"You want to do what?"

The speaker was Patchouli Knowledge, who was looking up from her book at us with a suspicious expression. As might be expected, we were speaking to her in the library where she made her home, in the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Given what Renko was asking, I could hardly blame her for glaring at us.

"Cause an Incident," Renko said blithely. "Just a small one. It doesn't have to be anything as obvious as covering Gensokyo in a red mist, but I think Remilia would appreciate having the opportunity to fight Reimu again. It's been a decade now, hasn't it?"

"What are you planning to do, human?" she asked, her eyes narrowing even further.

-.-.-.-.-

It was an obvious ploy. So obvious I probably don't need to explain what Renko was planning here. As such, Patchouli seemed to realize we had an ulterior motive immediately. The potential existed that the amber in our possession might be something that rightly belonged at the Hakurei shrine. If so, it was a dangerous artifact capable of piercing through the Great Hakurei Barrier and as such not something we could tell anyone about or risk letting it fall into the wrong hands. At the same time though, that artifact was something intensely important to us and our only lead on the possibility of finding away home. We couldn't just let Reimu confiscate it, and if she found out that we had it or even realized that we were looking for something like it, her intuition would almost certainly guide her to do just that.

So, we were stuck with an object that was possibly dangerous, possibly stolen, possibly a tool and which we had no idea how to use. Renko had suggested that our first step should be to try to discern if it really was the Hakurei shrine's shintai or not. To do that, we had to find out if there was another shintai inside of the innermost shrine at Reimu's place or not.

We had been to the Hakurei shrine countless times over the years of course, but we had only ever set foot in the residential part of the shrine where Reimu lived which was usually open to public. In front of that residence, just behind the donation box at the top of the stairs leading up to the veranda that went all the way around the building was the inner shrine. Supposedly that's where the Hakurei god was actually enshrined but we had never been inside and I had never seen Reimu go in there or even open the doors either. Like the residence, the inner shrine had been destroyed during the Earthquake Incident but had since been rebuilt. Presumably, whatever had been inside of it must have survived the building's collapse. Even during all of the festivals, parties and religious ceremonies we had seen take place at the Hakurei shrine, the doors to the innermost shrine had never been opened as far as I could recall. Now, suddenly, we had reason to need to know what was in there.

Getting inside was easier said than done, of course. Reimu was a frighteningly insightful person, with an almost eerie intuition for anything out of the ordinary. Sneaking into the innermost shrine while she wasn't looking or was asleep was out of the question. I didn't doubt that she'd come to investigate right away if we tried. We didn't have Sakuya's ability to move during stopped time or Seiga's ability to cleanly pass through walls, nor even Koishi's ability to move about completely undetected. Moreover, we couldn't risk involving anyone else in the act of investigating something so potentially dangerous, so Renko had come up with the plan of looking around the shrine while Reimu was occupied somewhere else. I had suggested getting Marisa to help us with that, as I didn't doubt she could come up with something that would drag Reimu away from her usual schedule of sweeping the shrine grounds and drinking tea on the veranda.

"No, we can't ask her," Renko had said, shaking her head. "Marisa's a treasure hunter. She'd be curious what we're up to for sure and if she realizes that we have or are looking for a jewel there's no way she won't poke her nose in and complicate things."

And so, it was decided that we needed to create a distraction somewhere far enough away from the shrine that Reimu would have to leave, and compelling enough that she'd have to investigate. That would require the assistance of someone strong, who would be willing to risk getting exterminated. The ideal choice of candidate seemed obvious.

-.-.-.-.-

Patchouli glared at us over the top of the grimoire she had been reading. "You're planning to do something at the shrine aren't you? And you're going to rile Remi up again as a distraction. What are you planning? I doubt there's anything worth stealing at that shrine. Whatever you're planning, you might be able to get Remi interested, but I don't see how I'm obligated to help you in any way."

"Well I think I could make the case that you're already involved here whether you like it or not, but that doesn't matter in this circumstance anyway, miss Patchouli. I'm fully prepared to pay you for your services. In a coin that's actually of value to you, of course. The Hifuu Detective Agency would be happy to share information on certain highly sensitive topics with you in exchange for your assistance."

"Sensitive topics? What do you mean?"

"Miss Patchouli, do you have any interest in or knowledge of the nature of the deity that resides within the Hakurei shrine?"

Patchouli's mouth went from a frown to a carefully neutral line, but her brow furrowed at Renko's words.

"The Hakurei god? What could you possibly intend to steal from them? Do you fancy yourself to be Nick Velvet now, only stealing worthless things?"

"That's a rather harsh way to talk about a god," Renko replied, grinning sarcastically back at her.

Nick Velvet was a character created by Edward D. Hoch, by the way. A thief who only steals worthless things and spends as much time solving mysteries as committing heists. Did Patchouli have his books somewhere in this library? I'd have to make a point of looking for them later.

"Recently, our investigations have revealed that the Hakurei god or its shintai may have been involved in bringing my partner and I to Gensokyo from the Outside world," Renko continued. "If you recall, it just so happened that when we arrived here, we ended up landing in this very library rather than anywhere else in Gensokyo. Not in Muenzuka where Outsiders and forgotten objects appear all the time, not at the Hakurei shrine where that god and its shintai reside, but here, miss Patchouli, right in the middle of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library. Your library. That's an odd coincidence, don't you think?"

All hint of any expression disappeared from Patchouli's face. Seeing that, Renko tugged the brim of her hat down and grinned.

"So miss Patchouli, let me ask you again: do you have any interest in or knowledge of the nature of the deity that resides in the Hakurei shrine?"

-.-.-.-.-

Renko's reasoning for involving Patchouli in our plan was more involved than it simply being true that it wouldn't be difficult to get Remilia to participate. She had been ruminating on the significance of the fact that we had first appeared in Gensokyo in the library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion ever since we had heard from Doremy that the amber was the Hakurei shrine's shintai. What had, up until that moment, seemed like an insignificant coincidence suddenly took on new meaning in light of this clue.

To Renko, the reasoning she had presented to Doremy in the dream we had shared was still her working theory. According to her, the Hakurei shrine's shintai was a piece of amber containing the spiritual power of the Outside world and the amber I had given to Sumireko and then later retrieved in a dream must be a different jewel, presumably one containing the spiritual power of Gensokyo. According to her theory, the two were linked and so if we were going to end up being transported between worlds by these stones, it would make sense that we would naturally travel from the location of one stone to the location of the other. The fact that we hadn't done that was significant in her mind, a sign of some interference or abnormality.

It was, of course, nothing but supposition. Speculation built on top of speculation. It wasn't even something you could reasonably call a 'deduction', and moreover, it offered no explanation for how or why we had travelled eighty years backward in time upon arriving here. Despite all of that, Renko was nearly certain that she was on to something.

Her surety had to do with another supposition of hers, namely her theories on what had really happened during the Scarlet Mist Incident. I assume there wouldn't be anyone reading this case file who hadn't read my first story, but just in case, I'll say that what follows here reveals and discusses my partner's conclusions regarding that case, megalomaniacal as they might be.

-.-.-.-.-

Patchouli offered no response to Renko's question. Seeing that, Renko let out a theatrical sigh and began to pace back and forth, wandering about in front of the desk Patchouli was reading at and elucidating her points, looking every inch the great detective.

"This is, admittedly something I should have investigated more thoroughly a long time ago, but why is it that we emerged here of all places when we arrived in Gensokyo? I remember at the time you gave us an explanation, or rather I should say, your little devil did so. She told us that we had fallen into the library through a hole you had left open when bringing this mansion into Gensokyo."

"But that was a lie that you told her, wasn't it, miss Knowledge? I'm not sure if you ever intended for that story to get back to us of if you were just trying to shut Koakuma up, but that's not what happened. I wonder if there ever really was a hole in some barrier here or not? After all, this mansion isn't really from the Outside world, is it? I still stand by the story I told you back then, if you can remember it. I think this mansion was built in Gensokyo, or rather it was created here, all at once. But I do actually believe you that there was a hole in the barrier here. In fact, that probably is exactly how we ended up where we did. The question is why was there a hole? You're not sloppy, Patchouli. Even if this mansion had been brought here from the Outside world, it would have been here for almost six months by the time we showed up in it. There's no way you would let something like a gap to another world stand open and uncontrolled in your library for that long. As such, the only conclusion that makes any sense is that the hole we fell through was something newly made. Most likely something newly made by you. Why would you do that, miss Knowledge?"

"Hold on a minute," Patchouli wheezed slightly as she rose to her feet. "How can you talk about things that happened a decade ago as if they were yesterday? Even my memory isn't that good."

"Ah well, I can thank my wonderful assistant for that. She happens to not only have a good memory but a skilled hand for writing. She's been recording all of our case files since we arrived here. We can sell you a copy of some of her books, if you like."

Renko looked over at me and smiled, her eyes sparkling. I think anyone would have blushed in such a situation.

Patchouli's chair creaked as the last of her weight left it and she rose up into the air, bringing herself to eye level with Renko. "That's all well and good for you, miss detective, but those events were of no import to me and as such, I can barely remember them. What exactly is it that you're accusing me of?"

"I'm not accusing you of anything, miss Knowledge. At least not yet. The fact of the matter is I don't have any more clues to go on at this point. If I'm right and this mansion really is an elaborate cage created by the Dragon God to trap a pair of powerful demons, however, then you opening a hole in the barrier seems pretty suspicious, doesn't it? Or perhaps your intention wasn't to let something out but to call something in to Gensokyo? If that were the case, you ought to tell us. It would make your actions seem less like your were intentionally trying to contravene the will of the Administrator. Maybe you were trying to summon someone else and got us instead. That would be an understandable mistake. Then again, maybe you're really the mastermind behind everything that's happened to us here? Maybe you pulled us from our own world to act as observers who could record the events you and Remilia were planning from an Outside world perspective. If that were the case, that would certainly be stepping over the line into the youkai sage's territory, don't you think? What's the real story here, Patchouli?"

"...All of these deductions of yours are based on nothing more than a fantasy. You don't have any proof of any of this."

"But absolute and incontestable proof is itself a fantasy, is it not? Everything depends on context, and the theories I advance are just the most plausible explanations I can come up with based on observed reality. You said it yourself, miss Knowledge, all those years ago: 'In this land of fantasy, it's the story, not the facts that are true, even when it isn't.'"

Patchouli remained silent, glaring at Renko as she drifted in the air.

"Now, before I come up with another outrageous story of my own, why don't you see if you can tell me a more believable one? If you know anything about why Merry and I ended up in Gensokyo or even if you have any sort of a theory, could I ask you to share it with us?"