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

—7—


So, back to the story in progress. Just ahead of us, the young apprentice fortune-teller was sprinting down a narrow alleyway between tenements, panting heavily as he ran.

Eyes watched from the windows of the surrounding buildings as the apprentice kicked over a number of stacked crates that had been leaning up against the wall in the alleyway before barrelling into a pedestrian who had been walking along the road, grabbing them and pushing them out of the way. Renko rushed into the alley in pursuit, her trenchcoat flapping behind her, and nimbly leapt over the tumbling crate as it came toward her before stumbling directly into the pedestrian who the apprentice had shoved. She shoved him to the wall with a shouted "excuse me, sorry!" I took the time to briefly apologize to the person who was now flattened up against the wall as I ran past.

The apprentice weaved between people in the alleyway as he made his way toward the end, out of breath and seemingly trying to shake us by disappearing into the crowd filling the main street on the far side. With the flowy, dramatic robes of the fortune-telling house he was wearing it would’ve been pretty easy to spot him though. He didn't seem to have much stamina and before he could make it out and onto the street, Renko was only a step behind him.

"Gotcha!" She cried as she reached out for his back.

The fortune-teller's apprentice twisted around, fear shining in his eyes behind his glasses as his legs tangled beneath him and Renko grabbed a hold of his robes. He toppled forward, collapsing in a heap with Renko on top of him and making a panicky wheezing noise as he hit the ground. I jogged up behind them, collecting Renko's hat from where it had fallen and handing it to her as she sat on the man's back, then promptly doubled over to rest my hands on my knees as I caught my breath. To be honest I was just as exhausted as the man laying on the ground beneath my partner. It was lucky that Renko had managed to nab her target before he made it out of the alleyway, as I didn’t much like the idea of everyone on the street staring at us.

"Merry, how can you still have no stamina after all this time?"

"Anyone would be out of breath if you make them run that much with no warning. More importantly though, is that guy okay?"

"Oh, good question. Hey mister, are you still alive?"

"Don't put your full weight on his back like that, you might actually kill him."

"Hey, I'm not that heavy!"

"H...Help..." The young man being crushed by my partner groaned and groped about with his hand until he located the glasses that had tumbled off of his face, then twisted his head around while still lying on his stomach to look at us. Now that we were up close to him, his face instantly triggered a memory in my mind. Not because he was anyone we knew, but because he strongly resembled a certain character in a manga of Sanae's that had left a strong impression on me. Though his face was younger and more gaunt he reminded me of a particular researcher from 𝐹𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑙𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡, the one who created a chimera capable of speaking human languages and who dislikes perceptive brats. If you don't know who I’m talking about, go ask at the Moriya Shrine about it.

"W-Who are you two? What do you want?"

"Well actually, we're just two people who were planning to ask those same questions of you." Renko said with a grin.

"Let me go... Why did you chase me? Get off of my back, damn it! What are you..."

"Please calm down. We don't actually have any intention of harming you, but I do really need to ask you some questions, Mr. Fortune-teller."

"It might be easier to believe you if you weren't still pinning him, Renko."

"Sorry about that. If you'll answer our questions without running off, I promise I'll let you up. What do you say?"

The man pressed his palms to the ground and tried to throw Renko off, but it was to no avail. If this man's performance was any indication, then Renko really was much heavier than I would have expected.

"Okay, now I'm a little hurt," Renko said, leaning over him. "Merry, have I gained weight?"

"I think this guy's just really weak."

"Alright. I'll answer your questions. Just get off of me. Please."

Renko obliged and climbed off of the young man's back, pouting a little as she did. I shook my head regretfully.

—

By now the commotion of our chase was starting to draw the attention of passersby and a few people had crowded around the mouth of the alley to look in. As the fortune-teller climbed to his feet, I asked him to take off his eye-catching cloak and hat.The three of us moved down the alley, looking for somewhere a little more out-of-sight.

"Is there somewhere we could have a private conversation around here, Mr. Fortune-teller?"

"My home isn't far from here. Would that be alright?"

"Sure, good enough."

With that, the apprentice sullenly led the way for ten minutes or so, trudging along until we reached another tenement house at the end of a blind alley. As the young man slid the door to the building open, warm, humid air wafted out of the doorway. He turned and glowered at the both of us.

"You two seem surprisingly willing to let yourself be led into a strange man's home."

"Are you planning to do anything bad to us? That would be extremely ill-advised. I should probably mention that if we were to go missing, then you'd probably be visited by the neighborhood watch, the Youkai Sage’s shikigami, two shrine maidens, and a selection of all sorts of youkai who wouldn't be very happy about it. If any of those groups got a hold of you they'd probably do more than tackle you to the ground."

The man's eyes went wide at the threat. "I won't try anything," he said hesitantly. "We're just here to talk. Do come in, won't you?"

My partner stepped through the door without hesitation, saying "Don't mind if I do." I timidly followed behind her.

The dim, tight confines of the apprentice's living space were made even more crowded by the fact that every available bit of space in the room was taken up by numerous books and bits of divining equipment. Our host must have been spending every coin he earned on furthering his skills as a fortune-teller, making him seem like an oddly studious sort of person. The young man fished out a pair of vaguely damp cushions and handed them to us. We laid them on the moldy tatami and sat down opposite him. As we did so, I noticed the apprentice quickly palm a small book off of the table and conceal it within his sleeve. I didn't say anything about it right at the moment though, hoping that Renko must also have noticed.

"So. Just who are you two? How do you know that name?" He asked, questioning us before Renko could begin interviewing him.

"By 'that name,' I assume you mean Usami Sumireko, yes?"

"Yes...You said that your name is Usami too, didn't you? I had heard that some of the teachers at the temple school were Outsiders... Is she a relative of yours then?"

"That's right."

Mentioning that Sumireko was Renko's great aunt would raise a lot of unnecessary questions. This whole scenario would be hard enough to make sense of without bringing the fact that Renko and I were from the future into the mix.

"How odd. How did you know that I had been speaking with her?" the apprentice asked, eyeing Renko suspiciously.

"Well to be honest, finding you was just dumb luck."

The fortune teller glared incredulously at her.

"You’re probably thinking ‘dumb luck? How can I trick her into revealing more information if she only stumbled upon Sumireko blindly?’ Well we sort of feel the same way. We know you know her, but that’s about all we know, so let’s get to know each other better, starting with the basics. What's your name, Mr. Fortune-Teller?"

There was no answer from the apprentice other than a sour, distrusting look.

"You don't want to tell me? Well I could just ask around the neighborhood or interview your master, you know."

The apprentice's glare became even darker.

"Maybe I should just give you a name. What do you think of 'Shou Tucker?'"

"What kind of name is that?" He asked, baffled. It was the name of the character from 𝐹𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑙𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡 that I had been struggling to recall. Renko must have made the same connection I had.

"It's just the name of someone your face reminds me of. Are you the sort of person who hates kids with good instincts?"

"...I don't get it. Call me whatever you like. I’m just a fortune-teller. I never told that girl my name either."

"Then I'll just stick to calling you 'Mr. Fortune-Teller. Now, were you the person who first told Sumireko about Gensokyo?"

Behind his glasses the fortune-teller's eyes narrowed. "Why are you asking that? What would you do if I told you?"

"That’s an interesting question. Do you think that we’d do something to you? Have you done something shady that would warrant that sort of treatment?"

In response to that, the fortune-teller's face became as expressionless as a mask as his mouth drew itself into a perfectly flat line. The moment we had first mentioned Sumireko's name he had sprinted out of the building, so it seemed pretty clear there was something up involving her, but he must have been betting that Renko didn't know anything else about it and he could just remain silent.

And while he was right, he didn't know he was right. The two of us had shown up unexpectedly in his life with the knowledge that something sketchy was going on and that he was involved. Even if we didn't know anything else, we had the psychological advantage, at least for the moment.

A moment of silence passed as Renko and the fortune-teller stared across the table at one another, almost like two fighters sizing their opponents up. The apprentice was the first to speak, in a carefully neutral tone. "...Was there something specific you wanted to ask me about?"

"Why don't we start with you just telling me everything you know about Usami Sumireko. You have my assurance that I'll keep anything you say private, no matter what it is. If you refuse though, then I'll have to open an official investigation into your activities. That would be awkward for you, but I'm afraid I need any information you have for my own reasons. I can't just let this go."

It amounted to a form of blackmail. Essentially we were using his own shady response to Renko’s initial question as leverage, but what else could we do? Ultimately we had to find out what this man knew about Sumireko.

The fortune teller let out a sigh "...What's the point of any of this?"

Renko answered his question with her troublesome smile. "It's simple. My partner and I can't go to the Outside World, but we'd like to talk to Sumireko Usami."

At that suggestion the fortune-teller said nothing, but his carefully schooled poker face broke into a grim frown.


—8—


"...Through my divinations I have been able to see the Outside World, or more precisely, I have been able to hear stories from people in that world. It was Usami Sumireko who taught me everything I know about the world beyond the Great Hakurei Barrier." Slowly and quietly, the fortune-teller began to speak.

"She seems to be something of a fortune-teller herself, though she calls the magic of the Outside World 'psychic powers,' or something like that. Through some coincidence, her divination connected with my own efforts and crossed the barrier. She’s very interested in Gensokyo, I'd say. She bombarded me with questions. I traded with her. She answered my questions about the Outside World, and in return I told her about Gensokyo. In her opinion, the Outside World is in a state of crisis. But it is a world free of youkai."

"...Wait just a moment," Renko interrupted, raising her hand then looking down in thought. "Sorry, could we maybe start a little further back? Can you tell me why you became a fortune-teller to begin with?"

The fortune-teller narrowed his eyes once again. "I thought you wanted to know about Sumireko. What's the point in talking about me?"

"It's just that you've piqued my interest. You had said earlier you were on the verge of being expelled from studying at that fortune-telling shop but your room here is filled with all manner of books and tools for divination. It's obvious you must be rather invested in your work."

"Just because someone studies something does not necessarily mean they have a talent for it. There are limits to what an ordinary human can achieve, and some things are no more possible for an average person than defeating a youkai through physical strength would be." A sarcastic smirk twisted his features as he looked up and gestured at the paraphernalia filling the room. "All of this is just the broken pieces of a dead dream. Soon I will be expelled from my master's tutelage. There is no hope for me to take on his place as a village soothsayer."

"So let me guess, when you found yourself falling behind in your studies you turned toward forbidden avenues of research to improve your results, right?"

That had to be another dig at the character from 𝐹𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑙𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡 that the fortune-teller so resembled. I was about to scold Renko and tell her this was no time for jokes, when I noticed a brief, pained expression appear on the fortune-teller's face and then be swallowed by his impassive mask.

Renko seemed to notice it as well. "I see..." she said, reaching up to fiddle with the brim of her hat. "As befits a fortune-teller, you’re pretty good at hiding what you’re feeling, aren’t you? If you had just played it cool and not tried to run as soon as I first asked about Sumireko you might have fooled me. Unfortunately, as things stand, that's practically a confession of guilt."

Mr. Fortune-teller sat and sweated in silence.

"Look, in light of the situation it would be best for you if you just came clean. You're just going to make things harder for yourself."

"You're doing much the same, are you not?" He muttered.

"Oh, did you notice?" Renko asked with a grin.

"Your presence here makes no sense. How did you find me? Why should I tell you anything when I don’t know anything about your own motivations?"

"Ah, I suppose that's fair," Renko said with a sigh. "I'll be frank with you about what I've been concealing, then you do the same for me, alright?"

Renko glanced over at me, shrugged carelessly, then looked Mr. Fortune-Teller straight in the eye with a serious expression.

"Merry and I are from the future. Sumireko is my great aunt."

A moment of silence passed and then the fortune-teller’s face contorted into a look of confusion.

"I understand that you may find that difficult to believe, but it's a verifiable fact. You can ask Miss Kamishirasawa at the school about it if you like. You could also ask the Hakurei shrine maiden, the Moriya Wind Priestess or the Child of Miare about it, they'd all tell you the same. Beyond that though, I'm afraid I'm from the Outside World of the future, not Gensokyo, so I can't prove it to you by predicting anything that will happen here."

The fortune-teller continued to glare at her, saying nothing but clearly unconvinced.

"Anyway, my partner and I were transported from the Outside World into Gensokyo and across time against our will. This seems to have been triggered by a certain artifact we found in my great aunt's possessions decades in the future. We've never been able to determine why we came here or what it had to do with my great aunt Sumireko though. That's why we're looking for information now."

Frowning, the fortune-teller crossed his arms, seeming to be waiting for Renko to continue. When she didn't, he scoffed dismissively. "You're insane," he growled.

"You'd be surprised how often people tell me that. Even my partner here says it all the time."

"You can't expect me to believe any of that."

"Believe it or not, that's my story, told openly and without deception. Take it or leave it, I suppose. If you don’t believe me then there’s no explaining why the two of us are here now."

"—Alright then, Miss Time Traveller, are you telling me you only knew that I had made contact with that girl because of your knowledge of the future?" the fortune-teller asked, smirking sarcastically.

"Well that's part of it. Like I said, we came here because we came into contact with a relic of Sumireko's, so we know she must have had some connection to Gensokyo, but she hasn't shown up here yet. I have reason to believe she will be arriving soon, but we don’t know how she gets here. Is she going to be brought here against her will like we were? Or since she already knows that Gensokyo exists, is she going to come here intentionally?"

"How do you know she knows about this place? You said you haven't been able to contact her yourselves, right?"

"Oh boy. Look, this will take a long time to explain but we happen to know a tsukumogami who replaced her body with a tool from the Outside World and as a result, she’s now able to make use of magical power from that side of the barrier. Through the connection she has, she's occasionally able to see glimpses of the world beyond the barrier and she mentioned having seen someone recently who looked a lot like me. If that person is Sumireko, then that's probably how she first learned of Gensokyo, by hearing about it from the person in the Outside World who's connected to that tsukumogami."

The fortune-teller stared incredulously at Renko, who continued, undaunted. "Once she found out that there was a hidden world on the other side of a hidden barrier, my great aunt would be compelled to find out more about it. She's an Usami, after all. If she’s anything like me, then there’s no way she could ignore a mystery like that."

The look of incredulity on the fortune-teller's face became more confused.

"We know that magical power can transcend the Great Hakurei Barrier and connect to the Outside World. If that’s the case, then it stands to reason that the connections might cross over and interfere with each other. And if something like that was possible, then my aunt could have connected to someone here who was trying to find out more about the Outside World. That was my guess, and who would try to do that but a fortune-teller? I decided to start asking around all of the local practitioners of that trade to find out who had contacted my great aunt, but I hadn't expected to get lucky on my first shot."

"Even if I were to believe you, you're just piling assumptions one atop the other. You can't know if that's how any of this works!" The fortune-teller sighed in exasperation.

"Be that as it may, was I wrong about any of it?"

The fortune-teller closed his lips and did his best to conceal his frustration.

"Honestly, I never would have expected to hit the bullseye with my first shot. I wonder if my great aunt could have been guiding me, somehow?" Renko asked with a laugh.

"You're saying this is my fault for being careless," the fortune-teller grumbled, shaking his head slowly.

"Try not to beat yourself up about it too much. I’m sure anyone would be surprised if a stranger came in the door and suddenly asked about something secret they’d been doing."

"I don’t need your pity. Instead, why don’t you answer a question for me?"

"What is it?"

The fortune-teller raised his head, looking tired as behind his glasses his squinting eyes locked with Renko's.

"That girl, Usami Sumireko—if she comes to Gensokyo, she's going to die, isn't she?"


—9—


Having been asked that question, it was now Renko's turn to draw back with a shocked expression rather similar to the one the fortune-teller had worn when we first asked about Sumireko.

"...I see. So you've come to try to save her because she's your ancestor. I suppose if you really are from the future that would be a sensible reason to travel back in time."

"Well we didn't come to Gensokyo of our own volition, but I suspect that whoever brought us to Gensokyo and backwards through time must have wanted us to do something like that."Renko nodded and let out a breath. I suppose it really is hard to conceal your surprise when someone asks you about something you thought they had no way of knowing.

"In the future that I came from, my great aunt slipped into a coma for unknown reasons at around the age she is now. She stayed in that coma until it eventually took her life. I’m sure you can see why I would be concerned that her contact with you might have something to do with that. I’m not accusing you of anything, but if there’s anything I can do to save my great aunt’s life, I need to know about it."

There was a long pause as the fortune-teller sat across from us, looking Renko over.

"With that in mind, could you tell me a little about yourself and what you know?"

The fortune-teller folded his arms in front of himself and lowered his eyes. When he spoke, his words sounded as if was spitting them out contemptuously. "...I can tell you that I have no right to stop her."

"If that girl should die because she chooses to come to this world, then that is her choice. I have no right to interfere with her and neither do you. Let her do as she pleases."

On instinct, I interrupted. "That's so—!"

Renko raised her hand, signaling for me to let the fortune-teller speak. A cruel smirk quirked the corner of his mouth.

"Were you going to call me ‘callous’? Or perhaps ‘irresponsible?’"

"Well it's certainly not the attitude I would expect of a mature adult. If our guardian were here, I’m sure she’d say ‘if a child is taking a dangerous risk right in front of you, you have a responsibility to correct them.’"

The fortune-teller snorted derisively. "Do you think yourself any better than me? Is it so wrong for me to think that this girl should have the freedom to risk her life?"

It was Renko's turn to be at a loss for words now. For the both of us, but especially Renko that would be a difficult argument to refute, given our history. After all, we had on countless occasions put our own lives on the line to satisfy her curiosity. Whether here in Gensokyo or back in the Outside World, crossing forbidden boundaries and taking risks to reveal hidden truths was what the Hifuu Club had always been all about...

"I've become fed up with this ridiculous farce called Gensokyo. This village of humans living and working for the sake of the youkai who thrive off of us. This cage where we are kept as livestock to feed those who terrorize us. This world where time has stagnated and the same pointless days repeat over and over again, year after year. If being a proper adult means learning to accept this stagnation and becoming properly cowed and complacent as we are harvested, then wouldn't it be better to die by one's own hand?"

"That's a very immature way of thinking. In the Outside World having that sort of mindset is called being '𝑐ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑏𝑦𝑜.' It's generally thought of as something that people should grow out of by their late teens."

"Oh, this one has a sharp tongue," he sneered, turning to face me. "Perhaps I am immature. But if so, then you two are certainly no better, are you?"

I didn't have an answer for that.

"You're finding all of this amusing, aren't you? Your ancestor may be about to die, and I might be the one who set her on that path. If the two of you were the decent adults you're claiming to be you'd already have me in chains, wouldn't you? You'd be doing everything you could to keep her from coming to Gensokyo, or at least prevent the chance of any further contact. Or perhaps you'd report me to that shrine maiden friend of yours and have her torture the details out of me. But you're not going to do any of that, are you? Because rather than prevent Sumireko from coming here, you want to meet her face to face. Even though the safest thing for her would be to make sure that she never reaches this world, it would be more interesting for you to see how this all plays out, wouldn't it?"

The fortune-teller paused, seeming to expect a rebuttal from either of us.

"Nothing to say now, hmm Miss Usami? You're rather tired of this boring world yourself, aren't you? You'd prefer a dangerous freedom to a boring safety, just as I would. And you don't care who your thirst for adventure harms either, do you? You can't help yourself. You're a hedonist, seeking mystery and adventure, no matter the cost. Freedom is the right to be wrong! To make dangerous choices. You value that freedom just as I do. And Sumireko does as well. I expect you know this, and yet you would deny her the same freedoms you greedily pursue for yourself. You're not so different from me. Do you really want to deny Usami Sumireko her freedom?"

He glared at Renko, but when she didn't reply he scoffed, sneering as he continued. "If Usami Sumireko should die in Gensokyo then she will die free. She hates the world she lives in as much as I hate this one. Her goal in coming here is to escape from the restrictive nature of her own world. If she should die in pursuit of an escape from the boredom of her life, wouldn't that be a blessing? Or would you rather tell her to give up on her dreams and settle down to become a proper, respectable adult?"

All at once Renko bolted to her feet. She stood across from the fortune-teller, who was staring up at her. The fierce glare of his angry eyes was met with the mischievous sparkle in Renko's. She smiled her catlike smile.

"That’s exactly why I’m trying to help her."

"...What?"

"It's simple. As simple as a mathematical formula. Freedom is equivalent to the right to make mistakes. That's absolutely true. My goal isn't to restrict possibilities down to a world that only contains safety. Rather, I'd prefer a world that's full of mistakes. That's full of freedom. It's human nature to make mistakes. A world full of mistakes is a world filled with possibilities."

Renko spread her arms wide as she spoke, her eyes glittering with wonder.

"The world should be filled with freedom. A world that is completely free of mistakes is equally free of choice. Perfection is a state of unchangeability. After all, perfect things can never be improved, right? So to hell with perfection, it has no place in the lives of humans. Instead, let’s embrace freedom with all the imperfection that it entails. The world is so much richer for the lies, delusions, fantasies and ignorant assumptions that fill it. Change can only arise when we learn to accept everything! The billions of lies and misunderstandings surrounding the truth are the price that must be paid for the world to move forward!"

"But you have one thing wrong. Destroying oneself just to reshape the stagnant world around you is foolish. Wouldn't it be better to live and see the shape a world capable of change could take?"

The apprentice's eyes went wide behind his glasses. Renko meanwhile was smiling. It was a smile I knew very well, and one I thought of often. It was the same cat-like smile she had worn on that day when she had first invited me to join her explorations into the occult. She reached a hand across the table towards Mr. Fortune-teller.

"We are the Hifuu Club, an occult circle founded with the goal of uncovering the secrets of the world. Our purpose is to make the world a more interesting place. We do this by creating fictions even more interesting than the observable facts, hoping to happen upon the one gleaming diamond of possibility gleaming amidst the vast desert of nonsense. By doing that, we ensure that our world can never be stagnant. It can never be boring. Every unexplained event is an endless source of secrets and mysteries, if you just know where to look."

The fortune-teller stared up at Renko, completely at a loss for words.

"Mr. Fortune-teller, I only have one more question for you. Would you like to join our Hifuu Club and become part of our efforts to make the world a more interesting place?"