Remilia watched the snoozing witch from where she stood propped up against the wall. She would have plopped down and napped herself, bored as she was, but the succubus working next to them always found the time to shoot a glare her way between every sigil and circle she painted.

Frail as the creature appeared, it had torn through the chest of a man the size of an ox with no weapon but her own claws. Add to that the fact this Koakuma seemed rather obsessive about her 'master', and Remilia had every reason to fear waking up with her throat slit open. Whether such an assassination method was any threat to a vampire wasn't the issue here.

Witch or not, why was a teenage girl travelling around with a succubus of all things?

"If you'll excuse me... Koakuma?

Remilia hated how uncertain her voice came out. She wasn't nervous - she simply hated the way the sound carried in the spacious room. She normally avoided the place. It would be perfect for holding a dance party, but sheer size made it discomforting to remain there alone. Having two other people with her only made a small difference.

"Are you sure your master is alright? She's been sleeping for quite some time."

Koakuma didn't even look up from her work to respond.

"If there were cause for concern, I'd be the first to take action. But it's good to see you worry, vampire, seeing as her current exhaustion is all thanks to you."

Someone was speaking up against her. It was a first and Remilia failed to get angry.

"It would be prudent to notice I saved her life."

"What would be prudent to notice is that you were the one who endangered her in the first place."

Remilia was stumped. Koakuma was essentially right.

Their conversation died at this point. Unused to having company in general, Remilia had no idea how to approach so antagonistic an acquaintance. The creature in question was content with turning the floor into one large painting with admirable diligence and attention to detail.

"This will be a long night," Remilia thought.

"It would have been better if you hadn't shown up at all," Koakuma offered suddenly "Master might have shown interest in you, but long-term, you are not the type she requires."

The vampiress perked up at hearing this. She had already inwardly decided that she had nothing to lose by trusting maybe the only person in this world who could free her sister from the endless torment she was a prisoner of. Nevertheless, knowing the magician's true goals would let her play her cards just right if it came to negotiations.

"She seeks a specific type of vampire, then?"

Koakuma actually paused in her work to give Remilia and incredulous look.

"I don't think vampiric nature has anything to do with it; I'm saying you specifically are unable to satisfy Master's needs," not seeing comprehension dawn on the vampire's face, Koakuma tried once more, with more emphasis "Needs."

It was no use. Remilia still had no idea what the succubus... Succubus. Oh, right. Oh, damn.

Back to painting and with her back turned to the vampiress, Koakuma never saw Remilia flailing her arms in mute protest.

"Seeing how ancient all of you vampires are, I'd expect you to at least have the theory worked out, if you were not lucky enough to confirm anything in practice."

"Sufficiently precise theory lessens the need for practice, Koakuma," the magician's sleepy voice broke into their almost-conversation "What were you two talking about, mukyuu?"

The witch rubbed her eyes and looked expectantly at Koakuma, not noticing Remilia's flustered face.

"More importantly," the witch said as her dizziness wore off "how are the preparations?"

Remilia was thankful for the change of topic, Koakuma didn't care either way.

"I'm just about to finish here, Master," the succubus reported dutifully "the corridors have already been prepared."

"Wait," Remilia groaned, realizing too late that half her castle had been covered in what, years later, would be called graffiti "you painted the corridors too?"

"The corridors only require basic channeling support seals," the witch girl muttered, more to herself than as an answer to the vampire's protest "It's this room that will have to survive a dynamic distortion sphere. At least until the secondary reaction chain begins. At that point Newton's inertia alone should buy us enough time for the debris not to matter..."

Remilia gave the succubus doodling on the floor and the mumbling witch a final wary glance. It was time for the big question to be asked.

"Now, if you'd be so nice as to inform me about our great plan..."

The witch turned to her, understanding clearly she was the one being addressed. The 'why' seemed a bit more elusive, and she blinked a few times before it all clicked.

"Ah, yes, the plan," she let out "I was just thinking about the details."

For some reason, the scene made Remilia really, really worried.

"The main problem is that your sister's metabolism exceeds what resources are available here. This isn't sickness per se; her body simply has greater needs than the environment she was born in can provide for. When something like this happens to another species, the newborns die before they can register the world with their own eyes. What complicated matters here, if in a good way, is that you vampires are somewhat resistant to dying in general."

Remilia listened attentively.

"If her condition is caused by her surrounding, it would be logical to move her to a place with a higher magic saturation level. The issue preventing that is that the symptoms worsen when she leaves the castle filled with your magic, as you informed me. I can only think of one way to evade this problem, and that is all of us changing our location instantaneously, along with as much of the castle as possible. A mass matter displacement spell - in other words, teleportation."

"Will that work even if my sister remains in the basement, three floors below us?" Remilia cut in.

"If my assumptions are correct, and I have no record of making mistakes, she will be dragged along us on this particular journey as long as she is in the same town we are. If she were on the same floor, she'd probably suck out all the magic we'll be doing here. But that's not my greatest concern."

Their list of concerns was obviously ordered differently. But Remilia decided not to linger on the point.

"And what would that be?"

"You might have read about displacement magic in story books," the witch said "and for the most part, that's exactly where it belongs. Binding objects and allowing them to be summoned from anywhere to people is doable, and about as far as you can go with this art. For matter displacement to work properly, a stronger or equal beacon must draw a weaker or equal subject. In other words, the magic is operated from the exit point, and not the starting point, making its actual functionality little different from whatever summoning magic you might know."

Remilia doubted the witch had an all-powerful friend somewhere far away aware of their predicament and ready to bail them out. She didn't speak up, though.

"The only way to bypass this limitation is to establish a channel connection, with the entry and exit points massive enough to render the magical volume of whatever is being transported unimportant," the magician made a sweeping gesture with her arms, encompassing all of the giant seal the room had been now turned into "As long as a magician of tremendous power and insight is there to prepare those points."

"You possess the insight," Remilia interjected "but not the raw power to do so, yes? That's why you wanted me to join you once you found out I was a pureblood vampire."

"I planned to attempt this journey on my own in a few years," the witch admitted "Witches gain most of their magical power throughout adolescence, so my abilities have yet to be fully formed."

"But even if we establish the point here," Remilia drilled further "what about the exit?"

"That's where the tricky part comes in."

Koakuma joined the conversation, apparently done with her task.

"How many magic-users have you met in your life, vampire?"

"A few," Remilia thought further back "A dozen."

"And in the last hundred years?"

"None."

Koakuma nodded.

"Witches, wizards, vampires, phantoms, sprites, oni, all the creatures who rivaled humans," the succubus listed off soberly "they are disappearing from this world at a frightening rate. Even my own kin, the lesser demons, are no longer being contracted and all return to Makai, our reversed dimension."

"Humans either ignore the existence of magical creatures entirely or send out entire armies to get rid of them," the magician picked up where her servant left off "The witch hunts were merely a taste of things to come. Still, those powerful and immortal couldn't have possibly been all slain. You are an example of what couldn't be destroyed by force. I'm an example that the art of magic can be hidden from others. What happened to all others like us? The question led me all my life, even here. And what made it valid... is the law of equal exchange."

Remilia leant in, enraptured.

"Things do not disappear. They can move, change their physical structure or combine with other things. They can even turn into energy - there is no proper theory describing that yet, but matter and energy are just two different sides of the same coin. But under no circumstances can anything just disappear."

Heading toward the grand conclusion of her speech, the magician took a deep breath and... changed the topic.

"Everyone who teleports dies," without batting an eye, she went for the non-sequitur of the year "If they simply disappear from where they should be, then they were not only destroyed but wiped from existence. The law of equal exchange normally stops this from happening and nullifies magic attempting it. How the magic actually works is by making it easier to "create" things in the exit point and insisting on the "disappearance" of things in the starting point. Since the laws of the universe will remain true even if what is supposed to exist here exists somewhere else, the natural order of things can be misled this way. However, the subject of teleportation should be considered to have died and then undergone reconstruction."

Remilia gave her a blank stare. Getting her head around that and finding out what significance it had, if any, would be quite a daunting task.

The witch misunderstood her look entirely.

"Indeed, it is a shocking truth, but you deserved to know it all the same. And now, behold!"

Another grand gesture followed.

And then a coughing fit.

Remilia looked on in mute bemusement as the magician used one hand to cover her mouth and the other one to wave off a worried Koakuma in a short spectacle.

"Behold!" a successful second attempt "After many a sleepless night" that much was likely true, the witch looked like someone who had trouble sleeping at night "I've devised a seal system capable of taking us from here to here, say, a centimeter higher!"

"Not... impressive," Remilia let out, but went unheard. The witch's enthusiasm only grew.

"If the magic is sustained, a leap occurs, and we will be constantly warped between the two points, halfway between existence and non-existence!"

Half-scared Remilia saw the mood of the speech had infected Koakuma and the succubus was now nodding vigorously and clenching her fists in excitement.

"Finally, once the single seal system responsible for both points is destroyed by a timed energy surge, there will be no place for us to be properly restructured and we will cease to exist!"

The witch stared at her with an expression of "Oh. Yes"' on her face.

Remilia looked right back at the witch with an expression of "Hell. No." on her face.

Heavy silence.

"I've changed my mind," Remilia, with the tone of a child who has just been tricked into eating bitter medicine when it thought it was candy "Get out of my castle."

The witch didn't take that command to heart.

"I told you all magical creatures have been disappearing. But I also told you they should be reappearing elsewhere for the sake of the laws of the universe. The more I thought about it, the clearer an idea formed in my mind. They disappear from this world. They should be reappearing in another."

Now she lowered her voice, but still it carried well in the empty room.

"A different world created within ours. A magical world sucking in the magic left in ours, beaconing for all magical beings to come to it. An illusionary world for illusionary creatures."

Remilia told herself she shouldn't let herself be dragged into the madness. But it was tempting. A place where her sister could truly live. A place where she herself could spread her wings. Tempting.

"All illusionary creatures would start being born there instead of here. Well organized societies of supernatural beings would notice the creation of that world and migrate there. But loners like us were left behind, knowing nothing, until we are swallowed by the world of humans."

"You planned to escape this by disintegrating yourself!?" Remilia yelled.

"The Scarlet Devil is a legend. The Sister of the Devil, the Sickly Witch and her Demonic Servant. Once we are gone, the world will have a choice," the witch rebuked steadily "return us here against all odds, or make us into illusionary creatures. If an illusionary world exists, there must be a boundary setting it apart from this one. That boundary draws in magic... and it will become the exit point of our teleportation."

The witch extended her hand to the baffled Remilia.

"But the only way for us to succeed, is for you to help me."

Remilia shook, her left eye already blazing a deep crimson.

"Your fate is to survive," she hesitated "But that will happen even if I reject your offer..."

The magician never lowered her hand.

"But I..." Remilia frowned, not believing her own thoughts "I want to try!"

Two hands met and grasped each other. Two pairs of eyes locked in a promise.

"Well then," the witch ventured "I'll need a name to call you by."

"Remilia Scarlet," the vampiress replied with a vicious grin "The embodiment of scarlet devil."

"Remi will do," the witch said "Nice and short, good for emergencies."

Remilia blinked.

"Wait a minute!"

But the witch was already going on.

"You may call me Patchouli Knowledge."

"Patch will do," Remilia butted in "nice and short, good for emergencies."

"Patchouli knowledge," the witch repeated.

Remilia shook her head, feigning confusion.

"Patchouli is a tongue killer, and 'Knowledge' is so obviously fake. Isn't that English for Wissenschaft?"

Patchouli fumed for a second, and then nodded.

"Patch it is, then. It'll be good to hear my name, even if a shortened version."

Remilia noted that her new friend made no effort to defend the last name as genuine.

"Koakuma you know," Patchouli said "Which leaves us with your sister."

"My sister?" Remilia echoed.

"Yes, your sister," Patchouli paused "Her name."

Now Remilia understood, but she still froze. Her sister was just... Sister. Little Sister. She had needed no other name.

"I don't know."

Koakuma snickered. Patchouli scratched her head.

"Call her Flandre, then," Patchouli offered.

Remilia gave her a blank stare.

"It's the name of a beautiful land which couldn't find its true home in all of its history. Let's hope its future at least is bright."

After a second's hesitation, Remilia nodded in approval.

"Reality and illusion bind strongest through a name. And thus we are all set," Patchouli announced, moving toward the center of the room and gesturing for Remilia to follow her.

"I'll be controlling the spell while you provide the power. Koakuma will watch over the process in case I mess something up" Patchouli instructed "You've drunk my blood, which should make our synchronization rate better and energy channeling easier."

Patchouli threw off her black robe and handed it to Koakuma, who now stood dutifully by her master's side.

"We're still talking about raw magical energy traveling through the air, so any clothes we have on would simply ignite. It's better to remove them beforehand."

"Oh." Remilia said, reaching to remove her dress.

As a vampire, she rarely paid attention to the temperature. She seldom had contact with anyone else, too. Clothes were a mere accessory for her. She threw them at Koakuma's feet carelessly.

A mean look from the succubus and a moment of thought later she realized she was now naked.

A furtive glance of her own revealed that Patchouli had also had enough time to disrobe. Only, the witch seemed unperturbed by the situation.

If Remilia thought Koakuma would intervene, those hopes were dashed as the succubus walked calmly away from the inner circle, all their garments in tow.

"Um... I..."

This nervous stutter was equally unsuccessful at preventing Patchouli from creeping closer and grabbing her by the arms.

"Your sister will be dragged with us after the first warp, and I suspect we will immediately start losing power. I don't know what will happen if the magic circles don't have enough power to sustain themselves, so we must be done with it before that happens. Try not to block the energy transfer, just relax."

When Patchouli actually hugged her close, Remilia was as stiff as a board.

"Is this... really alright?" the vampire asked meekly.

"No problem. The height difference affects nothing," Patchouli replied, missing the point entirely.

The height difference meant Remilia was now smothered in Patchouli's developing bosom. Her heart pounded, and the thought whether her pale skin could redden in embarrassment flashed in her mind.

She only appeared to be ten years old!

"Try to loosen up a bit," Patchouli whispered.

Remilia stifled a gasp as the magician's hands trailed circles on her bare back, tickling her in the sensitive spot where her wings began. With the sudden intake of air, a haunting scent attacked her nostrils.

Dust, old books and some hidden, alluring smell. What did Patchouli use to wash her hair? Remilia would like to try it out. Finally start caring for her own appearance, accumulate wealth befitting her castle, experiment with her magic freely... If only she could...

The moment wild thoughts snatched her consciousness away, the feeling came.

Vertigo. Colors flashed, smudged, like paint trailing down the wall but - she was here! Flandre, her sister, the familiar presence so close to her!

And then it was gone again. Flash, whoosh, cartwheels in the air and she could feel them, her sister and even Koakuma, but they were swirling wildly around her.

The warmth embracing her was the only constant, and she leaned into it, drowning in words spoken too fast to tell them apart and a breast heaving painfully in and out, in and out.

For just a blink of an eye, the chant broke off, her ears heard a heart give a pained throb and a cold feeling overcame her.

She let her arms shoot out, wrap around her support, no she didn't hesitate and no she had no idea what she was doing.

"Your fate..."

Her power exploded inwards just as it was swirling outwards, invoking flames around her body and within her soul, her eyes swam in her blood but it was near she had never attempted a forceful change-

"...is to succeed!"

There was nothing.

Not that Remilia felt nothing.

She was nothing.

What the vampiress did feel was her body connecting with the hard, cold, damp floor.

Her ears rung, but she heard nervous laughter.

"I messed up.. ha ha..."

Remilia turned, panicked, to the laughing Patchouli.

But the extent of the mess-up was a succubus covered from head to toes in soot from burned clothes. The energy flow radius had been larger than expected.

"I'm shorter! Purple hair! Not even human! People and their crazy imagination!" Patchouli cried with no trace of distress in her voice "I thought the castle would be moved, but we're somewhere else. It must have been to boring-old-real, ha!"

What followed the exclamation was a coughing fit. Some things did stay the same.

But Remilia was distracted by something pulling on her arm, and she looked down to see her sister. For the first time smiling, gurgling happily, Flandre fought for her sister's attention.

When Remilia proved too baffled to make any move at all, the tiny vampire crawled onto her lap on her own.

"And now..."

Remilia turned to see a grinning Koakuma.

"Begin your lives, Scarlet Devils."

BLOODSTAINED QUILL

END

AN: Welcome. Bloodstained Quill is the first part of Scarlet Septette and also my introduction to writing Touhou fanfiction. I hope it was a pleasurable one.

Continuity Notes:

1) Patchouli was a human. Though, as she explained, she is reborn a youkai after the teleport.

2) Yes, Flandre spent the first four hundred years of her existence in endless torment. Sorry.

3) Koakuma comes from Makai, why not.

That's all for now, I guess. I await your comments. Until next time.

ver.1.1 I replaced the original incantations with English equivalents for increased precision and accessibility.

~ Cytrus