Black Coats: Volume 1

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Wandering through the streets of Shibuya, Rydia was wondering if maybe she took a wrong turn somewhere. The last thing she remembered was running around looking for some lost kids in the middle of a forest, then a giant storm coming out of nowhere and causing a torrential downpour, being blown around by some huge winds, and being knocked out only to find herself in someplace new where everything was dark. After that, the only thing she could think of doing was walking forward, so she wondered how the scenery changed from nothing to the middle of a city. It didn't help that the size of all the buildings were making her a little dizzy. She was used to absurdly tall buildings, but not with them all packed together. Not too mention, she couldn't think of a city that was anything like this place. Maybe she had been moved to another country or something while she was unconscious. As she continued, she noticed a large pack of people that were gathered around.

"Hey, do you people know where this is?" Her question almost sounded more like a demand, but she hadn't given much care for how she talked for a while now.

After asking the question though, another voice spoke from her mouth that wasn't quite hers, being more gruff and a slight echo to it. "Is that any way to ask a question, girl? I swear, you'll never make new friends if you don't change"

"Who needs friends when I've got a dragon that won't leave me alone?" She huffed and looked up, realizing she had just pulled a switch while in front of random strangers and wondered how to explain this.

 

Koa had listened as the conversation continued in the group. Shiro had mentioned this 'Reaper's Game'. He listened as he had now found himself in a place called Shibuya. He had then noticed the arrival of another person. He looked over before looking back at Shiro. Aeira had then asked Charlie how long the other new arrivals would take. The same question had also ran through his mind as well. Before anyone else could speak up, he heard a familiar voice ring out. Koa immediately turned his head to see Luther, Melus, and someone else with them. "Luther?! Melus?! Where have you guys been?!" Luther had then asked what they had been up to. Arctus had then spoken up in response to Luther. Koa had nodded his head and looked back at Luther and Melus. "I'm glad to see you guys are alright but that just brings up my question again. What happened to you guys since we last saw you?" He then saw another stranger arrive before them. He was a little confused as he looked at the girl before shaking his head and turning his attention back at the two.​

 

Well weren't they the friendly bunch. Nary a one even gave notice to his existence. Maybe one of them, but the rest were off in their own little worlds. That was certainly not the way to garner any good feelings from somebody. He couldn't blame them, however, seeing as they were in a pretty bad situation. Dastgir shrugged it off and turned to see three more approach. That caused an eyebrow to raise at their sudden appearance. "Friends of yours...?" he spoke in general to the group. "Though if you have not seen them for awhile, I'd assume that something is wrong...." Dastgir was wary of Luther, Melus, and Xray. He was not very trusting seeing as they had been separated from this group. Who knows what may have happened in the meantime. At the same time, he didn't quite trust these people either. He certainly didn't feel too welcomed, so that was not helping.

Another new girl showed up and this time, she spoke with...two voices. Dastgir tilted his head at her and tapped his chin. "Odd." he spoke aloud. "Feminine people tend to not have such burly voices." he said, looking towards Rydia. This was one rag-tag group of people. Dastgir just hoped he wasn't stuck with the most anti-social of the bunch in his travels. He wasn't quite sure how he'd be able to handle extended bouts of quite again, especially after his time in this place already.

 

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Melus probably shouldn't have been grateful to see they were all still alive in one piece. But there was a part of her that was genuinely still glad they were okay. Probably Koa more than any of the others, she didn't even recognize some of them that seemed to now be in the area. But maybe they weren't picked up on their adventures. When Koa asked what happened to them since he last saw them, Melus moved her hand to her shoulder and rubbed it. The scarlet F was covered by her sleeve but she still felt the burning sensation lingering when she thought about it. It didn't take the girl long to come up with something as she let out a sigh, "Remember what we said about the base definitely not being secure anymore? Well, someone showed up and challenged the old man to a fight. We were trying to help out, but he had this... power that made it so every attack we made against him only made him stronger. As a result... we lost Lea."

The brunette shook her head sadly and continued, "We managed to defeat him after Luther challenged him to one of those final fantasies and won. Since it was better going solo with that guy. But it didn't end in especially good health. We got out of the base to recover for a little bit since we knew it wasn't safe there. Lea seemed to know something was going to happen, so he told us if something went wrong to run to Shibuya and wait until either you guys got here... or if we waited to long just go back ourselves." Melus was silent a moment and said, "But you guys made it, which is good." She looked to Karina and eyed her and put on a small smirk and approached closer and asked, "Sooo, you have a keyblade now? And your name is openly Karina? You can't tell me more didn't go on while you guys were gone. That's not something insignificant that just happens."

x

 

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As Aeira was impatiently waiting to get this game started, out from seemingly nowhere Luther and Mellus had appeared. "Oh, that's convenient." The girl mused aloud, thinking it was good that they had stumbled upon their missing members. While she was curious about what had happened, Koa had beaten her to asking about it, to which Mellus recounted the tale of when they had split off from now. While it was unfortunate to hear that Lea had truly been bested, the fact that they had managed to defeat the person who had done so to him and had managed to meet back up with them were positive. As Mellus seemed more confused about what had happened on their end of things, Aeira merely shrugged, saying, "we went to go help a bunch of keyblade wielders fight a bunch of heartless lead by Uniform. Long story short we won. And then Karina got a keyblade after a ceremony. It was very touching." The girl's tone had remained level and flat throughout her whole recount.

Looking towards the other new person who had appeared, Aeira bluntly replied, "we're in the Realm of Darkness. This is Shibuya." She shrugged as if that was all there was to tell.

 

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Rydia was getting somewhat annoyed by these people and how they weren't being helpful. The only thing she learned was that they were in some place called Shibuya in some place known as the Realm of Darkness. She didn't even know what those words really meant, and she had zero interest in staying for much longer. The only thing on her mind was getting back to her home and continuing her "rogue" work, as many seem to call it lately.

"Okay, fine, so do you have any idea how I'm supposed to get home? I have no reason to stay here." She was ready to leave it at that, but apparently her companion didn't want to leave her be.

"Pardon the child's manners, she still has much to learn. You don't happen to be in need of any assistance, do you?"

Changing back again, Rydia's eyebrow twinged a little out of irritation. "Be quiet, if they want help, they'd ask. We have no reason to trouble ourselves with them otherwise. We've got other things to do." Though now that her partner had asked, she kind of wanted to know the answer, since she couldn't keep herself from helping people if they needed it.

 

Koa nodded as Karina and Shiro had walked off. He looked back at Charlie as he spoke up. He jumped a little bit as Finlay's voice boomed. Once he had finished introducing himself, Koa had then spoke up. "I would appreciate it if you could use your inside voice when speaking. I'm clearly sure they can hear you without you yelling. Just a small suggestion." Koa looked over at Finlay as he was checking to see if his hearing was okay. Charlie had then put up the leaderboard of all the participants in the Reaper's Game. He had then told the group he would go and grab their Player's Pin for the game and walked off. Koa looked back and read all the names that would be participating in the game. He wasn't sure what to expect during this game but he was going to try his best.​

 

After wincing at Finlay's much louder than needed introduction, Vallus went back to looking around their new surroundings. It was an interesting change of pace when compared to the broad darkness that had surrounded them for the longest time. He shot a glance towards the named that had been listed on the leader board. Even numbers, probably some form of groups then. The even numbers really only made the groups easier to form for whoever was sorting them.

 

Dastgir watched as Rydia ignored his comment and went about talking to herself again. He pulled out a notepad and started to write small notes into it about everyone. Aeira seemed to answer him about the where that they were. "Well, I already knew this was the Realm of Darkness. I learned of it in my studies years ago." he spoke plainly. Once the others had spoke and made their decisions, Dastgir looked upon Finlay as he gave his speech.

Of course Dastgir wrote down every bit of it. At the end, he was clapping for Finlay in astonishment. "A man of many feats!" he spoke. "Pray we see many more."

The one boy who stood around asking questions gave all of them an odd look over. That caused Dastgir to raise an eyebrow at him. He shook his head and looked upon Charlie, who had left to retrieve some type of item called a player pin. While Dastgir wasn't exactly sure of what was going on, he knew things were interesting at least.

Turning to glance at each of them, Dastgir did catch Koa telling Finlay to stop screaming as kindly as he could. Figuring it was a good idea to try and be friendly with the people he was now working with, Dastgir made his way to Koa. "Hello, I haven't properly introduced myself to anyone. I am Dastgir (dahst-gear). Who might you be?" he started off, offering a hand to shake.​

 

Koa sighed a little bit before crossing his arms as he looked at the board again. Lost in thought, Koa wasn't aware when a man came up to him, introducing himself. I wonder what this 'Reaper's Game' will challenge us to do.... The man's voice pulled him away from his thoughts. "Huh? What? I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention. I apologize." He looked over at the man as he reached out his hand for a hand-shake. He wasn't sure why the man had his hand out but he wasn't going to question it. Koa put his glasses back on and spoke again. "You said your name was Dastsir? I'm sorry again I wasn't paying attention." He crossed his arms as he addressed the man. He had felt a little guilty for not paying attention while he was off in his own world.​

 

Dastgir's hand stayed raised a moment longer before Koa mispronounced his name. This caused a sigh to erupt from Dastgir as he went to writing into his journal. He closed it and tucked it away, blinking a little slowly to take a deeper breath. "It's Dastgir. What is your name?" he asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice. He looked at the screen again and was confused as to why Koa was staring at it so intently. He then noticed their numbers were down by one. "Seems somebody else left." he spoke, glancing about.

"I suppose he ran after that loud gentleman and young lady." Dastgir pulled his hood down and scratched his dark emerald hair. "Jeez...." he muttered. "I have an odd question. We are in the Realm of Darkness, correct?" he asked, then continued. "Does this mean there is a Realm of Light? If so, have you been to it recently? I must return as soon as possible to continue my duties. There is a special someone whom I must protect." He spoke, a smile on his face towards the end.

 

Luther looked at the board listing the participants and then to the blue haired girl who was to be his "partner". He put his hands in the pockets of his coat and ran a gloved hand over the void disc. She was the one he was expected to use it on. That should be easy enough, given his element of surprise and his element. While he wasn't powerful enough to create full scale, long lasting illusions or even solid ones, He could certainly fool her eyes enough to be able to trick her for a moment. Long enough to touch her with it. Especially if he proved competent in this task to come. "125 mph...Hm, that's certainly not a normal rabbit then. I'm fast, but i'm not quite that fast. I think our best bet would be to chase it into a corner and then box it in. Thankfully, I believe I've got the tools for that." He said to Mizu, attempting to appear genuinely interested in completing this mission. Well, if he were going to make it convincing, his bet bet was to actually try to complete it. And so, he prepared himself for what was sure to be the most annoying thing he'd ever done. ​