It has been almost a year now since the Moriya Shrine appeared atop Youkai Mountain, having been transported here from the Outside world.
Since then, Gensokyo has been peaceful, with neither any Incidents or new arrivals to throw things into commotion. The biggest supernatural event of the summer was a commotion that had arisen from what appeared to have been a war between the ice fairy that lived on the lake and three fairies of light who lived somewhere near the shrine. This scuffle had escalated to the degree that it attracted the attention of one Incident resolver, and resulted in Cirno challenging Marisa for the title of Gensokyo's Strongest (which she had never claimed to hold.) The entire affair had only taken place over two days, however, and within a week had been largely forgotten.
In the summer of Gensokyo's 123rd year, however, the long-lived peace was shattered by a series of events including a number of unusual changes in the weather and a strong but localized earthquake.
As a result of that quake, the Hakurei Shrine collapsed and Gensokyo was shaken to its roots. Or perhaps it was the other way around? An Incident arose in the form of a towering scarlet cloud, which shook Gensokyo until the Hakurei Shrine was reduced to rubble.
This series of disturbing phenomena were all caused by the actions of a bored celestial who had descended from the Heavenly Realm. This record will serve to document the origins and impacts of this Incident, but if I were to try to sum the entire thing up in just a few words, it would be these: in all the worlds there is nothing more terrifying than a being with great power and no regard for the problems of those they see as beneath them.
Throughout the course of this Incident, a great many people undertook various actions, each pursuing their own goals. Some of these people crossed paths with the Incident's mastermind as a result of their actions, while others did not. All of the actors involved were set into motion by the event whose impacts echoed across the land, then resounded and echoed again: the first and second collapses of the Hakurei Shrine. In some ways this Incident was similar to the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons Every Three Days Incident in that, in the end, the Incident was not resolved with Reimu simply beating up the party responsible for the ruckus.
By this point Reimu had begun formally and regularly stopping in to check on our Hifuu Detective Agency and see what we were up to. Whether this was out of concern for us, a desire to thwart Sanae's efforts to recruit us into joining her shrine, or out of a desire to proactively prevent an Incident, I couldn't say. It goes without saying though that as things heated up, we quickly ended up tangled up in the schemes and exploits of everyone involved.
And by "we," I mean not only Renko and myself but also Sanae Kochiya, the part-timer who had joined our agency the previous autumn.
And so, once more, this is the story of how I, Maeribel Hearn, the conscience of this Hifuu Detective Agency, and the only believer in the merits of common sense among us, became swept up by the mad and maddening fantasies of both a daredevil detective who lives only for curiosity's sake and credulous Outsider who combined Renko's heedless embrace of danger with the power of a living goddess.
This time around though, it was not only the pull of Renko's hands or the bluster of Sanae's winds that hurled me about, but my own compulsion to seek answers to unanswerable questions as well.
As always, this story also serves as a record of my partner's bizarre and fantastical reasoning. Both the culprit and the motive for this Incident are, of course, already well known. To this day, the party responsible has never denied or apologized for their involvement. Indeed, the actions which she undertook were so bluntly obvious that there is practically no room to doubt her intentions. The mastermind behind this incident is no schemer, and would not think to weave complex gambits within gambits as Yuyuko Saigyouji or Eirin Yagokoro might. Nor did she have an accomplice inclined to such cunning as was the case with the events concerning the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
So with the events and motives of this Incident so plainly clear, I will challenge you again, dear readers, as I did with the Sixty Year Cycle Great Barrier Incident. Here in this prologue, I challenge you: can you discover the mysterious truth that our great detective unearthed, hidden in the midst of this simple and clear-cut Incident?
I will give you this small measure of guidance: The greatest mystery we discovered here is one that even now as I write this record, we still have not solved. We, who benefit from our knowledge of events yet to occur in the Outside world have no such knowledge regarding our own futures in this world. Though as always you can expect to hear several of my partner's clever deductions and outlandish theories, there will be no great confrontation to resolve the question of their accuracy. To this day, the mystery stands unresolved.
So, with that, let the story begin. Let me recount the events of this last summer, when Gensokyo was shaken by the overwhelming and terrible will hidden within a looming scarlet cloud, which manifested in a rash of abnormal weather and culminated in a violent, localized earthquake.
This is the story of how a great detective, her assistant and a girl who works miracles wound up involved in this situation.