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rakuen2011-02-20 01:24 am
utopiamods) wrote in rakuen2011-02-20 01:24 am
Round 2 [all characters and round announcement]
You're falling, and you can't remember why. It's a sickening feeling that makes your insides lurch; the darkness and the vertigo combine, and all you can think of is a story you heard once, somewhere.
- I remember now. It's a simple story that everyone knows. A legend of a Princess, the Demon Lord who kidnapped her, and the Knight who fought to save her.
The Demon Lord had kidnapped the Princess countless times, but every time the Knight bested his challenges and rescued the Princess.
No matter what tricks and ploys the Demon Lord used, the Knight would always triumph in the end. This was because--
The world tilts on its axis one last time, and the dream slips from your mind as easily as it arrived. A new voice intrudes on your sleep.
"Next stop: Academy Main Entrance. This tramline terminates here; all change. Next stop: Academy Main Entrance. All change."
Sunlight streams through the windows of the long carriage, making the seats almost uncomfortably warm beneath its waking passengers. The air is muggy and thick, the atmosphere deeply tired. Your nausea settles, slowly. The last of the dream fades.
"We have arrived at Utopia. Repeat, we have arrived at Utopia Academy. Could all passengers please leave the tram, as it is terminating here."
The tram pulls to a stop outside the academy station, and anyone onboard is ushered off and directed to the front lobby of the school. You can't miss it; there are signs up pointing toward the main entrance, reading "New student orientation" in big, bright letters. If anyone should care to move off the path, try exploring somewhere else, a teacher will conveniently appear to shoo them back toward the lobby, assuring them that "all your questions will be answered inside".
The lobby is big and spacious, looking more like a university or perhaps a fancy international hotel than a high school. Stood around are any number of students in the uniform of the school. Some of them even look awake. There are several receptionists at the desk towards the back of the lobby, but for now they seem busy with paperwork.
Anyway, the many screens are far more interesting. Once a good number of students are gathered inside the building, they all activate at once to show a cheerful, almost cavity-inducing woman in the school uniform. She smiles, waves, and launches into her speech without further ado.
"Good afternoon to our new students here at Utopia Academy! Thank you for choosing to enroll with us for this, our first semester of the new year. Our battle system is the best in the world, set up for you, our students! I hope that you all had a fun journey here, and that you've all made some new friends! You're going to need them soon, so keep them close, okay?
"Unfortunately, some of you have had to leave unexpectedly... This is a little upsetting, because they didn't finish paying their fees. So they've left a few things behind. Their friends should collect those to remember them by! After all, they might not come back, or they might be back next round! You never know.
"Now, I'm going to explain the rules for you. Make sure to listen carefully, and remember, you can find all of this and more in the Exaclan manual!"
She outlines the battle system for the newbies as she has every round previous, then claps her hands. The screen goes blank for a second, and then shows a blue screen with FIRST ANNUAL EXACLAN TOURNAMENT in scrolling white text. The girl appears again in a smaller window in one corner of the screen, and resumes talking.
"This is a special round! Exciting, isn't it? Of course, you can keep fighting as you normally do, too, but we'll also be running a tournament! Every Player has to take part, even if you don't make it through the preliminaries, but you should try hard! There's a big prize for those of you who make it to the last rounds. Now, there are twelve of you this time, and you'll all be fighting in the preliminaries."
The screen changes, to show first the list of Players, then a tree-style tournament diagram. The matches for Day 1 are as follows:
Rafiel vs. Hikaru Sulu
Lloyd Asplund vs. Montblanc
Mai Tokiha vs. Yuka Osada
The matches for Day 2 are:
Shoryu vs. Kallen Stadtfeld
Road Kamelot vs. Grenn Atair
Molly Hayes vs. Miwako Ihara
"After you all fight, we'll have six Players left. That means the third day will have three fights again! Ah, the last three days are for finalists only, but we'll talk about that later! If you have any more questions, ask at the desk, okay? Bye for now, and work hard! The fights start tomorrow~"
- I remember now. It's a simple story that everyone knows. A legend of a Princess, the Demon Lord who kidnapped her, and the Knight who fought to save her.
The Demon Lord had kidnapped the Princess countless times, but every time the Knight bested his challenges and rescued the Princess.
No matter what tricks and ploys the Demon Lord used, the Knight would always triumph in the end. This was because--
The world tilts on its axis one last time, and the dream slips from your mind as easily as it arrived. A new voice intrudes on your sleep.
"Next stop: Academy Main Entrance. This tramline terminates here; all change. Next stop: Academy Main Entrance. All change."
Sunlight streams through the windows of the long carriage, making the seats almost uncomfortably warm beneath its waking passengers. The air is muggy and thick, the atmosphere deeply tired. Your nausea settles, slowly. The last of the dream fades.
"We have arrived at Utopia. Repeat, we have arrived at Utopia Academy. Could all passengers please leave the tram, as it is terminating here."
The tram pulls to a stop outside the academy station, and anyone onboard is ushered off and directed to the front lobby of the school. You can't miss it; there are signs up pointing toward the main entrance, reading "New student orientation" in big, bright letters. If anyone should care to move off the path, try exploring somewhere else, a teacher will conveniently appear to shoo them back toward the lobby, assuring them that "all your questions will be answered inside".
The lobby is big and spacious, looking more like a university or perhaps a fancy international hotel than a high school. Stood around are any number of students in the uniform of the school. Some of them even look awake. There are several receptionists at the desk towards the back of the lobby, but for now they seem busy with paperwork.
Anyway, the many screens are far more interesting. Once a good number of students are gathered inside the building, they all activate at once to show a cheerful, almost cavity-inducing woman in the school uniform. She smiles, waves, and launches into her speech without further ado.
"Good afternoon to our new students here at Utopia Academy! Thank you for choosing to enroll with us for this, our first semester of the new year. Our battle system is the best in the world, set up for you, our students! I hope that you all had a fun journey here, and that you've all made some new friends! You're going to need them soon, so keep them close, okay?
"Unfortunately, some of you have had to leave unexpectedly... This is a little upsetting, because they didn't finish paying their fees. So they've left a few things behind. Their friends should collect those to remember them by! After all, they might not come back, or they might be back next round! You never know.
"Now, I'm going to explain the rules for you. Make sure to listen carefully, and remember, you can find all of this and more in the Exaclan manual!"
She outlines the battle system for the newbies as she has every round previous, then claps her hands. The screen goes blank for a second, and then shows a blue screen with FIRST ANNUAL EXACLAN TOURNAMENT in scrolling white text. The girl appears again in a smaller window in one corner of the screen, and resumes talking.
"This is a special round! Exciting, isn't it? Of course, you can keep fighting as you normally do, too, but we'll also be running a tournament! Every Player has to take part, even if you don't make it through the preliminaries, but you should try hard! There's a big prize for those of you who make it to the last rounds. Now, there are twelve of you this time, and you'll all be fighting in the preliminaries."
The screen changes, to show first the list of Players, then a tree-style tournament diagram. The matches for Day 1 are as follows:
Lloyd Asplund vs. Montblanc
Mai Tokiha vs. Yuka Osada
The matches for Day 2 are:
Road Kamelot vs. Grenn Atair
Molly Hayes vs. Miwako Ihara
"After you all fight, we'll have six Players left. That means the third day will have three fights again! Ah, the last three days are for finalists only, but we'll talk about that later! If you have any more questions, ask at the desk, okay? Bye for now, and work hard! The fights start tomorrow~"
*sabotages the staging grounds FOREVER*
"That's not---"
Oh.
No.
No. Way.
There went any hope of just attempting to hide somewhere. Not that Shōryū would use his weapon, he knew (unless there was no choice, and then his master would lose... He didn't want to see that), but he'd hoped that he could drag out the inevitable about this whole battling thing. But now it was only a matter of time before Shōryū not only got the info out of the system, but also made Enki transfer the tokens.
Of course, Shōryū's laziness might, might work in his favour, but he may also be in one of his rare 'secret action' modes and Enki's just be steamrolled.
"Fuukan. Stop smiling. This ain't funny," Enki hissed, feeling the need to say something, even though this would drag Shōryū's attention back to him.
gasp the ministers will have a fit. You awful child.
"Room, please," he smiled at the assistant, one of his charming expressions. It apparently worked, she returned the smile. "And one of the manuals you mentioned."
"Shōryū? Black dormitories, room 1-B."
One manual, map and set of keys later, and they were walking away again without giving Enki a chance to snap at the receptionists.
a bit more paperwork won't kill them. Besides, they'll blame *you*.
This time, Shōryū gaining five Weapons wouldn't take him out of the fight, necessarily. Not with the tournament, and Shōryū would hardly lose on purpose. Having been robbed of the opportunity to say something sharp to the receptionists, Enki just turned his head and gave them another glare before turning back again.
"What do we do now?"
There would, of course, be a vow at some point. The idea that it wouldn happen was absurd. But since Shōryū seemed to have deemed it better to go find his room first, Enki was uncertain what the man had planned after that, considering the vow could just as well have been made in the lobby.
no subject
"'We'? I have to change, and then I have some work to do. You can do as you please."
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... Only until Shōryū had read everything he could find, he supposed, and that then depended on how quickly he did that.
"Can't tell you who has swords as weapons, I've only seen two battles," Enki frowned as he spoke, voice going sour as he remembered the stomach-turning brutality of how the first ended; giant axe-blade to the head--- That the injury hadn't been mortal didn't matter; the idea of seeing anyone here, especially Shōryū take another such hit...
no subject
"I suppose there's no point at all in asking about yours."
no subject
"Four, I think," Enki finally said, knowing Shōryū would take that for the truth it was, instead of an assumption. And then Shōryū had to go and be unpleasant. He did not want to think about his so-called weapon.
"Indeed not. You don't want to... use it anyway. It sucks," Enki's voice was breezy, quite at odds with the harsh judgement he'd put on it (himself). But it was the truth. No matter that it reminded of his nyokai, it couldn't take many hits. Not even a handful, if he remembered the dream right.
Shōryū wouldn't use it unless he really had to, but it wouldn't be of much use then, either. It kind of rankled that the protection he usually gave via his shirei had now been made much less and practically useless.
no subject
Then finding more Weapons would be his first priority; learning as much as he could about the system and the game, a close second. He fell silent for the rest of the walk. An idea was already forming in his mind as they - he - approached the dorm, and he stopped outside the doors with a brief smile. Was Enki really going to leave without asking for a partnership, or did he think he'd get away with it?
"I'm going to change. Was there anything you wanted before I go?"
no subject
With an annoyed sigh, Enki jumped down and turned around as quickly as he could. Nope, still intact. Okay, as long as he was quick about it, apparently... And was Shōryū really going to let him leave..? He wasn't stupid. He knew what he ought to do (ought to have tried to get done, in the week that had passed); but the idea to actively enable himself for the combat system here...
The urge to just turn around and walk away (would serve him right) was great... actually, ditch 'urge'. Enki knew Shōryū would worm up the ways for him to be able to fight and not pull down some penalty on himself, that would come no matter if he was his Weapon or not, but did he have to be... well, Shōryū!?
"No, nothing," Enki snapped and whirled around, managing about two steps before he turned around again. "You. Are a jerk. Say it already!" Because, in a way (despite Shōryū of course being his master in ways this silly, stupid, dangerous, heartless game could never imitate), the idea that they wouldn't have that bond was just... well.
He wasn't going to admit to having a hard time to leave.
no subject
"Was that so hard?" Shōryū took one step towards the kirin, crossing the distance he'd managed to walk before cracking and turning back. "I will protect you, own you," his expression shifted again, wry, and he added, "--and never desert you. Nor will I force you into battle, though I can't promise the same for myself."
no subject
That.
Was just wrong.
"You better not use that one on anyone else," Enki muttered, giving his idiot jerk of a king a squinty glare.