Hakugyokurou; The Netherworld

BOOM!

Although the double door is too big and heavy to be blown off its hinges, the explosion still managed to blow open a hole big enough for a group to go through, as well as sending wooden splinters flying everywhere.

"Ain't no bang better than one for busting down a door!" Marisa proudly said as she marched through the hole in the door, with Reimu and Sakuya following right behind her.

"Can't you ever just go through the door like a normal person would?" Reimu said as she face-palmed.

"I believe one of the poltergeists back there has already stated that the door never opens..." Sakuya informed the shrine maiden.

"Then couldn't we have at least flown over it?" Reimu face-palmed even harder.

"Actually," Lyrica poked her head through the hole in the door and said. "only dead people like me and me sisters can fly over it. You three are still alive, so-"

"Yeah, we get it." Marisa looked over her shoulders at Lyrica. "Why don'tcha stand aside with your sisters while we Guardians have a chit chat with your boss?"

Lyrica didn't answer. She simply nodded before retreating from the door to join her sisters outside.

...

"Youmu, it seems we have guests visiting. Why don't you go ahead and treat them as we should guests?"

"Yes, Lady Saigyoui..."

...

As the Guardians inspected their surroundings, they find that they are in the garden of a gaudy traditional manor that looked like it was taken very good care of, with the various cherry blossom trees in full bloom.

"This..." Sakuya became awestruck by what she saw. "This far exceeds the garden of the Scarlet Devil Mansion in terms of beauty..."

"Always someone better, huh?" Marisa said to the maid.

"And always have something ominous behind all the beauty..." Reimu said, as she looked above the manor and its garden at something else.

The shrine maiden trainee is looking at a huge tree that is barren of any leaves, to the point of looking like a dried-out husk. A huge shimenawa is wrapped around the trunk of the tree at the halfway point, looking like it was placed there to ensure whatever supernatural element is inside the tree stays inside. And of course, there's the streams of pink energy, identical to the ones shown in Yumemi's hologram back at the Hakurei Shrine, converging toward the huge barren tree.

"I guess this... Miss Saigyouji... is taking all the Spring away from Gensokyo must be close near by." Reimu noted.

"But why?" Marisa wondered. "Did they seriously stole all the Spring away just so they can have the most epic flower viewing in history?"

"Knowing nobilities such as my own mistress, I don't see why that isn't a possibility." Sakuya agreed.

As they kept their gaze upon the huge barren tree, the Guardians slowly began to feel uneasy.

"That tree is givin' me the creeps." Marisa said with a shiver. "Got a really bad feelin' bout this..."

Reimu held on to the Sacred Hakurei Gohei. "It is making me feel creepy too, because I can sense some kind of... darkness in it..." She noted.

"While my mistress likes to look... creepy, as you put it..." Sakuya shuddered. "This tree makes me feel truly uneased..."

Marisa threw out her broom, which then hovered perpendicular to the ground in front of her. "Well, we came here lookin' for whatever might be stealing Spring, and we just found where they're putting all of it in." The witch said as she hopped onto the broom and straddled it. "I reckon that destroyin' that tree is gonna free all the Spring!"

As Marisa prepared to take off into the air, Reimu ran forward to try to stop her. "Marisa, wait! You don't even know if that will wor-"

All of a sudden, the shrine maiden felt her intuition going off, warning her of a fast-approaching threat.

"Look out!" Her body acting on autopilot, Reimu grabbed the collar of Marisa's coat and pulled her back, just in time to save the witch from getting skewered by a katana that came flying in from out of nowhere.

The katana continued on its trajectory until it embedded itself into one of the cherry trees.

"Holy crap!" Marisa exclaimed.

Sakuya immediately produced her knives in response to the attack. "An enemy!" She said.

Before anyone else can say anything, something moved past the Guardians at speeds that made it look like a blur to the naked eye. The blur went to retrieve the katana and then quickly rushed off, all in the blink of an eye. The blur then began to run circles around the Guardians, as if trying to intimidate them.

"I guess we're gonna have to fight a speedster this time..." Marisa noted as she drew out her twin revolvers. "This ain't gonna be easy, as they're gonna literally run circles 'round us."

"We'd just have to keep up as best as we can, then." Reimu quipped as she let go of Marisa's coat and prepared herself for a fight.

Soon, the figure in the blur stopped running circles and came to a pause on a bridge above a small pond in front of the Guardians. The blur is revealed to be a girl that has short silver hair adorned with a hairband tied off-center, and wears an outfit that consists of a green vest and skirt over a white undershirt.

She also possesses a pair of swords: the katana that almost impaled Marisa, and a wakizashi that is still in its hilt.

"I am Konpaku Youmu, caretaker and guardian of my mistress whose manor you just intruded upon." She stated to the Guardians. "Leave now, and there will be no bloodshed..."


Okay, I had to post a super short non-Interlude chapter this time because I've held off updates to this story and several others for way too long already.

We will be getting the Guardians Vs Youmu fight in the next chapter. But for now, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for a bit longer.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

Afterword ends here.