東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 7:Double Dealing Character

—19—


There are no secrets for me to keep from you here, dear reader, nor were the events of the incident complex enough to warrant me spending a whole chapter writing the story from someone else's perspective, so I'll just include the story of how this incident was resolved right here.

There were three people other than Mokou who eventually set out to resolve this incident. Two of them were of course the usual suspects: Hakurei Reimu and Kirisame Marisa. The third was the rather unexpected presence of Izayoi Sakuya, head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She had last participated in an incident during the crisis involving Tenshi and the earthquakes, so it’s been a while since we’ve seen her working to resolve an incident.

To be precise though, only Reimu had actually set out with any intention of resolving this incident, spurred on by the fact that her youkai-exterminating gohei had begun moving around on its own. Marisa had something similar happen to her and found that her trusty Hakkero had begun emitting powerful flames without any prompting from her. Her response was to head out and try to put the device's firepower to the test. Sakuya was similarly motivated—she had managed to find a cursed blade somewhere. When Remilia happened to order her to investigate the shores of Misty Lake, Sakuya had taken the opportunity to test the new blade. It was a rather disturbing tale to hear.

The three of them had encountered each other early on and flown about, dispatching fairies, tsukumogami and weak youkai along the way with reckless abandon. Among those they had encountered and subsequently pacified had been three of our acquaintances, apparently: Wakasagihime, Sekibanki and Kagerou. I feel sorry for each of those three, it really seems like nothing's going their way this time around.

At any rate, they eventually took notice of the storm that had been enveloping Shining Needle Castle. Upon moving to investigate it, the incident-resolvers had run into (and shot down) Benben and Yatsuhashi. After that, they charged straight in. When I interviewed the three of them after the fact, they told me they had a conversation on the way in that went something like this:

—

"Oi Reimu, you wanna make a bet?"

"About what?"

"Whether Renko and Merry will be waitin' inside for us. I trust their track record at this point."

"Do you think Sanae will be with them? I don't like the idea of her getting to an incident first. I'll go ahead and bet they're not there, things are bound to get a lot more complicated if they are."

"Alright then, loser has to prepare the food for the afterparty once we're done here."

"Hold on, if those are the stakes then Sakuya should have to bet too. Which side are you on?"

"I'm just here to find something to test this knife on."

"...Sakuya, that's all you've been talkin' about this whole time. Is that knife possessin' you or somethin'?"

"Of course not. I only take orders from Milady."

"Sure. Oh, come to think of it, your place was the first time those two showed up, right?"

"Was it?"

"Oh yeah. That brings back memories."

"Ya think Remilia could’ve manipulated their fate back then?"

"You mean like making it so that they always show up in the middle of an incident? What would she gain from doing that?"

"Milady doesn't care whether she gains anything from altering fate. She only cares if it's fun or not."

"That’s why everyone thinks your master is a nuisance."

"I think it's one of her charm points, personally."

"Bringing in blood-sucking monsters from the Outside World isn't charming!"

The 'blood-sucking monster' Reimu was referring to here was not Remilia herself, but rather a strange creature called a 'chupacabra' that she had recently imported as a pet. If you hadn't heard about that, ask Miss Akyuu or even Kosuzu for the details.

At any rate, I relate this conversation here only to show that our tendency to reach the mastermind of an incident before Reimu is something that not only Mokou had noticed by this point. I worry that sooner or later Reimu is going to decide that my partner is close enough to developing a supernatural ability to exterminate. If that ever happens, I've already decided not to interfere. Renko's had it coming for a while now and whatever Reimu ends up doing to her, I suspect she'll deserve it for dragging me along to all of the dangerous places she has.

—

Anyway, with those events aside, let us return to the conversation Renko, Mokou, Shinmyoumaru and I were having inside the room in Shining Needle Castle where we had been imprisoned.

"Why would Seija know any of these stories about inchling history?" Renko had asked. By implication of course, she had also asked "what reason do you have to believe anything Seija told you was true?"

The princess had been struggling to answer that question, her eyes darting around in confusion. She hadn't gotten as far as completing a sentence when the door to the room was suddenly thrown open with a bang.

"Princess! More intruders!" Seija was standing in the doorway, looking as if she had rushed from across the castle to deliver the news.

"What? Alright. I'll take care of them." Shinmyoumaru turned away from us, brandishing the huge needle she was carrying. The needle was ridiculously large for what it appeared to be and was long even for a sword. It didn't seem to have a bladed edge though, so perhaps it was more like a short spear. At any rate, it looked like getting stabbed by it would definitely hurt.

"No, Princess. You stay here. I'll go see if I can chase them off."

"Really? Are you sure, Seija?"

"Heheh, seeing you worried makes me want to go even more! Later."

The door closed with a clack. She was already gone.Mokou clicked her tongue in disappointment. "She ran away again. Whatever. We've talked long enough. Look, Inchling. Just give me the mallet. That thing is too powerful for you to just be waving around."

"You guys really are just trying to steal my mallet, aren't you!? Well you can't have it! Only an inchling can safely use it anyway! It wouldn't serve you."

Shinmyoumaru had tensed up upon hearing that from Mokou, and was now holding her needle-sword at the ready, staring the immortal down. I should note that she didn't seem to be holding the mallet at the moment, so she must have either stashed it somewhere or maybe hidden inside her kimono.

"I couldn't care less if it would work for me or not. I just want to bring this incident to an end."

"I won't be fooled by your lies! Everyone wants the power to make their wishes come true!"

Mokou shook her head. "You've been completely tricked by that amanojaku. There's nothing that mallet could grant me that I would want to bother wishing for."

"That's a lie. What living person doesn't have anything they'd wish for? If you didn't have anything you wanted out of life any more you wouldn't be alive!"

I doubt Shinmyoumaru knew anything about Mokou's circumstances. But even if she had I don't imagine she could have found anything much worse than that that she could have said.

"Just shut up already," Mokou growled, her face twisting into a dark scowl. "If I could die, I would. Does your mallet grant the wishes of people like that?"

"Hey, Mokou..." Renko interrupted, reaching an arm towards her. "Don't say things like that. You may regret becoming immortal, but you've got lots to live for."

Mokou turned back toward her for a moment looking a little embarrassed. "Well, I guess I'm not in any hurry to die as long as you two and Keine are around..."

"You'll have things to live for even after we're gone. Don't you want to settle things with Kaguya?"

"Don't mention her right now!" Mokou roared. Renko raised her palms and shut up, but suspended in the air as she was, she couldn't back away.

"Anyways," Mokou continued, turning back toward Shinmyoumaru, "even if you believe Seija, then the reason your people have been persecuted all these years is because of that mallet. Why not just get rid of it?"

"No! The Miracle Mallet is my people's ultimate treasure! It's our only means of resisting the tyranny of the strong! I'll never give it up!"

Just like that the two of them had drawn two parallel lines in the sand. Shinmyoumaru wanted a version of Gensokyo free of oppression but had no idea how to achieve it, relying on the almighty power of the Miracle Mallet to see her through. Mokou wanted a Gensokyo without the Miracle Mallet in it. There was no compromise possible between their opposing ideals.

This is why idealists tend to make poor revolutionaries. Pure-hearted dedication to a cause is what a virtuous ideal demands, but radicals swept up by such an ideal can never afford to give any ground. To do so would be to betray something greater than themselves. It's that sort of thinking that always leads to runaway violence in the end. As the protagonist of a giant robot anime from the previous century once said 'Revolutions are always started by intellectuals with big dreams, but they only end up doing dangerous things.' You were so right, Amuro.

The point I am getting at is just that a revolution dedicated to an idea with no accommodations for the nature of reality is doomed to fail. When theories without any relationship to reality clash, there's no way for anyone to revise their views or give ground. With nothing to discuss, situations like that ultimately always end in violence.

If you think about it, the system that exists within Gensokyo at current, where the Hakurei shrine maiden resolves incidents and exterminates youkai without question, is probably a better model for the way things work here.

"Renko... I don't think there's any way that things can be resolved through discussion at this point...".

"Yeah, it’s looking bad... I was hoping that I'd be able to shake Shinmy's resolve a little…"

"If anything, you’ve been doing the opposite. Her worldview has been distorted, so even if you convinced her that Seija was lying, you'd only put her in a position where she wouldn't know what to believe. People naturally tend to prefer to trust information they’ve already come to believe."

When people come to believe that one thing is true and another is false, seeing any evidence that disproves that belief leads to a painful state of cognitive dissonance. To avoid that uncomfortable feeling people naturally tend to reject any information that clashes with the beliefs they already hold. Once someone has decided that a certain source of information is trustworthy, getting them to re-evaluate that decision is a long, difficult and costly process. It may not even be possible in some cases. Ultimately, it comes down to a matter of faith: people have to decide for themselves how to classify the information you give them, and whether or not it can be considered trustworthy.

"Well that's hardly reasonable, Merry. We should be trying to let things be decided by public consensus. If we just give up and leave everything as a problem of ideals that can only be resolved by violence, then that would be admitting that intellect and reason are ultimately futile. "

"Belief in ideals may not be reasonable, but it's something people need, Renko. Humans rely on their beliefs in order to make sense of the world. Your own belief that everything can be negotiated and understood through reasoning and intelligence is just a matter of faith as well."

"This is the problem with Relativism, Merry. If your beliefs are so changeable that you're unwilling to label anything as 'right' or 'wrong' then how can they tell you anything? When has Relativism ever solved any of the world's problems?"

"It's useful in situations like these where neither side can acknowledge the other's position. If you never question your own beliefs then you’re bound to end up becoming self-righteous. Relativistic Noology is really the only way forward here."

"Sheesh Merry, if you want to lecture that badly, you should teach a class on Relativistic Noology at the temple school."

"This isn't the Scientific Century, Renko. People here have much simpler beliefs."

"What are you even talking about!?" Shinmyoumaru yelled in exasperation, pointing her needle at me. Renko shrugged and let out a sigh, and Mokou hopped into the air, wreathing her fists in flames as she did so.

"That's enough discussion, isn't it Renko? I know Keine would prefer to do things your way, but there's no room for any further argument here. Let's resolve this the Gensokyo way and just get it done and over with. Besides, those intruders the amanojaku mentioned are probably—

Whatever Mokou might have been about to have been said next went unheard. It was drowned out by the ferocious, rattling impact of something exploding forcefully as it hit the castle, accompanied by a droning, overpowering roar.


—20—


It was only sometime later, when I was interviewing Marisa about this incident, that I was able to find out exactly what the source of the tremor had been. Apparently it was a new Spell Card of Marisa's, the [𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤], piercing through the castle's walls. The spell consisted of her trademark Master Spark, but channeled and amplified through a mini-hakkero that was on the verge of awakening as a tsukumogami. When it hit the castle, the force of the impact was enough that everyone in our little room was knocked to the floor.

Once the rumbling had stopped, Shinmyoumaru was the first to recover. "Seija!" she cried with alarm as she found her feet and scrambled toward the doorway. I jumped onto Genji’s back as he poked his head blearily out of his shell, having been woken by the blast then worked on pulling Renko into position as Genji brought us up so we could see where Shinmyoumaru had gone.

Through the now-empty doorway that had once led out into a hallway we could see that an immense blast had torn a huge chunk out of the side of the castle, obliterating several rooms and part of a wall. Through the gap in the wall we could see the open sky, illuminated by the setting sun, and there looking out through the hole was Seija.

"Princess!" She shouted. "These guys are dangerous! Run away! I’m retreating now!" Without another moment's delay she turned and flew out of the gaping hole in the wall and into the sky.

"What a snake! She's abandoning her friend!" Mokou said that while taking up a position just beside the princess, who was watching Seija’s fleeing figure with a worried expression.

Then, from the direction opposite the hole in the wall, three figures came flying into view just then.

"Oh, there’s someone here," Marisa noticed as she pulled to a stop beside Reimu.

"There's a whole bunch of people here," Sakuya corrected her.

"It doesn’t matter. I’ll exterminate them all no matter how many there—oh wait, it's you two again!"

"Hah! I win, Reimu. I told you they'd be here. Oh, wasn't expectin' to see you though, Mokou."

"You're that Hourai person from the bamboo forest, aren't you?" Sakuya asked. "Are you the one behind all of this? That would be perfect. A human who can't die would be just the thing to test this knife on. Let's see if immortal blood can still turn to rust on my blade."

Three incident-resolvers had arrived. I should have felt relieved to see them, but there was something off about the way that they each appeared. The knife held in Sakuya's hand was longer than her usual ones. Similarly, Marisa's Hakkero was the same one we had always seen but it seemed to be spurting small jets of flame on its own. Reimu wasn't carrying anything odd, but that was fairly strange in and of itself. Her gohei was nowhere to be seen and I had never seen her resolve an incident without it.

After glancing at Renko, Mokou and myself, all three of their sets of eyes fell to Shinmyoumaru as she floated in the doorway.

"Why am I always finding the two of you right next to the mastermind of every incident!?" Reimu declared, crossing her arms and glaring at us. "Renko, Merry, what's really going on with the two of you? Are you setting all of these incidents up?"

"Nope! this time we're actually here to help Mokou resolve the incident!"

"Mokou's resolvin’ an incident? Is it gonna rain bamboo shoots tomorrow or somethin’?"

"Oh, that would be perfect, we could stew them for the party."

"Shut up! I was hoping to get this all taken care of before you could get here," Mokou replied as she scratched at her head.

"Is that why you’re standing right next to the mastermind too? Are you working with her, Mokou? If you are, I'll exterminate you both."

"What? No? I was just about to fight this girl when you all came in."

As this discussion was going on, Shinmyoumaru looked over the three incident-resolvers. Saying nothing, she drew out the Miracle Mallet from within her clothes and readied herself for a fight.

"I wasn’t expecting so many people to come here all at once, but whether it’s one at a time or all at once, I’ll take you on. You're the Hakurei shrine maiden, and you must be the famous magician who always accompanies her. But who is the person in the strange dress over there?"

"My name is Izayoi Sakuya. I'm the head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. You're an ally of that amanojaku's I take it?"

"That's right. My name is Sukuna Shinmyoumaru, princess of the inchlings and leader of the resistance that will turn Gensokyo upside down! I understand why the Hakurei shrine maiden would oppose me, but why has a maid come here?"

Shinmyoumaru paused for a moment, her eyes settling on the unusual knife Sakuya was carrying. "Hm? Oh! that blade is something I experimentally made into a tsukumogami! You brought it all the way here. Even humans are good for something."

"I'm not here for any particular reason, things just kind of led me here."

"Yes, I see, you've been led by your tool. Now, won't you join me and turn the world upside down?"

"I already serve under someone of influence. Unfortunately, I have no intention of supporting any sort of rebels."

"Then why have you come all this way to where the knife led you?"

"Who knows? Perhaps you can guess, if you try," Sakuya suggested, testing the balance of the long knife in her hand.

"So then you weren't guided here by your tool. What about you, magician? Have you come to aid me in overthrowing the ruling powers of Gensokyo?"

"Nope, I uh... I'm here to find treasure!"

"So you're hoping to use this aren't you?" Shinmyoumaru asked, holding up her mallet. "My Miracle Mallet holds the power to turn Gensokyo upside down. If you want it, that must make us allies!"

"Miracle Mallet?" Marisa repeated, suddenly much more interested.

"It doesn't matter if you have treasure or mallets!" Reimu shouted, moving to stand between Marisa and Shinmyoumaru. "Your plans for revolution end here. I've never met an inchling before but if you know that you're weak then you ought to just settle down. That's the way of Gensokyo!" Reimu drew a trio of talismans from one sleeve while drawing forth several long, sharp, steel needles from the other. The red light of the sunset glinted off of them as she stared grimly at Shinmyoumaru.

"See?! See?! Inchlings always get ignored! Everyone ignores the voices of the weak and there's no place for people like us in Gensokyo. That's why we'll turn this whole rotten world upside down with the power of this mallet!"

"Doin' that would make a mess of my house," Marisa protested, moving to flank Reimu. "So I don't wanna help."

"And as a maid, I can't allow you to do anything that would be a nuisance to Milady," Sakuya said, forming up on the other side of Reimu. She and Marisa brandished their weapons as well.

Mokou stood beside us, simply watching the scene unfold. She made no motion to go and join the others. "Aren't you going to fight too?" Renko asked her.

"It's already three-on-one." she said with a shrug.

Shinmyoumaru growled at that, sparing a quick glance in our direction. "We're the resistance fighting against the power of authority. We always knew we'd be outnumbered. I don't care if it's three against one or four! I'll use the power of this mallet to overturn your arrogant belief that the strength of the powerful is unconditional as well!" Saying that, Shinmyoumaru raised the mallet high...

"Hey!" Marisa shouted, her eyes sparkling. "Is that the real deal? The Miracle Mallet that can grant any wish?"

"Miracle Mallet, give those tools more power! Much more!" She swung the mallet and it struck a ringing tone against empty air. I saw the ripples of power spread out, grow, multiply and then coalesce, shrinking and sinking into the material of the weapons Sakuya and Marisa were carrying.

"Whoa!"

A gout of purple-black flame exploded from the seam of the Hakkero's doors. Marisa gasped in surprise and fumbled the miniature furnace, then caught it with both hands.

"Oh my..."

A bloody glow coursed over Sakuya's knife, roiling like a cold flame.

Both Sakuya's and Marisa's eyes went dull and unfocused as a pair of smiles bloomed on their faces. Marisa's was fearless and unhinged while Sakuya's was thin, cruel and mirthless.

"Man... I feel like I could take over the whole world right now," Marisa mused.

"It really has been a long time since I've had to properly butcher a human," Sakuya said in turn. "Milady really deserves to have a proper meal for once."

They both turned to face Reimu.

"Wait a minute. Sakuya, Marisa, what are you doing?"

"Don't worry about it, Reimu. I'll make sure any future incidents get resolved just fine without you."

"I believe the gatekeeper had said that shrine maidens are the kind of human that it's alright to eat..."

Still smiling, the two of them closed in on Reimu.


—21—


I suppose this might be what Sanae would call a 'heel turn'. Betrayal, brainwashing and the sudden pitting of allies against one another was the stuff of any good shounen manga, but to see something like that happen in real life was nothing less than terrifying.

"What did you do to them?" Reimu shouted angrily as she backed away, trying to watch both Marisa and Sakuya at once.

"Not a thing. All I did was give their tools more power. Those people were already so attached to them that it was easy for the tools to turn the tables and use the humans instead. This is the nature of our revolution!"

I wondered what it would feel like to be controlled by an out-of-control tool. Perhaps the empowered tools had simply instilled a strong desire to be put to use in their users, or maybe they had called up some desire latent in both of the girls to see if they were capable of beating Reimu if they went all out. I suppose ultimately no one but the people affected could know the truth.

At any rate, the battle against Shinmyoumaru, which up until a moment ago had looked like it was going to be a match of three against one, had quickly and decisively become a match of one against three. Moreover Marisa and Sakuya were both experienced incident resolvers, each of whom was likely almost as powerful as Reimu herself. For someone used to exterminating youkai like Reimu, fighting off two powerful human opponents would be difficult. Especially without her gohei. Reimu's expression turned grim as she continued to back away from her friends.

"I take back what I said about knowing your place and keeping quiet," Reimu said. "You're not just an inchling, you're a real villain in need of extermination."

"I thought you might say that! But it’s too late for you to start respecting us now!" Shinmyoumaru took up a fighting stance, surging forward in her bowl she formed up alongside Marisa and Sakuya. "Now, let's have that three against one battle."

Reimu closed her eyes, the needles and talismans still clutched tightly in her hands as she took up a firm stance.

"Actually," Mokou called out, "It's three against two."

"Mokou?" Reimu asked, her eyes wide with surprise.

"Save your complaints for later. I’ll take care of Marisa and the maid," Mokou said, leaping out of the doorway to take up a stance opposite Reimu. "You fight the inchling and get rid of that mallet. You're the incident-resolution expert, after all."

"What? You’re acting all weird too. But if you’re going to make this easier for me, I don’t mind."

"I only came here to see this incident resolved. I don't care how that happens or if I have to die a bunch of times to achieve it. See this through, I'll keep them off of your back."

"If you get killed, I don't owe you anything, ok?"

"Fine by me, I prefer not to have to worry about debts anyway."

"Let's go!" a handful of voices shouted all at once. And then, in the smoldering, blasted and sunset-lit hall of an upside-down castle, the light and spectacle of a chaotic two-on-three danmaku match broke out.

—

I have written before about how mere words couldn't hope to convey the complexity, speed and chaos of a danmaku battle. The same is still true here, of course, but I will say one thing about this fight: If this were to be an action story, this battle would be the beautiful climax—Two completely different fights were happening at once, with Mokou literally putting her body on the line to protect Reimu and block any attacks from the maid and the witch as they were controlled by their tools, while Reimu and Shinmyoumaru wove a fierce and dramatic flying battle over, around and through the middle of their conflict. I don't have the skill to do it justice here.

If the battle had had any impact on the delusions my partner would eventually come up with then I would describe them in more detail but sadly all of this was nothing more than an action-packed distraction. As such, I hope you can forgive me for leaving my description at that. If you simply must hear all the details for yourself, I'd ask you to visit the Hakurei shrine or Mokou's shack in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost.

—

So then, how did it all end?

"Huh. So you really are an inchling," Reimu said, raising one hand above her head so that she could see the tiny figure dangling in her hand. She had lifted Shinmyoumaru up by the belt of her kimono, pinching it gingerly between thumb and forefinger. With the power of the miracle mallet broken, the girl was only about as tall as a bug. With Shinmyoumaru reduced to this size, Reimu seemed to find her quite the curiosity.

Meanwhile, as for the two girls who had been controlled by their own tools...

"Ugh, just die already you damn zombie... Nah, forget it, I give up, just stop." Marisa let out an exhausted sigh as a stream of smoke curled up from the seam of her hakkero.

"I agree. Not having the decency to die when you're cut up is rather uncouth. But I should be getting back home to prepare dinner for Milady soon anyway."

"Man. If I weren’t immortal I’d have been in some real trouble there." Mokou said as she descended to the ceiling below, the flames surrounding her body dwindling and dying out.

Mokou had very much relied on her immortality during the fight, using her body to block attacks and force Sakuya and Marisa away from Reimu until both of them were too exhausted to continue. While the two of them were catching their breath, Reimu whipped a pair of talismans in their direction, quickly sealing the knife and the hakkero as the paper charms stuck fast to each of the tools. The moment the seals were in place Marisa sat down, then spread her arms to lay flat on the floor, a look of relief on her face. Sakuya meanwhile looked more thoughtful than anything else as she tilted her head and regarded the long knife in her hand. Both of them seemed capable of remembering everything they had done while under the influence of their tools, so I suppose the Miracle Mallet must have just amplified desires that were already present in both of their minds rather than completely puppeteering them.

"There," Reimu said, turning her attention back to Shinmyoumaru. "Those things are sealed for now, but you lost, so put everything back the way it was."

"Whaaat?" Shinmyoumaru cried as she dangled from her sash "This mallet bestows power to other things. I can't make it call that power back."

"Are you saying my gohei is going to keep moving on its own? Well, I could probably find some sort of use for it. "

"The mallet will need to recharge soon. When it does, all of the power it has bestowed will slowly be drawn back and all of the tsukumogami the mallet created will go back to just being tools..."

"It has to recharge?"

"What the mallet gives, it later takes away."

"So then everything would have eventually gone back to normal anyway?"

"I guess."

"...What a waste of time. I should have stayed at home," Reimu let out a heavy sigh.

"Hey," Mokou said, walking up beside Reimu. "You saw that amanojaku who was here before, right? She escaped before the fight started. Should we try to chase her down?" They both turned to look through the large hole in the wall.

"Let her go. What harm could a weakling like her do? This inchling is the only one who can use the Miracle Mallet, right? All we have to do is keep an eye on her."

"I guess that makes sense." Mokou scratched at her head. "Alright then, I'll leave that to you. Good work, I guess." Mokou waved goodbye to Reimu and floated over to us.

"It looks like it's over. I guess we all go home now?"

"Yes, let's go... Renko?"

"Hmm? Wha? Oh yeah, we can leave the rest to Reimu. Let's go." She nodded, but her fingers kept fiddling with the brim of her hat.

"What's wrong? Is something bothering you?"

"There's a few things..." she muttered, then looked up. "Nothing you need to worry about though, Mokou. Let's go tell Miss Keine that everything's going to start calming down soon."

"Alright. I guess I'd better make sure you two get home before I get a lecture about that as well."

And with that, the three of us left Shining Needle Castle, with Renko and I riding on Genji and Mokou flying along ahead of us.

—

Once we were flying, Renko settled back into her ruminations again though, clearly turning something over again and again in her mind.

"...It's over, Renko. What are you so worried about?"

She turned to briefly look at me over her shoulder. "Well there's a bunch of things that still don't make sense..." Then she was silent for a moment before finally letting out a breath and looking up at the starry sky. "22:15," she said. "And 41 seconds. Mark my words, Merry. This incident isn't over yet."