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

This concludes the story of my partner, Usami Renko's delusions regarding the strange events that took place during the summer of Gensokyo's religious war. You might say, dear reader, that the story can't end when the identity of the mastermind responsible for stealing Kokoro's mask hasn't been revealed yet, but as I said earlier, this record is ultimately a failure as a mystery story. The identity of that particular culprit was completely unknown to us, and so I can't offer anything more than speculation here.

Perhaps by the time anyone reads this record the culprit behind those events will already be known. It's entirely possible that in this case you may know more than our great detective, dear reader. But that's as much as I can say about those events for now.

◇

The odds are good that you probably already know all about the official story of Gensokyo's religious war and how it was resolved. After all, they were the basis for the popular Noh play 𝐻𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒 which was performed at the Hakurei Shrine all the rest of that summer, and enjoyed by the majority of the village's population as well as numerous youkai.

In case you didn't happen to catch that performance though, I will briefly summarize the events of the story that inspired the play here:

Reimu, Marisa, Byakuren, Miko, Nitori and Koishi were all participants in the religious war and were all guided by Mamizou (with Keine's help) to eventually meet Kokoro. Upon meeting the menreiki, each of these combatants gave up the hope that they had gathered from the villagers and a new mask of hope was created by the Crown Prince and given to Kokoro, thereby re-establishing her emotional control and saving the village.

That was supposed to have fixed everything, but as my partner and Mamizou had feared, the new mask of hope posed a risk of erasing Kokoro's mind. As such, Kokoro had to seal away her new mask of hope until she could learn to control her emotions, which caused the villagers to lose hope once more, and also caused Koishi to become quite popular in the meantime due to her possession of the original mask of hope.

Kokoro trained in the Myouren Temple and dueled with Koishi many times.
Eventually, Kokoro realized that it was actually the three religious leaders who were causing the most disruption to the village and so fought against Reimu, Byakuren and the Crown Prince.

Going through all of that had served to strengthen Kokoro's mind and sense of individuality, and as her sense of self had grown, so had her ability to control her powers. In the end, Hata no Kokoro had regained her status as a fully-realized menreiki, with a full sixty six masks. Having learned to control her emotions, it was only at that point that she had begun performing a re-enactment of events in the form of a Noh play at the Hakurei Shrine, igniting a fascination with Noh theatre across Gensokyo.

That was the way this incident had been resolved.

—

But let me go back just a little and tell you how that all happened. This was back just before the debut of 𝐻𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒.

"No matter how many times I look at it, it looks more like the person who made it than the face of hope."

"Maybe you can't become a famous political or religious leader unless you're the sort of person who could brazenly proclaim their own face to be the image of hope."

"At least it works as a replacement."

We were at the Hakurei Shrine. Prior to putting on the original play 𝐻𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒, Kokoro had taken to putting on other, more traditional Noh plays at the shrine. One of these performances had just ended and we were packing up and preparing to walk back to the village with the rest of the audience while Kokoro chatted with us, looking down at her new mask of hope as she held it in her hands. The Crown Prince had made the mask for Kokoro, but styled it as a somewhat-goofy looking simulacrum of her own smiling face, plated in gleaming gold. Personally, I thought it was a rather tacky-looking thing.

"I'm just glad you've been able to use it without losing your sense of self."

Kokoro's fox mask slid into place on her forehead. "It's because of my diligent training!"

Kokoro's face was still almost entirely unexpressive, but she had been learning to move her mouth and eyebrows just a little bit. She still had a long way to go, but who knows how long a menreiki might live? She has plenty of time to figure it out.

"By the way, Kokoro, what was that play you were performing today about?" Renko asked.

"Weren't you watching?" Kokoro replied, wearing the monkey mask.

"I was, but I can't honestly say I understood it," Renko said, scratching her head.

It might be a failing on our part for not being experts on Noh theatre, but I hadn't been able to understand her performance either. Judging from the reactions of the audience around us, none of them had gotten it either. Everyone seemed to appreciate the skillful artistry of Kokoro's dancing and singing but the general sentiment among the audience seemed to be something like 'Maybe Noh is just a little bit over my head.'

When I said that to Kokoro, her monkey mask gave way to the sad-looking 𝑢𝑏𝑎. "Noh was originally a form of popular entertainment. It's supposed to be easy to understand..."

"Do you have something a little simpler you could perform?"

Before Kokoro could respond, Reimu stepped through the door of the shrine butted into the conversation. "Do you have a complaint about today's performance?" She asked. She was wearing a small tray strapped to her chest which held a portable offering box and a selection of fortunes and charms for sale. I wondered if it was really alright for a religious figure to be so openly mercenary as to be working the crowds that had come to see the play.

"Oh hey, Reimu. How have you been doing with these shows? Making good money?"

"Not too bad. What are you trying to get Kokoro to do though? You better not be putting weird ideas in her head."

"Not at all! I'm just trying to help out a friend."

"Friend, huh? You two sure seem to be friends with a lot of youkai. Renko, Merry, whose side are you really on? You knew about Kokoro before I did, but you never told me about her. You were even working as Mamizou's minions this time, weren't you?"

"We were just helping her resolve an incident, what's wrong with that?"

"Resolving Incidents is my job! Not hers! Why does everyone keep sticking their nose into my business and making things more complicated?" Reimu scratched her head and glowered at Renko, hands on her hips. "I've said it before, but I'll say it again. If you keep working with youkai you're going to end up becoming one."

"I'm not on the side of the youkai, Reimu. I suppose it would be most accurate to say I'm on the side of whatever makes the world more interesting."

Reimu continued to glare at Renko in silence for a moment before grumbling out a pronouncement. "Asking you to keep an eye on Kosuzu was definitely a mistake. You're a bad influence on her." While I wouldn't have said as much, I'd have a hard time arguing against that view. "Speaking of which, what's Sanae been up to this whole time?"

"Sanae? Why do you ask?"

"I would have expected some interference from the Moriya Shrine in all this, but the fact that they haven't done anything is making me suspicious. Those gods on the mountain are planning something, aren't they? Am I going to have to fly up there and exterminate that whole shrine again?"

I couldn't help but smile. Reimu's intuition really was remarkable. Renko grinned too. "Well they had been planning something at one point, but they've already missed their chance to participate. You don't have to worry about them."

"What do you mean they missed their chance? What were they planning?"

"Just a strategy to end the religious wars and generate a lot of faith. Things calmed down before they could act though, so it was all in vain."

"That's just like them, sneaking around behind my back at every opportunity…."

"Is something the matter?" This question had been called out by Keine, who had been attending all of the Noh performances as a member of the neighborhood watch to ensure the safety of everyone travelling from the village to the shrine.

"Oh, Miss Keine. Thanks for escorting everyone."

"It's no trouble. You two should head back to the village soon though. I don't want you staying out too late.

"Alright. Will you be walking with us, Miss Keine?"

"I still need to make sure everyone else gets back to the village alright. That's the main duty of the Neighborhood Watch."

"The watch's work is never done, eh Miss Keine? Don't push yourself too hard."

"Compared to all of the turmoil earlier this summer this is nothing. Things have settled down in the village and Miss Kokoro's problems are all resolved. I think we can finally put this whole business to rest." She nodded to herself as she looked out over the valley. Of all of the people involved in this summer's incident she was probably the one most relieved by its conclusion. The air of helplessness and despair in the village had been a big concern for her, but now that too had passed, leaving only tranquility and order in its wake.

"Oh, that's right! Miss Keine, one thing before you go!" Renko called out.

"Hmm?" Keine turned to face her.

"What did you think of Kokoro's performance today?"

She looked a little flustered. "Um, I'm not sure what to say, to be honest. I don't think I have much of an eye for Noh theatre.

"Don't be shy, tell us what you really thought" Kokoro said beneath her ℎ𝑦𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑜𝑘𝑜 mask.

"What I really thought..? Well which play was that, anyway? I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with Noh to have recognized it."

"It's called '𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑁𝑜ℎ: 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑀𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐷𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒!" she replied proudly, the kitsune mask settling into place.

"𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑁𝑜ℎ?' I've never heard of that," Keine said, shaking her head. To be honest it was a kind of creepy name for a play.

"Kokoro, where did you learn that play?" Renko asked, suddenly interested.

"From a scroll. I found it while I was looking for the mask of hope!" the god of fortune mask announced happily.

"...A scroll?"

◇

Being as we were now looking for a mysterious scroll, where else was there for us to go but Suzunaan? The next afternoon, as soon as our classes were dismissed Renko and I headed over.

"Yeeek!"

"Whoa!? Kosuzu?"

There was a flurry of stumbling motion as just as Renko had been about to walk into Suzunaan ahead of me, Kosuzu had come charging out at top speed. She had crashed directly into Renko's chest as she came out the door and was now looking up at us with a wild-eyed expression of fear while clutching a furled scroll to her chest.

"Ah, Miss Renko, Miss Merry, sorry, gotta go!"

"Hold on a moment, where are you going in such a hurry, Kosuzu?"

"I think I just realized something terrible!"

Kosuzu pulled us into the store with her. There were no other customers in the store at the moment and she brought us over to the desk which usually served as the shop's counter and hurriedly unfurled the scroll she was holding.

I looked over the scroll she had stretched out before us. It was beautifully illustrated, but the writing was in a set of characters I couldn't read. Renko looked over the scroll with marked interest. "What is this, Kosuzu?"

"A youma book. It's called 𝑆𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑎𝑖 𝑆𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑘𝑢𝑧𝑢 - 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑘𝑎𝑖. It's a youma book I was able to pick up fairly recently, but it didn't really interest me, so I had just put it in my collection with the others."

"I can't read any of this, what does it say?"

"That's just the preface there, but that's not what's important. Did you guys go and see the Noh performance at the Hakurei Shrine?"

"Sure, we've seen it a few times, most recently just yesterday."

"Perfect! Look at this then." Saying that she quickly rolled the scroll forward a ways until she came to a particular section. Artful, hair-thin brushstrokes depicted a figure dancing, stepping through various, rather particular forms. It took me a moment to place the poses, but once I did, there was no doubting it. These were, without a doubt, the same steps that Kokoro had danced through when presenting her 𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑁𝑜ℎ.

"Oh, is this..."

"It's just like the play we saw at the shrine!"

Renko and I glanced at each other. We had both come to the same conclusion at the same time. This must have been the same scroll that Kokoro had found and read at some point. What was it doing here in Suzunaan?

"So what does all of this say?" Renko asked.

"According to the preface, it's not really supposed to be a play, just a parody of the human performing arts made by the tengu. But despite that, I'm pretty sure this is exactly what's being performed at the Hakurei Shrine!" Kosuzu said excitedly while tapping at a cluttered set of characters painted in one corner of the scroll.

"'Noh plays have the ability to invoke emotions in humans'" she read, tracing a finger down the delicate characters. "'But the plays of the youkai steal emotions from humans. This is the terrible power of the 𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑁𝑜ℎ.' You see? That's what it says! If that dancer at the Hakurei Shrine is performing this then she must be part of some sort of youkai conspiracy!"

A play that could steal emotions? I'd never heard of such a thing, and it didn't sound like something that would have been part of Kokoro's emotional training either.

Kosuzu looked up at us, her eyes wide with fear. "...Do you think that actor might not be a human?"

Renko crossed her arms and groaned. "Hrmmm. Well I can't read any of this, but I'll take your word for what it says. Merry and I saw that performance yesterday though, and I don't feel like our emotions were stolen."

"Maybe it does it gradually! So gradually that you'd never notice!"

"Well maybe, but moreover, what were you planning to do about it, Kosuzu?"

"I don't know! For now I was going to go ask Akyuu about it."

"If it's a matter involving youkai, wouldn't it be better to talk to Reimu about it?"

"Well, that's what I thought at first but... it's happening right at Reimu's shrine. Do you think the Hakurei Shrine could be part of the conspiracy?"

Of course the truth was worse than she imagined. Not only was Reimu in on it, but also the two of us, Keine and Mamizou. Nearly everyone Kosuzu looked up to was already part of this mess. Kosuzu was the only one who didn't know about any of it.

Renko nodded, looking very serious all of a sudden and seemed to give the matter some deep thought. "Hmmm. Kosuzu, where did you get this scroll?" she asked.

"From Kourindou. Sometimes there are youma books there, so I always go to check."

"Ah, I see, I see." Renko glanced at me for a brief moment then made a big show of thinking hard, grumbling to herself and furrowing her brow. Eventually, she looked down at Kosuzu and said "Kosuzu, I'm afraid you've stumbled into what may be a very serious problem. I think it would be best if you left this to us, the professionals of the Hifuu Detective Agency. To tell the truth this matter has gotten me a little curious too, so we'll look into the identity and motivations of that Noh performer you saw at the shrine for free."

"What? Really? Would you be okay doing that?"

"I'm a professional detective, Kosuzu. Research like this is my line of work. For the purposes of our investigation would it be alright if I borrowed this scroll though?"

And just like that Renko charmed her way into getting a free rental from the restricted section of Suzunaan.

—

After borrowing 𝑆𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑎𝑖 𝑆𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑘𝑢𝑧𝑢 from Suzunaan, my partner and I headed straight for Kourindou. As soon as we entered the store, Renko walked right up to Rinnosuke and asked "Where did you get this?"

Rinnosuke adjusted his spectacles as he looked up from his book and examined the scroll. "Oh. That was something that a tengu threw away in Muenzuka. They use it as a dumping ground sometimes when they've written something that won't sell or if they've gotten bored of something they wrote for a laugh."

"So this was written by a tengu?"

"Yes. Its contents seem like a Noh play, but I've never seen a play much like that, and I don't think the tengu would bother trying to write an original Noh play. I'm pretty sure it's just intended as a parody."

"I see..." Renko said, tucking her chin to her chest as she thought about it.

"...Is something the matter with that scroll?"

"No, nothing like that. Mr. Morichika, are you aware that this play is being performed right now at the Hakurei Shrine?"

"At the shrine? No, I hadn't heard. Reimu has started performing Noh? That's a surprisingly refined hobby for her to take up. Noh did begin as a Shinto ritual though, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."

"No, no, it's not Reimu who's performing it," Renko said with a chuckle. "Don't worry about it, I'm sure it will be just fine."

With that, Renko rolled up the scroll and turned to leave. Rinnosuke watched her go, then turned to me with a quizzical expression. I couldn't do anything but shrug then follow her out the door.

—

And so, we decided there was no harm in showing it to Kokoro.

"Oh, that's the scroll I saw. You found it!" Kokoro declared while wearing the smiling god of fortune mask.

"Kokoro, where did you read this scroll?"

"A strange sort of place. It was a field where all sorts of bizarre things were just laying around."

"That must have been Muenzuka."

"I think that's right. I read it there and then put it down, intending to go find it again later, but the next time I went there it was gone..." The sad 𝑢𝑏𝑎 mask took the place of the smiling one.

Kokoro must have found the scroll in Muenzuka first, then Rinnosuke must have found it between her visits. The scroll had then gone from Rinnosuke to Kosuzu and finally ended up in our hands.

"So you only saw this once before, right?" Renko asked. "Were you able to memorize all of the dance steps that quickly?"

The fox mask took the place of the 𝑢𝑏𝑎. "I can remember any Noh play after dancing it once!"

"She is a tsukumogami born from Noh masks, after all."

"What's all this about?" It was Mamizou who asked this. Ever since she had revealed Kokoro to Reimu she had begun making regular appearances at the Hakurei Shrine, sometimes blending into the crowd of humans watching the performance and other times simply showing up as herself without warning. Her appearance now was one of these latter occasions. She had simply sauntered up the path between the torii at sunset, making no effort to conceal her youkai nature, despite the fact that she must have encountered a few villagers headed back to town on her way up the hill.

Renko handed the scroll to Mamizou, who adjusted her spectacles before unfurling it and peering at the content. "Ohoh, I see. A parody written by a tengu, eh?"

"Can you read it, Mamizou?"

"'Course I can. So this is where that play of yours came from, eh? I see. Well what's happenin' with it now?"

"Well..." Renko then went on to explain the history of how we'd come across the scroll, including Kosuzu's fears regarding its origins and performance. As Renko got to the part about Kosuzu's theory that might all be part of a conspiracy involving Reimu, Mamizou burst out laughing.

"Oh dearie me, Reimu isn't trusted by the villagers at all, is she? I suppose it's true that most of the villagers don't understand what the play's about though.”

"Am I not doing it right…?" Kokoro asked, lowering her face behind the 𝑢𝑏𝑎 mask.

"Nah, it's not you dearie, it's this nonsensical play. Hmmm, we'll have to come up with somethin' better. If you keep performin' this one, the audience might start to get worried."

Mamizou rolled the scroll back up and thrust it back to Renko. "Alright, I've got a job fer you two."

"Oh? What is it?" Renko asked with a ready smile.

"I want'cha to write a new play for her."

"Us?"

Renko and I looked at each other in surprise.

—

It was a week later when we next walked into Suzunaan.

"A new Noh play?" Kosuzu asked.

"That's right. At the Hakurei Shrine. It turns out you were right on the money, Kosuzu. That performer wasn't human at all, she's a type of youkai called a menreiki. Her 𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑁𝑜ℎ was an attempt to steal human emotions and weaken the villagers. It seems she had only seen that scroll once and only sort of half-remembered the play, so it wasn't working very well. Reimu was really mad about it when she found out though. She beat that youkai up pretty bad."

"Oh... So Miss Reimu wasn't part of the conspiracy?" Kosuzu let out a sigh of relief. That entire explanation just now was a complete fabrication thought up by Mamizou, of course.

"Anyway, after Reimu beat her up, the menreiki begged for her life and Reimu made her promise to put on a different play, one that filled everyone who saw it with joy."

"A play that fills people with joy? Do you think we can trust her?"

"Well it's risky to trust a youkai, but getting to see a youkai Noh sounds interesting doesn't it?" Renko flashed Kosuzu a mischievous smile and the girl shifted uncomfortably where she stood. "Don't worry, Kosuzu. Reimu will be right there in case she tries anything funny."

"Well that's good, but... I still don't really understand Noh."

"Oh, not to worry. Reimu thought of that too. The new play is a modern piece with narration and dialogue. It's supposed to be easy to understand. It's apparently based off of the story of all of the religious battles that happened this summer. She's calling it 𝐻𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒."

"...Well that does sound a little interesting..." Kosuzu hesitated for a moment then looked up at Renko with eyes full of wonder. "How do you know so much about all of this though, Miss Renko?"

"Well, I am a great detective," she replied with a grin.

Beside her, I could only sigh once more.

◇

And so the original Noh play 𝐻𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒, which took the village by storm and ignited a blaze of interest in the performing arts among the villagers, was our creation.

Well we just pitched the idea to be honest. We thought the religious wars would make a good basis for the story. Since Mamizou knew all about everything that happened, she worked with Kokoro to make up the story that we eventually turned into the script for 𝐻𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒.

There's no need for me to go on here about how popular the play became in the village, as I'm sure anyone reading this case file will likely have already seen it.

In effect all of the paragraphs above are only here to be a sad but unapologetic boast that we at the Hifuu Detective Agency were involved (however slightly) in the creation of Hata no Kokoro's stunning debut original Noh performance.

◇

But beyond those stories, there is one more facet to this epilogue. It is something that occurred on the day that Kokoro's new play first debuted. There were quite a few unusual faces in the audience, including people who had been tangentially involved in the incident, like Kosuzu and Mokou. The most shocking face of all however was one I would have never expected to see. Drawn, small and ghastly pale even in the light of the afternoon.

"Miss Satori?"

"Oh, Hello."

It was Komeiji Satori, master of the Palace of the Earth Spirits, a rare sight here on the surface.

"What are you doing here?"

"I overheard that Koishi would be appearing in this play... Ah I see, Orin must have misunderstood."

As usual, Satori was the sort of person to read the minds of others and not wait for anyone else's input before coming to her own conclusions. I could only imagine that Orin must have heard that there was going to be a play with Koishi appearing in it at the shrine and had hurried home to relay that information to her master. As a result, Satori must have come straight here hoping to see her sister's performance.

Koishi does appear as a character in 𝐻𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒 of course, but that character, like every other character in the play, was played by Kokoro.

"As long as I'm already here though, I may as well watch the show. You're the one who came up with this idea?"

"I just suggested the theme. Speaking of Koishi though, have you seen her recently?"

"Yes, though she's back to wandering around on the surface again." Satori was silent for a moment then narrowed her eyes, looking not toward the stage but out over the edge of the hill and across the rolling breadth of Gensokyo below. "However... Since the last time Koishi returned home it has been a little easier to sense her. I can see her normally now, and sometimes we even speak."

"Really? But the mask she found should have..."

"Yes. That mask she picked up is just a regular mask now. It's on display in the palace, and doesn't seem to have any powers whatsoever."

With the new mask of hope that the Crown Prince had made in Kokoro's possession, we had of course expected the power of the original to fade away. Now that that had happened, I would have expected Koishi's presence to have faded as well, and for her to return to being an unconscious youkai that no one ever noticed…

Satori seemed to read my doubts because the gaze of her third eye turned to me, though she continued to look out toward the horizon. "I suspect that during this incident she may have been noticed by many different people and managed to make some new friends. Having people who she wants to be seen by has probably changed her a little."

Satori trailed off as the play began and Kokoro took to the stage. Kokoro began by establishing her characters, dancing out parodic versions of Reimu, Marisa, Byakuren, the Crown Prince, Ichirin, Futo, Nitori and even Koishi—the full cast of the recent religious wars. It was clear at a glance who each character was supposed to be, as they all had their own distinctive poses and characterizations. Each time Kokoro switched to another character, the audience erupted in laughter.

This new Noh performance really was much easier to understand, with jokes and a plot that were accessible to everyone in the audience. Given how well it was being received, I doubted anyone watching would be left with a sense of unease about it.

Throughout the performance Kokoro's actual face remained as expressionless as ever, but with the way she moved and how uproariously everyone in the audience laughed, it seemed to me like she must have been enjoying herself. As the show went on, I thought I caught a glimpse for just a moment of a girl spreading confetti around as Kokoro continued to dance.

Maybe some day soon, I'll have another, more proper mystery to write about. Until then, you can find us in the storehouse behind the Hieda Public Temple School, where we'll be waiting as always to welcome you to the Hifuu Detective Agency.

[End of Book 12 - Hopeless Masquerade]

-.-.-.-.-

Author's Afterword

Thank you all for reading this far. I am Asagihara Shinobu, the author.

This time around I had a lot of difficulty finding the proper balance between making the ending something unexpected and making it something that was possible for the reader to figure out. As a result, I think this is probably the easiest [Challenge To The Reader] I've presented so far. I hope you enjoyed it all the same.

The next story will be Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character. As some of you may have guessed, we are now nearing the end of this series. Specifically, after the next volume will come the final volume in this series. I have been working on writing these novels for four years now, and it's surprising to think of the series as coming to the end. I hope that you will stay with the Hifuu Detective Agency until then.