Note: i own nothing at all, just my OC and the plot. carry on...
As I listen to the other girl giggle at me I start to wonder just what could have caused my transformation, if you can call it that. Maybe this is a dream? But it all feels so real. As I toss ideas around in my head I hear Yuuka's voice say something.
"Are you ok darling? You look confused.", she says with a motherly tone in her voice that makes me believe she is genuinely worried. I can only imagine why im here at this point and freaking out starts to become a valid option. But I must keep my cool, you never learn anything by freaking out.
"Alright so let me get this straight," I start, "one, I am a girl now..." She nods in confirmation. "Ok and where am I?" I ask slightly worried.
"Your in Mugenkan, my dream realm." she answers in a very 'as a matter a fact'ly' tone, as if it was common knowledge. "This is my own personal space that I took for myself, you could say its my own reality.". She says as the plays with a small flower that is seemingly growing out of the center of the table, stroking it and caressing it, I think its a tulip, I never was good with my flowers.
"Oh that reminds me, what a terrible host I have been. I just wasn't expecting company.". She says apologetically. She leans over to a wall and starts whispering something to a vine laden with a beautiful blue and yellow flower. After a moment, she is done and returns back to the table sitting down in what I can only describe as a very elegant manor, prim and proper like all those ladies I hear about in old English stories.
As I sit there in a slightly awkward silence, I take a look around, swiveling my head from my seat and start to look at the scenery around us. I can see out the balcony and I notice that this sun flower field is much bigger than I first thought, it appears almost endless. Its a vast sea of yellow and the way the light reflects off the droplets on the petals in the field makes a small rainbow here and there. Its one of those things that just makes you stare in awe.
It seems Yuuka had taken notice in me gawking at her garden. "So do you like my babies? Very pretty aren't they! I planted them all myself you know!". At that statement I began to wonder just how old she really was, surely it would take a lifetime over to do such a feat. Looking back at her face, I notice soft features like a soft set jaw and the cure of her face very gentle. Her eyes being the only hard thing on her face, they look very wise beyond her years and speak volumes of the wisdom she has and the aura of authority and power that surrounds her.
After a moment of staring, another girl is suddenly in the room with us. She looks to be about 11 or 12 years old at best. She has medium length golden blond hair that matches the color of the sunflowers outside. It curls up and into its self at the ends at where it reaches her shoulders. She has on a white sunhat with a red ribbon on top. She has a red dress with white accents on the sleeves and a shawl type thing around her neck. I never was good with clothing so your guess at what it was is as good as mine but all in all, she was a cute looking girl.
I give her a smile and start to look back to Yuuka when something on the girl catches my eye. She is carrying a BIG scythe unfitting of the image of the small girl to my side. I start to get nervous and in my haste I actually get up and hide behind my host. Eliciting a giggle from Yuuka and a pout from the little girl.
"Am I that scary?" the little girl asks Yuuka, with a tears welling up in her eyes. She starts sobbing and swinging around her scythe which really scares me. I start to duck and whimper in my fear.
After what I felt like an eternity, I hear two voices start to giggle. At first it was soft and slow, then it turned into a full hearted laughter. I didn't get what could possible be funny in this situation. I cautiously got up and made my way back to my seat almost tip-toeing. "Whats so funny?!" I ask with a slight sob. Really! That was quite very frightening for me. And normally I am not frightened so easily... maybe it has something to do with my new found gender, but I leave those musings for later and return to my question. Once again I speak up a little and ask again, "Whats so funny?".
After the laughter starts to die down a bit, Yuuka responds to me with a small tear in her eye from laughing, "Oh that was perfect! Elly my dear you did great!". Well it wasn't a explicit answer but, implicitly, I decide that that they meant that this was set up to scare me... and I fell for it.
"I am truly sorry for that but I could not resist. You are just so cute!" she says with a small squeal of what I can only assume is joy, she continues " and Elly my dear, did you bring our tea as I have asked?" Yuuka says, falling back into her mannerisms of before.
"Ah, yes I do, Yuuka-sama." the girl named Elly responds, ducking out of the room and grabbing our tea, then carefully setting the cups on the table and pouring our tea. All in all she is very skilled at this. More so that I thought a 13 year old would be. Out of curiosity, I get the girl's attention once she finises pouring out tea and speak out, "Excuse me, Elly was it?". She looks at me and cocks her head to the side the way a dog might when curious. "That Scythe you carry with you... it must be heavy, how do you carry such a thing?" I ask. I also notice that I am starting to speak like Yuuka. I always do this when I used to hang with my buddies with accents.
"Ah this?" she says as she holds out her scythe to me. "Would you like to see how heavy it is for yourself?" Elly asks me. Honestly she is just too cute. No No No bad thoughts. Carrying on. She holds out her scythe for me and I hesitantly weigh it in my hands. It is heavy. I would estimate it to be at least 30 Pounds(1)! I hand it back to Elly astounded that such a little girl can carry around something so heavy so casually.
"Elly my dear, would you like to join us for tea?" Yuuka asks almost in the way a mother would ask a child. I wonder what type of relationship they have? Saving that thought to ask later I observe their exchange.
"Ah, but Yuuka-sama, I have to still do the dishes and tidy up the house in here and the house outside.". And outside? I didn't see another house here. Well it is big so maybe I just missed it. Taking a sip of my tea, and I do love tea, I breath in the steam wafting out of the cup making swirls and spirals in the air. Oh so relaxing. Really, I can see why she has all these plants in here, the Aroma of the room is really very pleasant and calms the soul.
"Oh my dear, what have I said about calling me? Just call me as your mom ok? And we have a guest! You must stay and visit with us! Especially since it is so rare to get a visitor here. Last time we had a visitor was decades ago now, with that Sukima youkai.". Sukima youkai(2)? A Sukima youkai? I thought that those were just myths and legends intended to scare little children into behaving. Further more, she said their last visitor had been here decades ago, that implies that either she is really old or last visit she had, based on her appearance, had to have been when she was 5 or so. Really she looks to be 25 at the most.
Voicing my curiosity for this mystery, I ask, "You said decades ago, correct? Just how old are you?" I tread carefully here because as my mother has told me, you never ask a lady her age, but here I guess curiosity killed the cat.
"Oh dearest me! Asking a lady her age? Well you are a human and your kind are always so inquisitive." she begins, feigning surprise, "I am very old, truthfully I stopped counting after a while but I will say that you would have to live many a life-time to be as old as me.". She says this very cryptically and almost threateningly. I guess my mother was right, then again she usually is.
Well now that I know that she is certainly older than me, this raises another question. I voice my question and wait for a response, "When you were answering, you spoke as if you are not included in the human race. Seeing that you are so ol-" I abruptly stop as I receive a glare from Elly, I continue with a cringe, "What are you?".
After what appears to be a moment of thought for Yuuka, she looks at me, no, more like she stares through me, almost as if looking at something far beyond. She begins slowly, "We... we are youkai, beings of magic and instinct. We are born in many different ways, some born of desire, some born of ill will, others born of love. Lets say that the stories you hear as a child, hold some truth to them... She finishes with a smile. Something about that smile puts me off though, it is almost sinister in nature. Like a rose, so beautiful yet if handled wrong, can hurt you.
After a moment of being highly self conscious and deciding to play with my hands, I look up and manage to see the scenery around be fade away then begin to shift. I am still sitting down in the same chair at the same table in the same room. But what surprises me is the sudden change of scenery outside the balcony. Running to the balcony bewildered, I stare off the ledge. What I see is astounding. The flower field that before appeared infinite, was still very large but this time had a end. At the end of the field and just beyond was life. It almost seemed to pulsate with energy and life. There was a great forest immediately visible and other features dotted the landscape, and in the distance I could make out a tall mountain.
Noticing that Yuuka was to my left and Elly to my right, I look at Yuuka. Still with the same smile. "Welcome to Gensoukyou.".
Notes
1: for you people who use Kilos and meters, 30 pounds is approximately equal to 14Kg
2: Sukima youkai literally means Gap youkai.