The Netherworld

"You've changed a lot..." Reimu said to Alice.

"Like, a lot..." Marisa added.

Alice placed her right hand hand on her waist, and sighed. "Like I said before, it was an accident with a spell that made me into the spoiled brat with a bloody scary obsession with dolls when you two met me in Makai last year." She then reminded.

"Yeah, we remember that." Marisa said. "That thing involvin' turnin' us into puppets was really creepy." She shivered at the thought of the event.

"Speaking of puppets," Reimu brought up. "Are you still making dolls?" She also shivered at the thought of the unpleasant experience she had back then.

"Hopefully they ain't some poor gals who got turned into puppets, like you did to me back then." Marisa said.

"Oh, no. I don't, and won't ever, use that bloody spell anymore." Alice reassured. "In fact, I actually learned to make puppets in a rather mundane way."

Saying that, Alice then waved her right hand, and two small humanoid figures roughly the size of fairies flew out from behind her. One figure is in a blue dress with an apron similar to Sakuya's, and has a blue ribbon alongside an ahoge on a head of long blonde hair; the other figure is virtually identical save for the red dress and ribbon, as well as a pair of cat ears-like hair intakes instead of an ahoge.

"Reimu, Marisa, these are the best dolls that I've created so far." Alice proclaimed. She gestured at the blue doll. "This one is Shanghai."

"Shanghai~" The blue doll threw both of her arms up and greeted happily.

Alice then gestured at the red doll. "And this one is Hourai."

"Hourai..." The red doll, with her arms crossed over her chest, greeted with a dull tone, seemingly uninterested with the introduction and looking like she wants to leave as soon as possible.

Reimu blinked several times in amazement. "These really are dolls?" She wondered out loud.

Marisa similarly blinked in amazement. "Wow, they sure are really well made." She noted. "So much that they even have their own personalities."

At the same time, Shanghai snatched from midair a sakura petal that floated by and played around with it, only to be snapped out of her stance by an unimpressed Hourai giving her a slap over the shoulder.

"Personalities of a foolish sister and a responsible sister, even." Reimu added.

"Thank you for your praises." Alice responded to Reimu and Marisa. "Although Shanghai and Hourai weren't meant to have personalities to start with..." She then turned toward her dolls to glare at them.

The dolls took notice of their master's glare, and quickly straightened their postures as they moved into position.

"Anyway," Alice turned back to the Guardians. "for what reason did you come to the Netherworld?" She then asked.

Marisa stepped forward to answer that question. "Well, how should I put this? How about... Someone stole something, and we came here to find out who the culprit is." She explained, but deliberately left out a major detail.

Reimu stepped forward after Marisa. "That really is all there is to our intent right now." She added.

Sakuya remained behind the shrine maiden and the witch. "I only just joined these two, and just got briefed less than an hour ago on what was happening..." She clarified to Alice.

"Stole something, you say?" Alice said. She then looked over her shoulders behind her, then back at the Guardians with an odd glint in her eyes, seemingly implying that she actually knows about the subject and is feigning ignorance.

Reimu and Marisa didn't notice it, but Sakuya certainly did, and became suspicious. But the silver-haired maid decided to stand down for now.

"Well, now it's your turn." Marisa directed at Alice. "What are ya doin' here?"

"As far as I can tell, you are still very much alive, so there must be a reason for you to be here." Reimu informed.

Alice coughed into her fist for a bit before answering. "I was employed by the ghost of a noblewoman to have a puppet performance for a... festival she will be holding."

That piqued the Guardians' interests.

"A festival?" Reimu raised her eyebrows. "Now, and here, of all places?"

Marisa looked around, before putting her attention back on Alice. "That's really suspicious, I'd say." She noted.

"Her body language indicates that to be the case..." Sakuya agreed with Marisa as she suddenly appeared next to the witch.

Marisa jumped in shock at Sakuya's sudden appearance by her side. "Geez, you... Stop doing that 'disappear and then reappear at another spot in a split second' thing, will ya!" She exclaimed.

"I was merely using my powers to save the time that will be used to move toward you." Sakuya stated, not fully getting the intent of Marisa's message.

Reimu spared a glance at Marisa and Sakuya, shook her head, and then turned back toward Alice. "You also mentioned being employed by 'the ghost of a noblewoman'..." The shrine maiden brought up. "Care to tell me anything else about your employer?"

Alice tensed up and shook her head. "I am in no liberty to discuss anything about my employer." She claimed. "Perhaps I should depart now, so that you three can continue your search for the thief who stole Spring-"

The puppeteer interrupted herself as she placed a hand over her mouth (with Shanghai mimicking the motion, which Hourai reacted to by cocking her eyebrows), with her eyes widening as she realized what she just said.

The Guardians caught that too.

"Gotcha." Marisa said as she reached for her twin revolvers. "I did say we came here looking for someone who stole something. But we never said what was stolen, and yet you correctly said it was Spring."

"Which is the last thing anyone would believe could be stolen, even with magic." Sakuya pointed out.

Reimu tightened her grip on the Sacred Hakurei Gohei. "You're very suspicious right now, Alice." She said in a threatening tone. "Care to elaborate why?"


Okay, so like I said before, my schedule was FUBAR'd to the point that I have no idea how to fix it. Thus, this chapter was late by two months and wound up being short because again, I just wanted to prove that I haven't abandoned this fic yet.

That is all for now...

"And that, as they say, is that."

Afterword ends here.