Unedited. Will be changing in the near future.


Remilia's brows furrowed as she listened to her head maid's report on the damages caused by Flandre's tantrum. The destroyed walling wasn't such a huge loss, but why did she have to blow a giant hole in the observatory's glass windows AND melt off the hinges of the iron-wrought door? High quality glass was difficult enough to obtain in Gensokyo, but where was she going to find an ironworker that was skilled enough to repair the door and willing to work in a vampire's dwelling?

"Finally, several of the maids that were out searching for Mistress Flandre reported that the battle left some scars in the landscaping."

Another annoyance. Well, landscaping was hardly important. "Just ignore that. Focus on getting the observatory repaired and cleaned up."

"Yes, mistress," affirmed Sakuya. "One last thing, though, if I may."

"Yes?"

"Mistress Flandre is currently still unconscious in her room. What action should we take when she awakens?"

Remilia considered the situation carefully. There was no door to discourage her from leaving her room anymore and the two of them just had an argument. She had even used force to bring her back into her room. Remilia was almost certain that her little sister wouldn't want to listen to anything she had to say and some more force would be required to keep her in check, but those last words Flandre had spoken as she laid helplessly in bed echoed in her head. All my fault. I'm sorry.

The elder vampire sighed. "Just watch over her and tell me when she wakes up."

"... As you wish."

Though her tone of voice and expression did not reveal anything, there was a momentary pause that Remilia noticed that revealed Sakuya's disagreement with the decision. However, just as always, she didn't question her mistress' orders and hurried off to give the other maids their orders. Not for the first time, Remilia couldn't help but wonder why this maid was so loyal. She was the only human out of all the inhabitants of the mansion, yet she had no fear of the vampires she served. Just what drove this woman to serve her mistress so faithfully? As she wandered aimlessly through the mansion, the vampire's thoughts drifted towards her memories of their first meeting several years ago...


The mansion was in a state of disarray. An intruder had made her way past the main gates, defeating the Chinese doorguard in the process and taking out several of the fairy maids. One of the maids had seen the intruder entering the library and reported it to Remilia. Upon hearing the news, she rushed down the hall, hoping that she would make it in time to assist her friend Patchouli Knowledge, the magician who spent the majority of her days reading in the library. The door was still ajar when she got there. Quickly navigating through the familiar maze of bookcases, she made her way towards Patchouli's usual reading spot, only to find her friend collapsed on the floor in a pool of red.

"Patchu! What happened!"

She hurriedly knelt down next to the magician, who coughed a few times. Thank goodness, she was still alive. Her pink pajamas, now stained crimson, had a multitude of gashes as if cut by a sharp weapon. It was a good thing Patchouli wasn't human or else she might have died from the injuries.

"Remi... be careful," the magician managed to say between coughs, "She has a strange ability..."

"A strange ability? No, more importantly, you shouldn't be talking!"

Patchouli coughed out a little blood in response and uttered one last word before losing consciousness.

"...Teleporation."

And with that she fell silent. Unforgivable. Remilia had no idea what the intruder's goals were but hurting her only friend in Gensokyo was completely unforgivable. With a new sense of purpose, she stood up and turned around.

"You're still here aren't you, Ms. intruder?" she called out, looking at the nearest bookcase where she had felt a presence.

Unexpectedly, however, the presence disappeared. No, it was behind her now! With inhuman strength, Remilia jumped up and narrowly avoided being sliced by a dagger. As soon as she caught a glimpse of the glittering steel, though, it disappeared along with its owner. In their places, a flurry of throwing knives appeared heading straight at Remilia. Opening her wings, she easily glided out of the way, but more were coming from seemingly random places. What kind of magic was this? Where were these knives coming from? The presence she had sensed earlier was moving erratically as well, avoiding her field of view. No wonder both the door guard and Patchouli were defeated.

With just this, however, they were at a stalemate. With the vampire's mastery of flying, the knives were trivial to dodge. But on the other hand, she also had no way to attack someone she couldn't see. Somehow, she had to stop these annoying ranged attacks. With that thought in mind, she flew out of the library and into the hallway. In here attacks could only come from the front and the back. There was no where to hide. Surprisingly, the intruder followed.

"You aren't like the others, are you?" came a surprisingly soft voice. A silver-haired girl with dirty ragged clothing stepped out into the hallway. There was no expression on her face. "If I defeat you, no one else will stop me, right?"

"Why are you doing this?" asked Remilia sharply, her eyes narrowing angrily.

Without any change in expression, the knife-wielding girl replied, "A noble who has everything handed to her on a silver platter would never understand."

And with that, she disappeared again. However, it was obvious that if she wasn't in front of Remilia, she would be in back. With precision and reflex no human could hope to imitate, the vampire spun around and caught the dagger that the intruder was about to stab into her. Remilia caught a surprised expression on her attacker's face before she teleported away again, though leaving her dagger behind in the vampire's hands. She reappeared several meters away, pulling another dagger out from some place in her clothes and watching Remilia warily.

Odd. Why did she leave behind her dagger? She was obviously teleporting around with it before. Was there some condition that prevented her from taking it with her? Remilia stared back at the girl as she considered this carefully. Then, she saw a glitter in the girl's left hand and something in her head clicked. Her ability wasn't teleportation at all.

As soon as she realized this, the girl disappeared again. Remilia turned and grabbed where the dagger would be again, thinking that she had gone for a back attack again. But nothing was there. Suddenly Remilia felt a searing pain in her side as her opponent stabbed the dagger into her abdomen. The intruders eyes were glinting as she smiled triumphantly. Remilia smiled back as she grabbed the girl's hand that was gripping the dagger.

"Now I have you!" With her overwhelming physical strength, Remilia, with the dagger still in her side, forced the girl to the floor and pinned both her hands down. "Like this, you can't escape, right?"

This person's ability wasn't teleportation at all - it was the ability to stop time. She wasn't able to get away with her dagger because she wasn't able to remove it from Remilia's hand while time was frozen. In her left hand, she was holding a pocket watch which seemed to work as a tool to facilitate her ability. The girl's face which had just seconds before been grinning with victory was now expressionless yet again.

"Just kill me now, you damn monster."

Remilia had no qualms carrying out this request, but she wanted to know something first.

"Why did you do this? What was your goal?"

The reply was a scoff. "I told you, someone like you would never understand."

"Hmph, why don't you try me?"

The girl's face twisted in rage.

"How can someone who has never experienced loss or sadness understand my pain!" she shouted, "You damn nobles that have never experienced the feeling of being unwanted! You damn nobles that have never experienced being feared for something beyond their control! You damn nobles that have never experienced losing everything you hold dear! There's no way someone like you could ever know what I've gone through!"

Slap!

It was deathly silent save for the sound of Remilia's hand hitting the girl's left cheek echoing down the hallway.

"'Never experienced'?" the vampire repeated angrily. Flashes of bitter memories flitted through her mind as she said these words - the mutilated bodies of her parents, the moment she and her sister lost their humanity, the torches and pitchforks of the mob of townspeople. "Don't make me laugh."

The anguish showed clearly on the vampire's face as she recalled her past. It was clear to the silver-haired girl at that moment that this person shared as much if not more hardship in her lifetime as she did. Though she was probably about to die, she couldn't help but laugh at the fact that the first person who could possibly understand her had ended up as her enemy. Her mouth curled into a slight smile, something that it hadn't done in a long long time.

"What's so funny?" Remilia asked suspiciously.

"Oh, nothing," the girl replied, "Just that my plans of grandeur are being ended by someone just like me."

"Plans of grandeur?"

"My goal was to use my ability to forcefully take over a noble's household and their wealth. In other words, I was trying to usurp your position. But look at me now," her smile changed to one of self-pity, "Even this simple plan was a failure. Just kill me now. There really is no reason for someone like me to live."

There was a moment of silence as the two looked each other in the eyes, seemingly staring into each others' souls. Then, Remilia released the girl and stood up.

"What is this? Are you showing a worthless person like me mercy?"

Remilia held out her hand. "Since you no longer have a reason to live, then let me give you one. Since you wish to die, then let your old self be killed. Discard your name and devote your life to servitude. I shall be your new mistress - the Scarlet Devil, Remilia Scarlet."

The girl sat up slowly, not quite believing what she was hearing. She let out a light chuckle.

"Though I meant it in a different way earlier, you really aren't like the others," she said with a smile, taking the offered hand, "I accept your proposal."

And she kissed the back of Remilia's hand.

"Then, your new name shall be Sakuya Izayoi, in remembrance of this fateful night."

"Yes, Mistress Remilia."


"Mistress?"

Remilia snapped back to the present with Sakuya's voice calling her. Somehow during her reminiscing she had wandered back into her room and was sitting on her bed. Looking towards the voice, she saw that the maid looked very troubled.

"Sakuya, what's wrong?"

"I'm not quite sure how to put this lightly, Mistress."

"Then say it bluntly."

Sakuya took a deep breathe.

"I believe the little sister has lost her memories."


A few minutes earlier...

The first thing she felt when she woke up was the painful throbbing in her head. Her eyes fluttered open. Dark. Why was it so dark? Not only that, a shiver went down her spine as her mind registered how cold it was too. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she took in the sight. Where was she? Why was she in such an eerie room? The walls were cracked and cold, all the furniture was dented and broken, and a heavily abused stuffed bear had been left in a corner. Another shiver went down her spine, this time not from the cold temperature, but from the from the cold atmosphere. Then she noticed the silhouette of a person standing at the entrance. Sitting up in alarm, the thin blanket that had been covering her slipped off with a light rustling noise and the mysterious figure turned its head towards her. A female voice called out.

"Mistress Flandre, are you awake?"

The bedridden girl made no reply, just staring back at the shadow apprehensively. After a bit, a small light source suddenly lit up the room, a lantern in the speaker's hands. It was a silver-haired blue-eyed maid, who was now walking towards the bed.

"Mistress Flandre?"

"F-Flandre?" she repeated the name uncertainly, "Who's that?"

The footsteps stopped abruptly. The maid was frozen midstep with a shocked expression on her face. Then, she quickly covered the remaining distance with a few quick strides and put the palm of her hand on the girl's forehead, clearly worried. There was no fever, but that just made her worries grow.

"I'll be back," said the maid before suddenly disappearing, plunging the room back into the darkness.

As girl huddled herself in the blanket again, she pondered over the meaning of the short exchange just now. "Flandre". The maid had definitely called her that. Just a second of thought was enough for her to realize that she couldn't remember not only her name but any memories. She suddenly felt lonely and scared. My name is Flandre, she told herself, clinging desperately to the only clue to her identity.

Shortly afterwards, light started shining through the doorway again and the maid returned with another shorter girl with bat wings. She, too, had a worried expression as she called out.

"Flandre! Is what Sakuya told me true!"

Flandre had no doubts as to what she was asking about. She couldn't even meet her eyes as she apologized, "I'm sorry."

"Don't you remember?" the other girl said in a strained voice, "It's me, your sister Remilia..."

Flandre looked at Remilia with sad eyes. There was nothing else she could say.

"I'm sorry."