Foreword: I am finally getting around to x-posting this from AO3. This fic was originally written based on a combination of prompts for Whumptober 2023. The prompts were Restraints and Borrowed Clothing (borrowed is a very generous term here). Darker than I usually write. You have been warned.
~~~~~~Not a Single Stitch Left~~~~~~
Alice sighed in relief as she kept tension in the wires attached to her fingers. After what she'd just been through, she was determined not to allow her captive a means of escape.
The battle had been hard fought; a difficult danmaku duel that had devolved into a close quarters brawl. Somewhere along the way, her shawl had been lost and she'd exhausted her supply of dolls, but that mattered little.
Lying there before her, tied up by magical wire, was the current source of Gensokyo's ire, the amanojaku Seija Kijin.
Her role in the Miracle Mallet incident and her utter refusal to capitulate left her branded as a wanted criminal. One that had, until now, evaded capture.
"Pfft... Are you after that reward, too? Just like everyone else. What a weak motivation," Seija grumbled from the ground.
Alice took exception to that. "Don't misunderstand. I have no use for whatever bounty is on your head. I simply refuse to believe that a youkai with such a ridiculous power has somehow managed to slip away from Gensokyo's best, time and time again.
"Oh, yeah, insult me more. That make ya feel good?"
Alice sighed. "Please, do be quiet until the others arrive."
Seija snickered. "If you're gonna be that way, then I'd better do this!"
"What are you-"
"Flip you!" Seija suddenly shouted.
In an instant, Alice's sense of gravity was turned on its head. She was turned on her head.
"Aah!" was all she could say as she collapsed back onto the ground, completely unprepared for her sudden headstand. With Alice distracted and momentarily incapacitated, the wires binding Seija went slack.
The amanojaku knew how to capitalize on a sudden turn.
She slipped free of her restraints with an unnatural ease. Then, with the very same wire in her own hands, immediately set upon Alice.
...
The puppeteer fought and struggled, but was eventually subdued.
Seija sighed in satisfaction.
"I'm gettin' real sick of folks like you trying to 'take me in' or 'punish me' or whatever."
She leaned over the tied up dollmaker. "But look at you. Not so tough now, huh?"
Alice... couldn't believe how quickly the situation had deteriorated. Lying back on the cold, hard ground, her hands and feet were bound by her own thread.
The loss of authority. The indignity. The... humiliation.
It was quickly becoming Alice's worst day in recent memory, and that included the day Marisa had accidentally set her house on fire.
...Gunpowder and fire did not mix well...
"Y'know, I really ought to do something about y'all. Show you just who it is you're messin' with."
A wicked grin split her face. "I've got just the thing."
With her foot, Seija roughly flipped Alice over onto her stomach. Alice had to turn her head so that her face wasn't pressed into the dirt.
"I'm gonna strip you butt naked with this 'ridiculous power' of mine!" she declared.
Gods, Alice wished Seija would just fly off again.
There was no way that she would be bold enough to do something like that to her. A cruel act like that would paint an even bigger target on her back. With Alice's connection to both Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame well known, only the outstandingly foolish or straight up suicidal would risk their fury.
Or... Seija, as it turned out. She sat herself down on the small of Alice's back, making herself comfortable.
"Now then..." Alice couldn't see the amanojaku's face, but the tone of her voice sent shivers down her spine. "How shall I unwrap this present of mine?"
Alice's discomfort grew tenfold at the open question, made even worse by the tickle at the back of her neck. Seija's nails delicately scraped along, just inside of the back collar of her dress.
Unwrap her present? Alice... didn't even want to consider what she meant by that.
She squirmed at her touch. In such a vulnerable position, it was hard not to!
"Get... G-Get off of me you... you..."
Seija's nails pricked at her neck, threatening to break the skin.
"Finish that thought. I dare you."
With that, Alice's words died in her throat.
Seija's hand withdrew from Alice's neck, only to reappear on the outside of the dress's collar. Her nails tapped at a button, the first of a series that fastened the dress closed.
Seija spoke, voice low and punctuated by nail clicking upon button. "Such. A pretty. Present. Would be a shame. To ruin. The wrapping."
She... wouldn't right? Surely she wouldn't!? It was all just bluffing; it had to be!
The tapping of nails began to trail down her back, following the line of buttons.
Though Seija had yet to truly do anything, Alice was already panicking.
This was not happening! She... she can't be humiliated like this!
Dread pooled in her stomach, and her veins ran cold. She struggled and squirmed, yet she could not escape those damn fingernails!
One of the things she held dear was her own sense of modesty, and here they were, threatening, no... promising to take it all away!
There was a tension, a sense of pressure at the back of her neck.
She was... She was really going to do it!
Seija held the first button, just on the brink of coming undone, relishing in her opponent's struggle. Then-
*plip*
It popped open, revealing just a bit more of Alice's pale neck, rendering her that much more exposed to the world.
With that came the breaking of a dam.
"Stop! Please stop! Don't do it! Don't do this to me!" There were already tears in both her eyes and her voice.
"Hmm? Do what?" The pressure was building on the second button.
"No! No, no, no, please! S-stop, please, I beg you!"
*plip*
There went button number two, this time bringing out a bit of Alice's upper back.
"That! Don't! Please!"
"You're gonna have to be more specific than that. We amanojaku can be a bit 'ridiculous' sometimes."
*plip*
And there went number three. More of her back was revealed, along with the back of her bra. A plain, white, modest thing, not that she needed all that much support in the first place.
"Please! P-Please don't strip me naked!"
*plip*
Her pleas fell on selectively deaf ears.
"N-no!"
*plip*
"S-stop!"
*plip*
"Nooooooo!"
*plip*
...
With that, the entire back of Alice's dress hung open. From her pale neck, all the way down her slender back to her hips, she was exposed.
Well, not totally exposed.
There were still her bra straps and her panties, the top of which peeked out from within the open dress. However, that fact was of little comfort.
Seija traced a finger down her back before she picked at the elastic of Alice's underwear, stretching out the waistband before letting it snap back into place.
Too little comfort...
...
...
...
The door to Alice's house swung open before quickly slamming back shut.
There was a desperation to the action, that of an utterly defeated puppeteer seeking refuge in her place of comfort.
Streaks of dried tears covered her face and her hair was a complete disaster. From top to bottom, she was entirely nude, not a single stitch left to protect her.
Seija had made good on her promise, stripping her totally naked, much like a child would undress a doll. Humiliatingly, not even her headband or her boots had been spared.
The heavy mix of shame, embarrassment, and helplessness was nearly enough to make her sick.
The outrage of being restrained by her own tools... The total loss of control... The total loss of her clothes...
She... she thought that she had exhausted all of her tears, yet here they were, threatening to spill over once more.
At least her captor had only deprived her of her clothing. Once that had been accomplished, she had been let go. It was a small mercy.
...Could it even be called mercy?
...
Alice Margatroid, the Seven-Colored Puppeteer, crawled into her bed, numb, but not numb enough.
She hid... hid away from the world, curled up beneath the blankets, wishing to forget that this day had ever happened.
~~~~~~Author's Notes~~~~~~
So... I decided to try writing something a bit different than I'm used to. I won't lie; I felt pretty bad about writing this, but I guess that's what writing whump is supposed to make you feel like?
It makes me realize that I vastly prefer writing more wholesome fare.
Unfortunately, there really is no comfort here. Alice just has a genuinely bad time after trying to catch a wanted criminal. I know writing Seija as the villain is the easy way out, but she's probably one of the best characters for this kind of role.
This is in no way related to any of my other works.
Idk if I'll try exploring more Whumptober type stuff. Lemme know what you think.