Location: ???
Time: ???
“Failed again… but why?! This time it looked like it was working… did something intervene? Damnit, if only I could-!”
The being in the throne of mirrors shook the strange monitor on her hands, babbling to herself half-insane with frustration. That her hopes had surged up just ever so slightly after millennia of stillness just made the let-down crueler. That the connection had been cut before she could see just what had gone wrong on top of that made the result maddening.
She fell silent, all of a sudden, and the surge of emotion abated. It was always brief nowadays, just muted eruptions inside a frozen hellscape. She closed her eyes, the mirror-like irises disappearing behind her eye-lids as she thought, and as she forced herself to accept the result.
How many times had it been already? Hundreds, for sure. Perhaps a thousand? The result changed, not every time, but it changed. It just was never the result she wanted.
And yet, without a doubt, it was shifting. Slowly. Very slowly. But each attempt seemed to bring her closer. Already she had an idea of what may have cut her off in such a way.
“The Nightfall Protocol, huh?” She opened her eyes, and the mirrors inside spun disconcertingly as she mused. That was possible. Not that she could confirm it. She knew distressingly little about it even after all these eons, but-
“Oh, you finally got here. Hi!” A mocking voice sounded besides her, interrupting her reverie, and the Transparent Tyrant sighed before looking down from her throne to the crystal floor.
A little blue silhouette of a man danced mockingly there, face distended into a grotesque, inhuman smile. When she stared at him, the smile became an annoying smirk as he waved at her, and the Tyrant sighed again.
“How come you always know, Connor?” She asked almost plaintively. The way the transition worked, she had always existed when she made the transition, and yet every single time he knew when she ‘truly’ came here.
“Oh? What a silly question. It would be weird if I didn’t know. Don’t you think so, sis?” The Blue Reaper answered in a way he absolutely knew would annoy her, but she didn’t give him the pleasure of externalizing her annoyance. She merely diverted her stare to the complex machinery surrounding her throne, and she wrapped herself on her cape.
She had heard so many variations of that answer already. She’d just accept that she would never know. That she had ended up being a sort of ‘sister being’ to this absolute jackass was something she would have to live with, either way.
“Don’t try to pull the act on me, Connor.” She said tiredly. The Reaper stiffened slightly, but acted as if he hadn’t heard her. “I imagine the Tower of Babel must be buzzing with activity by now?”
“Of course. You know how it is. We all can feel it in the air… the alteration in the spiritual currents is pretty indicative by itself, you know? Every single one of us is looking forward to the new food!” The Reaper replied. “Personally, I would prefer it if it came in a better package this time. A few pretty girls, maybe. It has been a while for me, you know?”
The Tyrant rolled her eyes and elected to ignore the last part. “Might as well keep away the most troublesome ones of the bunch for a while. Again.” She nodded to herself, and then a sudden thought struck her. She looked towards her interlocutor again, and asked with genuine curiosity.
“How come you never ask?”
The Blue Spirit shifted slightly on the crystal floor, the inhuman figure writhing and blurring momentarily. “Now, now. You’ve not asked my endgame either! Though you already know, perhaps. But hey, I bet you it changes every time, doesn’t it?”
His fellow Spirit nodded mutely, and he shrugged, genuinely amused by the question.
“I don’t believe in fortune telling. Besides-“
A soft beeping interrupted the conversation, and both Spirits turned to look at one of the monitors at the other side of the throne.
The screen came alive by itself, the machine below reacting to a program coded within centuries ago, and showed a certain phenomenon: somewhere in a strange, alien world, a gap in the heavens opened, just below the dome of the accursed Broken Sky. Space cracked, spiritual power pouring down the gap so thickly that it was barely visible as greenish-blue dust.
The whole of the Warped World shuddered and screamed as the terrains and buildings of Zeus Experimental High School started to fall through, slowly, ponderously, and yet catastrophic in its impact all the same. The objects inside, as well as the unfortunate souls trapped within started to warp as it fell, the world asserting itself over the school.
A shambling corpse of a god executed its mechanical task once more.
“So, it has finally come! The Fourth Generation has arrived!” The silhouette celebrated joyfully, unable to keep a predatory edge to his voice. For he was the Reaper of Blue, and although he had his reasons to do his task, he did it well. “A man reaps what they sow. A good phrase, right, sis? So if you pardon me, I have a harvest to attend to now.”
The Transparent Tyrant swirled towards her fellow Spirit, and suddenly, those horrible transparent eyes were full of cracks. Her body tensed forwards, lean and almost hungry in manner, fair skin seeming briefly to warp into glass, revealing beautiful and yet revulsive crystal structure where muscle and sinew should be.
“One more word, and I will announce what you are to the entirety of the Warped World.” She said, in a tone too calm and even to be human.
The blue silhouette twitched noticeably in the floor, and then shrugged, apparently disdaining to offer an answer. Its head tilted, bending the neck grotesquely, and he listened to a faint sound that it was only for he to hear: the sound of a seal breaking apart.
He smiled his annoying smirk, looking almost euphoric for a moment, and the shadow in the floor of mirrors slithered away.
The Tyrant ignored him. As tempting as it was to throw a parting shot at him, she had other things to attend. The connection with her other had been completed just now, and she absorbed the information she received even as she braced against the undercurrent of emotions that were hers but not hers and that hit her with the force of a tidal wave.
Her instinct was screaming at her. It had begun howling the moment the cycle started again. Last time had been special… and this time somehow felt even stranger than then. She didn’t know why, for this particular variance she had seen a few times before, but the Tyrant felt the difference she couldn’t explain, and the mirrors on her face twinkled mutedly.
If this time was it… if this time could be it, then…
She frowned. She couldn’t have full access to her other until she awakened, but she had no time to lose. Not when she was acting on a hunch without fundament. She had to start making her moves now.
This time around, she would need to play it smarter than ever, and the thought made her grimace. Subtlety hadn’t been her forte even as a human, so long ago, but she would have to do her best.
Besides, she enjoyed tormenting her other with weird enigmatic bullshit, like once had been done to her.
With a smirk on her face, the Tyrant of Transparency sat on her throne, closed her eyes, and started to probe at the dreams she could access.
PHASE 0 - PROLOGUE
“Fear not the shadows outside. Fear first the shadows in your midst.” – Angel saying.
Johnny Justice & Cyrus Ferdinand
Location: Kansas – Zeus Approach
Time: The Past
“Oh, is that so?”Originally Posted by Johnny Justice
One would have expected the man to react with surprise to being approached out of nowhere by an overly familiar stranger and being given such an outlandish proposal.
Instead, Sir Darion Charles Parsons, adventurer, globetrotter, inheritor of a vast fortune, turned around and regarded you coolly, without any signs of being startled by your approach.
You had expected someone taller, and something told you this man had once been powerfully built and handsome, before old age sank its teeth into him. This dapper, well-dressed gentleman still looked suave and handsome despite that, but he was truly old. The information you had had placed him on his late seventies, after all.
And yet, he still had a sort of understated presence, a subtle and powerful sensation that emanated from his terse posture and dignified air. Without a single iota of a doubt, he was someone completely out of the norm.
And so was the bodyguard at his side. You’d been pretty sure Darion’s protectors had allowed you to approach. Even now you could feel at least one hidden presence watching at you, but evidently, they hadn’t expected you to actually touch their charge.
The white-haired, lanky youth at his side stiffened, and looked like he was about to do something about that, but the principal of Zeus High School lightly touched his arm, stopping him.
“Calmly, Mr. Zhao.” He said, and the youth relaxed slightly, still keeping his eyes on both of you, his face neutral and inexpressive. Darion nodded, and let him go, clasping his hands behind his back, his stare going from Johnny to Cyrus and back to Johnny.
He perused you like a collector of rare antiques would examine a rare piece, and smiled slightly.
“Now, now. What kind of bet did you have in mind, young man?” He asked gently.
Jordan J. Jones
Location: Zeus High School – Courtyard (Football Field)
Time: Noon
“HUT!” Lavrenti Petrov roared his third hut, signaling behind his back with a wave of his hand.
You had memorized the signals and strategies he had outlined long ago, and you nodded to yourself as you took your stance, a running start, the best one for an explosive dash.
“HUT!” Lavrenti roared again, and your team came alive all of a sudden, running ahead while the second-string players in the opposite side did their best to stop you.
You became a black meteor as Lizbeth Moores slammed into a lineman twice her size and almost sent him flying. The black man staggered to the side, and you disappeared through the hole in the line without even slowing on your stride.
The linebacker came at you with a grunt of effort, deftly turning and running to intercept you, moving at a surprising speed for his size. You grinned. So far, according to plan.
“FASTER, JONES!” Kian Philips roared, his booming voice shaking the entire field. Your blood boiled when you heard him, and you accelerated even further beyond.
But instead of moving to evade, you kept running straight towards the linebacker. You saw the enormous man flinch, eyes widening as he understood your plan, and then you slammed into him with the greatest speed and force you could produce.
The man let out a pained groan as all breath was forcefully driven out of him. You didn’t quite have enough mass to send him backwards, but you managed to stagger him and stop him in his tracks.
From behind you, Nathan Rain surged past, the second running back taking the opening you had created to run freely through the field. On the other side of the line, William Rain, your team’s best receiver, ran in a toe-to-toe contest with the other team’s cornerback.
You could picture it behind you, Lavrenti still holding on the ball, protected by the line, calmly choosing his target. Now it was up to the Rain brothers to drive it home-!
The towering boy came out of nowhere, somehow free, and his perpendicular course caught Nathan unaware, and the boy was just too thin and lacking in strength to shrug him off.
Dammit. You pushed the still stunned linebacker aside and jumped forwards, trying to tackle the boy and free Nathan, managing to entangle his arm, and the three of you struggle. You were on your fourth down already. If you could only manage to push a bit farther, you would be near the touchdown line. Just a bit more…!
The ball flew…
----
The mood in the locker room wasn’t good.
Lavrenti frowned as he considered the results, his back turned to the team, his gaze on the various strategy boards strewn about.
Saying that the result had been bad would be wrong. In fact, it had been fairly good. The training was showing its fruits, but the result wasn’t good enough, not with the match against the former sub-champion so near. The result simply wasn’t up to standards
The team’s weaknesses were painfully clear.
Firstly, two linemen had caught the flu at the worst possible time, and one was out for a while after getting into a dumb fight. That meant that the second-string players had to replace them, with Lizbeth at the center of the line, and their lack of coordination was regrettable. There wasn’t much that could be done about it except additional training.
The second issue was thornier, and one you had only noticed recently. The team depended on Lavrenti. Sure, the Zeus Olympians had a lot of people, replacements weren’t much of an issue. Rick, your second-string quarterback, had serviceable throws, was calm and steady, and had a head for tactics.
But he didn’t have the leadership and the ability to coordinate the team’s positioning that Lavrenti had. And that made your quarterback and leader one of the team’s biggest strengths and weaknesses. If he went down, if he was hurt by a sack, the team would fall apart.
That put a lot of pressure on the line. They couldn’t afford to be as offensive as the team would’ve liked, as they had to concentrate of protecting their leader. You had the feeling recently that Lavrenti had been trying to raise you as a possible replacement for his role, but he hadn’t been exactly direct and forthcoming about it.
Speaking of which, you caught him grimacing as he sent an annoyed, almost angry glance at the Rain brothers. The third problem.
They didn’t show up enough to practice, most of the time due to being in trouble for one reason or the other. Then William would always lose purchase of the big picture and get embroiled in his own competition with the opponent’s cornerback, often with detrimental effects for coordination and Lavrenti’s strategy.
And Nathan… simply was unmotivated. He was fast, not as fast as you, but he was fast and stable. But he wasn’t keeping up with the training, his physique wasn’t quite good enough for his job due to that, and he just… wasn’t quite there during games.
They had been the main problem today. With the line still trying to reform, the back had to carry the slack, but of their stars you’d been the only who performed how you were supposed to.
You looked around. Lizbeth looked bored and about to doze off. The Rain brothers were staring intently at anything but his fellow teammates, and you were sure the captain would rip their heads off in private later on.
Kian was unusually silent, arms crossed and watching silently, evidently wanting to see how the team would handle this situation.
But the mood was no good. No good at all. You had to say something…
Masaki Tomomi
Location: Zeus High School – Floor 2 (Class 208)
Time: Noon
It was rare for you to envy one of your classmates, but right now you wished you were in Shelia Hathaway’s shoes.
The pink-haired singer had obtained permission from your teacher to excuse herself from class early, citing duties in the Music Club. She would pay for that in the next math class, you were sure of it.
Perry Hunt, your Mathematics teacher, looked prim and proper and imposing. With his build and look, one would expect his job to be more of a PE teacher, or perhaps a martial arts coach. But he taught math. And, as you had discovered a year ago, he was a sadist.
He always customized his problems to match the capacities of his students and push their limits just a wee bit farther. You had to admit he was good at his job, but being on the receiving end of that method of teaching wasn’t very fun. No wonder he was unpopular with the student body.
The problem he had given you was overly complicated and long. Your perfect memory retained all the principles and equations that had to be used, but applying them was a different issue entirely. Ultimately, this university-level problem wasn’t quite a challenge for you, but it was ultimately long and boring, and you couldn’t go to lunch break until you finished it.
You looked at your two friends. You had put your desks together and started working on the math problems. At least Mr. Hunt allowed you to form groups and talk or work together, as long as you weren’t too loud and weren’t obviously copying from another group.
“Annoying…”
Gennadiya Petrova was still chipping at her problem. Unlike you or Rachel, she wasn’t a super-genius, so her exercise wasn’t that complicated, and between you and your other friend, you had managed to give her enough hints to keep her on track.
Rachel Raeburn herself had been progressing slowly but surely, working at her own pace. She’d always been just slightly better than you at math, but evidently even for her this was something she had to trudge along to complete, if only due to the sheer length of the problem.
You wondered if it was just your own impression, but Rachel didn’t quite look like her usual cranky and ill-tempered self. In fact, you thought she’d looked slightly worried ever since Shelia had gone out of the classroom.
Was something going on here?
Masaki Taichi & Eleanor Lansing
Location: Zeus High School – 5th Floor (Swordsmanship Team Training Room)
Time: Noon
Eleanor:
You and Kaitlin Walterson clashed once again in a furious dance as your practice epees flashed towards each other, the ball-points of the weapons piercing simultaneously towards each other’s hearts.
You stepped to the side, and your opponent did the same, your swords suddenly cutting towards the side as the stab was transformed into a slash, and they met in a clash of sparks that forced the both of you back.
Neither of you were used your preferred weapon or even your preferred style. Your teammate Alexander Tanner, who was a more classic fencer, would’ve been more at home with these weapons than you or Kaitlin, but that didn’t mean either of you lacked the skill to use them effectively.
Still in synchrony, the both of you stepped forward again, and initiated yet another clash, a storm of red and blue as you sought each other’s’ weaknesses. Kaitlin was a bit faster and stronger, but you were steadier and had a better overall defense.
You met eyes as you circled around the mat, and at that moment, almost as if you had agreed beforehand, the both of you lunged…
----
“Haah… haah… that was a good workout. You’re pretty good, Eleanor.” Kaitlin acknowledged with a graceful nod, as the both of you sat down, breathing hard. Ultimately you had scored two points each before you had reached the agreed time limit for the spar, which had been put in the first place due to your need to consume lunch at some point.
A tie was a fairly unsatisfying result, but given just how good Kaitlin was, you weren’t sure if to file that as an accomplishment or not. If only you could’ve gone at her with full strength, your true style versus her true style, and see who ended up the winner…
But for one reason or another, the British aristocrat was good at gracefully avoiding invitations to use her true strength, be it against you or other members of the team. Even Taichi and Alexander had never managed to get her to go all out.
Kaitlin took out a handkerchief from her pocket, wiping the sweat from her forehead with the same aristocratic grace that accompanied all of her movements. The both of you had been classmates for a while, and you knew well of her dislike for getting dirty. It wasn’t on the level of a phobia, but it was always striking just how much she did in order to maintain cleanliness.
Having made certain that she had accounted for all the sweat in her forehead and face, Kaitlin slowly and deliberately pocketed her handkerchief and turned to face you. She took a deep breath, before speaking.
“Tanner asked me to talk to you about your probation.” Kaitlin said in a serious tone. Although she was being stiff and somewhat formal about it, her expression made clear she didn’t want to pressure you much about it. Perhaps just hear you out as a teammate, or even as a friend.
Taichi:
“Bravo! What a magnificent display!” The white-haired girl sitting at the table clapped twice after Eleanor and Kaitlin’s spar was done. Having said her praises, she sipped elegantly from a golden cup of tea, part of a gold tea set the girl was fond of using.
You didn’t know that much about Izabella Lovasz. The albino girl was a transfer student from Hungary that had entered Zeus a few months ago, an able fencer, with a family that was stupidly rich, perhaps even on the same level as Tammara Ackerman’s… and that was it. Anything else was a mystery, and Izabella seemed to like to keep it that way.
“Ah, Taichi, try this tea, by the way. It is a special blend from Eastern Europe. I think you’ll like it.” She said, pushing another golden cup your way with your smile. You hadn’t managed to stop her from using your first name. At least she was friendly, but she was perhaps a bit too friendly, especially noticeable in someone so ladylike.
“Oh, and there’s for you two as well, Rumiko, Shinoko!” She called to the twins, who were currently sparring against each other.
Both girls held bokkens as they engaged each other at a high speed, and you observed their forms with a critical eye. Their unique kendo style that took advantage of speed and movement was somewhat unsuited for your frame and your own style, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t give them advice as their senpai.
Currently, Rumiko had scored one hit more than Shinoko, and the smaller of the twins strained as she tried to even the score. But her sister was using her advantage in speed and reach to play keep-away, and she was doing pretty well at it.
“Ah, it seems like it will still be a bit until their fight ends.” Izabella shrugged.
You nodded, more to yourself than to her words. The fight would still last a few more exchanges, perhaps about five more, but Rumiko had this one in the bag unless Shinoko pulled some sort of surprise reversal.
This was nothing new. The twins always managed to have a very even number of wins against each other, although lately Rumiko was on a winning streak.
There were a few more other members of the team, but they weren’t here. Tanner was most likely still busy with Student Council work (and after you had been exposed to the insane amount of paperwork that they had to process, you hadn’t been able to begrudge him), and Griffin probably was still stuck in class.
But either way, you hadn’t come here just to drink tea and eat snacks… the question was, what will you do now?
Kaguya
Location: Zeus High School – Rooftop
Time: Noon
“-and the creep just wouldn’t take no for an answer!” Ludmilla Selee complained loudly, picking at her lunch with a fork. “Seriously, who does he think I am? Geez, I know there are these rumors around but I don’t open my legs to literally anyone who asks!” She added in a bad mood, uncaring of the crudity of her words.
You’d never quite understand what made Ludmilla stick to you so much nowadays. Of course, that the both of you were considered the top two beauties in the campus probably had to do with it.
And she did try to have a one-night stand with you, although she had both understood and accepted your rejection the moment she had tried to push it beyond just dates. So, she definitely felt some lust towards you, not that was anything new to you.
Or perhaps it was just that the both of you were alike in that you weren’t the kind of girls people got close to. Popular, yes, but close friends were a wholly different thing.
“Geez, that about soured my morning.” She sighed, and stretched, which did interesting things to her figure. Students had often compared the two of you that way: you were compared to be akin to art, while Ludmilla was like an incarnation of seduction. “Kaguya~! Heal my sooouul! Spoil meee~!”
Ah, perhaps the answer to the mystery was just that she liked to flirt with you.
You were about to reply, when you heard strong footsteps approaching. Suddenly, the door to the rooftop was wrenched open with great strength, and a girl you recognized burst into the scene.
Mary Hanson stopped for a moment, swiveled her head to scan the roof, located you, and approached quickly, expression thunderous.
“THERE YOU DWELL, YOU WANTON SLATTERN!” She yelled, pointing straight at Ludmilla, who rolled her eyes.
“Oh, for the love of god, here we go again…” Your friend said, rolling her eyes.
“Don’t you dare mention the Lord with your dirty mouth!” Mary bristled. “How dare you extend your dark tentacles to the Choir Club?! Corrupting such an innocent and pure boy with your feminine wiles!”
“Sis, with what that choir boy was packing, he got nothing of pure.” Ludmilla replied with a smirk. “And lemme tell ya, he sure can make a gal sing. Probably not the kinda choir you’d like, though.”
Mary’s cheeks immediately colored pink at that crude comment. “Y-y-y-you evil seductress!! You demon! Succubus!”
“Thanks.” Ludmilla smiled, blushing slightly.
“IT WAS NOT A COMPLIMENT!” Mary practically roared. “And now I see you lurking here, working your devilish craft, trying to stray an innocent sheep into the path to deviancy!”
She advanced until she was between the two of you, and stood in front of you protectively, facing a surprised Ludmilla.
“I shall not allow it! You shall not soil this innocent girl’s purity!” She said, both hands extended to the sides, and with the face of a martyr about to sacrifice himself to stall a perilous foe.
Wait. Was she talking about you?
You traded glances with your friend, whose eyes had glazed over. The exact same question was in your minds…
Innocent?
Rika Griffin
Location: Zeus High School – Floor 3 (Class 306)
Time: Noon
“Umm, excuse me. Mr. Johnson?”
You tilted your head as you heard Bryanna Halls voice. You hadn’t quite noticed when your classmate had stood from her desk and approached the teacher.
“Hm? Yes, Halls?” Marlowe Johnson, Ethics teacher, known philosopher and essayist, tilted his head a bit when he heard her.
Your teacher’s reputation was both good and bad. For all of his accomplishments, Marlowe was extremely spacey and disperse, somewhat clumsy. And forgetful, on top of that. His classes could either be incredibly easy or a small slice of hell as he fumbled with the homework and teaching materials.
But his nature had an undeniable advantage, as your friend was about to demonstrate.
“Here, I finished my homework.” Bryanna smiled and passed her paper to the teacher, who gave it a cursory look and nodded, putting it on the stack. “Do you mind if I take my lunch break now?”
“No, go ahead.” Marlowe nodded at her. Bryanna smiled again, then turned towards you.
“Alright, let’s go, girls!” She called out.
You startled a bit at her call, and so did your adoptive cousin and best friend Elora Griffin, seated to your right. To your left, Lara Klein, Captain of the Acrobatics Team you were in and a close friend of yours, was equally surprised, although she was better at disguising it.
“Hm? But they’re not done with their paper…” Marlowe replied, confused.
“Oh? But they submitted it earlier.” Your friend replied.
Your teacher frowned slightly, and looked towards you, but you three had enough sense to pocket your pens and act as if you hadn’t been chipping at the mini-essay for the last few minutes.
He blinked, and shrugged upon seeing that you appeared to be idle. “Sure, you can go.”
All of you then shuffled out of the classroom without a word. Marlowe was already back to his reverie and he wouldn’t bother to check the stack, plus you didn’t think this particular piece of work would have much influence in your score.
If Bryanna wanted to play hooky, you didn’t mind following her, although Elora looked very dissatisfied at being dragged on this.
Lara, meanwhile, grabbed her little sister’s hand and practically dragged the confused girl along with you. It had been already three days since Marie Klein had been living with her big sister in the dorm, and you still didn’t quite know the circumstances involved. Not that it mattered, Marie was too headpatable and the Acrobatics Team had enjoyed having what basically amounted to a new mascot.
Yesterday, Marie had asked about seeing how classes in Zeus were, and today she had received permission to attend to her sister’s classes. You suspected that Marie herself wouldn’t enter Zeus High: she was fourteen years old already and hadn’t attracted the attention of the Zeus scouts, nor did she seem to have any special talent other than healing souls with cuteness.
Still, you idly wondered if you were giving her a good example by pulling this off…
“What’s going on, Bryanna? We hadn’t finished our work yet! Mr. Johnson is going to get mad once he notices he’s missing our papers.” Elora asked as you came to a stop in the hallway, crossing her arms as she asked the reporter. The fencer had always been an honor student, and she’d been struggling a lot to keep top scores in an environment as challenging as Zeus High, so she was understandably annoyed.
“Oh, give it a rest. That essay is barely going to count towards our total score.” Lara yawned, then smiled cheerily. “Anyway, for one I’m glad we’re out of there. Mr. Johnson’s classes are pretty boring.”
“Lara! I know you have high scores, but you’re not going to keep them if you keep slacking like this! Besides, a certain one of us isn’t doing so good on Mr. Johnson’s class.” Elora sighed, exasperated, then winked at you. Well, you had taken advantage of this particular teacher’s absent-mindedness more than once. “And, think of what example you’re giving to Marie.”
Lara opened her mouth to reply, but was quickly interrupted.
“Give it a rest, you two.” Bryanna said, rolling her eyes. Elora and Lara never did quite fight, per se, but for some reason you couldn’t ever guess, they always seemed to find a way to disagree and clash with each other. In fact, the normally dutiful Lara seemed to turn into a slacker when Elora was around, and the strict-but-kind Elora seemed to turn into a stickler for the rules when she was around Lara. “I called her out because I wanted to show Rika something… interesting.”
You turned towards her at that, curious. Bryanna’s expression and tone expressed bemusement… but there was an undertone of someone who’d seen something unbelievable or just plain strange.
“Have you heard about that Italian transfer student from a few weeks ago?” She asked.
Sakura Sumeragi & Ishmael Freeman
Location: Zeus High School – Floor 6 (Infirmary)
Time: Noon
Sakura:
“Hm, you seem to be alright already. Have all symptoms disappeared, other than the numbness?” Mila Kovaleva, the school’s nurse and vanguard specialist in strange diseases and abnormal physiques asked as she finished your examination.
You nodded. You’d known that you were about to have a bad day when the normal symptoms had started manifesting. First it had been the normal ones, mostly muscle soreness and a generalized sensation of numbness on your whole body. The stuffed nose hadn’t been that normal, but the dizziness and sudden fever had definitely been out of the norm, not that you hadn’t experienced it sometimes.
Some of your classmates had noticed you going deathly pale, and while accustomed to your bouts of sickness, they had ended up carting you to the infirmary. By the time you got there, however, most of your symptoms had abated, and your fever had gone down and practically disappeared.
“Well, I think that your condition reacted to a common cold.” Mila clicked her tongue in amazement. You’d had a long relationship as her patient, ever since you entered the school, and she was rather familiar with your condition. “It got annihilated in less than an hour. Quite impressive, really.”
She looked at you seriously, without her usual teasing air about her. “Now, I think you should stay here for a bit, just in case the symptoms come back. I doubt it but… anyway, stay a quarter of an hour or so, and then you can go enjoy your lunch break.” She smiled at you, then turned towards the classmates who had brought you here.
“Misses O’Brian. Wouldn’t you mind keeping an eye on her, meanwhile? Call me if she starts feeling ill again.”
“Yes!” “We don’t mind.” The red-haired twins replied almost simultaneously.
“Are you sure she’s alright?” Medb, the oldest and… less blessed by feminine attributes of the two asked.
“Yeah, she looked like she was about to drop dead!” Maeve, the youngest and more, ah, bountiful of the sisters followed.
“It was worse…” “…than the usual…” “she almost fainted…” “…we think.” And there they were doing their thing again.
Medb and Maeve O’Brian. Twin sisters and your classmates. The talent that had made them enter Zeus High school was precisely the one they were portraying right now: their absolute synchronicity. They excelled at all kinds of activities that required two persons to synchronize with each other, to a point where they looked like they had trained more than a few decades together.
More disquieting was the way they talked in synchrony, completing each other’s phrases with ease, and sometimes talking simultaneously as if they were one person, which was quite headache-inducing actually, and you were thankful they weren’t pulling that bit right now. In fact, many people in the school speculated that they were more like one person than two, like some sort of twin-based hivemind.
You, of course, had known them long enough to know they were two distinct persons altogether. Medb was cold and standoffish, if internally kind, while Maeve was cheery, loud and teasing. Still, that was about what you knew of them: they were hard to get close to.
Mila looked like she was about to reply, when the door to the infirmary opened, and a girl entered, carrying a very beaten-up boy.
Ishmael:
“Seriously, you should stop letting that bitch do this to you.” Myrthe Zegers, captain of the female Swimming Team, complained as she helped you walk towards the infirmary.
The result of yet another close encounter with Liu Zhongli was plainly visible on your bruised face. She hadn’t actually hit you that much today: she was on a particularly good mood today and hadn’t put that much effort on rearranging your face, all things considered.
Still, one bad hit and now you were feeling quite dizzy and weak in the limbs. Maybe you should have protected you jaw from that uppercut, after all, but it had been worth it to see her mounting annoyance at your passivity before she just shrugged and left. And thankfully, Myrthe had found you shortly afterwards.
“Do you even know how much of an issue it will be for our team if our manager ends up hospitalized? And after they went all the trouble to force me to accept you, no less!” The Dutch transfer student complained as you leaned on her.
Normally you’d have enjoyed the close physical intimacy, especially since she was quite the looker, but it was hard to when the ceiling and the floor couldn’t seem to agree about which one belonged where.
You’d shrug it off and be back to your feet soon enough, and you had told Myrthe as much, but right now a visit to the infirmary was sounded nicer than you cared to admit.
“Geez, as if I had nothing better to do!” The swimmer sighed loudly, clearly exasperated, and swung open the door to the infirmary as you finally arrived there. “Oi, Mila! Got you a patient here.”
“Keep it down in the infirmary.” The school’s nurse snapped immediately, then walked towards you.
“Oh, it’s you again, Freeman. Had another lovers’ spat with Liu?” She asked teasingly as she and Myrthe helped you to a chair.
Alexandra Gray
Location: Zeus High School – 5th Floor (Martial Arts Team Training Room)
Time: Noon
The Martial Arts Team didn’t have practice during the lunch break today. That, combined with your friendship with their ace, was mightily convenient if one wanted a peaceful and quiet spot to have lunch with.
Though in your case, you were merely having lunch with Gwendoline Dale, the aforementioned ace. She had invited you, and you had lacked previous plans, so the both of you had made your way to the now empty room, and ate your food in companionable silence.
Well, you weren’t exactly alone. Hiyori Fontaine had entered the room a few minutes ago, in an extremely bad mood, and she had quickly made her way to a corner of the room and started to eat her lunch there in deeply sullen silence. The both of you knew better than to talk to her when she looked as annoyed as she was right now, so you had chosen to leave her alone until she calmed down.
You ate and waited patiently, and finally, Gwendoline cleared her throat, and looked up at you, apparently now willing to reveal why she had specifically called out to you.
“Umm… Alexandra, err…” You applied more patience, knowing very well how awkward she was when it came to communicating. “Well, I was thinking… um, would you like to join the Martial Arts Team?” She asked, rubbing her hair nervously.
She didn’t add anything to the question, waiting your answer, but you were keenly aware of Hiyori’s eyes focused on the both of you all of a sudden.
Aster Hunter
Location: Zeus High School – Courtyard (Tree Garden)
Time: Noon
The campus of Zeus High School was big. You had known that intellectually before arriving, but you hadn’t been prepared for the sheer size of it the first time you had come to the school. You’d been here for a while, and it was still sometimes strange just how big they were.
The school’s courtyard, for example, was immense. To the point it contained a whole small forest within, at one corner of its greenery. Although you suspected the appropriate term was ‘copse’, the school had chosen to call it, somewhat pretentiously, ‘tree garden’.
It was good looking, alright, but you weren’t in the mood to appreciate aesthetics. You were bored out of your gourd, and you were skulking around the yard in an effort to find something to do.
The rest of the gang you formed part of was busy. Zhong herself had been cackling while holding some DVD, apparently mightily pleased with the contents within. Something to do with some Krystine, apparently. You hadn’t inquired more: you knew well of her sense of petty cruelty and her hunger for dominance to feel all that curious about it. Stacy and her had quickly gone off on their own to discuss something.
Zack Brown and a few other members of the gang were also busy. Chamellia Rhodes had managed to annoy the gang once again. Even you had to agree that having that pest snoop around trying to sniff everyone’s secrets for no reason other than that she could was pretty annoying, but that girl was good at pulling out and disappearing the moment the heat got too much for her. Even waiting for her outside of the door of her class was useless, as she seemingly disappeared from the room without needing to pass through the door, somehow.
Well, you couldn’t be bothered to engage in a futile search, and while Chamellia might’ve been good at running away, you knew she was no good in a fight, so you wouldn’t be able to get much entertainment out of her either.
And as for the rest of the gang, they were all busy with their own stuff.
You were considering maybe tracking down one of them and getting in a fight with them. Not Zhong, for now. You planned to reserve that particular challenge for your graduation, once there was nobody else left to fight.
So you thought, until you saw a head of red hair nearby.
Cecily Ridley dragged her usual victim of choice, Jane Rain, with her. The moment they were within the limits of the copse, she shoved her roughly against a tree, causing the black-haired girl to stumble.
You were a bit too far to hear what Cecily was telling her, although you doubted it was anything pleasant.
Suddenly, a group of five boys appeared, one of them jumping in-between your fellow gang member and her intended victim. You felt your eyebrows raise.
This was new. Usually, only Jane’s teammates bothered to defend her. Most quickly became disillusioned at the girl’s sheer incapacity to stand up for herself.
You approached, just enough to hear out what was going on.
“Be reasonable, Ridley. We outnumber you five to one. Leave Jane alone.” The boy said, sweeping back his black hair in an attempt to look cool. Behind, Jane looked surprisingly hopeful.
Cecily looked at them in confusion, then looked closely at the boy that had spoken… until she recognized him, and an unpleasant smirk floated on her face.
“Oh! I know who you are. From the Tennis Team, aren’t you?” Cecily said, hands in her pockets, evidently not feeling very threatened yet… no, she looked like she was almost enjoying herself.
The boys looked surprised, but their surprise soon turned into anger when Cecily spoke her next phrase.
“I heard from someone else that you guys had made a bet… something about the loser of your next game has to go play white knight for Jane, help her, and get on her panties if possible?” She said, her smirk sharpening. She saw the confirmation in their faces, and Jane, still leaning against a tree, paled suddenly.
“Boys, boys. That’s never going to work. Klein and that Griffith will bash your heads in before you even get to first base, you know?” She laughed at them, and the expression of the boy standing in front of her warped in fury.
“Shut up, bitch!” He shouted, all cool gone from him now.
“Huh? How the fuck did you call me, asshole?”
And of course, hostility flared up instantly.
Xavier Augustus & Willow Durand
Location: Zeus High School – 5th Floor (Music Club)
Time: Noon
“And it should be something like that. What do you think?” Cynthia Flag asked to her audience.
Xavier and Adelyn Josephs frowned as they looked at the composition Cynthia had given them. The blond girl’s talent as a singer was well-known, sure… and she had good taste for picking and arranging the music, but you didn’t know she could compose her own music.
Well, it wasn’t exactly a good composition. It was very amateurish, and if Xavier was going to be playing this, he’d need to retouch it a bit, and he saw the same thoughts crossing Adelyn’s mind, judging from her expression. But it was otherwise pretty serviceable. Rather impressive work for an amateur.
“And then! I figured that this rhythm would be pretty good to dance to! So, with you and a few others from your club we should be able to put quite the spectacle!” Cynthia smiled as she turned towards Willow.
No wonder her club had sent her once they heard someone in the Music Club had a project that’d involve participation from the Dance Club. Much as Willow would loathe to admit, Zeus didn’t have that many dancers, and the styles present were pretty disparate. The majority did ballet, which… she didn’t think it would suit this kind of cheery, upbeat music, at least not this ‘pop’ type.
“You know, this is going to take a lot of work, right?” Adelyn pointed out the obvious. “This isn’t putting up a series of individual performances, this will require a lot of coordination between a bunch of people.”
“I know!” Cynthia nodded at the musical virtuoso’s words. “I bet you the result will completely outdo all the shows Shelia’s put together combined! She’ll have no other option but to acknowledge me as her rival!” She said triumphantly, making a victory sign with one hand and winking at the room in general.
“C’mon, I bet prodigies like you guys should be able to make easy work out of this…” She added, tone suddenly teasing.
This brat…
Lorelei Weber
Location: Zeus High School – 4th Floor (Class 405)
Time: Noon
“Hey! Lori~!”
You sighed, and reluctantly put down the sciences textbook you’d been perusing in preparation for next week’s exam. Not that you doubted you’d be able to crunch the exam in a few days, given your rather unique capacity, but you’d wanted to get an outline done beforehand.
Jozefa Czajka burst into the classroom like a whirlwind, red ponytail bobbing behind her as she made her way to your desk in the blink of an eye.
“Hi!” She waved at you energetically.
You’d come to know her when she had, very insistently, tried to recruit you for the Track Team. Apparently, she’d thought your ability would make you excel at long-distance running, especially marathons.
You had declined back then. Sure, resistance had its place in those events, but you’d never been very fast, and you had doubts you’d be able to win with just mere stamina. Plus, it was hard for anything to interest you, and the whole thing sounded like a bother.
That hadn’t stopped Jozefa from trying to be your friend. She had somehow sensed the depression that invaded your days, and had followed you about like an overeager puppy until she had practically forced her friendship into you, in some sort of utter reversal of everything your history classes had taught you. It seemed she just couldn’t leave someone like you alone…
And someone as defenseless as her did kind of bother your own complex, so it was also hard for you to leave her alone.
“Um, do you mind making me a favor?” Jozefa asked sheepishly. “No, I don’t mean joining the Track Team!” She added quickly.
“I was hoping you could come help us in the Student Council.” Your friend explained. “We’re getting pretty overwhelmed with work there and we need all the help we can.”
Olivia Reeds
Location: Zeus High School – 4th Floor (Class 406)
Time: Noon
“And that’s the class!” Sally Harland announced. The Sciences teacher put down the chalk and dusted her palms. She smiled encouragingly at her class. “C’mon, go and enjoy your lunch break. But don’t forget to study for next week’s exam. Mr. Garrard’s been worried about the performance of this class when it comes to this particular subject, so let’s try and get our scores up, okay?”
A chorus of okays went up from the class, and Sally’s smile widened momentarily, and she started storing her stuff in her purse. You weren’t all that surprised: she was perhaps one of the most popular teachers in the school as a whole. Energetic yet calm, always kind and composed and willing to help her students.
The fame of the Sciences Director, Chester Garrard, was more neutral. It was hard to live up to the standards of a Nobel Prize winner, after all, but most coincided on him being a cool old dude. That he had chosen to double as one of the school counselors helped quite a lot. You’d heard not even Zhong’s gang or that duo from Brooklyn fucked with him, but that might’ve been an exaggeration.
Either way, you were pleased to be free after another relatively exhausting day of classes. As Sally left, you dropped your textbooks on your bag, and wondered where to eat your lunch.
However, your attention was caught as you saw a younger boy enter the classroom, one with his hair dyed red and the unmistakable air of a punk.
The boy didn’t bother looking around. Instead, he went straight towards two of your classmates, and the rest of your classroom found, all of a sudden, that they had to be somewhere else really quick-like.
The classroom was then left mostly empty. The boy approached Ida Lockwood and Krystine Winfield, and the former cowered behind the latter while she argued with the boy.
You couldn’t hear anything, but the body language was clear: the boy was aggressive, angry and on the offensive. Krystine was angry yet defensive and protective of Ida, who looked very afraid.
Curious, but it was your choice whether you absconded with the rest of your classmates or intervened now.
Aaron Arturio
Location: Zeus High School – Courtyard (North Side)
Time: Noon
It had been a strange mix of instinct and coincidence that had found you hiding behind some shrubbery as you listened to two nameless members of Zhong’s gang passing by.
“Man, I don’t know what Zack’s thinkin’. No way in hell we’re gonna catch fucking Rhodes at this point.” The first one, a tall and rough looking boy that looked like a former lineman from the Zeus Olympians spat.
“Yeah. But can you fault him? Bitch’s been poking her nose in our business way too much.” The other boy, younger and lankier, replied. “I betcha she’s the one that’s been breaking into our rooms. Trying to get dirt on us, I tell you.”
“That’s only half of it. Rumor is that Rhodes was the one that got Hitachi busted and kicked outta school in the first place. Zhong’s got one hell of a grudge on her even before all this.” The bulky lineman explained. “And that’s without mentionin’ the mess with Ashley and Camila. Zack wanted us to keep the search on the low-down ‘cause Camila will go absolutely fucking nuts if she even hears Rhodes’ name.”
“Damn. Didn’t know half of that.” The younger boy whistled. “What do you think boss lady will do to Rhodes if we manage to catch her?” He suddenly sounded quite uncomfortable, you thought.
“… I dunno. Probably somethin’ ugly and nasty.” The taller boy stopped for a moment, and faced his counterpart. “Listen’, kid. Believe it or not Zhong’s a pretty decent person most of the time when she’s not on one of those weird adrenaline rush ‘highs’ of hers. But she can get seriously nasty. And I don’t mean ‘nasty’ like a particularly bad prank or anything like that. I mean seriously nasty… if she gets triggered enough. And what Rhodes did… yeah, that’ll get Zhong triggered alright. She respected the hell outta Hitachi, and what that bitch did to Ashley and Camila… yeah. If I were you, I’d shut my mouth and not ask dumb questions.” The ex-lineman said, voice deadly serious.
The younger one gulped and nodded, and both continued on their path.
Aha!
Chicanery was afoot. And crime, too.
Now, what would you do with this juicy bit of info?
Eilian Aubrey
Location: Zeus High School – 5th Floor (Crafts Club)
Time: Noon
“Do you think you can get it fixed?” The tall boy in glasses asked you, and you peered on the mechanism of the antique clock as Astor Miller fretted anxiously. “You see, it belonged to my grandfather, or well, older than him actually, it is somewhat of a family relic-“
You held your hand up to ask for silence, and he stilled, as you discerned the inner workings of the clock.
The Crafts Club was pretty peculiar even within the myriad clubs of Zeus High. Almost anyone who had a talent related to making or crafting something ended here. Sewing, designing tools, woodworks, etc. Even your clockworks had a place here.
The room was enormous, taking a big chunk of the fifth floor, and had the facilities to support all the students needed. Also, to your understanding, gave the Student Council a monthly ulcer with how much money the club and its endless need for tools and materials sucked from the school budget.
Currently, not that many students were here, which gave you the ideal environment for you to do your work.
After making use of your trusty tools, you quickly ascertained that you could indeed fix the mechanism. It would be delicate work: the clock was rather unique, or rather, you’d never seen anything like that before. The mechanism was rather different, and it would take a lot of skill, as well as time to get it fixed, especially given the diminutive size of the components.
A challenge, for sure, but certainly one you could handle.
Neru Sune
Location: The End of the Spiral
Time: Unknowable
The nice mannequin guided you through, holding your arm as you walked through the multicolored ruins.
Shadows and nightmares and monstrous shapes twisted and screamed between the shattered edifices, writhing and clawing and hungry. Yet the moment they tried to reach near the mannequin, they disintegrating, becoming dust that carpeted the ground in infinite amounts.
And thus, they dwelled, between sundered debris of blue and white and red and purple and black and gold and silver and yellow and teal. All the colors, all of them mixing in a dizzying array of eternal decadence, endless decay.
You advanced and the stars pulsed warmly above, shrieking endlessly in the tormented void, the abyssal horrors crying and screaming as the light lanced them, an elysian hellscape that strained at your already straining sanity.
You advanced, and passed by rows of impaled human shapes. A void in the form of a man, his body pierced through and nailed to a stake, smiled at you even as his white, empty eyes cried tears of scarlet blood.
You advanced, and you reached the spiral, and there you hesitated and stopped, because once again rows of stakes awaited you, this time with the heads of your fellow students at Zeus impaled on their top. And there, on the center of the spiral, was yours, bleeding from all its openings.
The mannequin pulled at you, and you resisted, and you felt the pain as your hand was ripped away from your body.
And then the sun rose. And it was a terrible sun, all red and scarlet and crimson and vermillion. You looked upon it instinctively, and gibbered and whined as you saw madness. You closed your eyes and tried to look down, but it was too late: the pain when your left eyeball was seared completely and entirely was indescribable.
But then the light changed, and you looked up again, unable to avoid it. And your sole remaining eye witnessed the green, mocking moon. And you screamed as your body groaned and suffered, parts of it disintegrating, your flesh changing while you felt every single insane change, becoming dust like the monsters had before.
“ME. KI”
You fell to the ground facing up, staring horrified and that monstrous moon, your mind buckling, your mouth gibbering insanity and horror.
“LL ME.”
A featureless face appeared in front of you. The friendly mannequin left the ruin of your hand on the ruin of your chest, ignoring the many pieces your body was missing as you became as dust.
“KILL. ME!”
You heard its shout.
And then you woke up.
----
Location: Zeus High School – 4th Floor (Class 409)
Time: Noon
The screams nearly tore your throat out as you practically jumped from your desk and started howling like you had just caught it with your zipper and had risked it by zipping it back down in one shot.
Which was perhaps a good way to describe just how that insanely fucked up dream had felt.
Your classmates put their hands over their ears and grimaced to themselves. Nobody bothered to ask if you were alright. Falling asleep in class and then waking up screaming your head off was normal for you.
Suddenly, a ruler snapped against the desk, and you shut up automatically, as a sight more dreadful than your dream entered your eyes.
“Sleeping in my class, Mr. Sune?” Carmine Polley asked dangerously, her cold eyes spearing you through.
The Arts Director of Zeus High was perhaps, by far, the most disliked of the school’s staff. People dreaded whenever it was her turn to give class.
She was rude, strict to the point of ridiculousness, exigent to a fault, and fault was something she’d find with any student that made the mistake of slightly displeasing her. And she hated men, as many boys had sadly discovered during their time in Zeus.
As an example, no matter how hard you’d tried to explain her, she didn’t care at all about your condition. Sad thing was, by all rights this should already be lunch break for your class, but she refused to release it until she was completely done with whatever she was teaching. Something about color theory probably.
You needed to think something, anything to avoid her wrath. Otherwise, you might as well go back to the friendly mannequin and ask it to finish dusting you off as slowly and painfully as possible. Would be a preferrable fate, all things considered.
Myo
Location: Zeus High School – Dorms (3rd Floor – Myo’s Room)
Time: Noon
You opened the envelope addressed to you, and read the name of your target in the slip of paper, before destroying them both and erasing the evidence entirely.
So, after months of waiting, your time here was coming to an end. You finally knew who you were supposed to deal with.
This was perhaps the weirdest mission you had taken on during your whole life, and the Organization had behaved strangely all the way through. It had been… not sloppy, but not up to its usual standards of secrecy and discretion.
You recalled the many names you had heard as you were shipped from Japan to the United States. Izanami Zaibatsu. Teijitsu. Dawn Organization. The Round Table. The Sixteen. And many like these. It seemed like your own Organization wasn’t as independent as you thought, given the apparent connections to Izanami, whatever it was.
Getting you delivered to Zeus High had apparently been quite the behind-the-scenes task. You’d been given your forged documents and precise directions on what to do, but your handler had gone away as fast as he’d been able to. Apparently, America wasn’t a good land for your people to be at right now. Hell, they’d sent you in completely unarmed.
You’d done what you had to do, and you had remained within the school for eight months before the name of your target had been finally revealed.
You looked around your room. That the envelope had materialized here, and that your weapons of choice had appeared on top of your bed, meant that someone from your side had entered here. Apparently, you had a partner.
And, given the sneakiness shown, you had a good idea of who she might be. As far as you knew, there was only one from your particular batch still around. And she was the best at stealth from your generation as well.
You’d never worked with an actual partner before, but given your task, it was pretty convenient. The problem would be making contact with her first.
You’d need to find a place without people, and she’d surely appear before you. Of course, that also meant you had to avoid being spotted by your fellow Track Team members, or you’d have a lot of trouble getting rid of them.
Well, however you wished to approach your task, it was up to you.
Reply With Quote
