Chapter Text
“Aether, what’s wrong? I know that look all too well. Haven’t I told you to stop overthinking like that? I know it may seem glorious, but you know it really isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be, don’t you?”
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A bright light and the beige ceiling were the first things that Aether registered in his mind. He sleepily blinked his eyes open and let out a soft yawn, stretching a little before sitting up in his bed. He pushed off the red blanket enveloping his body before planting his feet on the blue floor-
Aether froze. Red sheets? Blue floor? Aether’s room was completely white with a brown carpet, and his sheets were yellow, his favorite color. This isn’t my room , Aether thought. Where am I?
And that’s when the panic started to kick it. Aether’s breath began to pick up pace as he frantically whipped his head around, taking in the surroundings of… some dorm room? How in the world did he get in here? The walls were a faded red mirroring the bedsheets, and the floor was a nice contrast of dark blue. There was a desk pushed against the wall across from the bed. Aether immediately stood up and rushed over to the desk, looking through the drawers to see if there was anything that could tell him where he was.
What he found was some kind of electronic pad in one drawer, and a box in another drawer with a bow wrapped neatly around it. Aether delicately unwrapped the bow and opened the box. His heart sank a little when he saw a gun inside, the chamber filled with four bullets.
Aether could feel his heart rate picking up as his breath hitched. What in the world was this doing inside a dorm room?! He looked around in confusion and fear. Now fully in a panic, Aether ran to where the front door of the room was. He turned the doorknob and flung the door open, running out into an eerie hallway where-
“Oh, you’re awake.”
Aether jumped and turned in the direction of the voice, finding a boy around his height leaning against the wall, his red eyes staring back at Aether’s golden ones.
“You alright?” The boy inquired, gently pushing himself off the wall and walking towards Aether. He instinctively took a step back from the boy, who seemed to understand the action. “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m assuming you found yourself in a strange dorm room too, right?”
Aether raised his brows. “Wait… The same thing happened to you?” Aether asked.
“Yes.” The boy nodded, the ponytail his white hair was tied in bobbing slightly in sync with his nod. “It’s the same for all of us. I’m assuming you also don’t know this place?”
Aether took a second to look around at his new surroundings. They were in a hallway lined up with doors, some kind of picture and name plate next to each door. Aether noticed a little pixel drawing of himself next to his door, as well as his name printed on the door. “No, I’m not sure where this is either.” Aether replied, glancing at the door next to his. The picture next to the door resembled the boy standing next to him right now, and the name on the door’s name plate read…
“Kazuha… Kaedehara?” Aether mumbled, looking back at the boy.
“Yeah, that would be me.” The boy, Kazuha, smiled at him. His eyes trailed off for a moment, fixating on Aether’s door. “Nice to meet you… Aether Viator.”
Aether gave a small smile back, still apprehensive about his current situation. “Wait, when you were talking about waking up in the dorm, you said ‘everyone’. Does that mean..?”
“Yeah, that’s right. We aren’t the only ones here.” Kazuha replied, causing Aether’s brain to scramble up just a little bit more. “With you, that makes sixteen ultimates here, all eighteen years of age.”
“Ultimates?” Aether asked.
“Yeah. Students who excel at one particular skill above everyone else. They’re given an ultimate title during their high school years that carry on through college and university, before retiring their title once their studies end.” Kazuha explained. “I… am assuming you are an ultimate as well?”
“Ultimate…” Aether murmured. He concentrated really hard, thinking back through everything he could remember so far, and yet… “Well, it would make sense if everyone here is an ultimate that I’d be one as well. But for some reason… I just can’t seem to remember what mine is.”
Kazuha dismissed his thought process with a wave of his hand. “Don’t worry too much about it. That’s probably the last of our worries right now, right?” Kazuha gestured around him, reminding Aether about the strange place they were currently in.
“Ah, right.” Aether said. “Do you know where everyone else is?”
Kazuha’s bandaged arm raised up as he pointed down the hallway. “They’re in the big room over there that looks like some kind of gym.” Aether gave Kazuha a questioning look, to which Kazuha simply shrugged. “We noticed you were the only person who hadn’t woken up yet, so I volunteered to stay here and wait for you while the others explored ahead.”
“I see… Thanks for that.” Aether replied. “Should we go then?”
Kazuha nodded as a reply before walking in the direction he pointed, Aether following right behind him. He made a note of the multiple rooms and strange doors they passed by on their way to the gym, until finally-
Kazuha opened the large double doors, exposing Aether to the interior of the gym. It was large and bright inside, with a shiny, polished floor. There were basketball hoops on either side of the room, a large stage to Aether’s left, and stadium bleachers to his right. And then, Aether’s eyes landed in the middle of the gym where Kazuha was walking to, approaching a large group of people who had all turned to the direction of the noise. And just like that, all eyes were on him.
“Aiya! He’s finally up!” A girl with a dark hat piped up, running up to Aether immediately and examining him. “Morning, sleepyhead!”
“Uhhh..?” Aether let out, confused at the gesture. A tall guy with blue hair chuckled, stepping forward slightly.
“ Come now, don’t invade his personal space like that. Look at him, you startled the boy.” He lightly chastised, causing the girl in front of him to pout and scurry back towards the group.
“Um, hi?” Aether said, coming out as more of a question.
A girl who had what looked like… horns? Chuckled and raised a hand. “Good morning. We were all waiting for you to come so we could actually talk about what’s happening around here.”
“Took you long enough.” a boy toward the back of the group scoffed. What a strange hat he has on , Aether thought to himself.
A boisterous laugh broke Aether out of his trance, as a large and muscular man stepped forward and stretched his hand out to Aether. “Welcome to the gang, kid! No need to be shy, we aren’t strangers here!”
“Um. But we are?” Aether replied, stepping to his side and avoiding the man’s hand.
“He completely rejected Itto. I like him.” Another boy with wine red hair snickered. Itto glared back at the guy.
“I’m sorry, but does anyone know why we’re here?” Aether asked. The room fell silent again, everyone looking at each other before a girl with quite a beautiful outfit stepped forward, her fluid movements slightly mesmerizing Aether.
“We were all discussing that as we awaited your arrival.” The girl replied, before raising her hand in a thinking pose, her brows furrowing. “The truth is, no one here knows what’s going on. We all woke up in a strange dorm room with no recollection of what happened prior to ending up here.” Now that Aether thought about it, it was strange that he just couldn’t remember what he was doing yesterday that may have gotten him in this situation.
“If I may make a suggestion.” A girl with icy blue hair said, looking strangely similar to the blue haired guy earlier. She brought up her fan to her face as she spoke. “None of us know where we are right now, and at the moment it seems there’s nothing we can do about that. But we also don’t know anything about each other either. And that is something we can change.” She explained, smiling slightly to herself as she looked around at the people around her. “How about we all go around and introduce ourselves? That way we aren’t strangers trapped in a strange place.”
A boy with dark green hair leaning against the wall rolled his eyes. “Really? What good will that do?”
“Well we certainly won’t get anything done just standing around here.” A girl with some kind of witch hat replied. “Who knows how long we’ll be in here for? At the very least, we should know each other’s names so we can work together in the future.”
“Good idea!” A tall, blonde guy exclaimed rather excitedly for their situation. “Alright then, lets go around and introduce ourselves!”
Kazuha looked back at Aether and shrugged. “Guess this is what we’re doing now.” He chuckled. “I guess I should introduce myself properly this time.” Kazuha turned his body to face Aether, a warm smile plastered on his face. “Hello Aether, my name is Kazuha Kaedehara. I am known as the Ultimate Flutist.”
“Flutist?” Aether cocked his head. “As in, you play the flute?”
“Correct. Rather professionally.” Kazuha explained. “I’ve been playing the flute since a young age, and have honed my skills since. It may sound strange at first, but my favorite kind of flute is actually a leaf.” He smiled mischievously, anticipating Aether’s confusion.
“W-What?”
“You see, along with the flute, I am a big fan of traveling.” Kazuha replied. “Exploring mountains and plains, taking naps on grassy plains with the sun shining just right are all where I truly feel happiest. Though, as you can imagine, it would be rather bothersome having to carry my flute around with me.” Aether nodded along, signaling to Kazuha he was listening. “Therefore, I found on my travels that if you blow on the right leaf in the right way, you can achieve a whistling sound similar to that of the flute.”
“I see. Never knew that was a thing.” Aether muttered.
“The sounds of nature are beautiful, my friend.” Kazuha sighed happily. “It’s an activity I look forward to getting back to, once we leave this strange place. But alas, I’ve gone on enough about myself. You should go make your rounds with the others. I’m sure you’ll find some… Interesting personalities.”
“R-Right!” Aether said, just remembering the others that were conversing with each other. “I’ll go do that now. I’ll see you in a bit, Kazuha!”
Kazuha waved him off as Aether turned to face the ground. Well, they certainly weren’t a small group. Aether mentally prepared himself to do more socializing than he would ever do normally in a month, and with a deep breath, took a step forward towards the group.