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

—16—

As we made our way out of the Underworld and back toward the shaft leading to the surface, we crossed the bridge over the subterranean river again. Yuugi and Parsee were both still there and stopped us for a chat.

"So what's been happening on the surface lately?" Yuugi asked amiably.

"There's been a lot of unrest in the village recently, with riots full of wild dancing and fighting in the streets and various religious groups are all trying to profit from the turmoil in one way or another."

"That almost sounds like a halfway-decent party. Maybe we oughtta bring some oni booze up to the surface and show 'em how it's really done. What do you say, Parsee? Wanna have a look around on the surface with me?"

Parsee's eyes darted up to Yuugi's for a moment, sweeping over me briefly before she looked away and back over the side of the bridge. "Why would you ask me? Go by yourself."

After talking with the two of them for a bit longer about inconsequential matters, we all made our way back to the surface. Satori had asked me to look for Koishi on top of our already-ongoing search for Kokoro's missing mask, but we figured we might as well continue with our present task before taking on the next one. The next stop on our tour would probably be Makai, which was easy enough to say, but another matter to actually visit. We got as far as the cave behind the Hakurei Shrine that led to Makai with Genji, but getting through the huge doors leading to that world would be a problem.

"No one has passed through this gate in over a month, I guarantee it."

Once again, our trip turned out to be pointless.

After that, we happened to run into Youmu, who was apparently on her way back to the Netherworld after doing some shopping in the village. Renko took the opportunity to question her about the mask, but she also claimed not to have seen anything like it. It seemed that Makai and the Netherworld were both dead ends.

Youmu also mentioned to us that there had been a confrontation between some of the religious organizations recruiting in the village. Apparently representatives of the various different factions involved had taken to trying to sway the minds of the villagers not with words, but with public danmaku battles to demonstrate their power. According to her, these fights had already spread beyond both the village and the Myouren Temple where they had started and were already attracting the attention of some of the youkai near Genbu Ravine as well. If things kept going at this rate, I imagined it wouldn't be long before fights started spreading as far as the Underworld or even Makai.

Given the heightened tensions within the village, bringing Kokoro inside the walls seemed like a worse idea than ever. It couldn't possibly be long before Reimu got involved at this rate, and keeping her and Kokoro apart was one of our main goals. So what could we do?

—

"There's been no reports that anyone has seen Tenshi recently and every other possibility has turned out to be a dud, so I suppose the mask of hope must still be somewhere in Gensokyo."

"So what do we do? just wait for Mamizou or Nazrin to find it?"

"I'll go find it myself!" Kokoro declared from beneath the fox mask.

"...So are you three going to explain why you're here or why you have a menreiki with you?" Mokou asked.

Our location was the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, in the clearing just outside of Mokou's shack, where the three of us had emerged while still deep in conversation. We had decided that this was probably the safest place to bring Kokoro for the time being to keep her out of Reimu's sights.

Renko then took the time to explain everything, introducing Kokoro, telling Mokou the story of the missing mask and the recent disturbances in the village and finally explaining why Kokoro had to stay hidden from Reimu and was now here in the bamboo forest with us.

"Huh," Mokou grunted once Renko finally stopped to take a breath. "Well that explains why Keine hasn't come to see me recently…"

"While I have you here, Mokou, I don't suppose you remember seeing anything like a mask laying about in the forest recently, have you?"

"I haven't. But I wouldn't be surprised to find out that those guys at Eientei have something to do with this." It was Mokou's nature to assume that just about anything unusual that happened in Gensokyo had to be the result of some sort of lunarian plot, it seemed. A detective who solves every case by always determining the mastermind behind it all to be the same person didn't sound like it would make for a very good story to me.

"It sounds like things are really rough in the village," Mokou muttered, sounding genuinely concerned. "I hope Keine's not overworking herself."

"Oh," Renko interjected, raising a finger. "If you're concerned about Keine's workload then you could enter this religious war as a new faction yourself and settle down the situation in the village. How's that for an idea?"

Mokou blinked in surprise, snapped out of the dark mood she had been falling into by the absurdity of Renko's suggestion. I was just as flabbergasted. What was Renko going on about now?

"What? But I don't worship any god or buddha."

"That's not a problem. You could enter the fray as the god of your own religion. You're already immortal, of noble birth and have a bunch of powerful abilities. I bet it wouldn't be hard to get someone to enshrine and start worshipping you. Then you just pick fights with all of the other people gaining faith in the village and build up your popularity. Once you take everyone else down the chaos will subside and Keine's worries will be eliminated. That'd be two birds with one stone, right?"

"I'm not doing it. Who would want someone like me leading people? You should get someone like Keine to do it. I'm just a lowlife delinquent who happens to be immortal."

Renko scratched at her head and sighed. "Ah, that's a shame. It'll be pretty bad if news of this reaches Eientei and Kaguya decides to start gathering up faith for herself."

Mokou went silent for a moment. "...What?"

"I can just imagine it. Princess Kaguya is already thought of as a legendary figure associated with the moon. Plus she's got that unnatural aura of beauty going for her. If she were to walk into the village and proclaim herself a god, then there'd probably be more than a few people who'd bow their heads without giving it a second thought. She could then appoint Eirin and Tewi as her disciples and start up a church offering blessings of health, luck and longevity. With just a little bit of missionary work she'd be on par with Byakuren and the Crown Prince right away."

"...You're saying Kaguya's going to take control of the human village?"

"Well, who knows? Anything goes in Gensokyo. Imagine: the eternal kingdom of Eientei, ruled by the whims of its goddess, Princess Kaguya. What do you think, Mokotan, do you want to get involved now?"

Mokou snapped out of her brooding to glare at my partner. "Renko, you're just teasing me aren't you? None of that's actually going to happen."

Renko laughed. "Ahaha. You got me."

Unbelievable. I'm not sure anyone else could have gotten away with making a joke like that to Mokou. The two of them really do get along well. "So what's the actual plan then? Do you just need me to look after this girl for a while?"

"Yeah, just while Merry and I are busy in the village."

"Thank you for having me" Kokoro said, bowing in a polite, feminine manner and wearing the 𝑘𝑜-𝑜𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑒 mask. The mask then swapped to the ℎ𝑦𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑜𝑘𝑜 as she rose up. "I promise to be nice," she said as the mask switched once more to the withered-looking 𝑢𝑏𝑎 "and to try not to cause any problems..."

"She's a little strange, isn't she?" Mokou asked, resting one hand on her temple.

"She's a good kid. You'll get used to her."

—

And so Renko, Genji and I flew back to the village once more. Our intention was both to get a better understanding of the state of the ongoing religious war and, if possible, to try to locate Koishi.

We made our way back along the roads between the farmers fields and eventually came to the south side of the village. As we neared the village square, the sound of cheers and the sight of a large gathering in the street told us that another commotion was already underway.

"Is it another danmaku match? Oh, there's Akyuu!" saying that, Renko ran off toward the place where she had spotted Akyuu in the crowd. I followed along behind her.

"Oh, Renko. Hello. You just missed the fight," Akyuu said as she noticed Renko running toward her and turned to face us.

"Was it another one of the religious battles? Who was fighting?"

Akyuu shrugged in response to Renko's question. "To be honest, I'm not sure. It was definitely Toyosatomimi no Miko and Mononobe no Futo who got defeated, but I never saw who they were fighting."


—17—


When we asked around, we heard multiple reports describing the same thing. Apparently, it had been a very strange battle.

The Crown Prince, who had been preaching in the village square as usual, had apparently suddenly stopped talking and stared into empty space, saying "who is that?" Moments later a fierce rain of danmaku had fallen upon her and she had begun to shoot back as if she were fighting someone, but none of the villagers who had been watching could tell who her opponent was.

That particular scuffle had apparently concluded with her majesty the Crown Prince lying flat on her butt in the middle of the street. As soon as that happened Futo had come running to her aid, shouting "What churlish ruffian hath dared to lay hand upon the Crown Prince!?" and looking around threateningly, but then she too had been attacked by an unseen assailant.

Futo was also defeated in short order, but some of the spectators watching the fight had apparently been able to see who she was fighting intermittently throughout the battle: it was a young girl wearing a floppy black hat who had something like a tangled rope wrapped around her body.

"...That's definitely Koishi." I muttered. Between her description and the difficulty people had had seeing her, there was no room for doubt.

Hearing that any of the adult villagers had been able to see her, even if only for a moment was quite a surprise. Up until now, no one but myself, Parsee and a few of the spiritually sensitive children in the village had ever been able to see Koishi with any regularity. The fact that she was being seen by so many people now, even if only fleetingly, confirmed that something had changed.

Even more surprising was that even those people watching the battle who hadn't seen Koishi had had a sense that there was some sort of curious presence nearby. For someone like Koishi, who unconsciously manipulated the consciousness of others to erase their perception of her, even that minor level of attention being paid to her was noteworthy.

"This must be what Orin and Satori were talking about with Koishi becoming more perceptible," Renko said while fiddling with her hat. "I wonder if she'll let me see her this time?"

"Who knows? At any rate something about Koishi definitely seems to have changed."

"It's starting to get pretty hard to believe that all of this isn't connected to the missing mask of hope somehow."

I had to agree. If whoever was in possession of the mask of hope would naturally gather up the hope and faith of the villagers, then presumably that same person would have to be someone the villagers could notice. Would the effect of the mask be strong enough to make even someone like a youkai of the unconscious mind visible to a regular human? At the very least there had to be some kind of connection between Koishi and the mask.

"If the two events are connected, do you think that means that Koishi has Kokoro's mask?"

"At any rate she's the person who's most likely to know where it is at the moment, which probably means that you're going to have to be the one to find out what she knows, Merry."

"First we'll have to find her."

While we were walking, I noticed a black shape flying overhead, just above the rooftops of the market stalls. I waved at it, and down came Kirisame Marisa astride her broom to talk with us.

"Hey there, you two," she said, looking around the streets excitedly. "Was there just some sorta fight around here?"

"We didn't see it ourselves," Renko replied, "but it sounds like Koishi was fighting the Taoists."

"Koishi? Oh she's the one where you're never really sure if she's there or not, right? She was fightin' Miko you said?"

"And Futo as well. Apparently she beat them both."

"Even she's gettin' involved in this now? This is gettin' outta hand" Marisa grumbled, scratching at her head.

"Has Reimu gotten involved in this yet?"

"Yeah, she's started to. I dragged her into it, I guess. She was actually fightin' Byakuren in front of the Myouren Temple just now."

"Oho, it's a proper religious war now then, I guess. A battle for the hearts of the people between the Buddhists at the temple, the Taoists at the mausoleum and a Shinto shrine maiden. Who are you supporting?"

"I'm fightin' on my own side. Popularity doesn't have to be religious, right?" Marisa asked with a mischievous grin. "Popularity leads to money. That kappa girl has already set up shop outside the Myouren Temple. I gotta get a piece of this market too."

"You're fighting in a religious war for money?"

"I'm an honest gal." It was a very Marisa-like sort of honesty, I thought.

"Well I could use the help of an honest gal right about now, Marisa. Do you have time to help us out?"

"Oh? I'll hear you out. Help might cost you though."

Between Renko and Marisa I couldn't tell which of their grins was more disconcerting. "Well Marisa, what would an honest gal like you do if I told you that there was an item that will make anyone who has it incredibly popular?"

Marisa's grin widened and she dismounted from her broom. "You've got my attention."

"Hey Renko!" I hissed, tugging on the sleeve of her trench coat. "You can't tell her about that!"

"Relax Merry. I have it on good authority that Marisa here is an honest gal." Renko grinned maddeningly. I suppose Mamizou had only told us not to tell Reimu about Kokoro or the missing mask. Plus, I don't think Marisa was the sort to be quite so quick to decide to exterminate Kokoro without hearing her out first like Reimu would... probably.

"Merry and I are looking for this item right now. So far, all of the clues suggest that Koishi probably knows where it is."

"Really now? What kinda item is it?"

"I can't be certain of all of the details until I talk to Koishi, but apparently it's a magical treasure that attracts the faith of everyone around it."

"That sounds a little too convenient. Why would Satori's sister have somethin' like that?"

"Well that question is part of our current ongoing investigation. So what do you say, Marisa? If you see Koishi, could you bring her to us? All we need from Koishi is information. Anything else she's got is none of our concern."

Marisa seemed to think about that for a moment, looking Renko over dubiously. After a moment she shook her head, still grinning and climbed back on her broom. "Sure, why not. I'll thank you for the story at least. If I happen to see Koishi, I'll let you know."

"That's all I could ask."

Renko waved to Marisa and the witch flew away on her broom, the both of them grinning maniacally. I suppose getting Marisa to help us search wasn't a bad idea though. The basics of any sort of search operation is to get as many eyes looking for your target at once as you can.

"Well then," Renko said once Marisa had gone, "shall we get to looking for Koishi ourselves?"

"Where would we even start? She could be anywhere by now."

"That's why I'll have to depend on my trusty, high-performance anomaly detector."

"I'm not a radar, Renko. I might be able to find her if she was in front of me, but I'm not going to be able to point you toward where she is."

The two of us had started walking as we discussed this. We were surprised when a familiar voice interrupted our conversation from behind.

"...Where who is?"

Obviously we recognized Keine's voice immediately, but I was surprised to find that even without turning around I could tell she was wearing the black armband of the neighborhood watch at the moment as well.

"G-Good evening, Miss Keine!" Renko said, whirling around with a blithe grin on her face.

"What are you two up to this time?"

"We happen to be working on an official case for my detective agency at the moment."

"Is this the sort of case that's going to involve you descending into the Underworld or being abducted by a mysterious hermit?"

She was already half right. Keine's intuition for the convolutions of Renko's schemes was getting downright scary.

"No, no. This case is just a simple matter of lost and found."

"That sort of thing should be left to neighborhood watch."

"Well we suspect the missing item in question isn't in the village at the moment, Keine."

"Then what are you looking for here?"

"Well, although the item we're looking for likely isn't here, we've heard reports that it might have been found by someone who was in the village. That's who we're trying to find now. Being professional detectives, we of course have a duty to maintain strict client confidentiality though, so I'm afraid I can't tell you any more than that."

"Whatever the two of you are doing, try to stay out of danger, alright? Oh, and one more thing. Since you two aren't doing anything important right now, could you go check on Mokou while it's still light out? I haven't been able to go see her lately."

Renko and I couldn't help but glance at each other. "Um, but Miss Keine, we're in the middle of working on a case right now..." Renko protested.

"Like I said, 'since you aren't doing anything important.' She patted Renko on the back and walked past her. I suppose after everything we'd been through, Keine still didn't trust us much. Really though, who could blame her for that?

"Renko, if she's going to Mokou's now, she's going to meet Kokoro. Do you think that's safe?" I whispered.

"It's probably best if we avoid anything that would cause Keine more stress."

It was a nice sentiment, but you hardly claim that Renko and I weren't already one of the major sources of stress in Keine's life. If she were to find out about Kokoro, then she would no doubt try to involve herself in this incident. Overworked as she already was, that was sure to end badly. It would be best if we could prevent the two of them from ever meeting.

I couldn't help but sigh. How do I always manage to end up in such complicated messes, I wonder?


—18—


We rushed back to our office and Renko checked for any sign of a note from Nazrin, but there was none.

The sun was dropping low in the sky as we woke Genji back up and made our way toward Mokou's shack in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost as quickly as he could carry us. We had arranged to meet with Mamizou in the graveyard near the Myouren Temple late that night so that she could keep Kokoro safe until morning, so perhaps if we were lucky and quick, we might be able to deliver Kokoro there early and keep Keine from discovering her.

Genji took us in through the dense stalks of the forest and landed just in front of Mokou's shack. Renko leapt up as soon as Genji's feet touched the ground and rushed over to the door to knock. After a moment, a tired-looking Mokou appeared in the doorway.

"...You okay there, Mokou?"

"It's kind of exhausting dealing with her is all." Mokou sighed.

"You can do it! Try harder!" Kokoro yelled from behind her, wearing her fox mask.

"She may not have any expressions, but she overreacts to everything in the most dramatic ways and swaps from one emotion to the next at the drop of a hat. I don't know how you were able to put up with babysitting her for so long, Renko."

"It's easier if you think of her mask as her facial expression."

"Do you really think so? Her expression never changes, so it feels like it's all just an exaggerated pantomime."

Mokou folded her arms and groaned. To be honest, I could see where she was coming from.

"...Am I a weirdo?" Kokoro asked mournfully while wearing the sad 𝑢𝑏𝑎 mask.

"Well probably, but so are all of us," Renko said cheerily. I doubt that statement would cheer anyone up.

"I'm not a weirdo!" Kokoro stated, the ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑦𝑎 mask settling into place.

"You see, this is what I mean. She'll go from weepy to angry in an instant. It's tiring."

"...I guess I really am a weirdo..." the 𝑢𝑏𝑎 mask again.

Renko nodded. "I see what you mean."

The monkey mask rotated into position as Kokoro looked from each of us to the other. "What's wrong with the way I show emotions?"

"Well it's a bit over the top, for starters. It's not abnormal for people to have strong emotions sometimes, but that's the exception for most people. All of your emotions are extreme whereas humans are usually more subtle."

The comical ℎ𝑦𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑜𝑘𝑜 mask was the next to settle in place. "Mokou is subtle?"

"You trying to be a smartass or something?" Mokou glared at her.

"Hmmm..." Kokoro grumbled, the monkey mask switching into place on her head.

Kokoro's usage of masks to indicate her emotions definitely gave an exaggerated impression. Her over-the-top movements and the abrupt switching from one mask to another, combined with the way her tone of voice shifted to fit her current mask definitely made her seem as if she was constantly experiencing extreme mood swings.

I had never given it much thought but honestly facial expressions were normally quite eloquent. For example, we of rely on noticing small changes in the faces of those we're talking to in order to read their emotions.

Renko seemed to be considering the situation, her hands dancing along the brim of her hat. After a moment she stepped forward. "Here, let's try this," she said, taking hold of Kokoro's face.

"Hahihofuhuhffuh" Kokoro mumbled around Renko's fingers as my partner squished and contorted her face.

"Your face seems like it's perfectly able to move, so it's probably just a matter of learning how to use it to express emotions."

"Reary?" she asked as Renko squished her mouth between her palms.

"Being an expressive poker face is cool and a great quirk for a youkai to have, but it would be nice to be able to express yourself more clearly, wouldn't it? Maybe it might even help you to control your emotions and abilities better."

"I don't know how though..." she muttered. The 𝑢𝑏𝑎 mask then gave way to the fox mask. "Tell me what to do!"

"Let's see... Can you teach someone how to control their emotions, Merry?"

"You're talking about Developmental Psychology there, not Relativistic Noology. It's not exactly my field of expertise. Keine wouldn't use that term, but she'd probably know more."

"Well that may be the case, but you know I can't ask Keine about this."

"You can't ask me about what?"

From the doorway of the shack had come the voice we had wanted to avoid hearing more than any other.

"Gah! Miss Keine!" Renko cried, hunching up as she whirled around.

"Hello Mokou. Sorry that I haven't been by for a while."

"Hello, Keine. What are you doing here?"

"Those two looked like they were getting into trouble again so I followed them. Who's the mask tsukumogami? What in the world are you two caught up in this time?" Keine glared at us, her eyes alight with anger. We had nothing to say in our defense. We could only stand in place and accept her withering glare.

—

At that point we had no choice but to tell Keine everything.

"Overall, it's a little hard to believe such a story," she began, folding her arms in front of her and frowning. "But it sounds serious enough that I need to investigate for myself. I'll have a look at what happens during the hour of the ox tonight. Setting that aside, the tanuki from the Myouren Temple is who I'm most concerned about. Do you really think trusting her is a good idea?"

"I have to admit I don't know her very well. It's hard to say..."

"I'll be going with you when you drop Kokoro off with her tonight then. I'll talk to her and judge for myself."

Renko and I glanced at each other uneasily, but we weren't in a position to be able to refuse her at this point.

"Who would have thought that something like this would be the reason the village has seemed so hopeless lately…" Keine took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her head and letting out a deep sigh. As a member of the neighborhood watch and someone eager to bring a swift resolution to the situation, I imagined that she had mixed feelings about the idea of helping Kokoro out.

"We could solve this either by finding the mask of hope or by having someone gather up all the hope in the village, right? I wonder which would be the quicker solution at this point..."

"Oh! Miss Keine, that's it! Why don't you just take on the role of village leader?"

Keine frowned. "Me?"

"Think about it, Despite being half-youkai, you're a longstanding and trusted member of the community with an established history of dedicating yourself to projects of benefit to the village, like running the school and volunteering with the neighborhood watch. Even in the Outside World I bet you could get elected as a council member or maybe even a mayor. Most importantly, everyone knows you love the village and its people more than anyone else. Merry, what do you think?"

"…I have to admit, Renko's not wrong about that."

"'I'd agree too." Mokou added, raising her hand. "You'd make a great village chief."

Keine coughed faintly, looking embarrassed. "what are you saying..." she muttered. "I appreciate the vote of confidence, but the village is the only place in Gensokyo where humans can live safely. It should be a place for humans. It wouldn't be appropriate for a half-youkai like me to be in a position of power. My role is just to teach history and use my hakutaku powers to protect the village. I'm not cut out to be a religious leader or a politician."

"Come on Miss Keine, I'm sure you'd be great at it!"

"Renko, stop. I can't take on responsibility for the whole village. I get overwhelmed just thinking about it. Leave that for someone with more ambition," Keine protested, shaking her head vigorously.

Perhaps it's true that Keine wasn't suited for the role —she was simply too caring. Someone who was able to put their concern for everyone aside and keep calm no matter the situation would probably be a more suitable choice.

I glanced over at my partner for a moment. —No way. I'm not even going to consider the possibility. No matter how you looked at it, Usami Renko was not the sort of person you wanted in charge of anything. Reluctantly, Renko let the topic drop and Keine cleared her throat, turning towards Kokoro before speaking again.

"Let's concentrate on a more realistic solution. Now, Kokoro, you're a menreiki correct? That is, you're not just a mask tsukumogami, but specifically a tsukumogami of the masks of Noh theatre, right?"

"That's right," she said, nodding her head as the 𝑘𝑜-𝑜𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑒 mask slipped into place.

"In that case you should have 66 masks in all, is that right?"

"Exactly!" the fox mask took its place.

Keine went silent for a moment, staring down at the ground while resting her chin on her hand. "I think there might be a quick way we could solve this then."

We all blinked in surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"I think I know what Kokoro was before she became a tsukumogami." She cleared her throat again and then began speaking just as she usually did while giving one of her lectures.

"Menreiki are a type of youkai that's first mentioned in the second volume of 𝐻𝑦𝑎𝑘𝑘𝑖 𝑇𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑧𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝐵𝑢𝑘𝑢𝑟𝑜, Sekien Toriyama's illustrated books of tsukumogami. It's said there that a menreiki arose from a set of the original 66 masks designed by Hata no Kawakatsu, the founder of Sarugaku, which was the style of play that eventually gave rise to both Noh and Kyogen."

"Hata no Kawakatsu?" Renko asked.

Keine nodded. "It's the same 'Hata' that Kokoro uses as a surname, written the same way. The playwright Zeami Motokiyo wrote something about those same Noh masks in his treatise 𝐹𝑢𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑘𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑛 as well. I'm not Akyuu, so I can't recite it exactly, but if I remember correctly it went something like this: 'In a time of great turmoil, when disorder between houses and disharmony among families overcame the land, the great Prince Kamitsumiya crafted 66 masks depicting the faces of the greatest of the gods and gifted them to Hata no Kawakatsu, then bade him reenact the great deeds of the heavenly gods in dance so as to honor them. The performances were so great they caused the land to be blessed with plenty and peace. This is the origin of Sarugaku which was passed down to later generations.'"

Renko and I glanced at each other. Prince Kamitsumiya... could that be....

"As you may know Kamitsumiya was another of the names used for Prince Shotoku."

"So then that means—" I couldn't help but look over at Kokoro, "the Crown Prince is Kokoro's creator?"

Kokoro stared back at all of us, her face as perfectly expressionless as ever.