"Remember, for each cup of rice you use the same amount of water along with just a little bit more," The red-haired demon stated plainly, taking out a small sack of rice from their storage chest and placing it on the sink. Never in a million years did she ever imagine a situation where she would actually be the one telling the chief maid of the Scarlet mansion what to do—after all, she was just a familiar in charge of keeping a part of the mansion's vast library in check. But then again, this was not actually the chief maid… from what her master had explained it seemed like the kind of complicated situation she would really rather not be a part of. "That way, it'll cook up just right."

"Yeah…" The false maid nodded, washing the cup before scooping up some rice from the sack and pouring it in the strange contraption the help so cleverly named a rice cooker. This was the first time she had ever seen one, so she was not really sure how it worked. Fortunately Remilia and Patchouli didn't just leave her to finish the chores without any kind of help, a familiar of the latter was instructed to follow her around and coach her whenever it was necessary. However, while the witch was grateful for Koakuma's presence she was still more than annoyed that she even had to do this in the first place. Using the same cup to pour some water on the gadget from the sink, she repeated the process four times like she had been told—trying not to get too bothered by the unnaturally clean scent of the clothes she had been forced to put on in order to complete the transformation. "So I wash it first right?"

"Right. Oh also, you can use as much water as you like when you clean it," Koakuma suggested, her absent-mindedness on the matter proof of the fact that she would rather be elsewhere. It didn't mean she disliked the blonde witch however. The way she would break into the mansion and borrow whatever book she wanted despite her master's protests—the demon actually saw her as a bit of an inspiration. Unfortunately her overall potential as a fighting familiar was quite low, so even if she did have the same mischievous cravings any demon would naturally be inclined to crave she was forced to obey youkai strong enough to control her. "You'll have to wash it a couple times too."

With another nod, Marisa poured as much water as she could before dipping her hand in and squeezing handfuls of uncooked rice so that any dirt would be absorbed by the water. This was not unlike how she would clean certain types of mushrooms, but that was simply because the effect of the experiment would be different when it was clean compared to using freshly picked mushrooms to blend into soups. When it came to food however, there was not much to it. It would be cooked, and that was that… the fact that she had to clean this rice over and over only served to annoy her as she saw it to be completely unnecessary. With the water already having taken a dirty white color, she drained it and filled the rice cooker once again, repeating the washing process. "Know what Patchy and Remi are doing?"

"Last I saw them, the master and mistress were working on the invitations I think," The low-level demon replied as she watched the chief-maid-for-a-day wash the rice, a bored look on her face. She thought about all the things she could be doing instead of helping Marisa out—sadly coming to the conclusion that this was definitely the most interesting thing she had been a part of in a while. If she had been a more ambitious demon she would probably find the whole situation to be a depressing one, but it just wasn't like her to brood. "To be honest with you, I think that was the first time I've ever seen the mistress helping around the house."

"Yeah? This must be some party then," The witch said thoughtfully, wondering if Remilia uncharacteristically helping with chores or even just being up during the daytime had anything to do with Patchouli sealing Sakuya inside that room. Even if it did though, there would only be plenty of new questions that would need answering. All she knew at the moment was the fact that she was working and that she would receive no reward for her efforts. "And speaking of invitations, I don't care if I never get one—I'm crashing the party and having a good time when all this is over ze."

"Now that would be interesting," Koakuma chuckled, her devilish nature tickled at the thought of Marisa causing trouble during the party. While it would almost certainly mean that she would have to help out in cleaning the mess that would undoubtedly be left in Marisa's wake, it was still worth seeing what trick the witch might have in store for the Scarlet Mansion this time around. Perhaps today would not be as boring as she thought. "What kind of tricks are you going for at the party—that's enough washing by the way."

"Well I was working on a kind of gas that would smell great for humans and disgusting to fairies, but I could try to work on a variation and make how it smells to certain people completely random ze," Marisa explained as she drained the cooker one final time. The gas was created mainly to ward off fairies from her house, and having two distinct smells for two distinct races was already difficult enough—but perhaps if she just went about it randomly with the gas as a base then her experiment would begin to show random features as well. She had actually taken the bottled 'fairy-be-gone' with her to the Scarlet Mansion, and while most of her things were left with her clothes this particular bottle was in her one and only skirt pocket. Where does Sakuya hide her knives in this dress…? "The rice won't drain away completely."

"That's okay, use the same amount of water," The devil said, a small grin on her face as she imagined what a concoction like that could do to Remilia's party. It would certainly cause a lot of trouble and be a great experiment to start with. She imagined Hong would be particularly affected because her sense of smell was so acute. She just hoped that the gaseous experiment wouldn't stink when the devil caught wind of it. "Okay that'll do. All you have to do now is put the lid on and flick the switch."

"Lid and switch, got it," The false maid said, taking the lid and placing it on top of the cooker before flicking down the switch. In just a few seconds the rice cooker began to collect heat, which fascinated Marisa to a certain extent. "And that's all you have to do to cook rice?"

"Pretty much," Koakuma nodded, not surprised that Marisa was impressed. From what she could remember this was given to Hong by that human who sold trinkets from the outside world and then later repaired by the kappa the master hired. "We rarely cook rice because only the gate guard eats it, but during a party the stuff is indispensable you know?"

"This is some pretty advanced magic ze," The snow-haired witch said, bringing her face closer to the contraption and feeling the heat emanating from it. It did not need any kind of heat source, but it was connected to the wall from a thick, dark string. That was likely to be the conductor, but how exactly it worked seemed—at least to her more mechanical than magical, which she actually found more impressive. A mental image of Nitori working on something like this instantly came to mind. "It would probably be best if Reimu didn't see something like this."

"What makes you say that?"

Marisa shuddered. "There's no telling how lazy she would get if she ever got her hands on one of these… it's scary to think about ze."

Unconventional Peace in Everyday Gensokyo (Ordinary Witch Saga), Stage 3.5: "Part of the family."

"All right Koakuma, report."

"So far master, Marisa has washed the mistress's leftover dishes and clothes, cooked the rice and dusted most of the den," The devil reported, unable to help but wonder why she had to meet her master outside where the other maids were busy setting the tables for the party. It was a little strange because the head librarian rarely if ever stepped outside of the mansion. Normally, she was content in letting whole months pass by as she drowned herself in the books of the mansion library. Letting her thoughts distract her for a second, the demon still found it odd that the more books Patchouli finished reading the more unread ones seemed to just pop into existence in rows that had not been there the day before. Whatever magic was controlling the library was very powerful indeed to be able to compress so many books in a single space, even if the space itself was somehow larger than the mansion. "Not nearly as fast as Sakuya but we're making progress."

"That's exactly why I'm here and why the mistress is working on invitations," Patchouli nodded, having already expected the witch to make an underwhelming performance. However, while it certainly wasn't bad, it was not good either. Considering how much work Sakuya would get done in such a short amount of time it's a surprise Marisa had even managed a fraction of what the chief maid normally accomplished in a day."Without Sakuya things around here will definitely fall apart, so I'm needed to make sure that the tables and chairs are all accounted for and match the number of invitations. Where's Marisa?"

"Keep your bloomers on," The witch called out as she maneuvered her way through all the working fairy maids, before finally standing next to Koakuma, an annoyed frown on her face. The den had been incredibly large and spacey, and dusting it was a royal pain. She also disliked having both sides of her hair braided even if it technically was not really her hair. She missed her ribbon and the comfortable smell of her clothes and most especially her hat. If not for the fact that she was only going to get her original body back with Patchy's spell she would have taken her stuff and bolted out of here the second they left her alone—having Koakuma watching her did not exactly count as she wasn't any real threat. "Anyway, what are we doing outside? Can I go home now?"

"You say you want to go home but you've barely done any of Sakuya's work for the day," The asthmatic magician said, amused at the stressed out and disappointed face the witch was making. There really was no way Marisa could reach Sakuya's quota anyway, not without her powers. Even Remilia was helping out with some of her chores just so that the party can run smoothly. It had been a very long time since she had seen the mistress apply herself like this, so she did not want to ruin everything by making an angry Marisa storm off of the mansion with still so much work to do. "How's the outfit going?"

"We should have gone with the pillow," The false maid snorted, still sore that they had dropped the small pillow plan in favor of something that looked a little closer to home. But just because oranges looked a little more realistic than a pillow, did not mean that it was more comfortable. "These things are making me itch."

"You'll have to deal with that a little while longer," Patchouli sighed, trying not to cough as the flower arrangements on each table were beginning to trigger her allergies. Then again the simple sight of a flower would normally be enough for her to start coughing so the psychological aspect of her asthma was likely to blame in this situation as well. Knowledge of this did not change the fact that she would rather be inside where there was no stray pollen however. "I'm taking care of the party details so there's only one thing you can do out here—and that's to wake Meiling up."

"Wake her up huh?" The snow-haired witch stood on her toes and tilted her head to see the gate guardian napping as she sat on her wooden stool. How does she do that without falling down?

"Yes, just wake her. You'll probably have to be a little harsh about it as well—Sakuya used to cut Meiling some slack but these days she's been trying hard to keep her disciplined," The purple-haired magician continued, lifting her book to cover her nose as the sight of so many flowers was really beginning to bother her. To be honest if it were up to her she would just leave the red-headed youkai sleeping there, but if Marisa was going to make a good Sakuya then she needed to stick up to the chief maid's principles. Besides, Meiling could be as sharp as an arrow sometimes; she was more likely to question Sakuya letting her sleep through the day than just chalk it up to dumb luck. "…I'm heading inside."

"What of all the necessary party arrangements?" Koakuma asked, suddenly feeling like the entire chore had been passed down to her.

Patchouli made a dismissive gesture as she kept her nose covered by her book. "I can barely stand these flowers, so you do it. I'm going to go help with the baking."

"Yes master…" The demonic familiar nodded as the wings on her head tensed slightly, watching the purple-haired youkai make a beeline straight to the mansion. It seemed like all she was good for was to have bothersome chores passed down to. Shaking the thought away before it ended up completely distracting her form the matter at hand, she turned to one of the maids and gestured for the party's to-do list. Letting out a sigh, she looked back at Marisa. "You heard her. Come back to me when you're done."

"Yeah yeah," Marisa grumbled, heading towards the slumbering gate guardian. At least she wasn't the only person around here who was being ordered around (and loathing the fact completely). Placing her hands on her hips as she approached Chuugoku, she couldn't help but look behind the youkai to see if she was leaning on anything for support… the fact that she was not baffled the witch tremendously. "Oi, wake up."

No response.

"Wake up!"

No response at all.

"Wake up already!" Visibly annoyed, the false maid placed her hands on Chuugoku's shoulders, intent on shaking her. But before she could even start the gate guardian yelled out suddenly, her arms shooting up in fright as she was jolted awake. Marisa quickly snatched her arms back before she was caught in the youkai's instinctive reaction; however that would be the least of her worries. Chuugoku had brought her arms up so quickly that the air pressure from her innate youkai abilities had forced one of the oranges to pop out of the transformed witch's dress and land right on Meiling's lap. "Uuuh…"

"S-Sakuya! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to…!" Hong tried to explain as she leaned backwards, bracing herself for a painful recourse when she suddenly noticed the orange on her lap. Suddenly, the image of it popping out of Sakuya's dress came to her as everything suddenly started to register in her sleep-muddled mind. She looked at Sakuya to find her frantically fixing her dress, before finally crossing her arms and looking at her quietly with wide, panicky eyes. "What's… the orange for?"

"…The orange is for you, anyway stay awake, see you," Marisa answered, her eyes still wide as saucers as she turned and walked back to Koakuma as fast as she could. Perhaps things could have been a little worse, but at the moment she could not think up of any situation as awful or as embarrassing as what had just played out moments ago. Arms still crossed and ignoring the gate guardian's calls, the witch reached Koakuma and bumped her shoulder to get her attention. "Uhm, I'm going to need another orange ze…"

"What? What are you talking about?" A grim realization slowly came upon the demon as she pieced things together, looking behind the wide-eyed Marisa to find the gate guard walking towards them—orange in hand. "Ah. You'd best go on inside and help the master bake. I'll distract her somehow."

"Thanks."

"At least you make things a little more interesting around here," Koakuma smirked, helping the witch relax a little. She even smirked back before continuing on to the mansion. Shifting her attention to the suspicious youkai following the false maid, the demon brought her hand up and gestured for her to come. She had a lot of work ahead of her, and with Hong's help, perhaps she would not have to do any of it after all. "Good good you're awake. We're a bit swamped with work, so here's what I want you to do…"

Entering from the front door, it did not take too long for Marisa to find the kitchen where Patchouli had gone to help with baking. The Scarlet Mansion may have been a gigantic place, but when it came to areas such as the maid's quarters or the kitchen, it was uninterestingly easy to spot. Besides, if all else failed all she had to do was follow the yelling of a frustrated little vampire.

"Why won't this thing bake right?" Remilia growled in irritation, dumping yet another botched attempt at one of those cakes Sakuya would make effortlessly down the drain. She was covered with flour and all the other battle scars that came with baking pastries. "This oven is defective!"

"It isn't defective Remi," Patchouli answered calmly, trying not to let the situation stress her out. This was why she wanted Remilia to deal with the invitations and only with the invitations. At least she could be as creative as she wanted to be while writing down how great and wonderful she was. She figured this would keep the vampire busy for hours… she did not expect that the Scarlet mistress's lack of sleep would start to be a problem in the form of mood-swings. What's worse was the fact that she dismissed all the other maids to do something else while they baked. It was difficult to be angry at her though, after all she was trying hard. "We just have to follow Sakuya's written instructions precisely when baking a cake."

"But I was following!" The vampire yelled, pointing at the oven as though it were her most dangerous enemy. She had followed as much as she was willing to follow, and in her mind it was this oven that was the cause of all of her problems. "The oven is the one that isn't following directions!"

"Er, guys?" Marisa called, lifting her hand to interrupt the heated conversation. The two seemed surprised to see her at first, but that was likely because they had thought she was actually Sakuya for a second. "Not that I mind watching Remilia fail at baking, but can I have another orange? I kinda lost the other one."

"What? We're here breaking our backs trying to finish chores you're supposed to be doing and you just eat part of your outfit?" Remilia said, obviously exasperated as Patchouli sighed and went to get another orange from the fruit bowl. Her eyes becoming sharp as daggers, she looked at the transformed witch with a gaze that could make even elder youkai cower in fear—but surprisingly enough Marisa simply glared back. "You had better start taking this job a little more seriously, or else!"

"I didn't eat anything!" The witch yelled back, right before catching an orange that the purple-haired magician had tossed her way. Turning her back to them and fixing the orange in her dress, Marisa returned her attention to the little vampire, still quite angry that she was pinning all of their problems on her. "It's a long story—and besides, you won't even tell me what the hell is going on! Why is Sakuya being kept in that room ze?"

"That is none of your business whatsoever!"

"Remi…"

"Then why are you making all of this my damn business if I've got nothing to do with it?" Marisa yelled again, having had just about enough of the bratty vampire. "I've been impersonating Sakuya almost the whole afternoon and I don't even know why!"

"Nor am I telling you why until you do your job!"

"I am not your servant and this is not a job because I ain't getting paid ze!"

"You insolent little…!" Her face almost as red as her eyes from anger, Remilia took one of the wooden spoons she had been using to prepare the cake and flung it toward Marisa in a childish rage.

The snow-haired witch reacted quickly, leaping to her right to dodge the spoon. However, just as she was about to take her mini-hakkero from her pocket she realized that her bottle of fairy-be-gone was no longer there. The comforting smell of honey and butter suddenly invading her senses, she quickly looked to where she had been standing before Remilia had thrown the spoon and found that her experiment had fallen off her pocket… the bottle had cracked wide open. "Tsk, I was saving that…"

"That smells a little weird," Remilia pointed out, her curiosity getting the better of her anger for the moment. Like her or not, Marisa's crazy experiments had an appealing effect on her, like a curious child watching a magic show where anything can happen. "What was that for?"

"Well it's supposed to ward fairies off and… wait a minute, what does it smell like to you?" Marisa couldn't help but ask, knowing that this was her best chance to figure out how her experiment affected vampires and youkai. She knew that it smelled good to humans and that fairies would find the smell utterly disgusting, but she had no idea how other races would react to it.

"Like my sister's room."

"Huh. How about you Patch—

Thud.

"Oh, that's what happens," Marisa mumbled as she saw the purple-haired magician crumple to the ground. Remilia quickly ran to her side and a genuine pang of fear suddenly crept into her subconscious as she realized that she might have actually done something to mortally affect the sickly youkai. Fortunately that didn't seem to be the case as she ran over to where Patchouli lay, kneeling next to the unconscious magician and taking her wrist. Instead she looked like she was sleeping soundly, and her pulse was strong. Needless to say, a wave or relief washed over the witch as these facts came to light. "It must act as a kind of sleeping gas when used on youkai…"

"I see."

"Okay listen," Marisa started, taking a deep breath and running a hand through her currently silver head of hair. Things were difficult already just working on chores; she didn't want it to get worse because of complications with Remilia. "It's obvious that the two of us don't get along too well, but if following orders is what it'll take to get my body back to normal then fine. For now you just take Patchy where she can sleep it off for a while and I'll see what I can do about baking the cake."

"…" Maybe it was the fact that the witch was speaking to her with Sakuya's voice, or perhaps it was because of Patchouli being caught in the crossfire of their argument, but for some crazy reason Remilia found herself actually agreeing with Marisa. She had her reasons for this entire situation, reasons she did not want to exactly confide to the witch because she did not trust her enough to do so (nor was it completely well thought out in the first place). At the same time however, the witch was making sense now and it would only frustrate her further to continue baking at this point. She might as well let Marisa have a shot at it while she got a little break. Quietly taking a piece of crumpled paper from the mess of ingredients on the table, she gave it to the witch before scooping Patchouli up and lifting her off the ground. "Sakuya wrote that, follow it to the letter. We don't have much time left until the party starts so don't mess up."

"Ordinary magician's guarantee," Marisa replied—trying to fight the urge to roll her eyes as Remilia took Patchouli out of the kitchen. Glad to finally be alone, the witch looked at the piece of paper containing the recipe for the cake she was supposed to bake. This was actually the very first time she would be baking a cake, so the witch was not exactly sure what to expect. Sure enough, the ingredients alone confused the heck out of her and the methods did not exactly help either. What exactly was sour cream and baking soda? 'Preparing the dough as one would prepare a biscuit'… she had no idea how to make the dough, and now she was expected to know how to make a biscuit as well? Sakuya had probably written this down to help herself remember certain methods instead of actually helping people who had no idea how to bake anything. Preheating the oven seemed to be a complicated process as well… there were so many different measurements and numbers that she hadn't the slightest idea where to begin. Okay okay, just gather my thoughts… first thing I gotta do is figure out what sour cream is.

Looking around what she had to work with, at least most if not all of the ingredients have already been laid out… all she had to do now was figure out which one was which. Singling out all of the ingredients that had the texture of cream, she dipped the tip of her finger in one and gave it a taste. The first one tasted like milk, so that couldn't be it. Repeating the process with the second bowl, she tasted… and tasted again. Actually, the second bowl was the strawberry filling, she just felt like having some. "Mm…"

Dipping her finger on the third bowl, she tasted it and immediately made a strange face. That was most definitely the sour cream. Shuddering and moving the bowl of sour cream away from the others, she read the recipe again to find out how much of it she needed. One and a half cups… her eyes darting around the mess Remilia had made, she found the cup in record time, though it already had something in it. Washing off the remnant of… whatever it was before measuring the sour cream, the witch realized that she was actually having an easier time in this complete and utter mess of ingredients. Then again, it wasn't necessarily such a big surprise. She lived in a mess after all, and so found it much easier to search for things when they were scattered about instead of the other way around.

"Now… what the heck is baking soda?" The false maid stared at the ingredients, looking at what most closely resembled baking soda in her head. After a full minute of concentrating, she slowly came to the realization that she was familiar with just about every ingredient in the list except for the baking soda. Shaking her head in embarrassment, she simply took every bowl containing ingredients that she recognized away until she was left with two bowls that looked like flour. Letting out a sigh of resignation, Marisa wiped her finger on her dress to remove the excess strawberry filling and once again dipped the tip of her finger on one of the bowls of powder, giving it a taste. Just like she had expected, it was chalky and tasteless in a bad way. "Blegh…"

Bracing herself once more, Marisa did the same thing and tasted the second bowl. This time the texture was a little smoother, but it was still powdery and unpleasant—it just wasn't as awful as the first bowl. Scratching her head, Marisa looked at the piece of paper to see how much flour and baking soda she needed. The former needed three and a half cups, while the latter was just a teaspoonful. Still completely unsure over which ingredient was the right one, Marisa took the second bowl and started measuring three and a half cups. She figured that she would rather have more of the one that did not taste so awful and just a teaspoonful of that chalky stuff.

As for the method, she decided she would simply mix all of the measured ingredients up in a big bowl before putting it in a pan and baking it. Placing her mini hakkero on top of the oven in case she needed some extra heat to hurry things on, she had just about finished measuring the flour when a distant scream followed by a series of loud crashing noises came from outside the mansion. Distracted by the commotion for a second and tempted to go outside, the witch eventually quashed her powerful curiosity and concentrated on making her cake for the moment—she only hoped Koakuma was all right. Unfortunately it wouldn't be long before the craziness outside would follow her in.

"Master!" Patchouli's familiar ran in, a look of complete alarm in her face as she scanned the area for the asthmatic magician. "Marisa, where's the master?"

"Whoa there, the heck is going on?" Marisa dropped the measuring cup and turned her full attention to the demon, suddenly feeling a little alarmed herself. Did Chuugoku get violent? She didn't expect the gate guard to become aggressive all because she was suspicious about Sakuya. All because of that stupid orange… "Is it Chuugoku ze?"

"No no, it's not entirely her fault it's…" Koakuma closed her eyes and let in a deep breath. She needed to calm down if she was going to make any sense. "It's Sakuya. At first I thought it was you being ordered out of the mansion for some reason or other, but before I could say anything suddenly Meiling was telling her about how she shouldn't use fruit to hide and that she should be proud of her body or something… when Sakuya asked her what she was talking about Hong tried to take the oranges."

"Oh crap."

"Any reasoning with Sakuya flew out the window there… I ran here to get the master while she was busy hurling Meiling through the gate," Koakuma explained, the alarm in her voice returning. Sakuya would most definitely start looking for answers, especially since she could have sworn that the chief maid saw her running into the mansion. That particular human was certainly not someone to mess around with. Even if this had all been a part of Remilia's plan; if the mistress or the master was not around to explain it then things were simply going to get worse. "Now where is the master so we can get her to explain?"

"She's asleep and probably won't be up for a while…" Marisa trailed off, her eyes widening. It was her fairy-be-gone bottle! When Patchouli got knocked out the spell keeping Sakuya in a deep sleep probably fizzled out as well. Allowing herself to hope, Marisa quickly looked down to see that her braids were… still silver. Well, she was still right about the first part. "It's kind of my fault ze."

"What do you mean she's asleep? What about the mistress?"

"Well—

"You know what never mind," Koakuma interrupted, shaking her head and letting out another troubled sigh. This conversation was stretching out way too long—who knows what Sakuya would do if she were ever to see Marisa in this state. "The important thing is for you to hide because the real Sakuya could arrive at any moment!"

"…Too late ze…" Even if she hadn't said anything, the transformed witch's wide eyes were a clear indicator that the familiar had definitely been right about that.

"Uhm…" Slowly turning around, the red-haired demon found herself face to face with the real chief maid, who was staring quizzically at the false maid in the other side of the room. "S-Sakuya! What a surprise!"

"Koakuma," The real Sakuya turned her attention to the demon, her stare as sharp as the knives she carried around with her. She was not quite sure exactly what was going on, but Hong's delusional reaction had flipped her normally calm and patient demeanor all the way around. In fact nothing about this day was right at all. A ten minute rest had turned into a sleep lasting whole hours, which was outright impossible due to her control over time. Now Koakuma's suspicious behavior and the appearance of her double in the kitchen continued to push her temper to untested levels. Not to mention the fact that she very much disliked practical jokes and pranks. "You have something to do with this?"

"Well I… I can explain…" The familiar fumbled around with her words as she tried to come up with a convincing explanation of why everything turned out this way. Unfortunately, she honestly had no idea why the mistress did what she did. The only thing the familiar ever did was follow orders, which was exactly why several seconds passed with no viable answer. "You see…"

"I'll deal with you later," Sakuya said, not wanting to hear any more from the demon as she walked right past her and towards the doppelganger. She had plenty of work to do today, and because of everything that had happened she was way behind schedule. Needless to say, she was in a terrible mood and someone was going to pay. "Imposter… you would make a fool of me?"

"Wait! This wasn't even my idea—

"Enough. I don't want to hear your excuses either," The chief maid said in a low, dangerous voice. While she couldn't truly explain how she was able to sleep so long, everything else seemed to fit with the fact that the counterfeit was up to no good. All she wanted to do now was take care of this double so that she could start the arduous process of cleaning up the mess left in her wake and hopefully have everything ready before the mistress woke up. Brandishing one of her knives and a spell card with a sleight of hand trick that Marisa wordlessly found impressive, her eyes flashed a brilliant red for half a second. "This will be over before you know it."

Tch…! At this point in time Marisa had already expected dozens of knives coming at her from every direction so she instantly braced herself, but instead something unexpected happened. Instead, the world became totally devoid of color, save for Sakuya. The surprised look on the chief maid's face, coupled with the fact that Koakuma was completely and utterly still could only mean one thing… Sakuya had brought time to a standstill, except for the two of them. Patchy's magic must really be something if she was able to mimic some of Sakuya's powers as well… "Wow…"

"It seems as though you are not an ordinary imposter, are you?"

"I'm just an ordinary magician," The false maid said instinctively, looking back to where she had placed her mini-hakkero. She did not have time to completely think things through, but she had just dodged a very big bullet a moment ago. If she hadn't gone through the time stop along with Sakuya, she would have been in an impossible situation, because not only did she not have her broom, there was barely any space to dodge. Quickly reaching for her tiny reactor, the witch was shocked to find that she could not even lift it off the table. "…?"

"You think it's that easy to manipulate objects stopped by time?" Sakuya asked as she walked towards the fake, her voice cold as ice. It was difficult enough for her to use time to move her daggers around, and if ever she threw them, the daggers would only start moving when time resumed its course. Otherwise, there would be no battle that she could not possibly win. In fact she could see the residual slowing in the doppelganger's movement already—pretty soon she will be as still as everything else around her. "I just had a long rest so I can keep time still for as long as it would take to get rid of you—after all, I'd hate for this to be interrupted."

"Keh…" The false maid couldn't help but smile grimly as it became more and more difficult to move her body. It looked like Patchy's magic couldn't replicate Sakuya's image completely… but this was about as much as she could possibly hope for. All things considered, it was likely that she wasn't going to make it out of this alive; but that didn't mean she was out of tricks yet. Clutching the colorless mini-hakkero with all her might, she began to focus all the energy she had to kick start the little reactor. Her body finally becoming completely still as she brought her gaze to the chief maid, she continued to pour her energy into the mini-hakkero even as Sakuya loomed in front of her, poised to strike. Come on… this has to work!

"Disappear!"

Right before Sakuya's dagger could bite into Marisa's flesh, a splash of purple and red suddenly erupted from between the two of them, holding the chief maid's wrist still. She struggled to get out of it as the formless mess of colors began to take shape—both their eyes widening as large black wings sprouted from the mass. A few seconds passed in silence, as Sakuya found herself looking straight into the eyes of her mistress, who loosened her hold on the maid's wrist. "Ojou-sama…! I don't understand… how are you doing this while time stands still?"

Remilia looked back at the transformed witch and gave her a small nod before bringing her full attention to Sakuya. "Fate doesn't want Marisa to pass just yet it seems…"

"Marisa?" The snow-haired human repeated, utterly confused. She looked at the doppelganger behind her mistress who was almost completely colorless, except for her eyes. That could not be Marisa, could it? She did mention something about being an ordinary magician… "I really don't understand."

"…I was the one who had Patchy keep you in that room," The little vampire suddenly admitted, letting go of Sakuya's wrist. "I planned all of this."

"But why?" Sakuya asked, now even more confused than ever. Why did she order Patchy to keep her in that room—and how did they figure out where she snuck in to rest in the first place? Perhaps… she was being considered for replacement? Even though it wasn't in her to doubt her mistress's motives, Sakuya felt compelled to ask that one particular thing—a certain sadness passing over her eyes as she spoke. "…Don't you still need me?"

"O-of course I do!" Remilia snapped, not ever wanting Sakuya to feel as though that had been the reason. Feeling like a complete child, she could not even bring herself to look the chief maid in the eyes as she continued to explain. "It's just… you work too hard. You can't keep it up and… Patchy, she's starting to get worried… even Meiling; she told us you were taking fewer and fewer breaks. They're all worried… so I found out when you would head to that room from one of the fairies and…"

"And, you wanted me to rest today," Sakuya said, unable to help but smile as she pieced things together—she wanted her to rest while they took care of all the chores. When Remilia nodded, staring at the floor like a scolded child it was all she could take from scooping her up in an affectionate hug and squeezing her half to death. She never could have expected that everyone would be this worried over her well-being… but now she knew full well that the one who worried over her the most was the little vampire standing in front of her. She would also probably have to apologize to Koakuma and Hong, but there was still no reason why the latter would think she would be wearing fruits in her dress. Maybe the heat had finally gotten to her… she did warn Meiling about the dangers of falling asleep and suffering heat stroke. "Ojou-sama?"

"…Yes?"

The chief maid bent down, took the little vampires hands and kissed them, staring at her with a look of genuine love and appreciation. "Thank you very much for the thoughtful gesture. I'm well rested."

"…" For the first time today (or perhaps in a long time), the vampire was smiling widely, her cheeks flushed from a mix of embarrassment and relief. While things did not go exactly as planned, it all still seemed to work out in the end. "That's good."

"So the doppelganger is…?"

"Marisa, through Patchy's magic," Remilia turned to look at the false maid completely frozen by time, though her eyes were still completely aware. The vampire rarely if ever exhibited powers of fate, but she was glad that it happened when it did—otherwise, things would have been quite messy. "She volunteered."

If the witch had been able to speak she would have probably yelled something obscene at the Scarlet mistress. Unfortunately, she was only a witness. Also, why was her hand getting warmer and warmer?

"Really…? How sweet," Sakuya said sheepishly, wondering what might have happened if Remilia hadn't gone and stopped her from doing something… unfortunate. It would have definitely been a tragic misunderstanding. But just as she was about to apologize, she noticed the object the witch was clutching glow brighter and brighter. So that's what she was doing a while ago… "Mistress, you might want to step back a little."

"What's going on?" Remilia asked as Sakuya lead her over to where Koakuma was standing. Looking back, she noticed a fierce bright light emanating from the witch's hand. Sakuya snapped her fingers, and suddenly the whole world had color again. She saw the false maid quickly stare at the glowing object and throw it in a panic—right before a bright shockwave from the object threw the witch off her feet and bounced her off the wall. "Well! That was… entertaining."

"Errr what just happened?" Koakuma muttered, suddenly feeling like she had just missed a whole lot even though she had just been standing there. The last she remembered was the original Sakuya walking towards Marisa, and then suddenly the mistress and the chief maid (or was it Marisa?) were right beside her while the chief maid (or was it Marisa?) was caught in an explosion. "Anyone?"

"Your… your fate powers are defective ze…" Marisa mumbled, right before slipping out of consciousness.

Stage 3 – Closure… (Injury/Spell Card Obtained!)

"…Mm…?"

"Finally awake I see."

Shaking her head, the witch gingerly propped herself up from the bed using her elbow. She had some bandages on her, and she did not feel particularly good. What the heck happened? Trying to collect her thoughts, suddenly everything came crashing down. Being caught up in Remilia and Patchouli's scheme, having to cook rice and dust so many different kinds of vases and décor, almost being killed by a vengeful chief maid—in fact the last thing she remembered was almost being killed by her own mini-hakkero… unless of course, she actually was dead. It certainly didn't feel like she was dead, nor did it feel like everything had been a dream. Realizing just then that someone had spoken to her, she looked to the source of the voice to find none other than Sakuya herself looking right back at her. "Ugh, my head… did I miss the party?"

"You were out a few hours, so just a bit," The snow-haired girl answered, unable to help but feel bad that she had been the cause of most of Marisa's trouble today. In fact she had worked extra hard to get everything up and ready in record time so that she could tend to the witch's injuries. No permanent damage, which did not surprise her in the slightest. The witch might have been human but she could take a youkai's beating and ask for seconds. Taking the book on the desk beside the bed, the chief maid offered it to her. "Here, this is for you. Patchouli said it was probably the book you wanted."

"Hm, really?" Marisa curiously took the book, opened it and read the first leaf. It started right where the book she had borrowed left off, with Susan and Rudolph's kiss. Suddenly she remembered that this was the reason she had gone to the Scarlet Mansion in the first place. Nodding and closing the book, Marisa blinked. How could that asthmatic magician know exactly what book she wanted even though she herself had almost completely forgotten that fact right around the time they turned her into a spitting image (almost) of Sakuya? Suddenly coming to the realization that she might still look like the chief maid, she quickly got a hold of her braided hair and sighed in utter relief when it was blonde. Returning her attention to the book, she smiled to herself. "I wonder how she guessed?"

"Because as soon as I realized that the first part of that book was gone, I knew you'd be back for the second," Patchouli stated, grinning as she stepped inside the room. "I could almost imagine the look on your face when you got to the part I spilled tea on."

"Yeah, talk about a cliffhanger ze…"

"I always knew you were a sucker for those kinds of stories," The purple-haired magician chuckled, sitting on the foot of the bed. All things considered, everything turned out pretty well. The mistress was able to properly convey how she was feeling to Sakuya, though she wished she had been there to see it. The party was going on as scheduled, and everyone was having fun. The only people missing now were the three of them. "Thanks for helping us out."

"Really… thank you Marisa. And I'm sorry for what happened earlier."

"Hah, it's okay. And I'd like to say it was my pleasure but…" Marisa scratched her head, letting out a chuckle as well. Even though she had a habit of taking books from her in a daily basis, she and Patchy were almost always in good terms. In a way, all the magicians around Gensokyo see eye to eye more often than not… and she was glad to be friends with the 'One-Week Wizard'—sometimes. "It'll probably be a while before I do you guys any more favors against my will ze."

Even Sakuya couldn't help but laugh with that one.

"Anyway," Patchouli stood up, smiling softly. "There's a nice warm bottle of sake and a couple of slices of cake with your name on it downstairs."

Marisa's eyes lit up like stars. "Seriously?"

"Mhm," The chief maid stood up as well, taking a small letter out of her pocket and handing it to the witch. "Here's your invitation. Shall we?"

"Heck yeah!"

M/N: Finally done with Stage 3! All's well that ends well huh? I'll admit things got pretty scary there, but Sakuya and even Remilia are pretty neat to hang out with if you catch'em in the right mood (Patchy goes without saying). That stunt Meiling pulled though… that's prooobably gonna start a rumor that Sakuya isn't going to be able to live down. Oh well, that's not my problem anymore ze~

All right as always, reviews are welcome and requests about characters you'd like to see in the next stage is open for discussion. I answered PeachDaisyAmy777's request (somewhat), since I put Patchy in here… well, I basically put everyone in the Scarlet Mansion in this one. Sorry it took so long to shell out though.

Can't help but wonder what else could possibly happen during such unconventional times of peace in Gensokyo~

Gokigen yo da ze!