-Evening, Hakurei Shrine's Garden-
-My POV-
The Sun has set. The Moon is shining brightly in the sky. Other than the shine of the Moon, there are also many Paper Lamps hanging around and a Campfire in the middle of the Garden, illuminating the area for everyone to see clearly.
All of those tools are used because today isn't any ordinary day, in other word, it's a special day. Today is the Feast Day. Any reason why today is a Feast Day? None, nobody know the reason why today is a Feast Day, but if they don't know the reason, why they're still doing it?
"Because I feel like it."
"Because Spring will end in the few weeks-ze!"
That's what they said. They were believed that those were the reason as to why they're doing it.
And so Youkai, Fairy, Human, Phantom, Ghost, and other mystical being are having a feast in the Shrine's Garden, and amid these colorful species filled Garden, there's a senior teaching her junior what they must do and don't as a Servant.
"Our Master condition is our top priority. Anyone else condition is none of our concern, not even our self."
'Yes!"
"When carrying our Master order, there must be no unnecessary and wasteful movement, only gracefulness and perfection in our every action."
"Yes!"
"Serving is our battlefield. We finally win after our Master satisfied with our works."
"Yes!"
"If you're assaulted by a Pervert, you can just crush his balls to permanently ruin him."
"…Yes?" Bara titled her head.
"…Please don't teach her anything strange." I plead.
"Then please don't do anything strange to her." she quip.
"I never did anything strange to her!!" I retort.
"Don't worry Master! It's okay to do something strange to me!" joined Bara.
"You're not helping!"
"Fufufufu, this is entertaining indeed. My decision to invite you to our spot here is a correct one, but of course, all of my decisions were always correct." boasted the girl that's sitting at the opposite end of me.
I look at the Loli Vampire with a flat stare.
I may be immune from Suika's soul gathering effect, but Bara didn't. So when the Feast day arrived, she immediately got the urge to come to the Feast, which is in the Hakurei Shrine's Garden. Of course, I can't let her go alone, so I went along with her to the place.
After we arrived to this place, we immediately dragged to Remilia spot by Sakuya. After that Remilia immediately saw through Bara's admiration feeling toward Sakuya, which led to Remilia ordered Sakuya to teach Bara all about being a Servant.
"It's a refreshing change of scene from the usual empty headed Maid Fairy to enthusiastic aspiring loyal servant. Keep instructing that girl, Sakuya." ordered Remilia.
"As you wish, my Mistress." complied Sakuya. "Now, let us continue, Bara-san."
"Yes, senpai!" replied Bara enthusiastically.
And they moved a little away from our position to practice some "Fancy Maid Move", they really are fancy, look at them twirl. ….should I buy a Maid clothes for Bara after this?
"I must say, her interaction with you is the most entertaining scene ever since she undergone change of attitude." Remilia said before she sipped her own cup.
"You mean Sakuya-san? I can tolerate about your comment about our interaction is entertaining for the third party, but can you please elaborate more about this 'change of attitude'?" I said curiously.
Her lip parted with the cup. "Fufufu, of course, Sakuya is my proudest servant at my disposal, it is normal for me to boast of her achievement." A random Phantom passing by and Remilia flick them away. "You see, in the past, Sakuya was a really stiff person, she always followed my order to the letter, at first it was interesting, but then it got boring after a while. There was also an instance where her stiffness ruined a moment."
Another two random Phantoms floating near Remilia, one of them probably the one that she flicked, and now, it came back for revenge with its friend, but it was useless, she flicked two of them effortlessly again like before. "For example, when I tell her my grand plan, she didn't say anything about improving it until I asked her, there's also another example, when I tell a joke, once again, she didn't laugh until I told her to, but after I did, her laugh was so monotone that a frog could laugh better than her, she totally ruined my mood for the rest of the day after that. Truly, what a bad day that was." Then she finished her stories with a sip from her cup.
"…Huh, that's …an interesting story. Thank you for sharing it to me, I guess?" I'm confused if I should be speechless or thankful after I hear her stories.
"No need to thanks me boy. I'm in a good mood after all. I have no problem in sharing these kinds of stories to you."
'…sounds really fishy, I call bullshit. I wonder what her intention is.' I thought.
I look toward the subject of our conversation.
I see Sakuya rigidly move while instructing Bara to do something.
'I guess she heard everything what Remilia said.' and the piece comes together. "Was the actual reason for you to tell that story was so that you could see that? " I asked Remilia while pointing at the direction of Sakuya with my chin.
"Fufufufu, maybe." said Remilia with an evil smile.
"Uwah, so evil." I said.
"I will take that as a compliment." she said with the same evil smile.
'Even I don't want people to know about my embarrassing past, and she just blurted out Sakuya's without remorse.' I thought.
Just after I finish my thought, the Phantom came back again, now they're six floating thing in total.
"No matter how many you gathered, weakling is still a weakling."
Now instead of flicking them, Remilia slap them all in one swoop.
But in respond to what Remilia does, the big Phantom came out.
"Please stop bullying the dead!" protest Youmu.
"I'm not the one at fault, Phantom Girl. They're the one that intruded my territory without permission."
"W-well, at least don't smack them around!"
"Hmph!! I can do whatever I want, your protest are useless!"
I ignore them as they start bickering to each other, I've other important thing to do rather than listening to someone bickering, and that important thing is observing others in this place.
I finally took a proper look at someone who's still out cold from when I arrived in here.
I see the Asthmatic Magician, Patchouli Knowledge, lying unconscious on the ground.
This is the first time I properly saw how Patchouli looks like with my eyes. I said that because the other time when I saw her was when I'm undergoing the Blindness challenge.
Her hair is purple, but her eyes are currently showing white, I'm sure her eyes color are purple when she properly wake up, and there are many ribbons tied to her hair and other parts of her clothing. She wears pink pajama-like clothing and a night-cap with a gold crescent moon on it.
I concluded that there are 2 reasons as to why she's unconscious even thought there were no injure on her body.
1. She's Asthmatic. I don't know if this true but I read somewhere that the reason as to why she got Asthma was because of the Mercury that she keeps inhaling from all of her Experiment as a Magician.
2. She has poor health. This was caused by long-time reclusivity inside her Library. I don't know the exact number, but her age is said to be around 100 years old. Magician tended to just holed up in their workshop and keep experimenting their magic. So estimably, she keep holed up inside her Library for 80+ years, which resulting her health to deteriorate.
If all those reason that I said were correct and if we add the effect of Suika's forceful gathering ability, she turned unconscious after dying for forcing herself to come to this place.
…
Isn't that really bad for people with that kind of condition?
I take out a Compress from my Pouch and imbued it with Recovery Enchantment, and then I place it on Patchouli forehead. Slowly but surely, her pupils start to become visible again. Her eye lids starts to slowly close. In comparison to her previous condition, she looks more peaceful now.
'If she's smart, when she woke up, she will copy that enchantment and keep it until the next Feast day for her to use. That way she will recover faster every time she turned unconscious.'
I look around some more.
'Where're Flandre and Meiling? Why aren't they coming to this place? Were Suika's ability didn't affect them? Why? Is it because they have great(?) self discipline? Meiling with being a Gatekeeper, while Flandre with her patience, is that the reason? '
"What do you think, Arah-dono?!"
Youmu's voice pulled me out from my thought.
"Hm? Sorry? I didn't pay attention, what were you girls talking about?"
"It's about which one should apologized first!" said Youmu.
"I see nothing to be apologized about. The Phantom is the one that intruded into my territory, so it's normal that they are the one who make the mistake." said Remilia.
"The dead should be respected! Your attitude toward it is the worst!"
"The dead should act like the dead, why do they even need try to be lively like the living."
"Why you!" Youmu grab her Katana handle.
"Come on, weakling." Remilia's Claws start growing longer and sharper.
"NO FIGHTING IN THE SHRINE AREA!!" Reimu suddenly appear, catching both of them unguarded.
*SMACK*
"Uu!" Reimu smack Remilia head.
* SMACK *
"Myon!" Reimu smack Youmu head.
Reimu turned toward me.
"I'm an outsider! I don't have anything to do with their discussion!" I hurriedly give my excuse so that I didn't get hit.
Reimu gave the stink eye for a moment before goes back to whenever she's come from.
I sigh in relieve.
I see Youmu(and her Half-Phantom) and Remilia trembling while holding the part of their head that got hit by Reimu.
'…Looks like its hurt, I heard Divinity is super effective to super natural being. I don't know if I count as one but I'm glad I didn't get smacked by her.' I thought.
I clear my throat to attract their attention, they both looking at me with a little bit of tears in their eyes.
"The way I see it, you both are at fault."
""What?!"" they both exclaim.
"Youmu-san, can you just herd the Phantom around so that they didn't bother other people?"
"W-well…" Youmu averted her eye.
Few weeks ago, I saw Youmu herding a massive amount of Phantom into the sky, she bring them back to the Netherworld via the Border of Life and Death.
She looks down and starts connecting both of her index fingers to each other. "This early morning Yuyuko-sama energetically said 'Let's enjoy today Feast!', so because of that …I kinda …let the other… Phantom …do whatever they want as well." her voice slowly going smaller and smaller at the end.
"I see, now then, could you start telling them to mind others people area in the Feast? That way there'll be no more issue started because of them."
"Y-yes, I'll do it right away after this."
"Good, now as for you." I turn to Remilia.
"Hmph! I saw nothing wrong with what I done! They trespassed and I responded appropriately!"
"For this one I'm hesitant, Youmu-san, how can a Phantom died again?"
"Well, 'died' is not the best word to describe it, they will always be there until they're sent to the Nirvana, they also can be forcefully be sent to Nirvana by doing certain ceremony or got cut by Hakurouken, ah, that's my shorter sword on my waist, anyone that got cut by it will have their confusion to be cutted." explained Youmu.
"That means if a Phantom got cutted by the sword, it will lose its confusion and will willfully go straight to the Nirvana?" I asked for confirmation.
"Yes!" replied Youmu happily.
"That mean I can do whatever I want with them, there's nothing wrong with my action at all."
"Like I said, you don't disrespect the dead by throwing them around in the air!"
"Heh, if what I did is disrespecting the death, then what about that?" Remilia pointing toward a certain location.
"Hm? What do you mean? – Oh no!!" Youmu looks horrified to what she saw.
The scene I saw is that, Yuyuko is chewing on a Phantom.
"Yuyuko-sama! Phantom isn't food, don't eat them!" Youmu immediately darted to the Yuyuko's location.
"Fuahahahaha!!" Remilia laugh merrily.
'Poor Youmu, I pray for your will to stay strong while serving Yuyuko. ' I pray for her in my heart.
And then I accompanied Remilia until Sakuya brought me a sleeping Bara, I supposed the time is late enough for children to start sleeping. I said my goodbye to them before I come back to our Home.
-A Day after the First Feast-
"Ara-ara, I met a black cloud, I wonder what will this entail?" said Yuyuko.
'Father, Mother, I'm sorry, looks like your Son will die first before any of you can.' I morbidly thought at my current situation.
Author note:
I'm dying. I'm dying while I'm writing this chapter.
I think the update frequency gonna be random from now on, I'll be more busy because of work, just like the week before, I can't update back then because of my work, so yeah, update frequency is gonna be unknown.