Megu and Suigin Tou's Excellent Adventures
A Rozen Maiden fanfic by Aondehafka
Disclaimer: the characters and concepts of Rozen Maiden are owned by Peach Pit, not me. This story is based on the anime, not the manga.
Chapter 3: Chasing Redemption
From high in the air Suigin Tou stared down at the landscape below. She rotated through three hundred and sixty degrees, taking in the details. The majority of the view was lush, verdant forest, with trees and undergrowth more green and alive than anything in the waking world. A few birds flitted from tree to tree, though the animate life felt like an afterthought—the flora, not the fauna, was clearly what mattered here. To her right and her left, the woodland stretched as far as she could see.
Behind her the forest smoothly transitioned into a garden, the far end of which was similarly undetectable. The garden itself varied widely; even Suigin Tou's brief survey had been enough to notice flower banks, ponds of water lilies and cattails, smooth green lawns, and areas nearly indistinguishable from primeval forest. It was a truly impressive display, well suited for someone who would call herself a Gardener, though she doubted Suisei Seki had any flowers of living ice and fire.
In front of her the forest didn't end, as such, but it was interrupted. A perfect circle of trees stood as sentinels around a structure carved from purple granite. Suigin Tou stared appraisingly down at it. "Interesting," she muttered. The building itself appeared roughly twice the size of the Sakurada household, but unless things had changed drastically in the last few hundred years, it would be much larger inside.
A few moments of searching located the front door, standing open as if waiting for her. Suigin Tou gazed at it for a bit longer. "You may regret that, little sister," she eventually said. "But... I hope you won't." With no further ado, she swooped down and through the open doorway.
Once inside, she found herself in the central hallway she had visited before, its far reach extending away into infinity. The interior was formed of the same violet stone as the exterior, though it was smoother and the floor was polished to a dull sheen. The light was softer, though it was nearly as bright as outside thanks to the many sunburst-patterned frosted-glass windows overhead.
Columns lined the hallway on both sides, some circular, some rectangular. The First Doll stared at them as she glided slowly along, taking a deeper look at the layout than she had previously had time to do. The curved pillars were backed by wine-dark curtains, behind which open space continued for a little way before ending in a wall. The squared columns marked where subcorridors led away from the main hall. Suigin Tou wasn't particularly interested in exploring those, although she thought it probably would come to that.
"You're late, Suigin Tou." Sousei Seki was leaning against one of the pillars, several hundred yards from the entrance and a few feet away from the alcove where Suigin Tou had last entered her field. Beside her the Gardener's Shears provided an extra point of stability, with Sousei Seki's hand on top of them and their points digging into the smooth purple floor. Suigin Tou received the impression that they were doing much more of the work of holding Sousei Seki up than the column at her back.
"Sorry, sorry," the First Doll said as she landed, slipping without really meaning to into a familiar, falsely apologetic tone. She caught herself after the second word, paused, and then said seriously, "I expected the gateway to bring me directly here. When it dropped me in the wilderness between you and your twin's fields, I thought you might have changed your mind about my welcome."
Sousei Seki frowned. "I don't know why that happened," she replied. "I didn't say anything about this to Suisei Seki, and anyway if she'd been trying to stop you she would have been there to meet you. Probably with Jun and Shinku backing her up."
"That certainly wouldn't have been much fun," Suigin Tou said lightly, again using a comfortable mask to cover her true feelings. She might have begun coming to terms with certain things, but that didn't make her ready for such a confrontation. Today was going to be enough of a challenge. "Your big-little sister, at least, would never believe I was here for a good reason. She might even think I was playing some kind of hurtful trick."
"This isn't about Suisei Seki, or Shinku, or any of the others!" Sousei Seki growled, forcefully enough to wipe the smile from her sister's face. "And it isn't a game, or at least it shouldn't be! You sounded serious the last time you talked to me, Suigin Tou. Where has that gone?"
"It hasn't gone anywhere!" Suigin Tou snapped back. She took a deep breath and forced out, "Look, Gardener... this isn't easy for me, any more than it is for you. Please do not expect me to get everything perfect, my first time trying something so different."
Sousei Seki looked away, offering a grunt that might have indicated apology, acquiescence, or dismissal. "Fine, but remember this was your idea, Suigin Tou. I listened to everything you said, about how Father must have meant for us to fight enough to learn and grow stronger from it. I'll admit it makes sense, but you're the one speaking with so much certainty and faith. If you expect me to follow, then you do have to lead."
"Very well." Suigin Tou swallowed an impulse to rephrase her previous request as her first order. "Here is rule number one. For safety's sake, I will not use my sword. You can hardly abandon those clippers of yours, but keep them closed at all times."
"They can still invoke the essence of cutting," Sousei Seki said quietly. "Even when they're closed."
Suigin Tou clenched her fist, stopping her arm as it twitched reflexively toward the waistline of her gown. "But you will fight without using that power. Right, Gardener?"
"As you say," the Fourth Doll offered. "What else?"
"...Nothing comes to mind," Suigin Tou said with a shrug. She continued the motion into an unfurling of her wings, and rose into the air. "Anytime you're ready."
"Then here I come!" Sousei Seki yelled, springing directly toward her older sister, the point of the Gardener's Shears lancing ahead of her.
Suigin Tou's wings extended far more quickly, arcing forward and around as they twined over and past each other in a dizzying pattern. Sousei Seki grimaced and did her best to avoid being distracted, but as she broke through the tangled mass of feathers in front of her, she wasn't really surprised to find that she had lost track of Suigin Tou.
A high heel directly in the small of her back clued her in to the First Doll's location, not that there was much she could do about it. She was sent flying toward one of the rounded pillars, and only just managed to get the Shears positioned to take the force of the impact. Their point scored a deep gouge in the column's face, but the Gardener paid the damage no mind. She rebounded off the pillar in an even faster leap, bringing her weapon around and up again.
Suigin Tou flew backward just as quickly, covering a yawn with one hand. "You might want to try something a little more creative," she advised as gravity overcame Sousei Seki's lateral motion, sending the Gardener back to the ground. "Those frontal assaults aren't going to do much. Not when I've got an endless open space behind me."
Sousei Seki tensed but didn't attack again. Instead she just stood there, staring furiously up at her older sister with her teeth gritted and one hand clenched tight on the Shears. Suigin Tou's smile drained away. "Don't give me that look," she said. "This is supposed to be a challenge."
"SHUT UP!" With that Sousei Seki jumped again. This time she spared the power and concentration needed to turn her leap into true flight, arrowing toward Suigin Tou with all the speed and force she could muster.
Suigin Tou was a little hard-pressed to match that speed while flying blindly backward, but she did it nonetheless. As an added challenge for herself, and an extra bit of motivation for her sister, she began jinking from side to side without slowing her retreat. "You really need to think of something better than this," she said with a frown. "I can—"
Fortunately for Suigin Tou, the pillar that toppled soundlessly behind her still cast a shadow. It was just enough warning for the First Doll to brake wildly to a stop, twisting in midair and lashing out with both wings in different directions. Her left coiled like a spring, smashing into the pillar in place of her body and absorbing the impact. Her right struck like a snake, directly at Sousei Seki.
"HYAAHH!" The Gardener smashed through the hastily-formed attack, dispersing it into a cloud of feathers. However, she was slowed just enough for Suigin Tou to get out of the way. Sousei Seki nearly crashed into the pillar herself, which had now impacted with the far wall and ground to a halt. Once again she brought the point of the Shears forward, which carved a jagged trench along the pillar and carried her around and upward to stand on top of it. She scanned quickly for Suigin Tou's position, but couldn't find the other Maiden.
"Nicely done! Those harsh words and hateful glare fooled me completely. I thought for certain you were just going to keep rushing in headfirst."
Her sister's voice clued Sousei Seki in quickly enough. She bounced away from her perch, rising higher into the hallway and catching herself in the corner where a circular column moulded against one of the angular ones. From this new vantage point she could clearly see Suigin Tou, lurking at ground-level in the space beneath the fallen pillar.
Suigin Tou glanced up at her sister, then stepped out of her hidey-hole and deliberately looked away, studying the broken base of the pillar. "Crumbled? Not clean cut?" she murmured, more to herself than her sibling.
Sousei Seki didn't reply. Instead, she gritted her teeth in a moment of even more furious concentration, then relaxed into a grim smile. "I guess there's no way to catch you by surprise with that now," she said, as pillars to either side of them began to topple. Some fell from the right side of the hall to the left and some left to right, with no discernable pattern. Equally patternless were the heights of the breaking points and the resultant angles of the leaning pillars. When the grinding, crashing cacophony had ended, the once-orderly hallway had become a twisted, tangled maze of toppled stone for as far as either of them could see.
"An admirable tactic," Suigin Tou pronounced with a smirk. "But don't think I'm going to help you clean up afterward."
The Gardener snorted and dived in for another attack. Suigin Tou opted not to take to the air this time. Instead she lashed out with one wing, keeping the other in reserve. Sousei Seki twisted as the dark stream of feathers caught up with her, using the flat of the Shears to deflect herself away to the side. She vanished into the jumble of broken columns.
Suigin Tou applauded mockingly. "Good, good," she said to the air around her. "I didn't want to repeat myself again about the direct assaults." She rose into the air, ascending until her hair nearly brushed the ceiling. Simple physics, and perhaps a lack of creativity on Sousei Seki's part, meant that the fallen, angled pillars didn't reach this high.
The better visibility from her new vantage point showed her what she was looking for: a floor-level open area of reasonable volume. She folded her wings and dropped like a stone, shedding feathers behind her in flurries of midnight. Her wings opened with a thunderous crack barely in time to halt her descent, but just as quickly as she had landed she was moving again, spinning in a circle while her wings flared wider. Feathers tumbled away in all directions, a black blizzard that quickly scattered pinions for hundreds of feet.
The Rozen Maidens' physiology mimicked that of a human, but only up to a point. Suigin Tou was rendered just a little dizzy by this tactic—unfortunately for Sousei Seki, not enough to distract the First Doll from the silent shifting of feathers that weren't moving under their own power.
"I - found - you," Suigin Tou called, concentrating her will into those particular feathers, yanking them back into controlled motion. She smirked all the wider at the shouted expletive, louder and more satisfying than the repeated dull thuds of impact. Suigin Tou made sure not to cause any real damage, but her missiles struck with enough force to knock Sousei Seki loose from her perch against a gently-sloped pillar. The Fourth Doll came tumbling down to bellyflop onto the floor a few feet away.
"Quit playing with me!" Sousei Seki yelled as she got back to her feet.
"Make me!" Suigin Tou riposted, fighting off a whimsical urge to stick out her tongue. Really, her little sister was doing much better than she'd expected. She was almost eager to see what Sousei Seki would come up with next.
Suigin Tou received her answer quickly enough. Although she was no longer concentrating on the feathers she'd spread far and wide, she hadn't broken their connection to her. The faint traces of the First Doll's power residing in the feathers clinging to her gave Sousei Seki the opening she needed. Summoning as much power into the Shears as she could manage, Sousei Seki swung them in a wide arc, generating an energy shield that lasted only for an instant before overcoming the opposing force and bursting outward.
Suigin Tou shielded herself with her wings, enduring the wash of power with no real difficulty. However, every loose feather in the hall vanished in a puff of blue flame. Sousei Seki smiled grimly, and darted aside to disappear again before Suigin Tou could uncover her eyes.
As the First Doll had been peering through her feathers the whole time, this was less effective than the Gardener might have hoped. Suigin Tou quickly lost track of her sister's exact position, but for what she was going to do next that wasn't important. All she needed to know was that Sousei Seki was to her right, between Suigin Tou and the entrance to the hall.
She quickly turned to face that doorway, not that it could be seen through all the fallen pillars. She took a deep breath and then, for the first time ever, consciously drew on Megu's life force. The First Doll nearly gasped aloud as the flood of energy poured into her. Her wings reared higher and higher, first brushing aside the pillars above her, then twisting and driving backward to smash the barriers there into so much rubble. In a few chaotic, tumultuous seconds, Suigin Tou had cleared a hundred feet of hallway of all obstacles and cover.
She wasted no time zipping backward into the middle of this space, rising three-quarters of the way to the ceiling and ending the drain on her medium. "Your move, little sister," she called to the closer remaining jumble of stone, where she knew Sousei Seki was lurking.
The echoes of Suigin Tou's challenge rang and died away, with no response. Suigin Tou stared down at the maze, then spoke again. "I wonder if I went too far," she mused, loud enough to make it obvious that Sousei Seki was meant to hear. "I suppose that was a scary thing to watch. Especially if someone thought it was just luck that I cleared the area where she wasn't hiding."
"I didn't think that," the Gardener's voice rasped as she stepped into view. She glared up at Suigin Tou, and although the expression was less fierce than many she had worn today, something in it still gave the First Doll greater pause. Sousei Seki continued, "I knew better. You already made it crystal clear that if you wanted to break me, you could. And you're having too much fun showing off to risk accidentally ending it all."
Suigin Tou stared down at her younger sister, trying to think of what to say. It was true she had been enjoying this encounter, but that enjoyment had come from seeing how well Sousei Seki had been accounting for herself. Not from the chance to once again prove her fighting superiority over this sibling. 'I suppose if I had any doubts about that I might have enjoyed getting such proof,' she mused. 'But that's just not how things are. Still, perhaps telling her that isn't the best idea...'
The First Doll was still pondering her options when Sousei Seki moved again. The Gardener disdained any battle cries or grand gestures this time; she simply leapt straight for her sister, the Shears cocked menacingly back over one shoulder.
Still unsettled by Sousei Seki's previous comments, this time Suigin Tou didn't bother with a new trick. She just sent one wing lashing down at her sister, with force enough to knock the Maiden aside even if she blocked.
Too late, she watched Sousei Seki's lips curve into a grim smile. The next instant the Gardener's whole body contorted... the Shears blurred as they spun through the air... and then Suigin Tou's wing slid neatly through the left handle of the weapon, like a needle being threaded on the first try. The wing's remaining velocity carried Sousei Seki back to the floor, but she landed as softly and gently as a leaf.
Suigin Tou gaped, well and truly stunned by this development. She could still vaguely feel the wing, but with it trapped inside the circle of the Shears' handle, she couldn't feed any power to it or control it at all... not even enough to shrink it back to its usual resting state. With a growl she shook off her amazement and lashed out with her other wing, sending it in at an angle that would prevent the Gardener from repeating her little trick.
As she had expected, Sousei Seki twisted desperately, trying to come around enough to duplicate her feat. But there just wasn't enough slack in the First Doll's trapped wing; it was clear that Suigin Tou's counterstrike would slide past the empty right handle with at least an inch to spare—
Sousei Seki's hands blurred as she slid them down the Shears, gripping the weapon by its very tip and wrenching it open, extending the right handle just far enough. Suigin Tou's remaining wing slid neatly through the loop, and then both the First Doll's extra limbs hung leaden and unresponsive. As quickly as she had opened them, the Gardener slammed the blades shut. The motion pulled both wings parallel, and although the one on the right had been longer an instant before, it was suddenly the same length as its twin.
"Good, good!" Suigin Tou called out, rather nonchalantly for someone who had just suffered a serious reversal. "It's nice to see you know when and how to break the rules. But I wonder..."
"Wonder what?" Sousei Seki retorted. "How long I can keep you bound like this?" She braced her feet against a jagged crack in the floor. This gave her the leverage she needed to swing Suigin Tou around, somewhat like a yo-yo at the end of a string. Specifically, a very heavy yo-yo at the end of a very stiff string; the First Doll swung ponderously in a circle not much wider than she was tall, and her motion was as slow as if through molasses. If Sousei Seki was disappointed at this meager result, she didn't show it. "This is my world, and my weapon that Father created especially for me. I could hold you forever." As if to illustrate the point she leaned back and pushed the ends of Suigin Tou's wings against the wall, where they stuck as though held by superglue.
Suigin Tou let out a derisive sniff. "And that would really be helpful to your growth and training, wouldn't it." The First Doll shook her head, then said, "It was a nice trick, little sister, but please don't get cocky—that's all it is. You can't do anything further from that position."
The grim smile flashed across Sousei Seki's face once more. "Actually, I was just waiting for you to say that."
The First Doll had only an instant to look puzzled. The next, Sousei Seki gave a tremendous scream of fury and concentration... and gravity flipped upside down.
Caught off-guard with her wings not functional, Suigin Tou failed to catch herself in time. She smacked into what had once been the ceiling, landing mere inches away from one of the frosted-glass skylights. Even as the broken pillars crashed into a new configuration and the shockwaves of their impact further buffeted the First Doll, her gaze fixed on that window... what was it that bothered her about how it looked now, how it hadn't looked during her first visit here...
The vibration in her wings shocked her back to her senses. She pulled herself to her feet, her head clearing with an alacrity hard-earned through truly dire battles with Shinku. If this had been such a high-stakes battle, now would probably have been the time when Suigin Tou staged a strategic retreat.
But it wasn't that kind of fight. And her opponent wasn't Father's precious overpowered favorite.
Suigin Tou took in the situation in an instant. Anchoring her wings had apparently been a critical part of Sousei Seki's plan, because the Fourth Doll was now blazing down the makeshift zipline formed by those wings, her hands clenched tight on the Shears as their passage stripped countless loose feathers away, her legs aimed to deliver a powerful kick straight to Suigin Tou's head.
The First Doll spared one more instant to appreciate the artistry of her little sister's attack. Really, she was feeling a stir of genuine pride, at both Sousei Seki's progress and her own aid in provoking it.
Then, almost gently, she held out one hand. "Mei Mei," she lilted as she uncurled her fingers.
"OH, SH—" The rest of Sousei Seki's reply was lost in a whuff, as Suigin Tou's nachtgeist plowed into her midsection. Her hands spasmed open and released the Shears, at which point whatever force had been restraining Suigin Tou's wings vanished without a trace.
The gravity inversion failed just as quickly. Suigin Tou caught herself in midair, then winced as she watched the Gardener hit the floor and bounce. She hadn't intended for Mei Mei to strike quite that hard, but the artificial spirits did have minds of their own. She would have caught her little sister, except that she needed both wings to brush aside pieces of falling stone that would have been much more punishing to Sousei Seki.
This time the Gardener was slow to pull herself back to her feet, and once she did she made no move to retrieve the Shears, which had landed behind Suigin Tou. Realizing this, the First Doll flew well to the side and gestured invitingly at the weapon.
"Don't bother," Sousei Seki said heavily. "We're done here."
Suigin Tou blinked. "Excuse me? I must have misheard you, little sister. Right after you manage the best attack of your life is no time to sit down and give up."
"Maybe not. But when I've taken as much power as Master can spare, it definitely is that time," Sousei Seki shot back.
"Nonsense," Suigin Tou said airily, waving one hand to dismiss this absurd statement.
"No, it's not!" Sousei Seki yelled. "He's an old man! Not all of us have turned our mediums into demigods, you know!"
"Demigods?" Suigin Tou repeated, blinking.
"What, can you think of a better word? When Megu's birthday comes, you might as well give her a shirt with 'Megami' on the front!"
"You know, that actually sounds like a good idea," Suigin Tou mused.
Sousei Seki heaved a sigh. "Whatever. Just go away. Today's contest is over."
Suigin Tou frowned. "I already said this wasn't a contest. Both of us are trying to learn, to grow stronger. So what if you don't want to draw more power from your medium? That means you're now where you should have been all along—ready to fight on your own. To find strength within yourself, and learn to use it."
She paused, searching the Gardener's face for any sign that she was getting through to her. Finding nothing, she flew closer to her sibling and landed. She made a sweeping gesture with one arm, indicating the stretch of hallway where she'd swept aside the pillars. "Do you think I needed Megu's power to fight like this? Not even close. I haven't drawn on her energy at all so far." A lie, of course, but Suigin Tou consoled herself with the thought that it wasn't much of one. After all, she hadn't needed Megu's strength to clear the hallway; she could have done it herself by invoking her flames. It just wouldn't have been as safe.
Apparently, hearing this didn't make Sousei Seki feel any better. "Well, good for you," she said. "I can't do that. And even if I could learn, you're completely wrong. The time to try would be when Master has plenty of energy to spare, in case I pull it from him without meaning to."
"So you're just going to quit now?" the First Doll sneered. "How disappointing. I thought better of you, little sister, especially after how well you did earlier. But as soon as your human gets a little tired, you drop everything? You won't even try to stand on your own feet? I at least thought you'd make me chase you through the maze of side-corridors." She paused, searched hopefully for a response, again found nothing. "Well, be warned... I'm making it my goal to break that leash you tied on your neck and handed to your human."
She turned to go, but was stopped by a quiet, bitter laugh. "That you out of all of us should say that..." the Fourth Doll muttered.
Suigin Tou turned back to face her sister, frowning. "What was that?"
There was a long moment of silence, before Sousei Seki shook her head. "Never mind. It wasn't right, and I shouldn't have said it."
The First Doll stared uncertainly for a moment. Then, with a faint shrug, she turned and took to the air, rising high enough to fly over the tangle of pillars between her and the front door.
Sousei Seki stood where she was for a bit longer, then trudged over to the Shears. She picked them up, brushed them off, and dismissed them. With a weary sigh she continued along her path, stopped when she reached the wall, and sat down against it. For several long moments she stared across the ruin that Suigin Tou's visit had left behind. Then with a shake of her head she closed her eyes and began reviewing the battle, attempting to spot areas where she could have improved on what she'd tried to do, and searching for inspiration on possible new tactics.
The better part of an hour ticked past. At one point a shadow flitted silently overhead, but Sousei Seki remained oblivious.
The sound of high-heeled shoes touching down a few feet away finally roused her. Her head whipped up and her eyes flashed open, widening and then narrowing at the sight before her. "Suigin Tou. Weren't you supposed to have left already?"
"I made it all the way to the entrance before I realized what was nagging at me." Suigin Tou spoke quietly, her tone more subdued than anything she had used earlier. "The only other time I came here was at night, it was hundreds of years ago, and I wasn't paying attention to the scenery. But I've remembered something important anyway." She paused, then said, "The windows overhead... they were clear glass then. Not frosted."
Sousei Seki blinked, wondering if this was really happening. Perhaps her meditations had somehow crossed the line into dreaming sleep. "What? What's that supposed to mean? And why would it matter, anyway?"
"I..." Suigin Tou paused. "I'm not sure it does matter. But once I remembered, I looked closely at those windows. They look frosted because they're shot through with a million tiny cracks.
"What is more, the effects of our battle, the broken pillars and rubble, don't reach all the way to the front door. But when I studied the walls and floor at the exit I saw nearly-invisible fractures and other weak points. And then I flew back, over all the broken pillars, and explored in the other direction. No matter how far I went, those same cracks were there."
The Gardener stared at her older sister, plainly no more enlightened by this answer. "So what?" she asked, finally getting to her feet. She gestured at the ruin their earlier battle had made of the hallway. "Have you forgotten how you crushed tons of stone at once? Or how I broke dozens of columns away and made them fall against the walls? Why wouldn't there be cracks after all that?"
"I don't think they came from our fight at all. Just like the ones in the glass were there before." Suigin Tou took a deep breath and looked away from the Fourth Doll, turning to face the nearest jumble of broken pillars. "Look at all this. Does... does it remind you of anything?"
"Suigin Tou, I have no idea what you're trying to say here," the Gardener said wearily. "No. It doesn't."
"Well, I can't say the same!" the First Doll barked, her hands clenching into fists. "You remember what my field used to be like, don't you? The ruined city, the shattered dolls, the broken, useless buildings? The first time Shinku and Suisei Seki visited with their 'Master', they had a pleasant discussion about what poor taste it showed, how sad it was, and how those things were true because it reflected my own heart. And... and although I hate it, that was right." She gritted her teeth and said, "She was right."
Sousei Seki blinked. "Shinku said that to you, and not only have you forgiven her, you're even agreeing? You really have changed."
Suigin Tou had been frowning... but on hearing her sister's final words, she relaxed noticeably. "She didn't say it to me. They didn't know I was listening in, waiting until they moved farther away from the exit before I confronted them.
"What Shinku said then was what she truly believed... what she truly understood. Not just something to make me angry." The First Doll snorted. "It still angers me that she was the one doing it. Next time you see your twin, tell her she needs to speak up for herself more."
Suigin Tou paused for a moment. She still wasn't looking directly at Sousei Seki; had she only imagined that wince? Deciding not to worry about it now, she continued. "My field was a gloomy, pained, and dismal place... but I can't blame anyone other than myself. In a way, I'm thankful Laplace and Bara Suishou made it their playground. Because they damaged it as much as they did, I had the excuse I needed to start making changes. I didn't have to face painful truths before I was ready." Suigin Tou paused, letting her thoughts roam back to the current shape of her world. "And now the mountain stands tall and proud, and the glacier is crushing the city to dust. It might be a harsh, cold form of renewal, but I see nothing wrong with that."
"But you do have a problem with my field," Sousei Seki replied. "Even though all this was caused by something that was your idea in the first place."
"As I already said, I don't believe that," Suigin Tou said flatly. "From what I've seen today, I think this place was crumbling even before I got here. If I'm wrong, by all means convince me. I would rather not think my little sister was walking down the path that... that I'm trying so hard to pull away from."
"Well, you're right about one thing," Sousei Seki answered, her voice quiet and subdued. Nonetheless, Suigin Tou could hear an undertone of bitterness. "You and I aren't walking on the same path. And if it makes you feel any better, you certainly aren't alone anymore."
"Hearing that doesn't make me feel better," Suigin Tou replied. Not when the bitterness in the Gardener's tone had shifted from 'subtle' to 'obvious' with her last sentence. "Perhaps you should tell me what you mean."
"It's simple," Sousei Seki replied. "It's the same now as it was before. The Rozen Maidens were created to be Alice, but almost nobody cares about that anymore. Everyone's just doing whatever they want, wandering further and further away from Father's ideal."
"I resent the implication that Shinku is 'everyone'."
Sousei Seki ignored the quip. "In fact, it's even worse now than it was then," she continued. "At that time, I saw how sad Father was. And although it hurt, I still turned my back on Shinku and everybody she had gathered to follow her... even Suisei Seki. Make no mistake, Suigin Tou—if I hadn't done that, if I kept on supporting her, everything would have been different. With all of us behind her, Shinku would have been free to repeat her favorite trick, and she would have just broken you and Bara Suishou without taking your Rosae Mystica."
"You do remember that the Crystal Whore wasn't one of us, don't you?" Suigin Tou said, her words practically dripping with acid. "She didn't have a Rosa Mystica to take or leave behind."
Sousei Seki waved her hand dismissively. "That's not the point! Yes, she was lying, but you and I weren't! We were doing what Father said he wanted, we were risking everything to become Alice. We were the only ones who did it willingly, but because of us, the others had no choice but to face their destiny too."
"So you think what we did was right?" Suigin Tou demanded, her tone still harsh but now more sad than vicious. "We were nothing but puppets dancing to strings pulled by Father's enemies. I don't understand how you can think that time was any kind of triumph."
"Is it that hard to see? I showed how much I was willing to give up, so I could give Father what he wanted. I still am willing." The Fourth Doll looked away, clenching one fist. "But now... even though Father has told us there are other ways to become Alice... everyone else is going their own way again.
"Yes, I even mean you, Suigin Tou," the Gardener snapped, ignoring the First Doll's warning glare. "Until today, I was still hopeful. I believed what you said, about how fighting together and growing stronger from it would help us reach Father's goal. But that was only half true, wasn't it? You gave me a challenge today—but I didn't see one moment where you were learning too." She paused just long enough to take a quick breath, then continued before Suigin Tou could interrupt. "Shinku told me to my face that she felt her choice was acceptable, because even if she didn't become Alice that didn't mean others couldn't. You might not have admitted it to yourself, but your actions today said the exact same thing."
"Oh, get off your high horse!" Suigin Tou spat. "You certainly have quite an opinion of yourself, for someone whose only win was cutting down a powerless, confused, lost child. I have news for you, Sousei Seki—you aren't remotely capable of pushing me hard enough to challenge me like that, not even here in your own field. And I don't think that's ever going to change.
"I came here for a different kind of challenge." Suigin Tou's eyes narrowed dangerously. "To reach out to somebody weaker and less fortunate than me, to give her a hand. But instead of gratitude, I get such hateful accusations? My good, hopeful intentions thrown in my face, as if I were just—" She cut herself off, her eyes widening and her jaw closing with an audible click.
Sousei Seki blinked in surprise, as she watched her sister's expression finish the shift from seething to horrified and saddened. "Suigin Tou?" she ventured.
"Karma is a bitch, all right," Suigin Tou muttered. "An even worse one that Bara Suishou, it seems." She heaved a weary sigh, rubbed tears out of her eyes, then said, "Just listen to me, all right? I know I said we must have been supposed to fight, but that doesn't mean I still think fighting is enough. That would only get one of us to Alice by breaking everyone else... and that's not what Father wants."
"I know that."
"Well, either you're not thinking about what else might be needed, or you don't believe anyone else might be thinking of that. But I am, little sister. Until I accepted Megu as my medium, I never cared for anyone weaker than me, never spared a moment's thought for anyone else's troubles. And that is certainly not what Father meant for us. You and Suisei Seki are the proof of that, with your powers to heal and nurture human souls. You had it built into you from the beginning, to give aid and comfort to others. And I..." She closed her eyes and said in a near-whisper, "I'm stumbling along almost blindly as I try to learn how.
"It's funny, you know?" she mused, meeting her sister's gaze once more. "Enju pretended to be Father when he put me back together, and told me that I was to take Megu as my medium. He went so far as to do it like Father would—sealing the knowledge of 'his' will directly into me, so I acted on it even before I was able to remember him talking to me." Suigin Tou glared darkly off into the distance for a moment, then pushed the anger away. "I know why he did it, of course. She was so frail that having her life to draw on actually made me weaker than I had been. He wanted his doll to defeat every real Rozen Maiden, but he didn't mind stacking the deck for her.
"But even though he meant to cripple me, by giving me a broken medium, he actually did what has to be the best deed of his life." She summoned up a crooked grin. "In fact, if he takes much longer to reappear, I might not even have the heart to kill him once he does. I suppose learning kindness and empathy cuts both ways, huh?"
"Yes," Sousei Seki replied. "Because of that, you honestly believe you're getting closer to Father, don't you? But that's not true, Suigin Tou."
The First Doll heaved a sigh and rose into the air. "I'm tired of listening to you belittle my efforts, Gardener. I'm leaving now. Why don't you think about our battle, and how I encouraged your small steps of progress."
She turned to go, but was stopped by Sousei Seki's cry. "You don't understand anything!" the Fourth Doll said desperately. "You want acknowledgement? I'll give you as much as you like! You have changed, you have learned something about kindness, and if you keep on trying I'm sure it will come easier and easier!" She paused for breath, then continued in a more controlled tone, "But that won't give you what you say you want."
"Why not?!" Suigin Tou demanded, spinning round again but remaining airborne. Her voice rising higher with each question, she asked, "Why shouldn't I smile, when I see Megu learning how to live? Why shouldn't I be proud, that I don't have to dream of dolls broken worse than I am to feel okay? Why shouldn't I strive, to find in myself even a little of that warmth and light we all saw in Father?!"
"When did he ever ask for that?" Sousei Seki replied, as softly as a pebble disappearing into a bottomless pool. "He didn't tell us to become like him."
Suigin Tou's mouth dropped open, and she settled back to earth without even realizing it. The Gardener gave her no time to recover her composure; instead, she began circling the First Doll with a slow, deliberate tread. "I'm not blaming you for not seeing it for yourself," Sousei Seki continued. "There's no reason to be ashamed. It's impossible to get a clear view of something big if you're right in the middle of it."
"And you think you've seen something I haven't?"
"Many things." Sousei Seki pulled out of her circle, walking over to the nearest wall and summoning the Shears. "I first met Shinku in the same era you did." Several flicks of her wrist scratched a crude representation of the Fifth Doll into the stone. "She presented herself as eager to fight, but each time it was me challenging her. Even when we fought here, in my field, she didn't use her true strength. I don't know whether she didn't want to strain her ten-year-old medium, or just didn't bother because she knew she didn't need to." A second image joined the first: a depiction of Sousei Seki, positioned twice its own body length below Shinku's. "Either way, she definitely wasn't trying with all she had to break me."
Suigin Tou frowned. "So what?"
"Doesn't it sound familiar?" A few quick steps put Sousei Seki next to the stump of a rounded pillar. She circled around it for a few moments, the Shears blurring and clanging as she swung them again and again. One last pass and then she was finished, standing between Suigin Tou and the column. "Do you remember Spain in 1976?" She moved to the side and made a sweeping gesture with her free hand. On the stone, Suigin Tou chased a sobbing Kanaria round and round, up and down... always the same length away.
"That harmless little butterfly didn't deserve to be taken seriously," Suigin Tou protested as her sister walked to the center of the hallway. "Are you saying I should have crushed her?!"
"I'm only recounting facts now, Suigin Tou. I'll leave the interpretations up to you." Sousei Seki met her sister's gaze for a long moment, then moved again. This time she ignored the walls and pillars, choosing the floor itself as her canvas. The Fourth Doll darted about in seemingly-random patterns, scoring countless angles and curves into the granite with the point of the Shears.
Suigin Tou kept silent as she watched her sister work, almost mesmerized by the sight. There was still plenty of dust and broken stone obscuring the floor, a fact which didn't seem to hinder Sousei Seki at all but which made it impossible for the First Doll to make out the big picture emerging. The best she could do was identify a few images, all from the first six dolls of Rozen Maiden.
Finally Sousei Seki came to a stop. "That's enough, I think. Master has had some time to rest, but I still don't want to take much energy from him."
"So I suppose it's my job to blow away the bits and pieces you didn't bother to move," Suigin Tou observed.
"By all means, go ahead," Sousei Seki invited. "As long as you're prepared for what you'll see."
With an indignant grimace Suigin Tou spread her wings wide, then flapped them once. The move swept every last pebble, every speck of dust away from Sousei Seki's drawing. Suigin Tou stared down at what had been revealed, though at first she was distracted by the sheer number of revealed engravings. On her home turf or not, it was amazing that Sousei Seki had done so many without disturbing the overlying rubble.
However, it didn't take long for her attention to shift to the panorama in front of her. Well over a hundred pictures were inscribed upon the stone, the vast majority of them images of the Rozen Maidens. A few humans showed up, although these were rendered in an even more caricaturish fashion than were the dolls. Finally, there were a number of engravings that looked to be various types of scenery. Suigin Tou stared, sensing a deeper meaning here than was immediately visible.
Slowly, as she pondered the drawing, it began to dawn on her. The first key could be found by plotting an imaginary arc that joined a picture of herself to a picture of Kanaria, passing through a scribble of charging bulls—the 1976 encounter in Pamplona. She stared at this for a little while longer, satisfying herself that it wasn't just her mind dreaming one piece of order out of an orderless whole. There—a curve of equal degree connected another image of her, an image of Shinku, and a stream full of stooped-over figures. It was California in 1849, when she had spent a week digging gold out of a cliff, then used it to purchase hired guns to make things interesting for the Fifth Doll, who was bonded to the daughter of an outfitter.
She'd learned an important lesson then... when dealing with desperadoes, never pay in full up front.
Putting that debacle out of her mind and resuming her study of the images, she noticed another arc. This one used the same image of Shinku as the last, but connected to a different drawing of Suigin Tou. The context for this grouping was a scrawl of broken, blasted trees. Siberia, 1908, and another important lesson... antimatter was not a potentially useful weapon in her struggles with her sister.
Suigin Tou gritted her teeth and deliberately studied the figures of the other Rozen Maidens. Now that she knew what she was looking for, it was easy enough to pick out other groupings. The ones that involved only two Rozen Maidens were actually the rarest; most combinations included three dolls at least. In fact, as she studied the tableau, it appeared that Hina Ichigo had been in Spain with her those thirty-odd years ago, and the Gardeners had been awake for the Tunguska explosion. Presumably their paths just hadn't happened to cross.
"This is a record of all the times any of us have been awake?" Suigin Tou asked. When Sousei Seki nodded, she asked, "Where did you learn this anyway? You weren't there for even half of these."
"Awhile back I asked Lenpika to get this information from the other artificial spirits. And you haven't seen what I meant for you to, Suigin Tou. Please keep on looking."
" 'You haven't seen what I meant for you to'," Suigin Tou muttered under her breath. " 'I'm only recounting facts now; I'll leave the interpretations up to you'." Still, she turned back to study the engravings. After a few seconds of contemplation, she realized she was making things harder than they needed to be. She took to the air, rising to a height which allowed her to absorb the whole of the scene.
This vantage point opened her eyes to a new level of meaning, one she couldn't immediately process. Being able to view multiple event-representations at once made it obvious that there were deeper patterns at work here, but for the moment they remained frustratingly out of reach. She rose higher and higher, unconsciously trying to get the distance that Sousei Seki had said was needed for true understanding.
Slowly, as if halfway in a dream, the sense of it began to gel in her mind. The interlocking arcs that represented encounters between the Rozen Maidens over the centuries... they were almost like petals of a flower, gradually opening... At the same time they were nothing like that at all, but rather the planes of a turning kaleidoscope, as it offered up image after fractured, colorful image... Look again and the connected images were the spokes of a wheel, rambling along to some as-yet-unseeable destination...
As Suigin Tou viewed the record in this light, a certain coldness began to gnaw at her. When it became large enough to be noticed she pushed it away, irritated at the distraction. She sensed she was on the verge of grasping some deeper, hidden pattern, and nameless forebodings had no business intruding and derailing her train of thought.
The first evidence that she had been dead wrong about that came a few moments later. The First Doll let out a wail of negation, starting almost too low to hear but quickly rising to a pitch that threatened to bring down previously-unbroken pillars. With a wrench she twisted into motion, dropping to earth like a falling star, slamming feet-first into the engraving and shattering the entire thing. "It's not true!" she screamed, turning wildly toward Sousei Seki. "It's NOT!"
By contrast, the Fourth Doll was as calm as a corpse. "What about it was a lie?" she asked. "Which pieces of that picture did I make up?"
"It's not that, it's...! I mean...!" Unable to explain exactly to which detail from the smashed picture she was objecting, Suigin Tou went straight to the heart of the matter. "I have not just been following Shinku all this time!"
"Of course you have," the Gardener replied, her tone as unruffled as before. "We all have. She makes a choice, and sooner or later there everyone else is, doing basically the same thing. Kira Kishou is the only one who hasn't fallen into that trap, and I don't even expect that to stay true if she ever decides to live outside the N-field."
Suigin Tou shook her head wildly, but could find no more words just now. It was one thing to accept the fact that Shinku hadn't deserved the kind of enmity Suigin Tou had first had for her, but this...! "I... I'll tell you what piece of that picture was a lie!" she yelled suddenly. "There should have been a blank space in the middle, to stand for Father! He is the one this revolved around for me! Shinku was just the greatest obstacle in my way! I... I wasn't..." Her vehemence deserted her as she spoke the next line in little more than a whisper. "I wasn't chasing her..."
"Of course you were. You and Shinku fought many times, but only once was it to the death—when Jun's life was on the line." Sousei Seki took a moment to study her older sister, then continued. "Do you remember our last real battle? Do you remember how you taunted me, asking what it was I wanted from the Alice Game? When I said I wanted what Father wants, you just smirked at me." She stared at the First Doll with a gaze utterly lacking in anger or accusation, and all the more implacable for that. "Ten minutes later you were placing my Rosa Mystica into your medium, thinking it would heal her."
"You will never make me believe I was wrong to want that," Suigin Tou said bitterly. "I am convinced that Father is glad, to see the changes I've helped Megu make in her life."
"You believe it because you want to believe it," Sousei Seki replied. "Just like you want to believe that your situation and Shinku's are so very different. That just because it isn't romantic love you feel for your medium, nothing else is the same either."
Suigin Tou staggered backward, catching herself with one hand against the pillar-stump that showed her toying with Kanaria. "Father..." she whispered, staring off into the distance with tear-filled eyes. "Do you really... am I..."
"If you still need proof, I'll be glad to provide it." The Gardener waited for Suigin Tou to turn back to her, then said, "Think of Hina Ichigo. Shinku defeated her but left her Rosa Mystica alone. The only thing she wanted out of that battle was to save the life of Hina's medium, and that was the only reward she accepted. Just like you, when you took Lenpika from me." Sousei Seki's eyes narrowed. "And remember what I already said, about Jun and Megu. Think about which one of us was the first to have a wounded medium, and to put so much effort into reaching out and helping him heal and grow."
"But that... it doesn't mean I am..."
"Quit lying to yourself! Shinku went her own way from the beginning; she simply wasn't honest about it! And you are doing just the same thing, Suigin Tou. Earlier today I said it was ironic, that you out of all of us should rebuke me for caring too much about my Master. I was wrong to say it, because you aren't the worst of us about that. Shinku is. But you, Suisei Seki, Hina Ichigo, and Kanaria are locked in a four-way tie for second place.
"I already showed you how many ways your actions have lined up with Shinku's. You've seen where those choices took her in the end. How can you pretend things are different for you?"
The Gardener fell silent then, waiting for a response. As the minutes crawled by and Suigin Tou remained stationary, her head bowed and her shoulders hunched, Sousei Seki allowed herself to feel a stirring of hope. Perhaps she had managed to break through to her fellow Maiden.
At last, a visible shudder wracked the First Doll. "You're right, little sister," she whispered. "Those things you mentioned... those choices Shinku made... I have been making many of the same ones lately. And I didn't see it, didn't understand what it meant until now."
Sousei Seki managed a weary, cautious smile. "I'm glad. I honestly didn't think you'd—"
"You said I've seen where those things took her. I have seen that." Suigin Tou's head snapped up, her eyes boring into her sister's. The force of her regard struck with nearly a physical impact. Sousei Seki stumbled backward, wanting but unable to look away from the emotion burning in her sister's gaze. She could see equal parts joy and sorrow, but no remorse, and not a hint of uncertainty. "That kindness, that determination... what did they earn her? Father trusting her to bring you and Hina Ichigo back."
The First Doll's words hung in the air, seeming to echo louder than the crash with which she had shattered the floor. Neither Maiden said anything for a long time; it was Suigin Tou who eventually sighed and spoke again. "I'm through with hating her or cursing her. Even if she was Father's favorite. Even though she couldn't live up to that favor. I might wish those things weren't true, but I won't close my eyes to them—because I can't afford to miss other true things.
"At least some of what you pointed out was right," the First Doll admitted. "Many things I'm learning now, are lessons Shinku already mastered. And Father was happy about that. He must have been, to entrust her with so much. You say he didn't ask us to become like him? But what else would you call it, when he fixed the rest of us but told Shinku that she was to revive you and Hina Ichigo?"
"I..." Sousei Seki bit her lip, then muttered, "I don't know..."
"Of course not, because there's nothing else to say. As late as that, she was obviously in first place out of all of us." To Suigin Tou's credit, she said this with nothing darker than wistfulness shading her tone. "Her mistake came afterward—when she pushed the task Father gave her onto Sakurada."
"...No," Sousei Seki whispered, shaking her head. "No, that can't be right. You weren't there, you didn't see... long before that, she and Jun were dancing around each other, slowly drawing nearer..."
"Enough of this." Suigin Tou spoke gently but firmly. "You were eager enough to point out areas where I wasn't letting myself see the truth; do not turn away when I repay the favor. You are wrong here, little sister. And... I even understand why." She hesitated, searched for words, then said, "Father restored four of us, held us gently and spoke to us about things we never knew before. I know... know it must hurt, to have been left out of that. And it must hurt even more that the reason Father did it was to show his trust in Shinku, a trust she failed to live up to. But you can't afford to let that make you lose your way."
"I... am... not..." the Gardener gritted through clenched teeth.
"Yes, you are," Suigin Tou rejoined. "Earlier you spoke of the visions you saw of Father, and his sadness that nobody had become Alice. It wasn't Father at all; it was Enju, lying to you to get you to fight. Just like he did to me."
"That's not true!"
"It is," Suigin Tou said relentlessly. "You were fooled. So was I. But I have faced that and let it go, Gardener. If you don't do the same, you'll go just as far astray as Shinku... or even worse. Sakurada is certainly no match for Father, but he at least shares some qualities with him. Better that than clinging to something which exists only in your mind."
The ominous silence which followed this put the last one to shame. As the First Doll stared into her sister's eyes, finding it harder and harder to meet the Gardener's burning gaze, her ears caught the faintest of tinkling cracks. She glanced upward and away, her eyes quickly locking onto a new source of motion.
Silently and gracefully, a single chip of glass plummeted from the window overhead, dropping to shatter into a thousand splinters as it hit the floor halfway between the Maidens. For a moment Suigin Tou felt unease twist in her gut, knowing it reminded her of something but not yet sure what.
Even as more chips began to fall, she realized what that was. Sousei Seki's eyes were as hard as steel, as tight as a drawn bowstring, and as dry as a desert. But in that moment Suigin Tou was certain of one thing—the Gardener's dreamworld was shedding tears that she could not.
It took less than a minute for the skylight directly overhead to empty itself. Suigin Tou held her breath, looking left and right... but the others held, at least for now. She exhaled, rose into the air, and turned back to face her sister. "I think this has gone much too far for one day," she said quietly. "We should have spread this discussion over three or four visits. I am sorry." She paused for a moment longer, but Sousei Seki didn't reply. Inclining her head, she turned again and flew up and out through the newborn exit.
Once again Suigin Tou stared down at the landscape far below. This time, however, it was the urban sprawl of Tokyo beneath her, and the First Doll wasn't paying any attention to what she was seeing.
"That didn't go so well. Did it, Mei Mei?" she murmured to the artificial spirit flying around her in slow circles. "I wanted to help her, and maybe I did. But I definitely caused her more pain than I meant to." She sighed. "I want to do something about that. But what?"
If Mei Mei had any suggestions, they went unnoticed. Suigin Tou hung motionless for a little while longer, then began flying toward home. "Perhaps Megu will have an idea. Or if not, maybe she could talk to Sousei Seki. As kind and gentle as she is, she ought to be able to soothe the Gardener's wounded pride."
Mei Mei zipped around in front of Suigin Tou, causing the Rozen Maiden to pull up short. The nachtgeist indicated her opinion of this plan by dimming her light nearly to nothing and spiraling downward like a bird with a broken wing.
"A simple 'Sousei Seki's probably not ready to listen to any demigods' would have been enough," Suigin Tou grumbled.
She remained motionless for a little while longer, lost again in thought. At last, she gave a nod, accompanied by a grimace. She forced her lips to uncurl from the latter as she turned in a new direction. After all, this new idea wasn't that much different than asking for Megu's help, was it?
"Hm-hm... hm-hm... skinny cats, chubby cats, furry and cuddly and windy cats..." Hina Ichigo warbled cheerfully, legs kicking back and forth as she drew a colorful picture. There weren't many similarities between her work and Sousei Seki's recent endeavor, but at least one existed—with only Suisei Seki around to 'supervise', the Sixth Doll was happily coloring directly onto the living room floor.
"Hey, hey, Suisei Seki. Look at my picture," Hina Ichigo requested.
A vague, noncommittal sound from the couch was the only response. Hina Ichigo frowned, drew a few more cats, then got up and turned to face the other Maiden. "Suisei Sekiii!"
"WHAT?!" the Third Doll barked, finally looking up from her book. "Can't you see I'm reading?"
Hina Ichigo blinked. The situation felt very familiar, except that the role being played by Suisei Seki was usually held by another. "Um... you're not turning into Shinku or something, are you?"
"What... was... that...?" the Gardener demanded, jumping up and looming over a suddenly-quailing Hina Ichigo.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I was just scared that next you weren't gonna let me draw pictures of cats either, same as her!" the Sixth Doll squealed.
"Jeez, I don't think even 'Chibi-chibi' goes far enough to describe you," Suisei Seki declared. "Maybe I'll call you 'Chibi-chibissimi' from now on. How could you ask such a dumb question anyway?"
"Well, you're reading one of Shinku's books, since she's not here to miss it. That's why."
Suisei Seki stared, then brought the book in question up and whapped her sister over the head with it. " 'One of Shinku's books'? Take a closer look, Chibi-Ichigo."
To Hina Ichigo, who'd never looked closely enough to realize that all of Shinku's books were in German, the title of this one—1001 Practical Jokes and Dirty Tricks—meant nothing. "I can't read English. What's it say?"
Suisei Seki opened her mouth. Then she closed it again, as if thinking better about giving anyone fair warning of the bubbling cauldron of 'entertainment' brewing in her head. "Never mind. This conversation is ridiculous enough to make my head hurt too. What did you want me to look at?" She moved around Hina Ichigo in order to see, then flinched back. "A bunch of cats falling out of the sky?" she said with a grimace. "Why would you draw something so horrible?"
"They're not falling!" Hina Ichigo said indignantly. "They're flying!"
"Well, that makes more sense. At least, sense for you drawing it," the Gardener said snidely.
She was about to go further into the matter of Shinku's apparent intolerance for drawings of cats, and point out that if this were true then drawing on the floor rather than a piece of paper might not have been the smartest of moves, but was distracted by a sudden clatter—one from an all-too-familiar part of the house. She whirled around to face the direction of the storage closet, and the gateway mirror it held.
"You always used to hide behind me when this happens." Hina Ichigo noted. "Are you really not turning into Shinku?"
Just as quickly Suisei Seki whirled back and thwapped her sister again. "We all have to grow up sometime, you know. Except for the exception that proves the rule," she sniped. Turning back around and taking a deep breath, she moved past the couch and headed for the hallway door.
It opened before she reached it, revealing another Rozen Maiden. "Suigin Tou..." the Gardener said. After this she paused, as if trying to decide how to deal with the intrusion. Suigin Tou appeared no more eager to rush into speech. After a few moments, Suisei Seki frowned and asked, "Don't you know how to knock?"
"I did knock, but since I was on the other side of the mirror, you didn't hear it," the First Doll replied.
Suisei Seki blinked at the mild response. "Um... okay..." Glancing around as if searching for inspiration on what to say next, her eye fell on Hina Ichigo, who had taken several long steps back and appeared to have locked her knees to keep them from trembling. "Oh come on, Chibi-Ichigo!" she exclaimed. "Don't tell me you're still scared of her!"
"Um..." was all the smallest doll managed.
Suisei Seki rolled her eyes. "Honestly, you need to keep up with the times." She strode over to Suigin Tou, slung one arm over the First Doll's shoulders, smirked at Hina Ichigo, and pronounced, "See? She's harmless now!"
It was anyone's guess whose eyes were wider, Suigin Tou's or Hina Ichigo's. "H-Harmless?" the Sixth Doll echoed.
" 'It's not that different from asking Megu for help.' Not one of my finer predictions," Suigin Tou muttered.
"Of course, harmless!" Suisei Seki declared. She pulled the other doll closer, then used her free hand to deliver a quick noogie. "After what Father said to us, there's no way she'd ever try to break anyone again."
"But, but... she could still beat you up really bad, as long as she didn't break you," Hina Ichigo pointed out.
"So what? Jun'll be home in three hours and twenty minutes. He can fix anything she decides to do. No big deal."
Later, Suigin Tou would wonder whether she'd heard the faintest hint of eagerness and hope as her sister outlined that little insurance policy. For now, she was too busy trying to scrape together her composure without bringing temper along for the ride. "Whatever this is, could you please get it out of your system?" she requested coldly. "I'm here because Sousei Seki needs your help."
Suisei Seki's arm dropped nervelessly from the First Doll's shoulders. "W-What? Sousei Seki...?"
"Yes. She's very sad, angry, and confused about all the things that have changed. She needs someone better at kindness than me to go to her field and cheer her up." Suigin Tou stared piercingly into her sister's mismatched eyes. "She needs her twin."
And with that, the First Doll turned and zipped back the way she had come, vanishing into the storage closet and exiting through the mirror before Suisei Seki could respond.
Had she stayed at least a little longer, she would have heard the Third Doll plaintively murmur, "But... she doesn't even listen to me anymore..."
Author's Notes
In Traumend episode 6, Suigin Tou looks out over the streets of Tokyo and remarks, "Such a boring city." If her periods of wakefulness throughout the centuries have been the kind of events I've hinted at here, that makes sense. It also means the events of later chapters will be perfectly fitting, and bring to mind that hoary old nugget of wisdom: "Be careful what you ask for, because you might get it."
A couple of language notes: 'megami' is Japanese for 'goddess', and 'chibi-chibissimi' is a blend of Japanese and Italian that (to the best of my knowledge) would mean 'really, really tiny'.
Not much else to say here, except that Hina Ichigo's drawings in the final scene of the chapter contain a reference to an extremely obscure anime. Email me with the correct guess as to what anime that is, and I'll reward you with a sneak peek at a few paragraphs from an upcoming chapter (offer expires once the final chapter has been posted).