And so, by later that morning the neighborhood watch office in the village square had become the new, temporary home of the Hifuu Detective Agency.
"Hey there, rookies. Welcome to the force." Kotohime said with her usual pleasant but listless drawl as we came in the door.
"Hello Kotohime. Aren't you going to go after that amanojaku too? Chasing down Gensokyo's most wanted criminal seems like it would be right up your alley."
"I wanted to go. It would have been the perfect chance to collar a perp. Do some real police work, you know? But Keine told me I had to stay here and look after you two. Police have to follow the orders of their superior officers."
"Aw, that has to be a real burden. How about this though, Kotohime: if you want to skip town and go bounty hunting and forget about making us part of the neighborhood watch, we'll cover for you. We won't tell Keine if you don't."
"That wouldn't be following orders. Besides, there's a chance that the amanojaku could end up trying to hide inside the village. If they do, then they're all mine." Kotohime said that with the same sleepy drawl she always spoke with, but her smile was a little disconcerting as she produced her gleamingly polished handcuffs from the sleeve of her kimono, then tucked them back away. Renko should have expected a response like that. Keine wouldn't be Keine if she hadn't made absolutely sure she could trust her subordinates before leaving them in charge for a while. "Oh, by the way, you've got your armband on crooked. You have to pin it like this," she said, reaching over to firmly fix Renko's band in place. From the way Renko sighed as it was pinned in position over her trenchcoat you'd have thought Kotohime was placing the handcuffs on her rather than a cloth armband.
Sanae, of course, had left us behind and was probably on her way to go hunt for Seija on her own by now. Renko had revealed her theories about Seija's role in the tsukumogami Incident to Sanae previously, but that hadn't dissuaded her. "Even if she's not the mastermind, there's still a reward for catching her and that could mean more faith for the Moriya shrine," she had said with a shrug. Not that I minded her going off on her own. If Sanae were to tag along with us and try to act as a member of the neighborhood watch instead, I'm sure things would end up getting very complicated very quickly.
"By the way," Kotohime continued, "Keine mentioned something about you trying to save someone. What's that about? Aren't you normally the sort to put people in danger rather the other way around?" She asked, twirling her finger in a circle.
"I have issues with that characterization of me, but to answer you question, this is a request that our agency received from a client. That client happens to be a person of very few words, however, and so unfortunately they neglected to tell us who they intend for us to save, exactly. Merry and I have been trying to figure that out all morning."
"Oh. That sounds like a kind of shady client. Should I go and talk to them?"
"No, even if I could tell you who our client was, I wouldn't want you to have to meet them, Kotohime. What would you say if you were to meet them though?"
"Well to start with, I'd ask what they meant by 'saving' someone."
"Oh, I hadn't thought about that. That word could have multiple meanings, couldn't it?" I said with surprise. I thought about it to myself. I had taken the youkai sage's request to mean that there was someone in mortal danger whose life we were meant to preserve, but it could just have easily meant that there was someone who needed help completing some vital task or even that there was someone in a financial pinch. If it was that last one we wouldn't be much help though. Trying to figure out precisely what the youkai sage might have meant based on a single word seemed like a bit of a stretch though, something like the exacting and overwrought level of analysis you might find in Harry Kemelman's The Nine Mile Walk.
"Well, if your client was asking you to save someone, I would assume it would mean that someone needed saving in a way that you two could conceivably do it, right? I wouldn't expect you to be able to help if the problem was that the person you needed to save needed a bunch of money for example, right?"
"That would be impossible." Renko and I both responded at once.
"Exactly. If it were that sort of thing, your client would have gone to a banker, or if it was a spiritual problem, they would have gone to a priest. If they were being attacked they would have gone to Keine or the Hakurei miko, and if it was a medical problem they'd go to a doctor." She lolled her head from one side to the other and tapped her chin in thought. "So what kind of problem would they come to you for?"
"That's a good question." Renko said, hunching in on herself. "And they came specifically to you, Merry. What's something you can do that no one else can?"
"They came to me, but they asked me to talk to you, Renko. It must be something to do with your talents."
"Huh, well then the most obvious answer is that they must have heard of my established track record as Gensokyo's top negotiator."
"What track record? You're a negotiator who only butts in when your services are unwanted and you've only been able to get parties that already weren't opposed to working together to cooperate. You're more of a project manager or a coordinator than a negotiator, Renko."
She made a face at that. "Ew. Don't say that, Merry, that sounds like I belong in a corporate job somewhere."
"You already wear a tie every day, Renko."
"I was actually thinking it must have something to do with all the youkai you guys know," Kotohime interrupted. "Maybe someone in the village really wants to do business with a youkai."
"Hmm, I suppose that could be it," Renko admitted, crossing her arms and looking up. "But that doesn't really help us narrow down who it could be much."
"Well, you think on it." Kotohime said, nodding to herself. "I'll go and make tea." Saying that, she stood up and shuffled out of the room.
Once she was gone, I turned and whispered to my partner. "Renko, don't you think this situation is probably just straightforward? The youkai sage said we'd need to find a clue that would lead us to Sumireko Usami. Wouldn't it make sense if this commission of hers is related and Sumireko's the person we're intended to save?"
"When she said that didn't she say something about our knowledge of the Outside world too?" Renko whispered back. "Maybe there's something we know because we're from the future that could save someone in the village. What's supposed to be happening in history right now? It's 2014. Isn't that when the coronavirus pandemic started?"
"I'm pretty sure that's a few years later. Besides, if an infectious disease were to spread throughout the village I would think Eirin would be able to handle that, don't you?"
"I'm not even sure how something like that could get here now that I think about it. It's pretty rare that anyone from the Outside world shows up in the village and once someone is here they can't go back. If someone infected showed up in Gensokyo they'd probably be too sick to make it from Muenzuka to the village, wouldn't they?"
"Well they could enter Gensokyo from somewhere else. We did. Or maybe they'd meet a friendly youkai who might help them out. I don't think Raiko would attack an Outsider on sight, for example."
"Oh! Merry that's it!"
"What's it?"
"Raiko! The youkai sage said that it wasn't a bad idea for us to have focused on her and she had seen Sumireko in the Outside world through her user."
"But the Administrator also said that Raiko was a dead end, Renko."
"Right, but think about why she was a good place to start the investigation! She uses a tool from the Outside world and through it she was able to catch glimpses of the other side of the barrier. Her tool is just a drum, but objects can pass through the Hakurei barrier without issue. What if there were a tool for communication that had connected across the barrier? If there were something like that, then someone on this side might have used it to talk to my great aunt! Maybe that's the person we have to save! It would be someone in need of our unique knowledge who, if we save them, would lead us to Sumireko! That has to be it!"
Renko glanced toward the door to make sure Kotohime hadn't come back yet then tugged the brim of her hat down and leaned toward me to whisper again. "Hey Merry. I know we agreed not to contact my great aunt in case we were the cause of her coma, but what if there's someone else here in Gensokyo who's already reached out to her? There could be someone in the village who's set the events that end her life in motion even though we've restrained ourselves."
"You think there's someone here who could have taught her about Gensokyo? If that's true, then she might try to come here to meet them."
"Exactly! And by doing so, she might endanger both them and herself! That's probably who we need to save, Merry! We just need to find out who it is!" Renko stood up.
At just that moment Kotohime came back through the door, carrying a tray with three cups of tea. She looked over at the excited expression on Renko's face. "Oh, did you figure something out?"
"Yes. I think we should begin our work as members of the neighborhood watch right away, and there's no training like on-the-job experience. Please excuse us, boss. Merry and I are going out on patrol!"
Renko grabbed my hand and began walking swiftly out of the room. She brushed right past Kotohime, but stopped short with a gasp of surprise as she did. I looked over to see Kotohime's hand clamped tight around the shoulder of Renko's trenchcoat, holding her in place as her fingers pressed into the fabric.
"Yeah, naaah~" Kotohime drawled sleepily. "I don't think you're gonna do that."
"Um Kotohime, could you let me go? Duty calls, and all."
"One of Keine's other orders was that I make sure that you don't use your position as a member of the watch to do anything foolish or selfish. So I think the best thing to do would be to just sit down and have some tea."
"But, the patrol..." Renko whined weakly, wincing as Kotohime's grip tightened even further. Kotohime's eyes were closed and the placid smile on her face had taken on a slightly frightening edge.
"I had to miss out on the biggest case of my life for this, Renko. I think the least you could do is sit down and have some tea with me before we start our patrols." Beneath Kotohime's hand the trenchcoat creaked slightly.
"Ah, that hurts, that hurts! Okay, let's have some tea! Tea for everyone!"
"Oh, that sounds nice." Kotohime drawled, releasing her. Renko rubbed her shoulder as she turned and headed back toward the table. I could only shrug my shoulders and sigh at Renko. Was it really so surprising to learn that the volunteering Keine had planned for us with the watch wasn't much different than a temporary jail sentence? Either way, Kotohime was not someone to be trifled with, despite her usual demeanor. I joined them both at the table, resigned to enjoying a nice, leisurely cup of tea.