I had a fun swim yesterday. Reimu and I gossiped a lot back in the Hot Spring and spent time swimming, the warm water loosened most of our stress out of our bodies, and kinda makes sense that a hot spring is so beautiful, that a legend explains how it was formed. But being my last day working for Reimu, my "mind" was uneasy about my week in the SDM.

Back in my base, Reimu spent the morning warning me and telling me to be careful there. Aside from Remillia, there are some interesting characters residing not worth pushing their buttons around. For hell I didn't even want to find out.

(Flashback back in base)

"You're gonna walk there?" Reimu asked as she finished her breakfast.

"Yeah, I would like to take in the view one last time before getting cramped into a lightless mansion," I said as I cleaned the pans and spatulas, "and frankly… I'm just delaying the inevitable."

"REMILIA SCARLET IS A VAMPIRE OF EUROPEAN DESCENT RIGHT? HOW DID A WHOLE ESTATE COME ALL THIS WAY TO GENSOKYO?" Venetian Inquired.

"No one knows… I came to realize its existence when the scarlet mist showed up, never realizing that it was European until I confronted Remilia face to face." Reimu explains

"Right, Remilia told me about an incident she was responsible for when she invited me in, The Scarlet Mist incident was it?" I responded to Reimu.

"Correct, but why did you even accept the invite in the first place?" Reimu asked me in a serious manner.

"I had nowhere to begin, and the info she promised looked very promising to begin my search. I will say that when I first got in, I got interested in the library, with its immense size and extensive catalog, I could probably find something valuable, maybe I'll find something in paper!"

"EXCELLENT WORK IN SHOWING INTEREST ON POTENTIAL SOURCES, BE SURE TO TAKE NOTE OF POTENTIAL INFORMATION AND RELAY IT TO ME." Venetian suddenly looked at me, his face showed no emotion, but those eyes expressed interest as well.

"Will do." I said as I finished drying and storing the pans back into the cabinets.

(End flashback)

I find Myself walking in the trail to the SDM, with the large plains and small flower patches along the way accompanying my loneliness. I remember the route Sakuya and I took towards the mansion, so at the moment I was just walking until I see the mansion, but nothing could be seen for a while.

Aside from nature around me, my thoughts kept me occupied to myself as I trailed forward, but my thoughts were still making me uneasy about the things I could experience in the SDM.

"If it means that he will lick every individual piece of glass in the ground, HE WILL! He is MINE!" Remilia's voice echoed in my mind.

"the most feared name in all Gensokyo, the mistress of the night, descendant of Vlad Tepes, the Scarlet Devil!" My mind kept repeating her voice over and over.

"I THRIVE on fear and blood!"

Why does my own head keep making me uneasy? I can't take much now, and I'm about to be a whole week there?!

"That's it." I said to myself.

I reach into my pockets, take out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, take one out and light it. I make sure to take a deep breath with it in my mouth, hold my breath as I feel the taste of tobacco and ash mix in my mouth, with the warm sensation of the smoke traveling inside of me and through my core, absorbing every square inch of nicotine… and expel the smoke.

I take a second and long hit immediately after, and after 4 more hits, I feel that tingling sensation I so desired. My vision shutters like a camera, even though I am not blinking. This feeling I so longed for, and after two weeks of absence, I deserved this.

But my little trance is rapidly sobered as I hear a shutter sound and see a bright flash to my right, similar to a camera.

I cover the right side of my face with my right hand, cigarette still in mouth, squinting my eyes and look to where I saw the flash, but I see nothing there.

"Up here!" A feminine voice exclaimed.

I look upwards and my eyes are met with yet another flash. It's the crow tengu, floating in the air, taking photos of me with a camera.

"You know, I usually ask people to pose up, but you were acting so natural, I could not skip to take a great photo like that out in the wild!" She said in an excited tone.

"Aya was it?" I said towards her in a monotone voice.

"Yup! Gensokyo's fastest and greatest reporter!" she said as she landed.

"The hell you want?" I said as my tone became a little hostile.

"jeez, what's with your bark? I just came for my interview you promised!" she said, still keeping a positive and cheerful tone.

"I don't recall that." I said.

"Have you forgotten already? You promised me back in the mountain base!" she pouted a little, kinda cute but kinda annoying at the same time.

"Ah, that. I just wanted you to leave Renko alone." I said as I took my cigarette out of my mouth to exhale the smoke.

"A promise is a promise! and besides, like you said yourself, I know we made a rough first impression, but it's not like that, I bet those pesky girls said bad things about me huh? Let us start anew with the best of intentions. Take it as a casual interview!"

Using my own words against me… not bad, and yes, I cannot lie about me making a bad start, it's the reason I am going into the SDM in the first place. If what Reimu and Sakuya told me was partially true, I should choose my words carefully, but beginning anew takes a bit of risk…

Ah, what the hell.

"Sure, sorry if I was a bit rude now, not in the right mindset today." I toned my voice to a more casual and serene one.

"Great!" She exclaims as she takes a notepad out her pocket and a pencil that was resting in her ear.

"ahem*… state your name and current business please." she says as she begins scribbling in her pad.

"Plyush Canmoore…recon business."

My way to the SDM was entertained by me answering Aya's questions the whole way there. She asked general stuff like where I was from, what brought me to gensokyo in the first place and initial thoughts about it. Some of the questions while I did not respond throughout like where I actually was from, I just responded eastern bloc of Europe to generalize, and about my objective, well, technically I was still going about it so I just said "Just Exploring the view".

I kept Aya entertained as we moved on, gave a lot to know about her, although she keeps asking things that increase in privacy, her attitude is always positive, very enthusiastic and energetic, she seems to take her job seriously. And while I had the chance to look at some of her articles, I understand the editing. Gensokyo has to be entertaining in some way or another, needs its share of drama and paranoia. Come to think about it, her newspapers are pretty much identical to the top "news" back in the outside world.

I would describe her as… Ambitious. I like her…

At a certain part of our conversation I turned the questions to her, as I still had my doubts about the SDM and Remilia.

"So, Tell me something about the SDM. How terrible is Remilia Scarlet Really?"

"Nervous?" Aya asks.

"This is my fifth cigarette, what do you think?" I said in a sarcastic tone whilst waving my cigarette.

"I don't blame ya, There are reasons to fear her, if you know her too little that is!" she responds in a positive tone.

"First off, Her age does not fit her appearance, it's like seeing a porcelain doll trying to play grown up. Secondly, her bark is worse than the bite, she'll just say big words to scare whoever dares her, many just get cold feet and stop retaliating, that is if you decide to keep continuing which brings the third point. Whilst she harnesses Immense power, her attitude is quite the surprise, she's called the Scarlet Devil not only because of her power, but her playful attitude, Unpredictable generosity and childish nature, It's like the devil can take the form of anything, but chose that of a little girl."

"Hmm" I nodded in interest.

"Don't be scared yet! Maybe you can turn the tables and get along!" Aya bumps me with her elbow.

"Certainly it doesn't hurt to try, I guess," I answered.

"But one last question, that maid of hers…"

"Sakuya? Watch where you tread with her, she is legit scarier than her mistress. She is soulless, uncanny and terrifying, despite being human." She said as she shivered

"She is human?" I ask in surprise.

"The only human working on the SDM, they have a team of fairy maids that do general stuff, but all the residents are dangerous nonhuman entities. How Sakuya gained a high rank and work for one of Gensokyo's most powerful, is unbeknownst to anyone, and every attempt I tried to ask her, was always met with knives at my direction."

"What else can you tell me about her?" I persuaded Aya.

"She is extremely loyal to her mistress, earning her the nickname of "the Devil's mutt". She takes no jokes or foolishness from no one, expects professionalism at every moment, is very scary when you fail to follow orders, and will punish you if you seem useless for her tutoring." She said as she waved her pencil between her fingers.

"I had the rare chance to Interview part of the staff of the SDM. They said that although the work environment is average, Sakuya's work attitude is demanding and very scary. If it wasn't for the benefits and charming personality of the Mistress, many fairy maids would've left a long time ago."

Loyal to her mistress… I guess she is not gonna like the fact that I almost hurted her Master, and hell, It wasn't even me in the first place!

but, I gotta test my luck here…

"By any chance… is she… single?" I hesitated to ask aya.

"Wait, are you… wow." Aya sounded surprised.

"Is she or not? and dare to put this in your article and I swear…" I asked now, sounding more embarrassed to repeat it.

"No no! I will keep that to myself, promise! I already got enough info. But, I'd suggest you drop it with Sakuya, from what I know, she hasn't had any Human, Youkai or whatever partner ever and she never will, all she is devoted to is her mistress. But from what I know… I don't think she is in a relationship with her mistress either… seems unprofessional even to Sakuya's work ethic." Aya expressed.

"I don't think it hurts to find out." I said with a slight smile on my face and little hope on me.

"Your death wish…" Aya said mockinly.

Our entire conversation had me distracted for quite a while, that I didn't realize I was just quite the meters away from the SDM.

"Well, I guess this marks the end of this interview. Thank you for your time Plyush-san!" Aya said as she took off to the skies and ludicrous speeds. The sheer shock wave of the winds was enough to knock my cigarette out of my mouth.

But now all alone by myself again. I stood meters from the gates of the mansion, still uneasy of what awaited me in those dark halls and rooms there.

I look to my right, and see meiling standing by the wall, sleeping. I approached her to wake her up.

"Ahem…" I grunted. but no response.

"Ms. Meiling?"

…

As a desperate attempt I give her a mild smack on her right cheek with my hand. Meiling then awakes of her nap while she jumps in place as she snorts on her breath.

"Woah woa…woah!...what?" she said as she regained her senses and moved in place.

Meiling then takes a look at me, rubs her eyes and takes another look at me, as to verify it was really me.

"Oh! it's you!"

"Sorry about that," I say in an apologetic tone, "I needed a way to wake you up, I have business with Remilia."

"Yes! They did tell me you were coming. hold one sec." She said as she went to the gates to open them.

As she opens the gates, a loud rusting squeaking noise is heard as she slowly opens the gates.

How fitting…

Meiling does not respond, but just waves me to enter.

"Oh, and… sorry about that boiling you comment, I was bluffing." I recall about my last comment to her.

"Don't be, already got accustomed to Sakuya's threats over the years, I think both of you will get along!" She said as she arranged her hat back in place.

As I enter past the gates, I hear the squeaking noise of Meiling closing the gates once again. I take a deep breath and prepare myself for anything. I pass the arranged front patio via a stone path towards the wooden doors, I get up the small set of steps and stand in the door for a while.

I don't even want to knock…

But all for that info, and maybe… just maybe, take a look at Sakuya's beautiful grace for a whole week.

*Thonk! Thonk!

The noise of the knocking handle echoes inside the mansion in such an ominous way, I let go of the handle immediately after. Noticing now I can see that the thing is ornate with bat wings and the Scarlet shield.

silence… with the noise of birds chirping outside filling the void.

I take a deep breath, as I gotta knock once more, something I really don't want to do. Really… I don't want to disturb Remilia too much.

but followed after my thoughts, the noise of footsteps, heels to be exact, echoing inside the mansion.

Could it be… she herself was to greet me?

The door creaks as well but not as loud as the metallic gates behind me and a hand pushes away the doors.

But I am greeted by a young brown haired girl in maid attire, not the same as Sakuya's. First thing I notice too are her wings on her back.

"You must be Mistress Remilia's awaited guest" the young maid said

"oh, um…y-yes!"

"Please follow me in" The maid signed to enter, I followed suit.

"Pardon me, but where is miss Sakuya?" I asked the girl as we both entered the main entrance room.

"Chief Sakuya is occupied at the moment, she will attend you in a while but I have been ordered by her to take you to your personal quarters" The maid said in a serene tone.

"I see…" I said.

After passing around the many halls of the mansion, I end up in a small room, really not fit for a guest room, but more of a staff dedicated one. Do all the fairy maids have their own room?

There is a small single bed, a small mirror cabinet and a closet besides, also beside the door and in the corner of the room and a single four paneled window.

I really don't expect much now, but expect what is about to happen, my mind still scrambling around what will Remilia do with me, her demands and what is about to go down as my set of tasks. But at the moment, I stay inside the room, sitting down in the bed.

A small faint creaking sound is heard to my left, to which I look upon immediately, to which I see the door slightly move open. Have I forgotten to close it? did it just move by itself?

or maybe…

"BAGH! I worry about too much stuff at the same time, maybe being too paranoid is bad for me." I said to myself to calm me down

I just got up and closed the door, and made sure I did it well.

Only I can pray to him for my safety…

That and… be able to see Sakuya once more.