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

—13—


After a third day of operations, the decision was made to pack up the Futuristic Water Youkai Bazaar. Among the kappa, the entire affair was viewed as a tremendous success.

Suwako greeted us happily as we approached. "Hey, Renko! Good to see you again! Everything went off without a hitch!"

Genbu Ravine was nearly deserted by this point, with the kappa in the area packing their things away. Renko met Suwako's smile with a grin of her own and a big thumbs up. "Glad to hear it!"

"Now we have enough budget to keep the kappa working for the time being. We’ll need to figure out the best way to get a return on that capital, but that's a problem for another day. For now, we're all good and we have your idea to thank for it. I'll have Sanae bring your consulting fee to your office tomorrow like we agreed."

"Thank you very much."

When had Renko made any sort of agreement like that? I certainly hadn't noticed, but I suppose every now and then Renko might actually have a bit of business sense to her.

"Now that the bazaar is over, what will you do with Hisoutensoku, Lady Moriya?"

"Hmmm, I hadn’t actually thought about that. It's quite big even when deflated, so I don't know where we could keep it. It’s a bit of a waste, but we'll probably have to dispose of it. It’s not like anyone would take something that big for us."

"Maybe you could give it to Alice," I suggested. "She's a puppeteer who lives in the Forest of Magic, she collects all sorts of dolls."

"She's the one who puts on puppet shows in the village, right? Do you think she'd take something this big?"

"Wait, you're going to get rid of Hisoutensoku?" This had come from Sanae, who had apparently overheard us talking and scurried over to us from where she had been helping the kappa decamp. "I wanted to keep it, it was so cool!"

"Keep it? What for?"

"We might want to have another bazaar some day. Or we could use it as an attraction at our shrine to draw worshipers. It's really eye-catching, right?"

"Hmm, maybe. I thought you didn't like the design though Sanae."

"Well now that I've gotten a better look at it, I guess it's pretty cool. Regardless of the design it's still a giant robot and we shouldn't have to get rid of something like that just because we don't have a good place to put it. This is Gensokyo!"

"Well I’d like to keep it too if we can. We’ll have to think of somewhere to store it though."

"Maybe you could store it underground somewhere?"

"The Palace of the Earth Spirits has asked us to stop putting things we aren't using in the Underworld."

The two of them continued to discuss the situation for a bit. I found myself agreeing with Sanae. It would seem wasteful to let something as grand as Hisoutensoku be destroyed, but I couldn't really imagine any use for it other than advertising..

"Ayayaya, hello there, you two."

Renko and I turned to look up toward the voice that had spoken and saw Miss Shameimaru slowly descending. Renko waved in greeting and she landed just in front of us.

"Hello there, are you covering the close of the bazaar?"

"That's right. I was hoping to get a few quotes from the organizer, but it seems she's busy right now," she said, looking over towards where Suwako was brainstorming with Sanae. "I've heard rumors that you two acted as advisors for this whole event. Any comments on that?"

"Not the two of us, this was all Renko's idea."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far—"

"Ah, so that giant doll was your idea then?" Miss Shameimaru asked, her pen scratching rapidly over the pages of her notebook.

"Not quite, I advised them to make some kind of large landmark. Turning that into a giant robot was all Lady Suwako's idea, and the design was to her tastes."

"Her tastes, eh? I suppose it's not my place to comment on the taste of Outsider gods." Here in Gensokyo where there was no cultural tradition of giant robots, I suppose the idea of something that looked human-like but built at an immense scale would seem a bit odd. "In that case, as an advisor, what was your impression of the bazaar? Did it live up to your expectations?"

"Well as a customer I thoroughly enjoyed it. If they ever hold another bazaar I'd be happy to help out again."

Miss Shameimaru's pen flew across the page as that answer was copied down into her notebook. I suppose I'd get to see her spin on events in the next issue of the 𝐵𝑢𝑛𝑏𝑢𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑢 𝑁𝑒𝑤𝑠.

She looked up from her writing and offered a brief nod of thanks before turning away, but Renko stopped her before she could walk off.

"Oh, by the way, Miss Shameimaru, I had a few questions I'd like to ask you if I could."

"Aya? What is it?"

"It's about that manga you showed us the other day."

"Ayayaya. It's already been given to the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library."

"Actually, I wanted to ask you who came up with the story for that manga?"

"The writer? They would prefer to remain anonymous. Let's just call them tengu A."

—Shameimaru really had made that manga, hadn't she?

"Alright," Renko said. "Well, you may not know then, but I'm curious as to where tengu A got the idea to write a story about impostors in the guise of friends and acquaintances attacking the hero."

"Ayaya that? From what I heard, tengu A may have based it on a dream they had."

"—A dream?" Renko's eyes narrowed.

"Yes," Aya said with a nod, twirling her pen between her fingers, "a recurring dream about being attacked by an impostor posing as a friend."

"I see. How long did it take for that manga to be produced, I wonder?"

"Roughly two months, from what I understand. Up until then they had been studying the reference materials borrowed from the Moriya Shrine. But from the time the story was solidified to the time the manga was produced was about that long."

"I see, so tengu A would have had to have had the dream at least that long ago... Well, thank you very much, Miss Shameimaru. I should mention that the manga was well-received by both the Scarlet Devil herself and her gatekeeper. Selling it in the village might not be a bad idea after all."

"Ayayaya, we tengu wouldn't set our sights so low. Rest assured, there are tengu artisans working on producing an improved prototype right now. Someday the tengu will produce something that will wow even the seasoned critics of the Moriya Shrine and yourselves."

"I hope that's within my lifetime. I'd like to see it." Renko said with a grin.

"We'll do our best."

Renko nodded and Miss Shameimaru swooped off, angling to find a moment when she could interview Suwako. Renko watched her go, one hand drifting up to fiddle with the brim of her hat as she did.

"What are you thinking this time, o great detective?"

"There's something going on here, but I don't know what yet," Renko muttered. "In a place like Gensokyo, I don't think it could be a coincidence though."

"What couldn't be a coincidence?"

"You, me, whichever tengu created that manga and Meiling all having the same dream."

Meaning a dream in which a fake version of an acquaintance appeared. For me it had been Keine, and in Renko's dream it had been Sanae. For Meiling, she had told us she had seen Reimu and Marisa. If there was something affecting us, it seemed to take whatever form was familiar to the dreamer.

"Don't you think it could just be that manga, Renko?" I asked. "After all, each of the people affected read it."

"That's true, Merry, but you had your dream before you read the manga, and the artist responsible for creating that manga apparently had the dream months ago, before the manga even existed."

"Oh, that's a good point," I said, thinking back. Renko was right. I had gotten that flyer from the Myouren temple before Aya ever came to talk to us about the manga.

"Right now we only have a sample size of four for known occurrences of this phenomena, so we can’t be certain, but if people are having dreams like this all over Gensokyo then this might qualify as an incident. Dreams are more your field of expertise though, Merry. What's your take on the situation, as a Relativistic Noology student?"

"Oh, hmmm...."

It was an interesting question. If the dreams that Renko, the manga artist, Meiling, and I had had were all actually the same things then...

"Well, if we accept the premise that Gensokyo is a world that operates according to the principles of Relativistic Noology, then I suppose the most sensible explanation would be that since everyone who had this dream experienced something different, but with similar elements, then the world of dreams might actually be a separate, but entirely real place, like the Netherworld, or Makai."


—14—


After that Renko and I returned to our office. I made us a pot of tea and we indulged in swapping theories for a while.

"Dreams and reality are the same thing to a subjective observer. Whichever one I consider to be my reality is for all intents and purposes, my ‘true reality.’ That's one of the basic precepts of Relativistic Noology," I began.

"When multiple people's subjective realities happen to overlap with each other, then they can agree on how certain aspects of reality behave, and that forms a mass delusion. This agreed-upon delusion is the reality described by empiricists like yourself, Renko. Which is why the nature of the observable world is affected by the act of observation. Just like the simultaneously living and dead cat that physicists like to put in a box. For the purposes of this discussion though, let's say that the world in which the two of us are sitting here and talking with each other is 'reality.' In that case the place that we see while dreaming would be a different reality. Let's call that the 'Dream World.'"

Saying that, I drew two ovals on a piece of paper writing 'reality' in one and 'dreams' in the other, then connected them with a single line.

"When we sleep in the world called 'Reality' we wake up in the world I'm calling the 'Dream World.' The important question is whether The Dream World is a place where everyone has their own version of it shaped by their perceptions, or if people's subjectivities can overlap there like they do in Reality.

"Well as a physicist I’d like to say it’s definitely the former."

"That’s probably right. After all, if subjectivities could overlap and a mass delusion about what the Dream World was like could be established then there would be no need to make any distinction between waking and dreaming, right?"

"That makes sense."

If dreams were the sort of thing that everyone could agree what they were like then maybe they would be treated as an objective reality, sustained and shaped by consensus. They'd be seen less as something subjective and more as something like another world that people could visit, like a shared online game or the like.

"But that's not the case, right? Even in Gensokyo reality is one thing and dreams are another. This world may be full of fantasy but even here dreams are considered to be entirely separate and entirely subjective."

"So that means your idea of the Dream World as a physical place separate from here is wrong, doesn't it?"

"Not necessarily. It might just be a world where subjectivity is stronger than objectivity."

"Stronger?"

"That's right. You physicists have your many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and us relativistic noologists have our subjective realities. The two ideas are more or less equivalent though."

To those readers who might not be familiar with either discipline, I would summarize it like this: everyone perceives the world just a little bit differently. In the views of Relativistic Noology, this was seen as an indication that what we call 'reality' was actually an array of countless parallel but slightly different worlds all existing alongside one another. Each one of us lived in a different reality, and the idea that we shared one objective reality was just a delusion brought on by the frequent overlapping of the disparate worlds we each inhabited.

"To put it another way..." I continued, "the difference between Reality and the Dream World could just be that the density of subjective realities there is quite low. Here in our Reality, our subjective experiences are all near one another and intertwined, like the strands of a rope combining into one whole. The Dream World is just the opposite of that. The thread of each subjective experience is unraveled and splayed out. Every now and then a fiber might cross over with others like it, but for the most part they're completely divergent."

"So these threads of subjective reality aren't completely separate parallel states. They do occasionally overlap?"

"Right, and when they do, we get the phenomenon of two people dreaming the same in different beds. The dreams that you, Meiling, the tengu artist and I had were all slightly different, but they were similar to one another. The connection could be explained by the threads of each of our subjective realities in the Dream World crossing over one another. The idea that everyone's dreams, while different, could be tapping into a similar source or be connected in some way has been around for a long time."

"That sounds like Jung's theory of the collective unconscious, or maybe it’s closer to Sheldrake's theory of morphogenetic fields?."

"It doesn’t really matter which one is closer. Here in Gensokyo it could be that there are youkai who live in this Dream World."

"Like a baku or something, right?"

I nodded. When thinking of a youkai that interacts with dreams, the nightmare-eating baku was the first to come to mind. If such creatures did exist here in Gensokyo, the idea that they might live in the Dream World wasn’t out of the question either.

"With so many people having similar dreams in different beds, I think it’s reasonable to assume there might be some sort of interference going on. Some entity might be guiding us to all have our Dream Worlds overlap with other people's. That entity would probably be some kind of youkai that lives in the Dream World. Like a baku."

"So you think a baku is responsible for showing all four of us the same dream."

"Well it's just a hypothesis. Admittedly it involves several assumptions piled on top of one another."

"For now let's just assume that you're right. Why would a baku show all of us the same dream? The manga artist was the first to see the dream and that might’ve driven them to create a manga based on it. Meiling and I only had the dream after reading that manga. The three of us are connected by that single thread, but you had an impostor dream before you were part of that chain."

"...The only motivation that makes sense to me is that the baku must have wanted the tengu to make a manga about this. Then once they inspired them, they turned to me, maybe hoping that I would also write about my dream."

"You mean in one of your case files for our detective agency?"

Exactly. In the very record you're reading now, dear reader.

"Maybe... but if that's the case then it would seem like the baku's intention would be to spread the same idea to as many people as possible."

"The idea of someone you know attacking you?"

I thought for a moment, then turned to Renko. I could only think of one reason that anyone would do something like that. "...Could it be some kind of warning?"


—15—


The next day we asked the students at the Temple School if any of them had had any strange dreams recently. None of the results seems to echo the sorts of dreams that Renko and I had experienced.

"It seems like this dream is transmitted through the tengu's manga."

"A manga that affects your dreams sounds like something out of an urban legend. Do you think we should go back to the Scarlet Devil Mansion to see if it's affected Patchouli or Remilia?"

After all, it stood to reason that if the manga really was the cause of the strange dreams, then Remilia and Patchouli would have been affected as well.

"Before we do that, let's gather some information about youkai that can affect dreams. Especially ones known to exist in Gensokyo."

Thus, just like usual, we headed for Hieda Manor. We were taken to the usual audience room, where Akyuu received us with tea and a ready smile.

"Hello again, detectives, what are we investigating today?"

"We want to know about baku." Renko replied. "Have people ever reported seeing any here?"

"Baku? The youkai that eat dreams, right?" Akyuu tapped her temple lightly with one finger, closing her eyes as she retreated once more to her mental library.

"As far as I know, there’s very little on record about baku. They’re said to exist in the world of dreams, but there are no records of anyone, even a youkai, seeing one while they were awake. If they exist, then they must only exist in the Dream World."

"The Dream World? Is that an actual place?"

"It's generally believed that the dreams of all living people are connected in some way. Supposedly people have one version of themselves that exists in the waking world and a completely different self that lives in the Dream World. Sometimes people's dream selves wander into the dreams of other people or journey to far off places or meet strangers that that person has never seen in their waking life."

"You hear that, Merry? You got it right without even knowing."

"Well I'm hardly the first one to propose such an idea, Renko. Like I said, these theories have been around since basically forever."

"What are you two talking about?"

"Don’t mind us. We've just been discussing what the Dream World might be like."

"I see. Anyway, as I was saying, there aren't too many records relating to baku, but the ones I can find all describe seeing a young girl with a quirky expression. It’s thought that the girl may be the baku herself."

Multiple people had all describe a baku as looking like the same girl? That reminded me of the old urban legend of 'This Man.'

"Oh, I do recall having seen a strange girl in one of my dreams…" I mumbled, trying to recall her face. My memories were only hazy partial recollections, but I distinctly recall something like that having happened not long after my dream with the Keine impostor.

"You saw a baku in your dreams, Merry? Why didn't you tell me sooner? Did she have a long snout and a dopey expression like a tapir?"

"I think she looked like a human, but I don't really remember it well."

Akyuu cleared her throat softly.

"There isn't much more to say about it. Most people forget their dreams immediately after waking, and since baku live in dreams they're another type of youkai that no Child of Miare has ever managed to interview."

"Really? Why is that? As the Child of Miare don't you remember everything you've ever seen in dreams too?"

Akyuu looked at Renko with a slightly strange expression, a mix of pity and curiosity and said simply. "The Children of Miare do not dream."

"Really? Never?"

"Yes, or at the very least I have no memories of ever having dreamed. It’s possible that I’m just forgetting my dreams as soon as I wake up, but if so then dreams are the one thing that the Children of Miare are able to forget." Akyuu took a delicate sip of her tea.

"I suppose that makes sense." Renko said, folding her arms. "If you were to remember everything you ever dreamed, it would be hard for you to know dreams from reality, or even the dreams of your previous lives from actual history."

I can certainly vouch for that being true. When the boundary dividing dreams from reality begins to fade, dividing memory from fantasy becomes almost impossible.

"Perhaps that's true. I wouldn't know, at any rate. I'm sorry if that makes me of little use to you on this particular topic. That's probably why there's almost no mention of baku in the records though."

"Well that's enough about baku anyway. Are there any records of other dream-related youkai that you know of?"

"There's records of the makuragaeshi, but they're youkai that supposedly interfere with your sleep rather than dreams. I've heard stories about incubi and succubi living in Makai but I've never seen any myself. Most people generally agree that if a youkai has been appearing in your dreams it must be the work of a baku."

"In that case is there any folklore about how one would deal with a baku?"

"Not that I know of. I've never encountered one, of course, but they're generally seen as beneficial, as they supposedly eat nightmares."

"I see."

"What's gotten you so interested in them all of a sudden? Has a baku been preying on you?"

"Well that's what we're trying to figure out." Renko explained briefly, mentioning that multiple people we know of had all been having similar dreams about impostors. She left out any mention of the tengu manga, however.

"I see," Akyuu said as Renko finished her explanation. "Multiple people all dreaming the same dream. That certainly sounds like something that a baku might be involved in. I couldn't begin to guess why though. Would you like me to continue looking into the matter?"

"Oh, would that be alright to ask?"

"Absolutely. The baku is a youkai I've never had the chance to research, so this is a good opportunity."

Renko bowed her head as Akyuu smiled brightly. "Well that's much appreciated, Miss Akyuu. Thank you for your help."

—

After that we left the Hieda manor with Renko newly motivated. She proposed that we head out to talk to the residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion at once, but as luck would have it, we were saved the trip. Not a minute later we happened to run into Sakuya as she was walking down the street, in the middle of shopping.

"Oh, hello there Miss Sakuya!" Renko asked, waving her down.

Although her arms were loaded down with several baskets full of groceries, Sakuya turned to us and bowed with her typical refined elegance. Her maid outfit and apron were impeccably clean and pressed, but stood out clearly amongst the clothing of the villagers surrounding her. She didn't seem to care one bit though.

"Hello Miss Hearn, Miss Usami." she said coolly. "Good day to you both."

"Just doing some shopping for the mansion?"

"Yes, just picking up a few ingredients. Are you two about to head out somewhere?"

"Yes, we’re about to do some research," Renko said with a grin, "but we were actually hoping to ask you a few questions, if you can spare a moment."

"Very well, what did you need to know?" Sakuya tilted her head inquisitively as Renko made a show of nonchalance acting as if the questions she was asking had just spontaneously occurred to her.

"First, have you by any chance read that manga that the tengu brought by the mansion the other day?"

"I only skimmed through the first few pages."

"I see. Both Meiling and your mistress enjoyed it though, right?"

She frowned slightly at that. "Yes. I’m not too bothered by the Mistress, but when our gatekeeper stops being able to tell reality from fiction and fights people in her sleep, I start to worry about the security of the mansion."

"Ahaha, that does sound like it would be a bit of a handful. How about your mistress? Does it seem to have been affecting her dreams at all like it did with Meiling?"

"Not that I've noticed. She's moved on now though. It's rare for anything to hold her interest for more than three days at a time. She hasn't mentioned that book in a while."

"I see. Has anyone in the mansion other than Meiling had any complaints of strange dreams lately?"

"Strange dreams? No, not that I know of. Are you two investigating dreams now?"

"More or less. We’re currently doing some research into the Dream World."

"I see. Well I'm afraid I don't have any information for you. I'll ask Milady and Lady Patchouli about it later and if they have anything of interest. I'll let you know what they say the next time I'm in the village."

"Thank you very much for your time, Sakuya."

"Hmm. Good day then," she said with a nod and turned to walk away, perfectly elegant as always.

Renko watched her go, grumbling to herself. "Hmmm. I'm not surprised to hear that Sakuya hasn't had any strange dreams, but if Patchouli had, I'm sure she would have mentioned it to someone. Actually maybe she wouldn’t if she thought that a dream like that would set Remilia off. I wonder if asking Remilia directly might have gotten me a different answer?"

"Going after Sakuya now, after seeing her off would be weird. What do you think we should do next?"

"Well if there's anyone else who has read that manga I'd like to talk to them about it. Maybe I should have praised that book when Miss Shameimaru brought it by and told her to sell it at Suzunaan."

"It's too late for that now and besides—" I stopped myself mid-sentence, having suddenly realized something. There were at least two other people who had definitely read the manga. If it had the ability to affect dreams, we could ask them about it too. "Wait, Renko didn't Sanae and Lady Moriya read that manga?"

"Oh right! I'd completely forgotten." Up until a moment ago I had also forgotten that Miss Shameimaru had said that before bringing the manga to us she had shown it to Sanae and the goddesses of the Moriya Shrine.

And so the two of us hurried home. As soon as we got there Renko ran over and bowed before the small shrine to the two mountain goddesses Sanae had erected.

As usual, the voice of Kanako Yasaka resounded in our heads.

"What is it? Did you need me to send Sanae down to see you?"

"I don't think I need her to come all the way down. There is something I wanted to ask though. Have Sanae or Lady Moriya been having any odd dreams lately?"

"Strange dreams? What are you talking about?"

"I can't be sure of anything yet but the question has to do with a new investigation we're working on."

"Alright, let me go ask them."

A few minutes passed in silence, then—

"Neither of them have any idea what you're talking about."

"Ah... I see. Sorry to have bothered you then."

"It's no trouble. I should offer you my thanks for your help with the bazaar before though."

"Well I'm just happy to have been of service. I'm sure I'm not the only one who enjoyed myself there. Thank you again for your time, Lady Yasaka."

"Yes, goodbye, Renko." With that, the sense of presence emanating from the shrine faded.

"So, Renko, were you maybe just imagining things? It seems like the similar dreams were just a coincidence."

"Maybe..." she admitted. Despite saying that she raised her hand to her chin and tilted her head. I could see she wasn't convinced but there was nothing I could do but shrug my shoulders.

Thus, our investigation into the phenomenon of shared dreams came to an end for a bit. But only for a bit. It wasn't long after that the problem connected to the incident made themselves known again, although this time they approached us from an entirely different angle.

It began with a rumor that started circulating a few days later.