EVENT - AWAKENING

[harmonizemods]

Who: PCs, ???
Where: Classrooms, ???
When: Monday, April 17, immediately after normal classes.
What: It's time.

The call came abruptly at the end of the day, as the students were preparing to end their normal session and proceed to their specialty classes. It was a small thing, easily forgotten: a staff member at the entrance to a few particular homerooms, asking one or two students to meet in the main hall. It was a little peculiar, to be sure, but they were only two weeks into the school year, after all--most students just shrugged it off as one of Chitoku's oddities.

Taue Shinichiro. Hazama Miyume. Tanemoto Ryuta. Kasubata Shizuru. Imaizumi Mirai. Uehara Himeko. Shikata Haruka.

Those called couldn't have been more different. What common thread could possibly have them brought together, few could fathom.

OOC note: Please keep everything in the same thread. Also, I'd like to keep up a fairly brisk pace, but I'll do my best to accommodate everyone. And please feel free to come into the chat at http://webchat.freenode.net, channel #harmonizerpg, for discussion!

Comments

[allisnothing]

With the end of class, Haruka usually would have left immediately to avoid the rush or have hung back until people had mostly left to go after the rush. However, an older voice caught her and then Kasubata, telling them to head to the main hall. It hadn't sounded like anyone else in their class got grabbed either.

"Interesting," Haruka said, turning her head as she listened. No one else sounded like they were there yet. "Reminds me of several horror movies. The blind girl died in one of them too." Listening a bit longer, she said to Kasubata. "Thoughts about this?"

[waterholdmedown]

"N'much yet." Shizuru did that one-armed shoulder roll she called a shrug, and craned her neck to look around. "Some kinda meeting? Just us so far."

And they really were the only ones there. The hall was vast, cavernous, and empty, with all the chairs packed away somewhere, and only the stage, with its lonely lectern and microphone, left to break up the monotonous white.

"Should be at least a teacher or something."

[burningbow]

A teacher with a taste for suits had caught Mirai outside 3-ro's homeroom and told him his presence was wanted in the main hall. Mirai did not wait for the teacher to start making demands. He had shrugged and gone. There was nothing good that could come of aggravating authority, he believed. If it had no problem with him...

Though there certainly seemed to be something odd with the meeting at this place - as if a handful of people could be called an assembly at all. He walked over to a few people he recognised and drew back his hand to scratch his neck.

"... Hello, kouhai," he said quietly, circling around the two. "It's good to see you again, Kiri-chan. Benten-chan, have you been doing something you thought you shouldn't?"

[waterholdmedown]

"I never do anything I think I shouldn't," Shizuru deadpanned in response.

[phantomcloud]

"Senpai behaves," Miyume chimed in as she approached, giving no indication whatsoever as to which one she meant.

Aside from looking a bit haggard and moving a little more sluggishly than usual, Miyume looked cheerful enough. She had a sweet, friendly smile on her face.

"Fancy meeting all of you here," she added, mouth twitching slightly in amusement.

[allisnothing]

Hearing the third person come in, Haruka's brows lifted slightly. No one she didn't know yet.

"Hi," Haruka replied with a bit of a smile in Hazama's direction. Looking in a bit more of a general direction, she said, "So anyone else got any ideas on this?"

[harmonizefaculty]

And, all at once, the stairs they'd been following came to an end, and the wall slid open once more at a word from Yachiyo.

What was inside... It seemed impossible, but there it was, right in front of them.

The laboratory was sleek and new, all pure white and bright steel, with consoles and instruments and unidentifiable machines all neatly arrayed in their respective places.

Arrayed before them, too, was a peculiar row of people. Some were familiar: to their left was a trio of medical staff, comprising Aya, Nao, and a young woman with short hair and a deadpan expression, all in crisp white medical coats. Horaoku-sensei, the third-year math teacher, and Sawatari-sensei of the second year stood on the other side. Near the center was a pair in deep blue military dress uniforms, hearkening back to the days of the Meiji Restoration; the man stood at loose attention, while the woman had rested a hand on her hip and was regarding them skeptically. A few others in lab coats rounded out the loose arc.

And Yachiyo stood in the center, facing the group. "Welcome to your new lives, kids."

[rulebook]

Seeing everything before him, Ryuta forgot what he wanted to say to Haruka. He was truly surprised to see all of this. As if the laboratory wasn't enough, the teachers awaiting their arrival made this scene all the more out of place. He stood silently for a moment as he examined all the room had to offer.

After regaining his composure, he looked toward Yachiro and asked what he believed was a fairly reasonable demand. "Mind explaining with a little more detail?"

[hoshikage_himeko]

For a while, Himeko was totally lost in thought and still didn’t really converse with anyone. There were plenty of questions she couldn’t get out of her head right now. What might have been the reason they were all grouped together? What would they be able to see when they left this mysterious looking corridor? Some kind of secret? Something dangerous even? Or was it punishment, after all? She was more than excited to finally get some answers, soon.
But her peaceful thinking session came to a sudden end due to arriving at their destination.

With a confused expression Himeko looked around the laboratory.
"Um...Sensei? What is this place? Are we...supposed to be some kind of human guinea pigs or something?...", she asked, unable to understand what it was, that was going on right in front of her.

(OOC: I'm going to join your group chat starting tomorrow btw. I'm not home at the moment and I don't think I'm able to use the chat page with my cellphone... >o<)

[phantomcloud]

Miyume had kept up but only barely. Really, had the stairs been necessary? If they had a secret part of the school, couldn't they have had a secret elevator, too? She couldn't complain too much, however, since it gave her a very convenient excuse to keep Mirai's arm around her as they walked. At Taue's comment about her being a moe-blob, her expression seemed to darken. If she hadn't been feeling so drained, she would have been tempted to make a rude gesture at his turned back just out of spite, but it didn't seem worth the effort.

When they arrived in the secret laboratory, her eyes widened as she looked around, flinching somewhat at the sight of two people in military uniforms though she couldn't say exactly what about them bothered her so. She'd never thought much about the military. They were simply kind of there and existed.

"Our new lives, Yachiyo-sensei?" she asked coolly, eyes slightly narrowed.

[burningbow]

Mirai stared, at all of them. His expression showed them that he was thinking. The room was new. The equipment was new. He saw expensive machinery standing shining-bright in one part of the laboratory; monitoring equipment in another. There was nothing poor about any of it, he realised. He had never seen this much money in one place.

He was rapidly back into his obsessions. Most adults he had encountered in his life were tight about money. He was able to grasp, mind fervent, why they would want to spend it on them. As soon as he saw the staff, he closed his tighly-lipped mouth in a display of defiance and stretched out his right hand in front of his face. He was hiding a venomous look, spitting at all of them.

He would not serve!

[heirofkobe]

"My father," Taue proclaimed, eyes narrowing as he glared at the teacher, the lab equipment, the uniform, all of it, "owes me 10,000 yen. I knew this place was some sort of military academy. The government poured how much into Chitoku, again?"

With that out of the way, Shinichiro straightened to his full height.

"I'm with rules-san over there," Taue said, voice dropping in temperature by the second. "Before you introduce us to anything big enough to call our new life, you have an explanation due."

[waterholdmedown]

Shizuru, rounding out the group, was content to wait and hear them out. The whole thing was totally outside her experience, and for that reason alone she was happy to go with it.

Really, she didn't know what everyone else was fussing about.

[harmonizefaculty]

At this, Yachiyo actually seemed slightly nonplussed. Whatever she'd been expecting, that clearly hadn't been it. But it was only for a moment, and she recovered swiftly.

"That," pronounced Yachiyo, "is what you have to protect you. The shinmen--" not a standard word, but the meaning of 'heart-face' was clear from the context "--a kind of guardian spirit derived from the mind, and brought forth with these Evokers. Only a few have the ability to use them."

She stooped to pick up the hilt that had fallen from the young man's hand. "I'd like each of you to test them yourselves."

Meanwhile, the deadpan woman from the medical team had walked off during the evocation that had drawn everyone else's attention, and had now returned to hand out similar weapons to the rest of the group. Each hilt had the owner's surname engraved on the kashira.

One she'd finished that task, she knelt by the fallen Taue, testing his pulse, breathing, and various vital signs.

[waterholdmedown]

Shizuru, as always, was willing to just go with it.

She hefted the hilt in her hand. It was easy enough to find the button that turned it on, and she gave it an experimental swing--not wide enough to hit anyone, but coming probably closer than she ought to have.

Then--well, nothing left but to try it, right?

She brought up the blade, turned it horizontally, feeling its heat nearly burning her skin, and brought it swiftly across her throat.

--and then promptly dropped it, sending the Evoker tumbling across the floor of the lab as she clutched at her neck and fell to her knees. Fuckithurtithurtithurtithurt--

But she forced open her eyes, and the vision in white and gold before them almost made it worthwhile. "Jerisavlja..." she whispered, her throat still burning, spots before her eyes.

Just seeing it, she understood.

[allisnothing]

Haruka couldn't see what was going on and it's not like any one was filling her in anyway. She had a pretty horrifying mental map going out but it sounded like Taue and Kasubata were still alive? No one was freaking out and the adults seemed to be continuing on plan.

...Whether they wanted to or not.

Haruka's face subtly darkened, even as she took the blade put into her free hand. There was a subtle tension across her whole body and an angry aura that was never there. She held her cane tightly.

And then she dropped it, letting it clatter to the floor.

Her eyes were open and though her eyes weren't focused, there was a very calm anger there meant specifically for the adults watching them. There wasn't any of her usual quips this time.

Instead, she quickly took the wakizashi, turned it with surprising ease, and drove it into her chest.

She couldn't remember anything that hurt so much. All she could think was 'fuckfuckfuckno... and the stray thought that wondered if they'd be happy with her corpse. She let out a strangled cry, eyes wide, and stumbled backwards, starting to fall, as the blade fell out of her hands and from her chest. Her hand blindly reached for something-

But before she hit the ground, it was like time stopped for a moment.

She felt oddly warm...not like what you heard in movies and books about death..

And she thought she could hear a barking somewhere, calling her...

A force pushed in her mind, over and over and over again...and it all kept saying one word...until it slipped out unconsciously...

"Per...sona...?"

She hit the ground and jerked and all the sudden, everything felt warm and okay. A large dog* with red eyes and symbols over its fur stood over top her for moment, sniffing Haruka for a moment before turning back to the adults with a snarl before disappearing into blue light.

Haruka, meanwhile, was left on the ground and still gasping for air, barely conscious and still struggling to fully grasp what happened.

((*http://www.zerochan.net/full/37159

[phantomcloud]

Miyume looked like she felt ill, though whether it was from the condition of her health or the horrific tableau before her, wasn't easily determined. She flinched at seeing Shizuru in obvious pain and flinched even more when Haruka collapsed. She gazed down solemnly at the device in her hand. After a second she switched it on and out came the burning blade. Unlike the others, she couldn't feel the heat as intensely as they did, though she could tell that to someone with normal perception in these matters that the wakizashi's blade must be pretty hot. She swallowed a bit nervously as she slowly raised the blade to her own throat.

The prospect of pain didn't scare her nearly as much as the prospect of causing herself mortal injury and not being able to feel it. Miyume touched the blade to her throat.

It stung but she was accustomed to coping with pain assaulting her from unknowable resources. She felt oddly detached from everyone and everything that was happening, almost as if she'd wandered into someone else's nightmare. Well, there was only way to make it real for her.

With an eerie calm, Miyume slashed her own throat. She instantly dropped the blade and it rolled away from her chair. She doubled over, leaning so far forward that her hair started to pool on the floor. She whispered one word, so softly, that it was unlikely anyone in the room would actually be able to hear it.

"Persona."

With that, it felt almost like Miyume's consciousness was undergoing some kind of division, like a part of her was pushing out of her mind and breaking through into reality. A dark cloud exploded into being in the air over her hunched form, hovering like a malevolent spirit eager to wreak havoc over all the equipment and the people in the room. It was vaguely girl-shaped and if one looked closely enough at it, there was a distinctly feminine face bearing a strong resemblance to Miyume's one flitting in and out of existence. It seemed to glare at Yachiyo with the same blank coldness Miyume had earlier.

[hoshikage_himeko]

Himeko knew that there was no use in discussing it anymore. Seeing the others lying on the ground, obviously in pain she knew that she had to do it as well. She took the hilt without any further complaining. Pretty much resigning to her own fate, so to say.

She sighed. There had been so many times she wanted to just kill herself and vanish from this world and now she was too afraid to try it out? She realized that she wouldn’t even die after doing it and there wasn’t any way to circumvent it. She shrugged. “Well then...time to prove I'm not a scaredy-cat!”
The blade itself had a nice blue color and there was this extreme heat coming from it and right at her. She was staring at it for a little longer before she finally drove it into her body.
It did hurt. Even more than she expected it to. She wondered if this pain might be a worse experience than dying was. Some tears she couldn’t suppress where running down her cheeks alongside her pained screams and noises she had to let out, before she simply fell down to the ground, throwing the blade away using the last of her remaining strength.

But as soon as she was lying on the cold ground, Himeko felt something familiar. A certain warmth only one place she had visited so far could made her feel. She opened her eyes to see something, which looked like one of the characters in a book her grandmother in Sapporo was reading to her when she was younger. The snow elf who was bringing the cold weather, she liked so much. “Jack Frost…”, she mumbled, showing the creature a content smile before it vanished again.

The pain she had felt seemed to ease already, but she wasn’t able to get up. Exhaustion made her unable to move resulting in her closing her eyes again.

[rulebook]

One after another, the others fell. Silently watching as each person stabbed themselves, Ryuta gathered his thoughts. He sees now that Yachiyo was telling the truth. He would be a fool to think otherwise, having seen these strange 'shinmen' appear from nothing. He looked toward Taue, Himeko, Miyume, Haruka, and Shizuru. Seeing them in agonizing pain only helped to bolster his resolve. He addressed Yachiyo and the other adults around her. "I see. Arguing with you further would be a waste of time for us all."

He then activated the blade, a pale blue light shimmering in the warped room. He felt the heat from the blade, the handle vibrating softly in his hand. It was different from a bamboo sword by a mile. It felt heavier, whether from the sword itself or from the weight of the burden that came with it. He wondered if there would be a time that he would get used to such a thing. After finishing his examination of the blade, he turned back to the group before him.

"I accept your terms. I shall carry the burden that you have forced upon us." Although spoken evenly and well mannered, his eyes revealed his displeasure with this. He held back his rage, knowing there was no place for it now. He knew what he needed to do. He would see for himself the reason behind all of this. And he will see if it was reason enough to go this far.

He pointed the blade at his chest and took a deep breath. A sudden jerk and the blade pierced through his body, the air knocked out of him. It was like a fire in his chest, spreading wildly to the rest of his body like an uncontrollable inferno. With the last bit of strength he had left, he forced the sword out of himself and fell to his knees. He clutched onto the hilt for a moment before it fell to the ground beside him.

Although the blade was next to him, he could not tell the difference. The fire inside him only grew stronger, threatening to consume him. Gritting his teeth in agony, he felt like his head was going to explode. A surge of pain washed over his mind, burning deep into his thoughts. A single name popped into his mind from the blaze, forcing it's way out of his mouth. "Raguel."

A large, bronze angel appeared above Ryuta, spreading it's metallic wings above him. It held an open book in it's right hand and a scale in it's left. A flowing robe wrapped around his body, an exposed abdomen revealing metal gears ticking away like clockwork. It glanced toward the people standing before it with a calm expression as the scales shifted from side to side. Ryuta looked up at the angelic figure above him in astonishment. He chuckled softly and thought it a fitting judge for their actions.

It disappeared in an instant along with the last of Ryuta's strength. The fire within him lessened to a degree, replaced quickly by exhaustion. Ryuta then fell to the floor, unconscious.

[harmonizefaculty]

Yachiyo watched, hands clasped behind her back, as the last of the shinmen faded away, and nodded silently to herself.

"Thank you all for your cooperation."

She was clearly speaking for the benefit of those who were still conscious, though the deadpan nurse and the two younger staffers were moving around to check on and rouse those who weren't. "Effective immediately, you will be transferred from your current specialty classes to Critical Thinking in the 1-ho homeroom."

(And suddenly, Shizuru, pulling herself to something resembling a sitting position, understood why the class had been just her.)

"You will not have training every day, but it will be frequent. First-years, I will be your main contact point. Second-years, Sawatari. Third-years, Horaoku. If you have any medical concerns, see Ishichi, Ihoji, and Maehigashi." The blank-faced woman now had a name. "For any stress or mental concerns, see Sekimiya. You will be given priority over the rest of the student body in both cases.

"This facility and the shinmen are matters of the highest secrecy; do not speak to anyone else about them. Leaks will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Your Evokers will only activate in these other worlds, so I would not recommend trying to show them off.

"You are excused from club activities today and all classes tomorrow. If you feel any lingering effects beyond that, see Ishichi for testing and an absence note."

The bizarre colors and energy in the air vanished as though they had never been, leaving only the clean, polished laboratory.

"If you wish, you may remain to ask questions. Otherwise, you are dismissed."

And, finally, her voice softened. "I accept your hatred now. But you will all soon understand why this is necessary."

[burningbow]

Mirai watched the colours swirl on the ceiling and he counted them - blue, black, red, blue, green - and ran a hand down the back of his head, clutching at his hair as they all turned to white. He was by now too tired and hurt to argue. He would have been content to lie there and listen to his breathing, his chest rising up and down, had not Yachiyo finished speaking and left him bored in the quiet.

He sat up to check his clothes and check this wasn't a figment of his imagination. It might have been any old dream - he was certain it wasn't, though. He was climbing to his feet. He would do this to prove he could, reject what his father wanted him to take from it, and talk down large obstacles that threatened his freedom.

He would have headed straight for the door had not Isora earned his ire. He headed over. It looked it was clear he would not leave till he had at least spat some of his venom at the woman who had made him feel so small. He brought a hand to his throat, and it still felt dry.

[allisnothing]

Haruka listened to all this, eyes turned blankly at the ceiling for the longest time.

Finally, she slowly closed her eyes. Her hand felt for her chest - physically uninjured, even if her head wouldn't stop spinning - before she pushed herself into a sitting stance but she had to stay still for a few moments to orient herself and get over the urge to puke. She felt area in front of her for where she had dropped her cane, her hand missing it several times before she found that it had rolled further than she expected. When she found it, she clutched it hard, relying on it to help her keep her balance as she tried standing. Her body screamed at her and her chest still burned for some reason but she was up.

Turning her head in Yachiyo's general direction, she sounded normal but that aura from earlier hadn't completely gone away,

"If this is a draft, when and how do we get a discharge?"

[rulebook]

Slowly, Ryuta opened his eyes. His eyes moved over the medical staffer who he believed woke him. For a moment, he thought that it was all a bad dream. Too bad he still had a splitting headache from before. He could have at least believed he was still dreaming for a bit longer.

Standing up was a struggle in of itself. The pain in his chest subsided, but his head felt like it was cracked wide open. Great. Knowing he wouldn't be able to focus on his studies today, he made a mental note to make up for it later. But more pressing matters were at hand. He glanced toward Yachiyo, gathering his thoughts as best he could through the pain. Carefully adjusting his glasses, he spoke to her with an even tone. "Hating you at this point would not resolve the situation. I prefer we move things forward. Before I leave, I want to know something from you."

A moment passed as he thought about how he wanted to phrase his question. He realized that there was no way around it, so he took the straightforward approach. "Do you consider us disposable? With a school full of potential candidates to use at your discretion, I wonder how highly you value our lives?" The cold silence swept through the room, the question lingering in the air.

[harmonizenpc]

Sekimiya was still standing a little apart from the group, listening to the students' questions but not expecting to participate in the Q&A session. But, nonetheless, she didn't seen surprised when Mirai approached her.

"I appreciate your cooperation earlier," she said with the same calm smile, adjusting her glasses as she peered up at him. "Can I help you?"

[burningbow]

Mirai rubbed at his throat with the palm of his hand, now that the shock of the awakening had worn off his body which was catching up with his mind. He reckoned that there had to be a catch to Sekimiya's help. He was questioning without so much as taking his eyes off her.

"... Yeah. You say my father said he was proud. I wonder what he said to you about me."