Loading User Commands:
[X] Make a break for the door.

---

This is too dangerous. While that clockwork abomination can't possibly fit through the vent, something equally dangerous might be coming down after him. Grey can't assume that it will be friendly; this is the Scarlet Devil Mansion, after all. He looks around one more time to consider his options.

"Alright," he mutters to himself.

Firing his weapon into the vent seems risky. While the pistol has proven itself effective against youkai, he isn't sure if it will work against strange mechanical lifeforms. For a moment, he considers hiding in one of the closets. He shakes his head in refusal - if he gets discovered, he will have no place to run. That leaves only one choice.

Grey decides to make a break for the door. The next room might open more options. He rushes toward it at full speed. He can hear something crawling down the vent. He doesn't bother turning around. In a few moments, he makes it to the door. The noises from the vent are getting louder. He swings it open and steps out of the room. He turns around to close the door. The thing in the vent is almost in the room. He pauses for a moment to watch. Perhaps he can take a peek at his pursuer before running.

"Kyaaah~"

A familiar figure falls down the vent, landing hard on the storage room floor. She cringes in pain for a moment as she sits herself up. Her eyes are slightly damp as she gets herself reoriented. Her silky silver hair is disheveled. Her french maid styled uniform is a bit loose, but otherwise undamaged. Strangely enough, the frilly white bonnet on her head hasn't come off.

What is Sakuya doing here?
[ ] Go back inside immediately and help her out.
[ ] Wait for her to compose herself before coming in.

Optional (up to three selections):
[ ] Check if she has any injuries.
[ ] Offer to carry her.
[ ] Tell her to rest.
[ ] Point the pistol at her.
[ ] Ask her something. (Specify)
[ ] Custom

Loading User Commands:
[X] Take the workgloves. It might be useful.
[X] Custom

---

Grey quickly pockets the workgloves. He isn't sure about their usefulness, but the poster did mention something about them. Hopefully, he won't need to find replacements anytime soon. They can probably come in handy, sooner or later.

The locked box is pretty heavy. It will probably be difficult to haul around. He leaves it beside the pile of parts. He can probably come back for it once he finds something he can use to open it. One usually brings the key to the lock, not the lock to the key.

"Clank!"

Grey looks up. The movement and noises of the countless gears in the room are confusing, but he is sure that he heard something else. He carefully looks at his surroundings.

The cranks seem to be untouched. The lever is still at its original position. The exit is still open, just as he left it. The other door in the corner is closed. From what he can tell, nothing has changed. But what made that sound?

"Thunk!"

Grey stands up and readies a hand to draw his pistol. This time, he is sure that something else is in the room. He looks up at the hundreds of gears and tries to see if there is anything out of place. Someone, or something is in the room with him. It probably isn't very friendly.

"Sakuya?" he asks loudly. "Is that you?"

Suddenly, the room is filled with a high-pitched whirring. Something lands heavily on the ground. He turns his head to face the newcomer.

"Oh shit."

A strange mechanical abomination stands before him. It is over fifteen feet tall and double that in length. It seems to be made up of gears, springs, and other mechanical parts, not unlike those that fill up the room. However, the creature has a clearly defined shape - a large spider.

The creature opens and closes its steel mandibles several times, as if trying to speak. Somehow, he feels that the movements aren't random. The pauses between clicks vary from two deliberate lengths - long and short. It almost seems like a code of some sort.

Grey clears his throat. Perhaps he can talk to the creature.

"Good morning to you," he manages. "Do you live here?"

The clockwork spider takes a step forward. It clicks its mandibles loudly in response.

"I am from downstairs. I work as a butler to Lady Remilia. Pleased to meet you."

It takes another step. It clicks its mandibles faster.

"I don't suppose you'd like to talk over a couple of beers?"

It pauses, bending its legs. It stops clicking its mandibles with finality.

"W-why can't we be frie -"

The monstrosity launches itself from the ground toward Grey. He ducks down quickly on the ground. The cacophony that follows tells him that the creature crashed against some of the gears. He doesn't have much time to think.

Grey spots the metal grille beside him. The opening looks too small for the creature to enter. He quickly lifts it up and sets it aside. He takes one parting glance at the clockwork spider. The creature has tangled one of its legs against a set of gears. It clicks its mandibles angrily at him as it struggles to get free. By the looks of it, the creature will easily recover in a few minutes.

He jumps into the opening and carefully starts climbing down. Anywhere is better than here right now. As long as he doesn't slip, he should be fine.

"Can't get much worse," he mutters.

Without warning, the whole room rumbles.

Grey mutters several vulgarities as he loses his grip.

...

He opens his eyes. A glance tells him that he is inside some kind of storage room. Over a dozen shelves are lined up, each holding a different type of gear or sprocket. There are a few storage closets lying against the wall on the left. A few of them are open and empty. On the right, he can see several engineer tools hanging from a rack. He doesn't recognize their names, nor their use. Directly in front of him, there is a closed steel door. It doesn't seem locked.

"Thunk!"

Grey looks up. The sound seems to be coming from an open vent. By the looks of it, that is the same way he came in.

"..."

He gets up quickly, despite the pain.

[ ] Fire your pistol into the vent.
[ ] Hide in one of the closets.
[ ] Make a break for the door.
[ ] Custom

Attention: All Engineers
1. Security measures are now installed. Complaints will be duly noted and ignored.
2. Always carry Manual No. 34. This is your bible.
3. Re-engineered parts must be approved before incorporation.
4. Workgloves will no longer be replaced. Stop losing them.
5. Report lost limbs and accidental deaths to your supervisor at the end of your shift.
- The Watchmaker

---

Grey stares at the poster blankly. He can't explain it, but something seems off.

He reads it line by line again. What kind of "security measures" were installed that could warrant complaints from the engineers? What is Manual No. 34? Re-engineered parts? Workgloves? Accidental deaths? What does this all mean?

"Hmm," he manages. He doesn't really understand, but this place seems to be very different from the rest of the mansion.

Grey takes another glance at the room. While possibly entertaining, fooling around randomly with the mechanical controls in the room seems dangerous.The pile of parts on the far left seems to be much safer to examine compared to the cranks and the lever.

After several minutes of searching, he realizes that most of the parts in the pile are broken and useless. However, he does find a couple of interesting items. He sets them aside to examine them closely. The first is a small metal box. It seems to be locked, so perhaps he needs to find its matching key. The second is a pair of strange-looking workgloves. While they are primarily made of heavy canvas, the tips of the gloves are plated with steel. Some unusual markings are engraved on the steel parts.

"Eh?" he mutters as he hits something metal with his shoes.

There seems to be a metal grate under the pile of parts. It is covering an opening large enough to fit an adult. He can probably remove the grille and climb down, but he can't see how far down it goes.

"..."

Grey senses a foreign presence in the room.

The items:
[ ] Take the locked box. It's a bit heavy though.
[ ] Take the workgloves. It might be useful.

His position:
[ ] Stay where you are.
[ ] Remove the grille and climb down.
[ ] Head for the door on the far right corner.
[ ] Rush toward the exit.

The presence:
[ ] Ignore it.
[ ] Call out loudly for it.
[ ] Custom

"What the... hell?"

Grey can feel his head spin as he surveys the room. Like the other rooms in the mansion, the inside of the clock tower is disproportionately large compared to what he saw outside. However, it isn't the size of the place that confuses him.

From top to bottom, the room is filled with weights, gears, springs, and countless other mechanical parts. Several of the gears seem to span over ten feet; the smaller ones are about the size of his head. Some of them seem to be turning at regular intervals, while others are completely stopped. It's like being inside a giant clock designed by either a madman, or a genius.

There are far too many parts in this place to assume that they are only used for the clock visible outside. They must serve another purpose. But what can such a strange set of machinery be used for?

"Let's see," Grey mutters to himself. "That gear spins the one on the right, which turns the leftmost gear clockwise and the smaller one counterclockwise. The leftmost gear seems to be winding a spring that is connected somewhere behind that huge gear. The smaller one seems to be spinning in time with the one above it. Then..."

He takes a few minutes to try to analyze the machines, but everything just seems far too complicated.

"And... I lost track," he says aloud in frustration. Grey shakes his head.

It'll take hours for a genius to figure this out, and he isn't a genius.

He takes a few steps closer to look around. While he doesn't understand how the machinery works, there seem to be a few things he can play around in the room.

To the left, there seems to be a set of cranks that are within reach. He can see four cranks of varying size and length. To the right, there seems to be a large lever. There is an aged poster on the wall beside it. On the far left corner, there is a pile of broken mechanical parts. The pile is high enough to cover something behind or underneath it. On the far right corner, there seems to be a door that you didn't notice earlier.

Grey pauses.

[ ] Mess around with the cranks on the left. Maybe something will change?
[ ] Pull the lever on the right. Maybe something new will happen.
[ ] Search the pile of parts on the far left. Could find something unusual.
[ ] Check out the door on the far right corner. Where does it go?
[ ] Continue walking around the room. Don't touch anything.
[ ] Leave the room. This is a waste of time.
[ ] Examine something closely. (Specify)
[ ] Custom

"Today seems so peaceful," she says.

Sakuya relaxes as she watches the fluffy white clouds soar across the deep blue sky. After finishing the morning chores, she always makes a little time for herself - literally. Of course, she can't let the fairy maids and the others know about it. Especially that lazy China.

"..."

The chief maid lies on her back as she continues watching the clouds. There are still several chores to finish, but a few minutes on the rooftop won't hurt. She can always make more time for new tasks, in any case.

...

"Isn't your ability convenient?" he asks. "You have all the time in the world to do what you want."

Sakuya chuckles as she shakes her head.

"It does seem like that, doesn't it?" she says.

"Isn't it?"

Sakuya flicks him hard on the forehead.

"O-ow! What was that f-for?" he shouts.

"You aren't thinking, are you? Even if I can manipulate time, the amount of work that actually needs to be done stays the same. I still have to do everything myself, you know?"

"Well, you didn't have to hit me..."

"Don't misunderstand it. Even with my ability, everything I do still comes down to hard work. I feel that the others think that it's an easy job taking care of the mansion."

He pushes his silver-rimmed glasses up his nose with a smile.

"Then why don't you give yourself breaks once in a while? I'm sure you can 'make time' for them."

...

Sakuya continues staring at the clouds. She watches them idly as she collects her thoughts.

"Clunk!"

The chief maid quickly gets to her feet and pulls knives from her dress. If anyone saw her slacking off like this, she'd have to eliminate the witnesses.

"Pardon the intrusion," a voice says.

Sakuya peeks toward the sound. She can see someone standing outside of the side entrance to the clock tower.

"Grey?" she thinks. "What is he doing up here?"

He seems to be peering into the side entrance. Maybe he thought that someone was staying inside it. Is he wandering aimlessly around the mansion? This guy seems more reckless than she thought.

The clock tower is part of the "old mansion", as Lady Remilia liked to call it. Whenever Sakuya asked about the "old mansion", she would dismiss it as something unimportant.

"It's just a boring old place," the vampire would say. "Sometimes, I even forget that it's still there."

"..."

Looks like Grey went inside the clock tower alone.

Sakuya folds her arms and pouts at no one in particular.

"Hmmph," she says. "It's not like I care about what happens to him..."

Loading User Commands:
[X] See if you can find a way to the clock tower.

---

Grey gives Koakuma a final wave before leaving the library.

"If you need anything, you know where to find me," the bat-winged girl says with a smile.

"Appreciate it. I'll try to pass by a little later when Patchouli's recovered," he says.

Koakuma's little bat wings perk up visibly.

"T-Thank you very much!" she says.

Grey resists the urge to ruffle Koakuma's hair. She just seems so cute like this. He gives her a final wave before heading outside of the library.

"Stay focused," he tells himself sternly.

The little devil girl is right, after all. He needs to focus on the task Remilia gave him; he has to discover more clues and solve the mystery behind the incidents. For some reason, he feels that something horrible will happen if things continue as they are.

"All right then," he mumbles to himself.

As he takes a step into the hallways, an unsettling silence fills his ears. The lack of movement and noise makes him a little nervous. The mansion seems barren and abandoned.

The fairy maids are probably busy at some other part of the mansion. Sakuya did say that they were heavily understaffed. Perhaps there are some complications to reincarnation that he doesn't know about. Either way, walking down the hallways alone gives him a slight chill, even if it is daytime.

Grey checks his pockets. Seems like he is only carrying a few items at the moment.

In his left coat pocket, he can feel the blank spell cards that Patchouli gave him before breakfast. He reminds himself to ask the pink and purple wizard more about these later, or perhaps he can ask one of the others instead. After all, everyone in the mansion should be familiar with spell cards and danmaku.

He can feel the weight of the semi-automatic pistol hidden under his coat. The Mauser C96 isn't exactly an anti-youkai weapon, but clearly it has enough history in it to deal with weaker youkai. He can probably use it against stronger beasts as well, though he doubts that he can handle opponents of those level alone.

"..."

He scratches his head. Somehow, he feels like he is forgetting something important. Maybe there is something else he should be bringing? He pauses and tries to recall, but to no avail.

"Probably nothing," he says to himself as he starts walking down the hallways. He can come back for whatever he forgot anyway.

Maybe.

Extra: For Remilia

"By the time you read this, it should be over.

The curse will end with this sacrifice.

Words are not enough to explain this.

I deserve neither pity, nor forgiveness.

Thank you for everything.

I have no regrets."

---

Remilia sighs heavily as she pockets the letter. Someone gently knocks on her bedroom door.

"Come in, Sakuya," she says.

"Good evening, my Lady," the chief maid replies as she bows.

"Good evening, Sakuya."

"Is your injury healing well?" she asks with concern.

"Don't worry about it. More importantly, about that errand I asked of you..."

Sakuya shakes her head.

"I found no trace of him. He just vanished," she says with a trace of anger.

"So he left no other clues?"

"Patchouli and Meiling are sweeping the mansion right now, but so far we have found nothing."

"I see."

"..."

"I know what you are thinking."

Remilia turns to the chief maid.

"I didn't find anything in his room," the vampire says.