"Where did I come from? Where should I go?"

I saw many things as centuries turned to millennia; as clocks tick both forward and back.

The hustle of a city. The gentle roar of cars going back and forth amongst worn concrete streets; the whistle of a train, loud and piercing, falling upon the ears of those who were raised to give it no mind, the sound no different than that of their heartbeats, comforting and persistent, a sign that this day was infinitely close to the previous, and would certainly lead straight into the future.

For them, the river of time flows without pause.

For me, the river is an ever distant thing. It flows just out of reach, a circular thing that goes on and on in an endless course, an endless blue, a tangible something to contrast the infinite darkness at my back.

To look away is to lose it.

To look away is to slip from the narrow, to lose my grip on the cliff-side, and fall apart into the nothing that I have become, always been, and never were.

To see and be unable to touch is torture.

Everything that was mine has already fallen away, everything that I could have become fell to the same fate.

Even so, to suffer is to exist.

It is torture to look, but for the self that is stranded on the shore, that is all I can ever hope to do.

Men and Women pass through my time like a shower of sparks; brilliant but quick to vanish, leaving only the memory of their blazing existence in my heart.

I see some more than once.

Starting again, stopping suddenly, repeating the process, falling into many different paths, endless possibilities trickling down the rock of reality, the river I see seems to change with every blink.

Is there a single source?

Is the river truly the same?

How many are there? From which did I come?

Where do I go?

A part of the world, but unbound to it.

A clinging will; the remains of someone who should have long ago vanished into the abyss called eternity.

Slipping away, desperately clinging.

Endless blue, infinite black.

Those that fall in cannot come back of their own accord; to this, even I am no exception.

Slipping.

Falling.

Endless blue, infinite black.

I reach out my hand, but there's no one there.

Endless blue, infinite black.

Color of death, color of despair.

I had never had any hope in the first place, the moment I had fallen inside of here, my fate had been torn away from me and cast into nothing.

It was only natural that the world would forget.

No one will ever look for someone that does not exist; sacrificed for their prosperity, having done that duty, I am not someone who is needed in the future.

Martyr.

A word for a fool who was cast into hell to cover a mistake.

Falling.

Slipping.

Laughing.

Crying.

Cursing.

Remembering.

Forgetting.

Fading.

Becoming.

The hand that reaches out for the last time...

Grips the handle of a locked door.



---

Location: Akatsuki (Night Train)
Phase: Early Morning, Before Sunrise
Date: April 11th, 2056
Weather: Clear Skies, Chilly


There is a certain sort of peace that comes with traveling by the darkness of night. The harsh glare of the sun striking at another part of the world far removed from here, the only lights that can assail your eyes are those that come from the silver light of the fading moon, a gentle, unobtrusive light that when combined with the sheer lateness of the hour, had lulled many a number of the car's occupants into a somewhat reluctant sleep a few hours prior, a gentle lullaby to those who had been more or less pushed onto the midnight train.

But for most, even the gentle, rhythmic motions of the old-fashioned train car can only bring about a restless peace; a light sleep that is easily broken by the simple act of the old vehicle going over a particularly rough part of the track.

For this car is filled to the brim with the supernatural; a late night train into Tomobiki, one so late in the night (or perhaps early in the morning) that it almost felt like you were being carefully snuck into the city limits at a point in time in which the residents were asleep and quite simply unable to do anything about it. Yes, it was a very bizarre train with very bizarre hours, especially when accompanying friends and family had been sent into Tomobiki the day before, but, in some ways, it is not entirely unexpected.

Moving the Unions all at once, doing so within the confines of a single train, along the length of a few cars.

Made it an easy to monitor situation.

It was a bit overkill in some respects, the likelihood of someone becoming randomly violent over the length of a single train ride was close to non-existent, but you still got the feeling that all of this was a result of following some sort of security procedure, albeit one that was being disguised to be as unobtrusive and easy to get through as possible.

Not that the security was necessary.

With her crimson eyes seeming to almost glow ever so slightly in the dimly lit interior, the figure of Nagatani Isako, the future principal who had joyfully led everyone onto the train back in Yokozaki, sitting at the head of the train car with one leg crossed over the other, and a book propped open against said limb, is a being that makes almost any sort of misbehavior absolutely impossible.

If you do anything, she'll know.

That was the sort of presence she always gave off; that of someone who was intimately aware of everything that was going on around her at all times.



"Hmmm...? Oh, looks like we're close."


As proven by the fact that she notices when everyone's eyes flicker at the light feeling of the bump in the rail line, a bump that she seems to take as some sort of signal, as she snaps her fingers with a thunderous crack, a tiny spark of light and fire jarring awake all those that had resisted the ever escalating calls of the waking world thus far.

"Come on guys, time to wake up!" Standing, stretching, smiling, the woman starts down the aisle as the first glimpse of morning light appears in the windows, shaking awake those who even now, remained determined to stay in dream land, "There's a few rules we have to go over again before we get there, and some things I have to give you, but it'll be a pretty easy day, I promise."

____

Tutorial-Prologue: The Wheel of Fate is-
And thus the journey begins; or at least, the wheel of fate has slowly begun to inch forward towards the future. Having not yet arrived in Tomobiki, your options are relatively limited as to how you proceed with your story, so for now, during this opening sequence (and while some things are being setup) take some time to introduce your character and allow them to get their bearings, talking amongst yourselves if you wish. Once Isako is done with her address to the students, the game will open up a bit more and allow some exploration of the world, but until then-!