Chen Yao, who knew the wonders of humanity, glanced toward Shinku as he spoke—only to find himself staring at the doll-girl's profile.
Though her face was that of a child, it held an exquisite beauty hard to describe; a touch of sorrow made her seem older. Her red gothic dress against golden hair looked at once dim and vivid, and Chen Yao caught himself thinking she, too, was a beauty.
"Mm?"
The doll Shinku gave him a look, puzzled why he'd fallen silent.
"No, nothing."
Chen Yao lapsed into silence. He had to admit Shinku was exquisitely made—he was actually approving of her creator's taste—but that couldn't be right; he wasn't a lolicon, surely.
"Yao, I'm hungry."
Suddenly Shinku closed the photo album and addressed him.
Chen Yao stared as if she were a freak. He distinctly remembered she'd polished off a cup of black tea and his treasured meat pie just two hours ago—and now her stomach was empty again!
The snacks cost next to nothing, yet as he handed her the pie he felt like her guardian, duty-bound to look after her.
"About what the Vampire lady said—two caskets were removed from the underground crypt. Apart from me, who is the other doll inside the second casket? Suiseiseki, or has that detestable one come out?"
Shinku considered the possibilities carefully and spoke.
"I don't recognize any of those names… Oh yes, there's an unassembled doll under my bed. Is she one of your companions?"
Chen Yao had meant to ask whether that unfinished figure beneath the bed might be her sister.
"An unassembled doll? In any case, that is no Rose doll. We six Rozen Maidens were all personally completed by Father and given the rosa mystica as our life source; an ordinary doll has nothing to do with us."
Shinku replied with complete disinterest.
"I see. Then it must be a gift someone sent me."
He had wondered if the second Rozen Maiden might be here, but according to Shinku it couldn't be one of the European Rose Maidens. Still, the casket looked just like hers; when he had time he would open it and investigate.
~·~·~·~·~·~·~
At dinner Chen Yao ate, then carried up some food and tea to feed Shinku. As he reached the stairs he heard a thud inside, as though something was being thrown.
Startled, he pushed the door open. Feathers and petals rained down; game discs, books and clothes littered the floor. On the boards a grey-haired doll-girl the same height as Shinku was yanking her rival's hair in a fierce tussle.
"…So this is the Alice Game that forges the Perfect Girl?"
Chen Yao narrowed his eyes at the punch-for-punch fight and thought silently.
Yet when the grey-haired doll noticed him she looked up, felt the frightening aura he exuded, and shrank back. "Why pick such a terrifying human for your medium? Hmph, whatever becomes of you, I won't care!"
With that she flew hastily out of the window.
"…"
Chen Yao watched helplessly, wondering if the "terrifying human" she spoke of was himself.
"Hmph, detestable woman…"
Shinku sniffed, dust smudging her cheeks, her hair tousled.
"Were you two fighting an Alice Game battle just now?"
Surveying his messy room, Chen Yao sighed and asked her.
"No. She only came to see me, but sensing how dangerous my medium—you—felt, she urged me to abandon you. She knows full well that once a contract is made the medium can never be discarded."
Shinku spoke while wiping her cheeks in his small mirror.
"Sorry for dirtying your room, but don't worry—I didn't let her touch your manga. Though not a single line had been drawn on the manuscript by 6:50, I don't mind; I believe it will appear on that page eventually, and I look forward to it."
The red-clad doll pressed both hands to her breast and smiled in relief.
"…"
Those graceful, lyrical words sent an icy chill through Chen Yao. Had a terrifying doll moved into his room? Her speech simply meant: You still hadn't started drawing by 6:50.
"Uh… actually, my manga's already been animated. Would you like to watch the anime? The feeling is completely different."
After frantic thought he produced a DVD and offered it to her.
Yes—divert her attention from the manga updates to the weekly Friday 9 p.m. broadcast of "kura kura of haruta street"; then he'd be safe, since anime-only viewers fear manga spoilers.
"Animation? Those talking cartoons on television? I had no interest in human things, but if it's the anime of Detective source of knowledge, I'll watch a little."
Though she sounded listless, once Shinku sat before the screen she stayed motionless from episode one through seven.
Chen Yao exhaled in relief, tidied the room, and reflected that women fought fiercely; he wanted no part in brawling with them.
When the anime reached nine o'clock, Shinku suddenly switched off the TV, returned to her casket like a recharging vacuum robot, closed the lid, and went to sleep on the dot.
"Truly child-like habits,"
he mused.
Still on break, he looked at the clean manuscripts and thought he'd start drawing tomorrow; the little imp should be pleased—she was, after all, one of his fans.
Past eleven, after reviewing his lessons, he turned off the light to sleep.
In the hush of night he drifted off. It had been long since he'd slept beside anyone; as an Undead he had dozed against walls, in campfires, or in stone coffins amid graveyards. Moonlight fell on him, and faintly he heard a voice.
—[Father…]
A girl kept calling.
—[Father, please assemble me…]
In the dream Chen Yao sat before a fireplace in a white room and heard the plea. Beyond a transparent curtain stood a doll-girl.
She was only a shadow in a dress, reaching out, calling for Father.
"…"
He rose, eyeing the child who sought her father.
"Sorry, I'm not your father."
He answered within the dream.
—[No, you are my father; I can feel the warmth of your touch… such warm hands. Ah, Father, build my body, let me steal their rosa mystica and become Alice to stay beside you…]
The long-haired doll's voice was soft and gentle, yet her words were chilling.
She would kill the others, become Alice, and remain with him. As her hands tried to part the curtain to reach her beloved Father, he woke suddenly.
"You seem to have been having a rather indecent dream."
Shinku sat on his chest, having shaken him awake with considerable effort.
In the end, he saw himself lying on a very cold floor. How strange—he'd clearly been asleep on the bed, so how had he ended up on the ground?
"Hah, Yao, I'm suddenly rather puzzled by what I'm seeing. This isn't the Rose Dolls' N-Field, nor is it the real world, yet you and I have been dragged into what looks like a perilous pocket-realm. It seems we've been hit by some malevolent spell. If we're not careful, we'll die."
Only then did Shinku climb off him and stand before him.
"What are you talking about? I simply rolled off the bed while sleeping—nothing's happened…"
Before Chen Yao could finish, he saw himself lying atop a tall wooden table, as high as a skyscraper. The surroundings looked like a doll-maker's workshop, while he and Shinku were no bigger than teacups.
He quickly analyzed the situation. It felt like a dream, yet his thoughts were crystal-clear and he could feel pain. In other words, they were caught in a grudge-heavy nightmare curse. He had once entered dreams this way on the Ancient Dragon Path; both he and Shinku were still sound asleep, but their souls had been weakly drawn out. Now they seemed trapped in a shrunken world.
"It's more than that, Yao. It is indeed some bizarre curse, but it doesn't feel like Suiseiseki's Ranbika or Souseiseki's Water Dream. It's as if we've stepped straight into a twisted fairy-tale. Strange—since the Alice Game hasn't begun, why would anyone target us? And be careful: there's a mirror over there. Take a look and you'll understand your current form."
Shinku had always been small, but after shrinking she now reached Chen Yao's chest.
Puzzled, Chen Yao walked to a huge cracked mirror and saw that he now looked like a toy—a junior-knight action figure in full armor.
The scene strongly resembled the opening of a game he had played called "It Takes Two."
Clearly the spell-caster had mined some troublesome or dangerous memory of his to build this perilous dream-world, which made him think of the unfinished doll girl he had dreamed of.
It seemed that even if he refused to play the Alice Game, he would still be forced into some other game… Chapter 65 – The Undead's Wonderland
It was a plain workshop, wood-shavings everywhere, ceiling lights bathing the room in brightness. To the shrunken Chen Yao and Shinku, the piled shavings looked like hills.
"Yao, do you know where we are?"
Shinku looked up and asked.
"At first glance it resembles a co-op game I played. Because it's only fun with two, I didn't get far."
The junior-knight doll that was Chen Yao glanced around and explained.
"Don't you have lots of friends? Why didn't you invite them?"
Shinku asked, puzzled.
"We're close, but not quite friends. Anyway, do you understand the principle here? I suspect it's a curse, yet it feels tied to you dolls."
Chen Yao looked at her.
"…I know every doll's power, but none match this. It's neither dream nor reality—yet clearly doll-related. Look over there."
Shinku had meant to fly, but with her medium cursed the ring's power was throttled. Flying would cost too much, so she led Chen Yao by the hand around a heap of shavings. Before them loomed a pottery doll's head as big as a mountain.
"These are doll heads?" Chen Yao stared at the hollow-eyed skull-like faces.
"Yes, but rejects. If this is a workshop, someone was crafting dolls—though I can't guess what kind,"
Shinku thought.
Seeing those empty parts, Chen Yao couldn't help recalling the first unfinished doll he had received.
Shinku glanced at the knight-figurine Chen Yao, curious why he seemed almost unruffled, as though things weren't that bad.
"Yao, why aren't you afraid?"
she asked.
"I've been through this before. Though these heads don't match the game I know, if this is similar, we're not in mortal danger."
he answered.
"So you have quite the hidden past. Fine—let's focus on escaping."
Shinku looked around. She had entered other dolls' realms and human dreams, yet the unfamiliar tools here left her unsure how to proceed.
"Shinku, we've probably gained strong jumping power. We need to lower that hanging ladder, which requires two people to pull a switch—but once we do, the fuse-box will sprout legs and run, and we'll have to chase it. If this really copies my game, that's how it starts."
Chen Yao spotted the classic starter pull-cord and retracted ladder and guessed.
Shinku looked up, saw the ladder, and smiled. "This curse seems tailor-made for you. Press on and we may learn what it wants."
Soon a knighted Undead and a tiny red-clad doll leapt for the switch—only to find their jumps pitiful, nowhere near the two-storey-high lever.
After several tries, the two hopelessly weak jumpers remained stuck. First stage, first roadblock—what now?
"Yao, why isn't it as you said?"
A faint blush tinged Shinku's cheeks.
"So it borrowed the game's setup but not its physics?"
Chen Yao gazed at the sky-distant ladder, vexed.
"Then I'll tie this rope to you, hurl you up, you secure it, and I'll pull."
He spotted some twine nearby and proposed.
"Can you manage that? You'd need great strength and aim…"
Shinku exclaimed. If it failed, she could still fly up.
"Leave it to me. First, two loops."
Chen Yao wrapped the cord around Shinku's waist, lifted her like a child under the arms, and, timing it, flung her upward with such force that she sailed to the lever halfway up the wall.
"Amazing… the Vampire lady hadn't lied. If he wished, the contract ring could—"
Shinku clung to the lever, surprised by the human's strength, wound the rope tight, then fluttered down.