Imperfect Metamorphosis

by TakerFoxx

It's the first day of spring, and Cirno and her friends are once again up to no good! But after stealing a strange box from Marisa's house, they soon find themselves over their heads as they discover some things are meant to remain locked up.

78. The Grimoire of Shanghai

The Grimoire of Shanghai

Hello.

This is my first entry of my personal diary. As I understand it, a diary is a book in which one might write down all of their thoughts, experiences, questions, and feelings as they happen, in part to keep record of one's life, in part so as help one work through harrowing situation by giving words to one's thoughts, thereby making the situation easier to understand.

This was suggested to me by my mommy, Alice Margatroid. As I am still very young, there are many questions that I often have, but unfortunately my mommy's new job keeps her very busy these days, and her new bosses are quite demanding. As such, so that she still is able to answer my questions without having it interfere with her work, she recommended that I write them down as soon as I find something I wish to ask her about, and we will spend half-an-hour every day going through them. I find this arrangement to be quite acceptable.

That having been said, I suppose now would be the time to introduce myself. My name is Shanghai Margatroid. I am a being known as a Tsukumogami, which is to say that I am a youkai born out of a previously inanimate object, in this case a marionette. Mommy's primary hobby is that of a dollmaker, and she had initially created my body to serve as a helper, one that was animated by magic. She also had been trying to give me life and sentience for quite some time until my creation, employing a number of different spells and experiments. Although none were immediately successful, my subsequent creation raises the probability of a delayed reaction, or at the very least preparing my previously inert body for its transformation.

These are all, of course, hypotheses. Testing them would require recreating the exact circumstances that led to my creation, and that is simply not feasible at the moment.

Regardless, I am glad that it happened. Being alive is incredibly fascinating! There is so much to learn and so much to experience! I'm very lucky that my Mommy so smart. I've learned so much already from her, and can't wait to see what else she can teach me!

…

So, see you in hell…you unbelievable-

The alarm clock went off, and Shanghai's eyes snapped open.

A moment later she started coughing.

She was lying in bed with Mommy, safe at home with the covers pulled up, head resting comfortably on the pillow, with one of Mommy's arms draped lightly around her. And yet her tiny heart was pounding, her breath frantic and shuddering, and her throat strangely tight, like something had been squeezing her windpipe. It was an alien sensation to her, though according to what she had read the descriptions lined up with what was referred to as a "fear response." How odd. It wasn't as if she were in any danger.

"Shanghai?" Mommy said as she sat up, her voice still thick with sleepiness. "Is something the matter?"

Mommy had not been sleeping well as of late. Her new job was a big one, and it kept her up at late hours, working on…actually, Shanghai wasn't exactly sure what she was working on. It seemed that she now had an inconvenient number of projects, from finding a cure for Shanghai's yet unmet grandmother to making the maid woman a new magic watch. It also sounded very complicated.

Still, at least Mommy was always there when she woke up, even if Shanghai often had to go to bed alone. It wasn't ideal, but Mommy's new job was very important, and so compromises had to be made.

"I…" Shanghai touched her throat and frowned. There was still an odd tightness about it. "I had difficulty breathing upon awakening. How odd. Did I sleep with poor posture?"

Mommy rubbed her eyes and yawned. "No, I do not believe so."

Shanghai touched a hand to her chest. Her heart was still thundering away. "And I am experiencing an increased heartrate, even though I was sleeping until now, thus was performing no physical exertion. Furthermore, I seem to be on high alert, despite there being no danger."

"Perhaps you had a nightmare," Mommy suggested.

Shanghai stared blankly up at her.

"A bad dream," Mommy clarified. "If your dream was frightening enough, it would trigger a fear response."

"Oh," Shanghai said, her miniature brow furrowing. "Well, my dream did seem to be upsetting."

Mommy tilted her head to one side. "Will you tell me about it?" she said as she gently smoothed out Shanghai's long, golden hair where it fell down her back.

Shanghai thought for a moment, but then shook her head. "I am sorry, but I no longer remember the specifics. I only seem to recall a tightness around my neck, an angry voice, and a red eye."

Mommy's hand paused. "A red eye?"

"Yes, a single red eye. It was staring at me, but I do not remember who it belonged to. It is a common eye color in Gensokyo, is it not?"

"Fairly common," Mommy said after a long pause. "Particularly in predatory youkai."

"Oh. Does the color give predators some kind of advantage?"

"No, but it is usually indicative of some other trait that does, such as superior night vision, or the ability to see body heat."

"Oh. But why was I having a dream of a predator youkai?"

Mommy tilted her head, giving Shanghai a quizzical look. "Shanghai, have you spoken to Remilia Scarlet since she first introduced herself to us?"

"No," Shanghai said honestly.

"Have you run across her since then? Has she threatened you in any way? Has she done anything to frighten you?"

"No," Shanghai said again.

"Are you frightened of her?"

Shanghai thought on that question for a bit before answering. "You told me that she is dangerous, owing to her unstable emotional state. I am wary of her, but no, she does not frighten me."

Mommy frowned, pursing her lips in thought.

"Is something the matter, Mommy? Is my dream of some concern?"

"I do not yet know," Mommy said at last. "Perhaps it is nothing. However, should you remember any more of it, please tell me."

Shanghai bobbed her head. "Yes, Mommy."

Then the line that awakening had interrupted suddenly became clear in her mind. It was desperate, angry, and defiant, but she did not who was saying it.

However, there was one word at the end that she did not understand, one that she was fairly certain that she had never heard before.

"Mommy, what is a 'cunt'?"

Mommy blanched. "What? Where did you hear that word?"

"From my dream."

"Your…Your dream taught you that word?"

"Yes, someone said that they would see me in hell, and that I was an unbelievable cunt. What is a 'cunt' though? I don't know that word."

"I…Shanghai, please do not say that word. It is a very filthy word."

Now Shanghai was even more confused. "How? Words are sounds; they do not have physical forms on which to accumulate dirt."

"I mean it is a profanity, a very insulting way to refer to someone."

"Oh." Shanghai blinked. "But why did it show up in my dream?"

"Perhaps you overheard one of the maids saying it," Mommy suggested. "I have noticed that they tend to use very coarse language at times."

Shanghai considered that possibility for a moment, but then shook her head. "No, I do not believe so."

"I see. Well, I will give your odd dream some thought, then." Mommy then pushed the bedcovers away. "For now, we should get ready for the day."

Shanghai nodded her head. "Okay, Mommy. That sounds fair."

…

Mommy and I live in her house. It is a very pretty house, with white walls and round windows. Inside are lots of rooms with a great many pretty things, as well as Mommy's dollmaking supplies. It is a little strange to see those boxes of doll heads, knowing that mine used to be like them. Perhaps one day Mommy will figure out how to bring them to life as well, and then I shall have sisters!

When I was created, the house was in the Forest of Magic, and that is where we lived for the first few weeks of my life. However, when Mommy got her new job, the house and its garden were relocated to the grounds of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which belongs to a vampire named Remilia Scarlet, who is Mommy's new employer. I am not allowed to talk to Remilia Scarlet alone, as she recently endured several tragedies that have negatively affected her emotional state, making her unpredictable. I feel bad for her, but Mommy feels it is better to be safe rather than sorry.

The mansion is very, very, very big, and is filled with many pretty things. I admit, I still do not understand its function. Remilia Scarlet is a small person, but she lives in such a big house. Why would someone so small need so much space. Surely she doesn't use all the rooms? Mommy is larger than her, and our house is more than sufficient for her needs and belongings. It strikes me as very strange.

…

"So, do you have any plans for today?" Alice said as she set down the light breakfast of pancakes and fruit for the two of them.

Her daughter was seated at one end of the table, her chair small to fit her frame but having very long legs so that she could reach the tabletop. "I thought that I might explore," she said. "I have yet to see much of the mansion other than what was shown on the tour, and am curious about the place."

Her lips pursed in a frown, Alice sat down across from her. "I'm not sure that I am very comfortable with that, Shanghai. We've discussed Remilia Scarlet's volatile state. I know the mansion is large, but there still remains a chance that you might come across her.

"I thought that she was a vampire, and that vampires are always asleep during the daytime."

Alice cut the topmost pancake on her small stack into triangles. "True, but her behavior as of late has been erratic. I would not count on her following any sort of norm."

"Oh," Shanghai said, her face falling in disappointment.

Now this was a quandary. On the one hand, Alice had always openly encouraged her daughter's curiosity, and she could not fault her for being curious about their new home. Alice herself often found herself wanting to just open doors to see what lay beyond, and there were a great many doors.

On the other hand, the Scarlet Devil Mansion was dangerous. Even without its unstable mistress lurking about, there were a great many traps and security measures intended to stop thieves, and they did not tend to care about the condition of the thief after the trap had been triggered. Shanghai might technically be immortal, but Alice wasn't eager to test that.

On the other, other hand, there weren't many alternatives. The library was one of the most dangerous rooms in the mansion, so she couldn't very well just let Shanghai wander around there. She supposed that she could just keep the little doll inside of their house. After all, that would be the safest option. Better Shanghai be bored than be put in danger.

She opened her mouth to tell Shanghai to please not go wandering, to stay inside until Alice finished her work for the day, but the words caught in her throat.

Shinki had also tried to keep her cooped up. Shinki had also tried to take away her freedom. And while Alice now felt that she understood her mother a little better, she still did not want to make the same mistakes.

But perhaps there was a compromise that could be made.

"Perhaps you could ask someone to accompany you," Alice suggested. "That way, should you come across Remilia, you'll have someone at hand to mollify her."

Shanghai brightened at the suggestion. "Oh, that is a fine idea! Shall I ask Miss Izayoi?"

"No," Alice said flatly. "That would be a very bad idea."

"Oh. Is she also dangerous?"

"Yes, but not to you. However, she is also currently overworked and has little time to deviate from her duties."

The little doll's tiny nose scrunched up in confusion. "But she still takes time out of her day in order to teach Miss Reimu about sword fighting."

"That was ordered by her mistress and already has time booked out of her day in advance. I doubt she will take kindly to a last-second request."

"Ah. Then who should I ask?"

Alice considered the question. While she would have vastly preferred to be the one to accompany her daughter, her own duties prevented her from doing so, as did her lack of knowledge of the mansion's layout. Surely none of the maids could be entrusted with her daughter's safety; they expended what brain power they had already just keeping up with their chores.

"What about Hong Meiling?" Shanghai said. "She is familiar enough with the grounds to give a satisfying tour, and strong enough to prevent any hard from coming to me."

Alice frowned at the suggestion. "I don't know," she said. "Meiling is not…the most dependable person…"

"Please, Mommy?" Shanghai clasped her hands together and stuck her lower lip out in a pout. "I promise I'll be good!"

Alice sighed. "Stop that. It's unbecoming."

"Well, I felt it was worth a shot," Shanghai said. "Still, may I please ask Meiling? I'm sure that she will let no harm come to me."

Despite herself, Alice felt her will weakening. Besides, Meiling had proven herself several times over, and it wasn't as if her perchance for naps would kick in while looking after a child. "Oh, all right," she said at last. "Just promise me that you'll be careful, don't touch anything you're not supposed to, don't go anywhere you're not supposed to, and stay well away from Remilia's chambers."

Shanghai bobbed her head. "Of course! I shall exercise utter caution."

Perhaps, but that did nothing to allay the twisting feeling in Alice's gut. She hoped it was just nerves and not a sign that she had just made a tremendous mistake.

…

There are a great many other people working for Remilia Scarlet. Some of them live at the mansion, others do not. That also strikes me as odd. I am told that a large staff is necessary to see to the upkeep of such a large building, and yet part of the reason that it is so large is to accomondate such a large staff. Surely it would be far more efficient to have a smaller building with a smaller staff!

Most of the staff are fairies who have been hired to keep the place clean. I haven't had the opportunity to speak with any of them. I do not think I'm supposed to. I was told to leave them alone. Apparently they are easily distracted. However, there are a few ranking members of the household that I have met.

My favorite is Hong Meiling, who guards the gate. She is a tall youkai lady and is very pretty, and she has a very appealing accent. She is very nice and very fun, though she does not strike me as being especially diligent at her job. However, she still has it, so she probably accomplishes it in other ways that are not readily apparent.

Meiling has a friend named Koakuma, who is a type of demon known as a "succubus." I'm not exactly sure what differentiates a succubus from most demons, and Mommy seemed to be very uncomfortable with the topic. Given the nature of demons, I will assume that succubuses (succubi? Succubae? I will have to double-check the proper plural) are unusually dangerous, even by demonic standards. Perhaps one of the books in the library can tell me more.

Koakuma does not strike me as being especially dangerous though. She seems very shy. Apparently, she was the assistant to the previous librarian, Patchouli Knowledge, and after Miss Knowledge died, she became Meiling's assistant instead. I am not clear on what the assistant to a gate guard would do, but they seem satisfied with the arrangement, so I assume it is working out for both of them.

"All right, girls!" Meiling cheered to her class. "Come on, press those spines! I wanna hear those vertebrae pop!"

Meiling was lying on her belly atop a long, rubber mat laid upon the Scarlet Devil Mansion's lawn. The flats of her palms were pushing down, bending her torso up, stretching out the muscles in her back.

Arrayed in front of her were several other mats laid out in a square grid, and upon those mats were several fairies, youkai, and other beings, all of them struggling to keep up with their yoga instructor. Most of them were part of the mansion staff, but there were a handful wild entities who just wanted to bring themselves into peak physical form. It didn't matter. Meiling was happy to teach anyone who wanted to improve themselves.

As desired, Meiling was greeted with several pops and cracks as a couple-dozen spines were bent in ways to which they were not accustomed. "There you go!" she said. Then she thrust her butt into the air, legs and arms stretched as straight as they could go. "Now, down-dog!"

Her students tried to mirror her form to varying degrees of success. Someone had started crying.

"Keep those arms straight, no bending your knees!" Meiling encouraged them. "There you go. And now, feet in the air, and no flying! Muscles only!"

She lifted her feet off the mat and slowly straightened her torso so that she was standing on her hands, legs held high.

The air filled with cries, moans, and groans of muscle exertion and self-improvement.

"Keep it steady, keep it steady," Meiling said. "Feel that burn."

They felt it. They let her know.

"That's right!" she said. "That's your weakness burning away, making you stronger, making you mighty! Now hold it in place-"

A dainty little face framed by long, golden hair popped into her view. "Hello, Miss Hong!"

"Oh, Shanghai!" Meiling said happily. "Hi there! Settling in well?"

"Very well, thank you! But I had a favor I wished to request. I would like to see more of the mansion, but Mommy says I ought to find someone trustworthy to accompany me. She seems to feel that exploring on my own might be perilous. Would you be so kind as to come with me?"

Still upside-down, Meiling grimaced. "Aw, shucks, Shanghai," she said. "I'd love to, but I got my yoga class to teach!"

"Oh, is that what this is?" Shanghai said. "I had wondered. What's 'yoga'?"

"A great type of exercise!" Meiling said. "Keeps you strong, keeps you flexible, and keeps you sharp!"

Then she got an idea.

Turning her head, she looked over to the front gate. There, her new sidekick Koakuma was standing guard. "Hey, Koa!"

The little devil looked up. "Hmmm?"

Meiling flipped nimbly up to her feet. "I'm going to go show little Miss Margatroid here around! You know, give her the grand tour. Take over the rest of the class for me, okay?"

"M-Me?" Koakuma stammered. "But I-"

"Thanks!" Meiling turned to the little hovering doll. "Okay, kiddo! Let's go!"

Shanghai beamed. "Thank you, Miss Hong!"

"Sure thing! Oh, and it's okay to just call me Meiling."

"Okay, Miss Meiling!"

"Eh, you know what? Close enough." Meiling headed to leave, but then she noticed that her students were still struggling to maintain their headstands, or at least those who had managed to complete and hold them were, which was not a majority. "Oh, and you guys can relax, and listen to Koa here."

Those who had not already done so collapsed groaning onto the ground.

…

Koakuma looked out over Meiling's exhausted students. Most of them looked like they could barely even sit up straight, much less complete any more sets of exercises.

"Well, okay," she said. "For your next exercise, we'll…be doing the starfish."

One of the red-faced and panting fairy maids looked up at her. "Th…The what?" she gasped.

In answer, Koakuma flopped flat onto her back, her arms and legs splayed out.

"Oh, thank the gods."

Moments later all of Meiling's students had collapsed onto their backs with thankful groans and whimpers.

…

Before our house was moved here, it was in a big forest called the Forest of Magic. Now it is in the Scarlet Devil Mansion Garden. Honestly, I am not certain which one I prefer. The garden is unquestionably prettier, but the forest felt more alive. It was wild, uncontrolled, and quite savage. And that did give it a strange beauty, even if most of it was very dark, owing to the thick canopy. At least Mommy's herb garden was brought along with the house.

That having been said, the garden we live in now is still very nice. There are a variety of different flowers and trees, and it is clear that certain parts are intended to imitate specific environments. I am currently keeping track of the unique flower species I have come across. So far I have logged thirty-seven.

However, what I have found strange about the garden is the odd sense of familiarity I have while exploring. I have never seen it before our house was moved here, and yet I cannot shake the sense that I know this place. Isn't that odd? Perhaps it is a memory of Mommy's that was transmitted to me through the magic that created me, though I do not believe she was a frequent visitor until now.

…

It was sort of weird to have a kid living at the mansion now.

Well, no, not a kid, per se. Shanghai's brain was way too advanced to be considered just a kid. She had been born already knowing so many big words and how to do really hard stuff like…math. Being a youkai was kind of funny like that sometimes. A lot of them were created with a lifetime of skills already in place. Shanghai probably knew how to do a lot of smart people stuff better than Meiling did.

Still, she was still very young, and had the boundless curiosity and naivete of a child, and Meiling definitely liked having her around. It was nice having someone who looked up to her for once.

When Shanghai and her mother Alice Margatroid had been shown around, that had been Sakuya leading the tour, which meant that they went where Sakuya wanted them to go. This one was a little different, as Meiling wasn't really so much showing Shanghai around as she was just following the little doll around, making sure she didn't get into trouble and answering all her questions. Which was also nice.

Naturally, they were starting with the garden, which wound around the mansion. Which was great, because the garden was easily Meiling's favorite part of the place, partially because it was where she spent all of her time as part of her job, but also because it was both as pretty as the rest of the mansion but also didn't have that stuffy, oppressive feel that the inside did. At any rate, Meiling now got to lead her new little friend through the winding paths in between the flowerbeds and groves of trees, pointing out her favorite places to take a nap in the Sun, that one tree she had found a rather irate and noodle-covered Reimu Hakurei hanging upside-down from on one very funny morning, and which flowers smelled the best and where to be careful because of bees.

"The garden seems excessively large," Shanghai remarked as they examined a bed of humongous lilies. "It is quite beautiful as well, and terribly well-maintained."

Meiling nodded. "And that takes a ton of work, let me tell you! We've got like twenty gardeners keeping things nice and tidy!" She pointed to a pair of fairy gardeners trimming the daffodils further down. "Like them! Hi, girls!" The gardeners politely waved at them.

Shanghai waved back. "Is lady Remilia particularly fond of flowers?"

Meiling shrugged. "Eh, she likes them okay, I guess. Roses are her favorite. Obviously." There were certainly several of them. While most kinds of flowers were present, the overwhelming majority were roses.

"Why roses?" Shanghai asked.

"I dunno," Meiling said with another shrug. "Vampires just seem to like roses. I think it's because they're dramatic like them."

"I see." Shanghai then frowned, and scratched her head. "But if she only likes them 'okay,' why have so many of them?"

"Well, you see-"

"Does she often come outside for a walk? I know she is nocturnal, but Mommy did not see overly concerned with having her walk around outside our house while we sleep."

Meiling shook her head. "Not really. I mean, she'll go for a stroll sometimes, but that's mostly when she has company. Which isn't that often. She's kinda of an inside person, you know?"

Now the little doll looked utterly lost. "Then why have such an elaborate garden if you are not overly interested in gardens?"

Finally, an easy question. "For show!" Meiling exclaimed, spreading her arms with a dramatic flourish.

"I'm sorry?"

Grinning, Meiling stretched her arm out to boop Shanghai on the nose. "That's the thing about being a rich person! You have a lot of nice things to show off to other rich people! Then they go, 'Wow, that person is rich and has good taste!' It's an image thing."

Shanghai thoughtfully pursed her lips. "Wouldn't it be easier to simply show them your money?"

"Money isn't any good if you don't spend it," Meiling explained. "And if you impress other rich people, that means they're more likely to do stuff for you!"

"Why not just pay for the things you want if you already have the money?"

Man, the kid was sharp! Probably because she had such a smarty-skirt for a mother. "It's not about buying things; it's about getting favors!"

"Like what?"

Meiling sighed, rolling her eyes skyward. "Oh, I don't know, they never tell me those things. Besides, it's not my job to figure that stuff out. I just know that if you're rich, then you want other rich people to think that you're really good at being a rich person. And that means having a lot of pretty things to show off."

"Ah," Shanghai said with an understanding nod. "And does Gensokyo have a lot of rich people for her to impress?"

Huh, that was actually a good question. "Actually, no. Come to think of it, she might actually be the richest person here," Meiling said. She put her hands on her hips and frowned. "Maybe. I mean, I've never actually taken a lot at anyone's money or anything. I guess Yukari Yakumo might be richer? And maybe some god? Dragons, I guess. And Celestials. But she never really talks to those people."

"I see," Shanghai said in a neutral tone.

Finally giving up, Meiling spread her hands and shrugged yet again. "Anyway, it doesn't really matter to me. I'm just the gate guard. My job is to keep an eye on the front gate to make sure nobody goes through that isn't supposed to go through."

Shanghai looked over her shoulder. "Is the front gate the only entrance to the mansion grounds, then?"

"Well, it's the most important one. Not like that's ever stopped some people."

"Such as Marisa Kirisame?"

Meiling couldn't help but grin a little at the scamp's name. "Oh, you know about her!"

"She was Mommy's best friend," Shanghai said. "She talks about her sometimes."

Meiling let out a regretful sigh. "Yeah. Gotta say, I really liked that little rogue. She was pretty cool. I mean, she made my job a whole lot harder, but she was still pretty cool, always had a nice thing to say whenever I was kicking her out."

Shanghai nodded. "Mommy says that she was very frustrating, but also very fun."

"That's a good way to describe it." Certainly, Marisa did make Meiling's job a whole lot more difficult, and regularly at that. And yeah, Patchouli Knowledge had been a cranky pain in the butt whose default setting seemed to be sarcasm. And yet, now that both magicians were gone, Meiling honestly missed them both. Things just weren't the same without them. "You know, I never did figure out how she kept getting in. Like, we'd seal off all the hidden entrances, put up anti-air charms, we even checked to see if she was coming from underground, but somehow-"

"Perhaps it was that?" Shanghai said, pointing.

Meiling looked. "It was what?"

The place Shanghai was pointing toward was a small lake bordered by weeping willows, their long tresses dangling in the water, in which paddled a small flock of swans. Meiling tended to avoid that place. The willows made for some nice shade, but the swans were…cranky. And territorial. And not keen on sharing their space.

"There," Shanghai said, still pointing. "That section of wall."

Now Meiling was really puzzled. Right past the willow grove was the wall, specifically one of the wall posts, which was tall and thick and topped with a monstrous gargoyle leering to the other side. But what could Shanghai be talking about?

"I don't see it," she said.

Shanghai flitted over to the wall post in question. She looked it up and down, as if searching for something in particular.

Then she held out two hands to lay her palms against two nondescript bricks.

"I'm not tall enough," she said. "Could you please press the middle brick in the second row from the bottom?"

Puzzled, Meiling still did what she was asked. At the same time Shanghai pushed against the bricks she was touching.

All three sank into the wall post. A moment later a square patch of ground directly in front of the post sank into the earth and slid away, revealing a dark tunnel.

"Oh, hey!" Meiling said, hopping back. "Another secret tunnel? How many does this house have?"

"I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that question," Shanghai said. "I only just moved here."

"Don't sweat it. Not even the Mistress knows." Meiling got on her hands and knees and stuck her head down into the tunnel.

Sure enough, it extended under the wall post to come up on the other side, a neat way for anyone to sneak past the mansion's exterior defenses to get into the garden, provided that you already knew it was there.

Meiling was confused. She had passed by this post countless times and yet never so much as suspected that it was there. "Hey, uh, how did you know that was there?"

"I…" Then Shanghai's brow knit together in puzzlement. "…do not know. I just did. How odd."

Meiling scratched her head. "Seriously? You've never seen that before? You just knew it was there?"

"Yes." Still frowning, Shanghai tilted her head to one side. "You weren't aware of it?"

Meiling shook her head. "Nope! But this house is full of secret entrances and rooms and tunnels and stuff like that. I don't think Sakuya or even Remilia knows about all of them." One time, Meiling had accidentally discovered a secret passage behind a bathroom mirror, one that had led to several rooms full of nothing but cursed suits of armor locked up inside of glass boxes, all of which came alive and started futilely banging their gauntlets against their prisons when she had appeared. That had been bad enough, but in trying to leave, Meiling had then accidentally discovered yet another secret passage, ended up in a labyrinth of tunnels that had gotten her hopelessly lost until she had run out of patience and broke her way out with her fists. Sakuya had been really upset about the mess, and docked her pay as a result. Now, that had not been fair at all. It hadn't been her fault that the house was just so danged weird.

Also, she was pretty sure those suits of armor were still there, still trying to escape. Sometimes she could swear she heard the sound of clinking and clanging somewhere deep in the walls.

"How?" Shanghai said. "Is it not her house?"

"The house is weird," Meiling said with a sigh. "Vampires are weird." She shrugged yet again. "I don't know, what can I say?"

"Ah. Is that why Mommy did not want me to explore by myself?"

"I would bet on it! Your Mom is really smart. That's why Sakuya wanted her hire her, after all."

"That makes sense. Oh, that reminds me: would you so happen to know what a 'cunt' is?"

Meiling hopped back with a gasp. "Whoa, hey! Where'd you learn that word?"

"It came to me in a dream," Shanghai said. "I tried asking Mommy about it, but she only said that it was a filthy insult without explaining why. Would you happen to know?"

"Nuh-uh, no way," Meiling said, shaking her head. "Not touching that. Not teaching kids bad words."

"But you're not teaching me the word when I already know it! I just want-"

"Hey, hey, kid," Meiling said, holding up her hands. "Like I said. Not gonna touch that one. That is above my pay grade."

Shanghai looked very confused. "Okay, but-"

"Look, you wanna curse like a sailor with Tourette's syndrome who just stubbed their toe, I don't mind. Just…don't ask me to get involved."

"But…" Then Shanghai sighed. "Okay."

Sighing in relief, Meiling placed a hand on Shanghai's back to guide her along. "There you go. Now, let's keep moving. There's a lot of house to cover, and we'd better get it done before the Lady wakes up."

…

Exhaling slowly, Alice looked over her handiwork.

Row after row of dolls lay upon the floor of the library's central rotunda, the only place where there was enough room to place them. One would think that somewhere as large as the Scarlet Devil Mansion would not lack for floorspace, but it was also just so cluttered with…with stuff that finally enough room to work was far more challenging than Alice had anticipated. Sure, her own home had plenty of stuff as well; any magician worth her salt would. But she also kept great pains to keep things organized and out of the way when she wasn't using them!

The dolls were all around the same size as Shanghai and dressed in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's black-and-white maid outfits. The library was one of the few places in the mansion where the normal maid staff weren't permitted, in part because the previous librarian had found them annoying, and also in part due to the delicate nature of many of the books of magic and the chaotic energies they gave off. Having creatures as flighty and distractible as fairies around all that would have been recipe for disaster.

And so Patchouli Knowledge had seen to the library's care and upkeep with a series of deeply laid spells, all of which unfortunately had begun to decay with her death. Alice could have simply laid her own spells, but that just wasn't her area of expertise. Pachouli had been primarily an elementalist. Alice was an animator.

Opening her grimoire, Alice raised a hand and began chanting in an ancient demonic dialect she had learned as a child, one well-suited for mystical incantations.

"Esk-Corrin-Psyken."

A sparkling white aura formed around each of the doll maids.

"Nie-Harren-Norkoto."

The dolls began to glow.

"Veish-Kai-Khan!"

As one, each and every one of the dolls maids sat straight up and opened their painted eyes. They stood to their tiny wooden feet and floated up into the air before dispersing, each one preprogrammed with a specific task.

Alice nodded in satisfaction. There, that should take care of the library's care, leaving her mind free to focus on her projects, of which she now had many.

Then her mouth dipped downward. Right. Her projects. Find a way to cure a Fallen Angel of a previously unknown ailment given to her from an element from another dimension entirely, one so severe that not even a full Angel knew what to do.

Also, she had to recreate a highly complex magical device, one created by her predecessor to amplify Lunarian magic using the very same elemental magics that Alice simply did not specialize in, using notes and diagrams that probably only made sense to the late Patchouli Knowledge, meaning she was probably going to have to recreate the enchantments from scratch. And she had to do that before turning her focus toward saving her estranged step-mother.

And that wasn't getting to the blood thing, where several vials of Flandre's blood had been used to create a tracking spell intended to divine her current location, despite the vials being very old, despite Flandre having died and had her body recreated since then, and despite vampire blood being notoriously difficult to work with, since so much of it tended to be mixed with that of their victims.

And that wasn't even getting into trying to make time to raise her newborn daughter while keeping her safe from a multitude of threats, which so happened to include her current employer.

And oh yeah, she was still giving Reimu magic lessons.

Ever since taking the job, Alice had developed a persistent headache that never seemed to go away. Sometimes it would dull to the point where she barely noticed it, but at times it would flare up to the point that it felt like her skull was going to explode.

This was one of those times.

Kneading the flesh of her forehead with her fingers, Alice turned to head back to Patchouli's study. One of these days she was going to have to really clear out and reorganize that travesty. She did not want to think ill of the dead, especially a respected peer, but if a sound workspace was a telltale sign of a sound mind, then Patchouli's mind had been very unsound.

Then again, if Alice remained under this level of stress for much longer, her own soundness of mind wasn't long for this world. Maybe Patchouli could be forgiven for her cantankerous personality. Maybe Alice was only a few months away from becoming an anemic, untidy social recluse herself.

The very thought of it only made Alice's head pound all the harder.

…

The woman who hired Mommy is named Sakuya Izayoi. She is also very pretty, but also quite dangerous looking. She is polite, but also seems to have a short temper. She and Mommy have gotten into a few arguments already.

Miss Izayoi is a Lunarian, which means she was born on the Moon but now lives here in Gensokyo. I wonder if the differences in the gravitational pull made transitioning to her new home difficult when she first came down to Earth. Perhaps she had to perform special exercises to train her muscles to deal with her sudden increase in weight.

Apparently she has a natural control over both space and time, which is why the mansion is so much larger on the inside than it is on the outside. However, to consciously control this power, she used a magical pocketwatch made for her by Patchouli Knowledge. The watch has since been destroyed, and Mommy is helping to make her a new one. I understand that it is a difficult project, but I am sure that Mommy will find a way!

…

Things were still…unraveled.

The Mistress was still in a horrid state, every day bouncing back and forth between extreme emotional states, all of them sudden, and all of them negative, whether she be wallowing in depression, consumed with remorse, driven by vengeance, or all of them at once. Managing her moods was practically a full-time job, and seeing how Sakuya already had a full-time job, the added stress and worry wasn't doing her personal mental wellbeing any favors.

Still, at least a few threads were being sewn back into place. They had a new Head Librarian, a competent magician to fill Patchouli's large (if a bit smelly) shoes, and that magician was hard at work replacing Sakuya's pocketwatch, the conduit to her power. Once she had that in place, a full rest awaited her, and she could breathe a little easier, knowing that there was nothing Remilia could do to hurt herself that Sakuya could not stop.

But with those new threads came complications. Placing Alice Margatroid into Patchouli Knowledge's old office had ruffled a few feathers, and Alice herself was her own brand of contrary, as magicians often were.

And then there was the child.

Whom she now saw.

Sakuya had just turned the corner on one of her many patrols, entering one of the mansion's many sitting rooms. The room was two-storied, with a platform sticking out halfway up the wall, connecting by two staircases. Several expensive couches and chairs were gathered on both stories, and tables and cabinets covered in knick-knacks filled the rest of the space.

Hong Meiling was showing Shanghai Margatroid a collection of sparkling geodes arranged in one cabinet. Quirking an eyebrow, Sakuya went up to them and cleared her throat, drawing their attention.

"Ah," Sakuya said, as calm and polite as ever. "Young Miss Margatroid. Meiling."

If the magically animated doll was picking up at all on the displeasure being radiated toward her, she gave no sign, merely smiling and bowing her head politely. "Good morning, Miss Izayoi."

Meiling winced. She knew Sakuya's moods well enough to know that she had just stumbled across a foul own. "Hey, boss," she said with a timid wave.

Sakuya turned her attention to her. "Meiling. I am surprised to see you inside the house. Do you not have a gate to be guarding?"

"Oh, Koa's covering for me," Meiling said. She very lightly punched Shanghai in the shoulder, though the length of her fist covered the whole of Shanghai's torso. "Shanghai here wanted me to show her around, so I figured, why not? Kid needs someone to look after her."

"Meiling is very helpful," Shanghai added.

"I see," Sakuya said, her stormcloud eyes narrowing. "However, I do recall conducting a tour for you and your mother not too long ago. Was it somehow insufficient?"

"Oh no," Shanghai said. "I wished to explore a little, but Mommy said that it's dangerous to wander around by myself and suggested I ask Meiling to accompany me!"

Smiling sheepishly, Meiling awkwardly scratched the back of her neck. "Yeah, I'm not really a guide. More of, you know, a chaperone? A bodyguard? A Hey-You-Shouldn't-Go-In-There sort of thing. If she wants to go somewhere she shouldn't go into."

Sakuya scowled. "I see. Well, so long as it doesn't disturb the Mistress. However, I am not certain that allowing a child to wander the mansion is the wisest decision."

Meiling beamed. "Which is why I'm going with her! Don't worry, I'll make sure she doesn't knock over any vases."

"That wasn't my concern," Sakuya said with a sigh. "Very well, carry on. I am actually on my way to speak with your mother."

Shanghai tilted her head. "Because of the watch thing or the blood thing?"

"Both, actually."

Then Shanghai's face lit up. "Oh, I've been meaning to ask! Isn't your power over time and space intrinsic?"

Sakuya arched an eyebrow. "It is," she said, her tone a bit guarded. What was this child getting at?

"But it's your power that makes the mansion's interior greater than the space occupied by the exterior, correct? And yet the spells keeping it that way have not been compromised by the watch's destruction."

An observation that would be obvious coming from anyone with even the slightest amount of magical proficiency, but it was somewhat surprising to hear from Shanghai. Then again, just because she sort of looked like a fairy didn't mean she had the intelligence of one, and she was the daughter of a magician after all. "They were not created by the watch. The watch allowed me greater control and focus over my abilities without causing mental strain. Without it, using my power requires a great amount of exertion, especially within the confines of the mansion."

Shanghai's eyes brightened. "Oh, I see! A triple-layered dimensional partition, then! Clever! Very difficult, though."

"Yes, very," Sakuya said. "Clearly your mother has not neglected your education."

"Oh, she didn't teach me that," Shanghai said. "I learned it from…"

She paused, and then frowned.

"Yes?" Sakuya said at last.

"How odd," Shanghai said. "I am not certain where I learned it from. I do not recall reading about it in any books. But when you described it to me, I just knew the name for it."

Sakuya shrugged. "Perhaps your creation gifted you with your mother's magical knowledge."

"It is a possibility." Then Shanghai brightened. "But even so, it sounds very interesting! I'd like to see it when it's done!"

"Yes, well, we'll see," Sakuya said brusquely. "In the meantime, stay out of trouble, do not touch anything you are not supposed to, and do not disturb the Mistress!"

"I shall. Oh, and before you go, would you so happen to know what a 'cunt' is?"

Sakuya paused. Then she turned to stare right at Meiling, one eyebrow raised.

"Hey, it wasn't me," Meiling said, holding up her palms. "She asked me the same thing. Said she heard the word in a dream."

Patience. Patience.

"Shanghai, I regret to inform you that defining profanity is not my job," Sakuya said. "You now have access to the largest library in existence. Perhaps you ought to seek the answer there."

"Ah. Is there a book on profanity definitions?"

"It would not surprise me. Good day."

…

The death of the previous librarian has clearly had an effect on the people that live and work here. She seems to have been well-loved, though Mommy says that the two of them weren't close.

Mommy says that the people here might not be happy about her taking Patchouli Knowledge's job. Certainly I have sensed some hostility, but no one has made any overt threats. I hope in time people will get used to us being here. I would not want to be a bother.

…

Alice respected Patchouli Knowledge, she truly did. She had never particularly liked her, but that was fine. Magicians rarely made for good friends of other magicians. Her own friendship with Marisa had been something that Marisa had practically bullied her into. So she did not have to like Patchouli Knowledge in order to respect her.

But dear spirits, that respect was being tested.

Alice sat slumped in a chair that had once been Patchouli's, within the private study and workshop that had once been Patchouli's, staring bleakly at a number of floating diagrams, conjured by magic. The diagrams had all been taken from what notes she had been able to dig up on the construction of Sakuya Izayoi's pocketwatch, detailing the spells that had gone into its creation.

Unfortunately, she couldn't make heads or tails of it. The individual runes and enchantments used were recognizable, but there were so many alterations that made zero sense, and Patchouli's handwritten notes on the manner were too stream-of-consciousness to be at all helpful. It seemed as if Patchouli had stumbled upon a working formula through months of trial and error and did not fully understand how it had worked and wasn't going to ask questions once it did for fear of undoing it.

But recreating those circumstances required having those questions answered!

Rubbing her aching head, Alice slumped forward with a groan. She could likely rebuild the watch itself; mechanics weren't a problem for her. But enchanting it was a whole other box of scraps. It wasn't enough to simply recreate the spell as detailed. She needed to understand how to link it to the dimensional rifts laid within the mansion itself, how to allow Sakuya to speed up her personal sense of time while keeping them stable, and so on. It was paradox after paradox, and it seemed that Patchouli's notes were bound and determined not to give her the slightest bit of help!

And then there was a knock at the door.

Alice inhaled sharply. Oh please, don't be someone looking for a book. "Yes?" she said through clenched teeth.

The door opened, and Sakuya Izayoi appeared. "Good day," she said. "How is your research progressing?"

Alice glowered balefully at the source of her troubles. "Poorly," she snapped.

Sakuya arched a silver eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yes." Alice gestured to the glowing diagrams. "These are supposedly the spells that went into your original pocketwatch, but nothing about it makes any sense at all. It looks like Patchouli stumbled onto it by accident, and didn't bother to research how! I am looking at a rat's nest of enchantments, most of which seem totally redundant, but could also be the thing holding the whole nonsense together! Her notes don't make any sense, she never bothered to detail her observations, and to top it off I'm certain there are entire research logs missing, and the gods only know where she stashed those!"

Sakuya fell gravely silent, her face as cold and hard as a glacier. "Miss Margatroid," she said at last. "Are you implying that your skills are insufficient to the task?"

"I said nothing of the sort. I'm saying that Patchouli clearly never anticipated anyone needing to recreate her work, and what she left behind is what is insufficient to the task!"

Sakuya's lips thinned out into a knife-slash. "Miss Margatroid, you have literally more resources at your disposal than any magician in Gensokyo's history, living or dead. I approached you for this position because I have faith in your abilities, but if that faith was misplaced, I need to know now so I can find someone with the necessary tools to complete this task. Because rest assured: completion of this task is paramount, and I will tolerate neither failure nor excuses."

Alice felt like screaming. "But my skills aren't the problem, the problem is Patchouli's-"

"Patchouli Knowledge is dead," Sakuya interrupted. "Figure it out."

Groaning, Alice slumped forward, her head in her hands.

"And let me know when you do," Sakuya said, turning to leave. "I have a number of modifications I wish to discuss."

Alice's head snapped up. "Are you serious? I'm having enough trouble recreating the damn thing, and you want me to modify-"

But Sakuya was already gone, the door swinging shut behind her.

Alice stared after her, her mouth agape. Sakuya couldn't be serious. Right after Alice had just gotten done explaining the difficulties facing her, that arrogant Lunarian was just going to casually complicate things further? Didn't she know that the very life of Alice's mother was at stake?

Balling her trembling hands into fists at her side, Alice inhaled sharply through her nose, held it, and exhaled again through her nostrils, making a sound similar to that of a teakettle brought to boil.

Then she whipped around and started banging her fists against the chair.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!" she shrieked. This wasn't fair! They were asking the impossible of her! Where did Sakuya get off demanding such a thing from her? Didn't Alice have enough on her plate already?

Finally Alice's anger burned itself out, leaving her feeling spent and empty. She collapsed back into the chair she had been abusing, slumping limply with her arms draped over the armrests.

She felt tired. She just felt so damn tired.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Alice turned her head toward the other chair sitting next to hers, the one intended for guests in the rare times Patchouli had wished to entertain.

Marisa's old hat sat in the seat, the color now light blue and the ribbon pink, but still recognizable as hers. Alice truly wished that she was here. The Mad Magician of the Forest of Magic had a peculiar talent for making sense of nonsense, for seeing patterns in chaos, for innately understanding how magic flowed and how to alter that flow.

She could probably figure this out in an afternoon, Alice thought bitterly as she reached over and picked the hat up. Turning the brim over in her hands, she thought back to the plethora of spells and incantations Marisa had blatantly stolen from others and made her own, including a few of Patchouli's. Cracking this case would be child's play to her.

Sighing, Alice plopped the hat on her head and leaned back into her chair. Gods, she missed Marisa. She would honestly give just about anything (save for Shanghai, of course) just to hear her braying laugh or one of her dirty jokes or…

Then Alice's brow creased. Wait.

She cracked her eyes open. The glowing pocketwatch diagrams were still floating in the air and still just as incomprehensible as before. And yet…

Her eyes followed leyline, seeing how it wove in-between the runes for time, water, and air. Come to think of it, there was a sort of logic how they connected together. And if the energy were combined just so, wouldn't that mean…

Alice leaned forward again, eyes flitting all over the diagrams. She waved a hand, and the diagrams suddenly came together, overlaying one another to form a single design. Utter nonsense. She frowned and waved her hand again, rotating each diagram here and there. There was something she was missing but was on the precipice of realizing, something…

Wait.

There were three diagrams, three separate layers of spells, each forming a round shape. But if she were to cause each one to constantly rotate clockwise, each one at a different speed…

"It's a clock," she said out loud. "They're the hands of a clock. That's how she did it. That's how she stabilized the separation field." She laughed. "Dear spirits, that's actually brilliant."

A moment later Alice was seated at the desk, writing furiously. Ideas were flowing into her head, ideas that she could now make manifest.

She might actually be able to do this.

…

One of the many jobs that Mommy was hired for is to help locate Remilia Scarlet's wayward sister, Flandre Scarlet. I have also never met Flandre, and she was apparently kidnapped before I was born. Naturally, everyone is very upset over that.

However, there is a lot about Flandre that frankly makes no sense. I am told that she was kept locked up in the mansion's basement and never allowed to leave. That strikes me as an excessively cruel way to treat anyone, especially your only surviving family member, much less your own sister. I am told that Flandre suffered from an extreme mental illness and was also in possession of a horrifying amount of destructive power, making it dangerous to let her wander free. While I understand that one must protect the innocent population and that some conditions are incredibly difficult to treat (i.e., my grandmother's current malady), and that taking chances could cost lives, there surely had to have been a more humane way to contain her, especially for someone who has control over space and time!

…

"Does that lead down to the basement?" Shanghai said, peering down the flight of stairs and heavily reinforced steel door at the bottom.

"Sure does," Meiling said. "Probably the most forbidden place in the whole mansion. Well, I guess not so much anymore, but even so."

Shanghai had heard much about the infamous younger sister of Remilia Scarlet, but had of course never met her. According to what Mommy and Auntie Reimu had told her, Flandre Scarlet was dangerously insane and capable of catastrophic amounts of destruction and carnage, which was why everyone was so on edge about her running loose.

But there was a contradiction about all of this that puzzled Shanghai. Reportedly, Flandre had the chance to go home, but had rejected that offer, opting to remain with this "Rin Satsuki" person instead, and that was one of the reasons Remilia Scarlet was so grief-stricken. But if Remilia cared so much for her sister, why did she keep her locked up in the basement? Yes, she was dangerous, but lots of people in Gensokyo were dangerous. Alice couldn't imagine locking up Mommy like that or being locked up by her. Surely there had to be a nicer way to keep your loved one from hurting other people if you cared about.

It was an odd paradox, one that Shanghai wanted to have explained to her.

So she asked Meiling about it.

"Ah, wow," Meiling said with a wince. She put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Honestly, that's a really, really complicated thing."

"How so?"

"Well, see, it's not like they just tossed Flandre in there and locked the door. The Lady tried for literally centuries to cure her, and I'm talking from even before she met Patchouli. But nothing would take, she just kept getting out and, um, well, killing people, so the basement thing was kind of a last resort. But believe me, it wasn't something she wanted to do."

"But there are so many powerful people in Gensokyo who can do many, many wonderful things. I understand that she only moved here a few years ago. Did she not try going to them for help?"

"Um, probably?" Meiling shrugged. "Look, I just don't know. She doesn't tell me these things. But if we're being honest, I kinda agree that we all could've been, I don't know, a little nicer to Flandre? Treated her just a little bit better?"

"Is that why she chose not to come home?"

Now Meiling was positively squirming with discomfort. "Er, um, maybe. Who knows? I was out of there by then. But yeah, you could say that the Lady really should have-"

"Should have what, Meiling?"

Meiling jumped at the new voice, one that was a bone-dry rattle. "My Lady?" she said.

"Yes," hissed the voice. It did not come from an identifiable source, but seemed to emit from the walls themselves. "Tell her, Meiling. Tell her what your Mistress did. Tell her how your Mistress failed."

Meiling immediately stiffened. "Uh-Oh," she said, eyes darting this way and that.

Shanghai tilted her head. "What is it?"

In response, Meiling adopted a fighter's stance, legs spread wide, right hand clenched into a fist and kept at the ready at her side, while she slowly reached out with her left to nudge Shanghai behind her. "It's Remilia."

"Oh." Shanghai thought on that for a moment. "This is dangerous, is it not?"

"Dangerous?" Now the voice of the Scarlet Devil was moving, every word seeming to come from a different place in the room, though the unstable vampire herself did not appear. "Is that what they've been saying about me? Is that what they've been telling you? Well, that strikes me as rather rude, wouldn't you agree?"

A shadow then darted from one end of the room to the other, just long enough to flit across Shanghai's vision, but when she tried to focus on it, it was gone.

"M-My Lady, Shanghai didn't mean any disrespect!" Meiling said. "She just-"

"Silence."

And then the shadow dropped from the ceiling, landing in a crouch in the middle of the corridor in front of Meiling and Shanghai, leathery wings drooping limply around it.

Despite the supposed danger, Shanghai was more curious than anything. She had heard much about Remilia Scarlet but had only ever met her once. According to Mommy, their vampiric host was notoriously unstable, erratic, and impulsive, and might not be entirely happy with Mommy having taken her new job. Shanghai still wasn't exactly clear on why that was her own fault, but everyone had warned her to give Remilia Scarlet a wide berth.

Well, there was no helping it. Remilia had come to her. At least she had Meiling to protect her. That ought to be enough, right?

Remilia slowly rose up, wings still hanging loose. She had the look of someone whose physical wellbeing was entirely seen to by someone else, from how her clothes were both clean yet untidy, to how she looked well-fed and yet deprived of sleep. Her cheeks were gaunt, her lips slightly open, and her crimson eyes hollow, with dark circles around the corneas. Her breathing was slow and ragged, as if her throat had been rubbed with sandpaper, and her fingers would not stop twitching.

"Ah, Shanghai, is it?" Remilia said. "How…wonderful to see you again. Meiling showing you around? Splendid, splendid. I hope…you are enjoying my home. My lovely, empty home."

"You have a very beautiful home, Lady Remilia," Shanghai said.

"So polite," Remilia murmured to herself. She stepped forward, her movements jerky and uncoordinated, as if she might lose her balance and go stumbling into the wall at any time. "Such a polite little girl. But ah, her voice. Her voice reminds me of someone, someone…not so polite, wouldn't you say?"

Taking a deep breath, Meiling stepped toward her Mistress. "My lady," she said. "Please do come any closer to Shanghai."

Remilia paused, and then her head slowly tilted to one side, her eyes focusing directly on Meiling. "And why not?" she said. "Do you fear that I might…harm her? Attack her? Is your trust in me so miniscule? Ah, that hurts. It hurts indeed."

Meiling shivered, but she did not move. "I promised to keep her safe, my lady. Please do not-"

"Get out of the way, Meiling."

"My Lady, I don't-"

Suddenly Remilia's voice rose to a shrill shriek. "I said, get out of the way!"

The vampire's crimson eyes suddenly flared up, and her voice took on an echo that Shanghai could feel in her bones. She winced, turning away from the bright light and painful sound.

When she looked back, Meiling was standing straight and stiff, arms held at her sides, staring blankly at Remilia.

"I…" Meiling started to say.

Remilia sniffed, and took a deep breath to compose herself. "Move aside," she said again.

This time Meiling obeyed, stepping away to clear the path between Remilia and Shanghai.

"Return to your duties," Remilia said. "And do not trouble us for the rest of the day.

"Yes, Mistress," Meiling said, her voice slow and ponderous.

Shanghai watched as Meiling stiffly marched away. Then she turned her attention back to Remilia.

"Are you going to hurt me?" she asked.

Remilia chuckled, a grating sound like dry bones being dragged through dead grass. "I don't know," she whispered. "I have not decided. I ought not. I really ought not. But the day is, as they say, still young. A lot can happen in a very short time, wouldn't you agree?"

And then Remilia seemed to fall to pieces, her body dissolving into hundreds of small, dark forms that swarmed around the hallway like locusts.

Before Shanghai could register what was happening, the swarm looped around and came straight at her, leaving her nothing save for the sound of high-pitched shrieks and the flapping of poisonous wings.

…

Regardless of how I feel about her treatment of her sister, it is clear that losing her has had a profound effect upon Remilia Scarlet, as did the death of Mommy's predecessor, as she and Patchouli Knowledge were best friends. I feel sympathy for her. I have seen how sad Mommy gets when talking about her friend Marisa Kirisame, so having to lose your friend and sister at the same time must be very difficult.

However, Mommy has warned me to never go near Remilia Scarlet. Vampires are apparently prone to extreme shifts in emotion, and in her current state Remilia is said to be very unpredictable, making her dangerous.

I suppose this must be true. And yet I do not find myself afraid of her. If anything, I just feel bad for her.

…

When the flapping stopped and Shanghai's vision cleared, she was someplace new.

It was different from the rest of the house. All the parts of the Scarlet Devil Mansion were richly adorned and kept in immaculate condition. Here, the walls were made of cold, dull stone, the once red-and-gold carpet ripped apart and rotting, and the furniture all broken to pieces. Waste and offal were thrown everywhere, and the whole place smelled damp, dirty, and decaying.

Directly in front of Shanghai was what once had been an elegant chair carved from expensive wood set with a velvet cushion, now a shattered wreck. And seated upon that wreck was Remilia Scarlet.

Remilia looked not too different than she did when she had come by to welcome the Margatroids to the mansion. Back then, she had struck Shanghai as being very tired, and that hadn't changed. But now there was a manic energy in her eyes, and the way she was smiling didn't seem very nice at all.

Interestingly, Remilia had something new with her. A pair of mop caps sat upon her knees, one white tied with a red ribbon, and the other pale lavender.

"Hello, little girl," Remilia said, her lips curled into a thin smile. "I thought it time we had a chat, wouldn't you agree?"

Shanghai straightened up. "I'm not sure that I do," she said. "I was told-"

"Yes, yes, I know," Remilia said impatiently. "Remilia is so dangerous and unpredictable and will probably try to drink you like a bottle of sarsaparilla. Blah, blah, blah. But it is still my house, is it not? And if I wish to have private conversation with someone living here, someone that I didn't even invite, that ought to be my right, wouldn't you say?"

Without waiting for an answer, Remilia laid a hand upon each of the caps on her knees.

"Do you know what these are?" Remilia asked.

"They are hats," Shanghai said without hesitation.

Remilia's lips peeled back from her teeth. "Do you know who they belonged to?"

Shanghai had never actually seen those particular hats before, but she felt that the answer was quite logical. "I assume they belonged to the previous librarian, Patchouli Knowledge, and to your sister, Flandre Scarlet."

"Very good!" Remilia said with a harsh laugh. "Do you know what happened to them?"

"I do," Shanghai said with a nod. "Flandre was killed by Yuuka Kazami, resurrected and imprisoned by her, and later rescued during the assault on her home, but she decided to stay with Rin Satsuki. Patchouli Knowledge was killed by Yuuka Kazami's Shinigami during the assault."

Remilia laughed again. "Ah, so refreshingly direct! You are remarkably well-informed!"

"Mommy made sure to tell me everything she could about you before we moved in," Shanghai told her.

The laughter stopped in an instant, and Remilia was suddenly leaning forward over her knees, teeth bared and crimson eyes flashing with anger. "And was it her that told you that I was dangerous?" she hissed. "That I was erratic, unpredictable, not to be trusted? Is that what they're saying about me?"

Shanghai nodded again. "She did warn me not to be alone with you, yes."

Remilia's face tightened, and Shanghai wondered if she was about to be attacked.

But instead, the scowl softened, Remilia's mouth drooped, and she slumped back into the ruined chair. "So cruel," she muttered, her eyes shutting. "To say such cruel things about me, when I am at my most vulnerable, when the light has died from my eyes and my heart drowns in grief. But I ought not chastise a mother's concern. Especially a new mother, one raising her first child on her own."

Suddenly Remilia's eyes snapped open and narrowed in suspicion. "What else has she said about me?"

Shanghai considered the question for a bit before answering. After all, Mommy had told her quite a bit, and she always wanted her answers to be thorough. "That vampires experienced a heightened sense of emotions, and that your grief might cause you to make rash decisions."

"She speaks a lot about me, I see," Remilia sighed, laying a hand against her forehead. "So rude, so unkind. She is right, though. About the grief. To lose so much so quickly. You cannot imagine how it feels."

"Mommy might," Shanghai offered. "She recently lost someone close to her."

Suddenly the angry scowl was back. "Ah, yes!" Remilia snapped. She swiped her hand to one side, tossing the hats off her knees and against the wall. "The rat!"

Shanghai frowned in puzzlement. She wasn't aware of any rat youkai of Mommy's acquaintance. "Rat?"

Remilia turned her head and spat. The gob of spit was red. "Marisa Kirisame! Such a bother of a person, always sneaking into my house and taking my things. Always so…" Her nose wrinkled. "…coarse and uncouth."

"You did not like her, I see," Shanghai observed.

Remilia rolled her eyes. "No. I had to make nice, though. We shared a common friend, and often found ourselves working together in response to one incident or the other. But no, I did not care for her."

"Mommy did. They were close friends."

Remilia let out a long and exasperated exhale. "Yes. And now your Mommy occupied the very library that her best friend made a constant habit of stealing from. There is a cruel irony if ever I saw one, wouldn't you agree?"

Shanghai nodded. "I can see how one can make that connection."

And then Remilia's eyes went wide, her pupils constricting into tiny black dots. "Ah, that's it. That's who you remind me of! The speech patterns are…different. More eloquent. But your voice. It sounds like the rat."

Now Shanghai was just confused again. "I am not a rat youkai, I am a-"

"I mean Marisa Kirisame! You sound like her! You even…" Frowning, Remilia leaned forward, her nostrils flaring. "…smell a little like her!"

"Oh." Shanghai shrugged. "Yes, Mommy noticed as well. She hypothesizes that since Marisa assisted her in the enchantments that may or may not have led to my creation, I might have taken in some of her traits as a result."

Letting out a dry chuckle, Remilia slowly leaned back into her chair. "Then you have two mommies, then! How sweet! How adorable. Marisa's legacy lives on in a little doll." Her smile then withered and died. "But I must disagree with something you said. Alice may have known the grief of losing a friend, but not a family member. That doesn't strike me as being at all fair, wouldn't you say?" Gripping what little remained of the armrests, Remilia pulled herself to her feet. "Perhaps I ought to fix that. Then she will have a full appreciation of my pain."

Shanghai wasn't entirely certain what was going on. She had good reason to suspect that she was in danger, but there was still a lot happening that confused her. However, she did feel that Remilia Scarlet was operating with incomplete information. "But she does. Her mommy is dying. That is why she is here, to find a cure."

Remilia let out a low growl. "Shinki still lives!"

"And so does your sister."

Remilia froze in place.

It was very odd to see. Shanghai had seen other people go stiff when confronted with something that they did not expect, but one could still see some movement, be it a tremble of the fingers or a twitch of the eye. None of them had gone so utterly still as Remilia. All movement simply stopped; her whole body locked in place. Had someone walked in at that moment, they would be forgiven for mistaking her for a particularly lifelike wax statue.

Remilia remained in that state for several seconds, unmoving and unblinking eyes focused solely on Shanghai. And then there was the tinniest movement of her lips, just enough for her to whisper, "What?"

"You sister is still alive, isn't she?" Then she reconsidered her use of adjectives. "Or, unalive, given your vampiric status. That is what Sakuya Izayoi wanted Mommy's help with, wasn't it? To find her and bring her back?"

The statue that was Remilia's body started to finally demonstrate some movement, beginning with a slight tremble as her face scrunched up. "She lives…but she rejected me!" Remilia cried. "She had the chance to come home, but she blew up Sakuya's pocketwatch and absconded with that piece of slime Rin Satsuki!"

"I heard," Shanghai said. "Why did she do that?"

Now Remilia's whole body was shaking. Because…Because I must be the most terrible sister that has ever unlived!" The small vampire's voice had risen to a shriek. "I kept her locked up in the basement, I never spent any real time with her, I never could figure out what was wrong with her! I just treated her like she was my dirty little secret. No wonder she hates me!"

With that, she spun around and delivered a vicious kick to the broken chair she had been sitting it. It flew across the room to smash into splinters against the far wall.

"That sounds-" Shanghai started to say, but Remilia wasn't done ranting.

"Meanwhile, poor little Rin Satsuki gives her a real taste of freedom!" She screamed as she darted this way and that, demolishing what remained of the furniture. A punch, and a table was kindling. A smack, and a side-table was sawdust. "Rin Satsuki actually figures out a way to treat her condition, to help her deal with her insanity. Rin Satsuki does more to help her in a few weeks than I've been able to do in centuries!"

Finally she stopped her rampage, everything in the room utterly destroyed. She stood in place, shoulders heaving and tears pouring from her eyes. She lifted her hands, as if seeing her own sister's blood upon them, and when she spoke again, her voice was little more than a whisper. "It was Rin Satsuki that came to save her, not me. It was Rin Satsuki that reached out to her, not me. No wonder she doesn't want to come home." Her fingers curled and her eyes closed as she sank down to her knees, crying softly to herself. "I am a terrible sister."

"Oh," Shanghai said. She wondered what she ought to say now. Mommy had told her to be careful not to be too forward when someone was upset, but it seemed to her that the solution here was obvious. "Then why not be a good sister?"

Remilia's head snapped up. "What?" she gasped.

"You say that Flandre does not want to come home because Rin Satsuki is a better sister to her than you are," Shanghai explained. "Then why not become a better sister than Rin Satsuki? If you feel that you have been too mean to her, why not be nice? It seems to me that if you have already identified the problem with your behavior, the logical thing would be to correct it."

Remilia let out a long sigh that sharpened into a snarl. "You cannot possibly be so naïve."

"I am very young, and there is a lot that I do not understand," Shanghai agreed. "But it seems to me that your grief and guilt have made you miserable. So if you are suffering from self-loathing, then it stands to reason that the proper response would be to improve the parts about yourself that you dislike."

"It is not that simple!" Remilia protested. "You cannot just wipe away centuries of mistreatment!"

"No, but you can be a better person in the centuries to come."

With another snarl, Remilia leapt to her feet, her wings finally lifting from the ground. "Impudent girl! I ought to rip that miniscule head from your scrawny shoulders!"

"I fail to see what that will accomplish, other than to alienate your new librarian," Shanghai noted. "Besides, I am a youkai. I will simply regenerate, will I not?"

Hot drool started to drip from Remilia's fangs. "There are way of making it stick."

"Then you will remain the person that you sister does not want to come back to."

With an earsplitting shriek Remilia attacked, swooping at Shanghai with her hands grasping forward and mouth open wide. In the split-second before she got there Shanghai realized that maybe she had pushed her luck too far, that this was what Mommy had been so worried about, and maybe she was about to die. How strange.

She didn't die, however. Instead, she found herself looking up right at Remilia Scarlet's face.

The vampire had again frozen in place, stopping mere milliseconds from tearing Shanghai to pieces. She was hovering in the air, her mouth still open, hands still outstretched, staring down at the little doll. Drool was still dripping down from her fangs, and Shanghai had to move to keep from getting splattered, but other than that she wasn't moving.

Shanghai stared at her, and she stared at Shanghai. Neither of them said anything. Neither of them turned away from the other. They simply held each other's gazes.

And then Remilia's eyes again filled with tears, and she body relaxed, arms dropping and mouth closing. She drifted down to the floor, where she started crying into her palms.

"It's all my fault," she wept. "God, you're right. You're right about me. What have I done? Why was I so cruel to her?"

Shanghai considered her next words carefully. She probably shouldn't bring up how Remilia had just tried to murder her. That didn't strike her as a very empathetic response. "You can still change, though," she said, flitting over to lay a hand on Remilia's shoulder. "I don't see why someone has to stay a certain way."

Remilia looked up at her, her wet, crimson eyes practically pleading for a way to free herself from her grief. "But…But what if doesn't work? What if she still doesn't forgive me? What if she still doesn't come home?"

"Then you will still be a better person regardless," Shanghai declared. "Isn't that still an improvement over misery and self-loathing?"

Sniffing, Remilia pulled out a pale lavender handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. "You are…a very irritating little girl." She sighed. "But you are right. You are right."

With a sigh, she slowly rose up.

"Well, you have successfully thwarted the vampire's attempt to harm you," Remilia said. "Well done. I suppose the only polite thing to do would be to invite you to tea. As thanks."

Shanghai thought on that for a moment. "Will the tea be poisoned?" she asked.

Remilia's nose wrinkled in disgust. "Poisoned? Pwah! No! Poison is suitable only for political rivals. I assure you; the danger has passed. I am a monster of my word, if nothing else."

"Ah. Then that's all right then," Shanghai said, bobbing her head. "Tea sounds wonderful." Then something occurred to her. "Oh, this question might come off as strange, but there is a word that has been puzzling me all day. Perhaps you could tell me what it means?"

…

While Alice had her differences with the other magicians of Gensokyo, one trait that each and every one of them shared was that when they become hooked on a project, it completely engrossed all of their attention.

Now that she had finally solved the puzzle that was the schematics of Sakuya Izayoi's pocketwatch, she was hard at work, nudging and tinkering with the spell design, breaking down the individual floating diagrams into their individual components, adjusting this and nudging that before putting them back together again to see what that altered.

It was truly fascinating work! It was a shame that she hadn't made more of an effort to connect with Patchouli Knowledge. It seemed that for as much as she had respected her predecessor's talents, she still had underestimated them. Perhaps if she had reached out earlier, she could have-

And then there was a knock at the door.

Alice yelped and nearly pitched forward onto her face. She seized onto the arm of the easy chair for balance and came very close to unleashing a torrent of biting and especially creative profanities at whoever had just dared interrupt her at such a crucial moment.

Fortunately for her, having recently become a parent had helped her with her emotional control, and once she was biting down on her tongue she was able to remember that she now worked for a number of people that would not respond well to being cursed out by their new employee, which was one of the many reasons she had preferred operating as an independent contractor until now. Taking a deep breath, she composed herself and said in as polite a tone as she could muster, "Yes? Who is it?"

The door opened, and Alice found herself staring at her new Mistress, Remilia Scarlet.

Alice immediately straightened, not necessarily out of a need to be overly respectful. Employer or not, toadying had never been her style. But Remilia was not someone she could afford to be uncareful with her words with.

"Remilia," she said with a cordial nod of her head. "To what do I owe the-"

And then she saw her daughter, hovering right over the unstable vampire's shoulder, the same vampire that Alice had strictly warned her to never allow herself to be alone with.

"Shanghai!" she blurted out. "I, er, what…"

With a shallow smile, Remilia inclined her head and said, "Ah, I apologize for startling you. Shanghai and I…just had tea, and I thought that I'd walk her back."

"It was very tasty," Shanghai offered.

To which Alice had no response whatsoever.

"I know, you warned her to not allow herself to be alone with me," Remilia continued. "And rightfully so. However, I wish to allay your fears and assure you that neither you nor your daughter has anything to fear from me." Remilia glanced up at the doll floating over her shoulder. "In fact, I find her to be quite the impressive youth. Very perceptive and wise beyond her…well, not years. Day? Week? Regardless, you must be very proud of her."

"Thank you, Remilia," Alice said slowly and carefully, not taking her eyes off of her daughter for one moment. "I am."

Remilia let out a long, regretful sigh. "I feel I also must apologize for my…less than gracious welcome. My thoughts and feelings really are all over the place these days, and I ascribed ill will where it was not warranted."

"Perfectly…understandable," Alice said, still not dropping her guard.

Remilia's wings, still hanging limp, fluttered just a little. "Well, I suppose now is the ideal time for a do-over, wouldn't you agree?" She bowed low at the waist, one arm cross over her stomach with the other sweeping dramatically toward the library. "Alice Margatroid, allow me to officially welcome you into my household. I hope our arrangement will continue to be mutually beneficial, and that you and your daughter will find your comfort here. I hear you hope to find some means of treating your ailing mother. Should you require anything in that task, you need only to ask. My considerable resources are at your disposal."

Alice really was starting to wish that she was just a little more experienced with dealing with people, as she really had no idea what the proper etiquette for this situation was. "Ah, um, thank you."

Remilia straightened up. "Well, I suppose I've upset your dear mother enough to one day! Thank you for spending time with me, Shanghai. It was quite enjoyable."

"I enjoyed it too!" Shanghai said.

Remilia smiled and nodded. "She is a remarkable child, especially given her odd resemblance to the dearly departed Marisa Kirisame. She even smells a bit like her. But her manners are much better. You should treasure her, Alice."

"Believe me, I do," Alice said, still staring.

"Excellent. Good day to you both." Remilia left, the door swinging shut behind her, leaving doll and dollmaker alone.

Alice stared at her daughter, torn between taking her into her arms and screaming at her. One thing. She had told Shanghai to do one thing, and Shanghai had disobeyed her. And it almost had cost her daughter her life.

Seeing the look on her mother's face, Shanghai wilted just a bit. "I'm sorry, Mommy," she said. "I know you said not to go near her, but she hypnotized Hong Meiling into leaving and turned into a bunch of bats and took me away!"

Which meant that while Alice had been so wrapped up with the pocketwatch, her daughter had been in mortal peril. Oh, she had been such a fool, letting her go off like that.

"Did she try to hurt you?" Alice said, her voice a shaky rasp.

"I believe she did," Shanghai said.

Alice continued to stare.

"I talked her out of it," Shanghai said at last.

Tears prickling at her eyes, Alice slowly and carefully wrapped her arms around Shanghai's tiny, warm body, embracing her to her chest.

"Please," she murmured. "Don't scare me like that again."

"I'm sorry," Shanghai said. "I didn't mean to."

"I know. It's not your fault. I know."

Was this how her mother had felt all the time, taking care of a fragile mortal girl? How cruelly ironic then, that it would take something like this for Alice to finally understand her.

"Is that of Miss Izayoi's watch?"

Alice sighed. After that scare, it was hard to redirect her attention back to her work. "It is. I think I might have finally figured it out, though!" She picked up her hat. "And the most fascinating thing happened! You see-"

"I think that's wrong," Shanghai said, pointing.

Alice blinked. "I'm sorry, what is wrong?"

"Those lines," Shanghai responded, directing her finger at the glowing representation of three leylines connecting the minute and the hour diagrams. "I don't think those are right. Wouldn't their placement throw the time distortion off-balance?"

Confused, Alice motioned with her finger, causing the diagrams to grow and to zero in on the indicated lines. Now that Shanghai had pointed it out, it did seem a bit unbalanced.

Her hat was still lying on the floor. She snatched it up and plopped it on her head and looked again. Now that she had the ghost of Marisa's uncanny perception, she saw that Shanghai had been right. The flaw was subtle, barely perceptible to the naked eye, but if left unchecked it threatened to undo the entire construction.

"Huh," she said, her brow raising. "You're absolutely correct. Shanghai, how did you spot that?"

Shanghai shrugged. "I don't know. It just seemed obvious to me."

Alice was impressed. It seemed that Shanghai had inherited more from Marisa than just her voice. "You know, my friend used to have that very same knack for-"

She even smells a bit like her.

Except Remilia had been wrong. Marisa hadn't poured any magic into Shanghai. She had merely helped redesign that ultimately useless rune. That had all been Alice. Alice had been the one to build her body. Alice had been the one pouring magic into her. Alice had been the one infusing her will into her. Heck, Medicine Melancholy had more to do with Shanghai's creation than Marisa did, when you thought about it. So why did Shanghai sound like Marisa? And why had she inherited her knack?

And then it was like lightning had torn down from the heavens above and ripped through the roof to strike her brain. Alice inhaled sharply as understanding washed through her.

"Shanghai," she said slowly. "What was that dream you told me about again?"

Her brow furrowing in puzzlement, Shanghai said, "Oh, the one where I'm choking, and there's a red eye?"

A red eye. Like Yuuka Kazami's.

"And what was that word you asked me about this morning?"

"Oh, cunt? Remilia finally told me what it means! It's a derogatory term for a woman's genitals, often used as an insult, correct?"

"Correct," Alice said. She was starting to feel a little lightheaded. "And, um, where did you hear that word again?"

Shanghai's frown deepened. She pursed her lips, scratched her nose, and then shrugged.

"I don't know," she said. "Curious, isn't it?"

Curious indeed. Curiouser and curiouser.

…

It was so weird to Reimu how much she looked forward to her lessons at the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

It wasn't that she didn't like visiting there, but having to learn two skills at which she wasn't the slightest bit proficient under two tutors who weren't exactly renowned for their social skills really ought not be anyone's idea of a good time. Trying to learn magic gave her a headache, and fencing made everything else ache, so she always went home sore.

Still, it was giving her a chance to explore a side of her that she didn't know very well: Reimu the people person. Sure, she had friends, she had people she would visit, but those were often few and far between. She never had anyone she would go out of her way to see on the regular. Even hanging out with Marisa just seemed to happen when they ran into each other.

But now she was seeing Alice on the regular. She was seeing Sakuya on the regular. And with them came Shanghai, Hong Meiling, Koakuma, and occasionally even Remilia. Sure, it was exhausting on a number of different levels, but it still was fun. Maybe she ought to try bringing Reisen around…no, wait, she probably was still pretty sore because of what they did to Rin. Yeah, not a good idea.

She swooped down low to the front gate, exchanged a pleasant hello with both Hong Meiling and Koakuma, and headed to the corner of the garden where Alice's house was.

It was still a little weird to see it in its new resting place, given how many times she had seen it back when it had been in the Forest of Magic. But it did at least make visiting so much more convenient. Maybe she ought to convince the rest of her friends to move in with Remilia.

She smiled a little at the thought of Remilia and Kanako being forced to occupy the same place for that long of a period of time. Those were two egos that would not suffer such a challenger. It would probably result in mutually assured destruction.

Still, Alice seemed to be getting along all right, and she had ego to spare. Reimu touched down in front of her front gate and walked up the path to the front door.

But before she could knock, the door swung open and Alice was there.

"Reimu!" she exclaimed. "Oh, thank the gods you're here!" She seized Reimu by the wrist. "Hurry, come in!"

Reimu found herself yanked inside. "Wow, you're really, um, excitable today," she said, hastily pulling her arm away. "Did you finally figure out that stupid watch?"

Alice didn't respond. Rather, she locked and latched the front door. Then she hurried from window to window, shuttering and locking them tight. Mystified, Reimu watched as her host shut her house off from the outside world as much as possible.

When she was done, Alice hurried back over to Reimu, hands wringing in agitation. This was the most frantic-looking Reimu could remember ever seeing her.

"Reimu, I am about to ask you a terrible question, but I have a great need for an answer," she said, reaching out to grab onto Reimu's hand.

Oh crap, not this. "Yeah, uh, I already told you," Reimu said, cringing back. "I'm not interested in that kind of-"

"How did Marisa die?"

The sensation that Reimu experienced upon hearing that question was not dissimilar to having one's foot slip while descending a narrow staircase and suddenly finding themselves the helpless plaything of gravity. There is surprise, there is horror, there is the sinking realization that what follows next will be both painful and inevitable, and it was happening right now. Reimu's heart seized up in her chest as her gut flooded with ice water.

"What," she whispered.

"I know. I know," Alice said, still holding tight to Reimu's hand. "And I'm sorry. But I need you to answer me."

Reimu had never wanted to punch Alice in the face more than she did at that moment. "The hell?" she demanded, yanking her hand away. "You know how she died! Yuuka Kazami murdered her right in front of me!"

"Yes, but how?"

The image of Marisa's limp corpse filled Reimu's mind, her neck a twisted wreck, fluid seeping from her ruined eye, her runic tattoos now visible all over her skin. "She crushed her throat! Squeezed it with one hand!"

Alice inhaled sharply. "She crushed her throat. Are you sure of that?"

"Alice," Reimu said through clenched teeth. "I was there."

Swallowing hard, Alice took a step back, hands clutched over her heart. 'And what were her last words? Do you remember that?"

It took every bit of self-control and nearly every single meditative technique Reimu had learned to hold onto her composure. "Alice, what the hell is this all about?"

"Please, Reimu!" Alice begged. "It is extremely important!"

Reimu shook her head. What in the world was happening? "I…I got knocked out, and was just coming to, but you know, she was telling Yuuka that she'd see her in Hell!"

"Did she call Yuuka a cunt?"

Once again Reimu's mind practically tripped over itself, bringing all of her thoughts to a sudden stop. "Uh…what?"

Alice took in a deep breath and repeated her question, pausing after every word for emphasis. "Did. She. Call. Yuuka. A cunt?"

Reimu stared silently at her for several seconds before answer. "Yes. Yes, I think she did."

Alice gasped, her hand covering her mouth. "Oh, my gods," she whispered, turning away to start pacing around the room. "Oh, my gods. It makes sense. It finally makes sense. But the sheer astronomical odds at play."

Reimu's hands squeezed into fists. "Alice, you'd better tell me what the hell is going on, or I swear-"

"It's Shanghai!" Alice blurted out. "I think she's Marisa!"

Silence.

Reimu closed her eyes, breathed in deep, exhaled, and said, "Alice, if this is some kind of joke-"

"Have you ever known me to be any kind of joker?" Alice demanded. Certainly, the tears shimmering in her eyes and the catch in her voice indicated that she was very serious.

Reimu felt close to tears herself. "Then please, for the love of all that is good and holy, explain!"

Alice scampered up to her, getting uncomfortably close to the shrine maiden. "Reimu. Marisa was a magician. Yes, she did not have any natural magic, but she still made herself into a wellspring of power."

"So?" Reimu said, taking a step back.

Alice took a step forward. "And she was in possession of an exceptionally strong will. And she was killed in horribly brutal fashion. While swearing an oath of vengeance expressed in a spirit of defiance. Now, all taken together, what would naturally result?"

Reimu frowned. "A…ghost?"

"Precisely!" Alice actually hopped up and down and clapped her hands like a child.

"Wait, hold on!" Reimu exclaimed. "Are you telling me that Shanghai is possessed by Marisa's ghost?"

"No! Well, not exactly. She's real enough, a bonafide youkai of flesh and blood and not a possessed object. But I believe it was Marisa's ghost that gave her life!"

"Huh? What? Alice, I was there! There was no ghost!"

Now Alice was grinning widely. "None that you saw! But your attention was understandably…elsewhere at the time."

That was true, but…No, wait! It still made no sense! "But there were Mykr's Sirens all over the place, and tons of violent energies being thrown about! And I blew up Marisa's body with a Master Spark, remember? How could a ghost survive!"

"It could if it had a vessel, something close to the original soul for it to take shelter in."

Marisa's hat, now redesigned to fit Alice's color scheme, had been lying on a nearby cabinet. Alice picked it up and held it out to Reimu.

Reimu gawked at the cone-topped hat. What Alice was saying was true enough. If a ghost had formed, and all the necessary conditions had certainly been in place, it could have conceivably survived if an appropriate vessel had been nearby. True, it would be severely weakened, but it could survive.

"Are you sure?" Reimu said, her voice growing hoarse.

"I have no way of testing," Alice said. "But it stands to reason, doesn't it? A ghost would have naturally formed, and with so many deadly elements around, it would seek shelter in the nearest familiar object it could find. Naturally, it would be very weak, but it would survive." She looked down at the hat in her hands, her thumbs caressing the brim. "And you retrieved the vessel, you brought it to me, I took it into my house…"

Oh, my gods," Reimu whispered. Now she understood.

"That was it," Alice said, as much to herself as to Reimu. "That was the final key to bringing Shanghai to life. A piece of Marisa's soul. That's why she sounds so much like her, she literally is her, in a way."

Reimu shook her head. This was too much to take in. 'B-But, that's just a guess!"

"Then why has Shanghai been having nightmares of being strangled by a terrifying presence with a red eye?" Alice demanded. "How did she learn of Marisa's final words? Why is she exhibiting the same natural knack for understanding magic that Marisa had?"

"She has?"

"Yes!" Alice let out a slightly disjointed giggle. "And let me tell you, it is quite the experience to have your newborn daughter ask you what a cunt is the first thing in the morning!" The tears in her hands had started to slide down her cheeks as she happily embraced the hat to her chest. "But it finally makes sense. Marisa came back to me."

Reimu had no idea what to say. Alice's theory was crazy, but it also made a certain kind of mad sense. Alice and Marisa had been working together to bring Shanghai to life. That sort of thing would leave an imprint, one that a wounded ghost would be attracted to. And once it had bound with the lifeless doll, it also stood to reason that a transformation would be initiated.

However, the way Alice was talking was making her very uneasy, acting as if Shanghai really was Marisa returned from the dead. That simply was not true, but Alice had been so hurt by Marisa's death that Reimu feared how she would react to being told otherwise. Certainly, if she were in Alice's position, she would probably react the same way. Hell, part of her was reacting the same way. She did sort of want Alice to be right, for Shanghai to be the reincarnation of her best friend.

But she wasn't. She quite simply was not Marisa, and believing that she was could be very, very dangerous.

But how was Reimu supposed to convince her of that? She was still reeling from the one-two punch of having to relive the single worst moment of her life and having learned that she might have been carrying Marisa's ghost without knowing it. Now she suddenly had to come up with a way to keep her traumatized friend from treating her daughter like-

Wait.

Her daughter.

"Alice," Reimu said softly. "Listen to me. I think you're right. It fills all the holes. Marisa's ghost did hitch a ride in her hat. And it did go into Shanghai. That's what brought her to life."

Alice's face lit up with more happiness than Reimu had ever seen on her.

"But that doesn't mean that she's Marisa," Reimu continued.

Alice visibly flinched. "What? What are you saying?"

"Alice, ghosts aren't the people they came from," Reimu told her. "Marisa's soul went to the Netherworld; I got confirmation of that personally!"

Alice blinked in confusion, more tears sliding down her face. "But…But…"

Reimu made sure to hold her eyes as she spoke. "Shanghai is someone new. You made her body and poured your magic into her. Marisa's ghost brought her to life. It all combined to make her. That's why she sounds a lot like Marisa but not exactly. That's why she talks kind of like you but not completely. She's got bits and pieces from you both."

Alice took in a deep, shuddering breath. "What are you saying, Reimu?"

"I'm saying that you were right the first time, but didn't have the full story. Shanghai is your daughter." She pointed first at Alice's stricken face, and then down to the hat clutched in her arms. "Yours…and Marisa's."

Alice let out a small gasp. She looked down at the hat, tears dripping from her cheeks to splatter on the brim. Then she slowly brought it again to her heart, eyes closing as she began to cry.

Again Reimu had no idea how to react. What should she do? Had she gone too far? What if she upset Alice and comforting her would only make things worse? What if she did nothing and that only hurt Alice more? Damn it, did other shrine maidens get training in this sort of thing? Because most of hers had revolved around fighting monsters, not dealing with emotionally distraught friends!

Deciding that she had to do something, she tentatively reached out with one hand. But as soon as her fingertips brushed Alice's shoulder, Alice's hand snapped up to seize Reimu by the wrist. Reimu froze up, bracing herself to at the very least be yelled at.

Instead, Alice yanked her down and threw her arms around her.

Every muscle in Reimu's body tensed up at the sudden physical contact. Then she slowly exhaled and brought her arms up to return the hug, letting Alice cry into her shoulder.

"You're right," Alice said at last. "You're so right. She is Marisa's child as much as she is mine." She let out a small chuckle. "Oh, she would laugh so hard if she knew! You know the jokes she would make."

Reimu couldn't help but smile a little at that. "Yeah, I sure do."

Still kneeling and facing each other, the two parted. "This is…a lot to take in," Alice said as she dabbed at her eyes.

"Life comes at you fast," Reimu agreed. "Though, hey: for what it's worth, I may not have a whole lot to judge it by, but I think you've been a great mom."

Alice shivered. "It's just so terrifying. Everything about is so…unexpected, even borderline impossible to explain. She should not have existed, and yet she does. And I try not to make the same mistakes as my mother, but also I want to not make the opposite mistakes as well." Then she smiled. "And yet, I wouldn't trade it for anything."

…

Auntie Reimu Hakurei is another one of Mommy's friends, but she does not live at the mansion. Rather, she works at a small shrine and is in charge of keeping people safe from monsters. Though I do find it odd that she has also ended up befriending a number of monsters. I suppose danger is judged by one's nature rather than species.

She is, of course, not my actual Auntie, as she and Mommy are not siblings. But I call her that because she was the first person that Mommy introduced me to, and she seems to like being referred to as such. I like her. She's nice, but also direct. However, there is a sadness to her. I am told that she was there when Mommy's friend Marisa died. It seems that a lot of people died right before I was born.

Mommy has been teaching her how to do magic, but I do not feel that their lessons are going well, as Auntie Reimu is not very good at them. Still, I know Mommy is always glad to see her, and I am too.

…

Humming to herself, Shanghai flitted through the garden, a bouquet of pretty flowers in her arms. They had been a present from Hong Meiling, a way to make up "for being a lousy bodyguard," as she put it. Shanghai felt that she was being unfair to herself. It wasn't her fault that Remilia Scarlet had hypnotized her. Still, the flowers were quite lovely, so she had no issue with accepting the gift.

She darted down toward the front door of her and Mommy's house and tugged on the string that Mommy had set up for her to operate the door latch. It clicked, and the door swung open.

"I'm back!" she announced as she flew inside. "Mommy, look what Meiling gave me!"

Then her face lit up when she saw who Mommy was talking to. "Oh, Auntie Reimu! Hello. Today is your magic lesson, correct? I had forgotten."

The two women were seated at the table, talking to each other over cups of tea, with Mommy's hat sitting on the table between them.

"Oh, hey Shanghai," Auntie Reimu said. "Good to see you."

"And you as well!" Shanghai said, carefully placing the flowers down on a side-table. "How have you been?"

Rather than answer, Auntie Reimu glanced over to Mommy, who cleared her throat.

"Shanghai, do you remember that scary dream you had?"

"The one with the red eye and the difficulty breathing and where I learned that bad word?" Shanghai bobbed her head. "Of course! It was very confusing."

"Well, Auntie Reimu and I had a talk, and we believe we figured out why you had it."

Shanghai tilted her head to one side. "Oh?"

"Yes, indeed." Mommy shifted her chair around so that she was facing Shanghai and patted her lap. "Come here, dear. It's time to tell you more about Mommy's friend Marisa, and hopefully in doing so we will solve some mysteries."

…

I have seen many interesting thing since we came here, and learned many things. It does seem that this mansion is chock full of mysteries. And yet the thing I find the most interesting is the people. They are all very strange and yet very fascinating. And while many of them are said to be very dangerous, I am glad to have met them. Perhaps in getting to know them better, they will be less dangerous. After all, even Mommy herself is sort of dangerous. Perhaps it is the same for everyone.

…

The design of the pocketwatch was elegant, sleeker than the previous model and yet no less appealing. Sakuya held it in her palm, testing its weight, before nodding in approval.

"It seems to be satisfactory," she said.

Alice Margatroid nodded. The blonde magician looked exhausted, with heavy bags under her eyes and her clothing disheveled. Marisa Kirisame's hat was tilted upon her head, slouching in a way that suggested that it was as tired as its owner. "It better be. But then, we will not know until you test it."

Sakuya popped the cover open and examined the clock face. There, the hands moved across a clock face made of silver and gold, ticking away seconds, minutes, hours, and even days. The gears were moving smoothly, its time-keeping functions impeccable.

"Very well," she said. "Here we go."

She clicked the necessary button, and time ceased to move. The clock hands froze in place, as did Alice.

Sakuya looked around, searching with expert eyes for anything amiss. She knew the feeling of stationary air, and this definitely was that. Even the dust motes were hovering in place.

Nodding in satisfaction, she clicked the button again, and time resumed its flow.

"Ah," Alice said. "Your body just jumped a little. I assume the time-stop function is working correctly?"

"At least insofar as the test was concerned," Sakuya said. "What of the modifications?"

"Added, per your specifications," Alice said. "Though those will be a bit more difficult to test. Furthermore, since I have never actually built a device like this. Actually, I imagine more fine-tuning will be necessary, as bugs may surface."

"That's fine," Sakuya said, snapping the cover shut and placing the watch in her pocket. "It was some weeks before Patchouli and I had everything smoothed out with the previous one."

"Well, hopefully they won't surface at critical moments."

Sakuya nodded. Then she hesitated for a moment before saying, "Miss Margatroid. Alice. I know I have not been the most-"

Alice snorted. "Oh, please don't. If you succumb to the uncharacteristic displays of emotion that have been plaguing everyone in my friend group, I might actually go mad. Just take your damn watch and say thank you."

The edges of Sakuya's mouth twitched at that. The smile was almost vanishingly small, but it was there. "Very well. Thank you, then." A pause, and then, "I imagine you're eager to get to work on your mother's cure."

Alice let an impressively weary sigh. "Yes, but I imagine that the task ahead of me will be even more difficult than the one behind. At least with your watch I had previous work to built off of. This is something else entirely. Hopefully, Shanghai and I can come up with something."

Sakuya nodded. "I have to admit, I was very surprised when you figured out her origins. Marisa Kirisame did not have the smoothest relationship with this house, and yet now her daughter is practically part of the household."

"Yes, well, as I am having to learn, generational feuds are utterly pointless. Perhaps it is what is needed to heal those wounds."

Sakuya did not disagree. There had been more than enough hurt to spare. But at least some of it was being allowed to heal.

If only other wounds were so easy to mend.

And then, almost as if triggered by her thoughts, the whole of the workshop lit up with a bright scarlet lit, one that pulsed in and out while a siren started to sound. Sakuya went stiff. That could only mean one thing.

"Is that what I think it is?" Alice said.

Sakuya silently took her new pocketwatch out and popped open the cover.

All of the numbers were glowing red. Furthermore, all of the hands were now pointed in a singular direction, toward the source of the disturbance.

"It happened," Sakuya said. "Flandre has finally resurfaced."

With that, she snapped the cover shut.

The hunt was on.

…

Full credit to TheXenomorphian for coming up with the Shanghai was animated by Marisa's ghost idea.

And happy twelve year anniversary.

And unfortunately, there was only one update since the eleven year anniversary.

Which we really need to talk about.

Okay, over this last year it's become very apparent that I have way too many projects. On top of working six days a week and having other things, it's just taking up too much time. And I need to do something about it.

So here's the plan: I'm going to hunker down and finish up the current RD arc, and when it's done, both this story and Resonance Days will go on another hiatus, during which I will focus on finishing each one of my side-projects one by one. First will be Swiftly Descending Darkness, second will be Walpurgis Nights, and third will be Blood Island. And when they're finally all in the bag, I'll return to the big stories and go back to just switching between RD and IM, like it was in the old days.

Until next time, everyone.