Yukari Yakumo.
It was a name most of Gensokyo’s youkai spoke of in quiet only, either out of respect for Gensokyo’s unofficial ruler or fear of the gap youkai’s terrible power. She was a being who could bend reality at a whim, who’s mere servants could throw down with demigods, oni, and tengu and come out on top, and if she so wished, very few humans would survive if she led the youkai on a bloody rampage to free themselves from their little bubble of a home. [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Thankfully, she was far too lazy to put forth that kind of effort.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Even so, she was not the sort of being that those of power and standing in the multiverse took lightly, and so it was not much a surprise at all when one of the various deals or plans she had in the works over any given century had the added perk of a letter arriving at her door. For such a potent being, her abode was relatively simple; A single story, old japanese style house, nestled deep in a valley and surrounded by hills that gave the ancient being the seclusion she desired. The letter materialized with a small ding on the front deck of the building, and a few seconds later the door slid open as a small, cat like girl looked around curiously for the source of the sound before her eyes snapped to the letter on the ground.
"Oh! Mail!"
The cat shikigami snatched it off the porch and sprinted back into the house."
RAAAN, MRS. YAKUMO, WE HAVE MAAIIIIIIIILLLLL!!!"
Yukari's other shikigami was a far more powerful being than the little cat that was bounding through the house like a kid who just dunked ten Five Hour Energies. She was a kitsune, one with the full nine tails of their legends, and an incredibly power being even of her kind. She could twist space around her like a top with a thought, and was intelligent enough to gauge the width of an endless river for fun, and even with her power slaved to Yukari's, she was still potent enough to maintain her own Shikigami in the form of Chen. And at this current point in time, she was carefully slaving over a hot stove trying not to burn her master's dinner when the tiny kitter cat suddenly pile-drived into her back with a flying tackle "
I SAID WE HAVE MAAII-"
"-CHEN!"
The tiny cat squeaked in terror at the sudden roar as her master whirled to face her, the wooden spoon of doom levelled at her. "How many times have I told you not to run in the house! And what were you even thinking, you could have hurt me, or yourself barging at me in the middle of cooking like that! and Moreover, you...."
...
"You..."
"...I?"
"...Ooooh, you are so
cute!" Ran cooed, anger forgotten as she tackled her shikigami with a hug.
What? Even a thousands year old fox demon was allowed to be weak about
some things. She huffed and pushed Chen back, giving her a firm stare "But seriously don't do that. Now, where's the letter?" Chen saluted (internally heaving a huge sigh of relief at avoiding whatever terrible punishment was about to await her and vowing never to run in the house again (This vow would not be remembered)) and handed the letter over. Ran glanced at the address and arched an eyebrow at the listing, rising back to her feet and heading for her master's bedroom. She rapped lightly on the doorframe before sliding it open, bowing deeply towards Yukari's bed as she held the letter forward. "My lady, a letter from off world's arrived for you"
Chen skidded to a halt a few inches behind Ran, her hand shoot up above the sea of fox tails to wave. "Hi Mrs. Yakumo!"
"Chen, I love you dear, but you know I hate it when you call me Mrs. It makes me sound *Yaaawwwwn* old"
Yukari, for all her great power and breadth of experience, had never been one to cut all that imposing of a figure. A delicate if well figured woman, she spent most of her time asleep. And when I say 'most of her time', I mean 'she once slept for sixty years and that was considered normal by everyone who hadn't died or been born in those decades.'
Chen frowned, a finger up to her lips in thought as that statement apparently brought her great confusion. Yukari and Ran both saw it, and both immediately knew where this was going and really wished it wasn't.
Don't say don't say it don't say oh please for the love of the powers at be please don't say it-
Don't you dare even go there you little shi-
"But you
are old!" Chen said with a frown. "You're like
ancien-wait oh NOO-" Yukari had snapped her fingers, and the floor had suddenly
swallowed the little shikigami, Ran staring in mild horror as Chen's hat floated gently to the ground where the cat youkai had just been standing. Oh no. OH NO. Yukari's powers could have sent her anywhere! She might be in a volcano! Or the bottom of the ocean! OR EVEN IN OUTER SPACE-
"Ran"
"Huh, O-oh, I, uh, yes mistress?"
The ancient being had an incredibly dull frown on her face at the sheer panic apparent on her Shikigami's own visage, as she slooooowly pointed to a cardboard box that was sitting out in the hall.
"...Its so dark @_@"
"...Ah." The kitsune cleared her throat "Of course. We thank you for your great mercy master."
"Right. Now, the letter?" She took the outstretched envelope, a pair of glasses dropping through a whole in the air into waiting hands as she snapped them open and slit the envelope with wave of her finger.
"You are cordially invited to the birthday party of..."
And so it was that Yukari Yakumo's story in this murder mystery began-
"Well that sounds like a waste of time" She said, before balling the paper up and tossing it behind her, where the void swallowed it up to spit who knows where.
So... Yea. nevermind. Not the start of her story.
---------------------------
ELSEWHERE IN GENSOKYO
-------------------------------
Cirno, ice fairy and asskicker and moron was whizzing through the air, a bright grin on her face. Today was perfect! The sun was bright, the air was chilled, and the skies were clear-
"OH WHAT THE HELL?!" She screeched as a random piece of paper came flying from a hole in reality and blew right into her eye. She twisted, scrambled, rubbed at her eye to clear up the pain, and looked back up to where she was going just in time to fly straight into the side of a mountain almost as fast as a plane, where she exploded on brutal contact into a cloud of icy dust.
Dead.
About five minutes later there was a quiet *pop!*, and the fairy respawned good as new and completely unharmed, as fairies oft did in Gensokyo. She shook her head, memories in a jumble as they usually were after a death and rebirth as she tried to remember how she had died
this time. When it hit her, she scowled and whizzed back in the other direction, scouring the ground for the stupid ball of stupid that had caused her demise. When she found it, she touched down nearby, opened it up, and squinted carefully at the invitation. And so it was explained as to why an idiot like the ice fairy was at all invited to this sort of event, and so did
Cirno's story start, one that was sure to be rife with mystery and adventu-
"I can't read this"
...
And so did Cirno's story start after she went and found one of her friends who could actually read to tell her what the paper was.
--------------------------------------
After all that hullabaloo and about two months of pestering Yukari every single day for every single minute to give her a trip off world, Cirno arrived at the hotel! And unlike most of the bums and noobettes,
shevactually came in costume! As someone almost as cool as her!
Cloud Strife eat your heart out.
She whizzed in through the main doors and cocked her head to the side, taking the various strange beings and costumes pretty well in stride considering how weird her home world was as she flitted up towards the ceiling to get a better view of the place for now