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The priest stared straight back at the oni, his expression unchanging as she asked if the prior fight counted as a request. A few more moments passed before he snapped his fingers, causing a shrine maiden to walk out from a side room with a small box in hand. When she opened the box, though, what the group would see was not money or riches, but instead a set of medicinal pills that emanated a relatively strong herbal scent. Ren scrunched his nose instinctively, but decided to peer a bit deeper in to see what they looked like. They seemed to be a deep green, though with a faint golden luster that made them feel far more otherworldly, and each seemed to be about the size of a marble, if not slightly larger.
"These pills are able to expunge any corruption from the world of mirrors; you must consume the entire pill in order for the effect to take hold. Each of you will be given three for free, but any more will have to be purchased, as the time and resources required to create them are no small order. We shall hold onto them for the moment, but any time you wish to obtain any, let one of the miko here know and they shall deliver accordingly."
With that statement, the miko snapped the box shut and left the room as Izawa moved to address the next question—the girl who seemed to be crackling with electricity.
"Well... Rather than asking me that, young lady, you may be better off asking your parents. I cannot answer questions of heritage, but they may very well give you the answers you seek," he said, his non-answer casually dodging around her question before he turned back to the rather rude young man from earlier...
Who seemed to be giving more excuses than simply apologizing. Shame.
"The fact that there were circumstances that caused you to be evicted from the shrine grounds before is not something you want to be telling the priest of the shrine, don't you think? In any case... To answer your questions in order:
First, it depends on your tolerance to the world itself. In a manner similar to this world's diseases, your bodies will gradually build up an immunity after multiple visits. At the moment, it may be no more than a few hours at maximum for you.
Second... The answer to that is both yes and no. No one I know has found any residents of the city willing to negotiate at length, but the possibility of such beings always exists.
Third. I don't believe I need to mention anything more than special effects movies, correct? Even putting the possibility of them assembling aside, the more people that enter, the higher resulting risk comes forth if we cannot successfully cleanse them all every time.
Last... Well, there lies another problem. We have used most of our resources in prevention and restraint, and have thus barely even ventured into the world in search of answers. We know nothing other than what has been said and what we have done, but what we do know is that it is a strange amalgamation of modern architecture and old Edo-era buildings. You may find some familiar points of reference from the city you all live in, but I cannot elaborate on what I do not know. However, the possibility exists for the creation of outposts in the future, but at the moment our resources are spread too thin to work on such projects."
The last question was, at least, easy enough to respond to, and soon enough another miko came out from a side room to deliver a spool of thread to the dullahan as Izawa took a deep breath.
"...Does that answer everything? In that case, I await your return in the future. Best of luck to you all."
Ren sat in silence as the question-and-answer session bounced inside of his head. Between a possible doomsday scenario, the existence of youkai and an alternate world, and the powerless person that he was that had quote-on-quote 'potential', things were still slightly difficult to process. The girl who had the bravery to confront the gashadokuro (or one of the girls, at least) seemed to be singling him out, but there was another person here who had done even less that he had...
And seemed to be twice as eager to jump into the fray despite seeming younger than he was. At least the old man had a gun or something, which would explain a lack of chastisement on that front, but still!
"...Ren. Amazawa Ren.. I'm just a normal human in an extraordinary situation, I guess," he said, sighing as he stood up from his seat within the barrier. "I... I'm going to head home to rest a bit. I think I still need some time to process this whole thing; probably gonna come back tomorrow or something. As for the possibility of getting hurt... Well, if it means not watching the city go up in flames, I guess I'll just have to suck it up and deal with it, right?"
With a sigh, the young man walked out of the shrine's back entrance before noticing that a girl had been eavesdropping on the entire conversation. Opting to just let the priest handle this matter, the young man gave a bow towards the priest before leaving for real, slipping back around the building and into the crowd as he headed home.
What a crazy night.
The afternoon of the New Year was definitely a time that Ren would've expected to have been far more busy for those at Koumi Shrine, but it seemed as if most of the resident had handled their yearly visits earlier in the day, if not the night prior. It... Was a bit strange, he had to admit, but the priest standing outside the shrine waved to the young man once, motioning him to come over to speak with him. When he did, Izawa cleared his throat before beginning to speak.
"The New Year really is quite chilly this year... In any case, if you recall from last night, there were a few side rooms from which the miko were entering and exiting. We've repurposed one of them for anyone attempting to enter the city of mirrors to use as a place to relax, check requests, or otherwise cleanse themselves after a trip. There are already a few people waiting inside, and to be honest, I wasn't expecting you to return. Just to make sure... You are willing to do this, correct?"
"...Well, that conversation confirms that entire thing was real, so I have no reason to think otherwise any more. Even if I'm useless right now, I'll find some way to help the efforts here. Sitting on my hands just doesn't feel right," Ren responded before bowing and donating a 500 yen coin to the shrine before entering.
The center of the shrine, as before, had the glowing portal still hovering in existence, but what was of more interest to him right now was the side room. It seemed unlikely that any requests had come in so soon after this place opening up, but maybe the people already there were ones he could reason in letting him tag along to gain some sort of valuable experience or knowledge.
"These pills are able to expunge any corruption from the world of mirrors; you must consume the entire pill in order for the effect to take hold. Each of you will be given three for free, but any more will have to be purchased, as the time and resources required to create them are no small order. We shall hold onto them for the moment, but any time you wish to obtain any, let one of the miko here know and they shall deliver accordingly."
With that statement, the miko snapped the box shut and left the room as Izawa moved to address the next question—the girl who seemed to be crackling with electricity.
"Well... Rather than asking me that, young lady, you may be better off asking your parents. I cannot answer questions of heritage, but they may very well give you the answers you seek," he said, his non-answer casually dodging around her question before he turned back to the rather rude young man from earlier...
Who seemed to be giving more excuses than simply apologizing. Shame.
"The fact that there were circumstances that caused you to be evicted from the shrine grounds before is not something you want to be telling the priest of the shrine, don't you think? In any case... To answer your questions in order:
First, it depends on your tolerance to the world itself. In a manner similar to this world's diseases, your bodies will gradually build up an immunity after multiple visits. At the moment, it may be no more than a few hours at maximum for you.
Second... The answer to that is both yes and no. No one I know has found any residents of the city willing to negotiate at length, but the possibility of such beings always exists.
Third. I don't believe I need to mention anything more than special effects movies, correct? Even putting the possibility of them assembling aside, the more people that enter, the higher resulting risk comes forth if we cannot successfully cleanse them all every time.
Last... Well, there lies another problem. We have used most of our resources in prevention and restraint, and have thus barely even ventured into the world in search of answers. We know nothing other than what has been said and what we have done, but what we do know is that it is a strange amalgamation of modern architecture and old Edo-era buildings. You may find some familiar points of reference from the city you all live in, but I cannot elaborate on what I do not know. However, the possibility exists for the creation of outposts in the future, but at the moment our resources are spread too thin to work on such projects."
The last question was, at least, easy enough to respond to, and soon enough another miko came out from a side room to deliver a spool of thread to the dullahan as Izawa took a deep breath.
"...Does that answer everything? In that case, I await your return in the future. Best of luck to you all."
Ren sat in silence as the question-and-answer session bounced inside of his head. Between a possible doomsday scenario, the existence of youkai and an alternate world, and the powerless person that he was that had quote-on-quote 'potential', things were still slightly difficult to process. The girl who had the bravery to confront the gashadokuro (or one of the girls, at least) seemed to be singling him out, but there was another person here who had done even less that he had...
And seemed to be twice as eager to jump into the fray despite seeming younger than he was. At least the old man had a gun or something, which would explain a lack of chastisement on that front, but still!
"...Ren. Amazawa Ren.. I'm just a normal human in an extraordinary situation, I guess," he said, sighing as he stood up from his seat within the barrier. "I... I'm going to head home to rest a bit. I think I still need some time to process this whole thing; probably gonna come back tomorrow or something. As for the possibility of getting hurt... Well, if it means not watching the city go up in flames, I guess I'll just have to suck it up and deal with it, right?"
With a sigh, the young man walked out of the shrine's back entrance before noticing that a girl had been eavesdropping on the entire conversation. Opting to just let the priest handle this matter, the young man gave a bow towards the priest before leaving for real, slipping back around the building and into the crowd as he headed home.
What a crazy night.
The afternoon of the New Year was definitely a time that Ren would've expected to have been far more busy for those at Koumi Shrine, but it seemed as if most of the resident had handled their yearly visits earlier in the day, if not the night prior. It... Was a bit strange, he had to admit, but the priest standing outside the shrine waved to the young man once, motioning him to come over to speak with him. When he did, Izawa cleared his throat before beginning to speak.
"The New Year really is quite chilly this year... In any case, if you recall from last night, there were a few side rooms from which the miko were entering and exiting. We've repurposed one of them for anyone attempting to enter the city of mirrors to use as a place to relax, check requests, or otherwise cleanse themselves after a trip. There are already a few people waiting inside, and to be honest, I wasn't expecting you to return. Just to make sure... You are willing to do this, correct?"
"...Well, that conversation confirms that entire thing was real, so I have no reason to think otherwise any more. Even if I'm useless right now, I'll find some way to help the efforts here. Sitting on my hands just doesn't feel right," Ren responded before bowing and donating a 500 yen coin to the shrine before entering.
The center of the shrine, as before, had the glowing portal still hovering in existence, but what was of more interest to him right now was the side room. It seemed unlikely that any requests had come in so soon after this place opening up, but maybe the people already there were ones he could reason in letting him tag along to gain some sort of valuable experience or knowledge.
@13org: Yes.
As for everyone else: I'm writing up a post now. Will timeskip to the next day once it arrives, so be ready.
Also, once again: If anyone here has ideas, do let me know. I want the players to be split into groups of 2 to 4 per mission, so I'm gonna need a lot of input from you guys and what you'd like to see.
As for everyone else: I'm writing up a post now. Will timeskip to the next day once it arrives, so be ready.
Also, once again: If anyone here has ideas, do let me know. I want the players to be split into groups of 2 to 4 per mission, so I'm gonna need a lot of input from you guys and what you'd like to see.
As an fyi: I'm likely going to timeskip once everyone's done grilling the priest for info and leaves. Everyone in the RP is free to propose missions to run, and I may or may not delegate responsibility to running them accordingly. :D
Ren watched with bated breath as the white-haired girl leaped forward to follow behind the oni, making good on her promise to break through the horde. While the teenager from earlier had jumped into the fray was well, Ren found the sudden appearance of the shrine's priest to be of the most note here. Everything was strange here, yes, but the fact that he seemed to know more about the situation than all of them combined probably meant more than it seemed.
The sound of an explosion quickly dragged Ren's attention back to the group engaging the gashadokuro, and its source seemed to be pretty obvious at this point; the teenager's bokken had essentially blown up on impact, causing the giant skeleton to recoil for just enough time for the speedy girl to slap the talisman on its head. The youkai, as well as all the smaller skeletons around it, seemed to stop moving before their bodies seemed to crumble into dust...
Save for the big one, in which case everything except the skull seemed to disappear. So long as it was just the skull, then...
With the problem at hand now settled, Ren turned towards the shrine's priest, who was rapidly beckoning the group to come over; of course, someone else had beaten him in getting through the portal, but the question he asked didn't seem to put the priest in a very pleasant mood.
"Is that any way to speak to your elders?" he asked, whacking the boy on the head with a paper fan as the group funneled back in through the portal. "No manners, I swear. You ought to learn some instead of stalking around the shrine like you were. We may not look it, but this shrine has eyes everywhere—both literally and figuratively, but mainly the latter."
With that minor lecture completed, the priest motioned towards the empty main hall of the shrine; as the other visitors were out near the donation box and the mikos busy handling those affairs, the place was relatively silent...
Which may have been in part due to the glowing circle beneath them that extended itself into a barrier around them.
"...In any case... Introductions. I am the priest of Koumi Shrine, Shinohara Izawa. I feel as if explanations are in order, considering how I failed to maintain the seal on today of all days.
This shrine is a gateway to what my ancestors called the 'city of mirrors'; though its true name has long since been lost to time, the land itself has not faded into obscurity. Centuries ago, our world and that world were split apart, with only a few places from which they could be accessed if not sealed away. That seal, however, seems to be weakening. Regardless of my attempts as of late, the hole in the barrier here seems to be growing stronger.
Here begins the root of your last problem and the start of many of mine. This 'city of mirrors' has long since been tainted by disease and corruption, and though I can purge the spread of it with things like the circle beneath your feet, I cannot feasibly defeat any creatures that end up making their way through. If this shrine was to fall, then the city would likely soon follow, and what would come after..."
Izawa trailed off for a moment and, after shaking his head, continued on.
"...Would not be pretty. I fear that gashadokuro that you have just defeated is only the harbringer of troubles to come, and so I must ask: can you travel through the portal here to handle problems that may occur? I know many of you are of supernatural origin, given your recent performance, and contacting anyone like the police or military would likely lead to me being brushed off as insane."
At the conclusion of that lengthy amount of exposition, Ren took a moment to stare at the priest before asking a few questions of his own.
"...Well, what about me? I've got no way to fight or anything, so--"
"The fact that the gashadokuro's minions dragged you in meant that you had more than enough potential within you. It is simply a matter of finding it."
"...What about that whole 'disease' bit? Aren't we all infected, then?"
"As I said, this barrier cleanses impurities like those. However, if you spend too long without removing them within this other world, you may end up falling and becoming like the enemies you face."
"...And the fate of the city is at stake?"
"Yes. Of course, I would assume that as word spreads about this ordeal, other people might ask requests of you as well. Any rewards they might give are yours for the taking; of course, if anything urgent arises, we will let you know posthaste and also reward you accordingly."
With a sigh, Ren placed his right hand on his forehead and stared up at the ceiling from his place on the floor, the light and darkness intermingling with every passing moment.
"...Aaaaagh, I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I? Feels really hard to accept this as reality, though..."
"That is to be expected. If you have any more questions, I would be happy to answer them; otherwise, I would recommend you leave through the back entrance so as to not cause a disturbance outside."
The sound of an explosion quickly dragged Ren's attention back to the group engaging the gashadokuro, and its source seemed to be pretty obvious at this point; the teenager's bokken had essentially blown up on impact, causing the giant skeleton to recoil for just enough time for the speedy girl to slap the talisman on its head. The youkai, as well as all the smaller skeletons around it, seemed to stop moving before their bodies seemed to crumble into dust...
Save for the big one, in which case everything except the skull seemed to disappear. So long as it was just the skull, then...
With the problem at hand now settled, Ren turned towards the shrine's priest, who was rapidly beckoning the group to come over; of course, someone else had beaten him in getting through the portal, but the question he asked didn't seem to put the priest in a very pleasant mood.
"Is that any way to speak to your elders?" he asked, whacking the boy on the head with a paper fan as the group funneled back in through the portal. "No manners, I swear. You ought to learn some instead of stalking around the shrine like you were. We may not look it, but this shrine has eyes everywhere—both literally and figuratively, but mainly the latter."
With that minor lecture completed, the priest motioned towards the empty main hall of the shrine; as the other visitors were out near the donation box and the mikos busy handling those affairs, the place was relatively silent...
Which may have been in part due to the glowing circle beneath them that extended itself into a barrier around them.
"...In any case... Introductions. I am the priest of Koumi Shrine, Shinohara Izawa. I feel as if explanations are in order, considering how I failed to maintain the seal on today of all days.
This shrine is a gateway to what my ancestors called the 'city of mirrors'; though its true name has long since been lost to time, the land itself has not faded into obscurity. Centuries ago, our world and that world were split apart, with only a few places from which they could be accessed if not sealed away. That seal, however, seems to be weakening. Regardless of my attempts as of late, the hole in the barrier here seems to be growing stronger.
Here begins the root of your last problem and the start of many of mine. This 'city of mirrors' has long since been tainted by disease and corruption, and though I can purge the spread of it with things like the circle beneath your feet, I cannot feasibly defeat any creatures that end up making their way through. If this shrine was to fall, then the city would likely soon follow, and what would come after..."
Izawa trailed off for a moment and, after shaking his head, continued on.
"...Would not be pretty. I fear that gashadokuro that you have just defeated is only the harbringer of troubles to come, and so I must ask: can you travel through the portal here to handle problems that may occur? I know many of you are of supernatural origin, given your recent performance, and contacting anyone like the police or military would likely lead to me being brushed off as insane."
At the conclusion of that lengthy amount of exposition, Ren took a moment to stare at the priest before asking a few questions of his own.
"...Well, what about me? I've got no way to fight or anything, so--"
"The fact that the gashadokuro's minions dragged you in meant that you had more than enough potential within you. It is simply a matter of finding it."
"...What about that whole 'disease' bit? Aren't we all infected, then?"
"As I said, this barrier cleanses impurities like those. However, if you spend too long without removing them within this other world, you may end up falling and becoming like the enemies you face."
"...And the fate of the city is at stake?"
"Yes. Of course, I would assume that as word spreads about this ordeal, other people might ask requests of you as well. Any rewards they might give are yours for the taking; of course, if anything urgent arises, we will let you know posthaste and also reward you accordingly."
With a sigh, Ren placed his right hand on his forehead and stared up at the ceiling from his place on the floor, the light and darkness intermingling with every passing moment.
"...Aaaaagh, I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I? Feels really hard to accept this as reality, though..."
"That is to be expected. If you have any more questions, I would be happy to answer them; otherwise, I would recommend you leave through the back entrance so as to not cause a disturbance outside."
The sound of an all-too-familiar voice caused Keita's pace to slow to a halt, his shoulders slumping down a bit at this usual routine. Every year since she took at spot, every day since he began to swap clothing after classes, the same old song and dance would play out.
Well, it wasn't as if he was breaking any rules, per se, but that never seemed to stop him from being held up.
He had almost forgotten about Yamada-san being her usual self. Maybe getting away with it every so often after the whole Strange Gospel incident had lowered his guard. Oh well.
"Yo, still on duty after classes as usual, aint'cha, Chief?" he asked, turning around with a smile on his face. "As for the answer to that old question... Well, you already know, right? Class is long over, and it's much easier to change in school than right after I leave it. Besides, it's not like I'm one of those bigger offenders, like that delinquent crew. Though I guess you really can't chew them out if they're never here to begin with, right?"
The other students seemed to not mind the scene as much, if only because it played out so often over the course of their high school careers—fair was fair, though; routine events like these were seldom a cause to speak up. Instead, their attention was... Still focused on that app. It wouldn't have been far off for him to say that it had possessed the school's collective psyche at this point, but that fact reminded him of something else to pass on—information.
"Oh, right, before I forget: still been workin' on trying to decode that app everyone's been all abuzz about. Progress is pretty slow, but I made a breakthrough earlier today with one of the networking guys in the club... Kind of. We tried finding the server that the app connects to, but apparently whoever made the thing had the connection routed through at least twenty different proxies before it kinda... Disappears. Connections don't just disappear like that, so the data coming in and out is pretty shady stuff... Adding onto what's already causing mass anxiety, I'd rather keep that info under wraps. 'course, I assume the people on the case already knew this, but I don't think they'd just tell a student about it, right?"
With a sigh, Keita pulled his bags back up onto his shoulder and slipped his hands into his pockets with a shrug.
"In any case... Your gatekeeping almost done for the day? You looked like you were about to doze off or something. I'm one to talk, though; thankfully, it was a quick nap during lunch, else you'd be on my case about that too, right?" he joked, waiting for a response.
Well, it wasn't as if he was breaking any rules, per se, but that never seemed to stop him from being held up.
He had almost forgotten about Yamada-san being her usual self. Maybe getting away with it every so often after the whole Strange Gospel incident had lowered his guard. Oh well.
"Yo, still on duty after classes as usual, aint'cha, Chief?" he asked, turning around with a smile on his face. "As for the answer to that old question... Well, you already know, right? Class is long over, and it's much easier to change in school than right after I leave it. Besides, it's not like I'm one of those bigger offenders, like that delinquent crew. Though I guess you really can't chew them out if they're never here to begin with, right?"
The other students seemed to not mind the scene as much, if only because it played out so often over the course of their high school careers—fair was fair, though; routine events like these were seldom a cause to speak up. Instead, their attention was... Still focused on that app. It wouldn't have been far off for him to say that it had possessed the school's collective psyche at this point, but that fact reminded him of something else to pass on—information.
"Oh, right, before I forget: still been workin' on trying to decode that app everyone's been all abuzz about. Progress is pretty slow, but I made a breakthrough earlier today with one of the networking guys in the club... Kind of. We tried finding the server that the app connects to, but apparently whoever made the thing had the connection routed through at least twenty different proxies before it kinda... Disappears. Connections don't just disappear like that, so the data coming in and out is pretty shady stuff... Adding onto what's already causing mass anxiety, I'd rather keep that info under wraps. 'course, I assume the people on the case already knew this, but I don't think they'd just tell a student about it, right?"
With a sigh, Keita pulled his bags back up onto his shoulder and slipped his hands into his pockets with a shrug.
"In any case... Your gatekeeping almost done for the day? You looked like you were about to doze off or something. I'm one to talk, though; thankfully, it was a quick nap during lunch, else you'd be on my case about that too, right?" he joked, waiting for a response.
owo;;
*waves arms*
I'm waiting on 3 people right now: @KoL, @Raineh Daze, and @VitaVitaAR for Babylon side events.
Aside: Heaven's Feel movie release date, Apocrypha anime release date, and Extra Last Encore release date all out now. Woooooo.
*waves arms*
I'm waiting on 3 people right now: @KoL, @Raineh Daze, and @VitaVitaAR for Babylon side events.
Aside: Heaven's Feel movie release date, Apocrypha anime release date, and Extra Last Encore release date all out now. Woooooo.
"...God dammit, I swear this project's gonna be the death of me..."
With very slight bags under his eyes, the young man grumbled to himself as the day reached its end. He had long since changed out of the school's uniform and back into his usual attire—the good old vest, collared shirt, and tie combo that never failed to make him more confident about himself. It was a bit of a hassle, having to change into these clothes at the end of each day, but he never knew what opportunities could strike at any given time.
Thus thought Motoyama Keita, whose opportunism knew no bounds. While his lunch break had (sadly) been shot through by some weird dream, he found himself attributing it to all the work he had been putting into understanding Strange Gospel.
Yes, the very same one that everyone and their dog seemed to be talking about these days. Just the spontaneity of its popularity was enough to have him test the application out, if only to attempt to delve into its mysteries and understand what made it work. The recent incidents only served to bolster his curiosity; while some other people in the programming club seemed to be sticking to less... Dangerous matters, there was no good way to get him to stop. After all, the thought of him cracking this whole mystery and getting the whole school back to normal was enough to drive him. He'd had enough of people pestering him, asking him if anything new came up.
This was painfully slow work, and he damn well knew it.
The only feasible explanation the boy could give for his repeating dream was some sort of subliminal message on part of the application itself; whether or not it was intentional was a matter entirely it own, but the answers would likely come within grasp eventually.
"...Alright. I think that's all, then," he said, looking at himself in the bathroom mirror as he tightened the tie around his neck and picked up his bags from the hook from which they hung. Today was another day of work, and at the very least the lunchtime naps meant that he had a bit more energy in his tank to power through more code.
Now, if only his bento boxes didn't have to be scarfed down every day...
"Ah, god damn it I'm sick of that language! Who even decided it was a good idea to write a language in something that arcane?! How the heck is it even functioning?!" Keita shouted as he slammed his right arm down on the table, his right eye twitching for a few moments before he calmed himself and smoothed out his clothes. The time for extracurriculars had ended, and with it the time had spent in the programming club as one of its senior members. People would occasionally poke him for help, and that was fine, considering it meant not having to puzzle out that code for a few minutes.
But even if it was irritating, the payoff felt like it could be worth so much more than the effort he had put in thus far. And so he kept going, regardless of his irritation at the entire thing.
Packing up his equipment (namely, his laptop and mouse), Keita sighed and, with a weary smile, waved goodbye to the rest of the club members. They had become used to his exasperation by this point, and it wasn't as if such feelings were unfamiliar to them, either.
And so Keita walked past the school gates, bags slung over his shoulder as he continued onward.
Maybe he'd head home... Or get some ingredients to make some food instead. That bento definitely wouldn't last him the night.
With very slight bags under his eyes, the young man grumbled to himself as the day reached its end. He had long since changed out of the school's uniform and back into his usual attire—the good old vest, collared shirt, and tie combo that never failed to make him more confident about himself. It was a bit of a hassle, having to change into these clothes at the end of each day, but he never knew what opportunities could strike at any given time.
Thus thought Motoyama Keita, whose opportunism knew no bounds. While his lunch break had (sadly) been shot through by some weird dream, he found himself attributing it to all the work he had been putting into understanding Strange Gospel.
Yes, the very same one that everyone and their dog seemed to be talking about these days. Just the spontaneity of its popularity was enough to have him test the application out, if only to attempt to delve into its mysteries and understand what made it work. The recent incidents only served to bolster his curiosity; while some other people in the programming club seemed to be sticking to less... Dangerous matters, there was no good way to get him to stop. After all, the thought of him cracking this whole mystery and getting the whole school back to normal was enough to drive him. He'd had enough of people pestering him, asking him if anything new came up.
This was painfully slow work, and he damn well knew it.
The only feasible explanation the boy could give for his repeating dream was some sort of subliminal message on part of the application itself; whether or not it was intentional was a matter entirely it own, but the answers would likely come within grasp eventually.
"...Alright. I think that's all, then," he said, looking at himself in the bathroom mirror as he tightened the tie around his neck and picked up his bags from the hook from which they hung. Today was another day of work, and at the very least the lunchtime naps meant that he had a bit more energy in his tank to power through more code.
Now, if only his bento boxes didn't have to be scarfed down every day...
"Ah, god damn it I'm sick of that language! Who even decided it was a good idea to write a language in something that arcane?! How the heck is it even functioning?!" Keita shouted as he slammed his right arm down on the table, his right eye twitching for a few moments before he calmed himself and smoothed out his clothes. The time for extracurriculars had ended, and with it the time had spent in the programming club as one of its senior members. People would occasionally poke him for help, and that was fine, considering it meant not having to puzzle out that code for a few minutes.
But even if it was irritating, the payoff felt like it could be worth so much more than the effort he had put in thus far. And so he kept going, regardless of his irritation at the entire thing.
Packing up his equipment (namely, his laptop and mouse), Keita sighed and, with a weary smile, waved goodbye to the rest of the club members. They had become used to his exasperation by this point, and it wasn't as if such feelings were unfamiliar to them, either.
And so Keita walked past the school gates, bags slung over his shoulder as he continued onward.
Maybe he'd head home... Or get some ingredients to make some food instead. That bento definitely wouldn't last him the night.
I mean more along the lines of 'don't bring anything back that might fundamentally alter history any more than it has already'. So things like... Well, the aforementioned oil example, yes, but also things like a katana from Hideyoshi's sword hunt.
Some things will be fine to take back. Not everything. Just putting that out there.
Some things will be fine to take back. Not everything. Just putting that out there.
While you're talking about the possibility of striking it rich in the Middle East over oil, I would like to remind you that the butterfly effect is indeed a thing, and I would recommend you not attempt to tamper with the space-time continuum to that degree. Just saying.
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