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 11

Gensyoko: Universal Board

August 30th, 2003: 0600

Third Person Omni

“ Yawn . Today’s a new day.” Every day at 6 A.M, Desmond opened his shop for the public. He had had this routine for about half a month now… what was unusual was the waiting form of Sakuya at his storefront door.

‘Good Morning Desmond.’ Sakuya greeted the man infront of her much to the panicking heart attack of the green-eyed male. Though it was not much of an outward reaction at all, only a slight movement of his hand to what would have been his holster.

“Good morning Sakuya.” Returning the greeting in Japanese was becoming a habit that he wanted to get down quickly, especially when that major language was Nihongo. He still had to think for a few moments before speaking, but he was doing well so far.

“May I know what you are here for today?” Desmond flipped the door sign to open and lead the young-looking girl inside. The door softly chiming as it moved into its closed position.

“We were actually looking for you, or more specifically the masked officer, mainly since you were part of the incident.” Though it was very much an open secret, they still decided to play along… at least to the humans of the only village.

“What do you need me for?” It was surprising how gullible the villagers were… they didn’t even think twice about them being the same person… even with Mel.

“Well, everyone who was part of the incident wants to gather and have a party…” Desmond already knew what she was omitting and what she meant by everyone… mainly Remila wanting the party with Reimu begrudgingly letting them.

“Where are you hosting it and when?” Desmond already knew that Sakuya was informed about the hours Universal Board operated under… and he bets that Remila was also notified by Sakuya.

“It is being hosted in the Hakurei Shrine.” Yep, they did not consult with Reimu about it and would probably just show up with food and drink for a party.

“And when?” Desmond was far more worried about this detail… though not many actual humans came around his store in the first place. Besides the regulars of Alice and Marisa, others came in and out sparsely… though he would drag Mokou for dinner on occasion. Though he hasn’t had her sleep in Universal Board since the first time.

“It would be around the hour of the dog, so around 9 PM for you.” Desmond recently learned about the hour system that they used, the 12-hour system that was used in eastern countries before the globalization of the 24-hour clock. It was easy for Sakuya to convert it considering her western-made watch.

“Today?” She nods in response, getting Desmond to sigh, it was literally closing time for when they picked the event to start. It was not like he would be missing anything for closing that late, but he would like to accommodate late-night customers… though it got dark rather quickly here.

“Fine then, I will provide some food… though you all are probably bringing the majority of it.” Desmond’s cooking was actually in fairly high demand… turns out a majority don’t cook. And it was them who caused the incident, if it were to be a peace offering to the Reimu, then they would be giving the food for the party and not have her provide it.

“We could never let the impoverished shrine maiden provide food for the party. Especially since she can’t provide any of it.” Desmond could already feel the sudden anger of Reimu… he shuddered at the thought of what she would do if she heard that directly. Though not as anger-inducing as harming the shrine… insinuating that she was poor was a good way to get on her bad side.

“Right then… I will be attending then.” Desmond gave his response in full. While it could be assumed when he was talking about the food, it was best to do it outright when it came to these semi-formal things. Sakuya lets out a sigh of relief, with Desmond already knowing why she did that.

“Now I can talk freely,” Sakuya said with a slight smile on her face, not as blank as the formal one she used in situations requiring formality, especially when she is representing her mistress.

“What watch are you using today?” The first time Sakuya came with Flandre, Desmond happened to be wearing one of his more noticeable wristwatches. They had a bit of fun, talked a while before they both left. The very next day, Sakuya came in to talk about watches.

“Today’s watch is a dive watch, one rated for being in the water at a depth of around 300 meters.” He clipped the bracelet and slid the metal banded watch off his wrist to display it. Talking about watches with Sakuya became something of tradition between them… though it was only when she was alone and he was free.

“It is still a mystery to me how they can fit a movement in such an enclosed space.” She had actually not seen a wristwatch, also called a trench watch, before. It was still mystifying the amount of precision each piece took in order to function, much less function extremely well. And with all the functions added on top of it.

“This one has a chronograph to time your dives… especially necessary when you only have a limited amount of air.” Desmond explained while pushing the button to start the stopwatch function. With eve being in his glasses, having a watch was redundant.

“On another note, do you need your own watch to be serviced?” Desmond knew that there were no true watchmakers in the human village, none of the equipment is able to manufacture the pieces in the precise dimensions needed. While he was not a true watchmaker, he did dabble in it… as he did with quite a number of activities now that he counted them off in his head.

“I don’t need it serviced,” Sakuya said with a slight smugness coming into her smile. It had not been serviced for a hundred years from Desmond’s guess, how it is functioning properly when the mainspring has been tensioned and unwound so many times is a mystery to him, especially with a watch that old.

“Haven’t dropped it ever?” Desmond knew that older pocket watches had basically no resistance to being dropped from a certain height… especially when there have been modifications to allow for such a thing.

“I believe not…” She trailed on as she thought about all the times she accidentally dropped it and yet still had it work… though it was mostly her freezing time to catch it before it could full drop. This conversation happened every time his own watch was brought up.

“Oh yeah, here,” Desmond remembers something and grabs a package from under the wooden portion of the counter. Sakuya quickly shook herself from the memories to observe the things inside.

“Whats this…?” It was a bottle of something along with a cloth, she knew it was some kind of cleaning product, and something related to watches, but not the exact thing.

“The watch is made of silver right? Well, this is a little something to make sure it keeps its luster in both the crystal and case. And don’t bother paying for it, I am giving it to you as a gift after all.” Though he was not absolutely sure it was a true sapphire crystal, the product would work fine.

“How could you tell?” She picked up the small package and placed it within her apron pocket. One would assume that keeping silver around a vampire was a good way to get yourself killed. Though in an eastern world like this, the usual conceptions were thrown out of the window since they were unfamiliar with the stories.

“Weight and how fast it heated up in my hand.” He ended up learning several things while working with the Magias Police, one such thing was figuring out precious materials by several factors. The watch was untarnished and he could estimate the movement’s weight due to being able to see inside of the watch.

“Police training?” Sakuya asked while taking out her own watch, the case had a clear part to show the gears through the opening of the watch face. Something that Desmond enjoyed, seeing the gears move was a mesmerizing thing.

“Personal experience, if you decided to put two metals over your head, like copper and iron, you would be able to tell which is which even without the weight difference. I just have a large amount of experience handling valuable metals.” More like inspecting them for anything that would spell out counterfeiting. In a market where gold could be easily reproduced, they had to do quite a few protections to make sure the value stayed the same.

“Though, a majority of the time, gold was not all that useful or valuable.” Switching to a credit system was a laborious process when Earth was first introduced to the universe at large.

“I do believe that you need to prepare the food, right?” Desmond asked, leaning on the counter with a slight smile as she was reminded that her task was finished and that she did not have much free time today.

“Alright then, I will see you at the shrine,” Sakuya stated with a curtsy before walking out of the door. The perfectly elegant maid as usual it would seem.

“Since it would only be those involved with the incident… I get the feeling that I shouldn’t involve Mokou and Alice…” Desmond said while checking the list of things he needed to do.

“Well, Eve, we got stuff to do today. Let’s get them done before the time.” Desmond taps his glasses to turn on the augmented world interface. It would not do for him to be standing around when stuff needed his attention after all.

“Right then, the first thing on our list would be to get the dishes prepared for the party,” Eve reported while giving him several recipes to work on. He put a hand to his chin as he read through each of them and separated which ones would be comfortable to the girls who are used to eastern foods.

___(TOUHOU PROJECT)___

Gensyoko: Hakurei Shrine

August 30th, 2003: 2050

“He is here -ze!” Marisa’s voice echoed out of the shrine and into the courtyard as Desmond pulled up to the door leading to the room they were making merry in. Back inside of his full uniform, he waved before dismounting Mel.

“Hello everyone.” Desmond’s voice was quiet muffled due to the helmet, causing some to be unable to hear him. When a short girl with wings of ice suddenly came barreling into him

“Oof.” Quickly bracing his body for impact, all he could register was the lack of heat she gave off as she crashed into him with quite a bit of force. Her blue hair was all he could see besides the one-piece dress that she wore.

“You okay there?” When he lifted her up to his sight, all he could see of her eyes were swirls as she was muttering strange phrases out before promptly passing out. Her face was quite red as she fell limp in his arms.

“Don’t worry about her ze. Fairies can recover from basically anything, they are forces of nature after all. After a few minutes, the alcohol should be out of her system ze.” Marisa said with her signature grin on her face as she pounded on his shoulder while levitating on her broom.

“So, what did you bring -ze?” So she already knew about the food that he was supposedly bringing… not much of a surprise to him considering just how quickly she could get information.

“Marisa! Get back here!” Reimu’s angry voice sounded out from inside the religious zone as the sliding door was opened with quite a bit of power. After a year of consistent donations of food, Reimu looked far healthier than when he first saw her a few weeks ago. Her skin was more of a healthy peach color than the deathly pale.

“Oh, it is you.” She paused her anger when she saw who Marisa was standing infront of, with the girl of ice laying on the only man of the event. She had her hands to her hips with her gohei in the left hand.

“It is good to see you once more Shrine Maiden-san,” Desmond spoke in a polite manner, playing the part of a man who had only spoken with her once. He gave a nod of his head at Marisa as well.

“It is a pleasure to meet you once more Kirisame-san.” They could tell that he was smiling under the concealing head protection. By bringing attention back to the blond witch, she could not finish the process of escape back into the shrine.

“Well, if you would look at the time… the party is starting soon…” Marisa had a hand to the back of her head, her voice toned in nervous anticipation as Reimu’s sharp gaze returned to her old friend.

“Yeow!” Marisa was not spared from the Reimu’s ire, a smack on her head with the religious instrument punctuated her voice ringing out.

___(TOUHOU PROJECT)___

“So, what did Marisa do?” Desmond asked with a cup of tea in hand, showing his skill of being able to eat and drink even with the helmet on… somehow. It was perfectly fitted to him, so it was a strange sight for them.

“Pushed off a majority of the work to me after Sakuya left to bring the rest of the party-goers.” From what he could see, it was a fairly spacious room that they were in. Low lying tables traditional to Japanese dining rooms had enough seats for all of them.

“She was helping set up the place?” He already knew that the head table that could seat many, which Reimu and himself were sitting at, was never moved in the first place. The other tables on the other hand had to be moved for various things.

“Not the tables like you were thinking, setting them up so that they looked appropriate.” Now that she mentioned it, the round tables that would seat around 4 individuals each had new cushions for the guests.

“So, she didn’t bring food on the first time around?” Desmond asked her, taking a sip from his cup afterward. Currently, the fairies, Marisa, and another blond girl were not even in the seats, just playing around with one another in the background.

“She did not, though it was not without good reason. If they had not done so, then everything would have been eaten by the time the other Scarlet Devil Mansion residents came around.” Desmond could see that happening, especially with the two growing girls. And he would not wish the wrath of Sakuya on anyone.

“I am confident that they will become directly at the hour of the dog,” Desmond remarked after taking another sip of his tea, reaching the bottom of the cup without issue.

“They are that elegantly punctual after all.” Desmond remarks as he sets the cup down. He watched the 4 girls play around in the room while they waited for the resident trouble makers to appear.

Number Of Words: ~2600 Words

Date Completed: 5/6/2021

Note: Another chapter completed, 6 more to go… hope you all enjoyed it.