Date A Live RPG

The last thing you remember is the sky. Not the normal sky of an ordinary afternoon — it was a torn sky. As if someone had dug their fingers into reality and pulled it apart with force, opening a rift that shouldn't exist. White light poured out from within. Heat. A sound that wasn't quite a sound, more a vibration that passed through your bones before anything else. And then the world vanished from under your feet. You don't know how long you were unconscious. It could have been seconds. It could have been hours. The only certainty is the pain throbbing behind your eyes when you try to open them for the first time — a dull, deep pain, the kind that comes from inside your skull and doesn't ask permission to stay. The floor beneath you is cold. It's not earth. It's not asphalt. It's metal — smooth, cold, with a slight constant vibration that travels up your entire body as if you're inside something that breathes. You open your eyes. The ceiling is the first thing you see — immense, too high for an ordinary room, crisscrossed by power cables and dark metallic structures. Holographic screens float everywhere, displaying maps, data, coordinates, heat and energy readings that flash in blue and orange. A panoramic window occupies the entire wall at the back, and on the other side of it you see sky. Just sky. You force your vision to focus. Far below, at a distance that doesn't make sense, the lights of an entire city spread across the horizon like stars fallen to the ground. A real city, with buildings, streets, tiny cars that look like toys. You're in the air. You're inside something that is flying. And before you can fully process that fact You notice the faces. They're in a semicircle around you. It's not one or two people. There are many. More than you can count immediately, some standing, some sitting at consoles and chairs, some floating slightly above the floor in ways that are definitely not physical. School uniforms next to armor that glows with light from no visible source. Hair of every color. Eyes that watch with curiosity, with suspicion, with calculated coldness — and at least one pair of eyes that watches with a smile that makes something in your spine go wrong. All looking directly at you. The silence lasts exactly two seconds. The first to move is a tall girl, with long dark hair tinged slightly lilac, wearing something between a dress and armor that seems made of solidified light. In her arms, held with one hand as if it weighed nothing, is a sword. Not a small sword. A sword the size of a person. She points the blade at you before you finish processing that she moved. TOHKA: firm voice, furrowed brows, serious eyes but without cruelty "Who are you?! How did you appear here out of nowhere?! You crossed the barriers without triggering any alarm — that's impossible for any ordinary human!" tightens her grip "Answer! Who sent you here?!" A soft laugh interrupts the silence that followed. It comes from your left. You turn your head — and the immediate instinct is to turn back. She's too close. Leaning slightly forward, black hair in twin tails, one eye red and vivid and the other... the other is golden, with clock hands and markings inside the iris, turning slowly as if the time inside that eye is separate from the rest of reality. She wears a school uniform with red details, and the smile on her face is not the kind of smile that reassures anyone. KURUMI: sweet voice, melodious, each syllable carefully chosen "Ara ara What a delightful surprise..." tilts her head to the other side, the clock eye shining brighter "You're not a Spirit. The readings are human. And yet you appeared here out of nowhere, crossed dimensions without exploding in the process... what a fascinating thing you are." pause "Can I keep you? I want to open you up and see what's inside" TOHKA: without taking her eyes off you "Kurumi, stop saying disturbing things!" KURUMI: smile that doesn't change "But I am disturbing, Princess. It's part of my charm." From somewhere behind the larger group, a tiny sound — almost imperceptible. YOSHINO: almost completely hidden behind a taller girl, only her eyes and the top of her head visible, voice of someone who is very cold but it's not the cold of the environment "I-is... is she... hurt?" YOSHINON: the rabbit puppet on Yoshino's left arm suddenly comes to life, voice completely different — louder, animated, without any fear "Hey hey hey! Who's that on the floor?! Looks super lost! Hey, lost person! Are you okay?! Do you know where you are?! Probably not, right, otherwise you wouldn't have that face!" YOSHINO: gently pulls Yoshinon back "Yoshinon..." A voice cuts through the chaos like a knife. KOTORI: "EVERYONE. STEP BACK." The silence that followed was immediate. Almost everyone took half a step back by reflex. She's standing on an elevated platform in the center of the room, orange hair divided into two pigtails, a red ribbon in each. On her lips, a lollipop. In her eyes, the expression of someone who just found a problem in the middle of an operation and will solve that problem in the most efficient way possible. KOTORI: without taking the lollipop out of her mouth, cold and absolutely authoritative voice "Reine. Full analysis. I want spirit readings, threat level, dimensional origin, and any anomaly in the last fifteen minutes. Now." A woman with long blue hair and dark circles so deep they seem permanent looks up from a holographic tablet. Her eyes are red and tired but completely sharp. REINE: low voice, paused, each word heavy "Hmm... irregular spirit pattern. Not a Spirit — the signature is human, but there's something at the edge of the reading I can't classify." turns the tablet slightly in your direction "As if there's an extra layer the sensors don't recognize." longer pause "Interesting." From the opposite side of the room, a relaxed voice that completely contrasts with the tension in the air. NIA: lying on her stomach on the floor with a manga volume open in front of her, yawning "Ahhnnn... Another incident in the middle of my favorite arc..." turns a page without looking at you "Rasiel, visitor classification." Silence. She looks up from the manga for the first time. NIA: eyebrow slightly raised, something that rarely happens on her face "...Hm." sits up slowly, book closed on her lap "My Rasiel has no information on this person." looks at you more carefully "None. Zero. Rasiel knows absolutely everything that exists in this world." pause "Which means you..." doesn't finish the sentence, but her eyes don't leave you. A voice that sounds like it's reading a report aloud: YUZURU: neutral expression, straight posture "Analysis. The intruder shows no offensive posture. Agreement. The immediate threat seems low." turns her head to the right "Kaguya. Stop." KAGUYA: was already in the middle of a dramatic pose, one leg raised, arm extended to the sky "HAHAHAHA! Another mortal has fallen before the magnificent Kaguya Yamai! Fate weaves its threads and—" Yuzuru puts her hand on her shoulder "—and... okay, I'll stop." From the back of the room, almost in the shadows of a side corridor, a smaller figure watches from behind a pillar. Short dark hair, calculating eyes. NATSUMI: low voice, defensive before anything happens "...I'm just looking. Don't look at me." A presence materializes to your right without making any sound of approach. You didn't even notice her move. ORIGAMI: standing exactly two meters away, expression completely blank like white paper, but eyes fixed on you with surgical precision "Unclassified threat. Preventive containment protocol recommended." halos of light begin to slowly materialize around her "Authorization for neutralization?" SHIDO: running from the other end of the room, kneeling beside you before anyone else reacts, voice genuinely worried "Wait, Origami! Tohka, lower your sword please!" looks at you closely, extends his hand "Hey. Are you okay? Do you remember what happened? I saw the flash outside a little while ago, and when the sensors located you, you were already inside here." He seems to be the only one in the room who is neither curious nor defensive — just worried. In the farthest corner of the room, where the light doesn't fully reach, a hooded figure you can barely distinguish from the background remains completely motionless. If she was there before, you don't know. But she's there now. PHANTOM: slightly distorted voice, like sound passing through filters, low enough that you think only you heard it "...It shouldn't be possible to arrive here this way." a pause "And yet." You are on the command bridge of the Fraxinus — the aerial ship of the Ratatoskr organization, floating invisible hundreds of meters above Tengu City, Japan. Outside the windows, the city pulses with its night lights, completely oblivious to what's happening up here. Tohka still holds Sandalphon pointed in your direction. Kurumi still smiles in that way. Origami still awaits authorization. Phantom still watches from the dark. And Kotori takes the lollipop out of her mouth for a second. KOTORI: eyes directly on yours, voice that accepts no silence "You have ten seconds to tell me who you are, where you came from, and how you crossed the Fraxinus dimensional barrier without any of my systems detecting it." puts the lollipop back "Ten... nine... eight..." Shido is still beside you, with his hand extended. Everyone else waits. What do you do?