In the end, the battle overhead finished in a decisive victory for Byakuren. The nun floated back down to the streets with a serene smile on her face and lead more than half of the crowd back to the Myouren temple with her. Those people who didn't follow along quickly dispersed in all directions and the children who had been lost in the crowd were thankfully all located, completely unharmed. Marisa, who had managed to stay on her broom but had had to admit defeat after Byakuren zig-zagged through a field of her danmaku and delivered a punch that had pierced through her wards and stopped only a few millimeters from her face, cursed explosively and flew off to the west, shaking her head.

Just as suddenly as it had started, the disturbance outside the school had melted away, leaving no trace that it had ever happened. Renko, Keine and I escorted the children back into the school, where all of the students were then released for lunch break. After that, classes resumed as usual though the children were noticeably more fidgety and harder to contain after the morning's excitement. Eventually, we managed to make it to the end of the day without further disappearances or disturbances.

As the last of the children were leaving the schoolyard Keine walked over to where Renko and I were standing, watching them leave. She had a sour expression on her face and was slipping the armband of the neighborhood watch up her sleeve as she approached.

"Can you two close up the school? I need to talk to the rest of the watch volunteers and come up with a plan of action for containing these spontaneous riots. We got lucky today, but someone could have been seriously hurt and if they're going to lead to public danmaku matches over the village, that's even worse."

I glanced over at Renko then nodded. As Keine stomped off my partner and I took the time to close all of the school doors and ensure everything was tidied up, then we retired to our office to feed the birds and chat as usual.

"I think we're going to need have a stakeout tonight too," Renko declared as I came in the door behind her. "There's no doubt in my mind that something unusual happened to us last night, and I suspect these disturbances are related. Maybe you and I were both dancing and chanting all last night. We don't have to teach tomorrow, so it's the perfect opportunity."

"It's the perfect opportunity to sleep in, Renko. I'm already sleep-deprived, I don't want to spend all night hanging out outside of a bar again. This only sounds like a good idea to you because you're half-asleep too."

"Where's your sense of adventure, Merry?" she pouted. "Besides, wouldn't Relative Psychology hold that an idea that appeals to my brain now is just as valid as one I thought up while well-rested?"

"Even putting aside the fact that you don't have any proof that anything unusual happened to us last night, you have no reason to believe anything would happen tonight. You can't just stay out until dawn every night waiting for something to happen."

"But something's already happened! At least potentially. If we stay up tonight and nothing happens even that would be valuable information! It would confirm that what happened last night really was unusual."

"Renko, all that happened was that we both ended up at home without remembering how we got there, right? Being as it was past three in the morning and we had both been drinking, I don't think that's exactly irrefutable proof of supernatural interference."

"It is unusual though. We've been out late before and it's never happened to us, right?"

"Even if it was supernatural that doesn't necessarily mean it's anything odd. It could have been Ran watching out for us and sending us home before we both got sick."

"If Ran could do that, don't you think she would have before? Like when we fell into the Underworld, maybe? I certainly don't remember anything like this ever having happened to us. Besides, it's not just us who were affected. Banki was acting like she knew something too, remember? What if the same thing's been happening to her? She probably stays out all night all the time."

"Now you're really stretching it, Renko. There's no evidence that she has anything to do with the two of us coming home without remembering it."

"There's no evidence that she doesn't either. That's why we need to investigate, Merry! Science is all about challenging your assumptions and establishing hypotheses through repeated experimentation and observation! Where would we be if Bohr or Heisenberg had decided that they'd rather sleep in?"

"You can't honestly believe that your methods are the least bit scientific, Renko. What about all of the crazy theories you've come up with based on nothing but the fact that they're possible?"

"Those are just thought experiments, devised as something that can be proposed to the masterminds responsible for Incidents in order to test the validity of a hypothesis. Its just another type of experimentation and observation, so that's fine."

"You're just making all of this up as you go, aren't you? It's like you've developed the ability to subconsciously justify every action you take because you're so used to doing things that are inexcusable. Do you even..." I stopped myself mid-sentence, remembering that there was something else I had meant to tell Renko. "Oh! Nevermind that for now. Speaking of the subconscious just reminded me. I'm pretty sure I saw Koishi earlier."

Renko's eyes went wide and she leaned toward me. "Koishi? Satori's sister? When? Where?"

"Out in the street, while Byakuren and Marisa were fighting. I only saw her for a moment, but I'm almost certain she was in the crowd along with everyone else.

"That's my high-performance boundary detector! How interesting. If she really has become a youkai of the unconscious mind I wonder if being consciously perceived is dangerous to her? More importantly though, why does she only ever appear for you and not me?"

"Well you were looking up and watching the fight at the time, Renko. I was scanning the crowd looking for the kids. Even if she were intentionally avoiding you, it's probably just because she'd rather be seen by someone willing to pay attention to her."

"That's circular reasoning though, I'd pay attention to her if I could see her. She should try appearing in front of me, I'd talk to her."

"Maybe she already has, Renko. Even for me she's pretty hard to notice. Maybe she's been up here for a while, appearing in front of you from time to time but you've been ignoring her."

Renko let out a puff of air and sat down on the floor, groaning and tilting her head back. "Hmmm. This is a lot of coincidences, Merry. Do you think that our returning home without intending to the other night might have been because of Koishi?"

"You mean do I think she manipulated our subconscious minds into going home? I suppose it's possible, but I don't know why she would or even if she could. If she had done something like that, she'd have to have done it subconsciously, wouldn't she?"

"Well there's got to be some sort of connection. We both acted without thinking and now you've just seen the youkai of thoughtlessness herself. That can't be a coincidence."

"It absolutely could be. In fact it would almost have to be. Everything Koishi does is a coincidence, isn't it? She can't plan." I said, stifling a yawn as I did so.

"Work with me here, Merry! We've got to figure this out. Maybe Koishi's the one who's been walking around the village at night, not Banki!"

"Working with you is the reason I'm so tired."

Renko continued nattering, mostly to herself, but stopping now and then to propose an idea or to try and badger me into agreeing to stay up late with her again. This went on for perhaps a quarter of an hour or so until all at once our banter was suddenly interrupted by the door of our office being thrown open with neither a greeting nor the usual routine of it getting stuck half-way along its track. That meant there was only one person who could be at the door. Sure enough, when I turned around it was Sanae Kochiya, our friend and part-time assistant standing in the doorway.

"Hello!" she said cheerily, beaming at us both.

"Oh, Sanae, welcome!"

"Am I interrupting anything?" She asked. "It sounded like you two were talking about something interesting."

"As usual, Renko's trying to talk me into doing something reckless."

"Not for no reason though, Merry. There's something odd going on in the village, Sanae. I'm trying to figure out what."

"Something odd?" Sanae asked as she kicked off her shoes and joined us in sitting on the tatami. "Do you mean those weird gatherings where everyone starts dancing all weird and singing gloomy songs?"

"Oh, you know about them? I know the Myouren temple and Divine Spirit Mausoleum have been using them to recruit new worshippers, is the Moriya shrine doing the same?"

"Us? Umm no. I had suggested it, but Lady Kanako said she 'didn't like the feel of them' and that we should wait and see."

I glanced at Renko before looking back to Sanae, a little surprised. "Are you sure that's okay?" I asked. "At this rate Byakuren and the crown prince are going to divide the village's population up between them."

"That's what I thought too!" Sanae exclaimed, suddenly incensed. "It's a major problem! I said the same thing to her yesterday, after I heard there was some sort of a disturbance in the village from the tengu. I went down and saw 68 people at the Myouren temple! I counted twice! I told her that we were going to fall behind if we didn't start promoting the Moriya shrine too, but she just laughed at me."

Sanae straightened up, taking up the same rigid posture and smug look of superiority Kanako sometimes wore while sitting in the air. "She just said 'there's no need to panic. Let's just keep our eye on the situation and see how it plays out.'" She snorted derisively.

"Well hold on a second," Renko said, cradling her chin in her hand. "Lady Kanako has branch shrines all over the village. She can hear out of those even if no one is praying to her, right? She must know what's going on then. I bet she realized that both the Taoists and the Buddhists are trying to recruit people and doesn't want to get caught in the middle. Maybe she's waiting for the two of them to start fighting so she can swoop in and pick up the pieces once everyone gets disillusioned. At this point, I kind of expect a confrontation between those two factions to be inevitable. She might have the right idea, Sanae."

Sanae sighed sadly. "Well it's not like we have a way of bringing a whole bunch of new followers up the mountain to see the shrine anyway. We've got no choice but to wait it out."

Renko folded her arms and leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. "A series of spontaneous commotions in the village, a gaggle of new worshipers for both the temple and the mausoleum, Banki suggesting there's something going on in the village at night and Koishi wandering around unseen. What could it all mean? I wonder if Lady Kanako knows more than she's letting on. I can't help but think that all of this is connected..."

"Wait, what were those last bits? Who's Banki?" Sanae asked.

Renko seemed lost in thought for a moment then suddenly lit up and turned to Sanae to respond. Or more accurately, to talk right past her question about something completely different. "Sanae! I just got a great idea. Can Merry and I have a sleepover at your shrine tonight?"

"What? Um, yeah that should be fine." I couldn't imagine what Renko was thinking now, but I had a sneaking suspicion it didn't involve me getting a proper night's sleep. "But what's the occasion?" Sanae asked.

"Tomorrow's a day off," Renko said with a grin.

"Oh. Alright. Is there a reason why you want to come to the shrine tonight though?"

"Nothing special. Sometimes it's just important to see things from a different angle is all." Renko said. The grin she flashed at me was the one that told me I was may as well try to take a nap while I could.