on as if the Incident had never happened, with no further intrigue and barely a mention of any of the events at Eientei.

During that month, I had been compiling this record, so the events were still fresh in my mind, along with many considerations of my partner's theories. Several contradictions in the testimony we had heard had become evident, but I was no closer to having the answers.

Was the Lunarian fear of impurity a result of their desire for immortality? If so, why would consumption of the Hourai Elixir be seen as a taboo? What exactly did it mean to be affected by impurity? And how did any of that provide a motivation for Eirin to conceal the full moon?

In all of the mysteries my partner and I had encountered so far, a powerful party had been to one degree or another trying to manipulate perception in order to achieve a desired outcome in a world where perceptions determined reality. The Scarlet Mist Incident, the Spring Snow Incident and the Night Parade of One Hundred Oni Every Three Days Incident had all shared the pattern of trying to obscure the existing nature of reality beneath a fabricated cover story, and while we could never be sure if Renko's attempts to pierce that story and name the real truth that lies beneath were factually correct or not, enough of the details lined up to determine that she was probably at least grazing factuality's hitbox.

"No, that couldn't be it, Mokou would have noticed if the girl she had been fighting for the last 300 years wasn’t the same Kaguya from the old legends..." I muttered to myself as I ruminated over my manuscript. Where contradictions remained the premise had to be wrong. But which one? Could I even enumerate every assumption and premise going into my perceptions of reality?

I let out a sigh of frustration and reclined on the tatami. Try though I might, I wasn't Renko, and my brain was not prone to the same imaginary or intuitive leaps my partner seemed capable of. Even if it's the established role of a detective's assistant to never be able to reach a conclusion themselves in order to make the great detective's deductions seem all the more impressive, it was still frustrating. I had seen more of this incident than Renko had, and been present for more of the action. Why could I still not...

"Hey Merry, you must be busy in here, with all that important sighing you're doing."

Renko's face popped into my field of vision as she leaned over me. I blinked in surprise. I hadn't even heard her come into the office. "Oh, are classes over already?"

"Yep, time for all good kids to scurry on home, so here I am. It’s just about time for dismissal."

Now that I was paying attention, I could hear the joyful ruckus of children playing and calling to each other outside. I climbed to my feet and walked to the door with Renko. Children waved as they saw us.

"Bye Miss Merry, Bye Miss Renko!"

"Goodbye, children. We'll see you the day after tomorrow," I called as the children waved and made their way off of the school grounds. Most had already left by the time I got outside, and those who remained had wandered away by the time we reached the door of the temple school.

"Thank you for your hard work today." Keine said, smiling as we approached. "Do you two have any plans for tonight? I'll be going to the bamboo grove since it's the night of the full moon. Would you like to come with me and see Mokou again?"

"Thank you Keine, I'd like that. I'll only stop in for a little bit though, I want to go and see the folks at Eientei tonight too."

Keine smiled awkwardly and scratched at her cheek. "That's fine I suppose, but you'll need Mokou to guide you there and I'd rather not have her get in another fight tonight. I know she and Kaguya seem to enjoy killing each other, but I hate seeing Mokou like that."

Renko smiled and nodded. "No problem," she said. "I understand completely."

Keine looked apprehensively over at Renko’s grin, but ultimately just sighed and shrugged.

—

That evening, as the sun was setting, we once again made our way to Mokou's shack in the forest, where we were treated to dinner. The meal was deliciously prepared, but it would have been nice to have something more varied than bamboo shoots for a side dish.

After dinner Keine set out for the clearing as usual, carrying a large parcel of scrolls and historical documents. "Well, I'm off," she said with a smile as she stood at the door. "Mokou, please don't get in a fight tonight."

"A fight?" Mokou asked, looking up from the dishes in the sink. "I wasn't planning on it. Who would I be fighting?"

"Ah, well about that..." Renko piped up. "I was hoping you could guide us to Eientei tonight."

Mokou wrinkled her nose in disgust. "What do you want with them?"

"It's been a month since my vision returned. I just wanted to say thanks for taking care of me."

"Sheesh, that level of politeness is wasted on people like them. I'll take you though. Just be careful not to get experimented on by that quack. We may as well head out now, before it gets much later."

Thus, we all departed Mokou's shack together, walking and talking for a bit before Keine departed for the usual secluded grove and Mokou guided us deeper into the forest. Renko and I followed behind as Mokou walked ahead, picking out a trail amidst the dappled shadows. "If we're heading to Eientei, I assume that means you've come up with a conclusion Renko?" I whispered as we walked.

Renko pushed her hat back with one finger, her troublesome grin shining in the moonlight. "Enough of a theory that Eirin won't be able to brush me off at least. We'll just have to see if it's true or not."

"This is going to end up being just another one of your delusional stories, isn't it?"

"Sure. Just a little narrative I've woven for myself to make these incidents more entertaining. A harmless Outsider's own fantastical little story." How could she always be so confident in these wild conclusions, I wondered.

As we continued walking, Eientei soon came into view. There was no trace whatsoever of the barrier that had once surrounded it this time. It seemed that since the Eternal Night Incident all of the protections securing Eientei had been removed.

As Mokou drew up to the gate and raised her fist to knock, Tewi's head appeared, popping up from above the top of the wooden doors. "Ohhh it's the princess' friend from the other day. Are you here to play again?"

"I'm not her friend!" Mokou growled. "She's my sworn enemy."

"Well either way she's not here. She's out playing with one of her other new friends. Probably at the shrine."

"Kaguya's at Hakurei Shrine?" Renko asked. It seemed the jeweled bird really had left the gilded cage.

Mokou seemed surprised as well. "Kaguya left?" She repeated to herself. I thought she sounded almost lonely. Perhaps she had actually been looking forward to getting into a fight with Kaguya. I’m sure if I asked her about it she’d deny that though.

"Did Eirin go out too, or is she still here?" Renko called up to Tewi.

"She's still here. Why? Is someone sick again?"

"Well Renko might not be entirely right in the head, but that's normal for her," I volunteered.

"Merry, you're terrible. I just wanted to come by and thank her once again for the care she provided last month now that things have calmed down a bit."

Tewi disappeared from her position above the door as we heard a soft thump from the opposite side, followed by the sound of a bolt being drawn. The door opened just enough to reveal Tewi's small form. "You two come on in, I'll show you around. What about you, are you going to come in too?" she asked, looking up at Mokou.

"Since Kaguya’s not here, I’ll pass," Mokou grunted. "I’ll just be hanging around outside. If that quack tries anything, just scream."

We followed Tewi through the gate and into the mansion's grounds. This time she led us not to the building we had stayed in before, but rather to the front entrance of the mansion itself.

"Oh, can we come in now?" Renko asked.

Tewi nodded. "It got completely filled with impurity during the incident, so there's no seal and no need to keep anyone out now." Thinking back, Kaguya had said something similar last month, that now that impurity had entered the mansion things were starting to break.

Past the front door, the hallway now seemed normal. The superficial damage to the surroundings had been repaired, but while everything was immaculately scrubbed and polished, there was a change to the mansion. It no longer felt brand-new and unlived in. Smells and dust had accumulated here and there, and the floorboards creaked slightly as we walked on them. Tewi opened one of the sliding doors to reveal Eirin's back as she knelt at a writing desk. "Some people here to see you, Master," she said with a sing-song lilt.

"Good evening," Renko said with a bow as Eirin turned around. "I just wanted to come by and thank you once again for both your hospitality and your care last month."

"Ah, you again. I trust your eyes have been well since then?"

"Yes. If anything, I think I see better than before now."

"Excellent. What do you need today then? Are you suffering any other problems? Or have you come to donate your friends' eyes and brain to my research at last?"

"Hey Merry, did you promise her that? If you're giving someone the rights to your mind and body, I have first dibs."

"Absolutely not!"

"I'm kidding. Unless you'd like to. I am interested in how your boundary vision works on a physiological level."

Once again the 'joke' was delivered with a completely straight face. If anyone in the room needed their head examined, I suspected it was Eirin.

Renko eased her hat back on her head and locked eyes with Eirin. "Actually, Doctor Yagokoro," she began. "I'd like to ask you a few questions. And maybe also tell you a story, if you don't mind."

"A story?" Eirin asked. "I presume the questions are about your eye condition last month?"

"That's part of it," Renko said with a nod, "but I'd also like to ask you more about the incident. I'd like to know about your plan to conceal the moon and why any of what we all went through was necessary."

Eirin's face, already a deadpan, emotionless mask stiffened slightly, the lines around her mouth drawn tight.

"To put it simply, Doctor, I'd like to discuss the real reason you hid the moon and what you were trying to accomplish by doing so."

Renko helped herself to a cushion and took a seat on the floor. Eirin put away her writing desk and rearranged her seat to face us. Her impassive mask had become a suspicious frown. "I had thought I had explained the circumstances adequately to your friend, but I suppose she might not have conveyed the details well to you."

"On the contrary, my partner has an excellent memory and has conveyed your story quite perfectly, I'm sure. The issue is that when I compare the story that you told her with the facts that I have discovered myself, your explanation doesn't seem to quite add up, Doctor. I hope you'll forgive me, but I've taken the liberty of putting together my own explanation, which seems to match observed reality better. Would you like to hear it?"

Eirin made no response, instead fixing Renko with a stony glare.

"Well, I'll put it simply. Doctor Yagokoro, the reason you hid the full moon wasn't to protect Reisen or to conceal Eientei from observation by the moon."

Then, with her usual flair for the dramatic Renko cut to the truth, flinging her arm forth with one accusatory finger outstretched, wielding her delusional imagination like a sword.

"In fact it's the opposite. You hid the full moon in order to conceal the fact that no pursuers were coming at all, didn't you?"


—35—


Eirin's expression, or lack thereof, did not change in the slightest. Perhaps for the people of the moon, emotions were not something that could be read on the face, or at least not something that could be read by Earthlings, but at any rate there was no sign that she might be surprised or bothered by Renko's accusation. Though to think of it another way, perhaps the fact that she didn't let any emotion show in her expression at all was itself an eloquent statement.

"Well, I'm not sure how you expect me to respond to such a question," she said at last.

"However you like. Since I'm already here though, why don't I explain what led me to that conclusion."

"Since you're already here, go ahead."

Renko nodded her head and proceeded. "The way you told the story, in order atone for Kaguya's sin of drinking the elixir, you killed all of the lunar emissaries who had been dispatched to collect her 1,300 years ago, drank that same medicine yourself and then absconded with her to Eientei where you erected an illusionary veil to disguise your presence and hide from pursuit, is that right?"

"That's correct, yes."

"This barrier around Eientei also had the purpose of preventing any impurity from entering the mansion as well. The other day, however, the invasion of the mansion by a collection of humans, youkai and ghosts shattered those wards and this mansion became irrevocably saturated with impurity. As a result, you removed those wards and veils completely and have not attempted to re-establish them since, is that also correct?"

"That's right. There hadn't been a need for my wards for more than a century as it turned out, though I only learned that from the Youkai Sage last month."

"So between your barrier and the Great Hakurei Barrier, there was no point at which Eientei was ever unguarded, and until very recently it was actually protected twice over, correct?"

"Again correct. What of it?"

"Well that's rather strange isn't it? With the inescapable, absolute wall of the Great Hakurei Barrier, compounded with your own deceptions and protections it should have been absolutely impossible for anyone from the moon to find you, right?"

"Do you have a point?" Eirin snorted in irritation.

Renko met her cold stare with a grin, and pounced.

"So how did Reisen manage to get here several decades ago?"

Again, there was no change in Eirin's expression, only silence.

"If you had actually been worried about pursuit, you would have come up with a way of disguising Eientei that was effective against moon rabbits, instead of one that was only useful against humans and youkai. Reisen told me that she found this place using the unique ability of her eyes, but that only meant that she found it faster and from farther away than her peers. Do you honestly expect me to believe that Reisen is so extraordinary that all of lunar society has not produced any other individuals or tools capable of seeing through your illusions as she did? Your veil would have been useless for the purpose of preventing other Lunarians from detecting your location."

Eirin had begun to silently twirl the brush in her hand between her fingers. Renko continued with her explanation.

"We also heard that you created the illusion last month in order to prevent anyone from the moon from coming to pick Reisen up and discovering Eientei in the process, since you had decided not to let her return. This is strange as well. In order to send someone to pick Reisen up, someone on the moon would have had to have been in contact with Reisen to discover where she had fled to. Once you brought Reisen into this house surely you would have done something to prevent her from communicating with anyone on the moon if you had actually wanted to avoid being discovered. In other words, Reisen being here at all is a clear contradiction to your assertion that you and Kaguya are fugitives in danger of being discovered by the Lunarians. Certainly someone who would go to such lengths as killing their countrymen and taking an immortality elixir in order to be able to provide eternal service wouldn't make such an error as simply letting her guard down after only 1,300 years of vigilance."

"Perhaps I did. Would you back down if I told you I had simply overlooked those details?" Eirin asked without a hint of inflection.

"I'm afraid not, Doctor. There are just too many other outstanding contradictions besides that one."

"Such as?"

"Kaguya and Mokou having spent the last 300 years feuding, for one. According to Merry's reports, the barriers around Eientei only extend a short distance beyond the wall. Mokou had apparently never been to Eientei before last month, and even when she brought me here, she did so by getting Kaguya's attention from outside and then having you show us the way. Despite that, the two of them have been fighting with each other for centuries. In other words, Kaguya has been freely leaving Eientei and wandering about, something you would have prevented if you were truly concerned about her being taken from you. Or if you were concerned about her being exposed to impurity, for that matter."

"What if I told you that that was a necessary risk in order to provide entertainment for the princess? Even an immortal has no desire to stay locked up in a room for years with nothing to do. Besides which, the path between Earth and the moon only opens on the day of the full moon. On nights other than that, there's no harm in letting the princess out to play. As for the warding around the mansion to keep out impurity, it's true that it wasn't necessary for the princess' safety, but merely a matter of preference. One last taste of the world the princess and I had once enjoyed on the moon, free from the filth and corruption of the Earth. That's all there is to it."

"I see," Renko said. "So that's your story now." Eirin had answered without hesitation, and Renko provided no immediate pushback, but after a moment’s consideration she began again.

"In mystery novels it's often said that an ambiguous alibi is harder to disprove than a solid one. When someone has so ready an answer to dodge the issue though, it's my nature to be suspicious. I'm afraid that despite whatever motivations you might provide to explain it, the facts are still indisputable: Reisen fled from the moon and located Eientei. Kaguya has been outside of Eientei regularly for at least several hundred years. Both of these facts seem at odds with the idea that you are doing everything in your power to avoid being discovered by the agents of the Lunar Capital. In the case of such a blatant contradiction, it seems less likely that there is a convenient, just-so explanation and more likely that the whole premise is wrong, so allow me to suggest a different premise instead: the Lunarians have known all along that you were hiding in Gensokyo with princess Kaguya. They knew, and you knew that they knew, is that not so, Doctor?"

"You're making it sound like I'm some sort of spy or political operative for the moon. I escaped from their control with the princess, defying their orders, and I had to kill my fellow emissaries to do it. Or do you think that that's all a lie too?"

"No, I'm sad to say that that part is most likely accurate. I'm sure if I were to ask Kaguya about it, she would remember it. It was necessary for you to take such a step in order to properly convince Kaguya that ever returning to the moon would be impossible."

"You think I'm a murderer who killed my countrymen simply to deceive the princess? The girl I've pledged to spend all eternity protecting?"

"Yes. Do you deny it?"

For the first time, Eirin frowned slightly. Renko continued to push on, doubling down.

"Once I discarded the premise you provided and substituted my own, I found that many of the other inconsistencies I had come across could be dealt with the same way. For example, long before the 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑜𝑜 𝐶𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 was penned, you two were both supposedly living on the moon, from which Kaguya was banished for the crime of drinking the Hourai Elixir. But why? What was so transgressive about consuming that medicine that it required so severe a punishment? That was the question at the center of the whole affair."

"You told us yourself that the people of the moon shun impurity and established their society on the moon in order to avoid Earthly defilement. But what does that mean, exactly? Well, impurity is a concept closely related to the concept of life itself. You might say that you can't have one without the other. Procreation, birth, sickness and mortality — all are inescapable aspects of life and all are seen as sources of impurity. If that's what the people of the moon were trying to avoid, why would it be forbidden to consume the Hourai Elixir? After all, someone who had taken it would never have to engage in any of those acts again and would live eternally, which is the ultimate goal of such abstinence from impurity, is it not? But Kaguya had clearly been exiled and had clearly drank the elixir, those facts were indisputable. So once again we have facts contradicting the premise of the narrative. The only conclusion is that the premise itself must be a lie."

"So what then is the truth? Well, if the crime makes no sense then the simplest conclusion is that there was no crime. Drinking the Hourai Elixir was not a taboo. The belief that it was is simply another part of the deception you instilled in Kaguya."

Renko stopped for a moment to look Eirin straight in the eyes.

"Kaguya's exile from the Lunar Capital, her isolation here with you, the murder of the lunar emissaries and the illusion of the moon you created. It's all part of a ruse intended for just one purpose: to keep Kaguya unaware that she's being used as a guinea pig for your clinical trial of the Hourai Elixir."


—36—


Eirin had no response to that. Renko took that as permission to continue, and pressed further.

"My theory goes like this: Everything from the events of 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑜𝑜 𝐶𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 up until now can be seen as one connected story. From the beginning, everything has been set up as one grand human experiment for which Kaguya is the subject. Her exile, the idea that she was a criminal, the isolation, it's all been carefully planned. Since you aren't actually on the run from the Lunar Capital, I imagine you've probably been in contact with them via some clandestine means the entire time. That's probably how and why Reisen ended up here. She was allowed to 'escape' and to 'discover' Eientei's location at your request. A request that was fulfilled by the Lunar Capital based on information you had shared with them."

"Reisen receiving communication from an old comrade must have been an unexpected surprise for you and the team you've been working with. Finding out that she was planning to return to the moon threatened to throw a wrench in your plans. It might even lead to Kaguya realizing that you weren't being pursued."

Eirin let out a controlled breath and carefully set her brush down on the writing desk. "That," she said, "is a rather unusual story. If we were to assume that any part of it were correct, then that would mean I had already killed anyone who might be a threat to the secrecy of the experiment simply to make the ruse more convincing to Kaguya. In essence, I would have taken multiple lives for the sole purpose of attempting to create and test a drug to make that very thing impossible. Killing people in order to learn to make them immortal is the very essence of futility, is it not? Whether you assume that I am a heartless murderer or that the lunar emissaries were volunteers willing to sacrifice themselves it still seems a bit counter-productive just to set up a ruse, doesn't it?"

Renko nodded with a grin. "Yes it does. Very counterproductive indeed. And once again, where a contradiction of this sort arises, the problem lies in a faulty premise. The emissaries were definitely killed though, I'm sure Kaguya could attest to that, so then where's the lie? It's simple. The emissaries weren't killed in order to establish the experiment. The experiment was established to kill the emissaries."

For the first time, Eirin's eyes went wide.

"I'm afraid it's too far beyond my time and experience to know what the motivation was. A power struggle between political factions on the moon? Or maybe an internal purge of ascendant threats within the ruling faction. At any rate the emissaries you killed were an inconvenience to some powerful presence on the moon. Enough of an inconvenience for the people of the moon, who abhor and despise death and its impurity, to order their destruction. They couldn't be killed on the moon though, as that would bring impurity to your perfect, deathless empire. They had to be killed in exile, and by someone who would never return. Thus, a plan was made for you to conduct your human experiment and the emissaries were assigned to travel with you while you had secretly been instructed to kill them all. Maybe it was just to tie up the loose ends of everyone else who knew about your little experiment. Either way, all you had to do was be the state's executioner. Your conscience was clear even if your hands were soaked in blood."

Eirin didn't say a word.

"I can't know which was the main aim of the plan to be honest —the establishment of your human experiment or the assassination of the emissaries. It's possible that two factions with different aims found a way to work together and both get what they wanted, even. If we're already assuming, however, that Kaguya's consumption of the elixir was not a crime, and your pursuit by lunar authorities was also a lie, then it stands to reason that your story about serving Kaguya out of a sense of guilt or need for atonement must also be a lie. In that case, for you to have diligently kept at the task for this long suggests that the mastermind planning all of these events from the beginning was most likely you, doctor."

Eirin breathed out a loud sigh.

"Well, if you're quite finished insulting my intentions then may I now point out the flaws in your premises?"

"What do you mean?"

"You have a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of impurity." Eirin stood and took a teacup and pitcher of water from a sideboard along the wall. Returning to her seat, she poured herself a drink as she explained. "The stain of impurity is not merely the presence of life or death. Instead it is—"

"Recognition, right?" Renko had leapt half off her cushion as she interrupted, again extending an accusatory finger.

This time, Eirin's eyes widened in surprise. She set the teacup down on the desk with a faint clunk.

"I'd been thinking about that too," Renko continued. "The way Gensokyo works, cognition and recognition of a concept has power. In this world, being recognized sustains and defines existence. It was an inescapable paradox for you —for anyone to want to drink an elixir of immortality necessarily means that they are acknowledging that without it, they are mortal. The act of trying to remove death binds you to it. You had to keep your fellow Lunarians safe from falling prey to that desire. So your motivation in bringing Kaguya to Earth wasn’t entirely a lie. Once she drank the Hourai Elixir her immortality would become a reminder of others' mortality to everyone around her. She herself would become a source of impurity just by existing."

"Mokou told me you had explained it to her once. According to her, the Hourai Elixir is a medicine that makes life dependent on the soul rather than the body, regenerating the body as long as the soul remains intact. If the perception of a finite beginning and end to existence is the impurity the Lunarians fear, then it's an impurity of the soul, rather than the body. I'm guessing the Hourai Elixir is a medicine made to address that. A vaccine for the soul that removes the concept of 'finiteness' from whatever the spiritual equivalent of DNA is."

"I was also curious to what degree a being that regenerated so rapidly was capable of physical change. In Mokou's case, she seems to have gained strength and skill and had her hair change since drinking the elixir. Since the body of an immortal is regenerated based on their soul, I'm guessing that means that as the soul is refined and one's conception and recognition of themselves changes, so too does the body recreated by the Elixir."

"It's the same in Kaguya's case. You told Merry that just before she was sent to Earth, Kaguya had her memories wiped, making her soul much like that of an infant, and so her body followed suit. As her soul healed and her memories returned, her self-image became closer to what it had been and her body grew to match, that's why in the 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑜𝑜 𝐶𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 Princess Kaguya grows from a tiny, thumb-sized scrap of a human into a woman in just three months. In her time living with the old bamboo cutter she also developed an attachment to him, becoming a dutiful daughter — a change to her soul that was reflected in her physical form. That's what the wards you set up around Eientei were really for. The impurity they kept out was spiritual in nature. You wanted to keep Kaguya from forming any further bonds or attachments to people on Earth so that you could study exactly how much her body had been affected by the changes to her soul."

Eirin fidgeted slightly, a small frown still curving her lips as she regarded Renko. "So let me put that all together," Renko said, pressing on. "You created the Hourai Elixir, a medicine capable of making life dependent on the soul rather than the body as part of a secret conspiracy on the moon. Kaguya was chosen as a test subject, deceived about the nature of the drug and dosed her without her informed consent. You then convinced her, with the help of your allies on the moon, that she had committed a crime and was being exiled to Earth, then followed her to Earth with a squad of political persona-non-grata, who you then executed in front of Kaguya, before fleeing into a false fugitive existence with her in order to continue your human experiment and observe the effects of all of this on her sou—"

"In short, you think I'm a ruthless mad scientist with no capacity for compunction whatsoever." Eirin replied, cutting my partner off. "Well, I'm quite honored to have made such an impression on you as to have become the focal point of so many delusions..."

"No," Renko interrupted. "That's not the whole story, there's more to your relationship with Kaguya than that. If you were truly just a dispassionate mastermind and observer, there'd be no reason for you to come to Earth yourself. You could have dispatched some lackey to make the necessary observations and stayed on the moon to pursue other research. You didn't though. You chose to instead dose yourself with the same medicine you gave Kaguya and come to Earth to live in impurity as well, so that anything she suffered, you would too. A scheming mastermind with no care for their test subject wouldn't act like that. So once again a contradiction proves the premise false."

"I think it went like this: The people on the moon thought of you as exactly that sort of cold-hearted villain. You deceived them just as you did Kaguya. You truly are the mastermind behind this whole endeavor, not whoever you're working with on the moon, but they probably think the opposite. You created the Hourai Elixir, deceived your co-conspirators on the moon, lied to Kaguya, killed the lunar emissaries and fled here to live in Eientei because, like Kaguya, that's what you really wanted in the end isn't it? This quiet, eternal life here on the Earth, amid beauty and emotion and all the chaos of life that is missing from the moon is something you wanted, and something you wanted to share with Kaguya."

"What's more, you deceived both the Lunarians and Kaguya in a second way. Since the Hourai Elixir makes life dependent on the condition of the soul, but doesn't prevent the soul from changing or being affected by impurity and attachment, that means that your soul itself is not truly immortal. Your soul will eventually burn out. When that happens, there'll be nothing left for the elixir to regenerate. In short your entire plan could be summed up in one simple sentence:"

Renko pulled the brim of her hat down, exhaling sharply before looking up to utter her final pronouncement.

"Yagokoro Eirin. You came to Earth for just one purpose—to, by means of a false eternity, share your life and eventually your death with Kaguya."