Okay, this episode was supposed to be dedicated to Souseiseki and Suiseiseki reuniting, but it hasn't worked out that way. I might extend this episode by another chapter or so in order to fit everything in.

Rozen Maiden: Märchen

EPISODE 4

From the Heart

Jun did make it to school on time, but only just. His nosebleed had stopped, mercifully. His pride and dignity however were in complete tatters. Nori and Tomoe teased him relentlessly on the way to school. Nori in particular couldn't get over the fact that he'd confessed his love to Shinku, and seemed to be of the opinion that Jun was going to marry her at some unforeseeable point in the future. She had frantically tried to figure out how a wedding between a boy and a doll might work, while Jun begged her to stop.

By the time they eventually did get to school, Jun was actually relieved to have schoolwork to occupy his time and his mind. Growing up he might be, yet he was still just a kid. He was in school for crying out loud! How could he even think of getting married? He couldn't even make up his mind as to what career he wanted to pursue. Nevertheless he found his thoughts drifting during class, and was startled to realise that he had been doodling designs for a wedding dress in his workbook. He blushed and hurriedly erased it whilst fervently hoping that no one else had seen.

The class relocated to the school library for a study period, although everyone mostly used the time to relax and chat with one another. Jun was probably the only one actually working, and sat at a table beside Tomoe as they went over the morning's lessons. Jun still needed help, though he was slowly getting better at it all. The problem was, as Tomoe had said, his lack of confidence. Once upon a time he'd been the school's top grade student. His own insecurities were holding him back and making the work harder for him, but he was getting over them little by little.

"Thanks, I get it now," he said gratefully to Tomoe.

"No problem. Actually I should be thanking you, Jun."

He blinked. "Huh? What for?"

"For bringing Hina back. Seeing her again really cheered me up. I thought she was gone for good, but ... I guess I should have figured. With you around, anything is possible."

Jun stared at her. She was looking at the textbook on the table in front of them, though he could tell she was doing that so she didn't have to look at him. Something occurred to him.

"Cheered you up? Were you feeling down?"

Tomoe looked away and began fiddling with her pencil case all of a sudden. "No, nothing like that."

Normally Tomoe was pretty difficult to read. She was always so quiet and reserved that most people found it impossible to tell the difference between her being happy or her being sad. Jun however had been friends with her since they were practically toddlers, and now that he was less wrapped up in his own problems he could tell that she was lying. He had a pretty good idea why as well.

"Listen, Tomoe, about yesterday-"

"Don't," Tomoe said abruptly, rounding on him with a firm set look in her eyes, "You don't have to say anything. I'm happy for you, Jun. Really."

"I, uh ... thanks," he answered lamely, his shoulders slumping. They both stared at the table in front of them in awkward silence for several moments before Tomoe spoke again.

"Jun ... next month, don't get me anything for White Day. It wouldn't be fair on Shinku. Give her something instead."

Jun observed her from the corner of his eye, and he could tell she was having a hard time saying these things. He didn't know what to do. Yesterday he'd opened his heart up to Shinku out of fear of losing her, and he'd done it without any thought to Tomoe's feelings. She'd stood there and watched without saying a word. Heck, if it weren't for Tomoe he wouldn't have even found Shinku in the first place. It occurred to him that Tomoe was a very good friend, and one far better than he deserved.

"Heads up," she said suddenly. Jun looked up and saw a girl heading towards their table, a glossy magazine clutched in her hands. It was Yuna Kuwata, only the prettiest girl in the entire school as voted by general consensus. With a deeply mischievous smirk on her face she slapped her magazine down on the table in front of Jun and then sat herself down next to him. He stared at the shiny front cover and parts of his brain that were faster at processing things started to raise alarm bells inside his head.

"You look cute with long hair, Sakurada," said Yuna, stifling a good-natured laugh. Tomoe leaned over and peered at the magazine whilst Jun started to have a mild panic attack. It was one of those teen lifestyle magazines, and there were two brightly dressed girls on the front cover posing together.

Well, one girl at any rate.

"I'm guessing by the look on your face that I'm right and that is in fact you on the cover with Tomoe," said Yuna cheerfully. Jun struggled to make a noise of some kind but failed when his vocabulary neglected to provide him with any actual words for the occasion. She was right, that was him on the front cover. It would seem that the pictures Mitsu took for her fashion shoot had finally seen the light of day.

"Hey, it turned out pretty good, didn't it?" said Tomoe, seemingly oblivious to Jun's extreme discomfort. Yuna grinned as she watched him.

"There's more inside," she added helpfully.

"H-how... ?" Jun managed, waving a shaking finger at the horrifying sight before him. Yuna shrugged.

"I read your blog and then when I saw this I just put two and two together. Oh," she reached across and grabbed Jun's hand, "It helps that you have a very distinctive ring," she added, pointing at said object on his finger. He blinked and focused on the picture of himself on the front cover of the magazine again, and to his mounting dread he realised that yes, you could easily see the rose ring on his hand. It would be in all of the shots Mitsu had taken of him. He'd forgotten about it at the time, but then it often slipped his mind since he couldn't very well remove it. He made a noise somewhere between a groan and a deep wail of despair.

"It's not that bad," Tomoe tried to assure him. Jun stared at her in disbelief.

"Not that bad? Are you kidding me? This is totally bad!" Jun hid his face behind his hands as if that would make him invisible somehow. If only. "Pretty soon everyone in school will know what I did. Forget designing dresses and living with dolls, when this gets out I'm going to have no choice but to sign myself into a padded cell!" He pushed his chair back and started to leave until Tomoe grabbed his wrist.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"I'm moving to Osaka. Don't even think of trying to stop me."

Tomoe got up and steered him forcefully back into his chair, which wasn't that difficult because she was quite strong and Jun was ... well, puny. He struggled futilely.

"Let go of me! I gotta get out of here!"

"Jun, running away will not solve anything."

"Yes, it will. When people find out I will be a hundred miles from here and I won't be able to hear the laughter."

At that point Yuna gently cleared her throat. "Might I offer and alternative to moving house?"

"No," said Jun.

"Yes," said Tomoe.

"People listen to me and trust me. I could easily tell them that it was your cousin who posed for the pictures, and you loaned her your ring because she liked it. Tomoe could back me up and no one need be any the wiser."

Jun scowled, not liking this plan as much as his own. "I don't have a cousin."

"Nobody needs to know that. Just fill your sister in and everything should be fine. Besides, it's not that obvious that it's you," Yuna said, tapping a finger on the front cover, "You make a very convincing girl in these pictures. It could work."

"I like my idea better," said Jun sullenly. He could already hear the roars of mocking laughter. Maybe they were going to laugh so loud that it would echo back in time to this moment, and that was what he was hearing. He slumped forwards and leaned his head against his hands, staring mutely at the cover of the magazine. What an idiot he'd been. It was a fashion shoot for teen girls, of course people at school would see the pictures.

"Well?"

"Fine. But if anyone finds out it was me-"

"You'll be in Osaka. Got it," Yuna clapped her hands together, "Oh! That reminds me. Since I'm going to be doing you a favour, would you mind doing me one?"

Jun rolled his eyes. "Just so long as it doesn't involve dressing up as a girl."

"No. Not unless you want to. The drama club is organising a school play, and we need someone to design the costumes. I was hoping you would do it."

Jun snorted. "Forget it. You want to save me from public humiliation only to publicly humiliate me? Thanks but no thanks."

"Jun!" Tomoe, who was still standing behind him in case he decided to run away, gave him a gentle nudge. Yuna treated him to a grade A pleading puppy dog look, complete with adorable wide eyes that could melt the coldest of hearts. It was completely unfair, Jun reflected.

"Please, Sakurada! Jun! Everyone already knows you do that kind of thing, and you're the best I've ever seen at it. If you did the costumes for the play I just know they'd look fantastic."

Jun was really starting to miss the good old days of being shut in his room, ordering junk online and not speaking to anyone. It was lonely but at least people didn't keep asking him to do embarrassing things he didn't want to do. Okay, that wasn't quite fair; he loved designing costumes, outfits and dresses in particular. It was just that people tended to laugh and make fun of a boy doing those things, and he'd had enough humiliation to last him a lifetime.

He sighed heavily. "Why do I let people talk me into this stuff?"

"Does that mean you'll do it?"

"Yes."

"Oh thank you!" Yuna threw her arms around Jun and planted a kiss on his cheek. Because the universe had not filled its quota for relentlessly tormenting Jun Sakurada today, his nose started to bleed again.

Suigintou scowled. She was good at it. She floated through the empty, snow-covered streets of her own personal N-Field, following the tiny white spirit in front of her. It was unquestionably the artificial spirit that belonged to her psychotic little sister Kirakishou. An invitation, and one that Suigintou had elected to accept. She had not forgotten her sister's boastful claim that she could become Alice without playing the Alice Game. Ordinarily she would have dismissed the claim out of hand, yet Shinku had told her what Father had said to her. That it was possible. Somehow. If Kirakishou knew how, Suigintou wanted to find out.

It was surprising that Kirakishou had chosen Suigintou's field as the meeting place. If a fight broke out between them then Suigintou would have the home advantage, since this was her world after all. The move suggested that Kirakishou wanted Suigintou to feel she had the upper hand, and Suigintou didn't know what to make of that.

She followed Rosary into a large, desolate building. Kirakishou was inside, standing before a huge mirror that covered the entire far wall. The spirit sailed over to its master and vanished into her. Suigintou landed lightly a dozen or so feet away. As she did so, she noticed a rather disconcerting fact; Kirakishou was facing her and thus had her back to the mirror. Her reflection should therefore be of her back. It wasn't. Kirakishou's reflection was facing the same way as she was, which made no sense at all. Suigintou decided to ignore that for now.

"It's good to see you, big sis."

"I wish I could say the same," Suigintou said, taking a few steps towards her, "Now why don't you explain why I'm here?"

"Because I wanted to tell you-" Kirakishou began. She disappeared, though her reflection remained for a second afterwards. Kirakishou herself leaned over Suigintou's shoulder and whispered into her ear, "-I'm sorry."

Suigintou whirled around and took a step away from her unsettling sibling. That was a very annoying trick she had, and she used it often. Kirakishou smirked at her evident discomfort.

"I want to apologise about before," she explained, "I was very rude. I called you a weak helpless doll and then I attacked you. Dreadful behaviour. What must you think of me?"

Suigintou sneered. "I would tell you but I wouldn't suffer such words to pass my lips. If all you brought me here for was to apologise then you are wasting your time."

"No, please, let me make it up to you." Kirakishou gestured with her hand and caused the wall-mirror to light up behind Suigintou. She turned and saw to her astonishment that it was showing the inside of a hospital. Megu's hospital, she realised, and that was Megu being wheeled through the halls.

"What's going on?" Suigintou demanded, her hands curling into trembling fists, "What have you done?"

Kirakishou was at her side, gazing up at the images being displayed on the mirror. It was like a window into the hospital. She smiled faintly. "I wanted to do something nice for you," she said earnestly, "So I've arranged for your broken Medium to be fixed. That's all."

Suigintou was shaken. She was torn by her desire to protect Megu and her confusion at Kirakishou's words. She rounded on her sister and grabbed her by the shoulders. "If you harm a hair on her head I will tear you into a million pieces and grind what's left into dust."

"Promise?" Kirakishou grinned. Suigintou shook her fiercely, an act that only made the crazed seventh doll appear all the happier.

"What have you done to her?! Tell me!"

Kirakishou waited until Suigintou stopped shaking her before answering. She held her hands out on either side as if the whole affair were mere child's play. "It was so simple, big sis, honestly. Your Medium had a broken defective heart. She needed a new one. Humans are reluctant to give away their parts, but some of them carry little cards around that say the doctors can chop them up and reuse their parts when they die. I found one such human in the hospital."

Suigintou's eyes narrowed, a hint of disgust creeping into her voice. "And you killed them?"

"Of course not. Humans go to hospitals because they are broken. The woman I found had something wrong with her head. They call it a brain tumour. Her heart was strong and healthy, but she had at least a year to live. Megu might not have lasted that long, so I wound the lady's time key forwards until she stopped. The doctors are taking care of the rest as we speak."

Suigintou was far too stunned for words. She stared through her sister, struggling to comprehend the enormity of what she'd done. Kirakishou went on, oblivious. "Isn't it better this way? Now your Medium will be able to live a full healthy life. Given enough time she will be strong enough for you to draw power from without dying. Doesn't that make you happy? Sis?"

Suigintou released Kirakishou and staggered back, staring at her sister with horror. "That's ... that's vile! How could you do such a thing? You stole a year of a human's life away!"

Kirakishou frowned. "And gave a lifetime of years to your Medium in return. Surely that is a good compromise? You wanted to fix the girl, and now she is fixed. What does it matter to you that a stranger died in her place?"

Suigintou gasped at her. "You don't get it at all, do you? You don't even see that what you did was wrong. I ... I can't believe you are a Rozen Maiden!"

Kirakishou gave an impressive scowl for a one-eyed doll. She pointed accusingly at Suigintou. "All I did was follow your example. That's all I have ever done. I have always looked up to you, Suigintou."

"I would never have done something like this!" she spat.

"Wouldn't you? That's strange, because I seem to recall a time when you thought nothing of slaying your sisters and taking their hearts for the sake of that girl. Or am I wrong?"

Suigintou balked. No, she was not wrong. Last year she had done just that. She'd entered into the Alice Game as much to save Megu's life as to meet Father. Perhaps more so. She'd taken Souseiseki's Rosa Mystica with a smile on her lips and joy in her soul, and after yesterday she had Souseiseki's Rosa Mystica once more within her. It burned as the guilt of what she'd done assailed her. Her face tightened at the accusation. The dark oppressive air of her N-Field was suffocating her. She needed space, and she needed to be away from the demented doll standing before her.

The mirror glowed with a bright white light and rippled as Suigintou flew through it. As the light faded Kirakishou stood, open-mouthed and bewildered.

"I don't understand," she said aloud, "I thought this would make her happy?"

Suigintou glided through the darkness of the N-Field, doors shooting past her in a blur. She was struggling to fight off the waves of revulsion and self-loathing she felt towards herself. Kirakishou had thought nothing of stealing away a human life to fix what Suigintou wanted fixed, and she did it because she thought that it was no less than what Suigintou herself would do.

What made it all the worse was that she was right.

"I'm not like that," she snarled, trying to convince herself as much as anyone else, "I'm not like that at all."

It was a lie though, and she knew it. Not so long ago she would have thought nothing of taking some stranger's heart and giving it to Megu. Not so long ago she had fought and killed one of her own sisters in the hopes of using her Rosa Mystica to help Megu get better. And when that didn't work she challenged the rest of her sisters, and would have turned them all into junk in order to get what she wanted.

She stopped flying and floated there, staring at her hands. Flashes of her past whirled through her mind, brief snippets of past battles. Times she had tormented and hurt her sisters. The time she had torn Shinku's arm from its socket. The time she had defeated Souseiseki and taken her Rosa Mystica. Throughout the ages, all she'd ever done was hurt people. Had she ever ... had she ever in her life done anything nice?

"Yes," she said. More recently she had helped that annoying boy save a girl's soul tree. And just yesterday she'd saved Shinku from sacrificing herself to that insufferable rabbit Laplace. Things she normally wouldn't have even considered doing. She wasn't a complete monster. She could do good things. She didn't have to end up like Kirakishou, nor did she have to be the kind of person Kirakishou saw her as.

Suigintou looked inside herself and sensed the glowing essence of Souseiseki's Rosa Mystica. She could feel her sister's memories and feelings stirring deep within, mingling with her own. There was a strong desire to meet Father, a desire she understood. But there was something else, something she'd felt before when she had possessed Souseiseki's Rosa Mystica. Suiseiseki. She yearned to be with her. She missed her twin. She cared for her so much that it made Suigintou ache the more she thought about it.

She knew then what she needed to do.

Hinaichigo skipped through the house, humming a playful tune under her breath as she went. She was so happy to be awake again, even more so to be able to see her sisters and Tomoe once more. She had a new sister to play with as well. That scary Barasuishou was now living with them, and she wasn't trying to fight any of them anymore. Hina was looking for her now, to see if she wanted to play hide and go seek.

She stood in the hallway and glanced around, wondering which door she should try first. Maybe she was in the bathroom? The bathroom door was shut but Barasuishou was taller than Hina, and maybe she could reach the handle by herself. Hina strolled down the hallway and then stopped. A light shone from the dark storeroom just ahead. The door to that room was open. Hina watched it with curiosity, wondering what it might be. Maybe it was Kanaria, come to visit?

Suigintou appeared, looked around for a moment and then fixed her lavender eyes on Hina. Hina let out a gasp of fright and backed away, her hands flying to her mouth to stifle the sound. She wanted to turn away and run but she was too scared to. Before she could think to cry out for help her silver-haired big sister was standing in front of her, watching her closely. Then, and to her considerable amazement, Suigintou hugged her. Hina blinked with surprise a few times and then hugged her back, smiling widely. After a few seconds Suigintou stopped and pulled away, though she kept a hold of Hina. Hina thought she looked sad, despite her smile.

"What's wrong?" Hina asked.

"You were scared of me, weren't you?"

"Umm, well you're usually scary and mean towards Hina."

Suigintou closed her eyes for a moment. "I'm sorry."

"That's okay. Hina knows you're not a bad person, not really."

"Am I not?" Suigintou seemed mildly surprised to hear that. Hina shook her head.

"No, because Shinku told Hina that deep down Suigintou is really a good person inside, and Shinku is always right."

The sadness vanished from her face and her eyes widened. "Shinku ... really said that?"

"Uh-huh. Hina wasn't really sure if she was right about that, but see? You're being nice now. So Shinku was right after all."

Suigintou reached up and gently stroked Hina's hair. It was something she'd never done before. She'd always seen the childish doll as weak and idiotic, and if she was being brutally honest, Hina was. But Hina was also incredibly kind and sweet and innocent. Suigintou had never noticed that before, or if she had she'd dismissed it as irrelevant.

Right now, she envied Hinaichigo.

"Suigintou?"

"Yes Hina?"

"Why are you sad?"

Suigintou hesitated for a moment and then smiled. "I'm sad because ... I've been thinking about all the mean things I've done to you before. To you and our sisters. Tell me something Hinaichigo..."

"Unyuu?"

"If I asked you to forgive me for being so mean ... would you?"

Hina tilted her head and laughed. "Of course! I forgive you, Suigintou. Hey, do you wanna play with Hina?"

Suigintou laughed a little herself. She laid a hand against Hina's cheek. "You know something Hina? You're closer to being Alice than I've ever been."

If Shinku or Suiseiseki were watching they probably would have broken inside hearing her admit that. As it was Hina simply laughed some more and wrapped her own tiny hands around Suigintou's.

"Hina, could you do something for me?"

"Unyuu?"

Suigintou bowed her head and brought her hands close to her chest, forcing the warmth of Souseiseki's Rosa Mystica from her body. The red gem glowed in her palms as she held it out towards Hinaichigo. Hina stared at it in wonder.

"Can you give this to Jun? If he could bring you back then he can do the same for Souseiseki. She misses Suiseiseki very much, and I don't want to keep them apart any longer."

Hina took the Rosa Mystica and frowned, confused. "But ... don't you need this for the Alice Game?"

Suigintou turned away and took a step towards the storeroom. She stopped and glanced back at Hina over her shoulder, a genuine smile of warmth on her face.

"I'm not going to play the Alice Game anymore."