Alice paced back and forward around her house. The puppeteer's mind was reeling with plans and problems to destroy them. She couldn't think straight. Having attempted to make a new doll, she'd ran out of ideas to make it unique.
"If I make a doll like a human or youkai... it may do some good for Gensokyo..."
The pioneering thought she had experienced was echoing in her overworked mind. Marisa, who had stayed since Alice began crafting the doll, had been, as of yet, no help. The Master-Spark-addicted magician had just poked and prodded, pulled jokes and occasionally tried and failed to do handstands. Now she had taken to sleeping underneath the sewing machine. If Marisa finds her hand sewn to her face she shouldn't be surprised, the amount she snores...
Alice's latest creation lay lifeless on the sewing machine. She was about the size of a small child, with hair the colour of young sunflowers and no longer than below her jawline. The hair had been crimped and was rather shoddy in appearance, mostly from being interfered with by Marisa, so Alice had tied a crimson bow around the doll's head to add a little aesthetic pleasure. Alice had fitted the doll with silvery-blue eyes, mimicking her own. Around the doll's perfectly-formed but in no means curvy body was a dark mauve blouse, short and with red highlights woven intricately into the outfit. The skirt was the same colour as the shirt's highlights, with ribbons of the shirt's own colour woven into the skirt in a similar fashion to the shirt. Atop the shirt and below the doll's neck was a small red bow on a little block of white trim. The doll's pale legs hosted red shoes and white socks, and a large white bow lay in a heap under the small of the doll's back.
Marisa groaned in her sleep, and attempted to pull herself up using the sewing machine. Alice pulled the magician up, not wanting her to knock the sewing pedal and destroy her new masterpiece. The sleepy magician smiled at the doll and leant against a table.
"You know, Alice, this thing is cute. I bet if you sold it you could make a fortune, da-ze. You'd only have Reimu to watch out for, then!!" Alice glared as Marisa's joke fell like a lead-filled ice-fairy. "You know... 'cos Reimu would love a little... doll... thing... to help out with cleaning the shrine... da-ze." Marisa swung her arms enthusiastically, causing Alice to tense as the former's clumsy hands brushed dangerously close to a bottle of highly-potent suruzan poison that Alice kept in case of 'emergencies'.
"Marisa, watch out!! You'll knock that poison everywhere and only Yagokoro-san has the antidote, but we wouldn't get there in time!" Alice frantically grabbed Marisa's wrist and lowered it gently away from the bottle of poison. Marisa looked confused, and picked up the bottle to examine it. The poison was in powdered form, a deep purple that glowed in the dark, with specks of red appearing in it if you left it in direct sunlight for a while. Marisa tossed the bottle around, smirking as it began to release a miniature cloud of golden steam. Alice tried to snatch the bottle from her, knowing what would happen if she didn't.
Suzuran poison reacts with mana... if it comes close to a magician, it begins to release a golden ether... this ether gives poisonous magical abilities to anything it touches... even inanimate objects...
What Eirin had told her repeated in her mind... Marisa practically had mana energy flowing out of her ears... Marisa was teasing Alice with the bottle of suzuran poison, poking her tongue out.
"Want it? Can't have it, da-ze!!" the magician giggled. Alice frowned, but didn't see the Shanghai doll marching in between Marisa's feet just ahead of her. Marisa's foot struck Shanghai and she let go of the bottle. It was headed towards Alice. Almost in slow-motion, Alice jumped to catch the bottle, but her fingers slipped and gave it a new path. Towards the doll lying on the sewing machine. As it collided with the lifeless Alice-crafted body, the bottle disintegrated and the powder soaked into the 'skin' of the doll. This happened in a blink-and-miss-it moment, and before long the doll was sat up with that same lifeless look in her eyes. It was moving, however. Just... erratically.
"W-what is it doing, da-ze?!" Marisa yelped as the doll began to pulsate purple. The same mixture of purple-gold that Alice had seen began to seep from the new pores the doll had acquired. Alice was just frozen. The suzuran poison had given this doll the powers and ways of a youkai. A scary youkai. Marisa had headed towards the door, but the doll had opened her mouth.
"Who are you?" she spoke like a child... a cute one. Alice dissolved into "aw"s. Marisa just looked at the doll with panic in her eyes. Alice was the first to speak.
"I'm Alice... your creator." but, before long, Alice turned around and whisper-hissed at Marisa "We need to name her, give me an idea!"
"I'd rather drink some of Eirin's medicine, thanks!" Marisa hissed back, wanting to get the hell out of there. Alice wasn't having any of it.
"Medicine! That's an adorable name. She looks a bit down so... maybe Medicine Melancholy... yeah! Has a ring to it. Thanks." Alice ignored Marisa and turned back to the blank-eyed doll. "Your name is Med-i-cine Mel-an-cho-ly. Do-you-un-der-stand?" she enunciated each word loudly and clearly, so the doll heard. It seemed to annoy her.
"I understand, Master. You do not need to think I am stupid. I understand. Master..." the doll raised a hand in Marisa's general direction. "May I eliminate the threat?" Marisa screamed and dived behind a shelf of dolls. Medicine still had her hand raised.
"No, no, that's Ma-ri-sa Ki-ri-sa-me. She is a nice person, and very pow-er-ful. Do not elim-i-nate her. You will lis-ten to her if she asks you to do an-y-thing for her or me. Un-der-stand?" Alice spoke kindly, gently petting Medicine's head. Medicine stared at the same spot with lifeless eyes. Alice smiled. This doll was worth the week of effort.
That night, Marisa had snuck into Alice's bedroom, a wad of cloth wrapped around her mouth and nose to protect her from the poison. She had covered her body in all forms of protection. A bowl on her head, gloves, long leather strips wrapped around her arms and knees... she was prepared for all poison. This doll HAD to go. It was creepy, unnatural, not to mention DEADLY! Marisa had formulated the entire plan. She was going to take that doll and leave her at Nameless Hill with the strict instructions to never return. Alice had told Medicine to listen to Marisa, so this would be easy. Marisa grabbed the sleeping doll by the head, having her in a headlock. Marisa smiled. Her target was captured. Being a thief made stealing a poisonous doll a cakewalk. Marisa made for the front door, speeding out of it without even thinking about closing it. The night air made swan-dives around the makeshift poison armour that Marisa sported as she hopped onto her broom. Nameless Hill was a long way away... this was going to be quite the trip.
"Marisa!! Ma-RIII-saa!!" Alice screamed into the dawn air. Both Marisa and Medicine were gone, and Alice feared the worse. Things were toppled over and wrecked (courtesy of Marisa, to cover her own tracks) and this caused the puppeteer to think a youkai had broken into her house. After an hour of shouting, Alice saw the blood-stained figure of Marisa touch down a few feet ahead of her.
"Alice... I'm so sorry..." Marisa lied. She wasn't sorry, but her distraught friend wasn't worried about that. "Some youkai... broke into your house last night, da-ze... and they kidnapped Medicine. They took her into the forest, and I chased after her, da-ze. But... when I reached her, they had roasted her and were feasting on her corpse!!" Marisa performed a fake retch, covering her mouth as fake tears coursed down her face. "I couldn't do anything... I got rid of all the youkai but... she's gone, da-ze. I'm so,
so sorry, Alice..." Marisa held her arms open, Alice diving into them and sobbing hard.
"Medicine!!! Medicine!!!" Alice cried. She sobbed her precious doll's name over and over again, and Marisa led her inside to wrap her in a blanket and calm her down, without an inch of guilt on her. Alice cried into the night, eventually falling asleep with dried tears on her flushed cheeks. Marisa fell asleep also, dreaming of what happened.
Previously
"Kirisame-sama, why are we here?" Medicine asked innocently, looking around at Nameless Hill. Marisa sighed through her leather-clad armour and looked at the petite doll. She was cute, she admitted mentally. She almost felt guilty for abandoning her here, almost defenseless. But, it was totally worth it.
Alice couldn't be so focused on a doll instead of me, Marisa thought,
I'm kinda jealous, da-ze.
"Master ordered me to take you here. You are not allowed to return home. Do you understand, da-ze?" she asked curiously. Medicine shook her head defiantly and scowled.
"I do not want to stay here!!" Medicine screamed, charging at Marisa and weakly slamming her fists onto the hard leather straps. Marisa, unaffected, held the flailing doll away from her.
"Just think, though, Medicine! Listen to me! This hill, Nameless Hill, is your
own hill! You can do what you want, as long as you don't leave this hill, okay? This is where your Master has ordered you to be from now on." Marisa lied. This doll hopefully doesn't detect lies easily, she thought. Medicine just shrugged and sat in the grass.
"If Master desires it, then I will stay." she looked to Marisa, pointing to the sky. "I order you now, leave my hill!" Marisa, without a single afterthought, hopped back on her broom and sped into the night. On her way back, she hurried into the forest, finding a fresh corpse, one she couldn't identify, and, after removing the leather and straightening her skirt, she ripped it in some areas, splashed blood on herself, rolled in the dirt and checked herself out.
"Fresh from a fight, much, da-ze?" she asked herself, before returning to her dusty broom and heading back to Alice's house, hoping she wouldn't see through Marisa's lies.
