In Pursuit of Happiness, Starting from Sakurasou

Chapter 477: Chapter 478: Rozen Maiden Second Doll, Kanaria’s Misfortune

Suigintou fixed Hozuki Nozomi with those crimson eyes, porcelain cheeks flushing the faintest rose before she turned away with a sharp hmph.

"You said it! You’re going to help me become a true Alice! Win the entire game!"

"Of course." Nozomi’s voice carried that infuriating calm. "After all, I am Suigintou’s master."

"Bah—not master. Medium." She crossed her small arms, black dress rustling like whispered secrets. Her gaze drifted toward the window, pupils narrowing. "Aren’t you going to meet my sisters? There’s a peeping tom nearby."

---

On a distant rooftop, Kanaria’s heart seized.

This is bad—!

She fumbled for her parasol, lace-trimmed and emerald green, yanking it open. "Pichika! Quickly, take me out of here!"

Golden motes swirled around her—Pichika, her artificial spirit, humming with desperate energy. The teleportation circle began forming beneath Kanaria’s Mary Janes.

Then darkness ate the sky.

Countless black feathers descended like a murder of crows given physical form, slicing through the golden light, blocking every escape route. They smelled of dried roses and something older—ink, perhaps. Grief.

"Heh. Kanaria."

Suigintou descended through her own storm of feathers, wings spread wide—obsidian pinions catching the dying afternoon light. She floated with arms crossed, chin lifted, staring down at the second doll with naked contempt.

"You coward. Are you trying to escape the Alice Game?"

Kanaria’s laugh came out thin, reedy. She clutched her parasol like a shield, green ringlets bouncing as she shook her head too fast.

"H-How could that be? Suigintou, you didn’t say we were playing the Alice Game! I have—um—something else to do, so I won’t chat! See you later~!"

She tried to slip sideways.

Feathers barred her path like prison bars.

"Hmph." Suigintou’s lips curled. "Let’s play now. The loser surrenders their Rosa Mystica. Second Doll Kanaria—don’t even think about running."

"Ugh..." Kanaria’s shoulders drooped, her artificial spirit flickering anxiously around her. "This is a headache..."

She tried anyway: "My medium isn’t here! I’m low on energy—don’t you think this is unfair? At least let me prepare—"

"Didn’t I fight all of you without a medium back then?" Suigintou’s voice went cold as cemetery marble. "You talk too much. Fight."

She gestured sharply. A mirror materialized mid-air, its surface rippling like disturbed water, and through it yawned the entrance to the N-Field.

Suigintou dove through without looking back.

Kanaria swallowed hard. Followed.

---

The N-Field unfolded around them—and Kanaria’s breath caught.

Doll limbs. Everywhere.

Porcelain arms reaching from nothing. Legs bent at wrong angles. Heads with empty eye sockets staring from mountains of broken parts. The air tasted like dust and abandonment, heavy with the phantom scent of lacquer and old fabric. Every surface reflected Suigintou’s fractured history—her incompleteness, her torment, the centuries she’d spent knowing Father had left her unfinished.

The pressure was immense. Suffocating.

She actually didn’t reject Suigintou, Kanaria thought guiltily, fingers tightening on her parasol. But one sentence from Shinku turned her dark...

Too late for reconciliation now.

"Hmph. Kanaria—take this!"

Suigintou’s wings vibrated. Feathers launched like black daggers—fwip fwip fwip—whistling through the stagnant air.

Kanaria snapped her parasol up. Impact rattled through her arms. "Pichika!"

Golden light burst forth. The parasol twisted, reshaped, strings materializing—and suddenly she held a small violin, its body gleaming amber-brown.

She drew the bow across strings.

Twangggg—

Sound waves shattered the incoming feathers mid-flight, fragments dissolving into shadow.

Suigintou snarled, conjured a silver longsword from nothing, and dove.

Metal met golden light with a crystalline CLANG. Kanaria parried desperately, Pichika’s shield flickering. Clang-clang-CLANG. Suigintou pressed forward, each strike harder than the last, her small face twisted with furious determination.

Kanaria’s arms burned. Her movements grew sluggish.

No medium. No energy reserves. She was running on fumes.

Suigintou is too cunning!

She blocked another slash—barely—and leaped backward, gasping. Sweat beaded on her porcelain brow.

But I’m not unprepared.

"Well then—goodbye, Suigintou!" She forced brightness into her voice. "Let’s save the game for next time!"

Behind her, Pichika conjured a spatial doorway, golden light spilling from its edges.

Suigintou didn’t pursue. She simply smiled.

"Kanaria. You’re dreaming, aren’t you?" Her voice dripped with satisfaction. "Since I initiated this game—how could I let you escape?"

"Huh? What other tricks—"

Kanaria bolted for the doorway anyway.

Arms closed around her waist.

"Hehe. Got you, little peeper."

"KYAAA—!"

Heat flooded Kanaria’s cheeks. She squirmed against a broad chest, smelling sandalwood and clean cotton—distinctly human scents that had no business being in the N-Field.

"Y-You—! The perverted human?!" She thrashed uselessly. "Why are you here too?! Foul play! This is foul play!"

She reached for Pichika’s power—

A card pressed against her back.

"Seal Card. Activate."

Red light flashed. Kanaria’s connection to her artificial spirit severed like a cut string.

Her body went limp.

"You... you..." Tears welled in her amber eyes, spilling down porcelain cheeks. "You’re bullies...!"

Suigintou floated over, triumphant smile cutting across her face.

"Kanaria. I won this time."

She landed delicately, black skirts settling. "Hozuki Nozomi is my medium—so it doesn’t count as cheating. Now. You know what to do."

"Ugh..." Kanaria’s head drooped. "I... I surrender."

A loss was a loss.

She closed her eyes. The contract ring on her finger—the link to her medium in the human world—cracked, then shattered into glittering dust.

Her qualification for the Alice Game: forfeit.

Trembling, she opened her small palm. A gem materialized there, pulsing with soft golden light—warm as sunlight, fragile as hope.

"This is my Rosa Mystica." Her voice came out barely above a whisper. "Suigintou... take it."

Suigintou’s crimson eyes widened. Hunger flashed across her features—

Then she turned away with a sharp tch.

"Keep it."

"...Huh?"

"You heard me." Suigintou’s voice went flat, almost bored. "The Rosa Mystica can stay with you. For now."

Kanaria stared. "You don’t want it? If you absorb it, you’ll gain my memories, my abilities—you’ll become stronger—"

"I don’t want your memories." Suigintou cut her off coldly. "Besides—I’m already strong enough. Dealing with the others won’t be a problem." Her chin lifted, pride blazing in those crimson depths. "I will become the true Alice. Sooner or later."

Kanaria regarded her for a long moment—this broken, furious, lonely first doll who’d been called defective all her existence.

Then, quietly, she drew the Rosa Mystica back into herself.

A Rozen Maiden without her Rosa Mystica became an empty shell. Unconscious. Soul asleep forever.

No different from death.

If Suigintou was offering mercy—Kanaria would take it.