Kojiki Arcology, Evening.

The ritual had begun more than two days ago. In a carefully-prepared and well hidden ritual space, neither the sorcerers nor the other participants knew much of the time involved. It was now a sheer effort of will to continue on, with no rest, food, or water. Arcane energies had gathered and pierced the veil, calling out to beyond the stars.

The sounds of violence hardly reached the ears of the ritual's participants, before a number of creatures burst into the room. The surprise attack was brutal and efficient, and soon everyone in the room lay dead or dying. The last of the Society sorcerers' power flowed out with their lifeblood, the rite they were enacting broken. And yet, the otherworldly creatures they had called forth did not simply fade away. Already drawn down to the Earth, but now without living candidates to even consider, they had little recourse but to scatter in search of worthy vessels for their power.

---

Koizumi residence

Saya had finished her chores and taken a bath, and was now cloistered in her room, working on homework. A first she passed off the occasional strange thing at the edges of her vision as just fatigue, or maybe daydreaming. She kept working on her math until the inhuman eyes popping in and out of view made it look too much like her assignment was staring at her. Saya yawned and rubbed her eyes. "I'm just tired, that's all," she said to herself and turned around. "Eh?"

Her room didn't really look like her room. Just for an instant, she saw something else. A strange, alien world she could barely comprehend superimposed itself over the room, twisting the familiar shapes into strange and frightening things. And even after that wave of vertigo had passed, there was a palpable presence remaining in the room. Something unseen was there, watching her. Rather than react in pure horror, Saya was more confused and curious than anything. Whatever was invisibly there in the room was clearly examining the girl, and she could feel the gaze of many eyes upon her, as if they could see right through her. This thing was carefully checking...something bout her, but she didn't have a clue what it was looking for or even what it was.

Saya stood up from her desk and took a few hesitant steps before that something reached out and seized her. The unseen visitor held her transfixed, and the moment stretched into an eternity as Saya's world was filled with excruciating pain. She could clearly see the thing now, and her mind balked at bulk of eyes and flesh that had seized her. And yet, she held on through the pain, as a flood of power suffused every cell and threatened to tear her fragile body apart. Even her mind was almost overwhelmed. Yet there was a core of steel within her, and she held on. And then, time began to move again. The pain faded almost instantly, and a cool numbness remained as the only reminder.

Mako was on her way home from the hospital after one of her routine checkup blood draws. They would notify her in the morning of the lab results by email if everything was normal, by phone if something was amiss. She was in her usual state of woozieness, sipping orange juice and munching on Pockie while listening to whatever j-pop song was left up last on her play list. She like this song, it was probably one of her favorite from a certain boy group. She had watched the video too many times to count, and her favorite part was coming up. She glanced around, the roadway was clear- no prying eyes to behold her foolishness. With the music turned loud and her juice capped, she weakly went through some of the dance moves, cookie sticks still protruding from her mouth. She stubbed her toe and stumbled forward a bit, but managed not to fall over.

"Safe!" she said to herself, and she let out a little sigh. She looked around herself once again and continued on her path home. She learned her lesson, no more dancing in the street.

As she walked home her path leads her past her favorite Manga store, she stops inside and the clerks know her by name due to her membership card and frequency of visiting. The shout out to her to go get the newest issue of something she is reading, or suggest a new tittle that they think she would like. She just nods her head politely and goes where they tell her to go with a shy "Hai, hai," trying to avoid making unnecessary eye contact with anyone. Settling on two tittle she brings her selection to the counter, makes her purchase, and heads on her way. The convenience store for dinner, of course, and then she is home. She warms her omelet rice and eats her desert pudding while paging through one of her new acquisitions. A romance with a touch of horror suspense. Young Uraki moves to a new city getting her first job, she has a chance encounter at love, but is the dashing Shinjiro really who he says he is? Or is he perhaps the gruesome serial killer that has the entire prefecture on edge?!

Mako let out a little chuckle at how preposterous it was. What had caused the clerks to suggest this title to her? It didn't matter. She would read it, and continue to pick up its publications whether she liked it or not.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Mako put down the spoon and went to the microwave as she removed the gently steaming rice bowl she thought she heard the rustle of feathers. This was new, was it a symptom? She hesitated for a moment to see if it continued, it didn't. She turned with the bowl in hand, intending to go to the window to see if a large bird had landed there for some reason. She never made it that far. As she turned she found herself face to face with what looked like something out of a horror manga or movie, like a harpy of old its semi-feathered form stood beautifully perched on her dinning room table. Somehow, despite the lack of a mouth it spoke to her and she dropped her rice bowl.

"There is something about you. About your blood."

Is this, is this really how it ends? Did my mother go insane before she passed, too?

"You may go insane yet, but what you see before you is every bit as real as the blood in your body. But there is some missing... why is that?"

"You.. You can read my mind?"

It cocked its head sideways, not fully understanding the question. "Of course," was all it said in response.

"I uh... I might be sick so I have to go in for testing regularly."

"So they take your precious blood? Silly human child your fluids are vital. We will have no more wasted."

"W-We? What?"

"You will learn in time."

The harpy launched off of the table and embraced Mako as if it were tackling her, but instead of being hit by the weight and force of the action she felt sickly warm, and sticky as the harpy's form broke down into what Mako had to assume was blood and it started to work its way into her body through every conceivable means. She stood there, gasping, staring at the ceiling as her entire existence was violated. She stood there spasming as the last of the blood seeped in through her eyes. Finally able to take a gasping breath she collapsed onto the floor amongst her spilled bowl of rice.

Abandoned Building

Haru wasn't going to lie. This was one of the worse ideas, but it was certainly something else than going back to her aunt's place. Rurika wasn't going to come home that night anyway, she was out on a week-long trip to some other place she never told Haru. The details weren't important anyway. Rurika left enough money to last her the week and then some, just in case there were some complications with her job. She was a really good person, Haru knew that. Rurika reminded her of her mother - maybe it was because they were sisters. Haru never really knew much about her grandmother or her grandfather but maybe they raised both of their children well. That must be nice.

Or maybe she was just rejecting the lessons. They were trying. Haru could clearly see that. She was just too stubborn and too used to her way of life to really live by any of the lessons Rurika was providing her. And maybe that's why Haru was currently sitting down on an open window, one leg hanging outside with a cigarette between her fingers. She hadn't made a habit out of it. She only ever lit a cigarette when she was having certain thoughts of doubt creeping in and sometimes a smoke could help her keep her head straight.

Clicking. Scratching.

Haru quickly turned to the insides of the building, eyes searching for anything moving. It might have been a rat. She wouldn't be surprised if this building was infested with them. It had been abandoned for quite a while, set to be demolished someday but they kept putting it off. But she should probably leave. She put the cigarette stick inside her mouth and slid off the window and picked up her pack. When she looked up, the empty and decrepit room showed something else. For a moment, she felt like she was inside another place - a dark void filled with things her human mind could not comprehend yet. She pulled back suddenly and the room went back to normal.

Her heart was heavily thumping against her chest and she could feel the chill - all of her alarm bells ringing. She was in danger but she wasn't sure what she should be looking out for. Because there was nothing in the room aside from herself and the annoying clicking that seemed to keep getting louder and louder and louder as if something was coming closer to her. She tilted her head and closed her eyes, trying to track where this sound was.

Click.

She turned around quickly, gripping her bag tight as she swung it towards the sound. She had only seen the figure for a second before her own momentum sent her stumbling to the side. Her attack had passed straight through the figure. She took a few deep breaths before raising her head to look at the figure that was now standing before her. Its tail was swinging behind it before suddenly stopping as Haru and... it made eye contact. Or at least, Haru looked upon its blank helmet-like face.

"You will do fine."

"What the f-"

It didn't allow Haru a chance to ask anything as its tail struck forward. There was no impact but there was a burst of pain that came from the spot where its tail made contact with her skin and it spread quickly. It felt like her entire body was on fire and it did not stop. She collapsed fully on the ground and she felt like her entire body wanted to rip itself apart from the inside out. She wanted to claw at her skin but she couldn't move. Flashes of her mother and her death. Flashes of her father and his addiction. Her mind was filling with memories and pain - amplifying what was already there a hundred times over.

And then suddenly there was nothing. The feeling disappeared completely. She rolled onto her back, taking a couple of deep breaths. Haru slowly sat up and looked around. Everything was normal - no figure looming over her or the clicking that seemed to surround her just a few seconds earlier. Her cigarette had fallen onto the ground, the last of its embers glowing, next to her bag. She stood up, stomped the remaing embers to death. She grabbed her bag again and began to haul back to her house.

Whatever that was, she could think about next time when she wasn't feeling so exhausted.

---

Mana’s eyes snapped open with a startling sense of emotion and a dashing passing of alertness. Blurred delirium was what drove her vision for the first few moments before light and the natural world around her came back into focus. A swift look around confirmed she was still in her bedroom, still splayed out among the tangled bedsheets and riff raff of her unkempt spot. But as she tried to sit up, a seething pain gripped at her chest, one so dense she held a hand over it with gritted teeth.

Something was wrong, yet everything was perfectly normal. Blankness and delusion played themselves over her eyes like a slow-moving reel in an old-fashioned film. The sensation dulled down as her breath slowed; she didn’t realize she was near the edge of a panic attack until she heard her own voice quiver in the silence of darkness. Closing her eyes, Mana sought to focus on the last memory she had, the last bit of imagery and thought to come to her mind.

She recalled what happened in her dream, before she dozed off…there were voices, ones that pushed against her mind as if her head was ready to explode. Above those voices was silence, a creeping sensation that sought to coat her body and form with an icy embrace. Once it did, a great force slammed into her chest with its weight, seeping into her bone and flesh until even her veins saw fit to freeze over though her skin. For what was probably a night terror, the dream felt all too real to her regardless.

Perhaps then, that was why she continued staring at the darkness. The gleam of her eyes and the weight in her chest never left, only subsided for now. And when she did close her eyes, she could still hear the deafening silence, one so sharp it was almost as if she could pick apart voices among them. More focus, and the same, creeping sensation washing over her came again like a wave of ice rolling itself over her body in turbulent waters. She may not have understood it or comprehended what happened to her, but she knew something had.

---

Kojiki Arcology, Evening

The ritual sent an incandescent beacon to those it was trying to call from the void, sending out a request for aid, through the Right of Sacred Union. A being answered, sending but a fragment of its power to Earth as its representative on that plane, to bind with a worthwhile host. When the creature arrived, it saw, instead of the expected potential host, it saw a room full of dead bodies. All of the potential hosts had been murdered, it observed casually. "Of course they would all be dead... Now I need to find my own host." The disgruntled ta'ge symbiont muttered in its own language as it left the ritual chamber, flying on wings of magic. From high in the sky, it started looking for a worthy subject, muttering a brief incantation that started leading it towards a warded apartment atop a peaceful bookstore. Entirely ignoring the wards, it flew through one of the third-story windows, and into the bedroom of a young girl. On arrival, the creature looked the girl, who hadn't noticed it yet, and sent her a telepathic message, echoing throughout her entire body, echoing in her mind and ringing through to the deepest parts of her body.

"You are worthy."

---

Books of Wonder 1st Floor, Evening

"Did we finish unpacking the shipment from your brother, dear?" Hideo Nakamura asked his wife, Sophia, from the front of the store as he worked on locking up the shop and closing out the cash registers.

"Mostly. All that's left is the Society's order, and I think we should leave that as it is. That way, the contents stay safer." Sophia replied from the back of the store, near what would be a rear entrance to the store. As the husband and wife pair are talking, there is a sudden quiet as a strange, warbling alarm starts within their own heads. They look at each other, intense worry in their eyes, as they meet in the back of the store by the stairs. As one, the two adults made a dash for the stairs and ultimately Kiokos room, with Hideo gasping "Kioko! Her room is right next to that section of the ward!"

---

Kioko’s Room (Book of Wonders 3rd Floor), Evening

Kioko was sitting at her desk, blissfully unaware that her life was about to turn upside-down once again. As she sat, listening to music, she heard a light thump through the music, and turned to see what made the sound. As she turned, her eyes met the eyes of the strange creature, and everything winked out of existence as it stared back, and its words echoed through her mind. Kioko felt excruciating pain as her entire being, body, mind and soul, were reshaped and modified to act as a proper host and vessel for this creature, to handle its power and the eldritch energies that accompanied it. After an indeterminate amount of time, Kioko regained consciousness, and noticed four immediate differences from just prior to that... thing? appearing in her room: she was lying on the floor; her parents were in her room, having just sprinted up two stories of stairs; she felt like she'd been trampled by a herd of elephants; and that her house was surrounded by some sort of magical ward. 'Wait, how do I know that?' she thought, before the answer came from a voice in her own head, in the same voice as before, but without the resonance of the earlier message; 'Because we are now one, and my powers and abilities are at your disposal.'

As Kioko sat up, she opened her eyes, glowing gold and compounding like the eyes of an insect. Her parents, who helped her up from the floor, stopped suddenly, and stared at her eyes.

"Kioko... Honey, are you alright? Your eyes..." Her mother said, taken aback by the revelation that something had happened to her daughter, as her father stared, speechless, looking between the window where the ward had been disturbed and his daughters eyes, clear evidence of something happening.

The Next Morning

Saya awoke from nightmare-haunted sleep to get ready for school, as if it were any other day. Despite the night's events, she actually felt pretty good. Not exactly rested, but she still felt more energy than she had in a long time, and the little aches and pains of her everyday existence had disappeared overnight. She felt better than she had in months. It was with a spring in her step when she went about her morning routine and made her way to school.

"Shizuka~ Good morning!" She greeted one of her friends quite energetically.

"Good morning," her bespectacled friend replied. "How are you today?"

"Great. Like, honestly never felt better."

The small talk continued on the way to school, with Saya occasionally distracted by something seeming a little...off, but there was no way for her to really tell what that even meant. It was a bit of nagging that something she saw was amiss, but at a glance, that was it. Something saying in her head something was off somehow that she'd never noticed before. And bothersome as it was, she had other things distracting her from dawdling too long.

---

By noon that day, everyone has probably at least noticed one of the other new tagers. Even when not transformed, they'd be able to identify someone right away if they were in the same room, either by the same sense they could use to pick out anything inhuman, or the mental link that can form over at least short distances regardless of the form they take. It's lunch time, and that's the perfect time for classes to mingle or people to meet up in the cafeteria or elsewhere around the school building.

---

Something was wrong, strange even, but that was the norm for Mana. Circumstances never really aligned her with the others, and it was no real surprise to see nothing had changed aside from one strange night terror. But this sensation wasn’t borne out of social cues or in-breed awkwardness. There was a heavy, almost pressing presence in the air that permeated wherever Mana stepped, and she was slowly being convinced it was only her who’d paid notice to it.

It was a low buzz during the journey to school and slowly persisted all throughout her morning classes. Always, however, was it there, just beyond the corner of her eye and the margin of her gaze. Without having many people close to her to speak to, it meant Mana had most of the morning to hypothesis just what was going on herself in her own thoughts. More than likely, she was probably just getting sick with the flu; or whatever else kind of bug passed through.

Her theory didn’t hold much water when the sensation spiked during lunch. When at first, she was convinced the sensation by her own delirium and lack of sleep, now she was certain it came externally. That was because one of her peers brought a sense of nausea whenever she looked at her; indeed, the stoic girl could feel her guts twisting whenever she laid sights on Saya Koizumi, as if something unnaturally wrong dormanted the other girl.

Naturally, curiosity was an ample key to solving the mystery, and a perfect reason to cut short her queasy stomach. That was why she followed Saya where she went for lunch, having decided not to eat lest she retch with more sights at Saya. The closer she got, the stronger the sensation became, and by the time she did “bump” into Saya, it was with a hand clenched to her gut. “…”

---

Saya was confused by Mana's approach. She'd noticed...something unusual about the other girl, too. Some sixth sense was telling her she wasn't normal, but it was in a good way. That sort of "this person is a comrade."

"Senpai, are you feeling okay," she asked. Some things were more important at the moment. "Do you need to go to the nurse's office?" Saya stood up from the table, ready to escort the older girl. This wasn't a prank, even if it was some strange girl walking up to her. Nobody could look that bad and just be faking it.

It was almost as if she could feel the other girl inside her head, especially this close. "You're like me, aren't you," Saya asked quietly. She didn't really even mean to say it, it just slipped out. "Eh! Ah..um, I'm not sure why I even said that."