Seven days ago, several youngsters had received a weird email.
It seemed to be rather nonsense, at first. It spoke of things such as magic, and a weird festival. Maybe it was sent to the wrong email address, but either way, it was probably quickly forgotten by whoever had received it. At least until the weird dream, not too long after.
In said dream, the contacted individuals felt lucid, able to interact with the environment and each other, although they were hardly given a chance to do so, before a tiny, humanoid girl showed up with a stern expression, and immediately launched into a spiel about them being chosen to be magical girls that participate in some silly magical tournament thing. It was all rather sudden, but the fairy wasn't exactly open to interruptions. As soon as she had finished, the glasses-wearing creature had declared "the door to Phantasma will open tomorrow", and just like that, the dream was over.
Certainly, it was a strange event, and almost as easily dismiss-able as the email had been. Although, together, maybe there was some credibility to the stuff about magic?
...Nah, no way. Life wasn't a fantasy story filled with wish-fulfilment. There was no way some 'door to Phantasma' would appear to whisk anyone away to another world.
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Akira stared at the door to Phantasma that had appeared from nowhere with some incredulity.
Having been typing away at an essay for her Japanese Literature class, Akira had no idea how long it had been there, but there it was; a blue, almost ephemeral door occupying what used to be a blank space of her bedroom wall. It seemed to pulse with mystical energy, practically beckoning the diligent student to enter.
Still, she was hesitant to just rush at the thing. It was way too suspicious! It could be a trap by an alien, or a hallucination that meant for her to dive head-first into the very-solid wall! And even if that door really did take her to some magical world full of... magic, and... more magic, what if it turned out to secretly be some dystopian nightmare behind the scenes?!
...Well, that seemed even more unlikely than the present situation. Still, who in their right mind would just walk through a door that wasn't there five minutes ago?
"Gaaaaaaah, this is so dumb!" Akira berated herself, finding that she had wandered towards the weird door and had extended her hand to open it. Freezing in place, the sweet-faced girl conducted a mental conflict: Reason vs wonder, who would win?!
If only that stupid dream fairy hadn't rushed me out of that stupid dream... came the mental grumbling,
I'm putting in a complaint about this...Akira considered herself a realist that didn't tend towards silly fantasies about magic, but... well, if this was a hallucination, it was pretty damn convincing and persistent. The door continued to exist, and when Akira finally reached out to touch the onyx-like doorknob, it felt solid and strangely-warm to the touch.
"...Just a quick peek, I guess..." Akira sighed, and turned the doorknob.
And one sudden and startling flash of bright light later, Akira found herself standing in a wide, near-empty field.
"...Huh?"
Well, this was most definitely not her bedroom. Nor anywhere her hometown. Hell, was it even in her country? Akira gave a nervous glance to her surroundings. There seemed to be nothing but a few animals idling in the distance... and a wooden sign planted in the ground.
Well, it was as good a clue as any. Wishing that she was wearing more than a simple shirt and shorts (another thing; more notice meant she could dress appropriately for inexplicable travel to foreign lands!), Akira approached the sign.
"Meeting spot, see ya soon~!"
The only other thing there was a doodle of a bunny-eared smiley face. Well, that was pointless. So what, she was stranded there alone? Where was the exposition fairy? That Kaguya person from the email? Where was anyone?!
The answer, of course, was right behind her, as the others began to show up.