This was written for 2015's Touhou Project Secret Santa on Tumblr. For the sake of its recipient's privacy, I won't reveal their URL.

Ever since Koishi had left, the Komeiji household had become a much less enjoyable place for Satori – most days, she couldn't bring herself to do much more than the minimum to stay alive. Her pets, of course, took notice. Orin and Utsuho would take every opportunity to attempt to cheer up their master: however, whether it doing the housework for her, bringing her gifts (in the pair's case, this was usually a few dead mice) or playing practical jokes, nothing seemed to work. When they tried to speak to her, she'd mumble as few words as it would take for her to form a coherent response, and then hurry off somewhere else to ruminate.

Satori's least favorite time of the day was when it was time to sleep. While it was the case that at least within her own dreams, her mind and body could be at rest, and that it was almost a sort of escape from the real world, it wasn't like sleeping could bring her sister back. Often she'd dream about Koishi. Usually, these dreams were awful nightmares – a reoccurring one involved the two of them standing in a white void. Satori would run towards Koishi, and as she did, Koishi would get farther and farther away. Sometimes she'd call to her younger sister, yet no sound would escape her lips; other times she'd focus all her efforts on running. When Koishi faded entirely from view, the world would go black, and a horrible sound that resembled something between static and laughter would blast from seemingly nowhere. Then, Satori's vision would be clouded by barrage of increasingly terrifying images of her sister in various states of injury or death, invariably causing Satori to awaken in a cold sweat.

The nightmares weren't rare. After however long, Satori considered the visions of Koishi being swallowed alive by colossal beasts or decomposing into a swarm of brightly-colored spiders to be just a fact of life. She'd wake in the middle of the night, unsettled, yet not startled – it was as if she was walking through a cheesy haunted house for the hundredth time. She'd drag herself out of bed, drag herself to the kitchen, and then drag herself somewhere secluded. She'd tend to gravitate towards one Chireiden's many observation chambers. There, she would idle away the hours staring blankly out of the windows. The view of the Former Capital was magnificent, but as someone who had dwelled right in its center for her entire life, it wasn't as if Satori would be uplifted from the view alone.

That's how it went for the satori for months: wake up, eat, stare out window, eat, stare out window, eat, stare out window, and sleep. As it progressed, Orin and Utsuho grew ever-more worried; over time, Satori began to appear physically ill. Massive bags showed up under her eyes, her movement started to slow, and she looked paler than ever. From the rare meaningful words they could get out of Satori, her pets began to figure that it had something to do with her dreams. Sadly, the underground was not exactly overflowing with sleep experts (or baku) who were willing to offer their services – the pair could realistically do no more than they already were doing.

One night, after Satori had fallen asleep and Utsuho and Orin were off elsewhere in Chireiden, an outsider wandered into the underground. For someone from the surface, they certainly knew their way around just fine, although it seemed more like they were drifting rather than actually going anywhere in particular. They made their way through the upper caverns and eventually to the colossal bridge that led deeper underground. They crossed it without a worried thought in their mind, heedless of the bridge's guardian.

"Hey you, aren't you… uh, aren't you…" Parsee began, but she just couldn't find the right words.

Parsee was sure she knew the person crossing her bridge, but she just couldn't put her finger on their name or identity. She was about to pursue them after they began to travel across; after all, they had no place using her bridge without her permission. However, a few steps after leaving her post, she entirely forgot what she was supposed to be doing – something about an intruder? She began to look around, bewildered. There was a stranger walking peacefully along her bridge away from her. She shrugged: after all, if she hadn't given the stranger permission, they wouldn't be crossing her bridge in the first place. She decided to go return to her post and perhaps have something to drink.

The wanderer eventually found themself in the Former Capital. As they made their way through the crowded streets, every so often a horned head would turn to them, its owner's face displaying an expression of fuzzy almost-recognition for a moment before changing to one of confusion. The route they took would seem carefully planned, yet horrifically impractical; they turned unneeded corners, circled blocks entirely arbitrarily, and occasionally just stood still, staring upwards, as the crowd around them parted around them as if they were a lamppost or some other sort of everyday obstacle.

After a few hours, the wanderer found themself at the gates of Chireiden. Of course, the palace was locked up; the mistress was sleeping, after all. Upon finding this, the wanderer floated up and over the gates. They stayed airborne, and floated around Chireiden's exterior until they found an open window. They silently flew inside, landing on the ornate floor. They stood for a moment, just staring into nothing before moving deeper into the palace.

As Orin raced down one of Chireiden's massive hallways on her wheelbarrow with Utsuho in pursuit, the kasha heard very faint footsteps coming from nearby. She skidded to a stop; Utsuho didn't notice until much too late, and barreled into Orin. The pair landed in a heap next to the wheelbarrow; Orin had the wind knocked out of her, but other than that she was entirely fine.

"Hey Orin, what gives!? Why'd you stop like that!? That's not part of the game!"

"Sorry about that Okuu, it's just that… I think I heard something from over there."

Orin maneuvered herself out from under Utsuho and stood, pointing her finger towards a shut door that led to an adjacent hallway.

"I don't think you should worry about it. No one except us, the mistress, and the rest of her pets live here. Now come on, don't you want to keep having fun?"

"Yes, but I just really want to make sure. It won't take long for us to look."

With that, Orin walked to the door. Utsuho shrugged and followed suit. When the two were both standing at the door, Orin opened it. With her powerful ears, she could still hear the footsteps; they were more hurried now, and they were coming from much further down the hall. Now that the door was no longer muffling the sound, she was quite sure that it wasn't one of Satori's other cats.

"This way, Okuu."

Orin walked into the unlit hallway and started moving briskly in the direction she heard the footsteps going in. Utsuho was beginning to lose interest, but it wasn't as if she had anything else to do – she followed closely behind Orin. After all, being a raven, Utsuho had much better vision than her feline companion. Despite this, she was quite surprised when she was able to make out a distant figure in darkness.

"Orin!" Utsuho began, trying her hardest to whisper, "I see something! Come on, we have to catch it!"

Orin nodded, and the pair began to accelerate. To Utsuho, the figure seemed to become aware of what was happening. It sped up as well, and appeared to be looking for somewhere to turn. "Come on, it's trying to escape!"

Utsuho and Orin were now moving as fast as they could down the hallway. Right as it seemed as if they were starting to gain ground on the figure however, it made a sharp turn into a doorway. The duo managed to stop in time to quickly enter after it. As they entered the adjacent hall, they saw the figure enter yet another doorway. This went on for quite some time before the figure managed to shake them entirely.

"Oh no, whatever that thing is, it's loose in the palace! We have to make sure it doesn't get to the mistress' room: if it gets to her while she's asleep, she could be hurt or worse!"

"Ok, but Okuu, you're leading the way because I have no idea of where we are in this darkness."

"Right."

Meanwhile, Satori was in the middle of an unusually uneventful sleep; she dreamed that she was sitting alone in one of Chireiden's courtyards, sipping tea. She knew it wouldn't last however, and as if on que, everything melted away into whiteness. She looked around – of course, there was Koishi off in the distance, facing away. She'd experienced this so many times, yet she couldn't help herself. She ran towards the figment of her sister, knowing well that she would only find herself farther and farther away. Satori supposed that deep down, she was wishing for some sort of miracle. Perhaps this would be the time that her subconscious would be merciful, and she could finally spend time with her sister, if only within a dream.

And as she thought these thoughts within her own dream, she began to notice that Koishi was not moving further away. In fact, for once, her movement was not in vain – she was steadily approaching Koishi. At first, Satori refused to believe it; she had a feeling that in just a few moments, everything would progress as it normally would, and before she'd know it, she'd be awake in her bed with the same disappointment and shock as always.

But, no. Satori continued to walk towards Koishi with no ill effects. Before long, she was within arms' reach of Koishi. She reached out with one hand, and placed it on her younger sister's shoulder. Satori flinched, expecting feel burning or an electrical shock or any other unpleasant sensation that would fit a nightmare. Instead, she simply felt the fabric of Koishi's sleeve. Satori left her hand there for several seconds: maybe this would be the part where her vision would go black, and the gruesome slideshow would begin.

Before Satori could take any further action, Koishi turned around. Her face wasn't a void of viscera or a gateway to some kind of hellish dimension: it was Koishi, exactly as Satori best remembered her, right down to the open third eye.

"This is some kind of a trick, I know it. Any minute now, something terrible is going to happen, I can feel it."

"Sister? What are you talking about?"

"Oh, like you don't know. For months and months, you've haunted my nightmares. You just decided to change it up a little tonight. Well, I'm ready. Do your worst, I suppose."

"Nightmares? You've been having nightmares?"

"You can't fool me! Nothing you say or do will convince me that this isn't some giant trick. I mean, I'm talking to my own… subconscious… here…"

Satori's voice slowed down as she was stricken with sudden realization. Taking into consideration the clarity and detail of her dream and Koishi's ability to manipulate her subconscious, she became aware of the absurd possibility that it was, indeed, her own sister that she was now speaking to. After all, she was never able to speak in any of her other nightmares – however, Satori still refused to let her guard down. She simply stood there, her mouth slightly open from her speech coming to an abrupt end.

"If you've been having nightmares, I can help with that."

"Yes Koishi, or whoever you are. Go ahead. 'Help' me. Whatever will get this silly show on the road faster."

Koishi looked taken aback at her sister's harsh words: the fact that Koishi was displaying any sort of emotion at all made Satori feel very conflicted. However, Koishi's expression quickly changed to a joyous one: one with a genuine smile, and not the vacant one that was always plastered on her face after she had closed her third eye.

"Have a nice rest, sister!"

And with that, the white void and Koishi faded. Satori found herself back in the courtyard again, sipping tea by herself. She was on edge from what just happened, and she expected that at any moment, something terrifying would happen, but it never did. Eventually, Satori woke up entirely: it was a gradual, peaceful awakening, unlike her usual abrupt or groggy ones. She felt well-rested and relaxed – however, two of her eyes (the third was still under the covers) darted to the dresser across from her bed. Crouching atop it was a hatted figure with what would appear to be floating wires circling around it to anyone who didn't know better. Before Satori could react however, she heard footsteps running down the hall and voices.

"Orin, we're on the right path this time, I can feel it! Trust me!"

"This is like, the seventh time in a row you've said that Okuu! We've been running for hours, and for all we know, whatever that thing was has already done whatever it wanted to the mistress, escaped, and is now enjoying, uh, I don't know, what do horrible mistress-killing monsters eat?"

The figure hopped from its perch, waved dreamily to Satori, and ran to the far side of the room. It pushed apart the curtains and opened the window's intricate lock, as if it was entirely familiar with the mechanism. It then proceeded to hop upon the windowsill and then jumped right out. Satori could see its slow decent before it was entirely out of sight.

Right then, Orin and Utsuho busted into the room. They were sweaty, and disheveled, and they were panting, as if they had been exerting themselves for much too long. They looked around frantically, and upon seeing the opened window, practically sprinted to it.

"Look Orin! It must have escaped through here!"

"Oh come on, you think I really couldn't figure that out for myself?"

"We have to go after it!"

"Orin, Utsuho, What are you doing?"

The pair looked behind them and saw their mistress staring at them, quizzically. Orin spoke first, but Utsuho joined in; they both attempted to explain the chase at the same time, resulting in general chaos.

"Whoever this 'intruder' is, they didn't bother me, and let's just say I don't think they caused any trouble otherwise. At the very least, thank you for looking out for me. It's good to have you two around."

With that, the duo collapsed on the floor. "You hear that Orin? She says it's good to have us around!"

"Yeah, I know she did!"

From that day forth, Satori's dreams were much more peaceful. The nightmares never came back, and within a week, Satori was back to her old self. She spent much more time in the palace's courtyards, and the overall atmosphere of Chireiden was much brighter, it seemed. Orin and Utsuho kept doing chores for her where they could however; just because they thought it would make her continue to like them better.

That aside, there would be the occasional night where Satori would find herself in that white void, and Koishi would be there too. They'd talk for a while: Satori would ask how her travels were, and Koishi would ask how it was back home at the palace. They never talked about any particularly heavy topics – there was a mutual understanding between them that their meetings were meant to be kept simple and relaxed. Satori's dreams on those nights were particularly good.