The New Guard
by Cyberchao X

Disclaimer: Touhou Project and all of its characters property of ZUN.

CCX: Well, no new ideas for TAoT9C at the moment, and I'm not in the right frame of mind to work on a Phantasm chapter (not that those show up here anyway), so other than cranking out another chapter of "Lord Over Gensokyo", my only option if I want to put something new up is to take care of this. I actually came up with this idea in response to Azure Xuchilbara's review of Chapter 17 of The Scarlet Devil, wherein he pointed out that I'd implied that there would be a new gatekeeper part time at the SDM and was now left to answer as to who it would be. I didn't initially think that putting any canon characters into the role would be a good fit, but was hesitant to make an OC to do the job, but upon further reflection I actually had given myself an in-route for this. (Sorry, Azure—there's no new ships in this one.)

Marisa Kirisame flew towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion at high speeds, showing no sign of slowing down as she approached the gate. "Hold up, Marisa!" her wife, Alice, cried. "At least try to pretend you give a crap about letting Meiling-san do her job!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you know why we're here by now, right?"

"Actually, this is quite a pleasant surprise, Mari-san," replied a voice that wasn't Meiling's. "I'll have to check with Sakuya-san, but I'm sure that if Alice-chan is with you that you're probably here for a good reason."

"Wait, what? What are you doing here, Sara-chan? Not that I'm not glad to see you, but shouldn't you be back in Makai?" the puppeteer replied.

"Not anymore," the rose-haired gatekeeper said. "I decided to move here; the girl who filled in for me when I went to your wedding is guarding the gate to Makai full-time now. And shortly after I got here, I heard that there was a job opening for a gatekeeper, so I figured, 'Hey, I'm certainly qualified enough for this job…', and here I am."

"A job opening? What happened to China?" Marisa asked. "Er, Meiling-san, I mean."

"She's still here. Guarding the mansion of a family of vampires is a 24-hour job, and it was too much for Meiling-san to handle alone. So now she sleeps during the day and watches over the mansion at night when Remilia-sama and Flandre-san are out and about, and I watch over it during the day while they're at home sleeping."

"Fair enough," Alice said. "But why did you decide to move to Gensokyo, anyway?"

"Well, to be closer to the people I care about. My best friend lives here, after all, as does my boyfriend."

"Your best friend whom you forgot to actually tell that—wait, what was that last part?"

"It sounded like she said she has a boyfriend here. Awfully quick, don't you think?" Marisa asked.

"Yes, well, I have you to thank for that, Mari-san. I got to talking to your friend Rin-kun at your wedding reception, and we actually have a lot in common!"

"Rin-kun…whoa, wait, you mean Kourin? You and he… heh. I guess even a blind dog finds a bone once in awhile."

"What are you talking about, Marichu?" Alice asked.

"Ze, Kourin fancies himself to be a real ladies' man, but he's always single. Completely in denial about how charming he actually isn't."

"He's…he's never been like that with me," Sara said. "We mostly have a lot of discussions about more intellectual pursuits."

"Well, yeah, there's that side of him, too…he certainly is passionate about all of that stuff he finds. He was the one who instilled that love of collecting things in me."

"Except he collects them legitimately," Alice pointed out. Marisa gave an embarrassed laugh.

"Are you sure he wasn't just teasing you?" Sara asked.

"Yeah, probably just jealous because you had better luck with women than he did."

"That…sounds a bit vain, Alice-chan," Sara said.

"What? Oh, no, I didn't mean…ah, right, you were spared that meltdown. Uh…forget I said anything. That's in the past now; it's no longer an issue."

"You can't just say 'forget it' and expect me to drop the subject. Now I'm really curious!"

"Alice got drunk at her bachelorette party and lashed out at my ex-girlfriend, a girl I once cheated on my ex-girlfriend with, and a girl who I'd never actually seen as more than a friend with but who clearly wanted to be more than just friends with me."

An uncomfortable pause, and Alice said, "Wait, you never told me that you actually had been with…ah, of course, now's not the time or the place for this. We've probably kept Patchouli-san waiting long enough."

"Oh! Oh, I'm sorry, you had business with Patchouli-san, and I kept you from her… Please, go right in." The confirmation from Sakuya that Patchouli was expecting them had long since arrived.

"Thank you. Feel free to drop by any time," Alice replied.

"I couldn't drop by unannounced. But sure, I'll come by when my shift is over and we'll continue this discussion."

"See you later," Alice said, and the two of them went on in.

CCX: Ah, even when planned, I'm spontaneous—that line pretty much came as I was writing it. So I guess technically there was a new ship introduced, it just wasn't a current one and occurred between two characters who both not only are currently spoken for, but also were both already accounted for at the time. Scandalous. And obviously, Alice wasn't about to tell Sara, who now works for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the identity of the girl that Marisa cheated on Reimu with. Ja ne!