The chinese gatekeeper and the earth rabbit were sitting at Mystia's Lamprey Stand, the disguntled servant trio's most common gathering spot. Youmu hadn't showed up tonight, so it was just the two of them, eating and drinking in silence.

Eventually Reisen finally decided to break the silence. "So, how was work today?" Meiling replies back, but as she was simultaneously chewing on the food currently in her mouth, her reply comes out as gibberish, much to the earth rabbit's befuddlement. The chinese girl finally swallows and replies again, this time turning her head to Reisen. "Sorry." She begins "To answer your question, it was pretty bad. Sakuya scolded me today for failing to keep Marisa out and taking off with more of Lady Patchouli's books." Taking another bite of her meal, the gatekeeper finally finished with "Y'know, the usual. What about you?" After taking a sip of her drink, the earth rabbit replied with "Augh. Horrible. Master punished me again today! And after I just got back from dealing with another one of that troublemaking Tewi's pranks." "So, the usual?" guessed Meiling to which Reisen replied with a rather deadpanned "Yep." which earned a lighthearted chuckle from the chinese girl. After that, it was just another moment of silence between the two servants.

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It was Meiling's turn to break said silence. "So," she drawled "have you been seeing any guys lately?" turning to face the gatekeeper, Reisen cocked an eyebrow as she replied with "No...not really? Why?" "No reason." replied the gatekeeper "It's just that recently I've been looking to find a guy to date." "Ah, I see." responded the earth rabbit "Have you had any luck?" The gatekeeper despondedly responded with "*sigh* Sadly no." before perking up and planting a determined smile on her face saying "But, I'm not going to give up so easily! There has to be someone out there who's willing to go out me!".

"*chuckle* I see. Well, I don't doubt that there you'll eventually find someone who'll go out with you. After all, you do have a very well-built figure as well as a pleasent personality to boot." replied Reisen with a smile as she encouraged the gatekeeper.

"Hahahaha! Thanks." Replied Meiling before planting a smirk on her face "I didn't think you thought of me that way." "W-what do you mean?" Replied a befuddled Reisen. "Hm?" with her teasing smirk fading, it was Meiling's turn to be confused "Are you not...?" "Am I not what? "I mean...you're not looking for...and you seem to be especially close with..." Meiling then tilted her head to motion to the vacant seat between the two. This caused Reisen to get flustered "Y-Youmu?! Nono! We're not anything like that! I mean...even if I was, It's not like she's...you know..." Realizing her mistake, the gatekeeper swiftly apologized "Oh. S-sorry! That was rude of me! I just thought...you guys were...never mind. Sorry."

After that, the sounds of nature and the night sparrow (who thankfully wasn't paying to the...conversation) tending to her stand were the only thing accompanying the awkward silence between the servants.

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"Uh, forgive me if this is comes across as insensitive...b-but are you...?" asked the earth rabbit speaking up. "Am I what?" replied Meiling, causing Reisen to avert her eyes and respond with "I mean...despite everything that goes on between you two, you and the head maid seem to be pretty close yourselves, so..."

This caused Meiling to avert her eyes as she pursed her lips, comtemplating on how to answer the question. "I mean..." However, she didn't have to finish her response as before she could say anything else, the two noticed a rather exhausted half-phantom greeting the two before finally sitting down between them "Hello Miss Meiling, Miss Reisen. Sorry I couldn't make it sooner. I had a pretty rough day today." The two greeted the half-phantom back and told her not to worry about it as the latter ordered her meal.

"So," the gatekeeper asked "What's been happening with you?" Youmu replied with "Well, I had to visit my boyfriend today after finishing my work today." "Ah, OK." the gatekeeper said nonchalantly...

Before dropping her chopsticks along with Reisen nearly spitting out her drink. Shocked from what they had thought they heard, the two servants asked the gardener in unison "Wait! You have a boyfriend?!" slightly confused by the duo's out burst the gardener could only simply reply with, "...Yyyyeah? He wants to know where I wanted to go for our next date night. *sigh* It's coming up pretty soon and I'm still trying to think of something..." after the two have calmed down, Meiling (who was still surprised (and a bit jealous) that Youmu was dating someone before she was) spoke up saying "So you were dating someone this entire time?" "Is it really surprising?" replied the half-phantom to which the gatekeeper responded with "I mean we were just wondering whether or not you were..." after she and Reisen exchanged glances for a moment, the latter replied with "You know what Never mind. It's not a big deal." "What?" asked a confused Youmu "You two thought
I was single?" to which the earth rabbit replied with "I mean, it's not that. We were just wondering whether or not you were into..." to which Meiling faked a laugh as she interrupted with "Y'know, it honestly doesn't matter. Why don't we just enjoy a nice cup of sake together and-"

"Well it matters to me!" interjected the half-phantom "Because honestly it sounds like...you...guys...thought...I was..."

Youmu proccessed what she had just said to the duo and realized how insensitive it sounded. After a few seconds, not knowing what else to say she just apologized with "Um, I'm sorry. Was that mean of me? I mean, a-are you girls...?"

There was only an awkward silence between all three of them after that. Eventually they all decided to call it a night and bidded each other farewell as they went back to their respective homes.

They agreed to never bring this topic up again.

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Fin

To all the Touhou Yuri Fans and LGBTQ+ Touhou fans, this isn't meant to be an attack on any of you guys, so, uh, sorry if I ended up offending any of you. ...Please don't hate me...

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Thanks for reading!

So I actually had the idea of the Abused Servants Trio getting together to vent about their problems at work (or apparently whatever else was on their mind that day) every once in a while after having read a bit of this doujin where Mystia runs a dining shop instead of just an ordinary lamprey stand.

(Here's the link for those of you who are curious. It's on Danbooru, so, you know, be careful of running into some "no-no pictures": https://danbooru.donmai.us/pools/9268)

I mean, I don't know if the "venting about work" thing feels like an afterthought here, but still, seeing them get together is honestly a pretty interesting concept, IMO.

(And yes, I do headcanon that Youmu is currently in a relationship with a guy, and that Meiling is looking to be in a relationship with someone. LOL)

Anyways, I think this is my first time writing a more..."traditional" story on the site we don't talk about >>sdm/res/64436..., so I'm curious to know what you guys think of it, and whether or not you'd like to see more of these kinds of shorts in the future.

Now if you guys do want to see more of these, feel free to post suggestions for potential follow up stories. I honestly can't guarantee that I'll actually write them, but I am still admittedly curious to know what kind of afterwork shenanigans you all would like the see our trio get into.
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OK, Bye!

"What is this?" The trio was eying a strange object at Mystia's stand. It looked sort of like a box or chest, but it was more...circular, and had a rod on the side that goes upward. "Oh that?" answered Mystia, who was somewhat preoccupied with work. "That's a CD Player." "'CD Player'?" Youmu asked tilting her head slightly. Her master was close friends with the enigmatic Yukari Yakumo. Because the gap youkai is known to visit the Outside World, usually to spirit away outsiders (usually as prey for the youkai), Yukari herself was unsurprisingly quite privy to most man-made inventions.

However, Gensokyo was a fantastical wonderland that wasn't out of place for Feudal Japan. Because of this, most outside technologies were quite alien to Gensokyo's youkai and humans, Youmu included.

"Yeah," Mystia continued turning to the girls. "I got it from Mr. Shopkeeper. Said it was made to play music." "Play music..." Meiling placed her index finger and thumb on her chin, thinking about how to night sparrow described the device. "Like a record player?" She finally asked. This caused the girls to look at her somewhat baffled. "Oh, right. You girls probably don't know what that is. It's a device that plays music from Record CDs. They look..." the gatekeeper tried to find the best way to describe a CD before finally looking down at her plate "Oh! They sort of look like these." she says pointing to her plate.

"How do you...?" Reisen asked somewhat shocked by the gatekeeper seemingly profound knowledge at this "Record Player" she was talking about. "My mistress owns a record player from before we moved to Gensokyo." The gatekeeper said, answering the earth rabbit's unfinished question with a bit of unnecessary pride. Despite the fact that most inhabitants of Gensokyo don't understand technology and prefer to rely more on magic, there are several inhabitants who at least have some understanding of how most man-made inventions, like the kappa, the aforementioned Yukari Yakumo, and the Moriya Shrine goddesses. As it turns out, the Scarlet Devil Mansion seemed to have some grasp of technology as well, albeit to a lesser degree.

"Huh." Mystia uttered somewhat nonchalantly "But yes. The CD Player works something like that."

Deciding it would be better to demonstrate to the girls how the CD Player works instead of telling them, Mystia reached down to one of stands drawers and grabbed a "CD" that played her favorite song. She was careful not to accidentally scratch it with her long sharp nails. "Here." the night sparrow said finally standing up. "Let me show you."

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Mystia opened the top of the CD Player and plopped the disk in. She closed the lid and press one of the buttons on the device. And just like magic, the cd played started...well playing a song.

The song had a sort of dark and sinister feeling to it at the beginning, but as the song went on, it began to sound more energetic and cheerful. Not unlike Mystia herself. Sinister-feeling if a human were to encounter her in the dead of night, but is a lot more cheerful when she's around those she considers friends. The song was met with a round of applause from the amazed servants. "Not bad!" Meiling said with a smile on her face "Not a bad song at all!". "Indeed." said Youmu "This song certainly suits you. I find it fitting that you like it as much as you do." "I'll take that as a compliment. Hehe." Chuckles Mystia. Which earns a chuckle from the rest of the girls.

After a brief moment of silence, Reisen speaks up asking, "Do you have any more songs to listen to?" "Sure!" Mystia responds as she ducks back down "I should have a few in here... Ah! Here we go." She finally says, lifting what looked like a book holding the discs.

The first song the trio listened to had a feeling that they could describe as "oriental" and "elegant". Meiling seemed to like it the most, as she liked how it also had a sort of "flowery" feel to it. She even stated that while listening, she could picture herself relentlessly but gracefully defending her mistress' home from anyone who even dares to try and trespass. A description that earns a laugh from the rest of the girls.

The second song had a sort of creepy feeling to it, much like Mystia's song. Though whereas Mystia's song invoked the feeling that a sinister-being hunting one down in the night, this song was fast-paced and had a sort of otherworldly feel to it, which especially shows when the slower more whimsical sounding chorus hits. Reisen in particular stated that listening to the song, especially said chorus, it almost felt as if someone was using her own insanity-inducing red eyes against her. Regardless it was clear that she liked this song the most out of the three.

The third and final theme had an otherworldly feel, much like the second, but was slightly slower paced. Despite that, it also had a sort intense feeling to it. As Youmu, who seemed to like this song the most put it, the song paints the image of dueling warriors clashing swords. Intense but also focused.

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"Wow!" An amazed Meiling said "We've got to get Komachi to pick out a song the next time she joins us. The record player we have at the mansion is nothing compared to this!" This earned another laugh from the group, before Reisen stared off into the distance with a wistful look in her insanity-inducing eyes. "Yeah," she began "It certainly is something...".

This causes her friends to look at her somewhat concernedly. "Is something wrong Miss Reisen?" asked Youmu. Looking over to her friend, Reisen responded with "It's nothing. It's just that listening to those songs dug up some old memories." "What do you mean?" "You know, like, the second song reminded me of the time when my master and the princess first revealed themselves to the rest of Gensokyo." Youmu pondered Reisen words for a second before realizing what the earth rabbit was talking about "Oh! You mean the Eternal Night Incident?" "Yeah that!" Reisen responded "I know it sounds kind of silly considering you and I were...well, you know."

Youmu did in fact know what Reisen was talking about. How could she forget the time she and Yuyuko went out to recover the real moon that was replaced by a false moon, or as her mistress dubbed it going on a "Wonderful Midnight Snack Tour"? Especially their fight with the night sparrow that was currently serving the human-phantom hybrid and her friends (Mystia still has nightmares about the encounter with the seemingly gluttonous ghost princess by the way...), and her battle with the once-arrogant earth rabbit who was now drinking and laughing alongside her?

"I see what you mean. All three of these songs do have a sort of nostalgic feel to them." "Yeah." Meiling added in, reminiscing the time her mistress initiated the Scarlet Mist Incident, and more specifically, the chinese gatekeeper's encounter with Reimu Hakurei and her magician friend "I mean, sure. We all got our butt's kicked back then, but...I dunno. Things just seemed so much simpler back then." "Yeah. I guess so..." chimed in Youmu, thinking back to the time she first encountered Reimu, Marisa, and the reformed head maid Sakuya during the Spring Snow Incident.

After that there was a comfortable silence between the three girls as Mystia was left to do her own thing. It's been years since the three each arrived in Gensokyo, and for better or for worse, a lot about it has changed between now and the time each of the incidents the girls took part of in some way.

Back then, Reisen had never thought she would personally volunteer to return to the moon she had once fled from to stop a forced invasion caused by the lunarians she had once served under. Youmu didn't even entertain the idea of getting into a romantic relationship with an ordinary human.

Sure, it was probably foolish of Meiling to think that there would never come a day where her mistress' little sister, to whom the gatekeeper devoted much of her time and energy into caring for as if she was her own daughter (Shhh. Don't tell her that's what the gatekeeper thinks of her) would try and kill her without a second thought during that time the vengeful spirit attacked the mansion, but the fact that she managed to find a friend in the mind-reader's little sister and the nue from the Buddhist temple, and was even was the one to resolve an incident after leaving the mansion grounds for the first time in a LONG TIME (Though, to be fair, the reason Flandre even decided to go in the first place was because she couldn't resist the challenge of destroying the indestructible) was enough to fill Meiling with a motherlike pride. As if her own little girl had managed to accomplish something in life.

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After a few more minutes of silence, Meiling placed an arm around each of the other two girls shoulders as if she was pulling them in for a hug, and laughed. "Hahahaha! Look at us. Getting teary-eyed over a time where we got our butt's kick." Meiling decided to lighten up the mood by having Mystia play one more song before they called it a night. "Got anymore songs on you, Mystia?" Mystia then began to search through her CD Book, before finally deciding on one. "How about this one?" "Oh! That looks like a good one." Meiling responded. "OK. Put it on." Mystia complies and carefully places the cd in the player.

This song was notable as it sounded like it sounded like it was fully orchestrated. Despite that, it was a lot more fast-paced and action-packed than the previous four songs, and it actually hosted vocals.

"Dɪᴅ ʏᴏᴜ sᴇᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ sʜᴀᴅᴏᴡ? As wide as a mountain even." The first two voices sang with the first one sounding rather childish, and the second one sounding older but no less energetic.

"Did you see that shadow?[color] [color=#05cce6]Oɴᴇ ɴᴏ ᴏɴᴇ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴅᴀʀᴇ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇ ɪɴ." A third voice sang along with the first voice. This caused the chinese gatekeeper to slink down in her seat.

"Did you see that shadow? Its figure is quite deceiving." Sang the second and third voices as Meiling's face started to turn as red as the mansion she guards.

"[color=#ce7e00]Dᴏ ʏᴏᴜ sᴇᴇ ɪᴛ ɴᴏᴡ? It’s here… It’s here… Iᴛ’s ʜᴇʀᴇ!
Beware! The shadow is a –" Youmu and Reisen finally put two and two together. "Meiling?" the two girls said in unison.

As the song continued playing in the background, the chinese youkai placed her face in the palms of her hands sighing "Yeah?" "Was that you in...?" Before Youmu could finish her question, the gatekeeper answer with "Yes. Cirno and I helped Sanae perform this song for that festival. She thought it would be a good way to gather faith for her shrine, Cirno thought it'd be fun, and I was desperate and needed the money."

Meiling recalled the time she, the ice fairy, and Moriya Priestess performed at the festival starring Kappa's Hisoutensoku attraction the trio mistook for Taisui Xingjun, a Daidarabotchi, and a giant robot respectively. They're performance based on their little misadventures were neither met with the applause nor the jeers of (what little there was of a) crowd, but rather silence. Just a stunned, rather awkward, silence. Much to the ice fairy's confusion, and the gatekeeper and priestess' embarrassment.

Returning the the present, Meiling concluded her answer with "And no. We all agreed that it was NOT worth it." After a brief moment of silence (besides the music playing from the CD Player), Youmu then began to tap her finger to the beat of the song. "Bᴇʏᴏɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴏɢɢʏ ʜᴏʀɪᴢᴏɴ, ᴀ sᴘᴇᴄᴛᴇʀ ɪs ʀɪsɪɴɢ: Who finds it first is the luck of the draw." Meiling, still double-faced palmed, groans to herself in embarrassment.

Then, Reisen begins to hum the lyrics to herself "Bᴇᴄᴀᴜsᴇ ᴘᴏᴡᴇʀ ɪs ᴊᴜsᴛɪᴄᴇ! Bᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇ ɪɴ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴊᴜsᴛ ɪs! Obey the pull of the natural law." Meiling groans again, but only slightly louder.

Finally Mystia began to softly sing along to the lyrics. As the chorus reaches it's climax. "Something’s causing a fuss now. Tʜᴇ sᴛʀᴏɴɢᴇsᴛ ᴏғ ᴜs ɴᴏᴡ Will beat the odds, as a hero should do. Aɴᴅ I'ʟʟ ʙᴇ ɢᴏɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴏʟᴅ ʀᴏᴜᴛᴇ, ғᴏʀ ᴋɴᴏᴄᴋɪɴ’ ʜɪᴍ ᴄᴏʟᴅ ᴏᴜᴛ. The legend starts brand new: Hɪ-sᴏᴜ-ᴛᴇ-ɴ-sᴏ-ᴋᴜ!" Meiling groans one last time, this time loud enough for everyone to hear. Just as her verse begins, Meiling grabs a bottle of sake and downs the whole thing.

Once she passes out, the girls look down at her, and then at each other. "Maybe, we shouldn't have embarrassed her..." stated Youmu. "I mean it is a good song." Retorts Reisen with a shrug.

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The girls proceeded to bid Mystia farewell and worked together to haul the passed out gatekeeper back home. The next day, while Meiling did end up getting scolded for having too much to drink the night before, she was allowed to take the day off to recover from her hangover.

Fin

Another exhausting day, another relaxing night. The Earth Rabbit Assistant, Reisen Udongein Inaba, and the Half-Human Half-Phantom Garderner and Swordswoman, Youmu Konpaku, were drinking away their worries while talking about how their day went. The usual interactions that take place. Though there was something that was missing that night.

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"It's been a while since we've seen Meiling." Reisen said, breaking the silence that was momentarily set between the two. "You think?" Replied the Half-Phantom. "Yeah." Responded Reisen "I think the last time we saw her was when...we...had...to carry her home." The earth-rabbit finished awkwardly as she cleared her throat.

Youmu realized Reisen was talking about the time they had inadvertadley embarrassed Meiling 3 weeks ago. "Oh, right! From what I was told, Miss Meiling is working to make up for...that situation 3 weeks ago."

Eventually after letting out a sigh, Reisen said "We really ought to apolgize to Meiling when she's eventually comes back to drinking with us... I mean, that song she made with the ice fairy and shrine maiden on the mountain was admittedly very catchy, but it still wasn't very nice of us to embarass her like that." At this, Youmu nodded in agreement.

"Indeed. Not to mention we did inadvertedly get her in trouble with her mistress and Miss Sakuya. So I guess it's only fair to apologize."

After that. Silence befell the duo as they went back to drinking to the relaxing ambience around them.

After a while, it was Youmu's turn to break the silence. "Do you ever..." Started the gardener as the earth rabbit turned her attention to her. "You ever wonder what Miss Meiling actually is?"

To this the earth rabbit responded with "What do you mean? You mean like what kind of youkai?"

"Um... I suppose. We've known Miss Meiling for a while now, but I don't think she has ever told us what kind of youkai she is specifically."

"Ah, I see your point." said an understanding Reisen "Yeah. I don't think Meiling has ever told us what her exact species is. All we know is that she's a youkai who comes from a neighboring country. Although..."

Reisen places her index finger on her chin. "I think I remember hearing a rather interesting rumor regarding Meiling's species..."

"Really?" responded the Half-Phantom Swordswoman "What was it about?"

"Well, apparently some think that she's actually supposed to be dragon."

"...A dragon?" Youmu questioned hesitantly?

"Yeah. I think it has something to do with the star on her hat translating to "Dragon", as well as her danmaku and spell cards utilizing rainbows. Plus her name apparently brings to mind the "Hong", a rainbow dragon that hails from Meiling's home country."

The Half-Phantom Gardener thinks about what her friend had just said. Could the seemingly lazy gatekeeper of the vampire's mansion actually be a dragon?

"Do you think it's true?" Youmu finally asked

"Personally? Not really." said Reisen "You may already know this, but dragons are some of the most powerful creatures, even being said to exceed gods. Heck, Gensokyo wouldn't even be here if not for the Dragon God."

Reisen paused for a moment to let it the information sink in the half-baked gardener's mind. "As for Meiling? She herself isn't very strong by youkai standards. Physically maybe, but definetly not in terms of magic. She doesn't even have any youkai-like abilites. Or if she does, they're not very notable."

"...I suppose." Eventually said Youmu "Still... It's probably not entirely impossible. I mean, me and Miss Reimu and Marisa faced the leader of the Kikestu Family to a draw back in the Animal Realm."

A while back, when investigating an incident where the Animal Spirits from Hell were trying to take over Gensokyo, the trio consisting of the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, her Magician friend, and the aforementioned Youmu engaged in a fight with Yachie Kicchou, a jidao (or tortise-dragon) who leads the Kiketsu Family, one of the major organizations of beast spirits of the Animal Realm. While she was defeated, she did manipulate the trio into defeating Keiki Haniyasushin, the goddess who supposedly caused the incident.

"I guess." conceded Reisen "But then again, their leader isn't exactly a dragon. Plus the fact that she needed to get someone to defeat the culprit for her could mean she doesn't exceed a god's power either."

The earth-rabbit and the half-phantom both each other to think for a minute, every so often taking a sip from their drinks.

Finally Reisen stretches her arms in front of her as she pushes her seat backwards stating "Well, no use worrying about it. It's probably not our buisness wondering about such things anyways."

"...Yeah. I suppose so." Replied Youmu standing up from her seat as she leaves the right amount of change at the stand.

Reisen grabs slips her jacket from her shoulders and back onto her sleeves. "Anyhow it's getting late, we should probably head back home before-"

Reisen was buttoning her jacket and was about to finish her train of thought, until suddenly...


*RAAAAAAAAWWWWRRRRR*


The beleaguered servants could hear a mighty roar in the distance. It didn't sound like any youkai either of them had seen before.

"W-what was that?!" Said a slightly startled Youmu.

"I don't know...!" Replied Reisen, who was a little bit nervous herself "But I think it was coming from..."


The direction that leads to the vampire's mansion...

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Deciding not to waste anymore time lingering about, the two servants hurried back to their respective homes. They were both more conflicted about the true identity of their fellow servant and friend.

Were the tales about the infamously lazy chinese youkai of the vampire's mansion secretly being a legendary dragon just that, stories? Or could they actually be true after all? Those were the questions the both of them asked themselves well into the night.

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Meanwhile at the Scarlet Devil Mansion

"And when Lady Sakuya and the Mistress finally found China, she was passed out drunk!" Said an orange haired fairy maid, who was still rather ill-tempered about the incident 3 weeks ago.

"Wow really?"

"Yeah. So after receiving an absolute tongue-lashing from Lady Sakuya about drinking too much, China had to take the day off, Edward, Matthias, and Timothy had to cover for her on gatekeeping duty and me some other of the other fairy maids had to take care of the garden. Urgh...! I swear, gardening duty is such a pain! If I ever get assigned to gardening duty ever again, I'm gonna..."

The orange fairy then paused her rant, contemplating in her little fairy brain on what she would do if she were to be assigned garden duty again "I...uh..." It took several more seconds for the orange fairy to conclude with "I-I don't know what I'll do, but I'm gonna do something!"

This caused the purple haired fairy with glasses who was conversing with the orange fairy to laugh at her misfortune, until realizing "Wait, just Eddie, Matt, and Timmy? Wasn't there, like, fourth hobgoblin that hangs out with those three?"

"Oh, that. Torrid left earlier the day before." The orange fairy said with a deadpan expression with a shrug "Dunno why though."

At this, the now distraught purple fairy responded with "Aw man! He was my favorite hobgoblin..." At this, the orange fairy rolled her eyes as the two fairy went back to work (or whatever passed as work to fairies) cleaning the hall windows of the mansion.

The purple fairy finally decided to break the silence by asking the orange fairy a question. "Hey." she said. "What?" the orange fairy replied. "What is Lady Meiling exactly?" asked the purple fairy. "Double what?" replied the orange fairy again as she tilted her head.

"Just curious." confessed the purple fairy "I've been thinking about it for a while now. I tried asking Lady Meiling today, but all she said was 'That's my little dear!'" finished purple fairy mimicking Meiling from her voice, right down to her posture. Placing her hands on her hips, turning away from her fellow fairy slightly, and winking at her with a smile. "Like that."

Unnamused, the orange fairy retorted with "Not sure I'm getting you. She's a youkai just like the rest of us here besides Lady Sakuya. That should be obvious.".

"Oh, OK. I just wanted to see if you knew what youkai Lady Meiling is."

"Well to be honest, no. I don't."

The purple haired fairy thought about it for a second, until concluding "What if she's a dragon?"

"Triple what?" responded the orange fairy turning her head to her fellow fairy once again "Yeah! Y'know, like from the legends."

"What made you come up with something like?" asked the orange fairy.

"W-well, um... it says "Dragon" on the star thing on her hat!" The purple fairy said crossing her arms and giving a smug smile, as if she had just said something smart.

The orange fairy stared at her fellow fairy, before finally breaking out in laughter, much to her fellow fairy's ire "You really think China's actually some fire breathing dragon?" she began as she wiped the tears from her eyes "She's lazy, she sucks at magic, and she can't even keep a human out of this mansion."

"Hey! Don't badmouth Lady Meiling like that!" retorted the purple fairy "Lady Meiling is cool!"

Placing her right hand on her hip, the orange fairy replied matter-of-factly with "Maybe to you. But even if all that stuff isn't true, even us fairies know that dragons are like super strong. Like "Able to turn Lady Flandre into a pretzel" strong. There's no way Mistress Remilia could've beaten a dragon and had it work for herrrrrrrrrr..."

Trailing off with the last word, the orange fairy look outside the window, and noticed something.

"What's the matter?" asked the purple fairy to her stunned companion.

"T-t-tail..." said the stunned orange fairy as she pointed outside the window.

"What do you mean, 'Tail'?" asked a confused purple fairy. With her companion not saying a word in response, the fairy decided to peek outside the window as well.


And there, they saw it. It was long scaly looking tail, that had a tuff of red fur at its tip.


The fairies were speechless. They hadn't seen anything like it since they had first arrived to Gensokyo. "So..." began the purple fairy "Have you seen any youkai that has a tail that looks like THAT." she finishes as she points to the mysterious tail.

The orange fairy did not know how to respond. So she just answer with a simple, yet terrifed "No."

"Then that can only mean..." The two fairies look back at each other. They decide that was only one thing they could do.

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The Head Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Sakuya Izayoi, was walking through the halls of the mansion while pushing a tray of food. She had just come back from serving her mistress her meal for the night and was going to take care of some chores before getting herself ready to get some sleep. She was enjoying the peace and quiet the silent halls were bringing her when all of a sudden...

"Lady Sakuya, Lady Sakuya!" said the two fairies running towards the headmaid.

Sakuya was clearly irrated with having her peace and quiet disturbed. But she, didn't have it in her to lash out at the clearly frightened fairy maids

So taking a deep breath and placed both of her hands on her apron as she turned to the fairy maids. "Yes?" Sakuya began calmly "Is something the matter?"


This did nothing to placate the two fairy maids. Still panicking from the shocking revelation, the two maids told Sakuya what they had witnessed.

"It's China! She's..."
"Lady Meiling is..."

"A DRAGON!!!"

"..."

The Perfect and Elegant Maid didn't answer. Not immediately at least. Not losing her calm and collected demeanor for a second, Sakuya just stared at the two childish maids for a brief moment. Once said moment of silence had passed, the Perfect and Elegant Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion had finally begun to reply to the frightened duo.

"The both of you think that Meiling is a dragon?"


"Believe it or not!" Said the Orange Fairy
"FOR REAL!" Said the Purple Fairy

"...Don't be ridiculous."

At this, the two fairies replied with "You gotta belive us! We-"

"Listen." Interrupted Sakuya as she crossed her arms, clearly becoming more irrated at the fairies' nonsense "Meiling has been serving under Lady Remilia for a long time. Possibly even longer than I have. If Meiling was a dragon, I'm certain she would have at the very least told Milady such. And in all of my time here, neither of them have mentioned anything that even implied that Meiling is a dra-"


"We're telling you Lady Sakuya! China is a dragon!" It was the duo's turn to interrupt the Perfect and Elegant Maid. The two fairies began to cling onto Sakuya's skirt, desperately insisting that the Chinese gatekeeper was the famed legendary beast they thought she was.

"Yeah! We saw her tail while we were cleaning the windows!"

The fairies began to shake the head maid's skirt with as much power they could muster.

"She is a 100% bonafide fire-breathing dragon disguised as a regular youkai!"

Forcing the two maids off of her, the now completely annoyed Sakuya Izayoi pinched the bridge of her nose and let out an exasperated sigh as she said "I don't have time for this merde. I'm never going to finish for today if you two keep pestering me."

"Fine." Sakuya finally conceded. "I'll go check on Meiling to see if she is really this "dragon" you two speak of."

"But if this is some sort of prank from you two," Began Sakuya again as she pointed to the two fairy maids "Then the both of you are bringing the young mistress her meals for a week."

The two already terrified fairies shuddered at the thought of having to attend to, or even be in the same room with the insane little sister, Flandre Scarlet herself.

"Now I'll be right back." Sakuya said just before she seemingly teleported to the Mansion Gates. The two fairies waited in anticipation, hoping that their seemingly insane discovery was correct...

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As it turned out, Meiling had just dispacted a beastly youkai that was trying to intrude while she was asleep. The two fairies had to bring the young mistress her meals for an entire week after that, just as the head maid had promised.

As it turns out, Hong Meiling, the Chinese Dragon Gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, was not a dragon after all.



Or was she...?

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Fin