Hello again all. I go by That-Which-Isn't and what follows is my attempt at translating the sixth 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 Mountain of Faith arc, and it's another long one. In light of how long the individual chapters have become, I've decided to change up my presentation a little. Rather than rushing to get out these longer chapters in the same amount of time or taking longer to deliver them, I've decided that instead of sticking to the three chapters per update format of the original I will try posing a single one of the sub chapters at a time, hopefully on a daily basis. This means that the stories will come out at a more constant drip but it will take a little longer to complete the book overall. It also means that this book will show up as having a total of 36 chapters. Don't worry, they're much shorter than before. Hopefully this will be more digestible and engaging. If not, I can always switch back for the next one.
This book is again free of much in the way of objectionable content, although it does deal extensively with the death of a character's parents as a major plot element. As far as translation caveats there are a few this time. Sanae has a tendency to freely mix English phrases into her speech, and anyone who's not an Outsider will often have no idea what she's saying. Renko and Merry do this too, but Sanae does it all the time. No jokes or plot points ever hang on one of these misinterpretations though so I haven't done anything special to indicate when it's happening. Just know that Sanae talks in a way that makes her sound weird to everyone but Merry and Renko.
This book spends a lot of time going into Shinto mythology and while it doesn't go particularly deep it is going to bring up a few words over and over again. I've done my best to have the story explain everything you need to know but just in case you tend to get Japanese names mixed up, I've listed the important figures below:
Takeminakata: An earthly god of wind, water, agriculture, hunting and warfare. The main inspiration for Kanako's character. Historically, he opposed the takeover of the earthly realm by the heavenly gods and challenged Takemikazuchi to a contest of strength. He then proceeded to lose so badly he had to flee to the land of Suwa and beg for his life. This clash of deities was the mythical origin of sumo wrestling
Takemikazuchi: A heavenly thunder and sword god tasked with conquering the earthly realms.
Yasakatome: Takeminakata's wife and one of the deities venerated at the Suwa Grand Shrine, which is a real place. There is almost no surviving information about her, sadly.
Mishaguji: The Mishaguji were ancient gods or nature spirits worshipped in the Suwa region. Sources disagree as to their exact nature. They may have been gods with individual personalities, they may have been personifications of nature, they may have been unseen monsters thought to be responsible for diseases and earthquakes, or they may have been non-personified collections similar in concept to the idea of mana. They may have been different things at different times or in different places. For the purposes of this story they are usually depicted as nature spirits, but the people talking about them may or may not always be speaking entirely truthfully...
Finally one last word regarding the word 'shrine.' There are a lot of things in Shintoism that get translated as shrines in English. A honden or main hall is the main building of a shrine wherein the divinity is housed. That gets called a shrine in English. The haiden or worship hall is where ceremonies, oration and offerings are made. It's usually smaller and right in front of the honden but sometimes it's a separate building. It gets called a shrine a lot too. Sometimes you'll have an altar inside a shrine which houses the object to which a kami is bound. If this altar has doors on it, it will tend to get called a shrine too. Finally the whole collection of buildings put together is often collectively referred to as a shrine. This means you can have a shrine in a shrine next to a shrine at the shrine. None of this is particularly important, as I've tried to write the story in such a way that it's clear what's being talked about, but prepare to see the word 'shrine' come up a lot.
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.