[First Tremor - 4 Days Until Disaster]
"I knew it! It's an Incident!" These were the words that began the Hifuu Detective Agency's summer adventure. They were spoken or, more accurately, shouted, by Sanae Kochiya.
Our little office, located near the center of the human village, in a disused storage shed behind the temple school, had been noisier than usual since the previous fall. This was not, sadly, a sign that the number of clients visiting our office had increased. Instead, it was evidence of the frequent visits from our new part-time associate and full-time friend, Sanae, wind priestess and living goddess of the Moriya shrine, who had become the third member of our team after our meeting the previous year, during the events that surrounded the arrival of the Moriya shrine on Youkai Mountain.
Sanae's full time job, her main one, that is, was acting as a priestess and messenger, gathering faith and recruiting believers to her shrine. That kept her busy most of the time, and so her visits to our office were occasional, but not infrequent occurrences. Certainly she wasn't here every day, as Renko and I were, as the office doubled as our home since coming to Gensokyo. Still, she stopped by often enough that I worried a bit whether her efforts to attract converts were meeting with any success.
What Sanae had been referring to when she made her sudden declaration that day was the unusual weather that lately had been cropping up unpredictably. Having come to visit us once again, she made the declaration almost immediately upon stepping into our office and finding that here in the village the weather was nothing like it had been when she departed from the Moriya shrine.
"Well, I'll admit the weather has been a little unpredictable lately, but I don't think it's quite at Incident levels yet." Renko said. It was rare to hear her act as a voice of reason, but her position was understandable. There had been a few unexpected downpours in the past weeks and a bit of unseasonable wind, but nothing wildly out of the ordinary.
"It's not just the unpredictability! It's been raining at the Moriya shrine for five weeks, but Reimu was bragging about how it's always so hot and sunny at her place, and the tengu are all petitioning Lady Kanako to do something about the constant winds around their city. Gensokyo's a small place, is it really normal for the weather to be so different across such nearby areas?"
She delivered her speech in the same impassioned way she always said everything, standing upright on the tatami floors, with her fists clenched and her excitement clear in her voice.
Renko, however, was leaning back at her desk, sipping her tea slowly. She let out a sigh, saying "I know it seems odd, but in Gensokyo you can't be held back by common sense. There could be a million explanations for this sort of phenomenon and while they might seem strange to us, it could easily be perfectly normal here."
"Huh. Well, you're right. But still! It wasn't like this until recently. It's weird!"
"I'm not denying that, but weird doesn't necessarily mean 'abnormal' here. Merry, what do you think?"
I nibbled on a rice cracker for a moment while I thought back over the last few weeks. "Well, when I was out walking the other day, it started out sunny, but then it clouded over and started raining by the time I got home. It's made it hard to hang laundry out to dry since it seems to rain every time I go out to do the wash too. It's not a sure thing, but maybe Sanae's on to something. Odd weather has either been a sign of something big going on or an Incident in and of itself in the past."
"You mean the Scarlet Mist Incident and the Spring Snow Incident? Those were both abnormal types of weather for the time of year though. There's nothing unusual about sudden storms or long stretches of sun in the summer, right?"
I nodded. Our first two Incidents had certainly involved unusual weather, but neither the Sixty Year Cycle Great Barrier Incident or the Eternal Night Incident had, and while the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons Every Three Days Incident might have seemed to, that odd mist had just turned out to be the mastermind behind the Incident herself. That meant that thus far, weather being a part of an Incident seemed to happen about 40% of the time. That would be in the top tier of batters in baseball, but as odds for winning at gambling, they were pretty poor. There was a more pressing question to address though. I turned to Sanae.
"Sanae, have you asked Lady Yasaka and Lady Moriya about it directly? They're gods of wind and rain, right? They should at least know if something unusual is going on."
"What? They wouldn't do something like that. Lady Kanako might bring rain to a village if there was a drought, but they wouldn't make it gloomy at the shrine for no reason. If this keeps up, it could have a negative impact on the crops, and that wouldn't help our efforts to gather faith at all!"
Sanae crossed her arms and pouted, looking as if I had offended her. I suppose if the Moriya shrine was trying to answer the village farmers' prayers for a good harvest, it wouldn't do for them to cause a flood. "What about Lady Suwako? Could she be cursing the village with inclement weather as a result of some slight?"
"She doesn't seem angry at all. I guess I could ask her, but I don't want to give her any ideas. Renko, do you have any idea if the farmers have done anything that might have offended her?"
"I've heard a rumor that there's a detective agency in the village that corrupted the pure and innocent daughter of the Moriya Shrine into a life of sloth and idle gossip. They sound like real bad dudes. We wouldn't want to mess with them. I think I see where your concern is coming from though Sanae. How are things going for your shrine, overall?"
She sighed and looked downward. "Lady Kanko has been 'negotiating' with the kappa again since yesterday afternoon." Here in Gensokyo, there was little doubt that these 'negotiations' would involve a lot of booze and partying. Creating sake was one of the blessings the Moriya shrine had become best known for on the mountain. Personally, I have neither a strong fondness nor distaste for alcohol, but Sanae had had a few terrible experiences early on, and was now very much a teetotaler. Her presence here at the office might very well have been a convenient way to escape the scene at home. Being around drunks is never much fun if you're the only one who's sober.
"But that doesn't matter. Incident or not, as a wind priestess and representative of Moriya shrine, I can't let this bad weather go unattended! For the sake of the Moriya shrine's prestige, I have to find and resolve the source of this anomaly! And before the Hakurei shrine does!"
Sanae thrust her fist into the air defiantly, passion burning in her eyes. "Ah, the passion of youth," I thought, then immediately chided myself for sounding like an old man.
"Well," Renko began, laying her hands on the desk and tilting her head interrogatively, "if there is someone behind these sudden changes in the weather, I would like to find out who and ask them what their intention is, but..."
"But what, Renko?"
"But I'm not sure what to do now. Sanae stole all my good lines. I can't do much to raise the tension without more to go on." She paused for a moment, tapping her chin thoughtfully before suddenly leaping to her feet. "I've got it. Merry! If we don't do something about this, Gensokyo could be in danger!"
"Really, Renko? It's just a few storms."
"For now, but what if it starts snowing? Or hailing? What if there's a monsoon or a tsunami?"
"Tsunamis aren't weather, Renko. There's not even an ocean anywhere in Gensokyo."
"As far as we know, Merry, but if this crisis is left unattended, who knows? You can't be bound by common sense in Gensokyo."
"I'm pretty sure if an ocean appeared, Reimu would look into it."
"That's why we have to get moving now!" Sanae interrupted. "We can't lose to the Hakurei Shrine! With me on your side we could not only solve this Incident, but resolve it at the same time! We could save all the village's fruit and veggies from ruin! Then every time someone eats it could be an act of devotion! We could gather SO MUCH faith!"
"I suppose you have a point. Even if there's not a disaster, irregular weather can affect crop quality."
"Exactly! The fate of the human village has been entrusted to us! Feast or famine, Merry, those are the stakes!"
"Even if you're right, no one's entrusted it to us..."
"Renko, is your great detective brain ready to solve this mystery?"
Looking across the room at Sanae, Renko's eyes lit up. Confronted with a direct challenge like that, the director of the Hifuu Detective Agency couldn't help but be stirred to action. She strode over to the wall near the door and took her hat from the peg, placing it onto her head and smoothing the brim with her fingers.
"Oh, here we go," I muttered, pressing my hand into my forehead.
The trenchcoat followed the hat, settling into place around Renko's shoulders. It was July, and far too hot for such a garment, but that didn't matter in the least. Even animals had the sense to change their coats in the summer, but neither common sense nor mammalian biology held any sway on Renko any longer, it seemed.
"Is this irregular weather an Incident, as Sanae has proposed? Let's begin by gathering testimony and eye-witness reports. Ladies, the Hifuu Detective Agency is on the case! Move out!"
Renko threw the sliding door open and pointed into the hot summer air. Sanae flicked a crisp salute and ran out, saying "Yes, sir!" as she did.
Renko turned to look at me, expectantly.
I sighed, heavily. "Yes, yes. I'm coming."
Somehow, even with three of us, it was the same old Hifuu club as usual. Now my participation was a foregone conclusion, as I could never hope to outvote the pair's majority. Sanae led the way, a big smile on her face and fire shining in her eyes. Renko was close behind, her keen intellect peering hungrily behind her stare for a complex mystery to bite into. I was walking a bit behind them, resolved to act out my role as babysitter.
"Why do I have to watch two grown-up kids after a full day of watching a classroom?" I muttered to myself.
"What was that, Merry? If you don't keep up we won't be able to hear you!"
"Nothing, nothing. Where are the two of you even going, by the way?"
They both turned and spoke in perfect unison, without even taking a moment to synchronize.
"To the Hakurei shrine, of course!"