Chapter 1: Alicespiel
Shinku turned to face the mirror.
"Holie."
The spirit twirled up into the air beside her. Suiseiseki was next to step forward.
"Sui Dream." Another point of light appeared.
Kanaria stepped forth. "Pizzicato!"
And all three spirits hovered beside their dolls. The surface of the mirror shimmered, a soft blue glow obscuring the scene they were about to enter.
Shinku poked her head through the barrier of light. Against a black background, Laplace's Demon held a mysteriously glowing object, and an unfamiliar doll looked on.
Suigintou perched on her windowsill and observed the figure in the bed before her. Beneath the blanket, she observed the rising and falling of a chest until it slowed to a stop. The ring around the girl's finger splintered and cracked; Suigintou closed her eyes and felt it disintegrate.
She had seen this coming, but she still wasn't prepared.
Meimei floated up before Suigintou's eyes.
"It's time, Meimei," Suigintou whispered. "The N-Field..."
Nori picked up a delicate handkerchief and wiped the dust from Hinaichigo's cheeks. The doll stood quietly in a display stand beside Souseiseki.
Jun was sitting at his desk, carefully putting the finishing stitches on a doll-sized maid costume. Shinku had modeled for him, but she had made it quite clear that she wished to wear only the clothes given to her by Father. So Jun had decided to sell his creations on the Internet. He figured he could actually buy something for once instead of just ordering free trials and sending them back.
Nori lifted Souseiseki's eyelid, revealing a green, mirror-like eye.
"Laplace," Shinku called out. The rabbit looked across the black void to where Shinku floated.
"What's a spirit living outside of a doll? A soul in a human," Laplace recited.
Shinku just scowled. "In your hands. Those are Rosae Mysticae. We are Rozen Maidens. We must keep custody of our sisters' souls."
The doll beside Laplace smiled.
"I'm a Rozen Maiden."
Suigintou watched the scene, leaning out of a door into the black abyss.
"A Rozen Maiden?" She focused on the doll's face. "But she has a rose for an eye... Hey!" she shouted. "What's your name, then?"
From a distance away, Suigintou's voice rang out. Shinku looked up.
The white-clad doll's smile grew. "Kirakishou."
Wings streaming out behind her, Suigintou flew down to face the other dolls. "Can you prove you're really a Rozen Maiden? Because we've met other impostors before, and they seemed quite... similar..."
"I spoke to Father in a dream," Kirakishou said wistfully. "The rules of the Alice Game have changed."
Shinku nodded. "Yes, there is apparently..."
The others turned to face her, curiosity on their faces.
She looked down.
Laplace placed a Rosa Mystica in Suiseiseki's hands.
"Souseiseki," she whispered.
Shinku received the other Rosa Mystica. Suiseiseki pressed hers to her chest, but nothing happened.
The three dolls headed back towards the door through which they had come.
Suigintou glanced back at Laplace's Demon and Kirakishou, the latter of which was casting a confused glare after the other dolls.
Silently, Suigintou followed them through the door.
There was, of course, only one thing on Suigintou's mind, and it had nothing to do with that strange other doll.
Megu. She had only been Suigintou's medium for a short time, but there was no doubt about it—they'd formed a real bond, the kind that Suigintou had never expected to form with a human. And now she was gone. After all these years, she had finally succumbed to her heart condition.
For heaven's sake, she was only sixteen.
In a dimension not far from Megu's current one, two dolls were sleeping peacefully in a lightless crevasse. One, a pink-clad doll, was smiling and rolled over, tumbling through the air. "Tomoe... Tomoe... Tomoe!"
She bumped into the other one, knocking her hat off. They both awoke to find that clusters of barely-visible pinpoints of light had speckled the edges of the dimension. While it extended infinitely in all directions, it now seemed to be closing in on them, the holes growing larger so gradually it could barely be seen. Where two expanding holes met, a jagged rip in the dimensional walls appeared.
Souseiseki hovered over to the nearest such rip and poked at it. At this point, not even the tip of her doll-sized finger could fit through, but the light spots continued to grow.
A familiar tenor rippled through the air, filling the entire dimension with the soft voice of...
Father...
"Alice?"
Yes, that's definitely Father!
"Alice, where are you?"
Certainly not here. We lost.
"Lapislazuli Stern? Kleine Beere?"
He remembers us... Why?
"Is Alice one of you? Do you know what it means to be... Alice?"
No, you're mistaken...
"Alice, my daughter... Hurry... Show yourself to me..."
Souseiseki could now fit two fingers through the dimensional rip.