You take a step towards Kaguya. The movement is sluggish, and takes a great deal of concentration. Step. Step. Step. Each step brings you closer to Kaguya. Closer to ending all of this, hopefully. You lift your food slowly, so painfully slowly, so that you can bring it down on the prone Kaguya. You reach the top of your lift and lean into bringing your foot down. Kaguya seems to realize what you’re about to do, and suddenly your foot is moving towards her much more swiftly, however, it never connects. You tumble forward into a gaping black hole that tore open in front of you just as you were about to connect with Kaguya. The passed out Reimu still in your arms as you tumbled forward through the darkness, a scream echoing out behind you. Somewhere.

It feels like you’re falling, even though you have a fairly good idea that you’re not. As you’re falling you feel something tugging at Reimu. You struggle against the force, time and time again. It goes away for a while, only to return, over and over. This tug of war continues for quite some time. There’s no way to know how long that it’s continued. However, it returns one final time, pulling harder than ever. You hold on to Reimu with all your strength, for as long as you can, but it’s not enough. She’s pulled away from you quite forcefully, leaving you falling in the darkness.

You have no way of knowing how long you fell before you saw a bright light in front of you. Headfirst you fly out of the gap onto the cold, hard, snow covered ground. A trail left in the snow marks your arrival path, as you push yourself up off the ground. Everything hurts after that forceful landing. Looking around, this place looks somewhat familiar. There’s a large building in front of you, but it looks run down. Abandoned even. There’s also a building to your right which looks even worse than the building in front of you.

You lean forward, clutching your head. It hurts quite badly. The headfirst landing onto whatever hard surface is below the snow certainly didn’t help in the regard.
“Hello! Is anybody out there!?” You shout loudly
Looking around, you don’t see anyone. Given that your landing path seems to be the only disturbance this snow has seen, you doubt that there’s anyone around. It’s cold out here. Really cold. You shiver involuntarily. The clothes you’re wearing aren’t designed to handle this kind of weather. You need to get out of the snow. The building in front of you seems far more promising than the building to your right so you trudge through the snow towards it.

A short while later, you manage to start a small fire inside the building. You’ve wrapped yourself up in a tattered blanket that you found while rummaging for something to burn. It’s not much, but it’s warmer than with out it. Slowly sleep claims you.

You’re awoken by the sounds of shuffling footsteps. Apparently, you’re not alone in this building. Quite quickly you’re sitting bolt upright, next to the smoldering embers of your fire. The sound grows somewhat louder, but continues it’s slow shuffling gait. You quickly move into the shadows that cover one of the corners and watch as a bent over old woman shuffles into the room. Her hair is long and stringy, and is, or well, most likely was, blonde at some time long ago. Her dress drags on the ground around her feet, and her hat seems to be ragged and worn.

“I know you’re in here. . . Just come out already.” The voice sounds quite old and tired. The woman looks in your direction, her eyes unfocused, and partially clouded. You doubt that she can see any more.
“I can hear you breathing, you know. Bah. Since you’re not going to come out, I guess I’ll have to come to you.”

The old woman shuffles over to where you’re at. Her hands shoot forwards and run over your face. She gasps.
“It. . . It’s you. So you’ve finally come back now, have you? I was wondering when, or even if, you were ever going to come out of that gap. . .” She sighs.
“Get this fire going again, would you kindly? It’s quite cold in here. . .”

You shiver again. It has grown quite cold, even with the blanket. A few moments later, you have a small fire going. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s enough to warm yourself by.
“Ah. . . Thank you.” The woman nods to you. “You probably have no idea how long you’ve been gone. And taking Reimu with you. Gensokyo fell apart after that. With no Hakurei left to support the barrier, it quite quickly collapsed. The youkai had also grown quite restless after the quite thorough stirring you gave them. With out Reimu to keep them in line, the only thing keeping them from going on a rampage was the border.” The woman adjusts her position.

“Well, even after getting Reimu back. . . She was the weakest Hakurei in almost 30 generations. It’s no wonder she wasn’t able to put them back in line, nor was she able to restore the Hakurei barrier.” The woman smiles sadly. “They also didn’t want to use her spell card rules any more. She was torn asunder quite quickly. A sad end indeed.” The woman is overcome by a coughing fit at this point. It dies down slowly.

“Ah, but they do say that you reap what you sew. My meddling brought my precious Gensokyo to it’s end. The rest of the Youkai scattered back to the human world, or the moon. Or wherever it is that they’ve fled to. I don’t know. I do know that I’m the last youkai here. Left to watch over my graveyard of my ambitions and my desires. A fitting punishment for one as myself. You, on the other hand, deserved none of this. I’m truly sorry for what I have done to you, but It cannot be undone.”

You shift uncomfortably, listening to this old woman’s story.

“I am near the end of my life. My powers have dwindled, and even my shikigami have left me. So I can offer nothing but my sincerest apologies. I can’t even send you back to where you used to live, not that it’s there any more.” The woman breaks into another coughing fit. “I’m sorry. . .” she manages through the coughing before collapsing on the floor. You move over to her quite quickly, but her body vanishes before you even make it to her. Leaving you alone. In a cold and ruined world. All alone. You stumble outside into the snow which has begun to fall again, covering your landing and look to the sky.

“GOD DAMN IT, YUKARI.”

Sad Ending No. 4 -Endless Snowfall-