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14-Jul-1993 00:00

COMMAND// _DISPATCH

UNAUTHORIZED ACTION
INICIATE// LOCKDOWN

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Nineteen years ago there was nothing that could stop ALICE's designated purpose. Nothing but her encounter with the mysterious Omega server and the even more mysterious people operating behind it, known as the Omega Sector. It was the synchronized assault of ALICEs server that brought her down, preventing the activation of Maiden's Kiss...
In a desperate action to prevent the same occuring the sector received the late Phantaso Prince's Animus soul from the guardian of the Phantaso's Diary of Bone, Madelline. However much they sought to protect the other half of the equation though, Anima, the soul became lost soon after its dispersal and so they never laid their hands on it. Animus was given away to a human infant under the belief that it could be hidden in its world.
Anima had a worse fate, being forced into its vessel prematurely. Its vessel also had to suffer a cruel fate of knowing that it was but a pawn to the destruction of the world.

It was only later, however, that the pieces of ALICE were re-located for a purpose. A purpose only the former-members of the now non-existant Omega Sector and another individual knew, and each would seek them out for their own reasons each, each using their own methods.

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Quote:

ENTRY PROMPT

There is a rumour going around Shibuya, that if you walk down the Yamanote line, towards Shinjuku, at nights when the moon shines the brightest in the sky, you will meet your soulmate, waiting for you there. Of course it is just a rumour but many stray that way in order to try it. As of lately dissapearings have been occuring near that area and people are starting to get suspicious. However, more and more people visit as the rumour grows larger by day.
As one of either the people following the rumour or one of the more suspicious ones that wish to check on the situation, your character strays into the area on the night of the 29th of July. It's ten minutes past midnight and the atmosphere appears particularly thick even for the season and unlike what one would expect, not one sound can be heard other than the footsteps of the people gathering there.

Write an entry prompt based on the info above.
Let the meta commence!

Jim wasn’t a huge fan of apple peels. They made his stomach feel rather funny, but he liked apples otherwise. So, whenever he bought, borrowed, or stole an apple, he found himself perched atop someone else’s property (often the city’s), peeling it with either a sharp implement or at the very least his teeth. It was a painstaking process, and years of focused practice had the peel coming off without a scrap of the fruit beneath being lost with it.

Of course, Jim was no longer desperate for food, but old habits died hard, and he found a certain pride and comfort in the ritual. Therefore, he was slightly irked when the two girls came dashing into the alley giggling, one of them stumbling into the dumpster upon which he sat, causing his pocketknife to slip and carve out a large chunk of the apple onto the ground.

“Oy, watch it, ladies!” he called at their backs as they stood in a corner whispering. The one who’d knocked into his dumpster turned and pointed at him.

“You watch it, furoosha!” She managed to keep a straight face until the end of her sentence, then burst into giggles again. Jim shook his head and continued peeling his apple. These girls were the closest things he’d had to friends in his first few weeks in Japan, the tiny schoolchildren selling themselves along the streets of Shibuya for pocket change and designer goodies.

Jim both understood them and didn’t at the same time; he also had no issues with capitalizing upon his body, but he did not comprehend their doing so for trinkets and frivolities, especially when they could get much less dangerous jobs somewhere legitimate. And what they did WAS dangerous. Despite him having a roof over his own head now, Jim found himself returning to the girls’ streets and corners frequently, wanting to keep an eye out for them. Not that he could do too much in the way of protecting them, but it made him feel a little better each day he saw them return more or less safe and sound.

Finished with his peeling, Jim hopped down from the dumpster and moseyed over to the pair, taking a huge bite out of his apple as he went.

“What’re you droolin’ ova now, bozu, Gucci or boys? S’gotta be one o’th’two.”

“None of your beeswax, guzu.” Jim was never that good with names, so he had long ago dubbed the one with the comeback Spot, for the beauty mark just beside her nose. Spot stuck her tongue out at him, then giggled as she was prodded by Midge, the smallest and youngest girl that Jim had ever seen on the corners. Midge, grinning, sang out,

“Soooomeone goes to Yamanote in next night!”

Jim swallowed his smile. Midge clearly was as young as she looked. The preteens had terrible command of English, but Jim wasn’t one to speak, littering his own phrases with more double negatives than nouns most of the time. He probably wasn’t the best person in the world for the girls to practice their English with, like they frequently did.

“Yamenote, huh, Spot? Special date takin’ you outta th’ward, yeah?” he asked, elbowing Spot in the shoulder a few times jovially. Midge waved her hands to interrupt.

“To Yamanote! Not on.” Jim raised an eyebrow. Like that was the most obvious thing in the world. Sheesh.

“What, you gonna go lie on th’tracks and hope for Supaman t’rescue you?” The girls looked at him blankly and he shook his head. “Never mind.”

“She go to find her…” Midge paused, looking for the right word. “unmei no hito, her…” She wrung her hands in frustration before Spot muttered, “soulmate,” scrunching her nose impudently.

Jim rocked back on his heels, amused. “Soulmate, huh? You believe in tha’?”

The girls looked at him blankly again before Spot spoke up, giving him a condescending glare.

“Everyone has one, but they do not always find the other. At Yamanote at night there is a place to meet soulmates. It is known.”

Jim rolled his eyes, taking another large bite out of his apple, using his other hand to wipe away the drop of juice that rolled down his chin.

“Well, y’all stay safe an’ don’ get run over by no trains, yeah?”

It was the girls’ turn to roll their eyes dramatically before flapping their hands at him as a dismissal. He took the hint and blew them a kiss goodbye before sauntering back to his dumpster to finish his apple and write in his journal for some time. When the girls left their spot at the alley entrance a few hours later, though, he pocketed his journal and quietly padded at a safe distance behind them

Soulmates his a**. If there was one thing Jim doubted about the universe, it was the idea that there was any sort of destined future for anyone, especially with regards to anyone else. It was because of this doubt that he found himself curious to see what two little schoolgirls (who had known so many men already) thought a soulmate was. Certainly not at all because he thought there was any truth in their words.

Still, when he spied the crowd of people gathered atop the track, he couldn’t help but narrow his eyes and argue with himself. Maybe it was a new kind of telephone club meeting, or some sort of religious sign had appeared burned into the tracks, like the Virgin Mary and that slice of toast. However, he couldn’t stop running over the possibilities in his head, and so he found himself walking up to the group, much to Spot and Midge’s surprise (which he ignored with as much dignity as he could muster).

Shoving his hands in his pockets as he scanned the group, he furrowed his brow.

It figures, he thought.

Soulmate, huh?

The thought lodged skeptically in Rhiannon's mind as she strode down the street parallel to the Yamanote line. She was, in fact, heading towards Shinjuku tonight... but not in search of a soulmate. Rhia and a few of her university friends were planning on spending the night out in Shinjuku to celebrate the handing-in of a particularly difficult project, and she was just on her way to meet them. While she usually took the train, or even a cab, she'd looked out of her window before going out and noted that the night was particularly beautiful tonight - moon was a bright orb in a nearly cloudless sky. That alone had been enough for her to change her mind - it wouldn't be too long of a walk, and she had time to spare.

She hadn't noticed until she was halfway there that the streets were quite a bit busier than usual. The situation piqued her curiosity enough for her to turn down the music blasting from her headphones, in order to pick up little snippets of conversations from passerbys as she walked past them. It hadn't taken too long - everyone seemed to be talking about how one could meet one's soulmate by walking down Yamanote line.

Her mind waged a quick and somewhat half-hearted debate before she gave a quick one-shouldered shrug and turned towards the next street. Guess I'm a sucker for these things afterall... It wouldn't take her any longer to get to Shinjuku if she went along the Yamanote line, and Rhiannon figured that since nothing was likely to happen, she could just go and have a laugh with her friends about it.

And if something did happen... well, that was a 0.0001% chance, so she'd deal with it if it ever came up.

Fuyuki was curled in his bed in a fetal position, his forehead touching the uppermost part of his knees. He was curled there, like an infant and did nothing but listen to the silence and the sounds of his house in the night. Having grown accustomed to those sounds he felt comfortably when hearing them, welcomed... But he had also grown accustomed to feeling like a stranger as of lately. He felt like a stranger about everywhere he went. It wasn't that something in particular had changed, his mind-mapping abilities where always accurate as was his sense of sound, touch and smell. It was just... he was getting an odd vibe from those familiar places. A vibe that was somehow 'bad' even though he couldn't place his finger on what was so bad about it. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something vile and sinister crawling in the darkness. It started in Shibuya and steadily grew larger. He felt that way.

He sighed, twisting and turning in his bed. The air-conditioner made a steady, low-toned sound that was akin to something like the buzzing of some enormous insect. That sound almost seemed to consume every other sound in the room, including the shuffling of the bedsheets. Finally untangling himself from them he sat up, his naked feet hanging just a bit over the marble flooring. He pushed a bit forward. A shiver ran down his spine as his warm skin made contact with the frozen tiles. Almost immediately he heard Mocha whine from her bed in the other side of her room.

"Shhhh!" he hurried to calm her down. He didn't want his parents to know he wasn't sleeping. The Labrador quickly made her way to him, like she was trained to do. Fuyuki sighed again hugging her from around the neck. She was really something, that dog. Overprotective of him, almost like a second mother. She sensed he was worried and wanted to help him, comfort him,

The source of his worry was Ayame, a friend of his from the school choir. They had hung out together after the choir and the band practiced after school and she kept on going on about that rumour. 'All you have to do' she said 'is walk the Yamanote line upwards from Shibuya to Shinjuku and you'll meet your soulmate in the way, isn't that awesome?'. Fuyuki had nodded in agreement then but for some reason refused to follow Aya in her walk that evening but made her promise she'd call him back if she found her 'soulmate' or to tell him it was all a prank -which he supposed it was-. However it had grown quite late and Ayame wouldn't pick her phone up -Fuyuki had repeatedly tried to contact her-. It made him feel uneasy, restless.

Stumbling over to his wardrobe, to get changed into his clothes he quickly pulled a pair of jeans and a shirt from his 'black pile' and climbing out of his current sleepwear, he slipped himself into the new outfit. Instinctively he extended one hand to take a hold of Mocha's harness and his fingers found the handle almost immediately, the dog having been there, quietly all this time, waiting for him to simply do that.

He grabbed his cellphone and keys and left his room, tip-toeing like a ghost towards the front door. His parents were both, of course sleeping, same for his sister. All of them had things to do in the morning, same for himself, but he was more worried about finding his friend right now.
Of course it didn't occur to him that he was just a kid. Even if he did find Aya, is someone had snatched her he couldn't do a thing. He wouldn't stand a chance, because what sort of a chance would a thirteen-year old stand against gangsters...

It wasn't long until he found himself walking upwards, the way he knew a bit too well from having lived in Shibuya all these years, walking from and to school every day as of lately too. He sighed again, in the darkness, by himself. The moon hang on a dark sky with no stars visible as they where concealed by the city's lights, no gleam of hope reaching the ground. The cold light of the moon made his blond hair gleam like liquid silver, but if Fuyuki was able to see, he'd say there was something eerie, something sinister in this scene. The air that didn't blow, the heat that was as thick as to cut with a knife, the voices of the people around him and the moon... Fuyuki would say that there was something peculiar about the moon that night, something that he couldn't place his finger on, if only he could see it. He'd say there was something that didn't feel quite right. He'd say he felt scared just by gazing at it... this overwordly moon, shinning it's freezing light over the City in a bone-colored warning...

Dain gave a low, unhappy grumble as he trudged along, eyes trained on the ground as he tried to block out the small trail of shadows that trickled behind him. He could feel their formless faces watching him, and with a grunt of frustration, he picked up his pace a little. He'd been out all day, and most of the night at this point, and had finally decided to turn his path for home. Though he didn't really know the way, it always seemed that, when he wanted to get home, he could.

s**t.

Suddenly, any trace of the chill was gone, and while Dain was uncomfortable with it around, he was even more uncomfortable when it vanished suddenly and entirely. All senses trained to pick up the slightest of movements, he nearly cried out loud when something moved on the edge of his vision.

Turning his head sharply to see what it was, he found only that it was a small group of people, lazily milling about in one area.

Dain sighed and relaxed. If he'd have known the reason most of those people were there, he wouldn't have been quite so at-ease, however he never watched the news, and never understood any of the rumors. Despite being in Japan for over two years now, he still knew very little of the language, and kept very much to himself anyway. He probably wouldn't have known, even in a english-speaking population.

With the sudden warmth still playing uncomfortably on the back of his mind, Dain edged closer to the group. He tried to remain inconspicuous, though the way he stared at the group like a frightened and angry bird of prey would quickly give him away as a suspicious character.

Shinnori sat messing with a deck of cards, flipping one over then tossing it into the air; he done this awhile now and so that card easily fell onto the deck again. He had been waiting at this spot for a few hours, and he had watched the first few people come up. Now there were a few interesting people, but for the most part the teens and few children and adults; gave him no interest what so ever, in fact he would have been quiet happy to see the leave. It was close to midnight now, soon things would get interesting, and he only had to wait. Brown eyes flickered toward the few people he found that would be fun to be around.

It hadn’t been a particularly thrilling night surprisingly, Cam thought as he shrugged his bag further unto his shoulder, especially considering his particular Hospital had the equivalent to ‘rite of passage’ hazing. His leg hurt, his body exhausted as he limped to the ‘site of victim’. He was pretty sure there was no patient awaiting his aid, especially indicating the complete breach of protocol with the Ambulance ‘Test Run’ Hikaru and Remi pulled. Camille was onto them from the beginning, the small laughs and the murmured Japanese as the placed him in the back of the vehicle and told him to ‘buckle up’ …There weren’t even any safety belts to use, he groused aloud. 15 minutes of the spindliest trek on the streets in the district near Shinjinku, [Or maybe it was Shinjinku. Cam had no idea at this point] they finally let him off in a rush. All hands and shoves as the placed him on the pavement with instructions to go to a place that would undoubtedly be devoid of any real relevance and purpose in his life as a Registered Nurse.

He’d since stopped at a pharmacy, picking up a first aid kid by sheer clockwork, knowing his apartment was severely lacking in that department and decided to throw it all in the wind. A bottle of hydrogen peroxide, ibuprophen, nail scissors, medical tape, bandages, gauze and bacitracin later, he paid and asked for the restroom. Since, he was back on the street, scrubs rolled tightly into the far recess of his ruck, medical supplies and what appeared to be a repeatable dinner and civvies comfortably replacing the too thin fabric.

It was at that moment, nearing the Yamanote line [that is one thing he knows of, rumors and superstitions combined, he does work in the pediatrics ward], that his pocket started buzzing, playing the becoming familiar ‘TNT’ song, Jim’s choice of course. He groaned, pulling out the small electronic and peering at the illuminated screen, moonlight combating him with the ever-lovely glare. The caller ID read as something vaguely familiar from late night shifts and pertaining to the class A d-bag who’d left him for dead. He sighed, flicking open his phone.

“Bonjour, this is Camille Moore, you’re future murderer, the fu-” He was cut off by Hikaru’s chuckling on the other end, which only pushed him further into his grump. He glared haphazardly at the mobile device before reminding himself that no, regardless of how hard he tried he would not set the phone aflame and transmit his mild hatred to his coworker.

“I am very sorry, Camille,” Hikaru started, laughter evident in his tone. He was probably laughing it up with Remi. “It is what happened to me during my first trip.”

“It really would help your case a hell of a lot more if you weren’t choking on every word.” He grinned halfheartedly. In all honesty he couldn’t blame them. Didn’t stop him from being pissed, but he really couldn’t blame them. He was new, it was what organizations did and god knows he went through worse in the Corps.

“Where are you now?” Cam was at least a little bit comforted by the mustered concern in Hikaru’s voice. Maybe he wasn’t such a douche after all. He looked around him, signs blearily pointing in directions with the chicken scratch language assaulting his retinas.

“Y’know? Even if I tried, I doubt I could tell you.” He looked closely, hoping for some Hirigana to aid in his fumbling through the animosity that was the Japanese language. He didn’t even want to start on Kanji. “I suppose somewhere goin’ towards Shibuya?”

There was a small shift on the other line, the sound of traffic, starched rustling from the fabric of the EMT uniform while Cam pondered where they were headed. Back to the hospital he assumed. There was a pause of breath before a slam of a heavy door came through Camille’s speaker.

“You reached Yamanote yet?” There was a brief chuckle and a held in giggle from Hikaru and Remi respectively. Cam once again wished for his newly invented ‘phone combustion’ power, added bonus of sending hatred laced vibes to caller optional.

“Yes?” Cam growled out pausing and scanning the horizon of the small spot. Seemed to be quite the gathering here. There was another failed attempt at hiding laughter on the other end to which cam audibly snorted into the microphone.

“If…” Another repressed giggle. “You look up you m-might see your future beloved.”

Cam groaned and shut his phone without further flourish. He sighed, looking back up at his path, still feeling odd about the sheer turnout of people at this particular time, this place. It sent an odd shiver up his spine until he spotted his roaming roommate among the ‘crowd’.

He coughed, adjusting his backpack before muttering a quick, “It would be you, wouldn’t it,” as he shuffled limped forward and onward, sending a small heated thought to Hikaru and Remi for their mockery.