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

—13—


After that, Mr. Fortune-teller stumbled home on his own, walking away with a vaguely stunned expression.

Once he had left, Sanae turned on her goddess. "Lady Kanako, what were you trying to do?"

"I've seen his type before. People like that are prone to taking rash actions if you don't shock some sense into them."

"Rash actions? You mean he really was going to try to do something to Merry and Renko? Which way did he go? I'll chase him down!"

"That's not what I meant, Sanae. It doesn't matter now. Judging by his face I don't think he'll be doing anything much for the next little while at least. You should be able to handle him from here."

Kanako let out a hearty laugh, and then, just like that, she was gone. They say the gods can be capricious, but still….

"So what now, Boss? Are you really going to hire him?" Sanae asked after a few moments.

"You were really worried about that though, weren't you Sanae?"

"Oh course I'm worried about leaving you two alone with some strange man," Sanae huffed. Was that really the sort of thing she should be worrying about? It's not like she was Keine, after all. "I don’t think you’d let some random guy come between the two of you, but still! He’s some weird guy you barely know! I don’t like the idea of him hanging around, especially since both of you are just regular humans!"

"Alright, I take your point, but he’s a person of interest in a very important case for the agency right now. Besides, the Youkai Sage has basically told us that he’ll end up being a big lead for finding out why we came to Gensokyo in the first place. We can’t just ignore that, right?"

Sanae pouted, still looking completely unsatisfied. "I still don't see why Yakumo Yukari would ask the two of you to save anyone. If it's just a single person, she could do that on her own, couldn't she? That’s another weird thing. Yakumo Yukari is the one who brought you both to Gensokyo, isn’t she? What’s it matter if that guy is the one who contacted your great aunt in the first place?"

Renko shrugged. "Who knows what she was thinking. Maybe it's like a classic science fiction trope and we're already destined to save him and just playing out our parts. Or maybe it's like Mikuru acting on 'classified information' from the future. We are time travelers, after all."

"Oh I love when you get that trope in sci-fi, where someone's memories don't make sense until you see how events actually play out and something wildly improbable happens? Kyoichiro Takahata's 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑝 was a real masterpiece. I loved that series!"

"I think Gensokyo is closer to Merry's system of Relativistic Noology, which would imply a many-worlds interpretation. If that's the case, then paradoxes would be impossible because going back in time would just create an entirely different timeline. What do you think, Merry? Which set of sci-fi tropes are we using here?"

I returned Renko's glance and shrugged.

Yakumo Yukari knew the future of this world, and she was actively trying to change it. At least that was the conclusion that Renko and I had come to after the end of the Earthquake Incident. It might even be the case that, in the view of the Youkai Sage at least, the world we were living in was already an alternate future that she had created.

If that was the case, then perhaps the reason that the Youkai Sage had dragged my partner and I backwards through time and across the Great Hakurei Barrier was to use us as a lever with which to overturn the machinery of destiny. Could saving the fortune-teller somehow be one of her means of achieving her goals?

We could do nothing but speculate, of course, but even if her intention was to use us in that way, what could two people who didn’t have the benefit of the sage’s outside observer view of history hope to do to change it?

In essence, Renko and I were the cats in the box in Schrodinger's famous experiment. To the observer outside of the box, our fate might seem uncertain and wholly unpredictable, but here inside of the box we had no choice in the matter. Renko and I could only carry on as we always had. It was entirely possible that we might be changing the future at this very moment, but we had no way of knowing that we were doing so. From our perspective whatever alterations to the timeline might occur would simply become the way things were. We had no way to perceive any alternatives or see what changes we might be making. If there was an observer outside of the box watching us, then any plans they might have for us were completely unknowable from our perspective.

Unless... Perhaps... Could that be the point of it all? Had Gensokyo's Administrator appeared in front of me with a cryptic hint for the express purpose of informing us that our fate was out of our control? If so, was this whole case just her way of advertising to us that we were the cats in the box and she was the deterministic observer? Even if that explained her actions, what did she intend for Renko and I to do with this information? What could we do?

All I was capable of was seeing the edges of boundaries where they appeared, and Renko's main talent seemed to be putting herself in danger and emerging with nothing but a delusional theory to show for it. Speculating about the Youkai Sage’s intentions seemed pointless but also almost unavoidable. Was it possible that something as frivolous as that could be her aim? Did she want Renko to try to deduce her intentions?

"Hey Merry, are you okay? Anyone home?" Renko was leaning over and looking deeply into my eyes. I must have been staring into space again. I shook my head to clear the swirling thoughts then looked back to Sanae and Renko, glancing first to one and then the other.

"Renko, what if we tried to approach this scientifically?" I asked. "Come up with a proper hypothesis, test our theories and eliminate assumptions? That's something you’re good at, right?"

"Oh, that's an unusually sound idea, Merry. It's rather counter to the nature of a great detective to present theories before the end, but I suppose you need to at least have a hypothesis in mind in order to turn observations into evidence, right?"

Renko poked the brim of her hat back on her head and smiled at me as she said that. It was that same troublesome smile that had become so familiar to me. A smile I would recognize anywhere, at any time. There was no mistaking it.

"Well then, if we're going to be using Outside World scientific thinking this time around then Sanae can participate too! It'll be nice to have a third opinion on our theories."

"Oh, I get to help this time? Leave it to me!" Sanae smiled broadly and clenched her fists in excitement.

I smiled back at her, but my thoughts were already drifting elsewhere. The Youkai Sage, Yakumo Yukari. If she really was what I thought she was, then what on earth could she possibly expect me to do for her?


—14—


And so the three of us stepped back into the office for a brainstorming session.

"Alright. Let's start by laying out everything we already know. I think my great aunt would be the best place to start with," Renko began. "She was born in the year 2000. According to the journal entries left by her older brother, my grandfather, she was a genius-level intellect and had psychic powers, but she was also arrogant and self-centered. Between those abilities and her personality, she apparently had very few friends and was a loner."

"Oh, that almost sounds like me when I was living in the Outside World..." Sanae said, a little sadly.

"Merry, would you say Sanae has a genius-level intellect?"

"You're being mean, Miss Renko! I may be bad at everything other than science class, but it's part of my appeal. A living god with no weaknesses at all would be boring, right?"

"I'm not sure I'd call that appealing..."

"No, I think she's onto something, Merry. She's definitely cute. In fact, if I had somehow met her before I met you, I'd probably be all over her. A beautiful girl whose powers defy the logic of the Scientific Century, and she's a living goddess to boot. That's pretty hard to compete with."

"Miss Renko! No cheating on Miss Merry!"

"Well it's not cheating if we're both okay with it. Weren't you saying something about becoming a Hifuu sandwich, earlier?"

"I'm okay with just watching!"

"Stop! No more of this. We're supposed to be doing serious scientific hypothesizing here, remember?"

Whenever Sanae joins us for a case, things always end up getting more complicated, somehow.

"You could have let it go on a little longer, Merry. But alright, let's get back to what we were discussing. My great aunt apparently decided after graduating from junior high school that she wanted to attend a high school a fair way away from her home. She got an apartment of her own and moved out. I don't know the exact date, but at some point after that while she was still in high school, her family got a call saying she hadn't been showing up for classes. When they went to check on her they found out that Sumireko had been falling asleep in class and showing up late on a regular basis. Whatever was causing that had now advanced to the point where she was sleeping for entire days at a time. Whenever she woke up she would say things that made no sense to anyone else, then fall back asleep again. Eventually she stopped waking up altogether and fell into a coma for a long time before eventually passing away."

"Wow, a real 𝑆𝑙𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑦 story, huh? In that case I really don't want that fortune-teller guy being involved. I don't want him ending up in the role of the prince!"

"Why would you be upset about that, this is my great aunt's story?"

"Because the Prince in that story is a real creep! The one in 𝑆𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑊ℎ𝑖𝑡𝑒 is a necrophile who kisses a random dead woman he finds lying in the woods because he thinks she's pretty! That's sexual assault! Or maybe something worse!"

Sanae certainly has a unique way of looking at things.

"The important question is why Sumireko would have fallen into a coma in the first place. We don't know for certain that it has anything to do with her coming here, but if it does, that would certainly explain a lot."

"That's true." I nodded.

"If Sumireko does come here and something happens to her, then we know that the end result is that she falls into a coma and never wakes up. I can't help but be reminded of the way you used to dream of this world, Merry."

"...Yeah, I was thinking the same thing."

Back when Renko and I were living in the Scientific Century I had dreamed of strange and distant places on numerous occasions. Some of those places, we later discovered, appeared to have been parts of Gensokyo. Furthermore, physical evidence suggested that during those times, I had actually been here in person to at least some degree. A note that I recalled having written in a dream had been found hundreds of years ago in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, and cookies that were given to me in the dream by Izayoi Sakuya had been in my hand when I woke up one day. My wandering through dreamscapes was neither purposeful nor seemed to follow any discernable chronology, but it was hard to dispute the evidence that it had, in fact, happened.

"For a Relativistic Noologist like you, Merry, dreams and reality are the same thing, right? Maybe Sumireko's the same way. Perhaps she comes to Gensokyo in her dreams and eventually either becomes so comfortable here she decides not to go back, or she's going to get trapped here somehow and become unable to return."

In other words, it was a question of what would happen to someone who lost their ability to distinguish dreams from reality and then died in their dreams.

"Question, Boss!" Sanae suddenly shouted, raising her hand.

"Yes? What is it?"

"If we know that your great aunt visited here and then died, isn't it more likely that she's the one that Yakumo Yukari wants us to save? Not that fortune-teller?

"Hmm. That's a possibility, but as far as we know Sumireko hasn't come to Gensokyo yet. Or if she has, I certainly haven't heard anything about it."

"Maybe she'll show up tomorrow!"

"And if that happens then we can re-assess what we know. If that were the case though, why would the Youkai Sage be unclear about who we were supposed to save? She could just say 'save Sumireko,' and we'd know to wait and watch out for her. I think there must have been a reason she was being vague. Saying 'there's someone who I need you to save' seems like a deliberate choice. Thinking about what that could mean is how I ended up thinking it was that fortune-teller was who we’re supposed to save . He's got to be related to what's going on somehow, he already knows my great aunt, after all."

"Hmmm." Sanae grunted and puffed out her cheeks, her brow furrowed in thought. It seemed like she really didn't like Mr. Fortune-teller for whatever reason. I'm not sure if that was due to a general dislike of men or if she was being honest when she said she didn't want a stranger coming between the three of us.

"Just for the sake of argument, let's assume that Mr. Fortune-teller is the person the Youkai Sage wants us to save. Why would that be? Lady Yasaka had an odd reaction to him too. She seemed to think that he was on the verge of doing something dangerous."

"I have to admit, I do get the sense that he's hiding something from us, Renko."

"You see? He's a creep! I should just exterminate him right now!"

"Hold on there, Sanae. If the Youkai Sage asked us to save someone and he's related to the request somehow, then whatever he's planning must be some scheme that will put him in danger. And since he's got a connection to my great aunt, maybe whatever he's concealing is a threat to her too."

Renko paused for a moment to take a breath and gather her thoughts.

"I think the most obvious way to square this circle is to assume that what the fortune-teller is planning is something that will end up causing my great-aunt's coma."

"...That would make sense." I agreed, nodding. Occam's razor would suggest that the simplest relationship between those two situations would be the most likely.

"So Mr. Fortune-teller has some sort of scheme that will cause my great aunt to fall into a coma—wait. If that was the case then why would the Youkai Sage ask us to save someone? Wouldn't she ask us to stop him instead? Maybe she meant we should save him from making a grave mistake or something but even then you'd think she would say we should just stop him from doing whatever it is he's planning to do. He can't be the source of whatever threat the Youkai Sage is worried about. If he was, then simply eliminating him would be the answer."

"Miss Reimu always says Yakumo Yukari never talks in a straight line. Maybe she's just like that?" Sanae suggested.

Renko groaned. "I suppose that's possible too. I've never met her, so it's hard for me to assess that..."

"I think we should start by thinking more about you, Renko," I interrupted.

"Oh? Why's that?" she asked, looking up.

"...The fortune-teller is the one who taught Sumireko about Gensokyo. If that's the case then I think it's safe to assume that one of Sumireko's main motivations for wanting to come here would be so that she could meet him in person. But what if the fortune-teller is planning to do whatever it is that he's planning to do before Sumireko gets here? And what if doing whatever-it-is gets him killed? Sumireko is your relative, Renko, and she's at least curious enough to have already heard of this place while living in the Outside World from the sound of things. If you were in her shoes and managed to find a way to come to this place but then found out the person you wanted to meet had died unexpectedly, what would you do?"

Renko's eyes widened. Her fingers drifted toward the brim of her hat.

"If it were me... I'd want to find out why he had died. I'd need to know what had happened since the last time I spoke to him."

"Exactly. Maybe that's what the Youkai Sage wants to stop. What if the problem isn't Sumireko coming here, but her investigations? If your great aunt is as curious as you are but has actual psychic powers, she might cause huge problems here. Maybe she ends up asking questions that lead to her ending up in a coma..."

If Sumireko was as curious as Renko... And if she were to come here and find that someone she was hoping to meet had died or vanished... There'd be no stopping her. She'd have to solve the mystery. And if in so doing she made herself an annoyance to the Youkai Sage... Maybe the danger we had been asked to prevent might come from Yakumo Yukari herself. If that was the case, then the Youkai Sage was asking us to save the fortune-teller from himself, not for his benefit but for hers.

In other words, we were being asked to keep him alive until the day that Sumireko arrived in Gensokyo. So that the two of them could finally meet one another. Could that be what the Youkai Sage had meant when she told us 'there's someone I want you to save?'

I suppose there's no way for us to know what sort of an impact something like that could have on Sumireko...

"This is a tricky case. I hadn't even thought about what Sumireko's motivations might be. I wonder if the fact that she's family is clouding my judgement here?" Renko flashed me her catlike grin.

"Merry, your idea is the most plausible hypothesis we've come up with yet. Let's operate under the assumption that it's correct for now. If that's the case, then our mission is to make sure that my great aunt gets a chance to meet Mr. Fortune-teller while both of them are still alive and well. Doing that will be the quickest way to figure out what the Youkai Sage is really up to. Now, how should we go about doing that? Sanae, do you think you could ask Lady Yasaka to watch over him discretely?"

Sanae frowned. "Oh, um, I guess I could..."

"I'm already doing that." Without warning, Kanako Yasaka had popped into existence just behind Sanae again. "He's gone back home and appears to be resting quietly right now."

"Thank you very much for checking up on him for us, Lady Yasaka."

"I'm the one who put the fear of the gods into him, so it's only appropriate that I keep an eye out to see what he decides to do after something like that. I'm more than a little curious myself anyway. I'll keep an eye on him from afar and let you know if he's about to do anything dangerous. The rest is up to you though. Sound fair?"

"That would be perfect, thank you very much."

Kanako nodded, then promptly disappeared.

Sanae let out a sigh. "Even if we're going to try to protect him, you're not really going to hire that guy, are you?" She asked, frowning at Renko.

"Well that's up to him now. If he comes back and wants to work with us, that would make for an easy way to keep tabs on him. Don't worry though, Sanae. No matter what, he's not going to replace you."

"Good! And if he joins, I get to be the senior part time assistant! I'm not taking orders from him!"

"Well that goes without saying. You're our precious part-timer, Sanae, no one could take your place. Come on, Merry, let's make a Hifuu sandwich." Saying that Renko rose up and walked around her desk, then turned her back on Sanae and allowed herself to collapse, so that her back was pressed up against one of Sanae's shoulders and pressing her off-balance.

"What are you doing, Renko? Are you trying to play 𝑂𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑘𝑢𝑟𝑎 𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑗𝑢𝑢 or something?"

"Don't squish me, I said I was fine just watching, didn't I?"

"Don't be like that, Sanae. Come on, Merry, squish!"

I let out a sigh and half-heartedly turned and leaned my back against her, propping her up on the side opposite from where Renko was leaning on her. "...Squish."

"Oh, I don't mind this, actually, but why does this feel sort of scandalous?"

"Because we both love you, Sanae, right Merry?!"

"That’s right. You’re our number one assistant, Sanae."

"You two saying things like that is going to give me the wrong idea. Plus, Lady Yasaka could be watching… Ah, but this feels so nice."

"It’s okay, Sanae, just relax and let it happen. This feels good, right?"

"Hey, what’s with that tone? I’m only blushing because cool people are saying nice things about me."

I leaned back, increasing the weight I was resting on Sanae. "...Sanae, do you think Renko is cool?"

"Don't sound so surprised, Merry. I'm a great detective who unravels the hidden secrets of the world. That's at least a little cool, right? Or are you complaining because you think I'm more cute than cool? I'm okay with being seen as cute if it's by you."

"You had to go and make it weird, didn’t you? Sanae, stay away from Renko. Stupid might be contagious."

"Worse yet, if you stay in this sandwich you might end up all cynical like Merry."

"Oh yes, it would be a real tragedy if she ended up like me."

"I feel like I'm missing something here, are you both still talking about me or just using me as a middleman to flirt with each other?!"

—

In the end, our conversation ended up being just as silly and frivolous as it had been in the beginning. We were all so carefree back then, with no idea of what was in store for us.


—15—


I ended that last section a little ominously, but in truth it was a while before things really started to get worse.

The next day, after our classes were over, Sanae came by to visit us at our office again. As always, she had just come to chat and kill time with us, though this time she did seem to be here for a reason. As she sat and talked, one question still seemed to be at the front of her mind…

"Do you think he'll end up coming back, Boss?"

"Well I hope he does. If he doesn't, we'll probably have to go find him again."

"Hmmm. I should really be out looking for that amanojaku, but I need to protect you two as well..."

"We appreciate the company, Sanae, but you don't have to stay here to guard us."

"Yes I do! It's my duty to protect you from evil youkai and evil men!"

"Oh how reliable. Isn't it great to have a friend who's willing to fight for you, Merry?"

"Isn't picking fights all the time bad?"

"That's just the duty of those with the strength to defend those weaker than them. It's ah... what do you call it... 'novellas obviate.'"

"...Are you thinking of 'noblesse oblige?'"

"I think that's it. I get 'noblesse', but what's an obluge, anyway? isn't that like a sled or something?"

"That's a 'luge,' Sanae."

"Whatever. English is hard."

"This is French!"

As usual, our conversations were nothing more than idle banter. At least until the door to our office was opened without warning. Standing in the entryway, looking unhappy to be here, was the fortune-teller. Renko stood up and walked to greet our guest with a big smile on her face.

"Hello again, friend! Nice of you to come by!" She said, extending a hand in greeting.

"I didn't really want to... But now that I've lost my job at the fortune-telling house I find myself with an abundance of free time."

"Well that’s a good enough reason to be here in my books. Boredom is humanity’s greatest adversary, after all. We here at the Hifuu Detective Agency strive to uncover the secrets of the world and make every day more interesting. If you want to see Gensokyo from a more interesting angle then you've come to the right place." Renko winked at me as she said that. In the corner Sanae pouted but looked resolved to accompany us.

"Now then, why don't we take you somewhere fun? Sanae, what would you say to giving Mr. Fortune-teller a tour of the Moriya Shrine? Maybe he'll become your newest convert."

"What? That guy as a worshipper.... Hmm, I’m not sure if it would be worth it."

"Well then how about we take you somewhere else most humans never get to see? Where would you like to start? The Scarlet Devil Mansion? The Bamboo Forest of the Lost? The Forest of Magic? The Divine Spirit Mausoleum? Makai? Heaven? The Netherworld? We can take you wherever you like. Even to Old Hell or across the Sanzu River, if you like."

The man in the doorway stared at us, his brow furrowing farther and farther as Renko rattled off the possibilities. "Just who are you people, really?" He asked at length.

Renko poked her hat back on her head with one finger and smiled. "Like I said, we're the Hifuu Detective Agency. A great detective and her friends, whose hobby is to uncover the secrets of this world."

—

I won't bother writing out all of the details of everything that happened after that. If you've been reading all of my casefiles to date, then it would only be retreading old ground. Suffice to say that the fortune-teller became Renko's new toy and we spent the next while showing him all around Gensokyo, taking him to see sights that had become familiar to us, but were new and strange to him.

If you've read the rest of my stories, then really there's nothing new to mention here.

When we took him to the Moriya Shrine, he was swarmed by a large group of frogs at one point and threatened by Lady Suwako, who apparently warned him not to touch Sanae on threat of being cursed.

He had a similarly bad experience when we brought him to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Upon meeting him for the first time, Sakuya had immediately produced a knife and asked "Would milady prefer to receive our guest in the form of a pie?"

"Ugh, no he looks disgusting." Remilia had replied with a dismissive wave. "Just see them out, Sakuya."

We had left with poor Mr. Fortune-teller's eyelid twitching nervously.

A week later we took him to the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, but we never made it to Eientei with him. Somehow he had managed to stumble into what seemed like every single trap Tewi and her inaba had laid in the forest. By the time we had decided to give up and head back to the village his robes had been in tatters.

We had similar experiences everywhere else we brought him. In the Forest of Magic, he had been carried off and nearly devoured by Rumia just outside the Kirisame Magic shop.

At the Myouren temple, he had gone to the well for a drink of water and nearly drowned as a result of a prank played by Captain Murasa. At the Divine Spirit Mausoleum he had been hit by a stray plate Futo had hurled. When we went to meet Wakasagihime at Misty Lake, Cirno had attacked us and a stray bullet came close to freezing him solid. We tried to take him to Old Hell once, but we had only made it as far as the bridge leading into the city before Yuugi had shown up and insisted on pouring what must have been just shy of a lethal amount of blindingly strong booze into him.

For some reason, no matter where we went, events seemed to conspire to make sure Mr. Fortune-teller had an awful time. Despite that though, little by little, his mood seemed to improve. We watched as bit by bit the light slowly came back to his haunted eyes as he met more and more of the youkai and more eccentric humans of Gensokyo.

It was a perfectly ordinary story—a disenchanted young man was slowly broadening his horizons and learning that the world he had once felt imprisoned in was not quite so confining as he might have imagined.

We spent a few months showing the fortune-teller around in that way.

During that time, the hunt for Seija continued, but we weren't involved in that in any way. From what I heard, she eventually escaped from all of her pursuers and vanished completely, bringing an end to all of the commotion arising from the various attempts to capture her.

Before I knew it, summer was almost over. Renko, Sanae and I had been taking Mr. Fortune-teller on trips to various locations all over Gensokyo nearly every time we had a day off. Renko and I were sitting around in our office one day at the tail end of the rainy season, fanning ourselves lazily when Sanae dropped by to wait for the fortune-teller to arrive.

"What's the plan for today?" she asked as she came in the door. "Is there anywhere we haven't taken him yet?"

"Maybe Higan?"

"Higan? That's where the widdle Yama works, right? Are we going to get to see her again?" Sanae asked excitedly.

Despite her earlier protestations, Sanae had eventually gotten used to having the fortune-teller around. It was clear that she still didn't enjoy his company, but I suppose to her hanging around with the two of us was worth tolerating him.

Although Sanae was as upbeat and excited as ever, Renko seemed a little troubled today. She crossed her arms and let out a frustrated sigh. "There's something I've noticed that's beginning to bother me. I'm betting the two of you have noticed it by now too, right?"

"You mean that big cowlick sticking up on the back of your head?"

"What? No, not that. Merry did you know that was here?"

"I was wondering how long it would take you to notice."

"That's terrible, Merry. How could you let me go out like this? That isn't what I was talking about though. Have you noticed that there's a pattern in the places Mr. Fortune-teller asks us to take him, or rather a pattern in the places he doesn't ask to go to?"

She began trying to flatten her uncooperative hair, pressing the cowlick down with her palm. "For the past few months any time I bring it up, he always changes the subject, or picks anywhere else to go. I'm starting to think we should take him there just to see what happens."

"What? Where are you talking about?"

Sanae tilted her head in confusion, but I had noticed the same pattern. There was one place that he always seemed to avoid visiting or even talking about. It was....

"The Hakurei Shrine."