Chapter Text
Sakuya shot up in her bed, her arms jolting to her side as she let in a quick inhale. Her left arm instinctively reached over to her bedside table where her stopwatch sat. Her hand clasped around it, trying to feel out the button. Her thumb brushed over the extrusion and she clicked it down.
Sakuya exhaled as she felt time slow to a halt. She felt her brain's request to inhale fade away along with her heartbeat. Fuzzy sights and sounds of the nightmare that jostled her awake filled her memory, fading away as she continued to go over them. Something about Flandre destroying the mansion. Marisa was there. The witch laughing at her. The sky was red again. The watch began clicking out seconds, the familliar clicks bringing her back to reality. She looked down at her blue nightgown, then further at her white bedsheets. She took her hand off of her stopwatch. Her palms were cold and sweaty. She reached back over to her bedside table and grabbed her pocket watch, which she used for telling the actual time. She'd woken up at about 4:25 in the morning. She sighed and set the watch back down on the table.
Sighing felt odd when time was stopped. Many of her biological functions were paused (including breathing) so she had to actively force herself to inhale and exhale, actually doing so being even more of a challenge due to objects such as air only moving when they made contact with her. Her eyes darted away from the watch and around the room, adjusting to the darkness around her. The individual photons of light didn't actually move when time was stopped, yet Sakuya possessed the ability to see as if they still did. She spent a great deal of her infinite free time studying, analyzing, and learning yet she still couldn't begin to explain how her being able to see in stopped time worked.
She blinked a few times. Her eyes certainly still got dry.
Sakuya continued glancing around her room, her eyes still slowly regaining their vision. Objects came into clearer view like her lone curtained window and her closet door. Sakuya was always thankful for how nice of a room Remilia gave her. She'd be content with something as simple as sleeping in a supply closet, yet her mistress still pampered her.
Sakuya turned towards the window. "It looks nice out. I may go on a walk after I check on the residents." She thought to herself. She gripped the edge of her bedsheets and raised them so she could slide out. The sheets stayed frozen in the air. She slid out of bed terribly gracefully for someone who was literally incapable of being watched at the current moment and turned back towards her covers. She felt a temptation to leave it for later, but thought it best to practice discipline and do it at the moment.
After making her bed, she rummaged through her closet for the day's outfit. There was very little variety in Sakuya's wardrobe- the same dress in a few different colors, her apron, some ribbons, and headdresses. She would rather stand in the way of a pissed off Hakurei shrine maiden than be caught in casual wear, so the closest thing she possessed to that was her nightgowns. She changed into her typical maid outfit and looked back at her bed. It was too late to go back to sleep. If she found herself tired towards the end of the day she'd simply have to stick with it and keep her eyes open. She ran to her bedside table and shoved her stopwatch in her pocket. Sakuya opened her bedroom door and stepped through, the smell of the mansion's hallways washing over her. She forced herself another inhale and shut the door behind her, stepping out into the maze of the hallways. The halls were a more vibrant red when the sun was up but shifted to a deep royal purple as the sun fell. Sakuya turned to her left and began walking down the corridor, lined with doors on the left side and the rare window on the right. She didn't think too hard about the path to her first stop, more about the place itself. The Scarlet Devil Mansion and its interior had been enchanted with so many spells it'd developed a sort of magical consciousness, detecting thoughts, feelings, and intents of all who roamed in it. Those who were welcome found ease in reaching wherever they intended to go in the mansion, but intruders and hostiles were given the illusion of near-endless hallways and repeating paths which gave the illusion of the mansion being much larger than its actual size. Before she knew it she looked up at the heavy wooden doors to the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library. The doors were surprisingly large once you actually stood in front of them. When turning the corner to first see it one would perceive them to be the height of any other door in the mansion yet due to some clever structuring in the hallway it gives them the illusion of being much smaller from a distance.
Considering nobody could see her in stopped time, she didn't bother to knock as she usually would. She turned to the side and began pushing the right door open, walking sideways. The door eventually swung open and she was greeted with her favorite sight in the entire mansion. A sea of endless bookshelves, each packed to the brim with eons worth of knowledge and stories. The books were all polished clean with each possessing its own beautiful cover sticking out from the rest. Under it, a beautiful spotless (Sakuya thanked herself for that part) crimson carpeting to contrast the leather brown of the bookshelves. Remilia was obviously quite fond of crimson, considering it was everywhere in the mansion. Looking further up was the Scarlet Devil Mansion’s largest window, a circular glass mosaic of the Scarlet Devil herself. Elegant moonlight shone through the glass shapes, casting colors and illuminating the library in its endlessness.
Sakuya wasn’t here to admire views she’d seen a million times before, though. She looked back down to the bookshelves in front of her. She walked over to one of the many ladders and scaled it. She stood atop the maze of shelves and broke into a run, jumping from shelf to shelf as she looked down for the mansion’s librarian. It was rare Sakuya got an opportunity to exercise like this. She was glad to have an excuse for once. When Remilia was in a bad mood she would sometimes complain about Sakuya “wasting time” when time was stopped. Sakuya thought it was silly but she ultimately knew very well she couldn’t argue with the vampire. It’s best to just follow her orders no matter how frivolous. Sakuya focused back on the floor, remembering her task at hand. She approached one of the occasional clearings in the shelves full of seating options and looked down to see Koakuma. She was surprised to see the girl was even awake at this hour, considering Koakuma’s natural state seemed to be slacking off from what Sakuya had seen of the girl in her time at the mansion. The demon was currently in the process of reading a notably thick and visibly aged book, presumably a grimoire. Sakuya remembered Patchouli making an offhand remark about trying to teach Koakuma more about magic. This was probably a late night study session. Nonetheless, the girl probably knew where Patchouli was so Sakuya came to the conclusion that an interruption was necessary. She dived down off the bookshelf and positioned herself midair. Upon making contact with the ground, she rolled past Koakuma to negate the forces of the impact. She came to a stop and agilely moved to her feet, smiling in admiration of her impressive landing nobody saw. The smile was immediately wiped off of her face as she remembered to keep her strong exterior at all times. She reached into her pocket, her thumb resting on the button of her stopwatch. With a twitch of her thumb, the mechanism clicked and she heard the seconds stop counting on the watch. She inhaled, and felt blood begin pumping back through her body. The passage of time resumed blowing by her, like a strong wind resuming after a brief respite on a particularly stormy day. She let out a long exhale, being careful not to alert (the currently distracted by a book) Koakuma to her presence. Sakuya’s favorite part of stopping time was spooking people. She took a light step forwards and placed a hand on Koakuma’s shoulder.
Sakuya felt several things happen in order, as if panels of a comic. First, Koakuma’s shoulders shot up to the top of her neck. The rest of her bodied followed after, the girl practically leaping into the air. Halfway through her ascension a yelp escaped the girl and echoed throughout the library’s massive interior, probably alerting Patchouli depending on if she was in the library or not. Lastly, Sakuya saw Koakuma turn around to face her once she’d fell onto the floor from her leap. Her expression was of fear, then anger, then a smirk of of “I’m-Pretending-Sakuya-Didn’t-Just-Scare-Me-So-Hard-She-Shortened-My-Lifespan-By-A-Decade.”
“Sakuya! Didn’t see you… there. Do you need something? I was in the middle of reading th-“
“Do you know where lady Patchouli is?” Sakuya interjected. Koakuma visibly deflated, having got her hopes up that someone was curious about her doings instead of Patchouli’s. The devil tilted her head up, her eyes paced the ceiling in circles while thinking much like a tiger would its cage.
“Umm…” She tapped her fingers on her thigh rhythmically. “I think she’s reading somewhere over there. She-“ As the second sentence began, Koakuma looked back down only to see a complete lack of Sakuya. Koakuma let out a sad sigh, her spirit lowered over Sakuya’s lack of interest in her.
Koakuma looked back down at her book to begin studying, but heard footsteps behind her. Wary after the previous encounter, her head snapped behind her warily. She expected to see someone like Patchouli or Marisa, yet to her surprise it was Sakuya again. Before Koakuma even had time to make any sort of expression, Sakuya took another step closer and spoke.
Sakuya had realized she’d disrespected Koakuma, so she’d turned around for another visit. There were many things she wanted to say to Koakuma, but she knew brevity and politeness would be best, as usual. She bowed out of respect and cleared her throat before speaking, her voice emotionless as usual.
“You were wanting to tell me about what you were reading?”
Koakuma’s eyes lit up and she clutched her book to her chest. She inhaled before speaking, preparing her lungs to go on a lecture about magic.