Exposition chapter!
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"Your mistress?" Reimu asked curiously, "Then what does that make you, Youmu-Chan?" The Shrine maiden asked, a hint of desperation in her voice.
"I am simply a normal young girl, or rather, I used to be," Youmu admitted. "But my powers are a very long story."
"Please tell me," Reimu urgently begged, "I want to know it all, please."
Youmu sighed, but nodded her head, "I will tell you, but not until tonight," The girl revealed.
"H-hey, why not until tonight?" Reimu complained, but the answer came as the bell rang.
"Because fifth period is beginning, and we do not want to be late, do we Reimu-Sempai?" Youmu teased, sticking her tongue out at her partner childishly. Reimu pouted at the girl's playfulness, but followed her down the stairs.
The rest of the day thankfully didn't add much stress to Reimu's already overloaded mind, and she hurried back to her house, finding Youmu standing outside. Fighting with her door, which sometimes had a mind of it's own, the two entered the quiet house, and Reimu went off to prepare Tea for the two.
Once the pair were seated comfortably, with the book of urban legends laying between the pair, Reimu finally broke the silence, "So Youmu-Chan are you going to tell me about your history?"
"Yes, but I'm not all that sure where to begin," Youmu stated, and was quickly disarmed by the small smile the shrine maiden was offering her, "From the beginning, silly."
"W-well okay then," Youmu blushed, "I believe it began back in the day, when Yuyuko-Sama was still alive."
Back before the great demon tree was sealed away by the Gap Youkai, an old samurai appeared at the doors of Hakugyokurou, claiming that he was hunting a powerful demon that he could sense nearby. Yuyuko-Sama was quick to give him shelter for the night, since demon hunting was a very respectful profession back then.
The problem was that the man did not realize the demon tree was his quarry, and he fell under it's siren song, like it's many previous victims, and was killed during the night, while Yuyuko-Sama slept.
So the Samurai's spirit remained, bound to the tree it had been hunting, until the day the Gap Youkai released all of the spirits, and gave them the ability to walk the earth once more. But the aged Samurai did not know what to live for any longer, now that he had been bested by, and rescued by a Youkai.
The man wandered the earth for many years, constantly fighting against the insistent tugging of his connection to Yuyuko-Sama, but not wanting to return until he had found his purpose.
Finally the man found something, or rather, someone. A princess, who had been slaughtered by bandits, whose spirit had been unable to ascend to the heavens, as her family did not know she had perished.
The man told her that he would protect her, and the two walked the earth together. The samurai kept his word until his final days, when the strength of Yuyuko-Sama's bond threatened to tear his existence apart if he did not return.
Refusing to return to solitude, and leave behind the princess, who he had grown to care for, The samurai took the worse way out, and allowed his existence to end, but he had left a legacy behind.
For you see, the two had somehow found a way, and borne a child together, and the child, though a spirit, was able to be touched by both spirit and human, an abomination that the world had never heard of before. The Samurai pleaded to his wife to return to the place he had abandoned, and take their child with her, back to Hakugyokurou.
When Yuyuko-Sama found the spirit of a princess kneeling at her doorway, with a child in hand, she was unsure of what to do. This woman was not one of the many souls bound to her, but she could feel the faint memory of the samurai's spirit in his child. She finally made up her mind, and allowed the pair to remain, in service to her.
The princess did not mind becoming a servant, as it meant no longer wandering, which had grown boring. She and the samurai had already explored the world, and there was no longer anything in Japan to keep their interest. The child though, the child yearned for adventure, being raised on stories of her father, who had in life stopped countless demons, and in death defeated even more.
Finally, when the child came of age, she begged Yuyuko-Sama to be released from her service for a time, to be allowed to go out and live her life, and travel the world, much like her father had. Yuyuko-Sama was at first against the idea, but did finally agree to the girl's pleas, and gave her a year and a day to go out, but warned her that if she did not return on the last day, she would no longer be welcome in Hakugyokurou. The agreement made, the girl, now a young Samurai herself, set out after bidding her mother goodbye.
At first the girl hunted demons, honing her abilities further and making a name for herself, as the rest of the world slowly began to lose belief in the creatures of old. But she was unaware of this, and continued to do something that she enjoyed.
The young woman met a samurai on the road, and recklessly challenged him to a fight. The younger samurai lost the battle, and the mature samurai chastised her for her recklessness. She immediately begged him to teach her, and he refused, before moving on, but the girl was determined.
For two months the girl followed the samurai, untiringly begging him to teach her, and he constantly refused all of her requests. He did not want a disciple, he did not have time for a student, were always his claims, but she would not give up. Finally he agreed, claiming if it would simply shut her up.
But when he began to train her, he realized what he had found, a student so willing to learn and so determined to succeed, that within only three months she had learned everything he had spent his entire life learning. From there love was a given.
The two fell in love and were wed merely a week before the young girl's agreement with Yuyuko-Sama dissolved, but the girl had all but forgotten about her agreement. The pair continued to travel for a time, until the young woman had borne a child, and only then the two began to seek out a place to settle. Hakugyokurou was the girl's first choice.
Unfortunately, on their way to the mansion, a Youkai attacked, and the two, who had allowed their skills to falter over time, were easily overwhelmed by the beast, who first killed the woman, leaving the grieving husband and child the time to escape.
Vowing revenge, the man continued to Hakugyokurou, and begged for Yuyuko-Sama to allow him to stay. She immediately refused, remembering her agreement with the woman who had so casually broken her word, and the man instead was forced to camp outside the mansion, beneath a cherry blossom tree.
Unfortunately the Youkai had been following the man's trail, and it lead it right to Hakugyokurou, and Yuyuko-Sama, who was still susceptible to Youkai attacks. her scream during the night awoke the samurai, who hurried into the building, ignoring Yuyuko-Sama's previous refusal.
Finding the Youkai poised over the woman, ready to kill her, brought back the memory of his wife, who this beast had also killed, and he cut down the Youkai in righteous fury, finally gaining vengeance for his wife's death. Yuyuko-Sama was eternally grateful, and allowed the pair to stay, even offering the samurai a job as her bodyguard.
As for the Young girl. As his wife never explained to him her half-human form before her death, he was unaware that his own daughter was a half-ghost, and her own abilities remained hidden away for many years. She was hired by Yuyuko-sama to become the gardener, taking care of all of the cherry blossom trees that had once been cared for by the ghostly woman before her, and was trained in the art of the sword by her father, until his eventual death, as his age caught up with him.
"Once he passed on, the job of protecting Yuyuko-Sama fell to myself, and I spent the next several years watching over the woman, until my own powers manifested fully," Youmu finished off.
"So you're a half-ghost?" Reimu asked, receiving a small nod from the younger girl, "Wow, that is kind of cool to be honest. So is that what your little creampuff thing is when you release your powers?"
"Hai, it is my ghost-half, which I have found I can control as a second set of eyes, or a second set of weapons in combat situations, but it took many years for me to properly learn the ability," Youmu explained.
"So Your heightened ability when your powers are released is because your family is a long line of Samurai?" The shrine maiden quizzed off, receiving another nod, "That is so cool Youmu-Chan!"
"So what about yourself Reimu-Sempai? I do not hear you speak of your family, and you appear to live all alone here," Youmu asked, but quickly regretted it as Reimu's face fell, "I-I'm sorry if that is a touchy subject, You don't have to answer."
"Both of my parents died in a flood, saving my life when I was very young," Reimu explained bluntly, causing Youmu to gasp in surprise, "After their bodies were found, and we were able to scrape together what we could I was brought here to live with my great grandfather, who took care of me and forced me to keep in shape by going out on runs together through the area."
"That doesn't sound so bad," Youmu admitted, but winced as Reimu's face fell a second time, "He passed away when I was ten."
"I am very sorry Reimu-Sempai," Youmu offered, reaching out to take the older girl's hand, and she was relieved when Reimu offered her a small smile in return.
"It's okay Youmu-Chan, I've had plenty of time to get over it. I don't even really remember my parents all that well, and my Grandfather broke it to me that he was old very early on, so I didn't cry when he passed away," Reimu stated.
"So what about Marisa-Sempai, Letty-Sempai, and Cirno-Chan?" Youmu asked curiously.
"Oh, I met Marisa-Chan my second week here, when Grandfather enrolled me in school, and she was the only one willing to talk to the weird new girl. Boy, I think they should have given Marisa-Chan that nickname once she started acting out," Reimu chuckled.
"I didn't meet Letty-Sempai and Cirno-Chan until middle school, When we saw her breaking up a fight between team (9) and another group of girls, and Marisa-Chan announced a bit too loudly how "hot" Letty-Chan was, Though I don't think even that idiot knew what that word really meant back then," Reimu grumbled.
"And how did Letty-Sempai take the comment?" Youmu asked.
"Oh she didn't seem the least bit bothered by it, in fact, if I remember right, she flirted with Marisa-Chan for a little bit, made her face go bright red and forced me to drag her away," The shrine maiden replied, "I don't know what happened, because the next day Letty-Chan came up to us acting like we had always been friends, and resumed teasing Marisa-Chan mercilessly, before rounding on me."
"So that's just been how it is between you four since then?"
"Pretty much," Reimu offered, "I mean, sometimes Marisa-Chan does something monumentally stupid, and we have to bail her out, or Cirno-Chan does something really stupid, and we have to back her up, but I guess you can't pick your friends," she finished with a shrug.
"I get the feeling that they don't like me," Youmu admitted, but was stopped as Reimu laid her hand over the other girl's.
"Don't worry, Marisa-Chan just doesn't know how to trust people after something that happened when she was younger, and Letty-Sempai is like that towards everyone, please don't take it too harshly," Reimu pleaded, but the way Youmu began to laugh made her heart lighten.
"I would not mind spending more time with you and your friends Reimu-Sempai, they are interesting, and considering how little human interaction I got to have before being enrolled in school by Yuyuko-Sama, it is a welcome change."
"When were you allowed to attend school?" Reimu grew curious.
"Not until last year, when she and Yukari-Sama pulled some strings and had me take the entrance exam," Youmu explained.
"And you're already the captain of the Kendo team? That's pretty amazing," The shrine maiden commented, "Did Yukari-Sama and Yuyuko-Sama have anything to do with that?"
N-No," Youmu quickly denied, "Well okay, they did help me get me onto the team, since they are rather lax about members joining, but I made captain because I worked very hard last year," The girl was surprised to find Reimu laughing.
"Sorry, I was just joking Youmu, I'm sure you became the captain because of your skills, but enough about you, is there anything else you wish to ask me?"
"Well, this may be a bit personal," Youmu admitted, but was egged on by Reimu giving her the gesture to go ahead, "Why do you work on the school shrine?"
"Oh that," Reimu groaned, "I started out working on the shrine because the school board pulled a fast one on me, since I didn't have quite enough money to pay for all of my tuition."
"But, this house, you have to have some money?" Youmu asked, but was surprised as Reimu shook her head.
"This house was paid off by my grandfather a long time ago, and besides the basic costs for hydro and electricity, which are paid by my grandfather's pension, I don't have anything really for pleasure around here."
The P word seemed to make Youmu's face light up, but Reimu quickly explained, "I mean, I don't have a TV or a Laptop or anything, heck even my phone is a landline," The shrine maiden grumbled.
"So how do you pay for food then?"
"Mostly through my friends help, and the pay checks I get from work," Reimu stated, "I haven't been getting many shifts lately, so I've been relying on Letty-Sempai bringing things over, and Marisa-Chan making lunches for me."
"They are good friends," The younger girl admitted, and Reimu nodded in agreement.
Both girls would have likely continued to talk, had their phones not gone off simultaneously.
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Chapter 7 complete
Updates will resume Monday, and will be slowing down to a Mon-Wed-Fri release schedule, barring any complications or delays, due to the author's fears of a burnout by continuing this intense sun-sat schedule.
Thank you for your understanding. Ja Ne!
Stay tuned for Chapter 8