東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 8:Double Dealing Character

—22—


A week had passed since the incident at Shining Needle Castle had been resolved. I'm happy to report that all of us including Mokou managed to get away without a scolding from Keine. Keine had apparently fussed and fretted over the numerous rips and slashes on Mokou's clothing when she arrived on the night of the full moon, but Mokou had simply blamed that on a fight with Kaguya and avoided suspicion. Reimu stopped by the village the day after the full moon and let Keine know that 'the situation should calm down on its own eventually.' Keine seemed relieved to hear that, and as such Mokou's goal of reducing her stress level was achieved.

Shinmyoumaru had been captured by Reimu and brought to Hakurei Shrine to remain under Reimu's watch until the power that had been doled out by the Miracle Mallet had all receded. Reimu had also collected both Marisa's Hakkero and Sakuya's odd knife, keeping those in her shrine for observation as well, each of them still sealed. Marisa apparently used her Hakkero not just as a weapon but also for cooking and heating her place, so she was forced to live somewhat less conveniently for a while.

What were we doing while all of this was going on, you might ask?

"Ugh, I hate humans, they're so scary! I don't ever want to be around humans again!"

"You'll be okay, Kagerou. Not all humans are scary."

Renko was sitting in Mokou’s house, stroking Kagerou's head and trying to calm her down as two other humans, namely Mokou and myself stood by, trying to comfort her.

Kagerou had apparently spent the last week recovering from her wounds, both physical and emotional after she had, under the influence of the Miracle Mallet's power, attacked Marisa and Sakuya as they made their way through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost during the incident. Neither battle had gone at all in her favor and, as both incident resolvers had also been under the influence of their tools at the time, she had been threatened with being burnt to a crisp and nearly chopped to pieces after her loss. It seemed to have been a thoroughly traumatizing experience.

The power of the mallet appeared to have already completely withdrawn from Kagerou, as she was now docile and pathetic, blubbering into Renko's lap while receiving head pats.

"This whole incident was a disaster," Mokou sighed.

"I guess this is all my fault for letting that magic take hold of me. I just keep feeling the sudden urge to go on a complete rampage, but I never want to do that again now. Look at my cuticles!"

"I'm sure you couldn't help yourself," Renko replied. "Even Wakasagihime was attacking people." Apparently after attacking Mokou, Wakasagihime had tried her luck against Sakuya as well, and had nearly ended up as tempura for her troubles.

"It seems like all of the roaming youkai who were affected by the mallet's power have calmed down now. I guess that means that the Miracle Mallet must have started its recharging period, like Shinmy was talking about."

"So all of the mallet's effects are only temporary after all" Mokou grunted.

"I see," Renko muttered to herself. "It stores up a large magical charge then uses that to grant its wielder's wishes. Once enough wishes have been made or the magical charge has all been expended over time, its power reverses, gathering all of its magic back up again. During the period while it's recharging, its effects disappear and it can't grant any more wishes. It's a pretty simple system."

Mokou tilted her head, looking a little dissatisfied. "If that's how it works then why'd they bother with any of this? Even if they had managed to build themselves an army to use to try to take over Gensokyo, it would have only been temporary. Once the mallet started taking back all of its powers they would have been right back where they started."

"Not necessarily," Renko retorted. "I think I see a way that it could have worked. Youkai depend on human fear for sustenance. If someone like the lady of the Scarlet Devil Mansion were to be seen losing a fight to say, the ice fairy who lives on the lake, then she'd lose her aura of dignity and charisma. Something like that might actually affect her strength if enough people saw it."

"Oh I see, so you think their plan was going to be to challenge someone powerful while they still had allies on their side and try to make them weaker?"

"That's how asymmetrical warfare works, right? The side with less resources has no chance of winning a long, drawn-out battle of attrition, so their best bet is to make a decisive attack against a target with a big psychological impact then immediately attempt to negotiate a peace treaty on favorable terms. In the case of Shinmy's rebellion, even if the mallet had run out of power and all of her soldiers had turned back into objects, as long as she held onto the mallet she could have retried as many times as she wanted. That would’ve been the real threat, don’t you think?"

"Huh. Maybe so."

In my view Renko was probably right. I can't claim to be a military strategist of course, but Seija's attempted rebellion seemed better planned out to me than it might have initially appeared. If Reimu and the others had been a little slower to respond, then the rebellion could easily have gathered up a sizable number of tsukumogami. It wouldn't have been inconceivable for Shining Needle Castle to have become a dangerous faction in Gensokyo if things had gone just a little differently. Reimu had even intercepted the Tsukumo sisters as they had been on their way to Shining Needle Castle to join forces with the revolutionaries.

"At any rate, I don't think Shinmy is really the problem here. Seija was just using her as a powerful pawn, and she managed to get away."

"If I ever see her again, I'm gonna beat her to a pulp."

Mokou frowned and slammed her fist into her palm demonstratively. Apparently she hadn't forgiven Seija for her sneak attack. Even if whatever might happen to her is entirely her own fault, I'll kind of feel bad for Seija if she ever shows her face around here again.

"So it was that amanojaku's fault that Wakasagihime and I went on a rampage?" Kagerou asked, raising her head off of Renko's lap and tilting it inquisitively.

"Yeah, I'd say so. She was the one pulling the strings."

"Alright then. I want to give her a piece of my mind. I don't care much about who's in charge in Gensokyo, but for her to force me to start attacking people... If I ever see her, I'm gonna bite her!" Kagerou said, a rumbling growl accentuating her words. I wasn't sure if that was a normal reaction for her or if there might still be some trace of the mallet's power affecting her. I suppose as reactions go, it was preferable to having her wail into Renko's lap.

"...Just so long as she's not a human. I don't want to meet any more humans, they're too scary!"

"It's okay, Kagerou. Most humans aren't like that... well there's not too many who are like that, anyway."

Renko and I probably knew a half dozen humans or half-humans who would be a threat to someone like Kagerou, but now wasn't the time to mention that. I watched Renko continue to stroke Kagerou's hair and we exchanged a wry smile.


—23—


After leaving Mokou's house, we headed to the Hakurei Shrine. Once we got there, we threw a handful of coins into the offertory box and proceeded around to the back. There was no sign of Reimu as we arrived, but one thing looked out of place. Sitting on the veranda was a small insect cage built from finger-thin rods of green bamboo. On top of it, in plain sight but tied in place with a sturdy cord, was the Miracle Mallet.

As we approached, Renko called out "Hey Shinmy, are you in there?" and squatted down in front of the cage. Sure enough, a moment later the cage's door slid open. Shinmyoumaru was standing in the doorframe holding up the sliding gate. Seeing her returned to her natural size the word 'inchling' definitely seemed more appropriate, though I would say she was probably around 15 centimeters tall total, so perhaps 'six-inchling' would have been more accurate.

"Oh, it's Renko. What did you want?"

"I'm just here to check up on how you've been doing. Hey, is all that stuff yours?" Renko asked, pointing a finger at the interior of the insect cage. "That's pretty fancy."

"Oh, yeah, it's pretty nice. I had that maid make a bunch of things for me."

I squatted down beside Renko and peered inside as Shinmyoumaru puffed out her chest proudly. Through the open gate I could see a standing mirror, a canopied bed with hanging silks, a chest of drawers and even a pair of fuzzy slippers, all in tiny, miniature scale, as if there were a tiny hotel room inside the insect cage. Honestly, the furnishings in there seemed to me to be a fair bit more luxurious than the spartan interior of the Hakurei shrine's residence except for their size.

"Have you managed to find Seija yet?" The inchinling asked hopefully.

"We haven’t heard any news of her at all. She must have gone into hiding somewhere."

"I wonder if she's still planning on carrying out her revolution alone or something..." Shinmyoumaru stepped carefully down from the cage onto the veranda and walked to the edge where she sat, dangling her legs over the side. Her tone seemed worried. I wondered if she had completely lost the will to rebel.

"Do you resent Seija?" I asked.

Shinmyoumaru looked up and shook her head vigorously. "No, not really. I know Seija lied to me, but I don’t resent her for wanting to make Gensokyo a better place to live for those who are weak. No matter what her intentions were, that’s still a noble goal.."

I should mention that we had interviewed both Keine and Akyuu to try to determine whether the stories that Seija had told Shinmyoumaru about the persecution of her people could be trusted. Neither of them had any records of Issun Boshi ever having been persecuted or banished. According to Akyuu's records, several generations after the hero had acquired the Miracle Mallet, one of his descendants had selfishly abused its power. As a result of that, Shining Needle Castle had been created, but shortly after it had appeared, it was said to have torn itself out of the ground, flipped upside down and disappeared into the sky.

In the version of the story that the Hieda clan had preserved, at least, whatever fate that had befallen the inchlings had been the result of their own selfish desires.

"Seija had probably wanted to use the power of the Miracle Mallet for her own benefit, but to do that, she not only came up with the idea of starting a revolution on behalf of the weak, she actually tried to make that idea a reality. It was a very amanojaku thing to do."

Was it unreasonable of Shinmyoumaru to think that someone who does something good for a bad reason is better than a person who does nothing at all?

The world is full of people who can talk about lofty ideals and present a face of kind altruism to the world while really only being concerned with their own gain, but people who actually do good for selfish reasons? I suppose that really was the sort of thing only an amanojaku would do. It was a paradox worthy of a serious mystery novel, like something out of Chesterton or Awasaka Tsumao.

"Seija isn't nearly as bad as everyone thinks she is," Shinmyoumaru continued, "though she would get mad if she heard me say that about her."

"What are you talking about? She's an amanojaku, there's no way she's secretly nice." Another voice interrupted us as Reimu opened the door and stepped out onto the veranda.

"Hello Reimu."

"Why are you both planning this time?"

"We're not planning anything." Renko assured her. "We just came by to say 'hi.'"

Reimu glared at Renko for a moment, then shrugged and lowered herself down to take a seat beside Shinmyoumaru. Having done so, she unceremoniously reached over and picked the inchling up by the obi of her kimono, dangling her in the air.

"Whoa! Hey, what are you doing?"

"I know you’re just a pushover," she said, turning the princess around to face her. "But what you and that amanojaku tried to do was way worse than a regular incident. If your plan had worked, Yukari might have even stepped in, just like she did with Tenshi."

"Don’t you care about the rights of weak youkai at all?"

"What are you talking about? Weak youkai all have their fun and live their lives freely. What you guys were trying to do would have just ruined that."

"That's just the sort of excuses that strong people use to keep everyone who's weaker than them in check! Just because a small number of weak people have managed to find a way to thrive under this system, that doesn’t mean there aren’t many more out there crying out for us to free them! "

"And so you thought it was a better idea to use your mallet to force all of those people to fight for your revolution?"

"I was only giving them the power to have their voices heard!"

"Look, I'm sure there's people here who don't like the current system, but forcing people who had never even complained about the way things work to assist in your terrorism is just malicious. Whether your ideals are right or wrong, people should get to decide for themselves on whether they want to give up peace for a revolution. If you had overturned the current system, how were you even planning to take care of the weak youkai you had liberated?"

There are old stories of disadvantaged or disabled people managing to survive by performing in freak shows. Invariably, it seemed that sooner or later, some well-meaning person would take it upon themselves to ban the freak shows, thinking they were doing good by preventing the disadvantaged from being exploited. Rarely was it asked, however, how those same people who had once performed in the shows were supposed to live now that their sole source of income had been taken from them. It’s an unfortunate fact that those who manage to find a way to survive in an unfair system are often seen as enemies by those who wish to overthrow such systems.

"Wow, Reimu," Reko said with a smile, "that's actually a really sensible and well thought-out take for once."

"What do you mean 'for once?' Are you saying I'm not usually sensible?"

Due to her reputation as a shrine maiden who would indiscriminately exterminate youkai without question, I was tempted to say yes myself… but I was smart enough not to actually say that.

"Anyway," Reimu said, flitting her eyes back to the inchling she was still dangling between her fingers, "I'm just saying you should take this opportunity to maybe give your actions some thought." Saying that, Reimu released Shinmyoumaru over the veranda, letting her fall to the ground with a thump.

Shinmyoumaru sat, rubbing her backside and glaring at Reimu for a moment until Renko broke the silence. "By the way, Shinmy, there was something else I wanted to ask you about."

"Hmm?" she asked distractedly, turning back to face Renko.

"It seems like the weaker youkai who were affected by the mallet's magic are returning to normal. What will happen to the tsukumogami that were created though? Not just the tools that went berserk like Marisa’s hakkero, but also the ones that were old enough to actually turn into people? What will happen to them once the mallet's power is withdrawn?"

"They'll go back to just being tools too. The mallet's power was forcing them to turn into people."

Hearing that I couldn't help but turn to look at Renko, who was nodding as she pulled the brim of her hat down to shade her eyes. "That's what I thought," she muttered. Both Reimu and Shinmyoumaru tilted their heads, looking surprised at her reaction.

This was only a problem for the two of us, after all. While our initial meeting with the Tsukumo sisters hadn’t been the most pleasant and we weren’t really under any obligation to make sure they were doing alright, we couldn’t help but worry about them. With the power of the mallet withdrawn, would the two of them be alright?


—24—


The commission that the Hifuu Detective Agency had received from Keine was to search for three missing musical instruments. A taiko, a biwa and a koto. Two of those instruments had become the Tsukumo sisters, who we had met several times. We hadn't seen the taiko anywhere yet, but it seemed reasonable to assume that it had likely become a tsukumogami during the incident as well.

If things were simply allowed to proceed normally from here on out, all three of those tsukumogami would probably return to being inanimate objects. At that point we would just have to locate them wherever they might have fallen and our job as detectives would be complete. It sounded simple when you laid it out like that.

Despite having been forced to get involved with them at first though, I couldn’t think of that result as being a happy ending from where I stopped now. For a tool to gain sentience, then suddenly lose it through no fault of their own was really no different than seeing someone be summarily executed.

Perhaps back in the world that I had come from this sort of thing would be likened to deleting or switching off an AI model, but this felt completely different. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was that made me think of AI models as non-sentient programs while tsukumogami seemed like actual people. I suppose the difference between the two situations in my mind was that unlike AIs, tsukumogami were something naturally occurring, rather than something that had been created by humans.

All of this is just a pointless digression though. Let me return to the story at hand.

"Renko, what do you think happened to the Tsukumo sisters?"

She sighed. "Who knows? No one's seen them since." Reimu and the other incident-resolvers had apparently fought the Tsukumo sisters just outside of Shining Needle Castle, but we hadn't heard anything about where the two of them might have gone after that.

"Are they who you were thinking about when you said 'this Incident isn't over yet?'"

"That's right. Shinmy had said that as the power of the mallet wears off all of the tsukumogami will go back to just being regular tools, but I can’t imagine the two of them will just accept that. They’ll probably try to find some way to keep being youkai."

"In other words, you think the incident with Shinmyoumaru and the Miracle Mallet is over, but the Tsukumogami Incident is still ongoing."

"Or about to begin, even. I wouldn't be surprised if there were another major disturbance of some kind soon."

We had been walking as we had this discussion and had just now reached our office. As we opened the door, a voice called out from inside of the office.

"Oh, Boss, welcome back. Is Miss Merry with you? We have clients!"

My eyes opened wide in surprise as we saw Kochiya Sanae, our part-time assistant, kneeling casually on a cushion, sitting opposite to the two Tsukumo sisters, who were staring up at us. Both of them had unusually pale, drawn faces with deep shadows under their eyes.

"...Um, sorry to bother you."

"...Thanks a lot for letting us in..."

Renko and I stood staring blankly through the door for a few moments.

—

"So what's the big idea leaving me out of everything that's going on again?" Sanae asked once we had hung up our things and taken seats alongside her. "You didn't tell me about any of this! You even went to try to resolve an incident without me? You've been cheating on me with that Hourai girl from the bamboo forest!"

"Calm down, Sanae. This case started off seeming perfectly mundane, just a request to search for some lost instruments. Not the sort of thing worth calling you in for. Then, things got interesting when we first encountered these two, but they actually kidnapped us and tied us up, so we couldn't really call you back then either. Mokou only got involved because she came to us as a client, so it wasn't favoritism or anything. We weren't trying to leave you out."

That's not entirely accurate. There were definitely a few times when we could have called Sanae, but I had consciously chosen not to. Things always tended to get more complicated with her around.

"Besides which," Renko continued, "you and Lady Suwako were all wrapped up in the religious wars earlier this summer but you didn't tell us anything about that."

"Well yeah, but I didn't even know there was an incident going on this time! If I had, I would have tried to resolve it too."

"Oh, interesting. If you didn't know about this incident then I take it that nothing in the Moriya Shrine turned into a tsukumogami recently? Has your wand been acting odd or anything?"

"No, but I don't really use it all that often, I guess. Anyway, imagine my surprise when I came to visit you today and found two youkai waiting at the door! I was about to exterminate them, but then they asked for my help."

"They asked for help?"

The two sisters shifted awkwardly on their cushions. They both looked at each other, seeming to not know what to say, then all at once they both bowed down pleadingly.

"Please excuse our behavior the other day!" They both cried in unison. "It was unconscionably rude!"

The sudden change in their attitudes towards us was a complete surprise. I couldn't help but turn to Renko in shock.

"Sanae, what did you do to them?" Renko asked.

"Hardly anything! I pressured them a little to tell me what they were doing at your office is all."

I looked over at the sisters, who in addition to their ashen complexions almost seemed to be shaking at the thought of it. Really, what had Sanae done to them?

"I didn't know shrine maidens could be so creepy..." Yatsuhashi said with a shudder. "I'm really sorry for how I acted the other day, so please don't hurt us any more."

"Have mercy on us!"

"Who are you calling ‘creepy!’"

"Eek!" both sisters shouted in unison.

Had Sanae invoked one of Lady Suwako's curses on them or something? What would that even do? No sooner had I asked that question of myself, then I had a vision of being strangled by constricting snakes while slimy frogs hopped all over my body. If that was what had happened, I could see why the two of them would be terrified. As for myself, I'd rather not think about it.

"Sanae, maybe go a little easier on our customers next time. We don't want to scare people away."

"But I thought they were a pair of evil youkai!"

"Alright, well my apologies to you both as well then, Tsukumo sisters. Let's just forget about the whole kidnapping thing and call it even. Now, what can I do for you, ladies?"

Benben began speaking, hesitantly. "Um. Well. I don't know how to explain it, exactly, but I'm worried that the both of us may be facing a life-threatening crisis..."

"We're dying!" Yatsuhashi shouted, cutting her off. "Every day we get a little bit weaker! I don't want to go back to being a tool!"

"Be strong, Yatsuhashi, we'll figure something out."

"Big sister...."

The sisters sniffled as they held each other's hands. It was just as Renko had predicted.

"Ah, so that's what this is about," Renko said with a nod. "Well, say no more then, I already know the cause of your problem."

"What? How?" Benben asked, with a look of utter surprise.

"I know how!" Yatsuhashi declared, suddenly rising to her feet. "This is all your fault somehow, isn't it!?"

Yatsuhashi leapt to her feet, but Sanae rose up as soon as she did, giving the tsukumogami a stern glare. Instantly Yatsuhashi backed off, retreating all the way to the wall of the room.

Renko sighed and waved Sanae back to a seated position. Renko then proceeded to explain all about the Miracle Mallet and its recovery period and how it was slowly gathering up all of the magic that it had once released.

"Then... that means..."

"It means we have to destroy the mallet!" Yatsuhashi declared. She stood up again, but Renko waved her back down as well.

"Now hold on," Renko said. "We don't know how the mallet works. If we destroy it, there's no telling what might happen."

"But if we leave it be, we'll die!"

"Our life was given to us without permission. Now it will be taken away in just the same way..." Benben intoned, staring at the floor. "Are tools like us really just made to be discarded?" She plucked thoughtlessly at one of the strings of her biwa and it resounded with a low, resonant note. A creature given life by an artificial source, only to have that life taken away by that same source. What could be the purpose of such a constrained life? I'm pretty sure I've read a Sci-fi story like that... Anyway.

"Could we just stop the Miracle Mallet from recharging?" Sanae asked.

"I haven't confirmed it, but I suspect that's not possible. If Shinmy could have done that, then I'm sure she would have."

"The sands of our lives are running through the hourglass grain by grain," Yatsuhashi said, staring forward with the same expression as her sister.

"The sound of the Gion Shoja bells echo the impermanence of all things," Benben replied, plucking at her strings again. The follow up to that line should be '𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘢 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦' but I'm not sure I would ever have described the Tsukumo sisters as 'prosperous.'

"Ask not for whom the bell tolls…" Sanae said, nodding sagely.

"Sanae, that’s a completely different poem,"

"Oh. Well anyway, you were saying that the mastermind behind all of this was a descendent of Issun-boshi, right? And that she’s at the Hakurei Shrine? Let’s go see her after this, I’ve never seen an inchling before!"

As usual, Sanae was thinking about something entirely unrelated to the problem at hand. That said, we were at a loss at what to do next.

"Hmm, from what Shinmy said, I don’t think there’s actually much point in talking to her any more. Instead, let’s go talk to our resident tsukumogami expert."

"You mean Miss Mamizou?"

Renko nodded. It seemed like a sensible plan to me too. Mamizou definitely seemed like she would be the sort who could come up with a plan for an occasion like this.

"Alright then. I think we're ready to begin. Benny, Yatsu, I consider this to be a formal commission for the Hifuu Detective Agency."

Renko stood up and adjusted her hat. The Tsukumo sisters both bowed their heads in thanks then rose up as well. This was a big change of pace from our first meeting with them. Whatever spirit of rebellion had once animated them now seemed to be completely absent.

—

And so we, accompanied by Sanae and the Tsukumo sisters, headed out with Renko and I riding on Genji's back. Our destination was the Myouren Temple just north of the village.

"Are you looking for Miss Mamizou? She's out right now!" Kyouko shouted happily, in response to our question. "I don't know when she’ll be back."

It was an immediate, but perhaps predictable, strikeout.

"What now?" Renko asked.

"It's getting to be evening," I cautioned, "Keine will get mad if we're out after dark."

"We can't just give up! Our lives depend on this!"

"The mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind..." Benben intoned, once again quoting from the 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐻𝑒𝑖𝑘𝑒 and plucking out a dismal note.

"That bake-danuki is probably out playing with all of her tanuki pals."

"Do you have any idea where she might do that, Sanae?"

"No, but I know a tengu on the mountain who's always keeping an eye on everything that goes on within view of the mountain. She might know where the tanuki are likely to gather."

"Oh, is it a white wolf? You're talking about Momiji, right?"

"Oh, I didn't know you knew her, Boss."

"We've tried to sneak into tengu territory a few times and she's always spotted us. Maybe if we go find Nitori she can get Momiji to talk to us..."

"Even if you find her, Renko, I doubt she’d be willing to help you. We’d just be a bunch of suspicious intruders on the mountain. Sanae, are you close to Momiji, by chance?"

" I know her, but we're not close or anything. We just met because she often comes as a guard when the tengu show up at our shrine to 'negotiate', and she doesn't like drinking much either. We bonded over complaining about that tengu photographer."

She had to mean Shameimaru Aya. Sanae had mentioned before that Aya was a heavy drinker and would often cause problems for her at parties, so I wondered if maybe she and Momiji had that in common. Would it even be common for a white wolf tengu like Momiji to have to guard tengu drinking parties?

"Alright, let's go see if we can find her," Renko said with a nod. "If a whole bunch of us all try to go up the mountain, I'm sure Miss Momiji will show up to stop us." It was a bit roundabout, but it would certainly be faster than just searching for Mamizou at random. As such, we took off again and headed for Youkai mountain.

As we did so, it quickly began getting darker. It wasn't quite late enough to be sunset yet, but the gathering clouds looming overhead held the promise of something a lot more dramatic than a drizzle.

"It looks like the weather's getting worse," Sanae muttered, looking up at the racing clouds.

"Do you think you can go any faster, Genji? That definitely looks like rain," Renko asked, rapping on Genji's shell.

"Have some pity on my old bones, master," the turtle pleaded..

The next moment a sudden, white-hot flare filled my vision as a river of lightning poured straight down directly in front of us. At the same instant a deafening boom shook our bodies and rattled through Genji's shell.
"Whoah!"

"That was awfully close. So close it almost felt like a warning shot. Do you think that's Miss Iku descending from Heaven, Merry?"

"Maybe it's Miss Tojiko trying to kill Miss Seiga again. Do you think we ought to land?"

Before Renko could answer, another stroke of lightning crashed down from the sky. In the middle of the blinding flash a human figure had been visible, silhouetted against the torrent of light.

"Someone's there!" Yatsuhashi cried out, throwing her arm forward. We all froze in midair, watching the spot where we had seen the figure appear.

A rumble cascaded over the mountains, echoing across Gensokyo, then all at once—

𝐽𝑎𝑎𝑠ℎ! A sound that washed over us, shimmering and reverberant. It was not the deep bass rumble of thunder this time but a ringing, metallic sound. Almost like... a cymbal? How could clouds make a sound like that?

My eyes had been stung by the brightness of the lightning, but now that it was fading, I could make out the outline of a human figure floating before us, a dark shape only barely visible against darker clouds.

"Hey there," a voice called out. "I thought I had found a pair of poor, lost, little tsukumogami, but you've got a bunch of humans and a beast with you. Are they your current owners?"

What I was seeing was a drum floating in the air. A large bass one, with a swirling design on the front of it. Seated on top of it was a red-haired girl wearing a plaid shirt, a purple tie and a nicely tailored white jacket over top of it. My first impression upon seeing her was that she resembled a famous old professor who had taught one of Renko's classes back in the Scientific Century. This was of course an entirely different person though. For one thing, she was floating in the air and surrounded by a ring of small floating hexagonal implements of some kind. Whoever she was, she clearly wasn't human.

The girl was sitting with her legs crossed over each other and dangling in front of the surface of the bass drum she was riding through the air. Her hands were in her lap, holding a pair of drumsticks. It didn't take me long to come to the obvious conclusion. This girl had to be the tsukumogami of the other instrument that had gone missing from the village, the taiko.

Only... I didn't see a taiko drum among the ones surrounding her.

"Anyway, I guess it doesn't matter," the girl seated on the bass drum was saying. "You two, you're tsukumogami, right? A biwa and a koto?"

The Tsukumo sisters looked at each other uncertainly, then spoke up. "Yes?" they both replied uncertainly.

"Cool. I'm here to help you two."