Stage 2: Bird
Kagome kagome, the bird in the cage,
don't come out!
In the evening lit by the dawn,
the crane and turtle slipped.
Who is right behind you now?
Unsurprisingly enough, the path to the human village wasn't there at all. The forest spread around in every direction and looked absolutely the same in every direction. Youmu started to wonder if it was made from smaller identical forest stitched together.
Kagome kagome, the bird in the cage,
don't come out!
In the evening lit by the dawn,
the crane and turtle slipped.
Who is right behind you now?
The attacks on them increased, both in quantity and intensity. Those were no longer fireflies, just generic evil murderous danmaku fairies, ever-present pests of Gensokyo wilderness. Still, there were too many of them for this time of the year and Youmu wondered if it was a natural immune reaction of the forest to the presence of one and a half necrotic beings from the Netherworld.
Kagome kagome, the bird in the cage,
don't come out!
In the evening lit by the dawn,
the crane and turtle slipped.
Who is right behind you now?
She wondered about lots and lots of things while her body automatically dealt with incoming familiars and projectiles. The topics to think about included, for example, would Wriggle Nightbug become a major threat if she was left alone, or why Yuyuko was so quiet lately, or why they couldn't find the way out of the forest, or why there was that children's song stuck in her head…
Oh crap. The song. It would not go away.
"Lady Yuyuko! Can you hear it? Please, answer me!"
She abruptly stopped, and Yuyuko stopped too, turning to her with a bored expression on her face.
"Of course I do. Annoying as hell by the way, not the song but the voice. No talent at all."
"Don't listen to it! It's the night sparrow song, one of the most accursed sounds in the world! It leads travelers from their paths right to their deaths and—"
Kagome kagome, the bird in the cage,
don't come out!
In the evening lit by the dawn,
the crane and turtle slipped.
Who is right behind you now?
"—it just wouldn't stop! It will drive us insane! We will go blind and hair will grow on our palms!"
Youmu ducked and covered her ears, rocking back and forth and babbling some nonsense that was supposed to protect her from the badly sung nonsensical rhymes.
"Really?" Yuyuko scratched her head. "I think you spend way too much time with Sakuya, she loves ghost stories like that. Anyway, like I said, I don't feel anything but annoyance."
"Wait! Waiiit!"
The song stopped, and the owner of the high-pitched voice flew down from the tall tree branches she was hiding in. The small youkai had long talons, two sets of stylized wings and overall gave off a definite "night sparrow" vibe, complete with a mottled brown color scheme.
"Aren't you even a little bit affected by my song?" she continued, looking a bit desperate for some reason. "What are you, not human?"
"Um, dear…"
"Mystia Lorelei," the youkai helpfully suggested.
"Right. Dear Mystia, I am a pink-haired floating half-transparent apparition in ancient royal funeral garb, surrounded by swirling ghostly fires. My companion, who is currently covering in fear and unable to present herself properly, is deathly pale girl with a clearly visible milky-white globular ghost following her closely. So, here is the question: are you blind or just so unbelievably stupid?"
Well, where Yuyuko failed at humor, she succeeded threefold in angering the little youkai beyond reason.
"You are stupid!" Mystia shouted, taking off in the air. "I knew all along that you were ghosts, I just didn't show it to see if… if… if you are good ghosts or not! And you are bad, bad ghosts!"
"Your singing is what is bad," Yuyuko retorted calmly.
"It's not!"
"It is."
"It's not!"
"It is."
"DIE!"
Unfortunately for everyone involved, Mystia's spell cards required her to sing.
Kagome kagome, the bird in the cage,
don't come out!
In the evening lit by the dawn,
the crane and turtle slipped.
Who is right behind you now?
Vocal Sign: Hooting in the Night!
The intertwining patterns of danmaku finally brought Youmu back to her senses, at least partially. She sprung up to her feet and drew her swords.
It was exactly that moment in time she found out it is impossible to simultaneously cover your ears and dual-wield ancient youkai-slaying blades. Faced by an unsolvable dilemma of what to do, she wisely decided that conquering her fear of the night sparrow song would be a long, multi-staged process of meditation and self-discovery and that danmaku combat was not a very fitting place for that.
"Lady Yuyuko!" she shouted, covering her ears again. "I will distract her at distance while you break her spells!"
"Thank you for your confidence," Yuyuko said dryly. Not that she cared much, of course, but the quirks of Youmu sometimes were…bothersome.
She raised her arm, and ghostly butterflies formed around it. They took off, creating a wide cone that passed through enemy bullets, stinging Mystia. The little youkai yelped in pain and swept to another branch. Her spell failed, and she prepared another.
Kagome, kagome, the—
"Oh, come on, this is not funny anymore. Death Sign: Ghastly Dream!"
The cone of butterflies swirled and turned into a rapidly expanding circle, individual spectral insects bloating and exploding. The ghostly front passed through Mystia, tearing her clothes and little wings on her hat. The damage, of course, was not only cosmetic, as the razor-sharp butterfly wings left deep irregular gashes where they grazed against flesh.
"It hurts! It hurts! Hurts!" Mystia cried out, clutching the largest gash on her side and relocating again. "Why are you doing this to me?"
"You started it, remember. And don't worry, the pain will stop shortly after you're dead."
Yuyuko raised her butterfly-covered arm and smiled.
What Mystia managed to do next would be forever remembered as the absolute fastest reciting of "Kagome" song in the history of everything.
Kagomekagomethe birdinthecagedontcomeoutin theeveninglitbythedawnthe craneandturtleslipped whoisrightbehindyounow! Night-Blindness: Song of the Night Sparrow!
There was a high-pitched ringing clang, and Yuyuko went nearly blind. The world around narrowed to few paces of grass, dark fog around and danmaku. Loads and loads of extremely sharp, fast moving and deadly danmaku.
"So, how do you like it now, ancient royal ghost? What's the matter, are you blind? Or just stupid?"
The pained, but at the same time so triumphant voice of Mystia assaulted Yuyuko from all sides. Spinning familiars joined in with the danmaku, the seals passing through ghostly butterflies harmlessly and creating teal blazing energy spheres.
And the song flowed in, an evil mockery of children's game.
Kagome, kagome~
Yuyuko closed her eyes. An energy orb grazed her arm, and she spun with it, letting it pass. She moved forward, spinning to the rhythm of danmaku.
It was so long ago, she thought. The time when she was just a little girl, an heir to Saigyouji clan, sure, but still just a girl.
They all used to gather near the ancient cherry tree, all the kids who lived near the shrine. They played pranks on one another, they danced and played silly games.
~in the evening lit by the dawn~
They all gathered in a circle, and chose the oni, the one who would sit in the middle, eyes closed, and listen to the song. And they would sing, and they would run around, and they would stop. And then, the oni would guess.
Yuyuko could not remember a single face or voice of those children, but it did not matter. She was dancing in the dark, her eyes closed, her clothes, torn by danmaku, fluttering in the wind, and they were all around her, and the song…
~slipped.
Who is right behind you now?
"Mystia Lorelei is behind me now!" Yuyuko cheerfully announced and sharply turned, throwing her arm forward. Her fingers found something soft and warm. She squeezed.
The song turned into a gurgle and the spell crumbled. Yuyuko opened her eyes and saw she was indeed holding Mystia by the throat. Of course, her hand extorted little pressure, but the literal chill of the grave made up somewhat for that.
"How… how is this possible?" Mystia choked out, her voice a pathetic whisper now.
"You are not worthy of explanation, sparrow. It is enough that I, Yuyuko Saigyouji, ghost princess of Hakugyokurou, the one who listens every day to the finest music of the Prismriver trio, had to endure your horrendous squawking of 'Kagome' verse for a good part of an hour. I won't waste any more time with you."
"Let… me go…" Mystia whimpered. "Please… it was just a joke… it was just a game…"
"Just a game?" Yuyuko laughed. "Of course. But you know what? I remember a time when real oni lived in Gensokyo and sometimes, mostly on a dare, the 'Kagome' game would be played with a real oni. Do you think the real oni would switch places with children at the end of the game?"
Yuyuko leveled her face with Mystia and squeezed harder.
"No, they wouldn't. They would devour them, alive. So, shall we finish the game, yes?"
And the last thing Mystia Lorelei ever saw in her life was a horrendous widening ghostly maw drawing closer and closer to her face.
(O,)
Youmu was not a coward, not one tiny bit. She was a brave and skilled individual, who took her job and life completely seriously. After all, her grandfather entrusted her with protection of Hakugyokurou shrine, and she was responsible for safety of the none other than the princess of Netherworld.
So no, there was nothing cowardly in the fact that she was now hiding behind a danmaku-torn tree trunk, ducking down, holding her ghost half with her knees and covering her ears. It was a reasonable and correct defense mechanism against the mind-shattering sonic attack of an evil spirit.
And the fact that she shut her eyes so tightly they hurt was also absolutely, perfectly reasonable and explainable, because hey, who knows what other dangers could that elder sparrow youkai be capable of, like generating deadly phantasms that could petrify you instantly if you as much as steal a tiniest glance at them.
Yes, it was all perfectly reasonable.
Something lightly touched her shoulder and Youmu yelped, falling to the side and curling into a ball. Again, a perfect tactic to protect the vital organs and Myon from deadly foot-long curved talons of diabolic aberrant abyssal cancerous sparrow monster.
Something poked her in the side. She only clenched her teeth harder and refused to move.
Another poke. Then another. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke.
Now Youmu was scared, really scared. The abomination would keep poking her, for hours and hours, until her skin would bruise, then tear a little, then a little more, then there would be a wound, and it would keep on poking, getting infection inside, going deeper and deeper with each tiny poke, deeper and deeper…
Youmu screamed. She jumped up, drew her blades and blindly ran forward, slashing everything in front of her.
Predictably enough, her insane slashing charge ended quite quickly and painfully when she collided headfirst with a mass of scaled tentacles that comprised most of the titanic amorphous body of the eldritch chthonian night sparrow God.
Well, in her imagination, of course. In reality, she ran into a tree.
The collision knocked air out of her and she fell flat on her back, gasping and choking. The task of getting oxygen into her lungs suddenly gained first priority on her list, and she got to it without delay. It didn't matter of course, as she would soon be devoured, but still she tried.
It wasn't that bad, she thought. Sure, she failed in her task, her mistress was probably already killed or driven insane, and Netherworld would surely soon fall to endless hordes of shapeless sparrow spawn, but really, she did all she could. It was not a tragedy, it was fate, and fighting fate was something she just could not do.
Yuyuko appeared in her field of vision, a strange mix of confusion and amusement on her face. It was all right too, she probably waited for her so they would travel to the great beyond together, forever together in oblivion…
Yuyuko burped, and a small bloody bone came out of her throat, landing precisely on Youmu's forehead.
There was a moment of silence.
"Oh hey, a wishbone, what are the odds!" Yuyuko cheerfully said and reached for the bone, picking it up. "Hey, Youmu, let's make a wish! And stand up already, you'll get a cold."
Youmu felt like her face was instantly dipped into molten metal. Hiding her eyes, she hastily got back on her feet and dusted off the dirt.
"Hey, are you all right? You look a bit flustered."
"Lady Saigyouji I have failed you and shamed myself. If you would accept my ritual suicide as a way of clearing my name, I would gladly and instantly-"
"That's the fourth time you offered me your life this month," Yuyuko said sternly, cutting her off. "Seriously, loosen up a little."
"But I have failed—"
"Uh-huh. But this isn't your fault, it's the moon's fault. You would never hide away from battle otherwise, trust me. It's driving all of us insane, but tonight, it ends."
Her expression suddenly jumped from gravely serious to absolutely silly.
"Now, let's make a wish! Hold on to your side, and pull!"
She extended her arm, and Youmu reluctantly grabbed the bone. "Only if you say so, lady Yuyuko. And as for my wish…" she paused. "I wish I would never shame —"
"Nope, does not count if you say it," Yuyuko cut her off again. "And you can't make serious and overarching wishes like that, because hey, it's just a wishbone, not a genie. So, again and silently, pull on three."
"One, two, three!" they both counted, and pulled.
Youmu's section broke off.
"Tee-hee, I win," Yuyuko said, licking her lips and hiding the remains of the bone in one of the folds of her dress. "And look, there is the way to the village, right there!"
She floated in the direction of a dark brick road in the distance, and Youmu followed her closely and silently.
She wanted to say a lot of things. She wanted to thank Yuyuko for saving her, to hug her, to comfort her and let herself be comforted, to kiss her, and not only on the lips…
No! No, those were not thoughts of her own, those wrong, foreign thoughts, worming into her head from somewhere outside, attacking from all sides, much like fairies that attacked them. Youmu shook her head furiously, pushing the clingy and flawed words and images away.
Something out there definitely and actively wanted to lead them astray and stop them.
Too bad for that outside force she just would not allow it.