A/N: (Note/Disclaimer) All recognizable objects and characters belong to their respective owners. Mainly Team Shanghai Alice for Touhou Project or, as per usual, my own characters belonging to me.

Note 2:

("Common Language [Japanese in this case]/Speech")

(‘Foreign Languages’)

(" Thoughts (In their own native tongue)" )

(Attacks/Weapon names)

(Other/Foreign/ Speech & Text/Book/Scroll)

(Actions/POV)

(Titles / Flashback/Time/Dates/Place)

(Narration & Everything else)

('Demonic Speech')

("Demonic Thoughts")

A Retired Officer’s Shop In The Eastern Wonderland Chapter 3

????????: Scarlet Devil Mansion

????: 1750

Third Person: Omni

“So, how is the tea?” The only man among them asks from below his met. The reflection of the maid off of his visor was shown to all, though they never saw the face under it. The four combatants are now grounded with sheepish expressions on their faces. Though it’s mainly his tone of voice that does that to people. His arms are crossed in front of him as he observes them.

The Miko wears her uniform strangely from a standard unfirm that most would see when they go to the shrines. A red sleeveless top rests on her medium built frame, a white-collar hides her neck as it is tied with a yellow ribbon. Her red skirt holds a few white accents at the end. A pair of white sleeves are fastened to just above her biceps with a red cord, it also holds a red inner lining. Her dark brown hair that looks almost black is tied in place with a red ribbon with her side locks confined in tubes of the same color, though a majority of the hair is free-flowing. Her eyes are brown with a reddish tint that might be from the mist, considering he saw Sakyua’s eyes slowly going to a steel grey as time goes by. Her youthful face is rather laidback for the supposed guardian of this world.

The vampiric mistress, who is probably over a century old at the very least, has her lavender hair covered by a pastel pink mob cap with a darker pink ribbon tied to it. Her crimson red eyes show far more devious natures than one would expect from a young-looking girl. Her petit statue is clad in a pink dress of the same shade as her mob cap. From her back, she has a pair of black wings, most close to a bat’s appendages. She also has an unnatural grace in her movements, whether from the boost of dexterity from being a vampire or having centuries of practice is a question of debate to whoever sees her.

They situated themselves within the seats in the sitting room, or at least one of them. It is actually quite bright in a room without any natural ambient light, a design choice that is quite clear when thinking of the inhabitants. The masked man leans on the door frame while the former combatants sit upon the ornate armchairs of rosewood and high-quality fabric with rich colors. The walls were made with dark wood paneling, carved into ornate patterns that dazzled the viewer. The white-haired man stands off to the side as she already placed cups of tea in front of the seated guests and mistresses.

“I feel way too underdressed for this meeting, which is saying something considering that half of the attendees are a skinship Miko and the young witch.” Desmond thought to himself in a self-deprecating manner. He always did have trouble when going to social calls in his 6-decade long life. And he was in no shortage of events he was forced to attend, both as a hero to the world and the police chief.

“Here is your chair.” The red-haired woman that was knocked unconscious arrived with another armchair from who knows where. Though I get the distinct feeling that they could have used some sort of supernatural ability to create another armchair. Though looking at the blond witch, magic is quite the possibility in this world. A quick movement from myself has me sitting with a cup of freshly brewed tea in hand to nurse on. Now that he actually looks, he could guess the ages of the two other guests being sixteen. Mainly from their personality and of course, the physical appearance. Though until they say anything, he will hold out from assuming they are of that age. Especially considering the silver-haired maid looks to be in the range of 16 and 17.

“Thank you, Meiling you may return to your post.” The youthful voice from the young-looking lass with lavender hair is entrancing to hear, however much from the charm of being a vampire is up to debate. What it did do that was not for much of a debate was that it was getting the attraction of Desmond, especially with his body being physically around 18-20 years old. The only thing that kept him from going after her, was her unmatured body that looked about 11-12 years old and his unprecedented self-control, though his helmet held its small part.

Though thinking of them as children or treating them in such a manner would be spelling a death sentence. Immature bodied immortals tend not to like to be belittled about their maturity, though they might allow those close to treating them as such once in a while. It is good to act spoiled once in a while. Personalities of immortals and those with sufficient strength have had quite a few quirks somewhere in there. Like extreme lazy tendencies, mass pervertedness, or immaturity that did not befit their form and age being the more common ones. Sufficient strength being defined as enough to take down mountains or something close to that scale. Even his own dream of wanting to retire into having a games shop in the middle of a small town could be considered a quirk of his. In many ways, it takes something to be strong and immortal, most who get there are often a little bit mentally broken, whether it be due to the circumstances that surround their ascension or the ability itself causing it.

He notes her gaze, a flicker of refined predatory thoughts are reflected off of them as she observed his minute movements with the centuries of experience that she holds. Though amusement takes far more of a front seat in regards to her current motives. Though the most giving card of his emotions is covered via his helmet. He forcibly relaxed into the chair, though keeping the sense to stay on guard around these beings. In the time that it took to relax his nerves slightly, a cup of tea was already set infront of him. He took a glance at the maid without moving his head the slightest, her trolly is now empty of cups.

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A silent movement of him drawing the teacup to his lips to take a drink reminds him of the helm that blocked him from the outside world. The amused smiles from all around the table were different in many ways. Sakuya only quirked her lips slightly, Lady Scarlet had her eyes smiling slightly, the Miko also quirked her lips but in a more obvious manner than the well-trained maid, the witch was outright grinning along with the other blond of the room. It was his unconscious movement that broke the stale atmosphere of the room, the price only being his embarrassment. Though he offered his own chuckle of embarrassed amusement from his unconscious actions. Though it looks opaque from the outside, his view is mostly unimpaired besides the HUD that Eve uses to commune with him.

“Glad I’m the one to mess up first.” His own sarcasm was bleeding into his words in a manner that no one would be so oblivious to never note. With that, the blonds broke out into laughter. He gazes at the presumably younger vampire, her response is extremely genuine to him, and her movements unrefined as she picks up her cup and takes a sip of the drink. All of her movements are rough as if she never has needed them to be refined, even as a lady of a presumably noble house such as this. None of the mannerisms that she shows scream out that she is an elegant lady, no, they only show an inexperienced person, almost a child level of straight forward thoughts. But she handles the items she carries with a high amount of care, almost as if she was scared that they would break apart in her hands.

It was all in a contrast to her sister, while her voice and outward-facing personality were that of a child, along with her interest seeking in boredom, her movements are graceful with a polish that would take many years to refine. Along with so much more patience than any child would ever have.

The Miko (If Ben were, to be honest with himself, he really needs to ask their names) was far less refined when compared to the oldest being in the room, but still held quite a bit of grace in her movements, though it is a bit rough when handling the western style teacup, which makes sense considering she is a priestess from Japan.

The witch was surprisingly graceful when handling her tea, especially considering where exactly we are on the world map. It pegged him that her movement would match up with someone who drinks western tea often, with a friend most likely, for multiple years considering the habitual movements that spoke of her unique personality.

The most graceful was of course the servant of the mansion. When you take into account of her being the face of the house, it makes sense that she would be as elegant as she is. Always ready with the pot when the cups need refilling, though it was about instantaneous in how it happened. An occurrence that happens so often that Desmond has a sneaking suspicion her abilities being the manipulation of time, especially with the pocket watch she has on her. But her attention seems not to be here at the moment even if she looks like she is engaged in the conversation.

“Now, as the mediator, mainly because I am the only one not fully involved in combat, shall we begin the discussion?” My accent in Japanese was probably fairly unrecognizable to them considering I learned it from my own time. The air turned a tiny bit more serious at the announcement of Desmond. Remila’s crimson eyes glinting in the lights of the room as she watches the humans.

“Yeah, what exactly was up with the red mist?” It was the witch that asked, and not the eastern religious officiator who at the moment, showed a bored expression on her face. Though it was the eyes that betrayed her interest. The blond vampire also looks with a bit of interest, though that was more for the reaction of the other mansion residents.

“So that I can travel in the day of course.” Her flippant response from behind the beverage holder was the sudden attack to them. And if it were honest, it is a pretty annoying reason if you have to deal with these kinds of problems often. Especially considering that he could see the comical tick mark appear over the executor’s head.

“Oi! Don’t just go causing inconveniences to everyone just so you can avoid and easily avoided inconvenience.” With that, red and violet collide as the Miko starts grappling with the mistress of the home. The witch and idle vampire break out into laughter at the supposed reason with Sakuya just sighing as she poured some tea into the cups at a visible speed this time.

“I’ll be going then.” With a quick hop off her seat, the blond quickly runs out of the room while they were distracted. It took a few seconds after she left with her broom until I heard yelling from a place farther into the mansion along with the now-iconic sounds of danmaku. And the other blond in the room just sat and laughed at the two.

And in the same amount of time, the two left the room to have a spell card battle outside, thankfully for them, it was night out at the moment. In all of it, I get the feeling that this would happen fairly often all things considering. Desmond sets his own cup down, though he never took a sip of it.

“Thank you for your hospitality. I get the feeling that things won’t be going back to a quiet peace for you.” Desmond turns to the elegant maid with a nodding movement. He turns back to find that the immature lass is staring at him in interest now.

“By the way, what is your name?” He remarks it was getting kind of annoying to not have names for the faces that he would most likely be meeting on a regular basis. Especially now that they are the only ones he knows at the moment. It's not like it's urgent to get back to his universe.

“Flandre Scarlet.” She was actually a little shy now that he focused his attention to her. Considering that he was the only man of the room as well as human, it didn’t surprise him all that much in that regard. She stood up to give a rather grateful curtsy considering her inexperience. He walks towards her and pats her head with a comfortable gait.

“Stay good will ya, you can come to visit me if you want to.” As Sakuya decided to disappear for the moment, he decided that it wouldn't do much harm to introduce himself. I take off his helmet, revealing his rather young face to the only other person in the sitting room. A small smile on his face as she stares, entranced by his face.

“My name is Desmond Howard, just your average games shop owner.” He smiles as he winks at her. She blinks several times as he puts a finger to his lips. A playful smile on his face as he places the motorcycle helmet back on his head with a smooth motion after spinning it on his index finger of the left hand.

“Sakuya, could you guide me to the entrance?” He asked the air in the room. With a surprising ease, she is already standing beside him without sound or notice. It was in all practicality, perfect teleportation in all marks. She bows towards the young miss before turning to him. With a curtsy, she steps to the side of the door.

“Of course.” She remarks, and with that, they were on the way to his parked bike. Through the dark halls without any natural light. Far larger than what should have been. During the time, he takes several glances at the woman who walked in without much going on. A spaced-out expression on her face shows that she is barely paying any mind to the path that they are taking.

(TOUHOU)

Gensokyo: Desmond’s Still Unnamed Shop

????: 1900

Desmond reparked his main mode of transportation a few minutes before starting on stocking up the shop for the first time. Making sure to place the closed sign up. It may be lazy of him to not go and check the area that he ended up in but he just shrugged it off. Booster cards lined the shelves behind him, displaying their glory. But the things inside the clear countertop were the true prizes, glinting in the light that shined on their protective cases. Golds, rainbows, and plain painted cardstock were what was arrayed in an efficiently beautiful display.

The rest of the room was empty at the moment, tiled with slate that was polished to an almost mirror shine. Seamless lines arrayed in rows were cut into the floor. With a tap of a button, the shelving of the store rose up from their storage. But in the midst of his movements in restocking the ship, he never noticed the young blond riding a broom across the entrance.

Number Of Words: ~2600

Date Completed: 9/3/2020

Note: And here is chapter 2 done and squared away. And checking the number of comments, it is far more than what I have from Warped Commander when it was at two/three chapters. (Though it is sad that a majority of it is arguing about each other and rudely, but ultimately fair, criticism.) I enjoyed writing this, as with all of my fics and I hope you enjoyed reading it.