The group stepped out of the library, the sound of the door closing echoing faintly through the Scarlet halls.
They didn't get far before spotting a lone figure standing in the corridor ahead — a silver-haired maid, perfectly composed, adjusting her gloves with quiet precision.
Reimu tilted her head slightly. "Hey, do you know where the Sakuya girl is?"
The maid's blue eyes flicked toward them, and in the next instant—
The world froze.
Knives shimmered in the air around them, each one catching the crimson light of the mist, suspended perfectly mid-spin — hundreds, maybe thousands, all pointed directly at the intruders.
When time resumed, the sound of steel filled the hall.
Reimu blinked, realizing a blade had grazed her sleeve before she even saw the maid move. Marisa jumped back, sparks of magic crackling from her broom. Mokou's eyes widened. Even she could feel the air being sliced.
Sakuya Izayoi stood among them, calm as still water, her expression unreadable. "You've come far enough," she said softly, voice edged like the knives she commanded. "Lady Remilia is not seeing guests."
Sanae raised her gohei defensively. "She's good—really good!"
Youmu gritted her teeth, pulling her swords free. "Good? I didn't even see her move."
Reimu flicked a paper charm into her hand. "So… the famous maid herself."
Marisa grinned, nervous but exhilarated. "Heh, classic Scarlet Mansion hospitality."
Chris floated a little higher, watching her quietly. He could feel something different about this one — her time-space magic wasn't demonic or divine, but mechanical. Controlled. Human.
Reimu's eyes narrowed. "Alright, everyone—remember, spell card rules. No one dies, just... don't blink."
Before anyone could respond, the faint ticking of a clock echoed through the hall.
Sakuya's eyes glowed faintly red as she raised her hands. "Perfect Maid — The World."
The knives vanished from sight—
And the battle began.
Mokou shot forward, fire bursting from her hands.
"Got you—!"
But in the blink of an eye, Sakuya was gone.
The next thing Mokou knew, she was kissing a wall hard enough to leave a dent, smoke rising from her hair.
Reimu gasped and immediately fired a barrage of danmaku seals, the paper charms glowing golden and splitting into dozens of projectiles that filled the corridor—
They hit dead-on.
For half a second, Reimu thought she'd won—until the smoke cleared.
Sakuya stood unharmed, a knife pressed to Reimu's gohei, calm as ever.
"Predictable pattern," she murmured before flicking her wrist.
A wave of steel flashed.
Reimu barely had time to throw up a barrier as sparks danced inches from her face.
Marisa's broom wobbled as she hovered a few meters back. "Wha—how the hell did she—she was over there a second ago!"
Youmu slashed at the afterimage of Sakuya, her ghost half lagging behind. "She's fast—no, wait, she's not moving fast, she's—"
"—messing with time," Sanae finished, raising her gohei as a faint divine barrier shimmered to life. "This… this isn't normal."
Reimu groaned, blocking another knife with her ofuda. "Of course it's not normal! None of this is normal!"
Chris, hovering behind Sanae, watched quietly. His golden eyes reflected the flurry of knives.
He whispered softly, "Time… stopped."
And that's when Sakuya froze again—mid-motion—realizing he saw through it.
The air shimmered as clocks stopped ticking, blades hanging still for a moment too long.
Reimu blinked. "Wait—what just—?"
Marisa, gripping her broom tightly, whispered, "Did… did the kid just break her trick?"
Sakuya frowned slightly, lowering her arm. "You—can see me move in stopped time?"
Chris didn't answer. He simply floated higher, tilting his head. "Mommy said never to play with time."
That one line made everyone pause—including Sakuya, who just muttered, "…Your mother raised you right."
The knives vanished with a soft chime.
Chris looked at her, his expression unreadable as his thoughts echoed in his mind.
'It's similar to mine… but more refined. Less raw power, more precision. Which means…'
His eyes flared gold.
In an instant, the world bled into gray — frozen, suspended in a fragile silence. Then, a second layer of motion folded over reality.
He saw them.
The suspended knives, glinting midair, each one a perfect trap.
Chris moved carefully, threading through the frozen scene. He adjusted the trajectory of the blades — just enough. A few slipped subtly into the path of Reimu's danmaku.
Then, turning to where the air shimmered faintly — the point where Sakuya would emerge once time resumed — he smirked.
"Let's see how you like it when someone else plays your game."
He released his grip on time, ensuring nothing else betrayed his interference.
Time snapped back into motion.
The air crackled as Reimu's danmaku surged forward—
and then, clang!
A dozen knives rebounded violently, colliding midair in a chaotic explosion of sparks. One even whizzed past Sakuya's cheek, grazing it by a hair.
She blinked—once. Then twice.
Her mind raced. Impossible. My calculations were perfect.
Reimu stumbled back, eyes wide. "Wait—did my own bullets just—"
Marisa nearly dropped her broom. "What the hell just happened!?"
Sakuya's gloved hand twitched as she touched her cheek, feeling the faint cut. Her calm, perfect composure cracked for half a second.
"…I must've misjudged the angle," she muttered under her breath. But her tone wasn't confident—it was uncertain, something no one had ever heard from her before.
Patchouli would have recognized that look in her eyes — the expression Sakuya only got when she encountered something truly outside the scope of her ability.
Chris didn't say a word. He just stood there, hands in his pockets, eyes still faintly glowing gold as he met her gaze.
For a brief instant, Sakuya saw it — that same stillness, that same command of time.
Her eyes narrowed. "…You can't be serious."
Reimu blinked. "Wait, what does that mean—"
But before anyone could ask more, Sakuya vanished again, this time with a much colder aura, knives swirling around her like a silver storm.
Sakuya appeared behind Chris, the faint shimmer of temporal distortion still fading from her frame.
Before anyone could react, her gloved hand moved—swift, surgical.
A light tap on the back of his neck.
Chris's golden eyes flickered, dimmed, and then he slumped silently forward.
The others barely registered what happened before everything froze.
The air itself turned glassy. Falling petals halted midair. Even Reimu's expression, mid-yell, was suspended in place.
Sakuya caught Chris before he could hit the ground. Her face remained calm, but her thoughts were moving faster than time itself.
"He's like me. But untrained… uncontrolled. I can't let that ruin the Mistress's domain."
She adjusted his posture, making sure his head didn't hang awkwardly, then carried him through the frozen corridors of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
The ticking of countless stopped clocks echoed faintly as she moved.
Finding an empty guest room, she laid him gently on the bed, brushing a strand of hair from his face.
"Sleep well, timewalker. You're too dangerous for the battlefield… for now."
Then she stood up, took one final glance, and snapped her fingers.
Time resumed.
In an instant, she was gone again—back to the fray, knives and silver light flashing through the mansion's grand hall.
Reimu blinked, scanning the battlefield.
"Wait—Ryusei!? Where did he go!?"
The air was still thick with floating knives and smoke trails from danmaku blasts.
Sakuya, ever-composed, adjusted her gloves and replied calmly, "I took care of him."
The words hung in the air for a second too long.
Reimu froze. Marisa's head snapped toward her, eyes wide.
Mokou actually stopped mid-charge.
"You… what?" Reimu's voice went low, dangerous.
Even Sakuya realized immediately that she'd chosen the wrong phrasing.
Her eyes widened a fraction. "Ah, I mean—he's fine. I only—"
Too late.
Reimu's aura flared like a holy nuke. "YOU DID WHAT TO HIM!?"
A tremor went through the hall. Charms ignited, talismans burned, and even Remilia could probably feel that one.
Sakuya tried to deflect the first punch—keyword: tried.
Reimu's fist came swinging, glowing with divine retribution and pure misunderstanding.
CRASH!
Sakuya stopped the second blow with her knife handle, sparks flying as time briefly skipped forward and back, the whole room flickering like a broken film reel.
"Please, calm down—he's alive!" Sakuya said, twisting her wrist to redirect another hit.
"YOU SAID YOU 'TOOK CARE OF HIM!' THAT'S WHAT PEOPLE SAY WHEN THEY KILL SOMEONE!" Reimu yelled, launching another flurry.
Marisa just stood off to the side, sweating bullets. "Uh, maybe we let them work it out. They're speakin' the universal language of fists."
Meanwhile, in the Library—
Patchouli didn't even glance up at first. The faint rumble above the ceiling, the clatter of knives, the occasional echo of "SAKUYAAAAA!" didn't faze her in the slightest.
She calmly turned a page.
Then, a burst of divine energy rolled through the mansion like a solar flare, making the candles flicker and even the chained grimoire on her desk tremble.
Only then did she exhale and glance toward the ceiling.
"…Why," she muttered, "…do I feel the aura of a pissed-off Sun Goddess?"
Koakuma peeked from behind a stack of books, nervously holding a tea tray. "Should I… bring a fire extinguisher?"
Patchouli sighed, shutting the tome with a soft thump.
"No. Bring the burn ointment. For Sakuya."
Koakuma blinked. "...She started it again?"
"Reimu started misunderstanding again," Patchouli corrected with her usual flat tone. "And when those two meet, logic ceases to exist."
The grimoire rattled violently, as if agreeing.
Patchouli gave it a tired look.
"Don't you start too."
Back in the Grand Hall – Scarlet Mansion
A storm of danmaku filled the air — paper charms, stars, and knives colliding like fireworks.
Sakuya danced through them with her usual elegance, knives flashing in perfect rhythm — but she couldn't dodge everything. Not because she couldn't, but because Reimu was fighting like a woman who just found out someone kidnapped her little brother.
"WHERE. IS. HE!" Reimu roared, diving forward with a dropkick.
Sakuya vanished in a blink, reappearing behind her. "Calm down, Miss Hakurei, I only—"
"YOU WHAT?!"
CRASH! Reimu punched a pillar clean in half, debris flying.
Marisa and Youmu dove for cover behind a couch.
"Holy crap, she's gone full wrestling arc!" Marisa yelled.
"Do we… help her?" Youmu asked, blinking as danmaku scorched past her.
"Nope," Mokou said, munching popcorn she definitely didn't have a second ago. "You don't interrupt Shrine Maiden Rage. Learned that the hard way."
Sakuya blinked back into the real flow of time, hair frazzled, apron torn.
She tried again — words this time, not knives.
"Listen! The boy is fine! I merely subdued him with a nerve tap so he wouldn't interfere—"
Reimu froze mid-punch, slowly turning. "You what?"
Sakuya, realizing too late how it sounded, panicked. "He's asleep! Just—sleeping! I swear! Not hurt!"
WHAM!
The floorboards cracked under Reimu's heel as she lunged forward, grabbing Sakuya by the collar like a mother about to lecture a delinquent student.
"You PUT HIM TO SLEEP?! What is he, a dog?!"
Time stopped again.
Sakuya took a deep breath, straightened her collar, and muttered, "This is going to be a long day."
When time resumed, she ducked under a paper talisman that would've vaporized the wall behind her.
Cut to Patchouli in the Library (again):
She calmly turned a page as the ceiling above her rumbled.
Koakuma, nervously peeking upward, whispered, "Should we help her?"
Patchouli sighed.
"No. She started the misunderstanding."
Then, after a pause:
"…And I'd rather the mansion still have a roof when it's over."
Back in the Grand Hall
Reimu's fist — wreathed in ofuda, shrine-light, and pure parental fury — was inches from Sakuya's face.
Sakuya, eyes wide, threw all dignity aside.
Time Stop.
Everything froze: danmaku mid-air, Marisa halfway through screaming, Mokou still chewing popcorn, Youmu stuck in a defensive pose she definitely regretted.
Sakuya sprinted down the hallway like a maid late for tea duty.
She slid into the guest room, lifted the sleeping Chris like precious cargo, dusted him off, adjusted his wings, and whispered:
"Why must children cause so many misunderstandings…?"
Then she dashed back, gently holding Chris in her arms — bridal-style, because that was the safest for avoiding accidental limb loss — and unfroze time.
Time Resumes
Sakuya: "Here! He's fine! He's just sleeping!"
Reimu's fist, mid-swing, halted so fast it created a shockwave.
Her eyes went wide — then to horror — then to motherly panic.
"RYUSEI!"
She cancelled her attack instantly.
The problem?
Momentum still existed.
So instead of punching Sakuya into orbit like intended…
Reimu redirected the punch into her own face.
THWAM!!
She cratered herself into the floorboards like a meteor strike.
Marisa clapped a hand to her mouth. "Holy— She just WRESTLING-COUNTERED HERSELF."
Youmu panicked. "Is she dead?! Shrine Maidens can die like that, right?!"
Mokou shook her head. "Nah, she's fine. Reimu eats gods for breakfast, a self-punch won't kill her. Probably."
Sanae stared at Sakuya holding Chris like a princess.
"…Did we just get our asses kicked so hard the boss brought out the kid like a peace offering?"
Sakuya, sweating for the first time in centuries, offered the sleeping boy forward like a tribute.
"He is uninjured, unharmed, just unconscious. I simply removed him from the battlefield for safety—"
Reimu, still half-face-planted in the floor, raised a trembling hand:
"…give me a second, I'm… resetting my dignity."
To be continued
Hope people like this ch and give me power stones and enjoy