Chapter Two

In an instant, I felt as if I had spent a full night in the warmest, comfiest bed ever. The waking world was too cold and awful to deal with, so I relished the chance to rest.

I stayed there for a while, maybe for hours, neither fully asleep nor awake. As this time passed, a strange light grew around me, soft and slow. It felt like a full moon peeking in through my bedroom window, shining more and more brightly as the moon rose to take its full arc through the sky.

One difference, though – the moon’s light isn’t pink and blue. I couldn’t see anything, so I shouldn’t have been able to perceive any colors, but I could feel it. The light was pink with ribbons of blue running through it.

“Oh, look at you. What a strange ghost.”

A voice rang out from nowhere, shocking me back to awareness. This voice was huge and powerful. It sent tremors through me, but I sensed no malice from it.

“I’m over here, if you can see me,” the voice said. “Though maybe you can’t. You’re quite shadey.”

I tried to respond to the voice, but it was difficult. My voice was so quiet that even I couldn’t hear it. I tried to yell, but it came out no louder than an insect’s sneeze.

“Don’t strain. I can sense your feelings. You’re here because you want to know what’s happening to Gensokyo.”

The voice’s owner came closer. I could feel the presence nearing me, though there was only shapeless pink and blue in all directions. I tried to pull back, but I had nowhere to go. The voice’s owner examined me.

“Ah, I see. You’re not a ghost at all, are you? You’ve got a breathing body back in Gensokyo. How did you leave the flesh without dying? Only one person I know can do that, and you’re no half-ghost yourself.”

I wanted to yell, Who are you? Tell me what happened to the spring!

“Yes, I’m sorry for the long winter, but don’t worry. It should be solved soon. For now, I’ll send you back. Try to stay warm, and hope I don’t see you back here for a long time. Be well!”

Something slammed me backwards, pushing me away from the pink and blue. I struggled against it, like wading upstream in a raging river. I had no hope of winning. It carried me out of that place and washed me far away.

I fell into Gensokyo, dropping from the highest part of the sky like a shooting star. I fell and fell, and saw that I’d hit ground somewhere in the mountains. A plot of land had been leveled to build a shrine. Within that shrine, three girls had taken shelter against the abnormally long cold season.

I fell through the roof. For an instant, I saw my unconscious self from above, like a child who jumps from a tree branch and sees the ground below before landing. I was in a fetal ball on my side, my legs curled up to my chest. I still wore the dress I had worn from home, more than a day ago. My hair was a mess. I needed a bath.

Seeing myself, I had time enough for one thought.

Have I always been this ugly?

I crashed back into my body.

---

For the second time in a day, I awoke on Reimu’s floor.

My eyes snapped open. I gasped. My body met resistance when I sat up, as I had been wrapped in a futon and covered with a blanket. The windows were black now, leaving the front room dark but for a single pale light on the kotatsu.

“You’re awakes,” said Marisa, sitting there. A small yellow-white orb of light stood over her hakkero, sitting on the table beside her. She wore a blanket over her back like a cape, and a book lay open before her. She had been reading by magical light while I was unconscious.

“How long was I out?” I said, rubbing a hand over my eyes. My voice sounded dry and rusty.

“’bout six hours,” said Marisa. “Me and Reimus tried to shake-awakes, but maid-girls kept snoozings. Kept breathing so you weren’t deads. Didn’t know what, so just covered up warms and stuffed in a corners.”

“Six hours?” I said, looking at the windows. “And it’s dark outside already?”

Marisa shrugged. “Wintertimes, heavy cloud covers. Makes it seem dark super earlys.”

I pushed the covers off myself, then stood while bracing myself against the wall.

“Where did Reimu go?” I said.

Marisa nodded toward the hallway. “Making dinners. Can probably make you somes, not too lates.”

“I’m not hungry. I don’t think I’ll be hungry for a while. If I impose on her hospitality any further, it’ll be to take a bath.”

“Ask her nices, thens.” Marisa slapped her book closed. “Guess my cognation spells didn’t works? Was afraids you’d never wake ups. That’d be hards to explain to Remis.”

“I feel like I went somewhere. Some powerful being spoke to me. It might have been a dream.”

Marisa’s eyes opened wide. She leaned back, folded her arms.

“What did the voice says?”

“Nothing useful, just apologized for the long winter and said it should be solved soon. Then I was back here.”

“Might not have been a dream, maid-girls.”

I went to the kotatsu and sat across from Marisa, covering my legs underneath.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’ll need to ask you and Reimu to accompany me back to the Scarlet Mansion. We can set out tomorrow morning.”

Marisa nodded. “Sounds like a good ideas.”

“And if we’re traveling together through dangerous terrain, we’ll need to trust each other.”

She said nothing, but kept her arms folded. One yellow eyebrow might have arched up, just a bit.

“Marisa, tell me – the first time you and I met. Was it last summer, when you two came to the Mansion to investigate the sky mist?”

She didn’t answer aloud. Her eyes darted down, then met mine again. Silently, and as cold as the night outside, she gave the smallest shake of her head.

“That’s right,” I said, my voice just above a whisper. “You caught me off guard once before, when I was out getting food for Flandre.”

She took a deep breath, tried to let it out smoothly, but I could hear the rattle. I could see the tremble in her shoulders. I could smell the fear that predators are born to hunt.

“I’m not asking you to understand,” I said. “I’m not proud of it, but I had no choice at the time.”

“You’re not a good persons,” she said, quivering still in her voice. “Me and Reimus only alive right nows because Remi’s thinks we’ll be usefuls.”

“We’re not monsters.” My voice was almost a hiss. “We never killed for the fun of it.”

Marisa leaned forward, planting both hands on the table. Her eyes glinted with the light hanging over her hakkero, and her voice took on a new edge.

“Listen, maid-girls. We’ll go to the Mansions, talk to Remis and work togethers on getting spring backs. After that, we’re not friends.”

The prey felt cornered, and so bared her teeth.

I pushed myself back from the table, began to stand up.

“That’s good enough,” I said. “Now I’ll go ask Reimu if I can use her tub.”

---

The smell of dinner cooking didn’t entice me at all. I should have been famished, after walking here and then fasting through the six hours I had been passed out, but I felt no hunger. It seemed like my appetite would stay gone for at least a day.

Reimu’s bathroom wasn’t as clean as mine back home, nor did it have all the creature comforts. The stone floor was so cold that it stung my feet, but the magical stove beneath her tub did work. I didn’t fill the tub, just drew enough water to wash and rinse myself once, so it didn’t take long for the water to heat up.

I could re-use my dress and cloak tomorrow, but my undergarments and stockings were too well-used to go back on. I gave them a crude wash in the tub and would let them air-dry overnight. Reimu let me borrow an old shirt and pair of trousers to wear just for tonight. I’m too big for any of her clothes, so my midriff and calves were exposed. I could survive one night like this, but I would refuse to travel home so poorly-dressed.

Dinner was done by the time I had finished in the bathroom. Reimu cleaned up in the kitchen, then retired to her bedroom to wind down for the night. Marisa and I settled into the front room, where we would both be sleeping. She sat at the kotatsu reading her book, occasionally pausing to underline a passage or scribble a note in the margins.

I sat in my futon in the corner of the room, checking through my bag of supplies. There weren’t many snack cakes left, so we would be hungry upon arriving at the Mansion. There were enough spellcards to keep three people warm for two a two-day journey, with an assortment of offensive and defensive spells.

“Does Reimu have her own spellcards?” I asked, breaking the silence. It was the first sound in the front room since dinner ended.

Marisa shook her head, but didn’t look up from her book. “She only travels when it’s safe outsides, or depends on me for Master Sparks.”

“Then I’ll give her a few in the morning, so all three of us are armed.”

Lastly, I pulled out the leather sheath that held my two throwing knives. The blades of both were clean and sharp. Both had my initials carved into the base.

“How many of those do you haves?” said Marisa, now looking up from her book.

“I can make as many as I need. Sadly I can’t do the same for food, or anything that’s either alive or used to be. Did you keep the knife from the night you found me?”

“For a whiles. Showed it to Reimus, so she’d come to the Mansions. She ended up using its on China-girls.”

I let out an amused snort. “It probably would have ended up there anyway.”

---

Bedtime came, and I failed to sleep.

After absorbing the cherry petal had knocked me out, I had gotten enough sleep today. I couldn’t convince my body or mind that I needed more.

It was so dark that opening my eyes made no difference versus keeping them shut, so I paid attention to my other senses: the feel of my clothes and blankets, my heart pumping in my chest, any sound my ears could detect. I could hear Marisa’s breathing across the room. Hers was lighter and more regular than mine, making a soft wheeze on each exhale.

There came a new noise, soft enough that it wouldn’t wake anyone. Crrrmp crrrmp, the sound of fresh snow compacting under someone’s feet.

I pushed off my blanket and sat up, looking over to the nearest window. Light came in from outside. It was too faint to have meant anything during the day, but it was apparent against the black of night. I could see pinpoint snowflakes tapping against the glass.

I kicked off the covers and crawled over to the window. Crouching under the sill, I poked my head up to peek out. The shrine courtyard was a big vat of snow, reminding me of a bowl of cream-of-something soup. My tracks from this morning had been erased by wind and snowfall in the hours since.

A newcomer had been gouging long tracks through the snow. A cloaked figure was in the middle of the courtyard, struggling forward against the gusts and flurries. A sparklamp was up in one hand, casting a soft circle of light around.

My heart jumped. I remembered what Marisa had said before trying her cognation spell.

It could lead us to whoever was freezing Gensokyo, or it might lead them to us.

---

I shifted, giving myself time to duplicate a knife from my bag and run to the front door. There I let the shift go and pulled the door open. A winter blast hit me, icy air dotted with tiny snowflakes. My skin tightened all over. I clenched my teeth, folded my arms and stood against the cold. I called out into the night.

“Hello there!” I said. “Rough weather for traveling, isn’t it?”

The cloaked figure noticed me before I spoke, standing still and facing me. Wind pushed at the person from one side.

“Evening to you!” came the reply.

Her voice surprised me, speaking with an oddly-lilted accent I had never heard before, and it was unmistakably feminine. She sounded as if she were not much older than me.

“I apologize for appearing at these odd hours,” she said. “I meant not to skulk around your home like a bandit, but I’m here on urgent business. A magic beacon shone from here not long ago. Do you know of it?”

She had come for the spring essence, in the middle of the night, in a snowstorm. That only made sense if the long winter was her doing. Marisa’s spell had worked. It led the perpetrator right to me.

My hand tightened around the base of my throwing knife, hidden in my folded arms.

“We did have some,” I said, “but we lost it.”

The cloaked woman paused, which was more diplomatic than I expected. Anyone able to change the seasons could be no magical lightweight. She could probably annihilate half of this mountain with a little effort.

“No disrespect intended, but I can’t accept that.” She rested a hand on something beneath her cloak. “There is mortal energy within your home. I need it. Give it, or I will take it.”

“Do what you must,” I said.

The thing under her cloak proved to be a short sword’s hilt. She drew a single-edge, curved blade and held it toward me.

“This is Hakurouken, a kee—”

I didn’t let her finish. I shifted, and everything slowed to a standstill. Snowflakes were stuck, hanging motionless in the air. The cloaked girl paused in mid-sentence, holding her weapon out like a memorial statue.

With a flick of my hand, my knife went flying. It spun away, and quickly came to a stop in open space. The knife was away from me, so it would remain frozen like the rest of the world.

Now that the knife was set up, I let my shift go.

“—psake in my family,” the cloaked woman finished, but too late. My knife was on its way to her, spinning through the air.

Many things might have ruined the aim of a thrown knife: the wind, my eyes watering against the cold, my target being both short and far away. None of these factors hindered me.

The knife hit. It bounced from the girl’s face, making the high-pitched twing of metal striking metal. The knife spun away at a sharp angle, arcing up before tumbling down and disappearing into the snow. I stood there, my mouth hanging open.

She had blocked my knife with her sword.

She seemed as surprised as I was. We both stood silent, evaluating each other, calculating the threat that the other posed.

“A shame,” she said. “I can’t resolve this now, but nor can I ignore you forever. Please ponder this meeting, so our next doesn’t end in bloodshed.”

She turned her back to me, as if to walk away. I could have shifted back to my bag and duplicated ten more knives for throwing, but my confidence was shaken. No one had ever swatted one of my knives out of midair before.

As it happened, she didn’t walk away. Instead she held up her sword and sliced it down through the air. I couldn’t tell why at first. Then I saw a vertical black slit, hanging over the snow where her blade had cut. It was only visible because of her sparklamp.

The slit widened, then opened, large enough for a person to step through, and she did just that. She disappeared into it. The rift snapped shut behind her, then vanished itself.

No lights, no fanfare. She was gone. Without her sparklamp, the courtyard fell dark. I stepped back from the snow, closed the door in front of me.

I went back over to my futon. It was too dark to see, but I could hear Marisa stirring by the kotatsu. She took in a deep breath, then groaned.

“Sakuyas?” she said.

“What?”

“Was someone outsides?”

“No. I thought I heard something, but I must have imagined it. Go back to sleep.”