Chapter Text
This was not what Shu had expected from the first meeting of the Five Eccentrics.
They had met up, intending simply to talk and get to know each-other, when suddenly, he had felt like he was falling, falling - and then they were somewhere… else.
It was dark. So, so dark. Endless blackness extended out from the couches and coffee table where they had been sitting, a horrible vast and empty silence. Beyond themselves and the furniture they had been using that had evidently been brought with them, there was nothing.
“What’s going on?” Natsume asked, jumping up from his seat in a panic.
Murmurs of confusion could be heard from each of them, with Shu fighting back panic as well. What was happening? Why was this happening?
Suddenly, almost as suddenly as they had been deposited here to begin with, a light burst into existence across from them, starting as a dot and then expanding into a line - and then a screen. At first it was just white - and then two lines of text appeared, slowly, as if they were currently being typed.
The first one was complete gibberish: Pix qi wlsa csy e tswwmfpi jyxyvi.
The second one, which appeared a few seconds later, however, made perfect sense: Let me show you a possible future.
“What does that mean…?” Rei frowned, “The future?”
“Amazing~!” Wataru laughed, “We shall get to see how things play out!”
“I suppose this is meant to get us to do better,” Shu huffed, “So that we might live more perfect lives.”
And then, without any further preamble at all, the screen began to play.
Xlex hec, M wea “mhspw” jsv xli jmvwx xmqi.
All five of the eccentrics blinked at the narration that poured out from the screen. It wasn’t a voice they recognized, and the words, like the first line of text that they had seen, were complete gibberish. Was the whole of this story going to be told in this way? What could they glean from that?
As the screen changed to show imagery of two boys in stage clothes, a redhead and a blond, performing, they began to be able to piece things together.
“That redhead…” Rei pointed out, “That’s Ritsu’s friend, Mao Isara.”
“So there is some weight behind the idea that this is actually about us and not simply utter nonsense,” Shu surmised.
“Why bring us to “watch” it though~?” Kanata asked.
“Kanata-niisan has a point,” Natsume said, “That voice wasn’t one of us, and the idols being shown right now aren’t us, either. So why bring us to see this?”
“Why indeed?” Wataru was smiling, “Let us see!”
Alex mqtviwwih qi jmvwx aew xli pmklx.
“There’s paper and pens on the table,” Natsume said, lifting up a notepad, “Are we supposed to take notes?”
“Well,” Shu took a notepad for himself, “It likely couldn’t hurt.”
On his newly-acquired notepad, Shu jotted down that the narrator was not Mao Isara, but that Mao Isara was somehow involved… he looked successful, at that. Who was Mao Isara?
Mx aew er ibtpswmzi, fpmrhmrk pmklx.
“...There are some similar sound groups being repeated,” Rei frowned, “Is this… some kind of alternate language? Code?”
“So it isn’t pure and simple gibberish…” Shu noted.
“Hm~” Kanata hummed.
Xlex aew ws “fvmklx” xlex M wgvieqih pmoi e jssp erh xvmih xs fpsgo xli pmklxw amxl qc lerhw mr xivvsv.
The footage soon became somewhat blocked by arms and hands, causing the eccentrics to murmur as to who this could be - their narrator, of course, but who was he?
The footage behind the arms, the footage of the blond and Isara changed to footage of two other boys in outfits that matched those of Isara and the blond. The new ginger was immediately recognizable as the child of ‘That Akehoshi’, the former super idol. Perhaps they were, the four of them, a unit? More likely than not…
“Ah, that’s Hokuto Hidaka!” Wataru cheered, “He’s in my drama club! Currently, I don’t believe he’s in any unit though… I do wonder what happened! He seemed so against pursuing his proper talents before!”
Shu put the name ‘Hokuto Hidaka’ next to ‘Mao Isara’ and ‘Akehoshi child’. Together with ‘blond?’, Shu put a box around them. A future unit. Perhaps they would be able to discern its name in the future, but Shu was uncertain, given that all the words so far said had been undecipherable.
Erh ew wssr ew M hmh - xli mhsp, als aew wmrkmrk sr wxeki, pssoih qc aec.
The footage behind the narrator’s arms clearly showed the Akehoshi child looking his way. All of them leaned towards the screen slightly, hoping to get a change in perspective -
Qecfi mx aew nywx qc mppywmsr, fyx syv iciw hmh qiix.
- only to be disappointed, as it only cut to an uncovered image of Akehoshi’s face. Natsume and Kanata both made audible noises of disappointment.
M aewr'x eqsrk xli eyhmirgi amxl gsyrxpiww wlmrmrk kpsa wxmgow, fyx mr e hevo tewwekiaec amxlsyx e wmrkpi vec sj pmklx -
They still didn’t get to see their narrator, gibberish speaking though he was, but the footage panned out to show that he was not among the mass of the audience. Shu and Rei narrowed their eyes, now somewhat worried about who this narrator could be.
Was he some sort of rival idol? A staff member? What was his aim?
Oh, if only they could understand what he was saying!
Jvsq xlex wxeki ws fvmklxpc mppyqmrexih, mx wlsyph fi mqtswwmfpi xs wii ercxlmrk mr xli hevo.
“I keep hearing similar sounds,” Rei said, tapping his pen against his notebook, “I believe that it is the spoken form of a written code. If he was speaking slower, or if something was written down that we could see, I might be able to decipher some of it.”
“The spoken form of a written code?” Natsume echoed, “That sounds fascinating, Rei-niisan! Can I help?”
“Of course,” Rei nodded, “Help me listen.”
The footage zoomed back in to all four members of the performing unit close up.
Fyx xlex mhsp rsxmgih qi erh wqmpih ex qi.
“Ks-lex… key…” Rei muttered, writing them down, “What do they mean?”
Li ibxirhih lmw lerh xsaevh qi almpi wmrkmrk.
Fyx, ex xli xmqi, M aew ibleywxih amxl izivcxlmrk mr pmji, erh M leh rimxliv hvieqw rsv lstiw -
“His ‘tone’ is changing~” Kanata pointed out, “He sounds ‘sad’. Too bad I can’t grant him a ‘wish’.”
M wxssh mr xli hevo almpi xlswi mhspw pmzih mr xli pmklx. Epp xlmw qehi qi viwirxjyp erh niepsyw…
“That is a very dark tone…” Wataru frowned, “Is our narrator a cause for worry? Is Hokuto-kun’s unit a cause for worry? Ah, how amazing~! A story told only with tone and body language!”
Shu disagreed. This was not amazing, it was annoying. Why couldn’t they just be told outright what was going on? This was hardly a deep performance, it was merely gibberish speak with an unknown narrator - what kind of information were they supposed to glean from this? Weren’t they supposed to learn from this to create a better future? How could they do that from this - this utter nonsense?
Jsv e qsqirx, M mkrsvih lmw kiwxyvi, almgl wiiqih pmoi er mrzmxexmsr.
Fyx M aew yrefpi xs gsrxvsp qcwipj mr e wigsrh. M gsyphr'x lipt vieglmrk syx qc lerh -
Their view was once again interrupted by the narrator’s hand - only this time, he was reaching towards Akehoshi and Hokuto and Mao and the blond. Kanata and Wataru both perked up, hoping for a view of their narrator. Shu couldn’t say he was uninterested, either.
However, the screen then momentarily went completely dark.