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

[jurist]

Juri had come to the platform out of idle curiosity; she hadn't been expecting to see anyone she knew from home. She especially had not been expecting to hear this particular strident voice echoing through the station. But there was no mistaking it.

Why her? Juri couldn't help wondering. Of all the students at Ohtori, why was it Nanami who'd shown up? Why couldn't it have been someone a little less, well, high-strung? Like Miki, maybe. Or... well, all right, most of the Student Council was hardly any better, Juri had to admit.

Still, a familiar face was a familiar face, and Juri couldn't just ignore her. So she approached Nanami, smiling pleasantly. "What a surprise to see you here."

[moorecowbell]

"Miss Juri!?"

She'd wondered if anyone else she knew was here, but of all people--why not her brother (whoever that was) (was it Juri? No, it couldn't be) or Tsuwabuki or someone useful?

"Are these people kidnapping Student Council members for a chance at the Rose Bride or something?"

If that was the case, then maybe her brother would show. She'd settle for Miki though, he was sensible and easy to deal with.

"They say we're here to duel, but I thought that whole idiocy was over with? And besides, I never understood what the big deal was about stupid nerdy..."

She paused. What was her name? ... didn't matter.

"Stupid nerdy Rose Bride girl with her stupid glasses and her stupid... stupidness."

[jurist]

"Not exactly," Juri began, wondering how best to explain this. "That is, most of the people who have been kidnapped to participate in the duels aren't members of the Student Council, besides you and myself. And there isn't a Rose Bride."

There, she'd let Nanami digest that for a moment before she went on to explain the finer points of how this nonsense worked. To the extent that she understood them, anyway.

[moorecowbell]

She frowned. "So they let the common rabble duel? Like with that whole Black Rose thing? Peculiar. And, if there's no Rose Bride, what's the prize?"

"Something better, I hope?"

[jurist]

"Quite a bit like that Black Rose thing, actually," Juri said. Oh dear, she was going to have to explain about Players and Weapons, wasn't she? She doubted that Nanami was going to take that well.

"As for prizes, they seem to be largely monetary, with penalties for not fighting. There does seem to be some sort of larger goal behind the duels in general, but I haven't quite grasped what it is."

[moorecowbell]

"Ugh, that's just wonderful," she said. "Complete with the getting swords yanked out of you. Fantastic, I so wanted to go through that again..."

She shivered. It hadn't been bad, just... well. Anyway.

"Just money? No, it can't be that. There has to be something behind it all. Even if I never figured out what it was with the duels at school, I just know the chairman had something to do with it... we can't let ourselves be left in the dark again. I won't have it!"

[jurist]

"It's... not very pleasant, is it," Juri said. Which was an understatement, but she wasn't going to dwell on it any more than that.

"I don't think it's only the money, either, but I don't know yet what the true purpose is. Perhaps it has something to do with that story—the one about the princess, the knight and the demon..."