rakuen | [Round Zero: part 1]

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[Round Zero: part 1]

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.]

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At this point, El was pretty sure that everyone was preoccupied with their own shadows to fight that he could half-care about his playacting. His head was starting to hurt from all this commotion and he couldn't decide whether Iwahijiri was less of a sadist than this group of people.

The word that woman had mentioned caught his attention however. Maintenance. What did that mean exactly, doing some maintenance but without them being alive? But he knew that kind of information would be more than difficult to dig up, especially in a setting where he no longer had power.

For now, it could wait since such thoughts was distracting enough in the middle of a melee.

El turned around to find Sora Himoto, busy fighting alongside her own princesses, but made no move to help them in any way. The girl was more than capable of handling herself in a fight - as Shoujou had quoted earlier, she's only clever in fighting. And besides, Karin Asagiya was the passive type of knight and if anything, would rather not fight, ally of women or not.

As he turned back around, he was greeted by Kuchinawa who seemed more relax than ever and with a weapon in hand. And he was yawning in the middle of the battle. Really now. He lifted an eyebrow, gaze falling to the dark stain on his uniform. It wasn't a normal Exaclan battle, that much he knew.

"Can you still fight?"

He followed El's gaze. Ah. The wound didn't hurt that much. He was sure he wasn't going to bleed to death either. But he did feel a bit sleepy. Perhaps it was the effect of his shadow's weapon. Perhaps if he got enough upgrades...

"If I have to." He wraps his arm around El's for leverage, and rests his forehead on his shoulder. He breathes heavily, trying to get more oxygen in his system. Because he can't fall asleep here. Seeing as how other people's shadows have managed to kill their originals and were now resorting to attacking anyone that provoked them, Kuchinawa was sure that he would have to fight again.

"Does maintenance happen often?"

El almost pulled away.

Almost since it was an instinctive reaction honed in him whenever someone - this was mostly Kuchinawa anyway - would drape on him as if he was some couch. Because really, was this the time to be all touchy-feely with him?

But he didn't when he felt the considerable weight placed on his arm as well as the labored breathing coming from the other male. Not a good sign, especially when they're in the dead center of the entire fight and the shadows were becoming aggravating with their powers exceeding theirs. He gave him another glance over, noting if he had acquired other injuries or if the cut was deeper than it seemed. Nothing, and yet Kuchinawa seemed exhausted already.

How many did he fight off anyway before he found him?

"Not that I know of." Considering the more than evident look of surprise on everyone's face at the announcement. El looked around again, eyes alert for anything that might attack them, gripping the scimitar's hilt tightly. "Are you okay?"

"So it's everyone's first time. No wonder."

He felt El get tense. Normally he would have shrugged off Kuchinawa's advances by now. He knew how much El disliked being touched. But here he was, letting him rest on his shoulder. He laughed.

El got himself into a lot of trouble precisely because he was this type of person. He worried about a lot of unnecessary things. It would be a lot easier for him if he had just abandoned Kuchinawa. On the other hand, it would probably make El feel better if he told him just how he got injured. But not telling him shouldn't hinder their progress much.

"Worried?" His hand snaked down El's arm. Finally grabbing hold of El's hand, he tried to coax him to loosen his grip on his weapon just a bit. It must have hurt, after he had cut his hand repeatedly from trying to make apple bunny slices. (Besides, it would be more comfortable to rest on the shoulder of a more relaxed man.)

"I'll be fine. Just tell me when they're close." Whether this they meant Shoujou and Togyu, Sora and her friends or another shadow didn't really matter. He doubted that El would be willing to have other people see them like this.

Worried? Him? He had no reason to be. He always had full confidence in his own Council even in the midst of him using them for his own gain. And it truly would be advantageous for him to simply leave Kuchinawa behind; his own priority was to survive after all, to gain more information about this place.

But leaving him would be against everything he'd done so far, including his morals and principles. Picking up strays, it was that one habit of his that had always gotten questioned.

"Don't do unnecessary things, Kuchinawa."

The grip on the sword remained tight despite the hand that tried to loosen it. His wounds from earlier were burning with pain, like tiny needles pricking his skin all at the same time, though he gave no indication of it whatsoever. He was used to pain, having dealt with the warning penalties before over and over again.

"And since when did I worry?" Still, he shifted the dagger slightly so that the blade would cut his arm instead in order to drag Kuchinawa towards a blind spot behind one of the pillars. If anyone were to see him and were to ask what he was doing, well, Karin Asagiya was a knight of justice after all. He was merely helping someone else without a second thought of who it was.

If not for the coloring, it would have been all too easy to believe that Shoujou was the monster, and his shadow the human.

Walking casually through the battlefield with a subdued smile on its lips and its pistol held loosely in its hand, the shadow had ignored Shoujou entirely from the very beginning of the battle, leaving the hunt for him to its brethren. The shadow was not interested in Shoujou; the shadow was quite sure it had bigger prey to be stalking. And – spotting one “Karin Asagiya” slip behind a pillar with a wounded Kuchinawa in tow – it decided that it wouldn’t even need to lay a trap.

This kill is mine. The shadow’s playful smile twisted into a predatory smirk.

It rounded the pillar quietly, stopping short some six feet from the two students, and raised its gun in a smooth gesture – aiming squarely for El’s chest. ”You know what I’ve always wondered?” it asked softly, its voice a perfect imitation of the real Shoujou’s.

Its smirk became a grotesque caricature of a grin. ”Can God die?”

The shadow fired.

”Oh. Looks like he can.”

He can. He definitely can. No sooner had Kuchinawa let go of El's arm, no sooner had he laughed at El's comment than he heard that gunshot. And El fell to the ground.

No, he was supposedly Karin Asagiya, wasn't he? Then his death shouldn't garner much of a reaction from a member of the student council. Instead he leaned on the pillar and stared at the boy who held the gun.

"Shoujou." He tried to smile, only because he knew how much Shoujou would hate that.

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!"

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.

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.

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."

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.

"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.

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...

... 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.

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."

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...?"

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.

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[Round Zero: part 1]

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