Chapter Text
DIVA District - or so it was popularly known; a peaceful, if somewhat busy, area on the northwestern edge of the city of Diola. Although there had been certain unpleasantries in the past years, and more than one tragic occurrence lately, the District for Imaginative and Vocal Attitudes yet remained a place where warm-hearted, enjoyable people tended to gather... and those who did not qualify for such a description did their best to avoid being seen in that district.
Fire Child Sports Park, pinned between Amaretto and Aqua Street, was a popular hangout for athletic types. The most prominent portion, directly facing the street, was an expansive skate park, and there were several courts for tennis, basketball, and volleyball, each surrounded by a high fence to prevent erstwhile spheres from wandering into the slopes. People might wonder, then, why a certain teal-haired girl had chosen this location to sit down a bench - just outside the skater zone - and work at a laptop.
Admittedly, few of those wonderers would be upset about the sight of Hatsune Miku while they skated about. And Miku herself found the sights of the sportsmen, bantering with each other as they performed, most uplifting; given the subject matter of what she was working on, she needed all the uplifting she could get. Yet as she worked, the demeanour of the skaters... changed. They weren't coming into conflict with each other, but they did seem to be getting upset with themselves, as though they weren't living up to their own expectations.
She glanced over the top of her laptop at the athletes before sighing. "Game must be on," she observed, stretching her arms over her head.
When she turned her attention back to her screen, the cursor of her text editor had moved down a couple lines, and was now waiting at the end of a sentence she had not written. How can you tell?
"I've seen how Noise clinging to someone can ruin their mood," Miku mused to her screen. "After how long that was all I could do..."
The cursor abruptly jumped down again, the next line appearing all at once rather than being typed out. Bitch really made you earn it, huh
"Hearing second-hand doesn't really convey it," Miku mused, "huh, Ryuto?"
What the hell?!
Miku smirked at her laptop. "Foul-mouthed, won't appear in the RG, and you didn't see it for yourself?"
Fair cop
With a shake of her head, she highlighted his dialogue and deleted it as she turned back to her work. "I'm not gonna give you trouble," she assured. "I'm just trying... to write..." Her face fell as she felt her mood abruptly change - despite there being nothing that would have changed it... that she could see. "Really?"
So you can tell third-person AND first-person
"You little brat," Miku spat. "Una said you knew how to appreciate."
I don't appreciate someone coming in here and criticizing my mission
"I wasn't criticizing!" Miku protested. "I was observing!" She groaned. "You're not gonna get rid of it if I just leave, are you?"
Where's the fun in that?
"Ass."
Ryuto opened his eyes to find himself lying on pavement. Or rather, sitting against pavement; he was in Fire Child Sports Park, resting against the halfpipe. Weakly, he moved his hands to try and push himself to his feet, and something fell out of one of them, drawing his attention.
A black pin, bearing a stylized skull.
"The Reaper's Game," he murmured. "I have to play a game, huh?" He picked up the pin and affixed it to his shirt before starting towards the stairs leading to Amaretto. "And what is it gonna take for me to win?"
As he set one foot on the bottom step, a shuffling sound was audible behind him; he turned to find a crablike figure approaching, large enough that it seize the young Ryuto's arms in its pincers and pull him apart by spreading them. Muttering something unpleasant under his breath, he started to back up the stairs. "So this is a Noise?" he observed. "She said I need a partner... Hope they're not too quick on their feet!"
He turned and sprinted up the steps, practically crawling up the jagged incline; he dashed his hands on the corners a few times, but it was preferable to toppling backwards and tumbling into the range of his pursuer. As he charged onto Amaretto, someone collided with him from the side; their hands quickly grabbed his to stop him from toppling onto the pavement, and he turned towards them in confusion. It was a dark-skinned woman with blue hair, wearing a blue-trimmed white coat over a dark top and a blue skirt; a yellow tie hung from around her neck, her hands were covered by black gloves, and her legs were covered by dark tights that vanished into black shoes.
"Oh my god," the woman muttered, "you're a Player?"
"What's it to you?" Ryuto retorted.
"Please, make a pact with me," the woman insisted. "I don't want you to suffer."
Ryuto glanced at the stairs to find the crablike Noise shuffling towards them as though it were a flat incline; in either direction down the street, he could see strange symbols approaching that he expected to be more of the same. "Alright, then."
A flash of blue light surrounded the two of them; the woman promptly turned to the first Noise coming up the steps from Fire Child, holding one hand before her palm up and then dashing her other hand against it with a forward motion. A blade of light flew forward, catching Ryuto off-guard; it shot through the crab, causing it to fade into the air, and then arced aside and flew back towards the woman, passing her by and flying a few paces behind her before vanishing.
"Woah!" Ryuto exclaimed. "How did you...?"
"Pins!" the woman instructed, tapping something on her jacket. "Find a pin, and use its psych!"
Ryuto glanced at his shirt. "This pin?"
The woman shook her head. "You should have at least one more!"
He reached into his pockets and found what she was talking about, drawing out a small pin with a stylized flame on a background that looked like the walls of a log house. Looking up at the Noise cresting the slope, he thrust his hand forward - and was surprised when a blast of flame manifested around the crab, moving slightly off to the side and vanishing as another one lit up with the crab at its center.
The Noise was gone by the time the third flame appeared; he lowered his hand in surprise, and when no more Noise appeared he looked at his pin in astonishment. "Holy shit."
His partner looked at him in shock. "Language, little one," she scolded.
"Sorry," Ryuto muttered, moving to affix the pin to his shirt. A glimpse of something red on his palm caught him by surprise; he expected to see a gash from his hurried climb up the stairs, but when he turned his hand to see it properly, he found it was the bordering of a black 57:28 on his hand. "Woah! What's this for?"
"That's how much time you have to complete the mission," the woman replied.
"What mission?" Ryuto asked.
The woman pulled out a cell phone. "Didn't you get the mission message?"
"How would I get the mission message if I don't have a phone?"
"You don't have a phone?!"
Ryuto beckoned to his chest.
The woman groaned. "Some parents just won't change with the times," she muttered in displeasure. "Anyways, the first mission's just to get to 39. Come on."
They were at the plaza surrounding the 39 Building in plenty of time; Ryuto stumbled to a stop as they arrived, panting as he hunched over. He was about to charge at the building itself before his partner stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Relax," she insisted. "This is as far as we have to go. Mission's already over."
"Really?"
"Check your timer."
Ryuto glanced at his hand to find it was bare. With a sigh, he approached the sidewalk and sat down on the curb. "If that's all, I shouldn't have been running. I'm such a dumbass."
"Language," his partner reprimanded again. "And next time, tell me if I'm going too fast. I can slow down." She sighed. "Anyways, what's your name?"
The boy sat back. "I'm Ryuto."
The woman smiled at him. "Nice to meet you. I'm Akaza."
"So that's what you look like."
The voice from nearby drew the Players' attention. A man was standing there, wearing a dark blue T-shirt and black jeans - with a pair of skeletal-looking wings on his back that gleamed like metal. Ryuto shot to his feet, remembering the woman who had brought him into the Game and realizing that this man was a Reaper; Akaza only sighed, closing her eyes. "Kyo," she mused. "Chasing after me again?"
"You say that like there's anyone else to do it," the Reaper retorted. "Better I get a look at you on Day 1."
"Is that so?" Akaza mused. "It's almost like you're interested in me."
"You've been playing this Game a long time, Akaza," Kyo mused. "Thought you'd know the Game well enough to earn your return by now. But you still carry on to the next, looking so different every time. Why is that?"
Akaza smirked. "Why, indeed?" Then, before he could retort; "You gonna mess up like your brothers did?"
"Like hell I am," Kyo snapped. "If you're still alive and kicking on Day 7, I'm gonna hunt you down, and erase you myself."
"That's not the mess-up your brothers did," she scolded.
Kyo huffed. "Don't see how failing to do the GM's duty isn't messing up." He turned away, keeping his eyes on the others as he spoke. "Have fun with the brat, Akaza. He's not gonna do you any good this week."
He took off towards the 39 Building, and Ryuto turned to his partner. "What the hell was he talking about?"
"Language," Akaza scolded. "He was talking about a lot, you wanna narrow it down?"
"He said you've been playing the Game a long time," Ryuto admitted. "Didn't the Game just start today? How could you have been playing it before now?"
Akaza shook her head. "This Game started today. But the Reaper's Game has been going on for a long time - longer than you or I have been alive, or dead." She shook her head. "Only so many Players get to go back to life at the end of the Game. I've never been in that group, so I keep playing."
Ryuto blinked. "Keep playing? For how long?"
His partner hummed, drawing out her phone. "Depends, what's the date today? Games don't usually run one right after another. I don't know how long it's been since the last one, never mind since I started." She illuminated the screen, looking at the display.
"I entered the Game... three years ago."
faraway
Chapter Closed