She strolled down the streets with her hands in her coat pockets, her hearing blocked with her headphones. The music stopped a while ago, but she didn't really care at this point. She gave side glances at the houses she passed and caught more glimpses of coffins and bloodstains the more she explored. She suppressed a small shudder as she readjusted her bag for the eighth time in these past five or so minutes. She walked across a pool of thick, red blood in order to walk up the steps of the dorms; she didn't bother looking back when she entered.
Mina wiped her shoes on the carpet when she walked in, finding the dorm completely deserted and coated in a disturbing green haze. No bloodstains anywhere at least. The teen grunted and took off her headphones, her ears exposed to the cold air.
"You're late," a small, boy-ish voice said. Mina looked over and saw a little boy in a prison uniform leaning on the front desk with his chin resting on his hands, staring at the girl with patient blue eyes. "I've been waiting a long time for you..."
Mina raised an eyebrow and the boy stood up straight before he snapped his small fingers, "If you want to proceed"-suddenly, the boy was in front of Mina- "please sign here," He gestured over to the desk. There was suddenly a crimson-color leather bounded book with a quill sitting in a jar of ink next to it.
"It's a contract," the book opened magically and confirmed itself to be a contract. Mina grunted, walking over to it as the boy continued to talk. "All it says is that you will take full responsibility for your actions. You know, the usual stuff..."
Mina took the ink-tipped quill and hovered it over the line where she would sign her name. She stared at the paper for a minute.
"I chooseth this fate of thine own free will..."
Mina hummed, placing the ink down and writing her name. Mina Arisato. She placed the quill back into the jar of ink and closed the contract before picking it up and handing it to the boy in the prison uniform. The boy held the contract close to his chest and his eyes turned half-lidded, lacking emotion.
"No one can escape time..." the boy backed up into the shadows, "It delivers us all to the same end..." he looked up and stared right into Mina's soul before he held the contract up to his right eye, "You can't plug your ears and cover your eyes..." with one swift movement, the contract has folded in his hand magically before disappearing completely. Mina felt her stomach drop when the boy held out his hand, the darkness slowly eating at him.
"...and so it begins..."
Mina stared helplessly as the boy melted into the darkness. She was alone again. She felt a chill run up her spine as the boy's words played in her mind on repeat. The girl sighed, readjusting her bag strap.
"Who's there!?" she jumped a bit at the sudden voice. She looked up and saw a figure in the shadows taking a battle stance. The voice seemed to belong to a girl. Mina relaxed a bit, only to get amped up again when the girl reached down to what looked like a gun holster on her leg. Mina held her breath while the other hyperventilated.
"H-how can you be- but it's-...!" she stammered. Mina opened her mouth, but the words were hitched in her throat. The girl suddenly glowered, "Don't tell me..." The girl took a deep breath and reached down for her gun.
"Takeba, wait!"
The girl with the gun whipped around and Mina looked up, the room suddenly illuminating with light and her headphones blasted her music so loud that she could hear the lyrics loud and clear, despite them laying on her chest. The power was back on and everything looked... normal.
"The lights...!" the gun-wielding girl gasped. Now that the lights were on, and Mina was able to see, the girl wore her school uniform with a pink sweater over it and she had shoulder-length brown hair.
"I didn't think you'd arrive so late," the voice belonged to an older girl—presumed to be about a year or two older than Mina, with blood-red hair covering both her shoulder and her right eye like Mina. She wore her school uniform as well.
She was stunning.
Confused—and a little dazed, the blue-haired female stopped her music player before crossing her arms expectantly as the older girl walked down the stairs. "I'm Mitsuru Kirijo," she said once she was in front of Mina, "I'm one of the students who live in the dorm,"
The girl with the brown hair turned to Kirijo, "...who's she?"
Kirijo smiled, "She's a transfer student. It was a last minute decision to assign her here,"
"Don't I know it..." Mina thought, uncrossing her arms and shoving her hands in her pockets. She had only received word about the transfer about a day ago. So it really shouldn't have been a shock that Mina would arrive late.
"...she'll eventually be moved to a room in a normal dorm," Mina raised an eyebrow at this. This wasn't a normal dorm?
"Is it okay for her to be here...?" The girl with the pink sweater—loudly—whispered to Kirijo. The older teen nodded with an amused grin on her face, "I guess we'll see..."
Kirijo turned to Mina with a polite smile, "This is Yukari Takeba. She'll be a junior this year too, just like you," Takeba turned her body to Mina with a small, forced grin, "Hi, I'm Yukari,"
Mina hummed, "...Mina Arisato,"
"Nice to meet yo-"
"Why do you have a gun?" Mina cocked her head towards the gun holster on Takeba's leg. Takeba jumped, letting out a yelp in surprise.
"Huh?!" She quickly relaxed and regained her composure, "W-well, it's sorta like a hobby... Well, not a hobby but-"
Before Takeba could ramble on, Mitsuru quickly chimed in, "You know how it is these days, it's for self-defense. It's not a real gun of course,"
Mina grunted, letting it go for now. Even if it was for self-defense and was fake, wouldn't you want to hide the gun so the attacker wouldn't see it?
Kirijo placed a hand on her hip, "It's getting late, you'll find your room on the third floor. You should have everything you need there already,"
"Oh, I'll show you the way!" Takeba chirped. Mina shrugged and nodded. Takeba and Kirijo exchanged glances before Takeba walked towards the stairs with Mina trailing behind her.
_
"Here we are!" Takeba announced loudly, making Mina wince a bit. Takeba turned to Mina with a bright smile, "Pretty easy to remember right? Since it's at the end of the hall,"
Mina nodded, drumming her fingers along her bag strap. Takeba hummed, "Hey, can I ask you something?" Mina shrugged in response. Takeba scratched at her sweater, "On your way here from the station, was everything...okay?"
"...yes," was all Mina replied with. If she admitted that she saw blood stains everywhere, that there were coffins that plagued the streets and the houses, Takeba would think she was crazy. Who could blame her though? If some kid told Mina they saw what she saw, she'd think they were crazy too.
Takeba nodded, "Well, I better get going. And, I know you probably have other questions, but save them for later 'kay?" Mina nodded, "Well, goodnight!"
And with that, the teenager turned on her heels and walked down the halls, leaving Mina alone. Mina scrunched her eyebrows together before shrugging and opening the door to her temporary room. She fumbled around for the light switch before she walked in and closed the door. Mina looked around the spacious room with a look of awe. The room was your traditional dorm room, except it was quite larger than any other dorm Mina has ever seen. There was a sink and mirror next to the door by two large windows. There was a desk near the third window. The windows had blue curtains on them, which were closed. The bed was in the back of the room and was centered with two small night stands on each side; and there was a leather chair that sat in the far corner next to it. In the other corner, there was a small TV stand with an old TV sitting on top.
Mina tossed her bag onto the bed, causing a thump to fill the eerie silence. She grabbed her headphones and unwrapped them from her neck before she set them on the desk. She unzipped her jacket and placed it on the bed before she kicked off her shoes, setting them by the desk. She walked over to her bag and unzipped it to reveal multiple piles of clothes. She grabbed her bed clothes from one pile and set them on the bed before she separated each piece of clothing—afterwards, she took out her toothbrush and toothpaste for later. She grabbed her black t-shirt and set it away from the rest before she slipped out of her blue longsleeve.
Leaving only her sportsbra on, Mina grabbed the t-shirt and pulled it over her head and smoothed it out—careful not to pay attention to her bony arms. She then moved to her baggy leggings—everything was baggy on her. She slipped out of those and grabbed her long pajama bottoms and slid into those—grabbing the strings and tying them tightly—before grabbing her clothes and bundling them up and setting them aside. She'll deal with those later.
She zipped her bag and set it under her bed. She grabbed her jacket and set it on the chair near the desk. Growing tired and weary, Mina walked over to the sink and quickly brushed her teeth. She left her toothbrush and paste by the sink and turned off the lights before climbing into her bed. She sighed, burying her head in her pillow and covering herself with every sheet and every blanket before she eventually fell asleep.