Chapter 8: Lüge

Kanaria, who hadn't asked permission before raiding the fridge, took a swig of juice as she pulled one of her pigtails out of her hair. "So exhausting..."

After a brief stop at the Kusabue residence to change into some casual clothes, she and Micchan had come breezing in to the Sakurada household. Micchan was showing off the pictures she took, while Kanaria flopped down on the couch to rest away the stress of the day. Suigintou, who had arrived a few minutes before Kanaria did, had gone upstairs to look through the bag of clothes Nori had purchased during the day. Nori herself had had a bit too much fun going shopping for the Maidens, even if Suigintou hadn't been able to come. She had offered to buy some for Kanaria and Hinaichigo, but Micchan assured her that they had MORE than enough clothes, and Tomoe refused to accept that kind of charity.

It turned out that Suiseiseki's mysterious baking project was brownies. While they came out of the oven a bit underbaked, at least they didn't contain any strange ingredients. She was sitting at the table, slowly eating one from a paper plate. Her twin sister had gone out for a walk, and Shinku was sitting across the table from her, sipping tea.

"Does Shinku-chan want any brownies?" Nori called, hovering over the brownie pan with a serving knife.

"No, thank you."

Suiseiseki looked somewhat dejected, so Jun decided to have one. It wasn't that bad.

Souseiseki was passing by Hakuo Junior High School, hands in her pockets, when she caught a piece of conversation in the air that made her stop.

"...new transfer student, she's kinda creepy..."

"Hey, do you see that girl by the gate?"

A pair of heads turned to stare at Souseiseki. Normal Japanese junior-high-school-girl heads. However, they seemed to recognize something more than the fact that she had mismatched eyes.

Pretending she hadn't noticed, Souseiseki continued walking until whoever was inside the gates couldn't see her. Then, she twirled around and turned an ear back in that direction.

"...looked just like her! They could be sisters!"

"Did you see her eyes? One of them was red."

"Do you think that's why..."

Elsewhere on the school campus, Kirakishou was waiting in a dark corner, giggling.

"Ooh... just as I suspected. She's here." The white Maiden tossed her long hair and laughed.

Her unseeing, white eye rolled lazily across the landscape.

Jun was putting the last stitches on his sewing project. He no longer had access to any Maiden-sized dolls to model his work, so he was saving up for a doll from Enju's shop. Enju himself had become a lot less psychotic and a lot more likeable since the... incident. He had become a bit of a recluse, sitting in his workroom and making dolls, but he wasn't so obsessive over his art. Jun recalled a conversation they had in which Enju had said that there was "something more real than doll-making" in his life. He figured the dude finally got a girlfriend.

Shinku, clad in a floaty, floral red dress and sheer stockings, looked up from the book she had been reading. She was draped across Jun's bed (well, it was her bed now) in a way that pretty much defined how much harder it was to sit properly for extended periods of time with such a comparatively large human body.

"Jun?"

Jun looked over at Shinku, who was staring intently back at him.

"Souseiseki's been gone a long time."

This statement coincided with the sound of the door opening downstairs. Souseiseki's baggy pants swished past the bedroom, followed by the sound of Suiseiseki's boots.

The twins sat down in Nori's unoccupied bedroom, where their bedspreads had been laid out across the floor and trampled quite thoroughly.

"What took you so long, desu?"

"I was..." Souseiseki remembered her encounter with the newest candidate for Alice. "I was... surveying."

Suiseiseki looked at her sister suspiciously. "Are you going to start the Alice Game again?"

Souseiseki shook her head. "I don't even know what it's about yet. What Father wants."

It was a good thing that Souseiseki was such a good liar, because she had just learned exactly what Father wanted. And she wasn't sure if, by keeping this little secret of hers, she was helping or hurting his goal.

"Ah..." Suiseiseki let out a sigh that was as much resignation as it was relief.

"What's going on, Suiseiseki? What happened while I was gone? Tell me about it."

"Well, I made brownies, and I was the only one who ate one."

"Really?"

"Well..." Suiseiseki recalled Jun. "Um, yes."

Souseiseki laughed.

"Even Shinku didn't have any, desu! Maybe she's on a diet. Hmph."

"No, she wouldn't be on a diet, Suiseiseki. We don't..."

There was a pause.

"We wouldn't gain or lose weight or anything. Our bodies don't change at all."

Another pause.

"We're still just dolls."

Only half of the people in the house were asleep that night. Shinku, Suigintou, and Nori were all sleeping soundly, but Suiseiseki and Jun were downstairs, snacking on the brownies that had gone untouched by everyone else.

"She was being really weird, desu..."

"Yeah?"

Suiseiseki nodded. "I'm kinda worried..."

Jun, who had absolutely no experience in dealing with these kinds of situations, just stared.

At that time, Kirakishou and Souseiseki were in the mirror room. Despite Souseiseki's instructions to get out of the house, Kira remained there.

"So what's it like, having a twin? Souseiseki?"

"What do you care? It's not the same thing."

"It's close enough." Kirakishou pouted.

"How did you become human, anyway? Well, not human, but... like this. You know."

"So hostile. It's not like you."

"I want to enjoy these last moments with my sisters. Before the Alice Game destroys everything again. I made a mistake last time."

"Tsk... well, it makes sense, you know. Even if you don't have a physical body..." Kirakishou twirled around. "Whether it never existed, or it was torn away from you, or it was destroyed... if you exist in some form, in any realm..." She reached over and patted Souseiseki on the head. "...you, too, can have this lovely form. And personally, I like it." She twirled a lock of hair around her own fingers.

Souseiseki, with nothing more to say, simply glared. "Go. You'll wake everyone up."

"Is Suigintou onee-sama around? I want to say hi to her..."

"Please, don't cause any trouble yet."

"Okay, odd one. I can wait." Kirakishou smiled and winked. "But don't go telling everyone about our little conversation. Oh, and by the way..."

Not wanting to provoke Kirakishou into saying anything more, Souseiseki refused to respond.

"Don't think I've forgotten. I noticed you've all obviously taken the tip Suigintou gave you... She must really love you all, if she's willing to let me..." She giggled. "...consume her."

Before Souseiseki could respond, Kirakishou had exited via the mirror.

Suiseiseki and Jun, downstairs, had been careful thus far not to awake the sleeping Suigintou.

Jun's eyes had slight dark rings underneath from lack of sleep, but Suiseiseki's, curiously, were as fresh as ever. She had eaten as many brownies as was really possible for her, which was two. She was no Hinaichigo, that was for sure. Now, she had laid her head down across her arms and was gazing at the wall. It didn't feel right to go to bed now.

He almost reached out to prod her awake, but Jun realized then that Suiseiseki's eyes were still open, and he found himself wondering what she could be thinking about. He knew something had happened when Souseiseki had gone out, judging by the fact that some sort of heated conversation had taken place between the twins earlier that night, but he didn't ask what.

As it turned out, the two were startled by Suigintou, and not the other way around.

Suigintou rolled off the couch, waking from her sleep with a scream. All she could feel was the intense burning. The ring Kirakishou had placed on her finger, searing her skin. A long, thin rose vine extended around her hand, then her arm, and her entire body. It went climbing up the stairs, sinking into Suigintou's flesh all the while, easily drawing blood, dragging her slowly toward the N-Field. There was nothing she could do to fight it.