東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 7: Perfect Cherry Blossom

Seven

𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘩𝘢
𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥.

—19—

You might expect that while Renko was strolling around the garden, I'd be the sort to curl up under the kotatsu in our guest room. While that did happen, we were both actually hard at work. Renko was deep in thought about all of the mysteries we had become embroiled in and I spent my time attempting to make progress on deciphering the ancient record we had borrowed from the archive. My hope was that if I could find something in the record that could be tied to or contrasted against known events and dates, we could make a judgement on just how much to trust the decaying document.

Because the passage on Fujimi's daughter had been relatively simple to decipher, I had tried to read the pages surrounding it, but it proved much more difficult than I expected. I was able to plumb the depths of my memory to recall the meaning of most of the archaic kanji, but putting them together, I was at a loss to try and pull a thread of narrative of what had been written.

"Could the section on Fujimi's daughter have been written by another author? Or even be an entirely new addition? I wonder if there's more like that?"

Moving the paper with extreme care, I flipped back to the page we had marked before. Looking again at the text, it stood out. The passage I had translated still used the same archaic kanji found elsewhere in the record, but the sentence structure and choice of words was different, much more akin to modern usage. It seemed unavoidable to conclude that this passage must have been a fraudulent addition, inserted after the fact into the midst of other text in the record. But by whom, and to what end?

"To manipulate Yuyuko into making the Saigyou Ayakashi bloom?"

I shuddered at the thought. If that were the author's intent, the level of planning and willful manipulation involved was chilling, especially considering that setting Yuyuko on this course would mean, at the very least, putting her in danger of self-annihilation of her current way of being by means of reincarnation. Who would have the guile to hatch such a convoluted scheme along with the in-depth knowledge of Yuyuko's character sufficient to predict her actions upon finding the passage? Only one answer seemed obvious.

Could the answer to Renko's riddle and the secret of why the Youkai Sage was allowing Yuyuko's efforts to proceed really be that this had all been her plan? Had Yuyuko stumbled into a deadly trap set by the sage without knowing it?

I shook my head, sighing in frustration. Without knowing the circumstances of their relationship or the character of my look-alike, it was impossible for me to deduce any sort of motivation. Slumping onto the tabletop, I flipped to an earlier page at random. There, a seemingly nonsensical combination of kanji caught my eye. They were written in the same faint, faded, worm-like hand as the rest of the book, but I recognized the first two from having constantly seen them throughout the past 24 hours —Saigyou. But what were the other symbols beside it? ...Saigyou's 造人す? It wasn't a familiar word but from the kanji it should mean something like Saigyou's homunculus? I was sure of the reading, but what could such a phrase mean? I attempted to decipher the surrounding passage, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"Saigyou... collected human bones to make... a homunculus?" Could that be something like an android, I wondered? A doll with a heart?

"Oh, are you alone?"

The voice calling out behind me startled me, causing me to nearly rip one of the fragile pages. I turned to see Alice opening the sliding door and looking at me with a strange expression.

"Oh, Miss Alice. Hello."

"Did you end up having a fight with your catty friend?"

"No, Renko is just taking a walk. She'll probably come back when she's hungry."

"I see. She's rather fearless, isn't she?"

"Extremely fearless. In a way that shortens my lifespan."

Alice chuckled softly and walked into the room. I wondered again what her purpose was here in Hakugyokuro. I wondered why Alice was still here. Surely someone like her could have left if she wanted to. The fact that she hadn't suggested she had a reason to stay.

"So what have you been doing while we're stuck here, Miss Alice?"

"Me? I've been pursuing my research, the same as always."

"Ah that's right, you were doing the same when we met you at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Are you still looking into the topic of dolls with hearts?"

"That's right. My goal is to complete a totally independent doll."

"For what purpose?"

"It's just what I'm made to do, I suppose." Alice's smile faded as her eyes fell. "After all, I'm just a doll myself."

"What?"

"I'm just kidding of course, but wouldn't that be easier? If we didn't have troublesome hearts of our own and could just dance about on strings?" Saying that, Alice drew forth one of her dolls from nowhere and set it to pirouette in the air. The doll seemed to move with a will of its own, bending gracefully and moving its limbs in time, but at some unseen command from Alice it gave up the dance and seated itself on her shoulder. "Every puppeteer dreams of making a puppet that can truly move on its own, with a will and mind to direct its actions. I'll figure out what to do with it after I make one."

Her reasoning was the same as that of researchers who continued to pursue the dream of artificial intelligence and humanoid robots in the outside world. The creation of a self-aware android was a sufficient goal in and of itself, its potential impacts on the world and the question of what to do with such a life once created were secondary.

I wondered though what that research could have to do with the Netherworld and how she would continue to pursue it here. At that moment a phantom flitted down the hallway behind Alice, on its way somewhere else and a terrifying thought flashed through my mind. Before I could ask her about it though, my concentration was interrupted by the din of lively music surging from somewhere outside, quite out of place in the usually quiet Netherworld.

Alice and I both turned in the direction of the sound. "What is all that?" she asked over the sound thrumming through the walls.

Stepping out of the room, we proceeded into the hall and down the long corridor leading to the main building. The music grew steadily louder as we went, until we reached the door leading to the veranda. There, Alice flung open the door to reveal a view of the courtyard. In the air above the smoothly raked white sand, the Prismriver Ensemble, who we had last seen at the party at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, were playing.

They were three girls, a violinist in black, a trumpeter in white and a keyboardist in red, all floating in the sky of the Netherworld, amidst the dancing cherry petals, playing lively tones without laying a finger on any of their instruments. Beneath them stood Renko, looking up at them from the end of a pair of tracks through the groomed sand.

"Renko, what are you doing?"

I grabbed a pair of slippers from the veranda and stepped out into the courtyard. Renko grinned at me from across the meticulous dunes.

"Attending a concert"

"I don't think this courtyard is supposed to be a live venue."

All around us phantoms were gathering, flying in from every direction. Being surrounded by dozens of translucent, floating orbs was an eerie sensation, but probably a completely normal scene for the Netherworld.

"Hey, everyone's already starting to gather, I thought the real party didn't start until later!"

"Merlin, bring that manic energy down. Lunasa, do something about it."

"Me? Why is it my problem? Fine. You owe me one though."

The sound of the violin intensified, drowning out the other instruments and the timbre of the music changed, becoming calming and somewhat mournful. Renko closed her eyes and listened, swaying in time to the music.

"Oh, uh, live humans probably shouldn't listen to that unprotected..."

We turned at the sound of this voice to see Youmu standing behind us on the veranda. Her clothes were torn and singed here and there and her hair was disheveled. She looked like she had just been in a fight. —I immediately wondered if that meant Reimu and the others had arrived.

"What happened to your outfit, Miss Youmu?"

"Oh, there were some intruders."

"But you fought them off?"

"I wish I could say I did. Stopping time should be considered cheating. I think it will be alright though. Lady Yukari put a ward on the stairs to confuse anyone trying to climb them from the gate. I guess I've still got a lot more training to do though."

A part of my brain noted that Youmu must have been beaten by Sakuya, but more of it was concerned with the notion that Reimu and her allies were being held back by the Youkai Sage. Did that mean she was here? Was she working to impede the resolution of the incident so that Yuyuko would go through with her plan? While my mind reeled trying to consider the implications, Yuyuko's voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Youmu, what happened? You look awful."

"My apologies, Lady Yuyuko. Some intruders have arrived, carrying a substantial amount of spring essence with them."

"Oh, how nice of them to deliver it for us. Go ahead and change your clothes, Youmu, perhaps it will be time to awaken the Saigyou Ayakashi after the party."

Bowing her head and slumping her shoulders, Youmu turned away. Her half-spirit swirled slowly behind her, following along until --

Renko suddenly reached out and grabbed at the tail-like part of the spirit firmly. The phantom quickly wriggled out from between her fingers though, slipping through her grasp as if she weren't even there, with Youmu not giving any sign she had noticed Renko's attempted interference. I turned to glare at Renko where she stood with her hand still outstretched.

Rather than saying anything, Renko withdrew her hand and pulled the brim of her hat down low over her eyes. She gripped at the lapels of her trenchcoat and turned up the collar, despite the amiable warmth of the spring air. Hunching in on herself, she pulled the coat tightly around her, her expression suggesting her mind was feverishly digesting something.

Yuyuko, meanwhile, had turned to the musicians who were still playing calming music as Youmu marched into the house.

"Good day to you Prismriver Ensemble. Welcome to Hakugyokurou."

"Thank you for the invitation, we look forward to performing for you," said the elder sister.

"Thank you for the invitation, we're going to have a killer show tonight!" said the middle sister.

"Thank you for the invitation, I'm gonna play and get smashed on good sake!" said the youngest sister.

Yuyuko drew out her fan again and giggled as she unfolded it to cover her mouth. Turning to face us she said "We may as well have some lunch now before the party starts. Why don't you all join me?"

Renko raised her head and pushed her hat back up with two fingers. With the usual troublesome grin she met Yuyuko's smiling eyes. "Yeah," she said. "Let's do that."


—20—


It would take several pages to write down every event that occurred in that riotous, joyous flower-viewing party that lasted from noon until evening.

The music of the Prismrivers enlivened the assembly, as much as a crowd of ghosts can be said to be 'enlivened' anyway. Alice performed one of her puppet shows to a larger than usual audience, with phantoms crowding on top of each other and pressing side by side to see. Youmu worked feverishly, darting from group to group, ensuring refreshments were stocked, empty sake bottles were replaced with fresh ones, and anything damaged or knocked over by the crowds was swept out of sight. Yuyuko herself was content to watch over the proceedings, having staked out a position on the porch early on and spent the evening surrounded by food and drink, taking in the sights, greeting guests, noshing on hors d'oeuvres and calmly sipping sake while seldom moving from her spot.

Over the course of the party, Renko and I managed a few conversations between songs from the Prismrivers, which I will record here.

"Saigyou's homunculus?"

"Yes, that's what it said." I had gone back to our room to get the ancient book and show Renko the passage I had found. Renko stared at the kanji for a bit then snorted unhappily.

"I don't see how you could read that in any way other than that Saigyou was trying to create an artificial being. We'll have to show this to Keine when we get back."

"Do you think this could have anything to do with why Alice is still hanging around?"

"Hmm, the way it's phrased here makes me think more of Frankenstein than Pinocchio, but I suppose in the end both were a type of doll, so maybe that's why Alice is here. If Saigyou really was trying to create a homunculus though, I wonder what his aim was."

"Saigyou was supposedly a man of diverse talents, but an ex-samurai turned Buddhist monk turned poet doesn't really sound like the type to try and create a homunculus, does it?"

"We can't be certain of what the rest of that passage says until we get Keine to take a look at it, I suppose. Besides, I think your other finding, that the passage about Fujimi's daughter being added later is more important, don't you?"

"You really think so?"

"Definitely. If Saigyouji's actions are the result of someone else having put the idea in her head, then the obvious question is what are they trying to hide?"

"Hmmm, should we be looking for a basement to snoop around in again?"

"Of course. I'm sure we'll find Youki tied up down there with all the answers, wrapped up all neat and tidy."

Renko groaned at me, but as she did Youmu came by with a tray full of dango.
"Here you go, let me know if you need more sake," she bowed quickly then around to see who else needed a refill.

Renko nodded and thanked her, then watched as she immediately turned to leave. As her half-phantom swam along behind her, Renko again lunged forward, reaching for the wisp's tail. This time as she caught it Youmu seemed to notice immediately and cried out in shock, nearly throwing the tray of dango to the ground.

"Agh! I told you, don't touch that!"

"Ah sorry, I was just curious," Renko released the squirming spirit which quickly darted over to Youmu and wrapped itself around her. "Though, that makes me wonder..."

"About what?" Youmu asked, looking suspicious.

Renko fiddled with the brim of her hat. "Well, it's just that all of the phantoms here look the same to us. But you can tell them apart, right? You can at least tell your half-phantom from any of the other phantoms, correct?"

"Your arm looks like lots of other people's arms, but you can still tell which one's yours, right?"

"Ah yes, that's a good point. Sorry about that, I beg your pardon."

Youmu turned away with a confused expression and marched off to deliver more dango.

"That was rude, Renko. But I bet I can guess what you're thinking now."

"Oh? Maybe it was worth it then."

"You suspect that Youmu's half-phantom sometimes switches places with other phantoms. Do you think that Youki is deceased and his phantom is watching over Youmu and Yuyuko by pretending to be a part of Youmu? Youmu shares senses with her half-phantom, but when you grabbed the one following her earlier today she didn't notice, and it slipped right out of your grip instantly." Meaning that at that time it must have been a different phantom. One with finely honed reflexes that was following Youmu around, watching over her. Her grandfather seems like the most obvious choice.

"You're getting good at this Merry, you're solidly on the starting line now." Renko whistled approvingly. "But you're still at the beginning of the story. The fact that the missing Youki has actually been here in Hakugyokuro all along may or may not be the key to the story. That's as much as I can say."

"I should have known you were going to be all dramatic again."

"I'm saying I'm not even sure of anything yet myself. I have my hunches, but I'm still missing a few things. If I can find out a little bit more, I'm pretty sure I can connect all of the dots."

"How do you suggest we do that? Do you want to try to locate Youki among all of these phantoms?"

"I don't think he'd come if we called him, but if he's actively trying to hide himself from Youmu and Saigyouji it might be worth a try… But on the other hand…" Renko's expression suddenly froze.

"Renko?"

"Wait, wait... Just be quiet for a minute, Merry... No, no way.... but, if you think about it... It would explain the mystery. But would they really..."

The blood drained from Renko's face as she muttered to herself. "Would that be why? No… it couldn't be something like that. Could it?"

"Renko, what's wrong?" I grabbed my partner by the shoulders and shook her, not sure what else to do. In all the time I had known Renko, I had never seen her react like this.

Renko swallowed and allowed her eyes to focus on me. Still looking pale, she met my gaze and said. "Merry... Sorry, can you go get Youmu for me?"

"Huh? Uh, sure." I still had no idea what she was up to.

I looked around, trying to catch sight of Youmu. I found her attending to Yuyuko, diligently refilling her cup. I turned and called to her. After bowing to Yuyuko, she put down the bottle and rushed right over.

"Yes? What is it?" She asked as she approached. "More sake? Dango?"

"Sorry to keep disrupting your work, but I really need you to answer just two questions."

"What is this about?"

"When exactly did your grandfather leave?"

"Grandfather? About 5 years ago. In the winter."

"In the winter, eh? Alright. How old are you now, Miss Youmu?"

"Ehm, let's see." Youmu quickly counted on her fingers. "I guess I'm about 50 years old?"

My jaw dropped. Youmu looked like a teenager, but there was no reason for her to lie. Our experiences of life in the Outside world continued to cloud our judgement when it had long ago been demonstrated that common sense held no weight in Gensokyo.

Renko's eyes widened too. "50 years?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"Ah sorry, nothing. I just can't help thinking like a human, I guess." Renko scratched absentmindedly at her cheek and pulled the brim of her hat down low.

"Now, just one more question." Renko opened her mouth to speak.

At that moment, my vision shook dramatically. Shook and warped and distorted, as if a wave of something denser than air had rippled past me, bending the light. As if an enormous rift between boundaries had opened and rapidly spread outward.

Youmu, meanwhile, had whirled around, a hand going to the hilt of each of her swords as she looked skyward with a determined expression. The sun had already set and the deep blue twilight of night was blanketing the sky as the last bit of fire dwindled on the horizon. Looking up, I could see warbling distortions shaking and twisting in the sky, distorting the cloudless dome of the heavens like an uneven series or moiré filters sliding past each other and crumbling as they did. I had to close my eyes in order to stay upright.

"Merry, what's wrong?"

"A barrier nearby has just been broken. A really big one. It's falling apart."

Youmu nodded. "The ward on the stairway. I felt it. I can't let them disturb the flower viewing. I'm going to go now." With that, she took off, both of the swords flashing from their sheaths in twin arcs as she did so.

It seems that Reimu and friends were finally about to arrive. I struggled to stand and tried to avoid looking at the distorted sky.

"Did Youmu run off? She didn't have to go yet. I guess she's being a little impatient."

Yuyuko was standing before us, having approached while I was reeling from the force of the barrier's explosion. Her mouth was hidden behind her fan, but her eyes weren't smiling for once. Instead the light from them was terrible and cold.

"Just as Yukari predicted, the red-white, the black-white and the devil's dog are coming." By 'the devil's dog' she must have meant Sakuya I figured.

"You two should go back into the mansion. I'm not sure what would happen if the Saigyou Ayakashi reaches full bloom. I suspect the amount of spring they're bringing me will be just enough though. All that remains is to claim it."

With a snap of the folding fan, Yuyuko pasted a pleasant, unmoving smile on her face. From the direction of the stone path a great gust of wind blew, stirring up a whirling storm of blossoms and making the trees creak as their branches shifted and flexed. The groaning of the wood rose from the copse of trees like the lonely moaning of the dead.


—21—


What kind of hypothesis had Renko formulated, you may ask? I heard about it at this point, while we were watching the danmaku battles between Yuyuko, Reimu and the others in the skies above Hakugyokurou. However, I hope you will forgive me for not relaying it to you just yet, dear reader. This is, after all, a mystery story, and it just wouldn't do to have the solution before you reach the end. As it turned out, her hypothesis was mostly nonsense, but it did contain at least a sliver of truth.

We watched the battle from a room in the mansion where we could see the complex waves of glowing projectiles arcing through the night while the Saigyou Ayakashi glowed in ominous silence in the background.

The banquet had broken up, with phantoms scattering and streaming in every direction the moment the barrier had broken. Both Alice and the Prismriver sisters had disappeared at the first sign of trouble, and were nowhere to be seen.

The sun had set completely now, and the peaceful silence of a graveyard had descended on Hakugyokurou, where the enormous cherry tree and the floating ghost girl both stood, glowing against the darkness. Three figures sailed up the tree-lined stone path and cut a wide arc over the mansion grounds. As they circled past, we got a good look at all three. Hakurei Reimu, Kirisame Marisa and Izayoi Sakuya.

"I'm so fed up with all of these ghosts" Reimu groused to no one in particular. She pulled to a halt not far from the courtyard, Marisa and Sakuya drawing up alongside her.

"Selfishly stepping into someone's garden only to speak complaints. Of course it's full of ghosts, it's my home." Yuyuko moved into position ahead of them as Reimu's eyes widened at the sight of her.

Sakuya floated forward, conjuring a knife from nowhere and balancing it on the tip of her finger. "Shouldn't you be quiet? 'Dead men tell no tales' as the saying goes, after all."

"There's no such saying here, of course. It's always lively and beautiful here in the Netherworld."

"Isn't it only beautiful because you snatched the spring away from Gensokyo?"

"Oh my. You dislike spring?"

"No, I'm mad because I DO like it. Milady is very sensitive to the cold and will freeze if spring doesn't arrive soon. Why did you steal it from Gensokyo?"

"I took any spring that was spring. Still, what we have is not enough. Just a little bit more. A little bit more and the Saigyou Ayakashi will be in full bloom.."

Reimu pushed ahead, maneuvering around Sakuya. "What is this Saigyou Ayakashi?"

"Our youkai cherry tree. We still don't have enough spring to break the seal on its blossoms."

"It's been intentionally sealed up, so it's probably better not to mess with it, right? Besides, we don't know what's sealed in it."

"How can you say that after breaching all of the barriers to get here?"

"Well, whatever. So what happens if you break this seal?"

"A perfect bloom will occur"

Reimu stared at her in silence, arms hanging slackly at her sides.

"At the same time, I hear someone will be revived."

"You can't resurrect someone just for the sake of curiosity. We don't even know who they are."

"Oh, don't worry. I can invite any human or youkai to their death just out of curiosity too."

"Being able to bring death doesn't qualify you to bring life whenever you feel like it. What if you revive something really nasty?"

"Well we won't know until we try, I guess" Yuyuko shrugged nonchalantly.

"Practice makes perfect eh? Can't say I disagree with that attitude." This was from Marisa, "So here then, I brought you your last drop of spring. Why don't you come and take it?"

"Oh, would you like to take Youmu's place then?"

"Nah, I wouldn't want to live out the rest of my life in a place like this."

"Are the cherry blossoms of the Netherworld not tempting enough for human eyes?"

"Maybe if this place didn't reek of death."

"Are you smelling with your eyes?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I meant." Marisa shook her head. "Damn, what an incredibly annoyin' spring. This is supposed to be a nice season."

"You're being rude. The spring you feel here is none other than the spring of your own Gensokyo."

"No, you're being rude. What kind of person smells with their eyes?"

"You're lagging behind in the conversation."

"Sound travels slowly in the Netherworld. A place with such a slow speed of sound doesn't deserve such a pleasant spring. I think I'll be takin' my annoyin' spring back now, corpse-girl."

"And I'd rather have a flower viewing at MY shrine. I'll have you give back Gensokyo's spring."

"I'm rather worried that it took me a whole day to get here. Milady must be quite cold by now, so I'll be taking my warmth back."

"Oh my, it's getting quite lively here in the land of the dead."

Looking around at the three intruders, Yuyuko withdrew her fan from her sleeve and snapped it open, smiling that same cold smile we had seen before. "Which of you first then? I don't mind if it's all three together."

"You sound pretty confident," Marisa quipped.

"This is the Netherworld. For you all to be here is the same as being dead already. Now sleep beneath the flowers and give rise to my perfect cherry blossom."

Yuyuko threw her arms wide. A gust of wind howled from behind her and a thousand thousand cherry blossoms exploded from the drifts beneath the trees to swirl around her. As her kimono fluttered in the breeze, the cherry blossoms seemed to change all at once, each one becoming a luminous butterfly glowing with murderous light from within.

—

What could I compare the scene that unfolded to?

What I saw was butterflies. Countless fluttering, glowing butterflies, drifting and banking in swarms like murmurations of starlings dancing in the air to the silent music of a virtuoso conductor. The swarms of butterflies swirled like souls, fleeing some great calamity, writhing in undulating floods and spinning like the gyre of the milky way. The twisting clouds filled the night sky with light and their dance seemed to tell a story of loss and mourning, a requiem of space and light rather than tone and rhythm, dolorous and suffocating.

In the center of the whirlpool, the three human girls danced with the butterflies, whirling and skirting past one another like a gust among the branches of a cherry tree.

Diving and rising past waves of projectiles, they fluttered like falling blossoms.

Thrashing and contorting, they writhed like agonized souls among the waves.

Again and again, knives scythed through swathes of butterflies, with each point finding a mark. Stardust and rays of burning light cleaved through the clouds, cutting gaps in the swarm that revealed the sky for only a moment before closing, and storms of ofuda swirled with the cherry blossoms, drowning out and obscuring the butterflies as they formed.

As the petals continued to fall in silence from the trees, so too did more of them rise up to become glowing butterflies, and so too did the girls continue to dance, weaving their intricate, deadly waltz through the sky without interruption.

Three living girls and one dead one dancing round and round on the border between life and death. Or perhaps, here in the Netherworld we were already over that line, and this was just the play of lost spirits cursed to wander and war in the afterlife. Perhaps we were over the line in the other direction - the challenge of the battle, the flirting with danger providing the very essence of life to the girls who darted and weaved with inexhaustible alacrity between the consuming swarms of unliving flower petals. Perhaps both life and death were transient things, one leading ever into the other, the cycle tumbling over and over, churning with grief, agony, joy, excitement, calm and passion, peace and fury. Perhaps there was no separating the two, only intermingling them in different ways.

Regardless of my philosophizing, life and death met and entangled as light and shadow, cherry blossom and butterfly, ghost and girl swirled around the borders of the absolute.

As the battle continued, the combatants were steadily drifting farther and farther away from us and closer and closer to the Saigyou Ayakashi. Having watched attentively this whole time in near silence, Renko suddenly groaned beside me.

"The battle itself is a ritual, an offering to make the Saigyou Ayakashi bloom!" She muttered with alarm.

Indeed, it seemed that spring was descending on the Saigyou Ayakashi. The buds which lined the towering branches were growing swollen, glowing with otherworldly pink light. They seemed to pulse and strain to open, as if the tree moved to the rhythm of an unseen heart, flowing with scarlet blood rather than ancient sap.

Yuyuko laughed as she spun through the air, her focus lost for a moment as she exalted in the petals surrounding her. "Now! Bloom nobly, ink-black cherry blossoms! If you do that, then I can..."

A fan of butterflies spread out in front of Yuyuko, like a wall to protect her. At once the cadence of the battle changed. Sensing an opening, Sakuya hurled countless knives, and butterflies crumbled as they fell from the sky. Marisa let out a whoop and leapt atop her broom, unleashing a torrent of light from the furnace she carried to pierce a hole through the crumbling fan. And where that burning hole was drilled, the moment the light faded, one more butterfly flew. A red and white dichromatic silhouette. Reimu Hakurei, hurtling herself at top speed through the momentary gap in Yuyuko's defense, a fist full of talismans clutched in her hand.


"It's over! I'll have my spring back!" Reimu cried as she let the charms fly. Yuyuko tumbled from the sky, still wearing the same implacable smile.

The Saigyou Ayakashi screamed.

Stunned, Sakuya, Marisa and Reimu looked up as the last of Yuyuko's butterflies faded from existence. The branches of the immense tree were rustling as piercing rays of blinding light shone from each of the thousands of buds lining the boughs. The light was otherworldly, a deep, bloody red that seemed to bleed to black at the edges despite being so bright it hurt the eyes to look at.

A tremor shook the world as a swirl of light poured forth from the gnarled trunk of the tree, as if a sun had ignited within it and light was seeping through the gnarled flesh of the tree's trunk. Myriad thousands of butterflies then began to emerge from the tree and swarm into the sky, their centuries-old malice unleashed at last.