"This mystery just keeps getting deeper. I wonder just how many layers there are here?" Renko mumbled as we walked home, holding her hat in her hand and fiddling with the brim as she walked.
"What do you mean, Renko? After all of that, don't we have all the answers now?" I asked, looking over at my partner's profile. "We just got a solid hour's worth of explanation about the nature of the goddesses' identities."
"Oh? Have you managed to put it all together, Merry? Don't keep me waiting, what's the secret you've uncovered?"
Well, we know the story of Takeminakata invading Suwa is true, at least in Gensokyo. Lady Yasaka is the divine spirit of Takeminakata taking on a new human form and Lady Moriya is the form worn by the goddess Moriya. That's why they have the snake and frog symbols -the god who would eventually become Kanako defeated the god who would eventually become Suwako. They're predator and prey, right?"
"Oh quite right, that's a perfect explanation, it wraps everything up very neatly."
She continued to fiddle with her hat as she walked, her head down.
"So what's missing then, what are you trying to figure out?"
"Why they would tell us a fake story like that, and where the holes in it are. There's one clear indication that none of that is true."
"What? What indication?"
"It's Sanae. She said that Kanako is the goddess of the mountain. But Akyuu said divine spirits don't become native gods and vice versa. That means either Sanae was lying to us or Kanako was. She can't be Takeminakata AND the goddess of Youkai Mountain. Those are two different types of gods."
I gasped, reflexively covering my mouth with my hand. I didn't want to believe that either of the two of them could have knowingly lied to our face, but the conclusion seemed inevitable. "What does that mean, then?"
"It means... I'm going to need to burn some calories figuring it out." Renko said, pointing the dango shop just off of the main square.
We ordered ourselves a skewer of mitarashi dango and a cup of tea each and had a seat on the bench in front of the store. The piping hot tea and steamy dumplings were the perfect counterpoint to the slight wintry edge to the air and the smell of the savory-sweet sauce mixed with the earthy smell of autumn leaves littering the streets and rooftops was mouth-watering.
"Now," said Renko, as she sat down beside me and took a sip from her cup. "The obvious conclusion would be to assume that Lady Yasaka is still Takeminakata and Lady Suwako, being a native god already, must have become the true goddess of the mountain. That would explain why they call it the 'Moriya shrine' now, at least."
"That makes sense. Sanae probably just misspoke when she said Kanako was the goddess of the mountain."
"Sanae is a wind priestess and has lived with those two like they were her parents for her whole life. I don't think she would make a mistake like that. Especially when she's trying to gather faith for the goddesses. I think she said what she meant. To her, at least, faith in the mountain is equivalent to faith in Lady Yasaka."
I groaned. She had a point. "Maybe it works the same way as it did at the Suwa Grand Shrine in the Outside world. Kanako is the goddess shown to the public and Suwako is the secret god. People may envision Kanako when they give thanks to the mountain, but they're really two separate gods both empowered by the same faith. They've turned the conflict that neither of them lost into a working relationship they can both benefit from."
"Oh, of course, Merry. That must be it. All nice and simple, just like that. Except for one thing." She had put her teacup down and was back to fiddling with the brim of her hat, the dango sitting unnoticed on the bench. "They have no reason to go through any of that. Why bother having a public facing god and a secret god? This is Gensokyo, and if they're working together, there's no need to make Takeminakata look like the victor in their battle. Besides, if they are operating that way, that actually kind of flips the power dynamic. Kanako would be acting as Suwako's messenger and servant then, gathering faith that would secretly go to empower Suwako. Does Lady Yasaka strike you as the sort to take orders from someone else? Especially after she won a fight against Lady Moriya? If she is Takeminakata, then isn't a refusal to do that when it was demanded by the heavenly gods what started all of this in the first place?"
"Maybe they're just doing things that way because that's how it was when it was the Suwa Grand Shrine? Maybe that's just what they're used to."
Renko's shoulders dropped as she stared at me, disappointment written across her face. "Oh come on, Merry, you know better than that. Have you forgotten the heart of this mystery already? If they were going to bother with a secret god, why change the name of the place to 'Moriya Shrine?' It would be completely counter-productive. They could have kept calling it the Suwa Grand Shrine and just kept everything just as it was. They could even have kept all the old signs. They didn't though. There's nothing anywhere there to indicate any connection to Suwa Grand Shrine unless you happen to know of that place from the Outside world like we do. And if you do happen to know what we do, then nothing there makes sense, as they've only got one of the four shrine complexes and a little piece of a giant lake. There's not even anywhere for the yearly Omiwatari miracle to go to."
"So we're back to that again?"
"It's the key to everything, Merry! If Moriya Shrine used to be Suwa Grand Shrine, then why did they only bring part of it here? If it wasn't Suwa Grand Shrine, why did they go to the trouble of making it look like it was? It seems like its all a set to try and sell the idea that Suwako is the goddess Moriya and Kanako is Takeminakata. If not for all of that stage dressing, neither one of them would seem anything like those gods. If they are who they claim to be though, that would explain their relationship and their actions, but not the shrine. But if we assume they're not who they say they are, that explains the shrine, but then their actions make no sense! It's a damn paradox!"
I sat and ate my dango, chewing as I considered and Renko glared dourly at hers, resting her head against her fist and grumbling. As I tumbled the facts over in my head, an outlandish idea came to me. The sort that could only be a result of Renko's bad influence on me.
"Hey Renko," I began. "What if you're making a bad assumption not about the Moriya shrine, but about Suwa Grand Shrine?"
"That sounds like a question with a story behind it. What are you thinking, Merry?"
"Well, the problem you're hung up on is that there's only one shrine complex and part of a lake up there, which means Omiwatari can't cross over to the other side. But what if the Omiwatari didn't need to cross the lake? What if there was no need to get to the other side?"
"What do you mean? If they didn't want to continue the yearly Omiwatari miracle why bring the lake at all?"
"Hmmm, you're asking the wrong question, Renko. This isn't about the miracle, I'm betting that will still go off just fine this winter, just not here in Gensokyo. This is about the nature of the faith underlying the miracle."
"The nature of the faith?"
"Yes. Suwa Grand Shrine is supposed to be home to a number of different gods. Takeminakata and Yasakatome are the main ones, but Moriya is secretly worshipped there too, in her role as a combined face for all of the Mishaguji. Outwardly, Suwa Grand Shrine is dedicated to a pair of divine spirits, but truthfully it venerates a native god, right? The thing is, native gods are tied to their land. You can't worship a native god in a place where they aren't and they can't be somewhere that isn't the place they embody. That means that if Suwako is Moriya then the only way she can be worshipped is if people are worshipping the lands she's a part of. That's why Moriya shrine resembles Suwa Grand Shrine so closely. People here will never have been to Suwa, but maybe the goddesses need them to worship Suwa all the same."
I had managed to say all of that in one breath. I had never realized how difficult it must have been to spit out one of Renko's wild monologues. I watched expectantly as Renko sipped her tea thoughtfully and nodded her head.
"That's not bad, as explanations go, Merry. It fits the facts pretty well. I'm not buying it though."
"What? Why not? Not crazy enough for you?"
"I just don't see how this shrine having a surface-level similarity to one on the Outside world would lead to people revering a place they had never been. A copy of something can be impressive, but it can't be the original. It's an interesting idea, but no one here knows what the Suwa Grand Shrine is it or what it looks like, so it wouldn't matter if Moriya was a copy of it or not if that was their aim. Besides, even then it's a half-baked copy. One shrine complex out of four and a different name again. If their goal was to get people to worship the land of Suwa, then they'd really want to call the place 'Suwa Grand Shrine,' wouldn't they?"
I sighed and dropped my empty skewer into my empty teacup. "Well then, what's the alternative? Do you have an explanation for why they would have a shrine with a different name and a hidden god?"
"So far, the only motivation I can conceive of is their desire to turn Sanae into just a regular human being. I don't think that's the whole story though. There's more going on here, so we must still be missing something."
I sighed and leaned back against the bench, allowing my head to flop backward and my eyes to tilt toward the puffy clouds. It was only because of that that I managed to catch a glimpse of a streak of black as it soared over the village, headed east, carried on a pair of raven wings.
"Hey Renko! Look! Isn't that Aya up there?
She followed my gaze, bolting up from her chair to follow as the distant form dwindled to a speck. "She's headed to the Hakurei Shrine! She must be going to get the story from Reimu of the confrontation the other day. Come on, Merry! This is our chance to finally find out what's going on in the Tengu city!"
"Right, right. I should have figured you'd want to hike to the shrine to interview the interviewer. Alright, I'll go pay the bill. Don't forget your food Renko."
She stuffed both of her remaining dango into her mouth in one bite, eyes gleaming with excitement as she struggled to chew. I paid for our meal and asked for a glass of water to keep Renko from choking, then we both set out at a brisk pace toward the village's eastern gate, hand in hand, following the trail the tengu had cut through the sky just moments before.
