Chapter 4: Ausschuss
Suigintou's voice rang out from the upstairs.
"...Shinku?"
Shinku looked up from her cold ham and eggs, which she had been poking with chopsticks. "Suigintou?"
"Could you, um, come up here?" Suigin asked anxiously. "Just you."
The fifth doll looked back down at the food.
"Please, Shinku?"
"I'm coming." Shinku shoved herself off onto the floor and ascended the stairs. "Why were you gone so long?"
"Ugh, just get into the mirror room."
Shinku did.
Suigintou was wearing a white button-down and a ruffled white skirt, directly out of Nori's closet. Being a tall, slim, and beautiful human as opposed to a doll, Shinku didn't recognize her at first. But her white hair and red-violet eyes couldn't belong to anyone else. Shinku put her hand over her mouth.
"So this is what..." she uttered.
"This is what WHAT?" Suigintou asked. Tears began to collect in her eyes. "Look at me! I'm... I'm not even a doll! My wings don't even work anymore!"
"What wings?" Shinku asked.
There was a long silence.
Slowly, Suigintou reached up behind herself and felt the area between her shoulder blades. It was perfectly smooth, not even a hint of wings ever having been there.
She screamed.
Despite Shinku's following attempts to cover her mouth, Suigintou's human muscles overpowered the doll's mechanical motions, and her tortured sobbing overpowered her protests for some time.
Eventually, Shinku managed to silence Suigin, then looked around anxiously.
"Be quiet and listen. I believe this is what Father intended for us. He said that... he said that there was more than one way to become Alice, and this must be the next step. What happened? How did you do it?"
Suigintou shook her head. "I... I can't tell you."
"Why?"
"Because..." She clenched her teeth, then held out her hand.
On her ring finger were two rose rings. "Because Kirakishou made me..."
Shinku paused. "She made you...?"
"She made me... make a contract..." Suigin's voice cracked. "And if I tell how we did it, then... she'll drain all my..."
"Why didn't you just fight her?"
"I couldn't!" Suigintou screamed. "I don't know what happened! I can't use any of my powers! My wings... my sword... even the flames... they're all gone! I'm junk! JUNK!" Suigintou pounded the wall with her fist, making the room shake.
"Listen, Suigintou... did you see her use her powers?"
"N... no..."
"Then maybe she doesn't have her powers either. Maybe that's a part of this whole thing." Shinku crossed her arms and looked down. "I don't know what Father's planning, but I'm sure that, if we are all supposed to become human, we will find the way on our own."
Nori took the saran wrap off of the freshly-nuked food and presented it to Suigintou with a sunny smile. "Breakfast for Suigintou-chan."
Suigintou muttered a thank-you and picked up the chopsticks.
"So... I guess you're hungry, now that you have a big human stomach!"
"No. I don't feel anything of the sort, actually."
"Oh..."
Suiseiseki was waving her arms frantically in front of Jun's face, trying to get him to stop staring at Suigintou. "Perverted chibi-human!"
Jun groaned. "I'm not looking at her that way!"
Maybe he was, a little bit. But that was only because he hadn't yet gotten used to the experience of seeing what appeared to be an albino European supermodel sitting at his kitchen table, wearing his sister's clothes.
"Hey, Suigin," Nori remarked, "we should take you shopping! I know a little store downtown where they have beautiful... I think Gothic Lolita clothes. Wouldn't that suit you?"
Suigintou scowled. "As much as I'd like to wear something other than your frills and lace, there's still the small matter of this." She reached into the pocket of her skirt and fished out her doll-sized hairpiece and black dress, the latter of which was torn beyond repair.
Suiseiseki gasped. "Your dress!"
"Yeah, well, add that to my list of problems." Suigintou took a small bite of egg.
Kanaria came sailing in through the window.
"Did I smell tamagoyaki, kashira?"
"Not tamagoyaki," Nori corrected, scratching her head. "Just regular eggs. You're welcome to join us, Kana-chan... Hey? Kana-chan?"
Kana was staring at Suigintou, who looked up from her breakfast.
"Hey, is that Suigintou, kashira?" Kanaria asked quietly.
"Yes, you see, Suigintou had an encounter with-"
"How did that happen, kashira?! What magic did she use?!"
Shinku approached Kanaria and spent a considerably long moment whispering in her ear, after which Kana nodded.
"Well, that's too bad that you can't use your powers, kashira! It's a good thing that I, Kanaria, the most intelligent of the Rozen Maidens, am here to protect you!" She held out her hand as if to summon her violin.
After several seconds of grimacing and grunting, Kanaria looked down at her hand.
"What...?"
Shinku raised an eyebrow. "It appears that..." She held out her own hand, making the usual motions that she did when summoning her petals, but nothing happened.
"Why the hell aren't your powers working?" Jun cocked his head.
"Well," Shinku offered, "perhaps we are finding out the next part of Father's plan for us."
"What kind of stupid plan is that?"
She shrugged. "For now, all we can do is work towards becoming human."
At this point, Tomoe and Hinaichigo came in via the main door.
"Sorry," Tomoe said, "I just left my coat... Hey..." She pointed at Suigintou, only being able to see the back of her white-haired head. Suigintou turned around and looked at Tomoe.
"Hey."
"Oh, um... hello..."
Nori smiled. "Tomoe! Interesting things happened while you were out!"
"I see..."
Hinaichigo ran up to where Suigintou was sitting and latched on to her leg. "Suigintou!" she exclaimed. "You're so soft- na no!"
Suigintou shook her leg half-heartedly.
"I like your new clothes, na no!"
"Thanks."
"You took them from Nori, na no!"
"Better Nori than Jun."
"I want to see you wearing Jun's clothes, na no!"
"Not likely to happen."
Tomoe took her jacket from where it was hanging on the back of one of the chairs, and put it on over her shirt. "Well, that's all, really."
Hinaichigo looked disappointed. "We're leaving already?"
"You can stay if you want!" Nori interjected. "Suiseiseki and I are going to bake today!"
Tomoe shook her head. "I have to put some things together for my duties as class representative. Sorry."
Hinaichigo whined, but obediently followed Tomoe out the door.
That night, Jun's sewing was interrupted by the smell of cinnamon wafting upstairs from the kitchen. He slowly got up and peered down the stairwell, then shuffled down the stairs. Nori was placing a tray of freshly-baked buns on a cooling rack as Suiseiseki poured a thick white glaze over another tray.
"Cinnamon buns?" Jun asked.
Nori nodded quickly. "They came out really good! They should be cool in thirty minutes. We made a special one for you!" She gestured at a one at the center of the tray, which was larger than the rest.
Suiseiseki jumped in. "That one's for Suigintou, desu! Since she just became a human, desu. Not for Jun!"
Nori frowned. "But you said-"
"I said nothing, desu!"
"Ehehe."
Jun went back upstairs.
Just as Nori called for the others to come downstairs and have their cinnamon buns, Jun finished what he had been working on. He held it up in the light to make sure it was perfect, and then went into the next room.
The light was on, and Suigintou was staring at herself in the large mirror, holding her hand up in front of her face. Although it was hard to tell from where Jun was standing, she appeared to have the first glimmers of tears in her eyes.
He coughed. "Hey, Suigintou."
She looked around sharply. "Yes?"
"Well, it's just. I figured you might want something like this, since I know you were really attached to your clothes and everything."
Jun held out an elegant wristband, about three-and-a-half inches wide, made from the black velvet and ornate trim from Suigintou's dress. The crosses that once adorned the skirt of the dress were now arranged side-by-side along the band.
She regarded it for a long moment, then motioned for him to come closer.
"Thanks." She took it from his hand and slipped it onto her left wrist.