The Puppeteers

Chapter 8: Retry, a second hope

As they went through the door once more, a glitchy figure popped up in their face, clearly excited about something.

"Oh, it's Miku." Kanade mumbled.

"Won-won-wonderhoy, everybody!" The weird Miku posed, "We currently have a show going on in the Wonder Theater! Tickets are free, would you like to come?"

"A show...?" The four looked at eachother a bit, "Well, why not? Let's go." Mizuki replied.

"Where is it?" Ena asked her, to which the girl pointed toward a big blue circus and said "Over there!" and walked them towards it, letting them all in before closing the doors from the outside.

...

They all sat in the audience seats.

"Have a very wonderhoy evening, everyone!" Emu came on stage, "Well, I don't actually know if it's evening, but that doesn't matter!"

"Today, Wonderlands x Showtime will be making a show to access our Fragment SEKAI's. We ask you to please remain in your seats and...try to feel the feelings...in your heart..." Nene said, half embarassed at the last line.

"That's right!" The star agreed, "Our play for today will be: Alice in Wonderland!"

"3é;..//89=)/5+ Woo'+%&^& hoo!" The glitched Miku cheered.

"Alice in Wonderland? Isn't that the same show that illegal troupe did yesterday?" Ena questioned.

"Pfft! When you say it like that, it sounds a bit funny." Mizuki answered.

"I heard one of their performers' identity got revealed during the show and they had to run away," Ena added, "Apparently the police are still trying to find information, and the boy had purple hair and--"

"Ahem, guys!" Tsukasa shushed them, "The show is about to start, please be respectful."

"Ah, right...We'll talk about it later." The girl tilted her head and crossed her arms, and then placed her attention on the stage.

The curtains closed for a few minutes, before opening again and showing a magnificent stage with props and lights all specifically designed for their show.

A green haired girl popped up on stage with a uniform: Alice's.

"I've always liked the atmosphere this forest brings me," She said under her breath, walking through the lands.

This wasn't a part of the script, but their director(Rui) had specifically told them to say things slightly different from the last play in order to not arouse suspicion.

Well, if they were so scared of being caught, why would they choose to do Alice in Wonderland all over again here?

The simple answer for that is because they didn't have enough time to think of another play, and they had already memorized all of their lines for this one.

"My name is Alice. It's a german name meaning noble."

Rui had even removed the scene where Alice would press a button that would set up fireworks in the ceiling and blow it up because of how boringly long The Cheshire Cat's speeches were. Totally random, definetly, but it wouldn't be Rui if it wasn't for his insanely unique ideas that normal stage directors probably wouldn't think of for 2 reasons: Firstly, for the safety of your actors and the audience, and secondly, nobody in their right mind would place explosives in the middle of their shows or hang people upside down for the sake of creativity anyway.

This didn't mean Rui didn't care for his friends or Wonderlands x Showtime, infact, he'd make special stages, special outfits and gear to make sure nothing went wrong. And, most of the explosives or fireworks used were specially made by him to only leave a small rash if it were to get on your skin. Awesome, right? But perhaps it's only like that if you believe in him, he's not the type of person you'd trust to hold your drink at a bar if you were ever in a situation like that.

Unpredictable as ever, each show Wonderlands x Showtime pursues hits a different mark in everyones hearts. People can't help but wonder what makes it so interesting to their watchers because you won't know what true excitement feels like until you go to see one physically.

But then, what does such a talented troupe have to do with the likes of an underground group like Nightcord at 25:00?

It's unknown, but perhaps the strings that are bringing them together is the thing they need to find to get out of here.

"...we're making stew tonight, so I'm here gathering..."

As everyone performed their roles, it was now it was time for Mad Hatter to come on stage...

"Well well, so you want to escape the beheading ordered by the queen?" He giggled under his breath, "You're so pathetic~ But I suppose it won't hurt for me to help you..."

"..." Alice paused for a little, "Uh, Mr...?"

"You can call me Mad Hatter." He responded.

"Ah, right, so Mad Hatter, do you know how I can get out of here?"

"Ofcourse!" He stared walking around, "It's quite simple actually,"

He was getting to the part where his mask fell off last time.

But, it was fine now, because he didn't have a mask, right? He wasn't hiding his identity right now.

"Can you tell me how?" Alice asked, half pleading.

"Right," He walked towards the girl, "All you need is one..."

His gaze fell to the audience seats again. A memory being replayed inside his brain.

The place where his mask fell off last time...

His mouth opened slightly, a bit surprised.

"...Mafuyu?"

"AHEM!" A loud voice stomped onto stage, intruding their conversation.

Rui took a few steps back instantly.

"Ah! The queen!" Nene squeeked.

"Just what do you think you're doing? You think you can escape, huhhhh?"

They continued talking while acting out their roles as usual, but Rui couldn't help but keep thinking.

The place where his mask fell during the show, was definetly Mafuyu's seat, meaning...

She knew Rui's identity this whole time...?!