Chapter One
Day One || 14:50 || Shibuya Scramble Crossing
When Owen awoke, he realized at once that something was off.
For one thing, his bed was unusually hard. Although he had been staying at a rented apartment and therefore sleeping on the Japanese futons, it should not have been this uncomfortable. While nothing like his raised bed back in the US, it was still much more comfortable on whatever he was on now, which felt like something more akin to asphalt as opposed to cloth.
The other thing that was definitely wrong was the sound. Owen was used to waking up to his radio alarm, but the current blare of sound was much, much louder than that. It also, no matter what a person's individual taste in music was, sounded nothing like music. Car horns honked noisily, and crowds and crowds of people chattered, shouted, and just plain talked. If he weren't so logical and sane, he could have sworn he was waking up in the middle of a street instead of at the apartment. It even smelled like streets, and it almost felt like he was laying somewhere exposed to the sun, just judging by the warmth of his clothes against his skin.
I must still be dreaming, he thought to himself, not even bothering to open his eyes. The sensations, as real as they were, could only have been from a dream. It's not like he hadn't had those odd moments somewhere between dreaming and wakefulness before. After all, it was summer vacation; even if they were visiting his old home, he was still determined to squeeze every last minute of sleep out of his summer break to make up for time lost during the school year.
At least, that's what he was thinking of doing. Unfortunately, these thoughts were interrupted quite brutally when a car screeched far too loudly and, more confusingly, far too close to comfort.
"...!"
Bolting upright, he snapped his eyes open just in time to see a car racing at him. From his position, there was nothing he could do but gaze in horror as the vehicle sped towards him. Closer... closer...
Squeezing his eyes shut, he threw his arms up in front of his face in a feeble attempt to protect himself. In a normal state of mind, he would have known better than that; simply having your arms up in front of your face were unlikely to help much when faced with the multiple tons of metal, plastic, and what-have-you that comprised a car, especially one hurtling along at a speed much higher than it should have been. On the other hand, he had given himself over to sheer reflex, bracing himself for impact. The vehicle had to be inches away by now...
A loud roar filled his ears briefly, before fading. Owen slowly opened his eyes, peering through the gap between his arms, his mind thrown into confusion. The confusion rose when he saw that yet another car was coming right at him, and although it was at a much more respectable speed, it would still be enough to kill him if it hit. Flinching as it came close, he listened once again as the roaring filled his ears, only to fade once more. His eyes flew open yet again, and the same event repeated, over and over, the only variation being the different types of cars. After about five or so Owen began to get a hold of himself, and he forced down the urge to cringe. Instead, he turned away from the oncoming traffic and watched the line of cars zooming away from him, each of them unmistakably the very same ones that had just come at him – no... passed through him? As if to confirm his fears, a car flew through him, giving him a particularly odd sensation when he caught a brief glimpse of the driver and interior as they passed. There was no doubt about it. Somehow, the cars were going through him like air. The whole situation was giving him a very eerie sensation, and before it could happen again, he dashed off of the street. Holding onto a street light for support, he waited for his breathing to calm down to its normal speed.
What the hell is going on? Despite the jumble his mind was in, the thought stood out clearly among the rest. He took a deep breath to compose himself, before thinking back. Earlier today... Or was it yesterday? Whatever. Went to 104, headed out to Molco, doubled back and went to Dogenzaka...
As soon as he had thought of the location, the resulting memory came back only too willingly. Owen felt himself go cold as he realized the implications. The hard, metallic feeling on his throat, tapering to a thin and deadly point... The brief pain, the darkness, and all that came after.
The whole thing took perhaps a minute at the most. By the time Owen had finished reminiscing, he'd had only about five seconds to plot his next move when his cell beeped.
"The journey begins and ends at the tower.
Reach 104, or face destruction.
You are granted 60 minutes for this quest.
-The Reapers"
Though he half-expected it, the burning sensation on his palm caught him off guard. When he checked it just to make sure, his eyes were met with the grim image of a digital clock, slowly counting down. The mark of a Player. Something that Owen was, no matter how much he wished he wasn't.
"...Shit."
Day One || 14:55 || Shibuya Scramble Crossing
"Whoaaaaaaaa! I'm back!" The words came out of her mouth with an air of amazement. How else could somebody react to having been resurrected as she? With a wide grin on her face, she jumped to her feet and began to take a look around excitedly.
Despite the amazing circumstances, she felt a little disappointed to see that everything was still the same as before. The same street, the same buildings, the same signs... The people were always different, but in that way, they were the same too. "Booo. How boring..." Her eyebrows furrowed. Obviously, this wasn't the fantastic game it had been made out to be.
Or was it? Now that she paid attention, there were some people looking around like they were totally lost. Tourists? Maybe, maybe not. One kid she spotted had some very natural-looking blond hair, and features that marked him as a foreigner through and through. On the other hand, there was quite the number of people getting up with confused looks. Surprised that they had somehow survived, perhaps?
"So if those are all the Players, then what about the game?" she put a finger to her lips in wonder. "Hmmmm! I hope it starts soon!" Without thinking much of it, her fingers wandered to her bag, grasping around small, round, metal thingies. A little startled, she withdrew one and found herself staring at a black pin with a skull on it. "A pin?" she murmured curiously, turning it over to get a good look. "Oh! The Player Pin! Yeah, that's what this is. Hmm, what else?" Before she could continue pawing through her apparent belongings, a beeping sound caught her attention. Her cell phone, a slim grayish purple model, had received a text message. Picking it out from among her pins, she casually pressed a button and pulled up her text messages.
"The journey begins and ends at the tower.
Reach 104, or face destruction.
You are granted 60 minutes for this quest.
-The Reapers"
"Ouch!" Almost as soon as she had finished reading, she felt a sharp pain on her palm. With watering eyes, she stared at the red and black timer now ticking away ominously on her hand. "W-wow... They can do stuff like this?" Her voice wavered slightly, more from surprise than the fading sting of her newly branded palm. So interested in the mark was she that the winged figure beside her completely escaped her notice.
Someone screamed.
Looking up from her personal timer, she was startled to see a woman near her vanish into thin air. It took her less than a second to notice the unusually large, almost tattoo-like frog. "Wha…?" She had hardly registered the thing before it leapt at the next nearest person, an unfortunate man with a streak of blue through his hair. "Augh-!" His shout was cut off abruptly as the lungs behind it ceased to exist. The frog landed not far from where he had been standing, its face almost smug. It was about then that the girl, in her panic, realized several things all at once.
First of all, about half the scramble was in a panic as frogs struck out at them. The other half remained oblivious, going about their lives as normal.
Not only that, but all of the people who had been around her were now gone. They had each been replaced with a green tattoo-frog. No, not just frog… Noise. Noise that was out to erase her.
She felt her body temperature drop in an instant. Her heart somehow managed to speed up a few notches, and she found that it had suddenly become difficult to swallow. What's going on? she wondered vaguely as she stared, wide-eyed. It wasn't like this, not even when I died…
All frogs, without an exception, were turned towards her. Their throats bulged out almost comically, like in a cartoon. Haha. Funny. What a nice thought to have before she was erased.
Not if I can help it. A quick glance showed her that she still had a means to salvation yet. The frogs were mostly in front of her, and a gap remained behind. If she ran, she might make it. If not, at least she wouldn't have to see the freakish creature right before it erased her.
She saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. Without waiting to see what it was, she swiftly turned and made a mad dash for the gap, sprinting for all she was worth. If her physical ed teachers had been there to see, she was sure they would be amazed. At this rate, she could have beaten the track club at a meet. Or if not that, she would have at least placed. Maybe.
Even after she cleared the gap, she didn't slow in her stride at all. She was sure that the whole pack was pursuing her now, and she wasn't about to miss oblivion just to stop and get erased right after. Clutching hard at her cell phone, she ran like never before. The pain in her hand from holding onto the thin plastic tugged at a memory of the words she had read only a few minutes before. "Reach 104 or face destruction."
"No thanks!" she muttered to herself, dashing and weaving between people. Some, like her, ran for their continued existence; others went about their mundane lives, blissfully ignorant of the massacre happening all around them. Her body over performing out of pure desperation, she darted through cracks and gaps easily, heading towards 104.
Unfortunately, this was not enough. As she ran, she caught sight of something as it leapt at her. Something large, with tattoo-legs…
Her mind froze. She hardly felt it as she fell, her body toppling over sideways. The impact on the ground seemed softer somehow, as if she had landed on a substance other than asphalt. Subconsciously, she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. As if that would save her. As if it would make all of the bad things go away. Those scary girls, those fighting men at the station, the twin lights rushing towards her…
She had thought it was a game. A game to win back her life. But games were supposed to be fun, not scary. This was definitely not fun. For the first time in her existence, she felt truly and utterly terrified. Her throat constricted, and she could hardly utter the word.
"No…!"
Chapter One: "Welcome to the Game"
End.
