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/Written, Titles)

(Actions/POV)

(Titles / Flashback/Time/Dates/Place)

(Narration & Everything else)

(“Demonic Speech”)

(‘Demonic Thoughts’)

A Retired Officer’s Shop In The Eastern Wonderland Chapter 15

Gesnyoko: Scarlet Devil Mansion

April 18th, 2004: 1400

Third Person: Omni

“Still cold…” Desmond remarked while stepping off of Mel, within the screen on her dash, a young woman nodded in agreement. If she were a regular bike… or just a newer generation of Mobius cycle, she would have been doing several things to keep her liquid safe.

“Yo, Desmond.” Meling waved to him, her breath condensing in the winter like cold air. She had a green scarf on her, but her actual dress did not do much against the cold… if she didn’t have a pair of trousers on her and a coat over her shoulders and arms, she probably would have been shivering too much to actually do her duties.

“Isn’t your break right now Meling?” Desmond asked while pulling off his helmet, a distinctly different one from the police uniform’s helmet. Instantly regretting the feeling of his face in the cold winterlike air.

“...I never get a break…” She was immensely sad at the reminder that she only ever had breaks when the job demanded it… since there was no other gate guardian for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, she only had holidays and free days whenever allowed by Remila… or was dragged away by one of them to carry something for them.

“Well, you always sleep on the job anyway,” Sakuya said from inside of the open gate. Meling immediately stiffened up when she heard the perfectly elegant maid’s voice speak out. It was instinctual, so she slowly relaxed her body as Sakuya looked over to Desmond.

“Sides, you could sleep even in this weather anyway… not all of us can manipulate Qi as you do,” Sakuya said with a sigh. While standing there in a more robust version of her maid outfit, one fitted with a scarf.

“Hello, Sakuya,” Desmond said with a smile on his face. He had already gotten used to her suddenly showing up infront of him when there was absolutely no sign of her before. Something that Eve attributed to either being super-fast or freezing time.

“Hello, Desmond. How are you today?” Sakuya asked with a slight smile of her own, her tone far from formal as she talked with her friend. Desmond tiled his head in return with his smile in place.

“Fine, how is going with you?” Desmond asked while searching around them, looking for anything that might be wrong…. Not that he was expecting anything to be wrong in the first place. Just a mere habit of his previous career.

“Just the usual, keeping everything clean, making sure that the mistresses are fed, keeping the fairy maids in line… and keeping someone from slacking on her job.” Desmond could only chuckle as Meling almost choked on air when she said that. Sakuya paid no mind to the gatekeeper.

“But Flandere-sama is waiting for you,” Sakuya said, returning to a more formal tone that it was not small talk they were divulging in, but instead, a situation involving one of her mistresses.

___(TOUHOU PROJECT)___

“Desmond! You are here!” Flandere immediately jumped onto the man with a happy expression on her face. Sakuya immediately splitting from his side as they stepped into the basement level of the mansion.

“Please enjoy yourself Flandere-sama. I must be attending to the dust that has collected in the halls.” Sakuya gave a curtsy to her younger mistress before suddenly disappearing, his jacket in hand. By the time he noticed, it was already on the coat rack.

“Leaving me behind like this… is this how you get your kicks, Sakuya?” Desmond groaned in his head, the blond crawling all over his body once more… you would think he would have gotten used to the amount of energy the small vampire had… but no, it was like raising his daughter all over again.

“So, how have you been Flandere?” Desmond decided to ask as he slowly moved over to the empty table, making sure to move slow enough that he wouldn’t jostle her around too much.

“I have been bored.” Flandere propped her head upon his shoulder while talking to him, speaking right into his ear. If he had been another person unacquainted with the girl young in appearance in mannerism, they would have been afraid of the vampire biting them and consuming all their blood.

“So same old being stuck down here with some toys?” Desmond asked as he finally reached the table, with the originally empty table suddenly being populated with various delicacies seen in a western tea party… though there were two pots of it.

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“I knew you were watching Sakuya ” Desmond’s sweat dripped off the back of his head, there was no way she would miss the chance to see the mentally youngest girl of the house playing around and having fun. Even the perfectly elegant maid would have a penchant for cute things.

“Shall we have a tea party?” Desmond asked the young girl who had attached herself onto his back, much like a koala. He knew, if Sakuya were to get a camera, she would be taking so many pictures of this event… and any previous event he had with the younger vampire.

“Yes!” She grinned as she flew off of his back, something that he noticed all the girls he had met was able to do. And without any assistance to boot when Marisa gave him her broom while she went to challenge Reimu. Desmond could only smile as the girl glided down into her own seat.

“Just the two of us today?” He asked while still standing, moving to pour her a cup of blood and himself a cup of Eral Grey, something that he provided for the mansion. It was not at all a surprise on how hard it was to get good western teas in Gensyoko, much less actually finding it whenever it actually did drop in the world, one would have to spend a majority of the time at the Hakurei Shrine… and even then it was a majority of eastern stuff that came through.

“Yes! Mr. Kuma is a bit under the weather today.” She said with a cute smile, he could already guess that the bear in question was being washed by Sakuya and would return tomorrow at the latest. Despite having time powers, one can’t beat the time it takes for something to happen… or was absolutely destroyed by her abilities.

“Sakuya is such a great maid huh… doing all of this stuff,” Desmond remarked while sitting down with his own cup of tea, commenting while having the cup covering his mouth, taking a sip after finishing his comment.

“Yeah… She is perfectly elegant like my aneue.” Desmond could only hide a slightly nervous smile with his cup… Elegant was not the exact word he would use to describe Remila after interacting with her a few times now.

“Yeah, it is nice how she maintains the entire mansion… especially with how big it is.” He couldn’t get an exact estimation on the actual property… especially due to the spatial manipulation around the place.

“Yeah, she is really nice too. But I like Meling a bit more.” She said with a smile, indeed, Meling was far more relaxed with her higher-ups when compared to Sakuya, wouldn’t be much of a perfect maid if you are being informal with your mistress.

“Have you figured out who was making food for you?” Desmond almost laughed before he got the feeling that Sakuya was devastated. If you aren’t well liked by the littler sister, then what are you doing with yourself in the first place?

“No clues on it, they still just leave the plates on the table whenever I am awake.” Desmond almost chuckled at her naivety. Though it was not like Sakuya actively talked about her ability over time… he only deduced it after talking to her several times and having her suddenly spaced out during conversations.

“How strange indeed.” He smiled lightly as he sips his tea, and her, the cup of blood infront of her. It was a bit strange for her to be doing so… but if it is the way you ate for basically your entire life, then you would probably stick with it. It is not like she is directly going after his neck to feast.

“Another cup?” He asked when he noticed her finishing the cup infront of her. She nods as she presents it, the crimson red staining the fine white china, if it were left to dry, it would have been a pain to clean.

“Now that I think about it, Sakuya does that all the time…” She said with a finger on her chin in thought. Indeed, Sakuya did it quite a few times infront of her, it’s just that he was there every time distracting her from the fact.

“Does she now.” He said, egging her on. If she knew about how the sweets and tea that she ate during her tenure of self-imposed imprisonment, she would probably rank up Sakuya in her list of favored in the mansion. To him, it didn’t really matter, it was just fun to see them compete for the rank of number two.

“Yes, she does…” She started to think real hard about it, sipping blood to help the gears turn in her head as Desmond kept refilling her cup. Every so often, he noticed the blood in the pot being refilled while still in his hands.

___(TOUHOU PROJECT)___

“Thank you for spending time with her, Desmond.” Just as he stepped into the greeting hall, he suddenly found himself clad in his jacket once more. Her smile was gentle as she spoke, he already knew that she was quite happy with the conversation that they had.

“Don’t worry about it miss perfect maid,” Desmond said with a smile. She just nodded as they walked together to the mansion door, as they arrived infront of it and before she could open it grandly, he motioned for her to stop for a moment.

“You know, it has been only half a year since I met you all… And all I can say is that I would miss you all if you were ever to disappear or myself disappear from this world… or as you all pass before me.” Desmond said with a slight smile.

“Anyway, there is a question that I want to ask now that I am away from Flan.” Desmond reminded himself of a conversation a few weeks ago.

“What is it Desmond?” Her tone and pattern returned to being informal. She looked straight at him as he rubbed his chin in thought.

“When it is snowing… is it the same thing that happens with vampires under the rain?” Desmond asked while looking at her. She also gained a look of thought in her eyes now that she thought about it.

“Well, in the entire time that I have been with them, they have never gone out in the snow. Since the place we were in before only really had rain with only the occasional snow, there never really was a chance or need to try in the first place.”

“Right, but since both are technically pure running water as it falls from the sky, would they be under the same effects.” Desmond gave her an existential question all of a sudden.

“Well, it is safer to never try it,” Sakuya said while taking her hand from her chin. Desmond could only nod in agreement at the statement, it was best not to risk anything with the sisters… even if they are extremely powerful ones. With one meddling with fate and the other that can destroy everything.

“Fair enough, I certainly wouldn’t want to try it if it were my close ones that were in danger of such things,” Desmond said with a smile, before noticing that there were a lot fewer lanterns lit up, almost as if to conserve supplies.

“Are yall going to be alright? Do you have enough supplies to last this extra long winter? Would you like me to give you some stuff?” Desmond asked with more than a bit of concern, he felt like he noticed Mokou’s habits all over again.

“My mistress says that it should be resolved in 16 days. So we should be fine.” Sakuya said while not looking directly at him, she knew that the supplies would last that long, but if it got to the 8th, then she would have started investigating exactly why winter was taking so long to leave.

“Alright, if you are sure about it,” Desmond said with a slightly suspicious look, he would be visiting Reimu on the 8th anyway, so he would be able to check up on her in case they needed some supplies by then.

“Well, sorry to hold you up and all of that,” Desmond said with a smile, he had noticed her spacing out a total of 10 times during the rest of their conversations. The number of times that things needed her input was staggering to him, she basically maintained the mansion by herself… along with the extra work cleaning up after the fairy maids.

“Do not worry about it. Shall I accompany you out of the gate?” Sakuya asked with a small smile, returning back to her position as the Perfectly Elegant Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

___(TOUHOU PROJECT)___

“Thanks for the tea,” Desmond said while putting his helmet back on so that he could ride at high speeds. Sakuya was still at the gate with Meiling sleeping while standing off the right pillar that held the gate on.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sakuya said while smiling, she enjoyed serving him quite a bit if anything else. Meling just slept would having snow piled high atop her shoulders and head. It seemed that she was asleep for quite a while. While she was able to fight off intruders while sleeping, it was far more of an issue of their image that Sakuya was worried about when it came time to wake Meling up when she spots her slacking

“Meling, I hope that you can see off our guest.” Her cold voice spoke out, far frostier than the snow that piled atop her in her sleep. Quickly shaking off the snow on her shoulder after snapping awake, Meling quickly straightened herself up at the voice of Sakuya.

“Hai!” She yelled out while looking directly at Desmond, who looked at her with a slight smile. He knew that Sakuya was just joking… but Meiling knew that Sakuya’s jokes involved knives when it already involved her sleeping while defending the mansion.

“Right then. I will be talking about your discipline when he leaves as not to stain the Scarlet name.” Meling’s already pale from the snow skin paled further as she felt the arctic wind that was Sakuya’s tone.

“Hai!” She could only shout again as she quickly helped him out with checking everything, she was also supposed to be protecting his bike after all… not that Mel needed any help in protecting herself from stealing her. They would need a high-grade quantum computer with an equally high-grade AI to try and hack her so that she would move from her spot.

Number of Words: ~2600

Date Completed: 5/9/2021

Notes: It came to my attention that Mothers Day was yesterday when I posted a chapter about fathers… On another note, the new cover art was created by a friend of mine: KittyClockworks, so go check her out if you have the time. Well, I hope you enjoyed it all anyway.