Time ticks away on the clock on the wall. Asuka sits on the ground like a broken puppet, deaf to the sound. Her eyes are fixed straight ahead, locked onto the clock face. A tick. This emptiness that is not the same as nothingness. Even though she was supposed to be saved, all she could wish for was the blissful nothingness that used to envelop her. A tick. For someone like her, living is… painful. It is sad but it is true. Living is… cruel. It is strange but it is true. All there are are these fields. She works them every day, planting endless rows upon rows of rice. She works them until her hands and feet grow sore. She works them with the endless rows of people working them as well. All of them are no better than cattle, content working these fields till the day they die. Though, Asuka supposes that she must be even worse for thinking so. A tick. One day, it came. An opportunity for something more. A girl with a strange mask arrived on the farms. She offered everyone there a way

Two people sit across the table, head to head, with nothing more than a chessboard between them. One of them is winning. The other is Gleam. “Check.”“How?”“The bishop.” Kuroko gestures at the bishop that’s sighting down Gleam’s king from a faraway watchtower. “Oh.” She strokes her chin.“...”“I see…”Between the auxiliary knight guarding the square her king could retreat to and Kuroko’s queen that should break free from her stranglehold in a matter of a turn or two, Gleam makes the best move she can in the situation and offers Kuroko a draw. When she declines, she fights to her last breath, taking as many pieces with her as she can, one suboptimal move at a time. “You’ve got chess talent. I feel that I’ve learned quite a lot watching you play.” Gleam closes her eyes and nods her head. “Thank you for teaching me how to play.”Gleam continues nodding her head and stares out her bedroom window, her brain buzzing with chess excitement. She realizes that she must be well and truly a

“Excuse me.” Tsuki forages through a forest of drinks and elaborate ball gowns. She stares at them with mild envy. She always wanted to try dressing up, but her… ‘condition’… never let her. Fun fact, people don’t typically make clothes for mechanical bodies for good reason.Still, it's not as though the night is completely ruined, now is a good time to indulge vice or curiosity. And she finds herself in a unique position to indulge both. Tsuki's eyes drift off elsewhere, to a curious face in a curious crowd "Excuse me. Kikimi, was it?" Tsuki’s tone is polite but the way she stops Kikimi with her hand is just a little too forceful to be purely innocent. "Wh– what do you want?" Her shivering causes soft clinks to sound as they travel up Tsuki’s arm."What anyone else would want on a fine evening such as this. A drink and fine company.""Sorry, I– um, I don't drink.""Trust me. The iced water here is sublime." Tsuki smiles, but Kikimi senses something else hiding behind those eyes o

Another day, another beating. Kazuko limps out of the hospital in crutches. The crescent moon above reminds her of the Girls Won’t Cry gangsters’ faces while they beat the lights out of her. It was bad enough that they broke her leg, but hearing them laugh at her took away something that she can never get back. She offers a short prayer to whoever might be listening, thanking them. The fact she’s still alive is a miracle. Kazuko’s heard hushed stories of Girls’ Won’t Cry outright killing people who can’t pay their protection money. Well, ‘protection money’. It always just sounded like ‘extortion’ to Kazuko. She spits on the ground to get the distaste out of her mouth. It’s hard to take the train when your leg is broken. Especially when your leg is broken and the train is full and no one bothers giving you their seat and your armpits ache from the crutches and–. She supposes that this is all just the icing on the cake of a very bad day. The train comes to a screeching halt, one that

“Ring any bells?”“Well…” Haru curls her hair around her finger. “Not really, no. I’m pretty bad with faces and voices so…” “Tsk.” Kazuko puts the pair of glasses back into her pocket. “Regardless! The consequences of your actions have finally arrived.” “Consequences…?” What is this girl talking about? “Listen, this isn’t exactly the best time. Could we do this some other time? There’s a bomb in the stall.”“...oh. That is rather serious, actually.” “Yeah, so either help me out or get out of my way.” “Take your time.” Kazuko raises her hands and leans against the wall while Haru opens the stall and starts defusing. Or tries to, anyway.“Have you ever defused a bomb before?” “Nope, but I’ll figure it out.” “...”“Errr, you know how it’s always red or blue wire in the movies?”“Yeah?”“What am I supposed to do when all the wires are black?”“Jeez. You really don’t know what you’re doing, do you?”Haru places her hands on her hips. “Well, excuse me for trying. Tell you what, why do