Prologue Part 5: Chimera, Re-enactor, Conlanger, and Columbird intros
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[x] Kagura
[x] Simeon
[x] Manami
Having seen the Research Lab of the Ultimate Captain, if I could I would've taken the chance to go around searching for mine, or anyone else's, respective Labs. Unfortunately, we did have that Gym we needed to be getting to.
There being only so much space on the North Building's ground floor, and any way up in here blocked off by the ruins of crumbled stairs, it at least didn't take us much more time to find the Gymnasium at the end of a u-shaped hall. There was a small foyer just before the Gym though, containing what looked like trophies awarded to Hope's Peak's alumni. I could see swords and armour, a rifle, now smudged photographs, framed letters of commemoration, sporting equipment, even strange mechanical devices than ran on everything from clockwork to diesel tech.
Slowly everyone passed through the foyer, including who seemed to be the three remaining students I hadn't met yet... as I definitely would've recognised one girl if I'd seen her before. While she looked mostly human, she had wolf ears poking out of her bright-blue hair, the upper mouth and side-fang of a cat, the tails of a fox, squirrel, seal, and tanuki, the paws of a kangaroo, and the legs of a goat. I was surprised she was still able to put on a standard school uniform through all that.
"~Nyaa!" she smiled as she called out, before she started sniffing me. "Sowwy, but I hafta check to make sure you got nothin' dangerous on ya, mister," she told me, a snake's tongue flickering out of her, "Oh yeah, my name's Kimura-"
[ ] Hitomi
[ ] Kuzunoha
[ ] Etsuko
[ ] Write-in
-Wan wan! They say I'm 'sposed to be the Ultimate Chimera, but like, I thought those were just lion, goat, and snake? Then again, guess I gotta be called somethin' around here," she shrugged then panted.
"Er, okay... I'm Tsubasa Enoshima, charmed I'm sure," I tried to put as naturally as I could.Birdcoin! x1
Ultimate 'Chimera'? Normally by now I would've checked again to make doubly sure I wasn't dreaming, but the thing was, from what little info was leaked on lab experiments throughout the war... yeah, suddenly a hybrid beast-girl didn't seem so implausible.
The next student was at least fully human, well, as far as I could tell anyway. They were wrapped all over in bandages, had an eyepatch, a pointed helmet with deer antlers on it, carried a butterfly-shaped baton with the words for 'fire, forest, wind, mountain' written on it, carried a 'sword' shaped like a lightning-bolt, had on a sky-blue coat brighter than Simeon's or Manami's, and had on grey hakama with three arrows for pins.
They bowed before me, then intoned, "They call me the Ultimate Historical Re-enactor. I am Seki-
[ ] Mitsuyasu
[ ] Ienari
[ ] Toshiro
[ ] Yoritsune
[ ] Write-in
From their name I took it they were male, but I couldn't quite say either way.
"I am whichever gender my role requires," they then said to me, "I... guess thou couldst compare it to Kabuki or Takarazuka".
The last student was neither part-animal nor covered like a mummy, instead he had fogged-over glasses, messy hair beneath a striped top-hat with several pens, quills, and pencils stashed in its band, a tweed suit decorated with runestones and a tie marked with hieroglyphs, mounds of notes stuffed in his pockets, and unusually pointy ears. Any promise left of normalcy ended once he opened his mouth. Birdcoin! x1
"Hello, salut, ciao, nihao, shalom, aloha, privet, namaste, and salve! I am the Wizard of Words, the Lord of Linguistics, the Titan of Translation, and Sultan of Speech! B-But you can just call me Ultimate Conlanger, Iwai-"
[ ] Bungo
[ ] Kanji
[ ] Yakumo
[ ] Write-in
"'Conlanger'? I'm sorry, I don't think I've heard the term before" I told him.
Adjusting his glasses, he said, "As a Conlanger- well personally I prefer Conlanguer but Conlanger is the more accepted term, I create languages. Hard work you are aware, for not only does it require a thorough knowledge of several languages' worth of vocabulary and grammar to master, but also an imagination to make said new tongue more than just the sum of its parts. So naturally, I have already created several, multiple, a cascade of constructed languages, and I haven't even graduated".
Rude as it was to think it of him, but was he always this long-winded?
"Oh my, that's quite something. Actually, sounds like that'd be great for encryption, secret messages and all" I remarked, only to accidentally shatter his pleasant demeanor.
"Typical for an armed forces aviator, can you think of naught else but warfare, combat, conflict?!" he hissed out, but then took a deep breath and said, "My apologies, I did not mean to get off on the wrong foot, it's just... yes, during the war, cryptography and deception was all people wanted my talents for".
I could see what he meant. I sighed out and said, "Yeah, I mean I first got interested in flight as a kid, without a thought of killing anyone".
I had no idea how ironically tragic those words would come to be.
All sixteen of us students entering the gym at last, we were promptly caught off-guard by no less than fireworks being detonated inside. Manami, Dejan, and myself even dropped to the floor, as all I could think about were battlefield explosions.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2MJgb-0Ya8
"What lily-livered display is this?! Stand to attention, son, don't you know you're in a Killing Game now, huh?!" came a shouting, heavily accented voice that didn't belong to any of my classmates.
I slowly picked myself up to see... that same animatronic eagle who'd been on the monitor was now descending from the ceiling to the teacher's podium. Perching and ruffling his feathers up, he then barked out (much as an eagle could), "Is this the best you <Japanese> have to offer? Well I've got news for ya, Class 39 of Pope's Beak or whatever, this ain't your grandpappy's Land of the Rising Sun. You're now in the greatest country on Earth, these-" he suddenly stared off into the distance and grew teary-eyed, "United States of America, and by God as my witness, you will act like it else I lay the smacketh down, ya hear?!"
"Ahem, pardon me... sir, but I believe you'll find this is Japan," Toranosuke spoke up, "Unless we've been moved somewhere, but this has certainly looked like Hope's Peak so far".
"Oh you haven't gone anywhere, son," the eagle said, unfolding a map with Japan coloured like the US flag, "We whupped your spineless asses, so this country is now under United States Occupation. You're playing by our rules boy, and because the Greatest Country on Earth singlehandedly beat you in the war, now you better prepare yourselves for the punishment. Do-I-make-myself-clear?!"
"D-did you say KillingGame?" Hildegard gasped at that phrase, before she bit her lip and said, "No, that's not possible, only the Nazis would do something like that..."
"Oh, the 'Nazis'? You mean those wienerschnitzels the U.S. of A thrashed six ways from Sunday?! Ergo, the Killing Game's an American tradition now, we won it, so we'll enact it on whoever we damn well like!" the eagle blasted back with.
"W-what? You're America, you say you're the good guys, right? Why the hell are you pulling this fascist crap?" Dejan exclaimed.
"Too right. Is zis too how you treat France? Your own ally?!" Jeanne spoke out and drew her sword, "I will never surrender to ze likes of treacherous scum like you, featherbrain!".
"Featherbrain?!" the eagle seethed, "First off, don't give me that 'never surrender' crap when your own country got pulverized by Jerry. Hell, if you'd put up a real fight, your sorry ass wouldn't have been carried here all the way to sunrise-land.
Second, for the duration of this All-American Killing Game, you shall address me as-
[ ] Liberty Bird
[ ] Washingtalon
[ ] Uncle Squawk
What in the goddang- Columbird, you will address me as Columbird, son! I don't give a damn what fancy-ass naming write-ins you have over here, but in America, you will memorize my name and like it, that's an order!" he squawked out.
"Oh my," Momoka gulped, before she breathed deep and asked, "Um, w-what do you mean by 'Killing Game', er, exactly?"
"Killing Game's a Killing Game, private!" Columbird said, "You want outta this dump? Then you sixteen better start murderin' each other, last one standing gets to leave! Does that get it through those thick skulls o' yours?" he tapped his own head to indicate.
He- he really did mean it. He... wanted us to all kill each other.
I looked around the room, suddenly seeing all the people I'd been introduced to, who may have been unusual but not dangerous... as murderers, each and every one of them.
I wanted to say I'd never seen anything like this before, but that'd be wrong. When my superiors truly wanted to punish someone in the air force, they wouldn't do it themselves, but force another, innocent junior to deal out the beating for them. Those juniors only had the hope that one day, they'd be the ones in the position to delegate out punishments to the next junior. Some of the beating had been so harsh, soldiers had died in training before they'd ever met the enemy.
"This is wrong!" I then burst out crying, "All wrong! The war was supposed to be over; we shouldn't have to go through this!"
"Weren't you in the air force, sonny boy, what sort of soldier descends into a blubberin' mess like this? Hmph, if an American soldier had acted like you just did, not that they ever would, we'd have used their sorry ass for target practice!" Columbird once more snapped.
"The fighting and violence will end when America says so! However," he then stated, his voice growing relatively softer, "We are the shining city on the hill, the new leader of the Western world, not some savages in squalor! Therefore, in honor of our great nation's legal and judicial foundations, anyone killing another shall promptly begin a trial to determine the godforsaken murderer".
"A trial?" Genpachi chuckled as he remarked, "Awful ironic with you tellin' us to start murdering each other. Suppose you have to cling on to some semblance of civility, don't ya?".
"Bah, I won't be taking any backtalk from some limp-wristed, hemp-smoking, lover of speakeasy devil music! All you here will kill, you will go to court, the killer will be found and executed or you will die trying, and you will like it, son!" Columbird went off again.
"What do you mean, 'you will die trying'?" Manami asked.
Before Columbird could actually answer, he went off on a tangent to me, "Ya see here, Wings Bay-island? This is the professional manner in which a real shoulder conducts himself! Or herself, figures you <Japanese's> cleaning ladies would make better soldiers than your men.
Anyway, yes. Should you fail to identify the actual killer in court, they will leave with their FREEDOM, whilst all you who failed to catch him will be executed for your incompetence. Is that clear?!" he got around to his answer.
With that, the United States of America declares the Killing Military School Life officially begun! Godspeed, and God bless our glorious nation!" Columbird saluted, before he finally left the Gym.
This was... this was really happening. Right now, any of my classmates could turn around and stab me- No, they wouldn't. Firstly, because we were all gathered in the Gym, so anyone who tried would be immediately found out, and secondly-
Because I'd been drafted into the air force. I knew what killers were like, and for little I'd known everyone here, I could tell they weren't that sort of people.
But I couldn't just stand here. I needed to think of a plan, and fast.
[ ] I'd stock up on food, then barricade myself in my dorm room in the South building
[ ] I'd keep trying to find a way out of here. Both the caves and the school buildings were blocked down, but if they'd gotten us down here, then there had to be a way back up
[ ] I'd listen to the others to see what they'd come up with:
- [ ] Toranosuke (Manager), he probably has a plan of action
- [ ] Genpachi's (Jazzman) kept surprisingly calm throughout
- [ ] Yudai (Jailbreaker), who'd been in situations just like this
- [ ] Hildegard (???), she seems to already know about Killing Games
- [ ] Dejan (Tank Commander), he has a tank after all
- [ ] Jeanne de Chevalier
- [ ] Write-in student
[ ] Write-in
[x] Simeon
[x] Manami
Having seen the Research Lab of the Ultimate Captain, if I could I would've taken the chance to go around searching for mine, or anyone else's, respective Labs. Unfortunately, we did have that Gym we needed to be getting to.
There being only so much space on the North Building's ground floor, and any way up in here blocked off by the ruins of crumbled stairs, it at least didn't take us much more time to find the Gymnasium at the end of a u-shaped hall. There was a small foyer just before the Gym though, containing what looked like trophies awarded to Hope's Peak's alumni. I could see swords and armour, a rifle, now smudged photographs, framed letters of commemoration, sporting equipment, even strange mechanical devices than ran on everything from clockwork to diesel tech.
Slowly everyone passed through the foyer, including who seemed to be the three remaining students I hadn't met yet... as I definitely would've recognised one girl if I'd seen her before. While she looked mostly human, she had wolf ears poking out of her bright-blue hair, the upper mouth and side-fang of a cat, the tails of a fox, squirrel, seal, and tanuki, the paws of a kangaroo, and the legs of a goat. I was surprised she was still able to put on a standard school uniform through all that.
"~Nyaa!" she smiled as she called out, before she started sniffing me. "Sowwy, but I hafta check to make sure you got nothin' dangerous on ya, mister," she told me, a snake's tongue flickering out of her, "Oh yeah, my name's Kimura-"
[ ] Hitomi
[ ] Kuzunoha
[ ] Etsuko
[ ] Write-in
-Wan wan! They say I'm 'sposed to be the Ultimate Chimera, but like, I thought those were just lion, goat, and snake? Then again, guess I gotta be called somethin' around here," she shrugged then panted.
"Er, okay... I'm Tsubasa Enoshima, charmed I'm sure," I tried to put as naturally as I could.Birdcoin! x1
Ultimate 'Chimera'? Normally by now I would've checked again to make doubly sure I wasn't dreaming, but the thing was, from what little info was leaked on lab experiments throughout the war... yeah, suddenly a hybrid beast-girl didn't seem so implausible.
The next student was at least fully human, well, as far as I could tell anyway. They were wrapped all over in bandages, had an eyepatch, a pointed helmet with deer antlers on it, carried a butterfly-shaped baton with the words for 'fire, forest, wind, mountain' written on it, carried a 'sword' shaped like a lightning-bolt, had on a sky-blue coat brighter than Simeon's or Manami's, and had on grey hakama with three arrows for pins.
They bowed before me, then intoned, "They call me the Ultimate Historical Re-enactor. I am Seki-
[ ] Mitsuyasu
[ ] Ienari
[ ] Toshiro
[ ] Yoritsune
[ ] Write-in
From their name I took it they were male, but I couldn't quite say either way.
"I am whichever gender my role requires," they then said to me, "I... guess thou couldst compare it to Kabuki or Takarazuka".
The last student was neither part-animal nor covered like a mummy, instead he had fogged-over glasses, messy hair beneath a striped top-hat with several pens, quills, and pencils stashed in its band, a tweed suit decorated with runestones and a tie marked with hieroglyphs, mounds of notes stuffed in his pockets, and unusually pointy ears. Any promise left of normalcy ended once he opened his mouth. Birdcoin! x1
"Hello, salut, ciao, nihao, shalom, aloha, privet, namaste, and salve! I am the Wizard of Words, the Lord of Linguistics, the Titan of Translation, and Sultan of Speech! B-But you can just call me Ultimate Conlanger, Iwai-"
[ ] Bungo
[ ] Kanji
[ ] Yakumo
[ ] Write-in
"'Conlanger'? I'm sorry, I don't think I've heard the term before" I told him.
Adjusting his glasses, he said, "As a Conlanger- well personally I prefer Conlanguer but Conlanger is the more accepted term, I create languages. Hard work you are aware, for not only does it require a thorough knowledge of several languages' worth of vocabulary and grammar to master, but also an imagination to make said new tongue more than just the sum of its parts. So naturally, I have already created several, multiple, a cascade of constructed languages, and I haven't even graduated".
Rude as it was to think it of him, but was he always this long-winded?
"Oh my, that's quite something. Actually, sounds like that'd be great for encryption, secret messages and all" I remarked, only to accidentally shatter his pleasant demeanor.
"Typical for an armed forces aviator, can you think of naught else but warfare, combat, conflict?!" he hissed out, but then took a deep breath and said, "My apologies, I did not mean to get off on the wrong foot, it's just... yes, during the war, cryptography and deception was all people wanted my talents for".
I could see what he meant. I sighed out and said, "Yeah, I mean I first got interested in flight as a kid, without a thought of killing anyone".
I had no idea how ironically tragic those words would come to be.
All sixteen of us students entering the gym at last, we were promptly caught off-guard by no less than fireworks being detonated inside. Manami, Dejan, and myself even dropped to the floor, as all I could think about were battlefield explosions.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2MJgb-0Ya8
"What lily-livered display is this?! Stand to attention, son, don't you know you're in a Killing Game now, huh?!" came a shouting, heavily accented voice that didn't belong to any of my classmates.
I slowly picked myself up to see... that same animatronic eagle who'd been on the monitor was now descending from the ceiling to the teacher's podium. Perching and ruffling his feathers up, he then barked out (much as an eagle could), "Is this the best you <Japanese> have to offer? Well I've got news for ya, Class 39 of Pope's Beak or whatever, this ain't your grandpappy's Land of the Rising Sun. You're now in the greatest country on Earth, these-" he suddenly stared off into the distance and grew teary-eyed, "United States of America, and by God as my witness, you will act like it else I lay the smacketh down, ya hear?!"
"Ahem, pardon me... sir, but I believe you'll find this is Japan," Toranosuke spoke up, "Unless we've been moved somewhere, but this has certainly looked like Hope's Peak so far".
"Oh you haven't gone anywhere, son," the eagle said, unfolding a map with Japan coloured like the US flag, "We whupped your spineless asses, so this country is now under United States Occupation. You're playing by our rules boy, and because the Greatest Country on Earth singlehandedly beat you in the war, now you better prepare yourselves for the punishment. Do-I-make-myself-clear?!"
"D-did you say KillingGame?" Hildegard gasped at that phrase, before she bit her lip and said, "No, that's not possible, only the Nazis would do something like that..."
"Oh, the 'Nazis'? You mean those wienerschnitzels the U.S. of A thrashed six ways from Sunday?! Ergo, the Killing Game's an American tradition now, we won it, so we'll enact it on whoever we damn well like!" the eagle blasted back with.
"W-what? You're America, you say you're the good guys, right? Why the hell are you pulling this fascist crap?" Dejan exclaimed.
"Too right. Is zis too how you treat France? Your own ally?!" Jeanne spoke out and drew her sword, "I will never surrender to ze likes of treacherous scum like you, featherbrain!".
"Featherbrain?!" the eagle seethed, "First off, don't give me that 'never surrender' crap when your own country got pulverized by Jerry. Hell, if you'd put up a real fight, your sorry ass wouldn't have been carried here all the way to sunrise-land.
Second, for the duration of this All-American Killing Game, you shall address me as-
[ ] Washingtalon
[ ] Uncle Squawk
What in the goddang- Columbird, you will address me as Columbird, son! I don't give a damn what fancy-ass naming write-ins you have over here, but in America, you will memorize my name and like it, that's an order!" he squawked out.
"Oh my," Momoka gulped, before she breathed deep and asked, "Um, w-what do you mean by 'Killing Game', er, exactly?"
"Killing Game's a Killing Game, private!" Columbird said, "You want outta this dump? Then you sixteen better start murderin' each other, last one standing gets to leave! Does that get it through those thick skulls o' yours?" he tapped his own head to indicate.
He- he really did mean it. He... wanted us to all kill each other.
I looked around the room, suddenly seeing all the people I'd been introduced to, who may have been unusual but not dangerous... as murderers, each and every one of them.
I wanted to say I'd never seen anything like this before, but that'd be wrong. When my superiors truly wanted to punish someone in the air force, they wouldn't do it themselves, but force another, innocent junior to deal out the beating for them. Those juniors only had the hope that one day, they'd be the ones in the position to delegate out punishments to the next junior. Some of the beating had been so harsh, soldiers had died in training before they'd ever met the enemy.
"This is wrong!" I then burst out crying, "All wrong! The war was supposed to be over; we shouldn't have to go through this!"
"Weren't you in the air force, sonny boy, what sort of soldier descends into a blubberin' mess like this? Hmph, if an American soldier had acted like you just did, not that they ever would, we'd have used their sorry ass for target practice!" Columbird once more snapped.
"The fighting and violence will end when America says so! However," he then stated, his voice growing relatively softer, "We are the shining city on the hill, the new leader of the Western world, not some savages in squalor! Therefore, in honor of our great nation's legal and judicial foundations, anyone killing another shall promptly begin a trial to determine the godforsaken murderer".
"A trial?" Genpachi chuckled as he remarked, "Awful ironic with you tellin' us to start murdering each other. Suppose you have to cling on to some semblance of civility, don't ya?".
"Bah, I won't be taking any backtalk from some limp-wristed, hemp-smoking, lover of speakeasy devil music! All you here will kill, you will go to court, the killer will be found and executed or you will die trying, and you will like it, son!" Columbird went off again.
"What do you mean, 'you will die trying'?" Manami asked.
Before Columbird could actually answer, he went off on a tangent to me, "Ya see here, Wings Bay-island? This is the professional manner in which a real shoulder conducts himself! Or herself, figures you <Japanese's> cleaning ladies would make better soldiers than your men.
Anyway, yes. Should you fail to identify the actual killer in court, they will leave with their FREEDOM, whilst all you who failed to catch him will be executed for your incompetence. Is that clear?!" he got around to his answer.
With that, the United States of America declares the Killing Military School Life officially begun! Godspeed, and God bless our glorious nation!" Columbird saluted, before he finally left the Gym.
This was... this was really happening. Right now, any of my classmates could turn around and stab me- No, they wouldn't. Firstly, because we were all gathered in the Gym, so anyone who tried would be immediately found out, and secondly-
Because I'd been drafted into the air force. I knew what killers were like, and for little I'd known everyone here, I could tell they weren't that sort of people.
But I couldn't just stand here. I needed to think of a plan, and fast.
[ ] I'd stock up on food, then barricade myself in my dorm room in the South building
[ ] I'd keep trying to find a way out of here. Both the caves and the school buildings were blocked down, but if they'd gotten us down here, then there had to be a way back up
[ ] I'd listen to the others to see what they'd come up with:
- [ ] Toranosuke (Manager), he probably has a plan of action
- [ ] Genpachi's (Jazzman) kept surprisingly calm throughout
- [ ] Yudai (Jailbreaker), who'd been in situations just like this
- [ ] Hildegard (???), she seems to already know about Killing Games
- [ ] Dejan (Tank Commander), he has a tank after all
- [ ] Jeanne de Chevalier
- [ ] Write-in student
[ ] Write-in
Last edited: