rakuen | Assembly [Both Schools]

On Sunday morning, a day that dawned bright if a bit crisp and cold the screens on the campus' instructed everyone to go to their foyers at twelve as normal. The Conquest students would see Day stood on stage with Santana, Cirno, Yuka and Suzaku. The Fortitude kids would see Dolorosa stood with Becca, Alex and Yuri.

However the two headmistress' were not the one who spoke, instead the screens flickered to life and it was Dunleavy's face that smiled down on them. "Hello students and teachers of Conquest and Fortitude, welcome to those who are new and I hope that those who went on the school trip last week had a fulfilling time. You all did well and the winners of our competition will be announced when they are compiled."

She smiled at them again, "I hope you are all ready to get back to work, and study hard this week. I will leave you to your studies with the list of those who are Players this week." With another smile she disappeared from the screen and the list came up.

Conquest:
America
Yuka Kazami
Cirno

Fortitude:
Komachi Onozuka
Sora Himoto
Shion

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yuka, of course, has no idea why Apollo would be confused by her talking about people. "I'm not sure you would have met any of them yet... I think they're all members of the other school."

She had to suppress a flash of irritation when he said "barbaric" - she got the feeling he'd probably feel the same way about some of Gensokyo's customs. She didn't want to have an argument; there were more important things to dsicuss.

"The only way? Perhaps, perhaps not. But it is a path with some known steps. I have yet to hear of even a solid theory about a different way." Yuka shrugged. "I wouldn't complain if another way were found; there are parts of this one that bother me as well. But I have no intention of waiting idly. No matter what happens, I suspect it will be worth the effort."

Her voice took on a lighter tone. "Also, the food is much better if you have a friendly player." Something she actually cared about, after a couple weeks with Aria helping get her sensitivity under control.

"The other school? Well, no, I haven't." He was curious about it, but for now he had plenty to do in Conquest alone, much less being able to find the time to look around over there.

"Yeah, but ... if we're playing right into their hands, then what's the point? I'm just not too inclined to follow along with what a bunch of kidnappers want with us. It can't be anything all that good, or they would've explained themselves. I don't want to sit around, either, but that part of it is so fishy it smells!"

The mention of food just makes Apollo shrug. He's not yet familiar with the different menus, so it just doesn't sound like much of a plus. "And if you get stuck with an unfriendly one, what then?"

"I'm not so inclined to believe that whoever brought us here is an enemy." Yuka had, after all, run into some stranger things back home. "But even if it were otherwise, I prefer doing what I think is best for my friends here to trying to spite a distant foe."

Yuka had to stop and think about that one for a bit. "... Apply poison ivy sap to their bedsheets?" She shrugged. "I've only had one Player since I came here, and she's a close friend, so the issue hasn't come up. But most of the people here are nice enough that I wouldn't worry about it."

"Not an enemy...?" Apollo visibly paused when he heard that, his brow furrowing. He hadn't stopped to consider that possibility at all, because... how could a benevolent person go around kidnapping so many people? Apollo couldn't even claim that no harm had come of it, because he was aware that there were holes in his memory now, things he couldn't recall and had no good reason for not knowing.

"It's good to hear that everyone gets along," he said in a near-mumble, looking down and away from her. "Doing what's best for your friends is... a good goal, yeah. It's just hard for me to trust a weird system like this."

"Of course, I can't be certain that it isn't. I'm not sure even the staff here knows exactly what's behind our situation, although they certainly know more than they're saying. But trying to judge the motives of someone you've never even seen... I've found that doesn't work out very well." That was an understatement. Who would ever have guessed what Tenshi was up to that one time...

...

Yuka's face took on a distracted look for a moment. Hey, what *was* she really up to then, anyway? She had eventually found out, right?

Rather than pursue that potentially painful train of thought any further, she turned her attention back to Apollo. "Well, if you decide not to participate this round, I won't harass you for it - although maybe I'm supposed to. But I do think it would be better if you did. And try to keep in mind that Players don't really have that option. I've never experienced what can happen if a Player doesn't fight at least a little, but from all reports it's worth the effort to avoid."

Apollo doesn't argue with the idea that it takes more contact to judge someone's motives, though he's tempted to. He's always believed that actions speak louder than words, and from their actions so far, it was hard to say that their captors had anything like good intentions in mind. But ... nothing completely horrible had happened yet, either.

"They're forced to...?" That's not very pleasant, either, but Apollo only pauses for a few seconds before nodding. "Okay. I'll think about it, but I'm not going to promise anything."

Assembly [Both Schools]

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