Youmu Konpaku was a girl who had been training nearly all her life to be an expert swordsman like her father had been. This was the way that both of them had decided to become worthy of guarding Yuyuko by. From all this training, she could, under the right conditions, run at speeds that would make even the speed of sound feel jealous. However, as countless thoughts clouded her mind at the moment, she was walking on the open road back to Hakugyokurou at a rather slow pace.
"What am I going to do?" she thought out loud, a distraught look spread over her face. "What am I going to do? This can't be true. There has to be a logical explanation for it." She looked at Myon, which was wriggling its ghostly body around her in distress. "Lady Yuyuko's not the kind of ghost who kills people. I mean, she does have the ability to invite mortals to their death with just a touch, but it doesn't mean she uses it! Right?" She stopped walking and looked at the phantom again as if expecting a confirmation of her assumption; Myon just twitched slightly as it had no way to talk. "And anyway, why would she use her unique stationery to write the letter? That would way too stupid of a mistake for a killer to make. Although… she does sometimes act like an airhead." She frowned and slapped her own face. "What am I saying?! How dare I even suggest that! Even if it might be true…"
As Youmu continued to try to convince herself of both sides of the argument as she walked down the road, she wasn't looking where she was going. So, she collided headfirst with an oni who was walking the other way, getting knocked to the ground in the process.
"Heeey," the oni said with a high-pitched drunken slur, "watch where you're goin', why don'tcha?" Youmu tilted her head up with a cry of surprise from the ground and got a good look at the young oni. She had two horns decorated with ribbons coming out of her radiant orange hair, and wore a tattered white blouse, purple skirt, and chains that were attached to her arms and hair.
"Oh. Sorry, Suika," Youmu apologized absentmindedly as she dusted herself off and got back on her feet.
"S'okay." Suika picked up her drinking gourd which had fallen to the ground in the collision. "You look kinda messed up, though. Something go wrong?"
"N-n-no! Of course not!" Youmu stammered, an inevitable blush forming on her cheeks as she quickly denied the claim. "J-just a little problem I need to sort out."
Suika, who was not the best at understanding subtleties, scratched her head and stared at Youmu with big brown eyes in confusion. "Umm… okay, I guess. Well, I was invited down to the Ancient City in the Former Hell for an oni drinking party. You wanna come?"
Youmu sighed as the oni eagerly took a big gulp from the Ibuki-gourd of infinite sake to demonstrate. "Thanks for the offer, but no. I have a lot of important things to do tonight, and I don't think sake would help me very much with them."
"Really?" Suika asked doubtfully. "It always does wonders for me. Hell, the only time I'm weak is when I'm sober." She shrugged slightly, making her balance shift in her drunken state. "Well, suit yourself. If you change your mind, I doubt the Ancient City's gonna run outta sake anytime soon."
The two exchanged their goodbyes, and Youmu continued on her way back to the Netherworld. After a short while to make sure that Suika was out of earshot, she began to frantically talk to herself again about whether Yuyuko was responsible for the letter or not.
Patchouli sat at one of the large wooden desks in the center of the library, resting her chin on one hand and drumming her fingers on the table surface with the other. She looked at the great bronze clock on the wall that Sakuya had set up a while ago; it was continuously ticking, constantly recording every second that passed without progress on finding the one bent on killing Remilia happening.
"Count on Yukari to make 'stepping out for a second' last five minutes," she muttered impatiently. While she waited for Yukari to show up after disappearing, the purple-haired magician was completely unaware of another presence that had entered the quiet room on its own accord. This presence moved with absolute silence as it gently let its feet carry it through the library. As it descended down the long corridors between bookshelves, it was aimed directly at the back of Patchouli, who continued to pass the time without thinking of turning around. Although the creature stuck to the shadows of the rapidly-darkening twilight, it left just a hint of a body shape as it rapidly descended on the librarian.
Koakuma, who was rubbing a slightly swollen head while sitting at the door of the library, gasped as she saw the shadows of the dim library shift back and forth to account for the added presence moving among them. "Mistress Patchouli!" she shouted with a hint of panic. "There's someone there—"
The little demon's warning was too late to be of any use, however. Before Patchouli could react to the shout, a hand reached out from behind and firmly grasped her shoulder.
"I've got you!" a voice of triumph shouted.
"Mukyuu!" Patchouli gasped, her eyes bulging open in sheer terror and shock as she whirled around backwards.
"Ha ha HA!" a rough and wild yet likable and not unkind voice laughed. "Man, did you see that? She totally got scared out of her pajamas, ze!"
After promptly entering a coughing fit from the scare, Patchouli looked into the darkness at the one who had snuck up on her. The girl roaring with laughter was easily distinguishable from her long blonde hair, big black witch hat, black dress with a white apron, and a long wooden broom: it was Marisa Kirisame, the Ordinary Magician.
"That was mean, Marisa," Patchouli pouted, trying to catch her breath.
Marisa shrugged. "Sorry," she said. "It's not my fault that you have the funniest reaction to being startled of everyone in Gensokyo."
"It wasn't that funny," the librarian denied with a stubborn frown on her face.
Marisa started to crack up again. "Are you kidding? Your face looked like the one an elephant gets when it sees a mouse!"
Patchouli crossed her arms. "Anyway," she said, "what are you doing here? Planning on swiping some books, no doubt?"
"Nah," Marisa replied nonchalantly. "That's not my main reason for being here, though I'm sure you won't mind if I 'borrow' a few of those nice grimoires in the back, right? Anyway, the gap hag told me you needed a little help on this incident from people you can trust, so here I am!"
"You? Trustworthy? Ha!" Patchouli said with a wry smile. "That's much funnier than any prank you can pull on me." As Marisa looked genuinely hurt from that remark, Patchouli replaced the smirk with a slightly friendlier smile. "Still… you and I worked pretty well together last month during that underground incident. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have you around to help, especially if I have a need of a physical power or something."
Marisa grinned mischievously. "All right, all right; if you don't want to say you love me and long for my company outright, that's okay. I'll just keep it as my little secret, ze."
Patchouli's face started blushing and she turned away from Marisa. "Mukyuu," she said nervously. "I-I mean, don't be ridiculous."
Marisa laughed and patted the librarian on the head. "Whatever you say, Patchy girl! Maybe you can repay me later in the form of a couple of books…"
"Don't push it," Patchouli replied, regaining the normal color of her cheeks as she turned back towards the magician. "If you take my books, you also take a Royal Flare to the face."
"Meh, it was worth a try," Marisa said with a shrug. "Anyway, I'm not the only one Yukari brought along to help out our favorite librarian."
Patchouli coughed and brought a hand to her forehead. "Oh? And who else is going to join this wonderful group of random stragglers with the aim of stopping a killer?"
"Well, for one, the shrine maiden who usually resolves most of the incidents that pop up around Gensokyo," replied another voice from behind. As the owner of the voice walked up to Patchouli and Marisa, they could easily identify her as Reimu Hakurei, the resident miko of the Hakurei Shrine on the edge of Gensokyo. She wore her typical outfit of a red dress and hair bow in her long brown hair coupled with white detached sleeves and carried a long gohei.
"So the red-white one is here, too?" Patchouli said. "I guess Yukari does know how to get the best incident solvers on the case, I'll give her that."
"Of course!" Reimu agreed with a chipper smile. "She promised to put 10000 yen in my donation box if I work with you here, so let's do this!"
"I'll make it 20000 yen if you help me get this little one under control!" Yukari's voice floated into the library, but she herself was nowhere to be seen. After a few seconds of Patchouli, Marisa, and Reimu looking around the room aimlessly, a gap formed in the air above the table that Patchouli was sitting at. Out of it spilled Yukari, Alice Margatroid, and seven of Alice's dolls, most of which were trying to swarm and attack Yukari. The two girls crashed onto the table as the gap dissipated, scattering many of the papers and books that had been neatly stacked on it in every direction.
Alice carefully fixed her short blonde hair to an acceptable appearance, crossed her arms in front of the light blue dress she was wearing, and stared angrily at Yukari. "What part of 'No, I don't want to' do you not understand?! I've got much better things to do than to help some asthmatic librarian out with an incident."
Yukari casually picked up one of the dolls that was punching her side with its little fists and flicked it away, causing it to crash into the wall on the far-side of the library. "You don't say. Well, would you mind sharing with us these supremely-important events that just can't wait until later?"
All eyes were on Alice as the girls waited for an answer. "I've got plans to begin designing a new line of attack dolls, I have to study up on a couple of magic techniques, and… I… can't think of anything else super-important off the top of my head." She blushed lightly as she realized the lack of answers she had.
Marisa jumped onto the table and put a hand around Alice's back, grinning. "She's too embarrassed to admit it, but Wednesdays are when Alice gets rid of her loner attitude for a day and hangs out with me, ze!"
"You didn't have to go blabbing it to everyone, you know," Alice muttered as she watched Yukari stifling a chuckle, Reimu smirking, and Patchouli narrowing her eyes.
"She's still kind of sensitive about the whole thing," explained Marisa to the rest of the girls. She turned back to Alice. "Anyway, how about we stay here for now, resolve the incident, reap the rewards, and then hang out later?"
Alice made the loudest sigh she could and threw her hands into the air, calling back the dolls that were still loyally attacking Yukari. "Fine," she groaned, turning to Patchouli. "This is just because I have nothing better to do tonight and everyone else is here, all right? I have no intentions of doing this purely out of the goodness of my heart."
"Weren't you complaining just a moment ago about having 'much better things to do'?" Patchouli muttered with a covert smirk.
Alice shot her back a silencing glare, but didn't say anything. Though Alice and Patchouli had a long history of disliking each other from about the moment they first met, Alice decided now would not be the best time to start a conflict.
"Anyway," Yukari said after clearing her throat, "now that the five of us have all gathered and settled down, wouldn't it be a good idea to get started on finding the answers to this mystery? We've only got less than five hours to do it, after all."
Alice, Marisa, and Yukari each jumped off the table and took a seat in one of the chairs surrounding it. Just as Patchouli was standing up to explain all the details of their situation, Reimu interrupted her.
"Before we start," she said, "shouldn't we make a name for our group? It would be kind of difficult to tell others we meet that we're part of 'The Group of Youkai and Humans that Yukari Brought by Force to the Scarlet Devil Mansion's Library', right?"
Yukari rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I suppose you're right," she replied. "A name would be useful for our organization. How about… 'The Youkai of Boundaries and Her Four Lowly Subordinates'?"
"More like 'Yukari Is So Damn Full of Herself and Needs an Ego Check'," Alice scoffed, promptly receiving a sharp whack to the head from Yukari's parasol. "Ow!" she whined in pain. "I was just kidding." Shanghai, Alice's favorite doll, immediately came to her side and started rubbing the sore spot on her head that was beginning to form.
"We could just do something simple, like 'The Gensokyo Girls' Alliance'," suggested Reimu. "It could be GGA for short."
"That sounds fine to me, ze," Marisa said. The rest of the girls nodded in agreement.
"Well then," said Patchouli, "it's settled. Let's begin our investigation of Remilia's supposed killer as the GGA at once."
While the five girls of the newly-formed GGA were planning in the library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, another five girls were also meeting on the shores of the Misty Lake about a quarter of a mile from them. While each of them appeared to be quite different in terms of appearance, they all looked very young and immature with wide, childish eyes.
One of the girls, a fairy with short icy-blue hair, a dark blue dress and matching hair bow, and icicle-shaped wings, proudly stood on her feet and looked at the rest of the rest of them.
"Thanks for coming to the latest meeting of Team ⑨ of the strongest and smartest mischief makers for justice!" She threw her left hand into the air. "Now raise your right hand and repeat after me: 'Eye am the strongest'!"
The phrase was repeated by a chorus of high-pitched voices as the rest of the girls eagerly repeated the very false statement.
"I think all 9 of us are here, but we're gonna take role call anyway just in case," said the fairy. "So, is Daiyousei here?"
A green-haired fairy wearing a short blue dress, a yellow ribbon tying up a ponytail in her hair, and elaborate golden wings cautiously raised her hand. "Yes I am, Cirno," she said. "In fact, I'm pretty sure we're all here—"
"Rumia?" interrupted Cirno, calling out the next name. This time, a blonde-haired youkai with deep red eyes, a black vest and skirt, and a small red bow in her hair called out, keeping her arms stretched out along her sides and perpendicular to her body like usual.
"That's me!" she said. "And I'm hungry! You don't have any people around to eat, do ya?"
"Nope," answered Cirno. "But there's those frogs I froze earlier today. Anyway, how about Mystia Lorelei?"
"I'm here," confirmed a girl who had long fuchsia hair, a brown cap with feathers atop it, a dress of the same color decorated with small bows, and long white wings coming out of her back. "If you want some, Rumia, I could sell you some of my awesome lamprey."
"Great! That works out good," said the ice fairy. "Wriggle Nightbug?"
The last girl who had not spoken stood up. She was a shorter youkai with messy green hair, antennae shooting out of her head, a white shirt with baggy blue shorts, and a long red cape tied to her back. If her friends didn't know her well, they might have mistaken her for a boy. "Yup," she said.
Cirno quickly did a head count and counted the numbers on her fingers. She started frowning and threw her hands up in the air. "There's only four of us here! Where's the last one?"
"Um, Cirno," started Daiyousei quietly, "I think you forgot—"
"Nobody's ever skipped out on a Team ⑨ meeting before!" shouted Cirno. "I don't believe it! I'm gonna personally cryo-freeze whoever did it!"
"Cirno, I don't think you counted—" said Daiyousei again.
"Not now, Dai-chan! Can't you see I'm trying to figure out who's missing so I can beat them up?"
"Did you count yourself, Cirno?" pressed Daiyousei.
"Of course I did! I mean… uh…" Cirno started counting on her fingers again and this time reached five. "Ah hah! Daiyousei the smartest figured out the answer to this mind-boggling puzzle!"
"Yeah! Great job, Dai-chan!' cheered Rumia. Daiyousei shook her head and smiled slightly. Even though her intelligence was no match for others like Patchouli, Alice, or Marisa, she was the only one of the group who wasn't a complete idiot.
"So, what are we gonna do tonight, Cirno?" asked Wriggle. She summoned a few fruit flies to her side and nonchalantly played with them with her finger; being the Firefly Youkai, she had complete control over insects.
"Hmm…" pondered Cirno, stroking her chin thoughtfully. "I didn't plan anything particular tonight. Got any ideas, guys?"
Mystia eagerly raised her hand. "Maybe we could do another one of those tricks where I confuse an unwitting victim with my singing voice and then convince them they'll be cured of their confusion if they buy my 'magic' lamprey? That always does wonders for the business!" she stated proudly.
"Nah," replied Rumia. "That's only really fun for you, cause you're the only one who sells lamprey." She smiled brightly. "Why don't we dig a really deep hole and then cover the opening with darkness and wait for some people to fall in. Then we eat 'em all up!" Rumia's ability to control darkness was a potentially devastating one, but her own physically weak state prevented her from causing much destruction with it; filling a place with darkness would make her target lose its vision along with her own.
"Sorry, but fairies don't eat humans," said Daiyousei. "I don't know if your idea would be fun for all of us."
Rumia shrugged and immediately returned her arms to the stretched-out position. "Fine. I guess I'll just go catch some later tonight. You got any ideas on what we should do?"
"Well, we could go for the tried and true method," the fairy said. "Sneaking into the Scarlet Devil Mansion and causing trouble with Sakuya the maid has always been a favorite among us. What do you think about trying that?"
"I don't think that's such a hot idea," said Mystia. "I heard Sakuya chewing out the gatekeeper just a few minutes before we got together. I think she said something about an intruder earlier, and to be on high alert and whatnot."
Wriggle shooed the fruit flies away and twirled one of her antennae on her finger. "That's kind of strange," she said. "Has that ever happened before, Cirno?"
Cirno frowned and continued to stroke her chin in thought. "No, I can't remember it ever happening. Usually Sakuya's just like beating up China 'cause she sleeps on the job and lets the magician girl in who steals books and stuff. I don't think she's ever been ordered to guard the place especially well before, though. Something strange has gotta be happening." She suddenly grinned widely and brought a finger into the air. "I've got it!"
"Got what, Cirno?" asked Rumia, who was staring at the ice fairy with a blank expression on her face. "I kind of lost track of what you were saying about five sentences ago."
"That's what we're going to do tonight!" announced Cirno. "We're gonna find out what's up with the Scarlet Devil Mansion. And then we'll either prank them or help them out, depending on what's going on!"
Mystia clapped her hands and cheered for this plan. "Brilliant idea, Cirno! It looks like you've got some competition in the brains, Dai-chan!" Daiyousei shrugged and smiled nervously, afraid that this statement would cause Cirno to challenge her to another "smartness contest", which was painful to watch and more painful to participate in.
Cirno, however, just pointed towards the looming mansion that lay before them. "Well, if nobody objects, our mission is clear! Let's go and do what Team ⑨ does best: organized mischief!" She jumped high into the air and let her icicle wings carry her towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Mystia followed suit and also took to the skies, while Rumia and Wriggle eagerly ran off into the same direction. Daiyousei, being the most careful of the bunch, took a quick look around the darkness between Misty Lake and the Scarlet Devil Mansion before following her friends. Having such a cautious attitude was a very wise and fortunate trait of the young fairy, as it would help her survive against some of the dangers that might lie on the horizon.
"All right," said Sakuya in a firm voice. "Are we clear with what you have to do, Meiling?" She looked down at the red-hair gatekeeper in a short green dress and matching hat, who looked back up at her sheepishly.
"Perfectly clear, Sakuya," Meiling quickly replied. "I'm going to stand here until midnight with complete attention. If any intruders come near here, regardless of who they are, I will stop them. If they refuse to back down, I'll swiftly defeat them. As long as I stand, nobody will enter the Scarlet Devil Mansion uninvited!"
Sakuya gave a quick nod and smile. "Good," she said. "I didn't think I needed to tell you your job again, but with that threatening letter, we can't be too careful. By the way, don't forget that 'complete attention' doesn't mean 'looking awake while actually taking a nap'. I know you love resting your eyes, but if you happen to do that tonight… I wouldn't be surprised if I 'accidentally' trip and drop knives in the process that just happen to fall into the closed eyelids."
Meiling, who was well aware of how scary Sakuya could become when angry, gave a forced chuckle. "O-of course. I won't sleep a wink! Besides, I never do that on the job. When it looks like I'm sleeping, I'm actually tending to the beautiful gardens along the gate…" She paused as Sakuya seemed to be reaching into the inner linings of her dress to pull out a knife. "…I-in my dreams. But I promise I'll stay awake tonight."
"Make sure that you do," replied Sakuya with an icy tone of voice. As she saw that Meiling was slightly shivering in fright under her shadow, she tried to comfort the gatekeeper. "It's not really so much that I would be pissed if you failed this task. I just want to make sure Miss Remilia doesn't get a reason to give you one of her 'specialized punishments'."
This attempt to comfort Meiling only made her even more terrified. "Oh… oh my god!" she wailed. "Not that! I-I'll stay completely alert for the next four hours! I'll do the entire night! I'll even plant some new, exquisite flowers in the garden!"
Sakuya sighed and slapped her forehead. "Relax," she said. "People aren't going to take a gatekeeper seriously if she looks like she's going to crumble at any second. I'll see to it that Miss Remilia stays happy and doesn't punish you if you stay active on your post until midnight." This made Meiling's shivering stop, though she still appeared to be frightened at the prospect Sakuya had suggested. Having mostly cleared things up with Meiling, Sakuya began to walk back through the mansion courtyard that was beautifully decorated with all sorts of colorful flora. Just as she was walking on the white stone path that lead back to the door, she found herself face-to-face with a very anxious fairy maid who had burst from the front door.
"Sakuya! Sakuya! Sakuya!" shouted the fairy repeatedly. "There's something… you gotta… it's terrible… we need…" Sakuya started to grumble under her breath about the incoherent fragments the fairy was trying to say and the frustrating experience she just had with Hong Meiling; a vein in her forehead began to overfill with blood. As the fairy did not notice the growing rage that Sakuya was experiencing, she continued to speak nonsense and feed the blazing fire. "If you don't… it might… she won't be able to… come quick right now… don't forget the pads…"
"ENOUGH!" roared the head maid in a voice so loud that Suika Ibuki, miles away and far underground, could hear easily.
"Eh?" said the oni, looking up curiously at the ceiling of the dark, dank, and dripping cave she was entering to get to the Ancient City at the echoing shout. "Are those voices in my head talking again?" She grinned at that idea. "Nah, who am I kidding. Voices inside the mind can't happen; they don't exist. But it would be pretty cool if they did. I could have conversations with myself that would keep me from feeling lonely on long trips like this one!" Suika took a big gulp of sake and continued to cheerfully talk out loud about having conversations with herself as she wandered further underground.
Sakuya threw a wide spread of knives all around her to blow off some steam, and then grabbed hold of the terrified fairy by the collar. "For god's sake, I don't have time for your stupid antics! Just say the damn statement!"
The poor fairy who received the brunt of Sakuya's anger was nearly in tears, but she managed to compose herself long enough to answer the maid. "W-w-well," she stammered, making sure to say every word correctly, "I was just coming back from the basement after giving Flandre her breakfast when I heard multiple explosions and giggling below me. It seemed as though she was trying to get rid of a certain stress. I know that you said Flandre tends to do that, but from what you told me about her power and personality…" She paused for a second and took a deep breath. "I just thought you might want to know this!" she shouted with a burst of words before flying back into the mansion as fast as her small wings could take her.
Sakuya watched the fairy fly away until the door shut behind her, obscuring her from view. "I'm not that frightening to the little insects, am I?" she asked herself with an amused smile. "Well, in any case, I guess I've got to go check on Flandre and make sure everything's all right with her."
"Excuse me, Miss Sakuya?" said Meiling, who was cautiously approaching the maid. "I couldn't help but overhear your little… err… 'talk' with that fairy maid. If you're going to calm Flandre down, could I maybe do that instead? Flandre and I have a very close friendship, you know, and I'm pretty sure she'll settle down if I ask her to. Plus, it always brightens my day when I get a chance to see the cute little rascal!"
Meiling's attempt to do something useful was completely lost on Sakuya, who just stared at the gatekeeper with a very tired look on her face. "Hong Meiling," she whispered in an exasperated voice, "were you listening to a single word that I've been telling you for the past five minutes? I'm pretty sure that I said 'guard the gate until midnight', not 'go ahead and visit the little vampire mistress because you feel like it'. Just do the job you've been given, please. I'm sure you don't want me to completely lose it and start chasing you and all the other Scarlet Devil Mansion inhabitants around with a look of death on my face, right?"
Meiling looked very disappointed and sad at the rejected proposal, but she nodded. "All right. Make sure you're not too hard on Flandre, okay? I know she has the ability to destroy anything, but that doesn't mean she's not a little girl whose feelings can get hurt."
"Of course," replied Sakuya. "I treat Flandre just as I do my mistress. You don't need to worry about that." The two members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion staff parted ways after that, and Sakuya walked through the front door, proceeding toward the basement.
"So… now that we've gotten the pleasantries out of the way, how do we go about finding the identity of this 'patriot'?" asked Reimu, who impatiently tapped the incriminating letter with a finger. She, Alice, and Marisa were all sitting on the same side of a large table in the middle of the library, while Patchouli and Yukari were seated on the other side. Four of the girls hummed thoughtfully as they tried to figure out an answer to the question, while Marisa just laughed at them with a mischievous smirk on her face.
"Well?" asked Alice. "What's so funny, Marisa?"
"The fact that I'm the one who figured out the answer before all the rest of you, ze!" replied Marisa with a triumphant grin. "It's simple, really. All we gotta do is find out who brought the letter to Remilia's room. That person has to be either closely tied with whoever wrote the letter, or the one who wrote it in the first place!"
"Great," replied Reimu sarcastically. "How the hell can we do that?" Patchouli looked up from the papers she was reading and coughed softly.
"It might be a lot easier than you'd imagine," she said, turning her head toward the door. "Koa!"
In a second, Koakuma dashed to the librarian's side, carrying a stack of papers with tables on them. "Here you go, Mistress!" she said with a happy smile on her face, handing all the papers to her mistress.
"Thank you, Koakuma," said Patchouli. "You're dismissed." The demon merrily dashed back to the library door and exited it, not bothering to make sure it didn't close with a loud sound.
"Care to share with us what you have there, Patchouli?" asked Yukari, eyeing the papers the librarian held in her hands.
"These are the record sheets that we use whenever guests come over," explained Patchouli while distributing one paper to each of the girls. "When someone assumed to not be an intruder passes through the front gate, Hong Meiling writes their name down, the time they entered, and for what reason. Most of the sheets are archived in Section GK of the library, but these are the ones from today."
"So if anyone unusual is written on these papers, we can assume that they might have something to do with delivering the letter," realized Alice, who began to quickly scan the sheet she had been given.
"Exactly," agreed Patchouli. The girls began to read through what had been given to them; Marisa softly read the columns out loud to herself as she made her way to the bottom.
"Hmm," she murmured. "Eirin Yagokoro came at 2:45 P.M. to deliver Patchouli's asthma medicine. Lily White arrived at 3:04 P.M. for a job interview with Sakuya. Marisa Kirisame showed up at 3:22 P.M. 'presumably stealing books from Voile'—well that's pretty inaccurate, ze."
"Is it just me, or does this one seem a bit strange?" announced Yukari. "'Tewi Inaba; 4:55 P.M.; appointment with Patchouli Knowledge'." She looked to her left where Patchouli sat. "Did you actually have such an appointment take place?"
"I can personally confirm that I did not," said Patchouli, looking carefully at the mentioned entry on Yukari's sheet. "I haven't seen the rabbit at all today, or even this month." She stared at the shrine maiden and magician seated across from her with a small smile on her face. "Well, though we might be mistaken, it seems as though Tewi would be a good lead to follow up on to find the source of this letter. So, who is going to go to Eientei to bring her here for questioning?"
All eyes were on the two usual incident-solvers, who would travel long distances in order to resolve problems in Gensokyo in the past. "Don't look at me!" said Marisa. "I'd be happy to just stay in this warm library and help Patchouli with any informational leads that might arise, thank you very much."
The girls turned their attention to Reimu, who firmly shook her head. "No thank you. That strange bamboo forest made my head spin the last time we had to go there. Pick someone else, why don't you?"
"There isn't anyone else," remarked Alice. "Patchouli has asthma (or pitiful strength, perhaps) that keeps her from going outside, Yukari can't be trusted to go off on her own, and I'm not dressed in my outdoors outfit. I didn't think I'd be snatched from my house and brought into Patchouli's library when I got dressed today." She smirked at Yukari, who simply glared back behind her paper fan.
"Damn it," Reimu complained. "Is that 1000 yen you promised me really worth it, Yukari?" She turned to Marisa. "Well, if I'm going to have to journey to Eientei, I'm not going to do it alone. You're coming with me, Marisa."
"No can do, ze," replied Marisa with a smug smile. "Go with Alice or somebody; I'm staying here."
Reimu countered the smug smile with one of her own. "Very well. I guess I'll have to share all the treasure I steal from Kaguya's mansion with Alice. It's a shame you can't come and get some of them too, Marisa."
The Ordinary Magician scowled. "You just had to play hardball, didn't you? Fine; you win. I'll go with you to find Tewi."
"Well, if that's settled, you two might as well get going so you don't waste any more time bickering like little children," said Yukari. "It's not like we have all the time in the world to bring Tewi back here."
"Yukari's right, Marisa," said Reimu. "Let's go already!" The shrine maiden and her best friend strolled out of the library, laughing and playfully shoving each other along the way.
Sakuya took a deep breath as she stood in front of the magically-enforced door to the Scarlet Devil Mansion's basement. While she knew Flandre meant no harm, it was almost impossible for anyone besides Meiling to talk with the vampire and not feel nervous. Releasing the breath she had built up, she reached into a pocket and produced the crystalline key that resembled one of the colorful shards of Flandre's wings. In a quick motion, she inserted the key into the great brass lock and turned it, making the door slowly creak as it opened.
Sakuya poked her head into the dark room that opened before her. She saw all sorts of rubble strewn around the floor, some of it still smoking from being recently exploded. However, there was no sign of the girl moving about the room.
"Miss Flandre?" she called. "Miss Flandre, are you here? It's me—"
"Sakuya!" squealed a childish voice as Flandre leaped out from the darkness and latched herself onto one of Sakuya's legs. "Sakuya! I'm so happy you're here! I thought that you guys had forgotten all about it, but now I know you remembered!" The blonde vampire tightly hugged Sakuya's waist, causing the maid, surprised by this affection, to sheepishly pat her on the head.
"Of course," said Sakuya. "Now, apparently one of the fairy maids told me that you were playing with your toys rather roughly. Is anything the matter, Miss Flandre?"
Flandre laughed and casually shrugged her shoulders. "I was just kind of upset 'cause I thought you didn't remember what tomorrow is. But now that you're here, I can clearly see that's not true!" She happily started to rub her cheek against Sakuya's leg, causing Sakuya to grow very nervous as she quickly tried to remember what Flandre was talking about. "So, is Remi coming down, too?"
"Not at the moment, Miss Flandre," said Sakuya, making things up as she went along. "Your sister is really busy at the moment with a pressing matter. I'm sure she'll be down here in a few hours, though."
"Okay!" said Flandre agreeably. "I can wait patiently for as long as she needs 'cause I'm a big girl now!" She grinned proudly before looking up eagerly at Sakuya. "So, what are you gonna give me?"
Sakuya frowned. "Give you? I'm not sure what you mean, Miss Flandre."
Flandre laughed again. "I know you're not supposed to tell me, but it's okay. I wanna know!"
"I'm sorry. I'm just not sure about what you're referring to," replied Sakuya cautiously.
Flandre's smile began to fade, and her face got replaced with a quizzical look. "What are you talking about, Sakuya? It's the main part! Unless…" Her expression began to darken. "Sakuya, were you lying when you said you remembered?"
"C-certainly not, Miss Flandre," answered Sakuya a bit too quickly.
Flandre glowered with a look of slight instability in her eyes. "Yeah, you were lying! Forgetting is bad enough, but lying to cover for it? That's such a naughty thing to do, Sakuya!"
"I-I-I'm so sorry, Miss Flandre!" apologized Sakuya profusely. "Really, I am! I simply didn't want to kill the happy smile you had on your face. Please forgive me!"
Flandre smirked at the maid, her eyes still reflecting a sinister image. "Really. For someone who's so good at changing time stuff, you sure do forget important stuff! How forgetful do you need to be to lose track of the 500th birthday of your dear Flandre?"
[A/N]: So ends the second chapter. Reimu, Marisa, and Alice have joined Patchouli and Yukari to help figure out who is behind this. Plus, tomorrow is Flandre's birthday, and she's half a millennium old! Will Reimu and Marisa find Tewi and learn the truth behind the matter from her? How is 500 year old Flandre different from the 495 year old one we know and love? Will Hong Meiling stay awake and guard the gate of the Scarlet Devil Mansion? What will Cirno and her gang do?
Please review, and be sure not to miss the next chapter of Temporal Quintessence!