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

—7—


The day after Aya brought the manga to our office, we were again visited as we sat on the floor, relaxing after a day of classes. This time the face behind the door was Suwako's, who excitedly told us that the advertising balloon to be used at the bazaar had been completed and was about to be tested.

And so, after our classes had ended for the day, Suwako flew us up the side of Youkai Mountain to the edge of the borehole that Lady Suwako had made. The scene had changed slightly since the last time we had been here. Kappa were bustling to and fro, inspecting and adjusting details. Among all of the kappa moving busily about there was also one familiar but unexpected face standing off to the side and watching with a vaguely disapproving stare.

"Hello Reimu, what are you doing here?" Renko asked as we touched down.

"That's my line. What do you two have to do with this?"

"Well I guess you could say that this was all my idea to begin with."

"Why do two humans like you always show up anytime youkai are getting up to any sort of a big project? Did Byakuren influence you or something?"

"No, we're just here to see how it goes. What about you, Reimu?"

"I called Reimu here," Suwako explained, smiling.

"You did, Lady Moriya?" Renko asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Of course. We're about to launch Hisoutensoku's first test, and it's going to be pretty big and flashy, so I thought it would be a good idea to call her here to see that it's not dangerous before she decides she needs to come and destroy all of our hard work."

"I came to make sure they're not doing anything shady." Reimu added, nodding.

Given that Reimu had had no qualms about letting Marisa try to shoot down the 𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑛 during the Treasure Ship Incident, that seemed prudent.

"You said this is going to be a trial run for 'Hisoutensoku'? What is that?"

"That's right, Hisoutensoku. You'll see what it is in just a moment. I don't want to spoil the surprise for everyone else though, so we’ll be bringing in a fog to cover this test run."

Just as Suwako finished saying that, a white mist began to gather around us, rolling unnaturally up the side of the mountain, as if drawn from Misty Lake far below. The shapes of the kappa became indistinct shadows as our field of vision was blanketed in white.

"Alright!" Suwako declared, leaping forward so that she was inside the fog. She seemed to climb on top of something hidden within the mist then shouted "Hisoutensoku! [Showtime!]"

As soon as she said that, there was a great rushing sound and an enormous black shadow rose up. It rose and kept rising, shooting upwards seemingly without end until finally it reached its full height, stretching high into the sky. The object was perhaps a hundred meters tall, so tall that we had to crane our necks back painfully to look up at it. It was hard to make out the details of a form that was both so large and shrouded in mist, but it was clearly at least vaguely human-shaped, with two arms, two legs, a long cylindrical body and a head that looked to be surmounted by some sort of horns or crown.

"Oh, it's..." I began.

"A giant bipedal humanoid robot!" Renko cried with glee.

That most iconic Japanese creation, the staple of countless anime and tokusatsu dramas, born of fantasy and childlike imagination and such an irreplaceable part of Japanese culture that even in the Scientific Century it was still a common sight on TV — a fully realized giant mecha stood before us, treading the soil of this land of fantasy.

Just days ago we had seen Alice's giant doll in the Forest of Magic, but the scale of that creation was far different than this one, which looked like something ripped directly from the animation cells of a century-old anime. I'm afraid I don't know enough about giant robot anime to say exactly which classic giant robot it might have resembled, but it definitely was reminiscent in a vague sort of way of designs I had seen.

Suwako had evidently climbed onto the robot's shoulder and was now high above us. She pulled out a megaphone and shouted down to us. "It worked! Startup sequence successful! This is our ultimate trump card! I give you: Hisoutensoku!" All around us the kappa broke into a chorus of cheers, their indistinct forms raising their hands high in celebration. Reimu arched an eyebrow but said nothing, standing still with her arms crossed.

"Now, let's test the movement. Hisoutensoku! [Action!]"

The enormous cylindrical arms of the giant robot raised up, rotating smoothly at the shoulders, elbows bent and locked until the arms were raised above the robot's head, mimicking the pose of an angry gorilla before lowering back down again.

"Looking good! Now let's try walking! [Action!]"

Hisoutensoku's right foot lifted off of the ground, slowly rising up. It hadn't risen more than a meter before the whole robot began to tilt, however, swaying unsteadily.

"Whoa, whoa, put it down, it's unstable!"

Hisoutensoku slowly lowered it's for back down and regained its balance. When the foot touched down there was neither a sound nor a tremor of impact.

"Okay, that was a little dangerous. Walking will have to come later. That's good enough for now though. Trial complete! Let's shut it down! Hisoutensoku, retreat!"

All at once the Kappa began rushing about, fiddling with something shrouded in the mist. A moment later the towering form of the robot dived into the ground. After a while, the mist finally began to clear. When it did, there was no sign of the giant robot, nor any indication it had ever been there.

"...What was that just now?" Reimu asked, tilting her head. To the residents of Gensokyo, a giant humanoid robot 100 meters tall would have been a completely foreign concept.

"It's impressive, isn't it? What did you think?" Suwako asked excitedly, floating down to land just in front of us.

"I don't know what to think. What was that?" Reimu's frown was the inverse of Suwako's broad grin.

"It's an advertising balloon. The kappa are going to use it as a landmark to attract people to a bazaar that they will be holding soon."

"That thing's way too big to just be a decoration for a bazaar. You're planning on using it to crush my shrine, aren't you?"

"It's totally harmless! It's just a hollow shell, filled with air. You can come and touch it if you want. Think of it as a mere decoration. I'll make sure it doesn't get turned into a tsukumogami or anything too."

"What was it you called it?" Reimu asked, still seeming unconvinced.

"Hisoutensoku, written as 'unthinkable natural law' —that which is demanded to exist by the will of the gods, but is not to be found in nature."

"Right..." Reimu said uncertainly. "If it's just full of air, how did it move like that?"

"Well, the specifics are a trade secret, but no matter what, it's still harmless right? Having a few secrets makes it more fun." Suwako asked, poking her tongue out impertinently.

"Renko, was this all your idea?" Reimu asked, turning back to us.

"No, no, I just suggested that they make some sort of a landmark to advertise the bazaar, but I never thought they'd come up with a giant robot."

"I see. Where are the kappa going to be holding this bazaar?"

"Near Genbu Ravine," Suwako replied.

"Hmm, if it falls over in a place like that, then it won't hurt my shrine. Fine, go ahead and use it if you like. If it causes problems, I'll come and exterminate it. I've had my share of interesting sights for today, I'm going home."

Suwako nodded, a satisfied expression on her face and Reimu departed, flying away to her shrine. Renko waved, watching her go, then turned back to Suwako with an eager expression. "Alright, Lady Moriya. I need to know all about that thing."

"Like I said, it’s called Hisoutensoku. I based the design on a mix of 𝑀𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑍 and 𝐵𝑖𝑔 𝑂."

"I'm afraid I don't know those."

"What? 𝑀𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 is the original giant piloted robot! And 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑖𝑔 𝑂 is my favorite robot anime. I'll curse you if you don't watch it!"

"That's a bit difficult to do in Gensokyo."

"Well then I'll let you off the hook for now. Anyway since there's no giant robots in Gensokyo, this should really stand out. I'm sure it'll draw in lots of visitors. Now we just have to put out an announcement in the tengu newspapers. Oh, I can't wait!" she said, dancing happily on the spot. "As long as it's something fun, what's the harm, right?"

"How were you able to get it to move like that, Lady Moriya?"

"Ah, like I said, that's a trade secret, but if it's Renko asking, I suppose I can let you in on it. Hisoutensoku happens to be nuclear-powered."

"What? Did you find a way to make a fusion engine?"

"No, no, nothing like that. I'm just redirecting a little bit of nuclear energy from our subterranean sun."

"Redirecting? Oh, I think I get it, it’s a pneumatic steam system. You're routing a geyser into that thing?"

"Yep!" Suwako said with a big smile. "When the geyser erupts the arms go up. When it stops, they go down."

So it really was just a balloon then, with nowhere for anyone to sit inside and operate it. "I see," Renko said, a wry smile spreading over her face.

"Anyway, don't tell anyone else about this yet. I want to keep it a surprise until we make the official announcement."

"Understood. Does Sanae know about it yet?"

"No, this is my project. I'm especially keeping it a surprise for her."

"Really? She'd love this though."

"I'm sure she would, but if she knew I was doing this, she'd argue with me about the design. I wanted to do this my way for once."

I guess that made sense. Sanae definitely seemed like the type to have opinions about the particulars of giant robot design.

"Hey, do you think I could get that poltergeist band to compose a theme song for it? Something like this deserves a song, how about something like '𝑂𝑢𝑟 𝐻𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑘𝑢!'" She began crooning in the closest thing to a baritone she could manage, improvising the words on the spot, over the tune of what I assume must have been the opening of an old giant robot anime. Renko and I could only look at each other and shrug our shoulders.


—8—


Rather than fly all the way back home with Suwako after watching the testing of Hisoutensoku, we had her drop us off outside the Scarlet Devil Mansion, in hopes of enjoying a quick visit before heading back to town. As we arrived, we saw Meiling, who we might have expected to be snoozing up against the gate, standing at ready, looking wary or maybe even worried.

"Hello Meiling," Renko said with a friendly wave. "Is something the matter?"

"Oh, it's you two. Hello again. Did you see anything strange going on from the direction of the mountain?" As she asked this, Meiling was looking toward the looming vastness of Youkai Mountain. I couldn't be certain what she was talking about, but given the scale of Hisoutensoku, it seems likely that anyone this close to the mountain might have spotted it during its testing. I glanced over at Renko nervously, but she was staring straight ahead, unflinching.

"Nope, nothing unusual. Why? Did you spot something?"

"I'm not sure. Just now the fog was moving in a strange way. It's gone now, but it certainly looked weird. I thought maybe I saw something else inside the fog too. I'll keep an eye out in case anything else happens." The look on her face was more serious than I had ever seen from her. I wonder how she would have reacted to hearing what she had seen was just an advertising balloon? Some things are better left unsaid, I guess.

Meiling let us through the gate after that. As was expected by this point, Sakuya appeared before us when we stepped through the gate and led us the rest of the way in and then down to the library. Apparently, the mistress of the house was with Patchouli today.

As Sakuya pulled open the door to the library and ushered us in, we could hear the sounds of a distant commotion from somewhere within the usually quiet and cavernous space. It almost sounded like someone might be having a danmaku match somewhere deeper in the archives. Sakuya frowned faintly at the chaotic sounds and called out to Koakuma as she flitted by.

"Is something going on?"

Koakuma looked toward the back of the library and chuckled ruefully. "The mistress decided to make Lady Patchouli part of her game."

"Oh, is that all? I was afraid we might have had another rat break in," Sakuya said dismissively. I wondered if this sort of commotion in a library was really something to be so casually dismissed. I'm sure Patchouli would have preferred things to be quiet, but in the Scarlet Devil Mansion at least, Remilia's whims were always the top priority.

Sakuya continued to lead us forward to where the commotion was coming from. We rounded the corner of one of the towering bookshelves and came upon a pitiable scene. Remilia was standing on top of a table, with a rather pleased expression on her face. Patchouli was seated in the chair directly before her, looking displeased.

"You have some gall, sneaking into this mansion in the guise of my dear friend Patchy, you fiend." Remilia announced with a cruel smile. "I, the descendent of Vlad Țepeș himself, will see to it that your insolence is punished."

Patchouli heaved a great and exhausted sigh, and then spoke without any hint of inflection, as if reading from a script. "...Ha ha ha. I should have expected as much from the Scarlet Devil herself. It matters not that you've discovered me though, for now I will destroy you and use this mansion as a foothold to begin my conquest of Gensokyo." Saying that, she stood up from her chair and lazily swung her arms, punching the air in front of Remilia.

"Oh come on, Patchy, put a little bit of effort into it at least."

"I'm a magician. You told me not to use danmaku, what exactly do you expect me to do?"

"Good day, Lady Remilia," Renko said boisterously, removing her hat and bowing briefly as we drew closer. "You look like you're having some fun."

Remilia turned around at the sound of Renko's voice. "Oh, it's you two again," she said, sounding bored. Turning to us she puffed her chest out and took on a regal air.

"Could you move Remi? Standing on the table is rude."

"At the moment, this table is my throne," Remilia said aloofly. Suddenly though, she smiled at us with a mischievous glint in her eye and her fangs bared. "You wouldn't happen to be yet more imposters sent by the evil youkai to assassinate me, would you?"

I glanced over at Renko. As odd an accusation as that was, it sounded like something I had read just the other day.

"As far as I know I'm neither an imposter nor an assassin." Renko said. "Besides, Sakuya is the imposter."

Instantly Remilia whirled on her maid. "So you’ve disguised yourself as Sakuya now? Do you take me for a fool, vile imposter?"

"I have no intention of assassinating you, Milady, but unless you get off the table I can't serve our guests any tea."

Remilia pouted. "You're no fun either, Sakuya." Despite saying that, she leapt up from her position on top of the table and settled herself gracefully back down into her seat at the table opposite Patchouli.

Renko approached Patchouli and leaned over to whisper in her ear. "I take it she's been reading that tengu-made manga?"

"How did you know that? Remi is quite enamored with it. She's been like this all day. I don't suppose you had anything to do with that?" she asked, shooting a brief glare towards Renko.

"Not me," Renko said, smiling as she shook her head. "That was all Miss Shameimaru's idea. Did you happen to read that manga as well?"

"I'm not sure you could call that reading, but yes I looked it over. It was middling at best."

"That was my opinion too."

"Remi seems to have loved it though."

That much was obvious. As soon as she had sat down Remilia had retrieved the nameless tengu manga and started flipping through its pages, her eyes sparkling with excitement. It just goes to show that one person's trash is another's treasure.

"Ah, I wish the Dark Lord would try something like this here."

"Please don't wish such things, Milady," Sakuya chided as she set a cup of tea down on the table before Remilia.

"We have villains enough sneaking in to steal my books regularly." Patchouli said with a sigh. She must have been thinking of Marisa.

"Why not send out the scarlet mist again? I'm sure Reimu would give you a fight," Renko suggested.

"That’s not a bad idea. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to fight her one-on-one."

"Miss Usami, please refrain from tempting Milady too much." Sakuya said icily.

Renko smiled sardonically and scratched at her head as Sakuya glared at her. Remilia, meanwhile, looked amused. Dangerously so.

"It doesn't have to be Reimu. At this point anyone who doesn't bore me to tears would do. Do you know anyone suitable?"

"Well there's the head priest of the new temple outside of the village, she's quite strong. Have you met her?" Renko asked.

"A temple? Outside of the village? When did humans build something like that?"

"Oh, you hadn't heard about it? It's been there since the spring. It's called the Myouren Temple and it wasn't built by the villagers. The nun who runs it sailed here in a flying ship then transformed that ship into a temple."

"Well, that sounds promising. She's strong, you say?"

"Well, it took Reimu, Sanae and Marisa working together to beat her."

"Oh? That’s rather impudent of her. Sakuya, go investigate that temple later."

"As you wish, Milady," Sakuya said in a perfectly pleasant tone, then turned and glared at Renko with a look that was as sharp as any of her knives. It was perfectly clear that she thought my partner’s suggestion was nothing more than a source of unnecessary work for her.


—9—


And now, I'll skip to the next morning.

"Hey Merry, wake up!"

Renko was leaning on her side and shaking me, still in her pajamas, looking nervous. I rubbed my eyes sleepily then sat up.

"What is it, Renko? It's still so early..."

"Merry, were you touching my eyes while I was sleeping?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"I had a weird dream, just like the one you told me about before. I dreamed that a fake Sanae snuck into our office."

"Huh?" I tried to think back to the similar dream of my own I had told Renko about before. It had been Keine, rather than Sanae who was the imposter in my dream, but that had been some time ago. I couldn't recall having any unusual dreams since I had picked up the good luck charm with its drawing of Bishamonten from the Myouren Temple.

"Well, I don't think you were seeing my dream, I don't remember dreaming anything like that."

"Hmmm I wonder what was happening then. Could hearing about your dream have affected mine somehow? Maybe the link between your dreams and other worlds would work differently here in Gensokyo..."

Renko crossed her arms and tucked her chin to her chest in thought. Idly, I pulled the flyer from the Myouren Temple out from under my pillow. I had forgotten all about it up until this moment and had been absent-mindedly sleeping with it in place ever since I first got it.

"You know, I don't think I've had any more strange dreams since I got this, Renko. Maybe we should go get you one too."

"Hmm, I suppose we could. It makes it a little difficult to sleep if you think you might have an unsettling dream." Renko scratched at her head, looking a little worried. It seemed like she might be starting to get a little taste of the sort of things I have to go through.

"We can talk about it if you like."

"No offense, Merry, but I'm not sure you're the sort of person I should talk to about unsettling dreams. That seems like it would end up with me getting dragged into the dream world or something."

"Don't be silly, just tell me what happened in your dream."

"I was alone in the office when Sanae stopped by. She seemed weird somehow, and everything about her just seemed a little off. I must have been acting a little jumpy because she suddenly got this big, evil-looking smile and started laughing like some sinister villain." I tried to imagine Sanae's innocent face with a wicked smile pasted across it. The result was surprisingly disconcerting.

"Anyway, it was scary, so I threw a pillow at her."

"I thought you said this was in the office. Why would you have a pillow there?"

"It was a dream, Merry, I don't know. Anyway when the pillow hit her Bishamonten came out of it."

"Wait, what? Bishamonten?"

"Yeah, a super-deformed little Lord Bishamonten, just like the one Byakuren drew. He popped up and chased the fake Sanae away. It's because I saw him that I thought this must have been your dream."

That's certainly strange. Why would Lord Bishamonten, whose picture was under my pillow, appear in Renko's dream? Just to avoid any misunderstandings I should mention that the two of us sleep in two separate futons. I’ve heard of the idea of two bedfellows dreaming differently, but in this case it was two people in separate beds dreaming the same.

"Was there anything after that?"

"Um, there was a little more, but I don't really remember it. There was some kind of fluffy black and white creature, I think."

"Like a panda?"

"No, it wasn't that..."

"A Siberian husky, maybe?"

"No, it definitely wasn't a dog... Agh, I can't remember."

Renko groaned and I shrugged. Given that I hadn’t seen her dream myself there wasn’t a lot for me to go off of for a guess.

"Well if it was a black and white animal in a dream, could it have been a baku? They were named after a kind of youkai that eats nightmares, right?"

"Oh, maybe. The youkai are called baku but I think the animal is properly called a 'Malayan tapir,' right? Are they even fluffy?"

"I don't know, but baku supposedly eat dreams, right?"

—I had a sudden and distinct impression that someone had told me that it definitely wasn't a baku at some point, but dismissed it as something I must have imagined. Probably.

"Hmm, in Gensokyo a dream-eating baku might actually be a real problem. Do you think I should ask Reimu about it?"

"For now, maybe start by asking Keine or Akyuu about it. Though now that I think about it, didn't you say the other day that if you had a dream like mine you'd expose them in a spectacular fashion?"

"Oh shoot, you're right! I shouldn't have gone for that pillow. I could have dealt with them in a more calculated manner. I guess I'm not really very awake when I'm asleep."

"If it was some sort of youkai, I guess throwing a pillow is the closest thing to danmaku you could manage."

"Would a pillow count as danmaku? In that case is that flyer like my Spell Card? Summoning Lord Bishamonten would be pretty cool."

"If you develop the ability to fight, then Reimu would exterminate you for sure." I thought back to the previous incident, in which Renko had only been spared from being punished as the mastermind responsible only on account of being a powerless human villager. As I shrugged Renko reached out and took the flyer, looking the image of Lord Bishamonten over.

"Let me see your pillow, Merry. If this flyer really is a Spell Card, I should be able to use it to summon Lord Bishamonten right now, right? Experimental reproducibility is the key to good science."

"What are you planning to do?" I asked as Renko picked up my pillow and tucked the flyer back into it.

"All we have to do is take our dreams and make them into reality, right?" she asked with a troublesome grin.

Was she about to throw my own pillow at me?

"Think fast, Merry!"

She hurled the pillow with all her might. If I hadn't been half expecting it, I never would have dodged in time. As it was, the pillow sailed past me and crashed against the sliding door to our room. As expected, nothing unusual happened. I glared at her as the pillow dropped to the ground with a rustling sigh.

"Huh, nothing happened. I guess it really was just a dream."

I glared at her. "Renko if you tore my pillow, you're the one who's going to have to mend it." I went to retrieve my pillow. Luckily, it was unharmed. By the time I came back she was already muttering something else.

"In order to do a proper reproduction experiment though, I should really do it in the office..."

"Seriously?"

—

We spent the rest of the morning handling our teaching duties as usual. After classes we stopped by our office, where Renko threw the pillow and flyer onto the floor of the office.

"There, now it's just like in my dream."

"I can't believe you're still doing this." Renko ignored me and patted the pillow on the tatami, seeming pleased with herself. Did she really want to learn to use danmaku that much? Well I suppose I can understand her longing. It did look like the sort of thing that might be fun if you were a powerless human.

"Now we just have to wait for Sanae."

"You're not seriously planning on trying to hit her with a pillow are you?"

"If we want to gather good data then the setup needs to be perfect."

"Does that mean I can't be in the office since I wasn't there in your dream?"

"No, it might still have been your dream for all I know. You can be here, you just have to stay out of my sight."

Oh, of course. How gracious of her. At this point there was no choice but to let Renko continue with her idiocy until she was satisfied. I sighed and took a seat in the far corner of the office while Renko sat facing the door, kneading the pillow in her hands. I was sure after an hour or so of sitting and waiting, Renko would probably get bored and find something else to do. That's how I expected this to go, anyway, but at times like these fate always has a perfect sense of comedic timing.

"Merry! Renko! It's an emergency!" Sanae cried as she threw the door to the office open and popped her head into the room, panting and out of breath.

"Toriyaaa!" Was Renko's only reply as her arm whipped forward like a spring, hurling the pillow at the doorway.

It hit Sanae square in the face. She made a very unfeminine grunt and stumbled backward, flopping onto her back on the ground outside our office, arms spread wide. It goes without saying that Lord Bishamonten was not summoned and the flyer fluttered down harmlessly to the ground. Renko watched it fall, seeming almost like she was shocked by her own actions. Seeing Sanae lying motionless outside the door, she moronically muttered "ah."

I spared only a second to glare at her before dashing outside. "Sanae, are you alright?" I called as I stepped through the doorway. I pulled the pillow off of her face and she blinked up at me, stunned. Sanae was more than capable of holding her own in a danmaku match, but even someone unbound by common sense like her would never expect to be clobbered by a pillow as soon as they opened a door.

"Owie. Wha-what was that, did something just attack me?"

"You can blame our idiot director for that."

"Sanae! I'm so sorry about that, I was just having a pillow fight with Merry."

"Don't make me a party to this! I wasn't involved, Renko."

"Why were you having a pillow fight in the office? I thought you guys didn't sleep here any more."

"I was trying to gather some data that may help to avert a crisis that—"

"Sanae you'll save us all a lot of time if you just go ahead and return the favor," I said, handing the pillow I had retrieved to Sanae.

"Oh, okay. Don’t mind if I do!"

"N-now just wait a second. Hold up Sanae—"

"Take this!"

The pillow struck with a thwack, landing right across Renko's nose as she stepped out of the door to the office. The great detective reeled backward through the doorway to crash flat on her back on the tatami floor.

She deserved no less. Rest in peace, Renko.

—

Anyway, I apologize for including that whole stupid scene.

"So Sanae, what were you going to tell us about?" Renko asked as the three of us sat around the table in our office afterwards, drinking tea. Sanae had arrived in our office in a panic, but of course whatever she had come to tell us was forgotten in the chaos of Renko's little experiment.

"Oh, that's right! I was going to tell you, but I forgot about it when the pillow hit me." Sanae clapped her hands together and stood up, a serious expression on her face and one fist raised over her heart. "Although the menace of the UFO invasion is behind us, Gensokyo faces a new threat!"

She spread her arms, and turned her palms upward as Renko and I glanced at each other uncertainly. "It was around noon today, a little ways down the mountain, shrouded by fog, and casting a shadow all the way down to Misty Lake like a huge Brocken Specter. I couldn't see what was blocking the light from the shrine, but it must have been enormous. From the shape of the shadow, it must have been..."

Sanae seemed to be pausing for dramatic impact. I looked worriedly over at Renko.

"...There's absolutely no doubt about it. It was a giant robot!"