Something had awakened him from his slumber. Had some disturbance roused him from limbo? Did a pulse beat once more through his veins as it did in the past?
Or had the tedium of the black void finally bored him to the point that he had to wake from the dreams?
Whatever the reason, he had awoken and it was time to resume weaving the tapestry which bore the tale of the chaos that would soon engulf a city and the players and movers that lived in the midst of said chaos.
Grabbing a thread, he looked carefully at where he had left off but the longer he looked, the more he found what he had weaved unacceptable. Indeed, before his slumber, the tale had taken a turn that he had not truly planned for and in desperation and frustration had weaved whatever he could to try and force the tale to continue. Looking back, it had been a mistake that had caused him to fall into deep sleep as his muse find itself unable to provide inspiration.
Shaking his head, he took hold of a loose thread and pulled, unravelling what he had weaved into the tapestry. The part that had been unravelled was then remade and thus the story was once more able to continue its intended path.
It was time to continue anew and he would try once again to weave the tale until the next deep slumber overcame him once more.
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[X] Go to the cherry tree by the school lake after school. Even if it turns out to be a fight, it'll only make you stronger. After all, receiving a challenge to a fight after school is a man's romance. Right after giant robots of course.
[QM] Go see who your secret admirer is after school. After all, getting a love letter and having a girl be the one who confesses her love to you is enough to earn one of life's trophies, according to Zane.
You stand outside room 301, holding the love letter that had been placed in your locker.
….
Wait a second.
Weren't you going to do something else?
No, that's…you must be really out of it. You hardly remember what happened in the rest of your classes today. You think you might have been struck over the head with a paper fan at some point but everything feels…fuzzy for some reason.
Quick mental check.
Your name is James Miller. You have the power to manipulate paper to some degree, a power that is apparently called a Gift and thus you are a Gifted. You're part of the Occult Research Club, ORC for short, and the club president who you're friends with is also a Gifted. Also, you got a really sweet coat from whoever is behind this whole Gifted thing.
Okay, looks like there's nothing wrong with your brain.
Huh, weird. Maybe you're not getting enough sleep or something.
In any case, you were standing outside room 301 to see who it was that sent the letter. So that you can politely reject them since you're not looking for a relationship right now. That and you had nothing better to do.
You open the door and raise an eyebrow at the darkness you see.
The hell?
The windows all have their blinds down and closed. The light is off and the only source of illumination in the room was coming from a computer monitor running a screensaver. Frowning, you flip the light switch on only to find that it isn't working.
Way too suspicious.
You pull out a random notebook out from your bag and hold it at the ready. Was this some lame attempt at a trap? Well, whatever. You'll just have to deal with it just like you did with that punk from last night.
Your heart nearly jumps out of your chest when music suddenly started playing – some kind of peppy sugar-filled J-pop stuff. It's coming from the computer's speaker and the monitor has changed to a scene of a hill with a cherry blossom tree. Okay, now things were more weird than suspicious.
Still wary, you enter the room, ready to give any assailant the worst paper cut they'll ever experience in their lives. However, as you approach the computer, something appears on the screen.
"Senpai!" A female voice cries out in joy. On the computer monitor, there was now a rather well-animated image of an anime schoolgirl with a black ponytail and an expression of tearful joy – a generic bishoujo if you had to describe the character. "I'm really glad that you came. There's been something that I've been meaning to tell you for some time now."
You have absolutely no idea what the hell was going on. Was this actually some kind of prank? Did someone actually went through the trouble of setting up some random visual novel to play a confession scene when you came into the room? If so then why!?
"Senpai…." As the animated character on the screen was about to confess their love, they suddenly froze along with the music. You wince when loud static began screeching through the speakers while the frozen animation began to glitch out, then as sudden as it had happened, dubstep begins playing.
"What."
"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL!" Your heart very nearly stopped at how loud the cartoon girl had cried out. You watched with your hands over your ears as the scene on the monitor changed from a scene straight out of a visual novel to something from a sci-fi game. The former schoolgirl character had transformed into a white haired girl with red eyes, wearing a sleek black bodysuit that had neon blue tron lines running all over it.
"What the fuck?" You mutter in complete confusion. What the hell was going on here!?
"…PFFFHAHAHAHAHA! You should see the look on your face!" The cartoon said as they clutched their stomach. The atmosphere of sweetness and innocence that the girl had early was gone, now replaced by a smug and mischievous cyber girl. After laughing for a few seconds, the cartoon wiped away her tears and took a deep breath before looking straight at you with mischief in their eyes. "So, Mister James Miller, how did you like my act?"
"…Are you for real?" The way the cartoon was moving and the way she looked at you told you that you weren't looking at some extremely well-animated video.
"Fufufu, who knows?" She replied with a hint of mischief. "Do you want me to be real?"
"No." You give the dark classroom a quick look around. As far as you can tell, there's no camera or microphone but those are probably hidden. You think that whoever's actually talking is using one of those facerig programs or motion capture to do this. After all, an anime character can't leave a letter in your locker after all. "So who the hell are you anyway?"
"Uh uh uh, a girl has to have her secrets who know. But you can call me CG Girl" The cartoon chides you while wagging her finger at you. "Well, in any case, I suppose you're wondering what's going on?"
"Yes." You growl. You were starting to get annoyed.
"Very well, then I'll get straight to the point. I wish to form an alliance with you, James Miller."
Huh?
What follows is a short but concise explanation of the situation. CG girl or at least the person using her is a Gifted who has limited control over information apparently. However, her Gift did not lend itself well to physical conflict, and with the Gifteds of Ichiyama High's declaration of war, things weren't looking good for her. So she made a decision to lure you to an empty classroom so she could speak privately to you.
"So you want me to form a…alliance with you in preparation for when Ichiyama attacks, right?"
"You don't have to give me an answer right now. We still have some time before Ichiyama makes their move so please think it over and discuss it with your fellow Gifteds." Damn, so she was aware of Lucille after all. "There's also the fact that you're still relatively new compared to a lot of other Gifted so it would be ideal if you worked on raising the power of your star."
You frown. At the very least you're glad that you don't have to join immediately but you're still wary of this person. You got a feeling that they haven't told you everything. What were their true intentions?
"Well, I suppose I should let you go now. School's done for the day and there's still much for me to do so I'll be in contact with you again." You let out a sigh at this.
"Okay." Finally, you were done with listening to this 2D girl talk. However, there's still something that was bothering you. "So what the deal with the love letter?"
"Oh that? I thought I'd just have a bit of fun messing with ya. After all, isn't it a love letter left in a locker a symbol of a youth-filled school life?" And with that, the computer suddenly shut itself off. At the same time, the blinds opened up, illuminating the once dark room.
For a few minutes, you stood there before making your feelings know on the matter.
"What the hell?"
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Having met with the sender of the love letter, you were now left with a lot of free time on your hand. Leaving the school building, you ponder a bit on what you were going to do now. With dinner being several hours away, you weren't really due back home anytime soon.
What do you do?
[ ] Go golem hunting. Regardless of what's going on with CG girl, you still need to become more powerful, what with Ichiyama soon to attack your school. You're sure that there's a good chance that Ichiyama's Gifted will be targeting you first.
[ ] Head over to the arcade and relax by playing some games, chill at the lounge, and push all thoughts about Gifted and Stars to the back of your mind for a little while.
[ ] Go wandering around aimlessly. Yorizen is a fairly large city and there are still lots of interesting places that you've never been to before. Who knows what you may find.
[ ] Go home and spend time with your family. Family is important after all. Even if you're sick of your parents acting like newlyweds all the time.
[ ] Write-in