Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/1074677. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage Category: Multi Fandom: DRAMMAtical_Murder, Shoujo_Kakumei_Utena_|_Revolutionary_Girl_Utena Relationship: Clear/Seragaki_Aoba, Mizuki/Seragaki_Aoba, Tenjou_Utena/_Seragaki_Aoba, Ren/Seragaki_Aoba, Koujaku/Noiz/Seragaki_Aoba, Seragaki_Aoba/Trip/Virus Character: Tenjou_Utena, Himemiya_Anthy, Seragaki_Aoba, Shinohara_Wakaba, Clear_- Character, Virus_-_Character, Trip, Ren, Koujaku_(DRAMAtical_Murder), Mink_(DRAMAtical_Murder), Noiz_(DRAMAtical_Murder) Stats: Published: 2013-12-08 Chapters: 2/? Words: 6977 ****** DRAMMAtical Sensory REvolution ****** by NebulaViburnum Summary Aoba Sergaki looks for the phenomenon called "Utena" using SCRAP ARCHIVE SHIFT [a programme that decodes and stores SCRAP Hives] but only leads to Clear leaving him with a functional problem. Noiz decides to tell him the German folklore of the "conclave of corpses" and "the witch's garnddaughter" making them part of an altered reality where Lime and Ohtori collide. Amongst them is the witch princess Anthy who is said to be one of the prototype models who inspired SCRAP but she plays hide and seek with Aoba. Will Aoba find out Utena and understand the nature of the experiment he was made for. Part AU/ Part Cannon Revolutionary Girl Utena + DRAMMMAtical Murder crossover ---> Aoba might be couple with Utena :D ***** Chapter 1 *****     ===============================================================================     DRAMMAtical Sensory REvolution Chapter One Those Who Hunt Hives   ===============================================================================   "What is the main reason for SCRAP?" Aoba Seragaki looked around his room and spoke aloud. Clear had decided to spend the night. Curled next to him the young android looked more like an ALLMATE than an Android meant to mimic his genetic trajectory. They hadn't had sex...well, sex was not so easy for Clear. It flooded him with an odd feeling. Because anatomically for him sex was just another extension of SCRAP meaning mind control as in emotional manipulation. But to inherit an authencity of intent was not the original basis for it. Aoba had decided not to push Clear to do anything he doesn't want. "What's that Noise?" Clear looked up and they both looked a bit amused. "I am talking aloud tomyself again Clear sorry about that." "I was talking about Noiz..." Clear giggled. Seeing him make a joke like that made Aoba laugh. "Wow, do you hate Noiz?" "Only when he is too close to you." Clear determinedly kissed Aoba, "I am not going to lose to a person more plastic than I am." Aoba looked more surprised than ever but it seems Clear had a visceral dislike for Noiz and for some reason he decided to push it, "You think he's plastic." "Well, I know he is." Clear looked distraught, "He is an insult to the human body who he is trained to be like a sociopathic starfish and yes calling his group a rabbit theme is more perverse because rabbits are cuddlesome and feeling." "Well, I am glad you know how you feel." Aoba sighed.. "Aoba-san..." this wasn't his usual self because they had decided to leave the master business and now Aoba-san was more used, "Let's have sex." "Uh, what?" "I'll let you explode in me this time." Clear replied looking mischievous, "I mean you can just be the person who uses his dick this time. Though while I fuck you with my ass be sure to know that I will grip it tight like a teddy bear on steroids. Better than a rough rabbit huh?" Aoba blushed how did Clear talk to dirty it sometimes got his penis to peek out. Clear then started lower Aoba's pants, "Uh, Clear." "Shhh..." Clear took a lick at the pretty member starting to rise, "Let's begin with this whole blow job thing." Aoba blushed as Clear licked slowly like tasting with a test though it was kinda a ruse because he swallowed his cock suddenly making Aoba yelp and grip the sheets in suspense and pleasure. There was no roughness in Clear's actions and they seem attuned to Aoba in a way as if he was trying to learn his cock and Aoba loved the feeling. He hated hasty lovers or too extreme ones (that is why he felt uncomfortable with Noiz's sadomasochistic tendencies because thety kinda hurt him if all they had was threshhold of pain/pleasure receptors); he preferred a genuine visceral tone marked with those highlights of emotion, deep and spiral and chronological — like a feast with non linear and linear routes of the buffet style. Aoba had less sex experience in a way so he was enjoying the sensation of being suck so nicely by a beautiful creature. Clear's sucking was neither vulgar nor tame; it had an off and on ballet to it. With fondl;ing and caressing and a cuteness to it and an experienced melody. Aoba looked up and about...lovely...ju...ohhhh....     ===============================================================================     "Aoba, are you sure you wanna ask Gran about this?" Clear cooked food while wearing only an apron. This time he was doing it because he liked it, as in being in the nude at times around the house. Aoba was studying about a black hole in a text book when he looked up and saw Clear's back. The caliphygian effect was certainly applaudable. "You mean I shouldn't ask?" "You don't have to Aoba-san, I can just hack into the system you know." Clear smiled and turned around and served on the table beef noodles with poached eggs and capsicum mixed inside with some small chilis and baby onions. "Uh, maybe not. Gran would do more about this." Loving the smell of spices and subtle nuetralizer as the capsicum made Aoba dig in more furiously than Clear whose eating was a bit more controlled out of the habit of staying quite nonchalant though after a while he seemed to enjoy the spices alot and seemingly was developing a gusto, "Gran still hasn't divulged much about me and the others. What if there were others like me?" Aoba thought of his dead twin brother and almost cried. It seemed unfair that he had died so lifelessly and if Gran could do something she probably would. "Uh, even of you ask her what if she says nothing?" "I don't think she can say nothing but I will push it this time. I need to know more about me and Sky Blue and everything." "Aoba-san, are you afraid that you might become Sky Blue permanently?" Clear looked sad. Aoba looked away at the clock, "I accepted Sky Blue as a part of me. An instinct that is aggressive because it is like a defense mechanism but I refuse to think of him as a core of my identity. Negative traits are around but to think that he is the real me is absurd. I may not know myself completely but I hell won't think of Sky Blue as my real self or someone I am destined to be. Sky Blue is just like a rush of adrenalin to me and he is a bad me who is like a sadistic part of me to hurt others so that I can flee but to think that people want me to be him all the time." Aoba banged the table, "I won't ever accept that! I won't accept Sky Blue as the sole purpose of me!" Clear smiled. Then he caressed his cheek, "I believe, Sky Blue is just there as you said and I believe this Aoba-san, nice and truthful, is a true Aoba-san." He brought his forehead near Aoba;s and then pressed his cheek with his, "Aoba- san I want to follow you in this journey for it is important to me as well; maybe, whilst searching for yourself I too will find me and layers of both ourselves is a true Sky Blue, no?" Aoba started crying softly and hugged Clear tightly who returned the embrace, "I love you Aoba-san...lovers or friends I love you..."   ===============================================================================   "So, finally, my espionage into my ex employers might pay off a bit." Aoba's grandmother smoked a traditional tobacco stick and cut watermelons into think slices making Clear look attentively at the slices. And the sytle of cut seemed to entrance him. "Explain Oba-san." Aoba looked determined, knees together sitting down with them in front, hands on them with hands clenched. "SCRAP is also a collection processing tool; basically you are a CCP." His grandmother looked elsewhere, outside to be more precise. "Controlled Cerebral Processor, that's what you mean to them." Aoba swallowed as she answered his confused look, "To me you are always a child,  a human being, but to them you are a CCP a bit of a more complex version than Clear." The knife was removed as the cutting, that was going to and fro at this time, stopped. Clear looked up with an annoyed expression.  "I am more than a CCP." He looked almost livid. But the pale whiteness of him was asking like  a maskpoint. "To their little heads you are an evolved programme only sweetheart because those fuckers hate losing control." She laughed making Clear pound the floor, hard, disrupting both her and Aoba. "Their stupid thoughts mean nothing to me I am always gonna possess a clear conscious on that I think..." He smiles, "I am a person, through the thick and thing of it."  "You were saying Oba-san." Aoba gave an apologetic look (you're important and right but I gotta do this look). "SCRAP is a good way also related to Lime." Oba-san distributed then watermerlons and looks keen, "Lime is more than just a scene or event triggered game well it is but that is just a portion of the fat so to say. The engine that runs Lime also scripts a programme called Lemonade which also backlogs into a rigid interface that has an architectural layout called Ohtori. Ohtori is actually a place though I am not sure of its function. Unlike the Lime game this Ohtori has no event triggered battles in the same manner but one fragment of a scene I got is this..." Oba-san opened a small 3D orbygon (a 3D simulated memory or information holder) and showed a static televison like feed of a moving building highlighted by an unmoving tower. And many buildings etched with crimson and pink colours.  "Aoba-san...the buildings are moving but the people seem immune to it..." Clear looked puzzled and looked up and down.  "The people are dressed like —" Aoba muttered. "Yes, like they are attending a school, though it seems a bit out place don't you think?" Oba-san smoked again giving Aoba a weak smile. "It seems weird yes." "Well, we can use pirate feed to hack into this world though, I learned recently." Oba-san smoked nonchalently throwing both young men off. "Arghhh...you can cool, I want to hack in!" Clear  was clearly enthused. "Though, you are not fully ready for it yet. You need a Bride I guess to guide you."  "What...?" Aoba was gonna start but Clear hugged him all of a sudden. "There's no way Aoba-san is getting married to a hochie if I have anything —" "Brides are people who hack this Ohtori division of Lemonade exclusively or intensively." Oba-san ate a watermelon nonchalentely "I don't know why they called themselves Brides but they do regardless of given or accepted sex or gender. I know only one Bride." Oba-san smiled, "She lives nearby so I'll give her a call but I cannot guarantee she will be your Bride. And no use of posting the channels because the Brides have somewhat stopped using traditional internets/intranets and yes even if they did they wouldn't dare reply. The company that runs Lemonade will surely go after them."  "Well, what other way to contact these Brides?" Aoba asked diligently.  "Coda." Oba-san smiled, "Carrier Pigeons or Billetdoux Handicrafts is a good place to start." Oba-san used to tone down the ashes in a saucer in front ignoring the two men with four large eyes. "You make codes in computer framework and a cardshop?" Clear looked puzzled, "I thought the Brides are intense."  "Here Clear you need to know why you are not getting human beings — you cannot still be a human being I guess without contexts , indexes and laces tucked in and out. Things won't always be intense per say but if you think on it codes are the most intense mathematics in basic computer fingerprint and 2D plus 3D writing is the closest you can get to signatures." Oba-san smiled, "But you cannot be only in one exttreme or at a extreme humans don't work that way." "They don't?" Clear looked at Aoba. "They don't." Aoba smiled. "Well, thanks for making me feel non-human!" Clear pouted but his wound went deeper. "Clear-kun, " Oba-san handing him a watermelon, "What do you see?" "A watermelon." Surveyed it up and down as if he missed something.  "The shell is multilayered too. See, you are just growing up you'll get you red slicy meat and nice seeds later on; you are still on a part shell stage. You are not that old."  Oba-san looked outside and this time a  silhouette came out and looked lively and happy.  "You look only like a babe!" The two men look scattered at looking at her as Oba-san, "My Bride accepted the proposal. I used a Billetdoux NipPick to call her. You know those little cards to contact random acquaintances." "Wow Quickie cards!" Aoba looked impressed though he had been as impressed as Clear he kind of hid it.    "My name is Wakaba Shinohara!" the brown haired girl came closer to Clear, "You look like...a mushroom prince!" she looked excited making Clear lose his composure. "Mushroom...prince...?" "Like a fungus --- delicate strands of white or is it yeast?" Waka "Shinohara please take them to SCRAPE HIVE pirate junction." "Yeah, will do!" "What is HIVE?!" Aoba looked panic. "These HIVEs are collected information bubbles that are very dense in Lemonade; HIVE are also needed to run Ohtori..." Wakaba smilerd, "No one calls a Bride unless for that. But I will warn you." Her expression became serious "Cause any flicker of a trouble for me and I'll let the teapot steam over."  "You mean you'll abandon us." Aoba looked sternly, "Can you look at my Oba-san in the face if you do that?"  Wakaba did a "huh" then looked as a mixture of both morose and cold, "I don't want to have to do that but..." looking at Oba-san who looked a bit mad, "But there are already a lot of risks of being a Bride...now that..." The expression invoked a reaction out of Aoba's grandmother, "You mean the phenomenon appeared?!" "What phenomenon?" Aoba and Clear asked but Oba-san ignored them for a while. "It seems the phenomenon was close by me all along but I never...stupid me...I never noticed..."  "Wakaba, I want you to share with me what you can after the hiving."  "Yeah sure, though..." Wakaba looked pensive, "I think the Grooms now are depressed that's all."  "Grooms?" Clear asked, "Is that a unisex term too?" "Grooms are Lemonade's Brides..." Wakaba smoke with distrust, "They can hold a title of a Bride but they are really Grooms that's what they are!"  "Uh, I don't get it." Aoba looked blank. "This is not a normal lingusitic thing I can tell norelse my database shoyuld have it."  "What, you walking databse or sumthin'?" Wakaba laughed. Clear coughed, "Uh, you could say that." "Really?" "Shinohara-san, take us to do this pirate jump event."  "Sure, but I must warn you sometimes I have to play Lime to get a qualifier signal or else they get too suspicious."  "Limew huh...Do you think we should manifest our ALLMATEs?"  "Clear did you buy an ALLMATE?" Aoba smirked. "No, maybe I should." "I kind of decomissioned my ALLMATE Ren - I know it sounds funny, but, I felt a bit weird keeping him around after..."  "I still have animal Ren here?" Oba-san took out the little puppy, causing Wakaba to go bonkers but the other two men to look incedulously at her. "What...Oba-san..." "Lady Seragaki you sure know some tricks..." Clear looked a bit angrily at the cute little creature. "You idiot this is a dog not human Ren!" She brought out a paper fan and smacked Clear then wacked his head, "Stop wanting to eat the poor little innocent!" "If you don't want him can I keep him?!" Wakaba was carrying him. "I'm sorry but..." Aoba patted the dog's head, "I kinda grown very much attached to him even if he was not real Ren." "Who is this Ren guy you keep referring too..." Wakaba gave the puppy to Aoba, "Is he important?"  "Why do you wanna know?" Oba-san got her guard up. "Uh, just asking." Wakaba answered nicely then got mad, "I am sharing my Bride status with you so why can't you share this with me!" "Ren is me, but not totally me he is like my...nueral cousin you can say...he was born from me as an extension of me but then he became a new me then new person..." Aoba looked at gentle Wakaba who looked perturbed, "I know it's difficult to explain but Ren is -" "Wow!" Wakaba screamed making Clear fall down, "You mean he is like a fungus growth?! Real Mushroom Prince!" "OH what;s with you and Mushrooms and princes!" Clear shouted with Wakaba going"Oh wow! Mushroom Prince! Mushroom prince and ths Ren guy and this guy like Onion Princes! Woot! Woot! So many princes!"  "Uh, shall we go ummm I am Aoba Seraagaki and this is Clear."  "Clear as in crystal clear what a strange name...so strange and fungus like..." Clear looked deapanned, "I believe that we can leave the fungus and mushrooms and other saprophytic and parasite creatures out of the mix regarding my hair colour..." Wakaba looked sincerly at Clear: "Uh, you are not right! Mushrooms and other sporangiums can be cannibalistic or carnivorous!" "Cannibalistic - can't be an option." Clear thought on it then smirked, "Carnivorous..." He smirked at Aoba who blushed both in anger and embarrassment and whispered hoarsely. "I am not just meat." "Never said you are; but you eating me would that ber carnivorous too?" "Well, you are not just meat either."  They both smiled. Wakaba looked at them questionbly then asked Clear: "Please tell me you don't mind girls from time to time because then I will seriously start crying Mushroom Prince!" Clear looked shocked but Aoba just laughed. "Don't worry there is more to Clear than eating meat..." he giggled and Clear blushed deep red this time. "Oh by the way..." Wakaba smiled, a weird machine like creature walked out in front, "This is my ALLMATE his name is Flay." Aoba and Clear eyes squinted like little dots and Clear scratched his head, "It's a brown and cream-white coloured mushroom..." "Yes!" Wakaba smiled and criedm "Let's go and Hack HIVE! Worker bees to the rescue!"   "Hmmm, worker bees huh?" Aoba muttered. "Aoba-san do you think I'll look cute in a bee outfit or a bee apron!?"          ***** Hives on You ***** Chapter Notes See the end of the chapter for notes   ===============================================================================         DRAMMAtical Sensory REvolution Chapter 2 Hives on You       ===============================================================================   A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon; The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune; Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew, And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that's known as Lou. ... and I guess I ought to know. They say the stranger was crazed with "hooch", and I'm not denying it's so. I'm not so wise as the lawyer guys, but strictly between us two — The woman that kissed him and — pinched his poke — was the lady that's known as Lou.         ♦♦♦ ♦♦♦♦ ♦♦♦   "Ahhhh..." Gasping for lungs who gasped for air Aoba looked around and saw that he was in a room. A foreign room. Not his own. Not one he knew. He moved. He can move. Thus there is no incarceration involved. Not to the bedspace anyway. His mouth had a sour taste...felt like...orgghhh... Yes. He puked. Splendid. Was he supposed to clean that up? There was a knock on the door. Soft. But it ebbed and he heard footsteps taut and stricken strict walk away. An omen of sorts. There was now a knock at the window.  Aoba got up, careful not to slip on his own vomit, preparing himself — opened the window fast...to see a startled pidgeon... "Pidgeon...?" then he noticed that note with the Mushroom emblem, "Ah, Shinohara-san!" He guessed right   Dear Aoba-kun, I wanna call you Aoba-kun, you can call me Wakaba if you want. Though we still have to be a bit formal. Uh, I guess first time. Ummm, ok, let me explain what happened with a diagram and visuals. Press the soft throat of this carrier pigeon.  Aoba did as instructed soon the pidgeon opened his mouth and started playing a film like a projector on the sheets of the bed. Ok, I am gonna make this quick nor else you know security. We are now inside Ohtori Academy. You are somehow inside Nemuro Hall run by a weird Professor name Nemuro. That is kind of serious because Nemuro hardly takes in students and he usually takes in guys that sexist prick! Ok, Nemuro is a science faction inside Ohtori. Yes, let's see it's a clubhouse that graduated into an independent department. Creepy but cool, gotta give Nemuro that. But there are already both informal and formal factions like that here — meaning the factions are still Lemonade linked. We Brides either infiltrate factions or have secret ones we don't usually register. However, one Bride, Nanami Kiryuu runs the official Tea Ceremony Club. Cool huh, she is a smooth operator who recently graduated to President status after someone accidentally, ummm, or intentionally mixed an allergic component to the tea of her predecessor. She is not a proxy. It seems her predecessor has become the President of the Swim Team, her name is  Kozue Kaoru. Uh, remember some of these people — long list so going through as fast as possible so gonna miss some. Many, actually. Oh, yes, if someone asks you how you came into Ohtori well tell them you wanted to be a Groom. It should check out, I'll explain later but for some reason most of Nemuro's boys all want to be Grooms. Of course — Clear is in the next room. I checked on him he still seemed asleep...but, umm, he's not human right? Anyway ,most biointensive creatures face dizziness and fatigue inside Ohtori forthe first time. Uh, meet me by a small Rose "alcove" ,we like to call it, near the left side of the Academy. You'll find it it's on an open courtyard. The most immediate one to Nemuro Hall. Please come as soon as possible.  While, the bird played the message several images popped up. Both fuzzy and somewhat imperciptible due to the lack of light in the room. The moon, the virtual full moon, was the only lantern. He saw a blonde Kimono clad girl serving different types of tea to some students and a girl surrounded by fit and muscular boys in the Swim team — Her hair was a messier shade of prussian blue and her eyes were green spotted. Something about her flirty and happy attitude scared him. Then there was a man wearing a white and a deep gold coloured looking lapeled gakuran type suit — pink hair and intense blue eyes like a crow's.  Soon, the pidgeon finished being projector closed its mouth and flew out with stealth.  Aoba hid the note in his chest pocket. He looked at a mirror and noticed he was wearing a deep blue gakuran. The middle though was partitioned like a hair parting and it was black with gold coloured buttons. The pants were sided by black. The material seemed almost a mixture of velvet but also soft scrunchy material. Slowly opening the main door he walked out only to hear a bark that made him jump. It was the little puppy. He picked up the cute ALLMATE and hugged him, "I think I'll just call you Collie." renaming his little helper he slowly closed the door and opened the room on his left. Well, tried to, this was locked. Then he tried the right one which opened and with moonlit cascades he saw the beauty Clear on the mattress. Hair like water lotus and body like water mirror. Though, he was dressed in a gakuran similar to his it was red in colour. Going forward he bruished the hair out of Clear's sleeping form and kissed his forhead. Still asleep.  Aoba slowly took out the mattress from under and made iot bathe with Clear and the moonlight. He wrote a small note and put it near the sleeping beauty —I am going to meet Shinohara-san, we are inside Ohtori. This place is an important dormitory it seems called Nemuro Hall, named after the Professor who runs it. I'll be back ASAP, love Aoba.       ♦♦♦ ♦♦♦♦ ♦♦♦   Upon taking Collie and seeing this small pillar of roses in middle of a courtyard Aoba knew he could have just found the rendevous spot.  As he waited and touched the life-like roses a small noise appeared to be coming out from them. He looked a bit carefully though with caution soon — "So is Clear like a robot?" "Ahhh!" Aoba gave a small scream and fell down while Collie started barking. "Keep the cutie calm and why didnt you tell me he was an android. Kinda problematic if you ask me. I mean he will be super sensitive in Ohtori; I mean the world of Ohtori is like Lime; needs to be geared up right nor else too much circuit pressure...are you listening Aoba-kun?" Aoba got Collie quiet then looked annoyed and yelled, "What the hekll Shinohara-san, are you like trying to sprout like a mushroom or something?" "Hmmm, now that you mention it..." Wakaba looked intent on thought, finger perched on chin, "Maybe, I am!" She smiled. "Aren't you being a bit too loud?" Aoba muttered. "Yeah, sorry. Well, we are in Ohtori now." "How did we end up here?" Aoba questioned, "I don't remember a thing." "Really?" Wakaba blinked, "Uh, well, we were suddenly involved in a Lime battle. I think my system analytics got detected. Flay became Mushroom Overlord and dide Sporecaster and Cellclomp and then your little Ren here became a fuzzy menmory of this hot bushounen, but really ribbed guy and well tried to do one or two attacks and soon I transformed and fought off some of the Grooms, yeah I recognized some of them" Wakaba answered to Aoba's inquisitive expressions, "And well then we entered Ohtori but for about five to six mionutes I was cut off from you. That reminds me, that could be the time the Grooms processed you. I usually don;t take anyway to Ohtori. I may be a Bride, but I am hardly stupid."  Suddenly Wakaba brought a long curved schimitar blade making Collie yelp but Flay rushed out and grabbed him tightly, not injuriously, with his teeth. Aoba gasped as the moon glint like if it were making love with the blade. Perfect union. Perfect pex of movement and sharpness. "Who are you Aoba Seragaki-kun?" Wakaba eyes narrowed, "First Clear-kun your friend is an android and you are both sanctioned off to Nemuro Hall. I did this a favour for your Oba-san. She and I talk alot and I know she was once employed by the Lemonade corporation people. But you. You are not that significant in that way. I am not belittling you. To them you may be just the grandson of your Oba-san but then there is something deep going on nor else..." Aoba sighed. Passed the blade. Grabbed the hand and said, "I know, I know...I want to explain to you but know this...Angkkk..." Wakaba kneed his gut, "Let go Seragaki-kun. Of my hand." "Listen. I am a CCP to them." Wakaba eyes widened, "Oh my God, really..." Then flustered, "Oh so sorry...Uh, are you uh then..." "I am not with them. I cannot be against them totally because I don't know what they are about." Aoba grabbed his abdomen, "I can do SCRAP." Wakaba eyes widened again, "A SCRAPer. A real life SCRAPer."  Then Wakaba eyes hardened, "How can you not be against them Aoba-kun? You are being used by them." "But I have come here to know for what purpose." Aoba regained his bearings, "You explained to me this place is like a larger congegration of SCRAP right then I, as a said SCRAPer..." that term felt foreign to his tongue,  "Must know what these things entail." "Haaooo!" Wakaba delightfully cried, "What a cool goal." then she kissed his cheek, "Gomen, you can punch my gut too. I seriously thought you were a groom. By the way you saw my carrier pidgeon, Vole..." Suddenly the pidgeon appeared and using the curve of her sword she caught him and brought him close like a lamp or document, "Brides use these smart AI interfaces though too much bird migration will trigger the system so we also use other apparatus." "What other apparatus?" Aoba smiled with an impressed face as he cuddled the pidgeon. By this time Collie had been released by Flay who looked apologetic but Collie growled and quietly chased him around until biting his rear making Collie satisfied and Flay cry mushroom tears making a small mushroom cloud.  "I...I don't know." "What?" "Well, I only had to use Vole and nobody else or nothing else. Sometimes we use mirror interfaces I heard. And I don't know of anything else."  "Ok, I think I need to go and see Clear has woken up." Aoba let Vole go and carried Collie, "I don't want him to be alone. This place is too eerily quiet..." "This part of the Academy is usually quiet...Ohtori is a big maze and people access it whenever it pleases them it seems. Though, I am not sure if they are real people or NPCs."  "NPCs huh like in an RPG?" "well some NPCs are used as proxies for short term users."  "Don't you talk to anybody here Shinohara-san?" "No, not really." Wakaba smiled, "They call me a lesser Bride in the Bride Hierarchy because of that."  "There is a Bride Hierachy?" "And a Groom Hierarchy yeah." "Uh, why are you a lesser one?" "Because I mostly do what I want. I am not really goal oriented in Ohtori. Your Oba-san and you guys have given me a good mission my concrete first you know. They say I am okay enough, good enough, but not a 'faithful Bride' they prefer to call me a concubine." "Something tells me that's a very negative thing." Aoba cringed his face, mostly displeasure and grimace on such categories. "It means I am not dedicated enough and that I am like a periphery fuck in HIVE. " "If Brides are so self-degrading of their peers are they different than Grooms?" Aoba asked the rhetorical question, "Aren't Grooms meant to keep some for Nazi type order here." Aoba cringed, "I can feel it in the quietness. Something corrupt. Like -"\ "- Hives on your skin." Wakaba commented with a wry smirk. "As ironic it sounds yes. This soundlessness speaks to me like a yellowish-red skin disease; very prominent and ugly. It's not a quiet of a beautiful monastery it's almost some Grim reaper mutant came and culled the place."  "Funny, right, this is more or less the usual ambience." "Feels like a tomb." "Oh, right, sorry, Aoba-kun..." Wakaba smiled, "Important info; uh, it's very suspicious that you are in Nemuro Hall so please measure your steps. Their library is very extensive though for around the world matters and Lime and Lemonade documents so you can peek at them I guess but read up when you want it'll be good for you. I mean anything that catches your interest and well pertains to your mission."  With that the two figures departed.  After a while a girl with purplish dawn hair and wearing glasses came forward. She was wearing pyjamas of light blue and her hair was down. It's length and static electric bounce made it almost like some preternatural entity of its own.  She started watering the roses in the "alcove" then plucked out a black rose; she kissed it and it slowly turned white. She threw it and then plucked out a white and kissed it black.  She smiled and she nuzzled her face in the oyster formative petals of the red, rich, blood like roses that glowed with a neon-like luminiscence as though like the moon captures the sun they captured the moon.  She took a foot out, pretty curved, ballet feet but long with athelete type muscle and rubbed the green earth as if were carpet or silk and muttered softly, "So, a meeting had taken place here...though, " She rubbed some more, "I can't understand it...Oh..." she gave a sigh, "You, I didn't expect..." She smiled as she rubbed her own hair re-sandaled her foot and unstemmed the black rose and put it in her pyjama shirt pocket. And disappeared in the firefly light gleam of the soft old fashioned lamps as though she was atom and fume once more apparition clustered ans oystered as their night pearl...     ♦♦♦ ♦♦♦♦ ♦♦♦     "Clear...Clear!" Aoba was now close to tears as he shook his friend who was too cold...too cold for comfort.  When he returned Clear had been still asleep. Aoba found that he was hungry...Odd...wasn't this like a game? Well maybe like Lime it had some physical drives connected atleast those fudamental ones that the anatomy could not abandon. Thinking of food made him realize one thing, "All that action and I didn't ask her when we are logging out?! Get a gray cell grip Seragaki!" That is when he felt the room too quiet. Just too quiet. Clear seems breathing very, slowly. Collie, after a while, whimpered.  "Clear, Clear-kun, are you okay? How come you are so..." Aoba touched his forehead, "Quiet." It was cold. Panic surged. Lips of Clear too cold, too dry looking. That is when he realized that Clear is having a bad form of bodily relapse. It could mean he died by now! "Clear!" Poor Aoba shouted and clutching him. He started rubbing his hands and feet and chest (opened his gakuran jacket) but nothing. "Oh no." He ran and got some hot water and thrwe it on his face and across his body making him wet and ruining his uniform but that was not the problem. Clear did not wake up. Aoba gulped the tears. What can he do. Even if he looked for Wakaba now they would be in trouble and idiotically, the second thing he missed today was establishing points of contact. The pidgeon style seems a Bride express but he had none of the birds and he wasn't sure if Collie, now he figured knew Flay's scent and data tag metriculation, would pass information. But was it safe? "Collie." The dog sat alert, "Please call the mushroom Flay and tell him that Clear is unconscious and his body seems to be failing! Now!"  Collie started with his dark eyes glowing blue now and it seemed she was getting the message through. Aoba did one last thing came to his mind. Instead of direct SCRAP he used all his mental and physical strength on...a kiss... He kissed Clear passionately and suddenly after a moment Clear coughed up and threw up on his sheets, "Aoba-kun! Aoba-kun!" Clear was hysterical and weeping. "Clear-kun..." Aoba hugged with tears as well. In his hair, Clear counted breathsm "Aoba, Aoba, I thought I was drowning. I was in a sandbox type programme where none of my access codes were working and I felt so weak. They said I had a red tape on me....I..." He was gasping now even if he was able tp do those lines calmly, "I...Oh...my....God...they have my model number in...here...in here...Oh my God...Aoba...I am scared..." "Shhh..." Aoba calmed his heartbeat too until two of their heartbeats together knocked on each other like some childhood game of love and security, "I don;t think I have the bearing to do a full fledged SCRAP now."  "Clear is he okay?" Collie taked in Wakaba's voice.  "Yes, Yes, SWakaba-san."  "Ok, Ok, Aoba...get out I am sending Vole with a short message. Read it right now."  Aoba was reluictant to leave Clear ans hugged him tightly, "You should go...you, hey what;s this paper that I am clutching in my hand...?"  "Uh, I went out so informed ya. I'll be back ASAP."    While going out he bumped into a tall beautiful blush pink haired man. His locks felt cotton candy but mixed a rhinestone element like rhinestone scattered. Equal stones made his stones and those blue complemented well with his blue suit style uniform shirt and white pants. Aoba recognized it was Nemuro." "Professor." He acknowledged hesistantly as Nemuro slowly smiled. "Are you Aoba Seragaki?"  "U,mmm, yes."  "Well, why are you in Clear's room." soon a bit of a harder smile, "I don't like such intiminate faternizations between Nemuro Hall students." Then he gave a guffaw, "But children are children I suppose." "For a serious looking guy sounding serious about those things you sure radiate aloofness in those things." It came out of Aoba's mouth before he could stop himself causing him to clasp his mouth immedately. Nemuro laughed, "A challaenger how nice. Though don;t get too easily tested this Hall and academy have so many people to take out to lunch as in fight and not a kinky sex thing."  "By the way your Clear-kun," Nemuro laughed and smiled making Aoba a tad bit nervous, "He needs to be registered like your ALLMATE over there. I know he is a sentient machine but he is a machine after all."  Aoba gave an auto-glare, How dare he? It was almost like they owned Clear! No one owns Clear except Clear on a terrestrial and preternatural level By God I know that! "Would you stop staring at me like that." Nemuro smiled and brushed off the shoulder of Aoba (right), "Aoba-kun," he already started using such intimate registers, " You smell of vomit and that's so unbeckoning of the Ohtori uniform. And here..." He brought out a note pad and given two copies of similar looking documents, "For you and Clear. Class and day schedule mapping." He furthered the description, "Nemurohallists, we call ourselves that, are more discipline prone and more alert and sharp than these dullards that come top Ohtoei by accident." emphatically ignorant ihough rhetorical sarcasm are at times dangerous tools. "Uh, what id real world beckons?" Aoba looked at the paper, roughly A4 size. "Thats is not your full booklet that is just temporary management." He illustrated his point by tapping his index finger on the paper Aoba was holding with the same cut stone face he seemed to usually have, "You need to get all the accessories from the Student Affairs offices by tomorrow." He looked sharper, "Nemurohallists are supposed to imput data feed on the student support server on Ohtori's intranet."  "You mean documentation work?' Aoba was a bit surprised, "But why...?" "It's our way of complied surveillance." Nemuro gave a small smile that could have been mistaken as a death glare, "It is for making sure our councilors know how and what to approach you by. Counselors are people you do your extracullicular projects with oh yes extracurricular activities list are mandatory as a Nemurohallist and cannot be exempted or you will exempted as a choice candidate from this section. Your activity projects can be anything from culturing bacteria to supermarket crowd control proceedures but they must be assigned and conversed about with your Counselor and must be examined and given the Gradesheet Purple grading sheet."\ "Uh, " Aoba was overwhelmed by all of this, "What is that?" "That is Nemuro Hall's separate gradesheet." Nemuro raised his hands and despite their proximity Aoba noyticed more coherently now that Professopr Nemuro were wearing some black gloves crisp in a smooth cloth material, "Oh, by the way, this extyracullicular is not part of the regular sports or extracuricular curriculum." "Uh, what?" Aoba looked big eyed, "You mean additionally to our regular extracurricular schedule Nemuro Hall has designed its own...?" "Yes." Nemuro smiled, "I have qualms about the widespread spore like nature of the regular athlete's or non-athletic schedule of the academy so I prefer to segregrate the two."  "Why not just tell the administration to incorporate your strategies I mean you are like an elite here right?"  Nemuro smiled, hands crossed behind bach, "An observative mind. Good. Some people forget minor details like this whiile continously in a conversation." Then he coughed and smiled again, this time a bit more...deviously? "I cannot expect everyone to have Nemuro Hall stiudents' standards and besides democracry can be manipulative. See, it demands reasons from thesmart and then try to loop them into their own logic like a knot and it doesn't ask logic from the stupid. They prefer peripheries at times to actual grounded work. One of my main qualms is the host club that runa in this school with their cafe. Pathetic weirdos if you ask me."  Aoba grimaced, You are one to talk glove man. "Uh, sir, is  the infirmary..." "909." Nemuro straightened his coat collar, "You call that number through our free in-school call servce and you will reacg Medical services & Pharmacy ready to help you with any..." Here we stopped and brushed off his hands together, "Biomechanical  problems any human body can have. Well, see you and Mr. Clear tomorrow at breakfast at around seven o' clock. Tardiness will be noted in your gradesheet and marks will be deduicted from, your activity sheet by your counselor."  With that he nodded an acknowledgment and walked off.    Aoba walked into the room and saw Clear in white pyjamas heavily sweating making his attire quite viscuos like. "If you keep sweating like that you need to take a shower." "I already did Aoba-san."  "Well, then another one will be added I guess." Aoba came close, sat down with him on the bed and clutched his hand. " I am feeling ok, just tired." Clear clutched back. "I'll sleeo with you tonight." Aoba smiled. CXalling 909 he was told what to do and how to proceed. It seems they keep a good amount od detail on Nemuro students so they somehow knew Clear's position as a non-human with humanlike anatomy (which bothered Aoba alot actually) so they told him to give some prescribed medicine and have a good night's rest. After an odd looking errand boy came and just gave the medicine saying Nemurohallists fees can be taken care of the end of month credit cut Aoba gave Clear the medicine. Clear suddenly kissed Aoba. And soon they were asleep together.  Chapter End Notes END NOTES: The song in the beginning is a German folk song called "A bunch of the boys were whooping it up" by Robert W. Service. The Reason I put it there is to portray the odd atmosphere and manifest creepiness of Nemuro Hall in the Ohtori Universe where only obsessed, hardcore logically obsessed people seem mostly to end those whose life goals are more or less one and that is why I put that song as we imagine Nemuro Hall we think of those crazy boys who are always working. But is Aoba like them? Not really. They are exceptions too but Aoba is semi like that Nemuro himself is a bit like Aoba. But I guess their differences come in both execution and understanding, and other intelligences coupled with a genuine search of the self which Nemuro naturally avoids but Aoba naturally seeks out. Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!