Another idea that popped into my head. This won't be a one-shot; at least hopefully it won't be because I'll be able to maintain my interest long enough to publish something coherent.
MAJOR Episode 6 Spoilers; and some OOCs. Crossover with Higurashi, though more in passing plus usage of a character. Hint hint.
Perspective:
Pre-Game
The Senate congregated in a court that existed outside of time and space; in ones and twos they traversed the abyss that permeated the multiverse of kakera from their various realms into this court. The gathering of the Senate was an immensely rare event; most preferred laziness and decadence to actual work. Only in times of extreme duress would they bother to call a full council; most other times they handled issues such as they advancement of magicians into Witches through intermediaries. Most were Voyagers who had won the position through power and experience. A select few were promising Witches, or in rare cases magicians. Together, they formed the corrupt bureaucratic council that oversaw all magical beings; the Witches Senate.
Phasing while immaterial through the walls of the court, the assorted Witches and Sorcerers materialized onto thrones that lay in concentric circles around a raised platform. The thrones were beautifully ornate; one here was decorated with beautiful engravings of cherubs in mahogany wood, another there had a ludicrously tall chair back that rose nearly twice as high as the surrounding chairs and had actual plant vines draped delicately around it. A rather unnecessary display given that their powers could easily shift the appearance of the chairs at will, but human vanity still weighed heavily on even the strongest of magical beings. Within minutes, the seating was full and the witches babbling incessantly among themselves; the din echoing throughout the court as if it were a cave.
"Silence, I will have silence in this assembly!" The loudest voice to echo immediately hushed all the others; the speaker stood upright above her chair, incensed. A blond Voyager, eyes dark with age stood. Her garb was simple, her chair was n undecorated wooden piece. And she was held in common contemporary to be the strongest witch currently alive within the Senate; Iotazeta, Witch of Relativity. She could force any situation to have infinitely multiple results, trapping even the strongest of Witches in a hell of irresolvable outcomes, each to be resolved until the Witch ultimately went insane. Few could stand against her, only the wayward Featherine had ever openly defeated her; in a duel that would be the stuff of legends for centuries following. She lived simply in comparison to her extravagant peers; the brunt of her power was devoted to maintaining order within the magical community. And her efforts so far had all been successful.
"Right." Her voice was thin, almost frail with the centuries gone by; she seemed to have difficulty speaking and paused often to heavily breathe and gather her thoughts. "I have called the Senate to... for as you know, there is an... issue worthy of our immediate... concern." She hacked and coughed; her more lively and youthful apprentice, a male magician by the name of Broglie stood to ease back the sickly witch and address the congregation himself:
"I apologize on behalf of my master; Witch of Relativity," the apprentice began. His voice was smooth, his articulation impressive; and he caught the attention of the various magical beings assembled with ease. "She is not feeling well; recent events have worn heavily on her health." Iotazeta collapsed into her chair; she made impotent clutches at a porcelain cup laid on an adjacent table. A plump witch next to her kindly brought the platter into Iotazeta's hands; she drank deeply. Broglie glanced once at her, unsure; than continued to speak. "Reports from our furniture indicate that there has been a seismic shift in the balance of power." The room was silent, Iotazeta had stopped drinking and collapsed her head onto the desk; her neighbor had placed a kindly hand onto her shoulder. "The title of Golden Witch has been passed on. Without consent of the council."
An uproar broke out. Witches and Sorcerers alike discussed the revelation nervously; such an event had never happed in the long era that the Witches Senate had reigned. Several of Iotazeta's neighbors; including the big-boned one began to discuss eagerly among themselves. Iotazeta continued to lie still; her hair draped unceremoniously around her head. Broglie suddenly glanced around the court, nervous; he was unsure on how to proceed. He coughed; tried to call the court to attention. No one played any heed to him.
"Erm... attention! Please, I- or should I say my master...?" His command died in his throat; nobody payed attention regardless. The noise in the court was deafening; echoes bounced from the walls and rafters. "Hey! Will you all just be quiet-" No response from the crowd, if anything they seemed to get louder. Broglie made a useless gesture, he tried again. "Silence! I- I will have silence!" No use. Broglie could hardly hear himself in the rabble, he bit his lip nervously. Behind him, under the massive shadow cast by the fat witch; Iotazeta was stirred by the increasingly louder noise. She looked upon her apprentice, frowned vaguely; a word lost in the chaos of the room was uttered from her dry lips.
An explosion of power from the platform around which the conclave was built; blinding light and heat caused the nearest of Witches to recoil in fright and pain. Everyone was silenced at once, shock and surprise radiated from the still crowd. Broglie held his ground; he squinted his eyes against the radiance and could made out a vaguely humanoid shadow in it's heart. Iotazeta wriggled uselessly; the fat witch in her surprise had jumped and landed right on her superior, trapping her beneath her mass. All was quiet again; save Iotazeta's futile struggling.
"Who... who are you? And how have you come to the court of the Witches Senate?" This particular pocket of space was sealed off by the combined power of the full, two hundred body council; only with express permission from a member could one hope to enter the virtual fortress of magic. Broglie doubted that this could be a Witches furniture, the level of power radiated by his or her arrival alone was stronger than what all but the highest level furniture could muster up. His assumption was a Voyager; only slightly below Iotazeta's level, at least during her prime. He braced himself for combat; his muscles tightened, his teeth clenched. Around him, the assembled council watched uneasily. Time passed, the figure remained motionless; still obscured by a strong aura of light.
"I am here because your master over there called me. Obviously." The voice was masculine; impudent and cheery like that of a cocky child's. Broglie suddenly remembered Iotazeta; turning, he saw her writhing beneath the half fainted witch. He gave a sudden start as he realized his masters plight; he immediately rushed over to free her, along with several of her more proactive peers. Soon she was freed; Iotazeta took the time to calmly smooth her hair and dress while berating her confused apprentice. "Iotazeta. I'm surprised that you of all people would bring me back into the Senate."
"Yes, well..." Iotazeta approached the dais, many sets of weary eyes followed her. "You are hardly the person I would have chosen for this task. But then, nobody in particular meets the description, so you are the closest thing I can get." She shook her head; sighed. "There are others more competent than you at least. And far less troublesome as well. But in this case, they are the direct root of our issue to begin with; so calling upon them would obviously be less than appropriate."
The figure silhouetted against the shadow chuckled heartily. "Always a cold bitch right to the end." Several of the gathered Witches gasped, Iotazeta showed no signs of outrage. The figure laughed again. "Stoic as well. I see nothing has changed since I retired from the council and passed on the headship to you; right 'Iota-chan'? He put undue emphasis on his last word, Iotazeta grimaced. "If my assumptions are correct, your wonderful opinion of me aside; I would say that the problem here lies with my dear old friends correct? Lambda-chan and Featherine if you didn't know." Iotazeta faintly nodded; her counterpart shook his head. "I was afraid of such. Pleasant characters those two; and I say that with all of the sincerity of a child who has stolen from the cookie jar confronted by his parents-..."
"I would like to remind you of whom you are addressing," Broglie interjected, his features stony as he called out the unknown interloper. "This is the great Witch Iotazeta, master of the Witches Senate for two millennium; and this is that very Senate that you have trespassed into." Several of the bolder Witches gave cries of approval; most remained cautious and silent. "I am sure that between your rude mannerisms and outrageous lies, my master would have no intention of allowing you..." He froze at the look on his masters face; a cold glare killed whatever else he had intended to say. Humiliated, he sunk into the nearest chair and did his best to appear scarce.
"Your apprentice Iota-chan?" The figure nodded approvingly. "He has guts; I will give him that. Openly defending his master in the face of an unknown and potentially dangerous figure. Reminds me of myself; back when I was young and naïve." He scratched at his shadowy chin thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, I may have been an even bigger idiot back then than he was," he said contemplatively as he identified the brooding Broglie. He remained still in thought, then gave a start."Ah, but where are my manners? I must apologize for that less than savory introduction Iota-chan; old habits die hard after all. But you are among company, so I must watch my behavior!" The figure concluded cheerfully; it was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or not.
Iotazeta coughed, cleared her throat. The assembly relaxed; Iotazeta seemed to be handling the situation well enough, and they proceeded to return to idly bantering among themselves. At least they had the decency to talk in hushed tones. Iotazeta resisted the urge to roll her eyes or palm her forehead with difficulty; the ineptitude of her own organization exasperated her.
"Right." Iotazeta spoke directly to the arrival now, her voice dropped to a conversational volume. "You'll need to know the full situation, of course." Her counterpart nodded, the aura obscuring him began to fade, though his figure was still vague. "It would be an indeterminate amount of months ago; roughly 1986 on the game board. A game was started on the island of Rokkenjima, seemingly innocent enough at first. The game existed between Lady Beatrice- the current one I mean, the apprentice of the Beatrice you knew- and a human subject named Battler Ushiromiya. Again, the event seems innocent enough at first; hardly worth investigation on our part, even when Lady Lambdadelta joined."
"My agents were roused when the title of Beatrice was passed on in the third iteration of the game to another human subject; Eva Ushiromiya, now Eva-Beatrice, Witch of Anger. Lambdadelta herself approved of the advancement, suspicious in of itself, and the situation generally deteriorated from there. The title was passed on multiple times; it currently resides within a third human subject; Ange-Beatrice, Witch of Resurrection. But that is hardly the point."
"Lambdadelta began performing increasingly outrageous insubordinations: among other things she allowed the Eiserne Jungfrau to join the game under the command of a certain Erika Furudo, and took command of the game herself during it's fifth iteration; assignment of furniture and direct interference into running games are not allowed without a majority vote by the Senate. We tried to summon her to court; she abdicated her seat a month ago. Immediately afterwards, she gave the full power of the then deceased Beato- Beatrice after seceding her title- and gave it to Battler himself."
"I assume I do not need to tell you the implications of such?" The figure shook his head heavily, he sat in thought. The title of a witch was largely insignificant, some could make do without designated names; but the power of a witch was a dangerous tool. This power was carefully guarded by the Senate; the power of a witch could make a single person a dangerous threat depending on the level of power they received. Furthermore, the power of a witch inseparably binded the recipient to the giver; horrendous things could be done with such a bond.
"And what of Featherine? What has that one done to involve herself into this mess?" The light receded further; his skin could be barely made out as fair, his face remained impossible to see.
"She came to the game for a specific reason. This name will definitely interest you if nothing else; Featherine's former apprentice, Bernkastel." She smiled darkly, the figure in the dwindling aura visibly flinched. "Indeed. I suppose you need no elaboration, you know your own history well enough. Suffice it to say that Featherine has made this situation even more volatile; traitor as she is to the Senate, if she is willing to come into the open in blatant sight of us..." She left the thought hanging, it was obvious enough to him. They remained silent for several seconds, the man took his time to respond.
"Bernkastel..." The voice was faded, almost wistful. "You know what you are doing, bringing her up so nonchalantly knowing full well my... past." He paused, audibly gulped; his voice was constricted, as if he was restraining some heavy emotion with difficulty. "Well, suffice it so say on my side that you have my support. I will do as you request." Iotazeta grinned wickedly at the man; he regarded her with a stony stare. The light was almost gone now, one could make out soft, brown eyes and the bridge of his nose.
"Right. You are to join the game as a third party- possibly fourth given Featherine- and figure out what is going on beneath the surface. Someone has a motive for starting this game, and they plan something; that is for sure. Report your findings back to the court, and we can deal with the potential threat collectively." Nodding slightly, the man asked:
"Will I receive any aid? Furniture?" His voice was a monotone, he seemed to have his mind elsewhere. The light pulled back even further; a hand loosely clasped around some metal object emerged from the golden bubble.
"Yes. As I mentioned earlier, the Eiserne Jungfrau are being employed by one of the sides; so we are assigning the SSVD to you." The SS Van Dine; enforcers of Dine's 20 Rules, were the stricter counterpart to the Eiserne Jungfrau; far more specialized but excelling at what they could do. They would match the Eiserne Jungfrau well, and their leader, Wizard-Hunting Wright; was considered an equal or even superior to Dlanor A. Knox. The figure nodded, dark brown bangs bounced with his head. The aura was gone, the figure revealed.
He was a young adult at best, perhaps 16 or 17 physically. His clothing was simple, a red leather breastplate overlaid a greenish long-sleeved robe that extended from his neckline to the floor. Clenched in a hand was an medium length aluminum bat; a human object taken from a previous game as a token of his victory. The bat gleaned in the dim lighting of the chamber; as did his eyes, slightly obscured by his sloppy hair. His pose was relaxed; one that spoke of both laziness and impressive confidence at once.
"Maebara. Good to see you after so long." Iotazeta stepped onto the dais and extended a hand, still distracted; Maebara failed to notice her gesture and simply stood there blankly. Sorcerer of Faith, Maebara was a Voyager who had been at the apex of his power during the heyday of Featherine; the two had a long standing rivalry. Maebara had changed following a game with the upstart apprentice Lambdadelta; he had surrendered his position as Strongest Sorcerer despite his triumph. He had some sort of relationship with Bernkastel; born directly of that game though the two would drift apart and Maebara would go on to live a secluded life, isolated from the multiverse in a lonely world where nothing happened.
"Hm?" Maebara shook his head, he finally noticed the proffered hand and belatedly took it. "My apologies Iota-chan, I was distracted..." He dropped her arm unceremoniously; as fast as he had arrived he was gone. It was hard to tell why he had left, Iotazeta mused on it. Had she driven him off by appealing to him in Bernkastel's name?
It was hard to tell. She supposed it depended on how one looked at it.
Not my best. I really suck with stuff like exposition and description; I think it came out sloppy. Rest assured, future chapters should be better.
Thank you for reading so far.