<strong>First Book of Spring<br/>Chapter One</strong><br/><em>...week one, in fact...with winter's chill still in lingering in the morning air and the weaker sun peering through the scattered morning clouds as it rises to cast feeble but optimistic rays down upon Fortitude.  And so our tale begins, best beloved, with nothing more dramatic than the sunrise over a yokai town on the shores of a mysterious lake...</em><br/><br/><strong>Shokyou</strong><br/><br/>It is Sunday morning, and you're sleeping in because<em>that dream</em>has you in its unrelenting grasp yet again.  It's been coming more and more of late.  You remembers fragments of it, sometimes.  Perhaps it creeps into your daydreams when you aren't careful?  But none of it makes sense.  Something about a traditional bath-house across a bridge, towering over you.  And wind in your loose hair, a shrine-maiden's garb soaked and plastered to your skin, a naginata in her hands...and a huge wave building behind the tower, but that's not as impressive, as frightening as the two dragons writhing and twisting into view, sinuously sliding into striking positions...but it isn't all bad, because Suzi is there on one side, face determined, fists clenched, as faithful and loyal and supportive as your best friend forever could be.  And to the other side is...uhm...she...you don't know.  She wears a mask.  And you're pretty sure you shouldn't think about other girls like that, but whoah!  Know what I'm saying?  And that kimono is too loose to hide much, slipping off her in the wind.  Not that she seems to mind giving you a peek for some reason.  But while you're gawping at those huge boobs like a boy, you're not paying attention to the dragons and when you turn back they're on you...<br/><br/>Ah.  No.  The dream loosens.  Wakefulness returns.  Only that masked face lingers in your mind's eye as you blink awake to face another morning.  Your house is quiet.  Sounds like you're the only one home right now.  That's pretty normal.<br/><br/>Just another day in Horizon.  Only there's a test tomorrow, isn't there?  Of course there is.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Questions for Shokyou</div><div class="spoiler_body">What did you have planned for today?  Chores?  Going somewhere with Suzi?  Studying?  (...yeah, right...)</div></div><br/><strong>Suzi</strong><br/><br/>You have arrived at the conclusion that nightmares are not fun.  Especially not nightmares about the death of the Sun.  Not that you were you at the time.  Or at least not you as you have become, not exactly.  Just sort of.  Kind of.  So you are quite happy to realize that while you experience them, they don't follow you into the waking world.  Or at least no more than might be expected.  Or at the very, very least no more than the other dreams you've been having which heavily feature some cool but kind of menacing woman in a slinky black dress that shows just why the boys would drool and follow her around like so many puppies and a faceless white mask with a single black tear at the corner of one eye.  And you only know she's there, because you always see Shokyou in those dreams too, often looking a little disheveled and a bit distressed for some reason.  Usually in school uniform, too, which does interesting things to your tummy.  Not sure why.  This requires research.<br/><br/>But not yet.  You need to get up and get dressed and have breakfast and you and Shokyou were supposed to get together later and go hang out.  Or was that yesterday?  Maybe tomorrow?  Something like that.  Shokyou will probably come get you, or send a message.  Unless something goes wrong or you end up having to run an errand or something.<br/><br/>Uh.  Errand. Right.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Questions for Suzi </div><div class="spoiler_body">here was an errand you were supposed to run, but didn't because reasons. What was it?  And do you have time to get on that right now before anyone notices?  If not, how much trouble are you gonna be in?</div></div><br/><br/><strong>Mayu</strong><br/><br/>You're awake, whether or not you want to be.  It's too early, given how late you were up last night.  And what you've seen in your wanderings is...bothersome.  Shokyou and her dragons, for one, and the other one's fixation on the death of Jade Irinka...and that Rinley kid!  You're not sure if the troublemaker is a bigger or a smaller pain than the others.  If she weren't so cute...<br/><br/>Gaaaah.<br/><br/>Plus you think maybe she knows what you are.  Or maybe she's just enjoying the view whenever her dream-state imposes a wardrobe malfunction on you, because you're ample charms certainly seem to get her attention.  Kids her age shouldn't have that sort of knowing smile, or that sort of glint in their eye, no matter what the cause.<br/><br/>But awake you are, and you can smell breakfast because the Vasili are a shrine family and that means the work never quite stops, even though you don't have shrine duties as such.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Questions for Mayu</div><div class="spoiler_body">What do you have planned for today, if anything?  Working on your masks? Meditating on what you may have gleaned from your dreamwalking?  Meeting up with your friends to help at the Archive for a bit?  Visiting your private space?</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Questions to all</div><div class="spoiler_body">What's Rinley up to today?  You can have a look at her playbook here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Lv8BmrVM9fMwPE5a5MrgdMo_-jrVeeWr (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Lv8BmrVM9fMwPE5a5MrgdMo_-jrVeeWr)</div></div><br/><br/>