The jester leaned casually against the air, his impossibly wide grin stretching from ear to ear. His outfit—a chaotic riot of colors, mismatched patterns swirling together in a way that should’ve been discordant but somehow wasn’t—made him seem like an apparition pulled from a fevered dream. A small bell jingled from the tip of his flamboyant hat, adding an unsettling cheerfulness to the otherwise eerie atmosphere.
He bowed theatrically, one hand sweeping toward Rin in an exaggerated motion, as though introducing a grand spectacle.
"My, my, what a truly extraordinary woman!" His voice danced through the air, rich like velvet but laced with an undertone of mischievousness. "Not even a flicker of fear, no desperate pleas, no wide-eyed awe. You’re a rare one, Miss Kagetsuki Rin."
Rin’s smoky gray eyes narrowed as she surveyed him with detached curiosity, her posture relaxed but keenly aware of every movement he made. "And you are?" Her tone was flat, uninterested, but her gaze remained sharp, evaluating him just as she would any other unknown in her path.
The jester straightened up, his grin stretching impossibly wide as if it were a permanent fixture. "Ah, forgive me for my lack of manners!" He clapped his hands together, his movements exaggerated and overdone. "I am the Messenger of the Game, a humble servant of those lofty gods you just called ‘adorable.’" His chuckle sounded almost too soft, as if he enjoyed the discomfort his words caused. “But you—you—you’re different. You’re not like the others who stumble in here, trembling, begging for mercy, or falling to their knees in awe."
Rin crossed her arms, unfazed by the intensity of his words. She didn’t flinch. "Flattery won’t get you anywhere. Get to the point."
The jester’s grin didn’t waver. If anything, it deepened. "Very well, my impatient lady! You’ve been chosen to participate in a grand game—an extraordinary test of brilliance, luck, strategy, and morality." He took a step closer, leaning in with the air of someone about to deliver a revelation. "Thousands like you have been summoned to this stage, but only one will emerge victorious."
Rin’s eyebrow quirked ever so slightly, but she remained silent, her expression unreadable.
"And the prize?" she asked, her voice devoid of interest.
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His eyes gleamed with excitement, his voice dropping to a near whisper as though sharing a coveted secret. "Ultimate power. The ability to shape reality itself to your whims, to bend the world to your desires. Everything you’ve ever dreamed of can be yours."
Rin’s lips barely twitched, her smirk forming as her eyes glittered with mock amusement. "Predictable."
The jester chuckled at her response, as though her words were the punchline to a joke only he understood. "Ah, but this isn’t your typical death game, my lady. Oh no, that would be far too boring." He straightened up again, his arms spreading wide as if the very game itself was about to unfold before her. "Players who… let’s say, fall during the game won’t meet their end in the traditional sense."
Rin’s gaze remained unfaltering as he continued, her mind already calculating the hidden nuances.
“They won’t die,” he continued, a gleam in his eyes as if savoring the reveal. “Instead, they will be returned to their original worlds, as though they’ve never even set foot in this realm. All the efforts they put in, all the bonds they forged, their growth and victories—erased. Gone. Like it never happened.”
He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in, watching her closely. "Think of it as a psychological test. The real challenge isn’t physical survival—it’s navigating the chaos of your own mind. How will you handle the fear of losing it all, of having your very existence wiped away in an instant?"
Rin’s lips curled into a faint, almost amused smile. “Sounds like a waste of my time.”
The jester’s eyes glinted with a mixture of delight and madness, as though he had been expecting this very response. He gave a mock sigh, shaking his head in exaggerated sorrow. "Ah, but time is all you have here. And time is what the game is built on. Each decision, each moment you spend in this place, adds to your story. Will you survive long enough to write your own ending?"
Rin’s gaze turned back to the vast, surreal landscape stretching out before her, her expression unchanged. The weight of the moment didn’t faze her in the slightest.
She could sense it. The tension in the air, the hum of strange energies, the promise of a game unlike any other.
She wasn’t here to be just another player. She was here to win.
Her voice, when she spoke, was quiet but firm, cutting through the jester’s theatrics like a knife. “I play to win.”
The jester let out a delighted laugh, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "Ah, I knew you’d be fun! But after allllll… my lady’s consent is important." He winked, the gesture somehow both playful and unnerving in its intensity.
As his laughter echoed, the world around Rin began to shift. The ground beneath her feet trembled, the landscape warping like a distorted reflection in a broken mirror. Colors bled together, twisting and mingling in unnatural ways, and for a brief moment, reality itself seemed to fracture.
And then, with a final burst of light, everything settled. The sky above her was filled with a glowing countdown, the numbers ticking down in eerie silence.
Stage One: Begins in 5 minutes.