>Sigh amusedly. "Things aren't going to be quiet anymore for a while now, are they? Between playing host to a hunter, and having a hot-headed hornet acting as a second
gatekeeper, as well as those sin spirits that are still out on the lam."
>Dio offers you a wry grin. "If this Gensokyo is anything like the one I know, things are never 'quiet' for very long at all."
>The big hornet nods. "And that's how we like it."
>Sakuya and Amitsu return a few minutes later, carrying a pair of silver platters between them. One is laden with steaming teacups, and the rest with an array of sandwiches, biscuits and sweetmeats. Despite the somewhat limited time they took, the pair have prepared an excellent spread, and a very nice green tea with honey sweetener. The latter of which you take a special moment to savor. In five hundred years, no one's ever really made a cup of tea like your Sakuya, and you've done without for the better part of a week. For a while there tonight, or rather this morning, you were afraid that you might never have another one. Sitting here, in the library, with Sakuya serving you tea, is a moment that brings a tremendous satisfaction to you. Sakuya, too, has that experience, as you can tell by the smile on her face as she serves you. There is a pronounced sensation of 'All's right with the world.' Even Haridoku looming evily around, and Sakuya's time-displaced other self being present, does nothing to spoil the sensation of having your Sakuya back. It's a wonderous feeling.
>Sakuya and Dio spend the rest of the meeting trying not to spend too much time talking to each other. Neither seems entirely comfortable in the company of the other, though neither comes right out and says it. You suppose it makes a kind of sense. Not everyone would find it automatically interesting to see someone else they could have become. You do however encourage the both of them, that they'll get used to each other after some time. And after assuring that all is well between your guests and yourself, and partaking of course of Sakuya and Amitsu's excellent spread, you retire for the day, confidant in Meiling and the other's ability to get Haridoku, Amitsu and Sei settled away. After telling Haridoku to ensure that the termite queen she strung up outside doesn't go anywhere. You want a word with her after you have some rest. You've had a very active evening, after all, and prying apart the two fates of beings such as Sakuya and Pride wasn't entirely easy. You've earned a good day's rest.
>Before you meet her, when you wake up the next evening, you have a word with Wriggle. The young firefly youkai, having been somewhat humilated by the termite, had been given a room by Koakuma to sleep it off. You approve of this. Wriggle DID try, after all. And she assures you that your house is now termite free. The colony's in a bit of disarray since Haridoku put the screws to the queen. If you can convince the queen to relocate, your termite problem will be solved. When you ask how Wriggle was bested, the firefly, with some chagrin, admits that she underestimated the termite queen's command of her colony. She sicced her colony on Wriggle during their danmaku fight, and caught by surpise at her inability to order them off, Wriggle was overwhelmed. Not very sporting of the queen, that. You thank Wriggle for her services, and gauge her ability to perform in an opera. She comes up a bit lacking, so you move on.
>In the forested area to the east of your Mansion, you find the termite queen where Haridoku said she'd left her: hanging from a tree in a face-exposing coccoon of wax, with a rather comedic bump on her head. The little bug greets you with a bit of attitude, so you leave her hanging for a while while you have a chat with her, especially the bit Haridoku mentioned about the 'harem'. You glean that this youkai is rather young, possibly only a matter of months, and she is still driven by the basic instincts of the termite queen: to provide for the colony, and to procreate. Which explains her interest in Wriggle. She probably thought the firefly was a male. Amused by her youth, you extricate the young queen from her waxy prison, and she promptly challenges you for your territory, since your house is made of good wood. Taking up the brash youth's gauge, she, somewhat unfortunately, proves no challenge for you. She's good enough to have beaten Wriggle even if she hadn't cheated a bit, but she's nowhere near your league. After you give her a thorough danmaku clobbering, and a stern warning not to try and make a meal of your house again, you send her and her colony packing.
>Life at the Scarlet Devil Manor slowly starts to return to normal. With Sakuya temporarily off duty, the task of meal preparation is divided between Koakuma and Meiling. While neither is on Sakuya's level, both are quite competant in their own areas. And Amitsu, while not as knowledgeable about full course meals as the other two, helps where she can and adds her own distinct flavor to the offerings. Turns out the bee can work in much more than simply honey, and she's very willing to learn, as well. You look forward to seeing what she and Sakuya can turn out, once Sakuya's back to her old self. Even when she is, though, you put some serious thought in keeping Amitsu around. She proves to be delightful company. She helps with the housework where she can, with meals, and is genuinely good company. It turns out that she was a queen bee larva before she became a youkai, explaining why she has such a demure, reserved personality, and some of the instincts and drives of nobility. And explains how she can control Haridoku as she does. Even though they're different species of bugs, as youkai, Haridoku seems to naturally defer to her authority.
>And it's a good thing she does, since she needs to be kept on a short leash. You glean that she really isn't a bad sort, but she is very gruff, and very blunt. But with Amitsu on one side of her, and Meiling on the other to show her the ropes of what being a guardian of the SDM means, she acquits herself to the task relatively well. And while her personality has some rough spots to her, her danmaku is very good. She and Meiling challenge each other a couple of days later, and Haridoku comes out on top of the exchange. Impressed by her skill, you challenge her yourself a little later, and while you do defeat her handily, she makes you work for it. Her claim of giving Marisa a good fight is not exaggerated. Anyone who can best her is certainly worthy to pit their skills at danmaku against you, and you decide that she can handle the duty well enough, while Meiling is on light duty.
>The fairy Rainy Stars returns to the SDM two days later, and you sit her down for a talk, in an attempt to recruit her into your workforce. Once more, you find yourself quietly amazed at a fairy who can use four syllable words in a sentance and not pretend to know what they mean, or be entirely wrong about it. As Sakuya predicted, she is resistant towards the idea of becoming a full time employee of the Mansion. She assures you it isn't personal, she just isn't ready to make a long term commitment. Despite your best efforts, negociations stall, until Koakuma brings the two of you in some honeyed tea and sweets. At the taste of the sweet candy, Rainy's more traditional fairy-ness reasserts itself, and she assaults the goodies with childlike enthusiasm. Immediately, you see your opportunity, and propose to compensate Rainy with sweets in addition to her more traditional wages. That sways the brunette fairy instantly. You have some trepadation at whether this arrangement will persist once Amitsu departs, but you have absolute confidence in Sakuya's ability to provide the goods just as well. Probably better.
>You receive a pleasant surprise visitor three days after your rescue of Sakuya. Riding atop the back of his bear, Koryu Daidouji arrives at the doors of the SDM. Fortunately, Meiling was standing watch at the time rather than the bug, and she knew that you were hoping the young lad would arrive, so she admits him with no fuss. It is quite a surprise to see him, as he wasn't in the best of shape when you left him in that kappa hospital. He assures you, however, that it was far worse than it looked, and that the kappa took good care of him. He states that while he enjoyed their company and could have stayed there for quite some time, he didn't forget your invitation, and didn't want to insult you by making you wait. Plus, he adds with a grin, it's not every a badass youkai such as yourself invites him into their home, and he wasn't about to pass up the opportunity. You have a bit of an issue sorting out the bear, but Koryu claims that she's taken a shine to him, and you're willing to tolerate the bear's presence so long as it doesn't make any trouble. It can't be any worse than Haridoku, after all. But the bear seems content to park itself in the forested area around your mansion, though you get the impression it won't take her long to storm inside if it senses something wrong with Koryu. Animal youkai such as this can be fiercely protective when their instincts are aroused, but for the moment, it seems content with simple proximity to Koryu.
>While you are giving Koryu the tour of the mansion, another visitor arrives at your front door. It is Lust the Sin Spirit. With Patchouli's barrier still in place, the spirit cannot enter your home, so she delivers her message to Meiling, who then carries the story to you. She came to tell you that Wrath has been returned to the Cobalt Keep, courtesy of the efforts of Reimu and Kogasa. It turned out that Wrath had not sought out Kaguya or Mokou as you had suspected, but rather had bonded with one Medicine Melancholy, the living doll with the pathological hatred of humans. Evidently that merger had been voluntary on the part of both beings, and the resulting Wrath-Medicine was a being of power exceeding even that of Pride-Sakuya. From what Reimu said, it seems that Wrath-Medicine was responsible for the creation of those Rageblooms. With the power of Wrath on her side, Medicine was finally acting on her hatred of humans, rather than simply brooding from atop the hill she lived on. The Rageblooms carried her hatred to other beings.
>Lust admitted she had no idea how Reimu was able to defeat Wrath-Medicine and separate the two beings from each other, but she did, although Kogasa was injured during the battle. According to Lust, Reimu deposited Medicine at Eientei to treat the damage done to her before bringing Wrath's gem back to Tsumiko. She then took Kogasa to her home to help her recuperate. That still leaves Greed unaccounted for, but Lust claimed that now that Tsumiko had six Sins back with her, she could track down Greed on her own. The denizens of the Keep could handle it from there, said they wanted to do some good for Gensokyo after the trouble they'd caused. After delivering her message, Lust then departed to check on Reimu, Kogasa and Medicine. Tsumiko felt responsible for their wounds, and sent Lust out to do what she could to help. You have some serious doubts about the wisdom of the Keeper, letting Lust run over Gensokyo all on her own after all the trouble the other Sins caused, but Meiling assures you that Lust can be depended on to at least not make things worse.
>For the next week, your mansion is as active as it has been in quite a long time. Koryu's experients with his power under Patchouli's guidance, Haridoku learning how to be a proper gate guard under Meiling's watch, Amitsu learning her way around the kitchen with Sakuya, Rainy Stars running around with her new duties, even managing to get the construction of the west wing back under way, and the constant presence of Dio and her understated bafflement of her new surroundings. And of course, you finding time to sit down with your sister and tell her the tale of how you saved your Sakuya and brought her home. But what occupies the bulk of your time is your efforts in putting together your opera. Sei proves to be an interesting partner in your efforts here, as you discover she has a genuine love of music. Music, it seems, is one of the few things that can move her heart, and she demonstrates more than a little skill with a violin. Still, as you and she work, you realize that this isn't going to be an entirely easy effort on your part. It will be well worth it, once it all comes together, and it will. It will be one of the finest shows Gensokyo has seen in ages. It will simply take some time to put it all together.
>Much to your relief, by the end of the week, Sakuya is indeed back to her old self, her natural pride returning to its normal level. Sei had assured you this would be the case, but since the Sins were a type of spirit you'd never dealt with before, you were not entirely convinced of that. It does your heart good to see her back to her old self. Although that does not necessarily mean she has been completely unchanged by her experience. She still presents a cold, impartial face to the world, but somehow, it doesn't seem quite as harsh as you'd grown accustomed to. Well, sometimes, anyway, as she regards Haridoku with a ceratin amount of cool disdain, and she goes out of her way to avoid Dio. Not that the latter is hard, as Dio seems to be avoiding her, as well. But her budding friendship with Amitsu doesn't end once her pride has recovered, and she compliments Rainy Stars on her efficiency and work ethic. You've also noticed over the past week that she and Meiling have spent more time together than they had before this incident. Meiling, in fact, had been keeping almost as close an eye on her as you were while she was recovering, and while normally you might have expected Sakuya to scold her for shirking her duty for such a 'frivolous' pursuit, if anything she seems grateful for the attention from Hong. Though she refuses to admit it outright. She's still Sakuya, after all, and her spirited denial makes you laugh despite yourself.
>Unfortunately, Dio grows increasingly uncomfortable during her stay at your mansion, and despite your best efforts and the efforts of Patchy, you find no immediate or easy method of returning her to her own timeline. Patchouli does unearth one ancient spell that might do the trick, but the ingredients needed to power the spell make it impossible to recreate. You do actually speak to Yukari Yakumo herself about the incident; the gap youkai walked through your front door the day after Lust visited. Evidently she had detected a fluctuation in the timelines and came to investigate. Still, despite her reputation and famed power, the way Dio came into this timeline is something she claims to have never encountered before, and not something even she can simple wave her hand and set to right. She does, however, promise you and Dio that she will do whatever is in her power to get Dio home, though she does say that it may take some time, and that she may need to discuss the matter with a consultant or two. Predictably, she does not elaborate further before gapping her way out of your mansion. Still, Dio seems content to take Yukari at her word. In Dio's timeline, Yukari is a lot of things but she isn't a liar. You hope that this extends to this Yukari as well, at least as long as you and she are working towards the same goal.
>This does not mean, however, that Dio is content to simply sit back and relax until Yukari returns. Despite your best efforts to convince her otherwise, Dio decides to leave the mansion a week after her arrival. She doesn't feel right being around your Sakuya, nor does Sakuya enjoy Dio being here. The two seem to almost unconsciously reject each other, as
though the existence of one is an affront to another. The odd thing about this is, for a vampire hunter like her, she accepts
your company more easily than she does that of Sakuya. Despite the circumstances, you find this to be a hopeful sign for Dio, if she can get past the anger and pain you felt within her to reach this point. Plus she says she isn't the sort to stay in one place for too long just cooling her heels. She needs to get out and move, to keep her skills sharp. She wants to see this Gensokyo, as well, and how it differs from hers, and she wants to see if she can find her own way home. You offer her a guide, but she says she travels better alone.
>But more importantly, she promises to return to see you again, whether she finds another way home or not. If for nothing else, she says with a very familiar, Sakuya-like smirk, to see your opera. She isn't a big fan of the genre, but she is very curious about a vampire-run production that isn't couched in evil. Which means that she now believes that you, at least, are not like the vampires she knows, which leaves you feeling very satisfied. As the hunter departs the mansion, you have no doubt that you have not seen the last of her, and that when she returns to her own time, you'll have done something good for her. You've proven that vampires are not the universal evil she believes them to be. And that is a very satisfying thought. With that thought in mind, you sit back in your comfortable chair on your balcony, sipping quietly from a glass of good red wine and watching the moon come up in the east amidst a field of twinkling stars. The night promises to be a good one.
