○神隠しの主犯

　　八雲　紫（やくも・ゆかり）

　　春になると目が覚めるすきま妖怪。
　　主に、あらゆる境界を操る程度の能力を持つ。

　　幽々子とは旧知の仲であるが、別に幽霊ではない。幻想郷の中でも、もっとも辺境にひっそりと棲む妖怪である。ここから、博麗大結界を見つつ暮らしている。

　　たまに幻想郷に人間が紛れ込むのも、紫が境界に揺らぎをつくったりするからである。人間は神隠しと呼ぶ現象も、結局神の仕業ではなく、この妖怪少女の仕業だと知ってしまったら、何の神秘性も失われる事だろう。

　　紫は普段は余り動くことは無く、代わりに式神の藍を操り生活をしている。でも殆どが睡眠時間の為、寝ている間は藍はほったらかしで、何をしているか良く知らない。

　　その式神の藍が何者かにやられた事を聞き、ちょっと驚いたが二度寝をした。

　　ニ度寝から目を覚ましたとき、ようやく、あたり一面がすっかり春になっていたことに気が付いた。実は１０日程も前から春になっていたのだが、そのことを寝る度に忘れ、起きるたびに驚いていたのだ。

　　藍の修復が完了するまで、おちおち寝てもいられないなぁ、と思いつつ三度寝をする。

　　そんなときに、今回の騒動で薄くなった幽明の境を修復して欲しいと幽々子から依頼を受ける。自分で弱くしておいて修復もへったくれも無いな、と思いつつ眠い目を擦り出発する。

　　久しぶりに冥界に訪れた紫は、妙な賑わいぶりに不思議に思う。西行寺家はもっと静かじゃなかったか？と思ったが、幽々子の趣味が変ったんだろうと勝手に納得した。

　　途中で庭師の妖夢に会い、詳しく事情を聞いた。妖夢の話し振りではどうやら酷い目に遭ったらしいが、紫にはどう聞いても自業自得にしか聴こえなかった。

　　皆、あの妖怪桜に狂わされていただけの様に見える。あの桜は人の精気を吸いすぎている。常々危険だと思っていた。思ってはいたが、自分の力ではどうしようも無い事も分っていた。
　　紫は幽々子が生きていた頃から知っている。実は、幽々子が妖怪桜に封印されているのではなく、幽々子の亡骸が妖怪桜を封印している、という事も。

Mastermind behind the Spiriting Away

Yukari Yakumo

The youkai of boundaries, who awakens at spring.
Mainly, she possesses the ability to manipulate any and all boundaries.

She and Yuyuko are old friends, but Yukari is not a phantom. She lives inconspicuously in the remotest outskirts of Gensokyo. From there, she can live while keeping an eye on the Hakurei Barrier.

When humans from the outer world disappear into Gensokyo, it's all thanks to fluctuations in the boundary caused by Yukari. If it is ever discovered that this phenomenon which humans call "spiriting away" is not the work of gods, but the act of this youkai girl, it might lose quite a lot of its mystique.

Yukari usually doesn't act on her own, preferring instead to have her shikigami Ran handle the details of daily life. But, since she is almost always sleeping, leaving Ran alone while she does so, she has no idea what Ran does most of the time.

When she heard that Ran had been defeated by someone, she was mildly surprised and then went back to sleep.

After waking again, she finally noticed that spring had graced her place of residence. The truth is that spring had been around for the past 10 days, but she forgot it whenever she went to bed and woke up just as surprised the next time.

She couldn't sleep peacefully until Ran had been mended, but she opted once more to sleep on the problem.

The next time she woke up, she received a request from Yuyuko asking her to restore the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead. It was a trivial request since she was the one who had weakened it to begin with, so Yukari rubbed the sleep from her eyes and set out for repairs.

It had been quite a while since Yukari's last visit to the Netherworld, and she was curious to see that it was bustling with excitement. "Weren't the Saigyouji family more peaceful folk?" she thought, but she decided Yuyuko had just had a change in taste and accepted it.

She met the gardener, Youmu, along the way and heard about the situation. According to Youmu, it seemed that they were in quite a mess, but it sounded like well-earned punishment to Yukari.

Everyone always seemed to be driven mad simply by that youkai cherry tree. It had drained the life out of far too many humans. Yukari was always well aware of the danger it posed. She was aware of it, but she realized that there was nothing she could do about it by herself.

Yukari had known Yuyuko since before her death. In reality, it was not that Yuyuko was sealed by the youkai cherry tree...

... but that Yuyuko's body was sealing the youkai cherry tree.