Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Project K.
Summary: Lineage's Game. A place where those who have lost something precious can have it returned should they win. Living a normal life, Fushimi suddenly begins seeing dreams of "someone he must meet" and enters to find that person's identity. The game progresses well until he encounters a chestnut haired boy who speaks of a world with Kings, strains and broken friendships.
Lineage's Game
Prologue
Fushimi's eyes snap open as he bolts up from his bed. Slightly shaken and gasping for breath he slowly raises sweaty palms to moistened cheeks and realizes he's crying.
"** ****** *** **** **** **** **** ** *** **** **** ******** **** **** **** **** ***** **** * ***** *** ***** ****** *** *****"
Almost. He swears he can almost hear the words. When he dreams he'd strain his ears, and try to concentrate but the words would always elude him.
Sighing, Fushimi gets out of bed to wash his face and get a glass of water. It had now been two months straight since he began seeing these dreams. They were random at first, just a bunch of shadows. Blots and blots of shadows. Mostly tall shadows, but there were some short shadows too. They were indoors, not sure where but the place looked too cramped to be housing the number of shadows that were there.
Fushimi had long since figured that those shadows were meant to be people. Who they were and why he saw them, he had no idea.
Sometimes the places the shadows gathered would change. The details were always fuzzy at best, but sometimes Fushimi would be able to guess the rough location of the places he was seeing. Outside, inside. New buildings, old buildings.
But since recently the dreams began to change. Rather than the gathering of shadows it became focused to one. Fushimi doesn't know how he can tell it's the same person given how similar the different shadows look, but he can. He doesn't think he's ever felt so confused in all his life. Every time that shadow appeared, a new emotion arose with it. Indifference, gratitude, happiness, sadness, anger, annoyance and even exasperation.
Then, the shadow began speaking to him. And Fushimi almost swears that he's even talking with the shadow as well. But it all ends when he wakes up and all he can remember are fuzzed out words and the feeling of being "so close yet now quite" in identifying what was said.
Fushimi sighs again. He couldn't keep going on like this much longer. Losing sleep and constantly growing more agitated, his parents and friends were wondering what was wrong with him. It didn't help that he was beginning to feel it was weird to even have parents and friends in the first place. And that worried his friends and family, who had then sent him to get counselling. They put him on sleeping medication which only increased his confusion as it would lengthen the amount of time he dreamt. He'd even woken up a couple of times unable to recall the faces of his parents and friends.
Since he knew he wouldn't be going back to sleep anytime soon, Fushimi boots his computer and clicks on the link that his friend had sent him a couple weeks back. It was supposed to be something like a "get back what you lost" game and it would be held soon. His friend had mentioned the possibility of the dreams being a past life, or "lost memories of another time". And so by entering, Fushimi would be able to "retrieve" these "lost memories of another time and find the answers to whatever was haunting him in his sleep. If he found the answers, then wouldn't he be able to finally get some rest? And so his friend's logic pointed to him trying out the game and, hopefully, freeing himself from his restlessness.
Fushimi had given his friend the "are you an idiot" look when he had first brought it up, but weeks later was leaving him desperate. The only other suggestions he had gotten were exorcism, and a checkup for alien probing. Which he would probably try when he got desperate enough.
Fushimi blinks as he realizes he's been staring blankly at the webpage for a while.
Lineage's Game.
"For those who wish returned a lost preciousness, join us."
The rest of the webpage consisted of a signup box and the following instructions.
"One winner will be awarded that which they have lost."
"That which is precious is not limited to items. Loved ones, memories, cherished times. Any and every wish will be accepted and granted upon victory."
And it was specifically that line that made Fushimi doubt this whole thing.
Every night after he'd wake up from his dream since his friend had given him the link he'd go on and stare at the site. What they were granting was impossible, which meant it was probably a hoax. However, Fushimi couldn't fight the feeling that there was truth written in those words and he couldn't quite understand why.
There were only two days left till the game's beginning. Two more days to make his choice.
"If you wish to join us, please register by Dec 1."
Name and wish. Those were the only two fields that needed filling out. Fushimi typed them in just to see how it felt.
Name: Saruhiko Fushimi
Wish: To find out who the person in my dream is.
Fushimi thinks about adding "so I can meet the person" but decides against it. If it really was someone in his past life, then he didn't want to be plummeted back in time or anything else along those lines.
As he stares at the filled in fields, Fushimi laughs slightly at the ridiculousness of the whole situation. Haunted dreams, past lives, all of it was just a ridiculous notion. There had to be a logical explanation, but what else could explain the feelings of nostalgia he was having every night in his sleep?
Clicking his tongue, Fushimi closes the browser and climbs back into bed. No sense in losing more sleep thinking about a voodoo supernatural website. Closing his eyes, Fushimi is suddenly over taken by a feeling he's never had before in any of his dreams: Longing.
'If I can't see the person in reality, I want to meet them in dreams. Anything, I'll do anything to meet that person again. Because I promised, didn't I? To meet that person once again.'
As soon as that thought crosses his mind, Fushimi knows what he has to do. Logging onto the website, Fushimi fills in the fields once again but with a slight addition.
Name: Saruhiko Fushimi
Wish: To find out who the person in my dream is so I can keep my promise.
Fushimi holds his breath as he clicks "submit". The screen changes to a loading page before the words flash across the screen.
"Entry Submitted and Received."
"Welcome to Lineage's game, Saruhiko Fushimi."
"We will see you in two days time."
-To be continued-
Author's note: My attempt at a multi-chapter, suspense and non-character analysis type fic. Please let me know how it turned out! Constructive feedback is always more than welcome.