During the course of Gensokyo's 120th spring season, the world became enveloped in a riot of blooming flowers.
Cherry blossoms, plum flowers, nohana, azaleas, mizuki and sunflowers are all common sights in Gensokyo, and during their respective seasons each is known to cover tracts of land in their glorious colors. Such is the beauty of nature.
But for cherry blossoms, hydrangeas, sunflowers, lilies and anemones to all bloom at the same time, however, goes beyond 'irregular' and into the sort of bizarre phenomenon that can only be called an 'Incident.' That was what occurred here in the spring of 2005 -regardless of season all manner of flowers were blooming at the same time. Not in a greenhouse or artificial garden but all over the land, in every corner of Gensokyo, everywhere the warm spring sunlight could reach. It was a beautiful sight, but one that went beyond beauty and into the bizarre.
Despite the unnatural nature of this Incident, there was no nefarious mystery here for us to unravel, however. Unlike with the Crimson Mist Incident, the Spring Snow Incident, the Night Parade of 100 Demons Every Three Days Incident or the Eternal Night Incident, this event seemed not to have been deliberately caused by anyone or for any particular purpose. There was no Remilia Scarlet pulling the strings, no Yuyuko Saigyouji hiding behind the curtain, no Suika Ibuki stalking through the shadows and no Eirin Yagokoro watching with steepled fingers this time. Each of those previous cases had been a man-made (or should I say woman-made? Or youkai-made?) Incident.
This spring, however, was something else. A naturally occurring, if highly unusual Incident, the likes of which we had never seen before, with no mastermind and no sinister plot behind it. In fact if not for the reaction to the events that occurred by the denizens of Gensokyo, it could not have been called an Incident at all, but merely a natural phenomenon, destined to occur once every sixty years.
This left my partner, the great detective Renko Usami without a mystery to solve. There was no culprit to finger, no crisis to defuse and in all, no demand for the deductions of a great detective.
Or so I thought.
And yet, here I am, recording for you, dear reader, another record of an Incident and another tale of the exploits of my partner and I. What would possess me to do so, you may ask? What was it about this Incident that demands my telling of the tale rather than just leaving it for the history books? Well there was something to this Incident that not even the Hakurei miko could find a solution to, a conundrum uniquely suited to the talents of a great detective.
But what was it, you may ask. Well that is a question I will return to you, dear reader. This prologue is in fact:
[A Challenge To the Reader]
For this most unusual Incident, I have a most unusual letter of challenge this time, arriving even before our story begins.
This is because the truth of this Incident can easily be heard from miss Kamishirasawa or read in the pages of miss Hieda's Gensokyo Chronicle. Both are well aware of the circumstances of this Incident, meaning even if you can't afford a copy of the Chronicle of your own, you can hear the story from Keine as long as you don't mind a bit of a lecture.
What you won't find from them is the answer to these two questions I now pose to you:
- What was the inexplicable mystery that Renko found in this Incident with neither a hidden scheme nor a mastermind to enact it?
- Who was the culprit behind the case with no culprit?
In the interest of fairness, I will give you the details of the story as we experienced it as usual, though you will not find any contradictions between my telling and that of the Chronicle's this time. As I begin the story, keep these questions in mind, and see if you can find their answers before Renko does.
In the spring of our second year in Gensokyo, flowers of every kind covered the land, and a story unfolded behind the scenes in a barrage of revelry that blurred the line between battle and party.