Mini-event: Awakening 2

[harmonizemods]

Who: Chloe, Kisa, ensemble NPC cast.
Where: The Lab.
When: Thursday, April 20th.
What: The team always needs more members.

The call came again, but for far few people this time, and conveniently after the club both shared.

Saiga Kisa and Chloe Abendroth were summoned to the main meeting hall, for reasons unelaborated upon and unknown to both. The staffer who'd called them vanished before any questions could be asked.

And another odd pair was left to meet their fate.

Comments

[harmonizefaculty]

Yachiyo nodded stiffly as the pair of contrasting phantasms faded away. "Thank you for your cooperation."

She stood with her hands clasped behind her back, watching the pair closely as the bizarre swirl of colors faded away, leaving pure, clean white and steel. The speech she offered was the same as to those who had been inducted before them:

"Effective immediately, you will be transferred from your current specialty classes to Critical Thinking in the 1-ho homeroom. You will not have training every day, but it will be frequent. Abendroth-kun, I will be your main contact. Saiga-kun, yours will be Horaoku. If you have any medical concerns, see Ishichi in the nurse's office. For any stress or mental concerns, see the counselor, 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.

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

[fassade]

The colours faded but the pain and the weakness barely did. The... whatever they were... also disappeared, and Yachiyo began to speak as if they had only just experienced a light snowfall. Did this woman even have a soul, geeze. Yachiyo's words were heard, but Chloe acted almost like she didn't hear them. Her arms shook from trying to hold herself up on the floor. Get up. Her legs didn't want to move. Get up, damnit. The German's legs shook slightly as she tried to force herself to stand. Slightly slouched, Chloe managed it. She stood for a moment, doing her best not to just fall back down again. Once she was alright with standing, she looked over to Kisa who was still slumped over in the seiza position.

One foot after the other, Chloe made her way over to her fallen classmate. Walking was a bit of a challenge, but she was too stubborn to just lay down. No way in hell she would give in that easily. Stopping just in front of Kisa, Chloe looked down at her, offering her a hand up. The German herself was even more pale than she usually was, and her face was drawn and strained. It looked like she had just run a few marathons, but there she was, offering Kisa a hand up.

[suiseimushi]

It took a moment for Kisa's eyes to focus again, and she blinked dazedly at some point beyond Chloe, as though not even recognizing her presence.

But her gaze cleared, and she was able to pull herself to something like a normal sitting position. Her hand still gripped the Evoker like a talisman.

"I... I'm sorry. Excuse me. I just need a moment."

A few shaky breaths, and she was able to get to her feet, gratefully taking her kouhai's hand. There was a touch of wariness in her eyes that hadn't quite been there before, but her smile was grateful nonetheless. "Thank you."

[fassade]

Chloe nodded silently and let the shorter girl catch her breath before attempting to help her up. As she watched Kisa try to compose herself, she took those few moments to actually look at Kisa. Something had changed. It wasn't a physical change. She wasn't sure what kind of change it was, but she did know that she felt different. For better or for worse, they were stuck in this together now. That feeling was... strange to Chloe, as she had almost always been alone.

When Kisa was ready, Chloe helped her up without a sound. Her grip was strong but surprisingly gentle for someone of her stature. She didn't miss the wariness in her upperclassman's eyes... even after something like this, she knew it was too much to ask for. Instead, she merely brushed it off like she did all the other looks she got, the grateful smile that Kisa showed actually helping with that.

"Will you be alright?"

She asked, her own voice somewhat hoarse and strained. It was like the teachers didn't even exist at the moment, whether that was just her ignoring their presence or wishful thinking.

[suiseimushi]

"Yes... Yes, I think so."

Kisa felt a similar shift--not so strange to her, since she wasn't as isolated as Chloe, but there was still something there she was unaccustomed to. She didn't have the words to express it, but it was a bond that went deeper than the senpai-kouhai relationship.

But alongside that was a new weight on her shoulders, something that she had a feeling would be occupying her mind for a long time to come.

"Will you?"

[fassade]

The German blinked. Would...? It was a simple question, but one she was not used to hearing. At all. Two simple words and she was befuddled. Two simple words, and she could feel a burning in her chest, unrelated to the pain from the Evoker. It had been so long since she'd heard those words...

Chloe simply nodded, the confusion in her eyes apparent. Instead of commenting on it, she made certain that Kisa wouldn't be falling over any time soon before picking up the Evoker that she had dropped on the floor. Even just holding the cold hilt in her hand made her chest burn with the searing memory. With little emotion, she turned to Yachiyo.

"What do we do with these?"

[harmonizenpc]

"Keep them. I don't expect an emergency, and I hope one never comes, but you will need to be prepared in case the worst happens."

The blank-eyed nurse--Ishichi--approached as Yachiyo was providing her explanation. She held out another of the Evokers to Chloe, this one actually bearing her surname on it as Kisa's did hers.

"I'll need to take that back," she said, voice as deadpan as her face. "It's a test unit. Here's yours." A short pause, during which Ishichi stared up at her a little longer and more intensely than was likely entirely comfortable... and then she walked off once the exchange was made.

[fassade]

The German simply nodded, taking her Evoker and slipping it into the waistband of her pants since she had nowhere else to put it for the moment. So, the other unit was a test unit? Inwardly she was glad that she had accepted that one. Tests had a habit of not always going as planned... Chloe's cold eyes met Ishichi's blank ones for only a moment before she turned back to Kisa.

Chloe waited, her head tilted very slightly, wondering if Kisa had any questions for their 'benevolent teachers'. The German's breath was coming out a bit raspier than usual, but she tried not to let on just how this ordeal had effected her as she questioned Kisa in a low tone.

"Need help to the dorms?"

The question was innocent enough.

[suiseimushi]

Kisa was trying to brave her way through it as well, if the set of her shoulders and the small smile she offered Chloe were any indication, but she could feel everything weighing on her, exhaustion included, in a way she couldn't completely hide.

"I'll manage, but thank you." There was a slight pause, perhaps weightier than she intended it to be, as she glanced aside for a moment, then back to Chloe. "But it might be better to walk back together, even so." There was something inside her that didn't want to be alone right now, not yet. Even if her company was the gaijin she'd always been awkward around, and even if--

--but that was exactly what she was trying to get away from.

[fassade]

At the refusal, the German nodded grimly. If Kisa thought she could handle it, she wouldn't dispute it. She had turned to leave when Kisa looked away, wondering if it was because of the company or because she actually could handle it. Then the shorter girl started speaking again.

The German froze for only a second when she heard what Kisa had said, turning back to look at her. If Chloe had less restraint than she did, Kisa would have seen a look of almost bemusement that the German felt. That certainly was a first, someone wanting to actually walk with her. Yet with what else had happened today, stranger things could happen.

Chloe's face softened slightly before she nodded. She made to walk for the door, stumbling slightly as she did so.