Godshatter
A Touhou Project fanfic by Achariyth
Disclaimer: Touhou Project belongs to ZUN. Because of the Cosmere elements, per the Warbreaker Creative Commons license offered by Brandon Sanderson, I wave all rights to this work.
Chapter 6: Reflection
Youmu Konpaku strode through the well-manicured paths of the White Jade Pavilion's gardens. Although she wore her two long blades on her belt, she focused on another set in her hand. She stopped in front of a rare haggard juniper hedge. Shears pared away branches, floating from one to the next in a mix of grace and minimal motion, just like the sword forms the gardener practiced each day.
She stepped away, considering her work. Some swordswomen cultivated their talents in poetry and dance, but Youmu preferred sculpture and topiary. Not only could she create a beautiful form from shapeless void, it was one of the few visual arts where Lady Yuyuko Saigyouji's considerable talents didn't overshadow hers. Frowning, she reached out to make one last cut. The shears bit into the woody stem with a touch more resistance than she expected.
Holding the tool up to the light, Youmu peered down the length of the shears. Metal shone wherever the perfect edge had been marred. Sighing, she sat against the hedge and emptied a pouch from her belt. A sandstone block and a flask of oil clattered against the rock path.
Her hands settled into the instinctive grind of metal against stone, freeing her mind to wonder. A slight smile warmed the gardener's cheeks. Master Youki's postcard rested against her heart. His other gift, a strange sword, was even closer, just a heartbeat away. Ten, actually, but that sword was an Honor that Youmu freely bore, just like her service to the free spirit, Lady Yuyuko.
Youmu cut her eyes toward where her mistress glided past the centerpoint of the entire garden, the ancient cherry tree known only as the Pilgrim's Shade. Lady Yuyuko had long forbidden any gardener to cut a branch from that cursed tree, lest they Ruin its immaculate beauty with a stray cut. Youmu would have rather chopped the tree to kindling, as she would any fruit tree that refused to bear fruit for centuries.
After learning that the tree had cost Lady Yuyuko her life, the gardener longed to reduce the shade to ash. The noblewoman's mortal body sealed the worst of the Pilgrim's Shade's power, but Youmu could still hear the whispers of a still small voice bidding her to come and rest beneath the tree's shade. In such a way, Lady Yuyuko had warned, did the Shade hale away the souls of mortal men. Watching her lady spend most of her time among the tree that had Ruined her felt like a knife twisting inside Youmu. A shadow had fallen over her lady's whimsy and cheer, and the Netherworld had become drearier for the loss.
Death was lighter than a feather, and duty heavier than a mountain, Honor mused. She sighed and tested the shears with a thin branch. The blades slipped through the wood without effort.
Youmu didn't know why her mistress had emerged from beneath the tree's shadow long enough to request the mountain goddesses' presence, but she had gladly relayed the request. Maybe they could pull Lady Yuyuko out of the Pilgrim's Shade's orbit. She watched as her mistress caressed the tree's bark like a lost friend. If so, she would offer offerings every day of her afterlife.
The swordswoman prayed that the goddesses would arrive soon. Until them she would continue pruning her lady's garden.
Honor demanded it.
Medicine laughed as she ran through the sunflower fields of the Garden of the Sun, the fairy-like doll, Miss Suzy, floating in her wake. The garden's sunflowers parted before each of the living doll's steps, ensuring that Medicine never trampled the plants under foot. Not that the living doll noticed. Caught up in the sheer joy of running, Medicine continued her headlong flight through the fields. "Miss Yuuka!" she shouted, waving a clenched hand in the air.
Yuuka Kazami turned from her leisurely stroll. "What is it?" she said, angling her parasol to provide shade for herself and the doll. "What did you find?"
Medicine skid to a halt in front of the Flower Master of the Four Seasons and thrust out her hand. A fat ladybug skittered along the doll's palm. "How old do you think it is?"
"A few months, maybe," Yuuka said automatically. She had sent Medicine searching throughout the garden for old insects on purpose. Known as the Pretty Little Poison, Medicine naturally exuded a vile toxic brew. Bringing back a living bug forced her to control her poison. She looked again at the ladybug. Opening herself to the various energies flowing through the garden, Yuuka drew in a breath and watched Medicine's new friend skitter across her hand "No, much older."
"You mean I found one?" Medicine said, beaming. The living doll had become obsessed with seeing a new youkai's birth.
Yuuka slid a wide leaf underneath the insect. "Not yet. She's ninety-eight."
The pretty doll's mouth turned in a pout. "I don't want to wait two years." Only after living for a hundred years could an animal turn into a youkai.
"Very well, Wriggle could use a sister," Yuuka said. She set the leaf on the ground. "Step back." She closed her eyes and concentrated. Energy flowed from Cultivation's hand. A veil of light obscured the ladybug from sight.
"What are you doing?" Medicine asked, kneeling over the light show. As she watched, nearby flowers shifted away from the veil. Those closest to Cultivation's power grew taller.
"Speeding things along." The last bit of energy left Cultivation's hand, and Yuuka opened her eyes. She set her parasol over the glowing veil. It faded, leaving in place of the ladybug a young woman sleeping in a bed of rich black soil. Twin antennae peaked out from her head, giving her the same irresistible charm as Wriggle. But where the firefly radiated a boyish aura, the ladybug girl looked softer, more feminine. Long red hair shrouded the girl's body like the wings of a ladybug.
"Cool," Medicine gushed. "What's her name?"
The flower youkai thought for a moment. "Let's call her Ivy, for now. Why don't you find Wriggle and let her know the good news? You can tell anyone else you come across, even the crows. Make sure they know Ivy's under my protection, though."
"Alright," Medicine said with a nod. The doll took off through the field, shouting Wriggle's name.
Yuuka sighed as she stood. Like Wriggle, cute little Ivy had already found a soft spot in the flower youkai's heart. Many insect youkai had that effect on her. Of course, if Ivy had been an aphid, Yuuka would have squashed her without a thought, even with Medicine watching.
During one of their many fights, Reimu had said that the sum of all virtue was to be sociable to those who would be sociable, and formidable to those who would not. Hundreds of beings had found out over the years that Yuuka Kazami, the Shard of Cultivation, was a very virtuous woman.
Yuuka draped the still sleeping Ivy over her shoulders. Propriety demanded that she feed and clothe the newborn youkai until she could fend for herself. The flower youkai looked down at the soil where Ivy once lay and hissed. A sickly sunflower stood alone in the bare topsoil, brown and withered.
Ruined.
Sanae panted , clinging dearly to the walking stick in her hand. Shrouded by eternal dusk, the black stones of the Endless Stair stretched ever higher before her. Each step thrust burning her thighs and hips to the forefront of her mind. "Why don't we just fly?" she gasped, tugging at the hem of her borrowed maid's dress. "It'd be quicker."
Suwako hopped up the black stone steps until she could see eye to eye with her priestess. "You've got to tone those hips somehow." The wind priestess snarled, slumping against her walking stick. "Just remember, 'Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination.'"
"There's no joy in this journey," Sanae said. She winced as she pushed herself up one more step. "And Lady Yuyuko is waiting for us. Youmu was insistent that we visit her soon."
"The Queen of Paradise understands that methods matter more than results," Kanako said. The goddess appeared as an image no larger than a fairy and hovered near Sanae's shoulder. Her fingers traced a luminous pair of interlocked squares inscribed by a circle into the air. "Try this."
The Shard of Devotion copied the calligraphy magic onto her thigh. As the pain of exertion flooded out of her, Sanae sighed in relief. "If we're not in a hurry them, shouldn't we be trying to get you out of whatever you called that black bead place?"
"Shadesmar. And I'm fine. Dominion's poison is wearing off, so I'll be free soon enough," Kanako said. Her hand flew to her shoulder and she worked the joint. Fighting Dominion in the Sea of Shadows had trapped her physical body in that realm. "This trip feels important. Call it a divine revelation." The goddess flashed a smile as she spoke.
"You're holding out on me," Sanae said. Devotion continued her climb, fresher than when she had started.
"On us," Suwako said. The goddess bounded over steps like a hyperactive frog. "You still haven't told me what my power is." Ever since learning that she held the Shard of Preservation, a fragment of her old power, the earth goddess had become obsessed with how her power would manifest. Sanae's shard, Devotion, used shapes and designs to form her magic and Alice's Endowment used color to gift inanimate objects with motion. Suwako hoped her hidden power would make the other two jealous.
"I'm not omniscient," Kanako said. "And I'd like to get back to the shrine before nightfall. I didn't think we'd be at the symposium as long as we were."
"Someone had to ask Patchouli all those questions," Sanae said, glaring at Suwako.
"I like to keep current on my alchemy." The Shard of Preservation sipped from a leather flask as she walked.
Kanako and Sanae grimaced. "How can you drink that? It tastes like old coins and saltwater," Sanae said.
"Never turn down free drinks," Suwako said. Preservation wiped her mouth on her sleeve. "And Patchouli makes a mean salted wine."
During the symposium, the elementalist had passed around wine skins to any who attended her theoretical alchemy seminar. She had explained her reasons, but the dense magibabble had lulled Sanae to sleep. That didn't stop Suwako from grabbing a number of the free drinks with the claim that a growing goddess needed as many minerals as she could find. Of course, only an earth goddess could enjoy the taste of Patchouli's mineral slurry.
"Weirdo," Kanako muttered, gliding through the air.
"Fraud," Suwako snapped as she bounced onto one of the terraces that divided the Endless Stair into slightly more manageable sections.
"Welcome," a hauntingly melodious voice called out. The woman at the base of the next set of Stairs looked like she had just been called from her lover's chamber. A sheer spotless white robe clung tight against the curves of her body. Pink cherry blossoms rippled enticingly across her robe with each movement. A single cherry blossom graced the woman's unbound hair and burnished brass hoops hung from her ears. Sanae both wished that she could wear such a robe and gave thanks to her goddesses that she hadn't. Such dress would be Ruinous to a girl's reputation.
"We have waited a long time to greet you," Yuyuko Saigyouji, Mistress of the White Jade Pavilion, said.
Author's Notes:
And now the stage is set for the story I originally wanted to tell with this series. I've been looking forward to Ruin's story for a long time, but I've needed now six chapters to get the right setup. Thanks to WillieG.R for pointing out some of the bugs with an early snippet.