Day 2 - II
The persistence of the snow is something residents of Gensokyo grumble, and in due time, marvel at. Its invasion is one of a kind. Though it has only been only the third day, Gensokyo was already reeling from the endless white, those that were free falling from the skies.
But somewhere, at one corner of Gensokyo, there exists a location that enjoyed leniency from the snow that the rest of the realm would envy upon. To to be precise, the Netherworld is not a part of Gensokyo itself-only the border that leads to it serves as a connection between the two is-but nevertheless this land of the dead was not so so much as bothered by the cold than the living.
Atop a rather mortal and structurally functioning architecture on the very peak of a mind-boggling set of gray stone steps, a young servant stepped out onto the dry-rock garden of the Japanese styled mansion, searching for her master.
"Lady Yuyuko?"
She was short, slightly below the average height of a normal girl, but her physique was very well fit from her daily swordsmanship training. Her clean cut hair, a bouncing silver bobcut, welcomed the occasional flakes of snow as they seemly vanished when falling into it. She thought that it was strange to suddenly snow here, but she had no idea on how big it was in Gensokyo when compared to the gentle wisps in the Netherworld.
"Lady Yuyuko? Where are you? Dinner is ready." She looked around, wondering where her mistress might wander off to. It is a rare sight to see Yuyuko Saigyouji to be absent for a mealtime. The young servant was quite baffled when she saw the plates were untouched.
When there was no signs of her mistress in the dry-rock garden, the servant, Youmu, entered the more extravagant one at the back of the mansion, the one filled with alluring cherry blossoms. It is a rather mystical and powerfully enchanting garden, for the blossoms, not a bit bothered by the snow, stretched on as far as the eye could see in between a small pathway. The sight is breathtaking to behold. Breathtaking, but not perfect.
The pathway eventually lead to a small cliff, which itself served as a bird's eye view for a large portion of the visible Netherworld. By the edge of this cliff stood a tall and gigantic tree. What sets it apart from its sisters from the pathway is that this tree is completely disrobed: its branches are empty and its dryness, despite the melting of the soothing snow, was never parched. The tree is dead. A dead tree in the realm of the dead, it now served as an ambiguous reminder to those that knew of the incident years ago, of a failed attempt to achieve an unreachable beauty and perfection.
A lone figure stood in front of the tree, gazing upwards at its branches. Dressed in a ghastly pink kimono, her eyes perceived something in the tree. Something new.
"There you are, Lady Yuyuko," Youmu approached her mistress from behind. "I've been looking for you. Your dinner is ready."
A white blob of apparition floated behind the servant, its long, white serpentine-like tail wiggling a few times. Though it bears a striking similarity to an abundance of the phantasmal denizen in the Netherworld, this spirit is actually a part of Youmu herself: her alternate identity, her other self. Hailing as the latest and possibly the last member of the twin-bodied Konpaku clan, she sometimes found herself lonely in not just this world, but Gensokyo as well. It is a good thing that her master, Yuyuko, shared a similar circumstance, or at least, half of it.
"Ah, Youmu..." Yuyuko, a deceased human since who knows how long, now a ghost, noticed her faithful servant, though that is not without some considerable delay in her reaction. She was fixated on the tree. Perhaps, Youmu had noticed, too much of so. It beared the name of Saigyou Ayakashi, or in a very general sense, the Youkai Tree of Saigyou. Something's not right about the dead tree. No, is it dead? Youmu's ghost half suddenly shuddered. Its high sensitivity in the spiritual plane detected a strange sensation coming from the tree.
"Can you see it, Youmu?" Yuyuko, in a daze, turned to her servant. "The Saigyou Ayakashi. It's blooming."
