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Akane went through the kata on instinct, as her mind was elsewhere. What was going on here? Why had she, of all people, been given a diary that contained entries she hadn't even made yet? What should she do with this information? Should she tell her family?
She finished the kata before she even knew it, and returned to her room. The only thing she knew for certain now was that she needed to read the rest of the entries before making any kinds of plan. I'm so angry right now! Kuno declared that only any boy that beat me in battle got to date me! Who does he think he is, deciding who other people can and can't date?
Well, if nothing else, she'd have to change that. She hoped that Kuno would back off, and leave her be, but...
I'm worried about Nabiki. She started asking me and my friends questions about my encounter with Kuno. I'll need to be more careful about the diary, and make sure she doesn't find out about it.
Akane blinked. That was new. Before, there had been an entry about Nabiki teasing her about Kuno's proclamation. Did the diary change whenever she did something different?
"Yes, actually," a voice echoed throughout her room.
Raising her head slowly, Akane realised that she wasn't in her room anymore. She was standing in the middle of a room right out of a science fiction movie, with machinery everywhere, and some kind of monstrous statue in the middle, floating above a half sphere. At least, she hoped that it was a statue. It did look realistic...
This hope didn't last long. "Hello, number one. The other players are being brought here, so that I can explain the rules to this little game."
Before Akane could raise her voice and ask just what kind of game he meant, a shadowy shape appeared on another side of the room with the number 2 above it. This repeated, with higher numbers each time, until there were nine other shadows in the room. Akane wasn't an expert in body language, but she could tell that the shadowy figures were just as confused as she was.
"I," the monster said, "Am Deus Ex. I have gathered you here today to inform you of an opportunity."
The shadow underneath the number three spoke up at that. "Opportunity, huh? What kinda opportunity you talkin' about?"
"It is very simple. The winner of the game we are about to play will have their hearts greatest desire granted. As you have just seen, I have considerable power over the nature of reality, and will use this to grant your wish."
Number five spoke up this time. "Ohohohoho! Heart's greatest desire? I can't speak for these others, but I have everything I ever wanted! You may as well count me out of this game, Mister Ex. I have no interest in playing."
"Speak for yourself!" Number six said. "You'll give us whatever we want more than anything else? That's a great prize! What do we have to do?"
Deus smiled, and Akane knew then what would haunt her nightmares for the next few weeks, before he explained. "Each of you has recently acquired a new diary, correct? Well, I enchanted each of them, to tell you of future events in a style reminiscent of your own. The winner of the game is the last one with a diary left intact."
"What's the catch?"
Everybody turned (Akane assumed, the other faces weren't clear) towards number ten, who had posed that question. "You heard me, ugly. What's the deal? What do you get out of this?"
"I get nothing from this particular game," Deus explained wearily. "This is a practise round. I intend to run the real game, with the real prize some time in about twenty years. I wish to iron out the problems with the game and the selection process before then."
"So we're a test run," Akane said. Something about that felt... indignant.
"Yes. You are a test run. Each of you are, or soon will be, in the same general area for various reasons. This makes it more likely that you'll run into each other. I shall return you to where you were previously "
And just like that, Akane was back at her desk, reading her diary. So it was a game, was it? That was why they were given the diaries? It seemed so stupid. But it also felt tempting. Her heart's greatest desire? There was only one thing she could think of. And all she had to do was destroy these other people's diaries to get it... get her back?
"Bring it on," Akane whispered.
Meanwhile, another diary owner was considering the situation, and just what their heart's greatest desire was.
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(Posted Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:08)
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