東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 5:Double Dealing Character

—13—


There were no guards or watchmen to speak of in the upside-down castle. Our approach had only been challenged by a handful of excited fairies who seemed to be acting erratically, driven to attack by the magical energy still emanating outward from the floating tower. Mokou dealt with these effortlessly without so much as a word. I would have expected Benben and Yatsuhashi to have followed close behind us as we infiltrated the castle, but they seemed to both want to keep well out of Mokou's sight.

"This castle clearly wasn't designed to be upside down like this," Renko mused as we floated along the hallways. "There's a proper floor up there."

We were still riding Genji as it would have been impossible for us to walk here. Just like the outside of the castle suggested, the inside looked exactly like a traditional and well-preserved Japanese castle, only rotated 180 degrees, putting all of the doors well above us. If anyone was occupying this castle, they had to have been capable of flying.

"Hey, calm down Trenchy," Renko said into her collar as we proceeded along. Her coat had been flapping on its own ever since we entered the castle, trying to wiggle its tail out from beneath me as its sleeves and lapels flapped about.

"Can you do anything to calm your coat down? Your collar is battering my face, Renko."

"Well maybe she doesn’t like that you’re sitting on her and preventing her from flying."

"I could get up if you like, Renko. If you float away here maybe you'll end up being able to walk on the floors."

"That would be disorienting. I already feel like I'm in an Escher painting just from being here." She was right. Even though everything around us was consistently facing the same direction, the universalness of it all really made it feel like we were the ones who were upside-down. There was almost a feeling of vertigo to it.

While I was thinking about that, clinging to Renko to keep her from lifting off and sighing to myself, wondering how I came to regularly find myself in such bizarre situations, Mokou suddenly stopped and stood still ahead of us. Can I call it 'standing still' when she was floating in the air? At any rate, Genji drew to a halt.

"Who's there?" Mokou called out.

"Nevermind me, who're you!" A voice replied from a ways off. "This is no place for humans like you. Take your leave at once!"

A person stepped out from behind a pillar and into our sight. She was facing away from us but with her head turned around and her back slightly bent so that she could see us. She was a girl with hair that was mostly black with just a single shock of red and white at the front. A pair of small horns was growing from her head. Could she be an oni?

"I just went through a lot of trouble to get in here," Mokou replied confidently. "I'm not about to leave. Are you the one making all the weak youkai go berserk? What are you trying to do?"

"Ohoh, do you want to know?"

"I asked, didn't I?"

"Well if you want it, you can't have it! Now turn around and go back where you came from!" What a needlessly contrarian thing to say.

"Oh? What’s that?" She turned her gaze to Renko, Genji and myself. "That person behind you there. Did that coat lead you here? Maybe the price was too high if even those sorts of things are being affected."

"Price?"

"You brought a newborn tsukumogami with you. Have you come to join our revolution, comrade?" The girl smiled wickedly, giving the clear impression she was up to something.

Mokou glanced at Renko then turned back to the newcomer. "Comrade? I'm not here to be your friend. I'm here to stop this incident."

"That just makes me want to have you as a comrade even more. I'm Kijin Seija, part of the resistance force. We're going to overthrow Gensokyo's order. We're the underdogs, but with the power of the princess' treasure, we're going to overturn the structure of Gensokyo. How'd you like to live in a world where the weak rule over the strong?"

So it really was a coup d'état in the making then. From the sound of things, this Seija person was either its leader or one of its planners. She must also have some accomplices with her if she was mentioning a ‘princess’ though. Off the top of my head, I could think of two people who might be called that—Kaguya and Wakasagihime, but it was hard to imagine that either of them might be behind this. Especially Wakasagihime.

"The 'princess'?" Mokou muttered.

"Huh? What are you mumbling about?" Seija frowned suspiciously.

"I see, I see. I should have known this was all Kaguya's doing. Is this twerp one of her retainers now? That's fine. I'll just burn them to a crisp and then I can settle this with her directly..."

"Eh?" Seija asked, leaning forward and peering at Mokou. "What are you saying?"

"...I wouldn't expect her to leave the forest normally, but a ridiculous flying castle like this is just the sort of thing that arrogant Lunarian would have demanded. I bet she's planning to enslave all the humans in the village so she can finally be called a real princess. She should have just stuck to being a princess of a bunch of rabbits!"

It was as if a switch had been flipped in Mokou's mind. The moment she had heard the word 'princess' everything had started to remind her of Kaguya. A cloud of flames suddenly exploded from her fists, blooming into a raging fire that engulfed her whole body. From where we were sitting on Genji, we couldn't see the expression on Mokou's face, but I'm grateful for that. Any smile she might have been wearing at this point couldn't have been anything more than the grinning snarl of a beast bearing its fangs. It was the sort of expression I'd rather not see on the face of a friend.

"Who's that?" shouted Seija, taken aback and flinching away slightly. "Or rather, what are you?"

"Who would have thought this incident would have such a perfect resolution?" Mokou asked, her voice mixed with the crackling of flames. "All I have to do is kill her and everything will go back to normal. Kaguya! Come out so I can kill you! If you don't, I'll just kill my way through everyone in this castle until I find you!"

"Who's Kaguya?" Seija shouted, bewildered. "Hey, don't come over here!"

It was too late. Gathering the flames surrounding her into a conflagration covering her right fist Mokou launched herself forward at Seija, looking like something straight out of a fighting game.

How unfortunate. I have no idea what motivated your revolution Seija, but may you rest in peace regardless.

—

Or, that's what I immediately expected to be writing, anyway. What actually happened next was that there was a sudden and intensely vertiginous sense of displacement, as if the whole world had spun on its axis. No, even that isn't enough to describe how disorienting it was. It was if the very 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑠 of 'up' and 'down' had suddenly been exchanged.

Mokou, who had been racing forward, stumbled unsteadily in midair and tumbled. The arc of fire that had swung out from her fist lashed against empty space uselessly, missing her target by a wide margin.

"Urgh..." Mokou grunted nauseously.

"Pathetic! An attack like that will never hit me!" Seija laughed from behind us. We whirled around to find that Seija had somehow moved to be behind us. Had she teleported? No, teleportation wouldn’t have explained this sickening feeling of disorientation.

"Renko! Merry! Get out of here!"

"Time for us to go," Genji agreed, already moving to put as much distance as he could between us and Mokou.

"Renko, you're feeling this too, right?" I asked, closing my eyes to try to calm my vertigo.

"I feel... something," Renko muttered nauseously. "It felt like everything got flipped the wrong way around..."

If whatever this was could affect even the empirically-minded Renko then that was pretty impressive. I wondered if whatever we were experiencing worked by affecting our ability to recognize directions. Renko seemed to be thinking about it too, one of her hands drifting up from where she had been holding onto Genji's shell to fiddle with the brim of her hat. I was about to tell her to keep holding on lest she fall up (down?) when suddenly—

A wall of hot, glowing danmaku materialized just behind us and zoomed toward Mokou. Mokou turned just in time to avoid them as they raced at her from behind. Lunging to the side, Mokou got clear of the barrage, looking around to see where it had come from.

"Who shot…" As Mokou spun in the air to see where the shot had come from, Seija leapt toward Mokou, landing a flying kick in the middle of her back.

"Heh! Fooled you!" The force of the blow sent Mokou hurtling forward to crash face-first into a wall.

Mokou wiped her face as a thin trickle of blood streamed from her split lips.
"Not bad… I should have expected one of the princess' allies to fight like a coward! I'll burn you to a crisp!" Mokou roared, swinging her hands together in front of her. A gout of fire exploded from the point where they collided and formed itself into the shape of a rapidly expanding phoenix, which grew for a moment more before launching off of Mokou's arms and straight for Seija. The projectile accelerated as it flew, leaving a streaking tail of flame behind it. It was an instant away from striking Seija dead on when everything flipped again.

The burning phoenix that had been about to impact Seija had now reversed direction in midair, racing back toward Mokou. Mokou’sr eyes went wide when she saw it coming and she cried out in surprise as she dodged to the side. The projectile narrowly missed her, racing down the hallway behind her and leaving a trail of cinders as it passed over our heads. She could even reverse Mokou’s flames?

"Damn! What's with this guy?" Mokou sputtered.

Renko's fingers were dancing along the brim of her hat. "Mokou! Over here!" Renko called out, waving her arm over her head.

At Renko’s beckoning, Mokou rushed over to hover just beside us.

Renko leaned over and whispered in Mokou's ear. I couldn't hear what she said, but I saw as Mokou widened her eyes in surprise. "So how am I supposed to fight back against that?" Renko hurriedly whispered something else in Mokou's ear. I didn't like the look of the bloody smile that spread across her face in response. "Yeah. I can do that. You guys find someplace to hide."

"Roger. Genji, do you think you can get us to that room over there?"

"I'll try."

Genji carried us into an adjoining hallway and then up toward one of the sliding doors near the ceiling. Renko leaned forward to open it and we darted inside, leaving Mokou and Seija behind.

I let out a slow breath as I looked around. We had apparently let ourselves into an upside-down sitting room with tatami mats clinging impossibly to the floor above our heads. Bonsai trees stood on upside-down shelves and cushions were neatly stacked in an open basket sitting on the roof. Had everything been glued in place, I wondered?

"Will we be safe here, Renko? What did you tell Mokou?"

"Nothing too complicated, just a surefire way to win," Renko said with a grin.

"Like what?"

The next moment a tremendous, thudding impact shook the room. It was followed by a long, drawn out scream that echoed from the far side of the door.


—14—


Curls of dark grey smoke were rising from Seija's body which was draped over one of the ceiling crossbeams below us when we ventured back to the large dining hall we had just left.

For the sake of my own mental health I should be grateful that Seija looked more like a character from an old cartoon who ends up covered in soot after an explosion than the actual grisly reality of a charred corpse. Judging from the smoldering wreckage of the furniture in the room, whatever Mokou had done would have definitely burned a human to death, causing gruesome injuries all over their body, but for youkai like Seija... well, it certainly looked like it had hurt.

"...What happened?"

"I blew up everything in the room," Mokou said with a shrug. "Renko said she could reverse the position and direction of any of my attacks, so she suggested I attack everywhere at once in a way that would affect us both."

It was just like Kuwabara vs. Toguro the elder in 𝑌𝑢 𝑌𝑢 𝐻𝑎𝑘𝑢𝑠ℎ𝑜. I guess evasive abilities always lose to wide-area attacks.

From the look of the room, Mokou's self-immolation must have been near instantaneous and just short of hot enough to set the whole room ablaze. Some of the wall hangings were smoldering and char and soot outlined a wide ring on the ceiling and floor. Given that we were in a wooden castle,I should be grateful that Mokou's control over her flames was so precise.

"For a mastermind, this girl isn't really all that strong. Once I finally hit her, she went down right away."

"Well she's leading a resistance of weak youkai, right? It would be odd if she herself wasn't weak. Someone who was already powerful wouldn't have much reason to want to start a revolution, right?"

"Wait, does that mean Kaguya isn't the mastermind behind all of this?"

"Probably not. She's got no motive to do something like this."

Mokou growled then scratched at her head. "Well then who was that 'princess' she was talking about?"

Seija groaned at Mokou's feet and began to stir, moving to push herself off of the roof beam.

"Hey, no running away," Mokou commanded. She mercilessly stomped on Seija's back, eliciting a weak groan as if she had just stepped on a frog.

"Arggh, it's not supposed to go like this!" Seija growled from beneath Mokou's boot.

Mokou leaned over, placing more weight on Seija's back and looming over her. "You were saying something about a 'princess' earlier. Who is she? Is she the mastermind behind all of this?"

"Heh. You... you want to know?" Seija choked out between coughs. "Then I'm not telling."

"Oh, I get it now. You’re an amanojaku, aren’t you? You’re pretty ambitious for a small fry."

I had always just thought of 'amanojaku' as a figure of speech. The sort of person who was needlessly contrary for no good reason, but I suppose here in Gensokyo it was actually a type of youkai.

Seija twisted her neck around as much as she could, smiling crookedly up at us. "You can't begin to imagine how people like me have suffered beneath the heels of those who are born into strength."

"If an amanojaku is the one behind this revolution then I'm guessing you've got some evil, hidden intention, right? I'm not going to be heartbroken over this." Mokou said, pressing down hard with her leg and eliciting another wheezing cough from Seija. Seeing her standing over her defeated foe with her hands in her pockets and her foot firmly planted in the amanojaku's back, she looked strangely at ease, as if this were something she was used to. I wonder if deep down Mokou might be a bit of a bully.

"Let me tell you something, amanojaku. You only like telling the opposite of the truth, right? Well that basically makes you the most reliably honest creature ever. So whatever you do, Kijin Seija, don’t tell me where this princess is. I’d really hate that."

Seija bit her lip to keep from speaking. Was it really necessary to add a layer of psychological torture to this? I was starting to get a little worried about Mokou.

"Ah! What are you doing to Seija?" a voice called out from behind us.

We all looked up to see who had spoken, but Seija was the first to say anything. "Princess!"

The voice that had called out belonged to a girl who had just appeared in the hallway. She was small, slight in every dimension with fine features and several of the oddest accessories I had ever seen. She was wearing a hat that looked like the lid of a rice bowl which made sense seeing as she was standing inside what appeared to be an oversized flying bowl. She was carrying an ornately decorated golden gavel in one hand and the other was holding a huge sewing needle. Aside from the odd accessories, she was wearing a beautiful and elaborately embroidered silk kimono in a rich red. After taking a moment to survey the scene, the girl bravely pointed her needle at all of us. "Leave Seija alone!" she shouted.

Seija again struggled and pressed herself up with both arms just enough that she could speak. "Get out of here, princess! These guys are after your treasure!"

"You want my treasure?" The girl in the bowl asked. "Who are you? You're dressed in red and white but you don't look like a shrine maiden. Are you a thief? I knew the path to revolution would be difficult but I didn't expect to have to contend with bandits. Whoever you are, I won't let you hurt Seija any more. Get off of her!"

Mokou looked over at this new girl. "So you're the one behind this incident then?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Yes! And there's no point in trying to steal this mallet. Only an inchling like me can possibly use it!"

An inchling? With a mallet? It couldn't be...

"You wouldn't happen to be the famed Issun-boshi, would you?" Renko asked, suddenly leaning forward and clapping her hands together excitedly.

"I'm his descendant! I am Sukuna Shinmyoumaru, princess of the inchlings. What about you? I see you're riding on the back of a turtle, are you supposed to be the descendant of Urashima Taro? If so, you're in the wrong castle. This isn't the Dragon Palace, it's Shining Needle Castle."

"My apologies, but I'm just an ordinary human. My name is Usami Renko . This is my partner Merry and the turtle's name is Genji. The one stepping on your friend is Fujiwara no Mokou."

"Well I appreciate the introductions, but could you get off of Seija? You three are humans, right? You should all be on our side. We're trying to overthrow the powerful youkai who have been oppressing all of us! Wouldn't you like to see the order of things flipped around?"

Upon hearing the inchling say that (though I wonder if I should be calling her an inchling as she was the size of a human) Mokou lessened the pressure she had been putting on Seija's back. The moment she did, Seija pushed herself up again and cried out.

"Princess! Use the mallet! Give me a hand here!"

"Oh, good idea." Shinmyoumaru said with a smile. She took her fancy gavel and waved it in the air. "Miracle Mallet, give Seija some of your power!" Shinmyoumaru twisted her wrist and waved the gavel.

Seija grinned as she lay on the floor. The next moment Mokou cried out in alarm as her body flipped over and she suddenly hurtled toward the floor above us. She caught herself before impact and resumed floating (still upside down) but by then Seija had climbed to her feet and darted away to take up a position behind Shinmyoumaru.

"Seija, are you alright?"

"I got a little hurt."

"Then stay back. I'll deal with these intruders. They all look like humans, but if they were strong enough to beat you then we should try to recruit them as allies."

To my surprise, Seija nodded, offering no argument. "As you wish, princess," she said curtly, then sprang down a distant corridor, disappearing into the hallway, leaving only Shinmyoumaru to face us.

A moment or two after Seija disappeared the gravity reversal effect that had flipped Mokou over seemed to wear off and she was able to turn the right way around and return to floating at our side. "Tch, she got away..." she muttered under her breath, staring down the hall where Seija had fled for a moment longer, then turning to address Shinmyoumaru. "So you're a descendant of Issun-boshi?"

"I am," Shinmyoumaru answered. "We inchlings have suffered terrible oppression for countless generations. This is where that ends though! Our revolution will overthrow Gensokyo's tyrannical rulers and avenge our humiliation! We inchlings will act on behalf of weak creatures everywhere and establish a just society in place of the current system. Doesn't that sound better? Wouldn't you rather live in a Gensokyo that's not ruled over by powerful youkai?"

"Unfortunately, I guess you'd put me on the side of the establishment." Mokou said, reaching a hand out in front of her. A hot flame blossomed in her palm. "I'm sure you've had your struggles, but I'm here to make sure you don't cause any problems for the human village. If that means opposing your revolution, so be it."

Shinmyoumaru frowned, but didn't seem intimidated. She turned to Renko and I. "What about you two? Will you join our revolution? I see that your coat is on the verge of becoming a tsukumogami. That's due to the power of this mallet. Wouldn't you like to aid your loyal tool and join us in creating a world that has a place for creatures like that in it?"

It was an odd proposal. Personally, I didn’t know how to respond to a question like that. As for my partner though...

"Hmm," she said, fiddling with the brim of her hat. "Honestly that's an interesting proposal. The Hifuu Club was originally founded as a circle for two delinquents with no regard for order and distaste for the state of the world as we knew it."

Mokou swiveled her head about, shooting Renko a glare. The flame in her hand dwindled. "Renko, what are you doing?"

"I suppose as a teacher at the temple school, I am part of the establishment. Now, Shinmyoumaru... Wow, that's a heck of a name. Do you mind if I just call you 'Shinmy?' Anyway, I think on the surface, your dream sounds admirable but the trouble with revolutions is they tend to be beautiful only in dreams. Once any revolution is actually successful, dreams have to give way to the harsh dictates of reality."

Shinmyoumaru frowned at that. "What are you saying, exactly?"

"Well, have you given any thought to what form of government you would institute after overthrowing the powers that be? What's your founding vision? What exactly are you planning to do once you're the ones on top?"


—15—


"Huh?"

It was clear from the way that her eyes went wide that Shinmyoumaru had never considered Renko's question.

"Our goal is to create a better world. Where the weak can live happily..."

"I'm not asking about your ideology though," Renko interrupted. "I'm asking about practical realities. Currently, humans and youkai live separately but have occasional contact and even some interdependencies. This state of affairs remains stable thanks to the rules set down by the Youkai Sage, and the Hakurei shrine maiden upholds that order. You're planning on toppling all of those pillars, right? If you do that, then what will take their place? If you have a system that makes sense I wouldn't hesitate to support you, but I need to be well-informed to make a decision."

An uncomfortable silence stretched on for several seconds as Shinmyoumaru stared at Renko.

Renko grunted. "I see, you haven't gotten that far. I take it that you're aware that youkai require human fear in order to maintain their existence? If you were to overturn the order of Gensokyo, that would be putting humans in a position similar to the one they're in in the Outside World. If you did that then the only way that youkai would be able to survive would be for humans to voluntarily feed them fear. That would lead to a world where humans have control over a few powerful youkai would. You’d end up with a hierarchy just like the current one, but with the currently weak youkai who can survive on nothing more than recognition at the top, humans below them and the few remaining powerful youkai on the bottom."

"Doing something like that would radically change the social structure of Gensokyo. The humans wouldn't have much reason to have to stay inside the walls of the village any more. They'd start venturing out, forcing the previously strong but now dependent youkai to assist them in developing and conquering all of Gensokyo. This would be certain to lead to conflicts between human settlements and youkai as human lands expanded.

Sooner or later the youkai opposing the humans would be bound to turn to previously weak, now powerful youkai for assistance. In the end you’d probably end up with something like the warring states period with weak youkai warlords ruling over populations of humans and using previously strong youkai as foot soldiers. Everyone would be trying to unite Gensokyo under their own banner, but in a place as small as this world, I can’t imagine the end result being anything other than either an absolute ruin of a neverending warzone or else the totalitarian control of an unaccountable and all-encompassing central government, if someone managed to set themselves up to consolidate power quickly."

Renko was spooling off an elaborate fantasy simulation effortlessly. A fantasy version of the sengoku era in which humans and monsters battle for control of a nation. I think I may have even already read a manga like that at the Moriya Shrine.

"Stop trying to confuse me!" Shinmyoumaru yelled. "Our goal is just to create a world where weak youkai like inchlings and tsukumogami aren't oppressed and amanojaku like Seija can live as they chose to!"

Renko shook her head. "Ah, that was too complex a scenario. Let's start with something simpler. In this new order you're hoping to create, are you expecting to be on top and in charge of everything? Or are you promoting the idea of equality, where every youkai has an equal say in the affairs of the world?"

"Oh. Um, hmm."

"If it's the latter, there's a temple not far from the human village that is dedicated to promoting the idea of equality between humans and youkai. I could introduce you to the head nun there, if you like."

It seemed clear from the look on Shinmyoumaru's face that at no point had any concrete vision or ideology motivated this insurrection. Hers was a revolution born wholly from dissatisfaction with the status quo. It seemed to me like someone must have taken advantage of Shinmyoumaru. As for the question of who would do such a thing, the answer seemed obvious.

"...Miss Mokou, do you think that this girl..." I whispered, leaning over towards Mokou.

"Yeah, she's probably just being used." Mokou replied quietly.

If Shinmyoumaru was just being used as a tool, then it had to be Seija who was wielding her. There must be some other aim motivating this rebellion and Shinmyoumaru was nothing more than a means to an end.

"The real mastermind was that other one. Dammit, I shouldn't have let her get away."

"We’re just trying to get back at the forces that were holding us down..."

"So this is all just about revenge."

"That's not true at all! We're going to create a world where people like us can be happy! All we have to do is smash the current order and then we can figure the rest out later! The important thing is to free the people from the tyranny of the Youkai Sage and the Hakurei shrine maiden first!"

"So it sounds like what you're proposing is either something like a direct democracy in which humans and youkai all have equal representation. Well, giving more power to weak youkai in order to close the gap between them and stronger youkai might be a step towards that, but I think you need to first consider if a democracy could even work in a place like Gensokyo, where a lot of youkai don’t really care about authority or laws at all."

"...So does all of this mean you're interested in siding with me or not?"

"Hmm, well, I understand where you're coming from in wanting a more democratic society, and launching grassroots revolution is a commendable approach, but you haven't really done anything to ensure that the people you're hoping to liberate are onboard with your vision of how things should be run, and you're trying to overthrow the current system without taking the time to make sure your values are aligned first. That's not a very democratic approach. Violence may be a necessary aspect of any revolution, but you need to present a shared set of goals and ideals for your fellow revolutionaries if you expect them to follow you into battle."

"I know that! That's why we've been using the mallet to fill weak creatures with the spirit of revolution!"

Come to think of it, Genji had told us that the power he had felt radiating from this castle had carried an agitating message with it.

"I see, so the mallet can do all of that. By the way, Shinmy, are there any other members of your resistance other than you and Seija? I don’t mean just youkai who have gained power from the mallet, I’m talking about people who believe in your ideology and would have supported you even before this incident began."

There was a pause during which the small princess glared at Renko.

"Ah. Is it possible, by chance, that your revolutionary army consists of just you two?"

"Who cares?" Shinmyoumaru shouted. "We have the power of the Miracle Mallet on our side! That and the two of us are all we need! Seija told me that I have the power to liberate the oppressed and I have her by my side to guide me!"

Mokou groaned audibly and shook her head again. "...Have you seriously been listening to everything that girl told you? She's an amanojaku!"

Shinmyoumaru glared at her. "I know that! Don’t assume she’s lying just because of that. I trust Seija and even if she was lying I wouldn’t care. Lie or not, I’ll turn the future she’s dreaming of into a reality!"

As Shinmyoumaru said that, her eyes shining with a hopelessly naïve conviction, another voice echoed in my head.

"𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦! 𝑊𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙!"

It was something that Renko had said to me a long time ago, when we were both still living in the Scientific Century. As my dreams had become more lifelike I had begun to lose the ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality, those had been the words she had spoken to me.

"I see..." Renko muttered as she reached up to grab the brim of her hat and tug it down, casting her eyes into shadow.

"I think your determination is admirable, Shinmy. I can see that you're dedicated to this cause and I suspect that if I were to try to dissuade you, it would only make you more stubbornly resolved. There’s no way of running a society that everyone will be satisfied with, of course, but because I respect your ideals, I’d like to give you a suggestion."

The princess blinked at the sudden turnabout "...What?"

Renko grinned and extended a hand out toward the girl floating in her bowl. Shinmyoumaru looked at it suspiciously and made no move to approach.

"Shinmy, if you want to stage a democratic revolution then it stands to reason that you need popular support. Not just power, but the backing of Gensokyo's humans and possibly even some of the powerful people who call this world home. Like that nun I mentioned at the Myouren Temple. If we can present a compelling vision for a new way forward to benefit all of Gensokyo, then I think even the establishment would be willing to listen to what we have to say. Doesn't a popular uprising sound more likely to succeed than just two people staging a coup?"

Mokou turned on Renko, a panicked expression on her face. "Renko, what are you saying? Did you forget why we came here?"

Renko paid Mokou no mind and instead smiled at the princess.

"I gave you my name already, but I didn't introduce myself properly. I'm Usami Renko, Gensokyo's foremost negotiator. I think you should hire me to negotiate with the ruling powers of Gensokyo on your behalf. So that we can establish a brighter, more democratic future for everyone who lives in this world."