After having left to go arrange things with Marisa, Remilia could not stand it any more. Jealousy, anger, resentment...regret? She could not really tell. But, her rational mind had anticipated it ending like every other relationship she ever had. Patchouli had indeed dutifully left to go...dowhateveritwaswithMarisashewanted. She didn't care anymore, aside from the contingency case occurring. But, the chance that that would happen was sma-
She heard a knock at her door.
A voice crawled, muffled, from outside her chamber door, "Mistress, Lady Patchouli has returned."
Remilia sighed, it was time to deal with the contingency case.
She walked down the corridors over to Patchouli's room. And this time-unlike others-not a soul greeted her. There was a nausea in the air that made everyone else tense, and her indifferent. Even when she reached the door to the library, and met Koakuma, she stood aloof with a vacant stare.
Remilia entered, putting on her game-face.
She peered into the library. It was empty.
She instead entered the room, coming to the foot of Patchouli's bed.
Usually, Remilia would have a speech planned. She did, in fact, have one planned; but she found herself staring at Patchouli laying there, her voice unable to even make a croak.
Come on, this is it, just a little bit more hardship and-
The covers stirred a little bit, "Remi...why did you do this?"
Remilia could hear her crying.
"I knew you manipulated my fate to do this, but...I...trusted you. That you'd have some reason for all of this, that..."
She couldn't continue inbetween her fits for breath.
And in response, Remilia had nothing that could be said. Her eyes glazed over in an empty, sociopathic demeanor.
A very mild-mannered and complacent Remilia left the library.
She stood outside the door with a forlorn look on her face, unable to move.
Sakuya sidled up to her, "You planned this from the start, didn't you?"
Silence.
"Yes."
Sakuya gritted her teeth, "You would toy with someone so close...so recklessly?"
"I was not reckless."
"She could have left you, you know."
"You're wrong."
She was having trouble keeping calm, "...What if she finds out?"
"About?"
Her voice was nearly hissing by now, "That you were the one who did this to her."
"I-I may have planned this-that is true-but I was not the progenitor of these actions. Planning and agency are not synonymous."
She screamed at Remilia, "STOP TRYING TO BE 'academic', STOP TRYING TO TWIST THE FACTS, YOU MANIPULATED HE-"
Remilia gripped her fists, "SAKUYA, THAT IS ENOUGH!"
She had spun around, her cheeks flush with anger, and eyes holding back tears.
Sakuya shook her head, "No."
"No, tonight", she pointedly threw a finger at Remilia.
And, for a slight moment, she hesitated. She felt that gut-wrenching feeling of one on the precipice of rage, yet still able to see the chasm below and possibly turn back.
But this was a time when the chasm felt all too right, where the winds of the memories of the past come at once to give one last push, and Sakuya had plenty of memories of the closed-chamber dealings of one Remilia Scarlet.
She continued, her voice slowly gaining confidence, "Tonight...tonight...I am going to tell you off."
She straightened herself upright, her body casting a foreboding shadow over Remilia, "I've worked with you long enough to come to fully comprehend and 'appreciate' your truly devilish, backstabbing ways. I'm going to tell you how this really was supposed to happen. How anyone would think once they get through their initial naïvety after working with you long enough."
Keeping the rest of her posture taut, Sakuya threw her headdress in front of an agape Remilia, staring at her once complacent maid-who had now completely snapped, "You made this to fuel your control-freak streak: a natural result of someone who has control over, and thus is spoiled by, destiny itself. You wanted to make sure that she treated you like God, like an omnipotent master, for whatever motives you did not care for; and you'd have another subject completely to your whim. If she left and got rejected-which she would, because you set it up so that would happen-and came back to you-which she would, because you set it up so that would happen-then you would feel vindicated, you'd know that, like everyone else in your life, she wasn't here out of her own volition; but for some real-politicking raison'd'etre of her own! And you'd be able to use such a plot to find out why she really stuck with you! Because actually having trust for someone is a little too much too ask, isn't it?"
She let the passive aggressive curl that her sentence had ended on linger in the air.
Remilia was staring at the ground shivering, while Sakuya advanced a step further and continued, "Only, your plan actually backfired, didn't it? She left you-just like you planned. But wait, it all happened according to plan, didn't it? But there's something wrong, when you went to go talk to her, you realized that she didn't have a convoluted scheme to be here. That someone really did want to be with you, and your manipulations have left her completely confused. Why did she really leave to go off with someone else? Because you ordered her to, manipulated her fate to make her do so, and more importantly because she had complete and total faith in you. And now, there's a sinking feeling at the bottom of your heart."
Falling to the floor, she covered her ears, "Stop it! Stop!"
Sakuya pounded her fist on a nearby end-table, she certainly wasn't going to stop now, "THERE'S ONE THING YOU DID NOT ACCOUNT FOR! There's one thing you didn't account for in your maniacal scheming Remilia Scarlet!"
She pointed her finger triumphantly in the air at a dénouement she was taking pride in, "Something so obvious, something so plainly obvious to any being that has any sort of real empathy, and yet laid under your nose for centuries up until now. And what's that?"
She gave a slight pause before angrily pointing at Remilia, "That you love her! You honestly love her! 'Risk your own life for her'-love her! But even worse for you is that she honestly loved you back. She isn't just a mistress! She isn't just a convenient acquaintance! She's not just another pawn that you happened to have stashed away! She's not just an accountant nor your resident bookworm! You love her, and for the first time in your life you're humiliated because now you're not in the position of power! You don't know anymore if she loves you back! You destroyed the only thing in your life that was pure! You screwed it up! The one time in your life that someone wasn't around just to suck off you like a tick, and you screw it up. You failed! YOU LOST, GOOD DAY MADAM!"
And with that, Sakuya left.
Post-script:
Reimu opened the door to the shrine, noticing a kneeling Sakuya before her.
"Sakuya? Just you today?" She yawned, scratching her armpit, "Where's the little one? Why are you on the floor?"
Sakuya bowed her head to the floor, "Thank you for having me, I'm afraid I'll have to stay here for a while."
Reimu stood frozen, blinking, "...whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?"
