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

[harmonizefaculty]

"You have no choice. Consider this a draft," Yachiyo responded flatly, having taken the floor back from Takaoka. Sawatari and the woman she'd called 'Suwa' flinched a little, but she paid them no attention.

"It's a matter of national security. As for what's in it for you?" She smiled, thinly, humorlessly. "I'm surprised to hear something so self-centered from you of all people, Tanemoto. Consider it the price of your attendance at Chitoku. You'll also be receiving the best training and protection our nation has to offer.

"And what sets you apart..."

She strode over to a nearby locker, which clicked open at her touch. The contents were difficult to see from the group's present angle, but she selected something from within and came back to them.

What she thrust out towards them, end-first, was what seemed to be--what could be nothing but--a traditional wakizashi hilt with no blade, ending at the guard. It was a simple, unadorned affair, only notable for being a bit on the bulky side, and a thin line of blue light running vertically along either side. Those close enough to see the kashira, the endcap, might notice characters carefully embossed on it... and scratched out beyond recognition.

"Again, I can't ask you to understand. Not until you've experienced it. Do you trust us?"

She paused, glanced at Miyume and Mirai, and her lips twitched. "At least, do you trust us not to let you die?"

[heirofkobe]

Taue didn't hesitate. He simply stepped forward before anyone else could react, and grabbed hold of the wakizashi hilt from Yachiyo.

"I don't trust you for a lot," Taue admitted, "considering you hid all of this from us, but I do trust that you don't want us dead if you need us."

The hilt felt good in his hands -- high quality, though a lack of a blade was strange. He'd held swords before, and he knew just enough to know this one's hilt was pretty well made.

"So, come on. How does this thing make me able to fight monsters? It doesn't even have a blade..."

[harmonizefaculty]

Just as he spoke, a pale blue light erupted from the end, forming into a close approximation of a wakizashi's blade. Taue would be able to feel its heat--powerful, but not unbearable--and it would even reach those near him as a faint warmth.

"Show me that trust, then."

Her eyes hardened to flint, and her next words rang out like a gunshot.

"Seppuku seyo."

[burningbow]

Something in Yachiyo-sensei's voice made Mirai bare his teeth a little, and rise off the floor. No orders! The old familiar state of trying to ignore them came back to him, and for a while he wanted to turn the situation upside down. He simply could not imagine her ever daring to commit what she had requested of them.

Then, although he was sure it was something silly, he tried to watch what Taue would do. He visualised his roommate as a wall between him and the adults present. He felt a little better.

[phantomcloud]

For the moment, Miyume was too preoccupied with the task of simply standing up to give any thought to what Yachiyo was saying. She was too tired to really care why her history teacher had handed a light saber to the boy who'd called her a moe-blob earlier. All she cared about right then was simply sitting down.

"Excuse me, sensei. Could I have a chair, please?" she interrupted rudely.

[harmonizenpc]

Yachiyo's lips drew into a thin line at the untimely interruption, and it was Suwa instead who hurried from her place to wheel over one of the chairs from the consoles, and offered it to Miyume with a steadying hand and an apologetic murmur. "We'll take care of you after, all right? Yachiyo-san is..." Her expression told more than words could express.

[phantomcloud]

Miyume nodded, giving the woman an understanding, if tired, smile. She sat down in the chair, grateful to just be able to finally rest after so much standing. Pacified, Miyume settled down to watch the ongoing events as they would unfold.

[heirofkobe]

Shinichiro Taue's bluff had been called.

The laser-sword in his hand hummed with energy, the sound pounding in his ears even over the words the...instructor had commanded. He knew what they meant -- judging by the looks on the faces of everyone else, they all knew fairly well too.

"Man, if Katsura-sensei could see this," he offered. "He's probably wanted me to do this since the first day of school."

None of the adults laughed. Neither did Taue.

"Well, then," Taue said, extending the weapon out, and turning it around, both hands on the hilt, the tip of the light-blade pointing towards his abdomen. Deep down, he couldn't imagine this would be lethal -- there'd be no point in killing the bright, shining future, right?

Of course, there was the fact that thousands upon thousands of his fellow former countrymen had taken their lives in this very same fashion, but with cold steel instead of burning light.

"If this is goodbye, kids, it's been fun. Enjoy Kobe -- it's a Hell of a place, even if this might just be Hell."

With that, both hands drove towards his body, impaling himself on the blue blade. It felt unbearably warm, pain starting to radiate through his body, but he was still coherent enough -- just -- to actually complete what had to be done.

Both hands still on the blade, Taue suddenly jerked the hilt from left to right.

THIS time, there was nothing BUT pain. Lots of it -- his breath leaving him on a tortured scream that seemed to go on and on and on, throat gurgling with incomprehensible noises as he fell to his knees, head threatening to explode as seven words forced themselves out of his viscera to the forefront of his consciousness.

"Thou art I, and I am thou..."

When Taue's pain-wracked form looked up, hovering there in the air, unaffected by this world's color shifting, was a tall man with a white wig, wearing old European clothing. Shinichiro recognized him immediately, as would any in the room familiar with American history -- the Father of America, George Washington.

Why the first American President had seemingly exploded from his head, Taue didn't know. Moments later, he fell from his knees, flat to his stomach, eyes still looking up, mouth uttering a world, syllable by syllable through the pain.

"Per..."

He tried to fight up, but nothing. George still hovered, looking down at the young man with an almost fatherly expression.

"So...."

Nodding his head, old George disappeared from sight, leaving a crowd of onlookers and Taue himself pretty much gobsmacked.

"Na..."

After that, he jerked suddenly once more, then lay on the ground, limp as a dishrag. He was obviously alive though, breathing shallowly, too exhausted to move, and too confused to process why George Friggin' Washington had just shown up in the 21st century.