東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 8:Phantasmagoria of Flower View

—22—

"Oop, are you awake now?"

I opened my eyes to find Renko staring down at me. I was laying on my back among the thick clusters of spider lilies, with my head resting on her lap. I tried to sit up, but Renko gently pressed me back down by the shoulder.

"Just rest for a bit."

"Renko... I..."

"I was surprised when you collapsed suddenly. I don't think the Yama was expecting that reaction to a lecture either."

I let out a deep sigh, enjoying the warmth of the air and peaceful sounds of the distant river. Something pleasantly cool was laying on my forehead. An ice bag, maybe? I reached my hand up to touch it and it suddenly squirmed and darted away.

"A phantom? Renko did you just use a dead soul as an ice pack?"

"They're nice and cool, right? Now that you're awake though, you have this coming." As Renko said that, she slid her hand, which had been behind my head, down the neck of my dress in the back. The skin of her hand, which must have been the one she used to grab the phantom, was ice cold. I shrieked involuntarily.

"Gah! Renko, get that off me!"

"This is your payback for making me worry by passing out."

I pushed Renko's arm away, but in truth I had no right to complain. What the Yama had told me was true. All this time since we had come here I had been relying on Renko for everything, trusting her to protect me without ever asking. Had she even once complained about having to look out for me? I stopped fussing and laid back down, feeling small and miserable.

"Hey, Merry?" Renko asked, a mischievous look on her face.

"Hmmm?"

"The Yama may have had objections, but personally, I don't mind."

"What do you mean?"

"The idea of you depending on me. It's A-okay in my books. You can lean on me as much as you want."

My face became instantly hot and I tried to squirm away, but Renko gently held me in place, her cold hand resting on mine.
"Hey, you're supposed to be resting, remember? I think I'm lucky to have you rely on me this much. I wouldn't mind if you became so dependent on me that you took me for granted. You can, you know. I'll always be here for you."

I couldn't bear the embarrassment of looking her in the eye, so I squeezed both of mine shut. "Don't say things like that," I pleaded.

With my eyes clenched shut I couldn't see what Renko was doing, but I felt her moving. When next she spoke it was in a whisper, right next to my ear.

"You know, I kind of like seeing you like that. It's nice to be needed. And a needy Merry is pretty cute."

"Renko..."

"If you’re going to be dependent on me, then that means you’re not to run away and disappear on me without warning someday, right? So don't go anywhere, Merry. Just stay right here. I like having you around."

Then I felt something brush my bangs aside and a moment later something soft pressed against my forehead. Numb as my skin was there from the touch of the phantom, I couldn't be sure what it was. A moment later I opened my eyes to see Renko staring down at me from above, sitting normally, wearing the same troublesome smile I had come to expect.

"Renko..." My voice sounded pleading to me, but I don't know what it was I had been about to ask for.

As if dodging my unspoken question before I could ask it, Renko raised an arm, drawing my attention to the side. "Hey Merry, look at that."

It was only then that I noticed what was behind Renko's head, and indeed, all around us. Turning my head, I looked where she was pointing to see that we had come to the grove of flowering purple trees we had spotted earlier. Renko must have dragged me here while I was out.

The sight of the blooms surrounding us was enough to take my breath away. In the last few days we had seen countless flowers, some of them quite rare, and others magnificent in their splendor, but none that were anything like these. The trees surrounding us appeared to be cherry trees, but their blossoms, which should have been a pale pink, were instead a soft, beautiful violet, the same shade as my dress. All around us the short, gnarled trees were in full, profuse bloom. Despite this, the petals fell slowly, not in drifts and gusts as one might expect of a typical cherry tree, but only one or two at a time, with the petals falling straight and slow to the ground, untouched by any breeze. More than anything else they looked like tears, ominous purple tears streaming from the branches of these strange trees. If scarlet petals had fallen from the Saigyou Ayakashi whose roots were entwined with a corpse, what could possibly be buried beneath these trees, I wondered?

"The Yama told me the purple here is the color of sin. These trees become the temporary home of souls heavy with the burden of guilt and this color is proof of the sins they committed in life. Just how much sin do you think those souls must be carrying to make a color like this?"

To think that this was the color of sin. A beautiful, dusky violet. "Yukari" I mumbled to myself. The exact shade that word always conjured in my mind.

"Hey Merry, what color flowers do you think our souls would turn into?"

"...What's the point in worrying about our fate in the afterlife now? And what do you mean 'our?' Are you saying that even after I die I'm still going to be stuck with you? That sounds like a curse, Renko."

"All human relationships are a curse, aren't they Merry? It's bonds of love, friendship and family that bind souls to this world. If your goal was to attain Nirvana, then to love anyone would seem like a curse, wouldn't it?" Her hand found mine and gave it a squeeze. "So then, yeah, I guess I've cursed you, Merry."

How could I respond to a line like that? The feeling that came over me was the same as the one that had brought me here. If I had had the strength to resist the feeling of her hand holding mine then I would never have stepped into Sumireko's room and come to this world to begin with. I would never have gone on any of our adventures, and even today I wouldn't have headed out the door to follow behind her. And so I said nothing. We stayed there, watching the violet tears fall as the sun dwindled in the sky, my head in Renko's lap, my left hand squeezing her right, the same old Hifuu Club as always.

—

"You two! 𝐴𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛! Why? 𝐻𝑜𝑤!?"

The voice that interrupted our tranquility came from well above, descending toward us. A single red and white butterfly, making its way downward, an unhappy expression on her face. Reimu Hakurei, the shrine maiden upon whom gravity had no hold. Alighting beside us, Reimu glowered, knitting her brow as hard as she could and giving us a look that I suspect might have struck a youkai dead. I rose up from Renko's lap and we both climbed to our feet.

"I shouldn't be finding any humans here, especially not if I've told them before to keep their noses out of dangerous business and 𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 not in the middle of an incident! Did you guys hear that the barrier is thin at Muenzuka and think you could get back to the Outside World on your own or something?"

"No, no, of course not, Reimu. We were just investigating this incident as usual."

"I'm pretty sure I specifically warned you to stop poking your nose into strange things. You're a human villager now, and 'investigating this incident as usual' is not what villagers do! I told you not to try to be something you're not."

"I just happen to be a human villager with a strong tendency toward intellectual curiosity."

"I've never run into another villager like you, but I end up meeting you everywhere I go! This is the fifth time since the Scarlet Mist Incident! Look, if you two are here then you must have run into the Yama. She must have told you off too, right?"

"Ah, so you know she's here. I'm guessing that means that you got a lecture of your own, right Reimu? What'd she tell you?"

"Renko, I'm going to guess you were told to mind your own business. You can start putting that advice to good use any time now."

"Well, you can't expect a maiden to reveal all of her secrets, right?"

"Stop trying to sound like Marisa, it's not cute when you do it. Speaking of which, she's the one who brought you here, wasn't she?"

"Oh very good, Reimu, how'd you guess?"

"You can't get through the forest on your own and she has a history of flying you two around on her broom. Plus, I saw her along the way"

"Impressive. You have the makings of a great detective, Reimu, if you ever feel like swapping careers with me."

"I'll pass. Since I am the Hakurei shrine maiden though, I'm expected to look out for people like you. What was Marisa thinking, abandoning the two of you here? You could have been attacked by a stray youkai at any moment."

"Marisa ran away after the Yama lectured her."

"Of all the irresponsible... Alright, fine. I'll deal with her later. Right now, I can't leave two villagers in the middle of a dangerous place after sunset, you'd get eaten for sure. Take my hand, I'll bring you to the village."

Reimu held out both of her hands. We glanced at each other. It wasn't exactly an offer we could turn down. We each stepped forward and took a hand. Once more the eerie sensation of gravity losing its hold on us washed over me as we lifted off the ground.

"So, junior detective Reimu, have you figured it out yet? The mystery of this incident?" Renko asked as the wind roared around us.

"Don't ever call me that. But it's not a mystery is it? Ghosts from the Outside World are haunting the flowers, right?"

"Oh, very good, who told you that?"

"The Yama. It's a natural phenomenon that happens every 60 years, so there wasn't even any point in me fighting anyone." With that, Reimu let out a great heaving sigh and the rest of our flight passed in silence. That was the end of our investigations for the day.


—23—


It was completely dark by the time we arrived at the village with Reimu. It was far too late for either of us to consider doing the usual chores, so instead we stopped in for a late dinner at a restaurant, swung by the bathhouse just long enough to scrub off our sweat, then returned home.

After coming in the door I collapsed on the tatami mats, utterly devoid of any will to ever get back up. The exhaustion of the day's exertion and excitement had at last caught up with me, and a weariness that was much deeper than the ache in my muscles coursed through me.

"Don't sleep there, Merry. Let's at least pull out the futons first."

"I'm sorry, someone decided to drag me over half of Gensokyo today. I'm a little sore." I huffed.

"Ah, there's no helping it in that case. Alright, you just sit tight Merry, and I'll work my magic."

I listened to the sound of Renko dragging a futon out of the closet and dumping it down beside me. She unfolded the mattress and I willed myself to roll over onto it. It was soft and clean-smelling. After a hard day of walking in the sun it felt almost as nice as Ran's tails. If only the great floofy fluff itself were here, I might well dive into it and never wake up.

"Hey don't go to sleep yet, I haven't even started."

I had only a moment to be confused before there was a sudden vice-like grip on my right calf. Renko's hand slipped its way along my leg as she pressed the heel of her other palm into my sore muscles. The initial reaction was pain, but after just a few seconds the burning sensation spread out into a dull, squishy warmth that suffused my entire leg. If not for the strangely pleasurable sting of her grip, I really might have fallen asleep.

"Jeez, Merry, you're really stiff. You should exercise more often."

"Ah, sorry. Ohhh that feels lovely, Renko, thank you. Do you think you can grab that envelope over there?"

"Hmm? This?" She reached up to grab the papers. Inside the envelope were the essays the children in my composition class had written. The class wouldn't meet again until the day after tomorrow, but if I was going to be awake anyway, I ought to finish grading the papers before turning in.

"A bunch of essays?"

"I asked them to write about something they saw yesterday. Just an exercise to get a handle on how they're progressing, really. Ah! Ow, that hurts, Renko!"

"Sorry, you want me to stop?"

"No, it's the good kind of hurting, that's where I'm stiffest, just be a little gentler, please."

"Okay, I can do that. Here's the essays." She laid the sheaf of papers in front of me, then set to work with both hands, pressing her thumb firmly but slowly into my aching muscles. "That's an interesting exercise, Merry. Was your goal to try to see how this incident looked through the children's eyes?"

"Maybe a little. Ohhh right there. They're pretty cute: 'I made a necklace for my sister because there were so many white little flowers around our house.' Isn't that sweet?" I read over the writings as Renko worked on the knots in my legs. "How's this one: 'I played all day in the flowers. and I had lots of fun until my parents yelled at me for staying out past dinner time.' Oh, this one's from one of the best girls in my class. 'It is beautiful to see so many blooming flowers, but to see the flowers of all seasons bloom at once while phantoms and fairies abound in the village is worrisome. I hope the Hakurei shrine maiden resolves this incident soon.' Oh. Hmm. 'There were a lot of fairies around so I chased them' Good writing, but I think I'm going to have to talk to that boy."

"Their sentences are impressively polished for such young children. You're doing a good job, Merry. Let me read a few of those."

"Okay, here you go," I said, handing her the papers I had already read through.

Rubbing my foot with one hand she held up the papers with the other. "Their handwriting is getting better too. You're surprisingly good at being a teacher, Merry."

I had been teaching Japanese for almost two years now, where did she get off saying 'surprisingly?' I was about to grumble a complaint when something in the next essay caught my eye. A quiet boy in my class had written about going fishing with his father at Misty Lake. They had noticed some unusual flowers blooming and a few frogs floating in blocks of ice on the surface of the lake. The frogs had been followed by an ice fairy in a blue dress who had frozen his father's fishing rod, yelling something about a once-in-sixty-years festival as she did.

"Huh, that's interesting," I murmured.

"What's that?" Renko asked.

"Here." I handed her the essay. As soon as she got to the bit at the end, the massage stopped. I turned and looked back. Renko had a far off look in her eyes, one hand frozen around my toes.

"That 𝑖𝑠 interesting." she muttered.

"The bit about the fairy? It caught my eye too."

"The fairies remembered this incident happening before, even though humans and youkai didn't. Hmn…"

"Yes, yes. Does this mean the massage is over?"

"Sorry Merry, this is a detective agency, not a massage parlor, and you've got work to do. I'll have to give you a raincheck for the rest of the massage." Saying this, she stood up and began to pace back and forth.

Among my primary duties as a detective's assistant was helping Renko sort out her thoughts on any given case. It looked like there was a bit more work left for me before I could sleep. I heaved myself into a sitting position and gathered up my writing supplies as Renko began to dictate, pacing the whole time she did so. By the time she had worn herself out, this was the list of questions I had compiled.

𝐌𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬:
• Why did all of the flowers suddenly begin blooming at the same time yesterday?
• Why are not just spring flowers blooming, but out-of-season flowers as well?
• If the flowers are being made to bloom by lost souls, why would they possess flowers?
• Why is this unusual flower behavior not occurring in the Netherworld?
• Do all of these flowers really have no impact on crops or other parts of nature?

𝐌𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐬:
• Are the increased number of phantoms we've seen really caused by an increase in the number of deaths in the Outside World?
• If so, what accounts for these deaths? Is the history of the year 2005 no longer as we knew it?
• Are the phantoms we see even human souls?
• If only some of the phantoms are souls and some are merely phantasmal temperaments as Lunasa suggested, then which has increased? The souls? The temperaments? or both?
• Which sort of phantom is causing the flowers to bloom?

𝐌𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭:
• Why do neither the humans of the village nor the tengu remember this incident having occurred before?
• Why didn't the Child of Miare, who had foreknowledge of this incident warn anyone it might happen?
• In particular, why hadn't the Hakurei shrine maiden been warned about this incident?
• Why do fairies remember this incident recurring?
• What causes this incident in the first place?
• If this incident is not a natural occurrence, who is responsible?

Having written all of those questions down, I asked another one.

"Renko, do you think that there's someone behind all of this?"

Her eyes narrowed as she paced, her chin cupped in her fist as she pondered. "There are a few too many unnatural aspects for me to believe it's an entirely natural phenomenon. First, the flowers all bloomed on the same day. Different flowers take different amounts of time to mature, so if this really were a natural event, you'd have thought they'd all come in staggered waves. For it to happen the way that it did seems to be purely for the purposes of creating a spectacle."

"Alright."

"Then there's the question of people's memories of it. Miss Keine's a historian and Miss Shameimaru's a journalist, both with extensive access to records, but both of them had either forgotten about this or never knew in the first place. Akyuu knew about it, but she didn't share that information with anyone. Not even the Hakurei shrine maiden. Someone had to have told her not to. There's a secret someone's trying to conceal here with this cover story, a spin that someone's trying to put on this event."

"Then who's our mastermind? Who would benefit from concealing the truth behind the real nature of the incident?"

"Someone who would be able to get Akyuu to play along. My first guess would be your look-alike, Merry. Maybe the Youkai Sage is conspiring with Miss Akyuu to do something."

"Like what?"

"Well that's the question, Merry. If we knew that, we'd know it all. There's also the possibility that there could be a third party we've never met involved."

"In which case you'd have no way of figuring things out."

"Well we can at least try to reason it out. In the past four incidents, the mastermind was relatively obvious, even if their motivations or even what they were trying to do wasn't. In this case however, if there is a mastermind pulling the strings, they have a reason to not want to let people know about it. Even Reimu seems convinced that there's nobody behind these events."

Renko turned her back on me and began to pace again, grumbling to herself as she did so. I gathered up the children's essays while she continued to pace back and forth, muttering about phantoms, flowers and fairies. I did my best to ignore her and focus on the children's work.

"Ah! That's it!" She suddenly exclaimed, startling me in the midst of writing a correction.

"What is it, Renko?" I asked, trying and failing to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

"It's the phantoms, Merry! They're the key to everything. If I'm right, they explain the discrepancy with our understanding of the history of the Outside World! In that case, that would completely explain Miss Akyuu's silence.

"Wait a minute, what are you thinking Renko?"

"We need to head to Misty Lake, Merry! No time to waste." Renko was already on her way out the door, grabbing her hat and coat as she left.

I scrambled to my feet and lunged after her, grabbing her sleeve. "Renko! It's night out already. What would Keine say if she saw you trying to leave at this hour. Calm down and let's talk through this. You think you've got this incident figured out?"

"Well, as usual, it's just a theory," she began. "I can’t definitively prove that it’s true, but it's one of the more probable possibilities that explains everything we've seen so far without the need for any characters or events we don't know about."

"And that theory is...?"

"Nuh-uh, not yet. Like I keep telling you, Merry, a great detective can't reveal their hand before all the bets are in. Which means there's a few more questions I need answered before I can name names."

As usual Renko is stingy when it comes to sharing her hypothesis. "So you think us two girls walking alone into a haunted house in the middle of the night to talk to the Prismriver sisters is the best way to get those answers?"

"No, no, no, Merry, don't be silly."

"Oh, so you're planning on going to the Scarlet Devil Mansion then, and having us go into a vampire's den instead?"

"Not at all. The person we need to talk to will be found on the lake itself. It's the fairies, Merry. They hold the key to this whole affair." She grinned her most troublesome smile. "You and I are going to go meet an ice fairy."


—24—


In the end, I managed to talk Renko down from trying to head out immediately. Luckily enough tomorrow was our day off, meaning we'd be able to spend our time exploring to her heart's content. Thus, we turned in for the night. Myself to a nearly instant, death-like slumber, and Renko to a night of restless tossing and turning, too excited to actually sleep.

When I awoke the next day, my partner was already dressed and ready, sitting at her desk, reading a copy of the 𝐵𝑢𝑛𝑏𝑢𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑢 news

"Good morning, Renko," I yawned. "Did you sleep alright?"

"Sure, good enough anyway. Are you feeling all refreshed and ready to head out?"

"Yes, yes, of course. Did you go out and buy a paper this morning? Anything good in it?"

"As soon as the sun came up. This one's got a story on the flower incident in it. As we expected, it's happening in every corner of Gensokyo. Also the Prismrivers are going to be going on tour, having performances at a variety of locations, starting with the Garden of the Sun as usual, but going just about everywhere, including some places I've never heard of. According to Aya it's going to be a big to-do that will cover every corner of Gensokyo and make this world even more colorful."

"Does she mean 'colorful' or 'noisy'?" Come to think of it, the Prismrivers had told us yesterday they were leaving to play a concert in the Garden of the Sun. I wondered if that meant that their tour had already begun.

Renko read me an article or two while I finished waking up and getting ready, then we had our breakfast and left the house, heading for the north gate of the village and Misty Lake beyond it. The morning air was clear, offering a spectacular view of Youkai Mountain as we made our way along the path beside the river.

"Let's try and hustle, Merry. If at all possible, I'd like to get back to the village by noon."

"Noon? What for?"

"Well, it all depends on how long it takes me to get a straight answer out of the ice fairy, of course, but my hope is to make it to the Garden of the Sun today too."

"The Garden of the Sun? You're going to see Yuuka, I take it? Exactly who do you think the mastermind behind this incident is, Renko?"

"No spoilers. First things first, let's focus on getting a story out of that ice fairy. Which starts with finding her."

I shrugged and picked up the pace, lengthening my stride to keep up with Renko. As I watched her figure marching ahead of me, the words the Yama had spoken to me yesterday came echoing back in my mind. She had said I was too dependent on Renko, and here I was following behind her again on another mad adventure. She had scolded Renko too, but of course those words were like water off of a duck's back. What she had said to me had rang true though, and as we walked along I couldn't help but think on it.

In my mind I often pictured us side by side, but in truth I was always a bit behind her. Sometimes it was only a few centimeters when she held my hand, leading us into some terrifying unknown, and other times it was a few steps like now, when the way was clear, but her drive and thirst for knowledge spurred her on faster than I could keep up. This place, just behind her was where I hung while she pulled me along. Was the Hifuu Club, our little two-person occult circle, really anything more than just the orbit she swung me through as she traveled along? Renko, the moving, vital force and me the dead weight caught up in the gravity of her personality, tidally locked in a perpetual orbit, saved from falling only by her constant forward momentum. Of course I knew that this so-called club was just her way of dragging me into doing the things she wanted to do. But since I didn't mind doing those things either, I let her pull me along.

"Hey, Merry, you're staring into space. What's wrong?"

"Mmm, it's nothing."

She stopped for a moment and turned to face me. Birds sang in the distance as the smell of the blossoming flowers perfumed the air all around us. Nearby, the river rolled peacefully onward. She tilted her head as she turned to regard me. "Want to hold hands?" She asked, offering hers to me.

Something kept me from reaching out. Did I want her to keep dragging me around? I couldn't really say that I minded, but what about the burden I put on her?

Renko stepped toward me and grabbed my hand, giving it a good squeeze. "You're still thinking about what the Yama said, aren't you? Like I told you then, no matter what the Yama says, I don't mind having you be dependent on me. I wouldn't mind if you would rely on me more often, in fact. I'm happy to be here for you, Merry."

"What would the Yama say if she could see us right now? She wouldn’t be happy to hear you talking like that."

"Wanting to have you by my side, holding my hand isn't a sin in my books, so if you're worried about your immortal soul just say you did it for my sake. After all, I'm asking you to. Now and forever, Merry. Stay connected to me. Your hand in mine, divine judgment be damned."

I shook my head, half from embarrassment by association at hearing her deliver that line with a straight face, and half so I wouldn't have to meet her gaze. She flashed me a catlike grin, then turned away, still smiling.

"Come on, Merry, we've still got a ways to go."

And so we set off again, hand in hand, making good time as we marched down the trail. Renko walking just ahead as I followed behind, just the same in this new world we had come to as we would have been back in Kyoto. At least, that’s what I'd like to believe.

—

In time we arrived at Misty Lake.

"All right Sherlock, where do we go from here? I don't suppose you have any idea where we'll find this ice fairy?"

"Well, it shouldn't be too hard. Nothing would normally be frozen right now, so all we have to do is look for somewhere with ice."

It was a sensible plan. Even more so since Renko reasoned that since we had never run into the ice fairy before we ought to try circling around to the farther shore of the lake rather than the more direct path to the Scarlet Devil Mansion we usually took. It didn't take long for our search to pay off. Barely any time passed before Renko pointed out something gleaming in the middle of a patch of low-lying mist near the shore. As we got closer we could see that it appeared to be a small sheet of floating ice, with what looked like a child dressed in a simple blue frock sprawled out on it, sleeping on her back with her mouth wide open, displaying about the same level of tact I might expect from the youngest of my students. For a fairy she was rather large, about the size of the students in my classes.

Renko walked to the edge of the shore and leaned out to reach for the tip of the ice sheet. She gave it a nudge and it wobbled slightly, sending ripples over the surface of the water. Still, the child on the ice kept sleeping, scratching contentedly at her side. Renko gave the ice another shove, calling out as she did so.

"Hey there!"

All at once the girl jumped up into the air, hovering in place and looking about. She had leapt up facing away from us, revealing that rather than the insect-like wings most fairies sported, she had a constellation of small icicles that floated in the air behind her. They didn't seem to be connected to her by any visible means, but kept pace with her as she moved, constantly floating in the same position as if somehow attached to her back.

"Who's there!" She yelled at the empty lake in front of her. "You must be pretty stupid to pick a fight with the strongest person in Gensokyo while she's sleeping!"

"Ah, sorry." Renko called from behind her. "We're not here to pick a fight."

She whirled around to face us. "Humans? What do humans want with Gensokyo's strongest?"

"Would that be you then?" Renko asked with a smile.

"You two must be moguls living under rocks if you don't even know that!" Had she meant 'moles' I wondered? "You must be especially stupid humans. I'm Cirno! The strongest ice fairy in the whole world." Between her childish voice and the proclamation she wouldn't have sounded a bit out of place in the middle of the schoolyard at lunchtime.

"I'm Renko and this is Merry. We were hoping we could find the strongest person in Gensokyo to interview today. If that's you, then I guess we've come to the right place."

"What's an 'interview'? You sound just like that tengu lady, she wanted one too."

"Ah, you must mean Miss Shameimaru, I think I saw you playing with her the other day."

"Yeah, her. She kept asking boring questions, so I iced her. You want an interview like that too?"

I remembered seeing Aya battle Cirno yesterday. At the time I had thought that match must just have been random but now I wondered if Aya might have been on the same trail as Renko.

"Hmm, not one like that. My interviews are more interesting. I only interview the strongest people, to get the best answers to the hardest questions. Today I'm asking questions about fairies, so lucky me finding a strong fairy to talk to, you probably know it all!"

"Hey, for a stupid human, that's pretty smart of you! I have the strongest answers in all of Gensokyo. No one knows more than me."

"All right then. Merry, be sure to write all of this down, it's not every day you can get answers like these. Okay! To begin with, let's start with the easiest one. You're Cirno, the ice fairy, right?"

"Anyone could tell that just by looking!"

"They say fairies are the embodiment of nature, but there's no ice in nature right now. Despite that, you stay active even when the ice is melting in the spring?"

"Of course, that's 'cuz I'm the strongest!" She lifted her chin, smiling proudly.

"Quite impressive. There are lots of other fairies besides you though, right?"

"Yeah, but I'm the strongest one out of all of them."

"So does that mean that other fairies disappear when the aspect of nature they embody disappears?"

"Hunh? What does that mean?"

"Well, for example would a fire fairy disappear if their fire went out? Or are they like you, sticking around even when there's no ice?"

"No, that's silly!"

"So even when there’s no ice around naturally, you’d still be fine?"

"Of course! But I hate the heat. So I make ice!"

"I see, so fairies are the cause of natural phenomena then, not the effect."

"What?"

"Wait a minute, Renko. What are you thinking?" I interrupted.

She cleared her throat, turning to me with a smile. "It's just this: my theory is that fairies like Cirno here are not born as aspects of nature, but rather as personifications of that nature. It is only because of fairies' existence that natural phenomena can come into being. If Cirno were only as strong as the ice, she would melt in the spring. But rather than that, you can see that she is able to make ice where there otherwise would be none. She's the element of nature that makes ice possible."

"What are you talking about, human?"

"Ah sorry, being this stupid, I get distracted sometimes. Let's get back to the interview. There are flower fairies too, right? I think we saw some at the Garden of the Sun."

"Those guys are everywhere! But I'm stronger than all of them put together. I could freeze any flower. Just like schwooo and then they'd be all fsching!"

"So those fairies aren't born from the flowers, but rather the fairies are the ones making the flowers bloom, right?"

"That's right."

"I see, I see. Thank you, Cirno, those were some very strong answers. I appreciate you giving me so much to work with."

"Of course! Only the strongest answers from me."

"Oh! Before I go, one more question, Cirno. This one's hard though, you'll have to think back a long way."

"I can answer anything you can ask. I can even answer a bunch of stuff you can't ask, I'm that strong!"

"All of Gensokyo is full of flowers right now. I heard something like this has happened before, maybe around 60 years ago. Do you know anything about that?"

"That's right! It's a festival that only happens once every 60 years!"

"Oh really? Well what's this festival for? Why would the fairies go to the trouble of making so many flowers bloom all at once?"

"You don't even know that? That's the easiest question of all. These aren't flowers, stupid! These are all ghosts!"

[𝐀 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐓𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫]

Once more it is time for me to offer my usual challenge to you, dear reader. Can you deduce the truth behind the Sixty Year Cycle Great Barrier Incident, as Usami Renko did?

I will assure that all of the events I have written of up to this point are true. You may suspect, due to the contradictory nature of some of the facts presented, that there is some deception in play, perhaps on my part, whether by intention or through a misunderstanding. Let me assure you that that is not the case. Specifically, I will state the most confusing facts of this case again to call attention to them explicitly: The culprits of this case are Kazami Yuuka and the three Prismriver Sisters. Specifically, Yuuka was the main culprit and the Prismriver Ensemble were what might be called accessories after the fact.

Because this case is more confusing, and of a different style than most, I would like to present to you a hint, which I have composed into this story as I wrote it after the fact, with all the hindsight I possess. I made the first chapter of this story our encounter with Kazami Yuuka because to do so is in accordance with Knox's Ten Commandments for writers of mysteries: the culprit must appear near the beginning of the story.

That is not my only reason for structuring this story as I have though. There is also the fact that we only met Yuuka once, and Akyuu never told us much of anything about her. As a result, at this point in the story Renko was only aware of one culprit. Our other discoveries came later.

Therefore, I challenge you, wise readers, only to discover the same elusive truth that Renko will reveal in the next chapter. I do not expect you to discover the elements that we had not either until they are revealed.

As an author, you may assume that I am writing this passage with a smug look on my face, confident in my assumption that you will not discover the role the Prismriver sisters played in all of this. At any rate, that is all of the hints that I can give you. Now it is time to test your imagination against the great detective's. What is the truth concealed within the nature of this case with no culprit? I wish you, dear reader, the best of luck.