It was definitely a strange story. Prince Shotoku was a legendary figure, often associated with having spread Buddhism across Japan. One of the articles in the 17-article constitution he supposedly penned was 'respect the three treasures of Buddhism with all your heart.' The 12-rank court system he instituted was based on a school of Chinese thought from around the same time which combined aspects of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism among its tenants, but I had never heard it even suggested before that the figure, seen as Buddhism's greatest historical champion in Japan, might not have been a Buddhist himself. When I thought about it though, it would hardly be the strangest thing in Gensokyo.

"Sometimes things are different here, Renko. The version of princess Kaguya who lives here never returned to the moon, for example, even though the old legends say she did."

"Even that has an explanation though. If Eirin can be believed, she probably told everyone that they were headed back to the moon before she killed all of her fellow lunarians and retreated to Eientei with the princess. If that was the case, it would explain why human legends got the ending wrong. Maybe the story that the prince was a strong supporter of Buddhism was just a rumor that he spread in order to disguise the fact that he was actually a Taoist pursuing immortality?"

"Do you think it really even is prince Shotoku in there? It could easily just be someone trying to appropriate his legend for their own sake, couldn't it? There's a lot of circumstantial evidence suggesting that it's him, but that could all be part of the ruse." Renko nodded in agreement. If you've read all of my previous casefiles, then you understand why this idea, wild though it may sound to read wouldn't seem all that outlandish to us. "If that were the case then Futo, Tojiko and even Seiga would all have to be in on the plan, or else have been fooled by it. None of them really seem like the sort to work together toward a common goal though. Tojiko and Seiga at least seem pretty cagey as well so I don't think they'd easily be deceived by someone claiming to be the crown prince."

"There's also the question of who would benefit from such a ruse. Altogether we just don't have enough information to come to a conclusion yet. Which means there's only one thing to do, Merry." She grinned at me, poking her hat away from her eyes with one finger and climbing to her feet. "We can't wait for the prince to come back to life, everything will already be over by then. Let's look for clues." She reached down to me, offering a hand up.

I sighed and climbed to my feet on my own. As I did, a tiny translucent blob of a spirit drifted past me, toward the inner courtyard of the tower. A spirit of desire, or so we had been told. Supposedly if a spirit like that, meagre though it was, were to receive enough faith it could become a full-fledged goddess like Kanako. I tried to imagine the goddesses of the Moriya shrine having once been floating, indistinct blobs like this one, but it was impossible. They both had too much personality by far, where as this thing was nothing but a fragment of a temperament, a piece of a piece of a soul. Humans are multifaceted and could feel multiple ways about something at one time, giving rise to countless little wisps of temperament like this one all the time. Such fragmentary spirits were generally short-lived but could, under certain circumstances go on to live outside of a person's body. I thought of famous novelists who had become known for writing gloomy, misanthropic novels but who themselves were perfectly well-adjusted, friendly people. Most people would be surprised to meet someone like that, having already constructed an image of the author in their head after reading their works. I wondered if the version of prince Shotoku contained in this tower might be something like that, a version of the crown prince that only existed based on the expectations of people who had heard about him. It was hard to square with the idea of him being resurrected as a Taoist hermit. If it were the actual historical figure, prince Umayado who was buried here instead, then I suppose there was nothing keeping Tojiko's story from being true, but in that case it seemed unlikely that all of the fantastical feats associated with prince Shotoku would be something he could lay claim to. Either way, Tojiko certainly seemed to view whoever it was as a legendary figure capable of taking over an entire nation.

"Whoever it is that's buried here, does it make any sense for them to have learned to be a Taoist hermit? There wasn't a lot of contact with China at the time, and hermits are supposed to be reclusive and secretive anyway, right?"

"That's another good point, Merry. What kind of hermit goes around teaching other people to follow in their footsteps, especially in another country? We'll have to ask Keine about that when we get back." Renko said as she took my hand and walked toward the door leading to the hallway. "By the way," she asked, turning her head to look at me, "what do you think about the idea of becoming a hermit yourself? Seiga did offer to teach us if we converted."

"What's this all of a sudden, Renko? Are you thinking about taking her up on the offer?"

Renko stopped walking and stared into space for a moment. "You know, if we're going to continue living in Gensokyo from now on, maybe we ought to consider it. I'm sure pursuing immortality would make Mokou mad and I'm certainly not sure if I could trust either Eirin or Seiga with my life, but as a concept, immortality doesn't seem so bad. Almost everyone we know here will have a much longer lifespan than we will."

"You mean all the youkai we know."

"I mean everyone. Think about it, do you really expect to outlive Sanae? I don't know how being a living god works exactly, but I can't really imagine her growing into an old lady and shriveling away and Kanako and Suwako being fine with that. Keine's half-youkai, and so is Rinnosuke. Mokou's an immortal and even with Reimu and Marisa, I wouldn't be surprised if Reimu were enshrined and deified after death and Marisa seems like she's constantly a hair's breadth from becoming a youkai magician. Maybe she already has for all we know. She doesn't feel like a youkai, but neither does Byakuren and she does all sorts of things no other human can. I'll be turning 30 this year, Merry. Wouldn't it be nice to live a long life in Gensokyo with everyone else? I mean, doesn't it frustrate you to have an arbitrary limit that our friends here don't have to deal with? Personally, I'd want to go on living and experiencing the world for as long as it remained interesting and there were new things to learn and new truths to reveal."

I had stopped walking too and stared at her. "This is uncommonly introspective for you, Renko. I didn't think you were the sort to worry about your fate, or what comes next at all, really."

"I can be self-reflective sometimes, Merry. I'm a sensitive, intellectual girl. Don't you ever think about the future?"

"Being around you all the time, I've assumed that we'll die sooner or later and be buried here in Gensokyo. If it happens to be your fault then I'm resolved to haunt you, but beyond that I've been too busy worrying about next week to think what might happen decades from now for the most part."

"That's sad, Merry. Don't you have any great ambitions for the future? Well, I guess it's fine either way. The concept of eternity is scary but so is the concept of finality. If Merry doesn't want to live a long life then I don't either. There'd be no point to exploring eternity without you."

I sighed. I wished Renko wouldn't say things like that in public. I can only imagine what sort of impression other people might have about us.

"Well, if you decide you want to become a hermit that might be for the best. Then you could go off on these foolish little adventures of yours and I wouldn't be scared that you'd die. As a result, I'd be less likely to get killed as well."

"The whole point would be to go on these sorts of investigations together, Merry! I don't want to become immortal or anything close to it if I can't be with you. I want to be with you until we die, whether that's in 50 days or 50 years or 50 centuries from now."

"Wait, why would we die in 50 days? What are you planning?"

"Nothing, but who knows? If we were to die, would you at least come to the Netherworld and be a ghost with me?"

"Who knows? That's not up to us, right? Maybe the Yama would send me to heaven for having put up with you for so long, or to hell for not having stopped you from getting us killed."

"Well wherever you end up is where I'd go. Whether it's up or down, I'd find a way to get to you."

"Then if I'm going to be stuck with you either way how about you be a bit concerned with keeping me alive! Heaven's boring, hell is dark and I don't want a necromancer to turn me into a hopping corpse! So instead of daydreaming about the distant future, why don't you start thinking about a way to get us out of here right now, Renko?" I said, seizing a hold of her cheek and twisting it.

"Ah! I jus wabba be wib you, Mebby! Lebbe go!"

I sighed and shook my head in exasperation as I continued to twist her flesh, forcing her down to her knees.