東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 6:Double Dealing Character

—16—


Looking back over our various cases, my partner first started calling herself a 'negotiator' back when the Moriya Shrine arrived in Gensokyo and was invaded by Reimu and Marisa. Since then, she had claimed the title on numerous other occasions, with mixed results:

・Her attempt to negotiate a settlement between the Moriya Shrine and the Hakurei Shrine... was a complete and utter failure.

・Her attempt to negotiate with the Moriya goddesses to arrange a scheme to share faith between the both of them and the Aki sisters... was similarly a failure.

・Her attempt to peacefully convince Okuu not to go on a rampage on the surface... also failed, though luckily Okuu was exterminated before that could happen.

・Her efforts to engage multiple parties to relocate, rebuild and relaunch the 𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑛 however... was a complete success.

・Her negotiations with the various incident-resolvers to allow Byakuren to be released from Makai... were successful.

・Her attempt to get several parties to work together to stage the giant robot fight outside the village involving Hisoutensoku and Alice's Goliath doll... was successful

・Her attempt to talk her way past Yoshika and into the Great Spirit Mausoleum when it was still beneath the cemetery near the Myouren Temple... was successful.

・Her attempts to act as a negotiator between the Myouren temple and the Taoists of the Mausoleum... were rejected before she could even make an effort on the Taoists' behalf.

Overall, her success rate was better than you might expect. More importantly, it was apparent that Renko had a clear but useless talent for getting people to work together to achieve something they had already all decided to do. When it came to actually mediating disputes, however, as in the situation with the Moriya shrine’s attempted takeover of the Hakurei shrine or the negotiation between the Moriya goddesses and the Aki sisters, her tendency was to let her delusions of grandeur suggest solutions which were too far outside the norm for either party to accept.

How would such a track record apply to the question of negotiating with Gensokyo's rulers to try to get them to support Shinmyoumaru's revolution and democratize Gensokyo? Well, when it came to bringing people to the table to negotiate, my partner was quite skilled. I'm sure she could find people who are willing to hear the princess out, as can be seen from her successes during the Treasure Ship Incident and everything involving Hisotensoku.

But once we get to actually suggesting an alternate form of governance that would satisfy all of the parties involved, however... I was pretty sure the case was hopeless. I had little doubt that she would spoil the negotiations almost immediately by proposing some radically unorthodox solution that, even if it was logical, would be immediately rejected by all parties.

"Renko, you're not a negotiator," I said with a sigh.

Shinmyoumaru, of course, had no familiarity with my partner's accomplishments or lack thereof and seemed to be confused by the whole situation, staring at Renko with an utterly bewildered expression. Next to Renko, Mokou was also glaring at her, looking equally mystified but also quite a bit more unhappy.

"Renko, are you siding with them? We came here to resolve this incident!"

"Even if you were to beat up everyone here, you're not Reimu. The way these things go I don't think anything would really settle down until she gets involved. But if we can come to a peaceful resolution before she gets here then there won't be any incident for her to resolve. Don't you think Miss Keine would prefer that this sort of thing be resolved by public discussion? I'm sure she'd be interested to hear Shinmyoumaru's ideas and if we approach this situation as a grassroots political campaign we could get her involved and—"

Mokou turned away from Shinmyoumaru and gave Renko and I both a significant look. "Renko," she said, cutting my partner off, "Why do you think I'm doing all of this in the first place?"

"So that you could lessen the burden on Keine and keep her from having to... oh. I think I see your issue, Mokou."

"Exactly. How is bringing something complicated like a negotiation into the human village going to make her life any less stressful?"

Mokou had a point. Forcing difficult political discussions, setting up referendums or trying to organize a grassroots reorganization of the political landscape were all things that were bound to cause all sorts of headaches in the village. Renko was getting way ahead of herself with her planning.

"Well... doing things this way might still cause the current situation to calm down for the time being."

"My goal was to make things easier for Keine! We’re only doing all of this to get to that! If you introduce an even bigger problem, that's not helping! Especially if that new problem is exactly the sort of thing that Keine would feel obligated to take part in! This is going to end up just like that previous incident with that menreiki!"

"Well I suppose that might happen..."

"Merry, do you have something I can hit her with?"

"Just use your hand. Feel free to hit her as hard as you like. Whatever's wrong with her is the sort of thing I don't think even death would cure."

"Come on, Merry, don't let her mistreat me like that! Wait, Mokou! These brain cells are all one-of-kind!"

"Shut up." Mokou gave her a quick slap across the back of the head and Renko cringed away. My partner is constantly finding new and unique ways to combine genius and idiocy, it seems.

I looked back toward the princess who was still floating in her bowl, looking completely confused by the three of us as we huddled together. I couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed for being a part of this hackneyed comedy routine.

"Princess, don't listen to them! They're all just trying to mess with your head!"

We had all heard Seija speak but the amanojaku herself was nowhere to be seen. She must have hidden herself somewhere nearby, but looking all about, I couldn't see any sign of her.

"They're lying to you so that they can get their hands on the Miracle Mallet while you're distracted! These people could never understand the nobility of our cause!"

"Seija?" Shinmyoumaru asked, looking around as well. "But they sound like they might be willing to work with us?"

"They're liars, Princess! They’re just trying to trick you!"

It was a perfectly backwards accusation, denouncing us for doing exactly what she was in the midst of doing.

Mokou turned toward Shinmyoumaru. "Hey, Inchling. You have to know that an amanojaku would happily lie to you."

"That's just the sort of lie I'd expect from these sorts of tyrannical brutes! You must not listen to them, Princess!" Seija's voice called out. "These people are nothing more than goons sent to enforce the rules of the establishment! They're just trying to undermine our rebellion with poisoned words and confusing tricks! They’ll claim that they’ll listen to you, but the moment we stop resisting they’ll show their true colors and crush us!"

"If you're really so trustworthy then show yourself!" Mokou barked.

"I refuse!"

"You're just going to hide then?"

"One of an amanojaku’s favorite things to do is tell someone who thinks they’re strong 'no!'"

Where had I heard that line before?

"Y-you're right, Seija! Even if we try to talk things through, the voices of the weak will never reach those in power. Since the strong make the rules, those rules will always benefit them. We can’t negotiate using their rules and expect to win! Overturning them is the only way forward! For the voices of the oppressed to be heard we must destroy the rules created by the strong!"

Shinmyoumaru declared, her dainty features settled into a hardened look of resolve. It was clear that she saw her actions as righteous opposition in the face of tyranny. In her view, this revolution was a part of the story of her people’s uprising and her own escape from a life of oppression.

"That's why I said I'd introduce you to someone strong who could fight on your side! If you would just listen—"

"It's too late for that, Renko." Mokou said, moving in front of us and cutting Renko off. She stared Shinmyoumaru down, smacking a fist into her open palm. "Just stay back. They've already made their choice. If they want to resist us with force, then I'll just overpower them. It's simpler that way. No tedious arguments. Unlike Keine, I prefer to be direct."

"M-Mokou..."

"Don't worry, Merry. I'm not going to kill anybody. The cause of this whole incident seems to be that mallet the inchling is holding. All I need to do is get it away from her. I'll take it if I can, and if I can't, I'll just burn it to ash."

Having said that, both of Mokou's fists once more erupted with flames. The harsh, uneven light they cast on her face from below made the grin she was wearing a terrifying grin. My immediate thought was that it looked as if she was about to do something like Hiei's 'Dragon of Darkness Flame’ from 𝑌𝑢𝑌𝑢 𝐻𝑎𝑘𝑢𝑠ℎ𝑜. I'll have to get Mokou to borrow that series from the Moriya Shrine someday.

That certainly didn't matter right now though. Renko was still grumbling, trying to lean around Mokou to continue her conversation with Shinmyoumaru. I grabbed hold of the back of her trenchcoat and pulled her back into position, while asking Genji to move us away. We wouldn’t want to get caught up in one of Mokou's attacks.

"The strong and the weak truly can't see eye to eye," Shinmyoumaru was saying sadly. "But with this mallet, I wield the power of dreams!" she cried, raising the hammer high. "Miracle Mallet, grant me the power born from the dreams of the weak!"

"I’ll just have to beat you down despite that!" Mokou shouted, suddenly kicking off of empty air as a small explosion blossomed beneath her feet, hurling her across the room. I caught a glimpse of her drawing one burning fist back to strike as she closed in, streaking across the room like a burning arrow.

Before Mokou could reach her target, however, something else appeared on the ceiling just above and behind her. It was something like a checker-patterend cloth stuck to the floor above us, with a lumpy silhouette like someone had crouched beneath it.

Suddenly the odd lump on the ceiling moved. There was no time to warn Mokou. The sheet fluttered and a figure leapt from concealment, heading straight for Mokou.

"This is payback for earlier!"

"Huh?"

A moment too late, Mokou noticed the presence behind her, but it was too late to do anything about it. Before she could turn around, she was struck in the back of the head by a mallet. Mokou went limp and tumbled from the air, collapsing like a ragdoll onto the plaster of the ceiling below her.

"Mokou!" "Miss Mokou" Both Renko and I both shouted in alarm.

The form that had darted from behind the cloth to strike Mokou was Seija’s, who now stood triumphant, still clutching a mallet identical to the one Shinmyoumaru was holding.

"Seija!"

"Are you alright, Princess?"

"I'm fine. Is that the replica Miracle Mallet? Why do you have that?" Shinmyoumaru asked as she looked down at Mokou's fallen form.

"I thought it might be handy to use as a decoy if they tried to steal yours," Seija said. "But it was handy in a different way than I expected. I think the power flowing out of the real mallet must have made it stronger." Saying that, Seija looked up from the mallet she was weighing appreciatively in her hand, a cruel smile spreading across her face as her eyes settled on us.

"What shall I do with them, Princess? They seem to just be ordinary humans."

"Even if they were trying to deceive me earlier, normal humans and newborn tsukumogami are not our enemies. Leave them be. We should tie up that fiery human, but let the humans and the turtle stay or go as they please."

"As you wish, Princess."

Seija dropped to land directly on Mokou's back, seeming to enjoy her revenge. Mokou grunted in pain as she landed, coughing explosively then twisting around to grimace up at Seija.

"...A sneak attack from behind. I should have expected something like that from an amanojaku..."

"Geheheh, I'll take that as a compliment. You were the one who tried to strike without warning, so a counterattack serves you right."

Powerless, the two of us could only watch as Mokou was grabbed and restrained. Just as Shinmyoumaru had said, the weak were trampled beneath the feet of the strong.

"What do we do, Renko?"

"What do you mean 'what do we do?' We can't just leave Mokou behind."

"You say that, but what can we do if we stay?"

"They're letting us go, let's head home."

"What? Genji, don't say that."

"Do we really have any other choice, Renko?"

If Shinmyoumaru or Seija were to try to capture us, then obviously we would try to run away or maybe Renko would try to come up with some clever plan to rescue Mokou. But seeing as they didn't seem to care enough about us to bother with that, what could we do but leave? Renko couldn't really talk her way out of being ignored.

Maybe this was the sort of feeling that had inspired the two of them to begin their rebellion in the first place. If the voices of the weak are ignored until they resist the will of the strong, then what other choice did they have but to rebel? The same story had repeated itself countless times in human history, but this was my first time seeing the injustice of someone more powerful turned against me personally.

So what was to be done?

"Umm, excuse me, Shinmy?" Renko called out.

"What?"

"...Would you mind capturing us too?"

In the end, it was our only option.


—17—


And so we were all thrown into one of the many Japanese-style rooms of the castle. Well I say that, but can you really call it a Japanese-style room when the tatami mats are above you and ceiling beams are below? And if we're being precise, I should also say that only Mokou was thrown into the room, bound and shackled. I walked in tugging Renko along while she floated through the air, then pulled her down to the ground and leaned on her shoulders while she sat down to keep her from floating away. Genji was the last to enter and looked around the small room with a disapproving expression, saying "wake me when this is all over," before withdrawing his head into his shell. Good grief.

Once the door was closed, Renko immediately made an effort to try to undo Mokou's bindings. "I can’t get these off," she muttered.

"If she had used rope then I’d just burn it off." Mokou let out a sigh. "I'm going to beat the stuffing out of that amanojaku the next time I see her."

"I'm more worried about you at the moment, Miss Mokou. Are you okay? She hit you in the head with a hammer."

"If something like that could kill me I would have died a long time ago."

It was difficult to know how to respond to a statement like that.

"Why'd you let her capture you, Mokou? You could have fought her and probably won even with both of your wrists bound, right?"

"Well, I could have, but I would have had to go all out for that, and I don't want to burn down this castle while you're both still in it. I can't believe I let an amanojaku take me completely by surprise. I didn’t think she was hiding right above me."

In other words, we had both been a hindrance that had been responsible for Mokou being bound and captured like this. Renko and I exchanged guilty glances. Mokou must have noticed, because she quickly shook her head. "Don't worry about it, getting hit was my own fault."

"Well maybe, but we're still the reason you were captured."

"Oh, don't worry about that either.You uh, might want to stand back though," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"Just do it."

We did as we were told. Mokou stood up and looked our way as a flare of brilliant light erupted behind her, illuminating the room. Was she going to try to melt her way out of the manacles with a high-temperature torch?

—Just as I was thinking 'I wonder if Mokou’s arms will be alright?' the manacles suddenly dropped to the ground with a clatter. Mokou quickly stomped on the ceiling beam they had landed on to keep it from catching fire as the red-hot manacled scored a mark into the planks. The flames behind Mokou surged and spread, becoming suddenly less controlled then died out all at once as she winced in and waved her arms, clearly in pain.

"Urgh! Damn! That really hurts."

"Mokou what did you just do?"

"Burned my wrists down to the bone. They've already regenerated though."

It was a frightening act to even contemplate. Even for someone with an immortal body like Mokou’s, there had to be limits to how far someone was willing to go. I had heard from Keine in the past that Mokou was known to be overly reckless due to her immortality, but this was disturbing…

"See? Not even a scar," Mokou said, holding out her unbound wrists for us to see.

"That's not the issue here..."

"Don't be like that Merry, you're making the same face Keine makes," Mokou said with a sigh. "Being immortal I don’t really notice pain as much as other people do, so it’s fine. I just wish I had a blade. Cutting my hands off would’ve been much faster."

"I guess being immortal makes you think differently about things like that. So what’s next then? Are you going to try for a rematch with that amanojaku?"

Mokou shook her head. "I definitely owe her a beating, but we have to deal with that mallet first. If I can destroy it, that will put an end to this incident right away."

That mallet that Shinmyoumaru had been wielding. If it really was the same 'Miracle Mallet' from the legend of Issun-boshi, then her ancestor had supposedly won it by defeating an oni that had swallowed him whole, slashing his way out of the monster from the inside, using a sharpened sewing needle as a sword.

According to legend, the mallet could be used to grant nearly any wish. In the story, Issun-boshi had used it to wish himself larger. Shinmyoumaru claimed to be his descendant and called herself an inchling, but she wasn't particularly small compared to any of us, just a little on the shorter side, really. Could it be that, like her ancestor, she had used the Miracle Mallet to make herself bigger? Or maybe all of Issun-boshi's descendants had been human-sized. Would they still call themselves 'inchlings' if that were the case though?

"I'm surprised you want to burn the mallet, Mokou.. It's probably worth a lot."

"I'm not Reimu, Renko."

"Well then I'm surprised you aren't interested in using it to break your curse. Maybe it could free you from your immortality."

Mokou paused for a moment at that, then looked up and frowned at Renko. "I tried finding a lot of different wondrous items over the years, back when I was wandering around all the time. There's no tool that powerful that doesn't have some sort of risk associated with using it. Even that amanojaku was saying something about price earlier, right?"

Mokou turned away from us with a sigh. There was no way we could know what she might have gone through over the centuries, but from her expression it seemed like whatever she was reminiscing about wasn't pleasant.

She had a good point though. Seija had indeed said something about a 'price' back when she had learned that Renko's coat had become a tsukumogami. While I was thinking about that, I suppose I must have gotten distracted and released my grip because Renko began floating off of the ground like a helium balloon, drifting toward the tatami mats above us.

"Hey, Merry, what are you doing? Hold me down!"

"My arms are tired, Renko. Can't you just keep floating?"

"Seriously?"

"Eventually that coat will get tired, right? It can't keep floating forever," Mokou added.

"I hope so. Floating like this is sort of fun, but it's really inconvenient. For one thing this coat is pretty warm. I'm going to be all sweaty by the time I get it off."

"That's what you're worried about in this situation?"

"I'm a beautiful, sensitive girl. Even Kagerou worries about getting hairy during the full moon, right? Hey Trenchy, what do you say to letting me take you off? I'm happy that you want to hug me close, but I already have a wonderful partner."

"Would it be too much to ask for you to stop saying idiotic things, Renko?"

Renko continued to murmur into her lapels, attempting to talk the newborn tsukumogami into letting her go. I reached up and pinched at Renko's calf, where it was floating just above me.

"Ow! Quit that!" Renko said, trying to kick her legs away from me. You're awful, Merry. I bet you've been looking up my skirt this whole time."

"Why would I do that?"

"Well if it was you doing it I wouldn't really mind, I guess."

"I'd be more interested in getting a look inside your head, Renko. I think the reason why you're floating so well is that it's as empty as a balloon."

It was while we were engaged in such meaningless banter that the door to the room was suddenly opened to reveal Shinmyoumaru floating there in her bowl.

"Oh, Shinmy! Hello there." Renko said, dangling as she twisted around to face her.

"Oh, it's the mastermind. Mind if I take another shot?" Mokou asked, limbering up her shoulders.

"You're out of your restraints! Seija needs to do her job properly next time..." Shinmyoumaru grumbled in annoyance.

Mokou clapped her fist into an open palm and grinned up at Shinmyoumaru who drew forth her needle-like sword and pointed it at Mokou. Before anything more could happen though, Renko started clapping vigorously for attention, spinning slowly as she drifted through the air.

"Okay! Hold up, hold up, you two. Let's all put our weapons away and talk for a moment."

"What are you doing, Renko?" Mokou growled dangerously.

"Y-Yes, what are you doing, human?" The princess asked.

"Mokou, everyone knows you're good at tackling problems head on and resolving them with brute force, but that's not necessarily what's called for in this situation. Why don't we at least try to find a solution that everyone can agree on? Shinmy, can you tell us why you and Seija started this whole incident?"

"So that all of Gensokyo's weaklings could live free from—"

"Not the ideology," Renko interrupted. "I'm asking how did you first meet Seija, and what made you decide to follow her?"

In response to Renko's question, Shinmyoumaru's eyes went wide.


—18—


Thus, Renko began questioning Shinmyoumaru while simultaneously trying to calm Mokou down.

"We met in the place where I grew up, the Land of the Oni, where the rest of my people were imprisoned along with this castle."

"The 'Land of the Oni,'" Renko repeated. "By that do you mean the Underworld? Or Hell itself?"

"I'm not sure what you'd call it, I had only ever heard it called that. It's a place where this castle and all of my people were sent to a long time ago by powerful people from Gensokyo. The people here feared the power of the Miracle Mallet, so they sealed us away. Over the generations, my people forgot the story of their origins, and even forgot about the power of this mallet. I had even lived my whole life not knowing that my people had originally come from somewhere else, or that we had been sealed away. Until I met Seija. If she hadn't showed up, I'd never have learned how unjustly my people had been treated or how we'd all been sealed away in the Land of the Oni."

Shinmyoumaru then went into great detail about the plight of her people, the trials they had endured and the history of their oppression in the Land of the Oni. As you might have guessed by now though, all of these stories were something that were something that she had only ever heard about from Seija, and as such, were complete fabrications.

I'll summarize them very briefly here, just so you can understand how Shinmyoumaru might have come to view the world through the lens that she did:

According to her, the story of Issun-boshi fighting an oni and taking the Miracle Mallet from it, then using the mallet’s power to grow bigger and marry a princess was true. After years of service and many more brave deeds Issun-boshi rose through the ranks and eventually became the lord of an important castle. That castle became known as 'Shining Needle Castle' in honor of Issun-boshi's famous triumph. Of course it was a normal castle on the ground back then.

Among the people of the imperial capital there were many that were unhappy with Issun-boshi's appointment though. Those who heard that he was an inchling began to spread rumors that he was a youkai only pretending to be a human. When Issun-boshi's wife gave birth to an inchling child all of these rumors were proven true in the eyes of the common people.

Issun-boshi was captured and stripped of the Miracle Mallet. The people who had worked to undo all he had achieved tried to use the mallet for themselves to make Shining Needle Castle their own, but the mallet would not allow itself to be wielded by anyone but an inchling. Instead, the mallet rejected their wish and lifted the castle into the sky, flipping it upside down. When word of these events reached the capital, Issun-boshi, and all of his descendants were sealed inside their own castle and banished.

Issun-boshi and his family therefore remained in the flying castle and drifted away, eventually ending up in Gensokyo. There, they lived quietly for several generations, but the youkai dwelling here envied the splendid castle in the sky and persecuted the inchlings for living in it despite being small. They began to despise and oppress Shinmyoumaru's people. Eventually, the inchlings and their castle were forced to flee from Gensokyo to the Land of the Oni.

Centuries had passed since then, during which time the inchlings had forgotten about the power of the treasure they possessed.

That was the history that Shinmyoumaru had learned from Seija.

"...So once you learned about all of that, you decided to use the power of the mallet to bring the castle from the Land of the Oni to Gensokyo with the intent of starting a revolution, right?"

"Exactly!"

Renko nodded along, fingers fiddling with the brim of her hat as she listened. Behind her, Mokou was not so accepting. She had her arms crossed and a dissatisfied expression on her face. "I don’t buy any of this," she scoffed.

"How dare you!" Shinmyoumaru shouted, standing up in her floating bowl.

"Now, now Mokou, calm down." Renko said, extending an arm out toward each of them as she floated in the air. "Let's just assume for the moment that Shinmy's story can be believed. IF it were true, you can at least admit that she would have a legitimate grievance in that case, right Mokou?"

"That’s right, the mandate of heaven is on our side!" Shinmyoumaru declared. "Our cause is just and virtuous!" She puffed out her chest proudly.

Renko smiled and spoke without anywhere near the same level of excitement in her voice. "Shinmy, please excuse me, but let just ask you one thing, as a simple Outsider with little knowledge of history."

"What is it?"

"If your people have been persecuted for so long and the mallet has been in your people's possession the whole time, why didn't anyone else try and use it to free your people in the past?"

"Huh?"

"Well your people had the mallet, right? And since you can use it, it stands to reason that they probably could have too. But none of them did, right? You're the first to use it to free your people from unjust persecution. So why did all of the previous generations of your people just accept their situation?"

"...Umm, well..." Shinmyoumaru blinked, clearly pondering the question. "...Maybe they did! Maybe lots of them have tried to start revolutions before, and been defeated!"

"Well, I suppose that's a possibility..."

"I'm sure that's how it went. This time though, our revolution will be successful! We're going to turn Gensokyo on its head and reverse the flow of power here once and for all!"

Shinmyoumaru clenched her fist tight. It seemed to me like these questions were only strengthening her resolve. But then I’m not sure that Renko was actually attempting to persuade her or call her beliefs into question. If Shinmyoumaru truly believed that she was on the right side of history here, then doing that would probably have only hardened her resolve anyway. Once someone believes that their cause is beyond reproach, there's very little that can be done to convince them otherwise.

"By the way, how did you learn all of this fascinating history about the persecution of your people?"

"I heard it all from Seija!" She said with a happy, clueless smile.

Mokou snorted. "You see? This whole story’s one big lie."

"Don't assume that Seija's a liar just because she's an amanojaku!" Shinmyoumaru shouted.

"Let's leave that question alone for the moment. I'd like to ask you something else, Shinmy," Renko interceded. "How is it that Seija came to be so knowledgeable about inchling history?"

"Eh?" Shinmyoumaru blinked in surprise, clearly having never considered such a question.

Ultimately though, all of those questions and answers would soon be rendered meaningless. This is because at that very moment three incident-resolvers were all closing in on Shining Needle Castle.