東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 2:Urban Legend in Limbo

—4—


"So Renko, what kind of tool from the Outside World do you think we're looking for? It would have to be something that could be used for communication, do you think a cellphone could work here?"

"What kind of fantasy land would this be if you could just phone home from here?"

"Isn't there a scene in 𝑌𝑢 𝑌𝑢 𝐻𝑎𝑘𝑢𝑠ℎ𝑜 where that happens though? I'm pretty sure Kurama calls his family from the demon world at one point."

After a long and leisurely cup of tea we had set out on patrol with Kotohime following close behind us and Renko and I walking shoulder to shoulder through the streets. As light as the simple cloth armbands of the watch were on our arms, they seemed to carry a rather uncomfortable weight to them in a social sense. I wondered if it was really alright for two people like my partner and I to be doing something like this. I often felt unqualified as a schoolteacher but this was something entirely different. At any rate, no one seemed to question us.

Kotohime walked along a few steps behind us, smiling blithely as we whispered to each other. I suspect she was just there to make sure Renko didn't abandon her duties and run away. Given how we had seen her move in Suzunaan a few months back, I doubted it would be possible for either of us to escape from her.

How were we supposed to go about finding the person we were supposed to save with Kotohime tailing us?

"If we're looking for some sort of tool from the Outside World, Kourindou would be the first place I'd think to check," I whispered.

"If someone bought a tool at Kourindou, there's a chance that Rinnosuke might remember them. But it could also be a book from the Outside World that someone bought at Suzunaan. Kosuzu seems like the type who could get herself into a situation she’d need saving from. Actually, now that I think of it, Akyuu can be pretty reckless too."

"I think those two are too familiar to us. If the Youkai Sage had wanted us to go see any of them, she could have just told us their names. From what she said, I think she probably wants us to find someone we’ve never met, don’t you think?"

"Someone we've never met... Or maybe someone who's been in our blind spot this whole time."

Renko glanced back over her shoulder, then turned back to me. Kotohime was certainly known to collect strange things, but she was also someone who could protect herself. I didn't think it could be her that the Youkai Sage had meant. And for the same reason, it couldn't have been Keine either.

"I think it's more likely to be someone we don't know at all. Knox's Ten Commandments don’t apply when it comes to finding missing persons. There’s no room for us to complain if the person we’re looking for doesn’t appear until the very end, right Merry?"

"That’s true, there are several classics where someone the detective is looking for doesn’t say a word until the very end."

"Oh! Like Miyuki Miyabe's 𝐾𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑎? At least in that they knew who they were searching for from the very beginning."

"I was thinking more like William Irish's 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑚 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛."

"I always found stories like that unsatisfying. When the detective has never met the subject of their search, you can never know what sort of clues to look for when you read the story."

"I'll admit, it's a bit gimmicky for a story that's considered to be an iconic masterpiece, but then a lot of Irish's stories have unnecessary elements like that. In 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝐴𝑡 𝐷𝑎𝑤𝑛 the entire premise of having to solve the mystery in just three hours makes no sense when you think about it. Now isn't the time to be critiquing mystery stories though."

"You're the one who brought them up, Merry. But let's assume your right. In that case we should concentrate on identifying the communication device itself first. What sort of a tool could be used to send messages between Gensokyo and the Outside World?"

"Maybe a computer connected to the internet via a landline? The Moriya Shrine has electricity... sometimes..."

"Our target is someone in the village. I think we can rule any sort of advanced technology out. Someone here could still communicate with other people at a distance using a more primitive method though. Something like a smoke signal or mirrors or loud sounds...."

"Maybe Miss Raiko could use her drums for something like Morse code."

"Bam bam crash instead of dot dot dash? That seems like it would be pretty tedious. My great aunt was a psychic though. Maybe we should be thinking in a more mystical direction. Something like a crystal ball or some sort of magic spell."

"Hey you two, you're supposed to be looking for trouble and patrolling, not just chatting all day. Even if it's only temporary, please try to take this seriously, you're wearing the armbands and everything," Kotohime called out from behind us.

Renko and I shrunk guiltily. Our search would have to wait until after we'd finished our stint with the neighborhood watch. Well, if we were looking for someone living in the village anyway, then maybe we might spot something unusual while doing our patrols. You never know who you might pass on the streets, after all. Thinking about that, I began to cast my eyes over the faces of the people around me.

"Oh, is that… Hey Rikako!"

I heard Kotohime's voice call out again from behind us and turned around to see that she had stopped in her tracks and was talking animatedly to a girl in a long white lab coat who looked like she was trying to get away, but had been grabbed by the sleeve.

"Hey don't try to run away from me, Rikako. I'm not going to arrest you. Unless there's a reason why I should? Hmm, if you've done anything to deserve it, you'll get a more lenient sentence if you confess it right away, y'know?"

"Shut up! I'm only trying to run away because I don't like talking to you! I don't want anything to do with you!"

"Don't say that, we're friends, aren't we?"

"Since when!?"

The girl in the lab coat shoved her glasses back on her nose and set an almost performatively large frown on her round face. It reminded me of the argument Renko and I had seen between Kagerou, Wakasagihime and Sekibanki.

Before either of them could say anything more, Renko stepped forward. "Pardon me for butting in," she said, "but would you be the village scientist that Kotohime is always talking about? If so, I've been wanting to meet you for a while."

Kotohime had in fact mentioned knowing a scientist on a few occasions, though I don't think I've related any of them in these records before. According to Kotohime, she was an eccentric girl who lived in the village and spent her days researching 'science.' If you've lived in this village for any length of time, you've no doubt heard a few such stories of eccentric people like her, but with how the village was divided into different, separated communities that rarely intermingled, it was easy for most people to never come across any such rumored figures. This was especially true for us, as we spent so much time outside of the village. I wondered briefly if the Youkai Sage might have meant for us to save a person like her.

Rikako, the girl in the lab coat, was looking Renko over, her frown just as pronounced as ever. "I've heard rumors about you... You two are a pair of delinquents who work as teachers at the temple school when you're not busy with your shady detective office, aren't you? And now you're both pretending to be police just like her?"

"You're not really one to complain about someone else having a bunch of questionable rumors about them floating around, y'know?" Kotohime replied.

"Shut up!"

"I'm happy to hear that you've heard of our detective agency. I'm Usami Renko, director of the Hifuu Detective Agency. This is my partner, Merry."

"...Asakura Rikako. I'm a scientist."

Renko flashed a bright smile that was the inverse of Rikako's sullen frown. "What type of scientific research are you pursuing, if I might ask? I used to study theoretical physics myself so maybe I could help you with your research if it's in a similar field."

"No thanks."

"Oh? Why not?"

"You're an Outsider aren't you? That's what I heard from this half-wit patrolwoman."

"Well I was a long time ago. I consider myself a resident of Gensokyo now though."

"Even so, most of your knowledge is from the Outside World, isn't it? The science you know is the science of the Outside World, like the stuff in the scientific journals at Suzunaan, isn't it?"

"I suppose that's true," Renko admitted, looking confused.

"Then you're useless to me. I don't trust any scientific principle that I haven't verified on my own."

Renko blinked in surprise at that and adjusted her hat. "Ah, I think I see. You're probably dismissive of Outside World scientific models because they can't explain many phenomena that can be observed here in Gensokyo, correct?"

"Precisely. If you understand that then you understand why I don't need any help from an Outsider."

Renko could only back off and scratch unconsciously at her head after such a brusque dismissal. I'm certainly not an expert at any of the physical sciences, but I had to admit Rikako had a point. In a place like Gensokyo where gods, youkai, and fairies were easy to find, and where humans and other creatures could fly through the sky and fight playfully with danmaku, there was a lot that science would be at a loss to explain. Perhaps that was the reason why my partner, despite her self-professed Planck-level intellect, had never been able to invent a new model to explain the laws of physics in this world. In a place like Gensokyo, where Reimu and her friends could all soar through the air without any visible means of propulsion, maybe the common sense of Outside World physics was holding her back.

"Sorry, Rikako can be a little stubborn," Kotohime said, smiling.

"Shut up!"

"Don't be like that. Maybe you could make friends with the kappa or something. They could teach you Gensokyo science, right~?"

"Absolutely not!" Rikako said, looking suddenly aghast. "The purpose of my scientific inquiry is to devise a reproducible understanding of the world as it is experienced by humans, for the use of other humans! I'm not sharing any of my theories with the kappa!"

I was surprised by Rikako's reaction. There was no denying that kappa technology was far more advanced than anything I had seen in the village. Trying to devise an entire system of scientific thought on your own without sharing anything with peers seemed like a very difficult path to tread to me.

"Science by humans, for humans eh...?" Renko said, resting her chin between her thumb and forefinger.

Rikako nodded. "Yes. That's my goal. Outsider scientific findings that don’t take the presence and impacts of gods, youkai or spirits into account are useless to me, but I greatly respect the scientific method that underlies those findings. Logic, reasoning and experimental verification are valid practices and critical to building a solid framework of knowledge. Those sorts of scientific discoveries are the only means by which we humans can hope to fight against the power of Gensokyo's youkai."

"What's the point of using magic or spirituality to fight the youkai on their own terms like the Hakurei shrine maiden or this police-brained idiot? Only by understanding the mechanisms of the world and uncovering the hidden logic underlying forces such as magic or so-called 'supernatural' powers can we humans hope to stand a chance! Without the light of knowledge to dispel the mysteries of youkai, humanity will be forever doomed to feed our oppressors with the fear born of our lack of understanding. Here in Gensokyo, we humans are nothing but slaves to the youkai, mere monkeys in this cage they have built for us, dancing for their amusement! Logic! Reason! Scientific thinking! These are humanity's greatest weapons!"

A moment of silence followed Rikako's outburst. All around her villagers had stopped in their tracks and paused their conversations to see what she was yelling about so animatedly. Noticing this, she blushed, cleared her throat and yanked her sleeve out of Kotohime's grip.

It was at this point that my partner began applauding enthusiastically. Villagers around us averted their eyes and resumed walking.

"I think that's an admirable position, honestly. That's the passion for discovery that even I had nearly forgotten. Miss Rikako, would you be willing to come in and give a guest lecture at the Hieda Public Temple School, by chance?"

Rikako wrinkled up her nose in disgust. "With children? Ew, no. How tiresome."

"Don't say that," Renko pleaded. "Societal consciousness can only be altered from the ground up. If you want to see a scientific revolution in Gensokyo, you've got to plant the seeds in the next generation early. How else will people learn to think scientifically?"

Rikako cringed away. "N-No way! I’ll solve Gensokyo’s mysteries all by myself! Excuse me!" Saying that, she turned away and dashed directly into the crowd of people passing through the gate into the market district.

Kotohime sighed and smiled laconically. "She gets nervous when too many people are paying attention to her."

Renko shook her head sadly. "Well, teaching isn't for everyone, I suppose."

As Rikako vanished into the crowd, one thing she had said was still ringing in my ears: "Here in Gensokyo, we humans are nothing but slaves to the youkai."


—5—


From its inception, Gensokyo was created to be a paradise for youkai. Here, monsters who have lost their place in the Outside World can live in safety, free from the existential threat of rationalism present in the minds of humans found anywhere else. To achieve this existence, the youkai here subsist on the fears of a town full of humans whose civilization has been artificially stuck at the Meiji era for nearly two hundred years.

It would be hard not to come to the conclusion that the humans of Gensokyo were livestock of a sort, harvested for their fear and awe and every now and then their meat. This may be a slightly cynical way of viewing the situation, but it's not an inaccurate one.

In a place like this it's inevitable that there would be a certain percentage of the people who, like Asakura Rikako, would reject this way of being and feel a righteous indignation inspiring them to escape or overturn this hostile, exploitative order.

In the ten years that Renko and I had been living in Gensokyo the village had barely seen any changes at all. The sleepy world within the walls of the village seemed doomed to an eternity of technological and social stagnation. For the people in the village that were bothered by that, I wonder if the Outside World would seem like some sort of mythical paradise.

"There are probably a good number of people with views like that," Renko had replied when I asked her about it.

"Well, if that's the case, then I think that would probably be the sort of person who would be most likely to have contacted Sumireko. Someone who was dissatisfied with life in the village might well be interested in a means of communicating with the Outside World, don't you think?"

After we had finished patrolling the streets of the village with Kotohime, we had returned to the offices of the neighborhood watch, but Kotohime had been immediately called away by another member of the watch, leaving Renko and I alone. We took the opportunity to continue discussing just who the Youkai Sage might have intended for us to save.

Renko grunted thoughtfully and leaned back from the table, fingers fiddling with the brim of her hat. "Hmm, I guess that makes sense, but that still doesn't really narrow down our search that much. I'm sure there are probably lots of people here who are bored with their existence, but we can’t exactly walk around asking people to tell us their honest opinions about the state of Gensokyo and expect to get honest answers, can we? Do you want to go to the Underworld and try to drag Satori up here with us to read everyone's mind?"

She had a point. As regular humans we had no way of definitively knowing who in the village might be feeling frustrated with the status quo. It wasn't the sort of thing we could expect to find out by just asking, either. Unless we were able to enlist Satori's help, the only way we might be able to figure out who we were looking for would be...

"I sense someone with a desire to talk to me."

"Whoa! Crown Prince! What are you doing here!?"

The third voice that had suddenly inserted itself into our conversation belonged to the Crown Prince, Toyosatomimi no Miko, who had taken a seat directly opposite Renko at the table and taken a cup of tea for herself without either of us noticing. The hermit prince of the Divine Spirit Mausoleum was indeed the person I had been thinking of. The self-proclaimed religious leader and reincarnation of Prince Shotoku had the ability to hear the desires of others.

"Oh, this tea is rather nice," she said, sipping from the mug that Kotohime had poured for herself but never had the opportunity to drink.

Renko took a moment to blink and settle herself, then cleared her throat and asked "What brings you to the neighborhood watch office though, Your Majesty?"

"I was hoping to call on Miss Kamishirasawa, but I gather that she is away on business at the moment."

"Miss Keine? What were you planning on talking to her about?"

"I take it you've seen the wanted posters for that amanojaku? We at the Divine Spirit Mausoleum were planning on pursuing her and I thought it best to inform her. Though, I'm afraid Seiga may have already begun the hunt without waiting for the rest of us. I was hoping to warn Miss Keine about what she may be planning, but it seems I've missed my chance. I’ll have to come by again later."

Miko said that calmly, while wearing a placid smile illuminated by the soft halo of light that surrounded her at all times. So even Seiga was considering going out to catch Seija? I can't imagine what sort of torments someone like Seiga might have in store for a creature like an amanojaku, but I was sure it wouldn’t be pretty.

"...But, as I was saying," Miko continued, "I had sensed the two of you nearby with a desire to speak to me. So, what can I do for you both?"

"Ah, well that's most kind of you to take the time to come and see us. I suppose we do have a question. At the moment we're interested in trying to find people who are dissatisfied with the current order present in Gensokyo. We suspect one of them might have been in contact with someone from the Outside World."

"And you were hoping to use my abilities to determine who these people might be? That's a bit of a strange request but I don't sense that you have any desire to oppress political dissent or the like. Just for my own reassurance though, the neighborhood watch hasn't become some sort of secret police, has it?"

I had to admit, given where we were sitting and the fact that we were still wearing the watch's armbands, it did sound like the sort of question that some sort of draconian organization charged with suppressing dissent like the Thought Police might ask.

"Well, I see from your desires that you're not so much interested in finding out who this person might be as you are in finding out who the person in the Outside World that they're in contact with is."

"Most perceptive, Crown Prince. As usual, we can't hide anything from you."

"Hmm. As a politician, I'm afraid it wouldn't do for me to aid the watch with a personal inquiry like this. My abilities can’t be used for something like this, you understand. But as part of my life counselling service, I will at least give you a suggestion." The prince smiled at each of us in turn.

"A suggestion?" I asked.

"Yes. I don't know who this person you're looking for is of course, but I can give you a clue as to how you might go about finding them."

"Oh? What would that be?"

"The both of you are originally from the Outside World, are you not? You have been in Gensokyo for long enough at this point that you are thinking more like a person from this side of the barrier than you once would have. My suggestion to you is that you turn your line of inquiry inside-out."

"Turn it inside-out?"

"That's as much as I should say. Self-reflection is an enriching practice. Thank you for the tea. If you'll excuse me." Saying that, the prince scooted back from her seat and lifted up the floorboards, raising a section of the wooden floor as if it were hinged. Without another word she slipped into the space below the section she had lifted up and disappeared as the boards clattered back into place behind her, perfectly flush and unbroken. I suppose being able to connect the senkai containing the Divine Spirit Mausoleum to anywhere must be pretty convenient.

I stood there for a moment, tapping my toe against the now completely undisturbed and continuous floor before looking over at Renko, who was muttering to herself and fiddling with the brim of her hat again. "...Turn our line of inquiry inside-out... Oh! I get it! She's completely right! We really must be too used to Gensokyo to have missed something so simple!" She shot up from the table, nearly knocking her chair over backwards.

"What's wrong, Renko?"

"It's so simple! We were looking into what sort of tool could be used to contact the Outside World from Gensokyo. But it's much simpler if we think of this problem from my great aunt's side of things!"

"From Sumireko's side?"

"Exactly. Merry, imagine you're a teenager in high school again. Moreover, imagine you're a teenager who's into the occult. We've been forgetting our roots as an occult circle! If you suspected that a world full of fantasy like Gensokyo existed, how would you go about contacting it if you were still in the Outside World?"

I thought for a moment. "Well there's lots of ways, I suppose. I could try to find a tear in the boundaries, or I could try dreaming about it..."

Renko looked at me with a disappointed expression and let her shoulders droop. "That's a very Merry answer," she said despondently. "No one without but you could do something like that."

I gave Renko an unimpressed look.

"I suppose we can’t rule out the possibility that my great aunt might have been acquainted with someone like you or even that she might have the same abilities as you do herself. Let's assume for the moment that she didn’t though. If that were the case, how would someone like her try to contact another world?"

Renko grinned at me as she reached into her pocket. "With this!" she said, procuring a coin. Here in the village coins from the Outside World were largely used as currency, but because of their rarity no attention was paid to their denomination or age. Coins were simply coins. The one Renko had pulled out was a simple 10-yen coin with a year from the previous century stamped on the back. "It's simple divination."

Placing the 10-yen coin on the table she rested her fingers on it and laughed, a cat-like grin spreading across her face. "It's the thrifty occultist's most trusted method of contacting other worlds. With just this and some paper we can summon up Kokkuri-san."


—6—


The next day we were told to patrol the streets of the village again, but we were able to slip out without having Kotohime watching over our shoulders this time. As a result, Renko had led us here, to a run-down tenement house on the west side of the human village. A small, weather-beaten sign affixed to the corner of the slum advertised a business, the only indication that the drooping eaves of the tenement house might be home to anything other than a residence.

The sign said 'Enter, all those who are lost,' but Renko and I hadn't come here in search of salvation. Rather, we had come here to save someone.

Renko opened the door. We stepped inside to find that immediately beyond the vestibule, a desk had been placed in the entryway. The stained and worn plaster walls of the room pressed in on either side, leaving little room to move. Overall, the room immediately inside the doorway had barely enough space in it to accommodate both of us and the gloomy-looking young man who was sitting behind a desk. He looked up and greeted us as we entered.

"Welcome. I see that this is your first time here. The venerable master won't be in until later this afternoon." The man addressing us was young, with a sallow, sickly-looking face behind a pair of round glass spectacles that caught the light. He smiled at us as we walked in, but the smile was one that seemed practiced rather than genuinely happy.

"That's fine," Renko said, waving her hand. "We don't need to talk to the master himself. I'm sure for our needs one of his apprentices would be fine. Would that be you?"

"Yes... for the moment, anyway. I'm a failed apprentice on the verge of being expelled, I'm afraid."

"Well that's good enough for me. I should introduce myself though. My name is Usami Renko."

The moment Renko gave her name, the young man's eyelid twitched involuntarily behind his glasses.

"...Usami, did you say?" he asked.

"That's right. I'm a teacher at the temple school. Have you heard of me, by chance?"

"Ah, the Hieda public school…. What brings a schoolteacher to our humble place of business, I wonder? Well, if you don't mind seeing an apprentice, then if you can tell me what brings you here, I can at least explain the services we have to offer."

"Well you see, I'm looking for someone."

An uncomfortable moment of silence passed as he waited for Renko to say something more. He swallowed before saying "...Anyone in particular?"

"Yes, actually," Renko said, grinning and looking him straight in the eye. "I'm looking for someone named Sumireko."

Another moment of silence passed, during which the blood could clearly be seen draining from the young man's face. He suddenly leapt up, kicking his table into Renko and sprinting down the hall toward the back of the tenement.

Renko grunted as she stumbled into me, but sprang back instantly. "I hadn't expected an instant bingo! I'm chasing him, Merry!" She took off like a shot, dashing down the hall in pursuit. In a panic I followed after them both climbing past the overturned table to sprint down the hall.

—

Perhaps it would be useful if I rewound just a bit.

The previous day, after our visit with Miko, Kotohime had come back to the watch office and we had had to put our investigation on hold until Keine returned to the village just before midnight. She relieved us and sent us home, but not before arching an eyebrow at us and asking Kotohime "did they behave themselves?"

When we got home, Renko and I got back to our discussion.

"Renko, do you really think someone from the Outside World could contact Gensokyo just by playing Kokkuri? If that were possible wouldn't it happen all the time?"

"I don't think it's actually that easy, Merry. It was probably only possible because my great aunt really was a psychic. Even then I expect that the only reason she was able to make contact was because she had already learned of Gensokyo's existence through her friend who happened to be the user of Raiko's new drum."

"...So for Sumireko to contact Gensokyo she would have to both believe that it existed, and have been someone with the sort of powers that should be impossible in the Outside World? Well I suppose that would be a rare combination, but once she had those elements could she really have used something as simple as a game like Kokkuri?"

Honestly, thinking about it now, I had no grounds on which to criticize anyone's methods. I myself had eyes that could violate the logic of the Scientific Century. That probably had something to do with how Renko and I had ended up in Gensokyo in the first place. If Usami Sumireko was similar to me in that way, possessing something that defied explanation by science, then it’s entirely possible that crossing the Great Hakurei Barrier could be done through some simple means.

"Kokkuri is a game of questions and answers though... if she did contact Gensokyo using that sort of a method, who here in the village would have spoken to her?"

"I think the answer to that question comes from asking this one: what do people use Kokkuri for, Merry?"

Renko stared into my eyes. Did people really use Kokkuri for anything? It was a game, or possibly an extremely simple tool used for the purpose of answering questions. What would something like that be used for...?

"...Fortune-telling, I suppose?"

"Exactly. Kokkuri is a tool for summoning spirits in the hopes that they'll tell you something that you have no other way of learning. Most people use it to learn about the future or to find out what's secretly in the hearts of others. The essence of fortune-telling is to find answers to questions that are impossible to answer using logic. Now, it just so happens that here in the village there are people who do the same thing: use tools to attempt to learn things which they have no natural way of knowing."

"Oh, I see. You're thinking it would have been a fortune-teller who contacted Sumireko?"

Renko nodded.

"Yes. It had to be someone accustomed to turning to voices from other worlds in order to answer their questions. Who better than a fortune-teller for that?"

—

That was the logic that had brought us to the house of the human village's most renowned fortune-teller. It was nothing more than a series of assumptions piled one on top of the other, a towering edifice built of nothing but hope and guesswork. For Renko, of course, such megalomaniacal delusions were completely normal. In my partner's mind, if the Youkai Sage had given us the extremely vague request of 'there's someone I want you to save' then that was a clear sign that she wanted us not only to come up with a solution on our own, but to also then enact that solution.

—

"When it comes to fortune-tellers here in the village, there's a famous one in the western tenement, isn't there? I remember hearing that there was supposed to be someone over there who had attracted several disciples."

"Yeah, I've heard of him too. He's supposedly really accurate, but isn't he also supposed to be really old? I can't imagine someone like that being the sort of person who's so dissatisfied with the status quo that they start leaking information about Gensokyo to someone in the Outside World. Doing something that risky out of a sense of frustration is more the sort of thing I'd expect of someone younger."

"So then the person we're looking for could be..."

"One of that fortune-teller's disciples. Someone young, who would be familiar with using divination tools and would be both dissatisfied with Gensokyo's status quo and motivated enough to do something about it. Someone who sees the world outside of the Great Hakurei Barrier as the answer to all of their problems. That must be who we're looking for!"

"And the reason that the Youkai Sage told us to save them was..."

Renko and I looked at each other. There was only one possible answer.

"Because they're trying to do something involving my great aunt. Something that will end up putting them into some kind of danger. That's why the Youkai Sage wants us to be the ones to save them!"