A/N: Sorry to keep you waiting~ and sorry for the question's that'll spawn after reading this. See you later. Keke.
It was not concerning to what was happening between the Pages to Souseiseki. She couldn't lift her eyes up enough to see what was happening after all, but she could certainly hear the clashes of a sword and feel heat trickling through her that Mitsuru was certainly emitting.
Her eyes were on Suiseiseki, who had finally fallen to the ground only metres away from her.
Luckily before she fell, Mitsuru had summoned up flickering flames had caught her before she had hit the ground. And the flames hadn't burned her either, which was a relief.
Breathing heavily, Souseiseki began to drag her way towards her twin, eyes focused only on her. If only she hadn't been injured by Suigintou, then she could help her twin. Only for a few moments when Shinichi wasn't with her, Suigintou had appeared by the windowsill in her room and provoked her to fight.
She shouldn't have accepted, no matter how many taunts and insults thrown at her. Then she wouldn't have lost like this.
And what was worse, Suigintou left her, like the trash she was. Her right cheek was cracked, her clothes were in tatters and her top hat had been lost, and there were definitely problems with the inside of her otherwise she would have been able to stand.
It would have been better for her if her Rozen Mystica was taken, but Suigintou wished to let her suffer a little more.
There was no way she could become Alice now, but she wasn't going to let Suigintou become Alice either. Finally, the tips of her fingers found Suiseiseki's leg and she slowly pulled her twin closer to her, and wrapped her arms around the stiff body of Suiseiseki.
A tiny tear trickled down her face and seeped into the crack of her cheek. This must have how Suiseiseki had felt when she'd lost her Rozen Mystica to Suigintou in the past. It was a painful feeling, she knew now.
"Wake up, please," she said, wiping the tear away from her face. If Suiseiseki was going to wake up, she couldn't see her own twin crying.
"It's useless."
Souseiseki turned around slowly and saw that Mitsuru was struggling against an ice-encasing surrounding his body, pinning him to the wall. Little by little, however, the ice began to melt.
Katsutoshi didn't seem to have had an easy time. The ruffles around his trousers were either ripped or burnt black; his shirt was in the same condition.
"You will pay," Souseiseki breathed, beginning to get up, but her knee's only gave way from underneath her.
Katsutoshi sniggered, pointing his sword of ice in Suiseiseki's direction.
"She's as good as gone, eh?" he commented before his ice sword dispersed into the air. "Frozen forever…"
"She's not lost." Both eyes turned to Mitsuru. His red hair was soaked in water at the ends, much like the rest of his clothes. But otherwise, he seemed unharmed.
Mitsuru hovered in the air, glaring at Katsutoshi.
"How do you know?" Souseiseki asked him and took a quick glance past him. Shinichi and Shinku were now fighting together against Suigintou. Thankfully, Suigintou was enraged as she was clearly losing for as soon as she shielded herself against Shinku's petals, Shinichi's curved blades would go shooting and cut through her feathered shield like a knife through butter.
"I feel her life energy, Souseiseki," Mitsuru answered, smiling warmly at her.
Souseiseki looked away, back to Katsutoshi's frowning face. "She can't still, I mean, that'll mean she has an incredibly will to…" he trailed off and glared at Souseiseki.
"I'll finish you off."
"Lempicka," Souseiseki said, summoning her artificial spirit. Knowing that Suiseiseki was still going to be okay was enough for her to gather her own energy again. "Heal her, Mitsuru," she said, with her gardener's shears now in her hand.
"STOOOOOOOPP!"
"Who's there?" Suigintou said, turning to face the new voice.
"Look over here!" another voice cried.
Every doll's eyes, besides Suiseiseki's, turned towards the two voices.
"Hinaichigo, Kanaria!" Shinku cried angrily. "What are you doing here?"
"Jun's here too!" Hinaichigo cried, pointing at a shadowy figure behind her.
"Jun!" Shinku shouted.
"Sorry, but I was worried, and you couldn't have gone too long without me," Jun explained.
"All dolls are present now…" Shinku said, looking around at all the dolls around her, those with weapons in their hands, those injured and those that just arrived.
"Not Kirakishou," Mitsuru said.
"LISTEN!" Hinaichigo cried, waving her hands wildly to get attention. "WE KNOW! We know everything! So listen to us!"
"What could you possibly know, Hinaichigo?" Suigintou said her name with apparent disdain. "You're not even qualified to be in the Alice game."
"We know!" Kanaria cried out, waving the bow of her violin. "We know!"
"You know what exactly?" Shinku broke in.
"EVERYTHING!"
"You-aren't-helping!" Katsutoshi sent ice darts towards the two, pinning them into the wooden grandfather's clock behind them. He hissed in surprised when there was a sudden and loud gong. It echoed through the air.
Gong.
Gong.
Gong.
"Midnight," Jun stated looking up at the clock.
"That's not supposed to tick," Suigintou muttered to herself, but in the silence, everyone had heard.
"Maybe Katsutoshi made it work with his ice-darts," Hinaichigo said, pulling on the things pinning her to the gonging clock.
"It's loud!" Kanaria whined.
"Impossible," Suigintou said, floating over to the clock. "This is my N-field, and that's not supposed to tick, let alone sound at midnight!"
"Something's wrong."
"Suiseiseki!" Souseiseki cried as soon as she heard the sound of her twin's voice, she knew it was her before she turned. She made a dive for her and hugged her tightly.
"Let me go, Souseiseki," Suiseiseki said, pushing slightly on Souseiseki's shoulders. Souseiseki didn't mind, since Suiseiseki was still quite hot from what Mitsuru had seemingly done to revive her.
Katsutoshi emitted a low growl from his through, having long ago lost his grin.
"What's wrong?"
Three voices chorused at once.
"Something…" Suiseiseki said, getting to her feet. "It's…I think…"
"A strange feeling, it's familiar," Shinku added, looking around.
"This is stupid," Katsutoshi interjected, turning to Suigintou, but found that she was also looking around with the same expression on her face.
"Oh fantastic!" he cried, flinging his hands up into the air in frustration. "Now everyone around me is a weak-"
BAM.
Katsutoshi was thrown into wall Mitsuru was pinned to earlier, and was now wrapped around with thick tendrils of fire.
"Resist and they'll burn," Mitsuru said severely.
"Man…"
Then Mitsuru turned to Hinaichigo and Kanaria, raising his hand. Then the ice darts began to melt and then the two were freed. They landed on their butts.
"Ow!"
"Thank you…I think," Kanaria said.
"Shinku, what is it?" Jun said, racing towards the doll in red. "You're acting weird, what's happening?"
"It's…"
"Father?"
All turned to the shadowed figure.