[b]Kotori Shirohane - Shirohane Residence | Thursday, July 23 2015[/b]

As Kotori flipped another page in the math book before her, she had to suppress a yawn - and not for the first time that day. The reason for it was not boredom at the subject matter - she didn't mind finishing her summer holiday - but rather the fact that she hadn't really slept too well the night before. That in turn wasn't too surprising at this point, considering that the excitement - at least once everyone was back safe and sound - made for a rather terrible sleeping aid, leaving her to stay awake for hours on end on such days in the past. This time, however, Kotori's excitement had been tainted by guilt - even after she'd been reassured multiple times, Kotori couldn't help but worry about Shizuka who, as she'd found once when she'd returned, apparently suffered heavy attacks in this Seto place. Even knowing that she'd at least aided somewhat in the rescue of Samuru, Kotori still felt like she might have been able to prevent those events from transpiring - but either way, it didn't make for a good night's sleep.

With a sigh, Kotori put her pencil down and looked up from her books, stretching her arms upwards - only now noticing the slight ache that came with writing continuously for quite some time - before bringing them back to rub her eyes behind her glasses; the tiredness never quite having left them ever since she got up that morning. When she opened them again, however...

[b]Kotori Shirohane - Velvet Room | Thursday[/b]

...Kotori found herself sitting at quite a different table indeed. Even though she knew she should be surprised at this inexplicable turn of events, Kotori felt oddly calm as she looked about the room. She recognised it immediately - even though it had been more than a month and a half - as the same place she'd awakened at following her kidnapping and subsequent awakening of her persona, Kikuri-Hime. This time, however, the room looked quite different. Where before it had held a dark and mysterious atmosphere, it was now revealed to be a splendid dining hall. In this new light, she could see the hall decorated in many complimenting shades of blue, highlighted by interwoven patterns in gold. As her eyes wandered back down toward the table, she found that all the other seats - one of them replaced by a perch for a bird to perch upon - were now occupied. Tut this time, not by shadowy silhouettes.

Instead, Kotori found herself at the table with everyone else who'd gotten involved with the mirror realm. However, instead than their school uniforms or even their casual clothes, they all were wearing rather more formal and fancy attire. It was only when she looked down that Kotori realised that this applied to herself too. Lifting her arms, she saw them clad in dark blue fingerless elbow gloves. Following the lines of her arms, she further found herself wearing a similarly blue jacket which ended in a long skirt of many large frills, alternating between blue and a pale yellow-gold colour. Where one colour was predominant, the other served as a decorative highlight. This too was true of the heeled shoes she found herself wearing, much in keeping with the rest of her clothes. Additionally, a large ribbon of the same pale golden yellow adorned the small of her back - whilst the same colour drew her attention upwards to a blue flower set in her long black hair, decorated further with another ribbon tied to it. Of course, given that she could clearly recognise all these things and the others sat at the table clearly told her that she was still wearing her glasses.

Rather than confusion or outright embarrassment at clad in such a fashionable outfit, Kotori merely felt a mild surprise - though that did not last for very long before a familiar voice spoke up. Drawing all eyes unto himself with his words, the strange man with his distinctly long nose and large eyes seemed quite pleased to finally have gathered everyone at the table. Henrietta, his assistant, remained impassive at his side as Igor addressed them all with his next words:

[color=royalblue][h3][center]"Welcome, to the Velvet Room"[/center][/h3][/color]

Kotori in return gave a polite bow as best she could whilst still seated. Though she still did really understand exactly what was going on, she couldn't help but feel like most questions would be answered very soon indeed and as such remained silent.