Rising Shards

It was a bright, sunny spring day as the eight of us stood at the gates to the school. It wasn’t our school exactly, it was a lot more basic looking.

“Why’s it just say ‘Rising Shard?’” Kalei asked, kicking at the main sign.

“I don’t know, but we have to play along,” Oka said. “Don’t say that when he gets here, we don’t want to make him think.”

“How’s everyone feeling?” Diast asked.

“I feel very…flat.” I said.

We arrived in a void node that this Kris Krag apparently spawned from. It was almost dreamlike, as though we were all cardboard cutouts of ourselves. When we moved, it looked normal, but when we were still, we all became very still, it was unsettling.

“So nothing’s changed for Zeta.” Kalei said.

“Hey!”

“Dude, you set me up for that one, come on.” Kalei said.

“And he shouldn’t be able to hear me, so I’ll do my best to guide everyone,” Diast said.

“And refresh my memory on what we’re doing again?” Iris asked.

“Playing along.” Kalei said.

“And what the hell does that mean? Do you want us to kiss this thing?” Iris asked.

“I don’t want any contact between you and this void monster,” Diast said. “But usually they’ll pick a group of people, narrow them down to one.”

“Unless it’s a harem route,” Marmalade said.

“Let’s just hope it doesn’t go that way.” Diast said. “When they have their preferred sole target, Kris Krags bring that person to a special place. And that special place is where they’re at their most vulnerable, so we’ll take advantage of that. So when he shows up, just talk to him like you’ve been doing.”

The first bell for class rang, and with it the patter of someone’s footsteps approaching.

“Crap! I can’t believe I’m late on the first day…” Kris said. He ran until he bumped into Kalei, falling over. “Dang it!”

Kris groveled on the ground, wailing until Diast told Kalei to help him up.

“Do I have to?” Kalei asked.

“Somebody probably should or we’re gonna be stuck here all day." I said. I was mainly just glad I wasn't the one falling over.

“Fine,” Kalei said. “Here, dude.”

Kris’ eyes sparkled as he stared deeply at Kalei as she helped him to his feet. “Thanks, Kalei. My longtime friend who I grew up with. The tomboy next door who always bailed me out when the bullies targeted us…”

“Huh?” Kalei said. “The hell are you…?”

“He’ll probably give you all a role like this, just play along.” Diast said.

“Uh, right,” Kalei said. “I’m your friend from grade school or whatever.”

“And all our friends are here, too,” Kris said. “The seven beautiful women before me, all I can think is my destiny has arrived.”

"Seven still?" Oka asked.

"Huh? Wait, yeah..." I said. “Just out of curiosity, which seven do you mean?”

Kris thought about it. He pointed at us one by one, leaving out Iris.

“Did I get fricking eliminated?” Iris asked. “Wait, that’s a good thing. Eliminate Maia too.”

“Maia is very tall, I find that quite interesting…” Kris said.

“So he traded I-rihs for Ai-ruh. See what I did there?” Oka chuckled to herself.

“No.” Kalei said.

“See what I did there? Ha! I didn’t even intend that one!” Oka said.

“I’m not sure what you intended for the first part,” Lillia said. “Just pointing out their names sound similar?”

“They do, don’t they?” Aira asked.

Lillia groaned. “You lot can be exhausting.”

“I missed you too, Lillia.” Aira said.

“Seven isn’t a set number, though,” Kris said. “And I wouldn’t turn a lovely lady away from spending time with me…especially not one as gorgeous, as...” He trailed off as he drooled so much that he slobbered, having to wipe his mouth.

“So I’m not eliminated?” Iris asked.

“Why’d you sound so hopeful when he said that?” Maia asked.

“I’m not hopeful, I just remembered I hate losing!” Iris said.

“Um, shouldn’t we get to class…?” Kris asked.

It was really jarring but it felt like a second later whatever class we were going to finished. We were in an empty classroom now, with the sun starting to set. The dreamlike feel and jarring setting changes reminded me of going to memory trials.

“After school…who should I spend time with today?” Kris asked out loud.

It was awkward standing around waiting for a void monster to pick one of us, but I’d take waiting over the feeling I got as he approached me. “Hi, Zeta. Would you like to spend some time with me?”

“Uh, I mean, sure?” I said.

“I got you this,” Kris said, handing me a box of chocolates.

“Oh, wow, thanks!” I said. “Where, um, do you want to go?”

“Let’s go to the rooftop,” Kris said. “I like to go there and think.”

“Sure, that sounds nice,” I said.

Oka stared daggers at Kris as he led me out of the classroom. I tripped on my desk, then on the doorframe, then on the stairs…I couldn’t stop tripping for some reason. It hurt, but not enough that I couldn’t get up right away.

“Ha, ha, ha…” Kris chuckled.

I blushed bright red, his monotone chuckling cutting deep.

“You’re a bit klutzy, huh?” Kris asked. “Here, I’ll help.”

He gripped me by my elbows to keep me from any further trippage on the way to the rooftop. While the sun was setting in the classroom, on the rooftop it was all blue sky with some clouds slowly trailing above us.

“I like coming up here,” Kris said. “It’s a good place to think.”

“Uh huh…” I said.

“You shouldn’t worry so much about what others think.” Kris said.

“Huh?”

“You know, the whole klutzy thing…”

“Oh…”

“It’s OK to trip a lot, and drop your textbooks, or when your tail accidentally lifts your skirt up, showing your underwear, and all sorts of things…” Kris said.

I bit my tongue, feeling like I would let out my furious side if I spoke at the moment. 

“You shouldn’t worry so much about people laughing at you,” Kris said. “I think it’s kind of cute…and I’d never laugh at you, Zeta.”

“Alright.” I said.

I could probably keep giving one-word answers and make it through this, but maybe I could get him to pick me and spare the others from any further time with this guy. I tried imagining Oka saying that to make it more palatable, but even in my imagination I couldn’t get Oka to talk like that.

“Er, thanks,” I said. “That means a lot to hear. Hee hee.”

“We should probably head back,” Kris said. “It’s getting late. Oh, here, have this..."

Kris gave me a present that I almost wanted to chuck off the rooftop immediately. But I managed to fake a smile, and with that, the rest of the group and I returned to the front of school, another day starting.

“Dang it,” I said. “I really tried to get him to pick me.”

“Whoa, is Zeta into Kris Krag?” Kalei asked. “Better watch out, Oka.”

“Shut up,” I said. “I was trying to protect everyone from having to talk to him.”

“You did your best.” Oka said. “Maybe you earned some points with him?”

"Enough to get me...eugh, this..." I got out the box of lace panties Kris had gotten for me and threw them into the garbage.

"Dr. Diast, permission to murder this guy immediately?" Oka asked.

"He's still too strong, we gotta get to his lair or whatever," I said. “Who has the most points now do we think?”

“Who cares?” Kalei asked.

“Hopefully not me and Maia!” Iris said.

“I imagine it’s between Kalei and Zeta,” Diast said. “Zeta had hangout time, and Kalei had that first encounter and childhood friend backstory.”

“Is this gonna take much longer?” Kalei asked. “I don’t want to spend my whole day doing this.”

“Hopefully we’re close to winning,” Diast said. “Let’s try one more day and if that doesn’t work, we’ll resort to more drastic measures.”

“That better not involve like holding hands with this dude,” Kalei said.

“I said no physical contact!”

I looked across my friends as we waited for another ‘day’ with Kris Krag. If Kalei was the childhood friend and I was the klutzy goof, I wondered what roles the others would have in this place.

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