A/N: (Note/Disclaimer) All recognizable objects and characters belong to their respective owners. Mainly Team Shanghai Alice for Touhou Project or, as per usual, my own characters belonging to me.

Note 2:

("Common Language [Japanese in this case]/Speech")

(‘Foreign Languages’)

(" Thoughts (In their own native tongue)" )

(Attacks/Weapon names)

(Other/Foreign/ Speech & Text/Written, Titles)

(Actions/POV)

(Titles / Flashback/Time/Dates/Place)

(Narration & Everything else)

(“Demonic Speech”)

(‘Demonic Thoughts’)

A Retired Officer’s Shop In The Eastern Wonderland Chapter 7

Gensyoko: Bamboo Forest Of The Lost: ??????

August 18th, 2003: 1700

Third Person: Omni

“This is the drawing of what he looked like according to the rabbit that was with him.” A young woman with rabbit ears peeking out from her head said as a pencil drawing of Desmond was showcased to the young woman dressed in a very expensive manner.

“So that is what he looks like…” A young woman with purple hair looked over at the realistic drawing. Sure there were a few features warped due to it being a drawing and not a picture, but it was strikingly similar enough. She wore a business suit jacket over a white shirt along with a beige knee-length skirt.

“Dad?” The woman that looked akin to a princess asked herself in a surprised manner at the face in the drawing. It looked strikingly similar to the man who took her in all those years ago if a bit mixed up due to the nature of drawing a face that was slowly degrading in the mind. Sure the black hair was there indicating his young age.

“Dad?!?” Several of the women in the room exclaimed at once in surprise, far more than the young looking girl sitting at the head of the table. A woman with white hair also observes the portrait with a critical eye. While she never met him in person, she did know his face.

“Mom said that he never really looked older than his twenties besides a few wrinkles and his hair grey. With that bamboo hat and despite the inaccuracy of the drawing, he looks like my father.” She remarks as she stares even deeper at the drawing. Her voice is calm and polite along with her manner of speech, the epitome of traditional noble.

“In fact, if I still had the painting that she had of his early days, it would be almost the exact same as this drawing.” She states with an even pace despite being stunned.

___(TOUHOU PROJECT)___

Gensyoko: Universal Board Perimeter

August 18th, 2003: 1800

“Thank you for accompanying me back, would you like to have some dinner?” He asked with a calm tone. It only took an hour since she started to accompany him to reach the games store. She looked at the strange building, she never saw this type of building in her life, not even at the human village.

“No, I am okay.” She remarks with a passive tone, a brand new shirt now covering her. The earlier one had burned when she scared off some yokai that were too hungry to care if she was leading a person home. The sudden growling of her stomach signaled that she did indeed want to have some dinner despite the antisocial words that came from her mouth.

“Well you are coming in to eat, I insist.” Well, it was refreshing to be on the other side of it… especially when all of his teammates did the same to him. It was the first time he was doing it though. He just dragged her into the home, it was not like she had the physical strength to free herself. Though she could just light herself on fire to get free.

___(TOUHOU PROJECT)___

“Please wait at the table, I will get started on the food now.” He remarks as he leaves her at the table. She looked in a bit of wonder at all the modern things in the home, from the lights to the comfortable temperature that the entire place was set to.

“Hmm.” He hums an indistinct tune as he brings out various ingredients and cooking utensils from the fridge, cabinets, and drawers. Several were what she knew but a majority she didn’t see in her entire life.

“Chicken good with you?” He asks as he finishes washing the rice and places it into the specialized cooker. He starts preparing other ingredients so that they would be done one after another.

“Yeah...” She was a bit surprised at his movements, it was not usual that a young man would cook food… or even knew how to cook for that matter. Well except the chefs that she dealt with way back. He cut through the chicken breast and covered it with some wet towels. He swiftly pounded out the two cuts.

“What are you making?” She asks as he puts some flour, beaten eggs, and breadcrumbs into individual plates. He covers the pieces of chicken with the flours than the egg wash before the breadcrumbs.

“It would be what could be considered Chicken Katsu if you had it before. But what I am making is Hähnchenschnitzel or Chicken Schnitzel.” He remarks as he quickly checks the oil to see if it is hot enough to pan fry the thin pieces of meat. Finding the shimmering liquid not hot enough, he cleans up and sanitizes the things that involved the chicken.

“Hähnchenschnitzel?” She asks the pronunciation a bit off for the german based word. It was definitely a word that she had never heard before. She had Chicken Katsu when she was wandering around in the Meiji era though.

“A german dish of fried meat, the Hähnchen part is chicken while schnitzel is the dish. You could use pork or veal as well to get Schweineschnitzel and Viner Schnitzel respectively.” He remarks as he now finds the oil to be a good heat in order to fry it quickly. The sizzling and cracking of the piece of meat frying smelled great.

“German huh.” He just nods while continually flipping the breaded protein. After a few minutes of doing so, he started on the second one while the first rests on a drying rack.

“So, why do you wander the bamboo forest?” He asked while finishing up the other piece of chicken, letting it rest as he pours out a majority of oil into a container marked with the date.

“To lead them back to the human village when they come around.” She actively avoids saying what she does a majority of the time in the forest, though wandering through it to lead the lost back home is one of the main ones. If he heard what she stays there for, he would think her crazy.

“Huh, how long you been there?” He asks as he sears some vegetables to go with the rich chicken and the rice. Though if it was only that it would be a bit bland.

“Few hundred years.” She responds with a totally deadpan face, though Desmond felt that she was not even lying past her teeth. Certainly, her movements and the self burning should have suggested that she was immortal.

“Ho? Wandering that ever-changing place with basically the same scenery every day must be a toll on your mind. Though you must be quite good at housekeeping considering you live alone.” She blushes a bit at that. He quickly brings over a pair of plates to start assembling the dinner that they would be eating. Though it was far from much, it was quick enough so that they could eat it quickly.

“Here you are, Hähnchenschnitzel that is basically chicken katsu.” He squeezed on a lime on the chicken and spread some tonkatsu sauce on an empty portion of the plate. The chicken leaned on the rice and meat. They quickly dug into the meal.

___(TOUHOU PROJECT)___

“It is getting late, would you like to sleep in a guest bedroom of mine?” He asked while looking at the moon from the window that they sat beside. They had already finished their meal with a few intermittent conversations.

“I get the feeling that you would force me to stay anyway.” She remarked with a teasing grin on her face. Leaning back into the chair while still observing the moon along with him.

“What can I say, some call me aggressively hospitable.” He also had a smile on his expression, while not to the point of doing this situation before, he did make sure they ate well among other things.

“So yeah, I guess I’ll stay in the guest room… you better not sneak in.” Not that she thought that he would, he felt far too chivalrous to do so, and there were very little things humans that could hide from her insight borne from experience… despite constant moving to avoid being seen through.

“I an a lecherous old man… though if I become one smack some sense into me will ya. I can handle being enigmatic or just plain weird though.” He remarked with a laugh. She looked at him, the stress on lecherous and not old man along with the actions and wording of the evening were making her think that he was far older than he seemed.

“By the way, how old are you?” She asked after getting up from the chair and in the middle of putting her dish in the sink. Desmond put on a mock offended look which was so fake that even a person that closed their eyes to the thoughts of others could tell he was poking fun at the question.

“How rude, I am only 65 years old, and probably will look no older than this… I want to grow a beard damn it!” He joked in an expressive manner, now that the position of being police chief was safely off his shoulders he relaxed far more.

She just laughed at the playfully offended voice of the younger person in the room. It had been a while since she joked around with someone in this manner… it was nice.

“Sides, I would never as the age of another, especially when they probably forgot the specific number…” He winked at the lass. She looked a little surprised at the insinuation of her being at least long-lived if not immortal.

“Well, we are both humans anyway.” He remarked while once again leaning back into the chair with a slightly amused tone, both of them are cursed, yet one experienced far more hardships after it and the other gained it through many hardships. She looked at him in an appraising manner, it was not like she tried to hide her age or anything… it’s just that a majority of the time, no one figured it out… well… if they actually spent more time with her they might notice.

“Well, I will guide you around the living area so you know how to get out.” He stood up and offered the fire girl a hand… with the moon behind him by accident, it was quite the romantic sight for the brash noble.

“Right. Thank you for having me tonight.” She smiled lightly as she used his hand to stand up. He showed her the guest room first then the common bath. He decided to just shower in his own personal room.

___(TOUHOU PROJECT)___

Gensyoko: Universal Board Perimeter

August 19th, 2003: 0700

“Good morning Eve.” Desmond woke up and went through his regular things for the day, brushing his teeth, cooking breakfast, and setting up the shop. It has been a few weeks since he got to this place and settled into the new routine. Even if no one came in the day, he still had the games around him to play.

“Good morning Mokou.” He states as she finally woke up and reached the hallway to the other living areas of the facility. He was organizing one of the guest rooms in case another case of someone staying over happened.

“Mornin’ Desmond.” Her voice was a bit tired. Sleeping in a new place was hard on anyone who wasn’t trained for it, even Desmond in his active combat service never truly was able to become unfazed by sleeping in an unfamiliar environment.

“Your breakfast is on the table, please enjoy.” She took another look at him, he was not in the strange clothing that she met him in. It was kimono-esque in appearance, quite fitting for a shop keeper… though she wondered if it would be cold for him inside the store.

“I shouldn’t impose.” Her tone and way of speech were far more graceful than last night or any of the times that she was fully awake. Not exactly the most surprising thing to Desmond considering her surname, but with how used he was to her regular speech pattern, he was a tiny bit startled.

“Well, I already made the meal, if you don’t eat it, it will only go to waste.” He remarked after closing the door to accompany her down the hall. She looked over at the young man, at least in her eyes, he looked a lot like someone she knew before but was forgotten in the sands of time. The echo of a man from a village was what came to her mind as she looked at his face once more.

“Right, it would be bad to waste food.” The certain trauma of curling up in hunger while slowly starving yet never having a sweet release from it compelled her to eat. It was happiness to be able to eat her fill. It was hard to go from having more than enough to barely enough to eat at best and dying from starvation. In fact, she was walking through the pain of hunger while walking with him.

The bell rang loud enough that they could hear it. Desmond just smiled lightly before waving at her as he walked back to the front of the store to greet the new customer.

She would be returning back to her home after this, though it was nice to have a well-cooked meal. The first that she had in quite a while. It was not like there were anyone else that would cook for her, and even after hundreds of years alone, she never really got better at cooking things besides roasting them. Though she didn’t really know about the properties of what she ate.

“Hello, Alice.” He greets the blond after coming from the back, she was looking through the hobbyist book section, particularly the occult things that he happened to find in his own world. Despite the shop being a games shop, since he could make almost anything, they could ask for stuff besides what he has in stock. Though he made sure it was not collectible stuff.

“Good morning Desmond. How are you today?” She had a slight smile on her face as she addressed the owner. She was far more relaxed in his presence than when she was here with Marisa the first time. He noticed the deck case strapped to ta purse that she bright with her. Shanghai was looking through various books as well.

Word Count: ~2500

Date Completed: 12/10/2020

Note: Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Forceful immortal making sure that another immortal doesn’t starve. Next up is Hero And Fighter.