[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

[defender]

Shoujou heard the gunshot.

So just as his shadow turned its gaze on Haruka Kuchinawa, Shoujou turned to find the source. He turned, only to watch the bloodstain blossom on El's shirt, only to watch El – invicible, all-powerful, unconquerable El – fall against the stone floor of the lobby, slain by Shoujou's own shadow.

"No," he found himself saying. He did not recognize his own hoarse whisper, and had to repeat it. "No. No..." No, because El was not dead. El could not die. El was not – this, this was not, everything had to be a lie; surely El had a plan, El would not die to something as pathetic as a copy of Shoujou, El was...

Shoujou did not even feel the scream rip from his lungs.

He only felt the sudden rush of something – anger? energy? adrenaline? – course through his body, and he was vaguely aware of wrenching his Weapon from himself and aiming for his shadow in one motion, but he was barely conscious, he was not even breathing and his shadow turned.

It was like infinity.

Shoujou pulled the trigger.

Bang.

And, just like that... Shoujou's shadow was gone.

"El!"

[frozen_desires]

Tougyu heard Shoujou's scream echo through his very soul, even as he looked up from where he remained in the shadows with his scythe at his side. A cry like that could only mean...

As he angled himself to gaze beyond the darkness and out at the battlefield, his eyes landed upon Shoujou who was raising his weapon and dealing with a shadow. His own shadow, actually. And beyond that dissolving darkness lay...

"Ding dong... the king is dead." He murmured softly to himself before forcing himself to his feet. It wasn't that he was hiding, it was that he was uncertain of what to do. Everywhere people were dying and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

As the head of his scythe dragged against the ground, he gave one mighty tug and spun it upwards to rest on his shoulder. That accomplished, he moved towards the other members of the SC. If he was going to die, might as well do it by a handful of familiar faces.

[summerstars]

Tougyu hardly gotten out of the shadowed part he'd been lurking in, however, when a shadow flickered into existence right in front of him, cables more or less exploding out and wrapping around various limbs; especially the hand that held the scythe to his shoulder.

"It's such a big, nasty weapon, isn't it? Destroys... everything it touches. But that's fitting, yes?" Grenn's shadow giggled, discordant metal sound underlying the voice. The shadow leaned forward, until they were almost nose to nose. If Tougyu just could have moved he'd have been able to kill it... alas.

"Do you like it? Everything... hurting so much. Isn't it a fun game?" The grin is too wide, and the tongue peeking out lends the shadow an almost... impish look.

[frozen_desires]

As the blade's chain came perilously close to his neck, Tougyu looked up into the red eyes of Grenn's shadow and frowned. As the cables tightened around his body, immobilizing him and squeezing the air from his lungs, the SC member gave an experimental tug and was wholly unsurprised when it yielded nothing.

And then it started talking to him, started poking at all the soft spots in his mentality. Areas where he glossed over the details, trying not to think too hard about what it meant about him and the people he had supposedly cared about.

As his eyes narrowed, gaining a dangerous, almost homicidal look, Tougyu strained his neck as he leaned forward, placing his forehead against the shadow's.

"Release me you upstart bitch."

[summerstars]

She tittered.

"Ohhh, think you're big and bad, hmmm? Think you are somebody just because you're a man? Or maybe... maybe you're just tired of destroying everything, without even meaning to!" The shadow raised a hand and patted his cheek.

"Don't worry, Tougyu... it'll allll be over soon... And then. It'll start all over again! I'm sure you'll like it." Grenn's shadow tilted its head and gave another smile.
"Can you smell the fear, Tougyu? It's all over the place... She's so afraid... I am the truth!" Another giggle.

[frozen_desires]

"Let go of me or I will bite off your ugly mouth." Tougyu simply replied, his tone never rising once as he gave her a steely cold glare. It didn't matter if what she said was true, if it made him think of Grenn and the fact that she was probably already dead. That he was a monster who couldn't even protect the few, precious things he had in his life.

No, none of it matter. Right now he had to focus on surviving. Focus on living so he could apologize to his senpai and find out who her sister was.

That was all.

[summerstars]

It laughed and then briefly raised its head to search the bloody, body-strewn room, as if looking for something.

"Ohh, but you don't have the teeth for that... Yours are filed baby smooth!" The shadow even 'playfully' snapped its teeth at him. "Not even that huge, nasty weapon has enough teeth to let you survive this... You'll see." Then, for a moment, the shadow was pressed up close, its whole body (what there was of it, anyway) along Tougyu's length. The cables have tightened too, at least two of them harsh enough to cut through, leaving finger-wide bleeding rings.

"Get your teeth, Tougyu, and I'm sure next time will go better! Now... I need to go make my Self think. I am so disappointed in her, she should have realized... But she doesn't think well under pressure!" A titter, and then it raised one of its shadow frisbees, close, so very close, to Tougyu's face. If he moved at all, it'd probably cut into his nose and across his eyes. "Ohh, her face when she realizes the situation! Have fun!"

And, like that, Grenn's shadow was gone as fast as it had appeared, leaving Tougyu to stagger as the 'support' disappeared and with a few cuts on his body. Why the shadow didn't kill him...

[frozen_desires]

... Tougyu didn't care.

Not about what it had said nor about the blood it had drawn. As far as he was concerned, every single one of these shadows were a twisted perversion of their original selves, nothing more than fuel for nightmares. (His in particular would probably be gruesome. Idly, Tougyu half wanted to see his. Just to see what a monster based on a monster would look like.)

But what did it mean "next time?" This would happen again? If they survived...?

No, they would survive. They still had the purveyor of miracles on their side. With a renewed determination to at least make it through one more hellish nightmare, Tougyu rolled his shoulders, gave one last parting glance around himself for Grenn's shadow before continuing his trek over to the other SC members.

[firstlady]

One shot and El was down. Another shot and the shadow was gone. It all happened so fast, Kuchinawa didn't even know how to react. He yawned. He thought he yawned. His mouth was wide open like a yawn and no words came out so it must be.

Meanwhile, Shoujou screamed El's name. That couldn't be good. It was loud enough to catch Tougyu's attention. Who knows who else could have heard it? Did Shoujou know who his shadow killed? From the way his shadow spoke about God and death, it's possible that he did.

This can't be good. Trust Shoujou to do the most unnecessary things. Kuchinawa can't rest with this. Kuchinawa hobbled towards Shoujou, hand clutching the wound to his side, fingernails scraping it just so he can stay awake.

"Even your shadow is prone to doing such things." His voice was laced with so much condescension. "You killed Asagiya-kun. Congratulations. El would be so proud."

[defender]

Shoujou had to tear his eyes away from the fallen corpse of El to look up at Kuchinawa, the accusation of murder cutting into his mind, settling somewhere on his shoulders as if to strangle and suffocate – he was running out of air –

It took a moment for Shoujou to register that he was holding his breath.

"Kuchinawa-san," he said, blankly. Exhale. Inhale. He had to keep calm, didn't he? But his breathing was becoming increasingly shaky... "No, I didn't. I didn't kill – I didn't kill El. That wasn't me. It wasn't me. It..."

"Asagiya...?"

[firstlady]

He nodded. "Asagiya. That was how introduced himself when he came to help me. I have yet to see El." There. That wasn't a lie. Kuchinawa has yet to see El present himself as El. There was no need to rush his introduction to this new school with Shoujou screaming his name.

"Now, come on. If he were here, then do you think he'd like to see you and Tougyu die here?" He glanced towards Tougyu, who had just parted ways with a shadow. He was more like a shadow himself, that boy. Kuchinawa was hardly surprised.