rakuen | [Video]

Entry tags:

[Video]

It's completely understandable if anyone got bored watching the broadcast of this battle. For anyone who's still paying attention, though, the video blanks out after Mei's forfeit, and the woman from the round change videos appears on-screen. And she's not happy.

"It looks like some of you are cheating," she comments. "You can play games with each other on your own time, okay? Exaclan is for battling! Just so you know, the warning penalty will let you know if you break any rules, and if it's bad enough you'll also be fined Tokens, whether you're a Player or a Weapon. So don't cheat, okay?"

She smiles, then. "That's all for now. See you next Round!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Gino had tried to watch the entire battle. It was his Player's idea, after all, and he owed her his attention... or that was the initial idea. As the game had dragged on, he'd stopped watching more and more until he was only checking every few minutes between reading a book.

Then the woman's voice intruded, and his head jerked back up. Penalty and fine?

"Kinda harsh..."

Kallen had been coming back from class. She caught a glimpse of the fight, even if it was for a moment. But she didn't pay any mind to it. So she walked on, entering the dorm. She had to pass the common room in under to get to her room, so...

"Hey, Kallen," he didn't know if she was still ignoring him, but it was worth a try. "You see the battle just now?"

She stopped in her steps, flinched almost. Since the dinner party he crashed, yeah, she's been avoiding him. "Yeah. I did." Her words fell flat.

He waved the book in the screen's general direction, then leant back against the sofa again. "What do you think? Looks like we've just been seriously told off."

"It just means don't pull anything stupid," she said. Eyes wouldn't dare look at the male. Gino had saw her during a weak moment and that would be the last. "Well, if you excuse me..."

Romeo had been walking through the lobby when he had noticed that there was something on one of the magic walls. He recognised the little girl as the one who had been painting with Miss Rapunzel. It looked like they were playing some kind of game. The magic walls were fascinating and Romeo was wondering how Mei was inside the wall especially as he knew there were more than one and the same thing showed on them all at the same time.

Then all of a sudden the lady appeared, the one who always said such complicated things. Romeo understood her now she was saying they were cheating, he wasn't sure how but he knew so little about this school, there were lots of rules and they were in a book that he couldn't read.

"That's bad, you shouldn't cheat!" He said shocked that Mei; who he had liked, would do such a thing. He said this to the magic wall, because maybe it worked both ways and she could hear him.

"She can't hear you from here," Sora was just passing through on her way to a class, but the battle had delayed her enough that actually going to class this late would be pointless. She stopped entirely, the screen above them flicking back to the main Exaclan display. "Ah, you're the boy from before... Romeo, wasn't it?"

"Oh..." But that didn't make sense; he could hear her. Romeo looked round at the person who had spoke and recognised her as the lady from the entrance who the man had got mad at.

"Yes miss, I'm Romeo!" He gave a wide smile happy that she had remembered his name and wondering if she wanted him for anything.

"I didn't get to introduce myself before," she dropped to one knee in front of him, her expression a near-exact match of his own, "I'm Sora!"

Romeo blinked when the woman knelt down in front of him. It was strange for an adult who wasn't part of his family to be talking to him so kindly. "Hello miss Sora," he shuffled his feet nervously.

He was even younger than Tomoko and Hiyo, now that she could take a proper look at him. So many children were being made to fight... She smiled again, head tilted. "I want to thank you for helping me before. I'm sorry if that scared you."

Romeo blinked and smiled again at the thank you. "It's alright! I wasn't scared," well not too scared anyways, he was much better at being brave now.

He tilted his head before deciding Sora had been nice to him and so she might let him ask questions, "Ma'am, why was that man so angry?"

"Shoujou, you mean? Ahh..." Her shoulders dropped a fraction, and she scratched her cheek sheepishly. "He's someone I want to save, but he doesn't want that."

"Why would anybody not want to be saved?" That didn't make any sense to Romeo, if you were in trouble you wanted to be saved and if your friends were in trouble you wanted to save them. "Who does he need saved from?"

"Sometimes, people don't know how much they're suffering," she didn't fully understand it herself, but she wasn't going to say that. She had been so close, before she'd woken up here. "It's the idealogy of Iwahijiri. I was going to cut him free of it, but, well, they aren't here. Maybe now I don't have to."

Romeo blinked, he didn't really understand a lot of the words that Sora said but he understood. The angry man was suffering and Sora didn't know if she needed to save him.

He shook his head, "If he is hurting then you have to save him! I can help you!" He had forgotten, because Sora was so kind, that she was an adult and adults didn't need help from children.

He was adorable, really. Sora nodded, enthused, and reached up to ruffle his hair. Meeting someone who followed the Knight's Path was a blessing each and every time it happened.

"I will!" It was a statement of fact more than a hope, "And not just him. I'll save everyone."

She would save everyone? That was a big dream, almost as big as Alfredo's and Romeo's eyes danced as she spoke. She was very much like Alfredo actually and as she put her hand on her heart he did the same, clenching his fist and pressing it to his chest.

It was a lot like Alfredo's dream, which Romeo had promised to fulfil. "I'll help you! Alfredo always says you can do anything if you work together!" With their hands to their hearts it was a vow, and not one that Romeo would ever think of breaking.

"Right!" She kept her hand over her heart when he mirrored it, beaming at him. "Working together, we'll definitely save them all."

[INSPIRING MUSIC. PAN UP TO THE SKY. FADE TO BLACK.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Video]

the pale dorm common room

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject