東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 9:Hopeless Masquerade

—25—


Immediately after asking that question, the red kappa girl seemed to think better of it. She shook her head, and dropped her gaze again, looking away from me.

"Nevermind. I don't care if you know her. I don't want to hear any stories from a human. Turn around and go home."

That sounded like a perfectly reasonable suggestion to me but Renko, despite still being unable to speak, grabbed my hand and emphatically shook her head. I couldn't imagine what she expected me to do. Even if I were to ask any questions on her behalf, I'd just be silenced in the same way she had been.

I sighed and took a step toward the girl in red. Responding to my footsteps, the girl in red reacted instantly to my movements, thrusting the 'no entry' sign at me. "Don't move," she said.

At that very moment, my feet froze in place. Try as I might, I couldn't lift either of them off of the ground at all. Now that I had experienced her ability for myself, my initial thoughts were confirmed. It was definitely overpowered.

"Unlike Nitori, I hate humans," the girl spat. "Leave now or I'll kill you."

I would have been more than happy to take her up on the offer if only I could have moved my legs. I was considering if there was a way I might be able to grab Renko and pull myself along, when Kokoro stepped in front of me, standing directly before the kappa girl.

The shorter girl narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she looked up at Kokoro. After a moment she asked "Is that a tsukumogami?"

The fox mask slid into place on her forehead. "I'm Hata no Kokoro! Give me the mask of hope!"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I'm looking for a white mask with the face of a smiling child on it... If you've seen it, please tell me..." she said as the 𝑢𝑏𝑎 mask settled onto her head, the immediately gave way to the ℎ𝑦𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑜𝑘𝑜 mask. "If you can tell me where it is, these girls will give you some kind of reward!" The fox slid back into place. "So confess right now!" The 𝑢𝑏𝑎 mask took the place of the fox. "Or I'll be sad..."

The kappa girl stared in confusion at Kokoro, then shook her head. A moment later my legs suddenly unlocked, making me stumble. Next to me Renko loudly let out a puff of air as if she had been holding her breath even though I don't think her ability to breathe had been affected in any way. The girl in red cleared her throat then clicked her tongue in disgust and pointed her road sign at Renko and I. "You two leave. I'll talk to this menreiki."

Kokoro turned back towards us, expressionlessly. "I did it!" she said, pumping a fist in victory.

Renko opened her mouth to say something but I moved quickly, clapping my hand over her mouth and dragging her away. I wasn't going to risk having something forbidden for us again. I pulled her along with me as we walked back with Yamame.

Renko grabbed at my hand, prying it away from her mouth. "Come on, Merry! Don't gag me right after I've regained the ability to speak."

"You're just going to lose it again, Renko. You can't smooth-talk your way out of being banned from speaking. Just leave this to Kokoro."

"But I'm so curious about her! She's probably related to Nitori somehow! What's she doing here in the Underworld?"

"From her reaction, I think they're probably sisters."

"The other kappa are pretty friendly with humans, but she despises them. What do you think the reason for that is? And how do you think she ended up down here?"

"Renko, if you pry into it any more she's going to ban you from breathing."

"You'd give me artificial respiration, wouldn't you, Merry? Mouth to mouth?"

"Go back to being silent." I said, reaching over and pinching at her cheek.

"Oww owow!"

"I'm amazed how you two can always find time to flirt." Yamame interjected as we returned to the entrance of the chamber.

Kokoro appeared to be trying to explain something to the kappa, gesticulating and posing as her masks circled around her head. The girl in red looked completely disinterested at Kokoro's explanation, but she answered the questions Kokoro asked with a few short, soft-spoken words.

Kokoro bowed to the kappa and then trotted back over towards us. She was wearing her fox mask as she arrived. "She saw it! My mask fell down this hole and was picked up by a small youkai wearing a floppy black hat! She left and took it with her!"

"That had to be Koishi."

Renko nodded in agreement then looked up at the sunlight shining through the crack in the ceiling. "I wonder where that fissure connects to on the surface. You don't know, do you Yamame?"

"No idea. I don't know much about the surface, to be honest."

"I wonder if it would be possible to get all the way back up from here."

"No, not for someone your size."

"I wonder if I could extend some sort of marker up through it to the surface or maybe shine a light or something. Do you think that kappa would let me put something in here?"

"If she kills you it's not my fault." I said with a shrug.

Our trip had been successful in that we had confirmed where the mask had ended up after it had been lost, but we still had no idea where on the surface it might have fallen from or where it was now. Could a finding like that be considered progress?

"Hey, Miss Kappa, can you tell me your name?" Renko suddenly turned and shouted.

"Don't talk."

"Mmm-mmm! Mmmhmmnmm!"

Once again, Renko had been silenced, her mouth firmly closed by the kappa's power. "Just be quiet, Renko," I said with an exasperated sigh. She grabbed me by the shoulders, but since I couldn't understand what she was trying to say with her mouth closed, I had no idea what she wanted.

"Mmmmn. Mmmm mhmmnm. Mmmnr!"

"I'm sorry Renko, I can't hear a word you're saying," I said, turning to leave. "Let's head back to the surface" Yamame and Kokoro followed behind me.

"Mmmnmmnmhmm! Mmm!" Renko groaned from behind us.

I dragged Renko along by the wrist as she groaned and squirmed. As we left the grotto I took one last look back at the kappa girl. Her expression was hard to read as she stared up at the crack in the ceiling without really seeming to see it. At her feet, the flowerless plants swayed gently in an unseen breeze.

—

Back on the streets of Old Hell we bid Yamame farewell then located Genji. As we were making our way out of the city we spotted a tall figure with a bright red horn towering conspicuously over the crowd. Hoshiguma Yuugi clearly had no trouble spotting us from up there either as she made a beeline towards us through the crowd as soon as she did.

"Renko! You're back again! Want to go for a drink?"

"Oh, that's a tempting invitation, but I'm afraid I have to get back to the surface."

Yuugi nodded. "That's a shame. Hey, is that big party you told me about still happening up on the surface?"

"You mean the religious war? Yes, if anything it's getting more heated by the day."

"That's sounding fun. I'm gonna come up soon, I think. Tell Suika to expect me."

"I'll do that. While you're here though, I wanted to ask you about someone I just happened to meet. A little red kappa who lives in a cave over that way."

Yuugi's eyes widened. "You met her? And you're still in one piece? I'm surprised. She hates humans."

"Who is she exactly?"

"Who knows. She doesn't like to talk to anyone. I don't know all the details myself, but apparently she's half-kappa, half-human and she fled down here to get away from something bad above ground. That's all I know though."

That sounded like she was in more or less the same situation as another of our acquaintances, Imaizumi Kagerou. Being half-human and half-kappa might have made it hard for her to fit into either of those two communities, leaving her with nowhere to go but the Underworld with its city full of exiles. If she had suffered persecution by humans while living on the surface, that would certainly explain her hatred for them now.

"I don't know much about her, but you could try asking Marisa about her."

Renko and I both reacted with surprise.

"Marisa? She knows Marisa?"

"Marisa came down here to see her once. She brought a kappa and a curse god from the surface with her, I think."

Marisa, a kappa and a curse god from the surface? I could imagine who the two accompanying Marisa might be, but what had they all been doing down here?


—26—


We made our way up to the surface then dropped Kokoro off at Mokou's shack before making our way to the Myouren Temple. We had heard that Kawashiro Nitori had set up a small shop on the road leading to the temple to sell goods to passers-by. Of course it wasn't cheap trinkets we were hoping to find, but Nitori herself.

"Hey, step on up! Buy yourself something fun! How about a nice mask? For you two lovely ladies I'll give you a good price!"

As Nitori called out to us, I looked over and was surprised to see the three salesgirls working the crowd in front of the mask stand were well known to us. They were the three fairies of light, Sunny Milk, Luna Child and Star Sapphire.

"Oh it's those weird humans from the village!" Sunny called happily as she spotted us.

Renko waved to the fairies, then turned to Nitori, who was grinning at us from behind the counter of what appeared to be a mask shop. Why masks? And why had she hired the fairies as salesgirls?

"Hey there Nitori. What's going on here? What's with the fairies?"

"As you can see, I'm running a mask shop!" She responded cheerfully. "These fairies are all my employees."

"Part-time worker number 1!" Star shouted, raising her fist in the air.

"Number 2..." Luna added reluctantly.

"Part-time worker V 3!" Sunny cheered.

I couldn't help but wonder if fairies made good salespeople. Maybe some people are more likely to open their wallets when talking to what might appear to be a child running the shop.

"So why a mask shop of all things?" Renko asked, ignoring the three fairies.

"If you're going to a festival you've got to wear a silly mask! Everyone knows that. You should buy one, Renko."

"Aren't these a little expensive?"

"You can't be stingy at a festival. In times like these you may as well cut loose, right?"

Nitori's personality had seemed to do something of an about-face. In the past she had been much more timid around humans.

"Well I'm actually here in search of information, Nitori. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"I'll answer if you buy a mask."

"You've got a keen eye for business, Nitori. Merry, put this on our list of official expenses. We'll have to claim it as a deduction later."

"What are you talking about, Renko? We don't have any expense accounts. We don't pay any taxes either for that matter."

"Thank you, come again!"

And so Renko ended up buying a useless mask. I couldn't think of anything else to do with it, so it's hanging on the wall in our office now.

"Now what did you want to ask me about?"

"I had heard that you've been participating in these religious wars recently. On the side opposing religion at that. I wanted to know what your intention was."

"It wasn't my intention to get caught up in any of that!" Nitori said as she crossed her arms, looking decidedly less enthusiastic than she had a moment before. "I just thought it was annoying hearing these religious folks go on about how you'll be saved if you pray, or try to be mindful or are determined enough. If that was enough to save people then no one would have any problems to begin with. People need solutions that work here and now and that's what technology is for! Technological innovation is what actually makes people happier and life easier."

It was a speech that I'm sure wouldn't have seemed out of place in the Outside World.

"Besides, they're all just flaunting their powers in a bid for popularity. It's advertising! They're basically in business for themselves just like I am, except that I don't want my business lumped in with theirs as a way of life or anything. Marisa was saying that believing in technology is just a religion too, but that's not true! Tools are just tools. If using a tool is all it takes to make you religious, then who needs a preacher to talk down to you and act all high and mighty? A handy tool that never talks is a hundred billion times better than some noisy busybody who tells you how to live your life."

Renko grinned. "Nitori, does Byakuren know you're out here in front of her temple saying things like that?"

"I had to pay her a fee to set up my shop here, so she's got no right to complain."

Nitori really had changed a lot. I couldn't have imagined her being this outspoken before the kappa bazaar, but maybe doing business with humans had awakened something in her. All of this was just preamble though. It was at this point that Renko got to her real question.

"I see, I see. If you don't mind me changing the subject though, there was something else I wanted to ask you about Nitori. Or someone else, I should say. We just met a Kappa living in the Underworld who was wearing red. Do you know her?"

Nitori's eyes went wide at Renko's sudden change of topic. "You met my sister?"

"She really is your sister then?"

"She's my older half-sister. Her name is Kawashiro Mitori."

I see. We had heard from Yuugi that the girl in the grotto was only half-kappa, so if she and Nitori were only half-sisters that would make sense.

"I'm surprised she was willing to meet with you. She really hates humans a lot."

"Well to be honest we didn't get a chance to talk to her much."

"Just the fact that she didn't kill you on sight means she must have mellowed out a lot."

"I heard that you and Marisa went to see her along with that curse goddess a while back, is that right?"

Nitori nodded. "I hadn't seen her since we were little, but after the geyser incident a few years back, one of the oni sent me a message about her through Marisa, so she, Hina, and I went to see her."

"I see. That explains why you brought Marisa down there with you. Why Hina though?"

"Hina's my friend. I wanted Mitori to meet her."

Renko seemed to have expected some deeper meaning to Hina's presence, but apparently, that was it.

"So do you and your sister still keep in touch?"

"I see her from time to time just to get her caught up on what's going on. I went down just the other day actually. That's where I got the idea to open a mask shop. She was telling me how a mask recently fell down into her cave from the surface and the youkai who picked it up looked really happy." As Nitori spoke she lovingly ran a hand along the brow of one of the masks lining the walls of her stall. "I had just hoped that these masks might have made her just as happy." For a moment, Nitori's smile really seemed like that of an idealistic younger sister, one worried about her family.

"About that grotto she lives in, Nitori. There's a fissure in the ceiling there that goes all the way up to the surface, right?"

"Yeah, it's too small for anyone to fit through though."

"Do you happen to know where on the surface that hole leads?"

"Hmm, I never thought about that. Actually, where does it lead? I've never seen a hole like that around the mountain anywhere."

Just like that we had hit another dead end. I was starting to wonder just where Kokoro could possibly have dropped her mask. She couldn't remember and no one seemed to know what that hole was connected to.

—

As we were returning from the Myouren temple Renko was lost in thought, grumbling to herself and fiddling with the brim of her hat.

"Is another one of your grand delusions coming together?" I asked as we marched along.

"Maybe. I'm pretty sure I know where Kokoro's mask is now," Renko said casually as if it were of no importance.

"What? Really?"

"Well I can't be certain yet, of course, but I think if we were to go there with Kokoro she'd be able to sense it."

"Then we should go get her right away, right? Where is it?"

Renko sighed and looked over at me, a worried expression on her face. "You can probably figure it out, Merry. Just think about it. Why do you think it was Koishi who found that mask and not anyone else?"

"Is that supposed to be a hint? Why would it matter that it was Koishi who found it first?"

"Think back over what we know already. You'll see what I'm getting at."

I pondered the question. From the way Renko said it, it seemed like she thought something about Koishi's unique status as a youkai of the unconscious must be responsible for her finding the mask. A mask that could only be found by someone who was famously difficult to find themselves......

After thinking about it for a while I came up with one possibility. But it couldn't have been hidden there all along... could it?

"Renko... You're not thinking..." I mentioned the name of the place I had thought of in Renko's ear and she smiled at me, grinning the same troublesome grin I knew all too well.

"You and I really are in sync, aren't we? Yeah, that's where I was thinking too."

So that was it. We didn't have definitive proof, but given what we knew it would make sense for it to be found there. That didn't explain why Renko was still looking worried and unsatisfied as she fiddled with her hat though.

"Well if the mask of hope is really there, isn't this the solution to this whole case?"

Renko stopped walking and looked back at me.

"I wish it were that simple, Merry. Do you remember what Satori said about Kokoro?"

"That she had a faint ego, like that of a newborn, right?"

"Yes. There's also the fact that Kokoro told us herself that she barely has any memories from before the moment when she lost her mask. When you put all of those pieces together, what sort of conclusion do you come to, Merry?"

I gasped in horror. I immediately grasped what Renko was insinuating even though it was a possibility I had never considered up until that moment. Perhaps it was because Kokoro had always seemed so eager and excited to find her missing mask that I hadn't given the possibility any thought. If she was right though, then would we even want to find the mask of hope?

"Renko…you've known where the mask was for a while now, haven't you?"

"That's right. Did you think it would take me this long to find something like that normally?"

My partner had been purposely dragging her feet with this investigation, delaying the resolution of this incident. All because she had a theory about what might happen when Kokoro was reunited with her missing mask of hope. Maybe that's why she had been getting Kokoro to try to practice facial expressions...

"Taking into account the fact that Kokoro has almost no memories from before she lost her mask and what Satori told us... I can only think of one conclusion—That the Kokoro we know is a newborn mind, one that was only formed when the mask of hope was lost."

"That's right. When all of her masks were together, her emotions would have been perfectly balanced and she would have been stable and unchanging. If your emotions never change, then it's the same as not having any at all."

"If that's the case... then giving her back the mask of hope would mean..."

"That the new mind that she's formed since losing it might be erased."


—27—


That evening, at the cemetery, another meeting of the incident resolution team convened to discuss strategy. The team of course consisted of myself, Renko, Keine, Kokoro and Mamizou. As we all gathered and discussed what we had found it became clear that this Incident was about to reach its climax.

"This religious war is going nowhere," Keine sighed, covering the report on the state of the various factions and the faith they had gathered. "I don't think any one person will be able to monopolize all of the village's faith. The Buddhists, Taoists and the Hakurei shrine maiden all have their own supporters, but everyone who's not devoted to one of the major factions is divided between supporting Marisa, that kappa, or the wandering youkai girl. We're rapidly approaching a stalemate.The kappa in particular has scooped up the attention of everyone who isn't interested in this religious war. At this point there's almost no one left in the village who might change sides to shift the balance."

It sounded to me like a line that might have come from a political drama in a scene set right before election day.

"That's a situation we hadn't planned for." Renko said, groaning unhappily. "Mamizou, what do you think we should do?"

Mamizou crossed her arms and grunted. "What a pain. I'd have hoped that one side woulda come out on top by now so we could just make use of all of the hope they had gathered up. Well, it can't be helped, I suppose. We'll have to go to each faction and take their hope one by one."

Keine spoke up before Renko could respond. "If that's our move then we ought to get Reimu's portion of the gathered hope first."

"The Hakurei shrine maiden?"

"Yes. If we go and explain the situation to Reimu, then it'll save us a lot of trouble later on. If we explain that we're trying to resolve the incident then we might be able to talk her into helping us. If she finds out that we've been working with, say, the Myouren Temple behind her back though, there's a good chance she might just try to exterminate all of us."

It seemed like Reimu had a reputation of being the sort of incident-resolver who shot first and asked questions never, regardless of the collateral damage. Well if that was the case, she could hardly blame anyone but herself.

"Alright, leave it to me," Mamizou said resignedly. "I'll get her attention tomorrow night an' make sure she sees what happens to the village durin' the hour of the ox."

"Thank you."

"So after all that, you never managed to find the original mask of hope?"

"Sorry about that. We only managed to catch Koishi that one time," Renko said, bowing her head apologetically.

Nazrin had left a message on our doorstep this afternoon indicating she hadn't found anything yet. We had met with her at the Myouren Temple before coming here and agreed to call off the search. We still had to compensate all of her hard work on our behalf with a price paid in cheese though. That had put a significant dent in our finances for the month…

Mamizou grunted and cast a suspicious look at Renko. "None of my tanuki could find it anywhere either. Not much we can do about that."

Kokoro's shoulders slumped as the sad contours of the 𝑢𝑏𝑎 mask again slid into place on her forehead. "My mask of hope... gone forever..." she muttered.

"We'll get you a replacement soon. Don't worry," Mamizou said, patting her on the shoulder. Renko made eye contact with the bake-danuki and the two seemed to share a knowing glance and a faint nod.

"Alright, I think that's it for the night. You two stick around for a bit though," Mamizou said, gesturing at Renko and I with her pipe.

Keine arched an eyebrow at her. "If they're staying, I'm staying."

"I'll make sure they get back the village jus' fine," Mamizou said exasperatedly. "I just want to talk to them for a bit. It's got nothing to do with this incident or you, Miss Keine. Let us girls have our gossip."

Keine looked incredulously from Mamizou over to Renko, who gave her a big thumbs up. After a moment's consideration she sighed. "I'll just wait over there. Call for me when you're done." I suppose that's as much of a compromise as we were likely to get out of Keine. Renko nodded and Mamizou winked at her. With only the smallest of sighs Keine turned and departed with Kokoro in tow.

"So what did'ja wanna talk about?" Mamizou asked as soon as the others had departed.

"It's about Kokoro's consciousness—"

"Ah, ya figured it out, didja?" Mamizou asked, grinning around the stem of her pipe as she scratched at her head. "Yer worried that if you give her back her missin' mask, the menreiki will lose her personality, aren't 'cha? I've been worried about that from the start myself."

"Is there anything we can do to prevent that from happening?"

"Now that she's started to build up a mind of her own, it won't disappear right away even if she gets her mask back. Whether she can keep a hold of herself long-term or not depends on whether she can learn to master her own powers. In other words, she'll hafta learn to control her emotions."

—In other words Mamizou had already known about this and thought of the same solution as Renko.

"But don't you worry about that. I'll see to it that she does."

"...I see. Does that mean that you have no further use for us then?"

"Well, it'd still be easier for me if I could lay my hands on her original mask of hope. You should keep lookin' for it 'til the very end..." Mamizou paused to lean forward, looking at Renko over the tops of her spectacles as her eyes narrowed suspiciously "...assumin' a course that you haven't already found it, that is."

I did my best to say nothing and keep my face neutral. Beside me, Renko smiled calmly back up at her. "We'll do our best to try to find it for you."

—

Later, as we climbed into our futons and blew out the lantern for the night, I couldn't help but speak a few more questions into the darkness.

"Renko, what are we going to do if the mask of hope is where we expect it to be?"

"Hmm, well if the plan to make a new mask looks like it's going to work, I suppose we could just leave it where it is."

"If we wait for that to happen, things might end up getting worse in the meantime. Wouldn't it be better for us to resolve things sooner rather than later?"

Renko looked up at the ceiling and let out a sigh. "Well, I can't be worrying about that right now. Starting tomorrow our first order of business is to do some more research."

"Research? On what?"

"Someone we haven't had a chance to meet yet, probably. That's why I need to do research, so I can figure out who we're up against."

"Up against... Who are you planning to meet, Renko? You're not going to try to find the Youkai Sage or something, are you?"

I suppose technically the Youkai Sage wasn't someone we hadn't met yet. Renko had never met her, but I had.

I heard the sound of blankets rustling as Renko rolled over. It was too dark to see with the light snuffed but somehow I knew, without the barest shadow of a doubt that Renko was grinning at me with her usual catlike smile.

"I'm talking about the real mastermind behind this incident, Merry. The one responsible for everything!"


[𝐀 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐓𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫]

And so once again we find ourselves at the end of the facts, with all of the clarifying questions laid out before us. As I stated in the prologue, this mystery all boils down to a classic 'whodunnit'. The 'who' in whodunnit is a little harder to grasp than typical though.

As you may have guessed there are actually two 'whos' to name in this case. In other words, the questions that I am posing to you as readers are the following:

1. Where is Kokoro's mask of hope?
2. Who is the 'real mastermind behind this incident' that Renko was talking about?

As the author of this casefile, I'm sure you have all of the information needed to identify the first of this case's two culprits. Discovering the identity of the second one, however... well I would expect that to be very difficult as they have not yet appeared in this story at all.

Which is why you would be right to say that as mystery stories go, this one was flawed right from the start. This case flagrantly violates the first of Knox's Ten Commandments—'the culprit must always appear near the beginning of the story' and the tenth of Van Dine's Twenty Rules—'the culprit must be a character who plays an important role in the story. To pin the crime on a character who appears in the last chapter is to confess the author's incompetence.'

It would be too much for me to ask of you as readers to simply ignore this failing on my part, but I'm afraid it simply could not be helped in this case as this was a very unusual incident.

And so it is with my apologies as a writer that I must ask:

Can you identify the same mastermind as Usami Renko?