The theatre was quiet and every surface was polished to a fine shine. The walls were made out of large black marble slabs, neatly polished and very cold to touch, supported by bone white pillars. Adorning the large black walls were bright white lights and large speakers. At the centre of the room was a sitting area, each row of seats was slightly more elevated than the last. Each seat was fitted with a beige coloured blanket for added comfort. At the front of the room was a large black rectangle.
Soon, the silence and inactivity was interrupted by a large flash of light in the seating area which left behind people, people who were dazed and confused.
"What Just?..." asked one of them named Subaru. Looking around, he found others he recognized, and who were all as confused as he was.
"Subaru!?" yelled a half-elf girl named Emilia.
"Emilia!?" Subaru called back.
"Where are we!?" asked Emilia.
"I don't know." Subaru replied.
"Well, we're not at the castle anymore, I suppose," said a little girl named Beatrice.
Subaru then looked around, spotting Otto, Garfiel, Roswaal, Ram, Al, Anastasia, Pricilla, Petra, Frederica, Felt, Crusch, Willhelm, Felix, Julius, Reinhard, the seven witches of sin, and even an awake Rem.
Subaru then ran over to Rem, in tears out of disbelief that she was awake. "Rem!" he said, hugging her "I can't believe you're finally ok!" Subaru began to tear up.
Rem replied: "Subaru? Where Am I?"
"I don't know, Rem." Subaru said.
"What an oooooood predicament we find ourselves in," said Roswaal, elongating the vowel in "Odd" in a singy manner.
All their questions about their whereabouts would be answered with a booming guitar riff over the speakers. Then, the large movie screen morphed into a portcullis with smoke emanating from what was behind it.
"Holy crap, is that AC/DC?" Al thought, recognizing the song. Subaru was also thinking the exact same thing as Al.
Just as the song played, the Portcullis started to open as what felt like an earthquake could be felt coming from behind the gate. Everyone was worried about what was coming, all the strongest people there, like Julius and Reinhard Drew their weapons.
"Ahh ahh ahh ahh, Ahh ahh ahh
Thunder
Ahh ahh ahh ahh, Ahh ahh ahh
Thunder
Ahh ahh ahh ahh, Ahh ahh ahh
Thunder
Ahh ahh ahh ahh, Ahh ahh ahh
Thunder
Ahh ahh ahh ahh, Ahh ahh ahh
Thunder
Ahh ahh ahh ahh, Ahh ahh ahh"
Thunder
Ahh ahh ahh ahh, Ahh ahh ahh
Thunder
Ahh ahh ahh ahh, Ahh ahh ahh
Thunder
Ahh ahh ahh ahh, Ahh ahh ahh
Thunder
Ahh ahh ahh ahh, Ahh ahh ahh
Thunder
Ahh ahh ahh ahh, Ahh ahh ahh"
What had made the giant rumbling noise had become clear as a modern main battle tank rolled out of the smoke. Atop this tank was what looked to be an eighteen year old human. This human wore a plaid zip-up hoodie, a long ankle-length black trench coat. He had dark blond hair that went down to his lower back, small circular shaped sunglasses, and an electric guitar that he was playing.
"I was caught in the middle of a railroad track! (Thunder)!
I looked 'round, and I knew there was no turning back! (Thunder)!
My mind raced, and I thought "What could I do?" (Thunder)!
And I knew there was no help, no help from you! (Thunder)!"
Sound of the drums!
Beatin' in my heart!
The thunder of guns! (Yeah)
Tore me apart!
You've been thunderstruck!
The boy atop the tank stopped playing his guitar and the music stopped. He jumped down and smashed his guitar and then looked up at his audience.
"Beat that Subaru!" he exclaimed.
Everyone looked at Subaru with confusion. "Do you know this guy!?" whispered Otto in a frightened tone.
"I don't have a clue who this is," Subaru replied.
The boy at the front of the theatre continued "All that empty posturing and obvious performance… THIS! Is how you make an entrance!"
He continued: "So! Do you like my Tank!?"
Everyone was in a combative stance. Minerva spoke up: "is that what you call that thing?"
the boy replied: "Yes… I bought it for my fish!"
Everyone dropped their guard a little bit after the failed attempt at humour.
"Oh Come On!" he said loudly in a disappointed tone. "Fish!? Tank!? If you guys came from my world, that joke'd be really funny." The boy said. Both Al and Subaru, being from his world, understood the joke, but both found it too corny to be funny.
The boy then reverted to a more calm and serious tone. "Now, I bet you have a lot of questions, like, "where are we?", or "Why are we here?" you are here in a pocket dimension of my making to engage and participate in a sort of experiment."
"What do you mean by "experiment"? " asked Al.
"Good question, weird Aldebaran Yankovic, An Experiment of stimuli," the boy replied. "Oh, and the names Tom by the way."
"Think about it like this: Stories exist. It can either be fiction or nonfiction. In a place large enough, sometimes, a written story might have been experienced by someone in another part of the world by sheer coincidence, but not always the full story. A real event and a piece of fiction may share one or two accidental similarities. Now suppose that we exist in one of an infinite amount of parallel dimensions and spaces, each with their own histories, cultures, laws of physics, and stories, fiction or otherwise. In such an infinite space, the possibilities of there being a fictional story from one universe that just so happens to share the same people and events as a whole nother universe is 100%" Tom explained. And through telepathy, he implanted the knowledge and information of what he was talking about into everyone's heads so they would understand what he's talking about.
Subaru thought to himself: 'so he's talking about some sort of string theory Esque multiverse theory. Things went from Fantasy to Sci-Fi.'
Continuing, he said: "The experiment is to see how someone would react to their own stories being told about them. You are here to watch an anime about your lives… or at least the life of someone amongst you who involves all of you."
"Sounds fascinating, I'll gladly take part in this experiment." Echidna exclaimed.
"And Who would that be? And what's Anime?" asked Pricilla.
"That would be your resident shitdisturber, Subaru Natsuki. And Anime is a type of animation utilising both visual and auditory story telling" using telepathy, Tom put knowledge of what anime, and movies were in their heads.
"Wait, me?" Subaru exclaimed.
Tom shot back at Subaru. "There any other Subaru Natsuki here dumbass? Any other questions?"
"What if we refuse to take part in this experiment?" Pricilla asked.
Tom snapped his fingers and the doors at the back of the theatre flew open to a hallway. "Exit is down the hall to the left."
"Wait, it's that simple?" Felt questioned, puzzled. For all she knew, and for all the others–including the witches themselves–knew, this "Tom" was a monster who's powers and intentions were both malicious and beyond comprehension.
"Essentially," Tom replied, but continues, "however, if you're asking if there's a catch, there is one. Time in your world outside of this pocket reality is frozen, and leaving will mean you will be in suspended animation until either the experiment is complete or until everyone chooses to leave. You will have all your memories of this place removed, it will be as if you were never here to begin with. Any Other questions?"
'He knows what a tank and AC/DC is, he even said "My world" so there's no doubt he's from my world, but that doesn't explain how he has the power to create pocket dimensions or pull all of us here.' Subaru thought, and this thought informed the question he asked: "yo, Tom. Who, or what exactly are you? You say you're from a different world?"
"It would take too long for me to explain, but for the moment, imagine me as what you get if you mixed Amadeus from Steins;Gate 0 and Cosmic AC from Asimov's "The Last Question". As a copy of a long since deceased teenage highschooler uploaded into an omnipotent Artificial intelligence occupying hyperspace in the far future… I'll elaborate later."
Virtually no one understood a single thing he said. Even Subaru and Al, who came from earth, didn't follow. The two understood the steins;gate reference, but Asimov was too niche, even for the most hardcore nerds in western countries, so it shouldn't be a surprise that these two would be unfamiliar with that reference since they came from the east.
"Any other questions?"
"What makes Subaru so special that he's the star of one of these "animes" as you call them?" asked Julius.
"You'll see." Tom said.
Using telepathy, he communicated with Subaru specifically. "Although I've removed "return by death" from you, I'm still leaving the effect of being unable to speak about it until your first death. don't take it personally, Just trying to prevent spoiler leaks. You're a fan of manga and anime, you should know how much spoilers ruin the surprise. After your first death has been shown, I will remove your inability to speak and you'll be able to talk about it as much as you'd like". Subaru then gulped, half relieved that he can now tell them, but half concerned and disappointed that he had to wait.
"Take your seats, let's watch!" Tom exclaimed as the lights dimmed and everyone took their seats.
the front morphed from a portcullis back to a film screen, the tank fanished too. The screen then turned on to show a weird black mist of some kind, the video produced sound, which sounded like Subaru in distress:
"This is bad, very bad!"