The Scarlet Devil 2: Scarlet Devil Rhapsody
by Cyberchao X

Disclaimer: All characters belong to ZUN except for the ones that don't.

Chapter 4

My name is Kuroi Yagami. While there are definitely certain things I miss about having a real body, having an artificially created body does have certain advantages. I only have to deal with one "time of the month", as opposed to the two that my twin sister Rumia has to deal with. Of course, that time we both share just happens to have come around right now…

"Ah, looks like Yamame-san's busy at the moment; let's come back another time."

"Not at all," replied the arachnidian dressmaker, "and even if I was, the maiden of the Hakurei Shrine would take priority."

I turned around, surprised. I knew I recognized the voice, but to see Reimu in here… "Rumia-chan?" she asked, just before I started cracking up at her outfit. Yamame, to her credit, was a bit more restrained. "Ah, Kuroi-chan. I should have figured it was you by how comfortable you seemed being measured up."

"I didn't realize we were that familiar yet, Reimu-san," I replied, trying to hold back the laughter enough to put up a decent pretense of being offended by how casually she addressed me, "but I suppose I haven't got the right to make anything of it." Absolutely true; like it or not, Reimu's position meant I had to show her some respect. Don't get me wrong; I have no problem with showing respect to those who earn it, but…from what I'd seen of Reimu thus far, she didn't really do much to earn it. "Anyway, I'm just here because it's the time of the month when Rumia's and my powers go on the fritz, so we have the day off, and of course I want to go somewhere dark, so where better than down here? And of course, I can provide a much more willing subject for Yama-san's designs than the usual one."

Yamame let out a little laugh. "Wriggle-chan won't say no to me, but I can tell that she gets fed up with being my model all the time. Kuro-san is not only willing to lend her body to my cause; she provides a different shape for me to work with." That's putting it mildly. Of the seven members of Team 9, Wriggle has both the flattest chest and the curviest hips—in the latter case, by a rather large margin. (This artificial body of mine is still made to be rather young-looking, yet I'm still more or less even with Daiyousei for second-bustiest; only Chen has a chest that is truly adult.)

"Well, you see what the problem is, right?" Sanae said. "Rei-chan seems to have completely forgotten what cold-weather attire is."

"Naenae!"

"It's true. You don't own a damn thing that has attached sleeves." Damnit, I came down here because my powers weren't working, but right now, I'd love nothing more than to just fade into the darkness and watch this unfold. These two would be a sight all by themselves, and adding in Yamame's artistic fervor…this could be quite a show. I decided to try to slip out of sight, hope that they'll forget that I'm here…it's not like I have anywhere else to go.

"So, what brings you down here? Certainly you didn't come all this way just to see me about some new clothes," Yamame asked. "Arms up."

Reimu did as she was asked. "The power on our heating system went out. Kanako-sama said that the problem wasn't with the unit itself, which meant it must have been at the source."

"And the 'source' is a certain bird, right?"

"Exactly," Sanae said.

"So what was the problem?"

"Emotional distress. She's too innocent to even really see it as such—she just sees them as her two 'best friends'—but she seems to be at the center of a love triangle with Orin-san and Scarlet-san. The younger one," Sanae immediately added, realizing that her initial statement could've referred to two different people. (CCX: Sanae seems like she should be another one of those polite ones, who actually does refer to people she's not as familiar with on a last-name basis. I haven't actually used this since the early chapters of The Scarlet Devil with Sakuya. As for Orin, that's her preference, remember? It's not even her proper first name.)

I hadn't actually met this youkai that they were speaking of—the only bird youkai I knew was Mystia. I had met Flandre Scarlet once, at Reimu and Sanae's wedding. I had also met Rin Kaenbyou once; she was among those present when I finally decided to stop running and surrender, back when the seal imprisoning me in Rumia's body was first broken. (CCX: Easy to forget since she didn't actually do anything, but check Chapter 9 of The Adventures of Team 9 Catering or Chapter 18B of The Scarlet Devil; Orin was totally part of Team Remilia! For the record, there were three teams working to resolve Kuroi's incident: Team Reimu (Reimu/Sanae/Sakuya/Ran/Chen); Team Remilia (Remilia/Orin/Wriggle/Suika); and Team Mokou (Mokou/Mystia/Daiyousei/unknown number of nameless moon rabbits). Marisa and Alice also tried to resolve the incident, but by the time they showed up, it was already over.) Asking who the bird was, however, would mean reminding the others of my presence, so I kept quiet.

"Huh. Who would've thought such a destructive girl would be so popular. Stop struggling, Reimu-sama"—was this how Yamame always addressed Reimu, or was she intentionally trying to butter up the shrine maiden in order to get her cooperation?—"I can't get an accurate measurement when you're all bound up by sarashi."

"There's really not that much binding going on," Reimu admitted, blushing.

"Well, it's still changing your shape. I can't imagine having that much of your body covered in bindings, regardless…" She trailed off. "I think I might have to apologize to Wriggle-tan for my early methods of courtship." (CCX: And I might have to apologize to my readers for never bothering to write the "extended version" of Chapter 3 of The Adventures of Team 9 Catering, because as the incident being referenced here, all the way back in 2009's one-shot "Fireflies", shows, Wriggle and Yamame could get quite kinky at times!) "…though she didn't really seem to mind…" I thought about this for a moment and remembered that Yamame could create silk. I'd have to tease Wriggle about this at work tomorrow; she's usually the most level-headed and reasonable member of our group save for Daiyousei, and probably the last one I'd expect to be into bondage.

…Teasing. Seems so hard to believe that it's been only a little over half a year since I became a free woman…or is that still "girl"? Well, I think that I'm grown up. I do have a full-time job, and it's not like I have any parents around telling me what to do. Anyway, when I first became free, the idea of me making friends seemed so alien to me, but now, I've got a nice group of friends, and I've even made friends with some of their girlfriends. I don't really know Lyrica that well, which seems a little odd to me because Mystia's probably my best friend (other than my sister, of course, but she doesn't count because she's kinda also my girlfriend…geez, every time I actually think about the fact that my girlfriend is also my sister, it seems so wrong, and yet whenever I'm actually around her, it just seems so goddamn right), but Yamame might as well be an honorary member of Team 9 with how often the rest of the team visits her place—well, it's Wriggle's place too now, so I guess that's not so weird—and Lily seems pretty nice, too. She's also kind of an honorary member of Team 9 now. It's…fun. I'm glad I agreed to this. …Rumia's just so sweet. That's why I'm so attracted to her. Physically, well, it's kind of like looking in a mirror, so to say that the attraction is physical would just be narcissistic—not that this would be strange for me, because I am a bit narcissistic. But after years of tormenting her, Rumia opened up to me and forgave me so quickly…

"Yamame-san, do you have to grope me like that?" This brought me out of my thoughts. I suddenly understood why Reimu favored extremely loose-fitting clothing; she looked as though her puberty had lasted all of a month.

"I'm not groping you; that's Sanae-san's job." Turning to Sanae, she said, "You have to give them plenty of attention so they'll grow nice and plump and juicy," talking about breasts as though they were tomatoes or something.

"If that was all it took, we'd have to have you arrested for negligence," Sanae cracked back.

"True, true. I lavish lots of attention on Wriggle-chan's breasts, but they refuse to grow." (CCX: Throughout the writing of this chapter, I've been looking back on the saga, and I think I might be retconning Chapter 3 of The Adventures of Team 9 Catering anyway, regarding the size of Wriggle's chest. So yeah, the Phantasm version of that chapter is probably a priority, although I may already be alluding to its contents. And yes, this chapter has outright broken my original intentions, although the decision to keep the Scarlet Devil series—and The Adventures of Team 9 Catering, which is inexorably linked to it—K+ was really a meaningless decision. The interconnectedness of all of these fics means you'd have to read M-rated material to get everything, anyway—hell, the penultimate chapter of TAoT9C explicitly references the lemon-scented Just Another Night.)

"You do realize that you're doing the same thing to me as you talk about this, right?"

"Eh? Was I?" Goddamnit, it's so hard not to start cracking up right now. But I'm still hoping they'll go back to talking about this love triangle… Yeah, I admit, I love a good rumor. It's just so much fun, listening to gossip…one of the few guilty pleasures that won't get me in trouble. Also, if I find something really juicy, I can supplement my income by selling it to that "reporter", Aya. …Huh. I guess I know two bird youkai, then. But the bird they were describing sounds even less like Aya than it does like Mystia—Aya might actually be the least "innocent" youkai I've met so far.

"Yes, you were," Reimu said tersely, all the while glaring at her wife. Yeah, obviously this trip to Yamame's shop was Sanae's idea.

They didn't, and it seemed that I had, at the very least, done a good job at putting myself out of their minds—Yamame had completely forgotten that I was still there after the miko duo had left. "Oh, Kuroi-san! Were you here all this time?"

"Yeah. Who's the 'certain bird' you were referring to?"

"Ah, right, you haven't been to the deepest parts of the Former Hell, have you? …Not many people have, actually. It's not really safe down there, even for the most powerful creatures. For starters, Utsuho-san's body is actually radioactive; Rin-san is one of the only ones who are truly immune to it. …Though I guess the Scarlet sisters must not be affected by her too much, either."

"So she's the bird?"

"Yes. Utsuho Reiuji, hell-raven with the power of the sun. One of the many pets of Satori Komeiji."

"Who?"

"You've never met Satori-san, either? …Consider yourself lucky. She's not terribly pleasant to be around; she's a mind-reader and generally very tactless."

"So, is this big news?"

"You're not getting Shamameiru involved in this. Anyway, I don't know how widespread the information was, but I found out from Wriggle-chan about Flandre-san and Utsuho-san being together. Rin-san developing feelings for her as well, though…"

"I…guess I'll keep it under wraps, then. I figure if it's relevant enough to the residents of the Underground, you'll probably tell Wriggle, and I'm not sure if Rumi-tan or Chen can be trusted with a secret. As for Cirno-chan and Mysti-chan…well, I'm a little afraid of what they might do."

"Cirno-chan too? I'd heard she was calming down and becoming somewhat responsible."

"Only where Lily-chan is concerned. She's still perfectly willing to engage in hare-brained schemes as long as she can keep her precious girlfriend out of the chaos."

"That's…kind of cute."

"I know; it's adorable watching Cirno go about life with all of her usual bluster, and then Lily's always there trying to convince her to scale it down and, um, chill out…" I couldn't help but laugh at the idea that an ice fairy needed to "chill out", but for one who is so cold, Cirno is quite hot-blooded.

Before long, Wriggle returned, and I bid them farewell. I found myself unable to keep anything a secret from Rumi, though. Her reaction, of course, was that it really wasn't our business, but it's always sad when someone's going to get their heart broken. "Good thing we don't have to worry about that," I said, and reminded her just how loved she is.

CCX: That…was definitely an interesting chapter. I really felt like I could've been jumping the shark, having my OC narrate a chapter, frequently making references back to earlier works, not to mention the fact that my self-imposed deadline, "never write fanfiction after midnight", is coming dangerously close. A couple of times I kind of zoned out and lost track of my sentence, and in the final paragraph, I initially wrote "it's always salad" and had to correct myself—perhaps an appropriate typo since that's essentially word salad. Oh G-d, I did it again, initially wrote that last sentence as "world salad". I'm going to wrap this chapter up now before I write something truly stupid. Ja ne!