[X] “Miss Izayoi, I suggest instead that we take a visit to the Human Village. Miss Hakurei may still be there.”

Sakuya continues to stare at you with confused eyes. Her posture stiffens as she walks up to you. Deciding that staying seated is a bad idea, you stand back up, recomposing yourself quickly. The situation is too delicate to stay relaxed anymore, as it will only lead to Sakuya questioning whether or not you are going to uphold your promise.

“Please, Miss Izayoi, don’t take this the wrong way,” you say strongly, adjusting your coat while you’re at it. “Though I seem to understand that your mistress’ situation is dire, the fact still remains that Miss Hakurei has yet to return to this shrine.”

Sakuya nods, a bit of worry starting to appear on her face. “You’re right, sir, but my mistress will wonder what is taking me so long,” she explains, her mouth frowning. “I do not want my mistress to think that I am skipping out on my duties.”

You place your hand on Sakuya’s shoulder and give her a firm pat on the back. “Miss Izayoi, what you’re doing is anything but skipping on your duties,” you say as you give her a warm smile. “Please, if anything, I will explain the situation to your mistress. I am certain she is an understanding woman?”

“She is,” Sakuya answers, softly giggling as she stares back at you. “[Very well: sounds more proper than “okay”] then, sir, we will investigate the Human Village for any sign of the Hakurei maiden, but we can only stay for so long.”

“Yes, Miss Izayoi, I understand. I promise you we will only be there for about [thirty: avoid typing actual numbers in dialog] minutes. If we do not find Miss Hakurei by then, we’ll head back to your [mistress’s: you still put the apostrophe-s at the end of some s-words] mansion.”

You soon hear Suika laughing loudly as she walks in-between you, her hands behind her head as she gives Sakuya and you a big smile.

“Hehe, looks like we have a plan then, Mister!” Suika [says: verb tense] cheerfully as she runs outside, causing Sakuya and you to follow her outside.

Soon, the Three Mischievous Fairies fly in front of you, the three of them looking at you curiously.

“Where are you going, Mister?” Sunny asks, fluttering close to your face.

“You aren’t planning on leaving us behind, are you?” Star says in a worried tone, a large frown on her face.

You shake your head quickly. “Please, I would never dream of leaving you behind, but…” [Your voice trails off:  Needs a new sentence and you don’t ALWAYS have to write “you say”] as you worry about how the fairies will react, “… but I have a big favor to ask you three.”

Glancing around, you return your gaze to the fairies, leaning in very close to them. “I know it doesn’t seem like much, but can you please stay at the shrine just a little bit longer? In case Miss Hakurei actually returns while we’re going to the Village, can you please inform her to go to the Scarlet Devil Mansion?”

The fairies stare at you for a few seconds, Luna moving in a bit closer to you. “Um, Mister, but what if Reimu doesn’t come back?” she asks inquisitively.

You sigh as you straighten yourself up again, tapping your foot a few times. If it does come to that, then the situation might be worse than you imagined. Reimu is helping you out. If she disappeared, then who is going to help you now?

“If that’s the case… I want you three to meet me at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. I hope you know where it is?” The three fairies nod in unison, making you smile. “Alright then, that’s good to hear! There’s some tea left if you want. Good luck.”

“Good luck to you too, Mister!” Sunny says cheerfully, giving you thumbs up before the three flies inside the shrine.

Turning to Sakuya again, you give her a nod as she jumps into the air, flying away into the distance. Turning down to Suika, you see her staring up at you, looking like she wants to tell you something.

“Well, Miss Suika, what’s wrong?” you ask, squatting down to her. “Worried about Miss Hakurei?”

Suika shakes her head and then points back at the shrine. “You sure we can trust those three with keeping the shrine safe?”

You chuckle. “You think we have a choice?”

Suika shrugs as she takes a sip of her sake, suddenly causing her to disperse into a cloud of mist, the mist picking you up and flying into the air, following Sakuya. Although you trust Suika to not drop you, you still can’t help but be a bit afraid of falling through the mist and becoming a thin red stain on the dirt.

Looking around, the sun has already set, a small bit of sunlight still peeking out from behind the mountains. The lack of light makes it difficult to really make anything out on the ground, the forest below you being nothing less than an indistinguishable green blob. You even find it difficult to track Sakuya through the sky, the only thing really helping you keep her in your [search: better word] is her silver hair.

After several minutes of flying, you notice in the distance a bit of light on the ground. Squinting, you can make out several buildings, all of them made of wood. As the mist cloud approaches the village, it starts going lower, following Sakuya as you can see her landing just in the outskirts of the village. The cloud starts hovering over the ground, causing you to wiggle around before managing to somehow leap out, managing to land on both feet. Feeling accomplished, you look back as the mist cloud gathers together, Suika reappearing before you.

“So Mister, did you like your flight?” Suika asks cheerfully, giggling to herself.

You smile and nod at Suika before turning to Sakuya, who was looking at the Human Village. Walking up next to her, you see her face, seeing that she is looking apprehensive.

“What’s wrong, Miss Izayoi?” you inquire, sounding as friendly as you can. “You have some bad memories of this place?”

Sakuya shakes her head as she turns to you. “It’s just that people here are bit afraid of me. It’s nice to not be bothered, but it makes me feel a bit [awkward: better word] every time I come here.”

You give Sakuya a warm smile as you put your hand on her shoulder. “Well, don’t worry, Sakuya, I’m here for you.”

Sakuya smiles back at you. You then hear Suika walking up next to you, turning up to look at you with a large smile.

“Alright then, Mister, let’s get going!” Suika says happily as she runs into the village, with Sakuya and you following shortly behind. As you are passing by the buildings, however, you notice [that there’s: grammar correction] [omit literally: extra word that isn’t needed here] no one around. Feeling a bit worried, you keep moving through the village, surprised that you still see no one at all. For a village this size from faraway, you think you would at least meet someone, even if the sun has already set.

However, you start to smell something strange. At first you can’t tell what it is, but soon, you think it smells like smoke. Smoke of something… Burning? No… not burning… you didn’t see any fires at all, but something that was burning but was put out a while ago. Your sight soon confirms your smell as, upon turning around a corner, you could see a huge area of singed wood, surrounding a smaller area of burnt buildings. From the sights of it, you think most of the village is here, as there is quite a large congregation of people.

And standing in the crowd, surrounding by quite a few people, was Reimu.

“Miss Hakurei!” you cry out, waving your hand above your head as you start moving through the crowd of people, hoping to get Reimu’s attention. “Miss Hakurei, over here!”

Reimu notices you as she waves back. You finally make it through the crowd of people, breathing heavily due to how fast you got through the crowd. Smiling, you notice Reimu was looking at your arm.

“What happened, Wilson?” she asks you, looking back up to you. “Did someone did this to you?”

You start laughing nervously. “Well… you see…”

“Reimu!” Suika says cheerfully, grabbing on to Reimu’s back, hugging her tightly.

Sakuya then appears next to Reimu, curtseying. “Good evening, Reimu.”

Reimu turns to Sakuya. “Oh, Sakuya, what are you doing here?”

“Miss Scarlet requests for your audience at her mansion.”

“Remilia? Tell her I’m too busy to play with her right now.”

“But Reimu, she’s in dire need of your attendance.”

Reimu sighs as she points at the [burnt-down: hyphen helps link them] buildings. “Well, go and tell Remilia that I’m already busy with this incident. I’m looking to see what caused this problem and that I can’t help her right now.”

Looking at the [omit burnt down: don’t repeat uncommon words or phrases this close to each other, it feels boring] buildings, you start thinking. Perhaps if you help Reimu out here, she’ll finish up resolving this problem. Then she’ll be free to help out Sakuya’s boss, Remilia was it? However… Reimu looks pretty worn out. You can see some scorch marks on her dress and a bit of soot on her face. Even though Reimu is a young woman, being tasked to solve multiple problems in one night seems to be a lot of work.

[X] “Miss Hakurei, why don’t I help you out? If we all look for the source of this problem, then maybe we can finish up here quickly and we can help out Sakuya’s boss afterwards.”
[X] “Miss Izayoi, I know you want Miss Hakurei to help you, but she already has a lot on her plate. I guess I’ll have to go with you back to the Scarlet Devil Mansion instead.”
[X] “Why don’t I do your investigation here, Miss Hakurei? That way you can go deal with the problem at the Scarlet Devil Mansion.”