Disclaimer: I don't own Touhou Project and its contents are all owned by Zun.
Synopsis: The gardener Youmu Konpaku was out gardening when she discovered an unexpected find in her garden.
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'Thoughts'
"Speaking"
"Spell Cards, and moves"
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Third Person POV
BGM: 東方 [Piano] Mystic Oriental Dream ~ Till When
The Netherworld is the realm where souls judged to be guiltlessly the Yama. However people who are artists, or have been killed by a certain ghost princess can enter this realm as well. The most well known thing of this realm is its vast amounts of cherry blossom trees, and the biggest one of them all is the Saigyou Ayakashi.
In Hakugyokurou's garden is its gardener, who is currently tending to the many beautiful and rare plants. Her name is Youmu Konpaku.
Youmu is a petite girl with a bob cut silver hair topped off with a black bow. She wore a white dress shirt, black bow tie around her neck and a green two piece dress over her clothes. Sheathed behind the gardener are her swords Roukanken and Hakurouken. A phantom like being floats beside her, and is actually her ghost half signaling that she's a half human-phantom hybrid. She calls the phantom half Myon.
Right now, Youmu was busy watering her plants while Myon was lazily floating by her. Today was a good day for her, because the weather was bright and sunny without a single darn cloud in sight!
Youmu was busily humming to herself happily as she watered her plants expecting today to be just a regular day. Unfortunately for her it won't.
After watering the plants, Youmu then flew to the other side of the garden to go take care of her other plants. While flying she looked to the Saigyou Ayakashi, and pondered to herself.
Despite knowing the past and bloody history of the youkai tree, Youmu would have liked to see it blossom. However she knew that the cherry blossom would immediately start to charm people to go under its leaves, drain them of their life force and ultimately kill them.
While flying Youmu noticed something odd under the gigantic cherry blossom tree. She noticed that there was something odd about the tree.
'Eh, what's that?' Youmu mentally questioned herself as she changed her flight direction to the sealed youkai tree. 'I must see what's that at the tree?'
As Youmu got closer to the tree she saw that the oddity was a body. The half human half phantom was confused as why there was a body six meters from the Saigyouji Ayakashi.
'Eh, why is there a dead body right here, near the Saigyou Ayakashi?' Youmu thought to herself as she approached the body. When she got close to the body she tried to feel for a pulse. 'It wouldn't hurt to to try to feel for a p-'
When Youmu's cold hand got close she felt the familiar beating of a heart from the supposedly dead body. Youmu suddenly retracted her hand from the body in shock.
"Huh?!" Youmu said in disbelief. No one that she knows at least is supposed to be alive in this realm. The only person she recounted
who is still alive, and not a spirit and ghost would be herself, because she's half human.
"I wonder what you're doing here?" Youmu asked the body expecting an answer. But she knew that the person was unconscious. "I must bring you to Yuyuko-sama for questioning and also see if she has an answer on why you're alive!"
Youmu then picked up the body and flew to her master to see if she knows the answers to this little incident.
At Hakugyokurou
BGM: 東方 [Piano] Bloom Nobly, Cherry Blossom of Sumizome ~ Border of Life 『2』
In the living room of the ancient traditional Japanese building known as Hakugyokurou is a beautiful matured woman eating some snacks. This woman is the departed ghost princess of this place, but she is also known simply as Yuyuko Saigyouji.
Yuyuko has hair as pink as the sakura trees outside in the garden. On her head was a blue domed shaped hat that had a white paper triangle with a red swirl on the front of it. There was also a white veil at the back of the hat. She wore a heavily modified blue kimono that looked to be like for sleeping and was far looser than a conventional kimono.
"Oh nom nom nom." Yuyuko was currently munching on some sushi on the table that her servant Youmu cooked for her before tending to the plants in Hakugyokurou's garden.
Suddenly Yuyuko heard footsteps approach the large sliding doors. She looked up from her sushi on the plate toward the door.
"Hello, Youmu-Chan are you back from gardening already?" Yuyuko asking the one behind the door.
"Yes it's me Yuyuko-sama, I'm back from gardening." Youmu's faint reply from behind the door. "But, I brought you something to show you from the garden…"
"Well, aren't you going to come in, Youmu-chan?"
"Oh, right coming in now." Youmu said as she opened the sliding doors with her hands.
When Youmu came in she came in the through the sliding doors she carried something you don't see everyday. A body was slung over her shoulder as she came in.
Yuyuko observed the body was a female and was currently wearing a green and brown kimono with pink trim and several cherry blossom designs on it. The person also had radiant pink white hair and on her rests a pink sakura leaf.
"Um, Youmu, why did you bring a dead body right in front me?" Yuyuko asked her servant.
"Um, you see, Yuyuko-sama this person is actually alive." Youmu said to her master, without hesitation. "I found her in the garden and wanted to ask if you know anything about a new resident occupying the Netherworld."
"Youmu, I never killed a person for them to come here, and I didn't receive an answer or letter from Eiki-sama that we would expect someone to come here." Yuyuko answered Youmu's question. "However, maybe we'll get some answers from our guest here, when she wakes up."
Timeskip: 30 minutes later.
? ? ? POV
I groaned as I woke up from my unconscious nap. It would seem that the process of me transferring to a youkai body was going to have some side effects.
I opened my red eyes to see that I'm in a traditional Japanese home. I quietly sat up in the seiza position and looked toward my hand, and closed my eyes.
'So this is how it feels to be like my victims…' I thought to myself testing out my new body. I felt new foreign things I never felt before in my new body such as a beating heart, sounds, and smells. 'It is something I'm very unfamiliar with.'
"Finally, it took you long enough to wake up. It felt like thirty minutes." A void said to me.
"Um, Yuyuko-sama it was thirty minutes." Another voice responded to the first.
I opened my eyes and lifted my head up and turned to where the voices were. My eyes widened when I saw someone I wasn't expecting to see. My sealer, and the person who killed herself just so I don't go killing anymore, Yuyuko Saigyouji…
"Well it looks like you've seen a ghost." The smile on my sealer's face is one of carefreeness. "Then again this ironic since I am a ghost after all."
"What?" I said, I didn't expect Yuyuko to become a ghost, and honestly that girl deserved to live in peace for what she had to go through.
"Now that you're here, I want to ask a few questions." Yuyuko said to me. "But first we should eat and you must be hungry as well.
Though mentioning this right now I do feel hungry which is another sensation I didn't feel when I was still in my original body. Looking on the table I saw an assortment of food such as sushi.
We all started to eat the food, and it took me a few tries to use the chopsticks, because I was still unfamiliar with my new body right now. As I was eating I saw Yuyuko eating her food so fast in literal seconds. Wow I never seen my sealer eat so fast.
"Um, aren't you concerned with the fact that she just ate her food so fast." I said to the person beside me. She looked indifferent to Yuyuko's eating antics.
"Well I lived and served her for the last 30 years and know her eating habits for so long." The silver haired bob cut girl said to me.
"Youmu, you should finish your food before I start to feed on yours~" Yuyuko said to the person.
"Yes Yuyuko-sama." The person that I know now as Youmu, started quickly eating her food up. Knowing what's going to happen to my food, I started to eat my food before Yuyuko eats mine.
A few minutes later, after eating our food, we all sat there in silence.
"Anyways, about what I said earlier." Yuyuko said to me with her red eyes looking into my own. "Who are you?"
'Well the moment of truth.' I thought to myself as I began thinking of a way to bring the truth to my sealer.
"This might be awkward but…" I hesitated when speaking before answering. "I am… the Saigyou Ayakashi."
BGM: Death [東方 Touhou Piano Arrange] 14
Third POV
There was dead silence from everyone right now, and the air was very tense right now. Yuyuko's usually carefree smile was replaced with a deep frown from hearing the answering from Saigyou Ayakashi. Youmu too was tense, and started reaching for her katanas. Finally the silence was broken by the departed ghost princess.
"Ehh!" Yuyuko said in complete shock from hearing the answer from the person, or tree that she sealed when she was still alive. "You're the Saigyou Ayakashi?!"
"That is… correct." Saigyou answers her question albeit nervously.
Youmu immediately drew her Roukanken and Hakurouken from her back and held it to Saigyou's neck. While that was happening a large fan appeared behind Yuyuko, and several different colored transparent butterflies appeared.
"So you came back Saigyou Ayakashi." Yuyuko said, her voice now was very serious and no longer carefree. "Are you going to go and revive your old body just so you can go kill again!"
Youmu then started pressing her long and short katanas close to Saigyou's neck almost close to drawing blood. "Answer Yuyuko-Sama's question!"
"I don't have any intentions to " Saigyou said calmly after almost provoking Yuyuko and her servant to attack the youkai tree.
"Eh, what do you mean?" Yuyuko said confused by what she just said. She knew that the Saigyou Ayakashi has a bloodthirsty attitude and would more than gladly kill its victims without feeling regret, but hearing it...no her saying she has no intentions of killing was just a mystery even she couldn't comprehend.
"I'll reveal everything to you, and your servant, Yuyuko-san." Saigyou said slowly to the ghost princess. "But please without any violence."
Yuyuko looked at Youmu and a few seconds later nodded to the half human-half phantom. Seconds later the gardener sheathed her swords back into her sheaths, while the departed ghost spirit made her giant fan and butterflies disappear.
"Thank you." Saigyou said thankful that her sealer and servant complied to the youkai tree.
"Saigyou you better answer truthfully to me and my servant, or else." Yuyuko said with a glare in her eyes.
"Of course I'll do it, Yuyuko-San." Saigyou answered.
"Now, as you both know I was once a very beautiful cherry blossom, who then became a murderous tree youkai who lured people to their deaths, right. But to tell you the truth…I was never really in control of my actions…" Saigyou said, very sad of remembering what she has been doing in the past. "I didn't even want to kill them in the first place…"
"Wait, if you didn't want to kill those by luring them under you and draining them of their life force.." Yuyuko said. "Why couldn't you have stopped."
"I couldn't have stopped myself if I can! I tried so hard to control my powers, but they were out of my control!" Saigyou cried out in sadness. Her eyes started to water as she looked like she was going to cry. "I regretted ever killing those people in the first place."
"Then there's you, Yuyuko-san…"
"Me?" Yuyuko said, questioning why did thetree youkai bring her up. After hearing Saigyou's story the two of them are more similar than they are before. The ghost princess is feeling very sympathetic and sorrowful from hearing the youkai tree's story.
"When you were still alive, you came to me always asking me questions, not even fearing about my past, and being shunned and alone for your abilities, we are like kindred spirits." Saigyou could only but bitterly chuckle from her remark. "That was until you died…"
"You committed suicide so you can stop me, from committing more murders against everyone else." Saigyou said starting to tear up as she started the painful process of remembering a memory she doesn't want to remember. "I wanted you to live in peace, not kill yourself, damn it!"
Saigyou started to sob uncontrollably as the emotional pain and grief was starting to hit her like a certain gap youkai's trains. Tears started to flow down her face like a river.
Yuyuko then floated over to the Saigyou Ayakashi, while Youmu was watching. The half human-half phantom was saddened by the tale told by Saigyou, and she too saw the similarities both her master and the tree youkai shared with them.
As Yuyuko got closer she heard the faintest "I'm sorry" being repeated by Saigyou. When the departed ghost princess was finally close to the youkai tree she hugged her.
Saigyou momentarily stopped crying as she felt herself being hugged by her sealer, Yuyuko. "*sniff* huh."
"Shhhhh…" Yuyuko said softly, trying to comfort the youkai tree, she also started . "It's okay, I'm all better now, you don't have to feel bad for me right now."
"I'm alright trust me."
Saigyou started to unleash all of her pent up grief and regret for all the murders she has done, unintentionally. The cherry blossom youkai silently cried into Yuyuko's arms.
Timeskip: 30 minutes later.
BGM: 東方 Piano『Bloom Nobly, Cherry Blossom of Sumizome ~ Border of Life #5』- Morrigan
"You all better now. Saigyou."
"Yes, I'm all better now Yuyuko-San."
Saigyou was currently sitting a few inches away from Yuyuko as she was recovering from what she did earlier.
"So you don't hate me for trying to seal you, right?" Yuyuko asked the youkai tree beside her.
"Yes, I respect your decision for doing what you needed to do." Saigyou answered back.
"Well I feel honored to know that the thing I sealed even respects my decision." Yuyuko starts to go back to her mischievous, but also ditzy self from before. "Now that you're back what are you going to do?"
"I'll try to live a normal life to the best of my ability." Saigyou said to her sealer. "Though I don't even know where I'm at right now."
"Oh right about that, you see we're in the Netherworld." Yuyuko said. "A place where artists and people that I killed go to rest eternally."
"Wait what!"
"I'm also the one who manages the souls here as well." Yuyuko said to the youkai tree with a mischievous smile on her ghostly face. "But don't worry you're not a permanent resident of this place at least your true body is and not your second one."
'Well that's a relief!' Saigyou thought to herself glad she wasn't dead. 'For a second I thought I was actually dead and the foreign sensations I was feeling was fake.'
"The realm that we're in is currently connected to another dimension nearby here known as Gensokyo." Yuyuko said. "It's a cool place to go to, but you gotta watch out for it's residents."
"Why do I have to do that."
"Well, Saigyou-san the place where you're going to has people who are more or less looking for a fight and won't hesitate to beat you up." Youmu said finally to the youkai tree. "I know because I myself have fought against them in the spell card rules."
"Spell card rules?"
"Ah, the spell card rules, one of the best things ever invented by the Hakurei Shrine maiden herself." Yuyuko said happily. "It allows the combatants in magnificent danmaku battles and no one ever dies in those battles if I might add."
"Um, I never heard of the spell card rules my entire 1000 years of living." Saigyou scratched the back of her head subconsciously without her knowing.
"Of course you wouldn't!" Yuyuko said. "You've been asleep for the last 1000 years!"
'Wow! 1000 years, huh.' Saigyou thought to herself. 'I wonder what has been happening while I was sealed?'
"You still haven't answered one question though?" Yuyuko said with a thoughtful look on her face. "How were you able to transfer yourself into that new body of yours?"
"Well, when I was sealed by you, I wanted to escape my body without triggering my deadly powers." Saigyou replied to Yuyuko's question. "I decided to create a body for myself for me to do so, but I discovered it would have taken me 1000 years to do so, because of the spiritual power, and growing time it took for me to create it.
"I also am not used to feeling new foreign things that I have never felt when I was still a cherry blossom." Saigyou curled her fingers individually. "I still am getting used to my body as we speak."
"Well, I'm sure you'll get used to your new body in a jiffy!" Yuyuko said supportive and confident to the youkai tree.
Saigyou was currently both surprised and happy for what has been happening for the last 30 minutes. Yuyuko and her servant went from hostile to helpful to her. Maybe there is hope for her after all!
"I might as well stay here your place, for
several days." Saigyou said to the two of them.
"Why would you want to stay here, even if you're not dead yet?" Yuyuko said to the youkai tree.
"Well I wanted to hopefully get some help from you or your servant on how to do spell cards." Saigyou voiced her answer to the ghost.
"Well, since you want to learn about the basics of the spell card rules, then you came to the right place!" Yuyuko said contently to the cherry blossom youkai. "Right, Youmu will help this girl in need right?"
"Um, sure thing Yuyuko-sama." Youmu said a bit hesitantly. "I'll also help Saigyou as well."
"Splendid." Yuyuko said, satisfied from hearing her servant's answer.
"Before I learn how to do spell cards…" Saigyou said. "I need a new name."
"Why would you need a new name Saigyou-san?" Youmu asked the tree youkai.
"Youmu, her real name will obviously make everyone very suspicious, and would outright attack her." Yuyuko said to her gardener. "Besides you would know what happened, because we threatened her before."
"Oh, sorry about what me and Yuyuko-sama did earlier to you." Youmu said a bit embarrassed of earlier.
"Both of you're forgiven." Saigyou said to the two of them. "I knew what was going to happen when I revealed my identity to you girls."
"But enough of that I figured out a new name to make myself less suspicious and be terrorized by everyone in Gensokyo." Saigyou said.
"Oh, really what's your new name?" Yuyuko asked the cherry blossom youkai.
"Well you can call me…" Saigyou started to say before answering. "Sagi Ayouka."
A/n: Sorry that there weren't any fight scenes, but you get to be introduced to a new character, Sagi Ayouka! She was based on the story Rebirth by manonthe3up. Sadly that story was cancelled check it up if you want to anyway.
Also what do you think about the sad moment in this chapter do you like or hate it? Review the story, or PM in my PM box.
