New Year's Shrine Visit V

Yukari Yakumo is the one and only gap youkai. She has played a pivotal role in Gensokyo for so long that even its most powerful inhabitants know about her. She has been good friends with Yuyuko Saigyouji since before she became a ghost.

Yuyuko Saigyouji is a ghost and was entrusted with managing the Netherworld's phantoms by the Yama. Yuyuko is another of Gensokyo's most powerful inhabitants. Before she died, she was close friends with Yukari Yakumo, but she lost all of her previous memories when she became a ghost.

Karuta is a game enjoyed indoors and is played with 46 pairs of word and picture cards. It is especially common to play it on New Year's Day. It differs from Hyakunin Isshu in that it uses simpler words and pictures. As a result, it is often used as an educational game for children. In the past, it involved matching hiragana syllables in the iroha order to proverbs, but in modern times, manufacturers frequently replace the proverbs with their own phrases.

'Tis the Season for Adventure Spread out on the tatami mat were the food-themed karuta cards Yuyuko had made. Yukari was the reader and Yuyuko was the player. However, no one was sitting across from Yuyuko in the opponent's seat. And why would there be? This was a secret practice session being held just in case there was a karuta competition at today's New Year's party. Even so... Yukari was taken aback by Yuyuko's incredible speed.

An hour passed by as Yuyuko continued to match card after card. Apparently, she had been practicing alone intensely even before Yukari, who had also received an invite to the New Year's party, came to Hakugyokurou. She wasn't holding anything back. When they started playing together, Yukari was worried about whether or not there'd be a karuta competition at the party, but her worrying seemed trivial now. Highly regretting her decision to arrive early, all she could do was pray as she read out the next card. "Someone, anyone... please get here soon!" she thought.