Part Four

“We’re here.”

My eyes were still shut tight. I clung to Yukari’s dress, waiting for this mad climb up the Ayakashi to be over. I worked for each breath. The air pressure dropped, and it popped my ears.

“You can let go of me now, Youmu.”

Wind swept my hair this way and that. I feared my bow would come undone and flutter away to some unknown corner of Hakugyokuro. My dress had ridden up, showing my undergarments to whoever cared to see.

Yukari slung me off her shoulder, setting me down on both feet. I would have stumbled backward if she weren’t steadying me with one hand.

“I’ve never paused to appreciate the view up here,” she said.

I looked side to side, and realized I couldn’t see earth in any direction. I could only see the Ayakashi’s bark that we stood upon, and its trunk stretching down far below. I stepped toward the edge and looked down. My stomach clenched.

We stood on a branch, a wide bough at least two hundred feet up in the air. A deadly drop yawned open below us. I saw a wide geometric shape spread out on the ground: my mistress’s house, though I didn’t recognize it at first. I had never seen it from above.

“Sweet mercy.” I backed away from the edge. I retreated to the nook where the branch elbowed with the tree trunk, and I leaned against the trunk’s bark.

“Don’t look down,” said Yukari. “Look over here instead.”

She pointed to a crooked branch, sprouting up off the bough on which we stood. I didn’t notice anything special. There was nothing but bare wood, just like the rest of the tree.

“What are you pointing at?” I said.

“It’s grown too dark outside for you to see.” She held out a hand to me. “Come closer.”

“I’m not moving!” I said. “A gust of wind could blow me off the tree.”

“Even if you fell, I’d catch you long before you hit the ground.”

I took in a deep breath, sighed it out.

“I am a swordsman of Konpaku. I do not fear, least of all death.”

Those words were merely to coax myself along. I didn’t care to appear brave before Yukari, but I certainly needed to believe I was brave for my own sake.

“Then come over here, you silly half-ghost,” she said.

I stepped forward and grabbed Yukari’s hand in both my own.

“Now look,” she said, pointing to the bare branch again. “See this?”

Closer now, even in the near-dark of night, I saw what she had brought me up here for. I blinked, to ensure my eyes weren’t fooled. My breath caught in my chest.

Hanging off the tip of the crooked branch was a small stem, ending in a single cherry blossom. The little pink flower bobbed in the wind.

“Look at that,” I said. I took one hand from Yukari, cupped it around the blossom. It tapped against my palm as the wind moved it. It was real. A tiny part of the Saigyou Ayakashi had bloomed.

“It’s better than I hoped,” said Yukari. “The seasonal power manifested itself immediately. I expected it to take some time to show.”

“It’s nearly winter!” I said. “No tree should be blossoming now, not even here.”

“This blossom has nothing to do with the time of year,” she said. “This is your doing.”

“Hardly.” I stood up straight, letting the flower flop in the wind. I still held onto Yukari’s hand. “The magic is all yours, Yukari-sama. I merely stood there and suffered while it happened.”

“It gets easier the more you do it. It won’t be so bad the next time.”

“Next time?” I said. “Is this what you wanted from me? Use me as a pump to get your power into Hakugyokuro?”

“With good reason, you’ll remember. But no. I don’t want you to only change magic from mortal to immortal. I also need you to collect it and bring it here.”

“Why can’t you gather it yourself?”

“Because I need to work on making this all possible. When you start gathering Gensokyo’s energy, it’ll be easy at first – but the more you bring here, the harder it will be to find. Unless I focus the energy together, you won’t get enough of it to make a difference. I’ll be at my home in the mountains, keeping Gensokyo’s power well cohesive so that you can harvest it.”

“I could never hope to complete this,” I said, looking down at the blossom. “If that much was only enough to make one little flower, it would take years to bring enough power to change the Ayakashi.”

“It doesn’t quite work that way,” said Yukari. “It’s more multiplicative than additive. As you bring Gensokyo’s magic here, not only will the Ayakashi bloom more, but the rate at which it blooms will increase. It will be a lot of work, but on the scale of weeks or months, not years. Besides, I have tools that will help.”

Yukari had a hand in her dress pocket. From it, she pulled out President Strangebird, which had now gone back to its inanimate self. Its wings and legs were folded up, once again only a wooden carving.

“This is one of those tools.” She put the carving in my hand, closed my fingers around it. “Remember the pass phrase to activate it: vote for Strangebird. It automatically deactivates once drained of energy. If you wish to disable it before then, speak its deactivation phrase.”

“Which is?”

“One one, two two, one nine six three.”

I put the President in my pocket. “Random numbers?”

“Not random,” said Yukari. “Those numbers signify the end of a presidency. Also, you’ll have a hard time gathering any magic if you can’t get around, so I’ll enchant one of your swords with limited gap power. That way, you’ll be able to go anywhere within Gensokyo.”

“Gap?” I said. “The way you travel?”

She nodded. “The same.”

I swallowed. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“It is, unless you want to move all across Gensokyo on foot. Then it really will take years to make a difference. We’ll also need some way to get you in and out of Hakugyokuro. That’s a lot harder than cutting gaps within the same dimension, so I’ll have to set up a dedicated portal somewhere, but we can work out the details later. I’ve kept you up here long enough. Shall we go down?”

“Yes,” I said. “So long as the trip down is easier than the trip up.”

“Oh, much easier. Or I should say, simpler.”

“What d—”

That was all I could say before she threw me over her shoulder again. I tried to get a good grip on her, make myself steady for the decent, but I had no time.

Yukari turned and jumped off the bough.

---

There is no experience like falling from a great height. You feel as though all your internal organs are trailing up behind you. The wind tears at your face, peeling your eyes open and pulling your lips back from your teeth. Your own voice is lost in the noise, even as you scream your throat raw. The ground races up faster than anything should be able to move.

Two seconds before we would have made a crash landing, our fall slowed. Yukari held her hand down, fingers spread wide, as if she were warding the ground away. My relative weight increased, pressing Yukari’s shoulder harder into my gut. We slowed until we had come to a near stop, and we were a few inches above the ground. Yukari stepped down onto it, her feet sinking into wet earth.

“That was fun,” she said.

I tumbled off Yukari’s shoulder. I hit the ground on my shoulder and hip, but I hardly felt it. I trembled all over, fighting for breath. The swampy ground dipped under me, and water soaked into my clothes. My swords jutted up from by back, the tips of their sheathes stabbed into wet soil.

“My apologies, Youmu,” said Yukari. “I didn’t know you were so adverse to heights.”

“The fall was the problem,” I said, pushing myself up onto my hands and knees. “Where did we land? How far is it back to Yuyuko-sama’s house?”

“Not far, as the President flies,” she said. “It will be a short trip on foot. We have to walk all around the Ayakashi’s roots.”

“No challenge for you,” I said. “ You can jump over them.”

“I won’t. Seeing how that affected you, I wouldn’t do that again. Instead I can carry you home piggyback.”

My legs were barely stable enough to support me. I stood, then raised a hand to point at her.

“You’re not carrying me anywhere! If it takes me all night, I’m walking back myself.”

I turned, took one step, and immediately fell to my knees. More muddy water soaked into my skirt.

“You make a persuasive argument,” said Yukari. “Please, Youmu. We’ll be on the ground the whole time I carry you. No jumping or falling, I promise.”

“That will soil your dress,” I said.

“I don’t care.” She stepped over to me, began the process of prying me up off the ground. “Dirty clothes are the least of my worries.”

---

I had my arms around her neck, and relaxed my head against her back. My legs were wrapped around her waist. She had both her hands under my thighs, holding me up. My swords hung off my back and clacked together as she walked. The dark, swampy landscape scrolled by us.

“Youmu,” she said. “Will you do it?”

“Do what?” I said.

“The favor I asked of you.”

My reflexive impulse was to bark out a loud and decisive no! I wanted no part of any conspiracy with this woman, let alone anything so grand as transferring huge stores of natural magic from the mortal world.

As little as I liked Yukari, I had to make a difficult admission. I loved seeing even one blossom upon the Saigyou Ayakashi. My mistress would love it even more. If it were for Yuyuko’s own good, breaking her of obsession over an object, then so much the better.

“Begrudgingly, I must,” I said. “But not tonight.”

“Not tonight,” said Yukari. “We can start sometime over the next couple of days. I’ll come find you when things are ready. Hopefully I can take you without Yuyuko’s notice.”

“She will notice,” I said, “but I can disguise my errand. Historically, the Konpaku have reconnoitered in the mortal world to ensure security and good relations for House Saigyouji.”

“Good. So you’re not totally unfamiliar with the mortal realm.”

“No, I know the place.”

She walked on. I was ready to rest my head against Yukari’s back, but something caught my eye. As we went, gentle waves went through Yukari’s hair. The wind picked it up, tossing it into my face. This worried me less than what I saw under her hair.

On the back of Yukari’s neck, a small red spot stood up from her skin. I would expect such a blemish on an adolescent human’s face, but never on a youkai queen. Youkai, by their bizarre nature, are often fantastically beautiful, and none moreso than she who now carried me. Their faces are lovely. Their bodies are alluring. Their skin is perfectly clear.

“Yukari-sama,” I said. “There’s something on your neck.”

“What’s that?” she said. “A bug?”

Submitting to a childlike impulse, I reached up and put a finger to the red spot.

“Ow,” she said, putting a hand back to shoo mine away. “That stings.”

“My apologies,” I said. I put my hand back where it belonged, holding onto her so I wouldn’t fall.

“No. I’ve hurt you far worse this evening.” She got her hand back under my leg.

“I’ve never seen you with blemishes before,” I said.

“It’s possible for me to get the odd zit now and again,” she said.

This was the first time I heard the word zit, though I could guess what it meant.

“I see,” I said, and I fell quiet.

Yukari’s body being less than perfect nagged at my mind for a long while.

---

Yukari brought me back to the house. She set me down outside and allowed me to go indoors on my own feet, which were now stable enough for me to walk unaided.

I showed Yukari to the guest bedroom. There she reunited with her shikigami, and they prepared to spend the night.

With the guests stowed, I retreated to my own bedroom. I cast off my dirty dress and headed into the bathroom for a pre-bed wash. With a rinse of my hair and a washcloth on my limbs, I was soon clean.

I opened my closet, looking for dry bedclothes, but found something entirely different. A pink-haired ghost had been curled up among my wardrobe, and she poked her head out at me.

“Boo!” she said.

I jumped back in surprise, covering myself with both arms.

“Yuyuko-sama!” I said. “I’m not dressed!”

She stood and floated out of the closet. She was in her evening robe, one of the flowing gowns she wore to bed.

“What do you expect of me?” she said. “I’m a ghost; it’s my job to surprise the unsuspecting. But I’m not the one facing inquisition here. You need to explain your behavior, little miss.”

“Could inquisition be postponed until I’m clothed with something more than my hands?”

“Absolutely not! If I give any prior warning, then the outcome of the questioning is tainted. I need to surprise you to get the truth out of you.”

“Please consider me perpetually surprised.”

“Good! Then answer this. I only told you to go check on Yukari. Why did that take so long? Why didn’t you two come back until after dark?”

“Apologies for the delay,” I said. “The truth is, she wished to speak to me.”

“What about?”

I didn’t answer immediately, and I knew how suspicious that seemed. This showed a flaw in Yukari’s plan. I couldn’t lie to Yuyuko. When away from my mistress, it was easy to talk about disguising errands and hiding truth. But under her gaze, my mind was blank. Nothing mattered but being a good servant.

“I...,” was all I could say. My mind ran in circles. I couldn’t lie, but I couldn’t tell the truth.

Yuyuko put a finger on my lips. “Wait. You’re embarrassed about something. Your face is bright red. You weren’t two-timing on me, were you?”

“Two-timing?” I said. I didn’t know what the phrase meant.

“Finding a new mistress,” she said. “I’ll be the first to admit, Yukari is beautiful and smart and strong and wonderful, but don’t let her seduce you.” She tousled my hair. “I’m not letting anyone else have you.”

“No one seduced me, nor could they. Yukari and I....” I sighed. “If you must know: Yukari was planning a surprise gift for you. She asked for my help, because she wanted to give me the opportunity to contribute. I wasn’t supposed to tell you.”

“Aw,” said Yuyuko, giving a sweet smile. “That’s so nice of you two. Don’t you worry. I’ll pretend I’m none the wiser. When you give me whatever it is, you’ll see me implode with surprised delight!”

I responded to her smile with my own, trying to cover the unease I felt deep within.

“Thank you, Yuyuko-sama,” I said. “I’m sure it will be a quite the spectacle.”