On the platform: Meet the new characters

[utopiamods]

Rakuen is warm in the noon sun, not humid enough to be uncomfortable but bright enough to make the transition from train to platform momentarily disorienting. The group greeting you is rather large, but also rather uneven - on one side, ten students in black and green; on the other, six in red and white. Whilst the green group are all fairly average, all teenagers other than the tiny, frail woman leading them, the red group are a tad more varied. One of their girls is tiny, the size of a small child, and her wings are beating patterns in the warm air. At the other side of the group, a warlike man looms over his comrades.

When they notice the arrivals, one out of each group steps forward. A young man wearing shades steps forward first.

"Excuse me." A second boy, a few years older and more serious looking steps forward from the red group. He explains that they're all prefects of Rakuen, from the two battle schools on the island. Fortitude - the boy in the sunglasses and the others dressed in green - and Conquest. They all arrived just like you did, weeks or months before this.

"I know you have many questions but first please come to the person who calls your name."

He looks down on his list to double check "For Conquest, Nanami Kiryuu, Hukaru Hitachiin, Madotsuki and Aria."

"If I call your name," the green-clad boy had stepped forward again, "it means you're with Fortitude, a.k.a the slightly more awesome school. Brittany Pierce, Jules de Ferrier, Izumi and Furiae."

Comments

[swordofzero]

Really, why did he always get the rude ones. He had been here plenty of times when he was not on duty and people were polite, if scared and worried. "Not just from boarding schools, from everywhere and they bring them here to fight."

[moorecowbell]

"To... fight."

Nanami thinks back to that weird dream on the train, and begins to put two and two together.

"Hold on a moment. Fighting. Let me guess: these fights occur in prescribed duels wherein swords get pulled out of people, yes? And we're all supposed to be dueling for the hand of some vacant-eyed creepy nerd princess who doesn't even deserve to live, because supposedly if we marry her we'll gain ultimate power or some such nonsense?"

[swordofzero]

Suzaku blinked, "Yes... how do you know that? Have you been in a similar situation before?" Then he paused. "Except... there is no princess. Well there is a princess in the strange fairy story they keep telling us but we've never met one and marrying one isn't in the manual..."

[moorecowbell]

She nodded, sharply.

"At the school I come from, Otohori Academy, it used to be that certain members of the student council, including myself, would fight weekly duels for the hand of the Rose Bride. At first we'd only use our own swords, and whoever was currently engaged to the Rose Bride would use a sword drawn from her soul, but later things... changed."

By which she meant, got terribly weird. But that wasn't important.

"Anyway, in the end, someone..."

She frowned. Who? She couldn't remember. It probably wasn't important. "Someone won the Rose Bride, and vanished, I think, and then we didn't have to fight anymore, and the Rose Bride left to look for that person. I don't know if the person who won ever got the power they sought, though. In the end, I suspect it was all a sham, some scheme on the part of our headmaster to trick the winning duelist so he could get something for himself."

She paused.

"If this is the same sort of thing, I'd say don't trust the headmaster, if there is one, and never, ever get in a car with him. Trust me on this. And if he has a sister, get her away from him as soon as you can."

[swordofzero]

Suzaku blinked taking in the information and remembering it to pass onto Lelouch but it did sound very different than here. "There is no headmaster, though there are two headmistresses but they claim to have been brought here just like us. And then remained behind, I don't think they have a sister.

Here they announce five or six people from each school to be Players, they draw the weapons from other people and fight."

[moorecowbell]

Nanami pondered this. So, it wasn't Otohori, but...

"Still, how very peculiar. Here I thought Otohori was the only school to have to put up with such nonsense."

[swordofzero]

"I haven't heard of that school. People here come from many different worlds. There is a girl named Sora who comes from a similar school. I am not sure if it is in your world."

[moorecowbell]

"I've never heard of anyone named Sora."

She sighed.

"Very well. Are you here to show me to my dorm then?"

[swordofzero]

"Oh..." Perhaps it was a different school. He nodded, "I am, according to the list you are in the Red Dorm, in the room I used to be in."

[moorecowbell]

"Very well," she said. "Lead the way."

She held out her bag for him to take, as though he were a servant.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku blinked at the bag, and decided to ignore it instead leading the way. "Our campus is quite close," he told her politely.

[moorecowbell]

She holds it out for a moment longer, then gives an exaggerated sigh and follows after Suzaku. Goodness, how rude!

[swordofzero]

"There are two dorms in each school, in Conquest they are Red and White." He gestured to his uniform to explain the reason. They were soon at the dorm and he gestured at a door. "There is a small living area there, all the bedrooms are upstairs."