The Rainbow Gatekeeper's Colorful Daily Life

Be it the West, be it the East, be the species Occident or Orient, dragons have the same love of that succulent sin of sloth. Dragons loved to sleep, especially near their treasure.

For Hong Meiling, Colorful Rainbow Gatekeeper, she was no different. Even if she was not quite a dragon in body, she was most definitely a dragon in soul, so the gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was currently lightly dozing in front of the gate, head nodding up and down with her rhythmic breathing, blood-red hair flowing over her green uniform like a bloody river upon green plains.

Even as she dozed, Meiling was also thinking about recent events.

The move to Gensokyo had been strange. A new land meant new laws. New laws meant new people. New people meant new protocols. Even if the Scarlet Devil Mansion had been in Gensokyo for almost a year now, Meiling was still having trouble figuring things out.

Namely, guests. And not the sort of guests where Meiling let in so Remilia or Flandre could play with, these were actual guests who visited the library and… visited the library mostly. Not much else to do. Most guests were just one-time visitors, but there were a few who were recurring such as Marisa Kirisame and Rikako Asakura.

“Hi, Meiling!” two familiar voices called out.

And a few fairies. Meiling liked the fairies.

“Hello, San-yousei,” Meiling mumbled, idly shaking herself awake. Eye crusties made it a bit hard to see, so Meiling rubbed her eye. She was no less ready to defend though. Meiling could hardly call herself a dragon if she needed sight to hunt down intruders.

“Were you sleeping?” a mystery third voice asked.

“Part of my job,” Meiling nodded as she stretched and yawned. Being in Gensokyo sure was nice. Back in the old world, this was the point where somebody tried interrupting her wakeup routine and forced Meiling to have to ask Sakuya to wash the blood out of her clothes again.

“Aren’t you a guard?”

“Gatekeeper!” Meiling corrected, leaning down to stretch her leg muscles, “First line of defense. Like I said, napping’s part of the job.”

As the Gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Hong Meiling supposed that she was meant to keep an eye on things, keeping tabs on possible threats, so sleeping was probably not what she was supposed to do.

As the Gatekeeper though, Meiling was also the first line of defense which meant being well-rested was part of the job. So napping was a bonus. Besides, Meiling had her Qi. If anybody came in with the intent to start shit, Meiling would finish it long before anyone in the Mansion proper even noticed.

Finishing her stretches, Meiling smiled, “So what can I help you San-yousei with?”

“It’s Ni-yousei since Luna’s not here,” the orange fairy corrected. Orange was sun, so this was probably… Sunny Milk corrected.

“Ah,” Meiling nodded, “Makes sense. I’m guessing you want to visit her. Small change from last time then. We’ve got a guest log now, so uh… just sign in, I guess? Here let me get it for you.” Turning to the wall, Meiling wriggled a loose brick out to retrieve an ornate book to present to the two fairies and… cat-girl? Meiling pursed her lips as she tried to remember who the cat-girl was. She was… definitely important. What kind of important? Valued-worker important? Favored-child important? Heir-apparent important?

…Nope, couldn’t remember. Better to be polite though. It never hurt to be polite and Meiling didn’t really care about being petty, so that was easy.

Meiling opened up the sing-in book and presented a pen to the trio, explaining, “I need all three of you to sign your name and time. You can put intent too, but most are here for the library, so you can leave that empty. This is so we can keep track of who’s who and times I guess. Madame Patchouli made it. There’s some magic about the Mansion not welcoming you if you’re not signed in or don’t have a pass. I think. I don’t know how it works; just that it does.”

One by one, the three small beings signed. While the Ni-Yousei signed in blocky letters hesitantly but with pride in a newly learned skill, the bakaneko signed with a flourish and ease that reminded Meiling of old Nobles.

Meiling flipped through the pages to check, “Everything looks to be in order and-- Oh wow, Marisa signed in too. Guess I missed her when she came by then, and she filled in the intent box too; something about… borrowing books,” Meiling sighed, wry grin creeping onto her face, “Figures the one person who actually does the intent box does it as a joke.”

“Do you actually keep anybody out?” Chen asked.

“Well, I keep out assh-- people with ill-intent. Slavers, Christians, Belmonts, the real nasty folk. It’s real easy when they have, like, this bad aura around them. I sense them from several Li away,”” Meiling answered with a shrug, pushing the gate open.

While it didn’t look strong, the metal gate was designed to, and had, withstand a siege. WIthstanding catapults, Meiling sighed as the defensive spells activated. Madame Patchouli did excellent work, but it was always such a hassle remembering to disarm the defense spells. She could stop and disarm the wards properly, but why would she? Meiling could and did ignore the lethal amounts of lightning crackling as she opened up the gate.

“You forgot to disarm the wards again,” Sunny Milk giggled.

“Yeah, yeah,” Meiling sighed, as she took off her green cap to wave the impromptu fire on it out, “I’ll fix it later. Just follow me for now.”

As the three child-like beings followed Meiling into the Mansion’s property, Star Sapphire asked, “Why does Marisa keep on breaking in then? And how does she ignore all the defenses? It’s real hard to reconstitute ourselves after the Zapping!”

“She just doesn’t have bad Qi?” Meiling shrugged, carefully ignoring the fact that the fairies had experienced electrocution. Fairies were so like kids it was easy to underestimate them, but then they came out with a doozy like complaining about electrocution as if it was a stubbed toe, “I don’t know how to explain it. Mistress Remillia has an unspoken invitation to her anyways, and maybe may have messed with the Wards  to let Marisa in.”--Privately, Meiling thought that even if the wards were primed to keep her out, Marisa would find another way to break in. She seemed like that type of gal-- “I’ll ask Mistress Remillia about setting it so you guys can come in too. I always was bad with keeping thieves out since it’s harder to sense ill intent, but that’s more Sakuya’s job. I kill people that want to kill us and tend to the garden. By the way, don’t tell the Madame about the arrangement between Marisa and the Mistress, please. Last thing we need is another shadow war.”

“Mum’s the word as Boss-man would say!” Sunny Milk cheered as Meiling escorted them down the path to the Mansion proper. While technically she didn’t have to escort them, Meiling liked the San-, Ni-Yousei, and was using this as an opportunity to stretch her legs with friends.

“Mum’s not the word, Sunny! We want bribes to keep mum!” Star Sapphire scolded before addressing Meiling, “We want Bao!”

Crossing her arms behind her head, Meiling chuckled, “I’ll make some for Luna to take home then. Probably not today though. Got to get the ingredients, you know.”

“Acceptable,” Star Sapphire grinned, holding out a hand, “Pleasure doing business with you.”

Meiling raised an eyebrow, “Daring of you to bargain with a dragon.”

“I know,” Star Sapphire nodded, “but you’re Meiling! You’re nice.”

Meiling smiled, her draconic pride satisfied with that statement. Perhaps other dragons would hate such flippancy, but after seeing how many dynasties had fallen because of sticks up the asses of stuck up nobles? Meiling enjoyed the casualness.

“Why’d you let the cats in though?”Sunny asked, “I don’t think they can sign the guestbook.”

“Let what through?”

“...We should let Chen explain this,” Star Sapphire nodded, pulling the confused Sunny Milk to the side, “You know, since she’s the leader.”

“...Whiskers,” Chen groaned under Meiling’s expectant gaze.