**Arc Three: Distorted Reality**
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Rain. Rain and thunder and lightning. Honestly, it seemed more than appropriate to the current mood than anything else. After all, couldn’t the weather sense negativity? Yoshino certainly believed so in that moment. Even now she glanced over to the large windows with a narrowed gaze, the sudden arrival of rain and wind pounding at its glass.

It was too convenient….Silver Jester? No. She was just being paranoid now, spooking herself into false alarms. And yet she couldn’t deny the sensation of being watched from behind. At that moment, the Student Body President suddenly wished she had not stormed out of her office without notice to Michael or Retsu. Who knew what kind of blood-thirsty psychos were running around…oh well.

Her plans were dashed for today, though in hindsight maybe they were a sort of delay of her confrontation with Jester. In any case, she quickly flipped out her phone and began to send yet another mass-school message.

**Due to inconveniences with the weather, the aforementioned school assembly will be canceled and postponed tomorrow. Likewise, all classes will be ended prematurely in light of the weather. That is all.**

It wasn’t like she had a choice or say in the matter. School conduct dictated that all activities be put off in the face of huge storms such as these. Of course, these kind of things were usually rare in notice. Still, despite being Student President, Yoshino Tsugumi was still just that; a student. Sighing on this note, she sent a quick message to Retsu before taking her bags and leaving the now darkened school auditorium.

**I’ll be heading home now. We can discuss our strategies later.**

The trek back was wet and annoying, seeing as the constant rainfall always found their perspiration on her glasses. Entering into her dorm room, the Black King noticed that Retsu did not return yet; probably still taking care of some business back at the school’s main buildings. 

Showering quickly and tossing on some pajamas, the Student President collapsed into her bed and closed her eyes. The thoughts of their now critical situation still plagued her mind until darkness final swept her away. The rain continued to pound hard outside….

Rain….rain….something was off. Something was wrong. Really, really, wrong.

Yoshino slowly blinked open her eyes to find her cheek lying on something course and rough. Yawning, she propped herself onto the sandy ground and looked up at her ceiling-wait.

The Student President reached over for her glasses to try and confirm what she was seeing. It was when she found that her glasses were no longer with her-admittedly still lying on her dresser-that she knew this was reality. She did not question it further, only knowing that it was so. Even still…this was really going to cause some problems.

She was in Deep Ground Online. Inside the game…without her Avatar. She was not Moon Rider. She was not the Black Knight. She was her. Plain, human, Yoshino Tsugumi. 

In the death game.

Standing up now, she looked around to get a better sense of her surroundings and widened her now glasses-less eyes. This was the exact same place both her and Retsu had fought Jester, out in the Badlands of Deep Ground’s territory. That meant this was the last place they had spawned. She wondered….before she could piece anything together, a message appeared on her Interface. That act alone gave her a sigh of relief. At least she still had contact with others in the game.

Opening up the PM though, Yoshino’s demeanor soon tensed up at the words before her.

**Greetings Players of Deep Ground Online. From your standpoint, you may be wondering many things. Allow me then, to enlighten you of your situation. In short, you are now placed within the Deep Ground Program indefinitely. However, as you also may notice, you are each stripped of your Player Avatars and their abilities. Also take note that your Private Messaging systems among one another are no longer functional. In short, you are completely human and trapped within this world. The game is simple; your minds in the living world are still connected to your chips. However, I have made some rather amusing enhancements. If you die in Deep Ground, a lethal electrical charge will be sent to your brain. You will die instantly. Why have I done this? That too is simple in itself. You people are so….interesting. Please have fun with this new addition to the Deep Ground experience.
**

**-Silver Jester**

Yoshino began to sweat at the implications behind all this. First off, how did the Jester even force her mind into Deep Ground? Did Retsu’s older model chips fail? And dying in real life? Honestly, she would have taken it as the plot of some bad anime if she didn’t know just how real the Jester’s threat was. And that alone was enough to make the Black King fearful.

Then another thought entered her head. The Jester’s message spoke of others….Yoshino shivered at the sudden increase in danger brought about by all this.

“Then that means…every kid in the world right now…is trapped. Just like me.”