It had been an interesting past couple of days for Yuuka.
It started when she was tending to her flowers, in the massive field on the Nameless Hill that she maintained, when the hole in the sky appeared for a few minutes before disappearing. After that, she began hearing rumors that the shrine maiden had vanished, supposedly within that same hole in the sky. Following that, a crack coalition of Genoskyo's most powerful fighters began patrolling the land for any clues that might be used to bring her back, or stave off any threats brought upon by this incident.
She was not one of them. She was feared, all across Gensokyo, for her power, and most importantly, her notoriously volatile attitude, especially when it came to anyone who so much as laid a finger on her beloved flowers. She was so reviled, even other youkai avoided her, and it was told in the human village that seeing her meant certain death.
This was a reputation she could do without, however. The truth was, even though she was very powerful, the only reason she ever attacked anyone was because they threatened her flowers. After all, she WAS a flower youkai; to her, her flowers were her children. And you don't threaten a parent's child, no matter your species. She was actually fairly personable and affable, provided you didn't threaten her flowers. It was an odd twist of logic, but then, youkai do tend to operate on logic which differs from that of humans, part of the reason the feud between them was so long and rocky. In this case, this twist of logic meant a general lack of friends, and she spent most of her time alone, which only fed into her reputation.
She had been taking some personal enjoyment out of the ruckus caused by the shrine maiden; it's not every day you see Yukari absolutely freaking out, that's for sure. And it isn't every day that you see Mokou and Kaguya on the same side, if grudgingly. This whole incident was very amusing to her, and it would be a shame if it ended quickly, so generally she didn't act on it and just went about her life, taking care of her flowers and guarding them from intruders.
This morning, she had gone out early, the result of the summer sun rising so early in the day, dressed in her gardener getup and armed with tools, seed, plant food, fertilizer and a little bit of magic. Today, like most days, she went out to her vegetable garden, where she got most of her food from, and started picking out roots and tubers, harvesting lettuce, picking berries in season and placing them in her basket, before feeding them and using some magic in order to make them grow faster to provide more food more quickly. She was a very meticulous artisan when it came to gardening, making sure plants were arranged very specifically in perfectly straight rows with enough space to walk between them without harming them; so much as a couple of centimeters off was enough to grate on her to no end. And she also tended to and cared for her plants such that they grew into big, strong specimens that she could be proud of when her few visitors saw them.
After tending to her vegetables, she brought them inside her small cottage. Most went to the cellar, where they were stored to help get through Gensokyo's icy winters. The rest were thrown into a pot above the fire and cooked – breakfast, which she enjoyed with tea that she grew herself in her garden, a rather pungent breed of green tea which was enough to awaken the senses of even the most sleep-deprived sloth, whose scent wafted through even the most stuffed up of noses. Everything a flower youkai needed to perk up and be ready for anything sent her way.
After breakfast, she washed up, cleaning off the dirt smudges that materialized all over her body while working the garden. After drying herself off and styling her hair – she was very conscious about her hair – she changed into her usual dress, grabbed her parasol and a pail, and walked out the front door and into the vast fields of flowers surrounding her establishment in all directions.
It was a beautiful day, with no clouds in sight and the hot sun bearing down on the flowery fields. The pail she carried contained a special water designed to give them the nutrients they needed and protect them from being dehydrated by the oppressive summer sun. It helped to maintain a vast field of yellow which stretched for countless acres all around. From her position, the flowers seemed to stretch out over the horizon, a veritable idyllic setting masking a deadly secret. And this was her life, walking through and tending to these fields and maintaining their vitality. For a flower youkai, it only came naturally.
Many insects visited the fields, most notably butterflies and bees who served to pollinate the flowers. In general, these were the only things she allowed to touch her flowers, and their presence was even welcomed. One such bee buzzed up and landed on her sunhat, apparently confused as to why it wasn't a flower. Yuuka was flattered, because she took it to mean that she was as beautiful as the flowers she so carefully maintained, that it was no wonder the bee had mistook her for one.
She reached a small roll overlooking the rest of the fields. Walking up to the top of it, she was greeted by a view across the valley, with the towering Youkai Mountain to the northeast and the various temples and shrines dotting the sides and tops of the mountainous fence, the rivers and creeks cascading down from their sources and flowing lazily into the Misty Lake, then somewhere beyond into the outside. It was a splendorous scene, one which made Yuuka proud of the place she called home, even if it was populated by people who didn't care too much for her flowers, and she looked on as the breeze picked up slightly and flowed through her hair and dress, gently rustling the flowers.
Moments later, however, she heard a noise. At first, she wasn't too sure what it was, so she just ignored it. Soon, however, it grew loud enough that she could recognize it as horrendously loud buzzing, which almost made her want to cover her ears. But what insect was loud enough to make buzzing that loud? This was easily much louder than the famously forceful buzz of the cicada, and she knew of no insect youkai capable of making the noise.
She got her answer when it swooped directly over her, creating a wake which made her flinch and which blew the flowers near her sideways. She looked over to the south, where the object had gone, and saw a massive red blur whose form she could not discern from where she stood.
She chased after the creature, wondering what it was and what it was doing in her fields. If it was another youkai who wanted to pick a fight, they chose the wrong woman to do so with. After a short while, the buzzing stopped, indicating that it had landed. However, this also made it more difficult for her to find it, since it had disappeared into the maw of the fields, forcing her to fly up a bit in order to try and find it.
She found it standing in the middle of a field of sunflowers, so she landed and began approaching it. As she did, she could make out a most bizarre creature: it seemed to have the head of a mosquito, with a very long proboscis, and what appeared to be massive, bulging pecs, abs, and highly muscular arms with tough fists at their ends, supported by four stands resembling insect legs. And it stood over two and a half meters tall. As she got closer, she saw it was holding one arm out with a finger outstretched and it seeming to look on as if there was something on it, which she soon determined to be a butterfly.
She accosted the figure, asking politely but with clear agitation "now, excuse me, who are you?"
The creature turned its head towards her in notice, causing the butterfly to flutter off. It then struck a pose with its arms above its head as it let out a screeching sound, presumably a warning sound of some sort. It then put its arms down and began facing Yuuka with seeming scrutiny.
Yuuka stood back a bit, her hand on a single spell card ready to be played any second, as she confronted the creature. "If you're a youkai looking for a fight here in my flower fields, intent on harming my flowers, then you should be ready for me to treat you to a very, very bad time indeed." She then paused. "But, I shall be merciful first. Who or what are you, and what is your purpose?"
The creature seemed to stare at her for a few seconds, although she couldn't tell if it was staring at her or not since it lacked recognizable eyes. After a few seconds, it struck another pose, this time with its left arm held straight in the air with its palm flat and its right arm bend beside it in a similar fashion while it looked on in the sky. Then it struck another, this time a lumbering strongman look with it bent down and its arms flexed down below it in a circular shape.
This is a very odd creature, she thought, communicating by striking bodybuilding poses. She asked it another question. "Can you understand me?" she asked. It responded by first pointing at her, then pointing at its antenna or whatever it used to hear, then gave a thumbs-up. "Interesting," she remarked. "Please tell me: I have not seen you before. Are you new to Gensokyo? Where did you come from?"
It took a moment to process these words, before it pointed up at the sky, in the general direction where the hole was a few days ago. It then made a circle shape with its hands and fingers, then pointed at the sky again.
"Hmm, I don't get it. The sky, then you make a circle with your hands..." she thought about it, then responded "you mean to say you came out of that hole?" It responded with another thumbs-up.
She then asked it another question, this one in a slightly more accusatory tone. "Why did you come to Gensokyo? What is your reason for being here?"
It started by pointing at itself, then holding at its palm whilst doing a gesture with its other hand to represent a walking figure, then pointed at itself again then back at the walking hand.
"Is that supposed to be you?" Yuuka asked, and the creature nodded. It then held out its hands as if to suggest "suddenly," before lurching forward and letting out another shrill call with its arms stretched out in front of it and its hands open like it was trying to lift something, before reeling back with an even louder shrill and its arms stretched out to its sides, its hands still open. It then made the walking gesture with its hand again, and pretended to "punch" it to the side and made it go through a loop it made with its other hand.
Yuuka wasn't sure what to make of what it was trying to communicate here. "So you were forced through the hole somehow... are you trying to say that some big, scary monster kicked you through?" It gave another thumbs-up. Yuuka was smarter than she was scary, so she could figure these things out very quickly.
She then asked it yet another question: "why did it throw you through the hole?" The creature shrugged; it wasn't sure why it was thrown through, but it did manage to communicate that other figures had been forced out the hole the same way.
"Are you trying to find a way back home?" she asked it. It nodded. She then asked "would you simply fly through another hole if one were to appear." It shook its head. "Why not?" It then made the same pose representing the big, scary monster. "The big, scary monster would throw you back out, and you can't beat it in a fight?" It lowered its head in sorrow and nodded.
"I see," she responded. "Now, why are you here of all places in Gensokyo? This is a dangerous place, and many feared youkai live out in these fields." It swept one swole arm over the fields, pointed back at the sky, then swept over the field again with its other arm.
"I'm not sure I understand," Yuuka replied. "Are you trying to say there's a flower field on the other side of the hole?" She asked. It gestured in a way as if to say "eh, kind of."
She then made the next logical bridge: "do my fields remind you of home?" It looked off to the side, then struck a more vigorous thumbs-up.
She was amused by this strange encounter with something related to the incident. And interestingly, it appeared as if it had the opposite problem Reimu did: she was flung through the hole and was trying to get back to Gensokyo; this creature was stuck in Gensokyo and was trying to get back to the land beyond the hole.
She then decided to see what this thing was capable of. "What sorts of things can you do, with those big, bulging muscles of yours?" she asked.
It held out on finger in front of her, as if getting ready to demonstrate a trick. It then jumped into the air, then slammed down to the ground, its arm piercing the soil beneath it. She was wondering at this moment what it was doing, hopefully not ruining her flowers.
It moved its hand around, clearly feeling around for something, before stopping as if it had found whatever it was looking for, deep down inside of the ground. Using its free arm, it pushed up and began slowly pulling its arm out of the ground before quickly uprooting a screaming, yelling black-haired girl in a white dress with red and blue arrow accents.
Yuuka instantly knew who it was. It was Seija, the runaway amanojaku that was wanted all across Gensokyo after her failed rebellion. The girl flailed around in the air, cursing the ears off the creature. "Unhand me, you evil, grotesque monster!" she yelled, her arms and legs flapping about as it grabbed her by the collar.
"Well, well, well," Yuuka sneered as she looked on. "If it isn't the amanojaku who tried to invert the barrier. I've been looking all over for you, hoping to claim the handsome reward for myself, but it seems my friend here has accomplished that for me." She walked closer to her, and was amused. All the most powerful characters in Gensokyo had been after her for many months, whipping out their most dangerous and lethal spell cards to try and stop her, and only now was she captured by a big, red musclebound mosquito thing that didn't even know how to use magic.
"I think I'll hold onto you for the night and then turn you over to the border youkai when I'm done playing with you," she said slyly. She then turned back towards the creature holding on to Seija. "I think I'll reward you by showing you back to my house. I could always use more company." So she started walking back, only to be suddenly grabbed under the creature's other arm as it flew the both of them back to Yuuka's house.