東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Preface/Prologue: Double Dealing Character

𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞

Hello, everyone. Today I begin my translation of the thirteenth volume of Asagihara Shinobu's こちら秘封探偵事務所 or 'Welcome to the Hifuu Detective Agency.' This volume is the story of Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character, the second-to-last volume in the collection and in many ways a return to tradition. In addition to the mystery of this volume’s incident, however, this story will lay out a lot of the groundwork for the series finale. In fact, I would say that you should probably consider this book to be part one of a two-part grand finale for the whole series. As usual, you'll be able to read this or the series conclusion without having read any other books in the series, but you'll get a lot more out of both if you've read the whole affair.

This volume contains some off-screen instances of severe self-harm as well as a lot of discussion of politics, but I don’t think there’s much that anyone will find particularly upsetting.

This story also has several characters in it that reference objects and legends that are not widely known outside of Japan. There's nothing here that will prevent you from understanding the events of the story, but the following information might help to provide some context.

Three musical instruments feature heavily in this story: a biwa, a koto and a taiko. A biwa is a short-necked stringed instrument that is very similar to a lute both in terms of its construction and its sound. In western musical traditions, however, a lute is usually strummed in a manner similar to a guitar, whereas a biwa is plucked, producing distinct tones rather than chords. This sort of playing has long been a part of various Japanese narrative traditions with particular tones accompanying various emotional beats in a spoken piece. Biwa-playing has long been associated with tragic stories and especially the 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐻𝑒𝑖𝑘𝑒. In anime, if you've ever watched anything set in the warring states period or that has a flashback to samurai times or even just has some serious, heavy narration, chances are good you heard a biwa pluck out a few portentous notes during that segment.

A koto is another plucked string instrument similar to a zither or a standing harp (though it is played laying horizontally on the ground or a table.) Koto were once so ubiquitous that the kanji character for 'stringed instrument' in Japanese is simply read as 'koto.' If you've ever heard traditional Japanese music, a koto was almost certainly part of it, as the instrument produces a very distinctly Japanese sound. Just as the biwa is usually associated with tragedies, the koto is usually associated with romantic classical pieces, most notably the 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑗𝑖 in which it both features in the plot and is often used to accompany retellings of the story. Interestingly, the koto was specifically created to be played by the blind and for many years it was considered to have too sensual a sound for it to be played by women. Modern koto are of course played by all sorts of people and often have more strings and greater range than the traditional ones.

A taiko is a set of one or more traditional Japanese drums of several different sorts ranging from smaller bowl-like drums to very large free-standing drums that can be taller than a person. A wide variety of construction methods and materials have been used for taiko over the years, but what makes taiko taiko and not any other sort of drum is the way they're played—often by an ensemble, with each member of a group manning a single drum, energetically, with performers using their whole body to wind up, strike and measure rhythm and frenetically, with rhythms that turn continual, frequent beats into tonal rumbles that reverberate through the audience. Taiko is really amazing to see performed live, combining equal parts musical performance, choreography and athletic demonstration. If you've ever witnessed a performance you'll understand why the instrument is traditionally associated with stories of war or adventure and has even been used on battlefields to signal and direct troops.

The other element featured heavily in this story are a specific type of mythological Japanese creature: the amanojaku. Traditionally, amanojaku are small, horned youkai generally thought to be related to oni, but much less powerful. Unlike the lie-hating oni, amanojaku are known to lie, cheat, deceive and swindle humans. Colloquially, the word is used in modern speech to describe someone who is disagreeable and needlessly contrary since the contrary nature of an amanojaku extends as far as their name which is written as 天邪鬼 using the characters for 'heaven' 'demon' and 'apparition.' Nearly every folkloric depiction of them contains examples of them doing something wicked or depraved and then getting severely trounced. They're born losers and malcontents who are often portrayed as lying even when it is disadvantageous for them to do so, just for the spite of it. True haters.

With all of that information dispensed, I will now step back and leave the rest of the storytelling up to our narrator. I hope that you enjoy the tale to come.


—Prologue—


What does it mean for a society to be equal? This is a question that has plagued humanity throughout the length of our existence in the Outside World.

Many people could say that they would like to live in a world of equality, free from discrimination, but defining what a perfectly egalitarian society would look like in such a way that everyone is completely satisfied is a hopeless dream. Ultimately, no one has ever been able to find the perfect way to organize human behavior, but to continuously struggle towards this unreachable goal is the nature of our progress as a society. The destination may be unreachable, but the journey is worthwhile nonetheless.

Most often, any concept of equality that can be defined in terms of human interactions can only be defined in the negative—that is, we can say what it wouldn't be like. In every society there are always the weak and the strong, and people compete over even the most trivial of things. Even amongst the most disadvantaged in any society, individuals often compete with one another to see who amongst them is worse off.

My apologies for trotting out such tired social diatribes. The reason I am discussing such a heavy topic is because this casefile of the Hifuu Detective Agency is concerned with just such a conflict. It is a story of the strong and the weak of Gensokyo and how they oppose one another.

Just like any other place, Gensokyo has its privileged few and its needy masses. Exactly who belongs to which group may well change depending on your perspective, but even among the free-spirited youkai who live outside of the rules and strictures of a society like the human village, there is still an undeniable difference between what is possible from someone like the Youkai Sage, and what is possible for a single stray youkai.

In both the world of men and that of monsters, society ultimately arises from the control exerted by someone in a position of authority. Without a force that was willing and able to wield that power, there would be only chaos.

However, this fundamental inequality at the heart of all societies is the root of rebellion. The weak are trampled under the feet of the strong bringing about resistance. The fire of revolution is kindled in the hearts of the oppressed until it eventually breaks free and burns the institutions of power to the ground. The weak rally against the strong, the powerful fade into obscurity and a new order takes the place of the old one.

It is said that the only beautiful revolutions are those that fail. Any successful revolution must necessarily sully itself with the dirty business of creating a new authority and a new order to replace the one it toppled, and in time this only serves to plant the seeds of a future revolution against the new order. As such, only those who become martyrs in the service of ideological revolutions can remain pure.

The Incident with which this casefile is concerned is the story of one such attempted rebellion.

It was a revolution of tools. An epidemic of tsukumogami coming to life. After the heat of the summer's religious wars subsided, a new unprecedented incident struck Gensokyo. One led by just two visionary revolutionaries.

One was Sukuna Shinmyoumaru, a royal descendant of the inchling people.

The other was the counterattacking amanojaku, Kijin Seija.

This is the story of the fallout of their rebellion, in which the weak of Gensokyo were commanded to rise up and overturn the power of the ruling class.

Of course it is also, as always, the story of my partner's megalomaniacal reasoning. The mastermind and motive behind this incident are well understood and clearly documented, but nonetheless my partner discovered a strange and concealed story beneath the events of this well-known episode that illuminated a world that perhaps only she could see the whole of.

Let me share a glimpse of the world that my partner saw with you now, dear reader.

I will tell you the story of the bold and reckless resistance which lunged for the heart of the uncaring machine called Gensokyo.

And the story of the lone amanojaku who masterminded it all as well.