"So what exactly was all of that just now?" Akyuu asked us as we passed her in the street on our way home. Like a great many other villagers, she appeared to have come out to watch the battle between Hisoutensoku and the daidarabotchi. "And why do I have a feeling the two of you were involved somehow?"

"That was just a minor crisis being resolved before it could become an Incident," Renko said, poking the brim of her hat back with two fingers. "A way of solving a problem without having to involve the Hakurei miko."

Akyuu tilted her head in confusion, but seeing as Renko wasn't about to elaborate she turned to me. I shrugged in response to the unasked question. "That's what she says, but who knows if there ever would have actually been an Incident or not. You can just chalk it up to some youkai playing around, if you like."

Akyuu sighed, looking older than her scant years for a moment. "I have a feeling there's more to this than just some youkai having a squabble, but I suppose if Reimu wasn't involved then it really wasn't an Incident. Is it over now?"

That was a question I wondered about myself.

-.-.-.-.-

"Oof, I'm still tired and my arms are all sore now. Being a mecha pilot is a lot of work!"

Sanae yawned and stretched broadly. It was the morning of the day after the fight at the village's western gate, and she was sitting on a grassy hillside near the entrance to the Genbu Ravine, next to the deflated and folded shell of Hisoutensoku, which, even compressed like this, was about as large as the interior of our office.

"You were great out there, Sanae. Good job," Renko said, smiling broadly as we approached.

Sanae turned and smiled at the sound of Renko's voice, but before she could respond, Suwako spoke up from beside her, poking her head around Sanae to peer at us, the glassy eyes on top of her hat gleaming in the sunlight.

"Well hello there, Renko. Hello, Merry. Things may not have gone exactly as planned, but this should work out great. The villagers got themselves a show, Kanako got plenty more faith, and we even get this thing all cleaned up."

"I don't see why you had to drag us into it though. I wouldn't have bothered with any of this if Remi hadn't insisted."

This comment had come from the third party to arrive, a quartet of magicians, convened from three different directions, all converging by air to join our little meeting. Patchouli, who had spoken, was flying over from the Scarlet Devil Mansion just as Byakuren landed gently beside us, having flown in from the temple. Marisa zoomed in on her broom a moment later and Alice was the last to arrive, flying across the lake in an unhurried fashion, carrying the seamlessly repaired and now normal-sized Goliath doll in her arms. I wondered how exactly one repaired a doll that had been hit by an enormous Onbashira and then exploded, but I supposed exploding was nothing new for Alice's dolls.

"Well it was an entertaining show even if you don't get anything out of it, don't you think? From a practical perspective, combining all of your powers to grow the doll that large must have at least provided an interesting technical challenge, right?" Renko asked with a smile.

"I, for one, expect more than just entertainment for my services." Alice said as she alighted. "I take it that performance was sufficient to purchase Hisoutensoku?"

"Yes, yes, as promised, Hisoutensoku is yours now." Suwako said with a nod. "As long as you can figure out where to transport it and how to store it, you're welcome to take it."

"Well then thank you all for your help," Alice said primly. "I'm still not sure why I had to play the villain though."

"So that I could be the hero!" Meiling declared as she, along with Sakuya joined us on the hillside, walking along the path that Patchouli had just flown over. "I was pretty cool, right? Did you see me, miss Sakuya?"

"I did. It's a shame I've never seen you put nearly that level of effort into guarding the mansion's gates."

"I saw it too! You were really cool, gate lady! You must be almost as strong as me!" This last remark had come from Cirno, who was hovering overhead, having zoomed across the lake at the sight of our gathering. With her arrival, all of the major players in this farce of an Incident were now present. To be fair though, I should also mention that there were a great many kappa involved behind the scenes as well, responsible for performing the hasty retrofits Renko had requested on Hisoutensoku as well as transporting it from location to location with great speed.

"Well thank you everyone for all of your hard work!" Renko called out, loud enough for everyone to hear. "It's only thanks to all of your combined efforts that this Incident was such a success."

"Does this really count as an Incident?" Marisa asked, raising her eyebrows. "An' if it does, does that make you the mastermind or the one who resolved it?"

"Who says I can't be both?" Renko asked with a grin. "The important thing is that it got people talking. The human village is probably the largest settlement, but we need to make sure everyone in Gensokyo knows that Hisoutensoku defeated the daidarabotchi. That's what you saw, right Cirno?"

"Yeah! It was awesome. I'm gonna tell everyone all about it!"

"I'm sure people will be talking about it for quite some time." Patchouli said, sounding unenthused. "Meiling was already talking like a character from that terrible manga before. I'm sure with that boost to her ego she'll never shut up now."

"I'm glad that you were able to cast a youkai in a role as one of the defenders of the village," Byakuren said, smiling serenely, "but was it really necessary to have the daidarabotchi be so violently destroyed?"

"Well, since our goal was to quash the rumors of a dangerous giant youkai in the forest, we needed to make sure there was an equally strong story negating it. I think we've achieved that." Renko said. "And if the villagers believe they're protected by an almighty defender, maybe they'll feel a bit more comfortable interacting with regular youkai like your disciples."

"I pray that you are correct," Byakuren said, placing her palms together before her. "I would be happy if I could help in any way to make Gensokyo a more peaceful place."

"So that'll be the end of all the daidarabotchi stories then?" Marisa asked. "Kinda a shame, I wouldn't've minded takin' a shot at a youkai like that myself. I guess Sanae gets the win this time. How was that for your first solo Incident?"

"It was a lifelong dream come true! I always wanted to be mecha pilot!" Sanae leapt to her feet as she said that, eyes shining as she stared up towards the spot where the battle had taken place.

"Well, if my little Incident could protect a smile like that one, I think it was all worth it in the end," Renko said, matching Sanae's grin with one of her own.

-.-.-.-.-

That, of course, was the true nature of this Incident, and the resolution that was provided by my partner. In order to prevent the rumors of a real daidarabotchi in the Forest of Magic from coming true, she set a plan in motion to spread the story that the daidarabotchi had already been defeated.

Hisoutensoku was the only thing of sufficient size to take on a youkai like that without endangering the village, so with the help of several harried and overworked kappa engineers, a cockpit for Sanae to operate an air whistle, floodlamps and the balloon's valve controls was hastily assembled and lightweight aluminum armor was added to a very small number of locations to give Hisoutensoku an illusion of solidity. Sanae had spent most of an afternoon using her wind powers to compress air into a series of reinforced sake casks Kanako had setup outside the village and had then mostly controlled the movements of the air inside the balloon through the use of those same powers.

Her opponent, the daidarabotchi, had simply been Alice's Goliath doll, which exactly matched the description the rumors started by Cirno featured, but which had been enlarged to an enormous size through the cooperation of the four magicians to amplify and empower Alice's spell.

Alice's reward for her cooperation had been ownership of Hisoutensoku itself, and Patchouli had been talked into helping after being prodded by Remilia and promised a chance to see Alice's notes on the enlargement spell and doll animation research she had been working on. Marisa had been the easiest to get on board, participating for the sheer novelty of the experience. Byakuren had been harder to convince, initially opposing the idea of assisting with the extermination of a youkai, but Renko had reasoned her into it, pointing out that the goal was to prevent a hostile youkai from forming in the first place, and that her efforts would improve the villager's opinion of the Myouren temple by showing that the village's supposed protector god didn't see her temple as a threat. Cirno had not been directly invited to participate, but she had been curiously watching from the shores of the lake as the kappa made their modifications to Hisoutensoku and Renko had done everything in her power to make sure she would be watching the fight. She would end up assisting Renko's plan without ever really grasping its existence. Meiling was Renko's ace in the hole, an enthusiastic participant, eager to prevent the disaster of a malicious youkai forming near the gates of the mansion, but not assigned any specific task. Her decision to intervene how and when she did had been entirely her own, but that didn't prevent Renko from taking credit for having the foresight to include her in the first place.

The script for the event, along with stage direction and planning for the location in which the fight took place was handled by Suwako. Renko billed herself as the event's director, but in truth her role had been closer to that of a negotiator, reaching out to all of the various parties involved and obtaining their co-operation in the pursuit of her mad scheme. This was the second time Renko had managed to get so many disparate parties, all of whom were unaccustomed to working together, united toward a single goal. She seemed to have a real knack for it. When she wanted to, she could, in fact, be quite the negotiator - which was a worrying thought, considering that on both of the occasions she had had to put those abilities to use so far had resulted in her instigating an Incident. If Byakuren was going to take that title from her, it couldn't happen too soon, in my mind.

In the end, that's how this Incident ended, with the co-operation of numerous youkai, humans, gods and fairies resulting in something as inane as a special effects-filled giant robot show, featuring a battle between an inflatable hero and an oversized doll.