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The spring-heralding bird's call reaches all the way into the shop.
Winter had ended at last, and color had returned to Gensokyo. At the same time that Gensokyo - formerly dyed white by the deep snow - sprang into a vivid scenario with spring's arrival, the cheerful fairies and humans started their uproaring. It felt like a sudden rush of pure air had come to a stagnated world, expanding and clarifying the field of vision. It's like fresh and clear days like this had always only existed for this purpose. How long has it been since such a clear day this year?

I was writing in my journal when I suddenly thought of imparting onto paper the beauty of this day. A drawing would be fine, but in Gensokyo there is an item even more suited for it: a photograph.

"...Whatcha doin'? Movin' stuff around with such nice weather outside..."

I heard a voice coming from around the entrance. I took another look around the interior of the shop. The articles were scattered all around as if a thief had previously entered. I was looking for a particular item, even though I didn't know how to use it.

"Ah, Marisa. How long have you been here? I know the place's a bit disheveled right now, but don't touch anything; those are articles for sale."

"Even if ya tell me not to touch 'em, I can't move if I don't."

"...Ah, I finally found it! This is what I've been looking for."

"Hm? Isn't that the thing the tengu are always carrying?"

The thing I was looking for is a "photo camera;" just as its name indicates, it's a tool for taking photographs.

I have the ability of knowing the name and the use of an item just by looking at it. The reason I set up Kourindou was so that I could make the most of this ability. Unfortunately, this ability does not tell me the precise means of usage.

"I was thinking of affixing some pictures to my journal. However, even though I've had the camera itself since long before, I put it aside because I didn't have the slightest idea of how to use it to take a photograph."

"Ain't the tengu always takin' 'em like it was nothing? The do it kinda like...you look into it, and press a button. But I've never actually seen a photo come outta the thing, so I don't know what kinda trick they use."

"I'm sure it must be this button here, but I can't get any reaction no matter how much I press it."

I pressed it even as I said this, but indeed, it didn't even make a sound. Even though my ability definitely says that this is a photographic camera, used for taking photographs.

"I always took it that taking pictures was a special ability that the tengu had. Never thought there could be a tool that did that."

The tengu are a mysterious species, full of secrets. Because they live on a mountain where humans and other youkai cannot set foot, their peculiar society and amazing techniques are mostly hidden. All one can do is read their newspapers. Even though their techniques for developing photographs are a mystery, their printing techniques are especially amazing; no one but the tengu possess the technology to roll off a mass of newspapers like those of the outer world.

Incidentally, the kappa also live on the mountain, and you could say they have the same degree of advancedness to their techniques. The kappa's techniques consist of impressively precise tools. It may even be that the kappa are the ones who make the tengu's cameras. The items crafted by the kappa are truly curious ones, and as an item storekeeper, I am greatly interested in them.

But let's leave the thoughts about kappa items for the future, and concern ourselves with the photo camera right now.

"Hm, it's really of no use. I can't even tell where the photos are supposed to come out."

"By the way, why is it ya wanna take pictures? Ya wanna imitate the tengu by starting a newspaper?"

"A newspaper..."

I do have interest in writing a newspaper. If I can write articles that will be read by other people, I could correct society's misinformation about many items. But there's an even bigger problem to that; even if I could figure out how to take pictures with a camera, I still wouldn't know how to handle typesetting and printing.

"...No, I couldn't possibly start a newspaper so easily. The reason I wanted to take photos is that, since the spring days outside are so beautiful, I wanted to have a piece of them here inside."

"We can see that stuff again next year."

"Don't misunderstand; I don't want photos of things I can't look at, or of things I want to see all the time. What I want is to see ordinary scenery from a different viewpoint."

If I could take pictures, then I would be able to regularly use them as a basis to look at things. That way, I could see the everyday scenery in a very different way. Looking at things from different angles is an essential part of a shopkeeper's life.

"Then just drink some booze. You'll see even the same scenery in a different way. Even so, I'm still curious about the trick for taking pictures."

"There's nothing mysterious about that. The basic concepts of creating a picture out of something you see are easy to grasp."

"Oh, really? But if ya capture the real scenery in a photo, it's like makin' that scenery into two. If ya take a really large photo, then ya can't distinguish it from a faraway view, right? But, there can only be one view of a faraway mountain. So just what is decreasing when the photos increase?"

"The scenery isn't decreasing, but something else is...For example, if you put up a mirror facing a mountain and stand in between the two, what do you see when you look at the mirror?"

"I see myself."

"No, forget about yourself for a moment; look at the reflection of the mountain behind you - the scenery there will be projected just as if in a photograph. In other words, an image is reflected off a mirror even if there isn't any living eye to see it, and it's possible to preserve that reflected instant. And a photographic camera has the ability to preserve it. The actual image is not diminished or duplicated; you could say it's that reflected instant that gets cut out."

"Hm...that's a little hard to understand...but anyway, it must be real since there are photographs. In that case, since a mirror has a flat surface, we can only take flat pictures."

"No, I think that with a little devising, it is possible to create even solid photographs."

I surveyed the store's interior once again; it was really disheveled indeed. But I wanted to get an item to show Marisa the possibility of solid photographs, so I shuffled through it again.

"Ah, here it is. That's it, this one."

What I pulled out was a small box with dragon-themed embroidery. Opening it, there was a thumb-thick triangular piece of glass inside. I took that glass out and showed it to Marisa.

"Take a look."

"What's the deal with this glass?"

"This glass piece is an item called a 'prism'. It's a tool for coloring the air."

"A tool for coloring the air, you say? There ya go sayin' weird stuff again."

I brought the prism closer to the window, and held it under a sunbeam. The prism absorbed the light, and colored its rays in seven colors.

"Ohh, it looks like a tiny rainbow."

"With just this small prism, it's possible to color the air. And why do the seven colors of the rainbow come out of the prism, you ask? Because all the three perfect colors and the seven imperfect ones are related to the gods."

"Whatever, that doesn't matter. So, how were ya sayin' it's possible to make solid photographs with that?"

"If you set three prisms so that they are sending their colors from three different positions at the same time, you can draw a solid picture. Afterward, it's just a matter of making a tool for preserving the air as it was at that instant - a tool that immobilizes air."

"Wait a moment, your story is jumping around like always. How come you can draw a solid picture by sending colors from three directions?"

Marisa took the prism from me and looked at it curiously from various angles.

"If you mix red and green, it becomes yellow. If you mix red and blue, you have violet. With other combinations, you can obtain just about any color. That way, if you cross the rainbows skillfully, you can paint any color. In order to make a solid picture, you'll only need to have the width, depth, and height, so with a minimum of three rainbows from different directions, you can account for all the points in the air."

"I'm not sure I understand...but drawing pictures in the air? That sure looks like an amusing tool. But that seems like a far-fetched dream compared to the ones that can only take flat pictures."

Yes, that is more or less right. Even if you understand the theory, it won't come true if the technology is lagging behind. No one has made any tools for either drawing pictures on the air, or for immobilizing it. But if we don't think about new things, all of Gensokyo's leading technology will end up belonging to the tengu or the kappa. That's why I'll keep thinking of new things. This is not only my belief as a shopkeeper, but as a person.

*Knock-knock.*

"Ah, there you are. It's almost time for the flower-viewing, you know."

"Ah, Reimu? Ya sure guessed right that I was here."

"There are not many places where you would be, Marisa. But anyway, it's really disheveled here. Looks like a thief entered...or maybe there's a thief inside already?"

By "thief," she was referring to Marisa. She didn't even bother to deny it; she just snickered like a cat. Was she thinking of stealing the prism?

"Oh my, there's a tiny rainbow coming out of it. What is this?"

Reimu was looking around the disheveled shop as she entered, and fixed her gaze on the prism Marisa was holding.

"This is a prism; seems it's a tool for coloring the air. You can't eat it."

"It does look hard," said Reimu. Marisa inclined it and projected the rainbow over the floor, then over my face.

"What's the trick behind it, Rinnosuke? It doesn't look like there's anything inside it..."

Reimu and Marisa just asked whatever questions they thought of without thinking about them first. The best thing to do would be to carefully think it over on your own, then consult about your conclusions with others, but they are still kids, so I let it be. Besides, it was still better than not even thinking of the questions at all.

"Indeed, there is nothing inside a prism. What is important is its triangular shape."

The number three represents perfection and harmony. With three legs, you can have stability even on an irregular surface, but that still holds true for four or more legs. However, just like in the case of the snake, frog, and slug, in a three-way deadlock, everyone is kept in check, and fighting cannot break out. But if it's exactly two - or four or more - people, they'll soon start quarreling.

"Three heads think better than one. The three beats of musical rhythm. The Three Imperial Regalia. The Three Days Emperor. No other number suggests stability as much as the number three."

"That last one didn't suggest stability at all."

To understand the significance of the number three in the prism, one needs only to look at its transparency. Transparency represents an entity which cannot be seen; in other words, a god. Just like the presence beyond the bamboo screens in a shrine. The presence of a god is felt in that transparent space and the shrine is but a place to worship it. And talking about the shrine's sacred chamber brings us to the ama.

"Skipping to the conclusion, the number three in the prism is the same as the three in a sacred chamber: the sky, the sea, and the rain. And by mentioning these three ama, you should be able to tell what god they point to, Reimu."

"Hm. Er...the rainbow?"

"No, it's still too early to arrive at the rainbow yet...are you really following the conversation?"

"Just as always, your story is jumping all around. Can't you explain it a little more slowly?"

Reimu was the one who asked about it out of curiosity; she should have pondered about it herself. I have no obligation to slow down my explanation to her pace. Whether she understood or not, I continued explaining.

"Alright, didn't you bring that big animal bone that other time? Didn't I say at the time that it was a dragon bone?"

Just by being transparent and triangular, a prism represents a dragon's living place.

"I don't think I need to explain that rainbows are traces of a dragon's passage. So, something passes through the prism: in this case, light; a rainbow is created."

"W-wait a moment! I took it at face value last time, but how come dragons leave rainbows in their trail?"

Oh geez. If I keep being questioned nonstop, my own work cannot go forward. All I wanted today was to investigate a little about the photo camera's manner of usage...Hey, didn't Reimu come over to look for Marisa? She's really being carefree about it. Just by looking at them, waiting for the answers for their questions, you can see that they completely forgot about their original objective.

"I see. Why do dragons leave rainbows on their trails, you ask? That might be a little complicated to explain. I'll just let you know that you could not understand it now."

"Don't say it like I'm some kind of idiot, Rinnosuke. If you explain it carefully, I'm sure I can understand."

"Well, starting from the conclusion, since dragons are made from the three perfect elements of the world, they leave in their wake the seven colors of the rainbow, which can create everything in existence."

"That's pretty grandiose."

"But you see, dragons are the highest gods of Gensokyo; they can bring creation or destruction. They are apart from the youkai around here by one or two orders of magnitude."

I explained that in a world in perfect harmony, there are no gaps where new things can be born. The rain falls from the sky and imbues the seas with the strength of the heavens, then the water evaporates from the sea and becomes clouds. From the three ama elements by themselves, you can only obtain their own cycle.

The dragons brought dissonance into this world, and from that dissonance everything was created, and the world was changed. To the perfect 3 they added the rainbow's 7, and the world was organized into the "10 Powers."

"Because of it, all substances in Gensokyo are created and destroyed by the interaction of these ten."

"Oh! When you put it like that I kinda understand! It's my specialty, y'see."

"Your specialty...what was it again, Marisa?" I couldn't tell if Reimu's question was serious or a joke.

"Well, it's plain to see I'm a magician. No surprise there, right? You're the one who doesn't seem miko-like."

"Yes, knowledge of substances and their interactions is indispensable for magicians. I know that you are actually quite studious in that respect."

"That's not 'studying' for me. Reading books, perfecting spells, that's all daily routine, so increasing my knowledge is not really 'studying'."

"Hmm, you really seem quite diligent, Marisa...are the results showing, I wonder?"

The substances are composed of wood, fire, water, earth, and metal. These elements interact with each other through the force of the ten, and instead of stability, they are in constant transformation. By "the force of the ten" it is meant that wood fuels fire, fire originates earth, earth brings up metal, metal purifies water, water raises wood, wood impoverishes earth, earth sucks in water, water quenches fire, fire melts metal, and metal chops wood. These forces are complexly interrelated, not being limited to only interactions between two substances. If the strength of metal weakens, wood gets stronger; but if wood gets stronger, then fire gets stronger as well, and earth gets stronger, which leads to metal getting stronger again. And if metal gest stronger, wood gets weaker. As these forces are never stable and always work, several new substances are created and destroyed.

"In brief, it's because of these forces that I usually lose to Reimu."

"Not like I care about poor loser excuses, but why do you say so?"

"It's because Marisa is water, and you are wood. Since water raises wood, it means water will usually lose in a fight between the two. But, fighting apart, it doesn't mean you are incompatible. It actually means good affinity."

"I am wood, and Marisa is water...so what are you, Rinnosuke-san?"

Just by looking at Reimu you could see she was a spring person, and she lives in a shrine at the very east. This symbolized wood. As for Marisa, she likes to dress in black and lives in a dark forest, away from the sun; that means water. As for me...just as implied by my name, I am also water.

"...We really got far from the camera talk. It's because you girls just keep asking questions."

"Well, yes. There's still a lot I don't understand about the dragon gods."

"Dragons hardly ever show themselves. And even if you don't understand everything we discussed right now, as long as you think about it later, it will be alright. This way, all the world's underpinnings will slowly become clear to you. And by the way, what about your flower-viewing? It's been some time already since you arrived."

"Ahh, I forgot about it! Even though today we have some unusual guests..."

"Unusual guests?"

"Since the weather is so clear today, we're having some tengu over for flower-viewing. And today we're...wait, we are always doing it, but didn't you say you would join us sometimes? What do you say, Rinnosuke, you want to come?"

"Maybe ya can even have the tengu explain ya the trick behind the camera."

That's right, if I wanted to know the workings of a photo camera, the best thing to do would be to ask the tengu about it directly. Why didn't I realize such a simple thing before...wait, tengu?!

"Tengu, you say?! No way! Sorry, but I'm not taking part in this flower-viewing."

"Oh well, I thought you'd say that. But, since there'll be tengu there, we can even take some commemorative pictures."

"I'm taking this prism with me. I'll suggest the solid photo. The tengu might make it or something." Saying that, the two of them left.

So she did indeed take the prism away. She kept fiddling with it all the time; I guess she liked it. It wasn't that valuable, but merchandise is merchandise, and I like getting paid for it.

But even so, going to a party with tengu...that worries me a little. Tengu are unparalleled drinkers; the amounts of liquor they can take can't be compared even to the heaviest human drinkers. You can even say they are in the same league as the oni on that. To go partying with even one tengu...or worse, with more than one...

The reason I didn't want to take part in today's flower-viewing is not because I don't like noisiness; if I'd asked the tengu about that, they would, just for fun, say something like "if you want to know, drink; if you don't, we won't tell," and then they would make me drink so much I wouldn't remember a thing later anyway. That's the kind of creatures tengu are. And anyway, I have to tidy up my disheveled store. And after that, I'll try fiddling with the photographic camera again. I guess I'll just have to find out by myself.

I'm looking forward to the reports from those two tomorrow.

...If they can remember anything, that is.

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