rakuen | ROUND -1

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ROUND -1

This morning, the marks of ownership disappear from the bodies of every Weapon who was owned during the previous round. The woman from the introductory video appears on the Exaclan video screens across campus, and on all of the computer screens as well.

She doesn't look very happy.

"My, you weren't very enthusiastic this time, were you?" she says, frowning and waving one finger in disappointment. "That's no good. If you don't fight, you can't earn Tokens to buy your powers or your memories back! If you don't even have those, imagine how hard it'll be to earn Legend Fragments!"

She smiles; the shift from her previous expression is sudden and startling. "You know, if you hear the legend, you just might learn a few things!

"We didn't want to do this, but it looks like we're going to have to. Okay! From now on, Players, you can only go three days without fighting. After that, we'll start taking away one Token a day. And you want your Tokens, don't you?" She smiles even more widely, as though she has no idea why anyone might be upset at being forced into such a situation. "To get you all started, we've given you some free tokens! You already had three each, you know, and we've added seven more. That means you all have ten tokens, so visit a booth and get spending."

She pauses, and then snaps her fingers, "Ah, but only Players can do that, so if any of your Weapons want to buy something, you should do it for them, okay?

"I know you can do it! Believe in yourselves and each other, and you'll achieve utopia!

"Now, here are the Players for this round!"

The screen goes blank, and the following appears:

PLAYERS FOR ROUND -1:
Fletcher Tringham
Kevin Smith
Mei Chang
Meryl Silverburgh
Oichi
Suzaku Kururugi
Tsuki Aoi

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Tsuki glanced to her side at the young man who'd spoken. At the last, she could agree that sharing information was to the benefit of all involved. Unless, of course, some of the people here were actually working against their efforts. Perhaps she was being too suspicious, but it was always best to be a bit cautious, wasn't it? As she gazed at the young man, she took a moment to study his body language. He seemed straightforward enough, but there was never any telling.

Still, being too suspicious of everyone she met would get her nowhere.

"They must have something to gain from it, though what I have no idea. It's ridiculous that they would parade these tokens before us, and then make it sound like they're making these new rules for our benefit," she sighed, shaking her head. "Regardless, we don't seem to have much choice, do we? We have to play their little game for now."

She was right about that, they did not have much choice at all. The girl was saying what Suzaku had already decided, they had to play along until they knew what was going on and how they could beat whoever was making them play.

"No, its very strange, but you are right the only way to work out what is going on is to play along until we learn more information."

"I am Suzaku by the way," he looked back to the screan, there! That was his family name, he looked back to the girl "... erm, oh," he looked back to the screan and read off there, "Kururugi Suzaku," he said as if it was a unfarmilliar word. Still he finally knew his family name.

Unfortunatly the minute he looked away from the screan he had forgotten what he had just said.

Suzaku. She glanced back at the screen, double checking. So he was a Player this time around. She smiled a bit wistfully at that, wondering if perhaps they would have to battle one another at some point. But for now she pushed that thought away. Even if they were to fight eventually, there was no harm in getting to know him a bit better. On the contrary, that could perhaps prove useful.

"A pleasure to meet you, Mister Kururugi," she replied. "My name is Tsuki Aoi. It seems we're both Players this week," she said, pointing to her name on the screen as well.

She did note his strange reaction to his own name though. Had he needed to use the screen to actually confirm it? That seemed rather ridiculous, unless he was perhaps pretending to be someone else. But why would he do that? No, the more likely cause was different. "...are you having memory trouble with your own name?"

She asked the question almost morbidly fascinated; could this place really do something that strange?

"It is very nice to meet you also Miss Aoi," Suzaku gave a polite nod and then at the news that this girl was also a player nodded as well, it was good to get to know the other players because even though it was important to play along with this game in order to work out was going on it was also important that there was no emnity in the fighting. After all they were all stuck here together with their memories robbed.

At Tsuki's question he nodded, "Oh... yes I... I know my name is Suzaku but my family name," he glanced back the screan, "Kururugi," I forget it the moment I am not reading it and it does not seem farmilliar to me, like its not my name at all though it is..."

"I see..." Tsuki frowned, thinking about that for a moment. So memories that were taken from you in this place could not be regained normally. That was troubling. Even if she could relearn something crucial she'd forgotten, unless she got it back through their reward system it would do her no good.

"That must be quite inconvenient. You have my condolences," she offered, still clearly troubled by the discovery. "But at least you know what you've forgotten. Most probably can't say the same; that's the trouble with forgetting, isn't it? You can't even tell what's missing from your memory."

"Ah, Tsuki! And Suzaku too?" Sora joined them once she'd finished talking to Fletcher, still beaming from finding someone willing to protect those who didn't want to fight. "You're both Players this time!"

Admittedly, she had felt a flare of fear when her name hadn't come up for the second time, but once she'd realised the two of them had been chosen, all had again been right in the world. Finding out that Tsuki was here at all was a bonus, because for some reason, Sora couldn't remember the last time she'd talked to her best friend back home, or even heard from her.

Suzaku nodded, it was true that because his name was something he wanted to say a lot when he met new people it was pretty obvious that this was a lost memory. His other memories were harder to track down and there really was no point because it seemed whenever you almost regained a memory you lost it moments later, like Gino had.

He looked to the side as Sora approached them, so Sora knew Tsuki also. Was Tsuki one of her princesses? "Hello Sora, yes I'm a player this time." He had not forgotten their promise that they would do their best to work out what was going on, beat whoever was holding them here and save everybody.

"Sora," Tsuki replied, with a slight smile. She had already been told of Sora's presence, though she hadn't made much of an effort to seek her out directly. If anything, a reunion between the two could only lead to questions she wasn't prepared to answer. But now that her idiotic knight was actually in front of her, she couldn't help but relax a bit. Perhaps she'd just been overthinking things.

"That's right, it seems that way," she nodded. "It seems I have that... honor, this time." She wasn't sure exactly how she felt about the state of things, but she wasn't going to run away from fighting either.

"Have you made a vow with Euphie yet?" She looked around the lobby, but couldn't immediately spot her. "Or Lelouch, I guess... you're going to have a lot of weapons!" This was obviously a good thing; at least one Knight was able to serve their loved ones properly this time.

Speaking of loved ones... She reached for Tsuki's hand, thrilling in even being able to remember one of her friends' names. Even now, the game was giving them a way of participating.

"Tsuki, if you don't mind, I'll serve you!"

Suzaku looked between the two, Tsuki did not seem to happy to see Sora but maybe that was just the way she was towards her knight. The way she spoke actually, like she was carefully calculating everything said was very much like Lelouch. A strange trait for a princess.

Suzaku nodded at Sora, "I will when I find her, and Lelouch also yes," she was right he was going to have a lot of weapons but it was the only way to protect them. As Sora asked Tsuki if she could serve her Suzaku smiled again but sensed he should probably leave.

"It was nice to see you Tsuki, Sora I'll see you around I am sure," he left them to talk and vow and started looking around to see if he could spot Euphemia or Lelouch.

"It was nice meeting you as well," Tsuki agreed, nodding to Suzaku as he began to depart. "Good luck in finding the people you're searching for."

That said, her attention went back to Sora, still holding one of her hands. For a moment, Tsuki actually seemed taken aback by Sora's sudden offer. Of course, that was just like her though, wasn't it? When push came to shove, she knew she could always rely on her. Especially in a situation like this. She just nodded a bit sullenly at Sora's offer, before replying in the same sarcastic tone as always, "An idiot like you is offering to be my weapon?"

Of course, she didn't mean the words quite literally. If anything, she was more than happy to accept Sora as her weapon; she had been counting on that as soon as she'd discovered she was a player. But she was never the type to make her feelings readily apparent, though hopefully Sora knew that well enough by now.

"Ah, yes! See you later, Suzaku!" She half-turned to wave him goodbye, then refocused on Tsuki in anticipation of her reply. As expected, Sora was completely unfazed by the sarcasm. To all intents and purposes, she'd just agreed to own her, and that was what counted. And, as Tsuki said so often, Sora was an idiot, especially in comparison to her. Her grin was sheepish at first, but it never stayed that way around her for long.

"Of course," she said, because sometimes Tsuki wanted to hear it out loud. "I'm still your knight, no matter what, aren't I?"

Her expression softened at that, especially now that their company had departed. "Yes, every since we were little..." she smiled, nodding in agreement before placing her hand on Sora's forehead.

"It's strange that the situation has reversed now, hasn't it? It doesn't feel like very long ago that I was telling you I would become your possession one day. But now it's the other way around," she couldn't help comment. She pushed away Sora's bangs, getting a clear look at the scar that remained as a reminder of their past. "Very well then, for now I'll do what I can to protect you instead."

"I don't mind being Tsuki's possession," Sora leaned into Tsuki's hand, almost surprised at the magnitude of her relief that she was there, right at that moment, with her. When she tried to chase that feeling down, she hit one of the blanks in her memory, only managing to make the emotion stronger. She'd never needed a reason to miss her, but still, "I'm really glad you're alright. I thought..."

She didn't know what she'd thought. Another blank. But she trusted her feelings. To distract herself, she pulled away from her touch for a moment to check for the mark.

It was strange hearing Sora say that, though not unexpected. When the roles were reversed, what was it that she's said so long ago? She wouldn't own princesses, but instead treasure them. It was a ridiculous thing to say, especially in the desperate situation she had been in. But at the same time, it was that kind of charisma that drew others to her so much.

"We'll protect each other then. That's only fair, isn't it?" Tsuki replied with a nod, though she paused as Sora trailed off. "I am alright, why wouldn't I be?" she shrugged off-handedly. There was no need for Sora to ever find out about her captivity, if she hadn't discovered it already. That would only cause her pain.

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ROUND -1

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