The romance between the man and the woman came to an end, along with their lives, there under the crimson moon, under the distorted, cracked sky.
Yet, the man couldn’t help to laugh, leaning against his partner, even as his body fell apart. There were no regrets that could be seen in his face: his eyes were clear, clearer than they had been during his twenty-five years of life. Although he leaned against the woman’s frame, his body slowly disappearing, he showed no pain… instead, he seemed perfectly tranquil.
“What is there to laugh about?” Their killer asked idly, as he watched the couple’s death throes. His voice, accustomed to enunciate long and passionate speeches, carried over throughout the bloodied rooftop and even beyond. Although he did not sound very interested in the answer, his cold gray eyes did never abandon the man’s. “All your friends are dead, and all your schemes have come to naught. Your actions have all been pointless. You should have known that Izanami always triumphs.”
“You would… never understeand, Uryuu.” The man replied, pronouncing each word with difficulty. Then, this time it was the turn of the woman to laugh, as she cradled the love of her life in her arms, her eyes filled with equal parts pride and madness as she stared their killer down.
“The invincible Izanami? Our schemes? Fuck that!” The woman exclaimed. Despite her imminent death, she remained standing tall, beautiful and powerful until the very end. “All we wanted was to be free of this sick game, to end it all! And we knew that it was impossible, that we were destined for defeat! This game is already lost, it was lost since the very beginning!”
“So, we decided to stick it to Izanami, to all the others, to the world, to the game!” The woman shouted, fieriness present in her expression as if she was reciting her creed, her guiding principle and belief. “We wanted to carve it into this world! We were here! We fought here! We existed here! You would never understand…”
“We just wanted to carve into this world, with all our power…” The man continued, as he disappeared.
“We… existed!” The woman concluded, shouting towards the bloody moon hanging in the sky.
And as they did so, they reached towards their weapons…
Two gunshots interrupted the silence of the distorted night.
1 - A Crack In The World / Aries
“Many times, I asked fellow Powers about rare sightings in the Cosmos, hungry as I was for more knowledge. I asked many of my fellow researchers, as well as other individuals who had seen many strange things, who had explored places forbidden. The Angel of Erosion spoke to me about the castle at the Center of Everything. The World-Ender spoke about the limits of Existence, the very borders of reality. Ramiel spoke about the First Titanomachy in the distant past and of that forbidden world. But the episode that offered the most interesting insight was casual, unplanned. I happened, one day, to encounter the Slayer of Gods in a bar, while exploring a certain world. He was drinking hard liquor when I approached, and asked him my question. He laughed at me for a good while, then said that the strangest, most horrible of sights can be found in one’s own backyard… if one’s willing to look hard enough.
I have been unable to sleep ever since.
-Extract from the Grimoire of Aohzar, Chapter IX.
Elora Griffin
April 3rd – Evening
Nakano, Amaterasu High School – Student Council room
You were on the road to the school, walking the few streets that separated your house from the school. Both you and your cousin lived near the school, so you could easily get there by walking, and had a meeting point with Rika halfway through… although she spent the night at your house most of the time, anyway. Especially since…
Avoiding that train of thought, especially since you had decided to continue attending school despite it all, you continued forward, one step at a time, until…
Your gaze fell into a figure that seemed familiar. Pure white hair, shimmering orange eyes, a few centimeters taller than you, clad in a white dress… the first thing you feel, when you notice the lady observing you, is that her similarity with Rika is startling, enough for you to stop in your tracks, surprised.
The woman and you exchanged a completely silent stare for what felt like hours, yet was probably just a few minutes. Then, the woman sighed, gently shaking her head to herself, before turning around and walking away before you could say anything. You had been left rooted to the spot, feeling very confused, until a startled Rika had walked from the usual meeting spot to find you.
----------
“Hey, Griffin, you with me?” A somewhat rude voice roused you from your thoughts. You were seated in your spot at the head of the table in the Student Council’s room, and had been lost in your memories of this morning for a while. You hadn’t even noticed when your vice-president had arrived.
“… Are you okay? Elora-san?” Oogami Sakura had been your rival for the Student Council election, and you had been two very passionate rivals, clashing against each other in intense speeches, butting heads over all kinds of topics. You had won the election, which had been a surprising upset. Sakura was popular, extremely so, to the point some called her the third queen of the school (the first two being, of course, Shiratori Kaguya and Laura Leonhardt), although she had never cared much for forming a clique around herself. She was, well, perfect, in practically everything, much like the traditional image of a student council president, and was filthy rich to boot. That you had managed to eke out a win was a complete surprise. This had happened a year ago.
After you had won, you had found yourself in a somewhat embarrassing position: it had been somewhat hard to find people to fill in the positions in your council, and you were very short of personnel. At that point, Sakura had said something to the effect of ‘geez, I might as well help you out, just this once’ and had remained as your vice-president since then, and would remain so for the rest of this year, as well. You had become fast friends, although she would always just call you by your surname, without honorifics, and only use your name or show any sort of friendliness when you were alone, like now. The rest of the council should be arriving soon.
Your former rival was staring at you with badly disguised concern. Your mother had fallen into a coma and become one of the Lost, which was how people had taken to call them. Your friends, and those in the student council in particular, had shown a great deal of concern over it, but had otherwise tactfully avoided the topic. Your friend was definitely thinking about that right now, but even this strong-willed vice-president of yours was nervous when it came to this particular topic.
Masayoshi Kotetsu
April 3rd – Evening
Shinjuku, Streets – Yamagumi Bar
You gave your companion the stink-eye.
Shiomata Katsuo shrugged. “ ‘s what’s around, what did’ya expect?”
You groaned at the injustice of the world. Of course, if you wanted a nearby bar in Shinjuku, which served serviceable alcohol then the Yamagumi Bar was a good option, given that your usual bar was closed today. And apparently there wasn’t another one around in a three-kilometer radius, something truly preposterous in your opinion. You usually avoided establishments associated with uh, your line of work when off the clock, and the Yamagumi was a known Kamiyama-gumi front.
And it also made you think about your wife, and the fact that it had been almost two months since she had fallen into her seemingly eternal sleep.
The thought made you feel overcome with a need for alcohol, and you shrugged, entering the establishment in a bid to forget these unwelcome thoughts. Katsuo shuffled behind you, shaking his head. The interior was busy, but cozy enough, and despite the quantity of people, it was fresher than the unseasonable warmth that had invaded the streets. Nobody paid you two any attention as you made your way to the bar and towards two free seats. The same news program from before was blaring at a high volume from the nearby TV, and you noticed quite a lot of the patrons were staring at it, not missing any word, but you weren’t on the mood to pay attention to the gossip.
Katsuo asked for the usual drinks. As always, nobody could keep the big man away from his whisky. You were fairly sure he’d wrestle a damn bear for his whisky. And he’d probably win the fight, too. You noticed the bartender looking at you once, then doing a discrete double take, before hesitating momentarily, and reaching over under the counter to pull a bottle of the good shit.
Then, you finally caught some words of the news program, that made you immediately snap your neck to stare at the TV, disbelieving.
“…and that is all we know about the disappearance of USA’s President, George Baumer. The mystery has only deepened since the first reports a hour ago, and as expected, there is a complete lack of details about how such a thing came to happen. The vice-president has taken command of the country, and has refused to answer questions for now, saying that they’re still investigating…”
“Th’ hell?” Katsuo said. It seemed like a very appropriate comment. You shuffled in your seat, taking your eyes away from the newscaster for a brief moment, and caught someone entering the bar through the corner of your eye. The figure was covered by a very baggy longcoat, and shuffled somewhat awkwardly to the side. You also noticed that said figure left a small trail behind, a trail of sticky red liquid…
“Blood?” Mumbled your companion, who seemed to have followed your glare towards the figure. You were the only two who had noticed, as the rest of the patrons and employees were all staring intently at the news.
Shiratori Kaguya
April 3rd – Evening
Shinjuku, Streets – Near Yamagumi Bar
You were fairly sure by now that you had overestimated your friend’s sense of direction. You could feel Laura Leonhardt’s increasing nervousness through your linked hands as well, and you understood that you were probably lost.
Not that it was that big of a deal, given that you could easily hail a cab, or ask for directions, but it was somewhat counterproductive. Plus, you had at some point wandered into a part of the city that really did not fit the words “good neighborhood”. You had to admit that heading out with no other plan but to wander the streets and trip into something had proved inefficient at best. You had gained no clues whatsoever after quite a while of wandering.
“Yeah. We need a better plan of action.” Laura stopped, rubbing her eyes in irritation with her other hand. She hadn’t let go of you all this while, and you had the feeling the blonde was afraid you’d wander out in your own if left to your own devices. “Maybe we should-“
“Yo, if it ain’t our school’s queens. The heck you doing here?” A very rude voice interrupted Laura while she was speaking. You looked towards the streets, near the bar, and spotted two faces you knew well.
The one who had spoken was sitting on the sidewalk, hair dyed a pale blonde, which only accentuated the near-unnatural pallor of her skin, her fingers wrapped around a lit cigarette. Her name was Hitomori Rinko. The girl with the pink dyed hair standing at her side was holding her phone, and seemed to only have noticed you just now. She bounced up to you.
“Hi~ Shiratori~ Leonhard~ weird to see you girls around here!” She said in a happy, peppy voice as she jumped up, as if meeting you two here was the most exciting thing ever. Her name was Motohara Rei, and along with Rinko, they were a very well-known delinquent duo in Amaterasu High, with both of them attending your class. Well, sort of, Rei showed up frequently, but Rinko had only showed up twice to class so far.
“It is Leonhardt, Motohara-san. I keep having to correct you every time…” Laura replied in dismay. Rei was… well, pretty much inoffensive. She was cute, bubbly, and managed to get along with everyone despite her delinquent status. It wasn’t even the first time you two had talked. Rinko, on the other hand… had a much worse reputation. You had heard she had been involved with some fairly nasty incidents, and had been on the verge of dropping out of school last year.
“Cut the crap.” The blonde girl took a drag out of her cigarette. “The hell are you two doing out here? Ya got any idea of how dangerous is for two girls to wander the streets alone at night?” She sounded like a mix of surprise and amazement. “Especially this place, it’s fuckin’ Yakuza territory, didn’t ya know?”
Mizunoue Mizuki
April 3rd – Evening
Shibuya, Otonokizaka High School – Literature Club room
Silence reigned in the room. It had reigned for a hour. Both you and your vice-president had your eyes firmly glued to your respective books, although nobody had turned a page in a good half-hour. Once in a while, despite yourselves, you’d find your eyes moving by themselves to stare at the empty old couch off to a side.
The girl that would, sometimes, jokingly add ‘-nee’ to your name was still not there. You should have moved her couch to a corner of the room or something, you surmised, but no one had the heart to even bring the topic up. In fact, this situation had been going on ever since the school year had started.
There was a solid half-hour more of silence. You usually bantered your heart out. This was not right. Maybe someone should say something. You both stared at the empty couch at the same time.
“Ah, damnit.” Tendou Touma grabbed his coffee, and emptied the cup with in a single, practiced motion. “Okay.”
“Maybe we should do something.”
Not the most inspired words to start a life-changing event up, but it was a start nonetheless.
Yuu Kurogami
April 3rd – Evening
Nakano, Amaterasu High School - Entrance
You were bored.
Given that Elora was busy in the student council, and your favorite… let’s say prey, to define that relationship in some way, was in a coma… you didn’t have much to do. Even though most people seemed to be ignoring the incidents, even your accustomed social circle had started going to their houses earlier, which had ended leaving you in the lurch, at least school-wise.
You could always go hang out with your gang, you guessed, but then again, you weren’t sure if they’d be around today. You’d probably have to call the members and get them to go to the usual spot and… it just felt like a pain in the ass, at least today. But maybe…
“What about investigating what happened to Koga-sensei, Miss?”
Well, you could always count with your maid to bring up ideas in these moments. Aragaki Kaede was the kind of person always up for watching the world burn. And you did feel like something new today…
But how would you even go about it?
Amano Kaede
April 3rd – Evening
Bunkyo, Near Tokyo University – The Beefiest Steak
You had used to frequent this restaurant a lot a year back or so, when Edmund still studied there. Incredibly lame pun aside, this place was loved by the university’s students because it was very cheap, relatively tasty, and gave enough volume per portion to satisfy hungry 20-somethings desperately cramming for bullshit exams. That was a hard to find balance.
You stared as Detective Edmund Yorks devoured his steak like the hungriest ghost to ever have trodden the underworld. You had to say that in the week since you had last met, he seemed to have lost a considerable amount of weight, and had gained circles around his eyes. You also frowned as you eyed the cigarette he was holding on one hand… thankfully, the restaurant had certain designated zones in which nobody would say anything even if you spontaneously morphed into a human chimney, but still, you knew that your close friend only smoked when he was extremely nervous.
“They’re working us to the bone, what with all the strange bullshit that has been happening around the city, not that any of us have any idea of how to even start investigating this.” The man paused, evidently noticing that maybe it was a better idea to be tactful about this topic. It had been a month since your younger brother had fallen into a coma, becoming one of the Lost.
And of course, you had the feeling that the man hadn’t just called you to your old meeting spot just to complain at you.
“Look, you know about the, let’s call them strange incidents, springing all over Tokyo, right?” Edmund moved his coat to the side, evidently bothered by the unseasonable warmth. Through the window, you could see that the sky was clear, except for dark clouds slowly accumulating in the distance. There’d be a storm tomorrow for sure. “I mean, you haven’t been forgetting about them at all, right?”
He heaved a sigh. “There are quite a lot of people in the department that haven’t been forgetting about them either, which I’m really thankful for but… what I mean is…” He rubbed his eyes, tiredly. He looked like he hadn’t slept a wink in many days.
“My partner, Matsumoto Mizuki fell into a coma five days ago. And… there’s some strange stuff going on in the police department. I got some… clues, and I really need someone to talk to, that I can trust. And… someone to have my back.”
Mizuhara Mitsuki
April 3rd – Evening
Nakano, Amaterasu High School – Entrance
You said your goodbyes to your classmates, and exited the school along with your best friend. As if it was natural, Shimazaki Kaori held your sleeve, and you were fairly sure that if there wasn’t so many people around, she’d have grabbed your hand too.
“Where do you want to go now?” She asked in her usual serious tone, although you had a faint idea of what she intended. Ever since your aunt had become one of the Lost, falling into a coma more than a week ago, Kaori had never left your side, going so far as to occupy a room in your house to keep you company. You had wondered what her parents had to say to this, going by your knowledge of social norms, but apparently it was alright for her to live with you. She worried and fussed over you in a way that was unlike her usual stoic façade.
Thing was that your usual routine so far had been either to go straight home in Nerima after school, and spend your time with Kaori, or go to the nearby hospital to visit your aunt. The words of your friend implied that she wanted to vary the routine at least a bit, if only for the sake of distracting you from the situation, even if briefly so.
You took your eyes away from the other ‘people’ going around you, blinking, the usual strange scenery displayed to you in all of its… picturesque glory. You had become accustomed to it long ago. The only unusual thing today were the golden and silver dolls, but these were still within the bounds of normalcy.
It seemed that if you wished to vary your routine, it’d be up to you to decide how.
Taka Nishi
April 3rd – Evening
Hachioji, Izanami Hotels – Room 408
You had finished your usual visit to your little sister, languishing as she was in a room of the Izanami hospital in Hachioji. It was a private, discrete institution, a patient in there would be quite hard to track.
You had moved through the streets in a roundabout manner, keeping an eye on your surroundings, before entering an alley, discarding your usual disguise, and reappearing on the other side, and then entering the luxury hotel where you had been staying when you came to visit. All precautions couldn’t be enough, given the nature of your trade and your sister’s situation. You had gone out of your way to put her in a private hospital as far away as possible from your usual base of operations in Shinjuku. The hotel was hard to track as well, and you hadn’t used your legitimate name for it, paying with hard cash. It was not foolproof, but nobody from the company that owned the hotel (which also owned the hospital) had asked any questions.
Climbing to the elevator, you moved to the fourth floor without incidents, and entered the room you had used as a base the last few days.
Mei raised her head upon seeing you enter the room. You could see no tears on her face, presenting a strong-willed façade, but you noticed the corner of her eyes was slightly red. Yet, the stare she sent you still had the force to make a rabid elephant back away. You shook your head silently, and your mother sighed.
There were still no news. Even the staff of the famed Izanami hospitals seemed at a loss when it came to these strange comas. There simply wasn’t a discernible medical cause for them, and apart from the need to be fed and have their necessities attended, the victims of this curse of sorts seemed to be able to keep on living. Their cerebral activity remained as if they were in a deep sleep, as well. As if they were trapped in an endless dream.
“What now?” Mei asked. It was a simple question, but one with many implications. The both of you knew this… Lost epidemic had to be related to the strange incidents that had been happening all over Tokyo, and had decided to investigate them. However…
You had to start from some point, and that was, perhaps, the hardest part of this whole situation. The nature of the incidents remained vague, thanks to this weird forgetfulness that seemed to afflict the majority of the city’s population, and it was hard to find a common thread on it all. Pure chaos, was what this was.