"So Renko, what kind of tool from the Outside world could have made its way to Gensokyo to establish communication, do you think? We brought cellphones here, but they never worked at all."

"Well of course not, that would be too convenient. What kind of fantasy world would this be if you could just call home?"

"Isn't there a scene in Yu Yu Hakusho where that happens though? I'm pretty sure Kurama calls his family from the demon world at one point."

"Well, I still don't think it's a phone."

After a long and leisurely cup of tea, over which Kotohime had briefed us on the day-to-day duties and expectations of the members of the neighborhood watch we had set out on patrol with her following close behind us and Renko and I walking shoulder to shoulder through the streets. As light as the simple black cloth armbands of the watch were on our shoulders, they seemed to carry a rather uncomfortable weight to them in a social sense: I couldn't hold Renko's hand while we were wearing them, which felt surprisingly odd as we strolled through the streets. It had been a long time since I had been bothered by the occasional odd looks from villagers commenting on my eyes, my height or my hair color, but with this armband pinned to my dress people were staring at me in an entirely different way. Crowds parted to let me through and not a single face on the street looked to me with any warmth or happiness. My very presence seemed to make everyone nervous. For the first few years after we had come to Gensokyo I had had to learn to endure the sound of people whispering behind my back as I passed or openly discussing if it was okay for someone like me to be acting as a public servant in my role as a teacher at the temple school. Now no one held such discussions but seeing me with the watch's armband, people gave me the same sort of looks I had become familiar with back then. 'Who is this person, and what gives someone like her the right to be in charge of us?' was a statement I could imagine hearing over and over from the people we passed.

Renko and I were mainly supposed to just be a visible presence on the streets at the moment, but we were also supposed to be looking out for youkai who might be blending in with the villagers, or anyone trying to sell stolen property or dangerous goods or a handful of known fugitives or missing persons that Kotohime had given us descriptions of. Instead, almost as soon as we had set out, Renko had returned to talking about the task Yukari had set before us, whispering to me occasionally as Kotohime walked along a few steps behind us, smiling blithely. I suspect she was just there to make sure Renko didn't abandon her duties and run away. She wasn't doing anything threatening, but given how I had seen her move in Suzunaan a few months back I doubted it would be possible for either of us to escape from her.

"The real question," Renko was whispering, "is how we can go about finding whatever tool is being used to communicate with the Outside world."

"Well, if it is really a tool from the Outside world, the odds are good that whoever's using it got it at Korindo, right? Maybe we could go ask Mr. Rinnosuke about it." I whispered in reply.

"Kosuzu collects lots of things from the Outside world too. If there were two copies of an Outside world book do you think maybe someone could use that to communicate? Writing in the margins along with someone else or something? Oh, and Akyuu has that phonograph! She must be getting records for it from somewhere. Does old media like that have a recording function?"

"I would kind of think that all of those people are too familiar to us. If the youkai sage had wanted us to go see any of them, she could have just told us their names. That whole bit about the iceberg makes me think that there's probably someone we've never met before that she wants us to find..."

Renko nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. Either that or someone who's been in our blind spot this whole time..." she glanced back over her shoulder, then turned back to me. "Hey, Merry, didn't Kotohime say she collects weird things? Maybe she has something from the Outside world."

"If it were her, I don't think she'd need us to save her, Renko."

"Hmm, maybe you're right. I suppose since we're essentially looking for a victim rather than a mastermind this time around there's no reason to assume that they would be nice enough to adhere to Knox's Ten Commandments. There's probably lots of mysteries like that where someone who's important but not the culprit doesn't ever show up until the final chapter."

"Oh! Like Miyuki Miyabe's Kasha or William Irish's The Phantom Woman, in both of those the character they spend the whole book looking for doesn't say a word until the very end. I always found those stories a little unsatisfying. When the detective has never met the subject of their search, as a reader you never know what sort of clues to look for in the narrative because you're never sure if the description the detective is working with is accurate or not. Mysteries like that become much more about memory, since you don't know what's a clue or not until all the pieces are in place."

"A lot of Irish's stories have extravagant elements like that though, in Deadline At Dawn the entire premise of having to solve the mystery in just three hours makes no sense when you think about it. Let's get back on topic though. What kind of device could be used to communicate between the Outside world and Gensokyo?"

"Well if it's not a phone it could be some other sort of electronic tool. The Internet is around by this point, but I doubt anyone in the village has a computer. The only place I can think of with any power is the Moriya shrine."

"Exactly. It would have to be a means of communication that someone living in the village would know how to use. We know its not going to be a messenger of any sort, so what else is there? Could someone be signaling to the Outside world with smoke or mirrors maybe?"

"Maybe Raiko could use her drums for something like Morse code. If she was using thunder that could probably be heard a long way off..."

"Boom boom flash instead of dot dot dash? I suppose that would work if someone were nearby, but how would they reply? I have another idea. Do you remember the stuff we saw in my great aunt's room? She had all those weird cards and books on cleromancy and divination. My grandfather thought she was a psychic. What if she's communicating with Gensokyo through a crystal ball or something?"

"Hey you two, you're supposed to be looking for trouble and patrolling, not just chatting all day. Even if it's only temporary, please try to take this seriously, you're wearing the armbands and everything," Kotohime called out from behind us.

I stepped away from Renko and shrunk back guiltily. Our search would have to wait until after we'd finished our stint with the neighborhood watch. Hopefully a delay of a few days wouldn't matter. Maybe we might even spot something unusual while doing our patrols. You never know who you might pass on the streets, after all.

"Oh? Rikako? You're back in town!"

I heard Kotohime's voice call out again from behind us and turned around to see that she had stopped in her tracks and was talking animatedly to a girl in a long white lab coat who she had grabbed by the sleeve.

"Hey don't try to run away from me, Rikako. You've finally come back to the village after so long, there's no need to leave now. Unless you think I'm going to arrest you? Hmm. I wasn't planning to but is there a reason why I should? It would keep you from leaving again."

"I was trying to leave so I could avoid talking to you!" the girl in the lab coat said exasperatedly. "You're annoying, but you can't arrest me just for wanting to go."

"Hmm, trying to leave the village isn't a crime, but what sort of a friend disappears for years and then runs away as soon as they see someone they know?"

"Since when are you my friend!?"

The girl in the lab coat shoved her glasses back on her nose and set an almost performatively large frown on her round face. It reminded me of the argument Renko and I had seen between Kagerou, Wakasagihime and Sekibanki.

Before either of them could say anything more, Renko stepped forward. "Pardon me for butting in," she said, "but would you be the scientist that Kotohime has mentioned from time to time? If so, I've been wanting to meet you for a while. My name's Renko Usami, I'm something of a scientist myself, specializing in theoretical physics."

Kotohime had in fact mentioned knowing a scientist on a few occasions, though I don't think I've related any of them in these records before. Apparently, she was someone who had used to live in the village but had left some number of years ago to live on her own and pursue some form of 'science' of her own devising. As with any villager who dared to attempt to live outside of the safety of the walls, most people assumed that she was a lost cause, likely already eaten by some monstrosity or another, but Kotohime either saw or heard reports of her every now and again, indicating that she was still surviving out there somewhere and, from the sounds of things, still pursuing her eccentric studies. With how the village was divided into sections, each with their own communities that rarely intermingled I wondered how long she might have been in town without Kotohime knowing. I suppose one nice thing about being a member of the watch was that it meant you'd have a chance to get to know people in every district of the village. I wondered briefly if this could be the person the youkai sage had intended for us to save.

Rikako, the girl in the lab coat, was looking Renko over, her frown just as pronounced as ever. "You're a member of the neighborhood watch," she said distastefully, eyeing Renko's armband. "What sort of a scientist becomes a police officer?"

"Oh, she's not really a member of the watch," Kotohime clarified. "Not yet anyway. These girls are just a couple of troublemakers who teach at the school sometimes and run a shady detective agency other times. My boss wanted to see if she could make them into upstanding citizens."

"You don't have to put it that way, Kotohime, but yes. I'm the director and chief investigator of the Hifuu Detective Agency by trade. A girl's got to make a living somehow and I figure detective work is similar to science in that both fields are concerned with uncovering the truth, right? This is my partner Merry."

The bespectacled girl hesitated for a moment before briefly extending a hand. "...Rikako Asakura."

Renko smiled and shook her hand. "What field of scientific research are you pursuing, if I might ask? Perhaps I could be of some assistance if there's some overlap between our areas of study."

"No thanks." Rikako said, abruptly withdrawing her hand.

"Oh? Why not?"

"I take it from your manner of speech that you're an Outsider. 'Theoretical Physics' would be a type of Outside world science, I take it? I think I recall Kotohime mentioning something about you."

"Well it's true that I was educated in the Outside world. I've been a resident of Gensokyo for a long time now though."

"You're still approaching science from an Outsider perspective though. I can't allow that kind of limited thinking to taint my research. You're as poisonous to my models as any of those so called 'scientific journals' at Suzunaan. I don't trust any scientific principle I haven't divined myself."

Renko blinked in surprise at that. "Ah, I think I see. You're probably dismissive of Outside world models because they can't explain many phenomena that can be observed here in Gensokyo, correct?"

"Precisely. That's why I don't need any help from an Outsider."

Renko grunted at that brusque dismissal and scratched at her head, unsure of how to respond. I'm certainly not an expert at any of the physical sciences, but I had to admit Rikako seemed like she had a point to me. Renko had tried many times over the years we had been here to devise a model that could explain Gensokyo's existence or the various inexplicable phenomena within it as some sort of specialized case of known physical laws. Even with her self-proclaimed Planck-like intelligence she had never been able to do so. It seemed like a rational conclusion to assume that what was holding her back was her reliance on the models from the Outside world. Maybe. I'm not a physicist.

"Sorry, Rikako can be a little stubborn," Kotohime said, smiling.

"Well I understand where you're coming from, but if you're not interested in working with me, I might still be of service to you. I happen to know some of the kappa, and I could introduce you to them if you like. I'd be interested just to listen in while the two of you discussed science from the perspective of two Gensokyo natives."

"Absolutely not!" Rikako said, looking suddenly aghast. "The purpose of my scientific inquiry is to devise a reproducible understanding of the world as it is experienced by humans, for the use of other humans! I'll admit that the engineering and technological sophistication of the kappa is more advanced than what's available here in the village but youkai like them are the enemy! I'm not sharing my theories with the kappa!"

Trying to devise an entire system of scientific thought on your own without sharing anything with peers seemed like a very difficult path to tread to me. In fact, I'm not sure if you could call inquiry into the nature of the physical world without peer review science at all, no matter how systematic the approach. If anything, that sounded more like the sort of experimental, ad-hoc magical practice Marisa favored.

"Science by humans, for humans eh...?" Renko said, resting her chin between her thumb and forefinger.

Rikako nodded. "Yes. That's my goal. Outsider scientific findings are useless to me, but I respect the scientific method and system of thinking that underlies those findings. Logic, reasoning and experimental verification are valid practices and critical to building a solid framework of knowledge. Importing foreign ideas into my frameworks, whether they came from the kappa or the Outside world would be completely counterproductive though. Only through hard work, repeated experimentation and observation can humans hope to build up a body of knowledge to pass on to their descendants. Creating that knowledge is my life's work, and it's of absolutely paramount importance. Without that, humans will remain enslaved by youkai and dependent on the gifts of individuals like this meat-headed idiot or the close-minded Hakurei miko in order to survive, and that sort of power is both unreliable and easily co-opted toward operating for the benefit of the youkai. Just like you do, Kotohime."

"Keeping the peace here in the village doesn't make me a bad guy, Rikako." Kotohime drawled.

"It makes you complicit in the Administrator's schemes! Logic, reason, and the development of spiritual and magical power are our only tools to resist her oppression! Keeping people safe in this village only trains them to fear youkai! You're playing right into their hands! You're not a police officer, you're a zookeeper! Can't you see that? Logic! Reason! Scientific thinking! These are the only weapons we have to thrust through the bars of this prison at our captors!"

A moment of silence followed Rikako's outburst. All around her villagers had stopped in their tracks and paused their conversations to see what she was yelling about so animatedly. Noticing this, she blushed, cleared her throat and yanked her sleeve out of Kotohime's grip. "This is why I left the village," she muttered.

My partner began applauding enthusiastically. Villagers around us averted their eyes and resumed walking. "I think that's an admirable position, honestly. I can't say that my way of thinking isn't still being influenced by the scientific models of the Outside world, but I would love to hear more about how you see things and get some concrete examples of your theories. Would you be willing to come in and give a guest lecture at the Hieda Public Temple School, by chance?"

Rikako wrinkled up her nose in disgust. "With children? Ew, no. How tiresome."

"Don't say that," Renko pleaded. "Societal consciousness can only be altered from the ground up. If you want to see a scientific revolution in Gensokyo, you've got to plant the seeds in the next generation early. How else will people learn to think scientifically?"

Rikako cringed away. "Ugh no. Children ask questions... and they interrupt and never listen... ugh, they're worse than you!" she said, glaring again at Kotohime. "And worst of all, they waste my time! Just like you have here! I have discoveries I could be making! I should go!" Saying that, she turned away and dashed directly into the crowd of people passing through the gate into the market district, shouldering her way through several shoppers as she did so.

Kotohime sighed. "She gets nervous when too many people are paying attention to her."

Renko shook her head sadly. "Teaching's not for everyone, I suppose."

As Rikako vanished into the crowd, one thing she had said was still ringing in my ears: "Without that, humans will remain enslaved by youkai."