X49
As Ruby walked hand-in-hand with Kirakishou, she marveled at all of the sights that presented themselves to her. There was something so eerily off-putting, yet strangely enchanting, about finding herself inside such a desolate place. To watch as the broken and the ruined changed before her eyes, becoming enriched with Kirakishou's blossoming N-Field. It was a sight to behold.
They had only been in the abandoned village of Shiragiku for just under half an hour and Ruby could already see signs of Kirakishou's influence leaking out and converting the area into some warped replica of her crystalline domain. Patches of cobbled roads had begun sprouting teal-green crystals as a pale fog began to overtake the ground, following and twisting around the two girls like a bizarre shadow.
From previous experience at the last village they had stayed at for a pronounced period of time, Ruby knew that this was only the first of many changes that the landscape would be forced to endure as it played host to the seventh Rozen Maiden.
It was beautiful, in a way. Her doll was so very powerful, to the point where even the earth itself twisted to her commands. Knowing that such a radiant creature of beauty belonged to her was an experience that Ruby couldn't get enough of, no matter how hard she tried. And yet, it was so very far beyond her capabilities as a huntress-in-training that she would constantly find herself baffled at what both dolls had come to see as normality.
Perhaps it was best that Summer wasn't with them at the moment. There was not a doubt in her mind that Summer would be able to pick up on her thoughts.
Meanwhile, her current lone partner would merely offer her presence as a comfort, trusting Ruby to come to her if need be. Kirakishou was always a supporting influence on her. Love, as it seems, had that effect even on dolls.
Internal musing aside, both Kirakishou and Ruby were currently journeying down the road and towards a large soot-covered home that Summer had pointed out would be large enough to lodge the two of them. Summer had distinctly pointed out that she would not be joining them, allowing for a degree of privacy that they hadn't experienced since the early days of Beacon Academy, before Laplace appeared and everything went wrong.
Saying that Ruby was excited would be a massive understatement. It was raking everything in her power not to just pounce the doll and-
"...Ah. It's much bigger than what I expected, Master," the voice of her doll interrupted Ruby's fantasy, indicating that they had reached their destination.
It honestly wasn't as bad as some of the other ruined homes and buildings that Ruby had spotted during their brief stroll through the village, but it was still looking rather worn out. It looked to be a standard single-floor ground-level lodging that had been constructed primarily out of bricks and wood. Suffice to say, the wood portions of the home were quite damaged while the bricks just looked a little… flakey? Charred?
If Yang were here, she would be making some kind of real estate joke. Probably.
But, she supposed, if Yang was here then it would be in Ruby's best interests to attack her, or else Yang would end up trying to hurt Kirakishou again.
...Stupid Yang. She wouldn't let her sister get in the way, even when it came to real estate jokes.
"It… uh… looks like a fixer-upper?" Ruby tried weakly, earning a briefly confused giggle from her doll for her efforts. Even though it was clear that Kirakishou wasn't entirely understanding of her poor joke, it seemed more than enough to amuse her.
She figured that was enough. Just hearing Kirakishou being happy, because of Ruby, was all that she needed. The doll deserved to be happy.
"Some of my N-Field has already spread to the interior, Master. Particularly what looked to have once been the main bedroom. Would you like me to, ah, fix it for you?"
Ruby took all of two seconds to compare the idea of sleeping on some broken bed to sleeping on a bed constructed by Kirakishou's ability to twist and warp reality into whatever she desired.
...The chairs at Summer's home had been pretty comfy…
"Please fix it, Kira. That'd be wonderful," she nodded her head enthusiastically, earning a bright cheery grin from her doll.
Ruby took a moment to swoon internally as she watched Kirakishou wave her hand in the direction of the home, marveling at the look flourishing on her doll's face. She looked so happy. Like, Ruby in a bakery levels of happy. It was so cute to see. She looked like she really enjoyed using her powers.
To be fair, her own Silver-Eyed Maiden powers felt about the same. There was just something so very pleasurable about crushing grimm with such ease after everything they had done to people. Perhaps, the power of creation was similar for the doll?
Kirakishou turned and smiled at her, reaching over to grasp Ruby's hand. "Shall we go inside, Master? I've changed what I can."
She smiled indulgently, nodding. "Of course! I wanna see how good you are with making rooms! If you do well, then maybe you'll get a reward~"
The heated smile that flourished on her doll following her words was more than enough to send the butterflies in Ruby's stomach fluttering like it was their last damn flight on Remnant.
After a moment of hesitation, Ruby swallowed her fears and guided the small blonde doll inside. She could feel Kirakishou holding her hand pretty tightly, almost as if the doll was afraid she would let go or something.
Inside, Ruby spotted what looked to be the remains of a kitchen and living room combination, with the kitchen off to the left side of a rather large room, where the charred remnants of a sofa and entertainment set lay. They were all coated in a heavy amount of dust and soot, with more than a few cobwebs than Ruby felt was strictly normal. She could even spot a few spiders that seemed remarkably well-fed.
Thankfully, Ruby didn't really mind the creatures that much -as long as they stayed very far away from her- and judging by the impassive look on her doll's face, neither did Kirakishou.
Although, now that she was looking closely, she could make out a slight crease of Kirakishou's brow that looked out of place on her.
"Are you alright, Kira?" she inquired worriedly, tugging on the doll's arm in an insistent manner.
"Yes, thank you for asking," Kirakishou smiled pleasantly in her direction, before gesturing further across the room where a hallway lay. "I am trying to expand the N-Field outwards, so that this abode may be suitable to your standards, but it is difficult to control…"
She could only chuckle warmly, approaching the doll and wrapping her arms around Kirakishou before the blonde could think to react.
"Don't bother controlling it. I don't care what it looks like, Kira," she whispered, resting against the smaller doll's head and admiring the softness of Kirakishou's peach-blonde hair. "Only that you're here with me. That's all that really matters. That is all that's ever really mattered to me since I met you."
"...Master," Ruby pulled back to witness a blushing doll with a pout growing on her lips, looking off to the side. "You're making it very difficult to concentrate."
Feeling a particular tingling urge make itself apparent in her core, Ruby smirked. "Perhaps that is what I was aiming for, hm?"
Kirakishou giggled, a light shaking of her frame that Ruby's greedy eyes followed intently. "My poor little Ruby, trying to mess with her poor doll's heart. You'll make a mess of me, you know~"
That was definitely something that Ruby wanted.
She took a brief look around the soot-covered, spider-infested ruined room and aptly decided to move to inspect the rest of the house, impatiently tugging on Kirakishou's hand to pull her deeper into the house.
"U-Um, where's the bedroom?" Ruby blurted, before colouring at the tone in her voice. "I… want to see what you've done with your N-Field," she clarified hastily.
The doll, bless her soul, either didn't notice Ruby's growing nervousness or at the very least chose not to comment on it. Instead, Kirakishou merely complied with her request with nary a smile and a wordless gesture forward, towards a darker section of the house.
She found herself led deeper into a hallway of some sort. There were ruined planks littering the floor and a bit of charred furniture thrown about that Ruby needed to heave away before they could continue.
Yet, after she moved the final piece of furniture, Ruby could spot an ominous pale glow emanating from a door just on the edge of her vision. Considering how deep they were inside the ruined house, there wasn't much in the way of natural light penetrating into the hallway, which seemed to have made the glow more pronounced.
Was this it?
"Here we are, Master," Kirakishou inadvertently confirmed for her, flicking her wrist forwards as the distant door swung open seemingly of its own accord.
Taking a gulp to steel her nerves, she clutched the doll's hand tightly as she entered-
Her bedroom.
This was her bedroom.
From Patch.
It was all there. The baby blue chipped paint on the wall, the same wall that Summer had supposedly painted for Ruby before she was born. The bump underneath the windowsill was visible, the one that had been the result of Ruby inadvertently activating her semblance when messing around with it years ago.
The posters on the wall, some that had been gifts from Yang over the years and others that had been of her own choosing.
The image on the window was clearly a fake, the sunset light of a dusk-covered Patch poking through a window that wasn't really there. She could hear the wind rustling the leaves on the old oak trees, a sound that she had fallen asleep to countless times. She knew it to be an illusion, but it felt so real.
Her bed, her silly little single-size bed with the chibi-beowolf blanket was right there, nestled on the far edge of the room against two corners. The blankets were in the same state she had left them before she had departed to Vale to inadvertently join Beacon Academy after subverting a dust shop robbery.
Ruby could see various discarded weapons parts on her crappy old wooden workbench, barrels and scopes and ammunition of many differently calibres laying in the exact same configuration as they had been, the last time she worked herself into a frenzy over Crescent Rose.
Everything was exactly the same.
"Do you like it, Master?" Kirakishou snapped Ruby out of her daze, the Rozen Maiden smiling pleasantly at her still form. "Your rose had toyed with many ideas, and yet above many others, this one was the only one that seemed fitting in the end. A return to your roots, so to speak."
"H-How…"
"I used your memories, Master," Kirakishou answered immediately, pulling away from Ruby and gesturing around the room. "Well, in actuality they were your dreams, but the dreams of resting minds can be akin to memories, if one knows how to properly understand them. With these blueprints, your doll needed only utilise a portion of her power to purposefully shape this spectre of the N-Field into the form you see before you."
That was another facet of Kirakishou's power that she did not truly understand. The ability to decipher and understand both dreams and memories. It had been the tool that had crafted Summer Rose back together, according to Kirakishou, but apart from that instance, Ruby hadn't heard much about the strange ability. It had flown completely under the radar, especially when compared to all of her other abilities.
Yet to see her own room, smack bang in front of her, many hundreds of miles away from her actual room, was absolutely astonishing. She couldn't deny that this facet of her doll was indeed… powerful.
Never in a million years would she have thought that the doll was capable of using these memories and dreams in conjunction with her N-Field in order to generate something of this scale.
"A-And it's all actually here? It isn't just some illusion?" she clarified.
"Everything you see in this room, exists in this room," Kirakishou nodded at her question, detaching from Ruby's handhold and moving to pick up a small plush ursa major toy. "As I said before, Master. Your doll is no longer required to conjure illusions, instead, she manifests her chosen reality. And, today, my reality is your own."
She heaved out a heavy sigh as she shook her head longingly. Her doll could warp reality and change it to whatever suited her fancy, and Kirakishou chose to recreate Ruby's bedroom in the middle of some broken-down shack in a ruined town. It was certainly, par for the course, the weirdest gift that anyone had even gifted to her.
...But still, Ruby had long ago discovered that she liked weird.
Eyes intent, Ruby strolled over the Kirakishou, the doll tracing her movement inquisitively. Ruby could feel her own heart beating intensely within the confines of her chest.
"You know, Kira, you really are too much for me sometimes."
The blonde-haired Rozen Maiden gave a light, airy giggle as Ruby sat down beside her, moving to adjust her position to face the trainee huntress. "Is Master teasing her doll again? Leading her maiden heart towards embarrassment? However shall your-"
Ruby lunged with all the force of a woman possessed, pushing the doll down with her back to the bed as Ruby crawled on top of her. She quickly pinned Kirakishou's wrists with her hands, leaving the doll staring hopelessly up at Ruby.
"No more waiting, Kira. No more teasing," Ruby demanded, her voice coming out noticeably husky despite her best attempts to sound normal. "I want you."
Kirakishou's lone slit amber eye gleaned intently. If she had been startled by Ruby's sudden movement, then Ruby certainly couldn't see it whatsoever. If anything, the doll seemed amused by her antics, with a fervent ravenous intensity lurking behind her eye that caused Ruby to shudder pleasantly.
In that moment, she found herself reminded that her partner was neither human nor faunus, but something else entirely.
"Then take me, Ruby. Play with your doll. Please."
Taking no time to waste, Ruby surged forwards and sealed her lips with that of her doll, a throaty moan thundering up her throat as she felt the full well of her desire spark within her body after months of forceful denial. Her stocking-clad legs pressed against Kirakishou's own artificial joints, feeling her ball-jointed ankles and knees through the doll's lace-up thigh-high boots.
Kirakishou, in turn, slipped out of Ruby's grasp on her wrists in a demonstration of uncanny fluidity, wrapping her arms around Ruby's back and forcefully pulling her ever closer, deeper into their kiss.
Sensing an opportunity, Ruby lightly prodded the doll's lips with her tongue, causing something of a light squeak of surprise from the Rozen Maiden as Ruby harnessed the chance and slipped her tongue inside, tasting her doll.
Rozen Maiden physiology was strange, Ruby understood that to a fairly high degree. Considering the reality-warping status of her doll, Ruby could infer that this strange physiology was even doubly odd for Kirakishou, whose very thoughts could shape the world to her bidding. Tasting the needless and enjoying the impossible, likely was enough to mark her as something of an oddity herself.
Not that she cared for such labels, of course. People could try and bully her all they wanted. She wouldn't be listening, for she wanted to hear only the voice of her doll.
Pulling back, she took a moment to admire the doll that lay beneath her, resting comfortably on Ruby's bed and staring up at her with flushed cheeks and a burning singular gaze, with peach-blonde hair messily splayed all around her and Ruby's saliva glistening on her lips. Blooming with white roses, eternal and pure. Everything about her was so perfect, so immaculately pristine, that it continued to steal her breath away even to this day.
"More, Master. Please," the sound that lay within Kirakishou's voice caused a shiver of arousal to spark in her body. "Keep playing with me. Continue ever forward. Treat your doll like a real girl. She needs it. She needs you."
Whether it be the words themselves or who they were spoken by, Ruby wasn't sure, but they were enough to push her ever forward.
She rested her hands on the doll's shoulders, admiring the ball joints she could feel hidden underneath Kirakishou's ornate ruffled dress.
"You really are a needy little doll, aren't you?" Ruby teased playfully as she ground her hips against Kirakishou, earning a whine from the doll in question.
"For you, Master~"
Sliding her hands down from the doll's shoulders, she hesitantly moved towards Kirakishou's chest, a delightful burning nervous excitement bubbling in her body. The doll, meanwhile, didn't show any reaction on her face but instead would push her body against Ruby's hands in a wordless gesture to continue.
"...Master… Your hands are so warm…" the blonde-haired Rozen Maiden murmured lowly, fidgeting.
Ruby had always admired Kirakishou's ornate ruffled dress, the outfit in question being one that could miraculously survive battle after battle in the harsh wilderness with nary a shred or tear to be found. Following the development of Kirakishou's newfound power to warp reality, the doll had wasted no time in conjuring up her iconic outfit.
And yet…
"U-Um…" despite herself, Ruby found an embarrassed blush warming her cheeks as she pitifully tugged on the dress to no avail. "How do I..?"
"Remove it?" Kirakishou finished for her with a knowing tone, to Ruby's hesitant nod.
"Well~ Your rose would be more than happy to show you how to properly undress your doll, but she finds it would be much easier to do this."
And with a casual wave of her hand, Kirakishou's entire outfit, dress and boots alike, faded away into a menagerie of small white petals that quickly dissipated, revealing the body of her doll hidden beneath.
Underneath the doll's dress, Kirakishou wore a vintage lace ruffled undergarment, that consisted of a sleeveless top attached to cute little bloomers that finished well before her knees. There were little lace straps hanging over the doll's shoulders, holding the whole outfit together.
Overall, the outfit reminded Ruby of the pyjamas that Kirakishou had liked to wear during their sleepovers back in Vale, to the point where she wounded that if Kirakishou had really just been wearing her underwear the whole time that they had been sleeping together.
The thought made her blush. Though, she supposed, it was kind of nice as well. Ruby had always thought that they looked to be very comfortable pieces of clothing.
And seeing her doll, laying there underneath her, flushed and writhing with desire -her attention aimed solely at Ruby- spoke to her in more ways than one.
"Come, Master. Play with me. You do know how to get rid of the rest, don't you?"
With a wry smile on her face, Ruby resisted the urge to giggle at the pleading tone of her doll and acquiesced. She pulled the Kirakishou in for a heavy kiss, the doll sighing happily as she did so, melting in Ruby's grasp. Meanwhile, Ruby's fingers slid down to grasp the ornate fabric of Kirakishou's undergarments, aiming in particular for the straps hanging over her shoulders.
Whether it be by some stroke of luck or an unseen understanding on the doll's part, Kirakishou was quick to angle her ball-jointed arms and allow Ruby to pull off the garment and discard it off to the side. Ruby pulled back and-
"...Do you like them, Master?" Kirakishou's voice came out a little clipped and rather breathy.
Ruby felt like she was having a little bit of trouble breathing herself as she stared at the two little nubs decorating Kirakishou's chest, her cheeks rapidly growing heated.
"H-How is…" she tried.
They were, like the rest of Kirakishou's artificial doll body, completely without pigment and as pale as the rest of her- only noticeable due to their unique texture and the slight bump visible across the doll's otherwise completely flat chest.
As Ruby had discovered before, Kirakishou's body held more than a few differences in comparison to her own. However, Ruby hadn't known what she was really expecting when she started this little encounter with her doll. Not really.
But this…
This was, suffice to say, completely outside of her realm of expectation. She hadn't even known if intimacy would even really be possible with the doll she loved.
"I-I can do anything in this slice of the N-Field," the doll continued to explain, her own cheeks heated from Ruby's gaze as her voice came out incredibly shy. "I-I had to, for you. I wanted to. For you."
Despite the words she was hearing, Ruby couldn't find the strength within herself to tear her vision away from what she was seeing. For some inexplicable reason, they were the most fascinating things she had even seen.
"They're very… you," she tried, gasping for some basic attempt at speech. Ruby found that her throat was rather dry, oddly enough.
Kirakishou visibly preened at her declaration, the action only being really noticeably to Ruby by the way the doll pushed her chest forward a little and let off a happy giggle. She hadn't really intended as that much of a compliment, being merely an observation on her part… but she couldn't deny that she liked the way the compliment had made Kirakishou's chest heave at the attention.
Jointed artificial hands grasped her own hands, Ruby almost letting out a squeak of surprise.
"...You can touch them, if you want," Kirakishou whispered lightly, the sound barely registering to her ears. "People like such things, yes?"
It was a tempting offer. She wanted to. She really, really wanted to. Oh, Ruby was almost certain that she hadn't craved something as much as she was craving to caress her doll right this very moment. But, she was afraid. Awkward. So very hesitant.
"I-I…"
This was her first time ever being this intimate with someone. The doll had been her first for everything thus far in her life. Was she really ready for this? What if she messed up? What if she made a fool of herself?
Kirakishou's light giggling reached her ears, as the doll simply guided her hands to her chest before Ruby could think to stop her. Ruby let out a quiet gasp.
Without the fabric of her doll's unique clothes in the way, it was obvious that Kirakishou's skin was of a completely different texture to her own. It felt almost rigid against her own hands. It was smooth- impossibly so, as to where it felt like every square centimetre had been crafted with the utmost attention to detail.
In a way, she supposed, it had. From what she had understood from her cursory study of the art, dollmaking was a noble craft that required incredibly patient hands. Making a doll, even an astral doll like Kirakishou apparently, must have required the capabilities of a master in order to conceptualise.
Considering the redness on the doll's cheeks that Ruby was able to spot, alongside the fact that Kirakishou had merely guided Ruby's hands to rest on her chest without any further prompting, it was obvious that the doll was practically as nervous about this as Ruby was. While it had also become abundantly clear that the doll possessed no heartbeat, she was fidgeting at even the most delicate of touches and would mewl slightly whenever Ruby subtly shifted her weight around.
Glancing down, she paused.
Ruby supposed that she should have expected the lack of a belly button, but the experience of such a simplistic feature missing from one's anatomy was still enough to rattle her, just a bit.
Even more noticeable were the joints connecting each part of the doll's body together. It appeared that Kirakishou's torso was made up of two pieces, the chest, and the stomach. Briefly flicking her vision downwards, Ruby could make out a crease near the edge of Kirakishou's bloomers that indicated a similar seam around her waist, where her legs likely connected.
It was all so very… different. She had seen similar joints and seams on dolls before, having ravenously consumed any-and-all media she could get her hands on one night, after having learned of Kirakishou's origins. She had even felt the joint between the two pieces of Kirakishou's torso through her clothes during one of their intimate embraces when sleeping together, but it paled in comparison to seeing them with her own eyes.
Ruby wanted to learn more.
"I-I…" Kirakishou's voice audibly trembled, the doll twitching as Ruby's hands slid around her body and felt the various contours of each individual piece. "Y-Your doll experimented with different sizes and proportions similar to other human females of Master's age, but she found larger sizes to be unsuitable for her frame. They seemed u-unwieldy and such an… odd thing for p-prospective partners to crave. Uncomfortable, too…"
Ruby tried and fail to stifle a giggle at her doll's nervous tittering. She knew what the Rozen Maiden was doing, trying to distract herself using words. It wasn't that bad of a plan, all things considered. It was something that Ruby would have done if she was younger. At this point, however, Ruby felt oddly comfortable focusing on exploring her doll's body, rather than trying to explain her feelings aloud. She was always more of a kinesthetic learner, anyway.
Or maybe that's what she was trying to tell herself. She wasn't that sure anymore.
"...Y-Your hands are very soft…" Kirakishou murmured, leaning into her touch ever so slightly. "Very warm… I don't know how you stand it, possessing such heat all the time…"
"You can feel my touch?" Ruby blurted, inadvertently breaking her self-imposed no-talking rule.
In a way, she shouldn't have been surprised. Kirakishou had commented on her feelings before, hadn't she? Besides, she doubted that the doll would initiate so much hand-holding if she didn't feel something from the action. Although, it was nice to have a confirmation.
Kirakishou's lone slit amber eye snapped down to glance at Ruby's exploratory hands, before looking away with a blush.
"...Of course, I can. I-I am a pure rose… I can feel everything. I can feel- Eeek!"
They were warm, she discovered. So very warm. An odd comparison to the chill that seemed to routinely encompass the doll's body most of the time, an ironic ring to the doll's previous words regarding her own warmth. They were, also, rather tiny in her hands, yet clearly quite sensitive to the doll given the heated flush growing on her pale cheeks.
She leaned forwards, capturing the doll's lips from her own. Ruby found that her heart felt like it was beating a million miles an hour, but Ruby didn't care in the slightest. Oh, how she had yearned for this moment.
When she moved back for air, the doll glanced away. It was cute to see her so shy.
"I had seen humans doing this before, from within my prison in the N-Field. Gazing out from my Palace of Beginnings and witnessing the world… I could look out and see, yet never interact. I-I never expected it to feel like this."
Ruby idly wondered if that was some weird roundabout way for the doll to admit that she was a bit of a voyeur, but discarded the notion as quickly as it came. She had been nothing more than a lonely soul innocently looking out into the world for the first time.
"And what did you see?" Ruby found herself asking, tenderly pecking the doll's cheek.
In response, the doll's cheeks darkened considerably.
"...Humans did… certain things… when they wanted to become closer."
She smiled. It was just too cute.
"And do you want that? To become closer?" Ruby asked.
The doll looked at her, glanced down at her hands, before giving a tiny nod. She reached towards Ruby, pawing at her clothes.
"Y-Your doll wishes to become closer with Ruby Rose…"
WILL YOU WIND?
WILL YOU NOT WIND?
Yang stared at the words, feeling some uncharacteristic trepidation running through her body that she could not fully comprehend. It didn't make sense to her, but some instinctual part of her screamed that the letter was wrong, twisted, and not meant to exist.
It was as if she was staring into a hole in the world, an illusion that couldn't exist yet fundamentally did. A fabrication that had been shaped into a tangible object. In some small way, it reminded Yang of the feeling that had struck her body after the explosion had ripped through Vale at the end of the Vytal Festival Tournament and odd tears in the sky had briefly appeared, before Kirakishou's crystals were born into the world. A wrongness that rubbed against the soul and assaulted the viewer.
"Strange, is it not?"
Yang sucked in a harsh breath while Raven turned around, drawing her sword.
There was a figure, standing at the very top of a center pole for one of the larger medical tents, looming down at them and gazing at the Branwen Tribe with crimson red eyes.
Those eyes. That voice. That's Laplace-no-ma.
"INTRUDER!" Raven shouted aloud, "Intruder in the tribe!"
Immediately it was as if the peaceful surroundings sprang into action. Clusters of men and women tore themselves of tents in various states of disarray, armed with a battery of weapons of both ranged and melee appeal. Yang could spot Vernal running out of the very same tent that Laplace was currently standing atop, the one that Yang recognised as the tent she had awoken in after the battle at Beacon.
Within moments there was a ragtag bunch of bandits hobbled together, looking significantly less friendly than Yang had previously seen them.
Laplace, meanwhile, never glanced away from Yang and Raven.
For Yang, this would be the first time that she had seen the odd creature following her impromptu reunion with the Summer Rose doll, after the twisted doll had attacked the bulkhead she was riding on, before attempting to attack her.
Clearly, it had survived, somehow.
However, it was not possessing her Dad. She had no idea who the person underneath was, only that it was about to get riddled with aura rounds if something didn't happen.
"Wait!" somebody yelled out.
"...Yang. Who is this?" her mother questioned, white-knuckling her blade.
What? Now she was interested? Why was Raven asking her that? How did she-
Oh. It had been Yang's voice that had called out. Wow. She didn't even notice.
"That's… that's Laplace-no-ma. You know, the one I told you about."
Raven's eyes narrowed. However, she did signal the tribe to hold steady.
"The strange figure with the power to possess others? The one who gave you information on Kirakishou and the N-Field?"
"...Yes. That's right," Yang nodded worriedly. She'd told Raven about how Kirakishou had been the only one that had been able to slow the creature down and remove it from others. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that Raven realised the potential implications of having an implacable creature suddenly arrive, where the only known method of stopping it wasn't around.
Yang couldn't understand just why Laplace was here, however. It clearly wasn't possessing Tai, so why did-
...
...She'd forgotten to tell Raven that Laplace's Demon was possessing Taiyang at the time of the Vytal Festival Tournament…
How in the world did she forget such a critical detail?!
Considering that Raven had up and left to join some bandit tribe after her birth, Yang figured that the two weren't on the best of terms, but it probably wouldn't be a good idea to hide something like that from Raven. She would probably still want to know that something had happened.
Damn it.
But, Laplace had shown up wearing another body this time. Did that mean that Laplace had departed from Tai after the battle with Summer Rose, or had Laplace been forcibly removed by Summer Rose somehow? Both Kirakishou and Summer were Rozen Maiden. Could Summer have done something?
"It is good to see you, Yang Xiao-Long," Laplace spoke, irrespective of her inner thoughts as the creature jumped down from its perch, landing between a gaggle of uncertain armed bandits.
When she was about to speak, a sharp glare from her Mother was enough to temporarily silence Yang. Instead, Raven gave a gesture for the bandits to return to their stations, allowing Laplace to approach.
Most notably, a few bandits opted to stay nearby. Namely Vernal and Shade, along with a bunch of other faces that Yang barely recognised. Their weapons were all unsheathed and their postures were tense.
Whether they were brave or stupid, Yang couldn't be sure. But she did appreciate the gesture, even if she knew it was meaningless. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that the creature standing before them could end them all in an instant, if it wished for such.
"So, you're the one I have to thank for assisting my daughter," Raven spoke, her voice sounding anything but thankful.
"You needn't bother which such petty trivialities, Raven Branwen. Understand that a referee does not arrive neither expecting nor craving such things, they care only for the role of which they must oversee."
"Then why are you here?" Raven immediately questioned, a hand reaching for her blade. "The Branwen Clan does not take well to unwanted guests."
"I have come to speak with your daughter. I have no interest with your people," Laplace spoke, voice disinterested and stoic, bearing the exact same tone the creature had used to Team RWBY during its approach at Amity Colosseum.
"And what interests do you have with my daughter?"
Yang felt an odd flutter in her chest. Was that warmth? All that she knew, was that it had felt particularly strange to hear her Mother acting so protective, after leaving her all alone for most of her life.
In response to Raven's question, Laplace merely gestured to the small brown letter that was still being held in Yang's hand.
The gesture alone was enough to cause Yang's heart to seize.
Laplace is involved. Did Laplace send the letter?
"You sent this?" Raven took the blunt approach for her, inadvertently voicing Yang's suspicions aloud.
"Yes. It was the only way to ensure that the proper path is followed."
"Why? What is the purpose of this letter?"
Yang could feel a sneaking suspicion that this all pertained in some way to the Alice Game. Kirakishou had told them all, long ago, that Laplace acts solely for ensuring the continuation of the Alice Game. Despite not trusting the doll as far as she could throw her, Laplace's actions thus far had justified the assessment to some degree.
Laplace stared at the two Branwen women for a moment, silently assessing their expressions. "...For every game, there are actions that must be taken. Rules that need to be followed. It is not the job of a referee to understand the rules, merely to enforce them. Is it not the same for you lot as well? Huntsmen and huntresses are made to follow the rule of nature. Kill or be killed. You do not question it. You merely follow the path. So why question me?"
"Look…" Yang tried, wincing at the glare Raven sent her. "I don't know what you're on about, and I really don't care. Why are you even here, Laplace? Kirakishou won. She destroyed Vale. I couldn't stop Ruby. Kira made her shoot me."
"I am here, Yang Xiao-Long, to offer you your very own Rozen Maiden girl. That is the purpose of which the letter is meant to entail. Those who decide to wind are given a doll. That is the rule of the Alice Game, of Father's decree. However, as you do not understand such things as detailed in the letter, it falls upon a referee to be as blunt and obtuse as possible."
...What?
Yang found her thoughts grinding to a standstill at Laplace's sudden proclamation. Her, owning a doll? It was absurd. After everything that Kirakishou has done to her, stealing her sister away and destroying Vale, the idea of possessing one of the twisted artificial humans wasn't something that had ever crossed her mind.
"This Rozen Maiden you are offering, are they anything like the creature that attacked Vale?" Raven questioned on her behalf.
At first, Laplace did not respond, merely choosing to eye Yang for a while, but when she did not offer a reply, Laplace finally glanced over towards Raven.
There was no empathy, no reaction to her question outside of a visual acknowledgment of recognising Raven's existence. Yang didn't know what she was expecting for the creature hiding in the body of a human, but it certainly served to show how little it cared about anything outside the Alice Game.
"All Rozen Maiden are unique in their own ways. They possess their own desires, their own hopes, and dreams for the world."
"...Will they help me stop Kirakishou?" Yang breathed out desperately, swallowing her pride.
She didn't want to involve others. But if Laplace was offering, she would be a fool to turn down someone that had fought Kirakishou in the past. Right?
Laplace turned away from Raven, looking over at Yang. There was a shallow amusement dancing within the creature's stolen eyes. It frightened her.
"Indeed they shall, Yang Xiao-Long," Laplace spoke, nodding slowly. Crimson eyes flicked to stare deep into her own visage. "Why, I dare say that your doll would be more than overjoyed in having a chance to fight against our darling youngest."
Yang didn't know what to make of that statement, other than Laplace assuring her that there wouldn't be any difficulty in convincing this supposed Rozen Maiden into fighting their sister.
She figured it either had to do with the Alice Game, which demanded that all Rozen Maiden fight, or that Kirakishou was just that despised by her sisters. Yang almost hoped it was the latter. Spite… spite, she could work with.
"However, that won't be the only doll that needs to be fought, right?" Raven spoke up suddenly, drawing Yang out of her thoughts.
"What do you mean?" the blonde questioned, confused. They didn't really have anyone else to fight, barring Kirakishou.
In response, Raven merely gestured towards Laplace, who was staring at the two stoically.
"This Alice Game you have spoken of, Yang. It's a competition, yes?"
"...Yes, why?"
"Kirakishou has six 'sisters'. One of which will be on your side during this competition. The others, however? You will inevitably drawn into conflict with them," Raven paused to level a glare at Laplace. "...Sooner than later, I would believe."
She blinked, releasing a slow breath. Yang hadn't even thought about all of Kirakishou's other sisters. She vaguely remembered the crazed doll speaking about them once or twice, but never in enough depth for Yang to get any understanding about them all.
What were they like? Were they as crazy as Kirakishou? What would her doll be like, if she were to accept Laplace's offer to become a doll owner?
"In this instance, Raven Branwen is correct. You would indeed be required to attempt to defeat the other dolls and their Masters. Such is the nature of the Alice Game. There can only be a single victor, after all," Laplace confirmed Raven's statement, bringing frowns to both of the Branwen women.
In Yang's mind, she figured that it was a lose-lose scenario, regardless of what option she took. Were she to deny Laplace's offer, then Yang would be losing a critical asset that would have in-depth knowledge of Kirakishou's powers and abilities. However, if she agreed then she would be forced to fight complete unknowns, against dolls possibly as crazy as Kirakishou with equally convoluted powers. She would also have to deal with the 'Masters', one way or another.
Were the other Masters as protective of their dolls as Rubes had demonstrated herself to be for Kirakishou, then Yang may find herself to use lethal force in order to take them down.
Suffice to say, Yang wasn't a murderer. The idea of purposefully taking an innocent life went against every fibre of her being.
But, she also understood that some people were simply irredeemable, to the point where all that they deserved was death. As a huntress-in-training, it had been one of the things she had been taught to accept since the very first day she went to begin the steps to her career.
But… there was no telling what the Rozen Maiden Masters were like. If they were just innocent people fighting against her, the idea of hurting them rubbed her the wrong way.
"...Can I have some time to think about it?"
Laplace gave a low, put-upon sigh that sounded very rehearsed. "...Very well. Simply circle your choice on the letter and I shall know. I do hope you choose well, Yang Xiao-Long," Laplace spoke, before suddenly leaping upwards and landing on a nearby tent roof. "I have nothing more to say to you, until you choose. Goodbye."
And then, Laplace was gone. There was no flicker of moment or fade away into the distance. He simply ceased to be. It was-
"...Well, that's got to be the scariest motherfucker I've ever seen this side of Remnant."
"Vernal?!" Yang squeaked in surprise, jumping at the sound of the cut-throat bandit standing right beside her.
She was quick to realise that she hadn't been alone with Raven and Laplace. Some of the bandits that had originally been called to action had opted to hang around. Though, apparently, they had done so indiscriminately because Yang most certainly hadn't noticed a single damn one of them until Vernal called herself out. Or, perhaps, she had and had merely forgotten? Overwhelming fear seemed to make her a bit forgetful, so it would seem.
"Hey there, blondie. Seems you're in quite the messed-up scenario, huh?" Shade grinned at her as he waltzed up to the group, flashing his teeth savagely. It would probably be the largest sentence that Shade had ever spoken to her, at least in working memory.
"...Guess so," she muttered, hopelessly lost.
"What do we do, boss?" Vernal directed her speech towards Raven.
"...I want a full headcount of the tribe. Every face. Every name. Be on the lookout for strange behaviour. This 'Laplace' figure can possess others. However, it seems to rotate faces semi-frequently. There's a chance it might try to jump to another body."
"Yes, boss!" both Vernal and Shade responded in tune, running off to follow Raven's commands.
"And you, Yang. You were surprised about Laplace. But less about its presence and more about its appearance. Why?"
Yang gulped. Accusatory red eyes stared down at her, uncaring for her discomfort. Well, it was now or never.
"...W-When Laplace appeared during the Vytal Festival Tournament, it was wearing Dad's face."
Raven blinked. There was some emotion flickering in her crimson eyes, but her face was set in stone. Carefully controlled. Yang didn't have the slightest clue what Raven was thinking.
"...And?"
She winced.
"T-The only way I know how Laplace can be removed from someone's body is through an ability of Kirakishou. If that's so…"
"Then, you believe either Kirakishou or someone acting in her stead was able to get to Laplace in order to force him out of Tai's body, yes?"
Yang wished that was all there is to it. That would have made things a lot easier to explain.
"Well, kinda… but, the last person I saw with Laplace was the Summer Rose doll… and she didn't look like she was pulling her punches, ya'know?"
Raven stilled. She blinked. Then, her brows furrowed. "...You don't think that the Summer doll was there to purify Tai of Laplace's influence, you think it was there to defeat Laplace, one way or another."
"Yes. And I think that the Summer doll succeeded."
Raven drew her sword.
The movement alone was enough to frighten Yang into taking an involuntary step back, along with drawing a sharp gasp from her throat. What was-
"...My semblance allows me to link with others," Raven explained mechanically, her voice sounding distant. Almost rehearsed, as if the woman wasn't even listening to her own words. "Earlier in my life, I would use it to link with others in the camp. When a link is established, I can create a portal to allow instantaneous travel to them at a moment's notice. This, however, is only possible when the linked individual is alive."
Raven swung her sword.
There was a tense silence, Yang looking around wildly for some inkling as to what was happening. She couldn't see anything. What was-
"...It would appear that your instincts were correct this time, Yang. Summer's Doll apparently did indeed succeed in removing Laplace, by killing Taiyang."
Ruby awoke in the late stages of the night, a soft groan of exertion leaving her lips as she struggled to open her eyes. She found a particular lovely warmth encompassing her naked body as she remembered her lovemaking to the doll, mere hours before.
It had been everything that she had hoped for. Playing with her doll had been an experience. And, yet, when the doll chose to play with her…
Oum.
Ruby shifted about, searching for her lover. The doll was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she lay there on her childhood bed, alone and clutching a pillow as she wearily looked around the dimly-lit room.
It would seem that Kirakishou's N-Field had done some redecorating.
Masses of crystalline growth had overtaken the ceiling, growing down like some unnatural chandelier housed in the centre of the room, a slight teal green glow illuminating the room just enough for Ruby's eyes to be able to discern her surroundings.
A faint fog had settled in her room. It crawled over the floor, parts of it creeping up her bed frame to rest atop her form like a second blanket that provided neither warmth nor cold.
The door to her room was gone. Instead, there seemed to be what looked like a hole in the wall, leading deep into the earth below. It was covered entirely in Kirakishou's signature N-Field crystals, with the ground seemingly crafted from a fine crystalline crust similar to what had occurred in Vale, after Kirakishou's Palace of Beginnings had manifested.
Ruby had also seen a similar type of growth after they had all stayed in a particular village for a little too long. She had taken it as a sign that Kirakishou's wayward N-Field had grown to significant portions around the area. At the time, the villagers had been… less than pleased with the sight, but at this point all Ruby could manage was idle curiosity.
Had the doll left their bed in order to venture down into this… crystalline cave? It certainly didn't seem right to her. Both Ruby and Kirakishou absolutely adored spending as much time together as they physically could, to the point where leaving each other alone for an extended period of time was a difficult concept to imagine.
The very thought made her shiver in distaste. She never wanted to be alone again.
So, why had Kirakishou disappeared?
Quickly gathering her discarded pyjamas and hastily dressing, Ruby took a breath to soothe her trembling heart and stepped out of the bed, resolutely walking towards the strange crystalline outgrowth.
She took a moment to glance back at the bizarre fabrication of her childhood bedroom, savouring the memories she had crafted inside with her lovely Rozen Maiden.
"...No turning back now, Rubes," she muttered to herself, pressing onwards.
As she ventured deeper and deeper into the strange growth of the N-Field, Ruby found the light of her room fading quicker than she deemed possible. The air inside the cave felt still- unmoving, stagnant, and eternally flourishing. It would also seem that the fog had followed her, creeping along the floor and delving deeper into the cave than her eyes could rightfully discern.
There was a faint resonating sheen-like sound whispering in her senses, sounding akin to the perceptions Ruby had experienced deep inside Kirakishou's Palace of Beginnings when she had first awoken after receiving the Maiden powers. It was a sound she could hear only after experiencing the complete absence of other sounds. And it only grew in both frequency and intensity, the further she trudged into the crystalline cave.
Several of the crystals seemed to be glowing with a dull glow. Far, far dimmer than previous crystals Ruby had seen created by Kirakishou's N-Field. It seemed to be just enough to illuminate the surrounding ground, and nothing further. They seemed almost drained. Wilting, almost. Deprived of nutrients? It seemed a weird descriptive, yet suitable for the current predicament.
The further that Ruby delved into this strange crystalline mass, the more it became apparent that something was glowing brightly in the distance. Far, far brighter than anything she had seen in the cave, to the point where despite feeling to be ages away, it was still registering brightly to her senses. A sight outside her sight, that refused to leave.
The crystals leading up to the strange light seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer, until Ruby completely lost view of the track itself. To her, it felt like all of the 'light' of the crystals was being drained into this strange view in the far distance.
As she stepped closer, the resonating sound of nearby crystals faded into obscurity, before disappearing entirely. Instead, she could hear a faint shimmering sound in the distance, that grew in intensity the closer she got to the strange light.
She was close, now. It was dark. Uncomfortably so. Ruby could barely make out the outline of her own hand when she brought it close to her face. The light from the distance, while visible, seemed to not cast shadows even this far. It seemed odd, only visible when she directly lay her intent upon it.
"...Master, you've come."
Abruptly, the world shifted and Ruby found herself suddenly bathed in the grand light of the distant strangeness, a thin narrow tunnel absent of light replaced with a huge crystalline room downright glowing a rich teal hue.
It seemed circular in design, without any discerning features other than a large mass of crystals in the centre which crawled from the floor to the ceiling in a massive unnatural pillar thicker than a car.
Much to her sudden surprise, Ruby found herself dressed in her huntress outfit with Crescent Rose folded up and resting comfortably on her back.
Kirakishou was standing beside her, smiling at her pleasantly. In a similar likeness to Ruby herself, the doll had fully clothed herself in her signature ornate ruffled dress, boots and all.
Next to her, stood Summer Rose, looking completely unconcerned with Ruby's sudden appearance inside the crystalline cave. She didn't even glance towards Ruby, eyes remaining firmly affixed to the centre of the room.
"W-What is this, Kira?" Ruby breathed, her voice coming out distant and light in the wake of this still air.
In contrast, the voice of her doll had come out pristine and perfect, as it always did.
"...We are very deep inside the N-Field, Master," Kirakishou explained gently, grabbing her hands and swinging them along playfully. "I carved this cave as a tunnel to burrow us inside my Palace of Beginnings, in the hopes of connecting to and understanding a certain conundrum which has presented itself to us."
"...A conundrum?"
In response, Kirakishou merely gestured her head away from Ruby, to where the pillar stood.
"Look closely, Master."
Distantly, Ruby felt herself detaching from the doll's impromptu handhold as her attention shifted towards the strange pillar of crystal in the centre of the room. She stepped towards it, eyes hazy as she pitifully tried to squint and discern what exactly was drawing her gaze so strongly.
It surface of the crystalline pillar seemed strange. Was it the same for all of the crystals? It seemed to shimmer and shine, yet the surface itself shifted like waves crashing onto a beach, where tiny motes of light rippled off the crystal itself and melded into the surrounding atmosphere.
There was something behind the crystals, however. Held deep inside the unnatural structure. Lines and shapes hidden beneath that connected from crystal to crystal, like the lines in a jigsaw puzzle connecting together.
"Would you like some help, Master?"
Ruby did not immediately respond, however, at the doll seemed to take her silence as an affirmative gesture. For, soon after Kirakishou had spoken, the colours of the crystal shifted and the entity held beneath became readily apparent.
There's something inside. Swirling, shifting. I feel like I'm looking into the depths of a fierce blaze, trapped inside Kirakishou's crystal. What in the world is this?
Her consternation must have been showing on her face, because Summer Rose was speaking all of a sudden.
"It's the Fall Maiden power, Ruby. The other half of it, that was being carried by Cinder Fall."
"...Cinder…" Ruby hissed lowly, scowling. That had been the name of the woman that had started all of the madness in Beacon Academy, hadn't it? The woman with the sheer gall to bomb Kirakishou's dorm room had, apparently, also been the one to attack the previous Fall Maiden and steal half of her power.
So, why is it here now?
"It doesn't make any sense…" Summer muttered to herself, just loud enough for the rest of them to hear her words. "Why would she just…"
"What do you mean?" Ruby pressed insistently, narrowing her eyes. She hadn't ever seen her Mother in a tizzy like this before, but she didn't like it. "Are you talking about Cinder Fall?"
Kirakishou clutched her hand. "...She's not, Master," the doll spoke in lieu of Summer, who seemed reluctant to explain. "Cinder Fall was operating under the command of another. I do not know the story fully, nor do the fragmented memories of Summer Rose share any major revelations, only that this mysterious adversary is one of which prefers to send others in her place. Cinder Fall was not the first. All the knowledge I have gathered only indicates that this adversary is purposefully targeting Ozpin for some reason. Beacon Academy, the Fall Maiden power, they were a part of something else, something involving your departed Headmaster."
Huh. Well, that was annoying. How could a person be so secretive, so sequestered and shrouded, that even the powers of her doll were unable to discern anything other than-
"...Ozpin?" Ruby blinked confusedly. "Well, why would that matter now? He's dead."
"And yet," finished Summer with a thoughtful frown, "so too is Cinder Fall. It doesn't make any sense."
"Why is that?" Ruby asked, concerned.
"Cinder Fall escaped my N-Field, Master," Kirakishou reminded her. "She still possessed one-half of the Fall Maiden power. That power alone would have been more than enough to ensure her survival from the beasts of dark circling my Palace of Beginnings."
Why would… oh. "You both think this mysterious benefactor of hers killed her?" Ruby blurted out in confusion, furrowing her brows. "Why? Because of what happened in Vale? Wouldn't Ozpin's death have counted as a success? Why kill her if she succeeded?"
"Her death being a result of what happened in Vale is certainly a possibility," Summer Rose agreed with a nod, glancing in her direction for the first time since her arrival in this crystalline cave. There was a small, motherly smile on her face that made Ruby let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"But you don't think that's the entire reason, do you?" she clarified, recognising the apprehensive look on her Mother's face.
"No, I do not," Summer shook her head. "Do you remember what General Ironwood and Ozpin were attempting to use you for, before the event at Beacon?"
Ruby paused as she thought back to that time. "...Oh! Right. They were trying to give me Amber's half of the Fall Maiden powers," she didn't bother to ask how Summer knew about that. It was likely Kirakishou either told her, or simply gave her the memories.
"Do you remember what they said about why it needed to be done that way?"
"...Uhhh… it was something about it not being possible naturally?" Ruby said, her thoughts coming out rather uncertain.
To be fair, she had been more preoccupied with satisfying Kirakishou's desire to find Summer's body than to help out James and Ozpin, the two people that had wanted to dissect her Mother.
"Yes, from what Kirakishou told me, they were indeed concerned about it not being possible naturally," Summer nodded in Kirakishou's direction before refocusing on her daughter. "They were worried that the maiden power, split up as it was, would seek out its other half. If this mysterious benefactor is also as learned on the maiden powers as Ozpin and Ironwood were, they would know of this as well."
"...So, they would know that Cinder Fall's death would only benefit you, Master," Kirakishou finished for the other doll. "And, indeed, that is what has occurred. Cinder was slain, and her half of maiden powers attempted to seek you out. My N-Field, however, is quite protective of you. It lashed out and captured Cinder's maiden power before it could encroach upon your essence."
She felt her cheeks warm up a little bit at the news. Had she affected her doll to the point where her own ability felt the need to protect her? It was… oddly romantic, in a way.
"It really went that far for me?" she asked, her voice coming out rather small as she looked down at her feet, spotting the fog resting against her boots.
"Regardless," Summer interrupted, apologetically glancing towards the two girls. "I feel it is best we get back on track. We need to determine what to do about this captured power, and how we should deal with Cinder's benefactor. Regardless of their intention, I highly doubt they'll leave you alone after everything that's happened, now that the Fall Maiden power is in our possession."
Ruby looked at the two dolls, Summer offering her a small supporting smile, while Kirakishou merely tightened her grip on Ruby's hand.
"Do what you do best, Master. Choose, and we shall follow you."
Taking a deep breath, she nodded and glanced down to the flame which flickered inside Kirakishou's glimmering crystalline lattice. Hesitantly, she detached from the blonde doll's supportive handhold and stepped forwards.
Her eyes burned silver, as twisted flame spewed forth. Seemingly in response, the crystalline cave shone brightly, resonating with a strange mystical hum that captivated her senses.
If they are going to come for us, then I will need this power. I will protect my dolls, our N-Field.
Crystals cracked and shattered, as the Fall Maiden power was unified once again.
A/N:
Er. Hey. Been a while, huh? We're in a new year now. The second month of the new year, in fact. I've taken my little break and still this story has been here for me. I couldn't just leave you all hanging after the cliffhanger in the last... er, in pretty much every single chapter leading up to this one. So, yes. Hello again!
So, there was something of a lemon in this chapter. Certainly, the first-ever lemon I've ever written and published, and not one that had much source material for me to utilise. It is far outside my personal tastes and, narratively speaking, pretty dang messed up. But, writing messed up twisted fluff is part of the fun of being a writer for me. I aimed to make it incredibly one-sided, as it revolves more around Ruby's own spiraling incessant yearning for her doll than a run-of-the-mill lewd moment. An exploratory moment in a darker shade, really. Let me know what you all think, please? I found it rather sweet, in a way. Ruby finally got what she wanted, and Kirakishou was awfully embarrassed the whole time.
Speaking of plot progression, we have Laplace doing Laplace things. Big ol' scary rabbit boyo. The poor referee has been putting in a lot of work in this story, huh? His presence alone is enough to push Yang forward, leading to some uncomfortable 'reveals' in regards to the Alice Game, Rozen Maiden, and Taiyang. They're all shaded by misinformation and inferred knowledge, but they're still developments in their own right.
And then we come to Ruby and her own development. The N-Field and the Fall Maiden power. It's finally all hers. When I first conceived of Ruby being offered the Fall Maiden power in place of Pyrrha, I never dreamed that it would go this far. And, yet, here we are, neck-deep in the N-Field with the final part being taken by Ruby in order to protect her two dolls. And none of them have the slightest clue as to what exactly happened to Cinder.
That's all for this chapter. As for future updates, I cannot exactly promise my same 'one a fortnight' schedule, though I will be attempting to follow it moving forward. It's been a nice little break, but I want to continue writing something that I enjoy. Thank you all for your contributions and reviews, and I hope to see you all again in the future. Hopefully, future me learns a half-decent brownie recipe. I love a good brownie.