"Report the situation inside!"
After both teams entered the field, Chen Huijie first glanced at Flandre Scarlet. Finding that she wasn't making any suspicious moves, she picked up the walkie-talkie and asked.
"Report, visibility inside is extremely low. I can't see anything within my field of vision!" The team that hadn't brought any equipment replied quickly.
"Correct! There's almost nothing visible within range!"
"The Captain and I are face to face, and we can't see each other at all!"
Messages from the squad members came in rapid succession. Only after they finished did the second, fully-equipped team speak up.
"Infrared remote sensing is normal. Using infrared, we can clearly see the situation inside the building. Brother Wang, Old Li, don't go any further or you're going to kiss... Hiss, sorry, I didn't see anything!"
...The communicator fell into a dead silence.
"Pfft!" Nearby, Flandre Scarlet, who had been listening intently with perked ears, finally couldn't hold it back and burst out laughing.
The others, including Chen Huijie, didn't laugh as loudly as Flandre, but none of them could hide the upward curve of their lips. As for Brother Wang and Old Li inside, they felt at that moment that staying in this red mist for the rest of their lives might not be such a bad idea. The shame of walking out now would probably make them pack their bags and flee to a distant land overnight. After all, this damn Lungmen was no longer a place they could stay, not even for a second.
The atmosphere in the Guard Department, which had been heavy due to the attack and the major case, suddenly lightened up. After Flandre retracted the mist, she went downstairs with a smiling Chen Huijie.
"Pink Sausage Dragon, why are you laughing?"
Upon going downstairs and seeing Beatrice, the latter appeared extremely displeased. Perhaps due to Chen Huijie's report upon her return, Beatrice had been sent to the psychological counseling room for a professional and detailed assessment after giving her statement. Having just walked out with a week of mandatory leave, she was gnashing her teeth at the thought of Chen Huijie. When she turned around and saw Chen Huijie's smiling face, it was no wonder Beatrice flew into a rage.
"Uh, I just thought of something happy!" Chen Huijie touched her nose, trying harder than anyone to suppress her smile, but failed.
"You bastard, you said yourself that the Guard Department is a serious place and that you never laugh!" Beatrice said, pointing at Chen Huijie's nose.
"Really, my neighbor's Cloud Beast gave birth to a litter today..."
"That has nothing to do with you!"
"They said they'd give me a golden one."
"Are you implying something?" Beatrice bared her tiger fangs, looking as if she would bite Chen Huijie if her next sentence was even slightly wrong.
"What could I be implying? It's all true. I heard about your situation, take Flandre back and play for another week." Chen Huijie lifted Flandre and held her up in front of the "cat" lady.
Looking at Flandre greeting her, Beatrice put the bickering with Chen Huijie out of her mind and picked Flandre up. "Did this Pink Sausage Dragon bully you?"
"No!" Flandre shook her head, and then the two walked out the door hand in hand.
"Whew, that was close..." Chen Huijie wiped a thin layer of sweat from her forehead. She then returned to her office to handle paperwork. There was quite a lot to write after today's trip, and since the other team on the mission hadn't returned yet, they would likely have to work overtime until tomorrow morning.
On the other side, after Flandre and Beatrice happily returned home, Flandre asked, "Sister Beatrice, you went out to play with me for a week, and now you're on forced leave for another week. Do you still get paid for this job?"
"Of course! First, you should know that we weren't just out playing; we were on an undercover mission. That counts as official business, and official business naturally counts as full attendance. As for the next week, that's called 'Special Psychological Illness Leave.' It falls under the sick leave category but doesn't use up sick leave time. It's a vacation granted to operators who have performed combat missions after a psychological assessment, usually ranging from a week to half a year. This period also counts as full attendance. So even though it looks like I've been playing for half a month, in reality, I've had perfect attendance at the Guard Department every day!" Beatrice said very proudly.
After entering the house, Beatrice said today was too exciting and she needed a good sleep. Flandre watched her return to the bedroom, then looked at the room full of toys. Not having had enough fun during the day, she decided to find a game to continue playing.
So, in the next second, Flandre became Flandre x4.
Then, everyone's eyes landed on the game that four Flandres could play together—the Mahjong machine!
"Mahjong, mahjong! I want to play 'Blood Flowing into a River' style..."
"No Blood Flow, no Blood Flow! Let's play Riichi Mahjong. I'm going to knock you all out!"
"I'm a Tenhou master, are you sure you want to play Riichi with me?"
"Sigh, I've never felt that playing mahjong was fun..."
The four Flandres bantered with each other as they began a grand mahjong battle. By the time Beatrice woke up and opened her door, she heard a happy scream.
"Tsumo! Haidi Laoyue! 8000, 4000! Sorry, but right now I am the Great Rabbit Demon King!"
"Dammit!" x3
Beatrice walked over and saw four Flandres covered in small paper slips, looking like they were cosplaying as King of Carrions, sitting together happily playing mahjong... "How long have you been playing?" Beatrice rubbed her sleepy eyes and stretched lazily.
"Forgot."
"Don't know."
"Not long."
"We started playing as soon as Sister went to sleep!"
"Shut up!" x3
"So you've been playing for the entire night?" Beatrice covered her face with her hand, asking in disbelief.
"Don't know, Flandre doesn't know anything. Flandre is going to sleep!" Seeing the situation, Flandre moved with lightning speed, whooshing past Beatrice and returning to her room, locking the door behind her.
"Flandre is asleep! You can't wake Flandre up!" Then a muffled voice drifted out from Flandre's room.
Beatrice found this both annoying and hilarious. She shook her head and walked toward the mahjong table. The floor was covered in paper slips that Flandre had dropped while fleeing. She needed to clean these slips up now. As for playing mahjong all night, Beatrice touched her nose, indicating she had been through it too, so she didn't think Flandre playing all night was a serious mistake.
After tidying up, she took breakfast from the fridge, ate it, and went out for a run. When she returned, the house was very quiet. She quietly opened Flandre's door and found her sleeping very soundly. She quietly closed the door again.
"Have a good sleep, little Flandre!"
At this moment, Flandre, who was sleeping in a daze, suddenly heard a familiar voice.
"Flandre, can you hear me? Flandre~~"
Flandre looked around and found herself standing in the hall of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She could see Remilia, Patchy, Sakuya, the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, and many people she didn't recognize.
"Sister?"
"Flandre, I hear Flandre's voice... Sister, where are you? Why can't I see you!" Remilia's voice was extremely agitated.
"I'm right here! Flandre has been right in front of you the whole time?" Flandre walked up to Remilia and tried to grab her hand, but it passed right through.
"Don't worry. Since we've established initial contact, we'll find a way to stabilize the channel. We will definitely find Flandre." The one who spoke was Patchouli Knowledge. Hearing her words, Remilia's emotions calmed down significantly.
"Let's ask about her situation first. The child sounds quite energetic! This is a good chance for us to study how to successfully open this space." After the other person spoke, Flandre recalled her appearance—a strange auntie who liked to walk around with a parasol wearing pink pajamas. Another memory gave her the name 'Yukari.'
"Flandre, where are you now? Is it dangerous? Are you scared?" Seeing this, Remilia began to ask Flandre about her situation.
"Flandre isn't scared. Flandre has made many, many friends..."
Flandre happily recounted her experience of making good friends in Terra... Remilia was shocked to hear her words. She hadn't expected her sister to have reached another world during her disappearance, and her mental state seemed much more stable.
However, before Flandre could say much more, she suddenly felt it was time to wake up. The next second, Flandre opened her eyes and found herself back in her room.
At the same time, in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Flandre's voice suddenly stopped. Remilia almost jumped up again. Fortunately, she was held down by Reimu Hakurei.
"Don't be in such a hurry. From what Flandre Scarlet said, she's doing quite well over there. That proves there's no danger—at least nothing that can hurt her. What we need to do now is summarize the experience of this successful contact and strive to see her directly next time."
Remilia sighed. She knew Reimu Hakurei was right, but Flandre had been missing for so long. To finally locate her only to lose contact again—how could she not be anxious?
"Don't worry. Once the news that Flandre Scarlet is in another world gets out, even if you don't want to look for her, other yokai will come to help. After all, judging by Flandre's words, that's a world where yokai and ordinary people live together in harmony—a world completely different from Earth. Do you know how many yokai that will tempt?"
Yukari Yakumo's words startled Remilia. She recalled Flandre mentioning the place she was in called Lungmen. She was living openly in the city and had even been hired as an "expert" by the authorities of Lungmen. Such a thing was unthinkable on Earth. Ordinary people who saw a yokai would be considered brave if they weren't scared to death, let alone living in harmony.
Therefore, once that world could be located, many yokai in Gensokyo who loved peace but felt the current Gensokyo was too small would surely be willing to lend a hand, as long as there was a way to get there.