In addition to the mask partially covering her face, the girl was surrounded by a cloud of several other Noh masks which floated in her general vicinity. Her face was utterly expressionless, but were she to smile she might have been thought of as quite beautiful, with well-proportioned features and clear complexion. The profusion of traditional Japanese masks following her around was a bit of a mismatch for the western-style clothing she was wearing though and the lack of expression on her face gave her a mysterious air. Climbing to her full height on the roof of the watch office she muttered something, quietly at first.
"...the mask of hope..." was all I could make out.
"Sorry," Renko said, cupping a hand to her ear. "I couldn't quite hear that."
The girl spoke again, louder this time but equally expressionless. As she did so there was a faint rustling sound as the mask that had been partially covering her face - a ko-omote mask with an ambiguous expression, shot into the air and was instantly replaced by a mask drawn from the pack surrounding her. This new mask was a hannya - horned and leering.
"Where is the mask of hope?" she asked. Her tone was perfectly even and without inflection, but her body language conveyed a clear sense of accusation to the question as she charged toward the edge of the roof and seemed poised to leap into the air.
"What? I don't know what that is, but if you're looking for a fight, you'll find one!" Sanae declared, floating back up off of the ground to hover directly in front of her. The mask on the girl's face again shuffled, this time being replaced with a surprised looking one as she stopped short at the roof's edge.
"Calm down, both of you," Mamizou said, shoving an arm between them and pushing both of them back a step.
Once more the mask concealing half of the girl's face shuffled, this time trading for a golden-eyed monkey mask as she retreated behind Mamizou. Beneath the mask, her actual face hadn't twitched a bit.
"Let me at least introduce you first," Mamizou said, glancing from one to the other as she pressed the two girls apart. This girl here is the cause of this Incident. Mind telling 'em your name for me?"
The mask cycled to a fox's face and the girl stepped out from behind her. "My name is Kokoro. Hata no Kokoro, the youkai who commands all emotions."
At that declaration Sanae blinked, then looked down at Renko, who shrugged. I wasn't sure what to make of it myself.
Kokoro's mask shifted again, to the uba this time, withered and mournful. "I've lost control of my emotions now though... without the mask of hope, I can't..." Her masks, along with her body language were frequently changing, even if her face and tone of voice were utterly deadpan. As I write these sentences I wonder if I can really convey to you, dear reader, just how strange a situation this was. Her emotions appeared to be changing by the moment and as each mask slipped into position on her face, her stance, her gait, her posture and every outward indicator of appearance would shift to match the emotion the mask portrayed. Every indicator, that is, except for her face, which seemed almost more wooden than any of the masks. That perfect poker face remained stoic throughout, even as the clever carving of the masks she wore revealed subtle nuances to the emotions depending on how she tilted her head to reflect the moonlight. It's not very professional of me, but I must admit that my initial impression of her, standing there in the street that night was that she was a very strange sort of monster.
"Miss Kokoro, would you by any chance be a menreiki?" Renko asked.
The mask cycled again, this time to the smiling face of a fortune god. "That's right. A youkai arisen from a set of Noh masks."
"She's supposed to have the ability to manipulate emotions" Mamizou explained. "But with one of her masks missing, she's just making 'em all go out of control. That's what's been going on in the village for the last few days."
"You mean the riots we've been seeing are her fault?" Renko asked.
"Yep. And the local preachers have all been swooping in to capitalize on the turmoil rather than doing anything to actually solve the problem." Mamizou confirmed with a wry smile.
"Hold on, how long has this been going on?" Renko asked. "I thought people were just letting their emotions out because of all of the recent natural disasters and political instability."
"Yeah!" Sanae agreed. "Lady Kanako said that all of this was just an anxiety bubble."
"Oh, that's not a bad way of putting it," Mamizou said, hopping down off of the roof and gesturing at Sanae with the stem of her pipe. "A bubble is exactly what it is right now. People's emotions are all blown up because of what's been going on and the pressure inside that bubble just keeps increasing. Right now the religious folks have all been bleeding those emotions off every time they get too wild, but a balloon can only get so big. If there's no release valve then sooner or later it's all gonna pop. That release valve is what's gone missing. Kokoro's mask of hope."
"That sounds awfully suspicious," Sanae said, narrowing her eyes. "First everyone in the village starts losing hope, then this mask of hope goes missing and now everyone's emotions are out of control because of one youkai? I don't buy it. What's really going on here? Even Lady Suwako and Lady Kanako couldn't affect the hearts of every villager all at once!"
Kokoro glared from the rooftop towards Sanae, her mask shifting back to the hannya once again. "I didn't mean to do it." She shouted, completely without emotion. "These masks are part of me. I've never lost one before. I don't know how I could have..." she said, the uba mask sliding into place again. "Without the mask of hope, I can't control what people are feeling..."
"I think I get it," Renko declared, turning toward Mamizou for confirmation. "It's not that Kokoro is making people angry or sad or scared, it's that with one of her masks missing, there's a hole in her and she's sucking up other people's emotions to fill the gap. Normally people have a balance of several different emotions working on them at all times, but with Kokoro draining some of those out, they get unbalanced, and whatever's left overwhelms them, right?"
"Oh I see!" Sanae said, drifting back down to the ground once again. "It's like the pressure inside an airplane. It's much higher inside than the air pressure outside so if a door opens and the cabin depressurizes, it looks like everything's being sucked out the door, but really things are being blown out from the pressure inside. I saw that on National Geographic's Mayday."
"I guess that's about right," Mamizou said with a nod.
"So then all we have to do is equalize the pressure?" Sanae asked, tilting her head. "Once she's absorbed enough hope, things will go back to normal?"
"No," Kokoro interjected, leaping down from the roof to join the rest of us. "Without my mask of hope I can't hold on to anything I absorb. This will keep happening until we find it."
"And it gets worse than that," Mamizou added, exhaling a cloud of smoke. "People only have so much in them to give. Little by little the villagers are being drained not just of hope but of all their emotions. Eventually, they'll run out."
"They'll run out of emotions? What does that mean?"
Kokoro's mask shifted back to the hannya once more, but it was Mamizou who explained. "Take a look around. Every night, during the hour of the ox, the power of youkai is at its peak. This pressure difference between Kokoro's missing emotions and the people of the village gets worse every day but right now is when it's at its peak. Come dawn, everyone wakes back up a little bit more unbalanced every time. Soon, everyone will be rioting all the time and after that they'll eventually all be like this, day or night. It's just hope that's missing right now, but losing even one emotion is enough to drive humans crazy eventually. If they loose 'em all, well..." rather than finishing her sentence she simply rapped on Keine's blank mask with one knuckle. The mask made a wooden knocking sound, but Keine didn't react in the least.
"You mean everyone's going to become a zombie?" Sanae cried in distress.
"Well they're still all alive. But fear and awe are emotions and if this spreads to everyone in the village, then we youkai and your gods won't be any more."
Sanae looked horrified at the thought. "Boss! This is Gensokyo's biggest crisis ever! We have to exterminate that masked girl right now!"
"Hold on, hold on!" Renko stepped in front of Sanae spreading her arms wide. "That wouldn't help any and I'm betting it would only make the situation worse." She said, looking again to Mamizou for confirmation.
"I can't be sure. But if you fought her and happened to break another of her masks, it certainly wouldn't help matters."
Sanae's shoulders slumped even further. "Well what do we do then?"
Renko looked from Mamizou to Sanae, then to Kokoro before finally turning to Keine, then reaching up and pressing her hat firmly down on her head. "The only thing we can do," she declared. "We need to restore Kokoro's lost hope."