Chapter Text
Alice Hiiragi heard once that poison dart frogs were colorful to deter predators. And then she heard men thought women who did the same were poisonous like the frogs. That afternoon she stole a box of hair dye and gave herself seafoam green hair.
And then she got kicked out of that foster home when they came home and saw her. She hid the stolen dresses deep in her suitcase as she got carted off. Again.
It was the same. She'd claim a tiny piece of herself and she'd get found out. Caught with makeup, time to go to a new home. Caught with a dress, time to go to a new home. Caught on a website with women she wanted to be, time to go to a new home.
But this time, there wasn't a home. There was however a scholarship for a private school. She wasn't sure how she got it, other than the easiest sob story in the world. Dead parents, never saw their son grow up.
She'd just have to show up to the dorm in a dress and convince them there was a mistake about the paperwork. That would work. It had to work. She wasn't going to put up with anything less. She only had to make it to New Year's before she wasn't obligated to go to school anymore. Eight months in a dorm. She could make it. Or she’d die trying.
-----
Alice yawned as she got off the bus at Iwatodai depot. She should have looked at the paperwork, she should have thought twice about how the scholarship people knew who she was. Lone survivor of the Moonlight Bridge incident, found after years of bouncing around the system.
It had to be an apology from Shiomi Solutions.
She couldn't get caught up in that fact now. It was eight months and she could wear a cute bow if she played her cards right. Or steal one if she played them the other kind of right. So many girls didn't want to keep their cute accessories and left them places.
She was most of the way to the dorm when the world shifted, the sea freezing in place, the bats freezing in midair. The entire world crystallized except her. A thrill and a fear stitched themselves into her heart. She could do anything right now. No one could stop her. Everything she'd been denied, it was at her disposal while this went on. But there was a chance it wouldn't stop and she'd be trapped in this still world forever. A stopped world was only useful when it started moving again.
It was tempting for being a chance to always be Alice. But who was going to see that and know that? Because the best part of getting to be Alice were those fleeting looks from others about who she was.
She yawned again, remembering the key to the dorm in her clutch. She could figure out her options after sleeping in a bed. Sleep was good. Bed was good. Petty theft had to wait.
She placed her hand on the dorm lock and pushed the key in, half expecting the tumblers to be stuck in place. They worked fine, the key tucked away without any difficulty. The door opened for her, the momentum carrying it away from her hand and then freezing in place. She tapped it and the door resumed its arcing swing while she maintained contact. "Neat."
A stack of papers sat on the dorm counter, a yellow sticky note with the last name Hiiragi hanging off them. Two sets of uniforms had been laid out, one for men and one for women. She hummed in approval as she tossed the stack of women's clothes onto her bag. And then the world snapped back into being, the door finishing its arcing opening.
The moment was cool while it lasted.
She worked her way through the paperwork, signing piece of paperwork after piece of paperwork. Last name after last name. When she finished the paperwork an auburn haired girl came down the stairs, stretching towards the ceiling. "Heya, you got here early. Or late? Eh, same difference. Hiiragi, right?"
"That's me! Alice Hiiragi." Alice pointed to her chin and the girl gave her a sleepy shrug as she waved up the stairs. "Are you the dorm monitor or something?"
"Kinda. We can talk about it in the morning Alice, after this girl gets some shut eye." The girl twisted her arms and that's when Alice noticed the gleaming handgun on her belt. She hoped that she'd never find out why the girl had it. "I'll show you to your room, you're across the hall from me. I'm Kotone, by the way. Kotone Shiomi."
I'm living with the heiress to Shiomi Solutions. How the hell did this happen?
Alice didn't think about it much longer as she fell into her bed and passed out. Tomorrow was a new day.
-----
The brown haired boy at the bottom of the stairs stared at her as she descended. He wasn't afraid of poisonous frogs and that couldn't stand. She smirked at him, "Feeling jealous?"
"Of someone who feels the need to dye their hair for attention? Hardly. This, is an honors dorm. Shiomi is here because of nepotism. Why are you here?" The boy snapped, pushing his wavy hair back with a comb. Alice shrugged and pushed past him. With a little hip bump to help move him out of the way. "Figures. A delinquent. Gekkoukan is going downhill."
"You just don't appreciate what colors work for me." Alice spun along the bottom banister on the way out. "And the name's Alice. If you're going to call me a delinquent at least get that part right."
"Don't start problems, Odagiri. She's only been here for one day." A woman in a perfect blue suit stood at the bottom of the stairs, her gray hair pinned in place. "Welcome to the dorm. I'm the Chairwoman of Gekkoukan, Mariko Hyoda. And you must be Alice Hiiragi?"
"I guess I was just loud enough to be heard by everyone, perfect. Thank you for having me, I'm so happy for the chance to learn in a prestigious environment like Gekkoukan." Alice smiled at the woman, her voice on the right side of saccharine suckup. "I should get going, I don't want to be late for school. Mustn't be late!"
"No, you shouldn't. One quick question and then Odagiri and Hasegawa can show you to Gekkoukan." The Chairwoman's voice was stern, a proctor demanding obedience. And while Alice loved bucking commands, this wasn't the time or moment. That could be later. After she learned what to get away with. "Did you arrive fine last night?"
"I did. Not a bit of trouble. I hope my sleepy signatures were legible!" Alice tightened the strap of her bag, inching her way towards the door and the jittery woman standing by it. "You must be Hasegawa."
"I'm Akane, looking forward to getting on the way to school." Akane's leg kept bouncing as Odagiri scowled his way towards them. "You really have to relax, Hidetoshi."
"I really don't and it's rich coming from you, Hasegawa. You can't sit still in any of your classes." Alice filed away the name Hidetoshi. All the better if she could be familiar with him later. Catch him off guard. "Alright, Hiiragi. Follow me. She's going to run off."
"I'll jog backwards, spoilsport." Akane pulled the door open and jogged backwards, asking Alice every question under the sun on their way to school. Hidetoshi kept his words to snide remarks.
Alice liked Akane. And she figured she would like annoying Hidetoshi.
-----
Time broke again at midnight. Alice wished she could time how long it was broken, but she didn't have a watch and she'd have to carry a clock the entire time to make it work. Which was a lot less fun than trying to figure out what she could get away with.
She slipped on a black dress, figuring it would stick out less if time resumed and she wasn't back yet. She tucked a long ago stolen switchblade into her knee high boot and slipped out of her room and stopped. Because Hidetoshi was was cutting across common area of the floor, a gun on his belt. "Hiiragi, what are you doing? Why are you dressed like that?"
"Why do you have a gun?" Alice pointed to the gleaming silver gun and Hidetoshi blushed. Got him on the backfoot. "There's something weird going on and you're walking around with an illegal weapon."
"That's irrelevant to my question, you know that." Hidetoshi's hand laid on the butt of the gun and Alice felt her heart race. That would be exciting, it would be new. Terrifying but new. And it'd probably get him kicked out of the dorm to draw a weapon on her. "So, what are you doing?"
"Peeing." Alice lied, pointing to the bathroom. "What are you doing?"
"Not urinating." Hidetoshi's face screwed itself up in confusion. His hand retreated from the gun and a part of Alice was disappointed. The sane part of her surged with relief that she didn't have to worry he was going to shoot her this moment. Alice inched towards the bathroom and Hidetoshi's face went red. "I will leave you to it."
"Cool. Thanks." Alice pushed the door open and darted into the stall. She cocked her ear towards the door as she in no uncertain terms did not take a piss.
"Shiomi, did you know she had potential?"
"No, I didn't. Chairwoman didn't have her on the list. She wasn't supposed to be at this dorm, but hey it worked out. Maybe she'll use an Evoker before you do."
"Very funny, Shiomi. She's a problem. Like Hasegawa."
"Hasegawa is, unlike you, currently tracking that big shadow. Get up to the command room, lazy bones."
"You are detestable, Shiomi."
"Shush! Let her go back to bed! If you’re too loud, she’ll figure something out."
Alice wasn't going back to bed, but she had a new form of mischief to get into. She let herself out of the bathroom, slipping up the stairs one by one. Maybe the boots were a bad choice for stealth. Maybe she didn't care, they were comfortable and looked good.
"Hey, so, this thing is really big. Like really, really big. I'm going to--" Akane's voice cut out, followed by the sound of breaking glass. "Ow. Okay. Bad plan."
"Stay put, Akane. Where's it going?" Kotone's voice had sharpened, all her jovial energy gone from trading barbs with Hidetoshi. "Screw it. I'm going down the fire escape and I'll just look. It wasn't that far from the dorm. Hidetoshi, grab Alice, get to the basement. It's reinforced and since she can move, she's in danger."
"Fine. I'll round up our new delinquent. What am I supposed to tell her?" Hidetoshi's voice was approaching and fast. Alice slid down the bannister, landing with a clunk back on her floor. She stretched towards the ceiling as Hidetoshi ran down the stairs, sweating. "There's a tornado coming. We have to get to the basement."
"Weird time of year, but sure." Alice shrugged, hating that she wasn't going to find out about the excitement tonight. Or what they meant by a large shadow or any of this. It wasn't fair that for the second night in a row of broken time she wasn't going to get to use it to its full potential.
The basement was nicer than she expected at least. A full couch. A television. A few windows near ground level for the building. Concrete reinforced walls. That was weird. Hidetoshi paced behind the couch while neither of them pointed out that the TV didn't work when Alice hit the power button on the remote.
Neither of them thought to say anything when a pile of black goop broke the window, pushing through suspended shards of broken glass. It extended two psuedopods towards Hidetoshi, the boy pulling out the gun and trying to aim it towards his head. His hand rattled back and forth and the psuedopod struck him in the chest, sending him flying into the couch.
Alice would have, if that had been a person who decked him, asked a lot of questions about Hidetoshi's strategy of standing still with a gun to his head. But as it was a strange slime monster, she opted for pulling the switchblade from her boot and flicking it out. The creature's psuedopods moved in clockwise than counter clockwise arcs. She pulled the gun closer with her boot.
"Brave mortal, to try and fight fate's weave."
Alice laced her fingers around the trigger while Hidetoshi groaned. Another psuedopod pushed through the window. She raised the gun as one of the psuedopods swung towards her.
"Have you considered that the best way to spite fate is to try and cut it shorter?"
"You know, that sounds like you want me to do this. Let's find out why. Should be fun." Alice didn't know why she had the time to say that, when more psuedopods wanted to pummel her. She didn't know why she pointed the gun at her own head. She didn't know why she pulled the trigger.
But she knew her other name. "Moirai!"
Where a bullet wound should have been instead rainbows of thread flew from the side of Alice's head. They ripped through the psuedopods, leaving nothing behind of the slime monsters. A head with three faces floated above Alice. A trio of disembodied hands flanked it, one with spool, one with scissors, one with needle. She felt euphoric, gazing upon her true self. She was powerful. She could fight for herself and anyone who said she wasn’t Alice, they could die. She could be free, now that the fates were on her side.
A third monster slipped in through the broken window, expanding outwards into a spiral of sickle shaped limbs with a mask labeled I at the vertex. The Moirai vibrated until they shattered, the pieces falling away around an oscillating androgynous figure made of clay and eggshells. A serpent wound their body, the scales glittering with a darkness that reflected Alice a thousand times over.
They darted towards the new monster, digging their fingers into it and pulling them apart. The figure dangled a piece of the monster above an ever growing mouth of the serpent.
Alice's body seized up with pain as the figure morphed back into the Moirai which then faded from view. She wanted to stay standing, to turn and ask the dazed Hidetoshi why she was so much cooler than him. But the way her whole bad felt like it was cracking, she couldn't even manage to remain standing. At least she didn't fall into the suspended glass as she passed out.
-----
She woke up in a hospital bed, Kotone sitting by her bedside. She had bags under her eyes. Aww, she really cares. "Morning. So. What was that?"
"Right out with it? I respect it. First up, I should double check you're with it. You've been out for a while." Kotone held up a finger moving it in a circle. Alice's eyes followed it as she huffed. Then Kotone started drawing more and more random images in the airs until she drew a dick which sent Alice into a giggle fit. "Good, perfect. Still funny."
And then Kotone explained Shadows, SEES and the Still Hour. What a persona was. The spiraling labrynth, Logos, that replaced Gekkoukan during that hour and how they wanted to explore it. And then an offer, "So, you want to keep fighting? Once you're better?"
"Yeah, someone has to help keep Hidetoshi humble about that Evoker thing." Alice smirked and Kotone matched her. "Glad we're on the same page."
"Oh, for sure. But he does kind of give a shit about you. He's been here most nights to keep your machines running. So, don't be too mean." Kotone's words slapped Alice across the face. No one had actually given that much of a shit about her. "There's a razor set aside for you."
"Couldn't get a magical girl transformation to keep me shaved. Bastards."
-----
"Welcome to the Velvet Room." A long nosed man peered at her from the center of a spotlight, a piece of paper in his hands. The piece of paper she signed at the dorm desk. "Only ones who have signed a contract, such as yourself, may enter here. 'I promise to take responsibility for my actions this year.'"
"You know, when I signed my dorm paperwork, I didn't expect this. But I guess that's what I get for signing it near that Still Hour or whatever." Alice yawned, a tick of annoyance settling into her chest. She had been asleep. After a long winded explanation from the Chairwoman about what Kotone had told her but much more boring, Alice wanted that sleep. And she had sold her soul. She guessed. "What is this about?"
"Introductions are in order, I know who you are and you don't know who I am. I am Igor. I'm here to help you on the Journey this year. But right now, it's easier if I borrow you from the world of dreams. This will be but a moment of your valuable time. You will make connections and bonds this year." Igor gestured around the spotlit area, where cardboard rabbits hung from the unseeable rafters in a sea of blue. There were twelve of them, all at regular intervals, each with a number. Except one that had been blacked out.
"Uh huh. Okay, sure dream guy. You've taken me to a new kind of Wonderland. It kind of sucks. Make friends. We'll see if they can put up with me." Alice shrugged, ignoring the little pain that accompanied every interaction with others. All the little disconnects that came with her claiming who she was. A younger girl walked into the spotlight, a heavy book that could only be called a tome in her hand. She wore all blue clothes with platinum hair dyed with black streaks. And yellow eyes that studied Alice without a hint of emotion. "And you?"
"I'm also here to help, as one who rules over power. I'm Lavenza. We'll talk more in the future." Lavenza held up her book and Alice found herself staring at her dorm room ceiling.
------
"Good night, Alice. We're not going into that tower until we have three people. Take care of yourself." The Chairwoman's smile was faker than eighty percent of Alice's own smiles. An attempt to placate her and nothing more. Which suited Alice fine.
When people are fake, you know they hate you. Not a single question about it.
She faked a yawn as she went into her room. She'd spent the afternoon when she was supposed to be studying, tying together her bedding. She was going to get out of here for the night and explore. No one was going to stop her. Not Hidetoshi. Not the Chairwoman. Not Akane, the poor girl had an injured leg. And certainly not anything else.
The Still Hour started, she grabbed the sheets and her room filled with clocks. They flew around her head in lazy spiral, reminding her of the shadow that her persona had transfigured to attack. She sighed, because why not at this point. Why wouldn't time itself show up to give her a middle finger to her plans.
"Time slows."
"Sure does at this time." Alice sat down on her bed, crossed her arms and sulked. "What do you want? What is with everyone bothering me every night that I'm awake?"
The clocks whirled around her, their hands spinning at different rates and speeds, minutes taking seconds and hours taking even less time. "They wish to borrow a moment of your time. Enough stolen moments and it all stops."
"It already stops, but okay. And you know that you're doing the same thing right now." Alice turned her nose up at the clocks. If sulking wouldn't get them gone maybe, just maybe, pouting would. "Can I have my time back now?"
"It is never your time. It is always someone's. Farewell." The clocks in one moment were there and the next not. Alice fed her rope out the window and the Still Hour, which had not been an hour at all in her opinion, ended.
"Mother fucker."
-----
"Sup." A boy half wearing his uniform and a blue baseball cap leaned on Alice's desk. His grin stretched his face wide, his hat tipped up to the light to highlight his eyes. "You're new, right? Want to be shown around?"
"What do you mean by shown around? Because usually when boys want to show me around, they want me to show them things." Alice pointed her pencil at him and tried to not laugh at the drip of sweat fleeing his hat. That could wait a few minutes longer.
"Hey, no need to be hostile about it! Just your ol' buddy Junpei who is not hitting on you, dude. Nope, not at all." Junpei's hands waved by his head, in his flailing missing Alice's sneer at the word dude. She had not spent the first day out of the hospital touring drug stores and liberating makeup to be called dude. "And it's not that you're not cute, but it is a little rude to hit on a girl her first day."
"And yet you never talk to the other boys on their first day." Hidetoshi pushed up to the desk, getting in Junpei's face. Alice would have enjoyed girls fighting over her, not boys. She opted to stare out the window instead. "Hiiragi, you know you're not supposed to have dyed hair."
"Get on Kotone's case about it. Not mine." Alice pulled her bag up, heading for the door. Junpei trailed after her, Hidetoshi stomping off in the other direction. "You like following me like a lost puppy Junpei?"
"Dude, that's not at all what's going on. Ugh, Hidetoshi making me look bad. I didn't even catch your name, because Hidetoshi's all last names only." Junpei adjusted his hat, walking backwards to look at Alice. "Plus, nice hair."
"Alice. And thanks for noticing. It's meant to scare boys off. It doesn't seem to work, but whatever." Alice crossed her arms, letting out a long sigh. Despite his dude remarks, he was being tolerable. "Alright, so what were you going to show me?"
"Well, I got some cash and I know the best ramen in Iwatodai. I tried them all. And this is a get to know you type of ramen, not a dating kind." Junpei raised his eyebrows, trying to impress something on Alice. She shrugged and let him lead on. "You're not gonna regret it!"
She was annoyed when she got back to the dorm and it was good. More annoyed when a little voice in her heart said he was the Magician.