48 Tragedy Breaker (2/2)

Good, now, for the uncomfortable part….

I changed the way I sat from cross-legged to sitting on my knees, and corrected my posture.

..Somebody will get mad and I'm gonna get hurt if I recklessly do this stuff. Even though I'm an entire world apart from her, I'm sure she probably has a way to smack me if I do this wrong.

”..Fufu-.” Yuyuko giggled.

Everyone gave her questionings looks, and then, as always, Yukari was quick to understand what she meant.

'…Genius girls being geniuses, those two probably know why I corrected the way I sat.'

I touched the choker on my neck.

'Change to Saigyouji Yuyuko. '

[Affirmative]

I enveloped my body and the room in darkness but I made it so that the four people in front of me could see each other in the darkness.

After I felt that I finished transforming, I activated the Projection Cube.

The darkness changed into a room, a room that was similar to the guest room from before but also different at the same time.

The moonlight got in from the window. From that window, one could see the image of Saigyou Ayakashi in full bloom.

And finally, everyone was looking at me with wide eyes. If I saw a man suddenly replaced with a beauty, of course I'd be surprised.

I smiled.

”Hello.” I lightly waved at them. ”My name is Saigyouji Yuyuko. I'm the Head of Hakugyokurou and the Manager of Dead Souls in the Netherworld. It's nice to meet all of you.”

Heyo. I became Yuyuko, complete with floating white orbs around me. The choker actually recognized those floating things to be a part of Yuyuko. Thank god.

”Manager of Deal Souls? Netherworld?”

”That's right~, that means I'm a ghost! Did you feel scared while looking at me?” I asked with a smile.

”…” I think Youmu lost her words.

”Did you know about her past?”

My smile slowly faded away.

The one who said that, surprisingly, was not Yukari, but Yuyuko.

”Please tell me all about her.” she said with a resolute face.

”…Okay.” I lightly nodded.

Then I told her about my side's Yuyuko's background story, her abilities, her tragedies, about Saigyou Ayakashi, about her relationship with the Yukari on the other side, and about my Gensokyo and the incident she started.

”*sigh* I think this is the longest conversation I've held in a long while.”

”Here's some water, um, Arah-san.” Youmu offered me a glass of water.

”Thank you Youmu-chan, you're so kind.” I received it thankfully.

”…It's weird knowing that you are not Yuyuko-sama but you look and sound exactly like her.”

”It can't be helped. I need to act properly as them by role-playing as the people I changed into.”

”But right now you're not acting like her though.” Ran butted in.

”Youmu~, I'm hungry~.”

”Un, perfect impersonation of Yuyuko-sama.” Youmu approved.

I didn't know why but somehow these two started warming up to me, which I was okay with. Getting friendly with a cute girl is okay all the time in my book.

”If you're done talking, how about changing back to how you look.” ordered Yukari.

”Yes, ma'am.”

I changed back to myself.

I deactivated and put away my Projection Cube.

”Okay, I've already explained everything, now it's up to you if you want to believe me or not. But, I don't care either way, because I will prevent that tragedy from happening. ” I told them.

Yuyuko and Yukari started exchanging looks for a while before looking back at me.

I bet they exchanged a billion words with only looking at each other eyes, if it's them then maybe it's plausible.

”How did you know so much detail about… that Yuyuko?” asked Yukari.

…Ho boy, but thankfully I already answered that same type of question in the past.

”I have my own sources. If you want to stay alive in Gensokyo, you need to watch out for every powerhouse there.”

”Then why do you want to help our Yuyuko?”

”It's because I can't ignore those who are in trouble.”

”The real reason?”

”It's a shame that such a beautiful person would leave this world so soon.”

…

…Fuck, I accidently answered her question out of reflex from the usual 'conversation' with my side's Yukari. Their voice is similar, dude! Everything except her power is similar to the other Yukari!

I slightly averted my eyes from them.

”Ara-”

I completely turned my head to the side, an attempt to hide my bashfulness.

”Ara-, Ara-.”

MAN UP, DUDE!!

”T-there's nothing wrong with what I said. Yuyuko-san is undoubtedly a beautiful person, and I'm a man that appreciate something beautiful, so-w-wait, wait, why are all of you smiling?!”

Yukari made her ofuda into a makeshift fan, then she used it to cover her mouth, her eyes told me she was amused.

Yuyuko also covered her mouth with her Yukata's sleeve, she was definitely laughing.

Youmu didn't look at me. I could totally see her ears turning red.

Ran looked amazed.

My heart was not prepared for this shame! Being purposely shameless and being accidentally shameless are different things, and this is the latter!

Back on topic! Back on topic!

”W-Well?! Do you want my help or not?!”

Again, the two women exchanged a look but their expression was gentler this time.

”See.” Yuyuko said with a smile.

Yukari nodded with an approving look.

'I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON ANYMOOOOOREEEE!!!!!!!'

-A few moments later-​

After I calmed down, Yukari finally told me about Yuyuko's story.

It all started when an earthquake happened on this island 5 years ago. Many buildings got damaged and many people got hurt, but miraculously nobody died. The city did recover with time but strange stuff started happening ever since then.

Unknown creatures.

Strange events.

Because Yukari is the Mayor of the city, she could direct her people to quarantine strange events and prevent them from spreading to the normal civilian populace.

Besides being strange, those events could also have positive effect on people. For example, the harvest somehow suddenly became more bountiful, or her pet fox suddenly turned into human. (Ran looked proud when Yukari mentioned this part)

But not everyone was on the same side of the spectrum, there were people that got negative effects, especially the Saigyouji household.

They ran an inn for their income… I guess you know where this is going.

The family, the workers and their guests suddenly started getting frequently sick. With the amount of people getting sick increasing, bad rumors started flying around. People said the inn was cursed, it brought bad luck, etcetera. Essentially, they didn't have any more guests coming in because their reputation kept plummeting down from it. Even the doctor couldn't cure the sick people.

This kept going until Yukari brought Ran here. Ran told her that spirits were the cause of everything that was happening here, and also said that there must be some kind of source to all these spirit since they kept appearing in the mansion. Unfortunately, she couldn't pin it down. (Ran looked down)

Now that they knew what to do, Yukari sent the Shrine People to this place. (Presumably the Hakurei)

It worked, everything went back to normal, their reputation slowly returned and since it was working, Yukari kept sending the Shrine People every time someone got sick in the Inn. Unfortunately, that didn't last long. After a year passed, those who got sick found their sickness didn't go away even though the exorcism had already been done.

The Inn once again lost its reputation, its workers and its guests, but this time, they also stared losing something more important: the owner family's members.

The father went insane and jumped off a cliff.

The mother followed suit and cut her own wrists.

But the daughter was still alive and being protected by her friends.

So please.

Bowing.

…

…

…

Yukari was bowing to me.

”So please, please save Yuyuko.”

I was shocked.

Too shocked to even register what she was doing until I realized that Youmu and Ran were also bowing to me. Yuyuko only looked bitter seeing this. She probably predicted there was a possibility this would happen, and then it actually happened.

”All these years I have protected her with all my power, but recently my protection was becoming more and more useless. If this keeps going I will lose her, so I beg you, ple-”Stop”.”

…I never liked a begging attitude.

”…Please raise your head, there's no need for you to bow. Even if you didn't do that, I would definitely save her, so please never do that again.”

…It's sickening.

”I don't deserve to be bowed to by anyone.”

They all raised their heads and… damn it all…

”The sooner we resolve this issue, the better for all of us, right?”

I stood up.

”Then I will immediately go all out from the beginning”

I took out several items from my dimension storage.

Mental Booster Pill.

I ate it.

Perception Amplifier Ring.

I wore it.

Tang Sanzang Guiding Staff.

Grant a glimpse of vision to my senses.

My 'Ultimate Brain' skill will process what I see.

All I need to do is just endure the mental burden until I see what I wanted to see.

'…What is this…this is Gensokyo all right. It's kinda funny that Gensokyo is still Gensokyo even if it's in another dimension.' I thought.

And I found it.

”As expected, it's there.”

I teleported to the location.

”No wonder Ran couldn't find it.”

The source was dormant but could still spew out phantoms, given time.

And the location.

Saigyou Ayakashi.

It's under the tree, literally right under this huge tree. Even if you found it, you couldn't do anything about it. Even if you dug to it, there was a possibility that the tree will fall toward you or maybe crush you under it.

This bitch-ass spirit actually had a good hiding spot, but not for long, because I will bust it out of there.

I activated the Fragment of Gaia.

Normally, I could only feel the plants in my surrounding, and since I was still wearing the ring, I could feel all the plant life on the island, but I tried to focus only on the tree instead.

I gave the tree my magic power.

”Open.” I ordered.

*crack**crack* the tree's bark moved and shifted, creating a hole. The hole got bigger and bigger until it was large enough for me to enter, revealing the ground under it. It was as if it knew what I was doing here and it lead me straight to my objective.

I dug into the ground using my abilities.

I could sense my actions causing the spirit to stop being dormant.

I prepared several spells to hit this thing.

Found it.

It was a human skull.

It was awake.

An ethereal skeleton appeared above the skull.

[Lv.47 Grudge Spirit]

”Finally, I have been found out. Don't expect to come out alive after encountering me, as I am- ”

I drowned out its voice because it started monologuing.

'…Wait, this counts as an evil spirit right? Won't that item work?'

I took out a box from my dimension storage and threw its contents at the spirit.

”GYAAAAAAAAAA!!”

I threw it again.

”STOP IIITTT!! GYAAAAAAA!!”

”…I can't believe I actually have a chance to use this item after all this time.”

[Purification Salt: EXTREME!!]

[50x holy damage, 50x purification, and 50x saltiness. Only works on evil spirits]

”GWAAAAAA!!” it was melting.

It tried to get away from me, but I held it in place with my abilities.

I started using the spell I prepared beforehand.

”Spirit Drain.”

'The drain magic, it's one of the most useful magics to incapacitate someone. Just drain them until they're dry or half dead, and since I'm draining the spirit from a spirit, I'm draining its power…or maybe its life force? I don't know, I just know it's becoming weaker the more I do it.'

[Lv.5 Grudge Spirit]

'Then let's just use this chance to find out what happens if I keep draining.'

I kept draining it until it disappeared.

The skull on the ground crumbled into dust. I didn't sense anything in here beside the tree.

'Guess he's dead. I feel no remorse. If anyone makes Yukari bow, they can expect to see hell after I'm done with them.'

Suddenly I saw a vision in my mind.

A woman hanging from a rope around her neck.

The woman disappeared in the darkness alone.

The vision disappeared.

*ding*

[Tragedy Canceled: 2/??]

'…Yuyuko and Yukari…thank goodness.' I smiled.

I could see everyone on the outside of the building.

I waved to them and then gave a thumbs up for everything was already over.

Author note:

OHMYGOD! Never again, never say I will type a 10k word chapter. I can't do it. I'm dying when I wrote this 5k word chapter, fucking hell!

Next chapter will be the main story, expect a lot of time skip since I already introduced Yuyuko to you guys, so I want to speed up Perfect Cherry Blossom to happen.