Chapter Text
One - RUI
There's a little piece of paper here, unceremoniously shoved into this dusty drawer many years ago.
"My name is Kamishiro Rui. The day is Monday, the 27th of January. The year is 2018. Here is a song I have written. Goodnight."
Rui's own eyes moved from side to side across the crumpled, aging little piece of paper below him. The title read "Hymn of a Decadent Soul". Having initially picked up the sheet with confusion, slight initially forgotten memories of the long gone time he wrote this were coming back to him. It was one of the more uncomfortable times of his life, the lyrics to the very song below him being evident of that. "How could one possibly be so unstable…?" He considered his past life, and who he had for support. Akiyama… and her own life wasn't particularly stable at this point either. And Nene… who Rui sympathised with greatly. This was an age before meeting Tsukasa Tenma.
Rui looked up ahead and away from the paper, at his new invention, which currently took up a considerable amount of his room. It consists of around 70 little spheres, just smaller than golf balls, which move around according to none other than… music. The behaviour of these little brightly coloured spheres (With of course their little complex motors) allowed them to move with almost a distinct personality based upon the chord structure, tempo, key, et cetera…
When he finished with the first few, the test audio was a backing track for Becoming Potatoes. The spheres move here in a sort of circular, spiral motion, constantly pulsing in time to the drums, all at Rui's feet. He also tried a little piece by Mizuki, Samsa, which made the machines imitate a sort of wave motion, like water.
Looking down at "Hymn of a Decadent Soul", he realised what he must do. Beginning to sing the song slowly, he found its chord structure bizarre and misjudged, sort of nonsensical yet building a coherent piece. Not particularly happy at all. And what Rui was shocked to discover was that the spheres, rather than moving in some sort of regular pattern, instead chose to move almost randomly!? They whirred around his room bizarrely and violently, infrequently accelerating into the walls, which no other song would cause. How very strange. Before any sphere could possibly be damaged by such an impact, Rui stopped his singing abruptly and placed the sheet back down on his desk. At a higher volume, the movements caused by the song could be even worse, so it's perhaps best this particular piece go unused. But he's looking forward to the use of these little gadgets in a future show. They would make a fascinating accompaniment in so many ways.
Rui, while thinking of Tsukasa's possible reactions to this technology, realises that heading off to school would be a decent idea, and so sets off subsequently. He leaves the crumpled, almost cursed piece of music sitting on his desk.
Two - TSUKASA
Tsukasa has a day off school today.
Three - also Tsukasa
Tsukasa is incredibly bored. There is an opportunity today to study all of the physics data ready for an exam next week, but why do that??? Being the next star is priority, not being a professor.
But also he really can't be bothered doing that either… then he gets a call from Emu.
A sharp intake of breath, then: "TSUKASAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!"
Tsukasa proceeds to stumble back in shock, trip over a chair, and fall straight into a cupboard.
"WHAT'S SO IMPORTANT!???"
"I heard you have a day off today!!! we should hang out at Rui's!! i'm there RIGHT NOW!!"
But how the hell is she supposed to know that he's off today? Isn't she supposed to be in school? AND HOW IS EMU IN RUI'S HOUSE??
"Otori I'm really not so sure about this because why s-"
"You know, Rui has a new invention ready for the show next week!!! and it's gonna be ☆AMAZING☆ we should totally spend the day there!! I know you have cake too ♪"
Tsukasa turns around and looks in the fridge subconsciously, finding her to be completely correct. How is she managing this…??
"Okay okay Otori, you win. I'll spend today at Rui's. I'll be bringing my physics work, though.."
"WONDERHOY!!!! I can't wait, kasa!!!! Bye bye!!!"
Guess this was his day settled then. He packs a small amount of the cake into a little box, bringing various other miscellaneous, mostly study related items, and begins to head up the road.
'I wonder what Nene is up to today...?'
Four - EMU
Emu, after entering the household with her secret key, swiftly gallops into Rui's room at specifically 8:40 on a Tuesday. This is when no-one re-enters the household until around 4PM. She begins observing the spheres diligently, grabbing them one at a time. With a sharpie, she begins to add little yellow bows to all the purple ones. Much better!! Then, she grabs her little flip phone and calls Tsukasa quickly. After that, she begins to play a little piano solo on Rui's keyboard, gradually figuring out the method of making the spheres make a perfect star shape. The music isn't particularly pleasing to hear.
Moments later, Tsukasa is knocking at the door.
"Kasaa!!!!! You're here! Wow!!"
"I,, i didn't think i had much of a choice…"
Tsukasa makes his way into the living room, and begins to set out his work onto the table.
"Heyyy, can we go to Rui's room? I wanna show you something really awesome!!!"
Tsukasa and Emu follow through the little wooden door and look at the little spheres on the ground below them. Emu immediately begins to sing Becoming Potatoes and the little spheres rapidly begin to make circular, spiral motions around Tsukasa, who hops around up and down across the room in a sort of frenzy.
Emu stops singing. "STOP kasa!!!! Oh no, you're gonna end up breaking something!!!"
He continues yelling and dancing around even after the spheres have long stopped.
Five - NENE
Nene jumps up behind them, observing the chaos and suddenly wondering what on Earth is the matter. Why is she here…?
"I saw you trundling up the road earlier… and you left the door unlocked, you know…"
Tsukasa calms down and sits on the little blue couch,
"Ahhh, I suppose– we do ought to be more careful. Now that i think about it, no one else is aware of our presence right now"
Emu notices that Rui has Fortnite open on the pc, enticing her and Tsukasa, while Nene moves over to the desk, curious to see what and how Rui has been working on his new inventions. There's blueprints of all sorts of stupid ideas, and a little piece of printed sheet pinned to a wall. Nene quickly identifies this as Samsa, and wonders about what Mizuki and Rui might have in mind this time. Beneath her, however, she spots something new entirely: a little faded sheet of paper, with handwritten sheet music and lyrics. Hymn of a Decadent Soul. The haunting feelings exhibited from the disturbing lyrics heavily depress Nene, so she replaces it onto the table, but doesn't immediately disregard it.
"It's- quite extraordinary.. why? Why did he have to be like this?"
Nene looks around at the mysterious sphere based invention she viewed briefly previously. Not one person in this room currently could perceive Rui's immediate intentions this time. And yet Nene knew exactly who to ask.
six - MIZUKI
"The throbbing pain within my soul exists in everyone.
I’ve endured through the pain and the animosity of those wranglers,
but why is it that the throbbing pain never ends?
Just like gnawing on an apple, Sa-Sa-Sa-Sa-Samsa.
Kanade is irretrievably lost, Miku explains. That is why we cannot contact her right now. The mental issues are… quite serious, apparently.
Mizuki doesn't believe that for one second. Everyone can be "retrieved" from their fallen state.
"Well, I sympathise with Kanade very much, she is in so much of a similar situation as Rui was many years ago."
Miku, sitting upon a small slab in Empty Sekai, questions Mizuki about this strange man she speaks of.
"He was constantly afraid of an everlasting pain, and it stemmed.. it stemmed from … his fear of procrastination, really."
"Procrastination?", piqued Miku.
"Indeed. As in, people who find excuses to nothing, and therefore, find no sort of worth in their life."
Miku, concerned, responds, "Is that why… I feel so empty, too? Because I'm trapped in such a worthless place?"
Mizuki sits in silence for a long while, considering this conversation. What is Rui's personal Sekai like? Perhaps it would be a good idea to find out.
"I'm going to find Rui now, Miku. Please wish me luck!!"
"Goodbye. I hope you find a way for us to maybe see Kanade again."
What Mizuki isn't expecting to find when leaving Sekai is for Nene Kusanagi to have left a message for her. About none other than... Mr Kamishiro himself.
UNFINISHED