[Round Zero: part 1]

[utopiamods]

At noon on the rest day, every screen in the campus lights up. It's the girl from the introduction again! She's grinning fit to burst, and her voice is bright and excited.

"Good morning, everyone! Round Minus-One is now officially over, so we'd like you to all report to the lobby for a special announcement, immediately! It starts in ten minutes, so don't be late."

The screens all go blank, before simply displaying the flashing text ALL STUDENTS REPORT TO THE LOBBY FOR 12:10.

Reaching the lobby, you find it empty of the usual staff. However, the doors to the tramstation are blocked by a large stage, spanning the entire south wall. In the centre stands the girl, in the flesh and just as sickeningly cheerful as her broadcast.

"Hi, everyone!" She waves, tilting sideways as she does so, and then clasps her hands together. "Wow, it's really great to see you all in person at last! You've all tried a lot harder this week, and it shows! We're really, really impressed with everyone. Ah, even though there was a bit of cheating..." she pouts, and shakes her head lightly, "But that's okay. We forgive you! You all know better now.

"But what we've called you here to say is this! We've been working extra hard too, and we've gotten a lot done with your help. So much that we're nearly ready for Round One!

"However..."

She's still smiling. It's a little unnerving, "We have to do some maintenance first, okay? And I'm afraid it would be a problem if you were all alive for that... you could cause us a lot of problems. So we're going to get rid of you for a little while. Think of this as a final test!"

She snaps her fingers, and your shadows disappear. No, not disappear. That's the wrong word. It's more like... they're abandoning you. Nearly forty pools of darkness flow up onto the stage, and suddenly explode upwards in tendrils and globs of black. The girl laughs as they finish changing, as they take on your shapes. As they reach into themselves and pull out inky replicas of your own weapons. They all laugh with her, in the emotionless tones of the Voice from your dreams.

"You can all draw your own weapons now, okay? Fight hard!"

[mod notice: NOW EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS OOC POST BEFORE THEY REPLY.]

Comments

[allurprincess]

Like Tsuki's, Sora's sword blazed with light and the world - her friends, the shadows, everyone - was slowing; a good thing, too, because otherwise she wouldn't have been able to pull Romeo out of the way of his shadow self in time. It wasn't Romeo, she had to believe that. It was something that would kill him and everyone else if it could. Her sword struck the handle of the blackened brush, knocking him off-balance, and she pulled back for a second strike.

[myblueskies]

"Give up Himoto Sora, they are all going to die anyways!" The shadow rushed forward but his broom was hit.

The strike was aimed for his neck, "Your not going to save them this time, they're doomed!" The sword struck true and the shadow chuckled darkly before dispersing into a stream of dark smoke.

[siscon]

Along the way, happy and optimistic Hiyo wasn't there. Instead, the figure who looked like her but didn't appeared - the shadow that was supposed to be "Hiyo".

The shadow had approached the group the Knight and her princesses, watching Romeo's shadow faded into nothingness. She stood there with a blank expression on her face, the ax that she wielded in her hand, standing erect by her side.

"Come, Himoto Sora." the shadow simply said, dark red eyes trained on the orange headed fighter.

[allurprincess]

Sora's shadow joins her, one dark hand resting on the top of "Hiyo"'s head. Just as expressionless, though her eyes burn as she watches the group. As Hiyo's shadow speaks, the taller shadow darts forward, sword raised to strike at Tsuki's neck.

[myblueskies]

Romeo watched wide eyed as Sora defeated the shadow version of himself! That was so scary but Sora was so brave! But more shadows were appearing, one looked like Sora! But it wasn't, it was a bad Sora that wanted to kill them!

Stood behind Sora still Romeo poked his broom out aiming for the closest shadow, "Leave us alone!"

[snakesonaprincess]

The sight of Sora attacking her, even if it was merely her shadow, was jarring. But she couldn't allow herself to remain shocked for long; she quickly brought up her own weapon to parry the shadow's blade, gritting her teeth with determination all the while. Even Tsuki couldn't keep up her mask of disinterest in a situation like this; she glared hatefully at the impostor and everything she signified.

"The face does not belong to you," she said coldly, gripping her lance with both hands before she quickly shifted her weight, hoping to throw the shadow off balance before spinning her entire body around, swinging her weapon around in a wide arc to strike at her side.

[siscon]

While Sora's shadow took care of Tsuki, the shadow of the younger female made it's way to face the real Sora and the boy. Her eyes narrowed, and she rushed forward, ax in a tight grip as she aimed to strike down on both of them.

[myownfuture]

Reiko stepped out in front of Sora and Romeo as Hiyo's shadow approached. Her eyes narrowed. She never had liked that little girl, but she honestly didn't think that was influencing her actions at all. She just had to protect Sora. That's all there was to it.

"Stay away from her."

[allurprincess]

"And you think it belongs to you?" Sora's shadow has a cruel voice, a mockery of her normal friendliness. She gets her weapon up in time to block the lance, but can't stop its momentum. "She'll die. You'll die. You're all going to die, and it's because you don't remember!"

The lance is centimetres from her now. The shadow manages to snarl, "It's because you lie. I'll never believe in you. Ever--" before the lance pierces her side and she disappears with an anguished yell.

[siscon]

Nothing could stopped the dark colored Hiyo as she advanced forward, not caring if anyone (namely Reiko) got in her way. As she neared, she swung the ax from the side - in the same fashion as Tsuki, attacking from the side.

All the while, she muttered, "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you..." repeatedly.

[myblueskies]

Romeo wanted to cover his ears; the monsters were saying such horrible things. People were dying everywhere, Romeo clutched the back of Sora's coat and looked round at the dark shadow monster that was left.

He wanted to cry and hide but he couldn't do that! He wasn't a baby and he had to protect his friends! Alfredo would never let monster shadows kill his friends! He bit his lip and decided that he was angry! How dare these monsters try and kill Miss Sora and her friends. "Go away!" He thrust the stick out again, swinging it to try and hit the shadow girl.

[willbeurprincess]

Koharu's shadow approached them from behind, perhaps seen, but perhaps not, her eyes raised to that shock of red hair. Her smile twisted into something beyond innocence, perverted in a way Koharu, for all her fantasies, would never be.

"Sora~ Aren't you forgetting someone~?" Her taunt was low and singsong and her hands caressed the rifle in her hands, "Leaving your princesses all alone, who would believe in you."

[allurprincess]

Sora didn't see her approach at first, but at the call of her name, she spun with her sword held across her torso, ready to strike-- and she faltered.

It wasn't Koharu, not really, but it had her face, even if it was smiling in a way Sora hoped she would never have to see again. For a vital second, Sora couldn't move.

[willbeurprincess]

The smile just grew, narrowing the red eyes as the rifle lifted, both hands holding it dead center.

"Have to aim for the heart, right Sora? You always tried to spare them, such a fool~" Her smile didn't falter as she pulled the trigger.

[snakesonaprincess]

Tsuki remained silent as Sora's shadow faded, taking in her words. She knew that wasn't Sora, and whatever she had to say was nothing but lies aimed at bringing her pain. But... nonetheless, they still stung. If only because Tsuki realized there was some truth to them. If Sora learned everything, would she blame her? ...if only she could remember more, perhaps none of us this would even be necessary.

But she was shaken from her thoughts as she heard Koharu's shadow speak. Her gaze turned to Sora, still frozen in place and unable to react. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Tsuki realized how this would play out; the only way it could play out. Could Sora ever raise a hand against those she's sworn to protect, even if they were nothing but crude dopplegangers of them? She was far too trusting, and far too simple. It would take something drastic to push her into doing what she had to...

But whether that factored into Tsuki's calculations at all as her body began to move was questionable. It was more instinct than anything else; the inevitable consequence of how events had played out. She had no regrets as she dove into Sora, pushing her away, even as she felt the painful sting of a bullet hitting her in the chest.

A knight of justice who protects princesses... How idiotic, their positions were completely reversed this time.

[allurprincess]

"NO!"

Sora's scream was more terrible than her shadow could ever have hoped to achieve. Tsuki's theory was sound, the knight was no longer conflicted. Her mind filled with ringing denial, she rose from where Tsuki had pushed her and brought her sword up in a slice so fast there was no chance to block; the glowing edge tore through uniform and shadow, almost bisecting Dark Koharu. It vanished with a wail, and Sora dropped back onto her knees just in time to catch her first princess before she hit the floor.

"Tsuki! Tsuki!"

[greennotgold]

"Sora!" Reiko didn't have time to try to help Tsuki or comfort Sora; someone else was approaching.

"So dependent on Sora Himoto," the shadow observed, smirking. "I thought you were going to save everyone yourself. You can't..."

It swung Dark Belial straight in Reiko's direction; the only thing the girl could do was duck for cover. "-- save anyone!"

[snakesonaprincess]

Yes, this was perhaps for the best. As Koharu's shadow fell, Tsuki was almost grateful. Like this, Sora would be able to fight through whatever this place had to throw at her and emerge victorious. She didn't have to think things through; she just had to prevail. Just like before...

"What are you making that face for?" she asked, through pained breaths as she glanced up at the other girl. She forced herself to smile despite the pain; or perhaps because of it. She could feel her energy leaving her quickly as she began to feel light headed from the blood loss. "You don't have time to grieve right now, you idiot. You have to protect the others, don't you...?"

Her smile began to fade as she soon fell limp, bringing an end to her rather strange form of encouragement.

Miss Sora's friend died! These shadow monsters are going DOWN!

[myblueskies]

No! The shadow was going to kill Miss Sora! But before Romeo could do anything; because he was only eleven and therefore not as strong or fast as the others, another girl had jumped in the way. Romeo watched in complete and utter horror as the other girl, one of Miss Sora's friends was shot.

Then she died! It was so quick and so horrible and there were more shadows coming and Miss Sora was kneeling there. She would be so hurt and so sad, Romeo remembered when Alfredo had died and how it had felt like his heart had been torn out.

But they didn't have time to cry! Remembering what Nikita had taught him and the rest of the black brothers he grabbed Sora's shoulders. "Miss Sora! I'm sorry about your friend," he was, there were tears in his eyes but they had to keep going. "We couldn't save everybody," and it hurt so much that they had failed in their vow, "But there's still people, some of your friends are still here and we need to protect them!"

"You need to fight!"

[allurprincess]

Sora curled over the body for a few more seconds, her bangs growing sticky with Tsuki's blood as her grief slowly shifted to a dark, furious resolve. She scrubbed at her eyes with her gloved hand, accidentally smearing blood across her forehead, and looked up at Romeo with eyes that promised murder.

"No one else is going to die," she promised him - promised her dead friend, promised the other girls around her - before laying Tsuki gently back onto the floor and picking up her sword once more.

Reiko was being attacked. Their second mistake. The chain of the flail tangled around her sword as she lunged; she wrenched the blade away from them both, ducked under the mace as it swung with the force of the move, and sent Reiko's shadow flying with a spinning kick to the stomach whilst she was off-balance. It exploded into black smoke against the column it slammed into; Sora was already moving for the next shadow.