How long had it been since she felt pain like this?

The answer was irrelevant, after all, time was impossible in the world of Library

Lying before her was a corpse, or rather, what was left of it. She had stumbled upon it after being flung away by a monster, a nightmare she had been facing off against moments ago. She looked down to see her right arm was forced in a peculiar, unnatural position. The pain she felt was immense, though her face showed naught of even a speck of agony she felt inside. She, steel-faced Alice, lifted her arm as it made noises no human body should make, and carefully bent it back into its proper place.

Upon completing the careful and painfully slow task, the blue glowing headband she wore began to get brighter, growing until the rabbit-ear-like banners wrapped around her broken arm, fixing the minute imperfections and making it usable once more. Flexing her fingers, getting used once more to the feeling of a functional limb, she began to stretch

She was not dead, proof enough she was alive despite the life she had to live in LIbrary, killing endlessly for a single wish to come true, or rather for the hope of the wish to come true. It might have been willed into reality by the words those two rather annoying puppets spoke to her, but it could have also been the nature of the world Alice had no hope in escaping alone from. She had seen how the little princess, the small young girl whose name she never asked for, lived in while indulging in both slumber and battle. How she would kill when she needed to, or more specifically when she felt like doing so.

Lost in thoughts, bound by a feeling for there to be a reason for her to fight, she heard rustling in the bushes behind her. Alice turned, rapidly and swiftly, raising her blade without hesitation to bring down her weapon the moment she felt threatened, but in the next moment both a giggle and a shriek stopped her movements in their tracks

Rather than being faced with the same nightmare, she had been fighting before, that massive floating behemoth, she was face to face with a young boy. A boy who covered his eyes with one hand, while the staff he held on the other was letting out a disgusting, horrid laughter

"Hehehe, come boy, I think it's here!"

"Ah… can't we wait?"

"Bah, just do as I say you stringless doll!"

"Ahh…"

As the shrill voice commanded the shy one, that young boy continued walking, eyes covered and shoulders shaking until he bumped head into Alice, who said nothing

"Huh?"

The boy brought his hand down, and his eyes widened the moment he did so. Before him was a beautiful girl, probably still in her teens, not much older than the age his own human body was meant to resemble. To him, age did not matter, as he was born old enough to go to school, and it mattered even less in the world of Library, where it was unknown how long the time he had been trapped had actually been. If this girl was like him, then maybe-

"Umm, can you, see me?"

Taken aback by the question, Alice nodded her head, focusing on the boy's staff which smirked in a rather unsettling way

"You're not like the other girl then" Pinnochio sighed in relief, placing his heart on his chest trying to hide his staff behind his back

"Hey! Introduce me to the young gal why Dontcha!"

Hesitating, Pinnochio lifted the staff, its face inches away from Alice's nose. At first, there was silence, neither staff nor human nor puppet was willing to speak, but breaking the silence one spoke out with a grin

"You reek of blood"

Alice, unfazed by the question, responded in a calm voice

"For the same reason as you and your master"

"Master?" replied the staff with a frown

"The boy"

"That stringless puppet can't even wake up unless I tell him to! What makes him look like he'd be my master!"

"That"

"Huh!?"

"He's unbound by strings, yet you're bound to him"

"Gh"

Pinnochio, who stood in shock, was at a loss for words

Surely this young beauty was joking? Pinnochio needed the staff. He could do nothing on his own. In fact, he was unsure of what he could get done if it were not for that staff, if it were not for instructions and commands, Pinnochio would be unable to kill, unable to move, unable to live.

"Are you next?" Alice asked, her sword raised and pointed at Pinnochio, his eyes darting about

"N-no! I don't… I don't want to fight"

The boy shivered; his body was trembling, knees were buckling and yet the boy did not back away. He stood his ground with his staff crossed against Alice's sword. The tears in his eyes clouded his vision, and perhaps even his thoughts.

"My nose, it grew!" spat out the staff, its white face contorting into a disfigured smile

Pinnochio shook his head violently, and then his body moved despite the tears, making the first strike. Though the blow missed, Alice had no time to react as the staff moved with inhuman speed, thrusting forward and stabbing her leg with the staffs pointed nose

"!" she winced, yet did not move back. She had a mission, and it was her duty to see it to the end. She would not back down, and she would not waver, no matter how many tears the boy shed before her. She took a step forward despite the pain pulsating from her thigh and in no time at all swung down at the boy's chest, spraying her front with blood.

Biting down hard on his lip, Pinocchio tried to ignore the pain while the staff moved on its own, moving back and then getting ready to swing onto the young beauty's side, to fling her away, but was stopped abruptly by what he saw next

He caught a glimpse of himself in Alice's eyes, more specifically, at the reflection he saw within them. He saw a smile on his face he had never once seen before. Not when he was on stage, not when he was at the amusement park, and not even when he was reunited with Gepetto after being swallowed by Monstro. This was a happiness that came from a place further in than the heart. It was a purer kind of joy on his face. He didn't know what it was, but he knows one thing about it for sure

It terrified poor Pinnochio

He didn't want to make that face, or more specifically he didn't want to see it

He pulled back, and dropped the staff to his side, staring at Alice. His inochi healed his wounds, a pair of chains that were born from his staff and wrapped around his chest, healing the slash he had sustained leaving behind not even a scar.

Alice too dropped her weapon and did nothing. She understood he had no inner will to fight

She knew he was a threat, that he and his staff were strong. In fact, she could feel that the boy was as bound by fate as she was, willing to do as he needed to complete his mission, to bring back his author much like Alice.

Despite the strings that held him tight, he rejected them. He had a reason other than fate to live on. He had instead the chains of possibility to keep him moving, keep him alive, to keep him fighting. Alice would have cut him down, but seeing the tears the boy had on his face at that very moment, she decided against it.

She might not know those tears, but she knew that feeling. She understood what the tears in the boy's eyes meant. She knew he was placed in the world, not of his own will. He was like her, stuck in Library with nothing but the mission to drive them forward.

Allice turned around, her back to the boy and his staff, and walked away silently. She said nothing to him, and he said nothing to her

Pinnochio, tears, and snot running down his eyes, for the first time ignored his staff's commands. He too, turned back to walk away rather than fight. Was he always able to choose what to do? Was he no longer a puppet? All he did was listen to his heart, to heed a warning not to fight. But the moment he heard the bushes nearby rustle, and the staff in his hands shriek out in joy, Pinnochio raised his hands in obedience, bringing down the staff to snuff the life of whatever it was got in the way of him, his staff, and their goal

The goal to bring back his author, the goal to make his wish come true

To live a world where he was dictated by his authors, to live in a world where his entire life and story was written out for him, where he would have no free will, and no reason to make a single choice

He was Pinnochio, he is a puppet, and his sin is Dependence