"Daidarabotchi?"
"Yeah! Haven't you heard yet, miss Merry? Someone saw one!"
About a week had passed since the end of the kappa's bazaar and suddenly these rumors were all the children at school could talk about.
"What's this? We creaky old grownups are behind the times," Renko said, from beside me. It was just before the start of classes for the day and we had arrived in time to find many children playing on the school grounds. "Why don't you tell us all about it?"
Almost immediately a dozen or so children gathered around us, all shouting over each other to convey the latest information.
"I heard it's a GIANT youkai. WAY bigger than any grownup."
"I heard it's so big that it causes earthquakes just by walking around!"
"I heard it's super mean and attacks everything it sees."
"I heard it has a giant weapon! It's chopped up a bunch of fairies with it! Like wha-cha-cha-hah!"
"Yeah, and I heard it never moves its face, chopping them all up with an emotionless expression like a statue."
"That's creepy. I heard it wanders all around in the forest. Do you think it will come to the village?"
"I've heard that it's the soul of someone who died from a fairy trick and went to Hell, so it'll probably stay in the forest and just kill fairies."
"I heard it's the servant of the giant catfish that causes earthquakes and it just wanders around destroying things at random!"
"I heard it's not really a youkai, its a weapon created by the kappa!"
The conflicting stories were being shouted from every angle, each over top of the others. It was nearly impossible to pull a complete picture out of the overlapping descriptions.
"Whoa, hold on, hold on," Renko said, stretching her arms out, palms raised to forestall the shouting children. "Are you all just talking about Hisoutensoku? That giant advertising balloon that was visible near the base of the mountain a few days ago? If so, I can tell you all about that."
Several of the children laughed.
"No, teacher, that's old news. Everyone knows about that. This is completely different. My friend's dad's brother saw it in the Forest of Magic!"
"Yeah daidarabotchi's different. It doesn't just stand there and wave, it smashes fairies! Like WHAM!"
"I heard it eats the fairies after it's killed them."
"Something that big must still be hungry after eating fairies. Do you think it will come here looking for food?"
"Wait, this is a different giant monster? It's been seen since Hisoutensoku disappeared?"
"That's right, miss Renko. My dad said it will eat anyone who goes into the Forest of magic, so you and miss Merry better be careful. My mom says you two are always going outside the walls. Don't get eaten, okay?"
"Everyone seems to know about this already. Where did these rumors come from?" Renko asked, looking around.
The children all looked from one to another murmuring amongst themselves. Everyone seemed to have heard about it from someone, who in turn had heard about it from someone else. No one here, being as they were all children, had actually seen the creature with their own eyes. Eventually though, one child spoke up.
"My dad said he saw the Hakurei miko walking through the forest looking for it. I bet she's gonna chop the daidarabotchi in half!"
"The Hakurei miko? Reimu?"
Renko and I exchanged surprised looks as the first bell of the day clanged, calling the children into their classes.
-.-.-.-.-
So, as you might expect, as soon as classes were over for the day we made our way hurriedly over to the Hakurei shrine. The walk was beautiful this time of year, with grasses and wildflowers growing tall and leaning over the narrow path leading east out of the village but offering no protection from the dry heat of the midsummer sun. We were predictably sweaty by the time we ascended the hillside stairs and passed through the torii gates to the Hakurei shrine. The grounds of the shrine appeared deserted as usual, but I made a point of dropping a few coins into the offertory box before we went around back to look for Reimu. We found her right where we might expect to, sitting on the veranda at the back of the shrine, with her feet dangling into a bucket of cool water while she drank hot tea and stared out at the keystone sitting in the yard behind her home.
"Oh, it's you two. Welcome, I guess. What do you want? I only have green tea and it's no good cold."
"No thank you, though that does look like a nice way to beat the heat you've got set up. Actually Reimu, there's something I wanted to ask you," Renko said with a grin.
"I know that smile. You two are sticking your noses into something weird again, aren't you?"
"Actually we wanted to ask what you've been sticking your nose into. It seems like you're ahead of us on this one. What have you been investigating recently?"
"Me? I haven't been 'investigating' anything."
"No? All the kids at school seem to think you've been hunting a daidarabotchi in the Forest of Magic."
"Ugh. Really? Even children should know better than to take anything Cirno says seriously."
"Cirno? The ice fairy? What's she got to do with this?"
"She started the whole thing. She came to the shrine the other day and told me that she saw a daidarabotchi in the Forest of Magic. I went out and looked for it just in case, but I should have known better than to listen to an idiot."
"Do you think she was just seeing Hisoutensoku? It would have been visible from Misty Lake."
"That's what I figured, and I showed her the tengu newspaper, but she said it was something else, so I went to check it out. I didn't see anything though, and Marisa said she hadn't noticed anything unusual in the forest lately either. You said all the kids at your school are talking about this now?"
"Well there's a lot of different stories, and they've gone through the sort of exaggeration you might expect among children, but there's rumors of giant monster in the Forest. Kids are saying stuff like 'it causes earthquakes' or 'it's eating all the fairies.'"
Reimu groaned and put down her tea as she ground a palm into her forehead. "Ugh... that's not good. If it's just kids on the playground, that's one thing, but we can't let a rumor like that spread."
"Well if you already looked and there's nothing out there, then there's no problem, right?"
"There's not now, but youkai are born from human fear. If enough people start believing that there's something out there that causes earthquakes and eats fairies then sooner or later there eventually might be."
"Does that really happen? People believe a thing exists so it comes into being?"
"It happens all the time. Lots of things get started that way. Usually they're really weak though, not even fully formed youkai yet. Just collections of youkai aura starting to take form. Marisa and I killed a bunch of them last winter. If people specifically believed that there was a huge, strong youkai like that out there though, that could get annoying. A daidarabotchi would be a pain even if it was a pushover. It could fall down and flatten a house or cause an earthquake or something. You guys are teachers, right? Can you yell at the kids and get them not to spread weird rumors or something?"
"Well we could, but if a bunch of adults tell the kids not to talk about Daidarabotchi all of a sudden then they really are gonna think something's up. No better way to make something seem interesting then to have a bunch of grownups tell you not to talk about it, right?"
"So what then, we have no choice but to hope the kids get bored and move onto something else? I don't like that idea much."
"It shouldn't be too bad. The rumors are probably on everyone's mind because they all saw Hisoutensoku so recently. Now that the kappa bazaar is over, if there's nothing to see in the forest then the rumors will probably die down in a week or so. Unless someone in the village sees something to make them think there's some truth to it, I wouldn't expect it to catch on among the adults."
"Hmmm... Next time I see Suika I'll tell her not to grow huge for a while, just to make sure no one mistakes her for a daidarabotchi."
"Oh, is someone talking about me?" There was a clatter from above us, and the sound of rattling chains rolling and sliding off the roof, then suddenly Suika dropped down from the eaves, hanging upside down from the lip of the roof by her ankles, the three weighted chains attached to her dangling down toward the ground and swaying in front of Reimu's face.
"Oh, Suika. That saves me the trouble of finding you. No turning huge for a while."
"What? I wasn't about to, but you can't just tell me not to use my powers. I'm an oni."
"Shut up, I'm asking you nicely, okay? It'll be a pain for us both if someone mistakes you for something else."
"What? What would they mistake me for? I heard you talking but I wasn't paying attention. Who were you talking to by the way? Oh! It's Renko and Merry! Hi there." She said, twisting around to see us, sending her chains to swaying enough that Reimu had to lean back to avoid being struck.
"There's been rumors of a daidarabotchi living in the Forest of Magic, Suika." Renko explained. There probably isn't one, but Reimu doesn't want people to start thinking there is.
"A daidarabotchi? I haven't fought a mountain-man in ages. You're not talking about that stupid kappa thing, right?"
"Nope, there's rumors of a different giant youkai in the forest."
"Oh, I see. That could be kind of fun. It gets boring up here sometimes, it might be nice to have a daidarabotchi to fight with every now and then."
"If one actually appears, I'm going to exterminate it and you now, Suika. Don't go making people think it's real. If you fought one, you might end up flattening the shrine again."
"If I did that, I'd just build you a new one. Besides, your place is earthquake-proof now right? It'd probably be fine."
Without a word Reimu whipped an ofuda at Suika, who launched herself off of the roof and twisted in the air, dodging it.
"Whoops! Your hand seems to have slipped a little, Reimu. Unless you were planning to stop me before I go do some stomping about?"
At that point a lively danmaku battle broke out, so the two of us were forced to make ourselves scarce. It didn't seem like there was much left for us to discover here anyway. As we made our way down the stairs and back toward the path to the village though, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of pity for Reimu. It must be a terrible burden to be a youkai exterminator who's every action might threaten to bring new youkai into existence if anyone saw it.
-.-.-.-.-
With the summer nights being so long we made it back to town long before sunset. As we chatted and walked along the main street back towards our office, I noticed a sizeable crowd of children gathered on the street. In the middle of their congregation was a familiar face with doll-like features framed by golden hair, displaying a quiet, focused smile as she deftly waved her hands about, controlling a trio of marionettes as they cavorted on the stage before her.
"Oh, what fortunate timing!" Renko said as she noticed Alice. "I was hoping to talk to her. Let's have a seat, Merry." Saying that, she hunkered down and squatted on the outer periphery of the gathered crowd, grinning as she settled in to watch the show. I shrugged and smoothed out my dress as I crouched down beside her.
The thought that the daidarabotchi that Cirno saw might just have been Alice's giant doll had occurred to me. Being as it was spotted in the Forest of Magic, it seemed plausible, and even some of the rumors we had heard from the children sounded like they might actually be describing the Goliath we had seen her control.
In due time the puppet show ended and the children cheered then dispersed. Alice was smiling as she packed up her things and folded her stage down into a carrying case.
"Hello again, Alice," Renko greeted her.
"Hello you two. Aren't you a bit old to be enjoying my shows?"
"I'm young at heart," Renko responded without missing a beat.
"Renko's just childish," I said at the same time.
Alice looked between the two of us and smiled. "I noticed you come here from the east road. Were you two just visiting Reimu?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Were you by any chance there to ask her about a giant youkai?"
Renko's eyes widened in surprise. "Now hold on here, Alice, I thought I was the detective."
She laughed softly. "The children were all talking about a giant rampaging somewhere in the forest when I arrived. They said Reimu was looking into it, but I certainly haven't seen anything like that."
"Ah, I see."
"If Reimu's looking into it though, I suppose there must be some degree of truth to it. Well, lucky that I've been working on my doll enlargement spell then, I suppose. I just need to hurry up and perfect it."
"About that, Alice. Do you suppose the source of these rumors might have been someone spotting you working on that spell? Is there any chance a villager could have seen you experimenting with it recently?"
"Oh, hmm. Well, not recently, but back while the kappa bazaar was being held, I did try a little experiment with one of the lake fairies."
"Ah, that wouldn't have been a fairy who wears blue and has icicles for wings, would it?"
"Yes that's her. I let her have a match against my Goliath doll."
Renko and I both heaved a sigh at the same time.
"What's with the sigh? She's just a fairy. There's no harm in that, is there?"
"No, that's probably fine. I doubt there's any danger of a giant youkai causing problems for you in the forest though, Alice."
"Well that's good to hear. Speaking of giant youkai though, I wanted to ask you two something. You were involved in the planning of the kappa bazaar to some extent, weren't you?"
"A little bit. It was mainly put on by the kappa and the Moriya shrine."
"Yes, that's what the kappa told me too. I went there to investigate that enormous youkai they had there, but I was very surprised to find it was an air-filled doll. I tried to get it off of them, but they said it wasn't theirs to sell. I was hoping you could tell me who has it now."
"Oh, that's Hisoutensoku. I think Suwako Moriya, one of the goddesses of the Moriya shrine must have it, but I don't know what her plans are for it. Last I heard, she was looking for a place to store it. Are you going to try to add it to your collection?"
"Well, I'd like to. I'd never seen a doll like that before. Thank you for the information, ladies. I'm going to go visit that shrine now then."
With that, Alice turned and flew off to the north without another word, leaving a trio of dolls to finish gathering up her gear and fly off after her, carrying it between them. There was little doubt in either of our minds that Alice's giant doll was likely the source of the children's rumors but as she sailed off into the sky, there was nothing either of us could do about it.