東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 3:Double Dealing Character

—7—

And so we returned to the village. After seeing Genji safely to his pond in the Temple School's courtyard and making sure our office and the school gates were properly locked, we returned home for some much needed rest. It was completely dark by this point, and I was grateful to get home before we ended up in a situation that would have earned us a headbutt and lecture from Keine.

"Do you think those two will be okay?" I asked as we came in the door.

"If they don't find whatever it is they're looking for, they'll probably end up coming back to find us."

"I hope they don't..."

I said that, but I couldn't help but wonder what would happen to the Tsukumo sisters. Being taken hostage and then forgotten about leaves one in a strange state of mind.

"What do we do next? You said you wanted to plan out our next move, right?"

"I'm not sure. Honestly, I kind of expected that your eyes would have found something right away. If there's something generating waves of magical power big enough to cover all of Gensokyo then you'd think that would cause some sort of distortion in a barrier that you'd be able to see, right?"

"This is why I keep telling you that I'm not an anomaly detector, Renko."

"Actually, now that I think about it, the fact that you didn't see anything might be a clue itself."

"How so?"

"Well there is definitely 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 influencing stray youkai and creating new tsukumogami. And everything we've seen would seem to indicate that that 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 is located in a particular place. But since you didn't see any frays in the barrier or anything, this is probably not the sort of incident where something that would normally be here has been disrupted or changed in some way."

"... and since I didn't see any disruptions in the Great Hakurei Barrier, it's probably not an issue with something that's still leaking into Gensokyo through a hole or anything. In other words, something with a lot of magical power must have recently come into Gensokyo from somewhere else, but now it's here and affecting things. Is that what you're thinking?"

"That's right."

"That's a lot to surmise just from the fact that I couldn't see anything. My eyes aren't infallible, Renko. Maybe I just couldn't see any gaps because they were small and far away."

"Well, we'll have to check again tomorrow when it's light out, for sure. At least we know we should be looking at the skies to the west now, thanks to Narumi."

"That's still pretty vague. I don't even know what I'm supposed to be looking for."

I was going to end up with eyestrain at this rate. If my eyes ended up going bad, I'd have to remember to bill Renko for the cost of glasses. It was while I was thinking about that there was a knock on our door. Who would be knocking at this time of night?

"Do you think the Tsukumo sisters could have returned already?"

"They wouldn't know where our home is, would they?"

We looked at each other uncertainly then stood side by side as Renko opened the door.

"Oh good, you're home." Happily, it was Kamishirasawa Keine who was standing in the doorway and not anyone else. She was holding a lantern and smiling faintly.

"Hello, Miss Keine. Of course we're home, why wouldn't we be?" Renko asked with a grin.

"I know I asked you to help out, but I started worrying that you might be wandering around outside looking for those missing instruments. The full moon is coming up, so I just wanted to be sure that you were being safe."

Renko shot me a quick grin before turning back to Keine. It had been a near miss. If we had been even a little bit later getting back we would have been in headbutt territory for sure. I wondered just how Renko would explain what we had been through. Surely she wasn’t about to just blurt out that we had been spending the evening being held hostage by a pair of tsukumogami instruments, right? Come to think of it, there were only two Tsukumo sisters. I wondered what might have happened to the missing taiko drum.

"How is your search going by the way?" Keine asked.

"I'm afraid we don't really have any leads to speak of in that case. We know from interviewing people that the instruments disappeared some time in the last two weeks, but any number of people could have taken them in that time."

I suppose that counted as technically true. Given our current situation, that was probably the best answer we could have offered. Anything more honest than that would almost certainly have earned us a headbutt.

"I see. Well, whatever happens, try to avoid leaving the village, alright?"

"You got it. By the way, Miss Keine. Did you really need to come all the way here at night just to check on us? I appreciate the concern but were you really that worried?" Renko grinned, leaning forward slightly as Keine opened her eyes in surprise looking away from Renko's gaze. "Or was there something else you were doing out so late?"

"No, nothing in particular. I just thought it would be a good idea to check up on things." Keine glanced about nervously.

Renko nodded to herself. "Ah, I see. Would one of those things happen to be Banki, perhaps?"

"...You don't have to be so perceptive all the time, you know."

"I'm a great detective. It comes with the territory, I'm afraid."

Keine sighed and pressed two fingers to her temple. It looked like Renko was right on the money.

As mentioned briefly in the previous casefile, Sekibanki is a rokurokubi who secretly lives among the humans here in the village. Her daily routine was to use her flying, disembodied head to scare drunks late at night while prowling the canals under the willow trees, so living in the village was convenient for her.

Given that she was a youkai living in the village, it was no surprise that Keine knew about her and went to check on her from time to time. Apparently Keine was alright with letting her live in the village as her attacks, while terrifying, were generally harmless. With weak youkai becoming more aggressive recently though... well I could see why Keine would be concerned.

"Speaking of checking on people, have you had a chance to look in on Kagerou recently?"

"I asked Mokou to check on her for me. Not many people are going into the bamboo forest right now, so even if she's been affected, there probably won't be anyone around for her to attack... I worry what might happen if someone were to suddenly fall ill and need to be taken to that doctor, but there's only one of me and I have plenty to do here in town. It's frustrating."

Keine folded her arms, looking worried, but personally I felt that if Mokou was looking after Kagerou, she'd probably be fine. Mokou was used to guiding people safely through the forest, and she could handle anything that might live there, so there was little to be concerned about.

"At any rate, it's dark out now, so you two should stay home and stay safe. I'm going to finish my rounds."

"You know, Miss Keine, Banki is one of our friends too. Why don't we come with you to check on her? We'd feel bad if she ended up attacking someone and got kicked out of the village."

I should have guessed that Renko would say something like that. Keine gave her a stern look.

"Don't be silly, Renko. If someone were to get attacked by her or any other youkai it would most likely be you. I'm doing this to try to keep people like you safe."

"Well, sure, I appreciate that, but the thing is it's not just us I'm worried about. Banki's a friend and so is Kagerou. I know we can't leave the village to go check on Kagerou, but you're on your way to visit Banki now, right? You can't fault us for being worried about our friend." Renko leaned forward clasping her hands together pleadingly.

Keine glared at Renko for a moment before closing her eyes and massaging her temple with two fingers.

Renko was putting Keine in an unwinnable situation. If Keine made the sensible choice and refused to bring us along with her, then it went without saying that Renko would probably sneak out on her own later. Keine knew this of course, but given that Renko had said that her only motivations were a desire to look out for a friend, she couldn’t exactly be mad about it either. I wouldn't put it past Renko to pressure Keine into helping us by threatening to put herself in danger either. As Renko's guardian, that put Keine in a tight spot. My partner can be ruthless, if it means getting to sate her curiosity.

"Why are you two always trying to make my life difficult?"

"I'm just telling you this because I don't want you to have to worry about us. Think of it this way, If we go with you, we'll be much safer, won't we? You'd be doing a good deed by bringing us along."

Keine closed her eyes, pressing her fingers into her temple a bit more forcefully.

"It's still staying inside the village, so there's no harm, right?"

"...Alright, fine. You can come," Keine sighed, her shoulders drooping. Renko turned to grin idiotically at me. I could only bow my head in apology to Keine.


—8—


And so the three of us set out, walking through the darkness of the market district to the canals, our path lit by Keine's lantern.

The north side of town, by the canal, was the entertainment district. It was there, among the establishments that kept their doors open late into the night, that Sekibanki usually hunted. Despite the ongoing situation with the youkai just outside of the village's walls becoming more violent, light spilled out from the doorways of numerous establishments, and lanterns were dangling from lines crossing over the streets. I suppose no matter the situation outside the village's walls, the adults living inside of them still needed somewhere to relax in the evenings after work.

"Banki usually targets people stumbling out of the bars at closing time, doesn't she?" Renko asked. "We're too early for that."

"That's why we're going to her house," Keine said.

I had never given much thought to where Sekibanki might live in the village, but she had to stay somewhere when she wasn't stalking the streets, I suppose. If she were to just hide away in an abandoned house or a storage shed or the like then she was bound to be noticed sooner or later and it would be hard to keep up the façade of being just a regular human. The best place for her to go unnoticed would probably be in one of the tenements for the village's low-income workers.

Keine was just about to turn away from the canal and into a blind alleyway, when a voice cried out loudly just behind and above us.

"Booo! Quake in terror, human!" As we turned, a figure leapt down from the branches of one of the trees to land on the path before us. "I'm gonna getcha, booo!"

The figure landed standing on one leg, their wooden sandal clacking against the paving stones. As they landed, they thrust something at us and it bloomed wide, opening into a circular, eggplant-colored disc. It was an umbrella. An umbrella with a lolling, long tongue protruding from one side. So then the figure was... Tatara Kogasa? I wondered if I ought to humor her by pretending to be startled.

"Oh, it’s just you, Kogasa."

"Good evening, Koga!" Renko said, waving to her.

"Come on! You have to have been surprised this time! I went to the trouble of coming into the village! That was scary, right?." Kogasa howled in frustration as she swung her umbrella around. Normally Kogasa was the sort to give up quickly and just slump down, whining about her hunger after failing to surprise someone, but she definitely seemed livelier than usual tonight. Could it be because of whatever magical force had been causing stray youkai to attack the village?

Kogasa thrusted her open umbrella at us again and began to rotate it. "Surprise! Surprise! You're slowly getting more and more surprised..."

I think she was trying to hypnotize us. I don't think you can hypnotize someone into being surprised, though.

"Kogasa, are you drunk? You usually have more sense than this." Renko said.

"I'm not drunk! I just want to surprise some humans! Night is the time of youkai! So be afraid already! I'm not behind the times! In fact, soon karakasa obake will be on top! It’s my time to shine! I’m gonna surprise everybody!" As she said that, Kogasa popped her umbrella closed and began waving it about like a club. "Let's go!" she shouted as she suddenly charged at Keine, her umbrella raised to strike.

The blow never landed. In one smooth motion taking less than a second, Keine had pressed the lantern she was holding into Renko's hands, parried Kogasa’s umbrella with a sweep of her arm, then quickly grabbed Kogasa by the wrist with her left hand. Keine then pivoted, using Kogasa’s own momentum to hurl her to the ground. Kogasa landed flat on her back with a thud. I had never actually seen Keine fight before. Was that aikido? Whatever it was she had made it look effortless.

Kogasa lay spread out on the ground, blinking up at the sky while Keine stood over her, resting her hands on her hips.

"If you're going to start directly attacking humans, you know that I can't overlook that, right?"

Kogasa leapt to her feet, whirling her umbrella around and popping it open as she backed away. "Now you've done it!" she shouted. "I'll show you a real surprise!" She thrust the umbrella forward again and its long tongue shot out, quick and rigid as a spear, aimed straight for Keine's face. Keine never flinched for a moment, simply griping and seizing the tongue. She coiled it around her fist then yanked sharply.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Stop it, that hurts!" Kogasa screamed, wincing as if it were her own tongue and not the umbrella's that Keine had grabbed. Keine raised the fist holding the umbrella's tongue high, then released it. The tongue snapped back to the umbrella, knocking Kogasa backwards into a sitting position on the ground.

"Uuuuu, how could this happen?" she sniffled. "This is supposed to be my time to rise."

"What are you talking about? Since when are you this violent?"

"Now is the time for tools to start using humans! The time for humans to forget about umbrellas and leave them behind is over! Now it's our turn to leave people like you behind! We have all the power!"

Kogasa got her feet under her and tried to stand up, but Keine stepped forward and delivered a flick to her forehead before she could.

"Oww!" Kogasa screamed, crouching back down. Rest in peace to her revolution, I suppose.

"Why are you being so mean? I only came over here because no humans were coming to the cemetery!"

"Have you calmed down now?" Keine asked, leaning over her. "Can you tell me why you tried to attack me?" She laid a hand gently on top of Kogasa's head, reassuring the karakasa obake just as she might do for one of the students at the temple school.

"Uuuuu" Kogasa sniffled miserably. "Aren't youkai supposed to attack humans?"

"Perhaps, but you've never done anything like this before."

"Well... Well maybe I'm just finally realizing what I should have been doing all along!" Kogasa shouted, suddenly surging to her feet and brushing Keine's hand away. She raised her umbrella up again, grimacing angrily.

—At just that moment something unexpected happened. A small glowing sphere descended from the sky and settled into place just behind Kogasa's head, clearly visible both to us and to Keine. As we all reacted with obvious surprise to the sight, Kogasa turned around to follow our gazes—just in time for the sphere to stop glowing, revealing its nature as a floating, severed head.

Kogasa shrieked and leapt to the side. Her sandal clacked against the slope of the stone embankment bordering the canal then slipped sideways with a clatter. There was barely time for her to let out a surprised yelp before she cartwheeled into the river below. A tremendous splash resounded as she disappeared under the water. A moment later her umbrella bobbed to the surface, gently floating downstream. Maybe some old woman doing laundry would find what she thought was an umbrella floating in the canal and pull her out? No, probably not at this hour.

Keine called out to the severed head that had startled Kogasa, but it quickly flew into the sky, disappearing into the darkness before any of us could say anything.

Keine took off at a sprint, running in the direction the head had gone. Renko followed behind her and I had to follow along or be left behind. I'm sorry Kogasa. I feel like these casefiles are always showing you at your worst. I almost feel bad for including this scene.

"Sekibanki!"

Keine caught a brief glimpse of Sekibanki’s headless body under a far off willow tree, but she turned and disappeared into the night before we could reach her. By the time we got to where she had been there was no sign of her.

There was no doubt in any of our minds that the head we had seen in the darkness had been Sekibanki's. Why had she scared Kogasa and then run away from Keine though? If weak youkai were being driven berserk shouldn't she have attacked us, as Kogasa had?

Once it became clear that we had no idea where Sekibanki had run off to, Keine put her foot down. "I'm taking the two of you home. If even harmless youkai like Kogasa are attacking, then I can't guarantee I'll be able to keep you two safe."

Nothing Renko could say could dissuade Keine even a little from her stance and as a result we were quickly escorted home. We never did learn where exactly Sekibanki lived. We asked Keine about it the next day, and all she would tell us was that when she got to Sekibanki's house, the girl was nowhere to be found. What on earth could she be up to, I wondered?


—9—


The rest of the night passed uneventfully, and we taught our classes the next morning as normal. After instruction had concluded for the day, Keine made her way over to the neighborhood watch office, while Renko and I headed to our own office as usual.

When we got there, however, there was an unexpected face waiting for us.

"Mokou? What a surprise seeing you here."

"Hey. Hope you don't mind me letting myself in," She said, rising up off of the floor where she had been sitting on a cushion.

"I don't mind at all," Renko said as she came in and removed her shoes and hat. "It's rare for you to come into the village at all though. What can we do for you?"

We had seen Mokou come into town once or twice before, of course. Every now and then she'd come in to visit Keine at her home or take care of some business. But generally speaking, Mokou seemed to prefer to keep her distance from any large gatherings.

"I was hoping that you guys might be able to give me a little advice."

"You hear that, Merry? Business is booming. Word of mouth has spread and our detective agency has finally hit the big time."

"How can you say that when most of our cases never result in us getting paid?"

I said that, but I suppose any sort of case was preferable to just sitting around and watching the birds on the roof expand their nest.

"So what did you come to ask about? You're looking for the perfect way to propose to Keine, I bet. Well, that's a tough one I must admit, but I think we can help. How about something like 'Keine, I don't ever want to be without you. Can we make a lifetime of memories together so that I can treasure them forever?'"

I can't imagine what kind a face Keine would make if Mokou were to actually say something like that to her.

"How can you spout an embarrassing line like that with a straight face? That's not even what I came here to talk about." Mokou groaned, looking away. From the way her face had tinted itself to shade that almost matched her suspenders, I wondered if Mokou was actually imagining saying that to Keine.

"Aw, what a shame," Renko said, grinning broadly. "In that case, I'm guessing you're probably here to ask us something about Kagerou, right?"

"I'll admit I'm a little worried about her, but she always shuts herself up inside her house and won't come out when it gets close to the full moon."

"That's right. I think she said something about hating full moons because she always gets hairy around that time, right?"

Kagerou, who had been born as the child of a human mother and a werewolf father, had lost her father early in her life and had grown up in the human village. Perhaps because of this, she typically looked almost entirely human, but when the full moon drew near her youkai blood would stir and she would become hairier and take on more beastlike traits.

"The person I actually wanted to talk to you about is Kagerou's friend, Wakasagihime."

That was an unexpected name. Or actually, if the ongoing incident was affecting weaker youkai, I suppose she was someone we should be worried about...

"Oh? The mermaid in Misty Lake? What about her?"

"Well this morning I went fishing there for the first time in a while."

"Was she being aggressive?"

"Yeah. I couldn't believe it. Worse, an ice fairy came after me while I was there too. I couldn't get a single fish."

So not only Wakasagihime, but Cirno as well. If whatever was causing this was affecting all sorts of supernatural creatures, then I shouldn't be surprised to hear that fairies were becoming more aggressive, I suppose. I wondered if the three fairies of light would be alright.

"Wakasagihime being aggressive. It's kind of hard to imagine..." Renko said, cradling her chin in her hand for a moment. "Hey wait, when you say 'aggressive' you don't mean sexually, right?"

"Of course not. She started shooting danmaku at me."

"It was worth asking. That's definitely unusual for her. She is a roaming youkai, and not a very powerful one at that though, so it makes sense for this incident to have affected her—Actually, on that note, you're an interesting case study, Mokou. Have you felt any unusual desire to attack humans recently?"

"Me? Of course not. Why would I do that?" Mokou's expression seemed more disappointed than surprised. As far as I could tell she was acting exactly like she usually would.

"Well congratulations then, Mokou. That confirms that you're one of the stronger residents of Gensokyo."

"What are you talking about?"

Renko spent the next few minutes explaining the origins and findings of our investigations so far to Mokou. Once she had finished, Mokou folded her arms and nodded with a determined expression. "So that's how it is. I had thought that the youkai in the forest had become more ferocious lately. Kaguya still seems about the same as always though."

"What about the rabbits at Eientei?"

"Hmmm. Tewi's the same as ever, but now that you mention it Reisen's been even grumpier than normal lately. As for the rest of the rabbits, I'm not sure. They’ve just been doing whatever they please as usual. And there haven't been many humans asking me to guide them through the forest lately."

Mokou's long-standing hatred for Houraisan Kaguya and Yagokoro Eirin probably meant that we could trust her assessment of their abilities. She didn't hold the same grudge against Tewi or the other rabbits though, so I'm not surprised she hadn't paid much attention to them. I was surprised that Mokou called Reisen by her first name though. Sometimes even people you wouldn’t expect to get along can end up becoming friends, I guess.

"Oh! Mokou, I should also ask if you have anything in your house that might be old enough to become a tsukumogami?"

"Sorry, but I doubt there's anything like that in my house." It was an accurate assessment. If one were being charitable they might say that countless lifetimes spent wandering as an immortal had led Mokou to embrace a minimalist ethos.

"So you guys are looking for the source of this magical power, but you haven't told Keine about it yet, right?"

"That's right."

"Reckless as ever. You know you could just let Marisa and Reimu handle this sort of thing, right?"

"I'm surprised to hear that from you of all people, Mokou! Keeping you curiosity alive is the best way to keep your mind young!"

"𝑌𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 giving 𝑚𝑒 pointers about how to age gracefully now?"

"Well you said once before you felt younger since befriending me, didn't you? Your body might be ageless but it's important to keep your mind youthful too, Mokou."

"I'll admit, when you found out about me but told me you still wanted to be my friend, that's about the youngest I'd felt, at least since meeting Keine. So thanks for that."

Renko scratched at her cheek for a moment, tilting her head in consideration. "Hmm. You ought to try a line like that on Keine." My partner is truly incorrigible. "Anyways, you were talking about Wakasagihime. What did you want to ask us about her?"

"Well I was originally hoping you could find out why she would attack me, but what you're saying is that it's probably because of whatever magical power is making all of the weaker youkai aggressive, right?"

"It's a possibility, anyway. It seems like the weaker a youkai is, the more aggressive this phenomenon makes them."

"Hmm, that's not good. If Reimu starts looking into this, she'll just exterminate everyone she sees. Kagerou could be at risk too... Is getting rid of the source of this power the only way to resolve this issue?"

"Oh? Mokou, are you planning on trying to resolve this incident yourself?"

"Yeah, I’d like to resolve all of this before it becomes a bigger problem."

Renko and I looked at each other. It was a surprising statement and not something I would have expected of Mokou. In all the time we had known her, Mokou had never really taken an interest in events affecting the rest of Gensokyo outside of her corner of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. What was it that was motivating her to take an interest in this particular incident, I wondered.

"So, Renko? Merry? What do you say? Will you help me?"

"Well I'd certainly be happy to," Renko replied, "but it's kind of unusual for you to take an interest in something like this. What's going on, Mokou? Usually you don't care about incidents."

Mokou let out a sigh, hunching over to rest her cheek on her upraised palm as she sat crosslegged on her cushion. "Look, you guys remember the last incident, right?"

"When you were helping us out by taking care of Kokoro while we searched for her mask of hope? Sure."

"That incident affected the village too, and because of that Keine ended up taking on way more responsibilities than she needed to. She seemed almost lively about that, but I hate watching her burn her candle at both ends like that. She shouldn’t have to carry all of that weight by herself…"

If you don't know what Mokou is talking about here, just have a look at my previous casefile, it will explain everything.

"This time around, the youkai attacks have already caused Keine a bunch of stress. I don’t want things to get to the point where she feels the need to take on responsibility for the whole village again, so I want to resolve this before anyone ends up getting killed."

"Well I think that's very sweet, Mokou. We'd love to help you out, but I have to ask, why not go to Marisa or Reimu about this? You’re friends with the two of them and it’s their job."

Mokou sighed. "Do you really think either of them would take on an incident just because I told them that it was causing a headache for Keine?"

"Oh. Hmm..."

Neither Reimu nor Marisa seemed to be particularly fond of Keine. In Reimu's case, she was unlikely to do anything unless an incident affected her personally.

"So that's why I'm asking you two. There's another reason why I want your guys' help though."

"Oh? What's that?"

"You two always reach the mastermind of any incident before anyone else. That's exactly what I want to do here."

We had at various times told Mokou about our exploits, so it's not surprising that she knew about our adventures.

"You're thinking that if you work with us, you'll be able to find the mastermind before Reimu, is that it?"

"That's my plan, yeah."

"...Um, Mokou, I think all of those times were just coincidences. It's not like we've been making efforts to always reach the masterminds first," I said.

"Well that's kind of my point. Even if you don't make an effort, you end up getting there before Reimu does every time. I think that's happened a little too often now to just be coincidence. Especially in Gensokyo."

In the Scarlet Mist Incident we had been ripped out of our own world and deposited directly into the library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

During the Spring Snow Incident we had been scooped out of reality and delivered to the Netherworld along with Alice.

During the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons Every Three Days I had been guided to Suika before anyone else knew about her by a lingering trail of wavering distortions that had made her path obvious to me.

During the Eternal Night Incident, Renko had been affected the moment the incident began, long before almost anyone else noticed anything was amiss.

During the events surrounding the arrival of the Moriya Shrine we had just happened to be arriving at the Hakurei shrine at the same time Sanae was leaving it, leading us to encounter her and through her, Lady Kanako and Lady Moriya.

During the Earthquake Incident, Sanae had brought us into Heaven and defeated Tenshi before Reimu had even begun moving.

During the Vengeful Spirit Incident we had fallen into the Underworld on our own, but managed to land on Yamame's web in just the right way to ensure that we had not only survived, but ended up embroiled in the schemes of everyone underground before Reimu even knew there was anyone down there.

During the Treasure Ship Incident, Renko had been the mastermind herself.

During the Divine Spirit Incident, Nazrin had come to our door and involved us in the case and brought us straight into Seiga's clutches before the Crown Prince had awakened.

Finally, in the recent events surrounding the summer religious wars, Mamizou had specifically sought us out and gotten us involved long before Reimu realized there was even an incident in progress.

Even during the Sixty Year Cycle Great Barrier Incident, during which it's hard to say if there ever even was a mastermind or not, we met Yuuka, the Prismrivers, Shiki and everyone else involved in the affair well before Reimu did.

"Renko, Merry, you always manage to get to the mastermind before Reimu. At this point I'd say that doing that is your ability. Reimu must see you that way too. The girls with the 'ability to get to the mastermind before the Hakurei shrine maiden. Even now you’ve already been looking into this case for a while, and Reimu doesn’t even know about it yet.'"

It’s often claimed that superstitions and lucky streaks stop working the moment someone notices that they’re having an effect. That’s because most of the time, such things are just coincidences, correlations without any relationship to causation. Us finding the mastermind before Reimu was just like that, nothing more than a series of coincidences. At least, that’s what I had always thought…

That said, Gensokyo is a world where perception has power. If causation could be affected by human belief, then was there really any difference between us having an ability and people just believing that we did? If you were to consider the fact that we had always reached the mastermind behind an incident before Reimu in the past then, in a world like Gensokyo where causation and correlation were indistinguishable, maybe there really was no distinction. And if that was the case, well then what Mokou was asking for here was something we could probably provide.

"So how about it?" Mokou asked, smiling fearlessly at the both of us. "Can I rent your ability to resolve this incident before Reimu does?"