Chapter 5: The Right Ingredients

“What do you mean, I can’t go back home?”

She looked away as she replied.

“...Allen—”

I quickly grabbed her shoulders in a tight grip. The reality of her words started to hit me, and I was afraid she’d leave me here to die in this neverending field of flowers and mushrooms.

“Why can’t I go back!? I’m not the one you wanted! As cool as it would be to become some random magical place’s hero, I have no interest in this one! There’s nothing here!”

“I, ah, th-that’s—”

I shook her shoulders and increased the strength of my grip on her, digging my fingers into the fabric of her clothes. Her nervous hesitation was driving me insane.

“That’s what! What is it! SAY SOMETHING ALREA—!!”

Before I could finish my sentence, I was sent flying back by an incredible force.

I skidded through the flowers and my chest was in incredible pain. Petals and dirt flew all around me, and as I coughed, I realized I was quite a few feet of distance away from Zuria now.

She was holding what I thought was a very shiny yoyo at first, but as I groaned myself back into a sitting position, I saw that it actually was a pocket watch.

It had a bright white glow all around itself and its chain, and from Zuria’s position, it looked as if she had just used it to somehow hit me with it.

The glow disappeared almost as quickly as it came, and she let out a tiny gasp. Putting the watch back in the pocket of her black skirt she quickly made her way to me.

“Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you, it was a reflex…”

“............What...What the hell was that!?”

She offered her hand to help me back to my feet but I slapped it away and got up on my own.

If anything, she seemed genuinely apologetic.

“That...was my Spade weapon, Posthaste.”

“...Spade weapon?”

She nodded.

“Please, don’t ever touch me again.”

Her words were cold but her expression made it obvious she was doing her best to remain as polite as possible.

I took a deep breath before deciding to ask again, less violently this time.

“Why can’t I go back? You said you visited my sister for a whole year, so there has to be a way out of here other than that hole.”

“Not exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Going back and forth between our worlds is a unique ability of the White Rabbit Spade. Only I can do it. Not even Alice could. That’s why I never brought her along.”

I relaxed my shoulders, a little disappointed.

“...I see. That sucks.”

She adjusted her glasses nervously. A soft breeze blew a few times before she spoke again, softly.

“........Although…”

“....?”

She lifted her gaze slightly and finally made proper eye contact with me.

“...There might be a way to bring you back.”

I immediately perked up.

“Yeah? What’s that?”

You are reading story ACID♠ALICE at novel35.com

“..........................No, forget it.”

“Hey, come on, now! You can’t just drop that bomb then not tell me!”

She fidgeted for a second with one of her ears, as if making up her mind about telling me or not.

“Well...Wonderland needs Alice to survive the next Downpour, but...Alice is missing. If we find Alice and make her stop the rain, we'll be able to save the kingdom, and usually, once our hero saves us, the Looking Glass—the portal, opens up and you can finally return to your own world.”

“Oh…”

That seemed straightforward enough. I was starting to feel hopeful about all this already.

“However…”

She interrupted my happy moment with her words. I looked at her and she looked away, continuing.

“We can’t stop the rain if we don’t have at least ten Spades under Alice’s leadership by the time the rain comes. And the only one that can gather and command them is…the Alice Spade.”

“So… you’re saying we have to find my sister first?”

Zuria shook her head.

“Not exactly. We don’t know where she is so we’ll have to look everywhere for her. That could take us longer than the year we have until the next Downpour.”

“Shit…”

“In the meantime, there’s ways for us to find other Spades. All we need is the divination of the Caterpillar Spade and the Alice pendant—the one you have in your pocket.”

“Oh,” I took it out again to look at it. Still didn’t look like anything too important to me (though pretty gaudy and possibly expensive) “...this thing, huh?”

“Yes. The Alice Pendant is proof that the Alice Spade has been found.”

“...Okay? So we gotta take this to the Caterpillar person and find the other Spades, convince them to join us, and then find my sister...right?”

Zuria sighed.

“Yes...although it would be nice if we could find Alice sooner rather than later. The poor thing must be so scared in this strange world…”

Her words felt like an arrow to my chest. For a second I forgot the tiny detail that my sister was dead, so finding her would do us no good either way.

But...if what Zuria said is right, all I gotta do is convince a bunch of people that Alice is still out there, alive, and as long as they believe that I can make them stop the rain for me and then get the fuck out of here!

Unfortunately, as if reading my mind, Zuria took a step forward again.

“Allen.”

“...?”

“Only the Alice Spade can recruit the other Spades.”

“....”

“That means, we can’t do it without the Alice Spade.”

“Huh? But we have her pendant, and you said there’s a caterpillar—”

“Yes, we have everything we need to do so, except Alice herself.”

“So then…that means we can’t do it after all?”

Zuria was quiet for a long moment.

“We could do it…but…”

She took a deep, deep breath, then slowly exhaled it out. She adjusted her glasses and looked me straight in the eye before speaking the most insane words I’ve ever heard come out of her mouth.

“...You have to become Alice.”

You can find story with these keywords: ACID♠ALICE, Read ACID♠ALICE, ACID♠ALICE novel, ACID♠ALICE book, ACID♠ALICE story, ACID♠ALICE full, ACID♠ALICE Latest Chapter