東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 1:Double Dealing Character

—1—


There is one thing I have learned from all of the incidents in which I have become entangled since coming to Gensokyo: it is almost always next to impossible to know when and how an incident actually began. With the Treasure Ship Incident—in which Renko acted as the mastermind, and the Scarlet Mist Incident—in which she spurred the mastermind to action, one could point to a particular event and say 'this is where it all went wrong.' But in every other case, things just start happening and eventually we realize that an incident has already begun.

For the mastermind behind an incident, understanding when they decided to cause problems is probably easy of course, but for everyone else, the question of where to begin a story such as this is necessarily an arbitrary one. As such, I choose to begin our story like this:

One day Miss Kamishirasawa Keine, our friend and supervisor, stopped by the office of the Hifuu Detective Agency with a case for us to pursue.

—

"You want us to find a bunch of missing musical instruments?"

It was still the tail end of summer and peace had returned to the village after the end of the religious war. The Hieda Public Temple School was back in operation, and the birdhouse and occasional detective's office that occupied a small outbuilding on the school's lot was currently host to not just myself, my partner, and its numerous avian residents, but also a rare visitor with an actual paid case for us to investigate. This, of course, was Miss Keine.

"You've probably seen the volunteer band performing at the village festivals, right?"

"Sure. Let's see, there was a flute, some drums, a biwa... and a koto, I think."

Keine nodded as I thought back to the festivals we had seen. "That's right. All of those instruments are usually stored in the storeroom of the village's meeting hall, but when we sent someone to pull them out so that people could start practicing for the festival this year, we found that several of our instruments had disappeared."

"Exactly how many missing instruments are we talking about?" Renko asked.

"Three. A drum, a biwa and a koto. All three of them were quite old, well-seasoned instruments."

Renko nodded. "I see, and if you can't find them that would be a major problem, right?"

"Well no, not really. We have spare instruments, but the missing ones are still valuable cultural property of the village even if they're not the newest. We can't just ignore the fact that they've gone missing. Normally this would be the sort of thing the neighborhood watch would investigate but..."

"But you've got your hands full dealing with all of the recent attacks from lone wandering youkai."

Recently there had been attacks by several lone youkai that would normally avoid humans. Places that would have normally been safe for villagers to visit, like Misty Lake or the Bamboo Forest of the Lost had become host to youkai attacks occurring in broad daylight, and the frequency of such maulings had only been increasing. Thankfully no one had been killed yet, but it was only a matter of time before someone got themselves eaten. As a result, we had been having to tell all of the children in our classes not to leave the village under any circumstances.

It was exactly the sort of situation for which the neighborhood watch had been founded. Back in the time of the village's founding, the group had originally been composed of youkai hunters who had banded together to defend the village, and now the modern incarnation of the force was following in their footsteps.

"That's right," Keine said with a nod. "We can't spare any manpower until this situation dies down."

Normally I would say looking into matters like this were probably closer to the watch's primary occupation, but with the danger from youkai on the rise and their lack of manpower, I could hardly criticize them for being too busy to look into such things.

"This is the sort of thing that detective agencies normally look into, right? Finding lost items and the like?"

"I think that most of the time they actually look for people who are missing or gather information on individuals, but this is fine too. Let's confirm the details, Miss Keine. This commission is for us to locate and return the missing instruments and there's a hard deadline of the upcoming harvest festival, right?"

"I suppose that's about right. At the very least I'd like you to find out whether the instruments were stolen intentionally or if they just got up and walked away on their own."

"Ah, I see. They were rather old instruments, you had said. I suppose that's a possibility." Renko said, nodding thoughtfully.

In the Outside World, Keine's statement would merely have been a figure of speech, but here in Gensokyo, that was actually a legitimate concern.

"Alright then. The Hifuu Detective Agency will take your case, Miss Keine. We'll deliver the goods back to you as effortlessly as if they were being carried on a flying ship."

"Does that mean you're going to get the missing instruments buried in Old Hell for a thousand years first, Renko?"

"Come on, Merry, you’re spoiling the moment."

Keine looked at Renko with a slightly worried expression as she took my partner's hand to shake on the deal. "Just to be clear, Renko, I expect you to refrain from recklessly leaving the village. If you do need to leave, make sure to bring an escort with you. Genji, or maybe one of the girls from the Myouren Temple. And if you do run into any youkai, just run away no matter what, got it?"

"You have my word, Miss Keine." Renko said, raising one hand as if reciting a pledge.

Keine looked at Renko and I with a suspicious glare. Given my partner's track record up until now, it was hard to credit that line with even a hint of seriousness. I wish Keine wouldn't have given me the same look she gave Renko though. If I had things my way, the two of us would be living a perfectly boring, peaceful life.

—

Our first stop was to investigate the warehouse near the town meeting hall of course, but it turned out there weren't any clues to be found there. The doors to the meeting house and its storeroom didn't even have locks on them. If anyone had wanted to break in and steal something, they could have at any time.

To make matters worse, there were no regular inspections of the storehouse, and no one had reported seeing anything unusual since the room was last opened two weeks ago, at which time no one had noticed anything missing. A large number of people had been in and out of the meeting hall in the last few weeks as the planning for the autumn harvest festival was well underway, meaning that just about anyone could have easily walked out with the instruments at night without being noticed. There was nothing here we could use to narrow down the list of possible suspects.

"I thought this was going to be more interesting, like an instrument disappearing from a locked room."

"Would a locked room really have made it any more interesting? We probably know a dozen people who could steal something out of a locked room without anyone noticing."

Just off of the top of my head, I could think of people who could pass through walls, stop time, pass by unnoticed, or become invisible. That was to say nothing of the people who could shrink objects down, or pull objects out of a room without touching them.

At any rate, the instruments had certainly been here as recently as two weeks ago, but at some point between now and then they had vanished without anyone noticing. That's all we learned.

How could that have happened? Well the two most obvious possibilities were either that someone had come into the storeroom and taken the instruments out, or that the instruments had gotten up and left on their own.

That's assuming that we hadn't suddenly found ourselves living in a Kyogoku Natsuhiko novel, In which case the answer would be something like the instruments were actually still in the storeroom but had become invisible or something, but I'll ignore that train of thought for now.

"If we assume that the instruments were intentionally removed, then there are three possible motivations to consider. Someone might have removed them and then accidentally forgot to put them back, someone might be hiding them, or someone might have stolen them."

Actually, it was more complicated than that as well. Someone might have taken the instruments out, say to clean or maintain them only for someone else to then steal them or accidentally break them and hide them somewhere or the like. There was no end to the possibilities at this stage and nothing could be ruled out yet.

And that's to say nothing of the possibility that there was no motive at all and this had all just been an accident.

"...On the other hand, maybe it's more likely that they became tsukumogami and got up and left on their own..."

"It's a tricky case, Merry. Which possibility should we start with?"

"You're the chief investigator, Renko. You pick. No, nevermind, I already know which possibility you'd prefer."

"You know me so well, Merry! Let's go talk to a tsukumogami expert!"

It was definitely a very Renko way of looking at things, but honestly in Gensokyo it was a possibility worth considering. And so I followed behind as Renko led the way out of the village.


—2—


"Instrument tsukumogami? I can't say as I remember havin' seen any recently, but even I don't know every tsukumogami in Gensokyo. There's been a lot of new ones poppin' up lately."

We were in the graveyard near the Myouren Temple once more, talking to Mamizou. We had heard from Marisa that the parade of tsukumogami that had been marching through the town last year carrying torches had been headed for a bonfire party being held by Mamizou and her tanuki. Apparently, attending these parties helped the tsukumogami develop minds and bodies of their own and helped Mamizou by providing a number of new subordinates for her bake-danuki minions.

"A lot of new tsukumogami are appearing?" I asked. "I wonder if maybe Kosuzu is playing with that 𝐻𝑦𝑎𝑘𝑘𝑖 𝑌𝑎𝑔𝑦𝑜 scroll again?"

"Miss Mamizou, you haven't stolen that scroll from her or something, have you?"

"Don't say such nasty things. I don't want that scroll bad enough to steal it."

The 𝐻𝑦𝑎𝑘𝑘𝑖 𝑌𝑎𝑔𝑦𝑜 was a rare picture scroll that had come into Kosuzu's possession some time ago. There had been a minor stir in the village a while back when a number of strange columns of marching lights had been spotted winding through the village streets. Renko and I had investigated the matter, holding a stakeout in the middle of winter. Eventually we had learned that the whole affair could be traced to a number of tsukumogami that had been released from Kosuzu's scroll. Reimu had specifically instructed Kosuzu not to read the scroll again or to sell it to anyone, so it should still have been safely sealed away at Suzunaan.

"Besides," Mamizou continued, "I don't think any of these new tsukumogami that have been comin' up recently have anythin' to do with that scroll."

"You sound like you know something," Renko said, grinning as she leaned forward in interest.

"Well I don't know about the cause, but there's been a sorta weird feelin' hangin' over all of Gensokyo lately."

"A 'weird feeling?'"

"You know that youkai get stronger under a full moon, right? They get a little more ornery too, usually. Lately, I've been noticin' a lot of weaker youkai an' tsukumogami are like that all the time. That's probably why there've been a couple who've tried to attack the village recently. But... it's strange..."

"Strange? In what way?"

"On full moon nights all youkai get stronger, but right now, it's only the weak ones that're gettin' uppity. Newborn tsukumogami and stray youkai are getting bold all of a sudden, but I haven't felt a darn thing."

"Really?"

"It seems like the stronger the youkai, the less they're affected. Here at the temple Hijiri and Nue don't even seem to have noticed anything's happenin'. Kyouko though... The other day she yelled 'good mornin' at a human walking up the path to the temple so loud she knocked him clean out. What's more, when Byakuren scolded her over it, the little pup actually scoffed at her."

If Mamizou's story was true, it was certainly strange. Kasodani Kyouko was a yamabiko who was in training to become a nun at the temple. She was generally a kind but excitable youkai who had never shown any interest in harming humans as far as I was aware. In general I wouldn't have expected anyone at the Myouren Temple to hurt a human, except for maybe Murasa, who had admittedly drowned a lot of sailors in the past.

Mamizou tapped ash from the bowl of her pipe and exhaled a long plume of smoke up toward the bright sky. "I get the feelin' somethin' may be about to happen," she said.

Renko grinned even wider at her. "Miss Mamizou, are you going to try to resolve an incident before Reimu can again?"

"No need to go that far. That incident with the menreiki was the exception. If a bunch of newborn tsukumogami are poppin' up all over the place, then that could be a good opportunity for us tanuki. No, I don't see any need to resolve this incident. The shrine maiden'll probably step in sooner or later anyway."

"Until then though… I think I just realized there's somethin' I ought to be doin'." Saying that, she turned away from us and waved her huge tail then vanished in a puff of smoke. I wondered if she was really planning to leave an issue like this unresolved or if she was just acting tough. Given how she had behaved during the incident involving Hata no Kokoro in the summer, it was hard to make a call one way or the other about where her loyalties and motivations stood.

—

Kyouko hadn’t shown up for her duties at the temple today. With her location being unknown at the moment, we couldn't go ask her about what had happened, so we returned to the village. We were hoping to visit Suzunaan and just make sure that the 𝐻𝑦𝑎𝑘𝑘𝑖 𝑌𝑎𝑔𝑦𝑜 was in fact where it was supposed to be, regardless of what Mamizou had told us. When we got there, however...

"Temporarily closed?" Renko read, looking at the sign stuck to the closed door.

I was about to suggest that Kosuzu must be out when we both heard some sort of commotion from inside the shop. It sounded like some sort of flapping noise. Could they be doing renovations or something?

"This is suspicious, Merry. Let's head in."

"You can't just sneak into a closed store, Renko. That's trespassing!"

"There's no laws against that in Gensokyo. Besides, who's sneaking? Charge!" Renko cried as she threw the door open, then stepped inside, shouting "Please excuse me" as she did so. I sighed before following her through the door.

Kosuzu was nowhere to be seen at the counter, but the loud flapping noises we had heard before continued to sound, accompanied by the occasional dull thump.

"Kosuzu? Are you in here?" Renko called as she made her way toward the curtain separating the front of the shop from the back.

There was another flurry of bumps and then Kosuzu stumbled into view in the doorway, looking frazzled.

"Miss Renko? Miss Merry? Sorry, we're closed today!" she blurted.

"Yeah, I know, I saw the sign. But what's going on in here? Are you doing renovations? I can help you move stuff."

"Um, no! Not that. I'm just uh..." Kosuzu shook her head from side to side, looking panicked. At this point the situation was beyond suspicious. It had to be the 𝐻𝑦𝑎𝑘𝑘𝑖 𝑌𝑎𝑔𝑦𝑜 again. Our suspicion must have shown on our faces because Kosuzu shrank back from us, waving her hands to ward us off. "No, I'm fine. I'm good back here, I'm just..."

Whatever she might have been about to say was cut short as something suddenly and unexpectedly struck Kosuzu in the back of the head. She stumbled forward, but Renko stepped in to catch her before she could fall. Where she had been standing a moment before the object that had struck her continued to hover in the air before darting into the room and rising up to the ceiling.

I stared at it in wide-eyed shock. "What!?" I couldn't help but say something upon seeing that the object that had just struck Kosuzu and was now fluttering around near the ceiling was a book.

A book spreading its pages like wings and beating its way through the air with a loud rustling sound. As we looked up at it in wonder, several smaller books darted through the doorway, all of them arching their spines as they fluttered about with a great rustling of pages.

Kosuzu was climbing to her feet, but rather than trying to explain, she shouted "Aaah! Miss Merry, close the door!"

I looked and saw that a small book was about to fly out of the shop's entrance. I dashed over and slid the door closed, just in time for the book to thump against it and fall to the floor. I waited a moment, then seeing that no more of the books were coming I bent down and picked up the one that had fallen.

At first glance it appeared to be a perfectly normal if rather old traditionally-bound book with a thin, twisted cord woven through its pages. As I held it in my hands, it made no attempt to move on its own at all. The writing within it appeared to be hand-painted brush strokes, but the glyphs were of a sort I had never seen before. It had to be a youma book written in a non-human language. Something from Kosuzu's personal collection, no doubt.

A great rattling arose as the rest of the books in the room began flying around, with some perching on top of bookcases while others beat themselves against the ceiling or flew into bookshelves before plummeting to the ground. As soon as the latter happened, Kosuzu darted forward to scoop up the book and tie it shut with a length of string pulled from a pocket of her apron. She had done the same to the book I was holding.

"Kosuzu, what's going on?" my partner asked.

"I don't know, I don't know! It's been like this since this morning! All of my books are flying around on their own! I haven't been able to open the store because of them! I've been trying to catch them but they keep flying higher than I can reach!"

To Renko and I, the idea of a book flying around on its own was certainly unexpected, but as far as Kosuzu was concerned it seemed more like an annoyance than anything else. Her tone as she recounted the story was exasperated rather than frightened. Maybe that's what comes of growing up in a place like Gensokyo... or maybe that's just Kosuzu.

The rattle of the books fluttering about and knocking into the ceiling was surprisingly loud. I couldn't help but worry that the various tomes might damage themselves by flapping their pages like wings. Judging by her face, Kosuzu looked to be equally worried about that.

"Miss Renko, Miss Merry, please help me catch these!"

"I don't think we can help you catch something that's flying around," Renko muttered. That’d be like trying to catch a bird that had escaped from its cage, it would be close to impossible for most people… "Well, there's no helping it then, I guess. I think I know just the person for this sort of problem."

"Who?" Kosuzu asked.

"Just leave it to me!" Renko said with a wink as she dashed out the door. Kosuzu and I were left staring at each other as the books continued to turn in circles over our heads.

—

So who did Renko bring with her when she returned to Suzunaan a few minutes later?

"Oooh... This looks kinda bad... It's a poltergeist, right? Or maybe not..." Kotohime drawled, looking around as she came through the shop’s door behind Renko. She had the black armband of the neighborhood watch on over the sleeve of her kimono but otherwise looked much as we had ever seen her, laid-back and seemingly unmotivated. "Are they all tsukumogami? Did you want me to catch them?"

"That would be helpful if you could."

"Okaaay. That's easy, leave it to me." Saying that, Kotohime smiled and brushed her bangs out of her eyes. She looked up at the books fluttering overhead for a while, not moving at all.

Kosuzu stared at her looking worried as Kotohime stood there. She was just about to open her mouth to say something when Kotohime suddenly launched into a flurry of action. I was able to see her kick off of the ground and leap upward, but that's all I can be sure of. There was a blur of motion and she seemed to be in several places at once, then suddenly she was standing in front of us with a dozen books pressed cover-to-cover in her arms. "Got 'em." She smiled, not having even broken a sweat.

Kosuzu's eyes widened in wonder. Kotohime had told us before that she was descended from a long line of youkai-hunters, and we had heard Keine tell us she could fight before but it was still surprising to see someone with such a small stature and a lazy demeanor move so decisively. If you happen to see Kotohime walking about the town show her some respect, she's stronger than she looks.

"Are there any more?" Kotohime asked.

"Um yes, there's probably still some in the back."

"Okay. I'll go catch 'em. These tsukumogami aren't very strong, so just put some rocks on these or something and it should be fine." Kotohime set her books on the ground saying "Just sit on those," as she walked through the curtains into the back. Kosuzu leapt up and seated herself on the stack of books, holding them in place as instructed until Kotohime came back through the curtain not even a minute later, carrying another armload of books. She was fast.

"Is this all of 'em?"

"Um, yeah. Thank you."

"Okay. You have a lot of old books here, but it's kinda weird to see so many go tsukumogami all at once." Kotohime said, absentmindedly thumping her stack of books down on the counter and placing a paperweight on top of the stack. I wondered if that would be enough to stop them, but her stack didn't seem to be moving any more. "You can just put a rock on the slower ones like this, or if that doesn’t work, just tie them up. If they get loose or break out, maybe have Reimu come and seal them for you."

"Um, yes, sure." Kosuzu smiled nervously.

A mischievous smile spread across Kotohime’s face. "These are all youma books, aren't they?"

Kosuzu turned a shade of greyish-green and grunted unhappily.

"It's fiiiine," Kotohime said, waving her hand dismissively. "I won't tell Miss Keine. It doesn't look like there's anything really dangerous here anyway. I like collecting strange things like this too. Next time I get a chance I'll come by and show you some of the stuff I’ve excavated."

"Oh." Kosuzu said, swallowing audibly. "Um, thanks."

"They are still youma books though, so be careful. If Miss Keine finds out, she'll get pretty mad."

"Um, okay."

"Anyway, if that's all I'm gonna go." And with that Kotohime slouched over to the door and left without another word.

After the door had shut behind her, Kosuzu stood blinking in silence for a moment before turning to Renko. "Is she really a member of the neighborhood watch? What did she mean by ‘excavated?’"

"I'm not really sure," Renko said with a grin.

I had heard Kotohime mention that her hobby was excavation once before but I had never thought to ask what she might be excavating. Surely it wouldn't be anything dangerous, right?

"Well anyway I'm glad we got these things contained.... Actually, now that they're not fluttering around everywhere, they're kind of cute, aren't they?" Kosuzu released one of the books she was holding and it fluttered around her head, brushing against the bells in her hair softly as Kosuzu smiled with delight.

"You don't really seem bothered by this happening, Kosuzu."

"Why would I be?" she asked as she snatched the bundle out of the air. "This is all perfectly ordinary, isn't it?"

Kosuzu tilted her head queryingly and Renko and I could only glance at one another.


—3—


After we finished helping Kosuzu get everything squared away at Suzunaan, it was almost evening, so we headed back to the office. With the current situation, it was probably inadvisable to be wandering the streets of the village after dark.

"Kosuzu was acting a little odd today, don't you think?"

"Definitely. I would have expected her to be a lot more excited to find that her youma books had turned into tsukumogami..."

Renko and I had been monitoring Kosuzu for long enough by now to know her tastes and habits. She didn't quite share Renko's recklessness or disregard for her own safety but she was hopelessly fascinated with most anything youkai-related. Like Renko, I would have expected her to be thrilled to have her store filled with so many youkai.

"Does Kokoro have a mask for curiosity? Maybe she's lost it now and all the curiosity in the village is draining into her."

"I don’t think that’s likely, you’re still acting like your usual self."

"Well back when Kokoro lost the mask of hope I was still feeling confident and sleeping well at night, so maybe it doesn't work that way."

"Or maybe you're missing the part of the brain that handles anxiety and fear."

"My emotional makeup is completely normal, remember? Kokoro said so herself."

"If she views someone like you as being 'normal' in any way then I'm not sure I trust her judgement."

"Don't say that. If Kokoro heard you she'd put her angry mask on. Anyway, this current phenomenon that Mamizou told us about, with tsukumogami suddenly appearing and the aggressiveness of weak youkai increasing probably counts as the start of a new incident, don't you think?"

"Maybe the missing instruments we were looking for really did grow legs and run off somewhere."

According to Keine we were looking for a taiko drum, a biwa and a koto. All three were supposedly old instruments that had been around for many years and only used to play in the village festivals. When not in use, they had probably just been left to gather dust in the storeroom the rest of the time. If they had turned into tsukumogami, maybe they would have left in search of an owner who would treat them with more care. Who in Gensokyo would I want to go visit if I were an instrument, I wondered?

"Do you think we should go talk to the Prismriver Ensemble again tomorrow?"

"You read my mind again, Merry. I was just about to suggest that."

"I suppose if we're doing that we should also see if we can talk to 𝐶ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑗𝑢𝑢 𝐺𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑘𝑢 as well."

When it comes to instrumental performers in Gensokyo, the Prismrivers would definitely be the first group you would think of, and the idea of instrument tsukumogami and musical poltergeists working together didn’t sound unreasonable to me, but in addition to those two there was also 𝐶ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑗𝑢𝑢 𝐺𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑘𝑢 a new punk rock duo that had been formed by Kyouko and Mystia.

"If the instruments have turned into tsukumogami I wonder what Keine will do with them once we find them."

"Musical instruments are expensive. I imagine she'd just get Reimu to seal them and keep using them. Or maybe living instruments would be hard to play so she'd throw them away. I'm not really sure."

"Well if it had become a tsukumogami that would be dangerous, wouldn't it? That's how you get tsukumogami with a grudge against humans like that poison doll we met on the hill of the nameless."

"You mean Medicine? She's not so bad anymore. She's been helping out at Eientei and visiting with Yuuka and Alice lately."

Medicine was the name of a tsukumogami doll we had met only a handful of times. We had first encountered her near the end of the Sixty Year Cycle Great Barrier Incident, where she attacked us. I hadn’t had the opportunity to mention it in any of my casefiles, but since then she seemed to have met Alice Margatroid and Kazami Yuuka, who each lived relatively close to her and didn’t mind having a doll to keep them company. She could also occasionally be found at Eientei, where she worked with Eirin to assist with the creation of certain drugs, but I had never been inclined to try to talk to her again.

Tatara Kogasa, the umbrella tsukumogami, was another youkai that arose from an abandoned object. She really didn't seem to bear any particular grudge against humans though. I wondered if that was due to her nature as a forgotten umbrella youkai.

"If what Miss Mamizou said is true and there are going to be a lot more new-born tsukumogami around, then that could be bad. If everything old in the village were to wake up at once, I'm sure that would cause a lot of problems."

"It would be a complete uprising. Rather than being used by humans, tools would stand up for their rights."

"If you think about it, aren’t humans the ones that are sort of slaves to their tools? Whenever you get a really useful new tool you almost immediately start wondering how you ever got by without it."

"Saying that reminds me of back when we first came to Gensokyo."

We had gone through a fair bit of culture shock when we had first arrived here from the Scientific Century. Thinking back on that now was almost nostalgic though.

"Well, that aside, whatever that 'weird feeling' Mamizou was talking about is worth investigating too, I think."

"How would you suggest we go about investigating that?"

"With the Hifuu Detective Agency's proprietary high-performance anomaly detector, of course."

"I'm not an 'anomaly detector,' Renko!"

"Well whatever you want to call your ability, it's never led us astray. I'm sure if we keep poking around you'll eventually spot something hidden. Once we start pulling at that thread, it's just a matter of time before we discover some hidden truth about this world."

"You mean it's just a matter of time before you come up with some bizarre new delusion," I grumbled, letting out a sigh. Renko puffed out her chest, full of completely undeserved confidence. That's just how it always is with her. I'm sure before long she'll be dragging me off into some sort of dangerous situation like she always does—

—As I was thinking that the door to our office was suddenly thrown open with a bang. There had been no knock nor any announcement. I looked past Renko to the door, expecting to see Sanae as Renko craned around to look too.

Instead, two people I had never seen before rushed into our office. They spread out, one charging at either of us. I didn't have time to even ask a question before one of them reached a hand out toward me and I felt my arms being pulled down and pinned to my sides. Something like a red cord had wrapped itself around my body, immobilizing my hands. I barely had time to register the sight of one of the figures rushing forward and wrapping Renko up in the same way.

"I've got her, big sis!" My attacker said. "It's definitely them, the humans who were snooping around on us."

"Okay, but what do we do with them now, Yatsuhashi?"

There was a beat of hesitation. "Well, they don't actually seem very strong... I don't think they could have hurt us... But this is a revolution! We've got to show them that we're on top now!"

"Right, we're on top! Let's take them with us! When we find the master of this power we can give them these two as a prize!"

"Good idea!"

As the two of them conversed, I was able to get a better look at the two girls who had just attacked us. Strangely, one of them had what appeared to be a neckless biwa chained to her wrist, and the other was carrying a koto.