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

—19—


A giant shadow loomed over Gensokyo. Step by step, it made its way through the Forest of Magic, the earth rumbling under its every crushing footfall.

The earth-shaking vibrations fell slow and heavy, each booming echo following the pace of an unhurried stalk as the creatures feet pierced the earth, tearing foliage from the ground and sending birds scattering into flight as the evening sun was blocked out by the absolute darkness of a massive, eclipsing form. From the perspective of any animal standing on the ground, the shadow would have looked like an imposing, impossibly large humanoid form, large enough to easily smash a human like a bug.

The shape of the giant's silhouette was like that of a human, except colossal in size. Long, golden hair fluttered in the hot wind, as the red ribbon tying it in place swayed. An enormous dress with a lacy apron was stretched across the giant's frame, decorated in a way that might have been cute if it wasn't towering over the treetops.

Above it all, a pair of glassy, river-blue eyes stared down impassively from a dizzying height of nearly a hundred meters, without any hint of emotion or remorse. They were the eyes of a hunting dog, calm, impassive and merciless. Anyone looking into those dead, emotionless eyes would have been frozen to the spot in fear.

Most frightening of all were the two long swords carried in either of the giant's hands. The giant swung both of the blades downward as it emerged from the trees, severing ancient boughs with a splintering crack. One of the blades sank deep into the earth, kicking up a cloud of dust that hung in the air. Following in a straight line from the point where the blade had cleaved the ground was the western gate of the human village.

"It's the daidarabocchi! Daidarabocchi is attacking!" someone shouted in the street.

All at once a wave of panicked cries went up and people began to scramble, rushing to flee from the scene. Beneath the rising wail of the countless screaming voices, the heavy thump of the giant's footsteps resumed as it began to march toward the village. Overcome by fear, those who couldn't run fell to their knees in the streets. The humans prayed to the gods. They prayed for salvation.

—

As if in answer to their prayers, a light descended from the sky. Staring into the column of light the villagers could see a single human form descending, dwarfed by the monstrous form of the looming giant. The human floated before the giant, interposing themselves between it and the village, one hand raised high. A voice rang out, shouting over the clamor.

"Hisoutensoku! [Showtime!]"

—

The next moment, it appeared from the depths of the earth. Clods of soil burst and tumbled as the ground ruptured and an enormous form rocketed skyward. In just seconds it rose up, standing proud and erect, a solid and unconquerable fortress of peace.

"What is that?" the crowd of villagers shouted, almost as one.

"It's the guardian god of the Moriya Shrine! The protector of the meek and the innocent, Thermonuclear Titan Hisoutensoku!" shouted an unseen voice in the crowd.

At that moment the human form seen before rose out of the billowing cloud of mist surrounding the armored figure's feet and landed on its shoulder. It was Kochiya Sanae, wind priestess and miracle worker of the Moriya Shrine. And the name of the mighty god upon whose shoulder she now stood was 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐤𝐮!

With a rush of air, a hatch on its back opened wide and Sanae jumped inside without a moment's hesitation. Deep within Hisoutensoku's chest she slid into the pilot's seat and wrapped her hands eagerly around the control sticks.

The eyes of Hisoutensoku suddenly glowed, a steady light shining outward in twin beams. Inside the cockpit, letters of light composed themselves on a screen.

CAST IN THE NAME OF GOD, YE NOT GUILTY.

"In the gods' name, I'll cast for the innocent."

It was a message. A divine revelation announcing that Hisoutensoku's activation was complete. Sanae pulled back on the control sticks and shouted inside the cockpit.

"Hisoutensoku! Action!"

—

Hisoutensoku's right fist raised up and then slammed down in a hammer blow aimed at the daidarabocchi.

The doll-like giant crossed its swords in front of its face to block the attack, but was thrown back by the impact, skidding on its heels and stumbling away a few steps.

Hisoutensoku followed up, lunging forward to swing another wild punch with its left arm. The daidarabocchi parried with the sword in its right hand, then brought its other blade around to slice at Hisoutensoku's over-extended arm. The armored god's limb was only barely saved by the protection of its gauntlets, throwing off a shower of bright sparks as a metallic clang rang out. The two combatants seemed to glare at each other for a breath, then both hopped away from one another, creating some distance as they prepared for another clash.

Inside Hisoutensoku's cockpit, Sanae wiped the sweat off of her forehead and gripped the control sticks tighter. "Oh, that was close! I almost got cut down with one slash!"

A tiny voice called out. "Sanae, there's no time to relax. With your strength Hisoutensoku can only function for three minutes at most!"

"I understand, Lady Suwako. I just—oh no!"

The daidarabocchi was moving again, rushing forward with a grace and speed that seemed unthinkable for something so large. The enormous youkai lifted into the air, brought both of its swords above its head, and drove them down in a flashing arc.

Hisoutensoku reacted, catching the blades with its gauntlets again as it raised both arms to block, but the force of the blow was so great that the legs of the armored god sunk into the ground, causing the immense form of the divine warrior to lose its balance and tumble backward.

In the streets of the village, screams of horror echoed as people watched their protector fall. The daidarabocchi sauntered forward with leisurely steps, raising its swords as if to finish off Hisoutensoku.

"Sanae, stand up! Hurry!"

"I'm trying! The legs won’t move though! I don’t have enough power!"

Hisoutensoku rose to one knee as the daidarabocchi approached, but couldn't seem to manage to stand. The emotionless blue eyes of the doll looked down upon the kneeling guardian god. As the daidarabocchi’s blade descended Sanae flinched and shut her eyes tight.

Suddenly a wild cry rang out, as the silhouette of a lone figure leapt up from the ground and struck the daidarabocchi's descending blade with a whirling airborne kick. The force of the strike was enough to deflect the blade, bringing it crashing down into the dirt beside Hisoutensoku's left shoulder.

"Wait, is that...?" Sanae cried as she set eyes on the figure.

Vaulting off of the place where the kick had connected with the blade in midair, the new arrival twisted acrobatically, rotating themselves to find their feet as they landed gracefully on Hisoutensoku's shoulder. Her dress and red hair waving in the breeze like a defiant banner, the figure's identity became clear as the dust of the blade's impact settled. It was none other than Hong Meiling, gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"Hear me, Taisui Xingjun!" She bellowed. "The fires of heaven are burning within me! They shine in rainbow colors from my fists! Their loud roar tells me to protect the people of Gensokyo! So long as I, Hong Meiling draw breath, I will not allow your evil to go unpunished!" She paused for only a moment to take a deep breath, then, with a fierce yell, began running down Hisoutensoku’s arm. She leapt from the arm and landed, with eerie precision, along the edge of the daidarabocchi's blade, sprinting up its length at an inhuman speed. As she reached the hilt she leapt once more into the air.

"Whoachaa!"

Meiling's jumping kick exploded against the daidarabocchi's jaw, and the giant stumbled backward. Before it could find its footing she had kicked off of empty air and dived for its chest, releasing a glowing burst of danmaku at point-blank range.

"Flower Sign — [Colorful Lotus Palm!]"

The explosion of danmaku scattered in every direction, impacting against the daidarabocchi's body and knocking the sword from the giant's right hand. Even as sparks and debris flew from the impact however, the daidarabocchi's left hand was rising, its blade singing as it cleaved through the air toward Meiling...

And stopped. Frozen in place by a thick coating of glimmering ice that should have been impossible in the middle of summer.

"I'm the strongest! Even a daidarabocchi's not too big for me to freeze!"

Standing on the tip of the ice-encased sword was Misty Lake's resident ice fairy, Cirno.

"Break!"

From her position hovering in front of the daidarabocchi, Meiling flew in with a kick. Her heel crashed against the frozen steel of the sword and she plunged straight through it, shattering the blade and sending shards of steel and ice spinning off in every direction. Now empty-handed, the daidarabocchi recovered itself, stomping forward toward Hisoutensoku and its allies with thundering footsteps and a cold stare.

The villagers watched with bated breath. Hisoutensoku was still on one knee, unable to rise. The daidarabocchi had lost its swords, but still towered over its opponent, with Cirno and Meiling as nothing more than insects before its might. Suddenly a voice called out in the crowd. Somehow Moriya Suwako had appeared amongst the crowd watching the fight.

"Everyone, lend Hisoutensoku your strength! Hisoutensoku is fighting to protect the village! With your faith surely our protector will rise again! They won't lose to a youkai, even one like daidarabocchi! Come on!"

The faces of the assembled crowd turned toward her in shock. Not a single voice other than her own was raised. Then, timidly, one young voice called out from somewhere near the gate.

"Go Hisoutensoku! Do your best!"

With that trickle the floodgates began to open.

"Stand up, Hisoutensoku! Don't give up!"

"Hisoutensoku! You can win!"

"We believe in you!"

"Fight, Hisoutensoku! Fight!

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Outside of the village, the burgeoning cry of the villagers' chants were rising like a tide, louder and louder as the chorus spread throughout the settlement. It was loud enough to be heard in the cockpit where Sanae was sitting.

"Sanae! You can't last any longer, we're out of time!"

"No, as long as the people believe in me I can fight!" She gripped the control sticks and closed her eyes as all around her, the cockpit began to glow with blue-green light from the pentacle that was blossoming beneath her feet.

"Native faith reserves activated! Full power!"

On the cockpit monitors, indicator after indicator began climbing. As they reached their maximum Hisoutensoku rose once more to its full height, raising both arms over its head as within the cockpit the glow surrounding Sanae intensified.

＂𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐊𝐄! 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐂 𝐎𝐍𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐀!＂

Where exactly the enormous log that descended from the sky had come from, I couldn't say. The pillar of sacred wood, ringed by a pair of equally enormous shimenawa, shot downward at a perfect trajectory toward Hisoutensoku. As it drew close, Hisoutensoku's enormous hands grasped onto its sides and swung it, delivering a downward blow like a piledriver, an impact which smashed into the giant and continued without slowing down for an instant, driving into the earth and exploding with such force that a wave of dust and loose earth rippled outward and cascaded like water. There was a terrible roar as the tremor of the impact rattled through the village. A plume of dust exploded violently into the air.

Then there was silence.

A breeze picked up and cleared the smoke and dust away. There stood Hisoutensoku, the Onbashira still grasped between its hands, its shining eyes beaming through the smoke. Slowly, the daidarabocchi toppled and collapsed to the ground. Hisoutensoku lifted the Onbashira over its head and turned its back on the daidarabocchi, spinning to face the village. The moment the daidarabocchi finished collapsing to the ground its body disappeared in a vast explosion that sent a short-lived fireball rolling into the sky.

—

As the din of the explosion wore away, it was replaced by cheers of joy, rising from the throats of nearly every inhabitant of the village. All the eyes of the assembled villagers were watching as Hisoutensoku drove the Onbashira into the ground and turned toward Youkai Mountain. Its form could be seen marching away from the village as the villagers waved and cheered.

—

Thus was the peace and order of Gensokyo preserved.

However, if an enormous, oversized youkai should ever cast its shadow over the village again, Hisoutensoku has promised to return. To watch over and protect the humans of Gensokyo, and defend them against the apparitions that stalk the night.

And so, let us all give thanks to Hisoutensoku. Let us all have faith that in our hour of need the village's divine protector will return, and fight, and win against any threat. Let us only have faith, and of this we can be certain.


—20—


"So what exactly was all of that just now?" Akyuu asked us as we passed her in the street on our way home. Like a great many other villagers, she appeared to have come out to watch the battle between Hisoutensoku and the daidarabocchi. The look she gave Renko was understandably suspicious.

"That was just our way of resolving an incident," Renko said, poking the brim of her hat back with two fingers and grinning like the Cheshire cat. Akyuu tilted her head, looking puzzled. As for myself. Beside my partner I could only shrug my shoulders. I wondered though, could something like this really be an effective resolution?

—

"Ugh, I'm so tired."

Sanae yawned and stretched broadly. She was sprawled out on a grassy hillside near Misty Lake by the time we arrived, sitting next to the deflated and folded up form of Hisoutensoku. Beside her Suwako was sitting with a broad smile on her face.

"You were great out there, Sanae. Well done."

"Our part's all done too."

"...I don't see why you had to drag me into it though, I'm not even involved."

"Well it was an entertaining show even if you don't get anything out of it, don't you think?"

These comments had come from the third party to arrive, a quartet of magicians, all flying in from the Forest of Magic to join our meeting. Marisa, Patchouli and Hijiri Byakuren all landed in the field beside us with Alice arriving just behind them. She was carrying the seamlessly repaired and now normal-sized Goliath doll in her arms.

"Now that that's over, you'll give me Hisoutensoku, right?"

In response to Alice's question Renko smiled and nodded. "That was the deal."

Sakuya and Remilia had been waiting for us near the edge of the lake from where they had watched Hisoutensoku fight. As we arrived with Meiling in tow she ran over to the pair of them excitedly. "Lady Remilia, Miss Sakuya, did you see the fight? Wasn't I awesome?"

" That role was too cool for you, Meiling. I’d say it was miscast."

" How about putting more effort into guarding the mansion's gates before you start trying to guard all of Gensokyo?"

"Seriously?" Meiling's shoulders slumped.

"I saw it too! You were really cool, gate lady! You must be almost as strong as me!" This last remark had come from Cirno, who patted Meiling on the shoulder before landing near the rest of us. With her arrival, all of the major players in this farce of an incident were now present. To be fair though, I should also mention that there were a great many kappa involved behind the scenes as well.

"Well thank you everyone for all of your hard work! It's only thanks to all of your combined efforts that this incident was such a success," my partner, the mastermind responsible for this incident, called out.

"Does this really count as resolvin' an incident?" Marisa asked, looking uncertain.

"It certainly caused a big fuss," Patchouli grumbled in response.

"Well that's the whole point!" Renko grinned as she eased her hat back. "The important thing is that the story that Hisoutensoku defeated the daidarabocchi will spread. The entire purpose of all of this was to be a big spectacle. There's no better way to negate a rumor than with a more interesting rumor."

"That's all well and good, but why did you have to cast my Goliath doll as the villain?"

"Because that's the daidarabocchi!" Cirno exclaimed, pointing at the doll in Alice's arms. Alice tilted her head in confusion. She never quite figured out that she had been the original source of the rumors of a giant youkai living in the forest.

"The important thing is the threat of an actual daidarabocchi is gone from Gensokyo. Probably."

" I'm not sure about that part, but at least this was fun," said Marisa, looking a little annoyed.

"I'm just glad I was able to help make Gensokyo a more peaceful place," Byakuren replied, smiling brightly. She's a nice person.

"Well, I guess Sanae gets the win this time. How do you feel?"

"It was a lifelong dream come true! I always wanted to pilot a giant robot!" Sanae leapt to her feet as she said that, eyes shining as she stared up towards the spot where the battle had taken place.

"Well then I think it was all worth it in the end," Renko said, matching Sanae's grin with one of her own.

—

That, of course, was the true nature of this incident, and the resolution that was provided by my partner. In order to prevent a real daidarabocchi from materializing in the Forest of Magic, she had planned this performance to spread the story that the daidarabocchi had already been defeated.

Hisoutensoku was of course nothing more than an advertising balloon but with the help of several kappa engineers, a hastily assembled cockpit had been attached to its structure. Armor had been assembled and added to a few key locations to give Hisoutensoku the illusion of solidity. From inside the cockpit Sanae had used her powers as a wind priestess to control Hisoutensoku, just as if it were actually a giant robot.

Her opponent, the daidarabocchi, had simply been Alice's Goliath doll, which exactly matched the description in the rumors started by Cirno. Of course the size difference between Hisoutensoku which was nearly 100 meters tall, and the Goliath doll that Alice had first shown us was far too great for the two of them to fight. With the help of Marisa, Patchouli and Byakuren, however, the spell had been enough to make the doll far larger than Alice could ever have managed on her own. The resulting matchup had been a true clash of titans.

Alice's reward for her cooperation had been ownership of Hisoutensoku itself, and Patchouli had been talked into helping after being promised Alice's notes on the doll enlargement spell. Marisa had been the easiest to get on board, participating for the sheer novelty of the experience. Byakuren initially opposed the idea of assisting with the extermination of a youkai, but once Renko reasoned her into it by pointing out that the goal was to prevent a hostile youkai from forming in the first place, she was surprisingly quick to help out.

Cirno, who had been the source of the daidarabocchi rumors in the first place, had been asked to participate as one of Hisoutensoku's allies just to make sure she didn't complicate matters. Meiling, who was worried about Taisui Xingjun, had gladly offered to help when she had been told that the purpose of the plan was to prevent a crisis from affecting Gensokyo.

The script for the event, along with stage direction and planning was handled by Suwako. Renko’s role had been that of a negotiator, reaching out to all of the various parties involved and obtaining their co-operation in the pursuit of her scheme. This was the second time Renko had managed to get so many disparate parties, all of whom were unaccustomed to working together, united toward a single goal. even though I refer to her in these case files as a ‘self-proclaimed negotiator’, it might be time for me to drop the self proclaimed bit.

In the end, that's how this incident ended, with a giant robot show, featuring a battle between an inflatable hero and an oversized doll.


—21—


Going back in time just a little bit, this is the conversation I had with Renko the morning after we woke up from our shared dream. Reading it, you'll see how my partner came up with her rather unorthodox method of incident resolution.

"So, if we put together all the information we've gathered thus far, it seems like the conclusions that Meiling came to were all correct."

"Meiling? Had she come to a conclusion?"

"Yes, that there was some sort of giant threat approaching Gensokyo, that threat was an omen of some even greater calamity, and that it wasn’t Hisoutensoku. That's what Doremy was trying to warn us about in our dream."

"...What exactly do you mean, Renko? I'm not sure what threat you're even talking about."

Renko sat down, smiling as I frowned at her. "It's not so hard to figure out, Merry. Put everything we know in chronological order and I'm sure you'll see where I'm going. It all started with an unknown tengu and you, who both had a dream in which an impostor, taking the form of an acquaintance, attacked them, right? That tengu then went on to make a manga about it. These dreams must have been sent to us by someone other than Doremy, presumably so that you and the tengu would both create works of art which contained the idea of someone you trust betraying you. You in the form of your case files and the tengu in the form of that action manga. And what happened when people read the manga that the unknown tengu created?"

"You and Meiling both had impostor dreams, right?"

"Correct, whoever made you and the tengu artist have those dreams initially seems to have had the goal of spreading that dream to others. Not everyone who read the manga started having that dream though, so it only seems to affect a certain percentage of people exposed to it, and in each case where it does have an effect, the dream is different and unique to the individual and their acquaintances. Now, what do you think would have happened if that manga had actually been circulated in the village and widely read?"

"...Probably an urban legend about a manga that gives you strange dreams would have sprung up."

"Exactly." I think I was starting to understand where Renko was going with all of this. "You’re saying that the intention of whoever gave me and tengu A that dream was to spread a rumor."


"Right again. And if lots of people were having dreams about impostors masquerading as their friends and attacking them or else reading manga about that same idea, what do you think the end result would be?"

"As more people started to believe that something like that could happen, that perception would eventually start to shape Gensokyo's reality..."

"Exactly. What started as a dream would eventually become a reality. A youkai that disguises itself as your friends and attacks humans would become real. And once that happened—"

"The whole village would be filled with suspicion. Everyone would suspect everyone else. That would be terrible." It wasn't hard to imagine a scenario where friends and even family members might turn against one another as the people of the village succumbed to paranoia.

"But we stopped it when we told Miss Shmeimaru not to sell her manga, right? Is that what Doremy meant when she said we'd averted a crisis?"

"I think so. By giving Miss Shameimaru's manga a terrible review, you, me and Sanae all helped to avert that catastrophe."

After that Aya had given the manga to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. There Meiling had read it and then dreamed of battling both impostors in the guise of acquaintances and a giant catfish.

"Wait a minute, Renko. If what you theorized back when we first came to Gensokyo is true, then that could be bad."

"Exactly. The mastermind behind all of that probably realized that their initial plan had failed, so they changed tactics and got to work on Meiling. With how paranoid she's been acting lately... Gensokyo might still be in danger." If you don't know what I'm referring to with regards to Renko's theories about Meiling, please refer to my first case file.

"...Anyway, once Miss Shameimaru gave up on distributing her manga, the mastermind responsible for different people all having the same dream needed to come up with another approach. It's about then that we started hearing another rumor going around."

"You're talking about the daidarabocchi now, right?"

"Exactly. Cirno started the rumor after chasing the giant shadow she had seen and eventually stumbling upon Alice and her Goliath Doll research. That was the approaching crisis that Doremy warned us was coming. Whoever the mastermind behind all of this is, they're still trying to use spreading rumors to bring a youkai into existence."

"I can see where you're coming from but rumors about a giant youkai and rumors about your friends being replaced by impostors who attack you are pretty different, aren't they?"

As I tilted my head in consideration, Renko raised her finger. "Yes, that's precisely it. They are very different. But when Meiling had her impostor dream there was something very different about that too. Something that was unique to her dream. She told us that in her dream a giant catfish appeared and introduced itself as the avatar of Taisui Xingjun, saying that it was going to cause an earthquake that would destroy Gensokyo. If we assume that her dream was something shown to her by the same mastermind that was behind all of the other dreams, then that's a pretty big and sudden departure from anything that came before."

"I guess so, but what's a giant catfish got to do with anything?"

"I think that was all part of the mastermind's plan. Do you remember what you did after you had the impostor dream?"

"...I went and got that flyer from the Myouren Temple to use as a good luck charm."

"Right, and when I had the impostor dream I threw that charm at the fake Sanae and Lord Bishamonten appeared and chased her away. In other words that flyer really is effective as a talisman to ward off bad dreams, and it's one that even an ordinary person like me can use to protect themselves from dreams of impostors. Which means that this whole plan of spreading a dream about your friends betraying you was doomed from the beginning. Here in Gensokyo there's not only the Myouren Temple, but the Hakurei Shrine and the Moriya Shrine. The mastermind behind all of this had to expect that their plans would be thwarted sooner or later."

"And so the next stage of their plan was to give people dreams of a giant catfish?"

"Exactly. As strange as it sounds I think the impostor dream and giving it to people who could spread it was just a prelude. They just needed to get the dreams to spread to a significant enough audience that they could unleash their real threat: a dream of a giant catfish. Not just any giant catfish though. Merry, do you remember the earthquake incident?"

"The one involving Tenshi? She sealed the giant catfish with the Keystone at the Hakurei Shrine, right?"

"Exactly. The mastermind behind the shared dream phenomenon realized that their dream infection plan only had a limited range, but they didn't give up. They switched to using rumors to try to materialize a daidarabocchi."

I thought back to the rumors about the giant youkai we had heard from the children. There had definitely been something about earthquakes among them, and one kid had even said something about the daidarabocchi being the servant of the great catfish.

"Then you're suggesting that the true mastermind behind all of this, everything from the strange dreams to the tengu manga to the rumors the kids have been swapping at school is—"

Renko nodded gravely, "That's right, Merry. The mastermind behind all of these events is none other than the giant catfish beneath Gensokyo, who has been plotting to release the seal placed upon them by using the power of the Dream World to destroy the Hakurei Shrine."

When put into words it was patently absurd. Renko had always been prone to grandiose delusions, but this had to be her greatest yet.

"That's why Doremy asked us to solve this case instead of Reimu. Reimu wouldn't do anything until after something strange happened. But by then it would be too late!"

"Hold on, even if the mastermind behind this was the giant catfish and their goal was to release their seal, how would spreading rumors help to—"

"By causing the daidarabocchi to materialize! As soon as it does, it's sure to go stomping straight toward the Hakurei Shrine. Reimu could probably exterminate it, but not before it destroyed the keystone and unleashed an earthquake that might destroy all of Gensokyo! It's just like Doremy said, if this job were left to Reimu then there'd be way more collateral damage!"

Nodding to herself Renko stood up, a determined expression on her face. "Now that I've laid it all out it's time to get moving, Merry! Come on, get up! We've got to save Gensokyo!"

—

The eventual result of Renko's shouted declaration that morning had been the flashy farce of a giant robot show I described earlier. It had certainly been a spectacle, but could such an event really prevent the release of something like earth-shatteringly powerful youkai? Ultimately there was no way we would ever know.