This is the Hifuu Detective Agency: Case 5 - PoFV

by That-which-isn't

Book 5 of the Hifuu Detective Agency series. Spring has come to Gensokyo and amid the tranquil beauty of a season decorated in countless blossoms, a spectacle of a different sort is unfolding. An Incident with no mastermind covers all of Gensokyo, bringing up many questions Renko and Merry have been avoiding. About their relationship with this world and with eachother.

1. Translator's notes

Hello again all. I go by That-Which-Isn't and what follows is my attempt at translating the fifth book of Asakihara Shinobu's こちら秘封探偵事務所 or "This is the Hifuu Detective Agency." The original series is available, with illustrations, a theme song and links to associated youtube videos on the author's website at longnovel dot com /touhou.

This book comprises the Phantasmagoria of Flower View arc, which is a nice, light fluffy break after the heavy themes and complexity of the previous arc. This story does not contain any significant objectionable material but does kick the Renko/Merry shipping up a notch to the point where I might classify it as a Romance/Mystery/Supernatural story rather than just Mystery/Supernatural. It's still G-rated though. If that's not what you're here for... well why are you reading Hifuu fanfic?

I'd like to take this opportunity to recommend again that you check out the original home of these stories at longnovel dot com /touhou even if you don't read Japanese. If nothing else you can appreciate the excellent illustrations done by E O for each chapter of the stories. You can browse to any of them through the index at longnovel dot com /touhou/touhou001 but since this page contains the illustrations for every chapter of every story in order, it will of course also include some minor visual spoilers for content yet to come.

With that warning in place, I will now step back and let the narrator guide you through the rest of the story. I thank you for reading, and hope that you enjoy the story to come.