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

"So your theory is that we're already on an alternate timeline?"

Renko had listened carefully to my theory and the story of my meeting with the Youkai Sage the night before. Despite its delusional premise and its lack of evidence or confirmation, she had heard the whole thing out without judgement. Now that I had finished relating it, she crossed her arms and groaned, looking up at the ceiling as she lay on the tatami mats.

"If that were the case then our arrival in Gensokyo in 2003 wouldn't be a result of any constraint on the sage's power or the nature of time, but rather a deliberate action — she'd be placing us right when she wanted us as part of a grand strategy to alter the history of Gensokyo. I have to admit it has merit. It even addresses some of the facts more sensibly than my own theory. Great job, Merry, I like it."

"I'm not sure if I should be happy to receive praise from an experienced delusional like yourself."

I sighed and took a sip of my tea, before setting the cup down on the edge of her desk. Renko rolled over to lay on her stomach on top of her futon, resting her elbows on the wadded blankets and looked up at me with her chin resting on her hands. "It’s too bad your theory is completely unverifiable. If we were in the Outside World then we’d at least be able to tell if something had changed by comparing history to what we already know. Here in Gensokyo though, if there was an alternate timeline before in which the Youkai Sage had done something to earn the wrath of Heaven, then we'd never know about it."

"Yeah, I know," I sighed. It was an inherently unprovable theory. There wasn’t even any incontestable proof that we had travelled into the past, much less that we had travelled into a different past than one that might have occurred originally.

Renko looked up at me then closed her eyes, smiling as she spoke. "Us lower dimensional entities would be mere playthings in the hands of a higher dimensional entity. If such an entity were to exist, their abilities would be indistinguishable from those of an all-powerful capital-G God to people like us. Ten billion days and ten billion nights might pass in a looped instant and we'd never be the wiser. We might as well be living in one of Edmond Hamilton’s Fessenden’s Worlds."

I picked up my teacup, yawned, then set it back down. "Renko, why do you think we're here?"

"Who knows? Lots of peoples lives would be easier if we had answers to big questions like that. Isn’t that sort of question closer to your specialty anyway?"

Renko sat up, placing both of her warm, slim-fingered hands on top of mine.

"Look, Merry. I don't know if this world that we're in is connected to the one we left or not. But according to Relativistic Noology all of those different experiences are divergent and never intersect once they branch out, right? Time only flows in one direction and the future is unobservable and therefore undetermined." Her deep brown eyes looked into mine. "In our case we can’t know if the history taking place outside of Gensokyo matches with the history we know, nor can we know what the future will look like in this world. But that just means that we get to be the observers for this timeline. There may be other possibilities, and the Youkai Sage may interfere however she likes, but ultimately we’re the ones who get to experience this future. The superposition of possible states collapses into the world that you and I get to experience. That’s what it means to be us."

"Renko, you've really become quite the Relativist." I said with a smile.

"Living in a world of fantasy tends to have that effect on people, I guess." She said, smiling faintly and giving my hands a squeeze. "If the Youkai Sage is going to try to choose the best future for Gensokyo, then I'm going to try to find the best future for us. That's all we can do, really."

"I guess that's all anyone can hope for."

"It's not so bad. Sure there's lots we don't know and we can't imagine what the future might hold, but that's just how life is. We observe, we define, we experience. That’s our existence. If a higher dimensional entity decides to reshape reality it doesn’t change the fact that I’m here with you, experiencing this version of events. The reality we find ourselves in is one where we get to be together, so let’s enjoy this world. Because it’s ours."

Renko gave my hands another squeeze. I didn’t know whether I should try to return the easygoing, slightly cheesy grin she was wearing or not. "Sanae’s going to complain that you’re leaving her out again."

"Are you maybe getting a little jealous?"

"Not at all!"

"Sanae's a friend, but you’re my partner, Merry. I intend to be with you for the rest of my life, remember?"

"Yes, yes. As you keep reminding me."

I smiled back at her. The innocent smile she wore was the heart-warming sort I wish I could pull out at a moment's notice, just as she did, but it felt like all I managed was a wobbly grin. Maybe the difference between her ready smile and my nervous one was the perfect encapsulation of our relationship though. Her forging ahead, heedless of where her path led and me following behind, bumbling and bewildered but firmly in tow. And both of us smiling, in our own ways.

—

Luckily for me the temple school was closed the day after my late night adventure. I lazed around and napped for most of the morning, then in the early afternoon Kirisame Marisa stopped by our office. Whenever she came by, there could only be one reason for it: she was here to invite us to a party.

"Hey, we're havin' a party today. You guys look about as busy as usual, so why not come by?"

"Where at, the shrine's still in ruins, right?"

Marisa grinned. It was the smile of a child about to pull off a particularly nasty prank. "We're gonna have it up in Heaven."

"Heaven? Why there?"

"It was Suika's idea, it's gonna be a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Hakurei Shrine."

"Didn't you just celebrate that just the other day?"

"That was a 'commencement of rebuildin' project' party. This is a 'groundbreakin' party. Did you guys meet that girl from Heaven yet? Even if you don't really have anythin' to do with the main event you should at least come for the afterparty."

"What's the 'main event?' Are you planning on doing something with Tenshi?"

"Sure. We're all gonna head up there and plow Tenshi into the dirt. That's the groundbreakin'.

"We heard the Youkai Sage had already beat her up pretty badly though"

"Yep. But she was puttin’ all of Gensokyo at risk just for a laugh, so it’s only fittin’ that pretty much everyone gets a chance to pay her back."

"Well, that sounds a little dangerous," Renko said, glancing over at me, "but if that's the way you do things in Gensokyo, then 'when in Rome,' I guess. Do you mind if we invite Sanae to join in?"

"The shrine maiden from the mountain? Go ahead. The more the merrier and it keeps me from having to fly you all the way up there. Just show up later on."

With that, Marisa climbed back on her broom and flew off. Renko stepped outside and waved to her as she left, then walked over to the small branch shrine sitting on a raised stone plinth just behind the storehouse that Sanae had erected several months back. Renko bowed before the altar and clapped twice before asking "Hello, Lady Yasaka. Is Sanae around by chance?"

There was a moment's delay before Yasaka Kanako suddenly popped into existence before us, looking annoyed. "Renko, this is a branch shrine. Sacred altars are not to be used as telephones."

"Well then, since you're working with the kappa and fond of technology, maybe you could ask them to build us an actual telephone so we don't have to bother you? We don't have any other way of contacting you up on the mountain."

"It will be years before they'll be ready for that. At any rate Sanae is at home. What did you want me to tell her?"

"There's going to be a party in Heaven today and she's been invited." Renko proceeded to relay Marisa's message, only telling Lady Yasaka about the main event, not the afterparty.

The goddess nodded when she was through, saying "I'll tell her about it." Then vanishing momentarily. Renko and I waited in awkward silence for a few moments until she reappeared.

"Alright, I’ve told her,” she said as she reappeared without warning. "Whether or not she ends up going to the party, I'm sure she'll want to come see you and hear all about it, so expect her soon. Is this party to mark an end to the whole earthquake situation? I note that the rains have finally stopped."

"I guess you could say that. A keystone has been implanted in the grounds of the Hakurei Shrine which should protect Gensokyo from any future earthquakes. If you and Lady Suwako would like, you could accompany us to the party as well."

"Thank you, but we'll pass. You girls have fun with Sanae."

At that moment an idea suddenly occurred to me. "Um, Lady Kanako..." I began.

"Yes, what is it, Merry?"

"If it were possible to do, do you think it would be right of us to try and convince the Celestials behind this event to place keystones in the Outside World too? To prevent earthquakes?"

Lady Yasaka crossed her arms and frowned in thought. "I take it you have foreknowledge of a great earthquake that will occur at some future point in the Outside World? Is it in Suwa?"

"Ah, well, um, no, but..."

"Ah, nevermind. I shouldn't even have asked that. When we came here we became goddesses of this small, closed off world. The fate of the Outside World is no longer any of our concern."

Silence hung in the air for a moment, but this time it was because I didn't know what to say. After a brief pause I felt the goddess’ hand rest gently on my shoulder. "Merry, take it from me. A human should never try to play the role of a god. You possess a unique gift of knowledge, which might be used to prevent numerous tragedies if carefully applied. If you use your knowledge to do something like that you’d end up becoming something like a god. At the very least you’d no longer be fully human."

"Something like that could cost us our humanity?"

"To be able to interfere with the fates of countless people in ways that transcend the possibility of human understanding would put you in a position that could hardly be thought of as human. Plus, even if your plan worked, you’d be changing history as you know it, potentially making any other knowledge you had useless. Despite that, you’d never forget what you had done and the temptation to try to alter fate further would be there. If you did that you’d be giving up your humanity, but without the means of becoming a god. It would be a sad, cruel dead end for you. I’d recommend you refrain."

I was without any words to reply. Instead I bowed my head again in silence. After a moment, I felt a hand softly patting my head, loving and motherly.

"Was this idea originally something of Sanae’s perhaps?"

"Ah, well..."

"Even though we've told her it's alright for her to be a human here, she can't help but to think like a goddess sometimes. I'll talk to her after she comes back from your party. Renko, I feel that you must be worried about the future of the Outside World too somewhat. There is no need for that. You two are humans. You should live as humans and concern yourself only with matters that are within your control."

"Thanks, I'll do that."

We both bowed our heads. Kanako smiled at us, and then disappeared.

—

"It's going to be a party to beat up Tenshi again? I'm totally going!"

Sanae had been excited as soon as she showed up at our office and revealing the true purpose of the party had only made her more so. She had wanted to depart immediately to see if she could be the first to claim a victory over Tenshi even before the party, so we ended up arriving quite early.

"There she is!" Sanae had squealed excitedly, less than a minute after we broke through the layer of clouds atop Youkai Mountain. Without the scarlet thunderstorm, the guard tengu or even bad weather to worry about, the trip up to Heaven had been quick and easy this time. Holding both Renko's hand and my own, Sanae maneuvered us over toward Tenshi's position and descended to deposit us safely on one of the countless floating islets.

"More of you?" Tenshi asked with exasperation as we descended. "Just how many people did that little oni call?"

"What do you mean more? Are the others already here?"

"There have been Earthlings coming up to challenge me since this morning! Some of them have been here since first light."

"I guess that’s what people in Gensokyo do for fun," Sanae said, smiling fiercely as she whipped out her wand and pointed it at Tenshi. "Are you up for a rematch? I remember beating you pretty badly last time."

"A rematch? You know I wasn’t really trying last time, right?" Tenshi asked, drawing forth the Sword of Hisou.

"Wow, giving excuses before we even start, that’s pretty lame."

"I’ll make you eat those words!"

—

Renko and I left the two of them to their match and found our way to the place where numerous others had already gathered, atop a hill carpeted in pillow-soft grass overlooking the scene which had a collection of mats laid out and bedecked with all manner of earthly food and drink. The usual gang Yuyuko, Youmu, Alice, Patchouli, Marisa, Sakuya and Suika were all already here, with only Reimu as a conspicuous absence.

"Isn't Reimu coming?" Renko asked as we arrived.

"She should be here soon." Suika slurred. "The star of the show always shows up last." Even though we were here earlier than Marisa had told us to arrive, Suika was clearly already quite thoroughly sloshed. With Suika though, that was probably not an unusual state of affairs.

"I don't see Remilia here either," Renko added. "Sakuya, did you leave her behind?"

"Regrettably, being above the clouds doesn't suit vampires very well. She sent me along with her blessings though. I must ask, Miss Usami, that you please refrain from giving Milady any more strange ideas."

"Strange ideas?"

Patchouli was the next to speak. "Remi's been obsessed with playing the armchair detective lately. She's been sending Sakuya out to round up all manner of 'suspects.'"

"Oh, do I have you to blame for Sakuya kicking down my door, then?" Alice asked, turning to Renko.

"I wasn’t involved in that!" Renko pleaded, raising her hands. "Though I suppose I might have given her the idea."

"I don't mind though, because of that she's started spending more time in the library, reading through all of the mysteries I own."

"Oh, really?"

"I’d appreciate it if you could come by to talk with her again," Sakuya suggested. "Perhaps you could bring the mountain priestess with you, the young mistress seems to have taken a liking to her."

"Um, sure, we’d be happy to." Renko said, shaking her head. I still wasn't quite sure how Sanae and Flandre had managed to hit it off so well so quickly. Flandre was a sweet child, but it was hard to feel safe around her due to the overwhelming sense of barely constrained power she exuded. Maybe Sanae had had an easier time of it since the two shared similar levels of maturity.

Speaking of Sanae, it wasn't long after that that she came trudging up the hill toward us, shoulders slumped and robes smeared with dirt. "Merry, Renko, I lost!" she wailed as she came toward the mat we were sitting on.

"You too?" Marisa called over to her. "Seems like everyone here lost to her today"

"What? All of you lost? Even you, Lady Yuyuko?"

"I’m sad to say" she said, smiling with her eyes closed. "That Celestial can be quite formidable when she sets her mind to it, it seems." She didn't seem the least bit upset about it.

Renko looked around at the faces of everyone assembled. "Sanae, where's Tenshi now, is she coming?"

"Oh, she left after our match." Sanae replied, sitting up. "I think she was headed toward the Hakurei Shrine."

"She went to get Reimu?" Marisa asked. "Well, let's start eatin’ then."

"Just wait a moment Marisa, they'll be here soon." Youmu said, her shoulders slumping.

As numerous conversations started up between the various people gathered together, Renko took the opportunity to single out Suika during a momentary lull and question her in a voice low enough it wouldn't carry.

"Hey Suika, did you invite the Youkai Sage tonight as well?"

"Yukari? Nah, I figured she already had plenty of fun blowin' up the shrine an' all. Why? Didja need to ask 'er somethin'?"

"Well, I'd like to ask her plenty. I've never met her, remember?"

"Oh right, you said somethin' about that before."

"I'm sure she wouldn't have come anyway. She never shows up at any party I'm at."

"What? Sure she does. I remember drinkin' with her back at the shrine just after I met you guys. You didn' see her there?"

"What? She was there?" Renko looked over at me. I nodded. "We never saw her at all."

"Well, she was around, but even when she's there there's not much difference from when she's not. She comes and goes as she pleases. Everywhere she wants to be and nowhere she doesn't wanna be. Almost like she's only there if you think about her." Suika took another pull from her gourd and stared up at the azure expanse of the sky.

Renko and I could do nothing but look at each other in surprise.

—

A little later Reimu and Tenshi arrived, and our little party became a proper banquet. Ingredients seemed to be hard to come by in Heaven, so Sakuya made up for the otherwise meagre offerings with an enormous grilled catfish. Renko spent the party happily flitting from group to group, joining in many conversations, sake cup in hand. I, on the other hand, spent most of the night keeping Sanae company, drinking only a little bit by her side and laughing at the others' drunken antics. It seemed it would take Sanae some time to get used to Gensokyo's typical style of party.

There was, however, one period when Renko managed to drag Sanae into a conversation, and I ended up being left alone. It was then that Tenshi walked up to me. I noticed that she still had the Sword of Hisou in her hand. Evidently no one had asked her to give it back yet. As I was busy wondering about that, I looked up to see Tenshi was now staring directly at me.

"What is it?" I asked, trying not to instinctually cringe away from her.

"There’s something I’ve been curious about since the last time we met." She raised the scarlet sword and once again pointed it at me, before sweeping it over to point at Renko. "It's strange. You and that one that has the same temperament as the Hakurei. Your temperaments are all mixed together," she said, furrowing her brow.

"Eh? how so?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, I've never seen that happen before. The temperaments the sword reveals are the very essence of a person. That's supposed to be unique to each individual. But yours are all... " she held up two fingers on her free hand, twisting them over each other as an illustration. "She's sunny and you're a rain shower, but together, the two of you are something else. Like a sunshower or something."

"What does that mean? Is it just because we've lived together for a long time?"

"No, lots of people do that, and it's normal for two people to gradually affect each other's temperament, but this looks different. This is..." She grumbled for a moment, tilting her head as she searched for the words. "Each of you has your own temperament, But when the two of you come together, your temperaments kinda mix together to form a new one. It's kinda like what happens when a whole group of people get together and that gathering creates its own temperament for a little while, but it happens with just the two of you."

Renko always referred to the two of us being one Hifuu Club together. Could something like that have a temperament of its own, I wondered?

"Well whatever it is, you two should be careful."

"Careful? About what?"

"There's an expression I've heard people on Earth say: 'If you can’t beat them, join them.' This sort of thing happens when people’s individual temperaments get swallowed up by the strength of a group they’re in, I’ve just never seen it happen with such a small group." With that, Tenshi shrugged and walked off, having lost interest.

I stood and watched her go, staring absentmindedly as I pondered what she had said. Suddenly, I was shaken by a sudden blow to the back.

"Oi, Merry, you ok? You looked like you were chokin' or somethin'. Here, have a drink," Marisa said, thumping me on the back again while pressing a bottle of sake into my hands.

"Ah, I'm fine. Sorry about that. I can't drink this much though." I said looking down at the bottle.

I looked over to Renko, who was still deep in an animated conversation with Sanae, then nodded, following along, Tenshi's words fading from my mind.

—

Sanae, Renko and I left the party early as it was likely to continue all night. Renko and I had classes to teach in the morning. Besides which, though it had been close to a year since the time we had showed up late for classes with Renko smelling of alcohol, I could still remember the force of Keine's headbutt quite clearly. I was in no hurry to repeat that lesson or her endless lecture which had preceded it.

Despite barely drinking, Sanae was quite sleepy and woozy by the time we got back to the Moriya Shrine and asked us to stay the night, but we managed to talk her into flying us back to the village.

As Renko and I walked through the warm summer night toward our home together, a pleasant breeze whispered over the rooftops. I held down my hat and the breeze played through my hair as I tucked its length out of the way and looked up at the beautiful moon hanging in the sky, silvery, pale and still as it looked down on us.

Could this world we found ourselves in really be part of an altered timeline, a world where history had been changed by the Youkai Sage? If so, what had become of the original timeline and its history? I thought about that for a moment, then a question dawned on me as I stared up at the moon. "Hey Renko?"

She stopped walking and turned from her position a step or two ahead of me to look back quizzically. "What is it, Merry?"

"I just thought of something. Eirin told us that the moon and Heaven were distinct places, but they shared a lot of similarities. What if there was some sort of connection between them?"

"What are you thinking, Merry? That the moon was responsible for this incident, not Heaven?" Renko stepped to my side and then turned and looked up at the moon, taking her hat off and fiddling with the brim. "I suppose it's possible. All of the Celestials in Heaven could have just been following the moon's orders when they let Tenshi have that sword. Maybe in the history before Yukari looped time it wasn't Heaven that she attacked, but the moon. Maybe they even had Tenshi target the Hakurei Shrine because in the previous timeline the sage teamed up with Reimu to go to the moon or something."

"Or it could be something else altogether."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"Even in this current timeline we have a clear case of Yukari and Reimu working together to antagonize a Lunarian, don’t we?"

"Oh, right, you’re thinking of the Eternal Night Incident, right?" I nodded as Renko’s eyes widened in surprise. "I suppose that’s possible… If that were the case then all of this would be revenge for what happened back then. In that case, the true mastermind behind all of this might not have been Heaven or even the Lunar Capital, but Eientei? You’re saying Dr. Yagokoro was behind everything? There's not much evidence to support any of that."

I shook my head. Renko was right. This was far too baseless to call it a deduction. It was nothing more than a daydream at best. Ultimately no one but the true mastermind pulling the strings from behind the scenes would ever know the truth of this incident or who had orchestrated it. We couldn’t even be sure that there really was someone pulling the strings behind the scenes. It was just like the question of why we were brought to this world, there was no way to be sure.

"The Lunar Capital..." Renko muttered, still staring up at the moon. "Merry, do you remember when we talked about going on a moon tour?"

"Are you still upset that you missed out on drinking satellite iced coffee in the zero-G café?"

"Well, yes. Aren't you? That isn't what I was going to ask about though. You said back then that maybe there was another way we could get to the moon, didn't you?"

"Did I? It would be nice if I could figure out an easy way to do that."

Renko laughed at my automatic response. Innocently, carelessly, but in a way that gave me a strange sense of déjà vu. "Maybe in Gensokyo we'll find the path we were never able to find in our time."

Standing shoulder to shoulder with Renko, I took her hand in mine as we gazed up at the moon. It hung there, gleaming and mysterious, further away than the heavens, one more mystery waiting for the day when a great detective would find a way to reveal its truths. For now though there was nothing more for us to do. We seemed to come to the conclusion at the same time. We made our way away from the river and on toward the temple school, on our way back to our everyday lives, and maybe, just maybe toward another, more terrestrial mystery. Maybe if you were to come to visit the storehouse behind the classrooms one day, that mystery could even be yours. Until the day when we can say "Welcome to the Hifuu Detective Agency" to you in person though, I'll have to end our story here.

[End of Book 7 - Scarlet Weather Rhapsody]

—

Author's Afterword:
Hello, this is Asagihara. Thank you for joining us once again. In the postscript of the last book, I mentioned that I wouldn't be adding in Silent Sinner In Blue. I hope you can now see why.

This time I broke the fourth wall just a little, as Renko and Merry have realized that the Gensokyo they're inhabiting might not be quite the same one that we know. Perhaps this series is the story of what would happen if the readers' perceptions were entwined with the mysteries of Gensokyo. Or perhaps it was just because I wanted to imagine 'what if Sanae was in SWR?'

At any rate the next story is Subterranean Animism. I hope you look forward to reading it as much as I have been looking forward to writing it.