Martin did not answer Sakuya's question for the simple fact that beside him, Meiling did not want to take any action. Meiling was aware that they had arrived quite late and thus she was just waiting for Sakyua to hint at any consequences. Anxiety built up in the two as the silver haired maid continued to stand in front of them, eyes closed and with a warm but unnerving smile plastered on her face. Somehow, Meiling's fear of consequence had made itself into Martin's mind, and scared that he would be punished for not speaking up, he talked.

"Um…Yeah, the library was interesting…" Martin said, not making eye contact with Sakuya, who had opened her eyes in curiosity of what the boy had to say.

"Well that's good," Sakuya said, Martin and Meiling walking towards her with caution, "Patchouli and Koakuma are quite the bookworms, aren't they?"

"So Sakuya, what did you call us here for?" Meiling said in a raised voice. A hint of bored excitement was present in her voice, one that rang through the halls. A hinge squeaked, acknowledging this excitement, and unknown to the three an annoyed Patchouli had peered through a slight crack of an open door. Sakuya shot Meiling a quick glance, the light of the chandelier reflecting off the maid's silver eyes. Meiling froze up without saying another word—it was a trained response.

"I suppose I should be getting to the point…" Sakuya sighed. "The mistress is almost fully recovered, and she would be awfully upset to find out that Marisa came around to 'borrow' something again."

"So we're stealing from the thief…" Meiling explained bluntly, upon inspection of Martin's puzzled face. She thought it would help him understand things a bit better, but in reality had not. Upon first seeing the mansion, a suspicion had already put itself inside Martin about the mansion. After one night of staying there—with all this talk about an absent mistress, and an examination of the people who resided there—his suspicions only strengthened. Particularly, the odd behavior of the people in the library had a large impact, although unknown to him, that's how Patchouli and Koakuma truly acted.

"Sakuya!" The same voice from the night before—with most traces of congestion gone—called. It was the voice of the person Sakuya had referred to as mistress, and due to Sakuya's own reasons it was a warning that Meiling and Martin were to be pushed of the mansion that instant. The attempt to get the two out began rather subtly, with Sakuya telling them, "Oh my, the mistress is awake; you two must get going before she notices anything." However, with a moment's hesitation—brought on as the two wondered why they were being pushed so hastily out of the house—came the sound of socks dragging on the marble floor.

The sound was unusually loud considering its source, and only became louder by the second. At one point, when it sounded like someone could have been pacing back and forward right behind their backs, Sakuya—failing to have them leave through talk—uncharacteristically pushed the lower backs of Meiling and Martin, sending the two flying down the stairs. While the gate guard effortlessly landed on her feet at the bottom of the stairs after a fancy flip, Martin had caught his footing on one of the steps for a split second before continuing his fall. He crossed his arms over his head in a futile attempt to stop death from taking him—the way he was falling, his head would be the first to touch the floor, no matter what was done.

But in an instant, the scenery around him had changed. His head had not come into contact with the ground—rather his feet were the things touching it. Martin thought he had felt his heart stop, and thought that it stopped because it believed that the body it inhabited was already gone. It began to beat again however, stopping again for a moment as a slight pressure was taken off Martin's back. He peered behind his shoulder, spotting the back of a head which was turned towards the top of the stairs. The headband of a maid—a common accessory in the mansion—topped a head of straight silver hair.

"Nice save!" Meiling complimented Sakuya, knowing exactly what the maid had done.

Sakuya did not respond, showing her preoccupation with the source of the footsteps as her eyes continued to scan the top of the stairs. The volume of the sound continued to increase in comparison to the time between steps, which was becoming smaller. The steps were a timer for Sakuya to push Martin and Meiling out, and her time was almost up. Once more she placed her hands on the backs of the two, but this time pushed them only hard enough so that they would slide across the polished marble floor. Two fairies—were not the same ones from the night before, although similar in appearance—had been waiting for them at the door. The doors opened quickly and fluidly, Sakuya not stopping once until they were out of the doors. And as if this entire event was planned, two more fairies were stationed at the gates outside the house. The gates opened with the ease that was seen with the doors, and again as a result, Sakuya did not stop moving once.

"W…What's..G..Going on?" Martin stammered, only now beginning to recover from the complete shock of what happened a few minutes before.

Ignoring Martin, Sakuya leaned in towards Meiling. "Meiling, please don't return without the Mistress's item…" The maid whispered, then leaning in a bit closer. "May I ask that you take your time with this mission?"

Understanding what the maid was telling her, Meiling placed her hand on Martin's shoulder. The action probably would have startled him, but it did not show as confusion covered his face like a mask. "Well let's get going!" Meiling said, giving Martin a nudge to get him moving. She motioned for the slow moving boy to follow her on one of the paths that led away from the great house.

Sakuya turned to head back inside the mansion, the smooth action of the entrances opening were now acting in reverse. She relaxed a little with the absence of the two, and the absence of the footsteps. Instead, a new sound emerged, the voice of a little girl sailing from the top of the staircase.

Red eyes peered down at Sakuya, noticing that the maids heart was beating slightly faster than usual. "Sakuya, was somebody at the door?"

"Ah, Mistress!" Sakuya said in fake surprise. "No, I was just asking Meiling to run an errand."

"Alright, s…so, I'm supposed to be dead right now." Martin began. He had collected his nerves enough to at least be able to contemplate what he was going to be told.

"So you know how people in Gensokyo have powers, right?" Meiling explained.
Martin kept his gaze fixed on the ground, but nodded for Meiling to continue. "Well, Sakuya just happens to control time and space. Yep, you would've died, but she stopped time and helped you land safely."

"Th..then what's yours?"

"My power you mean?"

Martin nodded again.

"In addition to the general things youkai can do, I control what is known to some people as 'chi'" Meiling examined Martin's face, becoming a bit bothered at the possibility that he was thinking what a horrible ability she had compared to Sakuya's.

In the span of what Martin put at twenty minutes, the scene of the mansion on a lake had turned into a sea of trees. There was nothing to look at besides trees. "Well ok…But what are we doing exactly?" Martin asked.

"You already know that we're going to get one of the Mistress's items back. The thief's name is Marisa, she's always at the mansion. And it just so happens that she lives in this forest."

"Do you know where it is though?" The hard to follow dirt path was nonexistent under piles of underbrush.

"Sure thing." Meiling reassured the boy.

She had been there numerous times for the same reason they were going now. But after thirty minutes of wandering, it turned out to be a false reassurance. Then an hour passed. Meiling—positive that she knew where the house was located—shouted out seemingly random directions in one final attempt. The shouts came with confidence as Meiling believed her instinct was undeniably correct this time. And her instinct was correct—after a little more walking, it had told her to stop under an opening in the trees where the sun had made a perfect circle on the ground. Meiling looked like some child playing captain, squinting while scanning the area with a flat hand over her eyes to stop the sunlight from bothering her. And finally she spotted it, a small house that looked out of place in the forest.

Meiling began to run toward the house which was located behind a thin row of trees. "Well there it is! Looks like my instinct was finally right! The item is an odd looking mirror, alright?"

Martin attempted to follow her, but after an hour of constant walking, he was tired. He walked slowly and breathed hard, arriving behind the trees to find that Meiling was nowhere to be found. All alone, a high pitched squeak had sent Martin running to hide behind a tree. He peered around the tree, spotting two blonde girls emerging from the doorway of the house.

One blonde girl had a black witch's hat on, and was the first to speak. "Well gosh Alice, it didn't look like you were ever going to use it."

"And when did that ever give you the right to take it, Marisa?" The second girl said, waving around some sort of book. It was a softcover book with a blank cover, and the pages flapped around wildly.

"I wasn't really taking, it was more like borrowing, da ze." Marisa replied.

Martin's eyes widened at the mention of the name. This was definitely the house of the thief that Meiling was talking about. But he definitely couldn't just go and ask for the mirror back. He would have to interrupt the argument of two strangers in an unbelievably odd world, and risk getting in an argument himself.

"Borrowing? You didn't even ask. This is an extremely rare book on magic, you know." Alice waved the book even faster, its delicate pages at threat of flying out and the creases on the leather cover growing larger. Annoyance bit at her, making her forget what she had just said about the book.

"Hey hey, you're going to break it da ze! Ok look, how about you let me borrow it for a little while longer," Marisa turned to the inside of her house. The sounds of items crashing onto a floor rang out, Marisa finally emerging with an odd looking mirror in hand. "And I'll let you borrow this weird mirror I found."

Alice continued to wave the book, faster and faster. "You think this is equivalent to that ugly thing? What would I do with it anyway?" The flapping pages created a wind storm that shot her hair up and with one final swipe, not the pages but the whole book flew out of her hand, hitting the mirror on its odd looking glass frame. "Oh see what you made me do?"

The book carried the mirror over by a tree with the two items sliding down conveniently by Martin's feet upon hitting the ground. He questioned whether to take the mirror or not. It was an ugly looking thing, and raised the question of why the mistress of such a large mansion would want it. The people living in the mansion had given off a creepy aura however, and he wouldn't have been surprised if they came to kill him for failing his mission. In comparison, the two girls arguing did not seem to be willing to commit murder, though he could never be too sure.

The snap of a twig brought Martin back to his senses. Alice was coming to pick the two things up so a decision had to be made quick. The snap of another twig alarmed him, and he instinctively grabbed whatever was on the ground then began quickly walking away.

Alice stood over the spot where the mirror and book were, now just an outline of grass and leaves. "Hey, Marisa…" She waved for Marisa to come examine the area—help her understand where the items could have gone in the span of a few seconds.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I definitely saw that book land over here…That's just great, you made me lose it."

Marisa looked up from the imprint on the ground, then put her hand on Alice's shoulder. "Oh you're worrying too much, I'll help you find it."

Alice shook off Marisa's hand just as her face began turn red. "Alright, it couldn't have gotten…" She stopped as her face was painted with a rainbow light, holding up her arm to block her face. Marisa saw this too, and they looked past the trees for the source. And under the opening in the trees they saw it—Martin was walking with the two items in his hand, the late morning light reflecting off the glass frame.

"Who is that…?" Alice asked, stepping forward.

Out of nowhere, Marisa leaped over Alice, startling the girl. "I don't know, but he's got our stuff! I'll get him da ze!" A broom drifted into Marisa's hand, and in one motion she jumped on it and went straight for Martin.

Still exhausted, Martin had been walking the whole time. Hearing Marisa's yelling had gotten him anxious, but when he saw her speeding towards him he began running—the time for resting was over.

Alice watched Marisa speed off, shaking her head at her friend's energy. She snapped and out from behind her dress floated out three dolls, all clothed in a style similar to Alice's own blue dress. The dolls were of her own creation, and thus were under her control. Alice stretched her arm out like an army commander, and the dolls took to the air in a planned formation—she did not trust Marisa fully with the task of catching Martin.

The dolls went quick—they had already caught up with Marisa in a matter of seconds. "Well hey there! Alice doesn't trust me huh?" Marisa said to a doll without looking at it. "Alright then, split formation da ze!" The four split all in different directions, thought they were all looking to surround the same target.

A doll sped past Martin, at first it looked like it didn't see him; it stopped suddenly and cut down a tree, blocking off Martin's path, who could then do nothing else but trip on the downed tree's branch. He was surrounded now—the other two dolls and Marisa were coming in from his left, his right, behind him. He covered his head with his arms then went into a fetal position.

Martin began to mumble, "T…These girls, maybe they will kill me after all." He continued to mumble, all the while the four continued to come closer. "N..No!" Martin yelled as his head shot up. His eyes were glowing. They were still black, but glowed with a bluish tint. As he looked around, he saw that the four girls had come to a stop.

"Woah no way, did that guy just disappear?" Marisa asked. She jumped off her broom, then walked over to where she had seen Martin. Marisa was absolutely baffled, she had definitely seen him right there. She looked at the faces of the dolls around her, wanting to see puzzled expressions just as hers to affirm what she had seen, or rather did not see. However, she knew the dolls would not make such exaggerated expressions as humans did, and their confused blinking was enough.

Marisa was dangerously close to Martin, apparently not seeing him. Or rather, she could not. Martin backed up slowly, away from the four, his heart beating fast. He got this far without getting caught, he could not let the crunch of a single leaf ruin everything. Then he stopped, his heart beat even faster. Marisa was kneeling down, reaching toward him. Her black skirt and white apron had rested on his foot, although he was relieved to know that she had not noticed. Her hand came closer to him, and he closed his eyes. But again, it seemed she could not see him. Marisa's hand grabbed the 'rare book' which Martin had taken by accident.

Finding no other explanation for what happened, Marisa stood up and boarded her broom. The dolls flew up beside her; She tossed the book to one of them, who caught it but nearly toppled over in the process.

"Well, I guess all that matters is that we got the book…Well let's get that back to Alice."

Martin exhaled as the four flew away. He had been holding his breath the entire time, and with its release the bluish tint in his eyes dissipated. The exhaustion finally catching up with him, Martin passed out.

Martin was shaken awake to a view of the nighttime sky and a particularly large bronze star. His eyes focused, seeing that the star was not part of the sky, but part of a hat. A Chinese style hat on a red haired, Chinese girl.

"Well there you are." Meiling told the groggy boy.

"Wha..what?" Martin said, holding his head. Dirt and vegetation covered his head, a fair amount of it falling off when he sat up. His body hurt and dirt even found its way inside his mouth. All of that was the result of eight hours laying passed out on the forest floor.

Meiling helped Martin stand up. "Yeah, I've been looking for you all day. Where did you run off to?" The question was asked to and from the wrong person. Meiling had been the one who ran off, fulfilling Sakuya's request of taking their time with the mission. She did not abandon Martin, she only hid, lazily monitoring him from the top of a tree. When Martin passed out, she took a nap.

"I uh, ran into Marisa…" Martin reached under the fallen tree beside him, bringing out a slightly chipped mirror.

"Hey, you actually got it, nice work!" Meiling took the mirror and brushed some dirt off the surface. "Well, let's get back to the mansion before all the bad youkai come out." Meiling explained, putting the mirror away and leading the way back to the mansion—this time sticking strictly to a path.

At the mansion the fairies that had stood at the gate were gone, but nevertheless Meiling opened the gate with ease. She looked up at the balcony over the two great doors and nodded at what looked to be the silhouettes of three people.

Meiling split away from Martin and started heading toward the house. She saw Martin standing without a clue of what to do next, and put her hands on her hips. "I'm just going to check on the gardens, go ahead and go inside." Meiling said.

"I can take the mirror to Sakuya if you want." Martin offered.

"Nah that's alright, I can't let this break even the tiniest bit more than it already has."

"A..Alright then." He looked around nervously. "Um…Good night Meiling." He turned to say it to the gate guard, but he found himself talking to the dark and some flowers. Martin walked to the doors of the house, which suddenly swung open. There was an absence of fairies at that entrance too, and only a single, short figure stood there. Red eyes pierced through the darkness, placed on a pale face which reflected the moonlight. In a flash there was more red, and pain. Five scratches appeared instantaneously on Martin's chest, from which a thick scarlet liquid spilled. He fell, and found himself being caught by that pale girl. Then came another pain on his neck—a quick small one—and then the quick rushing of something through his veins. Blood had soaked into his clothes, turning them black in the nighttime, while the girl's simple purple dress remained without one stain. He was left to fall again, now finding himself this time at the foot of the pale girl, the mistress of the mansion, the 'Scarlet Devil'—Remilia Scarlet.

"At the loss of the human blood, inject with the blood of a pure vampire." Remilia recited. "You're pretty useless in that form, but then again I never really liked it much…"

Martin wiped his blood covered hand over the left side of his face. As his hand slid down, it revealed his left eye—scarlet. It blended in nicely with the blood caked around it, as opposed to the right one which remained black.

"You're working first thing tomorrow, little brother."

"It looks like you're feeling better now, Remilia."