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

A few days later, the field near the cemetery just north of the village had been levelled and compacted by Suwako. The 𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑛 landed the new clearing shortly afterwards and transformed into a temple.

Byakuren and her disciples had disembarked down a long plank as the ship came to rest. A crowd of villagers had gathered to watch, with Kotohime, Keine and the rest of the neighborhood watch at its head, and with Akyuu in her role as the village’s figurehead just behind them. We were there in the crowd too, peering over shoulders or between bodies to get a look at the proceedings.

Byakuren descended with her luminous scroll of rainbow light already stretched between her hands, a soft, warmly glowing aura trailing behind her. Her eyes were closed as she took the last step off of the plank and onto the earth, and she was smiling peacefully, like a statue of the Buddha. After a moment's pause, a spectacular sight began playing out behind her. The huge ship deconstructed itself, broke into pieces and then reconstructed itself into the form of the temple that now stands outside of the village. The impressive scene, which drew many 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' from the crowd, would not have looked out of place in any of Sanae's favorite tokusatsu shows, with segments flying through the air, reconfiguring themselves and joining into a greater whole like the assembly of some super robot. It's a shame that I am here confined by the limitations of a written medium rather than a video recording as it was quite a spectacle.

When it was all complete, we were left with the sight of the new Myouren temple, a temple of the Shingon sect founded by Byakuren for the purpose of administering philanthropy and encouraging equality between humans and youkai. According to her, it was not a recreation of the Myouren temple of a thousand years ago, but merely one which shared the same name.

"Saint Byakuren will now be giving a sermon in the main hall. Any who wish to attend please come this way!" Ichirin called, loud enough to be heard over the various murmurings.

Villagers in the crowd looked at each other and muttered amongst themselves until one finally stepped forward. It was Akyuu and, with the village's figurehead in the lead, others started to queue up behind her. Soon nearly everyone in attendance followed Ichirin into the temple, either emboldened by Akyuu preceding them, or supposing that it might be worth listening to a sermon from someone who could turn a treasure ship into a temple. Kotohime and Keine were the last to go, but followed along with the crowd, likely more out of a desire to protect the villagers than personal interest.

As Keine made her way inside, following the rest of the villagers, she turned and looked to Renko and myself. "Renko, Merry? Are you two not coming to hear the lecture?"

"You go on ahead," Renko said with a wave. "I've already heard Miss Byakuren's teachings."

Keine sniffed and looked around at the temple buildings. "A temple dedicated to equality between humans and youkai… I’m not sure what to make of it, but we’ll have to keep an eye on the situation, I think."

"What do you think of it on a personal level, Keine? As a half-youkai? The idea of equality between humans and non-humans, I mean."

Keine looked down for a moment, brow furrowed in concentration beneath the squared-off line of her hat. "Really I can’t say one way or the other. If humans could learn to be more accepting of other kinds of people, then life in the village would be easier for me, and people like Mokou and Kagerou might be able to move within the walls. However, for the safety of the villagers, I think humans and youkai need to remain apart. I suppose it’s not really my place to say if this could work or not, but I’m interested to see what happens."

As a half-youkai herself, Keine's views on human-youkai relations were more complicated than most people's. We'd worked with her long enough to know that. I looked forward to seeing what sort of relationship might develop between Keine and the Myouren Temple. Not because of the implications of any such relationship for the humans and youkai of Gensokyo specifically, but simply because I wanted to see Keine, Mokou and Kagerou happy.

"Oh hey, Merry and Renko! I didn't notice you there! Ahoy!" I looked toward where that voice had come from and saw Captain Murasa walking toward us from the temple grounds, waving her hand over her head in greeting.

"Hello, Captain!" Renko greeted her with a smile. "Are you not helping out with Byakuren's sermon?"

"Shou and Ichirin have that handled. My job’s to patrol the grounds. Who's your friend here?"

"Ah, she's our employer."

"I'm Kamishirasawa Keine, history teacher and member of the watch."

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Murasa Minamitsu, captain of the ship that became this temple. Just Murasa is fine." She held out her hand.

Keine accepted the handshake but froze for a moment after taking Murasa's hand. "...You're a youkai aren't you?" she asked.

"A ship phantom, to be precise. You're not entirely human either though, are you?"

"...Half human. I'm a were-beast."

"Well then, you are most welcome here at Myouren temple. All are equal here, be they human, youkai, or somewhere in-between. You're welcome to join us at any time." Murasa said, flashing a cheerful, inviting smile toward Keine.

"I can't say whether I'll be joining or not, but I would like to have a look around."

"Of course, feel free to explore."

"Thank you, I will." Keine nodded briefly to Murasa then turned and walked off, heading deeper into the temple complex.

We watched her go, then Renko turned to Murasa. "So, Captain, what will you do now that the ship is a temple?"

"Hijiri says she can turn it back into a ship at any time, so she'll still need me around. For now, I'll stay here and train as a disciple. I don’t know if a ship phantom has any hope of ever reaching nirvana, but I might as well try."

"Well if you ever find yourself getting close to achieving enlightenment, let me know. I wouldn't want you to ascend to Nirvana without saying goodbye first. I'd miss you."

She laughed. "I don't think there's much danger of that, but I'll watch out for you. While you're here though, have you seen Little Naz around, by chance? I haven't seen her all morning."

"No, I can't say that I have. Is something wrong?"

"No. She was with us on the ship this morning, but she left at some point. She's been avoiding us and acting distant these last few days. If she’s feeling excluded because she’s not one of Byakuren's disciples she should tell us. I’m sure Hijiri would be happy to make her one."

Hearing that, I couldn't help but glance over at Renko with a worried expression.

—

"What's the point of all this? Why tell any of these delusions of yours to me?" Nazrin had asked, still glaring peevishly at Renko. On the day that Reimu had fought Nue, that had been her response after hearing Renko unfold her theory.

"Like I said, I just wanted you to hear it. If you have some fact I’ve overlooked that could destroy my reasoning, I’d love to hear it."

"If that's what you think of Hijiri, that's fine. I'm not her disciple and it's not my job to defend her or disabuse you of your misunderstandings."

"Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. I was hoping at least you might be able to persuade me that I was mistaken about your master."

Nazrin snorted. "Well, your delusion is right about one thing: my master is completely obsessed with Hijiri. If Hijiri had asked master to do any of that, she would have."

"I see. Well in that case, may I ask you something?"

"I don't see how I owe you an answer."

"Well I'll ask it anyway and you can answer or not as you like. Since you were charged with overseeing Shou for Bishamonten that must mean that you’ve been reporting back to him, right? Shou only became an icon of Bishamonten so that she could serve at the Myouren Temple. Doesn’t that mean that when the temple was destroyed a thousand years ago your job was over? Or was your job to do something different?"

"My job was to oversee Shou in her role as an icon of Bishamonten. Just because Byakuren got sealed away wouldn’t mean that she stopped being one."

"Still, a thousand years is an awfully long time to follow someone."

"Until Bishamonten’s orders are rescinded, I intend to follow them."

"And were those orders only to oversee Miss Shou? Or were you also ordered to keep an eye on Miss Byakuren?"

Nazrin glared at Renko in silence, then stood up abruptly. "I don't have to answer that, and I've wasted enough time humoring you." Saying that, she leapt upward, into the canopy of the trees.

Renko watched Nazrin recede into the shadows. A moment later she called out for Unzan to bring us back to the others.

—

I thought back to that exchange with Nazrin the other day. I couldn't judge if Renko's theories were true or false of course, but I imagine that whether or not they were correct, they could have given Nazrin something to think about.

"Hey Captain, what do you think of Nazrin?" Renko asked.

Murasa blinked, then tilted her head as she considered. "What do you mean what do I think of her? That’s a tricky question..."

"Why do you think she hasn't ever become Byakuren's disciple like the rest of you have?"

"Oh. Well. Hmmm. Little Naz is her own person, with her own way of thinking, you know? But—"

"But?"

"Whether she's a disciple or not, she's an important member of our little family here. She likes to keep her life separate from ours, to a certain extent. She always helps Shou out, and she came with us to rescue Byakuren. Besides..." Murasa grinned mischievously, "Big Shou would be kind of a disaster without her around to clean up all the time."

"You're talking about Shou losing the pagoda, aren't you? Don't give her too hard a time about that, Captain, I'm sure she feels terrible already."

"No way! She should have told us she lost it. I'm going to hound her about this for the rest of my life."

We couldn't help but laugh. If Renko was right about why Shou had lost the pagoda, then maybe taking the ribbing for being a scatterbrain would be easier to bear than having to explain the truth.

"Oh, Captain, there's something else I meant to ask you. Nue showed up here the other day, right?"

"Huh?" Murasa blinked in surprise. "How did you know about that?"

—

After speaking with Nazrin, we had returned to our friends on Unzan's back. Reimu's battle with Nue had just ended with another victory for the shrine maiden. Apparently after their fight, Reimu had taken the time to tell Nue about Byakuren and her ideals then let her go.

"Really? I wouldn't have sabotaged the ship if I knew she was like that!" was the last thing we heard Nue say before she disappeared. Reimu let out a satisfied sigh. It seemed the incident was over.

Marisa seemed surprised by Reimu's act of mercy. "That it?" She hollered across the open field. "You're just gonna let her go?"

"It's fine. Even though she's a nue, I know what she looks like now, so there's nothing to worry about."

"Really? You think she’s gonna go make herself Byakuren’s problem now?"

"Who knows. If Byakuren can really teach youkai not to cause trouble, then that will make my life easier."

"Letting youkai run around free like that is basically asking for the temple to steal your worshippers though, isn’t it?" Sanae asked.

"Shut up. You’re in the same situation."

"Heheheh not quite. We have an understanding."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

After that, the two of them once again got into a scuffle, but the details of that fight are hardly relevant to this case.

—

"So that's how we knew," Renko concluded, after having recounted the above scene to Murasa.

Murasa nodded. "Ah, so that's what happened. You must have been the 'person with the dangerous eyes' that her abilities didn’t work on. She was talking about you, Merry."

"Dangerous eyes…" It was a little upsetting to hear.

"So what did you do with her? I know you were looking forward to getting even with her, Captain."

"Well actually, she brought all the pieces of the mast that Little Naz hadn't found yet and dumped 'em on the deck of the ship. I think she was planning to leave without talking to any of us, but Hijiri spotted her and confronted her. Despite the fact that she interfered with our rescue efforts, Hijiri forgave her and said 'it must have been so hard for you, being sealed in the Underworld for so long' and gave her a hug. Then Nue just started groveling."

"I did not!!" Shouted a strident voice from under the shadow of the gates.

"Nue? Are you there?" Murasa said, turning toward the sound. "Come on out and say hi."

"No! Not while that blonde girl is there." Still hidden in the shadows, she let out a short but mournful-sounding cry. I wasn’t sure how to react to a youkai who was so bothered by the fact that her abilities had no effect on my eyes. "Anyway, just don’t go telling people I was grovelling! I wasn’t!"

"You definitely grovelled. You were begging Hijiri to take you on as a disciple."

"I just wanted to make an ally! I heard that nun was an ally of youkai. I'm just staying here until the heat dies down!"

"There's no shame in it, Nue. Anyone would collapse if Hijiri held them and stroked their hair. It happened to me too back when I was an apathetic ship phantom. Hijiri's love accepts everyone, and it will change you for the better, if you let it."

"I'm not like you! And I'm not coming out there as long as that girl with the dangerous eyes is there!" She howled again, hidden under the shadows of the overhanging tile roof.

Renko laughed heartily and patted my back. "Well that's one mysterious youkai who hates you instead of me for once, Merry." There was nothing I could do in response but sigh.

—

After Byakuren's sermon concluded, Keine, Renko and I made our way home. We were walking along the road into town, when a noisy rustling in a bush caught our attention. The bush rustled for a moment longer, then all at once a now familiar, eggplant-colored umbrella was thrust out of it and popped open, the long tongue attached to its canopy lolling comically as it was twisted back and forth.

"Boo! Be afraid, humans!" called a voice from inside the bush. The umbrella was followed out of the foliage by the youkai girl we had seen Sanae blow away twice before at this point. She leapt from concealment to land on the road in an odd pose, balanced on one leg and leaning to the side with the umbrella concealing her face. She wobbled it back and forth a few times, hopping from one leg to the other in an odd sort of dance. It was hard to see the display as the least bit frightening. Instead, it landed somewhere between pitiable, comedic and adorable.

We stared blankly at the umbrella girl for a moment, not sure what to say. She hopped from foot to foot once more, then froze. Not seeing any reaction from us, she promptly folded the umbrella away and fell to the ground in a pose of abject supplication.

"I’m begging you! Can you be a little bit surprised? Even just startled? I'm starving!"

Keine put her hands on her hips and glared at the girl who had jumped out at us. "You again? Really?"

"Um Miss Keine, do you know this girl?"

"This is Tatara Kogasa. She's a karakasa obake, an umbrella youkai who stalks the edges of the village and tries to scare people. She's harmless."

"Don't say I'm harmless!" Kogasa cried pitifully. "If I can’t surprise humans I’llI starve and die!"

"You can't scare humans by just making a lot of noise in the middle of the day, you know."

"Bwuh?" Kogasa leaned back and looked up at the sky. "Well what should I do then! Everyone says karakasa obake are old-fashioned. No one gets scared any more!"

"I wouldn't say you're outdated, you're just not really very surprising. You need to work on your technique."

"So I should just stick to scaring humans at night?"

"Well that could be a start, but you need to consider your surroundings if you want to scare someone. Preparation is important. Right, Merry?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"You're a mystery otaku. Every good mystery turns on a surprising plot twist, right?"

Well, she wasn't wrong, and I do agree that preparation is important if you want to surprise someone.

"What kind of ‘preparation?’"

"The essence of surprise is to catch your victim unaware. Your best bet is to attack when their guard is down. If there's warning that a scare is coming up, then everyone's on their guard and it's not half as effective."

"I know that much! How am I supposed to do that though?"

"You’d have to be able to give them a reason to feel safe before you strike."

"Huh?"

"You're trying to surprise people in a way that scares them, right? Since you're a youkai and all."

"Exactly! I want to terrify someone!"

"So what you need to do is give someone a reason to believe they have nothing to fear, then show them that even when they think they’re not in any danger they’re still at risk. That would really throw them off."

"How?"

"Well, people who're walking outside the village are already on alert, right? They're always thinking there could be youkai around. So if you want to really scare them you've got to put them at ease first. Just imagine," she said, leaning in toward Kogasa. "You're walking down a street at night. It's creepy and you're alone. Suddenly you hear a noise!" Kogasa leaned in to listen, hanging on her every word. "You look where it came from and a cat darts across the street and meows. 'Oh,' you think to yourself. 'Nothing to worry about.' Then you turn around to go back to walking and…THERE’S A YOUKAI STANDING RIGHT THERE!"

"Eeeek!" Kogasa shrieked briefly, drawing back.

"Exactly, the moment when tension is released is when people are at their most vulnerable to a surprise. Oh. Are you alright, Kogasa?"

Beside Renko the blue-haired youkai was panting rapidly, her face pale. If something like that was enough to frighten her, I'm afraid this might be a hopeless situation.

"I...I see. Something like that might work," Kogasa said, coughing faintly and trying to reassert herself. She wasn’t very successful.

"How about this: there's a new temple that was just built at the end of this road, so there will be more people passing this way now. Just a little bit further up the path is a cemetery. Why not start trying to surprise people there at night? That's pretty much the perfect place and time to scare someone."

"Alright, I'm gonna give it a shot! That's good information! Thank you!"

Holding the umbrella above her head, she leapt up into the air, floating away toward the graveyard. Renko watched her go, shaking her head and muttering "There really are all kinds of youkai out there" to herself.

—

From there, life in the village settled back into a new normal. The Myouren Temple became steadily more popular, attracting human worshippers in the daytime and a smaller number of youkai visitors at night. The temple's reputation as having been converted from a treasure ship made it relatively popular right from the outset and because of that, the Hakurei Shrine began seeing even fewer visitors than usual.

And so, as events surrounding the arrival of the new temple began to die down, this story has nearly reached its conclusion. Not quite everything was resolved though. There was still one event that was yet to occur, one final addition to my partner's megalomaniacal imaginings.

—

It was while I was compiling my notes for this very book that an idea first occurred to me. To call it an idea at that point is perhaps an exaggeration. It was more of an inkling, a vague sense that something might be amiss. I turned to my partner as she lay on her back on the tatami, head resting on a pillow.

"Hey Renko, have you ever heard of a ship spirit?"

"A 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑎𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑎, right? That's when they build a little shrine into a boat for it to house a protective kami, right? What brings this up now though?"

"Well I was just thinking about your latest batch of insane ramblings and there's something that just occurred to me."

"Oh? Do you think you've found a hole in my reasoning?"

"Not a hole per se. But maybe an incongruity. According to you the 𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑛 was possessed by Myouren's spirit and that's why it had to be sealed in the Underworld, right? That would make Myouren's spirit sort of like a 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑎𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑎. A protective spirit that watches over a ship and its crew, keeping them safe. The thing is, 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑎𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑎 are always female spirits, aren't they? Murasa for example is a ship phantom, and every spirit bound to a ship I’ve ever heard of is a woman."

Renko sat up, her eyes narrowing. "I think I see what you're getting at. You're thinking the spirit acting as a 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑎𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑎 to the 𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑛 must have been Byakuren's and not Myouren's?

I nodded. Put succinctly, that was more or less it. Based on what Shinki had told us, Byakuren had used her own body to contain her brother's soul. She had also mentioned that storing two souls within one body like that was unstable, and could lead to unpredictable outcomes. Given that, was it possible that it was Byakuren's soul that had been forced out of the magician's body and which had then come to haunt the 𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑛? If that was the case would it change any aspect of Renko's theory?

If after having his soul transposed into his sister's body, Myouren had taken on her identity, then he could have claimed to have just been trying to act out the will of Byakuren's departed brother, while actually saving youkai as a way of searching for a means to save the sister who had sacrificed herself on his behalf. In that case, the spirit that the Yama would have judged after it left the 𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑛 would have been Byakuren's and not Myouren's.

The Yama had called her 'Hijiri Byakuren' as we left Makai. In doing so, could she have been using her ability to clearly distinguish between one thing and another to affirm Hijiri's identity? Could she have been declaring to the soul before her that they were, unequivocally, Hijiri Byakuren now?

No, that's just a baseless delusion, with even less evidence to support it than any of Renko's fantasies.

"Hmmm. If it were true we'd never know either. I never knew Myouren or Byakuren personally, and there's no one who knew what Byakuren was like before she became a magician. Renko lay back down and interlaced her fingers behind her head, staring up at the ceiling and stretching her back before speaking again. "Ultimately, I don't think it matters."

"Really?"

"Whether it's Byakuren's soul or Myouren's inside of that woman's body, it’s still the soul of the person who rescued all of the disciples at the temple. Regardless of who the soul inside Byakuren’s body belonged to originally, the person who saved them is still the Hijiri Byakuren that they know."

"I suppose that's true."

I'd have no way of knowing if someone were to have reached into the girl sitting in front of me right now and replaced her soul before I ever met her. Regardless of who she might once have been, I know her as Usami Renko, the girl who swings me around from one dangerous situation to the next without warning, constantly putting my life in danger for the sake of her curiosity. It hardly mattered if that was the real Renko or not, as either way it was still the only Renko I knew of.

I paused for a moment to think. "Hey Renko, I'm an only child, so I wouldn't know, but can you imagine going to those lengths to try and help a sibling?"

"I'm an only child too, so I wouldn't know any better than you. I imagine it would vary from family to family though. Some siblings would probably do anything for each other. I guess that’s one part of this story that will have to remain a mystery for the two of us."

Renko laid her hat across her face and sighed.

"Hey Merry, what would you do if you knew I was about to die?"

"Renko, you've managed to survive this long in Gensokyo despite seemingly doing everything in your power to constantly put yourself in the most dangerous situations possible. I don't think you'll be dying any time soon."

"You never know, Merry. Humans are fragile things. Any of us could die at a moment's notice."

"Every single life-threatening situation I've been in since coming here has been your fault Renko. If you were to die, I'd probably already be dead."

I had said this with a distracted sigh, without looking up from my papers. Renko was silent for a moment, but then I heard the sound of her sitting up. She turned toward me, then fell silent for a minute longer, staring at my back while I worked.

"You know, if you were about to die, and there was some way that I might be able to save you by sacrificing myself, I'd do it, without hesitation. I'd give my life for yours every time. Because I love you, Merry."

"If you love me, stop putting me in situations where I'm likely to die."

"That's it? All I get is a glib scolding? You're awful, Merry, that was a once-in-a-lifetime true confession of love, straight from the heart!"

"Renko, once-in-a-lifetime things happen to you all the time. You’ll probably have 10,000 of them in your lifetime."

She shuffled over to me, walking on her knees across the tatami mats and settled into position just behind me. "Then are you saying for it to count I have to confess my love to you 10,000 times? I'll do it, you know."

"Please don't, Renko, I'm trying to write."

I whirled on her, grabbing her cheek as hard as I could. "Now accept your punishment! You deserve this!"

"Aaa! I’m innocent!" she howled while trying to escape my grasp. "I'm just telling you how I feel!"

"You're just compounding your sins, Renko! Repent! Don't make me bring the Yama here to hit you!"

"It's the truth! If I lived 10,000 lifetimes, I'd want to spend every single one of them with you!"

"What a horrifying thought! One lifetime filled with 10,000 unreasonable demands from you is more than enough!"

And so, with the two of us engaged in such utterly nonsensical discussions, the night passed on without further theorizing, the same old Hifuu Club as usual, for the both of us.

—

I beg you, dear reader, don’t let nonsensical scenes like the above one turn you away from our office. Despite my personal exasperation with her, I can assure you that my partner’s deductive skills are reliable. Should you ever find yourself in need of them, we'll be here, in the storage shed behind the Hieda Public Temple School, waiting to say to you 'Welcome to the Hifuu Detective Agency!'

[𝐄𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝟗 - 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐎𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭]

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝:

Thank you once again to everyone who's stuck with me up to this point, and thank you another time to all of those who have left comments or words of encouragement. I am the author, Asagihara Shinobu.

I had already written another tale exploring the question of what sin Byakuren might have been sealed away for in the story "Magical Girl Radical Marisa S" (which is now available in its entirety on Pixiv.) MoF, SA and UFO are all works that I’ve previously written long stories for. Coming up with another narrative and a different truth to reveal was a bit of a challenge.

For the next story I'll be doing something a little different. The next volume to be published is "The Revolution of Sumireko Usami - GAIDEN," a short little side story that I wrote as a separate doujin in 2015, but will now be releasing here, as a companion piece to this series. After that, the next full length story would be Ten Desires if I were to go in chronological order, but I think I may do something else instead. I'm still thinking about it.

Until then, I thank you once more for your continued support of the Hifuu Detective Agency.