Luciform: Having the form or nature of light; resembling light.

Here I am with yet another Kawaakari Academy Chorus Battle fanfiction, but this one is different, because it's going to be a big, ongoing thing. Rather than writing a story based on one particular competing group, I've decided to take a number of them, and combine aspects of their stories and ideas to create one big, blended narrative. Naturally, because of that, it's going to be somewhat AU to what the groups in question actually produce, but I will be trying to keep true to the entries' stories as much as possible. Though, I'm truncating the timeline of my plot here to be roughly over a school year rather than the entire three years high school consists of, so I guess each round roughly corresponds to a term? Only toughly, which will also make it a lot more AU even on top of the changes that result from combining plots.

Anyway, whenever a group is first featured in a particular chapter, I will list it at the bottom. Most of the groups are chosen are in this prologue and first chapter I'm kicking the story off with. But there are a couple more still left who'll be make their first appearances in the next couple chapters-there'll be a few that cover Round 1 related content. I may cameo a few more as time goes on, but those aren't finalised yet. Also, while with a setting like this I feel like names can be a lot more creative and diverse and therefore I've used most people's real aliases, I have given some people character names. I'll mention this in the bottom of the chapter that the group first features in as well.

Also, while you don't need to read my other Kawaakari related fics to understand anything going on here, I'm using a lot of the world-building that I made up there in this as well. The most notable one is my use of the word frecht, which is a made-up word from a book I like, which is used to describe the type of beauty you might find in something that is terrifying, like the unholy beauty of vampires (for example).

But yeah, anyway, if you are a member of one of the competing groups and you're reading this, then I hope you'll enjoy seeing how I interpret your group's work and that you'll like my portrayal of your characters (and also you're all amazing). And to all readers, I hope you'll enjoy this in general. Reviews are appreciated if you do want to leave one :) :)

One last thing-shout out to Keladin on the Natasha Pulley Book Club discord for helping me find my title!

But now, on with it!

Oura is waiting in the dark.

It is a deep, unyielding dark, thicker than night and completely unpunctuated by the stars. It is a darkness quieter than silence, with no lights to soften it or diminish it. The type of dark that shouldn't exist in this world, that would make even the most ordinary citizen quake in their boots at the blasphemy of it.

This, of course, is exactly why Oura is waiting in it.

Light is not needed to see what is really there though, to see all the threads that are currently being woven together, silver and gold and glinting against the black, signalling the changes that have already been creeping in and the changes still to come. Some of them have been slowly knotting together for a while now, while others have only just been woven in. It is not known where all the threads have come from, though Oura recognises a few of the divine hands tugging at the strings, making sure they hold fast, ensuring the shape of their creation is held into place. This way, they are making sure that the cycle that has been set into motion will complete itself, as it is supposed to. A cycle like that of reincarnation, of Ragnarok, of all the other mythologies of the Lesser Gods that have been forgotten, even more so than the Forgotten Goddess herself.

(It is at least remembered that she is forgotten in the first place.)

It is a cycle that Kawaakari Academy, that bastion of light, has been spinning slowly in for a little while now. Quietly, obscurely, they have been creeping in, this series of events that have simply been perceived as darkness, sending their blinding-bright hearts into tailspins as they cast about uselessly for answers they cannot comprehend. How can the answers be comprehended, when there is no understanding of the threads of tapestry that are orchestrating it all? Not even the so-called professors, the ones who are meant to be all-knowing and all-responsible, who gave up their very mortality in order to bring Kawaakari to life have a clue. After all, they are the types to think that is only in light that things can be seen.

Yet the threads are there, all the same.

One of these threads-iridescent, the silver tinted slightly blue-is one that Oura is slowly threading through, carefully binding into place. Round and round, their revolution of this cycle, the thread is getting shorter. The time is almost here. Oura's role is only linked to that of those six students in particular, but even so, the fact that the thread is becoming part of this tapestry will have reverberations far beyond the six who will be caught up in Oura's glittering thread. It is no bother-if anything, it is just more excitement and Oura is looking forward to it.

It is almost time, after all.

But until then, Oura waits in the dark.

Group(s) making first appearance this chapter:

AXIUM