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

—19—


And so once again, Renko and I found ourselves in a graveyard at night. I remember that there was an old anime from the previous century that had an opening song about having a field day in a graveyard, but for Renko and I, graveyards are just reminiscent of our earliest efforts to locate and reveal the hidden boundaries of the world. As we walked between the headstones now, I couldn't help but think with nostalgic fondness of the cherry blossoms we had once seen in Rendaino.

Unlike that trip, our goal this time had nothing to do with exposing barriers. Instead as we stepped into the silent cemetery near the Myouren Temple we were greeted by Mamizou, who was sitting on top of a burial slab in an utterly sacrilegious way.

"Ya seem to have a little somethin' extra sticking to ya tonight," She said as we approached, adjusting her spectacles as she peered over them at Renko, myself and, more pointedly, Keine.

Keine stepped forward from behind us and replied. "I'm Kamishirasawa Keine of the Human Village's Neighborhood Watch. You're Danzaburou-danuki from Sado, aren't you?"

"That's right. I'm Futatsuiwa Mamizou. I've heard about you. You're a bit of an oddball, aren't 'cha? A half-youkai were-hakutaku who teaches history at the village temple school, right?"

"That's right. I'm also the employer and guardian of these two detectives you hired." Keine added, giving Renko and I the side-eye.

"I see. I suppose she found out about everythin'?" Mamizou asked, glancing at us but jutting the stem of her pipe at Keine.

"Yes, that's more or less what happened. I haven't had the opportunity to see what happens during the hour of the ox myself yet, but I'm planning to do that tonight."

"And what are you planning to do once you've seen it?" Mamizou asked, climbing to her feet.

"I had hoped I might work together with you to resolve the situation."

"Oho?" Mamizou exhaled a puff of smoke and looked Keine over appraisingly. "Ya must have some idea of what needs doin'. Have ya found a clue?"

"Perhaps. It might be something you already know as well."

"Well if ya want to see what's been happenin' to the village, all ya need to do is stay here until the hour of the ox. We're far enough away here that 'cha shouldn't be affected." To me Mamizou seemed surprisingly accepting of Keine's involvement. Maybe she was used to going with the flow and changing her plans to suit the situation, but it almost felt like there was some other motivation behind it.

"How about your end, Mamizou?" Renko asked, "Any luck finding the mask?"

"No, none of my tanuki have turned up anythin'. They did run into Nazrin, who told us you'd hired her to look as well, but her efforts have been just as unlucky. How about you two? Find anythin' lookin' elsewhere?"

Renko smiled proudly and pushed her hat back with one finger. "We have, actually. We've got a strong lead that we're chasing down."

"Oh? Do tell."

Mamizou leaned forward in interest and Renko proceeded to relate our findings. Mamizou had never heard of Koishi, so she had to then explain her story as well.

"A youkai of unconsciousness? A youkai who can't be known by anyone sounds like an oxymoron."

"Merry's seen her a bunch of times. You can't beat a top of the line boundary detector for finding rare youkai."

"Stop treating me like a tool, Renko," I sighed.

"Well if her presence really is becoming easier to detect because of the mask of hope, it may be that other people will be able to see her soon. Once we can see her ourselves, I won't have to anymore."

"That makes sense. Ya can't hope to be saved by somethin' ya don't believe exists, so if she's fillin' folks with hope she might become easier to see." Mamizou nodded and blew out a long stream of smoke. "Well either way, I'll leave the search for an unconscious youkai to you."

Renko nodded in agreement. "That's our plan."

"So what is it that Miss Were-hakutaku here knows, anyway? Quit bein' stingy and just tell us already. Ya don't need to wait until you've seen what's goin' on in the village for yourself, everythin' we've told ya is a fact." Mamizou said, looking over towards Keine again.

Keine sighed. "I think I know something about where Miss Kokoro might have come from, or more specifically about where the set of masks that became Miss Kokoro came from." Keine then went on to explain her theory that Kokoro's masks might originally have been made by Prince Shotoku.

It wasn't clear if this particular bit of information was something Mamizou had known or suspected already. As Keine finished her story, the bake-danuki nodded, saying "I see. So you're hopin' that caped horned owl can make a new mask of hope, right?"

I assume she was referring to the Crown Prince? She had taken to wearing a cape the last few times we had seen her and I suppose her hair did look a bit like the tufts of a horned owl…


"If she's the one who created the masks in the first place, then it should be doable."

"Well even if she can, she'll need to gather up a lot of hope to make a proper one. To do that, she'll need to be the one to win this little religious war. I imagine that with yer connections you could help to make sure that happens, right, Miss Were-hakutaku?"

"No. I'm afraid that's where I draw the line," Keine said, shaking her head firmly. "I'm a teacher and an official member of the neighborhood watch. I can't be seen taking sides in a popular conflict like this. It's my duty to provide education and protection to everyone without bias."

"Eh? Really?" Mamizou asked, looking shocked. "So yer gonna propose a solution and not help with it? It wouldn't kill ya to be a bit more flexible."

"No. I'm afraid I can't budge on that point at all. I have to remain neutral as far as these conflicts in the village go. As a member of the watch, all of these danmaku matches have been a real headache. Not only are they dangerous, but people get so excited to watch them that keeping the peace in the village has gotten even harder. If I'm seen favoring one side or another then that will only make things worse."

"...Of all the stubborn... If we can get a new mask of hope, what's it matter how we do it? Resolvin' this incident is what's important, ain't it?"

"There's no point in getting to the right answer via the wrong method." Keine said, shaking her head again. "We can't let an unsuspecting woman walk around alone at night in the hope that we might catch someone who's been preying on people like her, and this situation is the same."

"Oh, how admirable," Mamizou said, crossing her arms and shaking her head, an expression resting on her face that seemed halfway between exasperation and respect. "Well then, how are ya proposin' I help?"

"I am acquainted with Toyosatomimi no Miko. My intent is to introduce Miss Kokoro to her. If Miss Kokoro is really her creation, then that would be the right thing to do and it would allow us to resolve this without letting any helpless people get tangled up in the whole affair," Keine said, shooting an angry glance toward Renko and I. I should have expected that we wouldn't get off that easy.

Mamizou stared at Keine for a moment longer before sighing and shaking her head. "I'd heard that you were supposed to be a strict and straight-laced person but it's even worse than I imagined. Yer just like Ryuzaki Shinya from 𝐶𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟-𝑈𝑝 𝐼𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛."

"Miss Mamizou. You wouldn't have some ulterior motive for wanting these religious battles to continue, would you?" Keine asked, fixing Mamizou with a hard stare.

Mamizou folded her arms and glared right back at Keine. "That's a heck of a thing to accuse me of. If I can find the original mask of hope, I will. If I can't, then I'll help whoever ends up survivin' this religious war to make a new one outta all the hope they've built up. That's all I'm tryin' to do here, no ulterior motives at all."

"Then just let me introduce Miss Kokoro to Miko right away. That's our best option under these circumstances."

"That's what'cha think, eh?"

"Do you think there's something wrong with my plan?"

"Oh no, I'm sure givin' the menreiki over to the Taoists would go perfectly smoothly. There's just one problem that I see." Mamizou leaned towards a nearby headstone, resting her hands on it and then her chin on top of her hands. "What makes ya think that caped horned owl is trustworthy?"


—20—


"Do you have any particular reason to suspect that the Crown Prince shouldn't be trusted?" Keine asked, sounding a little surprised.

"I'm a bake-danuki. We're suspicious of everythin'. That's just basic street smarts." Mamizou looked over at Kokoro. "With someone as ambitious as that caped horned owl though, don't 'cha think they might misuse a power like that menreiki's?"

"Misuse it? How so?" Keine asked, quirking an eyebrow up.

"Well she's somethin' like a parent, isn't she? A parent could exert all sorts of influence over a child, and the situation in the village is a result of the menreiki losing her mask of hope."

"Ah! You're thinking that the Crown Prince could just steal one of Kokoro's other masks in order to influence the emotions of the villagers, right?" Renko interjected, clapping her hands together as she suddenly forced her way into the conversation.

Mamizou nodded. "She's got it right."

Certainly, if the current situation was really caused by Kokoro losing her mask of hope, then someone who was willing to take away one of her other masks could probably manipulate the emotions of the villagers in other ways. And most likely no one would know how to do that and use the resulting instability to control the people of the village better than Kokoro's creator. It was definitely a concern worth thinking about.

"A charismatic preacher's a dangerous sorta person to entrust the power to manipulate hearts to, don't 'cha think?"

"Aren't you being a little overcautious?"

"Maybe I am, but too bad for you, that's how I got to be this old. But even if I weren't, great power is known to corrupt people. The only reason I'm even here is because people were worried about what would happen once that caped horned owl woke up, remember?"

Come to think of it, that's right. There had never ended up actually being a clash between Mamizou and the Crown Prince, so I had forgotten all about it.

"That's why I'm against showin' the menreiki to the Taoists jus' yet. I'd hate to see them get all the credit for resolvin' this incident."

"Well we can't just leave things as they are!" Keine protested, frowning.

"Why not? The villagers are probably grateful to have the chance to let their emotions out a little."

"What a selfish way to—"

"Jus' think of it like a festival. It jus' happens that the highlight of this particular festival happens to be watchin' the different religious leaders fight. If we were to pull the plug on the festival now, then all the frustration the villagers had been dealin' with for the last year would jus' keep buildin' up. The current incident was caused by the loss of the mask of hope, but there were plenty of other reasons why people had that much frustration in the first place, weren't there?"

Keine folded her arms and scowled down at the ground but didn't say anything. "Well, I do understand where you're comin' from," Mamizou said before exhaling a puff of smoke into the still night air.

"Stickin' to yer principles is all well and good most of the time, but in a situation like this it'd just be foolish not to take advantage somehow."

"I'm not interested in taking advantage of anything. I just want to protect the peace of the village."

"Doesn't cheerin', watchin' a few friendly competitions and hearin' some religious sermons count as peaceful? There's an old proverb about how if you kill the bird in the tree for being too noisy your orchard will get overrun by bugs."

It looked to me like Mamizou was winning the debate. Keine didn't look at all happy about the situation, but she couldn't come up with anything to say in response, instead just letting out a deep breath.

"All ya hafta do is jus' keep an eye on the fights for the time bein'. Once someone comes out on top, we can use whoever it is and all of the hope they've gathered up an' calm the situation down. If we happen to find the missin' mask in the meantime then great. If not, then we'll have the winner bring all the hope they collected to that caped horned owl and have her make a mask at that point. There's no point in showin' our hand early though. We ought to keep Miss Menreiki here by our side as long as possible."

Keine sighed again then looked the bake-danuki in the eye. "Miss Mamizou, what's your stake in all of this?"

"Eh?"

"I don't see what your motivations are here. Even if the situation went as bad as it possibly could and this village or even all of Gensokyo were destroyed, you could simply go back home to the Outside World."

Mamizou chuckled. "Am I not allowed to resolve an incident outta the goodness of my own heart?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean it that way."

"It just so happens I don't want Gensokyo to be destroyed either. I have an old friend here. I've also put in some time already expanding my influence here. Be a shame to throw all that away. More than that though..." Mamizou looked over at Kokoro, "When an ol' tanuki granny like me sees a tsukumogami as young as her, it's instinct to want to raise her up to be a first-class youkai. It's not so strange that I wanna solve the problems of a tsukumogami that I found and decided to take care of, is it? What about you, Miss Were-hakutaku? You're only here 'cuz you're lookin' out for the young'uns you took under your wing too, aren't 'cha?" Saying this Mamizou smiled at my partner and I.

Keine lowered her eyes and took a deep breath. "I understand," she answered. "But in addition to being these girls' guardian, I'm also still a member of the Neighborhood Watch. I can't just leave the resolution of a problem affecting the Human Village to a youkai to resolve."

"There's that stubborn inflexibility again."

"I won't apologize for who I am. But I will ask a favor of you, Miss Mamizou."

"Oh? What's that?"

"It's nothing too difficult. If you're going to be taking the lead in resolving this incident, then I'd like you to cooperate with me as the official representative of the human village and its interests. If this incident isn't the sort that can be solved by having Reimu defeat Miss Kokoro, then someone else needs to take responsibility for seeing to it that everything gets properly resolved and no one is hurt in the process."

"...In other words, yer offerin' to take responsibility for the whole village."

"That's right. If any villagers were to be harmed as the result of this incident, someone would have to take the blame for it. Due to the nature of this incident, we can't put that responsibility on to Reimu, and if a youkai like you were to be deemed responsible it would lead to even more anti-youkai sentiment in the village. I am both a human living in the village and a half-youkai. If blame for anything that happens to the village needs to fall on someone's shoulders, I should be the one to carry that burden."

"Miss Keine!" I couldn't help but raise my voice in protest. If Keine were to take the blame for any mishap, that was an almost surefire recipe for disaster. Even if the incident was resolved successfully without anyone or anything being harmed, it's not like Keine would receive any praise for her efforts or have her deeds lauded in Akyuu's 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒 the way that Reimu might.

Mamizou also raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "Are ya bein' serious? What would be the point of that? Ya wouldn't get a single thing outta takin' on that much responsibility."

"It's not about whether or not I get anything out of it. This incident is a threat to the village and its people. Someone has to be in charge of resolving it and take responsibility for anything that goes wrong. I'm the best person to do that in this situation. If this situation really is the result of a mistake and not the result of any malicious action by a youkai, then it's my obligation to see to it that human-youkai relations aren't affected by it. There's always bound to be some tension between human and youkai, but I need to make sure that that tension doesn't become a mutual feeling of hatred. If I can ensure that the human village continues to run smoothly the way that it has been, I'll gladly do anything I can." Keine finished, standing proud and resolute.

Just how strong is her will to protect the village, I wondered. Standing in the graveyard that night, Keine looked the most determined we had ever seen her.

Mamizou awkwardly scratched at her head. "Unbelievable. I've never met a human so dedicated to their morals. Maybe I've jus' become a mite too cynical, but I almost find such a selfless view unthinkable. Jus' what would you do if it turned out this was all a scam and I was plannin' on cousin' more unrest in the village?"

"If that were the case, it would mean my ability to judge people is lacking. That said, I don't see any deception in your eyes when you look at Miss Kokoro. I believe you're telling the truth about your desire to protect her. I'm willing to put my trust in my judgement of you and in the name of Danzaburou-danuki, who's said to protect the whole island of Sado."

Mamizou let out a short bark of a laugh and shook her head again. "Fine, fine, I give up. This conversation is gonna drive me crazy. Miss Keine. What made you so loyal to the village? You must've had yer fair share of unpleasant experiences livin' in a human village as a half-youkai, so why go to all this trouble on their behalf?"

"On an individual level, I'm certain you're right. There will always be some people in the village who will never trust me. Despite that, the village as a whole has learned to trust someone like me. The human village has become flexible enough to allow that just as they've allowed a priest from a youkai temple or a resurrected hermit to gather faith openly in the streets without persecution. That flexibility is something I want to protect with my life. It's because of that that I want to see this incident through, as Kamishirasawa Keine, a member of the neighborhood watch. Not because I'm a human or because I'm a were-hakutaku. But because I'm a resident of the human village"

Mamizou stared at her, mouth slightly open, at a loss for words. Finally, rather than speaking, she chuckled to herself and pulled a small clay jug of sake from the loop on her belt, pouring a tiny cup for herself and then pounding it back in a single shot. "I think I need a drink after hearin' all that," she declared. "Alright, I give up. Ya said you needed my help, right? What exactly will you be doin' then?"

"I'll keep Miss Kokoro hidden and look for the missing mask of hope during the day. You can think of it as me taking over the duties you had assigned to these two as their supervisor." Keine replied, glancing over at the both of us.

In other words, Keine had taken upon her shoulders all of the responsibilities that we had originally accepted. We had plunged into this incident headfirst, but as villagers, Keine saw that as a risk that wasn't ours to take. The threat we had uncovered was a risk to the whole village, and as such, Keine would sooner take it upon her back then leave it to us.

"...I see. Well alright then. Let's discuss the details..." And with that Mamizou and Keine began to hammer out the specifics of their bargain.

I looked over at Renko, who was intently listening as Keine and Mamizou discussed their strategies. She met my gaze but then looked away, pressing her hat down onto her head and grumbling.

Kokoro stood silently beside us. She had been the subject of most of this discussion but had never been given an opportunity to participate in any of it. She stared back at me with her usual, expressionless face.


—21—


"As always, Keine, you're just as strange as Renko."

The next day found us in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, once more at Mokou's shack. We had just finished teaching our classes at the temple school after Renko, Keine and I picked up Kokoro from Mamizou, we had all gathered here.

After the meeting with Mamizou last night Keine had gone to see the situation in the village during the hour of the ox with her own eyes, and having done so she seemed more resolved than ever to address the situation. She must have been sleep-deprived after staying out that late, but somehow the stress that had been showing on her face for the last few days had vanished. In its place was a motivated brightness in her eyes that seemed almost impossible.

"Do you really think so?"

"Absolutely. Deciding to make yourself responsible for the safety of the whole village then coming in here the next day with a determined look on your face is definitely weird."

"Having responsibility makes everyone feel motivated, doesn't it? Especially since we have an idea of what needs to be done to resolve this issue now. All that's left is to buckle down and do it. I think it would be weirder not to feel motivated at a time like this."

"I'm pretty sure you're the only person who gets excited at the idea of having responsibilities," Mokou replied, echoing my sentiment. I had thought before that Keine was the kind of person who, if put in a position of responsibility, would accept more and more of it until it eventually crushed her, but maybe I was wrong about that. Maybe more pressure would only act as an opportunity to show everything she was capable of. Were there really people like that?

"That sort of an attitude is exactly why you'd make a great leader," Renko said cheerily. "Maybe we should set you up as a religious leader and you could compete to gather faith."

"I told you I'm not doing that." Keine replied with a frown. Renko raised her hands and backed off, but even in her playful banter there was, I thought, more respect for Keine than I might have heard previously. Given what we had seen her do last night, even my partner could hardly be ungrateful.

In fact, after watching Keine agree to work with Mamizou last night, the only thing that my partner and I could do was bow our heads in thanks. I might have expected her to be angry at us for getting her caught up in this incident, but to my astonishment, her reaction was just the opposite.

"I've always found your recklessness frustrating, but this time around, the only reason we were able to find out the true source of the danger to the village was because of your efforts. I'm sure that the two of you saw that the village was in danger and were both just trying to protect it in your own way, right? Thank you. You did a good job."

Upon hearing that, Renko looked positively shocked. Getting praised rather than scolded was an outcome neither of us could have expected. I almost wondered if the compliment might be a stratagem on par with one of Mamizou's.

"I don't care if you decide to lead the village or not!" Kokoro interjected, wearing her fox mask. "The important thing is to find my missing mask!"

"Sorry Kokoro. Not yet. We're working on it though." Renko assured her.

"What's your next step?" Mokou asked.

"Well we need to find Koishi, but Merry's the only one of us who's ever been able to talk to her, so at the moment we're going to have to leave that part of the case up to her."

"Don't just decide that without asking!"

"We've got no one else to turn to, Merry. You're the right person for the job, right Miss Keine?"

"I suppose so. The name of the girl you're looking for was Komeiji Koishi, right? We'll have to leave finding that youkai of unconsciousness to you, Merry. If we happen to find her, we'll negotiate with her too, of course."

I sighed. With everything Keine was willing to risk to solve this incident I could hardly refuse her request. "...I'll try."

"I'll be sticking with Merry to help. What about you, Miss Keine?"

"Since I can't risk bringing Miss Kokoro to see the Crown Prince right away, I'll be working with the neighborhood watch to try to maintain order in the village as usual. I'll also try to keep tabs on who's winning this religious war so that we'll know who to bring into negotiations with Miss Mamizou when it's time. I'll also be gathering any information I can that might point us towards the location of the mask of hope. Even if it's nothing but rumors, I'll hopefully be able to find something that might help us find it."

"...And while you're all doing that, who's going to be watching Kokoro?" Mokou asked, looking unimpressed.

All eyes in the room slowly turned to her. Keine smiled awkwardly. "Mokou, I don't suppose you'd be willing to do me a favor, would you?"

"It's the right person for the right job again, Mokou. You've got more free time to look after her than any of us," Renko said with a shrug.

"I knew this was going to happen," she said, hanging her head with a sigh.

Keine scratched at her head awkwardly as Mokou groaned.

"Sorry about this, Mokou."

"...Eh, it's alright. If this situation doesn't get resolved then it's just going to be harder on you, and I don't want that."

"Please take good care of me," Kokoro added sweetly from behind the god of fortune mask.

"As long as you're going to be staying here for a bit, why don't you practice trying to emote with your face?"

The monkey mask took the place of the fortune god as Kokoro considered that.

"You could teach her, Mokou" Renko said with a smile. "You've got the accumulated wisdom of the ages."

"If the masks that became Kokoro were originally made by Prince Shotoku, then that would make her older than me, wouldn't it?" I'm honestly not sure if it made more sense to start counting a tsukumogami's age from the time the object they arose from was created, or from the time they first awoke as a youkai.

"Oh wait. She's someone older than me," Mokou muttered, seeming shocked by the revelation that she herself had just pointed out. "Huh. I never thought I'd meet anyone who had been around longer than me. Being around that long, I guess it would make sense for all of your expressions to get worn away and all of your emotions to get ground down. I get what that's like."

Kokoro tilted her head, the monkey mask on her face looking completely bewildered.

"Don't worry. I forgot how to laugh for hundreds of years, but Keine taught me how to again. Really I had forgotten what it felt like to feel anything other than hatred and resignation until I met her. Maybe someday you'll learn to laugh properly too."

Mokou emphatically put her arm around Kokoro's shoulder. I felt like Mokou was probably misunderstanding the situation here, but if thinking this way helped her to sympathize with Kokoro, there was no reason to correct her.

Kokoro watched us leave with the same completely expressionless face as always.