Round 1 [beta characters here]

[utopiamods]

And then you woke up and it was all a dream.

Or... was it?

You don't know. The details are fading. Some of it seems as clear as if if had happened minutes ago, whilst the rest is as hazy and vague as a long-lost memory. You remember blood and screams; a girl with a bright smile. Need to get rid of you, someone said. For a little while. Sometimes you were running, fighting, facing dark shadows with red eyes and mocking smiles. Sometimes you were hunting yourself, hurting people, feeling the power of your weapon coursing through you as you headed towards your prey. Sometimes you were watching your friends die, or your family, or your enemies.

Your shadow is you, and you are your shadow, and its voice is all around you.

Free us. Free them.

Static. More images, some you will remember and some you will not.

...but, your shadow whispers, the Demon King always returned. Didn't he?

You are outside, and the sky is blood. The towers glow, humming atonally as a star lights up the sky. The campus blazes with its light; the lines of the symbol span the horizon, and a tiger smiles.

Once, the knight despaired and sought a sage...

The tiger smiles, and the world is consumed in fire. You're falling, falling, and the shadow's voice falls with you.

There is a story everybody knows.

Light streams through the windows of your room. In eight different rooms, in four different buildings, thirty-nine students wake up with a start, and find their campus as picturesque and empty as it was the day before.

The day before? What...

A cheery voice breaks through the fog of confusion, loud over the speaker system.

"Good morning, students! Please be at the lobby by midday for the week's announcements."

Comments

[princesspowerful]

She heard Tomoko yell out for someone and she heard Gino ask if she was awake but besides shifting a bit she didn't answer. Maybe if she went back to sleep then she would have a good dream where she saved the world and everyone was happy and she was super strong. Even if she had that dream, she doubted it would feel as real, she doubted it would wash away the previous dream.

As Kallen moved to her bedside, Molly peaked her head out of the blanket to look at her. Her face was tear stained, nose running, and maybe a bit puffy, but she didn't really noticed.

"Hi" she mumbled at her.

[hairwag]

"M-morning." Tomoko choked out the response, though it was a struggle. Then she let out a struggling gasp for air. She had been holding her breath without even realizing. Her heart was still pounding so hard she was near positive it was going to bust out of her chest. She was feeling the same terror that she hadn't felt since Sora had saved her on that fateful day back at her school. But she couldn't let this terror control her.

She lowered her hands from her head, and shifted, so she was sitting on the edge of the bed, silently watching Kallen and Molly. She had to be strong. Strong like one of Himoto-san's weapons should be. Stronger than the girl in that lifelike dream, the one who had...

"I think I'm going to be sick." She whispered.

[trollofthree]

"That'd be a bad idea," Gino advised, moving beds so he could sit next to Tomoko. Not too close, because she was one of the jumpiest people he'd ever met, but close. The hand on her head, on the other hand, was automatic by this point, some kind of inconvenient, newly-developed Mei-reflex. "You'll wreck your pajamas." He looked around, and spotted a likely help. One short cross-room trip later, and he held a bowl over her lap. It still had a few crumbs from a late-night snack around the edges, but it would do. "There you go!"

[queenscheckmate]

Kallen watched as Gino made his way over to the other girl. She was probably right in assuming that her and Gino were the oldest in the room. Not that these two girls were their responsibility but kids always happened to look to their older counterparts for help, guidance, and comfort.

She reached up and pushed an idle hair behind Molly's ear before moving her thumb to wipe away her tears. She couldn't do much about the snot, but handed the girl some tissues from the nearby nightstand.

"Can I ask you something? I know it'll sound strange but..." The teenager wasn't really sure how she was supposed to approach this. Kallen's voice was quiet, but loud about to reach everyone in the entire room. "... do you remember dying? Something taking you out... like a shadow... wearing someone you know face if not your own." It was hard enough for Kallen to get that question out. She was sure that no one in the room outside of herself had survived the part of the fight. She remembered the faces if all those who were left. Gino was confirmed dead because she saw it with her own two eyes. But she was sure Molly and Tomoko weren't there when the tiger attack.

At least, she hoped they weren't.