We rushed back to our office and Renko checked for any sign of a note from Nazrin, but there was none. The sun was drooping low in the sky as we woke Genji back up and made our way toward Mokou's shack in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost as quickly as he could carry us. From the months that we had spent observing Mamizou prior to the start of this Incident, we knew that she could reliably be counted on to stop by the graveyard just north of town after dark every night, so perhaps if we were lucky we might be able to deliver Kokoro to her and let the menreiki stay there tonight rather than leave her at Mokou's where Keine was sure to discover her.
Genji took us in through the dense stalks of the forest and landed just in front of Mokou's shack. Renko leapt up as soon as Genji's feet touched the ground and rushed over to the door to knock. After a moment, a tired-looking Mokou appeared in the doorway. "Oh, you're back early. I hadn't expected you'd return until tomorrow," she said.
"...You okay there, Mokou? You look kinda worn out."
"I'm just tired of dealing with her, she's irrational." Mokou sighed.
"I'm not irrational, you're just insensitive," Kokoro yelled from behind her, wearing her fox mask.
"She may not have any expressions, but her attitude is all over the place. She overreacts to everything in the most dramatic ways and swaps from one emotion to the next at the drop of a hat. I don't know how you were able to put up with babysitting her for so long, Renko."
"I'll admit she can be a little hard to read, but it's easier if you think of her mask as her facial expression."
"I dunno, I guess I'm too used to dealing with Kaguya and assuming everyone's lying all the time. I can't really trust what's on someone's face to be what they're feeling anymore anyway, but she doesn't have any tells or tics to indicate what she's actually thinking. It's kind of maddening trying to read her. Everything she does is like an exaggerated pantomime of an emotion."
"...Is there something wrong with me?" Kokoro asked, completely tonelessly, but while wearing the sad uba mask.
"Who's to say? You might be a bit of a weirdo, but you're in good company if so. We're all weird here."
"I'm not a weirdo." Kokoro stated, the hannya mask settling into place over one eyebrow.
"You see, this is what I mean. She'll go from weepy to ready to fight in an instant. It's tiring."
Renko nodded. "I see."
The uba mask snapped back into position. "Then I really am weird?" After asking that she remained silent for a moment, seeming to ponder something. Eventually the monkey mask rotated into position. "What's wrong with the way I show emotions?"
"Well it's a bit over the top, I have to admit. Normally people have all kinds of emotions, but usually they have more than one emotion affecting them at once, which means they mostly cancel eachother out, leading to subtle variations along a spectrum. Your emotions are all pure, but you can only wear one at a time and you can switch them in an instant rather than having to work your way there along the whole range. People aren't usually like that unless something really dramatic has happened. Typically humans are kind of subtle and ambiguous."
The comical Hyottoko mask was the next to settle in place. "Mokou is subtle..." Kokoro muttered, saying it as if it was a mantra. She switched back to the monkey mask. "I will be subtle too then. I'll learn to be just as subtle as Mokou."
I felt like if Kokoro was going to learn about emotional maturity and how to act like a normal person she might need better teachers. What Mokou had been saying was correct though. Kokoro's emotions did seem to be rather intense and ephemeral. The fact that she could express herself through body language, but not through tone or expression did tend to make her every mood seem somewhat exaggerated.
"Here, try this," Renko said, walking past Mokou and into the shack. I followed behind her but Genji remained outside, content to nap among the bamboo where there was more space for him to turn around. "You have a human-like body, so you should be able to express emotions with your face. It's probably just a matter of learning how. Here, this is what a smile feels like," she said, reaching over and pressing her thumb and forefinger into the corners of Kokoro's mouth.
"You know," she said as she continued to flex her fingers, forcing a smile on and off of Kokoro's face, "Considering that you've got a permanent poker face, you're actually a pretty expressive youkai. Your masks are easy to read, so as a result you're very open and honest about your feelings. This is actually interesting. Currently your emotions are sort of all over the place and so are the villagers. We see people rioting, weeping and dancing for joy all in the same event. I wonder if you might have less of an effect on the people of the village if you could learn become more emotionally stable yourself."
Despite Renko pressing the corners of Kokoro's face into a smile, the uba mask slid back to its perch. "You're saying that I'm still immature." she said, her words distorted by Renko's manipulations. She brushed Renko's hand away as the fox mask replaced the uba. "So what should I do then?"
"Hmm, I guess we could try to teach you emotional regulation? I'm not sure. Merry, do you have any ideas?"
"You're talking about Developmental Psychology there, not Relative Psychology. It's not exactly my field of expertise. Keine wouldn't use that term, but she'd probably know more. She's been educating kids for more than a decade."
"Well that may be the case, but you know I can't ask Keine about this."
"You can't ask me about what?"
From the doorway of the shack had come the voice we had wanted to avoid hearing more than any other.
"Gah! Keine!" Renko cried, hunching up as she whirled around.
"Hello Mokou. Sorry to show up unannounced and sorry that I haven't been by for a while."
"It's alright. How are you doing, Keine? You look kind of worn out."
"I'd be doing better if the two people I swore to watch over weren't getting themselves wrapped up in the affairs of youkai again! I knew you two were up to something. I saw you flying overhead so I followed you here. I just talked to Genji, he told me you had him fly you down to Hell earlier? Who's the mask tsukumogami? What in the world are you two caught up in this time? Do you realize the position it puts me in when you two do things like this?" Keine glared at us, her eyes alight with anger. We had nothing to saw in our defense. We could only stand in place and accept her criticism.
-.-.-.-.-
At that point we had no choice but to tell Keine everything. At several points during Renko's retelling of events her eyes had gone wide in surprise, but she stayed quiet until the tale was finished. Once it was, she folded her arms and frowned, a disconcerted expression on her face as she mulled the situation over.
"Overall, it's a little hard to believe such a story," she began. "But it sounds serious enough that I need to investigate for myself. I'll have a look at what happens during the hour of the ox tonight. I'm more worried about the idea of these youkai you mentioned coming into the village on a regular basis. The tanuki from the Myouren temple for example. Do you really think she's helping us out, or is this all part of her scheme?"
"It's hard to know. At the very least I'd say we can't take anything she tells us at face value. We don't have the sort of relationship with her that we do with the other members of the Myouren temple, so I'm not prepared to vouch for her." Renko admitted.
"Well it doesn't seem like she'll hurt Kokoro, at any rate, but I'm not sure she could care for her either. I think leaving Kokoro with Mokou tonight would probably be for the best, but I'd rather decide after I've talked to her too, so I suppose I'll be accompanying you to the graveyard."
Renko and I glanced at eachother uneasily, but we weren't in a position to be able to refuse her request. Keine took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her head and letting out a deep sigh. As a member of the neighborhood watch she was of course eager to bring a swift resolution to the situation. As a half-youkai living in the village herself though, I imagined that she was at least somewhat conflicted. Kokoro was certainly the cause of this Incident but she wasn't causing the problem intentionally and didn't have any ill will towards the village.
"So if I understand correctly, the problem is that without the mask of hope, the villagers' emotions are being drained from them. The situation is being kept somewhat stable because of all of the recent missionary work being done by the various religions, but in order to fix the problem for the long term we'd need to either find the missing mask or find a new source of hope for the villagers, right?"
"Oh! That's something I hadn't considered before, Keine. Mamizou's plan was to create a new mask and Merry and I had been working on finding the missing one, but we could just use you as a long-term source of hope for the village! Long-term enough that we would have time to find another solution for Kokoro, anyway."
"Me? I wasn't suggesting that I would be a new source of hope. How would that even work?"
"We'd just have to make you the village's political leader."
"I'm not a politician, Renko."
"Well that's a mark in your favour, no one likes politicians. Think about it, you're a longstanding and trusted member of the community with an established history of dedicating yourself to projects of benefit to the village, like running the school and volunteering with the neighborhood watch. I know you've faced some discrimination in the past for being half-youkai, but in these times where youkai are becoming more and more a part of daily life in the village that just makes you the perfect candidate. Everyone knows you love the village and its people and you already have connections to all of the most powerful families. It would be easy for you to drum up support, Keine. Even in the Outside world I bet you could get elected as a mayor or governor. Merry, what do you think?"
"I think it's a crazy idea but I have to admit if there was an election, I'd vote for you. Renko's not wrong about you being widely respected in the village either."
"There we go. Keine Kamishirasawa for village chief! All in favour?" Renko raised her hand and so did Mokou. I sighed and raised mine as well. Kokoro looked at all of us and raised one hand high as well, though I couldn't tell if she understood what we were doing.
Keine growled faintly, looking slightly embarrassed. "Two of you don't even live in the village..." she muttered. "I appreciate the vote of confidence but the village is the only place in Gensokyo that humans can live safely. It should be a place for humans. It wouldn't be appropriate for someone like me to be in a position of power. My nature as a were-hakutaku means that I can fight youkai and I have a deep love of history. I use those abilities to try to help the village but that's as far as it goes. If there's going to be a leader among the humans it should be a human."
"But you are a human, Keine! You're one of the most human-like humans in Gensokyo! You're sociable, thoughtful and dedicated to helping your fellow man. That's the essence of humanity!"
"Renko, stop. I'm not interested in becoming a politician or leader. I can't take on that sort of pressure. I've already got my hands full taking care of just the two of you and the students. I can't watch over every human in Gensokyo."
Perhaps Keine wasn't suited for the role -she was simply too caring. Successful politicians tended to be the sort who could sound like they were invested in a cause, but when push came to shove they were able to negotiate and give ground in ways that a true zealot couldn't. Above all, if the human village were going to have someone in charge of it, it would need to be someone adaptable. I glanced over at my partner for a moment. -No way. I'm not even going to consider the possibility. No matter how you looked at it, Renko Usami was not the sort of person you wanted in charge of anything. Reluctantly, Renko let the topic drop and Keine cleared her throat, turning towards Kokoro before speaking again.
"Let's concentrate on a more realistic solution. Now, Kokoro, you're a menreiki correct? That is, you're not just a mask tsukumogami, but specifically a tsukumogami of the masks of Noh theatre, right?"
Kokoro nodded.
"In that case you should have 66 masks in all, is that right?"
"That's right," she said from beneath the fox mask.
Keine went silent for a moment, staring down at the ground while resting her chin on her hand. "I think there might be a quick way we could solve this then."
We all blinked in surprise.
"What do you mean, Keine?" I asked.
"I think I know what Kokoro was before she became a tsukumogami." She cleared her throat again and then began speaking just as she usually did while giving one of her lectures. "Menreiki are a type of youkai that's first mentioned in the second volume of Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro, Sekien Toriyama's illustrated books of tsukumogami. It's said there that menreiki are youkai that arise only from a full set of the original 66 masks designed by Hata no Kawakatsu, the founder of Sarugaku which was the style of play that eventually gave rise to both Noh and Kyogen."
"Hata no Kawakatsu?" Renko asked.
Keine nodded. "It's the same 'Hata' that Kokoro uses as a surname, written the same way. The playwright Zeami Motokiyo wrote something about those same Noh masks in his treatise Fushikaden as well. I'm not Akyuu, so I can't recite it exactly, but if I remember correctly it went something like this: 'In a time of great turmoil, when disorder between houses and disharmony among families overcame the land, the great prince Shotoku crafted 66 masks depicting the faces of the greatest of the gods and gifted them to Hata no Kawakatsu, then bade him reenact the great deeds of the heavenly gods in dance so as to honor them and bring peace to the land. The performances were so great they not only united the people in praise of the art, but calmed the tempers of the gods and caused the land to be blessed with plenty and peace. This is the origin of the sacred Kagura passed down to later generations.'"
"Wait a minute," Renko interrupted. "You said those masks were created by 'prince Shotoku.' Is that the same prince Shotoku... Miko?"
I looked over at Renko and then to Keine, who nodded solemnly. "In all likelihood, yes. The same crown prince who's been coming into town every day recently is likely Kokoro's creator."
All eyes then turned to Kokoro, who could only stare back at us, her face as perfectly expressionless as ever.