Medicine had followed the dolls back to their home. She immediately recognized the place as the same house she had been at earlier that day. This time though, there weren't any dolls outside and the ones that she had been following had entered the house using a door that was way too small for her to enter. Her little doll companion, Su-san, tried to follow them inside only to learn that the door was locked and there was no key hole on the door.

Medicine herself was too weak to force the front door open and the windows were too strong and high for her to break. She began looking around in hopes of finding a way in but couldn't find anything until her little doll came back carrying a key that was almost the same size as her.

Usually, the little tsukumogami would knock on the door and wait for someone to let her in. However, she was getting desperate and at this point, didn't care for the consequences as long as she had a place to stay for now.

She quickly closed the door behind her and breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe for now. Scanning her surroundings, she saw not one but more than a dozen dolls moving up and about inside the house. Each one of them was doing a different task such as sorting materials, putting away newly cleaned dishes, or restocking a large cabinet. Medicine immediately recognized the restocked items as Eirin's drugs and made a mental note to stay away from that spot. She had been through enough of Eirin's experiments to know that they were not only strong but also had long lasting side effects.

After doing a quick search to confirm that she was indeed alone, the little doll youkai headed straight to the second floor bathroom to dry herself and remove the mud off her face. As much as she wanted to take a bath and wash her clothes clean, she didn't have a spare set of clothes and the house didn't have any clothes that fit her either. Additionally, cleaning her dress was a long process and with the storm brewing outside, she had no way of drying them. Her tiny doll, Su-san, was equally dirty so Medicine did her best to clean the tiny doll before wrapping her in some warm towels that her doll fell asleep in. Once she finished, she went back down and began exploring the large house until she came across a large bookshelf.

While she had seen many different types of bookshelves stocked up on many different items, this bookshelf in particular was filled to the brim with dolls currently at rest. Medicine couldn't help but look at them in awe. She had never seen so many dolls in one place before. Sure she had dealt with other doll users but most of the time, they only had about ten dolls at most. She had tried to count them all but she eventually lost count as more and more began to return and take up whatever spot was left on the shelf until only two dolls were left without a spot. Medicine turned around to see that all the dolls had finished their tasks and were now on the shelf she had been staring at for the past few minutes. She then watched as the shelf moved back into the wall and another bookshelf emerged to take its place.

The new "cover" shelf was filled to the brim with various books and texts that were written in a language Medicine could not read. At the top of the shelf were two empty spots that were now occupied by the two dolls that could not fit on the previous one.

Medicine wanted to grab them but they were just too high up and out of her reach. Looking around, she saw a small stool that she could use but it still wasn't enough to help her reach the dolls. As she looked around, she noticed that there were three chairs seated at a small dining table. Approaching the table, she saw that there were three dishes of food on it. While youkai like her didn't need to eat, the smell of food was enough to make her stomach growl. She hadn't eaten for a very long time.

"I suppose a bit wouldn't hurt," the tsukumogami said to no one.

The little doll youkai moved her stool over to the table and picked up a spoon to taste some of Marisa's mushroom stew. The moment the stew made contact with her mouth, Medicine looked for a place to spit out the stew. In the end, she had to open a window and ended up throwing up on some plants. Despite being a youkai that controlled poison, never had she tasted something so revolting. Heck, even dandelions tasted better despite their less than edible nature.

"So disgusting!" she yelled. Medicine could swear that some of the ingredients in the stew were not edible.

"Who even made this and other than mushrooms, what else did she put in there?" asked the tsukumogami while she cleaned the spoon.

Next, she tried Patchouli's food. The food was still hard and unbeknownst to the doll, it needed to be heated before consumption.

Just like Marisa's stew, her sample of Patchouli's food went out the window.

"It's cold!" yelled the youkai. "At least I didn't throw up this time."

Lastly, she took a look at Alice's food. Since they were just ordinary looking sandwiches and cookies, she didn't need to use a spoon or tool to eat them and simply picked one up to eat. Unlike the stew and frozen food, Medicine didn't spit out or throw away her sample of the food. Instead, she was amazed by how good it tasted and her eyes widened upon taking a single bite.

"It's so good!"

Medicine continued eating the sandwiches and cookies until she felt satisfied. She never had something as nice and tasty as this before. Not even Reisen was capable of making something as good as what she just had even though the food was meant for the princess. She then reached to grab another cookie only to realize there were none left. She then looked at the plate of sandwiches and realized that it was also empty as well.

"Oops."

Medicine looked around hoping to find a pen and paper to write an apology note. Ever since she began staying at Eientei, she learned a little bit of reading and writing. In spite of this, her vocabulary, spelling, and penmanship was that of a toddler meaning it was barely legible. Even Tewi herself could barely make out her letters or symbols.

Once she was done with the note, she left it on the table next to the empty plate of food and turned her attention back towards the two dolls at the top of the shelf. Medicine had already tried using the stool to reach them but it wasn't tall enough for someone her size to reach them.

That's when she noticed the chairs and began moving each one over to the shelf in hopes that one of them could help her get the dolls.

Once again, she first started with Marisa's chair which was covered in various sorts of paper and charms. The little youkai tried climbing on it to reach the dolls but the charms and papers kept coming off and causing her to lose her balance and nearly injure herself.

"I'd reach them with this chair if it wasn't covered with so many pieces of loose paper."

In the end, she gave up on Marisa's chair and moved on to Patchouli's. This time she was able to climb on without slipping or falling but due to the chair's nature, instead of being elevated, she was being lowered. The two dolls were now awake and watching Medicine's attempts to catch them. As much as they wanted to use their weapons against her, they left them across the room inside their armory drawer which was near ground level. Even if they did reach them, they were more likely to be captured in the tsukumogami's arms before they could get their weapons.

"Too squishy. I can't use this."

Medicine moved Patchouli's chair aside and tried Alice's enlarged doll chair. By now the dolls were getting a little worried that the tsukumogami was now capable of reaching them and were playing a little mini game of rock paper scissors to determine which one of them would be sacrificed to this child.

"Hourai!"

"Shanghai!"

The one who exclaimed "Hourai!" had her fist in the form of a rock while the other had it in the form of a pair of scissors. Shanghai nodded her tiny head and moved closer to the edge while Hourai moved further away from the edge to avoid being grabbed by the tsukumogami's hands.

"Just right."

Medicine was finally able to reach the dolls with the aid of Alice's doll chair. Unbeknownst to anyone, the doll chair was not stable and could not hold the weight of anything larger than Alice's dolls. Just as the little doll youkai managed to reach the shelf containing Shanghai and Hourai, the chair snapped and Medicine fell to the floor. While falling, she unintentionally kicked the shelf and caused several items, including Shanghai and Hourai to fall from their positions. Being the stronger of the two, Hourai managed to push off the books and items that fell on her and flew off into the guest rooms while Shanghai remained trapped under the mess Medicine made.

"Owowow."

The tsukumogami rubbed her head a bit before getting up to look for the dolls. As luck would have it, Shanghai was right next to her and was struggling to remove the heavy books and items off her. Medicine quickly noticed and quickly moved some books aside in order to pull her out of the mess. Once the doll was in her arms, she began cuddling the doll as if it were her own child.

"You're so cuuteee!" squealed Medicine.

If anyone had come across her at that very moment, they probably would've mistook her for a child that had been given one of Alice's dolls as a present. However, no one was present at that very moment and Shanghai could not do anything except flail helplessly in Medicine's arms. The tsukumogami's grip was very strong so she couldn't escape no matter how hard she tried. In the end, Shanghai gave up and began returning the affection that Medicine was giving her.

Patchouli had finally managed to finish the spell and now Alice was ready to head out into the rain and grab her dolls and few supplies that would be necessary in the rebuilding of Yuuka's home.

Both Marisa and Patchouli had asked her to bring over some extra raincoats so they could also start heading outside to help out with the repairs.

She didn't mind but that would also mean bringing in more dolls to help her carry the coats. The storm was picking up once again. She hoped she'd make it back home before it got any worse.