We are seated in three bar stools in the ledge of the stand, where we have a clear view of Mystia cooking. I am seated in between Reimu and Yukari, and one by one we are served our meals. I have to admit that the lamprey initially intimidated me. I was served two skewered, butterflied lampreys in a drizzle of darkish thick sauce. I flipped them upside down to check them, but there was just lamprey, no bone or anything.

"Cold feet from a lamprey?" Reimu said.

"I ate worse, just gimme a little bit"

"take your time dear, but they'll get cold." Yukari said as she picked one of her gyozas.

I look away from Yukari and back to my plate, I take one skewer and bring it to my mouth in a quick move, I don't think for a second and just take a bite out the side. I dont taste fish, it feels chewy like beef, and the little salt in it combines well, but the sauce combined perfectly with the little saltiness because it has a sweet taste, eel sauce I think it was.

"Chewy, could use more salt, but the sauce's killing it!" I said with my mouth semi full.

"Told you she makes a good lamprey!" Yukari responds back.

"Hey lemme get 2 orders of these, and some extra sake please." I said to Mystia.

"Sure! Two lamprey orders coming up!" Mystia said as she took note on our tab and went on to the grill.

"Hey Yukari, those look good, may I try one?" Reimu asked Yukari.

"Sure!" She responded, grabbed one gyoza with her chopsticks and directed it towards Reimu's lips. I leaned back to make way for her hand.

"Say ahhh" Yukari said in a cheerful tone towards Reimu.

"Seriously, you are such a pain in the ass sometimes"

"Come on girl!" Yukari persuaded Reimu.

Reimu just sighed and complied with Yukari's play, as Yukari placed the gyoza in her mouth.

"mmhm… whoa! thith tathes good!" Reimu talks with her mouth full.

Yukari just giggles with her hand covering her mouth at Reimu, I can't help myself too, laugh a little and almost choke on the sake I was drinking.

"So, what do you think about Gensokyo so far?" Yukari asked me.

"Beautiful, Mysterious and Immense, I bet I haven't seen 10 percent of it in a week alone." I responded.

"I'm glad about that, but be aware of the dangers out there. Every day you may meet a new opponent." She continued.

"Yeah, I have that feeling that this place isn't always what it appears to be" I said as I took a drink of my sake dish.

"Very perceptive indeed! Appearances are deceiving here." Yukari said

"Cheers to that!" Reimu interrupted, "Lady here may not look at it, but she is older than Gensokyo itself!"

Yukari just threw a glare at Reimu for a moment and changed her face in an instant to a serene one.

"Oh but enough about me! Let's hear about you." Yukari says to me

"I thought Renko told you about me." I responded.

"I haven't asked her yet, But I would like to hear from you." Yukari persuaded me.

"Was this all just to get me to talk?" I asked while taking another sip of sake.

"I didn't say anything, but you are welcome to tell us." She continued.

I was pressured by this for a while, but I had to make even Ground here.

"If you pay me a bottle of that sake, I'll consider telling you 20 percent 'bout me"

"Done!" She says as she holds a bottle in her hand whilst shaking it.

"You did not have that before… How did you-" I said in confusion.

Mystia sees the bottle in Yukari's hands and looks over at her shelf. It was indeed missing a bottle.

"I'd appreciate if you stopped doing that!" Mystia said to Yukari.

"Sorry, but I'm dying to know more about our guest here!" Yukari responds as she serves me a dish of sake.

"So, do tell!" Yukari awaits my response.

"Mind if I get some too?" a tipsy Reimu says.

I down my 5th dish of sake and place it on the counter.

"So, ever heard the name Voroshilov?"

3 Bottles later.

I'm drunk for good, it's gonna last for a while. I dragged my words in everything I said, Reimu also helped me with those bottles and is also in the same state as me, with Yukari being the only conscious to listen to my drunken tale. So far I've told her about the same as I told Renko: Guerrilla fighter in Europe, betrayed by my own scout, Gruesome end and Pierced by the stone, but only difference is that I was now talking about the Dictator our Guerilla fought against: Timofei Vorishilov.

"After I was pierced I uh, uhhhgg, um, next thing, the next thing I remember, when I woke up, yes, I woke up in this guy's office… uh lounge? Whatever it is, Voroshilov was DEAD. he was in his chair like 'bleerrrg', eyes open, mouth open, throat slashed… you know, DEAD. other dudes were there too, like his guards of something, 5…6? 7? I think 6 of 'em were scattered on the floor too dead like 'oh my god, hit the deck!' like you gotta imagine the scenery, glass tainted red, painting in the wall splashed, the nice carpet floor even more red for those commie fucks. Then outta nowhere 4 more dudes show up in the main door, geared up with AK's and KS-23's and start shooting at me, but i was like *HIC 'hell nah you gonna hit this' and went like SWOOSH and SWOOSH over the room and threw myself out the window. God, have I… have I been drinking too much? M-My-Mystia, how many bottles so far?"

"About three whole bottles." Mystia said as she was cleaning everything up

"Hey, make it 4 bottles then!" Reimu exclaimed while holding her dish up.

"Now now… we had enough, haven't we?" Yukari says to control us.

"Come on, your treat right?" Reimu slurred her words.

"Nah Reimu I think she is right, I got a whole week ahead of me to serve you and, huff, I got a lot to do too, and besides I feel bad for ordering a bit much, she said her treat but I don't wanna abuse too much of it and… and… and my honor just can't let me do that." I ranted senselessly.

"How bout this, we go back to the shrine and you can ask me for anything, you said I was at your bidding, well at your service here! If you ask me to jump into a ditch I'll find it, and if there are no ditches around, I'll dig one and jump at it."

"Seriously? for me?" Reimu said with tearful eyes.

"For you… absolutely." I dragged my words.

Reimu then proceeds to bawl her eyes out and lounge herself towards me looking for a hug. her momentum knocked us both out of our stools and into the ground.

Yukari only looks at us with an awkward face before looking back at Mystia.

"Check please, if you will." Yukari asked her.

All of us are walking up the stairs to the shrine, as Yukari is carrying a asleep Reimu on her back. As for me, I was struggling to climb up the stairs and I had to use that "technique", you know, that thing children do where they climb up on all fours. We were one third done up, but I started talking.

"Yukari… now that Reimu's asleep, I gotta be honest." I managed to say.

"Hm?"

"When I said I would do anything for Reimu, I did, but I meant it like it's our deal right?"

"Aha?" Yukari said.

"I think Reimu's cute, but I have my eyes trapped upon that maid…"

"Oh! Has Sakuya's beauty captivated you?" Yukari responded In surprise.

"Her, her…her beauty has caught me ever since I laid eyes upon hers, and I feel like I may have made a really bad impression. But it wasn't my fault eh? Tin can breaked the windows, so why do I have to carry the blame? I just really want to tell her that if we could begin anew and…"

I stopped talking as a rising feeling crawled up my throat.

"Excuse me a second please" I grunted before then turning around opposite of Yukari's direction.

I gasped for air, made a retching sound, curled up in my stomach for 3 long seconds, and then out it came. Munt cascading through the walls of my mouth and outwards my "snout" like a water gun. The stairs where I threw up gradually begin directing my flow downwards toward my knees, but I quickly move myself to the side to avoid getting wet, but that quick move was enough to nauseate me in an instant, and three up twice as hard than before.

"Oh my! Are you alright?" Yukari asked me in concern.

"yeah yeah, just a little shaken u-UOOOAGGHH!" I was interrupted once more by my Munt.

"hah hah… Gimme a little, I'll reach you up." I said in between gasps.

"You know I can't do that, what if you just run off?" Yukari responded.

"I don't think I'll accomplish much in this sta-GRAAAAAAAAAAGH!" once again interrupted.

"Very well, Careful with the steps." Yukari said as she took up with Reimu on her back.

I managed to crawl myself up to the shrine, but this time I felt even worse than when I was drunk as I was in a trance in between sober and drunk because of vomiting that hard. I see Yukari leaving the place as she slides the door shut.

"Oh! Feeling better?" She asked me.

"Reimu and I aren't gonna feel too great in the morning, Just mentally preparing myself for it. Is she there?" I slurred my words

"I tucked her in her futon and also prepared yours." She says

"You shouldn't have, I could've gone over the trouble of doing it."

"Go rest now, you have a lot to accomplish tomorrow." she said as she walked away from the shrine.

"Oh and about Sakuya… I suppose trying wouldn't hurt, but she is very devoted to Remilia. If you manage to get very along with Remilia, I'd say your chances to speak to her are considerably increased."

"Oh, so zero?" I sighed

"Pretty much, But don't fret, You just try, you have till next week to think of something!"

Yukari extended her hand in the air and two red ribbons appeared at opposite ends in the air where she held her hand, and as if space itself ruptured, a purple dark hole opened.

"Good night." she said as she entered the "gap".

I stood outside for a while looking perplexed and semi paralyzed, with only the sound of frogs, crickets and the wind to accompany me. and After staring for a while in the open, I took a look at the bright full moon in the sky today.

"It sure is calm tonight. what a beautiful night" I thought to myself.

The bright moon reminded me of Sakuya's silky white visage. the light amongst the dark. how did such a beauty end up working for a vampire in this world of dangers?

...

Maybe I shouldn't really think too much about it.

I went inside the shrine and went to rest.