Author's Note: Stage five! Thank you everybody for being patient with my break, and thank you wellhaithar for wishing me a happy Thanksgiving Day, but I'm afraid that I don't live in USA, so I haven't really celebrated it, but thank you for the wishes nevertheless. I know that it's pretty early for me to be wishing this, but since it's not that far away, I might as well do it. I would like to wish everybody a happy and warm Christmas, so you would be able to celebrate it with your beloved without any incidents happening. Without further ado, please enjoy the chapter!
After Sanae flied over the barrier into the Netherworld, she found herself floating around the land of the dead.
The wind priestess stopped for a moment to observe her surroundings.
Strangely enough, the Netherworld looked similar to the Gensokyo, it had mountains, forests, roads, and even the seasons! She could see a lot of cherry blossoms that have blossomed, which would mean that it was spring here, another clue pointing to who was the mastermind here... The only significant difference was that it was populated by huge amount of ghosts, phantoms and spirits than humans and youkai. Sanae was surprised, because she expected something more "fearsome" or at least something more "dead-like," since it was the land of the dead, after all. But I guess she should stop taking things from her mangas at face value, where they tend to exaggerate things for shock value.
She saw a strange manor at the top of the mountains, perhaps it was the residence of the ghost princess? She couldn't find anything else and surely locals wouldn't be that keen on answering her questions, so it was the best clue she had right now.
There were however a lot of spirits floating around aimlessly in her way, maybe if she flied to the manor slowly, and quietly she wouldn't attract attention and get there without incident? Worth the try at least.
Then a danmaku flew past her. Yep, that ain't going to work. The only human in the Netherworld that was only populated by the ghosts and spirits trying to travel around without attracting attention... Obviously, it wasn't her brightest idea.
She quickly dodged the incoming danmaku and fired back at the attackers. She had to push through them into the manor, otherwise she would be quickly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of spirits around.
The wind priestess moved quickly and soon with a bit of difficulty found herself near the residence's enormous stairway. When she got close to the manor, the spirits ceased their attacks and left her alone. It seems that they are somewhat "afraid" of this place.
If even the dead are scared of coming here, then she wouldn't want to know what she would encounter there...
She looked at the stairway in front of her. It was certainly a very long climb, so she was thankful that she could fly, otherwise she would most likely drop from exhaustion halfway there by climbing it normally.
The wind priestess then started flying up towards the manor entrance. After a bit, she found herself standing on the top of the mountain next to the residence's entrance.
There was a girl standing next to it.
She had short silver hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a green vest and skirt over a white undershirt. She also had a black bow tie and hairband with black ribbon tied off-center in her hair. Furthermore, she also had a katana and wakizashi in scabbards near her skirt. There was also a spirit floating next to her.
She noticed wind priestess and shouted at her.
-Stop right there! A human? That explains why the spirits were getting restless all of a sudden. Living people aren't allowed in the land of the dead, so you better have a good reason for being here.
Sanae nodded.
-I do. I'm Sanae Kochiya, the wind priestess of Moriya Shrine. I arrived here to stop the ghost princess of this land from stealing the spring from Gensokyo!
The girl bowed.
-Youmu Konpaku, the gardener of Hakugyokurou and loyal bodyguard of Yuyuko Saigyouji. I'm afraid, I can't allow you to do that. It's very impressive that you have figured it out even though it took you a bit, however my mistress have instructed me to not allow anybody to interrupt her.
The wind priestess frowned.
-For what purpose are you even doing this? The people back at Gensokyo are suffering because of the lingering winter. Humans are getting sick easier, the crops are getting increasingly harder to grow causing the food shortages and the fairies and some youkai are getting berserk by the disturbance in the natural flow of the seasons!
Youmu averted her gaze to the side, she looked... hesitant?
-I don't have the details, however my lady wants to fully bloom a certain cherry blossom tree named Saigyou Ayakashi using the spring collected from the Gensokyo, I'm afraid I don't know why that tree is so special.
Endangering whole Gensokyo just so she would be able to blossom one stupid tree?
Sanae was furious. The selfishness of the ghost princess angered her so much that she was unable to think straight.
-You let her steal the spring from Gensokyo and didn't care to even stop her from doing such wicked thing. You're just as bad as her!
The wind priestess in anger declared her spell card Esoterica "Secretly Inherited Art of Danmaku"
The gardener didn't flinch at the sudden spell card, she just unsheathed her sword and, with blindingly fast slashes that even Sanae couldn't keep up with, destroyed every danmaku flying at her and sheathed her sword back.
Normally Sanae would be impressed by such skillful swordsmanship, but she was so mad that she didn't even care about that.
-I can understand your anger, but please let me explain m-
The wind priestess interrupted her.
-I don't wish to hear anything from you!
She declared another spell card Miracle "Night with Overly Bright Guest Stars"
Youmu this time charged through the spell card with her sword, cutting any danmaku flying at her, her target being the wind priestess, as soon as she was close, she hit her with a powerful strike from the blunt edge of her sword to the chest, causing Sanae to be knocked down to the ground from the impact. She winced in pain.
The gardener then moved over to the wind priestess and pointed the sword at her throat as she was lying on the ground.
-Will you stop being selfish now and listen to me!?
The wind priestess slowly nodded.
-I can understand that you're angry at me for being passive in this situation. I have been loyal to my lady since the day I was born and have sworn to protect her and to never go against her no matter what. However, recently she has been acting odd, doing things that she wouldn't have done in the past. I must admit that even I'm not that keen on the idea of stealing spring from others and making them suffer just to blossom one cherry tree, and I believe that my lady might be doing something that will hurt her in the end, but because I have sworn to never go against her, I can't do anything to help her see the reason.
She teared up at this, and after a moment she wiped her tears with her free hand.
Sanae felt bad for her, she lashed out at the gardener without even taking her situation in consideration.
-I'm sorry...
Youmu sighed and sheathed her sword.
-It's fine. You must have your own people you wish to protect, so you had every reason to react like this.
Sanae wobbly got up from the ground, she was still a bit sore after that hit from the gardener.
Youmu hesitantly looked at the wind priestess.
-I would like to ask you for a favor, if you don't mind.
Sanae tilted her head questioningly.
-That would be?
The gardener had a hopeful look in her eyes.
-I can't do anything about this situation because of my circumstances, but there's nothing preventing you from doing it in my stead. Would you go see my lady and make her see the reason, so she wouldn't do anything that would hurt herself and the Gensokyo in the process?
The wind priestess smiled.
-That's why I was here in the first place.
Youmu nodded.
-Thank you. You will find her in the gardens inside the manor, but please be careful, she isn't called "the ghost princess" for nothing.
Sanae nodded.
-I will try my best.
The gardener pointed at the entrance.
-You're free to go inside, I will be awaiting your return here.
The wind priestess nodded, then headed towards the gate.
As soon as she disappeared from the sight, the gardener whispered to herself.
-Please, Lady Yuyuko, snap out of this and stop this nonsense before it's too late...
Author's Note: I admit that this chapter was a bit of an issue for me to write because I had three different versions of it and couldn't really decide which one to write. The first version was that originally Sanae was supposed to be "losing" this battle because of the sheer power of Youmu and her ability to destroy any danmaku with her sword and then Sakuya would unexpectedly come in to save her, (It would fit because the maid was also sent by Remilia to investigate the incident.) ending up in a "sword vs knife" duel, in which Sakuya would use her time and space manipulation abilities to easily win the fight, it would also end up them teaming up later on to defeat Yuyuko. I didn't really settle for this version, because while it would be great to see Sakuya back again and her demonstrating her enormous power, I didn't really want her to overshadow Sanae as main character. I prefer for Sanae to be alone without partners throughout the incident, so she can show that she isn't "the helpless shrine maiden" from before and that she can take care of herself this time. The second version would be pretty similar to this one, with the difference that Youmu would be hesitant to fight Sanae, but she still would engage in regular spell card battle with her, Youmu would be holding back throughout the whole battle, (Remember when in-game during fight with Youmu, she would use that "time-slowing" gimmick in many of her spell cards? It didn't really make sense for me for her to be using it considering that it more helped the protagonists than hurt them.) and then she would get hit by the danmaku on purpose, Sanae would then ask her why she was holding back during their fight and Youmu would pretty much explain everything just like in this version. Third version is pretty much this one, so since you have already read it, there's nothing much to explain here. I'm aware that this might cause some kind of controversy like "Why you didn't choose the other one since it was superior to this one?" The writing process is a bit complicated, I'm afraid. It's somewhat like video games, where you have cut content that never made into the game. You have ideas that at first might seem like a very cool thing, but then later on you notice that they either don't fit that as well as you thought or you don't know how to continue it from there. I could write all of these versions at the same time, but then later on, I would have to write another version of next stage and ending for each of them and that would take me a bit of time. So I hope that you respect my decision for choosing this one over the others. That was certainly a wall of text, so if you have read it all, then thank you for listening to these ramblings, you can consider it some kind of "behind the scenes" A/N, some people like to see how certain stories or games were created, so I guess this would be like "fan-service" to them, ahaha. Once again, thank you for reading all of that and see you next chapter!