Anyways, this chapter will be some filler until I decide on what to do next, I'll prolly include 2 or 4 chapters aside from this one to be filler before continuing on to the as of yet unknown arc, but I'm not sure how to go about the Flan Flan problem, part of me wants to let her go, but it wouldn't be fair to the rest of Gensokyo, now would it?
The sun rose over Gensokyo, youkai returning to their abodes after a night out, fairies stirring and waking one another, and by the Misty Lake, a blue-haired woman's torso could be seen floating above the water.
"I wonder what all that fuss was about yesterday," Wakasigihime said as she looked at the few fish corpses that lay floating at the top of the lake. "I tried to save them, but I couldn't without getting nearly ripped to shreds myself," she convinced herself as she mournfully looked at a fish head, its gaze fixed solely on her. "On the bright side, I managed to get everyone else to safety..." With that final statement, she took one last look at the Scarlet Mansion on the island not too far away and swam deep underwater.
At the Scarlet Devil Mansion, daybreak meant a silence that was not to be disturbed, and in disregard to the previous nights events, Remilia wanted to keep it that way. She sat in her room, fuming to herself as she rolled around in her comically oversized bed.
"Even Sakuya... I don't know what's happening to the world when even she won't completely agree to my ideas..." Remilia grumbled to herself as she finally succeeded in rolling around the perimeter of the bed, "Mistress, if you want me to parrot everything you say, simply say so, but my main concern is to keep both you and the young mistress as happy as possible," Sakuya said as she appeared by Remilia's bedside with a tray laden with fine teas and sweets.
"You know as well as I do that Flandre's not ready for the world yet, nor is it ready for her," Remilia grumbled as she rolled to face her head maid. "That was before Milady, you saw how she was able to stop herself yesterday, her spell cards are more controlled, and she was even able to wander the mansion by herself yesterday without anything being broken; Flandre's grown Mistress," Sakuya calmly stated as she offered Remilia a cup of tea.
"Think, Sakuya, of what will happen when she is not able to control herself!" Remilia said angrily as she snatched the cup away from Sakuya, nearly spilling a bit in the process. "If I let her go neither you, nor Patchouli, Meiling, or I will be there to calm her down!" Remilia angrily stated as she drank the tea hastily.
"...""...""You know me too well Sakuya," Remilia said as she put down the cool tea, "But even if I do let her go with those two, who'll know if they're able to control her?" Remilia said glumly as she finished the remaining tea and sat up. "Why don't you look for yourself" Sakuya said as she offered Remilia her hand. Remilia took it, stood up, and the two walked over to the balcony where they could see Meiling, Flandre, Kyouko, and Kogasa playing Kagome Kagome. Meiling sat blindfolded while the remaining three skipped around in a circle around her.
"They do realize that Meiling can sense their different chi, right?" Remilia sighed as she watched Flandre skip in the sun. "Besides, Flandre shouldn't be out right now, the sun will weaken her,"Remilia said as she reached for the parasol next to the balcony window. "Flandre's fine Milady, look how happy she is," Sakuya said as she held the parasol above Remilia and pointed at Flandre, who was barely suppressing giggles as she stood behind Meiling.
Meiling pretended to contemplate who was behind her, but couldn't fake it any longer when Flandre burst out laughing, the others followed suit and soon they were once again playing another round, only this time with Flandre playing oni.
"Mistress, Flandre is happy outside, and if anything, the weakness the sun presents to her would only be of benefit to us, as it slows her down to the level of those two," Sakuya said, waving her hand towards Kyouko and Kogasa.
"Speaking of which, why are they still here?" Remilia asked, causing Sakuya to falter for a bit, "I'm not entirely sure mistress, but if they're keeping Flandre calm and happy, we shouldn't question their presence," Sakuya said, hardly missing a beat. "I suppose you're right..." Remilia said as she turned and sat back down onto her bed, "I've been used to having to worry about Flandre for so long, I'm not ready myself to let her grow,"
Sakuya looked at Remilia as though she were deciding what type of fish to buy for tonight's dinner then walked over and sat next to Remilia. "Look, convincing her to stay in the basement was for her own good at the time, she's grown now and can control herself much better now, every time you tell her no is another time that she'll think of you badly, another time for her to look back at in anger, she trusts you with all her heart, maybe it's time you trust her."
"Call them in, will you Sakuya?"
After a few more rounds of Kagome Kagome, Meiling announced, "That's enough play for me, I have to get back to guarding the gate, otherwise Sakuya will get mad." This caused Flandre to walk over and hold Meiling's hand, saying "Then I'll go with you! It's no fun standing there all day by yourself, so I'll go with you China!" Meiling had a look of pride on her face as she said "That's fine Flan Flan, why don't you play with these two, or if you really want to help, why don't you look around the gardens to see if there are any plants that need help?" Meiling said as she ruffled Flandre's hair, and walked off to the gate.
Flandre, who was very easy to distract, took the opportunity to show off the garden that she was occasionally allowed to work in, "And over here is where China helped me plant some strawberries!" Flandre said as she led Kogasa and Kyouko to a small plot of land with several small sprouts poking out from the earth in 2 uneven rows. "Aren't they cute?" Flandre asked as she looked at the sprouts.
"Meiling helped me, she gave me the seeds and told me how to plant them," Flandre said, "I was really scared, because she also said that these were like plant babies, and I had to be really careful with them so they could grow up nice and strong. The seeds were really small too, but at least the plants grew up big, right?" Flandre squatted down and looked at the strawberry plants, which by this point were a few inches tall. "But now I have to be even more careful, because if I touch them, then they'll break, like Mister Bear, like our old House, like that big rock Remi told me to kyuu, and I don't like it when things break, it makes me feel sad..." Flandre finished as she looked at the plants with a sad gaze.
"Hey, Flandre," Kyouko started, "Why don't we practice a bit? We could try to do things that you have to be really careful with, so when you need to actually do something like that, you'll have practice!" Flandre quickly looked up towards Kyouko, and stood up fast enough so that her hat flew up a foot or two before landing back onto her head. "Really? So when I try to hug someone, they won't walk all funny after?" Flandre asked curiously, this was more than enough for Kogasa to step back a little bit, but she quickly realized this was a mistake and started stepping back and forth idly.
"Sure," Kyouko said, "Why don't we try practicing with an egg?" she said as she looked around the vast fields of flowers that Meiling had planted, "But...how do we get back to the house?" Kyouko asked as she looked at the various paths throughout the garden. "We fly, silly!" Kogasa said as she picked Kyouko up by the armpits and began to fly towards the main entrance, "Race you there Flan!" "You're on!"
"Too many damn halls," Sanae groaned as she trudged forwards, holding her gohei as though it were an empty beer bottle. "If you didn't go charging forwards like an idiot, I could have shown you the way to the Princes' Room, but nooo, you just had to go out on your own, now didn't you?" Alice said grouchily as she floated after Sanae, "Besides, you ought to thank Shanghai for saving you so many times," Alice nodded her head towards her shoulder, where a burnt and battered Shanghai sat with what seemed to be an annoyed expression. "It's not my fault that damn rabbit set so many traps!" Sanae groaned. "The traps were set because the last time Eientei received visitors, they weren't of the peaceful variety," a cool voice interjected.
One Eirin Yagokoro stepped out from one of the many doors of the hallway, holding a bottle of an unknown purple liquid, "I finally manage to isolate one of these after dealing with that minor outbreak and you two come along, what do you want?" Eirin asked quickly.
Sanae was about to leap forwards with a mouth going a mile a minute but Shanghai held her down. "My...acquaintance here would like to ask a few questions Miss Yagokoro," Alice said calmly, "So long as she behaves herself, I see no reason why she cannot," Eirin stated as she put a rubber stopper into the mouth of the bottle and stored it. "Very well, Sanae, don't screw this up," Alice said as she had Shanghai release Sanae, who bounced back up and dusted herself off quickly. "HaveyouseenKogasaTatara?!" Sanae nearly yelled at Eirin, who had a look that could freeze Hell over on her face. "I have seen the Karakasa in question, she's a regular patient of mine who comes in on nearly a daily basis due to excessive danmaku injuries, why, do you have any idea as to how she comes across these so often Miss Kochiya?"
'And...we're screwed," Alice thought to herself as she began readying Shanghai and Hourai, Sanae however, saw no problem with how she was speaking, "IhavenoideaitwasprobablyReimuwaitwhydoyouknowmyname?" Sanae quieted down as she finished speaking, looking up towards the tall and imposing Lunarian, she saw Eirin look down at her with a scowl on her face. "Yes, I am fully aware as to why you are looking for the poor girl, as well as you beating up Tewi, whom I assure you was merely stalling for time for the other rabbits to report to me," Eirin said as she glared down at Sanae. "Now, you will remove yourself from Eientei, and come only for medical purposes henceforth, good day Miss Kochiya." Eirin said as Alice began dragging Sanae away, Shanghai happily sitting on Alice's shoulder. "Have a good day Alice," Eirin called out as Alice walked further down the hall, "And may Hina visit you soon to rid you of this annoyance."
Short chapters are great! Was a bit serious for what I was planning, not even sure how all that came to be, but hey, life. I'll start updating more often now that school's started, an for the readers still in school: If yer procrastinating, I applaud you, for those not procrastinating: I give ye the medal of Marisa!