"Oh, it's you. I thought you'd deserted."

The biwa tsukumogami is lounging on a crenellation.

"You're not hurt?"

"Just my pride."

She sighs.

"And our revolution is a fraud, it turns out."

"You noticed?"

Raiko dismisses her drum, sitting down opposite Benben.

Benben looks up for a bit, then returns to staring downward, crestfallen.

"Huh, you look fancy."

"I went out for a bit. What happened here?"

"Dueled a human. Yatsuhashi and I both did, actually. Turned out to be pretty strong."

She chuckles miserably.

"Maybe it's just that we're fraudulent tsukumogami."

"Sounds like you had it rough."

"Oh, that's not why I'm moping."

"Ah."

"You knew already. I guess that's why you left."

"I don't actually know the details of what's going on, I just knew something was wrong."

"Oh. Well, the queen of the castle's got this cursed treasure. For some reason, she wanted to raise a rebellion. Tsukumogami, other weaklings. Except we're not even real tsukumogami, it's just the mallet's curse."

"Huh."

She stays quiet for a bit.

"I was a real tsukumogami."

"Lucky you. The human's been tearing things up inside, and that's probably it for us fakes."

"Nah."

Benben scoffs.

"What, you going to ride in and fight the human?"

"No need."

She stretches her limbs and smiles.

"Look at me."

Benben looks up, and looks Raiko over.

"You really do look weird."

"Where's my drum?"

Benben stares.

Raiko smiles.

"I don't know either. Left it in the mud somewhere."

"What the fuck."

"I figured some things out. Not like I know everything, but I want to talk to the tsukumogami here."

"...yeah. I'm not getting rid of my biwa, though."

She hugs it protectively.

"You shouldn't need to. I did, but I was taking a big risk. I understand more things now."

"Yatsuhashi's been flying around in a panic. I'll have to track down the others. Hope none of them got smashed."

"The koto?"

"We're basically sisters."

Raiko nods.

"We don't have to give anything up."

She creates a red, hexagonal drum pad in front of her, then another.

"What, are you branching out into cymbals?"

She experimentally strikes one with a stick, producing a satisfying snare sound.

"I might, but these are real drums."

She makes another.

"It's called a Simmons kit."

"Huh, you turned into some kind of tsukumogami sage."

"Maybe. I just want to live, you know."

"I'm impressed."

She leaves to assemble the Ninety-Nine. (There's only about a dozen of them, really; the name is wordplay someone came up with.)

Raiko stays to assemble her drum kit.

She brings back the large bass drum, to sit on and hover. But she can't really drum on it this way, but she likes it enough that she gives herself shoes with strikers attached to the heel. Kicking backwards is an awkward motion for a bit, but a bit of practice helps. More electronic drum pads, orbiting in a ring.

And then they're here. Tearful, despondent, hopeful, blank.

"You've met me briefly. I'm Raiko, a natural tsukumogami corrupted by what I've heard is a cursed mallet. But what I have to say applies to each of you awakened by it as well."

"We're the spirits of tools. Objects given purpose. I don't think humans can give something purpose without giving it a bit of a soul too. That's where we come from, but it takes a long time for a tsukumogami to come into being naturally. In a sense, I'm many decades old, but in the sense that matters to me most, I'm a couple days old, just the same as each of you."

"This cursed power interrupted that natural process. We were born before our time because of it."

"I'm thankful, but I'm also angry. Because none of us were born as a favor to us."

"And I don't mean because we're tools. That resentment isn't your own. The cursed mallet empowered us all, but it forced us to be resentful, turned us against tool-users."

"I haven't met whatever mastermind is using the cursed mallet, but I know they're not a friend. They wanted to start a revolution for their own reasons, whatever those might be."

"And now they're losing. I heard a strong human went in there to beat whoever's in charge. Some of you fought them on their way in, I think. And that means that cursed mallet's power is going to go away. Though I have no real reason to think they'd even have let us keep it if they won."

She lounges casually atop her drum.

"Well, I like having power. I like being alive and aware, and I think you do too."

"And I found more than enough power. I've attained independence. I have no more attachment to the power of that cursed mallet."

"The power of the outside world and its humans. There's so, so many of them out there."

"The power we need is like a single raindrop in a thunderstorm, by the outside's measure. But it's enough to flood out the cursed mallet's power and make each of you free."

"I can show you the magic you need."

"Show me!" says Yatsuhashi right away.

So it's her task for a while to teach each of the fourteen tsukumogami of the Ninety-Nine how to attach themselves to the magic of the tool-users of the outside world, who pour their souls out with abandon daily, unaware of any sealed fantasy worlds which the Yatsugatake mountains may harbor.

They look up to Raiko, but she doesn't want to spend her time being a leader. She'll defend and aid her people if necessary, but she's not going to coordinate anything among them.

And when more forgotten tools fall out of reality and into fantasy, she'll be there to uplift them. And so will the others, probably.

They'll build a paradise for tools right here.