Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prologue

A long time ago, when the world was still young, magic was a big part of everyone’s lives. A great king ruled over a large kingdom, and the strongest mages became his knights, who were protecting the kingdom from harm.

One day however, a powerful woman appeared. Her magic was more powerful than that of the magic bearers, but instead of working for the king, she demanded the throne for herself and a terrible war began. Everyone with magic skills was ordered to fight and many lost their lives in the process. The mages realized that they couldn’t defeat her, so they created a dimension between space and time.

The strongest mages gathered and used as much power as they had, until they were finally able to seal the witch away. However, before she was thrown into a different dimension, she swore to find a way back and rule over the world, no matter how long it would take her to do so.

When the war finally ended, not many mages were left, too many lost their lives in battle. And as time passed on, the people slowly forgot both about magic and the witch's existence. They remained only a memory written in books, treated by people as fairy tales. But sometimes a child would go missing, trapped in the mad world the witch created for herself.

To set herself free, she was searching for a pure heart of a person who would come to her mad dimension, where everything was nothing like it seemed. The children who got lost in her dimension eventually died because of the evil magic spreading through the place, becoming her most loyal servants. So over time, a story formed. It’s about a girl, who fell down a strange hole after chasing a white rabbit…

Chapter 1

Makoto sighed, fiddling with his suit again. He really didn’t like going out to parties, he wasn’t really interested in dating anyone. But his mother insisted on him finding a partner already, since she wanted to see her son happy. He was already 19 and never dated, even though there were many girls interested in him back in high school. He always tried to reject them politely, but he felt guilty all the time, because even though they were all nice, none of them really wanted to know the real him.

To say it loud, Makoto was just really lonely. He was a nice guy and people depended on him, but he never managed to actually find close friends. And because he didn’t like to go to parties, he was mostly on his own.

“Makoto dear! Are you finished dressing?” His mother called from downstairs and Makoto sighed one more time, before going down the stairs to meet his mother, who was smiling at him.

“You look gorgeous, dear!” She hummed, giving him a kiss on his cheek. Makoto slightly blushed at that, but his mother didn’t seem to notice.

“Mom… do I really have to go?” He asked weakly, even though he knew the answer. He didn’t want to disappoint his mother, but it was his life too and it bothered him that she meddled with his life, but he would never say that out loud, always smile and do his best to please his family.

“No you don’t have to, but I thought going out for once would make you happy. Makoto dear, why don’t you try to find friends or maybe a lover too? You’re always alone, I don’t want to see you unhappy! I don’t want you to grow old, feeling unhappy and lonely…” She sighed, turning away.

Makoto saw her shaking slightly and tried to reach out, but before he could say anything, she turned around again and looked at him with a stern expression.

“That’s why, Makoto!” she began, pointing a finger at him, “you will not come back until you found your love tonight!”

“What?!” Makoto asked in shock. “B-but I can’t do that! How am I supposed to fall in love with someone I only got to know for a few hours?!” He exclaimed, but his mother only gave him a mischievous smile, which confused Makoto.

“You know, the stars are shining bright tonight. I think that something great is going to happen, so why not go and enjoy the night?” She hummed, her eyes shimmering warmly. Makoto looked into them before sighing for the umpteenth time. “Alright, fine. I’ll go.”

“Great! Now go go go!” She shushed him outside and Makoto laughed slightly, making his way to the party. It was at his college where he attended; his whole class was invited. He actually declined the offer to join his classmates, but he agreed to go now anyway. Would they be happy to see him? He didn’t know.

As he arrived at his university, he already heard the loud music coming from the foyer. People were slowly going in, chatting to themselves. Once Makoto was in however, it was stuffy and too full for his liking. He tried to chat with a few classmates of his, but they lost interest in him rather quickly, so Makoto just went to the bar to get something to drink. He ordered a cocktail, not noticing how an unfamiliar black-haired boy sat down next to him. He didn’t say anything, but he was staring at Makoto, his sea-blue eyes shimmering strangely. Makoto noticed after a while, smiling at him.

“Hello! I haven’t seen you here before, are you new?” Makoto asked, to which the boy only gave a short nod, sipping at his own drink.

“So what faculty are you going? I’m in Sports Sciences and Physical Education. I really love teaching kids to swim!” Makoto chuckled. The boy only hummed in response, not replying to Makoto’s question. He started to feel awkward and tried to just focus on his drink.

“Haruka Nanase.”

“Huh?!” Makoto startled, because he didn’t expect to hear the boy next to him talking so suddenly. But he had to admit, his voice sounded really smooth.

“My name is Haruka Nanase.” The boy next to him introduced himself. Makoto blinked at first, looking at him dumbfounded, but he quickly caught himself and stuttered “T-Tachibana Makoto! Nice to meet you, Nanase-san!”

“Just Haru is fine.” Haru mumbled, looking away.

“Call me Makoto then.” Makoto smiled, feeling happy to have made a new friend. Could he call him a friend already? For some reason, he didn’t think “acquaintance” would fit and they called each other by their first names now anyway.

“Makoto…” Haru mumbled, as if he was testing his name, “Are you alone here?”

Makoto nodded and sighed. “Yeah, I’m alone. I don’t have many… friends.”

“My friends aren’t here…” Haru mumbled again, looking at the crowd. Makoto wondered if it was too loud to have a proper conversation. The music was blaring and not exactly pleasant to listen to.

“Hey, do you want to go outside? I have enough of this party.” He groaned, not looking forward to go home and disappoint his mother once again.

Haru looked at him with a blank expression, but Makoto thought he looked surprised, even though his facial expression didn’t change.

“Sure.” He replied and got up, squeezing himself through the crowd. Makoto followed him quickly, but unlike Haru, who seemed to have no problem to avoid bumping into other people, Makoto constantly apologized and even accidentally shoved people away.

Once they were outside, Makoto took a deep breath of the cool, but not cold summer air, enjoying the quietness. They sat down on a bench and he looked up to the stars, wondering if his mother was right about the things she said. Since he was little, he remembered that his mother used the stars to predict the future and she was often correct. Not always, but very often, which Makoto found eerily strange. He then noticed that Haru was staring at him and he looked into his sea-blue eyes, smiling warmly.

“So your friends aren’t here?” Makoto asked and Haru nodded, still looking at him.

“Why?”

“They couldn’t come.” Haru shrugged and looked away.

“Oh… I see.” Makoto replied sympathetically. “Well, if you want, I’ll give you company then! So tell me more about you.” He really wanted to get to know more about his mysterious friend.

“I like Mackerel, swimming and…” Haru mumbled, not finishing his sentence.

“And?” Makoto asked, smiling reassuringly.

“And… fairytales. The Little Mermaid is my favorite.” He replied, to which Makoto laughed softly. Haru glared at him, pouting slightly, but Makoto wasn’t laughing because he was making fun of Haru.

“I don’t know why, but I somehow knew you were going to say that, Haru-chan!” He chuckled.

“Drop the –chan.”

“Sorry Haru!” Makoto apologized quickly and blushed in embarrassment, not having realized that he nicknamed a total stranger. How awkward was that?

“What’s your favorite?”

“Huh?”

“Fairytales. What’s your favorite?”

“Hmm… Alice in Wonderland, I guess. I just really love the concept of a young girl traveling through a strange world, encountering strange but funny characters and make new friends!” Makoto smiled, but he looked a bit sad. “I wish I could find friends like that…”

Haru looked at him for a moment, not saying anything. The silence between them was slightly uncomfortable, but not too much.

“And what… if I could make your wish come true?” Haru asked softly, Makoto looked at him.

“How would you do that?”

Haru got up, turning to Makoto. He stretched his hand out, inviting Makoto to take it.

“Follow me and I’ll show you.”

Makoto looked at Haru’s hand, then back to him, feeling unsure what to do. Should he really follow Haru? Then again, his mother would be disappointed if he returned empty handed again and he really dreaded to go home. Also, he liked his company and what else did he have to lose? The boy didn’t look like he was just going to stab Makoto from behind and Makoto was taller and stronger anyway. He took a deep breath and took Haru’s hand, which was surprisingly cool and smooth.

“Lead the way.” Makoto smiled and Haru started walking, after staring into Makoto’s eyes for a while.

Makoto noticed that Haru was shaking slightly and he couldn’t help but wonder why. He didn’t mention it though and they walked away from the university in silence. This time however, neither of them felt the need to say anything, it was pleasant and Makoto enjoyed the quietness once again. Soon they went through a park, which was of course empty since it was night.

Haru let go of his hand and moved a bush away, revealing a strange hole.

Alice ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see a white rabbit pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

Makoto couldn’t help but think of the story of Alice in Wonderland again, since the situation he was in felt like he was reading the book right now. Was Haru the white rabbit? Makoto couldn’t help but wonder about that.

“Haru… where’s this strange hole leading to?” Makoto asked, sounding slightly afraid.

“To my friends’ place.” Haru replied, before jumping down all of a sudden.

“Haru!” Makoto exclaimed and tried to grab Haru, but slipped and fell down the hole with him.

In another moment down went Alice after the white rabbit, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

Chapter Text

When Makoto opened his eyes, he noticed that he was falling through a strange tunnel. All sorts of things passed by as he fell, like chairs or tea cups. Even though his mind told him that he should be concerned about the fact that he was falling (or floating?), Makoto felt strangely calm and curios. Only when the light at the bottom of the tunnel came closer and closer, he opened his mouth to scream but no sound was leaving his throat. The light got so blindingly bright that Makoto had to close his eyes again.

When he woke up again, he realized that he was lying in a pile of soft hay. He got up and tried to sweep some strands away and noticed that his clothes changed. Instead of wearing his formal clothes, he was wearing a black jacket combined with a dark green-blue coat and white boots.

“Wha-what is this?” Makoto asked himself in confusion, looking at himself from all sides.

“You’re Alice. Simple as that.” A voice answered him and when he looked up, he saw Haru standing in front of him.

“Haru!” Makoto greeted him happily, relieved to know that he was alright.

As Makoto stepped towards him, he realized that Haru changed too. He wore a black shirt combined with a dark blue coat and black skin-tight pants. Makoto couldn’t help but think that the outfit fit Haru too well for his liking, the black pants emphasizing his lean and long legs and his coat fit amazingly well to his blue eyes. But then he noticed the white ears that were sticking out of Haru’s black hair.

“Wait… are those rabbit ears?!” Makoto asked in shock, snapping out of his prior thoughts of admiring the strange young man in front of him. “What’s happening? Where am I?”

“I told you. We’re in wonderland.” Haru answered calmly. “Each one of us has their own role here. Mine is the messenger role, the white rabbit.”

“Us? Oh you mean your friends!” Makoto smiled and Haru nodded.

“White rabbit? And wonderland? The real one from the story?” Makoto wondered, to which Haru nodded again.

“Do you want to meet them?”

“Huh?”

“My friends.” Haru added.

“Oh… well… if we’re here already.” Makoto smiled and Haru turned around. “Let’s go then.”

Makoto noticed that they were in a tunnel again, but this time it was made out of trees. They followed the path for a while, neither of them speaking. He looked around in curiosity, noticing how the scenery around him was adorned with colorful mushrooms and other strange things. It really looked like a different world and he couldn’t help but feel excited to get to know it.

“It looks really nice here! I thought it would be scary when I accidentally fell down with you haha! But why do you have roles and such? I mean… this is wonderland, sure, but why?” Makoto asked.

“The queen wanted it like that.”

“The queen? Queen of hearts?”

“Yeah, something like that.” Haru shrugged.

Makoto didn’t press any further. He admired the scenery around him instead, wondering if the rumors of the lost children were true. He heard it from his own mother, warning his siblings to never go off too far, but he never thought it was actually true.

They came to a stop after they left the leafy tunnel. A huge tower stood in front of them, which was surrounded by exotic plants Makoto had never seen before.

“Follow me.” Haru said and went to the tower, placing his hand on the doorknob without quite touching it. A strange, soft white glow emitted from his hand and the door opened.

“Woah… was that magic?” Makoto asked, feeling entranced by his action.

“Yes… the door was closed, so I opened it. I can do simple magic like that.” Haru explained and stepped inside.

“Ah wait!” Makoto tried to follow Haru, but when he stepped inside the old tower, he was already gone. Instead, he heard a door close, but couldn’t exactly tell which one, because the room in which he was had a lot of them.

The ground’s black and white tiles were partially broken and the every door had a different size. It also looked like the tower wasn’t completely round, more oval, or was that an optical illusion? Makoto wondered through which door Haru went and chose to check a normal sized one, but it was locked. He tried every door until he found an unlocked one and stepped through, finding himself in a very jungle like area.

The leaves of countless plants seemed gigantic, or did Makoto shrink? He didn’t know, but he didn’t feel scared. Instead, he continued to wander around. The air was really humid and it was difficult to walk through the place. Eventually Makoto took a break by a leafy wall, which seemed to hide something.

“Man this place is huge! I wonder where Haru went…” Makoto sighed, resting on a big mushroom.

“Why are you looking for him?” A voice asked and Makoto startled, immediately jumping off of the mushroom. He looked around, trying to find the source of the voice until he faced a strange blue haired guy with red glasses.

Unlike Haru and himself, he was wearing a butler like outfit, a dark blue butler coat and a dark purple shirt, his hands covered in white gloves and he held a long pipe. He was sitting on the same mushroom Makoto just sat on. Where did he suddenly come from?

The guy brought the pipe to his mouth and took a deep breath, suddenly exhaling the smoke right into Makoto’s face. The brunette coughed, the smoke stinging his eyes. “Hey! What the hell?”

“You did not answer my question.” The guy replied calmly, to which Makoto started to feel irritated.

“I don’t even know your name!”

“Ryuugazaki Rei, pleased to meet you.” The guy, Rei, answered, putting the pipe to his mouth again.

“I’m Makoto. I’m looking for Haru, since he brought me here, but then I lost him.” Makoto explained, stepping away from Rei in case he was going to blow his smoke at him again.

“I see. So you must be the one. Say Makoto-san, do you trust Haruka-senpai?” Rei asked, the smoke left his mouth as he spoke.

“Trust him? I don’t know him for so long… but I guess I do. I mean, he’s a bit quiet but very expressive if you get to know him. I think others might see him as distant… but I don’t think so at all.” He mumbled, blushing slightly after he said all of this. “Why shouldn’t I trust him?”

“I cannot tell you that. However, you should not trust Haruka-senpai so easily.” Rei sighed sadly.

“Why not? I don’t understand!” Makoto called, wondering why Rei spoke so formal of Haru and yet told Makoto not to trust him.

Rei looked at his pipe for a moment, took another deep breath and exhaled a lot of smoke into the air, making Makoto cough again. He slowly lost vision of the strange man, because the smoke was suddenly everywhere. But then, he heard Rei’s voice speaking:

“When magic ruled the forgotten world
A witch tried to claim the throne for herself,
The mages banished her into a dream-world,
Where one cannot escape by themselves.

A child, long after the terrible war,
Fell into this forbidden world,
Finding their path through many doors,
The warnings of the adults ignored.

The witch then tried to steal their life,
Almost killing the child in her rage,
The wounds cut through their skin like a knife,
But instead held its life in a cage.

The witch promised to set them free
Once they found the purest one,
But if they ever try to flee,
They would never see the morning sun.”

Once Rei finished talking, a strong wind blew the smoke towards Makoto, who was pushed away by the sheer force. He tried to stand against it, but he could feel his legs giving away.

“Go through the door behind the leafy wall and follow the path to which it leads, then you might see Haru again.” Rei’s voice whispered and Makoto was thrown onto his back, gasping in pain.

The wind stopped afterwards and when the smoke was gone, Rei was nowhere to be seen. Confused, Makoto got up and found the door he was told to go through, hidden behind the mentioned wall. Makoto yanked the plants away and touched the doorknob, pushing the door open.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3 - Trapped 

When Makoto stepped through the door, he found himself surrounded by huge green hedges. The door behind him close and when Makoto turned around, it was gone. He was in the middle of a narrow way with no way out, or so it seemed. Makoto realized that he was stuck in a maze.
The sky above him was already starting to turn bright orange and the sun was setting, he didn’t have much time before it would be completely dark. He had to find a way out as quickly as possible.

Makoto decided to run straight until he reached an opening and ran through. He ran straight again until the way split and he ran to the right, only to find himself in front of a dead end.

“Are you lost?” A voice taunted, but Makoto couldn’t see anyone. Cold sweat was beginning to form on his back. He was most likely hearing things already because he couldn’t find the way out.

He decided to run back and took the other way, running and running until he hit another dead end.

“Not that way either~” The voice snickered and Makoto began to grow pale. The sky above him showed the first signs of stars and the bright orange slowly became dark.

“No… no please…” Makoto whimpered and ran back again. He didn’t think where he was running, but he could hear someone’s footsteps above on the hedges. A strange sound also became louder. It sounded like a distant howl, which made Makoto stop dead in his tracks in fear.

Turning around, he ran away from the howling, but the more he ran, the closer it seemed to approach. Makoto was panting heavily already, looking around frantically. He couldn’t hear the footsteps anymore, but he was still scared. Dead end over dead end followed and made him collapse onto his knees at one point, exhausted from all the running. He covered his ears, because he didn’t want to listen to the strange howling until he realized that it wasn’t a howl. Now that he was closer to the sound, he realized that someone or something was quietly sobbing.

Makoto got up, his knees wobbling. He shakily made his way to the sobbing, but it was actually growing quieter. Was he walking in the wrong direction? He turned opposite to the source of the sound and as he began walking again, the sobbing grew louder.

“How strange”, Makoto thought. “That’s why I couldn’t get away from the sound!”

When he turned around the corner, he finally found the source of the sobs. He stood in front of a small boy who had his back turned to Makoto, who had grey hair and tiny mouse ears. He wore a shirt with grey stripes, a light blue necktie and beige pants and was also curled up in himself, shivering slightly. Makoto’s heart broke at the sight of the frail boy in front of him.

“Are you okay?” He asked gently in order not to scare the boy, but the boy turned around in shock, his eyes wide in fear. They were red too, he must’ve been crying for some time now.

“Hey I won’t hurt you! I promise… I’m just as lost as you are.” Makoto smiled reassuringly, crouching down to the boy’s level.

“R-really?” The boy asked, sniffling. His voice sounded hoarse, but he was calming down slowly.

“That’s right! Ah, I’m Makoto by the way. Who are you?”

“Dormouse N-Nitori.” The boy mumbled, taking a deep breath. “I was invited to a tea party… but I got lost in this maze… A-and it’s dark too…”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find a way together!” Makoto told him firmly, stretching his hand out. Nitori grabbed it tentatively, wiping his tears away.

“Promise?”

“I promise.” Makoto smiled, squeezing his hand gently. He helped Nitori up, whose mood seemed to brighten a bit.

“Ahaha~ it took you long to find him!” The same voice from before taunted and when Makoto looked up to the hedges, he saw a boy around Nitori’s age sitting on the green wall, grinning from ear to ear.

He had fluffy looking pink ears that matched his eyes and an equally fluffy tail. Unlike Nitori, he wore tight black pants, a small bell on his neck, a white shirt, a pink vest and big, pink and purple striped gloves with cat paws, which covered his elbows down to his hands.

“Nagisa, I mean Cheshire! Where did you go?!” Nitori exclaimed, pouting. “You said you were guiding me through this maze!”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to~” Nagisa purred.

“I said, I wanted to go to the tea party!”

“Then it doesn't matter which way you go!” Nagisa giggled, jumping into the air and disappeared, only to reappear on another hedge on the opposite side of where he was sitting on before.

“But Nagisa, I don’t want to be late! Where are Mad Hatter and March Hare?”

“In that direction,” Nagisa said, waving his right paw round, “is the Hatter, and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “is the March Hare. Visit either you like, they're both mad. But it’s more fun to watch you wander around in this place so I won’t tell you where the exit is!”

“What?! You can clearly see it from up there!” Nitori exclaimed, sounding angry.

“Now, now, we don’t want to fight here, right?” Makoto tried to calm him down and Nitori sighed.

“Fine, we’ll find the way without you!” Nitori huffed and dragged Makoto along, having forgotten that he was lost. Makoto couldn’t help but smile, because for some reason he knew that Nitori actually liked his friend and that he was just teasing. Nitori probably knew that too, or so Makoto believed.

“Well I certainly want to see you try!” Nagisa giggled, jumping from the hedge down to the ground, only to disappear before his feet landed. A bell chimed and it sounded like Nagisa was running on the hedges, passing Makoto and Nitori.

“Hey, why don’t we try following that sound? He might lead us to the way out!” Makoto suggested and Nitori nodded, trying to run after the sound, but Makoto stopped.

“What is it?” Nitori asked, confused and impatient. “If we don’t run, we might lose Nagisa!”

“I know, but… I heard your sobbing but I only found you because I was running away from the sound!”

“Really? Then we should run this way!” Nitori said and started to run, Makoto following him. It was hard not to lose Nitori when he turned around corners, because he was surprisingly fast. But soon they felt too tired to run and the bell chime was nowhere to be heard.

“What should we do now?” Nitori asked, catching his breath.

“Let’s go on, I don’t think we can stay here.” Makoto sighed and Nitori nodded, clinging onto Makoto’s shirt. Makoto smiled down at him and they went through the only path that was there, only to hit a dead end again.

“Man I can’t do this anymore!” Nitori sobbed, trying to lean at the wall, but he fell through with a startled yelp instead!

Makoto followed him through the illusory wall, helping Nitori up. “Are you okay?”

Nitori swept the dust off of his clothes and nodded, looking around. There was still no sight of Nagisa, but at least they were finally out of the maze.

“Ahh… finally!” Nitori sobbed in relief, smiling. “Hey and look! We’re almost at the tea party too!”

“Yes you are! Finally.” Nagisa appeared in front them, startling them both.

“Screw you!” Nitori huffed again, but Nagisa only laughed.

“Come now! Everyone is waiting.” Nagisa hummed, bouncing to the gate that stood in front of a huge garden and a cute house. A table stood in the middle of the garden, covered in plates, cakes, tea and all sorts of other sweet things.

“Welcome to the Tea Party of Wonder!” Nagisa announced, skipping to the table.

“Nitori! You finally arrived!” A voice called and a man with pink hair and rabbit ears hugged Nitori tightly.

“Kisumi! Kisumi oh I was so scared!” He sniffled, crying into the man’s chest. Makoto smiled at that, feeling warm for some reason.

“Welcome everyone!” A strange red-haired man welcomed them. He was wearing a similar outfit to Kisumi, a long coat, pants that went to his ankles, long striped socks and shoes, but unlike everyone else, he had no animal traits. "I'm Seijuro, the Mad Hatter. Call me Sei."

“I brought the cake.” A familiar, smooth voice suddenly said.

“Haru! You’re here!” Makoto called happily, running towards him. He felt giddy for some reason, a smile covering his face.

“Makoto.” Haru greeted him with a nod. Even though his expression didn’t change, Makoto could see an excited sparkle in his blue eyes.

“Now if everyone’s gathered we should begin the tea party!” Kisumi announced and sat down at the table, Nitori following him.

“Let’s party.” Haru smiled a bit and Makoto nodded, following him to the strange group.