The Story of a Past Scarlet 5

A/N:
This story contains bloody scenes/moments, so if you aren’t fond of these, please go back. Also, though I am trying my best to follow ZUN’s actual SDM back story, note that he is vague with details, and I’ve filled those vague gaps with what I believe happened. The point is, you may disregard this if you like. Please leave a review/comment, and thank you for reading.

She has the power to see and change the fate of anyone, even her own, having done so already by never allowing herself to grow up; and in doing so, she has gained two special servants, though she still lost her sister. With the help of Patchouli and her assistant, Koakuma, Remilia finally got that book with that particular spell she wanted; the spell that could send them somewhere else, a place she could truly call home, and maybe through that, get her sister back. Again, she failed to foresee her fated failure, and thus, failed to change it, and again the hard blow of reality breaks the strong spirit that is Remilia Scarlet. But it’s not a complete loss, as her newest servant, Patchouli Knowledge, has proven to be a most valuable servant, ally and friend, comforting her mistress in a time of dire need for her. Even though she failed to foresee and change her fate, she has gained something she never expected; she is regaining her family, yet Flandre remains. On the night of the full moon, after they have their dinner together, for the first time, Remilia, Patchouli and Meiling go their separate ways inside the mansion, unaware that they are being watched by a strange figure from the darkness. As soon as she sees her chance, the figure rushes to infiltrate the mansion, but fate has once again stepped in, and Meiling walks back to her post before the dark figure can even come close to the gates, but this dark figure isn’t about to give up, and has revealed herself to Meiling, brazenly challenging the mansion’s gate guardian. Meiling stances ready to fight and says “I can’t let you through these gates. Please leave now, or I will have to kill you!” The figure reveals two knives under her very long sleeves and immediately rushes to Meiling, who only has time to cover her face before the woman tries to cut her. Even though she has a diagonal cut on each forearm, Meiling moves fast, as though not feeling any pain, and grabs the woman’s arms, pulling her close for a headbutt, but the figure is quick, and using Meiling’s own strength, she runs on Meiling’s body, as though running up a wall, and lifts her head above the gate guard’s just before the impact. Surprised, Meiling pushes the woman to the air and away from herself, and before falling, this figure flips in the air and lands on her feet effortlessly, then rushes forward again. Meiling sees an opening on the woman’s head and quickly unleashes a powerful punch, surrounding it in rainbow flames, but the woman disappears right before her eyes. Surprised, Meiling lowers her guard and looks around, asking herself “huh? Wait, wasn’t there someone here just now?” Acting on instinct, Meiling crouches just before a silver knife cuts her neck, and manages to spin-kick behind herself to reveal the hooded woman, who jumps away just in time. Still crouching, Meiling glares at the hooded woman and says “I don’t know how you did that, but it’s going to take more than cheap tricks to deal with me.” The woman chuckles and says “fine. I’ll use one of my more expensive tricks.” The woman seems to disappear for half a second, then reappears a few feet away from Meiling after somehow surrounding the gate guard with a legion of knives. Meiling gasps and covers her face in fright, then all the knives fly at her, stabbing her deeply. After the knives stop flying, Meiling starts to shake the knives off her body, causing her own blood to splatter all over the wall, the ground and the surrounding trees, asking “ow, ow, ow, ow! What is this? Where did they all come from?” She finally pulls the very last dagger off her back and realizes the woman has moved an inch. Meiling gasps, and right after she blinks, she finds herself surrounded by more knives, so she holds on to the knife she just pulled off herself and starts deflecting as many of the knives headed her way, though some do make it through, and one of them stabs itself hard on her right calf, making her fall to the ground after a shriek. Whimpering, she tries to reach for the knife on her calf, but when she tries to move her leg, she yelps in pain and stops. The woman glares down at her fallen opponent, then says “good night”, stabbing a knife on her left temple and defeating the gate guard. She pulls off the knife from the woman’s temple, then the one on her calf, then says “these aren’t cheap. Besides, it’s not nice to leave these sharp objects just lying around. What the-!” Meiling is still alive and conscious, and has grabbed on tight to the woman’s leg under her long makeshift cloak. Surprised, the woman shouts “let go, you stubborn monster!”, and kicks Meiling on her forehead, knocking off her hat and knocking the gate guard unconscious at last. The woman takes a few breaths of relief while sitting next to the bleeding gate guard on the ground, then says “gee, you monsters are very resilient creatures. Phew, you sleep tight now. In the morning, you can mourn your master all you want.” With those words, the woman walks toward the mansion, admiring the garden behind the gates, and brazenly enters the front doors.

Inside the mansion, the woman looks around, and after a long sigh, she throws three daggers to her right, killing three fairy maids that were just about to go and alert the others, then looks around the mansion some more, admiring the collected dust on the corners, and the somewhat clean ornaments hanging on the walls. While looking around, she thinks “filthy creatures, these monsters. They mock us by trying to live like humans. Curse them all!” She starts to walk up the stairs to the next floor and thinks “these are the worse, living in luxury like this, even though there are humans that can’t even afford some food, let alone some suitable accommodations!” Fire rains down on the woman, breaking her line of thought as she falls down the steps, rolling while grunting and desperately trying to take off her burning cloak. Finally, the cloak turns to ashes as it rolls down the last step, then the woman lands on her knees behind those ashes. From the stairs above, Patchouli says “my, another foolish ‘explorer’. Not to be rude, but you aren’t welcome here. Please leave now.” Staring at the intruder with her unfriendly eyes, Patchouli readies another fire spell as she says “oh, a woman. And quite a beauty. The mistress will be pleased with this catch.” The woman glares back with her dark blue eyes as she stands up. She wears a red scarf around her neck, a dirty and tattered white, short-sleeved shirt under a small grey jacket, a pair of brown fingerless gloves, a pair of tattered long grey pants, and a pair of worn brown boots. Her more distinguished feature is her long, shiny, silvery hair that reaches down to her waist, and her face, though twisted with years of suffering, still holds a certain unexplainable beauty and finesse. With a challenging smile, the woman looks up at Patchouli and pulls a knife from her pocket, then says “a magician. I know how to deal with your kind.” Patchouli stares back with a very unfriendly face, then her fire spell seems to grow right above her hand. Instead of throwing the fireball, as the woman expected, Patchouli makes the fireball spread into hundreds of smaller fireballs, causing a curtain of fire that rains down to the intruder, threatening to cook her alive. The woman screams as the fire engulfs her and falls to the ground almost immediately. Patchouli smiles and says “well, that was a lot easier than I anticipated.” The magician’s eyes expand as she gasps in surprise at the sight of the woman right next to her, holding her dagger right beside her neck, saying “you almost got me there, miss magician.” The woman suddenly jumps away, back to the first floor, where the magical flames start to fizzle out, revealing the little damage done to the mansion itself, then runs toward the dining room just as a massive curtain of round bullets heads her way. Patchouli sighs with relief while holding her neck, then says “phew! Thanks Koa. Y-you came in just in time.” Koakuma and a small army of ten fairies stand just above Patchouli, on the small, first floor balcony, and after flipping a thumb up to Patchouli, Koakuma turns around and says “let’s get that intruder, girls.” The fairy maids all cheer, then follow Patchouli and Koakuma as they fly after the silver haired woman.

Inside the dining room, the woman finds herself trapped, as the fairy maids, regardless of all her stealth attempts, are fully alert of her presence, and are blocking any other possible way out. The woman snarls and says “dammit all, I got careless! I have no other choice!” Working as fast as she can, the woman flips, jumps, bends and crawls to avoid the relentless attacks from the fairy maids, while killing ever last one of them with her knives. She manages to pick all her knives again, but Patchouli has placed a barrier on all the other exits and says “you know, you are the worst of all our intruders so far. The mistress might get mad, but I have no choice but to take care of you myself.” The silver-haired woman snarls at Patchouli, then backward-summersaults to the table, avoiding a heavy barrage of bullets. Patchouli looks behind her and sounding surprised she says “Koa, I thought you ran away to the basement!” Koakuma smiles and says “don’t get any ideas now, I just want this intruder out of here! Oh, and I read your diary again. Sorry~” Patchouli grumbles and says to herself “mukyu. She can get on my nerves sometimes.” The woman finds herself surrounded almost immediately, and high in the air, to her left, Koakuma points at her and says “don’t even think about begging! I’ll prepare you as a special meal to miss Remilia and miss Patchouli with my own hands!” Just as Koakuma ends her threat, she realizes there is a knife flying straight at her, and while spraying tears from her eyes she flies away as fast as she can and shouts “I forgot! I left the library unprotected!”, then flies through the door behind Patchouli, headed straight toward the safety of the library. The fairy maids aren’t as quick, and all die with a knife or two to the face. Patchouli finishes an incantation and surrounds herself within a large watery bubble, then stares back at the intruding woman. The silver haired intruder points at Patchouli with her right hand and says “monsters like you don’t deserve to live in such nice places like this.” Patchouli chuckles, then replies “my, you are jealous of us. How cute. Still, you have no right to say such horrible things.” The woman is suddenly standing on the floor and has picked up all her knives again, then points one at Patchouli and says “go to hell.” Patchouli finds herself surrounded by countless daggers all around, surprising her as she prepares another spell. The magician manages to summon some knives of her own, this time black in color and surrounded by a green glow, then immediately unleashes them to block off the woman’s own knives. Thanks to her bubble, she is protected from the few knives that escape her own, and when she’s ready to cast her next spell she realizes the woman is gone. She looks around frantically, then gasps when the woman speaks to her from behind, saying “you need to work on your defenses.” While Patchouli gasps and asks “how did you do that?”, the woman uses her knife to cut a perfect vertical line on the magician’s bubble, making it pop just as Patchouli flies away. With a wicked smirk, the woman says “oh no, you’re not”, then chases after the purple-haired magician on foot. Patchouli manages to fly away to the kitchen before turning around and firing mercury orbs at her attacker, opening an escape route to the corridor back to her library. She is determined to reach Remilia and alert her of the intruder’s presence, but when she looks to her left, she sees the woman reaching for her, so she yelps in fright and veers to the right, crashing against an ornamental column. She tries to get back up, but feels dizzy and heavy. The woman places her boot on her back and says “you really need to work on that body of yours”, then strikes Patchouli on the back of the head with the hilt of her knife, knocking her out cold. The silver-haired woman walks back to the foyer and says to herself “now to deal with the head of this monster’s house.”

While the woman makes her way around the mansion, searching through a few doors, she deals with the fairy maids that attack her so relentlessly. As she kills another five fairies and continues her way, she thinks “how can these monsters have so many servants? And that’s not all. It is as if they are fighting for more than just their master. It is... as if they are fighting for someone they love. How can this be? How can a monster like her have others that love her, while a human like me...” The woman screams with rage, getting the attention of eight more fairy maids, which she deals with effortlessly, jumping as high as she can, throwing her knives at them, using the walls and running and jumping on them as though they were the floor. After she kills the last of the fairies, she thinks “those girls, the magician, the gate guard, and even that devil. I envy them! They all have a reason to be alive; a purpose! I hate them! No... If I really hated them, I would have killed them all. Why? Why did I stop? Why did I stay my hand? They are monsters! If I kill them, the humans will accept me, even with this power of mine!” She runs through another fairy-infested corridor, and as she runs through, she throws her daggers at them with deadly accuracy, even though her mind is elsewhere. After the makes it thought the corridor, she finds a large door at the end of yet another corridor, and as she walks toward it she thinks “you stupid girl, FOCUS! The master of this place is there, I can feel it. Keep focused! Don’t waver now! After you have her head, you can show your face to the world again! You will find your purpose!” She pushes the doors open and finds Remilia sitting on her chair, smiling as the full moon shines through the large window behind her. She looks at the silver-haired woman and smiles, then says “welcome, you rowdy rat. You have been stirring quite a lot of trouble.” The woman quickly grabs a knife from her belt on each hand, and glares back at Remilia, saying “shut up, you monster. Your head is mine now!” Remilia smiles again, then crosses her legs while resting her head on her hand, resting her elbow on the chair’s armrest, then says “really, I want to thank you for not killing my servants. It would have been a pain if I had to look for new servants again.” The woman snarls and shouts “just DIE!” Three knives fly straight toward Remilia’s head, surprising the vampire as she notices the woman still holds the very same knife she threw on her hand, while making her fly right out of her comfortable chair. Remilia flaps her wings to keep herself airborne, then says “how impatient. But I must say, you surprised me there.” Again, three daggers fly straight at Remilia, making her dodge, only to get stabbed on the neck by two more knives. Remilia casually pulls the knives right out of her neck, which heals almost immediately, then says “so I was right. You manipulated the space around you to create copies of that single knife, letting go at just the right moment while actually stopping time. You know, that skill shouldn’t even be on a human’s incapable hands.” The woman gasps and stares at the vampire with surprise, then smiles and says “well, for a moment, I thought you were just some brainless monster.” Remilia hums and casually says “who needs useless organs like that. Only you humans need those.” The woman throws more daggers at Remilia, but the vampire foresees her move and manages to dodge and get close to the woman. She grabs her long silver hair and runs it through her fingers, then says “such lovely hair. Tell me, how much work you put into it?” With a loud battle cry, the woman swings her knife and cuts the vampire’s neck, severing the head from its body, then says “there. That should shut you up.” The woman gasps and jumps away when she realizes Remilia’s body is still moving, then Remilia’s head on the ground speaks, casually saying “you really need to learn some manners. I wasn’t even going to attack you... yet.” The woman watches with horror as the vampire picks her head from the ground and places back on her shoulders, and how the cut heals up very quickly, right before her very eyes. Remilia notices the woman’s curious and terrified gaze, then says “the full moon is so beautiful, isn’t it. It gives light without burning my skin, unlike the sun. It also gives me more power. You chose poorly when you decided to attack me tonight, girl.” The woman shouts back “that means nothing! Either I kill you, or you kill me! But I warn you, I do not intend to lose to you!” Remilia smirks and says “oh really? I can see it, you know. Your eyes, those beautiful blue eyes of yours. You are looking for a purpose in life! You want to be accepted by others, by humans! HAH! They will never accept you! They are... not like us.” The woman starts to cry while clenching her teeth, then shouts “y-you know nothing! You’re just trying to take my head!” Remilia smiles wickedly, baring her fangs as she says “fine. You want to fight, then we’ll fight. Come with me to the clock tower. There’s enough room there for a fight, and... well, the view is to DIE for!” The woman throws a total of nine knives as Remilia swoops away and breaks through the window, missing her as she heads to the tall clock tower in the center of her mansion. The woman’s tears dry up as she glares at the vampire and whispers “don’t run away from me, you lying coward!” She jumps out the window and manages to soften her landing on the ground outside by using her space manipulation, then she manages to jump high enough to reach the mansion’s roof and give chase to Remilia.

The silver-haired woman finally reaches the clock tower, surprised that the vampire’s words were true; that there is enough space for them to fight, and yet she cannot find the vampire. After looking up to the sky, she sees Remilia with her back turned, standing on one foot on the very tip of the tower while gazing at the moon. Remilia turns her face to reveal a bright red glow in her eye and a wide grin, and in a sinister tone of voice, she playfully says “I can see you fate~” The woman doesn’t hesitate and throws an absurd barrage of knives at Remilia, who disappears just as the knives are about to hit her back. The woman looks frantically around, then suddenly gasps and jumps away, just before Remilia strikes her down with her scarlet fire spear. Turning around in mid-jump, the woman throws eight more knives at Remilia, and as soon as she lands she rushes toward the vampire. Remilia uses the back of her wings and shields herself form the knives, deflecting the last two and getting ready to intercept the woman, who jumps straight at her while aiming at her heart with her knife. Remilia’s smile turns to a frown the moment she notices this, then jumps backward while tossing two of her own cursed daggers. The woman uses her knife to deflect one dagger, then stops time to avoid the second. While time is stopped, the intruder sees everything in grey, and she can see that cursed dagger is headed straight to her. She manages to bend her knees and body back, as she lands on the ground and slides underneath the cursed dagger. Once safe, she sets twelve more knives and releases time, making those knives fly in an arc straight at Remilia. The vampire used the back of her wings to protect herself, yet she fails to deflect one knife that stabs itself hard on her forehead. Remilia doesn’t even flinch as she pulls the knife off, then uses the blood of the knife to create many small spears, throwing them all straight at the woman, who finds herself dancing in order to dodge the attacks. Remilia opens her eyes wide and exclaims “how elegant! Elegance like that doesn’t come often in humans like you!” The woman reaches the wall of the clock tower and uses her space manipulation, as well as the momentum of her run, to run up the wall and back-flip away from the last spear, then asks “what is it to you if I’m elegant or not? Besides, I’m trying to kill you!” Remilia grins widely, baring her teeth, then says “yes, you’re right! Let’s finish this game, and THEN we talk!” Right after finishing her sentence, Remilia fires a massive scarlet beam that spreads around into five more beams, and as these beams trap the woman between them, giant blue energy orbs spread out in a cross formation. The woman yelps when one of those orbs hits her chest, burning her skin and burning most of her under shirt as well, but she won’t stop. She sheathes the dagger on her right hand and quickly bends down to pick a red hilted knife from her boot. As soon as the beams fizzle out, the woman stops time and uses the red knife, and her space manipulation, to set as many knives as she can. She releases time and surprises Remilia with the amount of knives flying around without an actual pattern. Remilia smiles as she jumps and flies around while avoiding the knives, yet she still gets stabbed on her left ankle and right thigh. After she land, she pulls the knives off, unaware the woman is right next to her, cutting her arm and back deeply, leaving a large gash. Remilia yelps as she falls to the ground, then rolls away to safety. She looks at the woman, who is already rushing forth, and while breathing with effort, she says “damn! That was pure silver!” The woman kicks Remilia’s ribs as hard as she can, using her space manipulation to augment her own strength, sending the vampire right through the tower’s walls, but not before Remilia sets a trap, and engulfs the woman with her smaller scarlet cross. As she recovers and sits on the rubble of the wall, Remilia rubs her head and arm, then says to herself “I was being too nice.” She takes a deep breath and jumps to the moonlight, where her wounds quickly heal up, then looks at the woman, who stands up after recovering from Remilia’s trap, then shouts “play time ends here, lady!” Remilia’s eyes start to glow bright, and this time the glow won’t stop. The woman struggles as she stands up, knowing well the vampire is furious, then thinks “this brat was actually toying with me before. Dammit all, and I was going at my fullest the whole time! Can I beat her?” Even with that doubt, the woman grabs one of her blue hilted knives from her belt with her left hand, then grabs the red knife from the floor with her right, then readies herself to attack and says “fine! I’ll stop playing with you then!” Remilia smiles widely as she looks into the woman’s blue eyes, taking notice of her doubt, knowing full well she now has the upper hand.

Wasting no time, Remilia surrounds herself with her own scarlet energy and rushes straight at the woman with all she’s got. The woman gasps, realizing their actual difference in power, and fails to react in time. She soon finds herself in Remilia’s claws, who grabs her by her ruined jacket, and now she’s being lifted in the air, while that scarlet energy burns her down to her bones. After the woman screams out of pain, Remilia sighs with satisfaction and drops the woman from way up high, but the silver haired woman is not about to let herself die, so she grabs on to Remilia’s left leg, dropping her red hilted knife, then cuts Remilia’s abdomen with her other knife before letting go and gabbing on to the tower’s wall, sliding down safely by using the wall itself for support. With her dress broken and stained in blood, Remilia flies down with an angry snarl and prepares her next attack without pausing, even to heal that large diagonal gash on her ribs and abdomen. The woman takes a few breaths to recover, then notices the left leg of her pant has been burned away, while the other leg is in tatters, still burning with scarlet flames. A bright red flash gets the woman’s attention, then she notices Remilia has surrounded herself by thick scarlet magic, and is ready to unleash her powerful attack. Remilia reveals her eyes through the thick scarlet magic mist, and as soon as she sees the woman, she releases the spell, making it look like a scarlet mist that leaves lingering bits behind. The woman sighs and says “oh dammit!”, then starts running away toward the inside of the mansion, only to find the door to safety is locked. Remilia laughs and asks “what’s the matter? I thought you were going to kill me.” The woman breathes rapidly while looking around herself, drops to the ground to avoid the thick scarlet flame, then concentrates for a moment. The clock tower’s floor expands considerably, allowing the woman to roll away, just as Remilia shoots another concentrated blast of scarlet magic. Remilia gasps with admiration, then says “that is amazing! For a mere human to hold such control over her power like that!” Without Remilia’s notice, the woman has set many knives behind her own scarlet magic, and as soon as she takes notice, the knives fly at her and stab her from her abdomen to her face, losing her left eye. Remilia falls to the ground and rolls around while pulling off the knives, and after pulling the one from her eye, she starts to breathe heavily while struggling to stand up. When she looks at the last knife, then realizes it’s red hilt, and that it’s made out of pure silver. The woman wants to take the chance to stab the vampire’s heart, but when she gets closer, Remilia furiously flails her claws around, screaming out in pain and rage. The woman thinks she’s won the battle, and gets close enough to strike the vampire as soon as she stops flailing her arms around, but Remilia catches her off guard and jumps straight at her, ready to use her claws. The woman notices and manages to stop time just before the vampire’s claws make contact, however, her energy is low, and time starts flowing again before she can get away, and just as Remilia notices her target is escaping, her claws glow scarlet, then she manages to cut off the woman’s hair, leaving it just long enough to barely reach her shoulders. The woman falls to the floor and rolls away from Remilia, who stops attacking to slowly pick up the chunk of soft, silvery hair from the floor. As she holds the hair, she calms down and smiles, then looks at the woman with that wicked smile and says “I got your hair, young lady. I got your life in my hands.” The woman stares at the vampire with hatred in her eyes, then says “go to hell!” Remilia smiles when she notices the held back tears from the woman’s eyes, then smiles even wider when she notices her trying to grab hold of what little hair she has left as she stands up again. While standing there, the gash on Remilia’s abdomen heals to perfection, the stab wounds vanish in an instant, and her eye start to grow back quite rapidly. Remilia takes a step forward, making the woman take one hesitant step backward, then laughs and says “time to finish you off!” She rushes straight at the woman, ready to finish the battle, but the woman pulls a pack of cards from her right pocket, then vanishes, leaving a 3 of hearts to be cut in half in her stead. Remilia raises her head with a crazed look, then starts to laugh as she looks back and says “you still have energy for that? I am so impressed! That’s it, you are just too much! You are now MINE!” The woman stands behind Remilia, trying to somehow kick-open the door, but when Remilia says those words, she stops and shouts “I’d rather die! I’d rather die before I let you turn me into one of you monsters!” Remilia shows off the chunk of hair and says “it’s too late! I already took your life! Look, it’s right here in my hand! This is your FATE!” The woman loses herself and foolishly rushes to attack Remilia with her bare hands, so Remilia cuts the skin of her own abdomen with her claw through the tear in her dress, then throw the blood on her claw all around herself, turning it into red energy orbs. The woman stops running, knowing it is over for her, and just like that, hundreds of blood-red orbs of energy fly to her and explode hard on impact.

While the smoke from the blast clears off the floor in front of the clock tower, Remilia frowns and says “shit, I think I overdid it”, but when the smoke starts to clear, she sees the woman’s silhouette on her knees, still alive, though barely able to stand. Remilia smiles and walks toward her, getting a better look of the woman. Her shirt is almost gone, only bits of her jacket remain, her pants are in tatters, and that’s when she notices the golden pocket hand-watch falling off the right pocket. She smiles and says “hmm, I see. That’s the catalyst for your time stopping powers, isn’t it? You were wise to hide it from me.” The woman softly sighs and smiles, then simply nods. Remilia continues to admire her and notices how the light of the full moon accents her inhuman beauty, then says “for a human, your beauty admirable, even to me. Tell me, what’s your name?” Remilia continues to walk around the woman, looking at the singed red scarf, now more visible, due to her shortened hair. The woman sighs and asks “aren’t you going to kill me already?” Remilia stops in front of her and grabs her chin to pull her face up and stare into her eyes. After staring for some time, Remilia says “no matter. Whatever name you had doesn’t concern me anymore.” The woman angrily asks “are you going to continue torturing me like this?” Remilia smiles and says “tonight, at the end of the night of this beautiful full moon, miss, your fate has changed. You now have a purpose! You will serve me for as long as you live. You will follow my every command without question, care for my mansion to your best of abilities, and use those magnificent powers for me!” The woman opens her eyes wide as she slowly straightens out, then Remilia looks away toward the setting moon and says “and from this night forth, you will be known as Sakuya Izayoi. The beautiful flower whose beauty shines brightest under the full moon, and whom I defeated on the sixteenth night, just as the full moon sets.” After her declaration, a swift gale courses around Sakuya, and as she looks at Remilia’s glowing red eyes with her own shocked and surprised eyes, she whispers “of all possible fates...”, then falls to the floor and passes out from exhaustion, but not before thinking “I can’t believe this. I never thought, in all my life, that I’d find a purpose to live thanks to a monster. How... ironic.” Remilia stares at her new servant with an expressionless face, then bends down to pick her up, then quickly flies around the mansion and lands in front of the entrance. Once inside, she finds Meiling helping Patchouli keep on her feet, while Patchouli heals their wounds. With a very light smile on her face, Remilia says “this is Sakuya... my newest servant.” Patchouli softly asks “are you sure it’s ok to have her here? She’s pretty dangerous for a simple human.” Remilia smirks and says “that’s exactly why she’s staying, Patchy. Come, help me take her to her room. We’ll pick something popper for her to wear.” Patchouli nods, and Meiling salutes, then they all head up to the next floor, followed promptly by Koakuma, who looks very curious about the silver haired woman.

Only two days after Sakuya’s fate was changed and she became another one of Remilia’s servants, and the mansion never looked better. The floors, walls, ornaments, and even the ceiling all look sparkly clean. The fairy maids seem more organized as well, and somehow the mansion itself looks brighter, but the biggest change of all is the immense size of the mansion’s insides, though outside it look normal. Sakuya is in her new room, looking at herself through the mirror on her dressing table, sitting while braiding the left side of her hair, having already braided the right side and tied it with a green ribbon. Her old red scarf now sits inside a drawer of her dressing table, while her old clothes were thrown away. She ties another green bow to her left braid and smiles at herself, then stands up and twirls in place to make sure her new maid’s uniform is straightened. Hers, unlike the ones Remilia’s old human maids wore, is blue and short, her skirt only covering to her knees. She still wears a white apron on top of it, as well as a bonnet on her head like all the other maids. She picks her hand-watch from her skirt’s pocket, then says to herself “ah, I’m going to be late.” Just like that, she stops time around her, and as she leaves her room in a rush, her skirt lifts just a little, revealing a few set of knives sheathed in a small belt she ties around her right thigh. Meanwhile, at the main hall, Remilia sits on her chair, tapping her fingers on her armrest as though waiting for something. Noticing her impatience, Patchouli says “Remi, calm down.” The magician stands to Remilia’s right, and now wears a set of blue and lilac ribbons all over. Two on each side of her hair, another pair on her hat, making it look as though she’s wearing her hair in a double-bun, and on the right bun she ties a yellow amulet as well, and two more ribbons on the shoulders of her robe as well as a blue ribbon on her left shoe, and a red one on the right. Remilia stares back at Patchouli and says “I just want to get this over with, Patchy. Ah, here she comes. Close the curtains.” Patchouli waves her hand, and the thick red curtains behind Remilia’s chair completely cover the large window. She waves her hands two more times, then closes the thick red curtains on two small windows on the left and right side of the room. Sakuya enters the room just as it gets dark, then Patchouli uses her magical flames and sets them around like magical lamps to light the room. Sakuya smiles at the sight of her mistress and says “I am sorry I’m late, my lady. I just wanted to make sure to be presentable to you.” Remilia smiles and says “you shouldn’t worry about that, my chief maid. You’ve already improved this mansion so much and just two days, and you have certainly demonstrated your worth to me.” Sakuya bows and says “and as your chief maid, I must always be presentable to my lady, no matter what the circumstances.” Remilia grins, then gets off her chair and slowly walks to Sakuya. The chief maid kneels in front of her mistress, then bends her body down and lowers her head. Remilia presents Sakuya with her right hand, then Sakuya immediately kisses it before lowering her head again. Remilia smiles, then chants “I thus declare this human being, a defiant of both soul and body, as a servant of both honor and high caliber.” Patchouli stares with great interest, as Remilia grabs a ceremonial knife from a small table to her left. Staring at Sakuya with a wicked smile, Remilia continues chanting “my body and my soul will remember this pact, and thus, shall be sealed by the blood of the chosen master.” Remilia raises the knife and cuts the palm of her right hand, and without hesitation, Sakuya grabs Remilia’s hand and sucks the blood of her mistress. Remilia smiles and whispers “good girl”, just before the back of her right hand starts to glow brightly, then the image of a pocket hand-watch burns itself on the back of Remilia’s hand. Sakuya smiles, her lips still stained with Remilia’s blood, then Remilia smiles back as she grabs the skin of the back of her right hand and rips it off, turns it around to hide the hand-watch image, then presents it to Patchouli, saying “go ahead, Patchy.” Patchouli silently nods, then raises her own right hand and surrounds it with a green spell, healing Remilia’s whole hand in an instant. Sakuya elegantly cleans the blood off her lips with a handkerchief she had in her apron’s pocket, and as soon as she pockets it again, Remilia stares at her and says “remember, for your safety, and for secrecy, what happened in here today stays. Understood? Both of you?” Patchouli and Sakuya bow their heads, then Sakuya’s eyes glow red for a brief second as she says “whatever my lady wishes.” Remilia smiles, then says “good. Now, Sakuya, bring me that tea you make. And bring three cups. I wish to celebrate this moment.” Sakuya asks “are you expecting guests, my lady?” Remilia stares at Sakuya with that expressionless face of hers, then Sakuya bows with a smile and says “understood, my lady.” After Sakuya leaves the room and heads toward the kitchen, she thinks “she could have killed me just as easily, and yet she gave me a life. No matter what, I don’t care about pacts, I don’t care about power, I don’t even care that I am the only human here, I will devote this new life given to me to miss Remilia.”

The next day, at noon, Sakuya and Remilia walk out of Patchouli’s library, as Patchouli shouts to them “I’ll leave that on stand-by.” Remilia turns around and says “right, right. Don’t let Koakuma or the fairies near it.” Koakuma shouts “hey!”, just before Sakuya closes the door. Sakuya turns around and looks at her mistress to tell her she’s going to start cleaning the basement, but something’s caught Remilia’s attention. Unknown to Sakuya, Flandre, Remilia’s sister, sleeps near there, though with Sakuya expanding the mansion’s space, it’s not as close anymore. Sakuya asks “my lady, what’s the matter?” Sounding almost depressed, Remilia says “my sister... I haven’t seen her at all this year.” Sakuya is about to ask, why not visit her now, but Remilia beats her before she can ask, and says “she wasn’t like that. She wasn’t a monster. Sure, she’s never been able to control that power, but now... I miss my real sister.” Sakuya softly says “my... My lady, don’t be afraid. Let’s go see her now.” Remilia turns her face slightly toward Sakuya, looking at her maid through the corner of her eye, then says “you caught on so quickly, and we just forged the pact. Impressive. Sakuya, I am afraid. That is not my sister, not anymore. I am very afraid of what’s in that room, mimicking the shape of my own sister.” Sakuya keeps quiet, thinking over and over, trying to find comforting words for her mistress, then Remilia continues “that’s how we landed in this wretched world. I wanted to move my castle somewhere where me and my sister could be free... and all that happened was me having to seal her away.” With a determined look on her face, Sakuya grabs Remilia’s hand and pulls her along with her toward Flandre’s room. Though shouting “Sakuya, what are you doing? No, let me go! That’s an order!”, Remilia doesn’t break free from Sakuya’s grasps, knowing what her maid intends to do. Once they reach the grey door, Sakuya says “my lady, if you keep running away, you’ll never see your sister again. Maybe it’s impossible to bring her back, but if you don’t give it at least another try, you’ll never really know if she can come back to you or not!” Remilia sighs, placing her right hand on her right eye, then says “I suppose I could present her to you. But listen to me, she is mad! So whatever happens, you stay behind me at all times, and run away if I tell you to.” Sakuya bows and says “as you wish, my lady.” Slowly, the grey door opens up, Sakuya admiring how special the metal used to make the door is, also noticing a small magical circle on the door’s archway. Remilia quietly looks around, then she and Sakuya both open their eyes wide and gasp in surprise when the sinister voice of Flandre reaches them, saying “I haven’t seen you for so long, onee-sa... chan. I was starting to think you were broken. Oh, and what have we here? A new maid? She looks fun! Can I play with her?” Flandre’s voice seems to come from all the corners of the room, making it almost impossible for even Remilia to pin-point her location. Angry, Remilia shouts “Flandre, present yourself already to our new chief maid!” Flandre suddenly appears with a smile to Remilia’s right, innocently saying “but I’m right here, onee-sama!” Remilia and Sakuya jump in place after the surprise, but both recover quickly, then Remilia says “Flan, I want you to meet Sakuya. She’s our new chief maid.” Flandre smiles innocently as she gets closer to Sakuya, looks up at the chief maid, then says “miss Sakuya, hi. I am Flandre. Will you play with me?” Sakuya bows and smiles, then says “I’m sorry, miss, but I am just too busy.” Flandre frowns and whines as she backs away with a sad face, then asks “why won’t anyone ever play with me?” Starting to feel a little uncomfortable, Remilia says “Flan, you have to learn to control your powers first. Then we can all play with you all you...” Remilia looks behind, then realizes Flandre is closing the door. Before she fully closes it, she stops and flies away, giggling and saying “whoops, you caught me! Alright, let’s play now. We play until you break!” Speaking over Flandre’s insane cackle, Remilia shouts “Sakuya, get out of here now!”, and just as she says that, Flandre runs straight at the maid. Remilia aims to intercept her, but Sakuya stops time and jumps behind Flandre, then locks her arms around Flandre’s, then releases the flow of time once more. Relieved, Remilia sighs and says “phew, she got her.” Still unaware of what’s happened, Flandre looks around, wondering why she stopped moving, then looks up at Sakuya’s face and asks “how did you do that?” Sakuya smiles as she looks down at the little blonde vampire, then says “it’s a special skill of mine. Now, I am truly sorry, but I must be getting back to work.” Flandre frowns and whines again, allowing Sakuya to place her on the bed, then says “fine. See you later.” As Sakuya and Remilia walk out of the room and close the door, Flandre looks at them with her glowing left eye and insane smile, then says “sis, aren’t you forgetting something?” Remilia fakes a smile and says “I’ll see you later, Flan.”

After the door clicks shut, Sakuya bends her body and supports herself placing her hand on her thighs, then takes a deep breath of relief and says “whoa. That sure was something.” She soon notices the saddened eyes Remilia tries to hide with a stern look and stands in attention. Remilia softly says “you see? My real sister would be sweet and innocent. Maybe a bit of a brute, she not that monster you saw in that room.” Sakuya wants to comfort her mistress, but Remilia beats her again, saying “you saw all her toys, that mirror... that look on her face!” Remilia starts her walk back to her room, hiding her face from Sakuya, then says “I’ll be in my room. Please inform me when dinner is served.” Sakuya stares sadly at her mistress, then bows and says “as you wish... my lady”, then looks at Flandre’s door for a while before starting with her chores. That night, after Remilia and Patchouli leave the dinner table, Sakuya approaches Meiling and asks “so, have you met the young mistress in the basement?” Meiling stares with fright at the maid, then nods and says “she tried to kill me and my lady from the very first night.” Sakuya stares curiously at Meiling, then remembers what Remilia told her about her memories. She looks into Meiling’s eyes and notices some pity for the little vampire, then asks “well, has she ever been outside her room? Maybe with miss Remilia before?” Meiling shake her head and looks away, trying to avoid the subject from going any further, and Sakuya, after noticing this, says “alright. I’m sorry, I may have asked too much. You may go to your room if you want.” Sakuya begins to pick up the dinner plates from the table, then Meiling suddenly says “I’m sorry I wasn’t any help, and it’s alright. It’s just that talking about that makes me remember that face my lady had.” Sakuya stares into Meiling’s sad aquamarine eyes, then nods and says “I see. Thank you very much, Meiling.” After the gate guardian leaves, Sakuya sees a fairy maid taking Flandre’s food plate to the basement, so she decides to stop her and have her clean the dinner plates instead, while she attends Flandre by herself.

Later that night, standing in front of the silver door, Sakuya prepares herself before entering Flandre’s room, softly knocking on the door, calling “young mistress, I have your dinner here.” The maid enters the room and closes the door behind her, immediately taking notice of the maddening silence and thick darkness in the room. Sakuya finds a lamp on the wall to her right and promptly turn it on with a small match she had ready on the tray she carries. Immediately, in a sinister and angry tone of voice, Flandre demands “turn that thing off! It’s too bright!” Sakuya bows and says “my apologies, young mistress, but if it’s too dark, I can’t properly give you your dinner.” As if understanding, Flandre lowers her tone of voice as she says “hmm, you got a point.” Sakuya bows and approaches the bed, where she sees Flandre’s wing, then stops and winces when the plate’s cover suddenly explodes and flies high to the air. Flandre starts to giggle right after the cover falls on the ground, making a loud clang that seems to continue to ring on in Sakuya’s ears, and with an innocent, yet twisted tone of voice, she says “you are the first to enter here to brazenly. Even onee-s... onee-chan. Even onee-chan stays by the door, as if she’s scared. Tell me, is she scared of me?” Sakuya keeps her composure, even though she’s filled with fear, then says “your dinner’s getting cold, young mistress.” Flandre snarls and turns to face Sakuya, start to fly just above her bed, then growls as she says “rah! I’m going to play with all night, even after you’ve broken!” Flandre dives straight at Sakuya, but before she even know what’s what, Sakuya has placed the food tray on Flandre’s destroyed dresses and stands behind her, stabbing her shoulder with the tip of one of her pure silver knives. Sakuya quickly places another knife against Flandre’s neck, then slowly starts to push the knife on the vampire’s shoulder in deeper as she speaks in a sinister tone of voice, saying “you know, you make my mistress so sad. Maybe if I kill you with these silver knives I’ll rid my lady from this pain.” Sakuya presses the knife on Flandre’s neck a little harder, threatening to cut her, then slowly rises the stabbed knife up the little vampire’s shoulder, making her gasp with pain and tremble with actual fear. Flandre starts to cry, then shouts “you’re mean! I hate you!” Sakuya smiles and softly chuckles, then releases Flandre, who immediately flies away to her destroyed toys and tries to hide between them. Sakuya notices how her dolls are all torn and her toys burned and broken, then also notices the innocent look on Flandre’s crazed face. She sighs, then says “now I understand why my lady still has hopes for you.” With tears in her eyes as she quietly sobs, trying to look brave in front of that mean maid, Flandre cries out loud “get out! Leave me alone!” Sakuya smiles and bows, then says “I’ll be picking up the plates later. Make sure you eat it all.” With tears of fright, Flandre watches as Sakuya leaves the room and closes the door behind her, and as soon as the maid is gone, Flandre hugs a large, destroyed stuffed bear while letting out some sobs, then she begins to smile again, and even though she continues to cry, she giggles while pulling her face away from the stuffed toy. The next day, when Flandre wakes up in her bed, she notices the single lamp next to the door is still lit, the dinner tray is gone, and oddly enough, next to her is a stuffed rabbit with black buttons for eyes, one of her old, destroyed dolls, completely restored and stuffed full once more. Curious, she picks it up and stares at it for a while, turning it around to explore it, then notices the rest of her dolls, even the giant bear is completely restored. She continues to look around and finds her mirror is also restored to perfection, and that’s when she notice a small note on her bed-side drawer. She gently pick up the note while holding the stuffed rabbit around her right arm, opens it up, then reads “if you break them, I’ll fix them for you.” There is no name on the note, yet Flandre knows it’s the new maid, and with a smile on her face, she whispers “thank you.” Just a second later, her eyes start glowing bright red, her smile twists, then she starts to giggle, quickly progresses to laugh manically, then she grabs the stuffed rabbit and rips it in half. Her body splits into three more, then the real Flandre looks at her other selves and says “alright. Let’s play until we break!” The other three Flandres cheer and laugh, each picking a toy to play with it for a moment before destroying it, then the real Flandre stops for a moment to look at the large stuffed bear, then says “remind me to thank that Sakuya”, then rips the bear open with a childish and twisted smile, while the other three Flandres nod and say “we won’t let you forget!”

To be continued...

Characters and scenarios belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
JUL 30 2010
Written by
Willie G.R.

A/N:
Note that this story has been and will be used as base for anything concerning the SDM's cast history on my stories, unless noted otherwise.
And thus, this is what I think happened when Remilia and Sakuya first met, and what happened after Sakuya joined the SDM crew. Honestly, maybe they didn’t even fight at all... maybe they did. Maybe that is something we fans will be discussing forever. Also, yes, I do believe Sakuya had very long hair before, and lost it during her fight with Remilia. As for when she first met Flandre, that is what I think may have happened. ZUN’s never said much about that meeting either. Anyway, thank you very much for reading and I am both glad to know you’ve liked this story so far, and hope you’ll continue to leave comments. And yes, I’ve read those doujins (quite rare) of Remi’s and Patchy’s... special relations. As for another comment, Patchouli didn’t erase the memory. She simply blocked it, and yes, there is a chance they can come back. Particularly if something from her past, say a diary, were to fall on her sights. I’ve already triggered a brief memory return in one of my Sukima fics (One Random Sukima). Again, thanks for reading, and please leave comments/reviews.