Rozen Maiden Fan Fiction ❯ Dream of Something Better ❯ Scylla ( Chapter 12 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Disclaimer: I do not own Rozen Maiden. I do, however, own Rikou Daijima, Mirien Daijima, Anira Hanagami/ Rina A. Gamihana, Morielta and the personality of Joenna.

Chapter 12

A 15 year old girl walked into the hall of the apartment building that she lived in. She had just finished her morning wake-up-routine and was ready for a long day of doing nothing.

The girl in question had dark brown eyes, and had various shades of blonde streaked throughout her terracotta brown curly hair. Her hair was pulled into two pigtails, on either side of her head. She was wearing a pink tank top and jeans. She was quite short for her age, but her tempered personality made up for her height.

`It's 10 O'clock in the morning and Rikou isn't up yet…time to give him a wake up call from hell!' She said to herself, as she stared at the door to her brother's room.

She opened the door to his room and found him sleeping on the floor next to his bed. Noticing that there was something else in the bed, she stepped over Rikou and sat on her knees next to the bed. She couldn't see what was in the bed, as it was covered in blankets.

`It better not be an animal…Is it a living doll? That would be even worse than an animal! I hate living dolls, whoever invented them is an idiot!' She thought to herself.

She grabbed the corner of the bottom blanket and pulled it off. Lying in the bed was a living doll, with black wings on her back. The living doll flinched in her sleep and slowly opened her eyes.

`What a weird colour for eyes…Is that a red or a purple?' She thought, as the doll yawned and sat up.

The doll and the girl stared at each other for a few seconds.

The girl turned to Rikou, who was still asleep on the floor and kicked him in the stomach. `WHY IS THERE A LIVING DOLL IN HERE? YOU KNOW I HATE THEM, GET RID OF IT!'

`I can't get rid of her, she keeps following me…' Rikou said, clutching his stomach from being kicked. `By the way, that is Suigintou and she is a Rozen Maiden. Suigintou, this is Mirien, she is my sister.'

`How dare you talk about me like I am a lower being!' Suigintou yelled at Mirien, the two of them not noticing that Rikou had said anything at all.

`I am yelling at you like a lower being CAUSE YOU ARE A LOWER BEING!' Mirien yelled back. `Go back to where you came from, WE DON'T WANT YOU!'

`I have no choice, your brother wound my spring.' Suigintou stated. `I can easily kill him off. THEN I will be able to leave!'

`DON'T BE DIFFICULT!' Mirien yelled.

`You're telling ME not to be difficult?' Suigintou said angrily. `YOU'RE the one being difficult!'

`The fact that you're HERE and won't leave makes you difficult!' Mirien yelled.

`I told you, I can't leave unless I kill Rikou' Suigintou yelled at Mirien.

`SEE, YOU ARE BEING DIFFICULT!' Mirien yelled back.

`I'm not difficult, you are just an annoying, stupid girl!' Suigintou said angrily.

`Me, annoying? Your eyes are FREAKY! No sane person or idiotic doll would ever have eyes like that! I can't even pick out whether they're red or purple!' Mirien yelled at Suigintou. `And your name is such a dreary sounding name! What sort of person would give their child a name like `Suigintou'?'

Suigintou halted her thoughts, as Mirien reminded her of the one thing she hated above all things. Suigintou begun to feel a large amount of dark energy bubbling up from deep within herself…

`Now Mirien, it's nice of you to drop by, but I think your presence is not one that's needed right now.' Rikou said nervously, as he noticed Suigintou was starting to become angry.

Mirien turned and walked out the room muttering `Stupid, idiotic dolls.'

Rikou sighed a breath of relief. He was going to have to keep those two away from each other, if he didn't want war to break out in his apartment.

He sat down on the bed, besides Suigintou. She still looked very angry.

`Suigintou…I'm very sorry about Mirien's behaviour. She is only nice to humans.' Rikou told Suigintou.

`Why?' She asked him.

`I have told you before about how my parents were so obsessed with living dolls that they abandoned us, right?' Rikou asked.

`Yes, you have.' She replied.

`Well…Mirien believes that the living dolls are to blame for our parents actions. So, she began to hate all living dolls. She can't be in the same room as one, with out yelling at it. She is nice, most of the time, but when it comes to living dolls…'

`I kind of understand what he is trying to tell me. After all, I was…scraped…by my own father and I blamed my sisters for that.' She thought to herself.

`…Rikou?' Suigintou said to him. `When I was arguing with Mirien…I felt something that I haven't felt in a very long time…'

`A-And what would that be?' Rikou asked, slightly nervous to find out what that `feeling' was.

`In the last Alice Game era…I…used to…terrorise my sisters a lot. When ever one of them would anger me, I would feel this…dark energy rising from within myself. I got myself a medium about half way through that era and she caused that darkness to fade away. I thought that I would never feel that sort of evil anger again. ' She explained to him.

`Now it only seems to happen when the unusualness of my name is mentioned...' She thought aloud in a whisper.

`Your name? Is there something wrong with your name?' Rikou asked.

Realising that she had said something she did not mean to, Suigintou turned away from Rikou. A voice inside her head began to taunt her.

`Something wrong with it? Everything is wrong with it. I hate it. I hate what it means. Father, why? Why did you call me something like that? Was it because I was junk? Did I really mean nothing to you?'

Suigintou stood up on the bed and flew over to the window. She opened it and flew out.

`Wait, Suigintou, I'm sorry! I…'Rikou said. `Did I…insult her?'

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Suigintou sat on top of a large skyscraper with her legs over the edge of the building. It was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and the amount of traffic below had gradually gotten bigger.

Suigintou was crying. Her head was buried in her hands. If someone had been on the top of that skyscraper with her, they would have barely heard her crying.

`Why am I the one who has to live with this pain? Why was I the one who was scrapped? Did Father just want me to suffer? Is there something wrong with me?' Suigintou sulked, tears flowing down her cheeks.

`I…I've been doing this too often, I need to pull myself together…' She thought to herself. `I should be able to be strong…I just need to calm down…'

After taking a few deep breaths and drying the last of her tears, she stood up on the edge of the building. She stared for a few moments at the afternoon sun, before taking flight over the bustling city.

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Rikou had stayed out of his sister's way for most of the day. Mirien had shut herself in her room and refused to come out, no matter how hard Rikou pleaded.

He had already realised that Mirien was probably mad at him for bringing a living doll into the house and had been trying to explain to her that Suigintou would not leave him alone, no matter what he did.

And, as the afternoon drew to a close, he found himself standing in front of Mirien's room trying to convince her to come out.

`Mirien? You know, it's almost dinner time, and you must be feeling hungry…'

`I'm not hungry.' Mirien replied.

`O…Ok then…' Rikou mumbled.

Rikou stood in front of the door for a few minutes, thinking about any possible method he could use to persuade Mirien to come out of her room.

`If you really want me to come out the badly, why don't you just make HER go away! Then I'll be REALLY happy!'

`For your information, Suigintou IS gone.' Rikou told her. `I think I made her upset…I don't know, it's hard to tell with her…'

`Will she be coming back?'

`I…I don't know…' Rikou replied.

`So, there is a possibility that she might be returning?'

`Yeah…But…'

`I'M NOT COMING OUT UNTIL I'M SURE SHE'S GONE FOR GOOD!'

`Look, if there is REALLY no way that you can like her, can't you just be tolerant of her and stop insulting her?' Rikou asked.

`NO! May I remind you that you hated living dolls too? Is SHE any different? Added to that, she is one of the most rude, disobedient living dolls that has ever been produced!'

`See, you are insulting her.' Rikou pointed out.

`Don't you remember? She insulted me too! '

`You insulted her name' Rikou said. `Apparently, her name is very offensive.'

`…just leave me alone…'

Rikou knew he couldn't continue to argue with his sister. He turned away from the door to Mirien's room and walked into his own. He sat down on the desk chair and sighed.

`What a day this has turned out to be…'

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Mirien lay on her bed. She had finished sooking hours ago and now she was just thinking about the things that had happened that morning.

`Living dolls. They're all just trouble.'

`I couldn't agree more!'

`Huh?' Mirien gasped as she sat up and looked around her room, trying to locate where that voice had come from.

She stared over at the large mirror that hung on her wall, which had begun to ripple.

`What's going on?' Mirien thought in panic. `Normal mirrors don't do this!'

Then a form began to appear out of the mirror. Long, and skinny, it was…A snake?

Mirien ran to her bed room door and tried to open it. Instead, she found it wouldn't open, no matter how hard she pulled.

`Rikou! Rikou! I'm really sorry about what happened this morning, I want to come out now!' Mirien yelled.

`I'm sorry to break it to you sweetie, but no one can hear you.'

Mirien turned and saw that standing in the place where the snake had once been there was now a living doll.

The doll had shoulder length, wavey brown hair, with fluorescent green streaked throughout and long green bangs that reached her waist. Her eyes were a light sea green.

She wore a dark green leotard-like top, with a black tutu and dark green crinkle skirt. She had dark green ankle boots and black fishnet stockings. She also wore thick golden brackets on both wrists.

`I'm sorry to hear about your brother. It seems that he has been led astray by that silver haired doll.' The living doll said.

`I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT HER!' Mirien yelled at the intruder.

`Oh, don't get mad at me! I'm not on her side, sweetie. I'm on yours.' The doll calmly stated.

`Wha…? How is that even possible, you ARE a living doll!' Mirien said with annoyance.

`True, true. But the living doll you are mad at ISN'T me. Correct?'

`But...' Mirien began.

`You're just scared that the silver haired doll will steal your brother away from you. Then they'll have taken your parents, your friends and your brother….Then who will you turn to?'

`I…I don't know…' Mirien stuttered.

`Did you know that the reason living dolls came into being was because of that silver haired doll?'

Mirien froze. `R…Really?'

`Would I lie to you, sweetie?'

`That stupid doll…First she brings those other stupid dolls into existence… Then she takes my brother…' Mirien hissed.

`All is not lost for your brother.'

Mirien turned to face the green and black doll.

`She hasn't completely taken your brother just yet…You see, she hasn't made a medium contract with him yet. But she is considering it and you can guess what will happen if she does…'

The green and black doll walked up to Mirien and looked her in the eye.

`Now…I also have business to deal with the silver haired doll…Could you help me?'

The thumb of her right hand turned into a brown coloured snake and it opening it's mouth, revealing it's silver fangs.

`…AHHHH!' Mirien screamed as she backed up against the wall.

The doll was walking slowly towards Mirien. The snake that had formed from her thumb was twisting around and hissing threateningly.

`You shouldn't worry Mirien. The snake on my thumb will only put you to sleep. You're lucky I don't want to use one of the other four fingers. They are the ones that would kill you**.'

The doll giggled as Mirien screamed.

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Rikou was sitting on his desk chair reading a book, when he heard a knock at the door, followed by the sound of someone sobbing.

`Rikou…Come out quickly…I…I've been bitten…' Mirien said from behind her door, her voice merely above a whisper.

`Bitten? By what?' Rikou said as he got up from the chair and walked toward the door.

`A snake' Mirien replied.

`A…A…A SNAKE!' Rikou yelled in panic. `What sort of snake?'

Rikou opened the door and found his sister leaning against the wall, clutching her right shoulder.

`I don't…know…One of those thumb ones…' Mirien answered.

`Thumb snake?'Rikou asked in a confused manner. `The bite must be making you woozy.'

Rikou helped Mirien into a sitting position on the floor.

`Well, well, well. If it isn't `big brother' Rikou.'

He turned to see a doll with brown hair with green streaks, wearing a green and black outfit.

`What the…?'

The doll walked up to Rikou and stared at him.

`I need you out the way for a while. So be a good boy for me okay?'

Then her thumb turned into a snake! The snake barred it's fangs and hissed at Rikou.

`Woah, there is a snake on her thumb and a very vicious looking one at that! That's what Mirien must have meant…'

The doll pointed the snake at Rikou and it began to get longer and longer. Rikou ran to his room and tried to open the door. The door, however would not budge.

He wasn't sure what he felt next. But he knew, for sure, that the snake had bitten him.

`Damn…Da…It…'

His eyes went blank and he slowly turned to face the green and black doll.

`Now, I want you to go into town. Once you are there, stay there. Browse a few shops if you like.'

`Hmm…' Rikou mumbled as he walked down the hallway, and out the door that went to the lift.

`Try not to break anything on your way.' The doll giggled, as Rikou disappeared from sight.

`Now that he's gone…' She said as she turned to the unconscious Mirien. `…What shall I do with you?'

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Suigintou landed on the ledge of the open window in Rikou's room. She quickly scanned the room with her eyes and realised that he wasn't there.

`That's odd…I thought he wouldn't have wanted to go out…' she thought to herself.

Suigintou looked around again and sighed. After the incident this morning, she was partly relieved that Rikou wasn't around to preach to her or get mad at her.

… And yet, she was slightly worried.

`He might be somewhere else in his apartment. That has to be it.' Suigintou thought.

Suigintou floated over to the door and opened it with her wing. She wondered into the hallway, and knowing that he definitely would not be in Mirien's room, she went into the kitchen.

Mirien was in the kitchen and Suigintou eyed her as she floated over to the table and seated herself. Mirien looked at Suigintou's direction for a second, then she returned to what she was doing. Mirien appeared to be cooking something, but Suigintou didn't really care.

`Mirien' Suigintou said firmly.

`Suigintou' Mirien said coldly.

`DON'T TOY WITH ME!' Suigintou snapped.

`I will not' Mirien replied.

`…Do you know where Rikou is?' Suigintou asked.

`He is out' Mirien said dully.

`Where did he go?' Suigintou asked.

`I do not know, I did not ask him.' Mirien replied.

Suigintou studied Mirien for a moment or two. `Why is she being so…agreeable? Didn't she hate me this morning?'

`Suigintou?' Mirien said coldly.

`What?' Suigintou replied.

`Are you mad at me? Because I insulted you?' Mirien asked her.

`…perhaps' was Suigintou's reply.

`I want you to know that I am really sorry, and I hope that you can forgive me.'

Suigintou was dumbstruck.

`Mirien, do you feel sick?'

`No, I feel just fine.' Mirien replied.

`It's just that…' Suigintou began.

`What?' Mirien cut in.

`…Nothing' Suigintou said with a sigh.

Suigintou turned to the window next to the table and stared out at the street below. The people walked up and down the streets, carrying living dolls with them, or having one walk beside them. She had even seen the occasional one being pulled around on a leash!

Some cars would drive by every so often, and in each was at least one human and each human had a living doll. The few shops along this street had both humans and living dolls, working side by side to get customers and earn some money.

`To think that if I even TRIED any of those activities in public in that last Alice Game Era, people would think I was some sort of rare supernatural phenomenon.' Suigintou thought to herself. `Now living dolls are doing all these things, and more, as if it was normal occurrence. And with living dolls being able to do more and more…'

Suddenly, Suigintou felt a painful sting on the side of her neck. She looked where she thought the pain was and saw two reddish marks just below her lacy choker near her shoulder.

Suigintou instantly turned to face Mirien, only to see that her thumb had turned into a brown coloured snake.

Then Mirien began to change. The thing that she turned into definitely looked like a doll. She had dark green wavey hair with green streaks, and green bangs that reached her waist. She wore a black and dark green outfit, fish net stockings and green ankle boots. She had a thick gold bracelet on both wrists and her eyes were a sea green.

`Well, well, well! What do we have here, sweetie?' the dark green doll said mockingly.

`Why you…' Suigintou said with anger.

Suigintou slid off her chair, only to find herself collapsing on the floor and wincing in pain.

`What is…?' She murmured, as the dark green doll approached her.

`You've been bitten by the thumb snake, which makes all it's victims fall to sleep or become unconscious, depending on how much venom is ejected. Unfortunately, I couldn't use the other four, as they would poison you, and master wanted you…Alive!'

The doll laughed as Suigintou's vision began to blur. The doll bunched some of Suigintou's hair and pulled it, forcing Suigintou to face her.

`I am not Mirien, she is asleep in her room. She just allowed me to assume her identity for a while. My name is Scylla*, sweetie.'

`…Rikou…'

`That idiot really is out, and I have no intention of harming him…If you allow me to take you to the master.'

Scylla let go of Suigintou's hair as she became unconscious.

Scylla giggled. She picked up Suigintou's body and began to drag it out of the kitchen.

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Rikou was in some sort of trance and he had been wondering aimlessly about the town for about two hours. People and dolls alike, stopped to stare at the `zombie boy', before shrugging and continuing on with their business.

Rikou was standing in front of a café in the middle of town, when he finally snapped out of his trance and his mind returned to him.

`Wha? What's going on? How did I get here?' Rikou started to panic.

He glanced at his wrist, only to discover that his watch was missing. He went into the café that he was standing in front of and walked up to the counter.

`Umm…Excuse me…Do you know what the time is?

`Yes, it is five to six. Is there anything else I can do for you?' The blonde girl standing behind the counter replied.

`No, not really. I guess I'd better be going.'

`Please come again soon then!' She said.

Rikou turned and walked away. His walk gradually broke into a run.

`There's some sort of creepy doll in my house with Mirien! Maybe that doll is after Suigintou. Why else would it be there?' Rikou thought as he ran.

He knew this town fairly well, so he would be back in his apartment in about half an hour if he kept at this pace.

`I hope that doll hasn't done anything to either of them!'.

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A/N

After finally being back from my holiday, I present you with this chapter!

*If any of you mythology fanatics were wondering, yes, Scylla is named after the six headed sea monster that Ulysses encounters on his voyage in Greek mythology.

**On Scylla's right hand only, she can transform the fingers into mini snakes. The four fingers have a poisonous bite, while the thumb only puts you to sleep and can make you unconscious, if you are ejected with a lot of venom.

If you were wondering why this chapter wasn't concluded, I decided to split it in half because I decided that this new conflict would take more than one chapter to resolve.