[IC] Strange Gospel: A Heavily Persona-Inspired Urban Fantasy RP

[VitaVitaAR]

She was there every night.

Every night, on those same streets.

It was the only choice she had.

They swarmed after her, sensing her very existence and converging on it, practically tasting her presence on the air. It would be far worse for anyone else caught here.

She killed them.

Again and again and again. The roar of gunfire, her limbs piercing inky blackness to be greeted with spurts of red blood. It splattered all over her, pouring down her body, pooling around her feet. Sometimes, she would end the night utterly coated in it, leaving crimson prints in her wake.

And yet it was a failure. Every night was a failure. Simply killing them wasn't what it took.

She had to make it inside. She had to.

It was the reason she existed. The point to her entire being. Without it, there was simply no reason for her to be.

Even if her body broke down, crumbled into nothing. Even if she could barely function. She had to keep trying. She had to break through. She had to.

She was coated in blood again.

The morning light had come.

She'd failed.

Tonight, she'd try again.

---

The bell rang. The day was heading towards its end.

The halls were filled with students. Many of them were nervous. The main topic of conversation was Strange Gospel. It wasn't hard to see why. The news of the disturbing imagery that the rumored Strange Gospel had displayed was impossible to escape from, and now that people who had used the app had begun to disappear... well, needless to say, there were a lot of people who were scared. Was there a connection? Had someone been using the app, or website, or whatever it was to track its users and do something terrible? Was the Strange Gospel somehow behind it?! Was there something occult afoot? These possibilities swirled through conversation endlessly. Students were clinging to various theories. Some even thought it might be some kind of 'end of the world' scenario.

A lot of the idle chat seemed to have been absorbed by Strange Gospel.

Of course, that wasn't the only topic on everyone's mind as students steadily began to filter out of the school after classes and club meetings had concluded. Relationships, television shows, music, various other rumors... one particularly strange one pertained to a weird figure that had been sighted in town. Apparently, they tended to vanish and reappear at random, never seeming to interact with anyone and only visible just before the sun vanished for the night.

As the flow of students headed away from the school, some of them, those who had seen the darkness within Strange Gospel, may just find themselves running into one another...

One way or another, something would change their world tonight.

@AThousandCurses@Bartimaeus@hatakekuro@Pitsuji@Psyker Landshark@DarckLeon

[Psyker Landshark]

Nakano Nagi

Finally. Class and club were over for the day. Nagi sighed in relief as she finished helping the other members of the cooking club tidy up the clubroom before taking their aprons off and starting to file out. What a pain in the ass. As much as she liked what she did here, the other members being mildly intimidated by her was really starting to get old. At this rate, she might have to see about doing another study abroad for her senior year, like she did in middle school. At least overseas, no one knew or even cared that she was a yakuza boss's kid. Of course, that depended on if her current situation changed or not.

"Fuckin' a." Nagi muttered under her breath as she strode through the hallways, pulling her phone out. Huh. No orders yet, or even a missed call. Weird. Usually, her new bosses would've had something for her by the end of the day. Within her, Belial stirred slightly as Nagi palmed the Awakening Drive she kept tucked in her uniform blazer's pocket. At this point, it was force of habit.

Still, if she wasn't needed yet, Nagi supposed she might as well go home. She still had to cook four meals' worth of food as usual: dinners and lunches for both herself and her old man. Not that they'd get to enjoy a family meal if things kept going on as they were. The government had been cracking down ever harder on the yakuza, and her dad and the rest of the clan were stretched thin trying to make ends meet under the new laws. Not that Nagi begrudged him that. She knew the score. Didn't make it suck any less, though.

"Let's see..." She murmured as she strode through the school halls toward the entrance. "What to make? Wait, did I run out of salt? Motherfucker." Guess a trip to the grocery store was in order as soon as she was free of the campus.

[AThousandCurses]

Yuichi Miyasato

Yuichi walked along with the stream of students back home. Seeing that there was no reason to stay at school now that the hours were over, going home and studying would be good. Despite the amount of time he spent on studying, nothing seemed to stick. Perhaps he didn't exactly have the talent or memorization to make himself a good student. Though his grades seemed to improving if only slightly, which was a good start.

"Hey did you here? About Strange Gospel..."

"Yeah, someone went missing! I heard the police were involved, but they couldn't anything."

"How many people have gone missing? I heard a girl from next class disappeared as well."

Strange Gospel. He heard that name multiple times in the classroom when he was studying. His classmates even brought it up to him when they approached him. While he was also worried about the string of disappearance, Yuichi thought that it was superstition. How could a phone app be the cause of this? It seemed bizarre at best to blame everything on an app. Many people even theroized that it had some sort of tracking programmed into the app that lead to its users being kidnapped. If that were the case, why wasn't it removed from the app store?

Regardless, Yuichi ignored the rumors that were spreading amongst the masses. It didn't effect him, so there wasn't any point on pushing on it. He needed to get back to studying. If he got a good grade on his next test, his GPA would be servicable to enter in to a college next year. If only that didn't happen. He may have gotten a scholarship with subpar grades and gotten into a college that way. Though that's just how life was. Even if it was a little to start studying now, if he worked hard enough he could still get into the college he wanted to get into.

A sound of a bat hitting a ball stopped him in his tracks. Thanks to his height, he could see a little over his peers. In the distance, he could see a small corner of the school yard. A student was running across the yard to reach home base. A white ball was soaring through the sky and another student was trying to catch it. Instinctually, Yuichi wanted to run in and join. To throw the ball at a mach speed that nobody could react to. He wanted to run and catch ball with his bare hand and prevent the other team from moving to another base.

Though all he felt was bitterness as Yuichi turned back around and headed home. He needed to study, that's all he oculd do.

[Pitsuji]

Gotoh Yuzu

Yuzu was begrudgingly walked through the crowd of students, her head down looking at her phone as she tapped her way through an endless stream of social medias. She had no club to be at and no real friends she wanted to be around, so she had to wrestle with the daily issue of what she could be doing with her time that wasn't studying or doing more scholorship papers. Yuzu figured that either way, she would probably be heading right back home but that was far too unappealing.

There was something that was on everyones mind that even Yuzu had to admit was interesting, this Strange Gospel stuff?

If you asked Yuzu, it was either a hard scam or a cult thing, both of which were very appealing to high school students with nothing but free time. Unluckily, Yuzu was also a highschool student with nothing but free time.

As Yuzu began breaking away from the greater rabble she made way for the grocery store, may as well get a snack or something while she does this. She did have the link to this Strange Gospel thing after all, off of a number she doesn't recognize of all things. If you wanna do a scam, at least obfuscate it a little, right? All she had to do now by the looks of it was wait for that next day response.

"I swear to God if this is just a fucking virus..." She grumbled to herself, idly looking around and- hey was that the fucking Yakuza chick?
@Psyker Landshark

[Remram]

Another day of school ended, but let's be honest, no one really cared about what was happening around the school these days with the rumors circulating about disappearances and a strange man being seen about town at night. At the heart of it all though was Strange Gospel, something that no one was entirely sure what it was. Well, it was an app, but the purpose or even the origin was dubious. An app that that showed someone the future that was now feared to be the source of various missing cases throughout the damn city and who knows where else. Still, it sounded like a work of fiction, a rumor that someone made up and posted on the web.

Life has a funny way of being though. The sick twist is that it was real, and Hattori Kauro found himself stuck in this mess. One way or another he found the app or more accurately, the app found him. He knew that there was something greater than what the rumors because he had seen what he assumed to be a potential future. If the design of the app was to show the future, then the next logical step would be that the second video showed him a bleak, terrifying future. The next question is the purpose of the app. No, the purpose isn't to just show the future; it was to communicate though to what end was beyond Kauro. However, he did have one working theory about where the abductees were taken. They were most likely in that tower that he saw in the video.

The sensation to solve something beyond mortal comprehension was a thrill that one would have difficulty to describe, but he was also not stupid. He only had two weeks to solve this mystery or else he was going to disappear just like everyone else who had made contact with this app. Ruin was creeping around the corner, ready to draw Kauro down with all the other victims, but he was going to be a step ahead. He had to be.

These were the kind of thoughts he had when walking down the school corridor with his friends. He was completely dead to the world, his eyes glazed over, and his ears deafened to the conversation going around him though over time he could almost hear his name being called. Well, that was until a girl just shouted into his ear. Kauro almost jumped from his skin, which was pretty unusual for him given how used to jumpscares he was and turned to look at the group.

"Yo Kauro! What're you zoning out for? We've called you out like five times!" One of them said, a girl with long black hair.

The truth was that he had not told anyone in his friend group that he used the app. The last thing he wanted to do was make any of them worry. Kauro smiled and said, "My bad, my bad. Just lost in thought. So, what's the plan?"

Someone else from the group piped up. "We're thinking Karaoke to blow off some steam. Things have been way too tense at school recently with everything that's happened."

"Sounds like fun. I'll just text my aunt to let her know that I'll be out late," said Kauro as he whipped his phone out. Going out with his friends wasn't the entire reason why he was so keen on this. He needed an excuse to go around and look for whatever the hell that mysterious figure popping in and out of town. Of course, finding it was an incredible risk because it could be the thing responsible for the kidnappings, or it could be his ticket out. It was his only lead given how little information he had.

With all that in mind, he exited the campus with his school friends and made their way through the town.

[Bartimaeus]

Chise Nozaki

_{Mentions: N/A Location:School Courtyard}

---

Chise's hands sat nestled comfortably in each of his front pockets as the repetitive, brief "chht-ing" sound of his skipping footsteps struck out with each of his shallow strides. Said strides led him away from his previous location - the school track. The period before the sound of the school's final bell had consisted of Chise hanging out at the edge of the track, slacking off as he is wont to do. One might see such behavior as a display of his disinterest in track club, but on the contrary, he did enjoy his time there - he just didn't take the sport itself that seriously. Which is why the tense environment of the school as of late what starting to irritate him a little.

He drew his hands from his pockets and splayed them out in front of him as his skipping changed into a jaunty walk.
"Oh, come one, everybody!" He called out to nobody in particular as he passed by a few groups of students, a few of whom he gauged as being a bit more skittish than usual. "Loosen up a bit! All these nerves are starting to feel a bit contagious!" He expressed, tossing a couple edifying glances at a few students who looked over to him. Perhaps he didn't know them personally, but Chise was no stranger to strangers, and he had a bit of a reputation for having little filter or ambitions, so it only seemed natural for him to address even a small student body.

Although he hadn't expected much change, the lack of any shift in the tone of the area left him shoving his hands back into his pockets as his walk continued forward. The tail-end of one of his glances left him heedless to the person which he was about to collide with, until they clashed. Chise let out a short "oof" before rolling with the collision and saving himself from a tumble as he unsteadily backpedaled a few steps. "Ack- sorry, friend. My head was screwed on a bit backwards there, won't happen again!" He apologized with an atoning glance even as he continued his path with an unabated pace, offering a brief two-finger salute in friendly adieu.

He was in no hurry, and so his stride was on the casual side. If he kept his current trajectory, he'd be hitting the sidewalk which would lead away from the school and towards the middle of town. He had taken it upon himself to decide to get a few groceries for his Aunt on his way home - though he had to admit he also wanted to get a few things for himself as well. He shifted the weight of his backpack, which casually hung off his back on one shoulder.

While his demeanor seemed just like his usual, carefree self, in the back of his head he was wondering about what just-about-everyone-else was. The "Strange Gospel". There were those who didn't believe it - thought it a prank of some sort - and there were those who feared it. Being the wildcard he was, Chise wasn't settled on any particular theory - it could be fake.. or maybe it was real. In truth, only time could tell.

And he would know personally within two weeks..

[DarckLeon]

Kazama Kosubaku

Kazama stretched his arms in his seat as he heard the bell ring. The school day has ended and, contrary to the rest of his schoolmates, he still tried to pay attention to what was happening in the class, even with all these rumors flying around. He had to, after all, it was part of the deal Kazama had with the principal. The school knew of his situation and permitted him to have part-time jobs, as long as his grades didn't fall below the average of the class. It wasn't easy, but as long as he concentrated in class and read his notes every now and again he had managed to do it so far.

"Today is... cashier at the market, right, I should get going now" he said to himself. He was about to finish grabbing his notes when a voice behind him interrupted him. "Hey Kazama, me and the boys are going to the arcade, if you're free come with us! it will be fun!". Kazama turned around, an apologetic smile already on his face while an automatic response left his mouth: "I would love that, seriously, but I'm kinda busy right now, maybe another day" he said and finished packing his stuff in his bag. He appreciated that they keep asking, even if nowadays the invitations started getting more and more scarce. Kazama couldn't blame his classmates for that, and it wasn't his fault either, it was just how things were. "Have fun guys!" he finally said, before leaving the classroom.

Out in the hallways, even in the cacophony of voices, it was impossible to miss out on the main topic of conversation. Strange Gospel appeared out of nowhere and managed to become the only thing the students of the city talked about. Kazama thought it would fade out within the first week and another weird thing would take its place, yet after several weeks people still kept gossiping about it. Even he had downloaded it one afternoon, surprised it even worked on his crappy phone. He had to admit, the fact that the video he saw came to pass WAS pretty spooky, concerning even, but after a long day of classes followed by an even longer day of working, he forgot about it. Then the weird videos began to pop up. Then the disappearances started. He wasn't all that scared, he had other stuff to worry about after all, like maintaining his grades and bringing food to the table... but he stopped using most alleys as shortcuts and tried to walk home with his coworkers if he could in the evenings. It was for precaution, he told himself. Nothing more and nothing less.

Kazama reached the school entrance and started his walk towards the market. As a result of being wary of walking through the various alleys of the city alone, he had to use a more rapid pace if he wanted to reach his destination in time to confortably change into his uniform. So with that in mind, his walk became a slight jog. He wondered if today was going to be a slow day, and hoped there was a deal in tuna, his mom loved those and they didn't eat fish in some time. Maybe he'll even find money on the ground.

At the end of the day Kazama was an optimistic at heart,so he was sure all this Strange Gospel business would resolve itself quickly. Maybe it was all a big prank that some guys and gals though it would be funny, who knows, he certainly didn't that's for sure.

[VitaVitaAR]

It was a throbbing, unpleasant sound.

The thudding rhythm not unlike that of a heartbeat. It wasn't exactly heard so much as it was felt, reverberating through each of their bodies.

But it wasn't their own. It seemed to come from the very air around the, the ground beneath their feet.

As the sun began to sink lower, drifting further towards the horizon, and the shadows grew longer, something felt strange to them. Unnatural.

It felt as if they were steadily going out of synch with the world around them.

And then they could see it. The entire world froze.

Every single person around them stopped moving.

The breeze died.

Every sound ceased.

They could still move, but they were seemingly alone in their ability to do so.

And then every single person was gone.

The scenery remained, but it was empty. The sun was gone, as well, an enormous moon seeming to dominate the sky, which was otherwise without a single star.

If they were to look down, they would discover the ground beneath them was red. Further observation would lead to a far more unpleasant discovery.

There was blood, everywhere. The concrete beneath their feet was coated in it. Walls, buildings, splatters of what could only be blood adorned most surfaces. It stood out even more against the pitch black of the buildings, who had lost all their identifying features. Even the shadows seemed strange, almost purple on coloration.

The heartbeat sound had only grown louder.

And then it would be hard not to look. Somehow, some way, their eyes would be drawn to it.

A great, looming spire, a jagged shape jutting above all other structures in the city, like a spear thrust towards the moon.

There was a shuffling, wet sound behind them, and-

They were back.

As if nothing had happened, the world was suddenly back to normal. People were still around. There was light and life aside from themselves again.

Even the tower was gone.

@AThousandCurses@Bartimaeus@hatakekuro@Pitsuji@Psyker Landshark@DarckLeon

[Remram]

The threat of disappearing? Who heard of it? Certainly not this group of kids who were walking around the city streets after a fun session of karaoke. Kauro was chatting and laughing with his group of friends, talking about latest celebrity news, fads, and gossip. After zoning out like he had done so previously back on campus, he was making a concerted effort to be involved and make sure no one suspected his behavior though his sharp eyes were looking for any sign of the strange figure rumored to be about. Everything felt so normal, and yet he could not shake the feeling that there was something wrong.

The sound of a heartbeat shook his body, except it wasn't his. It did not feel like it was his. Somehow, it was as if he could feel the heartbeat of the world itself. It was sickening. His very being seemed to scream in repulsion against the violation of nature.

Was it him or were the voices of his friends starting to lag, not matching the movements of their mouth? Were they moving just slower than they typically would? "Hey, what are you guys...?" His friends were suddenly still. No, it wasn't just them; it was the world. There was no breeze, no sound, or warmth. There was an unnatural stillness to the world though the only one that could move right now was himself.

Kauro looked up to see that the evening sky had been replaced by a blanket of black with only the light of an impossibly large moon to guide his path. He stepped forward to find that the silence was broken by the spatter of a puddle.

"The heck did I...?" Looking down, he quickly realized that what he stepped in was not water, but a pool of blood that stained his shoes. The color left his face, and he quickly surveyed his surroundings. Blood painted every corner he could see, and the buildings were dark and featureless, casting strange purple shadows. Were they really buildings or were they just part of the land itself?

The heartbeat grew louder and louder, beating his eardrums relentlessly. Then, he saw it. The damn thing that stood at the heart of the mystery; that tower piercing into the moonlit abyss. He took a step forward towards it, as if by sheer compulsion when he heard something behind him rushing closer in. Kauro turned back and at that moment, the world turned back to normal. No, it would be more accurate to say that he was back in his own world, or if his theory of Strange Gospel was to be believed, the point of time he was supposed to be in. It was hard to tell.

He was staring back at the group of friends who were just walking as if nothing had happened. Kauro had fallen behind from the group though it had gone noticed as one of them turned back and said, "Hey, you good? You look a bit pale."

Quick to regain composure, he offered a reassuring smile and said, "Um, I'm fine. I just remembered that I needed to pick something up from the supermarket. I'll catch you guys later."

They said their goodbyes and Kauro was left standing there, watching them go off into the distance. That charming grin was superseded by one of excitement with an almost crazed look in his eyes. Instead of the heartbeat from before, he could feel his own rise with his ever increase elation.

"Things have gotten very, very interesting," said Kauro with a chuckle. Now he was more determined than ever to solve this case. All that was left was the matter of surviving it.

[Psyker Landshark]

Nakano Nagi

Ah, shit. It was happening again. Just like it did the night she was first pulled in. Great. That meant Strange Gospel was about to grab more poor suckers. She'd have to call this in once it passed. Hopefully, they'd found more candidates by now. She wasn't exactly a recruiter herself, and her reputation did her no favors in getting people to give her the time of day. Nagi sighed as she glanced around while the endless night was still active. It was always so eerie to see herself alone in the streets-

Wait, what the fuck?

As reality asserted itself once more, Nagi peered suspiciously at the light-haired girl a few paces from her, also seeming to be on her way to the grocery store. The Yakuza princess was almost certain she'd seen her for an instant when the night passed, and now here she was, looking for all the world like something had just happened. Judging by the fact that no one else around seemed to be reacting aversely, Nagi was sure she'd finally found one. Now, who was this exactly...? Oh, right. Wasn't this the school genius? Kind of a bitch, if rumors and scuttlebutt were to be believed. Although she wasn't one to talk.

Regardless, Nagi fished her burner phone out while deliberately keeping her gaze on Gotoh Yuzu. She hit a number on speed dial and held the phone up to her ear, starting to walk towards the other girl. Once the other end picked up, Nagi began to speak even as she approached.

"Boss? Think I found one. Pretty sure she was reacting during the shift." Nagi paused, as if realizing she'd forgotten something. "By the way, there was a shift just now if you didn't notice. It's probably gonna go down tonight. Anyways, mind giving the onboarding speech? We both know I'm no good at this shit."

Nagi sidled up next to Yuzu, offering the burner phone.

"Look, I'm sure you've got questions, but save 'em for the guy on the other end. I can't be bothered with this crap. No, this ain't a cult and you're not being targeted. You just had the luck of being next to someone who knows what's going on when it happened. Now take the fucking phone."

@Pitsuji

[Pitsuji]

Gotoh Yuzu

Yuzu hummed as she tapped away at her phone, though now she was barely looking at anything else, her thoughts were mostly drawn to what that odd video could possibly entail. So what if she was becoming impatient with it, it wasn't exactly an every day occurrence now was it? And also, what was that noise just now?

Yuzu dared to look up boredly, and what she saw felt like hell.

"H-huh." She mumbled, looking around at the people frozen in place, 'W-what...?" And then down to where she was stepping in puddles of dark red blood. "W-what!? What what what what!?"

Yuzu's heartbeat raced but not over the beating sound that seemed to be coming from all over, and then, then something came up from behind her and-!

Yuzu squealed in terror, in advertently tossing her phone up into the air, which let her see that things had suddenly decided to turn back to normal. Oh, good, but now she had more pressing matters. "M-my phone!" She squealed again, smacking, grabbing, and swinging at the air and her phone until finally it was safely back into her hands. She sighed, okay, so. Maybe she just...imagined all that?

Just as Yuzu was gonna be on her way, the Yakuza bitch decided to start talking to her. "W-what? The fuck are you talking about? You just sound like someone whos targetting someone!" She griped, frowning deeply and taking a step back, feelings of confusion giving way to some fear as the girl talked to her about...whatever that just was? She looked uneasily from the phone to the yakuza bitch (she earnestly forgot her name) and clutched onto her bag, "Why should I? The hell is that even gonna do."

@Psyker Landshark

[AThousandCurses]

Yuichi Miyasato

An unpleasant sound resounded in his ears. The moment the world had seemingly changed, Yuichi stopped in his tracks. Everything was frozen. His peers's conversations, the rustling of the trees, everything seemed to be still. Turning around the ball was still soaring through the skies. As if fixed in the air, it did not move just like everything else. Now that he was looking up even the sun was gone. A chill went down his spine as if to make it obvious that the world wasn't warm and safe anymore.

"What the..." Yuichi said. Shock was evident on his face as he tried to back away. To his surprise, there was a small patter sound when he moved his feet. His eyes focused down towards his feet. As if it had rained, there was blood on the concrete.

It didn't stop there. Pieces of gore and blood was spread all around the area. If the phrase, 'let's paint the town red,' was used a descriptor, this would be an apt situation to use it in. Yuichi still couldn't believe he was seeing. Not even his own shadow was safe from the strange environment that had unfurled. The more that Yuichi looked, the more that he felt sick in the inside. Seeing this amount of blood brought back unsavory memories.

Yet, the heartbeat beated louder and louder.

As if beckoning him to look ahead and see for himself, Yuichi saw the towering structure. It loomed over every building that was around them. Like a looming tree hovering over a child, Yuichi could not help look up at the spire. What was it? When was it there? How did it get there? Many questions were probed into his head, but they all found themselves unanswered.

Then everything went back to normal.

A student who had noticed Yuichi staring wide eyed to sky spoke to him. "Hey, dude, are you alright?"

"...Yes, I'm fine. Sorry to worry you." Yuichi said, his expression turning unexpressive. Turning back around, he went back to his walk. Instead of going home, Yuichi decided to head to the sports center. After witnessing a near world changing event, Yuichi couldn't tell what he saw was real or not. What needed was to take his mind off of it for a moment and reset his focus. Or that was he would have liked to done until he saw a certain app on his phone.

Strange Gospel

If Yuichi went paler, no one would have noticed. Putting his phone back into his pocket, he turned directions and headed the other direction. He needed to clear his mind.

[Bartimaeus]

Chise Nozaki

_{Mentions: N/A Location:Random sidewalk}

---

Chise's casual stroll continued as he made his way towards his usual grocery store. His after-school journey was nothing remarkable, as one might expect from a simple supermarket trip - but Chise wasn't much one for leaving boring things boring. He dotted the trip with small-talk betwixt strangers, a few brief stops for window-shopping, and a number of daydreams about what he might do after he dropped the groceries off at home.

Between these activities, there was one window in particular that caught Chise's attention. He stepped up to it, his head tilted upwards slightly as he looked at the mannequin on the other side of the store-front glass. The figure was clothed in an eye-catching combination of a darker grunge-esque base and alluring spikes of color and.. spice. His eyes developed a glassy look as he looked up in admiration. His mind was immediately debating going in there and buying the outfit, closing his eyes as he tried to picture what it would look like on him.

After a few moments of internal debate, a sensation struck him. His brows furrowed ever-so-slightly as the feeling of a sudden beat echoed through his body.
"Well.. that's.. certainly new." He reasoned. "But.. I suppose the heart wants what the heart wants!" He cheered to himself as the decision was made and his demeanor brightened once again. His eyes opened once more, and shifted over to the door, checking if the 'open' sign was up, even though it most definitely shoul-

And that was when he saw.. something. His head swiveled to the left slowly as he turned to see the odd shape out of the corner of his eye.
It was a crowd. A crowd of people completely frozen in place. Various states of stride captured as if in a photograph. His mind immediately jumped to some form of street-performer group, but then he looked further. Everything was frozen. Everything except.. him.

He began to step away from the shop window, and suddenly every single person he had seen was gone. His mind suddenly registered the thrumming heartbeat - the heartbeat that was not his own. Not only that - but it was suddenly darker. The sun gone from the sky - replaced by a vast moon unlike anything he had ever seen before. He stumbled slightly, his hand pulling away from the wall with a concerning wet slickness to it. Chise's eye shifted to his hand as he drew it closer - to find it coated in wet and congealed blood. He turned back to the shop and it was no longer there - replaced by a dull, gray husk of what he had expected.

"W-Woah.." He murmured. His mind was racing, completely caught off by all the details he hadn't registered before - something he was very much not used to. His lack of awareness of his immediate surroundings was quickly starting to feel overwhelming as his head swiveled back and forth to allow his eyes and other senses to take it all in.

But there was one image that caught his eye the most. His gazed shifted to the towering, looming shape of a great spire splitting the sky above all the other structures. His eyes only broke from absorbing its height by the pounding sensation of the heartbeat, interspersed betwixt his thoughts once more.

Chise's mind was racing, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. Had he been drugged? Was he.. dead? Where-

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of a squelching shuffle behind him. He instantly spun as he leapt away from the source of the noise, his instincts guiding his body to recoil from whatever it was that was there.

But then he was back.

He blinked as the brightness of the day suddenly returned, and he stumbled slightly on the spot as he found himself elsewhere once again. He raised his hand to study it -- completely clean. There were a few concerned stares as the people around him watched his confusion. His eyes rose as he noticed the enquiring faces. He quickly assumed an unassuming posture and brushed a strand of hair out of his face as he offered a shaky smile to those around him.

He was quick to turn and start walking once again toward the supermarket, his shoulders hunched defensively as his mind started to dissect what he had just experienced. It had been a long time since he had been caught so off-guard - and it was, honestly, quite terrifying. He didn't like whatever had just happened - at all.

He didn't even notice how fast his heart was beating as his journey continued - now though with an unconsciously hasty pace.

[DarckLeon]

Kazama Kosubaku

"That would be 2570 yen. Here's your change, I hope you have a good day sir" Kazama said, as he smiled amicably at the old man. It has been a slow day, with only 5 customers so far. On days like these he liked to review what they did in class, his notebook tucked in a corner of the cashier's desk that couldn't be seen from the front. Of course, even if it was unseen, Kazama still closed it whenever a customer came in, as to not get distracted. He was a firm believer that any task, especially a job, should be done with 100% of your attention, no matter how small. It was a philosophy that had served him well so far, and one that he would continue using in his everyday life.

He was about to open his notebook again when a sound interrupted him. It was a "thump-thump" that started to increase in volume. It felt like a heartbeat, a strange, creeping "thump-thump" that seemed to come from his surroundings, entering his body and making him sick to his bones. But the weirdness didn't end there. He could see, from where he was, that a woman was about to enter the market, except she didn't move. It was as if she was frozen in time. Kazama moved from behind the desk and took a few hesitant steps toward the entrance, wondering if a gas leak nearby made him hallucinate what was going on. Once he reached the double doors, he realized it wasn't only the woman who was frozen, but the world itself. The characteristic sounds of machinery or birds had ceased to be. Not even the slightest breeze could be felt. He was about to ask the woman if she was ok when suddenly she disappeared, and with her the light of the sun, an enormous moon in its place.

The moonlight was the only source of light, but, after seeing the state of his surroundings, Kazama wished for darkness instead. Everywhere he looked, from the walls to the floor to the street signs was bathed with blood and gore. It was surreal, the combination of red, white, and black formed an otherwordly combination, a sight so alien it made his stomach churn. The heartbeat got louder, and he didn't have time to guess it this time it was his own because a structure he could swear wasn't there a moment ago entered his view. It was a tower, if it could be called that, a gigantic spire in the distance that didn't belong to this world and went up and up and up, seemingly without end. He was so entranced by it that he didn't hear the wet thump behind him until he could feel it right on his neck.

Kazama looked back, a scream in his mouth when everything stopped. He was back in the normal world. No blood, no moon, and definitely no tower. The woman that was about to enter the market seemed to hear him because she looked at him for a moment before a worried expression crossed her face. "Oh my, are you ok young man? your face is white"

The words broke him from his trance, and he realized what strange sight he was giving. He tried to regain his composure and answered the woman "Y-yeah, I was just... grabbing some trash from the street, come in madam, we are still open" he said with a smile and went inside. If he could, he would go to the bathroom to throw up, but he couldn't leave a client unattended, it would look bad for the cameras, so he just gulped down the sickness he felt and tried to get his mind in his work.

But there was just one thing that couldn't leave his thoughts. Even if what happened just now felt like a fever dream, he could feel, deep inside him, that it was somehow familiar.

[VitaVitaAR]

"I can confirm your report, we recorded the spike in the collective unconsciousness," came the immediate response from the man on the other end of the line. Matsuoka Takahiro was considered the 'advisor' for their club, but in reality he was the founder and the reason any of them were there in the first place. Without him, well...

Things would look a lot more grim right now.

Takahiro sighed heavily after a moment, "Gotoh Yuzu-san, you said? If you can, it'd be the best if you can stay with her. Shiratori-kun just reported that she spotted another student during the transition, and Taniguchi-kun is tracking the signals of at least four more. Do you understand what that means, Nakano-kun?"

It didn't need to be said. The fact that they were able to detect the signals of that many people meant that they were in immediate danger.

But it also meant they'd already found them before they were pulled to the other side.

That meant this was an unprecedented opportunity to stop anyone from dying tonight.

For Gotoh Yuzu, even though everything looked normal... Perhaps she would notice it.

The faintest beating, still lingering in her ears, seeming to come from no-where.

@Pitsuji@Psyker Landshark

---

"Hey, you're Nozaki-kun, right?"

Given what he'd just experienced, the sudden voice from behind him was probably not the most welcome experience.

But if he turned to see who it was, he would be greeted by a somewhat unexpected sight.

The pigtailed head of Shiratori Naoko leaned into view.

"You are, right? Nozaki Chise?" she repeated, taking a step forward. Shiratori Naoko was a relatively popular girl, due to her looks(sometimes referred to as doll-like), her fashion sense, and her fairly diligent and sociable behavior. She wasn't among the top most popular girls in the school, nor did she have a good reputation with everyone(such a thing was impossible even for the most popular student in any school, let alone someone like Shiratori), but it was enough that it would be something of a surprise when she approached a fellow student seemingly at random.

"It looked like you kind of zoned out, are you okay?" she asked, cocking her head to one side.

And indeed, Chise would feel fine.

... Aside from the distant beating that still seemed to accompany him.

@Bartimaeus

---

Indeed, everyone who had just experienced the bizarre otherworldly look into what seemed to be a nightmare realm would still be sensing a strange heatbeat-like sound on the very edge of their hearing.

Perhaps, in their distracted state, they'd find themselves running into one another...

@AThousandCurses@hatakekuro@DarckLeon

[Psyker Landshark]

Nakano Nagi

Nagi had kept the conversation on speaker phone from the moment Matsuoka mentioned Yuzu's name. She groaned quietly to herself as the man's response, resigning herself to her new task. Sure, it wasn't like there was much of a choice, considering she was one of the only active field agents they had at the moment. But it was still a huge pain in the ass to track down a bunch of students she barely knew, never mind having to convince the one next to her to follow along as she did so. Plus Matsuoka would delay explaining anything until everyone was gathered up, probably. Motherfucker.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you." Nagi sighed, keeping the conversation on speaker for Yuzu's benefit. "Get Taniguchi to send me and Shiratori that shit, alright? We'll probably meet up eventually." She very deliberately didn't bother using any honorifics for either. No point, if they weren't around to not hear it. "Gonna drop the call. If you ain't explaining shit, guess I'll have to do it myself. I'll head out once I know where the others are."

After hanging up, Nagi turned back to Yuzu with a resigned look, keeping her voice low so as to not attract any attention with the crazy shit she was about to spout.

"Alright, Gotoh-chan, right? Hear you're smart, so I better not have to explain all this more than once. You saw some freaky shit just now. Don't deny it, I did too. The short version of this is that app Strange Gospel is some supernatural crap. First time it shows you anything, it comes true. Second time, you see a full moon, a tower, a mask, and blood. Third time, well, there's a reason there's been rumors going around about disappearances." She really, really was not cut out to give these sorts of explanations.

"This all happened to me too. Only difference is I got lucky enough to get bailed out by the guy on the phone just not. Anyways, point is, come with me if you don't want to get jumped and probably killed. I know this sounds crazy, and really, I'm the worst person we've got to try and convince anyone. Still rather not see random people get killed though, so just save me the trouble and follow along, would you?"

@Pitsuji

[Pitsuji]

Gotoh Yuzu

This was probably the most extended conversation she had with someone she could not leverage an upper hand on in any capacity in a long time. Yuzu did not like this.

However, that did have to take a quick trip to the backburner for oddities she was currently being made privy to. This just...could not be a prank right? Something to this degree couldn't be some odd, weird, airborne drug trick or something by the yakuza? Okay even that string of thoughts sounded too dumb to entertain. She had to believe what the Yakuza bitch was saying, for now at least, until she could figure out and judge things for herself. She didn't exactly sound impressive either, what was she, an errand girl for the guy on the phone?

"Heard I-I'm smart? Do you even know who I am!?" Fortunately for Yuzu, Nagi's offhand comment gave her just the right foothold to bring herself back to reality. "Your talking to a Once-In-A-Lifetime Genius here! And being the Genius I am, I probably can't deny the things I saw just now. A tower, mask, and blood? Thats...way too ominous to ignore..."

Yuzu didn't like the prospect of someone helping her, especially someone who was apparently not cut out for the job in the first place, but at this point she would be a fool for now at least trying to hear things out. "Fine, I'll go with you. Just to get a proper explaination as to what the hell is going on here! Lead the way, not like I'll be getting answers out of a meathead, that is what you are for these people, right?" Yuzu straightens out her back and manages to look at Nagi condecendingly, going from panicked to bitchy with just a few exercises in mental gymnastics.

@Psyker Landshark

[Remram]

@DarckLeon@AThousandCurses

It would've been inaccurate to say that Kauro was distracted. Or maybe he was? Kauro's thoughts were a racing, jumbled mess and yet, at the same time completely hyper focused on Strange Gospel. How could he not after everything he saw? There were so many questions that just needed to be answered! His blood was pumping, adrenaline deluged his body as he walked through the sunset-kissed streets of the city. It was a strange sort of joy, something that was manic, yet such a high that it was almost unbearable.

Was it his heartbeat or was it that world's he heard?

Kauro wandered aimlessly focused only on his thoughts until he noticed the sound of a chime and the glow of florescent lights from above. He just stood there for a solid second to realize that he just walked into a market without much thought. His head was completely somewhere else though now it started to anchor itself back down to reality. Would it be weird if he walked into a store only to just walk out without buying anything? Yeah, it probably would be weird.

Just for the sake of not looking out of place, Kauro just perused the aisles. Still, he could hear the heartbeat thump softly in the background.

This was probably the point when the students would disappear. If they made contact with whatever that world was, it must've meant he was going to be pulled back in soon. The reality has been breached and he was marked by whatever entity was in control of Strange Gospel if the repeated beating of the heart was an indication. The question was when he would be claimed.

Would it be so bad though? It's not like he had much reason to stay.

Kauro grabbed a can of coke from the drinks section and walked over to the checkout. The cashier was some black- haired kid around his own age. Strangely enough, he looked familiar, but he was not sure where he would have seen him. Maybe from school? Who knows

"Hi, I'd like to get some chicken," he said pointing at the glass case convivence store fried chicken and other foods.

[AThousandCurses]

Yuichi Miyasato

It didn't go away. The thumping of a heartbeat echoed into his ear, no matter how many steps he was away from the school. Sweat slid down as Yuichi tried to think. Was it the app? Taking out his phone again, he tried to delete the app. When he did, it just popped up again. "What's with this thing," Yuichi muttered to himself. With the stress getting to him again, he looked up from his phone. He was far from the sports center, but there was a convenience store.

Entering inside, he recognized a certain orange hair man browsing through the aisles. Hattori Karuo, if he remembered correctly. They hadn't met personally, but Yuichi often caught his name when he passed by him and his friends at school. A social star, as Yuichi would have likened it as. Yuichi considered the possibility of walking up and talking to him. Maybe all of this was in his head, and it'd go away if he talked to someone,.

No, that would be too awkward. Yuichi didn't even know what to open with to start a conversation, and he didn't know Hattori that well, either.

Going off to one of the display refrigerators, Yuichi picked out a water bottle and picked up a snack. By the time he arrived to order himself up, Hattori was already standing in front of the cashier. The cashier, himself, seemed familiar as well. Was it Kosubaku? If he remembered the name correctly. They might have shared a class at one point, though Yuichi could have remembered better.

Though, now he was in an awkward situation. Standing right behind Hattori, Yuichi stood behind and stared straight ahead at the shelf behind Kosubaku. Should he speak up? It didn't help that the uncomfortable sound was still beating somewhere right behind him.

Mentally steeling himself, he spoke up. "Hi, Hattori-kun. How's your day?" Yuichi said casually. A simple conversation opener. Though forget that, Hattori didn't know who he was. How would Hattori feel if some stranger came out of nowhere, called him by his name, and greeted him out of nowhere? A frown formed on his face as he tried to work things out inside his head.

[DarckLeon]

Kazama Kosubaku

Being a rather small, off-the-road market, Kazama was the only employee around, and he served the function of both the cashier and a stock clerk and so it was also his job to replenish any missing item when he thought no client would arrive. He was in the middle of this, alone in the store when his mind had time to realize one crucial detail: that nauseating sound, the thumping of that alien heart hadn't stopped, it only became fainter, almost inaudibly when he didn't actively look for it, but now that he had he couldn't get it out of his head.

His thoughts became mumbled, he wanted to forget what happened, write it off as a stress-induced hallucination, a consequence of his routine, but the constant heartbeat was a reminder that he was going crazy, or what he experienced was no delirium. Kazama was so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn't hear the chime signaling a new customer had arrived. "stop thinking about crap and concentrate on the job" he said to himself, and really mean it. There were few things worse than slacking in a job you got paid for in Kazama's mind, and besides that, it would be good for him to take his keep his mind busy with anything other than the events from some minutes ago.

He walked down the aisle and got behind the cashier's desk, put on the best salesman smile he could muster on, and waited till the client got what they wanted and went to pay, but what he did not expect was it to be a fellow student from his school looking at the aisles. He was about his height, had orange hair, and carried himself with confidence, even if he looked kinda distracted from what he could see.

The oranged-haired boy was still searching for something to buy when the bell at the entrance sounded yet again, and another peer of his entered the store. Not only twice in a day but at the same time? Not that it was weird or anything, but usually students didn't pick such a small market to buy things... well, not like he was ashamed to be seen working here, so he didn't care either way.

The first guy that entered reached the checkout and asked for some chicken to accompany his coke. He smiled at him as he answered "Hi! Wait for just a second and I get it for you" . With that said, Kazama crouched, the opening for the glass door being on his side of the desk. Just as he was about to grab the chicken he heard the second customer greet the now named Hattori. His name didn't ring any bells in Kazama's mind, but to be fair he didn't know a lot of people in school to be honest.

He got back up and put the plastic plate on the counter, "That would be 2000 yen, would that be all?" . He looked behind Hattori and nodded to the other boy, his face seemed a little more familiar to him, but still not enough to put a name to it. There was a moment of silence, but it was enough for that creepy thumping to return to his ears. The smile on Kazama's face weakened a little, and he turned his head slightly to the left as if to make sure there was nothing behind him. The paranoia was starting to affect his mind on the job he noticed and grimaced for one second, before returning to his smiling self. He hoped neither of the boys had seen that.