Disclaimer: I do not own Touhou Project, or Dragon Ball Z.

Alice sighed. The constant ticking of the grandfather clock used to be maddening, but now all it did was clear the girl's mind of everything and anything. Sad was something to blank Alice's mind, had it really come to that?

In her old house, they had a grandfather clock. Alice loved to sit on the floor and play with her dolls, that were previously kept inanimate when interacting with them.

Long before, the puppeteer had left her dolls to collect dust. They were just sitting there, with blank eyes. No matter how unnerving they were, Alice never shut them. She saw no point, they were once her friends. She could spend hours staring back at those dull marbles, reminding her of what it was like before.

Those dull eyes matched with her dull soul.

Alice kneeled to the ground, sobbing. Her hands were dirtied with her mother's blood, not to mention her own blood that stained her clothing. "Alice," Shinki breathed, "I want you to get out of here. Things have gotten too out of hand." the young girl gripped Shinki's hand.

"No, no! I can save you, I can save everyone!" Alice weakly held up her open grimoire. "Look, see? My grimoire can beat this monster, and I'll save everyone in Makai!" Alice feebly cried, as more tears seemed to come out.

"Alice, don't you realize? You've taken injuries yourself, even with the help of all your dolls and the grimoire." Alice shook her head, refusing to leave her mother like this. "But you're hurt! You'll...die, at this rate! I can't let that happen!"

"I am aware of that," Shinki said in a much weaker voice. In the background, a furious Yuki was battling some shadow monster. She was shot out of the sky, and fell close to Mai's corpse. Alice watched this, and cried even harder.

"I'll create a portal, to get you out of here. You will leave, and-" Shinki's stern voice was cut off by deep breathing and a fit of coughing. Blood was released from the cough, and Alice looked terrified. Still, Shinki continued.

"Then you will continue to live on, without ever looking back to this. Don't ever try to return to Makai." Alice stared at her mother, eyes filled with sadness and confusion. "I-I can't leave everyone here to die!" Alice screamed.

Shinki put a hand up to Alice's face and gently caressed it. "I love you..and I always will." Alice put her hand over Shinki's and tears traveled down, landing on her mother's hand. The shadow towered over the both of them, and Alice's eyes widened. She tightly gripped Shinki's hand.

Shinki held a hand over the ground where Alice was beside her. "Mom..." A glow surrounded Shinki's hand, ready to form the portal. "Please... I want to stay..." The portal opened up, just as the shadow was right next to them. And Alice fell, descending almost endlessly.

"MOMMY!" The last thing Alice saw before the portal closed was Shinki, staring down at Alice with sorrow, as the shadow readied it's tendrils to impale her. Alice's eyes went blank, the last entry to Makai closed. Tears flew upward as they were released.

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? My skill has improved greatly, and now when I look back at Alice's Party, I think of it as almost cute. I dunno, it's probably just me. Anyway, this is just the prologue, so I didn't include anything having to do with Dragon Ball Z.

This was actually inspired by my first view of Touhou from seeing IOSYS's Artificial Children. I had only known a few things about Gensokyo, so this is what I thought: Alice, that used to be living in Makai with her mother (not adoptive) had been somehow forced out. For a while, Alice had used dolls as comfort, but slowly began to realize they were fake, their personalities completely controlled by her. She stopped using them, and they collected dust in her basement. She then became completely isolated and lonely in the forest, spending most of her days reminiscing the times of joy, whether that be in Makai or when her dolls seemed to be her genuine friends.

And I had the impression that this was set in more olden times. But tell me how I did, this is my first time trying to write anything sad.