yogen | may missions

That's the question, isn't it?

[ She takes in a breath, exhales the tired sigh of one whose been dealing with a problem for far too long. Her fingertips brush against the paper that's slid across as her eyes flick across the words. Her brow furrows and a small frown tugs at her lips. Her hand now reaches up to touch the back of her head where it had been struck before, the very memory enough to make it throb, and if she thinks too hard of it she's certain that her body will return to the state it should be in.

So she doesn't. ]

Vaguely. I know I was assaulted in the library. It was by one of you transfer students... Did you ever find out who did it? You should have killed him before he could get to anyone else. You would've saved yourself a lot of trouble.

[ It's harsh and even cold, but the truth often is. ]

It's too late now though. After that incident, I found myself here... I'm not sure how it came into being or even how I came to be here, but if I had to guess... I'd say it's because my contract was broken... You guys did this to yourselves.

[ She shakes her head. There's a soft, humorless laugh. She hadn't wanted to die either, but then she hadn't been given a choice either. ]

I won't bore you with the details, but my contract tied my fate to the school. If I could live until the end of the year, then not only would every third year graduate, we would do away with these anarchic systems of killing and dying for points or because of slight failures. But if I died, then so would everyone else.

[ High risk, high reward. Everyone would survive if she succeed, but everyone would die if she failed. ]

So if you think of the school as being like a sand castle decorated with shells and colored glass, then this place - [ She extends her hand the surrounding area. ] - Might be like the tide coming in to sweep it away bit by bit... Well, that's my best guess anyway.

[The word "contract" pulls a small sigh from Childe's lips, letting his weapons join together into a polearm that he can stab into the ground beside him. Specifically so that he can fold his arms. He's well versed by now in such exchanges, and if whoever it is she'd entered into an agreement with is as final and rigid in such contractional dealings as Zhongli... Well.

If that's the case, they might be already done for.]

Quite a thing to gamble on. Not that I can particularly fault you for taking the risk, but it's a rather bold move. Who holds the other end of your contract? Perhaps the negotiations of a new one are on the table?

Edited 2022-06-02 02:26 (UTC)

[Noah sweating because he healing-potion'ed the guy who did this like... last month, oops. He's always had the sense that Komaeda is not a good egg but his sense of wanting to connect with others is too great. It'll kill him one day.

The good news is everything is Komaeda's fault. The bad news is Noah would still die for him. Or is that the opposite? Maybe it's all bad news. Noah guiltily runs a hand through the back of his hair.]

There are loopholes with contracts. [Noah is a lawyer obviously.] They're kind of like magic circles, right? If you have two magic circles and they're bound together, if you get rid of one of them, the other one might still work. But if you get rid of both of them, then they wouldn't work at all. [No, Noah, that's absolutely not how that works. What makes you think that's how that works. (NPClamor cameo, anyone with supernatural sight gets to hear him probably going NO NOAH THAT'S NOT HOW THAT WORKS AT ALL) (Noah is convinced though).]

...um. [Anyway, more to his point.] If we kill the other contract-holder, the contract is null and void because there's no one to uphold the other end of it. Right?

[No one judge him for this he's trying.]

[ Such chilling words... Alice doesn't recognize the murdered girl beyond today's ghostly glimpses of her, and he knows next to nothing about these contracts — only that they appeal to different people for different reasons — so he stays quiet now, listening. Questions about the shadow students won't change their shared fate; he doesn't ask them. Finding a way to nullify this particular contract altogether, on the other hand, seems to be the right path to take... ]

[ There's a wry smile at the questions. ]

The contract with the school... I don't know exactly who signs off on them. They don't tell us that, so you'd just be guessing... But I guess you could say there is a loophole of a kind.

[ Aiko instead stands up, looking around the roof. It's in shambles, the tree outside withered and dead, an entire world that's devoid of any life save those shades which are trapped within it. There's them, there's her, and then there's the students who keep coming in here and disturbing it.

The cat hops off of the cabinet, scooting behind the desk and pawing at her legs. She glances down, her thoughts of how they might deserve that fate as much as the suggestion that maybe throwing her murderer into the void would be enough - that monster could be their stand in for the other half of her contract. A sacrifice for the great good, if you will, and then the two schools could coexist nicely.

There's a small sigh before she scoops the shadow up. It wiggles in her grasp, but eventually it resigns itself to being held. ]

But where there's life, there's hope, and change only follows action. That's why I took such a risky gamble. It's the same reason that you keep messing around with monsters and dropping victims into the void to try and figure things out, right? That could've backfired pretty spectacularly, you know.

[ She looks to Alice, then Childe, before her eyes finally flick down to Noah's hands. Brusque, cold, distant, those all describe her - but not heartless, and none took such a risky position for the fun of it. ]

Anyway, that's how it is... There's nothing in life that's free, actions have consequences, and sacrifices must be made. The only want to satisfy the contract that I made is to bring an end to the school and everything within it... Do you understand?

[ Do they see why they're here yet? For one reason or another, they're all tied back to this place - people who feel at home and have toyed with it, who want to protect others, and even one thought of her so much despite not knowing her at all. ]

[Dropping victims into the void.

He’s quiet for a moment, but the comment eventually pulls a soft chuckle and a “Fair enough” out of him. He lets her finish speaking before he comments again, however, tapping the toes of his shoe onto the ground and mulling her words over as his eyes drift towards the wisteria outside.]

And if we were to find a way to… Level the playing ground, so to speak. Would that send us all home?

[Noah doesn't look at Childe judgmentally but he's thinking about it.

"Level the playing ground" how? Noah's only thought is that they have to find a way to break the other end of the contract, and he's stuck on "someone or something within this place has it" or other various thoughts. Physical, tangible things, nothing nebulous.]

I don't get it. How are we supposed to do that? [He looks up at Childe for an answer, but if Aiko wants to answer, he'll take that too.]

... Yes, I believe so. You could think of this place as a dream. If you end it, then you'll return to the waking world... Maybe I will too.

[ This year long dream will finally come to an end. It's a terrifying prospect. There's too much that she had still hoped to do. There's too much that she wants to do even now. There's a small part of her that wants to keep it going for that reason alone, for fear of what follows its end when Aiko has no idea of wat comes after. Perhaps her soul will be reduced to nothing but scattered flecks, or she herself will be plunged into the void.

The question then, as Noah said, is of how to level it. She reaches down to pull a desk drawer open, frowning when she finds that it takes several tries for her to manage to do so. She removes one hand from the feline in her arms to reach down to pull a desk drawer open, frowning when she finds that it takes several tries for her to manage to do so. She produces another mirror fragment, placing it on the desk and sliding it across..

Her figure is beginning to grow more translucent. ]

This is--I'm just a piece of my soul... So you'll need to find "me" to do that, but I think you already know where to go.

[ There's no way to say it without it sounding clumsy, so she accepts that. It's a small part of her soul cut off from the rest, but one which will return to the source. As for the how, well... ]

Mirrors are a way of traveling, but they're also sacred objects. They're pretty useful, don't you think? They can release or seal or curse or purify... They're an object that reflects the truth back to you.

[It’s not the first time he’s genuinely considered such sentiments. Ironically enough, it was Komaeda who first pushed the idea that maybe the true way out of Yogen would be to burn it all down, the students included. Part of him blanches at the very notion, at the idea of putting all these kids to death on such flimsy ideals.

They weren’t exactly running on guarantees here, after all.

On the off chance that was the way to go, well… It would be a mercy, wouldn’t it?

This little exchange was certainly leaving him with a lot to think about. The first order of business was still to get Noah and Nene and Alice back to safety, but after? After… After he wanted to see if there was a way to draw up his own contract with this omnipotent and omnipresent being that seemed to preside over all of them with such a note of finality.

For now, he reaches over to pick up the offered mirror shard, glancing down into the reflection at her words to see if he can see anything in this particular shard.]

We’ll find you. I can promise you that much. Beyond that, well… I can’t make any guarantees that we’re going to succeed, but that’s the fun part of life. The struggle, the uphill battle. Wouldn’t you agree?

[ It's disconcerting, the way this girl looks at each of them, uttering those deliberate remarks... Somehow, she knows so much — and she isn't wrong. If no one acts, nothing changes, but what Komaeda said could well be just as true: sometimes progress will upset people. Ending the dream, all of it... That's a frightening thought when they can't say with certainty that they will wake up, or how and where, knowing that they have nothing to return to in the world of the living. And that's only the students who haven't died again here to land in this void realm! Or that wisteria tree?

Letting his gaze drop to the newest mirror shard, Alice nods after a moment. Yes, mirrors are useful... Yes, they'll complete their search. ]

Well then, let us seek the truth...

( nene's been. listening. quiet and simmering in a sea of... something.

she always was one to get hung up on the dead. comes with the territory of having your first love be a ghost.

despite having no real relationship with izumi, she still sees him as a brother- still mourns and aches. despite a lot of things, every loss echoes within. and the girl who didn't want to go yet-

only a year left to live.

let me live ninety more years...

- ... is it any wonder she resonated so strongly with that? things left to do. not being ready yet... life and death are so cruel.

and she's such a stubborn, greedy thing when it comes to grief, she's learned- she can't let go easily at all. it's why every loss burdens her shoulders even more. why she hasn't let go, even now. after a whole year. nene pauses. ...

when she speaks, her voice is soft, like a cracked whisper. )

I'm sorry it took us so long to start finding you.

[ She nods in agreement with Childen's words. Her current state is proof of that, but she'd always known there was no guarantee. It's possible that it was doomed from the start. If not the person who murdered her, it might have been Maya, or any number of other people. Injury and death alike are no stranger to those of Yogen High. But nothing will change so long as they remain still for fear of loss. ]

Yes... It's what makes it all worth it in the end.

[ To the apology she shakes her head to signify that there's no need when they're here now, albeit perhaps not by choice. Her form is fading now, the wall behind her easily seen through. She takes the cat in her hands and sets it on the floor. It pads along the floor back toward the door, tail twitching.

She straightens herself after. If the smile she gives is a bit forced, ]

Thank you for finding me, and thank you for mourning me... Don't make such a sad face, okay? We'll meet again soon, here, and in the waking world.

[ There's no guarantee of that either, but there's an air of certainty to those words - words for comfort for Nene as much as herself. She tilts her head and raises a hand in a smile farewell, offering just a few final words before her body completely fades away, ]

Well then... I'll be waiting.

[ The cat slips under a hole in the door and into the hallway, leaving the group alone once more. The shard that she left behind shimmers in the darkness, and for just a second Childe thinks he can see the student council room of the normal school in its reflection. It's gone in the blink of an eye.

They have now collected all three pieces of the mirror. All that's left is to piece it together. ]

Edited (forgot a couple small details) 2022-06-08 06:16 (UTC)

[His eyes are immediately torn away from the mirror shard as he hears Nene speak up, unable to quell the sudden wave of affection that follows along in the wake of his surprise. On the curtails of that, however, is also guilt; even in a mercy kill he’d have a difficult time dispatching his closest companions in order to carry out the task as presented. Offing Noah during the trip to the amusement park had been difficult enough as it was.

He waits until the specter has vanished, stepping forward to draw closer to the desk and pausing briefly to reach down and give Nene’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Then he’s setting the mirror shard down onto the wood once more, motioning for the others to draw closer.]

C’mon. Bring the other pieces forward, let’s see if they fit.

[Noah who still isn't entirely sure he gets all of this suddenly wakes up from his fugue state of ??? and steps forward to set his shard on the table. It should be pretty easy to put these together, he thinks, so he silently starts trying to connect edges together.]

[ The pieces snap together easily, and once completed the cracks in the mirror fix themselves, leaving it in perfect condition. It has a faint aura to it, and even those who aren't sensitive to such things will be able to sense it. As with the pieces, it has a shine to it despite the dim lighting. As with other mirrors found here, it reflects the school as it should be, rather than the decrepit void. ]

( nene wants to think that had things gone differently, she and aiko would be friends. but there's little point in thinking about that right now- and she always hangs onto regrets too hard. staring at her hands for a moment, nene inhales. aiko is gone, they have a task presented to them that... sounds perhaps far too much, and the mirror is whole.

if she points the mirror at something, will it reveal anything on that something itself? or does the shine get any brighter? )

[ Nene Yashiro — that was her own voice, Alice realizes. Barely audible, her hushed apology must have taken some effort, for their fading conversation partner's sake. Watching Childe and Nene in the instant before it's time to complete the mirror puzzle, his expression softens. It's like seeing siblings interact, witnessing their close bond, and something in his chest feels hollow, making way for an ache.

But there's an unusual mirror to inspect further, and a lot to ponder. Alice steps closer, too, expectantly. ]

[ It reflects the normal version of the student council room. Its glow remains stable, but perhaps they're just not within the right proximity? It may be that what they're looking for is above or below them. ]

( if she tilts it either way does it have a strong reaction? if not... )

... Downstairs... it's the floor she... um.

[ It will have a stronger reaction pointing down toward the floor. ]

The floor she... oh.

[He's assuming the floor that Aiko died on or something. Could be wrong, but either way, looks like they're going downstairs.]

C'mon, then. Let's go.

[Forward march! Off they go.]

The first floor, right?

[ That was the only other elevator button that they could use, after all, and now this mirror appears to be guiding them to a lower floor than the current one as well. Forward march indeed — hopefully to arrive where they need to be in search of the truth. ]

( nene nods with a sigh. off they go indeed, mirror in hand. )

may missions

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so sorry for the delay!!

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