Chapter 10: Sakuya

"Patchouli, I've brought your tea, as you requested," Sakuya said, placing the cup down beside a large stack of books on the mage's desk. Patchouli only looked up from the book currently spread out before her for a moment, nodded her head in thanks, and then returned to her research without a word.

Sakuya frowned slightly. Not unlike Akyuu, Patchouli had been at her research for quite some time since the aftermath of the Rumia incident. It hadn't helped matters that Sakuya had opted to inform both Remilia and Patchouli about the truth in relation to The Voidborn, and what had actually transpired in the Void during that final battle. Her mistress had actively encouraged Patchouli to continue her research after that. Patchouli had barely left the library since then, and usually sent Koakuma to request for food or resources from elsewhere in the mansion.

"Mistress Remilia has been curious about your progress, Patchouli," Sakuya said, after several minutes of silence between the two, during which Sakuya had hoped Patchouli would have spoken up on her own. "She seems to be under the impression that this Void contains a lot of magical potential that we can utilize."

"Maybe it does," Patchouli replied, without even looking up from the ancient tome spread out before her. "If a poltergeist like Kana Anaberal was able to obtain that sort of power, then I'm certain I would have no trouble with it. But..."

"But... what, exactly?"

"My research has been nothing but an infuriating dead end." Patchouli suddenly slammed shut the book she'd been perusing, and then set it atop a stack of a similarly useless texts. "I've found very little in the form of actual references to the Void. At least nothing helpful, that isn't just a reiteration of everything we already know."

"You've been at this for almost a month now." Sakuya sighed. Trying to rush Patchouli's research wasn't really going to help either of them, but Remilia would probably not be happy to learn that she'd come up with nothing after all this time. "What about The Voidborn specifically? Have you found anything about her?"

"Even less than I have about the Void. If she's supposed to be this big secret, she's done a good job of keeping it that way. If we can even call that thing a 'she', if the way you described it was accurate." Patchouli pointed out one of the smaller books she'd set aside; a demon book, much like the ones in Kosuzu's collection. "I did learn about an ancient family of lamia mages with abilities similar to the ones you described The Voidborn exhibiting, but on a much weaker scale. Except this lamia clan was considered so powerful at the time, that they were hunted into extinction. If it weren't for that, I'd say trying to hunt one of these lamia down would be our best lead."

"At this rate, we'd be better off asking Kana herself," Sakuya said with a sigh of irritation. She had a sneaking suspicion that Kana would be less than helpful if it ever came down to that.

"Kana probably knows as much about the Void as I do. Which is to say, absolutely nothing."

"But she does know how to use the Void. At the very least, she might remember how she obtained the power to manipulate it. Or if perhaps, the person who created her bestowed her with that power."

"That's probably more likely," Patchouli said, taking out another book from the pile that she hadn't read through yet, and opened it to a section she'd had marked. "We have no idea how old Kana actually is, or who created her. But I'm beginning to fear that these Void powers aren't something that can just be obtained through research or sheer willpower."

"The Mistress probably won't be happy to hear that."

"She'll get over it," Patchouli replied, without concern. "You might forget this from time to time, but I've been friends with Remilia a lot longer than you've known her. She might be fixated upon obtaining this Void power for her own right now, but if it becomes clear that it's forever outside of her reach, she'll give up on it." She flipped to the next page in her book without even looking back at Sakuya. "Or did you forget how quickly she gave up trying to invade the Lunar Capital?"

"No, I didn't." It would be quite some time before Sakuya forgot how embarrassingly both Remilia and herself had been defeated by the Lunarian princess, Watatsuki no Yorihime. "I'll just have to tell her to give up on the idea, then. Are you still going to continue your research?"

"For now. At the very least, I may be able to study Kana's abilities if I ever see them in action for myself."

The sound of what seemed to be shattered glass from somewhere outside the library stopped Sakuya before she could respond. This was followed by about half a dozen of the mansions fairy maids pouring into the library, causing a ruckus that seemed to annoy Patchouli greatly. At least half of the maids had apparently been the victims of some sort of kitchen accident; one poor fairy looked as if she'd had an entire pot of some sort of sauce dumped on top of her.

"Miss Sakuya! You have to help!" one of the fairy maids exclaimed.

"There was silverware flying everywhere," another continued, "and the food was being thrown all over the place!"

"Calm down, please," Sakuya said, trying to speak over the group, who had devolved into incoherently trying to babble over each other all at once. "You," she said again, pointing toward the one she deemed to be the least nervous out of the group, "tell me exactly what the problem is. Calmly, please."

The other fairies fell quiet, and the one that had been singled out stammered nervously. "W-well, there was... we didn't see who was doing it! At first, it was kind of funny! Plates and silverware all started dancing around, making a weird show of it. But then things in the kitchen just started flinging through the air for no reason, and then we heard someone laughing about it! But I didn't recognize the voice, and we never actually saw anyone!"

Sakuya sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation. "I think I have an idea of who's behind it," Sakuya groaned. "All of you, just stay here. And don't make a mess of the library." Sakuya turned back toward Patchouli, who it seemed had been intrigued enough to look up from her book. "You might be getting your wish, Patchouli."

"Seems a little bit sudden for Kana to be showing up out of nowhere like this, if that's what you're implying."

"We'll see," was all Sakuya answered, before she disappeared from the library, seemingly teleporting out of the library; instead, she'd simply briefly stopped time while she ran toward the kitchen. If she was going to intercept Kana before she could bail, she needed every advantage she could get. Sakuya's memories of the battle in Makai were just as clear in her mind as the 'true' events involving the Voidborn, and she knew what Kana could do on her own. But if Rumia was here as well, then she wouldn't be able to afford wasting time.

Sakuya only allowed time to resume its normal flow when she arrived at the kitchen, and found it disconcertingly empty. The other fairy maids that worked in the kitchen had already been chased out, and there was no sign of Kana. Nor of Rumia, for that matter. The signs of Kana's involvement were obvious, however. Counters had been overturned, all of the drawers and cabinets had been flung open, and shattered dishes and silverware were scattered throughout the room without care. Everything about the scene was an absolute disaster.

"Aw, sorry Sakuya! You just missed me!" said the unmistakable voice of Kana, echoing throughout the walls of the mansion. "Even if you stopped me with your fancy time powers, I still got the better of you! Now that's just sad."

"I highly doubt you'd ever shown yourself in the first place, Kana," Sakuya replied, clutching several knives between her fingers. "What do you want? And where's Rumia?"

"Oh, you know... around.~" Kana giggled childishly, and then fazed through the nearby kitchen counter, chin propped up in the palms of her hands. "We've been so bored though. We just stopped by to have a bit of fun is all.~ Is that so wrong of us?"

"Yes, it is," came Sakuya's answer. Kana sighed. "The two of you nearly destroyed Gensokyo as a result of your carelessness. And you both murdered several innocent people just to show off your power."

"Well sorry.~" Kana said, in quite the overly exaggerated manner. "I never said we didn't mess up.~ But what's wrong with us having a little fun?"

"I've seen your idea of 'fun', after what I saw you do in Makai." Kana had yet to make a hostile move, and there was still no sign of Rumia. Yet Sakuya could sense the latter's presence. "Why don't the two of you stick to Makai for you amusement, and leave Gensokyo out of it?"

"Because Shinki is busy and she never wants to play along with us.~" Kana stuck her tongue out at Sakuya. The maid couldn't help but to groan at Kana's childish antics. "And Sanae kicked us out after Rumia told her that she had sex with me in Sanae's room while wearing her old schoolgirl outfit.~"

"... Why did you do that in the first place?"

"Well we didn't really do it!" Though judging by the disappointment on Kana's face, Sakuya could only assume that she wanted to have done it. "Rumia just said that it'd be funny if we told her that we did.~"

"Hey, I said I'd let you do whatever the hell you wanted to the idiot shrine maiden later, didn't I?" Finally, out came Rumia, emerging from the darkness beside her poltergeist partner. "But! I've got a better idea. We're going to play a new game with Sakuya here," said the darkness youkai, who was now grinning wickedly.

"Oh, a new game~!" Kana clapped her hands together delightedly. "What kinda game is it Rumia? I so hope it's a fun one.~"

"You both must be insane if you think I'm actually going to play along with you two," Sakuya said, once more tightly clutching the knives in her hand. "I won't hesitate to bring the others here to stop you again, if that's what it takes."

"Well, Sakuya, I'm not really giving you a choice, now am I?" I'm not going to kill anyone, if that's what you're so afraid of. None of you are all that entertaining once you're dead." Rumia snapped her fingers, and the entirety of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was thrust into pitch blackness.

Suspecting some other form of foul play from Rumia, Sakuya threw the knives in the direction of Rumia's original location. The knives blades clattered uselessly against the wall, and dropped to the floor. Sakuya cursed loudly as she nearly banged her head against the counter trying to retrieve her knives in that state of complete darkness.

"Well now Sakuya, resorting to violence like that is going to make you look like the bad guy here!" Rumia's voice had no direct source this time, as though the darkness itself was speaking on her behalf; which, for all that Sakuya knew, might not have been far from the actual truth. "The rules of our little game are simple. It's just a modified game of hide and seek, with some fun new rules.~"

"Hide and seek?" Even for Rumia, this was completely absurd. "You're resorting to children's games to amuse yourself now?"

"Says the one who works for a vampire with the body and attitude of a ten year old. Don't be so condescending." The darkness around the kitchen lifted somewhat, although only around the exit door. It was just enough light for Sakuya to be able to find her way out without stumbling across knives and broken class on her way out of the kitchen. "Kana's job is to go around and capture everyone in the mansion. If she tags them, they're considered caught, and have to go along with her.~ You get to be the jailer, Sakuya. Your job is to catch Kana before she finds and tags everyone in the mansion, and to save as many of them as possible. If you catch Kana, or if you save more people than she catches, you win.~ And if you win, then the two of us leave without a fuss, and never come back."

"And what happens if you win?" Sakuya was a little bit afraid of what the answer might be, but she felt that she had to ask. She couldn't believe she was actually going along with this idiotic game, either.

"Oh, I don't know..." Rumia sighed, apparently having not given the idea much thought. "Maybe we'll molest one of Kana's captives, or something. I didn't really think it through. My job in this little game is to just trip you up as much as possible along the way, and to also be the referee.~"

Sakuya had a feeling that this whole ordeal was going to be completely rigged in Rumia and Kana's favor. Especially if Rumia was to be the one making judgment calls on the progress of this so-called 'game' of theirs. The mere thought of Rumia and Kana taking their 'prize' from someone in the mansion absolutely disgusted Sakuya, however. She couldn't help but imagine her mistress Remilia being the one caught in that situation. "You had better not lay your hands on anyone in this mansion that way, Rumia! Or either of you, for that matter!"

"You'd better win then, huh~?" Rumia cackled madly, drowning out the sounds of several screams from deeper within the mansion; no doubt originating from several of the fairy maids that Kana had already captured.

Sakuya bolted through the kitchen door without delay. Beyond it, the rest of the mansion was in total blackness. But Sakuya had one advantage over the two devious tricksters, and that was her knowledge of the mansion. Even in a state of absolute darkness, through which she doubted even her mistress would be able to see, Sakuya was able to navigate the mansion with relative ease. Admittedly, the fairy maids were useless outside of the most basic of tasks, which meant that Sakuya almost single handedly cared for the entire property on a daily basis. She kept time at a complete standstill for the majority of the time, only briefly allowing it to resume for a few seconds so that she could trace the sounds of screams and struggles through the halls. This turned out to be almost useless, as so many of the fairies had been freaking out over merely being trapped in the pitch black of the mansion without warning.

"Waaah! Sakuya, help...!" echoed Meiling's voice from the front of the mansion. Sakuya had been going the wrong way the entire time, thrown off on a false trail by the cowardly sounds of the panicking fairies.

"Damn it...! Hold on, Meiling!" At least Sakuya could stall for time by keeping Kana frozen in time until she could blindly feel her way toward the mansion foyer. At least when Sakuya arrived, the front doors of the mansion were thrown open, allowing the daylight to illuminate the first few feet of the foyer, before Rumia's magically-placed darkness took complete hold. In that small amount of light, however, Sakuya could see Kana dragging Meiling into the mansion by her hair, and both of them frozen in time.

Sakuya reached for her knives, and then threw them carefully and with perfect aim; each of them aimed in Kana's direction, with the intent of scaring her enough to release her grip on Meiling. Sakuya could then grab the gate guard, freeze Kana once again, and escort Meiling somewhere safe.

With her knives in place, Sakuya resumed the flow of time. Her blades had the intended result of sending Kana into a momentary panic, causing her to loosen her hold on Meiling's hair. Sakuya moved to grab the woman, but felt her legs being pulled out from under her, and she fell flat onto the floor.

"Foul on Sakuya!" Rumia called, after she'd dragged Sakuya down to the floor. "Illegal use of knives!"

"What is that supposed to mean!?"

"I'm the referee, remember? This is a strictly non-violent game we're playing here. Don't be so quick to resort to being to bloodthirsty, Sakuya.~" Coming from Rumia, this was almost laughable.

"Aw, that's too bad! You were so close, too.~" Kana giggled, and then opened up a Void pocket. "But you didn't play fair, so that's one point for me.~ In you go~!" Kana grabbed Meiling once more, ignoring the other woman's protests, and she chucked her off into the Void pocket, and immediately followed her into it, finally closing the portal behind her.

"W... where did you two take Meiling?" Sakuya wrenched her ankles free of Rumia's grip, which slackened willingly, now that Kana had departed.

"Probably to wherever she decided to stash the losers until the game ends.~" Rumia shrugged her shoulders, unseen within the darkness, and then melded back into it. "I'm sure she's still somewhere in the mansion. But I doubt finding her is gonna help you win the game.~" Rumia's voice echoed around Sakuya this time, taunting her. Even if she could stop time, Sakuya knew she couldn't do a thing to stop Rumia from popping up anywhere in the mansion; she was practically omniscient in this darkness.

- o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o -

Elsewhere in the mansion, Kana had already begun to relocate her 'prisoners', and had come up with her own plan to assure that Sakuya wouldn't be able to free them quite so easily.

Unlike the rest of the mansion, the basement was still moderately lit. Whether this had been done on purpose by Rumia or if she had simply forgotten didn't much matter. The basement was home to Remilia's younger sister, the reclusive and emotionally unstable Flandre Scarlet. Kana neither knew about just how dangerous Flandre could be, nor would she have even cared.

Flandre sat on the floor of her room, watching as Kana tugged a bound Meiling into the room, and then shoved her into the corner. Kana then turned her attention toward Flandre, and gave her a friendly wave. "Heya, Remi's little sis~!"

"It's Flandre," she answered. Flandre had heard the commotion from upstairs the whole time, and had been curious what was going on. "Are you the one causing all the noise upstairs? Who are you, anyway?"

"Yup! My name's Kana," she said, before plopping herself down on floor in front of Flandre, and smiled brightly. "Me and a friend are playin' a game with Sakuya.~ My job is to catch everyone in the mansion before Sakuya catches me~!" Kana pointed toward Meiling in the corner, to illustrate her point.

"Oh! That must be why everyone upstairs was freaking out." Flandre couldn't help but return the smile. She'd already decided she kind of liked Kana. "Can I play too~?"

"Sure! You can be on my team, kay?" Kana hovered over toward the door, and peeked outside. Beyond the walls of Flandre's room, the rest of the mansion was still dark, but there was enough light for Kana to see that Sakuya was nowhere in sight. At least, not yet. Kana closed the door again, so the light in the room would no longer be seen from outside. "Okay Flanny, all you gotta go is guard my prisoners! And if Sakuya comes, you just gotta scare her off and keep her from rescuin' everyone!"

"Aw, but Sakuya cheats!" Flandre may not have interacted much with anyone aside from her older sister, but she was at least aware of Sakuya's abilities. "She'll just stop time and walk right past me!"

"Well it wouldn't be fun is it wasn't at least sort of a challenge, right~? Besides, my buddy Rumia's gonna help you out if Sakuya starts cheatin' again!"

"Well... okay! What happens if we win~?"

"I'unno.~ We didn't really think that far ahead." Kana paused in thought, staring up at the ceiling with a finger at her chin. "Okay, I got it! You can keep Meiling, over there.~"

"W-wha!?" Meiling gasped, and renewed trying to struggle against her bonds. Kana had haphazardly tied Meiling up with the torn up shreds of a stolen fairy maid outfit, for some reason. "You can't just give me away like that...!"

"Deal! Flandre said, grinning widely and completely ignoring Meiling's protests.

"Okay~! Keep an eye out for Sakuya, and we totally got this.~"

- o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o -

"Get your hands off of me!" Patchouli shouted, as she conjured another water blast aimed at Kana, who released her hold on the mage to make her escape. Sakuya had tracked Kana tirelessly through the mansion for what seemed like hours now (but what was probably less than fifteen minutes, after taking Sakuya's time stopping into account), and had always come up short of stopping the poltergeist from abducting any of the fairy maids. Patchouli was at least putting up enough of a fight to give Sakuya the chance of stopping this nonsense. Even better, Patchouli's magic was providing them with enough light to see, even within Rumia's magical darkness.

"Aw, now you two are just not playing fair!" Kana said, as she darted between knives and elemental magic blasts. "We said no knives!"

Sitting atop one of the nearby bookshelves in the library, Rumia shook her head. "I'll allow it."

"Aw, now Rumia! You're supposed to be on my side!" Kana pouted. Stretching her arms out to either side, she conjured up twin Void pockets to act as her shields, which consumed any of the attacks coming her way. "Well if they're allowed to use projectiles, I am too!" Kana threw her hands up into the air, releasing several of her soul birds. She used them to possess various books now scattered throughout the library, which she then flung at her opponents.

"Stop throwing my books! Those are not toys for you to just toss around!" Patchouli attempted to distract Kana with a fire blast, but hesitated when Kana decided to use the possessed books as a makeshift shield, knowing Patchouli wouldn't risk torching her own library.

"You two went after nearly everyone in the mansion already!" Sakuya shouted at the two. "Can we just put this to an end already!?"

"No forfeiting!" Rumia answered, throwing a stray book at Sakuya, and then a second at Patchouli. The darkness youkai burst into a fit of laughter when Patchouli was knocked flat on the floor by the particularly heavy tome she'd thrown.

"Nice shot Rumia~!" Kana said cheerily. She phased through nearest bookshelf, avoiding another wave of Sakuya's knives, and then reemerged from the floor near the downed Patchouli. "Come on, let's get her to the basement with the rest!"

Sakuya moved to try and free Patchouli from Kana's grip, but even her time stopping couldn't prevent Rumia from intervening when she tried to help. The instant she'd pulled Patchouli free, and resumed the flow of time, Rumia shoved her through the shadows, dropping Sakuya off somewhere within the depths of the mansion's basement.

Further down the basement halls, Sakuya could hear the unmistakable giggling of Kana as she carted the captured Patchouli off to wherever she'd been storing her captives. Shit! Sakuya thought to herself, she's hiding everyone in Flandre's room!

Once again, Sakuya stopped time so that she could weave her way through darkened halls, only resuming it long enough to follow Kana's voice. She was not as familiar with the basement layout, because she only ever entered it long enough to deliver Flandre her meals, and she'd had no idea where specifically Rumia had sent her off to.

When eventually Sakuya blindly turned a corner, she was able to see the light from the open door to Flandre's room, and Kana shoving Patchouli inside. "Kana! Let them go!"

"Oops! Guess you found em!" Kana laughed, and pulled the door shut, once more thrusting the hall into pitch blackness. Either way, Sakuya knew where the door was, and made a run for it.

Sakuya was forced to grind to a halt to stop herself from being burned alive, when a large blade of fire cut through her path, wielded by Remilia's younger sister. "Nuh uh, Sakuya! Kana says I'm not supposed to let you through here! My job is to guard the prisoners.~"

"Flandre..." Sakuya sighed, and tried to keep her voice as calm as possible, so she wouldn't risk provoking the younger sister. "Please step aside. I need to put a stop to this stupid game of theirs."

"No!" Flandre stomped her foot on the floor, and the flames of her artificially created sword flared. Sakuya took a step back from the heat. "I'm having fun! I don't want to stop the game!"

"Young mistress, please," Sakuya said, trying to appeal to Flandre as much as possible. "I know you want to play their game. But you don't know what these two are capable of."

"I don't care!" Flandre screamed. The flames of her blade continued to sear the floor when it made contact, and her power surged. It was clear to Sakuya that trying to reason with Flandre wasn't going to get her anywhere. While she was busy throwing her tantrum, Sakuya stopped time once again, and snuck past the younger vampire. She'd probably regret crossing Flandre later, but it was better than the alternative of letting Rumia and Kana have their way. Or at least, she hoped it was.

With Flandre still frozen, unaware that Sakuya had walked right past her, Sakuya approached the door to Flandre's room. The moment she touched the door handle, however, a powerful electric shock coursed through the maid's body, sending her sprawling to the ground. One of Kana's soul birds departed from the door, its job now finished. Rumia's laughter rang out around Sakuya, mocking her. "Did you really think you were gonna win that easily?"

"We already won anyway.~" Kana said, as she drifted past the downed Sakuya. Remilia was draped casually over the poltergeist's shoulder, with a somewhat bored expression on her face. "Got the last one right here, Rumia!"

"M... mistress Remilia..." Sakuya propped herself back up off of the floor, trying to reorient herself from the shock she'd received before.

"Oh come on, Sakuya," Remilia answered, smirking slightly. "Rumia explained the whole thing to me, anyway. It's just a game.~"

"... You're going along with this too...?"

"Well, I thought it could be fun to watch you run around the mansion chasing the two of them.~" Remilia explained. Sakuya sighed with resignation; there was no point arguing with her when she decided to go ahead with something.

"Fine. I lost," Sakuya admitted. "Now can the two of you please leave?"

"Oh, fine," Rumia said, seeming very bored now that their game was over. "But you still owe us a prize."

"Sorry Rumia, but I'd really rather not have you violating my friend, or my maid.~" Remilia, it seemed, had at least enough sense to discourage that.

"Aw, come on!" Kana crossed her arms, pouting. In the process, she also dropped Remilia, who tumbled to the floor. "Rumia said she'd let me have the green shrine maiden only if she could have the squishy mage!"

"I am not a... squishy mage!" was Patchouli's response from beyond the walls of Flandre's room.

"Oh, don't worry Kana. I figured Remilia would back out on our deal." Rumia turned her head to face the vampire mistress, and grinned widely. "That's why we had sex in the mansion's pantry beforehand, just in case."

"You what!?" Sakuya found herself recalling all of the food and drink she'd prepared that entire day, and the supplies she'd taken from the pantry to make them. And, now that she thought about it, the supplies had seemed strangely disorganized that morning. Suddenly, she felt like throwing up.

"Oh, that's disgusting!" Remilia was almost as appalled as Sakuya. While she couldn't hear the specific reactions of Patchouli or Meiling, who were both drowned out by the commotion of the fairy maids trapped inside Flandre's room, she doubted they were any less horrified.

Rumia and Kana both laughed at their expense, and as they did, the darkness over the mansion finally lifted. "Come on Kana, let's go find someone else to harass.~"

"Kay~!" Kana hopped up into Rumia's arms, and looped her arms around the youkai's neck. The two then vanished into the shadows.

Sakuya breathed a sigh of relief. "At least that's over..." Even though Sakuya was still disgusted by what Rumia had revealed toward the end there. She opened the door of Flandre's room, which was no longer booby trapped, and released the dozens of fairy maids that had been trapped inside. At the end of the procession was Patchouli, who was more irritated than all of the other combined, grumbling under her breath as she returned to the solitude of her library. Meiling, it seemed, had been knocked unconscious. Apparently, she'd been trampled by fairies.

Sakuya simply shook her head. Meiling would come to eventually, and she didn't feel like rousing her yet. Sakuya turned toward the basement hall, ready to return upstairs with the others. However, she was impeded by Flandre, who stood in the doorway, glaring up at Sakuya. "... You cheated," was all that Flandre stated, in a flat tone.

"I... have no idea what you're talking about, young mistress..." Sakuya took a step back; not the right move. Flandre pulled the door shut behind her, which locked shut from the outside.

"Kana said if you cheated, I could keep you, too." Flandre smiled. Sakuya was stuck, at least until Sakuya could either break down the door, or someone opened the door from the outside. "She said I got to keep Meiling if we won, and we did! So now I have two people to play with today.~ What kinda game should we play first, Sakuya~?"

Sakuya really hoped that her mistress would come to check on her sister again, soon. Otherwise, it was going to continue to be a very long day.