Chapter 7: No Title.2

The other chapter I promised you guys :3

I'm having another seiyuu competition this Sunday. Wish me luck!

Disclaimer: I don't own HNKNA or any characters in it, they belong to Quinrose. I only own my characters and this story.

Alice walked into Julius's room with two mugs of coffee.

"Here Julius." Alice put down Julius's mug on his table and went to her chair.

"Thank you." Julius said as he sipped his coffee.

Alice looked at him, "Is there anything else I can do?"

Julius set the mug down and looked at Alice, "No. That is all. You may leave if you like."

"Mmm how about the spares? Do you need any?" Alice sipped on her own coffee.

Julius checked his things before turning back to her, "No. I think these will do for a few time changes. I'll be fine."

Alice nodded and continued reading the book she left earlier.

Julius leaned on his chair. "Where will you visit this time?"

"Clover Tower." Alice answered.

The mortician looked at her, "We've been there a few time changes ago. At the Assembly."

Alice looked back at him, "I know. But there's something I want to ask Nightmare."

"About what?"

"The role holder I met after the Assembly." Alice returned to her book.

"What do they look like?" Julius took some nuts from the little box on his table and continued his work. It's another role holder she hasn't met it seems. If not, she could just mention their name.

"A little girl with pink eyes and black dress." Alice said.

Julius paused. "Pink eyes?"

Alice looked at him, taking her mug. "Yes. Why?"

Julius frowned and looked at her again, "There were no—" he stopped his sentence there.

There were no role holders with pink eyes. Could it be that she's new? Then who died? He looked at the clock he's tinkering right now. It was an ordinary clock. Along with the clocks he had been working on in the past few time changes. None of them were role holders' and he had not received a role holder's clock in a very long time. Who's the girl then?

"Julius?" Alice called. She's curious to what he was about to say. "There was what?"

Julius thought it might be just Alice's imagination. Because, this is Wonderland, anything can happen here anyway. Julius looked at her again.

"It must be your imagination." He said, continuing his tinkering with the clock.

This time, Alice frowned. "No way. Blood saw her too. And also Pierce. I'm not dreaming."

That's strange. He stopped again. "The mafia boss and the gra-" He paused and think twice about the vocabulary, "...the dormouse. How?"

Alice sipped her coffee, "We met in the Clover Tower. She was hurt. Pierce took her to see Nightmare. He ran off when Boris saw him, I don't know what happened then."

A new role holder? What role is it then? Questions appeared in his head but he stopped the train of thoughts as Alice stood.

"Are you alright, Julius?" Alice sent a worried look.

Julius took his wrench and started working again. "Yes. Be right back. I just remembered there are some nuts that I need later."

Alice took a second before replying, "Alright." She closed the book and took her mug. "I'm off then." She opened the door and looked at him again, "See you later."

"Hm." Julius replied.

Alice closed the door.

Julius stopped his tinkering after a few minutes and sipped his coffee. He was in deep thoughts.

Who was the girl that Alice talked about? There were no role holders with pink eyes.

He tried to remember if there were any role holders with pink eyes before. He tried to recollect all of his memories from when he was still a faceless, and the memories after he was chosen as a role holder. He also tried to remember the death of the role holders that happened when he had become a role holder.

"All clocks are the same", he heard someone said that in his memories. But after he took the role of the clock maker, it was proven wrong.

Not all clocks are the same.

The clocks of the role holders are different. They're heavier, and adorned with colors and decorations that reflects the owner's inner feelings and personality. It was only after it was fixed that it turned to normal clocks, because everything in that clock was reset. Back to square one.

He could also feel the owner's feeling in the clock as he fixed it. Being a mortician wasn't the best job, he knew, but there were still things good behind this dreadful job. Fixing role holders' clocks was one thing. Even though not all of them had good or happy feelings, that's what he like from his job. And since role holders' clocks were very rare, he could still remember all of their clocks he had fixed in the past. There was a role holder with pink eyes. He remembered fixing that certain clock with pink lining.

Something flashed before the clock maker's eyes.

'The previous eaglet.' He thought.

But she died, and the new eaglet was already chosen. They've met once, just once, and if what he remembered was right, the new eaglet was the opposite sex of the previous one. If he remembered right, and he was sure of this, none of the role holders were chosen again after that. No one died after that.

'Then who's this girl?' Julius thought again.

"You look scary when you're thinking so hard."

Julius jolted in his seat.

"Whoa whoa easy Julius~"

He was so deep in his thought that he completely unaware of his surroundings. He would be as good as dead if this wasn't the neutral area. He sighed and looked at Gowland.

"What are you doing here?" asked the mortician.

"Thought you might need a drink." The marquis held up a bottle of wine.

They moved to the table in front of Julius's desk and Gowland poured him a glass.

"So what were you thinking just now?" Gowland asked, now pouring himself a drink.

Julius took the glass. "Nothing." He answered, then sipped his wine.

Gowland's lips pursed, "Naaww come on! I know you're lying. Let me in on this one!"

Julius looked at his friend and contemplated on telling him this or not. Well he could use some confirmations about his memories though.

Julius decided to let him in. "Do you remember the previous eaglet?"

Gowland thought for a second. "Hmm... Yes I think. The female eaglet. What of her?"

"Did she have pink eyes?" Julius asked.

Gowland drank his wine, "Yes. So you were thinking about her."

"Yes." Julius sipped his wine.

"Why though? She's dead. There's the new eaglet. We met him here." Gowland poured another glass.

"Alice said she met a girl with pink eyes at the Clover Tower." Julius drank his wine.

Gowland poured Julius another. "And you thought it was the eaglet."

Julius responded with a "Hm."

"Well that can't be. The new eaglet is a boy." Gowland sipped his wine.

"At least my memory was confirmed."

"Wait. Did you say a girl with pink eyes?" Gowland suddenly asked. He finally clicked.

"Yes." Julius looked at him with bored eyes. "Why?" he sipped his wine again.

Gowland lowered his glass. "Actually..."

Alice walked on the pavement in a steady pace. She felt a strange feeling when she talked to Julius earlier. Maybe he did know about the girl but decided not to tell her. She wanted to know why, but that could wait later. She could ask Nightmare first.

There were some rustlings on her left and she stopped walking.

"Who's there?" Alice asked.

"Alice chu?" a voice asked. Then suddenly Pierce jumped in front of her. "Alice!"

"Pierce? What are you doing?" Alice asked him. She looked at him and noticed his red eyes and nose, she frowned. "Were you crying? Where is he? I'll take him myself." She asked as she scanned her surrounding to spot the cat.

"No no no chu! It wasn't the cat!" Pierce said in a hurry.

Alice looked at him, "Then why are you crying?"

Pierce paused. Then he looked down and pouted, and looked at her again, "I lost her!"

Alice blinked, she immediately understood. "The girl?"

Pierce nodded fiercely, "W-We were g-g-going back to Clover! T-Then the—"

"Calm down. Take a deep breath." Alice put her hand on his shoulder.

Pierce stopped and closed his eyes. Then he did as she said. He inhaled through his nose, and exhaled softly through his mouth. He admitted that felt better.

Alice gave a calming smile, "There... Now tell me what happened."

The dormouse looked at her again, "We... We were going back to Clover Tower. T-Then then someone showed up and chased us. I was so scared he would hurt her! S-So I hid her in a bush and bait him away. It worked! But when I came back, s-she was gone! I-I thought I just f-forgot the bush where I hid her... B-But I've searched everywhere in the forest and I can't find her! Squeeee..!" He cried.

Alice tensed as he began crying. She rubbed his back gently. "Hey hey... I'm sure she's okay. She must've gone back to the tower. Have you searched the tower?"

Pierce sniffled, "N..No..."

"Let's go there then. I'll go with you." Alice said.

Pierce looked at her, eyes still glistening with tears. "Y-You will..?"

Alice smiled. "Yes."

Pierce smiled a bit. "O-okay..."

"Let's go." Alice started walking

Pierce nodded. "Thank you chu!" Pierce said, walking beside her.

"You're welcome." Alice replied.

"Can I kiss you chu?" Pierce asked.

"...No."