Akyuu's eyebrow twitched, ever so briefly. "...What's making you interested in such an old story?"

"It concerns a case our detective agency is investigating," Renko replied smoothly, glossing over the fact that the investigation had only begun as a result of her idle curiosity.

Akyuu put her cup of tea down on the low table and let out a small sigh. "If something like that happened, it would have been recorded in the writings of the second Child of Miare, Hieda no Ani."

"So does that mean you have something?"

"Bear with me," she said, closing her eyes to retreat to her internal library. "These records are old and worn. A story like this is from a time long before Gensokyo was called Gensokyo, so I don't know if you could really call it an Incident. I should have something from around that time, at least. The human village was just a remote settlement on the edge of the wilderness back then."

"But despite its size and how remote it was, the Hakurei shrine and its maiden were present even then, right?"

"Back then there wasn't a village here. This was a cursed place, known to be the realm of youkai. There were a few scattered homesteads to the north, closer to the lake and some farmers and artisans living to east, beyond the bounds of where the Great Hakurei Barrier reaches, not far from where the Hakurei shrine is now. The Hakurei shrine existed then too, of course and was actually somewhat more prestigious. The miko who lived there was seen as the leader of what passed for a community and was the only human living in the area with the power to oppose the threat posed by the youkai. By her hand alone she carved out a safe enclave where humans could dwell and hope to be more than just prey for the youkai."

"Hah, that's a bit different than the way things are nowadays."

"Over time this place's reputation as a haven for youkai spread and adventurers and monster hunters from surrounding territories were sent here to train and quell the threat before it could spread. As more people arrived with the power to oppose youkai incursions, the prestige and power of the Hakurei shrine diminished. The Hakurei miko became less of a political figure and more of a religious one. People believed she could hear the voices of the gods and that she had the power to break curses."

"Well that doesn't sound too different from the shrine we know."

"Among those who settled here were a Buddhist nun and her entourage who established a temple. It was called the Myouren temple, it seems..." she said, tapping her forehead, her eyes moving under their lids as she scanned documents only she could see.

"There's a temple by that name in Yokohama too, but I doubt it's related," Renko mused.

"This one seems to have been a temple of the Shingon sect, dedicated to Bishamonten. The temple was a ways up into the mountains, not far from what passed for a village of the time, and had apparently been named after the brother of the nun who established it, who was also a Buddhist monk. Oh, that would probably be the same Myouren mentioned in the Shigisan Engi Emaki. That's a Heian-era picture scroll. It comes from another Shingon temple that worships Bishamonten, so it would make sense."

"Oh, the Shigisan Engi, of course," Renko said, nodding sagely then turning to me with a shrug while Akyuu continued to search her mental archives.

"I have no idea if this 'Byakuren' was really Myouren's sister or not, but Myouren had become quite famous at this time for healing the emperor of a serious illness. There's no mention of Myouren having a sister at any point in the records and this temple would have been built several decades after his death. Its not unreasonable to think that someone might have just been trying to cash in on his reputation."

So far, everything Akyuu had told us lined up with Murasa's version of events. If Byakuren really was a magician who had rejuvenated herself then it wouldn't be surprising to see her opening a temple decades after Myouren's death.

"Why was the Myouren temple burnt down?"

"According to Ani's writings, the temple claimed to offer the blessings of the Buddha and protect people from evil spirits while actually harboring youkai and other creatures in secret. Apparently Byakuren and her disciples were secretly youkai disguised as humans and had been preying on the parishioners. When the humans discovered this, they formed an angry mob, lead by the most successful monster hunters in the area and assaulted the temple. From these writings it sounds like a case of mass hysteria. There was no investigation or anything more than an accusation, by the sound of it. The Hakurei miko stepped in to try to calm everyone down, but while she was trying to de-escalate things, several of the yokai in the temple escaped and fled. This angered the humans so much that they immediately burned down the temple and sent hunting parties to try to find the escaped youkai with orders to kill them on sight."

I thought over the details in my mind. That explained at least why Murasa hadn't been able to tell us what exactly transpired between Byakuren, the Hakurei miko and the Yama. This seemed to confirm that she and Ichirin had left the temple before that confrontation happened.

"What happened to the head nun?" Renko asked, shifting on the cushion.

"She was captured by the Hakurei miko." Akyuu replied, still reading in her head. "It says her power was sealed and she was sent to the world of demons. Two of the four youkai who escaped were captured and thrown into a deep pit along with all of the pieces of the temple that remained after the fire. The other two escaped and were never found. That's all that it says about the whole affair," she said, opening her eyes.

Renko and I looked at eachother, then back to Akyuu. Renko's glance communicated the same conclusion that I had come to -there was a serious discrepancy between the version of the story we had heard from Murasa and the one just told to us now.

"...Is that record all you have?" Renko asked.

"Yes. Would you have expected something more?"

"No, I'd just like to confirm the details. According to the records of the Hieda, it was the Hakurei miko who sealed Byakuren and sent her to the demon world, right?"

"That's what it says. Do you suspect that the records are wrong?"

"Not exactly, but I was hoping to know what sin Byakuren was condemned for. Was it just sheltering youkai in the temple?"

"Wouldn't that have been enough? The people of the time would have been looking to religious authorities to slay monsters, not protect them." Akyuu replied without the faintest shadow of doubt on her face.

"Well, I suppose I don't know much about how sin or punishment were viewed back then. Being sealed in the demon world sounds pretty bad though. That's what's now called Makai, right? What's it like there? I presume when they say a 'deep pit' they don't just mean a hole in the ground, but the Underworld beneath Gensokyo, right?"

"I'm afraid I couldn't tell you much about other worlds. You'd be better off asking a magician about that sort of thing. Assuming that a youkai could survive the fall into whatever pit they were cast into though, I imagine that both punishments would be roughly equivalent. In both cases it's a death sentence at worst and a forced exile to a far-away land at best, right?"

"So then being thrown into Underworld or being thrown into Makai would have been more or less the same thing to the people of the time?"

"Well, not entirely, I suppose. Makai is a whole other world. I don't know how you'd get there from here, or if there's any way back. The Underworld was thought to be accessible from caves and rents in the earth. At the time, Hell was down there, but I don't know if simply falling into the Underworld would be enough to condemn you to eternal torment. I imagine that a youkai in that situation would be free to live down there as they please among the oni. I have no idea what would happen in Makai though."

So then being thrown into the depths was seen as the lesser punishment, to some degree. If being sealed in that lightless subterranean world for a thousand years was considered a lesser punishment then youkai must truly have been hated back then. I didn't know how long something like a ship phantom could live though. If Murasa and Ichirin might persist for 10,000 years, maybe their imprisonment was something like a 10-year prison term to a human.

"Would a punishment like that have been intended to be eternal? Was there any concept of parole or eventual pardon for something like that?"

"That's hard to say. I'm sure the humans of the time would have thought of being sealed as a permanent end to their problems, but they're all long dead now. I don't see how any punishment handed out by a human could be expected to last for several human lifetimes."

"Well, isn't that what sealing someone in the demon world achieves? If there's no way back from there, it's an eternal prison, right?"

"I can't pretend to know what the Hakurei miko of the time was thinking when she did that, but if she sent Byakuren to Makai then I think it's safe to say she didn't consider her to be a human any more."

"Perhaps, but if it was perceived as a more serious punishment than a potential death sentence then maybe she just sent her there to satisfy the fury of the assembled mob. Maybe Makai's a nice place. I mean they call Gensokyo a paradise for youkai, but it's not too bad here. Maybe demons like living in pleasant, comfortable conditions too. Maybe Byakuren struck a bargain and got off easy."

"Well, I suppose that's possible. The records suggest that Byakuren accepted her punishment and was sealed away without issue, but I don't see any other evidence to support that idea."

"Hmmm. Alright Akyuu, just one final question," Renko said, leaning forward across the table. "Do any of the written records or any of your inherited memories from that era contain anything to suggest that the Yama got involved in this event?"

"No," Akyuu said, looking genuinely surprised. "Why would you think that?"