The last chapter for today... Geez, three on one day!

Well, this one will be the first half of the netherworld... the second one will be the "Sakura Finale". ...Yes, I have been playing L4D with its finales, okay?

Not much to say, though... thunderstorms kept me from uploading this chapter before, but now that they're over, here is it.

Hope you enjoy it!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Touhou, Team Shanghai Alice / ZUN does. I do own Chôzen Gekido and Ryoko Jigoku, though.

Chapter 6: Samurai on Stairs

We were flying above large stairs in the middle of nothing, sakura petals whirling through the air around us, dancing in the wind. These stairs were the "nearly" endless stairs to the netherworld, and the shrine inside it, Hakugyokuro.

Ryoko had departed from us earlier that night, and now it was me and the, as they revealed, Prismriver sisters who were flying up the stairs. "Stop! Who´s there?", shouted a loud female voice. A few seconds later, a small silver-haired samurai girl ran down the stairs towards us, katana and wakizashi already in her hands. Of course, I immeadiately rose my arms in defense to cover my head, but the girl eventually stopped right in front of us.

"It´s us, Youmu, the prismriver sisters, just as your mistress wished!", exclaimed Lunasa, the oldest of the three. "We always manage to come right on time!", continued Merlin, the second oldest. "Please guide us to Hakugyokuro~!", sung Lyrica, the youngest prismriver sister. The armed girl, apparently called Youmu, nodded, but then turned her gaze to me. "And who is that suspicious male..? He seems familiar...", muttered Youmu. I flinched a little, and almost took a step back... A fatal step, if I may say so. "Calm down! She can cut you into pieces, yes, but if she has no reason to, she won't! Just act natural and unsuspicious!", I thought to myself, trying to calm myself down.

"May I introduce myself? I am..." Oh shit, forgot to create a fake name! "...R-Rinnosuke. Rinnosuke Morichika.", I quickly lied, and hoped that the shopkeeper, which I met during my errands to the village, wouldn´t kill me... He was half a youkai, after all! Maybe he had some super strong mysterious ability? He was, after all, the only male (half-)youkai besides myself I met so far! He must have an incredibly strong ability! Geez, I just hope he'll never find out about this!

"I am the new manager of my three angels here!", I hummed uneasily and hugged all three of the sisters at once. Youmu frowned at that, but lowered her swords. "I see. I am Youmu Konpaku, gardener and guard of Hakugyokuro.", introduced Youmu herself... though her eyes stayed narrowed at me... she was suspecting something, wasn't she?

Anyways, I nodded and bowed to her, which she did as well. "Please follow me. I´ll guide you to the guest rooms." With that, Youmu turned around and ran up the stairs, but I easily noticed her glares at me. She was still trying to figure out why I looked familiar, wasn´t she? Had I been here before, as the few memories I have told me? I had been in the netherworld before... Had I met her...? If so... why doesn't she remember me?

I was all alone in a large japanese-styled room of excellent quality. Something completely different than the lazy miko´s shrine! This shrine was large and incredibly noble! Wouldn´t surprise me if a princess or something lived here! ...come to think of it, didn't the prismrivers mention a princess?

"Psh, hey, Chôzen!" Speaking of the devils... After letting out a silent sigh, I sneaked over to the door and opened it. "Yes?", I asked as I opened it and let the three sisters in. "We kinda wanted to ask what your real goal is." I closed the door behind them. "You said you wanted to come here without them being suspicious of you... and we figured that you have to do something incredibly secret in here!" I sweatdropped. So now I was an undercover-agent or spy?

"You see... I try finding my friends and solve the incident that is going on in Gensokyo. You must have surely noticed that the winter seemed simply to find no end.", I replied, and Lunasa nodded. "Yeah. You think the source is here?", she asked. "Well, my friends aren´t fighting without a reason, do they?", I chuckled. "Oh! So the girls were your friends? The maid, the miko, that witch and that green-haired soul?", asked Lyrica. I nodded again. "Hey... wait a second...! Why has she just adressed Mima as 'soul', like Mima always insists on? ...maybe Mima really is a soul and not a ghost? ...better stop thinking about it. After all, Mima has never made sense."

"Sorry if they were mean to you or something similiar. They can be very rude...", I sighed, scratching the back of my head. "Ah, they didn´t do a thing. We were already searching for the keyboard and had no time to talk with them or something. They just flew past us." With a relieved sigh, I nodded. "I see. Do you know anything that´s going on?", I asked the three girls silently... After all, that gardener could be listening to us...

"Well, you kinda could try to follow Youmu, but that´s as good as impossible, she´ll notice. But I´m sure her master is behind this, somehow.", muttered Merlin. The other two sisters nodded in agreement. "Yeah. She has been strange in the last time.", added Lunasa. I rose an eyebrow for a second, but decided against asking how exactly Youmu's master had been strange.

"Alright. Thank you, you three, that is more than enough of what I need to know. You should get ready for your performance, I´ll see you later... I´ll try to find out about the connection between the incident and this shrine in meantime." The three nodded. "Better be quick. When the mistress doesn´t get her meals, she is in a bad mood, and when a fight is preventing her from hearing our performance, she´ll be mad in rage!", explained Lyrica, and shuddered. "How long do I have until your performance should start?"

"Two hours. If she is still in the fight by then and we begin to play, she´ll hear it and be even more serious than before. She´ll finish the fight in seconds, just to get to listen to us and eat something." I sweatdropped. "Thank you, girls."

"We´ll try to start a little later, but if we take too long, Youmu will get suspicious and find out. Ten minutes, that´s possibly the most time we can get you." I nodded "Geez, now I wish I had that watch from the half-youkai's shop... How exactly should I know how much time I have left...?" "Leave that to me, I count the time down. Just make sure you'll find out about everything in meantime!" "Geez, it's my conscience again... but well, thank you." "No problem. By the way... Love ya too." I rolled my eyes, but then turned back to the girls.

"Good. Thank you, girls, again." The three nodded, then said goodbye and left the room. As they left the room, I sat on the ground, growling to myself. "Two hours and ten minutes... starting from now. How am I going to do this?" Then, I turned around, walked to the door, and left the room myself.

"2:06:30 remaining"

Once outside the shrine, I frantically searched around, of course, trying not to run into Youmus arms. The gardener was currently sweeping leaves in the middle of the only path. Damn. "Yuyuko-sama sure needs her time. She hadn´t eaten ever since they invaded the netherworld... And usually, she never let´s a meal slip. I hope she is alright..." I slowly crept behind a bush to listen more to Youmu.

"But she has been dead serious about this... and once she is serious about something, she won´t give up until someone beats reason into her.", sighed Youmu as she continued to sweep the place. "And what about this weird guy from before... Something isn´t quite right about him. I saw him before, I swear! And that name is obviously fake. Maybe I should just go and cut him down..."

I gulped when I heard that. Good thing I was hiding. "...I don't want him to find out that we were stealing spring from Gensokyo... Apropos, something is strange.. there are no more sakura petals entering the netherworld... and yet, the Saigyou Ayakashi doesn't bloom... It is close to, and the spring of Gensokyo should've been enough... at least one petal is still missing..."

At that moment, it clicked inside my head and I quickly slid a hand into my pocket. Without real problems, I found what I searched for... the sakura petal I had collected...! Could it be that this one was everything that stopped the tree from blooming? The petal I had held back from entering the netherworld...! The remains of Gensokyos spring, lying in my very hand...!

"...it´s time. I should prepare Yuyuko-samas tea in hope she finds the time to take it in." I carefully turned around and peeked around the bush I hid behind. From there, I watched how Youmu went back to the shrine, put the broom down, and vanished inside the shrine. I waited for two minutes, fearing that she may re-appear, but she didn´t. Then, I slowly came out of my hiding place, and ran down the path.

"1:42:29 remaining..."

And eventually, after running a small eternity, I saw them. Butterfly-like bullets. B-butterflies... that... reminds me of something...

"Come sit. Let´s look at the Cherry Blossoms together with Youmu, Chôzen."

"Oh my. You managed to negate on of my butterfly-bullets again."

"Chôzen... do you know why the Saigyou Ayakashi doesn´t bloom?

I always wonder... doesn´t he possess enough spring?"

Memories of mine went back into place. I glared at the large cherry blossom tree to my left, which glowed in an eerie purple light. He was almost in full bloom. And... and that means...! If the Saigyou Ayakashi does bloom, the buried princess will return! She is not allowed to return! Yuyuko would kill herself...! I looked into heaven and immeadiatly spotted the pink-haired woman, fighting with Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya... and... Mima...?

"1:34:10 remaining..."

And here goes the last chapter for today... Makes it three in total.

Next up is the Sakura Finale... I still do not know if I really make it a fight or not... Geez, I don't want to have a fight every chapter, or at least every second or so... I want a few chapters without fights as well... Also, I do not feel like making every story arc a final boss fight... But we see about that!

Something else to say? Hm... I don't think so... If I forgot something or do have any questions, please tell me so... Hope you'll review ;-)

See ya!