Disclaimer: We don't own KHR at all except our ocs.
Apology to Readers: We are sorry for not continuing this collaboration fic; however, due to personal circumstances, the story will only focus on two main characters from now on. Technically now a re:remastered
Five Years Ago
"Happy Thirteenth Birthday!" Two voices chimed in sync. Two girls sat across from each other, each holding a nicely decorated box.
"You're not handing me something that might scar me for life or give me a heart attack right, Vi?" The first girl narrowed her eyes at the other as the two exchanged presents.
"Hahaha…" Vi laughed nervously. "Why ever would you have that idea? I would never do such a thing! Lana, frankly I'm offended you would ever insinuate that I would do that!" She put a hand on her chest in fake offense.
"The last time you gave me a present, it was a bunch of drawings of my favorite characters' faces on the body of horses, and the one before that was slenderman's face in the box." Lana recalled how loudly she yelled in a combination of fear and disgust. Her older brother, Will, was amused by the way she reacted to all of them.
"Ha! Oh yeah, that was priceless, I think I got a picture of your face when you saw it." Vi snickered at the thought of it. "Mm sure maybe those gifts were weird, but I swear this one isn't bad."
Lana hoped so, otherwise she'd regret opening the box. "If you say so."
"On the count of three." Lana glanced at Vi for a bit to make sure they were opening at the same time.
"Should it be on three or go?" The other girl wondered out loud.
"You just want to open my present, don't you?"
"You know me so well bud. Alright then on three."
"One."
"Two."
"Three!"
The sound of ripping wrapping paper filled the room, followed by two loud gasps.
"It's Enma!" Lana gasped in surprise as she turned the item around a few times, inspecting the plushie as if it was a vital piece of evidence. "A legit plushie of Kozato Enma! I thought they didn't sell these due being a limited edition product!" A smile formed against her lips as she held the merchandise close.
"Chrome!" Several seconds of high pitched screaming caused Lana to cover her ears, looking concerned for the other girl. "I love her so much, oh my god, thank you. She's so beautiful, I'm so emotional right now." Vi hugged the plushie in her arms, fake sobbing. "I can't believe this. It's perfect, thank you so much!"
"You're thanking me?! I should be thanking you for Enma! How in the world did you manage to get him?" Lana had to admit, Enma had lack of recognition due to only appearing in the manga for just two arcs. Therefore only a handful of people that made plushies of this particular character were hard to find.
Still hugging her own plush, Vi hummed softly. "Hmm, well it took a while, but I found someone that would do commissions for a good price."
"Commissions?" Lana blinked in confusion, and glanced at the tag on the plush's leg bearing a familiar logo was on the tag. "Wait, did you get the plushie from mickeycookies too?"
"Yeah-wait what do you mean too?" Cocking her head to the side, Vi checked the tag on her plushie. "Wow. This is… Absolutely surreal. What are the odds?"
"I guess we were thinking the same thing? I mostly saw Mukuro plushies than Chrome ones in actual KHR merchandise selling sites." Lana knew how popular the pineapple headed boy was among the the large fandom, but she knew how much Vi loved Chrome over Mukuro.
Brushing away a fake tear, Vi nodded. "I know right? Why don't people love my smol girlfriend?" Fake sniffling for more emphasis, she continued. "She's just as good as Mukuro, and she's just so cute. I mean, look at her!" Vi held up the doll and shoved it in Lana's face.
"I don't need to see Chrome this close to my face Vi!" Lana pushed the plushie back to Vi, not liking how her personal space just got broken by a mere plushie. "Chrome is breaking my bubble."
"She's just so cute, I still can't believe you got me this!" Tucking the plush under her arm, Vi got a gleam in her eye. "You know what a gift this awesome deserves?"
"What?" Lana held a look of confusion, unsure of what Vi was going to do. She scrunched her eyes at her.
"Group hug!" Vi grabbed Lana and, after a moment's thought, grabbed the two plushies as well.
"Gah!" Lana couldn't breathe; it was another one of Vi's bone crushing hugs. "Vi." She tapped the girl's arm repeatedly to make her stop. "Let go, I can't breathe."
Vi looked down at the other girl with a straight face. "Nah, we're bonding." She continued the hug, squeezing tighter. "We're having a bonding moment."
Lana felt like she was dying of suffocation, oh wait she was. "Can I breathe now?"
"Yep, okay that's enough bonding, you're looking a little blue there, bud." Vi grinned mischievously. "Well, I can't wait to see how you'll top this gift next year!"
After taking in a gulp of air, Lana laughed weakly while making a mental note that she shouldn't have bought the owl plushie meant for Christmas.
Present Time
Setting: Manila International Airport, Philippines 1:00 PM
"It's hot…" The young lady complained, panting lightly as she pulled a dark green leather luggage. "It's too hot…!"
Stopping, the lady quickly tied her long black hair into a low ponytail, "Well that kind of beats the heat."
Glancing back up, the person breathed out leaning her arms against the handle of her luggage, "Congrats Lana Vega, you finally made it to the airport where your well deserved air conditioning is waiting for you. Now if only it wasn't too humid outside, I would've tolerated it better."
"Vi's so lucky that she's closer to Japan than me." She sighed out of jealousy as she fanned herself from the heat. "I have to leave so much earlier than her." Sporting a white sleeveless halter top and jean shorts, Lana slowly made her way up to the doors.
"Ouch." Lana heard someone groan in pain, and shifted her gaze over to the source. It was from an an elderly woman who seemed to be carrying five boxes of food while leaving. Nobody seemed to be helping her, so Lana rolled her luggage over to ask if the woman needed help.
"Do you need help?" Lana asked in her parent's native tongue, the words felt awkward since she wasn't so used to speaking the language. She had her fair share of having knowledge of Tagalog, but preferred speaking in English whenever her parents or relatives talk to her.
"Oh thank you so much young lady." The woman kindly replied as Lana assisted the woman in taking some of her load. "My grandson was supposed to help me, but my grandson is very stubborn and hasn't been helping me as much."
"It's not a problem ma'am." Lana made sure the woman made it to an area where her grandson could see her. Though she seemed oddly persistent in making Lana stay a little longer to see her grandson. However Lana excused herself and made a mad dash back to the entrance. She remembered those tricks, those were the ways an elderly woman can lead you into matchmaking with their own relatives.
"Sorry ma'am but now's not the time for me to get married. Especially to someone I barely even know." Lana muttered to herself while wearing a frown at the thought of her marrying some complete stranger. Lana dragged her luggage with pride in remembering that she was going somewhere. "Plus I'd rather not be late for my flight, I need to meet up with Vi in Japan soon."
By the time she headed back to the front doors, something caught her attention. Beside the front doors was none other than a trinket vendor. Halting her flip-flop covered feet, the brown eyes hidden behind glasses sparkled.
"Handmade jewelry and knick-knacks?" Lana walked over to take a closer look at the items. 'Are there any bargains?'
Among the souvenirs were carved wooden water buffalo and horse charms, seashell necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings. There were some rings with freshwater pearls, one of the most common gem souvenirs. But besides those, what was left was…
"Mood rings." She blinked in surprise while taking a closer inspection of the said items. 'Now that I think about it…the cheapest ones out of these items are the mood rings.'
"Miss?" The vendor's voice snapped Lana out of her thoughts as he kindly gestured to a ring in front of her. "Do you wish to try it on? It wouldn't hurt to try and see the color of your current expression."
"O-oh…Alright I guess." Lana calmly replied as she picked up the ring from the table. ' I mean, it is a mood ring. Perhaps I should try to see what my mood is anyway.'
Slipping the ring onto her left hand, Lana raised it up high above her head. Watching the swirls of colors change on her index, Lana hummed in curiosity as she tried to make out the current color of her mood. "Red? No, orange? Hm...it's like a mixture. The color of blood oranges that resembles a garnet."
'But why does this color seem familiar to me? Oh, that's right. It's from-'
Before Lana could even finish the thought, a sudden poof burst forth. A puff of pink smoke left in place.
"The soft one is complete!" The vendor cheered for himself as he put on a checkered patterned hat. "On to the scary one," he shivered before disappearing into the shadows.
Setting: Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan 2:00 PM
A tall girl with straight black chin length hair sat in the back seat with her ankles crossed delicately, playing with her phone with her headphones plugged in. Loud pop music could be heard through her headphones.
The chauffeur pulled up to the curb and turned to face the girl. "Ms. Chang, we've arrived at the airport."
She looked up at the call of her name and realized the car had stopped. Pulling out her headphones, she took a couple seconds to come back to herself before responding back in Mandarin.
"Thank you as always, Alex, for your excellent driving. Although how many times have I asked you to call me Vi?" She grinned at her family driver as she got out of the car. The man got out of the car and removed the girl's luggage from the trunk. "Thanks again. Can I expect you to pick me up when I come back?"
He tipped his hat as he got back into the car. "Of course, Ms. Chang. Your mother also wanted me to pass along a message to 'have fun in Japan with your friend and also don't buy too much food.' Do you want me to give her your reply?" he asked through the open window.
"Nah thanks. I can always just Line her when I'm inside. Also just call me Vi already!" She pouted as she stepped away from the car. The car pulled away from the curb as the girl waved goodbye.
Purse on her shoulder, she adjusted her black leggings and ruffled lilac tank top and prepared to head into the building when suddenly an arm fell around her shoulder.
A cocky looking young man had put his arm around her. "Well, what's a fine girl like you doing here? Did I hear you say your name is Vi?" He smirked in what he assumed to be a handsome grin.
Without missing a beat, Vi sunk her nails into his forearm and watched smugly as he flinched at the sharp pain. "Who the fuck do you think you are?" She bared her teeth and looked down on him. "You're lucky that I don't claw your face off right now. Get out of my sight."
Paling quickly, the man whimpered a little, nodded, and retreated.
Vi harrumphed and checked herself. She dragged her large black rolling suitcase and walked into the airport. Looking around, she spotted an Eslite store and decided to window shop before she had to check in.
Entering the small bookstore, she offhandedly thought it was strange there was no one in there except the cashier. Shrugging, she spotted a couple of gachapon machines in the corner and approached in hopes of getting a small cute gift for Lana. The nervous shopkeeper kept a careful watch over the girl, anxious about the success rate of this attempt.
Upon seeing the girl arrive at the gachapon machines, the shopkeeper coughed lightly, catching the girl's attention, "Excuse me, miss…are you in need of assistance?" Under his breath, he muttered, "Please say no."
Having overheard the man be so negative, the young woman raised an eyebrow and turned to face the man, "Why of course! Thank you for offering!"
Stepping closer, she continued, "I'm looking for a gift for a friend. She likes cute things like baby animals and flowers."
Panicking over the fact that she actually requested help, the clerk choked out a reply, "Well…Um…Let's see now…Well we have…Rings! In the gachapon machines! They would make a great present for anyone!" Arm waving towards the gachapon section, he quickly took a couple steps away from the girl.
"Rings?" She looked at the machines and frowned. "Do you only have mood rings?"
The poor man whimpered in fear and nodded quickly, "Yes, I'm so sorry. Those are the only rings we have available at this time."
"I guess they're alright," Vi mused and bent down to insert a few coins into the slots. After twisting the knob, a purple capsule orb rolled out. Grabbing the plastic orb, the cap fell off by itself revealing a mood ring and a corresponding color chart.
"What the fucking goddamn son of a bitch piece of shit shoddy packaging right there. Takes all the fun of opening it." Muttering to herself, she rolled her eyes frustratedly and inspected the ring itself.
'A bit cheap, isn't it. Well it is a kid's toy.' She put it on her right hand middle finger, turned to the nervous, sweating man, and showed it to him. "How does this look, sir?"
The man dabbed a checkered handkerchief across his forehead. "It is a very nice shade of purple, miss." He gave her a nervous smile, until she turned her gaze to her finger.
"Huh, purple." She contemplated the color in silence. "Well." And then it all went up in a thick cloud of pink smoke.
"Thank god that's over." The salesman wiped himself with an entire paper towel roll, covered head to toe in a nervous sweat.
"Time to close up shop and report back."
In an unknown location
In a warmly lit room that looked very similar to a stereotypical living room, two clouds of smoke appeared around a table simultaneously.
"Oof…"
"What the actual fuck."
Once the smoke cleared, the duo looked around and were shocked to see each other staring back from across the table.
"Vi?!" Lana's voice practically croaked upon seeing the familiar friend, "I…I thought you were heading to your respective airport for Japan like we planned?"
"Yeah, I got to the airport and something happened. Eugh I feel like I got ran over by a plane." Rubbing the seat of her leggings, Vi opened her fist to reveal an empty capsule as well as a mood ring on her finger. "I bet this has something to do with it. I remember everything up until I put this ring on."
"Same, I can't even remember how the vendor looked like after I saw the ring." Lana raised her hand close to stare at the ring in worry before turning over to Vi, "This is starting to get weird now. Better yet, what're we going to do? We don't even know where we are."
Vi looked around the unoccupied room and saw nothing out of the ordinary. "Well, I suppose–"
She was interrupted with a soft poof, not unlike the one that sent them there. A note appeared on the table between them.
"That's some creepy magic mumbo jumbo going on right there." Lana side-stepped over to Vi, hoping nothing else appears out of the blue. "Do you think we were kidnapped by some deranged magician or something?"
"Dude." Vi gave Lana a look. "That would be so fucking cool. But let's read the note first before our minds get away from us."
Grabbing the note and turning it so they could both read, the duo mumbled out loud what was written neatly on the piece of paper.
Welcome~
I have decided to start a new game, and I have chosen you two as my new players. As you would call it in your world, think of this as your tutorial. I have left personal tutors there with you, who can be identified by their pink hair and masks, so take your time to learn how to fight and use the power of the rings. I will meet you once you are done. If, and only if, you win the game, you may go home. Until then, have fun learning the ways of this world.
-Checkerface
Looking around, the duo found that there were suddenly two women with pink hair and black masks who were waiting for them.
"Thank you for waiting. We are the Cervello organization, serving directly under Checkerface. No more and no less. In this room of warped time and space, we'll serve as your training instructors," they said simultaneously, in oddly monotonal voices.
"Before we begin, please allow us to make one small change to the rings you currently have." Taking a step forward to the two, they took their hands bearing the mood rings. Within their clasped hands, light shone from between the gaps of their fingers as the mood rings on each of the girls morphed into something else.
Rings embedded with gems corresponding to the color of what their mood rings were. Garnet and Indigo.
"What?" Lana gaped at the sudden change in the rings appearances as she tapped the item a few times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating, "A real gem ring?"
"Is this real silver? This is much better quality than the shoddy plastic of the mood ring." Vi brought her hand closer to her face and grinned. "I wonder how much it's worth."
Snapping her thoughts back to their current situation, Lana addressed the mysterious duo who changed the items they just received. "Excuse me, but is Checkerface the one who pulled us in here?" It seemed odd that a man with the power to bring them to a mysterious place would send proxies instead of meeting them directly.
"That is correct. As we stated before, we are the Cervello, serving directly under Checkerface in order to aid you in your training. He will meet you when you are done."
"I see." Lana mumbled Vi quietly with suspicion in her eyes, "Hey, um…do you seem to find their names familiar or something? I can't seem to put my finger on it."
Vi shook her head, "Nothing comes to mind. Although, it sounds kind of Italian, don't you think?"
With a snap of their fingers, two weapons appeared in the masked women's arms. This surprised the heck out of the duo. After getting over their initial shock, they looked at each other, confused as to how the women did that.
The one standing before Lana held a white crossbow with the body shape of a pistol, and to her it seemed a bit too heavy for the masked lady to carry. However once the Cervello handed it to her anyway, but the unexpected weight of the weapon almost sent Lana to the nonexistent floor, "Heavy…"
She wondered as to how the lady was able to hold this in the first place, since she could barely even carry it as the masked being did.
The second Cervello handed over a thicker-than-average pink ruler with a slit in one edge. "Oh? What the hell is this?" Examining the offered gift, Vi waved the ruler around, until it opened to reveal a hidden blade. "Oh my god, it's like a folding knife, but with a damn machete."
One of the Cervello spoke up. "Now that you two have received your respective weapons…let the individual training begin."
One could say earning free self defense training would be great. However the duo had no clue as to why they would need training in the first place. Getting transported into an unknown area practically with nothing in it except them, the Cervello, possibly this supposed Checkerface, and a table did nothing to help them understand their current situation. Nonetheless, the pink-haired women made them practice their given weapons and rings until they were satisfied with the two's progress.
"You need to hold like this." The Cervello helped fix Lana's posture in holding the pistol-like crossbow. With the end touching the clavicle edge of Lana's shoulder, the position of the weapon made it feel as if she were using a rifle. Lana's hand visibly trembled as her finger tapped lightly onto the trigger.
"B-But…I never used a firearm in my life!" Lana grimaced at the pressure of using this particular weapon due to it having a recoil effect upon shooting the arrows. Just after one shot of an arrow, a punch from the body of the crossbow returned. It seemed painful enough as is. Though once the Cervello started teaching her about the purpose of the orange gem ring, t seemed easier on Lana's means compared to handling the firearm.
"You must focus your resolve on this ring." At first, Lana found it weird for the Cervello to mention it. She wasn't really sure about her resolve in truth, but one thing was for sure. Lana wanted to find out the outcome of this supposed training in the first place. 'Why were we chosen in particular? Why do we have to undergo training? Who in the world was this Checkerface? Who are the Cervello? Why did both of those names sound familiar to me when I can't even recall a single thing? What in the world was the game Checkerface was proposing to the two of us?' These questions continued to fuel her resolve, leading Lana to feel something warm envelope her hand. Although she had to admit, the orange flame dancing atop of the ring she wore seemed like a spectacular sight. "What a pretty hue…" She breathed in admiration of the singular color.
Now as for Vi, she was having the thrill of a lifetime as she stabbed, mutilated, and chucked her newly acquired sharp blade into the straw dummy. In the real world, she kept herself in prime health, running daily and keeping up with a self defense class. She had a lot of frustration to work out from this entire situation. She had too many questions about everything but it was obvious that the Cervello weren't going to spill anything. So she might as well get the most out of their mandatory training lessons.
Suddenly she remembered something she saw from an action movie. She mentally calculated the move and decided it would be really damn neat if she succeeded. After she propped up a standing dummy, she stood in front of it, appraising it. Abruptly, she kicked her left leg at its face, spun on her feet, then simultaneously brought her left leg down and right arm up. The momentum caused her machete to swing faster and it completely beheaded the poor straw dummy. It made the Cervello instructing her on the said weapon feel slightly wary of the Indigo-ring wielder.
"Ahaha!" Vi stood back and laughed haughtily at her new accomplishment.
Feeling like her physical skill was pretty good, she decided to focus on the part she was dreading: lighting the ring. She watched as Lana lit her ring and felt oddly frustrated. The indigo flame flickered in and out as Vi tried to focus her resolve onto the flame, until a burst of anger and frustration made her to throw the knife at the now headless dummy. Many things happened at once. The ring lit up, the weapon vanished in midair, and a hole appeared in the center of the dummy's chest. Vi straightened up in surprise, mouth open. Her sudden change of emotion caused the ring to go out and the knife reappeared, with the blade tip showing in the middle of the dummy's back.
In the background, the woman wondered if she should congratulate Vi or not on her accidental victory.
Little did the duo know, as soon as they had entered the space, the person known as Checkerface had quickly begun stealing most of their memories concerning a particular universe. Only leaving the bits and pieces they treasured most was all that was left. Converting these stolen memories into tangible crystallized shards, Checkerface turned those shattered memories into the crystallized center for their rings to help awaken the duo's dormant power.
Each ring held a symbol in the center. A star within a pale yellow crystal. A crescent moon in the middle of a pure white crystal.
The star, a constant symbol of light and guidance, gently helping those who need it. Its light, while numerous and prevalent, can easily be hidden, can collapse on itself with too much stress, and can be lost if you take your attention away for even a second. The moon is a mixed symbol, waxing and waning, shedding light on things in the open and obscuring things hidden in the shadows. It hangs overhead, pulling and pushing, a mysterious presence that can mystify, yet undergoes phases that, once they are understood, are reliable.
Both the stars and moon are a constant presence in the sky, even if they are not always visible.
Checkerface grinned in amusement of the crystal rings held in his grasp, "What a curious pair of personalities…I wonder as to how they met?"
With the rings finally done, Checkerface turned his attention to the room holding the two individuals whose training seemed to be wrapping up nicely.
The aforementioned individuals were exhausted with learning something of which they wouldn't think of using in their lives.
"Is this enough?" Lana questioned the Cervello who tutored her, "Are we finally going to meet this supposed person you've mentioned from before?"
"Come on, let's get this show on the road." Vi bounced on the balls of her feet and flipped her knife open and closed repeatedly. "Is he waiting for a formal invitation?"
The sound of a door opening made the two of them turn their heads to it. A tall man wearing a checkered-pattern hat and mask covering the upper part of his face stepped through into the room. Compared to the duo, he was dressed in a fancy suit ready to state his business. However the hat and mask kind of killed the image.
"Hello. You may call me Checkerface."
"Congratulations on finishing the tutorial for the game, but I would also like you to think of it as a trial. There will be many more trials in the game to come that you must overcome in order to win. But like any good game, the tutorial would not just leave you finishing the tutorial and thrust you into the game play without some kind of support."
He paused, handing each of the duo a ring of a different color and gem from those they already had. "I have created these to be your primary ring flames, as they more directly correspond with your soul as well as your mind . They would thusly react strongly to your desires and resolve. I'll explain a little more on your individual flames after I finish explaining the rules." It went without saying, of course, that he wouldn't even consider telling them how he made the rings.
"Finally, like every game, there must be rules. First and foremost, I'm sure you will have some knowledge of this world. That knowledge cannot be shared with the other characters, and none of you can majorly change the timeline. There is a story to be told after all, it wouldn't be good if the players could change it at their will, now would it?"
"Secondly, say nothing about your true selves and how you came to be in their world. We cannot have confusion and panic about our newly introduced characters. Third-" Checkerface paused, noticing a raised hand from Vi, "Yes?"
"Yes I have a question. Or more like multiple questions? First, where the fuck are we and what the fuck is happening? The knife was cool and all but I have shit to go back to. Like are you going to refund my airplane ticket since I've probably missed my flight? Is this some parallel universe or a completely different universe? You just magicked us into this world with some cheap jewelry, didn't you? Who the fuck are you, a god or something? What exactly is this game of yours and why did we get chosen? What are the rules of the game? What's the objective? How do we win? Why is my hand on fire but I don't feel anything? Like what's the whole physics behind this? Why did I get a ruler and Lana has a bad ass crossbow gun? That's unfair, don't you think? I mean I could probably handle a regular gun or something." Vi ranted, voice escalating as she stared down Checkerface.
The strange man turned in Vi's direction and somehow, Vi could just tell he was raising an eyebrow at her.
"Where's my luggage? I had my DS in there!" Vi waved her hands in the air, looking frantic.
Lana sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, but at the same time, wondered about her own DS. She was in the middle of finishing the last parts of her most recent rpg video game and had yet to know the ending of its story line.
"…You both seem to have many questions." Checkerface dreaded the thought of answering any of their questions and simply decided that he wouldn't, "They will be answered in due time. Let the game begin."
* POOF *
AN: The artist mickeycookies previously mentioned is a real artist, but too bad she doesn't make actual plushies however she does make art commissions.