Ch. 1

.

.

It was a tranquil affair at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Spring had just come, and Winter bade goodbye in a swirl of evaporating snow. Outside the gates to the large mansion, the gatekeeper Hong Meiling saluted the disappearing tendrils of cold. But as she held the salute, her shoulders drooped downwards. Glancing out of a window of the red mansion, the chief maid noticed the gatekeeper's slip into a standing sleeping position. Without so much a change in her expression, she pulled out her stopwatch and clicked once. Accomplishing her task, she closed the window and clicked again. As she resumed walking, she heard the sound of her target getting struck.

"Gyahhh!"

Unbeknownst to her, two red eyes had quietly watched the event. They watched the ever elegant backside of her head maid turn around a dark corner and disappear from sight.

.

.

"Patchy, have you noticed anything strange about Sakuya lately?"

The bookish magician raised her cup and drank a little of her sweetened tea before casually replying back.

"In what way?"

Remilia Scarlet, the scarlet (but in reality pink) vampire master of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, leaned back in her chair to stare up into the darkness above of the Great and Unmoving Library. Lately, she had found herself spending their afternoon tea times in Patchouli Knowledge's dusty home. Which was fine and all, but the encroaching darkness around them and their small and dainty table sometimes got to her.

"Well," she began," she didn't immediately clean up the messes the fairies made all over the sittings rooms in the last few weeks. Recently, and I don't know how, but the food had been tasting kind of bland despite looking superbly cooked, yet she insists that she had been preparing them with blood the same way as I told her to. She seems to drift in and out of the mansion a lot for no reason, and this morning, I saw her fix up the gatekeeper without so much a retort."

"She does seem to lack something lately," Patchouli commented, recalling how the white haired woman often accompanied Koakuma to help her shelve books or serve tea. Patchouli last saw her two days ago bringing in her and Koakuma's dinner. She had looked a little more tired than usual, but she was still as courteous as ever.

Remilia pulled her gaze back to look down at her undrunk cup of tea in scrutiny. She slightly fumed, "That's the thing, though! I don't know what's wrong and affecting her!"

Patchouli suppressed a minor headache that was coming up now. She suspected she knew what the issue at hand was, but she was hoping not to play 20 questions to get out an adequate response from Remilia. And she sometimes went upwards of 100 questions to get it. She let out a resigned but small sigh and placed down her cup.

"Did you ask her what the problem was?"

"Yes, and she said that it was nothing as long as she did her work," Remilia exclaimed.

"And she does her work well?"

"Er, yea. Like what she always does."

The headache became stronger. Ignoring it, the magician moved forward.

"When was the last time she had a vacation?"

The vampire squinted her eyes in concentration.

"Um, maybe five years ago."

Oh, thank Philosopher's Stone, because there it was. Patchouli nodded. "There you go. She had not had a vacation in five years."

"I don't think that's the problem though," Remilia rejected. The magician quickly decided that hearing the vampire whine and complain all day about Sakuya would not make for a good afternoon tea-time discussion.

"Remi."

The vampire heard the stern voice and rarely used shortened name and looked at her friend. Having her full attention now, Patchouli relayed her opinion.

"Sakuya is human. Unlike us, humans need to destress every once in a while. They are…different and require certain needs, even if they don't think so. Even I don't fancy working Koakuma to death."

Remilia remained quiet. It was true that Sakuya was human, but she was not like any other humans in Gensokyo. Any normal humans, she internally clarified. You couldn't exactly call Reimu or Marisa normal (and if you did, they would beat you black and blue to Old Hell and back).

"What do I do then, Patchy?" She finally asked.

"What should you do?" Patchouli said, "As her master?"

Remilia looked back at her friend and then understood.

.

.

"Sakuya!"

Sakuya heard her name being called by a familiar voice and turned around.

"Ojou-sama," she said, bowing low, "How may I be of service-"

"Right, Sakuya, from now on, you're on vacation."

Fear immediately gripped the human's heart. The last time she had a "vacation" she had returned to and found the Scarlet Devil Mansion encased in a spiraling thunderstorm and floating in the air. And on fire. And half of it gone. And…

Well, I think you got the point.

"B-but Ojou-sama" she said desperately.

"Nuh-uh. No buts," Remilia rejected, shaking her head. "You asked how you could serve me, and you can serve me by taking a long break outside of the mansion. I'm worried that I have not been a good master to you, so I want you to get some well needed rest and time off."

Upon seeing the woman's frame start to slightly tremble, the vampire faltered a bit.

"Look, we'll be fine," Remilia tried to reassure her.

Right, Sakuya thought to herself gloomily. But the mansion won't be.

.

.

"So, why are you here?" Reimu Hakurei asked.

Sakuya stared back at the short-tempered shrine maiden.

"I really don't know," she finally said after a tense minute. A long silence followed. Reimu crossed her arms and huffed. 15 minutes ago, she had walked out to clean the Hakurei shrine grounds only to find the SDM head maid standing in front of the shrine donation box and staring moodily at it. Several bags were around her in a hazardous pile. After some initial hostility, the shrine maiden led the downtrodden women and her luggage into the shrine and put down a hastily made cup of tea in front of her.

"Ojou-sama ordered me to take a vacation," Sakuya spoke up again. "For two weeks."

Reimu's eyebrows raised in question.

"Really? Remilia? Don't you, like, enjoy working?"

Sakuya pursed her lips. "'Enjoy' isn't quite how I would put it. But I do find it soothing at times."

Reimu squinted and peered closer at the maid, trying to spot what was different about her.

"You don't look alright," she finally decided.

"Yes, well, the stress of me not being at the mansion far surpasses my work stress," Sakuya dryly replied back.

Reimu rolled her eyes and put the conversation back on track.

"So why are you here of all places for your vacation? The Hakurei Shrine is hardly what I would call adequate by your standards," she stated.

At this, Sakuya averted her eyes instead of staring back at Reimu. After a few moments, Reimu's eyes widened in realization. She groaned and face palmed herself hard.

"Please don't tell me I'm the only one outside of your mansion that you are most comfortable with."

Sakuya flicked her eyes back to the shrine maiden, and after a short pause, smiled faintly. "You are not the only one outside of my mansion that I am most comfortable with."

The Hakurei shrine maiden could only gap at the now presently maid-on-vacation.

"Did, did you just make a joke? That cannot be right. Is that even allowed? Since when can you joke?"

.

.

As it turned out, and Reimu would later begrudgingly acknowledge, having Sakuya stay at the shrine was a blessing. She couldn't totally take off the itch to clean and move around, so she helped out Reimu with various things. In one click of her stopwatch, the fallen leaves on the shrine ground would be cleared, laundry would get done in no time, and making meals for the day was breeze.

Yes, Sakuya hummed as she stirred their dinner, a soupy broth full of meat and vegetables, into a boil, this was relaxing. No vampire in the basement to worry about, no magician starving herself in her books and in need of saving, and no sleeping gatekeeper to constantly keep awake. Only cleaning and cooking.

She paused mid-stir and frowned. Wait, this wasn't right.

"Relax," Reimu demanded. But she was no Ojou-sama, and the Hakurei Shrine was infinitely smaller than the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Sakuya grew more and more agitated with each passing day as the number of things to do fell, and that served to irritate Reimu more. Finally, after the third day of Sakuya's nonstop pacing in, out, and around the shrine, she had had enough.

"You know what," Reimu said that night after dinner, "This won't work. We are going to get you to relax, and we can't do that at my shrine."

"We?" Sakuya inquired. Reimu scowled at her.

"As much as I would love to kick you out, you'll probably end up causing a scene elsewhere that I am going to have to move my butt off for anyways. I rather do it now than do it later."

Sakuya felt anger rise up her in chest.

"The youkai here cause all the incidents, as you might recall, Reimu," the maid acidly. "I know how to be discreet and quiet when needed."

"I sincerely doubt that, since you couldn't sit still for five minutes unless you were sleeping," Reimu dismissed.

"A bit rich, coming a shrine maiden who lazes about for days, if not months," Sakuya acerbically replied.

The two females glared at each other for a few minutes, each of them unwilling to back down from the other's gaze.

"Where would you go that you could honestly spend one week without worrying about one single thing?" Reimu finally asked.

Sakuya opened her mouth and then closed it. She had somewhat thought about it when she initially left the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The unfortunate fact of the matter was, she never spent much time outside of the mansion and fully explored Gensokyo. Instead, she had mulled over the places she ventured to in the past years and concluded that most of them (well, all of them) had some negative aspects to them. She never interacted with other humans unless it was to shop for food in the human village, and the youkai settlements were a no-go. She quickly dropped the idea that going to Hell was a good idea, and the Hakugyokurou in the Netherworld was also not valid, as its location was meant for ghosts and phantoms to reside in. She considered going to Eintei in the Bamboo Forest, but she was wary of the Lunarians. More like wary of what the Lunarian doctor might do without her ever realizing it. She even thought about staying at Alice Margatroid's place but then realized that Marisa Kirisame would also be there by proximity.

No, the Hakurei shrine was really the only friendly and human-viable place that she knew of, even if the resident shrine maiden was a bit…aggravating.

"I don't know," Sakuya sullenly confessed. Reimu casted one assessing glance and then sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry for accusing you of being a workaholic-" Sakuya had to bite back her tongue at this, "-but you seriously do need to learn to relax. I'll admit, I am a lazy person, but I do take some time to enjoy myself. Not as the Hakurei shrine maiden, but as a normal person. I think it would be good for you to know that same feeling, Sakuya."

The maid looked at Reimu in astonishment, amazed that the shrine maiden had shown some amount of maturity in her words. And truth be told, she did want to relax. In the last few weeks, she felt the exhaustion of cleaning hit her harder than normal, even with her time-stopping ability. Her body always retained a small ache as she slept, and it renewed itself every morning. Yet, because she had been the head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion for so long, it did indeed felt like she had forgotten how to unwind.

"Apology accepted, Reimu," Sakuya said, feeling her previous anger dissipate into a simmering dullness. "So, what do you have in mind?"

.

That night, Sakuya found herself packing up a bundle of clothing and toiletries into a bag and then fly over to the human village with Reimu, who also held a bag of clothing and toiletries. She followed Reimu down towards a building's front entrance and landed in front of them. A crude wooden sign of the kanji yu (hot water) hung over the opening. Sakuya looked around her and saw unfamiliar surroundings. It was nowhere near the marketplaces.

"Where are we?"

Reimu stretched a little and replied back to the inquiring maid, "We are at a human onsen. You know what an onsen is, right?"

Sakuya nodded, ignoring the jab.

"This particular one is sort of hidden away, but because very few people know about it, it's pretty much guaranteed to have very few patrons present," Reimu explained. "So we get a large space to enjoy for ourselves."

"Does it cost money?" Sakuya inquired. The shrine maiden open and then closed her mouth as a through struck her.

"Oh, crap. You're right. Last time, we had a free pass because of some favor that Marisa did," She recalled, becoming more uneasy as she goggled at the maid. "I don't suppose, you uh…"

*Ka-chink*

The female pair blinked and looked down. An innocent-looking pouch stared back up at them, and given the sound it make, it contained a sizeable amount of money. Almost immediately, Reimu scowled and looked up.

"Yukari!"

Sakuya also looked up and saw the gap youkai sitting on one of her famous gaps and peering down at them. She waved a covered hand in greeting.

"Konbanwa, Reimu! And a lovely night to you, miss Izayoi," the carefree youkai said.

"What do you want Yukari?"

Yukari Yakumo pulled up another gap and brought out a fan. She spread it out and began fanning herself, despite it being rather cold.

"I don't know what you mean, Reimu. All I see are two, ah, bath-goers in need of some help." She giggled.

"Put it back where it came from, or stolen from," Reimu demanded, but her tone sounded odd. Sakuya spared a glance and saw that the girl was struggling to both reject the money and take it. The price of being in an occupation that pays little for its services, she thought.

The gap youkai closed her fan with a clap. "The money was gracefully donated, Reimu. I am merely passing along their gratitude."

"Whose gratitude?" Reimu asked, now intrigued. Her donation box remained empty for a large part of the year, and it really only garnered money when there was an event such as New Year's going on. To her annoyance, the youkai just ignored her and focused her attention on the maid.

"So, miss Izayoi, how is acting like a human treating you?"

Sakuya narrowed her eyes. She found it rather coincidental that Yukari happened to appear with a money bag for them to spend. And the way that the gap youkai phrased the question alerted her senses of danger even more. When Sakuya didn't respond, Yukari adjusted her mob cap and smiled brightly at Reimu.

"Well, Reimu, it looks like I am no longer needed. If you run out of money, just let me know, and I'll dripple the donations back to you and drop off another bag. Ja ne!"

"Wait, have you been taking my donation money when I'm not looking?!" The indignant shrine maiden cried out, but the gap youkai had already disappeared. Reimu let out a string of curses, which Sakuya thought were very creative of her. She picked up the money bag and marveled at the weight. She held out the bag to the other girl. Fuming, Reimu took it, and her mood was soon lightened up by the monetized prospect.

"Freaking Yukari," she sighed one last time, and the shrine maiden turned towards Sakuya. "Want to go in?"

With a nod, the pair finally went into the onsen building.

.

.