Before too much longer Sanae and her friends arrived at Hakugyokuro. I asked her about the barrier that was supposed to divide the world of the dead from the world of the living, but to hear her tell it, they either never encountered such a barrier or if they did, Reimu pushed through it with such a casual ease as to not even register in her mind. On the long stone pathway to the enormous mansion in the Netherworld, cherry trees were blooming in the silence of a warm spring night, their petals faintly luminous against the not-quite darkness of that world.
Being the Netherworld, spirits were in abundance, drifting lazily about in any direction you looked. To the three girls from Gensokyo, it was impossible to say if the number of spirits flowing about were at all unusual or just the equivalent of what passed for weather in the Netherworld. The girls ascended the long, lantern-flanked stone stairway and flew forward in formation along the road bordered by the cherry trees.
"Whaddaya think, about here or so?" Asked Marisa.
"Yeah, about here," agreed Reimu with a nod.
"What's about here?" Sanae asked curiously.
At that moment a silver flash of glimmering steel cut through the night in a wide arc in front of her, forcing her to stop short. The other girls pulled up along side her as Sanae flinched and pulled back from the naked, two-meter blade that had suddenly appeared before her, held in the slim hand of a small girl in a green dress.
"Intruders! Oh. It's just Reimu and her friends," said the girl, lowering, but not sheathing her blade. "What are you all doing here at a time like this? You can't go cherry blossom viewing at night, and we haven't invited anyone for a party anyway."
The girl who had appeared was Youmu Konpaku, groundskeeper of Hakugyokuro and servant to the lady of that mansion. Sanae had met her only a handful of times and barely spoken a dozen words to her on any of those occasions. For that reason she let Reimu do the talking, but was a bit surprised to find that neither she nor Marisa seemed to find the fact that Youmu had leapt out and slashed at Sanae first, then stopped to speak and confirm everyone's identity afterward odd.
"We're here to see your master," Reimu said disinterestedly.
"Lady Yuyuko? I can't let you through to see her unless I know what you're intending to ask her about," Youmu said, turning slightly to point her blade at Reimu.
"Oh, did you want to have a go? I'm not in the mood to waste much time, so die quickly if you're going to come at me." Reimu said, raising a fistful of charms in her left hand as she brandished her gohei in her right.
Youmu's eyes narrowed and she turned her sword to the side, taking up a ready stance as her free hand drifted to the shorter of her two swords in its scabbard on her hip.
"Hold on, hold on!" Sanae cried, floating between the two of them and spreading out her arms. "We didn't come here to pick a fight. Not unless we have to anyway. We're just here to ask questions, remember?"
Youmu seemed to notice her for the first time. "You're that other miko from the shrine on the mountain, aren't you?" she asked.
"I'm Sanae Kochiya, a wind priestess from the Moriya shrine. And you're... sorry looking at you, the only name I can think of is Yzak."
"What kind of a name is that? I'm Youmu Konpaku, gardener of Hakugyokuro!"
"Sorry," Sanae said with an innocent smile.
"If you're here to ask questions, what are they about?"
"Oh, a number of strange spirits have been appearing in the human village. We were going to ask if she knew anything about them."
"Hey Sanae, since when are you in charge?" Reimu asked from behind her, shoving her way in front.
"Strange spirits? Did they just appear suddenly? I see, so that's happening in Gensokyo too then..."
"You mean its happening here too?"
"Yes. A number of unaccounted-for spirits have been appearing and disappearing all over the Netherworld. It's wreaking havoc on any attempts to keep our counts straight."
"So it isn't misconduct on your master's part, just incompetence? Spirits are appearing in Gensokyo and disappearing here because she's not keeping a proper count?"
"No, she can't count them because they keep appearing and disappearing."
"That's the same thing, isn't it?"
"Is it?" Youmu asked, looking confused.
"Look, Yuyuko's gotta know somethin', she's the boss of all ghosts or somethin', isn't she?" Marisa asked, bodily forcing her way into the conversation as well.
"Wouldn't that be closer to the Yama's role? I don't think ghosts have bosses." Youmu said, tilting her head and looking more confused by the moment.
"We can ask her about that too, then," Marisa said, grinning.
"I don't get it, but maybe lady Yuyuko will be able to explain," Youmu said with a sigh as she sheathed her blade. "Just don't count on her explanation making any sense. I'll take you to her."
With that, Youmu turned and led the little party forward along the path, then over carefully maintained gardens toward the enclosed courtyard of the mansion. There, sitting on the veranda, peacefully looking out over the raked sands of a rock garden sat Yuyuko Saigyouji, Administrator of the Netherworld.
"Oh my, guests?" she said as they approached. "How unexpected! And there's more of you this time. I hadn't thought cherry blossom viewings would start for several weeks. Ah well, you're here now. Youmu dear, go prepare us a feast, please."
"No need for that. I'm just here to find out what you're scheming this time." Reimu said as she landed beside Yuyuko.
The ghost looked up at her with an expression of concern on her face then turned to address Youmu. "Youmu are we scheming anything today?"
"Not today my lady, not as far as you've told me, anyway."
"I'm talking about all of these spirits!" Reimu growled. "You've got so many here now that they're overflowing into our world. Manage them properly! Keep them from breeding or send them to Nirvana or whatever!"
"Oh my, do spirits breed, Youmu? That would certainly be news to me. Have I been missing out for all these centuries?"
"I wouldn't know, my lady," Youmu said, her eyes closed and posture rigid.
"Well then, have you all come for the same purpose?" Yuyuko asked, rising to her feet and looking from one girl to the next in turn. She withdrew a fan from her sleeve and snapped it open in front of her mouth.
The girls nodded, one after another.
"Well, if you don't know either then I'll have to inform you as well," she said, floating into the air and raising the fan as if to begin a dance. "If you can defeat me, I'll tell you anything about spirits you'd like to know!"
-.-.-.-.-
My guess is that Yuyuko must have been bored. Or perhaps she wanted to test Sanae or possibly even Youmu to see how they compared to Reimu and Marisa. At any rate, with no further provocation, she immediately launched into a spectacular one-vs-four danmaku battle. I never saw this match of course, but from how Sanae described it, it sounded much less aggressive then the battle against Reimu and Marisa that I had witnessed. Sanae had been impressed by the degree to which Yuyuko had been able to defend herself against four attackers at once though, even if she felt that Youmu had been reluctant to do much in the way of attacking. After a few minutes, Yuyuko smiled and closed up her fan, dropping her stance and smiling placidly. "Very well," she said, settling back down onto the veranda. "Ask your questions."
"All these spirits swarming around lately, what are they?" Reimu asked plainly.
"Little baby divine spirits, just like you thought, born from desire. Ghostly as they may seem though, they're not related to the souls of the dead."
"I see. So coming to the Netherworld was a mistake then?" Reimu crossed her arms, looking dissatisfied.
"Was there any point to us fighting just now then?" Sanae asked.
"Sure there was," Marisa interjected. "She might have known something and she got in our way."
"I'll give you a hint," Yuyuko said, unfolding the fan in front of her face once again. Above it, her eyes were smiling. "These little bundles of desire aren't suspicious at all, nor is the way they're all gathering up at the cemetery near the temple."
"A-ha," said Marisa.
"Hmm," grunted Reimu.
"Really?" Sanae and Youmu asked in unison.
"That youkai nun is planning something." Reimu growled, turning around and heading back toward the entrance to the Netherworld. She was already flying away before anyone else could turn to follow her.
"Oh, she's going," Youmu said, looking after her. She snapped back to face Yuyuko. "I'm going too, lady Saigyouji. I need to make sure nothing's escaping."
"I'm sure nothing is, Youmu. Or at least nothing was until Reimu invaded. Don't bother keeping an eye out for anything dangerous though, I'm sure nothing troublesome will re-awaken now that these gates are open."
Youmu paused, not sure what to make of such a comment. "Um, sure. Anyway, I'll be going now."
"Bring me back a souvenir!" Yuyuko said, waving happily as the remaining girls turned and chased after Reimu, leaving Youmu to chase after them.
-.-.-.-.-
The four of them managed to regroup just before reaching the edge of the Netherworld. Reimu kept right on flying as they passed through the barrier, back to Gensokyo, never slowing as she turned to head toward the Myouren temple
"Hey, what was that Yuyuko was sayin' as we left?" Marisa asked.
"Something about something troublesome awakening," Youmu replied. "But don't ask me to guess what lady Yuyuko means with anything she says."
"Something troublesome awakening?" Sanae asked. "And she pointed us toward a graveyard. Do you think something dead could come back to life?"
"What's there in a graveyard to come back to life?" Reimu said with a frown from ahead of them. "The spirits of anyone buried there should already be in the Netherworld. All the cemetery is for is so that youkai don't eat the corpses."
"Oh, maybe it's the corpses she was talking about!" Sanae said excitedly. "Bodies without a soul! Maybe the zombie craze has finally reached Gensokyo! This could be a Biohazard Incident! There's a karakasa obake that lives in the graveyard, right? Maybe she's part of Umbrella corporation! This could be the start of the Gensokyo of the dead!"
"Zombies?" Marisa asked, "those are the stumbling corpses in crappy movies, right?"
"Some of those movies are really good!" Sanae retorted. "Have you ever seen any of them? Is there a movie theatre in Gensokyo?"
"There's a bunch of pictures of them in some of the Outside world magazines that Kourin gets in sometimes," Marisa said with a shrug. "What is a movie, anyway?"
"It's a lot like a play, but recorded and stored so that you can show it whenever you like."
"And they have reanimated corpses that come and eat people while they're watchin' em?"
"Ehh, not exactly," Sanae began.
"They have dangerous monsters like that in the Outside world?" Reimu asked, cutting her off.
"No, no, they're not real, they're just a popular monster in the movies. They're made up, like ghosts. They're really popular though, so I don't think they'd show up in Gensokyo."
"Did you say 'ghosts?'" Youmu asked from behind, clutching her phantom half to her chest as she flew. "I don't like ghosts."
"Well the ghosts here aren't like the ones in movies at all, but then the kappa and tengu here are also popular in the outside world but completely different, so maybe there are zombies here! I wonder what they'll be like?"
"What is a 'zombie' exactly?" Reimu asked from the front of the group. "Is it like a youkai?"
"Not really. It's a walking corpse. They're usually really gross and rotting, with an endless appetite for the living. They're slow moving, but if they bite you, you turn into one of them."
Youmu let out a little shriek.
Ignoring her, Marisa asked "so they're like vampires then? Maybe we should go talk to Remilia."
"No, they're not really like that either. Vampires have minds of their own, but zombies are mindless. They're really only dangerous in large groups."
Reimu and Marisa glanced at eachother, then at Sanae. "They sound really weak," they both replied.
"They're usually low-level monsters. They can be dangerous once they start to spread though. They're tireless and tough to take down, so they're a threat to regular humans."
"Well I'm a regular human but they don't sound very scary, just sort of gross," Reimu said with a shrug. "How do they fight them in the Outside world?"
"Umm, guns, mainly? Usually you have to shoot them in the head."
"Would a sword work on them?" Youmu asked timidly.
"Well, as long as you can hit them without getting bitten. You probably want to avoid getting any of their blood on you too."
"Alright. That's not nearly as bad as killing a ghost, at least." To Youmu, the criteria for determining if something is scary or not seems to be whether you could cut it with a sword.
The four of them continued talking about zombies as they made their way to Myouren temple. Being as they had all taken a detour to the Netherworld first, I wonder if maybe Reimu's intuition, which normally is close to infallible, might have lead her astray here, or if she had just ignored it in favour of the logically obvious, but in this case inaccurate, assumption that Yuyuko must have been involved. At any rate, night had fully fallen at this point and outside of the few flickering lights visible through windows in the village and the lanterns of the watchmen walking the village's walls, the pale illumination emanating from the drifting spirits was the only light as the party descended towards the temple.
"Do you think we should go wake up that nun?" Sanae asked.
Reimu glowered down at the temple grounds, trying to pick out a safe place to land amidst the shadows. "She's probably the mastermind. Yuyuko said these were divine spirits. Why would a temple want to gather those up?"
"Oh, Lady Kanako said they're spirits of desire - like little puffs of wanting. Isn't that basically the same thing as faith? Maybe she's trying to make the temple more popular."
Reimu whirled to stare at her. "What? Really? I can't let her get away with that. If that's what she's trying then she's definitely a villain."
"If she's the one responsible, she's just a nun, right? That's a problem swords can solve." Youmu said, drawing the larger of her two blades from across her back.
The four of them landed and stalked through the temple's yard, Gensokyo's three most powerful Incident-resolvers and the self-taught swordswoman of Hakugyokuro, weapons in hand and grim looks on all of their faces. I'm sure they would have presented quite the imposing image to any youkai who happened to see them all gathered together like that.
All at once, a loud yell cut through the silence of the night. After all that talk of zombies, they might have expected to hear a scream, or a bestial roar, or a gurgling groan coming from all sides. What none of them had expected was a shatteringly loud bellow of "GOOD MORNING," shouted with sufficient intensity to make all of them flinch. As they looked around in surprise, the shout came again "I SAID GOOD MORNING!"
This time the sound was loud enough that all four girls instinctually covered their ears. As they cringed away from the noise, a shadowy form began to emerge from the gloom ahead of them. Kyouko Kasodani stepped out from the darkness and into the dim glow provided by a passing spirit. The youkai wasn't really a new face at the temple at this point, but I'm not sure if anyone there had ever met her before. "You always gotta give a proper greeting," she said, smiling brightly.
"Um, er... good morning," Reimu replied lowering her hands from her ears.
"That's way too quiet!"
"You're the one that's way too loud!" Marisa protested. "Besides it's way too late to be shoutin' like that. Or maybe too early."
"Greetings are important! You should say them with all your heart!"
"Okay this youkai is way too noisy," Reimu said with a sigh, drawing forth a handful of ofuda from within her sleeve. "I'm shutting you up."
Kyoko paused, freezing in place. "You're not here as worshippers? This is a Buddhist temple. The killing of animals is prohibited here!"
"We could just slice her a little," Youmu suggested. "Not enough to actually kill her."
"If you won't even shout a greeting to me, I'll scream even louder!"
"What should we do?" Sanae asked. "We don't want to wake everyone up."
"She's a youkai." Reimu said decisively. "We exterminate her. If she wakes other youkai up, we exterminate them too." The ofuda in her hand snapped to rigidity, glowing faintly.
"I'll handle this," Youmu said, stepping forward. "My hakurouken can cut through misunderstandings."
"She was just saying good morning, couldn't we play rock, paper, scissors or something instead?" Sanae pleaded.
"Alright fine. Rock-paper-scissors, winner exterminates her."
"That's not what I meant,"
"Would you rather play danmaku then?"
"To see who fights her? That doesn't make any sense."
"I could slash her. Just a little, then she'd get why we're here and we wouldn't have to fight."
"I'm pretty sure if you go after her with a sword, there'd be fighting."
"Let's go already. Whoever wins can do whatever they want with her."
"Alright then, I'll give it a shot."
"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"