[hr][center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/wjFTwZzd/Chapter1.png[/img][/center][hr]
[hider=Synopsis]On the evening of their final trial, a group of Witches are sent to exterminate their first Vampire. Success will see them become full members of Black Babel; failure will assuredly result in their deaths. Like it or not, this is the life of a Witch. Welcome to the 176th.[/hider]

[color=#91A3B0][i]I like cloudy days.[/i][/color] A young man wearing a high school uniform walks down a suburban street in Tokyo. A veil of grey and ash hang overhead, painting the city in monochromatic tones. The young man adjusts his headphones; lightly audible noise leaks into the world beyond its scope. [color=#91A3B0][i]I like the silence. The stillness of it. Life, itself, marching to a different tune...[/i][/color] The streets are quieter than usual. He soon passes a group of people unnoticed. Minding their own business, they are oblivious to him. [color=#91A3B0][i]There is an unseen perspective only appreciable on days like this.[/i][/color] Not long after, he finds himself in a dark alley, devoid of any other presence.

[right][i]The soliloquy of one who walks gently...[/i][/right]
He removes something from his back pocket and stares at it in his hand. A bronze, hexagonal badge, just slightly smaller than one's palm. It is inscribed with the initials 'B.B.' in bold letters and, underneath that, are the etchings of two crossed brooms. The young man delicately tosses the badge onto the ground then lifts his head toward the sky. Two crimson Shoji-screen doors float horizontally in the air above him. As each door slides open simultaneously, the young man is forcibly pulled upward, along with the badge on the ground.

He is plunged into a dark, upside down ocean that seems to stretch to infinite proportions. There is no panic in his eyes or behavior; he seems perfectly calm as if he has experienced this sensation many times over. This experience lasts for less than a minute before the boy is pulled through to the other side. Standing upright, he finds himself in Other-Tokyo—land of the unseen.

Along with a populace of seemingly normal people, strange creatures of varying sizes known simply as Daemons walk among the familiar-looking streets. One behemoth of a Daemon with dark fur and metal pylons sticking out of its back is being fed by a pair of individuals in black uniforms. It shows its contentment by letting out a spark of electricity from its protrusions.

But that's enough sightseeing for now, the young man has business to attend to. Sometime later, the young man arrives at the entrance of Black Babel: the organization of the Witches. He's now dressed in the same black uniform as was seen earlier. He, himself, is a Witch of this institute. "Ahh, you're such a glutton! I told you the next feeding time is in an hour. Do you realize how long it takes to prepare that much food?!" another young man in the same outfit chastises a colossal-class Daemon with long, thin metal teeth in the shape of a gate. "Hmm," he looks behind him, "oh Yuta, it's you. Preparing for tonight?"

[color=#91A3B0]"Yeah. I have to meet up with the rest of my squad."[/color] Yuta tells the gatekeeper.

"Good luck with all of that and, uhh, try not to get yourself killed, huh? Okay, stop pouting and open up!" the gatekeeper tells the gargantuan Daemon who swiftly complies. Its teeth retract into its skull, opening up passage for the young Witch. As Yuta enters, he pets the side of the Daemon's presumable mouth. [color=#91A3B0]"Good boy."[/color] Upon entry, Yuta is greeted by the sight of a huge plaza filled with Witches in uniform either walking or flying in the sky with brooms. 'Welcome to Black Babel' says a digital screen on a nearby wall that strangely has two eyestalks jutting out of its sides.[hr][@Ghost32] [@OwO] [@Sylph de Graaf] [@This Girlie] [@Rune_Alchemist]