"Kars! Kars!"
An urgent voice broke the peace of the Hakurei Shrine.
"Is that Alice's voice? What's wrong?"
Hearing Alice's panicked tone, Kars ran out of the house and saw Alice landing from the sky.
"Alice, what happened? Why do you look so nervous?"
"Well, there's a bit of a problem... my mother... I don't know how, but she's suddenly come to Gensokyo."
Alice's expression was one of pure frustration. Just thinking about her mother gave her a headache.
"Oh? Alice's mother? That sounds like a good thing."
"Not for me. She's a big part of the reason I left home in the first place."
"Eh? Did you run away from home, Alice?"
Kars thought meeting one's mother should be a happy occasion, but seeing Alice's face, he wondered if her mother was some kind of monster. Had she really run away from home!?
"I didn't run away! I just couldn't stand it anymore and chose to live on my own!"
"Uh, then why did you come looking for me?"
At this question, Alice's face turned bright red. Clearly, she was embarrassed.
"It's just... back at the house... I was masturbating with a doll of you when my mother suddenly showed up and... and saw me... wuwuwu~"
Alice couldn't go on. It was a life-endingly embarrassing event. She had almost died of shame.
"Oh! Is that all? It doesn't seem like a big deal."
"It's a huge deal! My situation is nothing like yours, Kars!" Alice protested. "And... and then she found out I had a boyfriend, so she wants to meet you."
Alice actually wanted this to happen. She wanted to introduce her loved one to her parent and hopefully get their blessing. So she hadn't refused her mother's request.
"Eh!? Meet your mother!? That's so sudden."
Kars was not mentally prepared for this at all.
"By the way, Alice, what kind of person is your mother?"
"A clingy, daughter-obsessed pest."
"Huh?"
Kars was stunned. He wondered if such a person would be easy to get along with.
"So we're going to see her now? Does she have any standards for your partner? Should I go looking like this?"
Kars was worried about making a bad first impression.
"It's fine. Go just as you are. Honestly, she doesn't have any specific standards for my partner."
"Is that so?"
The lack of standards actually made him more nervous, as he didn't know how to prepare.
"I'll take you there now. Don't be too nervous. She can be clingy, but she's generally very kind and won't get angry over nothing."
"I see. That's good."
Kars felt a little more relaxed. He followed Alice to the western-style house in the Forest of Magic. He took a deep breath before they pushed open the door together.
"So you're the one who stole my precious Al—Al—eh?"
As they entered, Kars saw a woman who looked quite young. She had shoulder-length silver hair tied with a red ribbon on the left side, two spherical ornaments on the ribbon, and wore a Gothic-style bright red dress. She didn't look like a mother at all.
She reminded Kars of his own "loli" mom back home.
The woman, Shinki, looked like she was about to do something, but she just stood there dazed, staring at Kars as if she couldn't process what she was seeing.
"Alice... this child is your boyfriend?"
Shinki finally seemed to come to her senses. She turned to Alice, looking shocked. "But he's just a child! The doll was so big! Why is the real thing so small?"
"Is there a problem with the doll being a bit larger than the real person!? And what were you planning to do just now?"
"No... nothing."
Shinki looked away guiltily. She had planned to intimidate whoever had "stolen" her daughter, but she hadn't expected Alice to bring back a child so much younger than herself. Had her daughter really fallen this far after leaving home?
"Kars, this is my mother."
"Oh, I'm Kars! It's a pleasure to meet you!"
Kars gave a bright smile and a polite greeting. Shinki, lost in her worries, snapped back to reality. She stared at Kars for a moment and then broke into a smile.
"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Kars. And about Alice tricking you into being her boyfriend, as her mother..."
"Mother! Don't say such weird things! It's not what you think between Kars and me! Just stop!"
"Wuwu~ Alice is so mean..."