Luster was silent. In one moment he was still inside the kart, crossing the finish line and then he was in a complete void.
There was nothing. No sound to be heard, nothing to be seen, no odor to be smelled and nothing to be felt either.
In that void, he stood there for a few seconds, or was it hours? Thankfully, he was pretty sure years hadn't gone by.
Hopefully.
It took a while until something happened.
Luster saw a figure. Even in pure darkness he could still tell that it was a dark silluete wearing a red theatre mask.
It was The Mask.
The entity that had kidnapped everyone. From the Queen of humanity and her Saints, the subjects of the Dark Lord, the King of Nothing, people from Nightmare Trials and even alternate versions of people from other worlds.
It was someone stronger than anyone could even imagine before they appeared.
And somehow it also had a very messy bedroom.
Luster expected it to start those theatrics it had launched when announcing the challenge, but instead they kept silent.
They merely raised their arms and a deck of cards appeared. There were various cards, but only a few of them flew from the rest of the deck and stood in front him.
The Mask raised three fingers.
'The rewards... But which one am I supposed to pick?'
It's not that he was dumb, he was still capable of recalling what Lady Nephis had entrusted to him. The priority was to join the Shadow Room with the Longing Room.
But the problem was.
'Which was one is it?'
They all looked like regular playing cards. Red or Black, the four symbols, and the various numbers and letters.
Luster hesitantly reached towards a card. As soon as his fingers made contact with it, information entered his mind.
-Unlock sealed powers by a rank
It was one of the rewards.
But not one of the priorities, he registered which card was and began to look for the one that was the priority. And he finally found it.
-Join with another room.
He picked it from the floating cards.
However, it soon flew from his hand and began to orbit him instead of standing put in his hand. Luster decided to ignore the flying card, focusing on the remaining floating ones.
'The second priority is recovering power.'
He reached for the card he had memorized earlier.
Once again the card escaped his grasp and joined the other in flying around him like bees.
He then reached for one in especific.
-Bring an alternate version to the room
Just like the other two cards, it flew from his grasp, but instead of orbiting him, it began to fly upwards, the other two cards quickly followed.
And soon a rumble was heard. Distant but powerfull.
Luster frowned, not really liking the sound of it, but then he felt it.
His body felt more powerrfull.
He was once again a Sleeper and could now use the Mark of Shadows to its full extent.
"The Alternate Version will be random, they will appear in the room tomorrow." The Mask said, their voice deep and serious, completely unlike their usual personality.
And then, he was in another room.
In the theatre room to be specific, now split perfectly between in black and white. On the screen, a replay of the race flashed in a loop, the viewers looking at each other with curiosity.
Present were his fellow companions of the Shadow Room and his boss's shadows, who were staring at the others present, the Saints of Changing Star's Domain.
All of them are on the Dormant rank.
"Luster!"
Kim was the first one to notice him and run to him, giving him a tight hug.
He hugged her back, encasing himself in loving someone without it being affected by his Flaw, thanks to her own.
However, after a few congratulations and hurrays, Lady Nephis came back from the race, she had finished in fourth place, barely ahead of Mordret.
"Now that we are together it is time we face this properly, however, I will leave the discussion for later. You can go back to your quarters."
And with that she left, leaving everyone slightly confused.
Back in the Void
Detective Sunless let himself fall asleep. He was not ashamed to admit it, after such a nerve-wrecking race, there was nothing more that he wanted to do but fall asleep, especially after a meal.
So he did.
On a place with no sound, smell, light or feeling, it was pretty easy to just drift into sleep, and he didn't fight that feeling at all.
So he only woke up how many hours later, a couple of cards floating in front of him.
He passed a hand around them, quickly realizing he had to chose one, because this cards were the rewards that were possible to obtain.
Since he had finished in second place, he had the right to claim one reward.
He sighed tiredly, since it wasn't random he picked up the closest one to his hand at that very moment.
-Extra context for the Viewings
'Huh. Not the best but it could be useful... Good didn't want to give gifts to those guys.'
And soon, that card flew towards the "sky" until it dissolved.
It was in a single blink and he was once again in the theatre room, right on his seat.
A hand quickly reached for his shoulder, it was Saint.
"Good work, detective."
"Yeah, thanks, doc."
In another part of the Void
"From the little I saw of you, I was expecting more when we finally meet, but what's with that tired face. I swear by the Gods, I can see the eyebags through the mask."
Noctis was talking with The Mask, who merely separated a set of cards and with the formed a second smaller deck. He quickly shuffled them and then presented a single one of them to him.
-Extra Vote
'Oh, this is interesting.'
"Not the one I wanted to most, but it is doable, hopefully the extra clues do not spoil the experience, Mask. That would be quite the disapointement. See ya when I win the next challenge."
And with that he disappeared from the void into the Nightmare Room.
The rest of its occupants stood up to greet him.
"Sir Noctis, that was... it was a great strategy you almost won because of it!" Elyas said enthusiasticly.
"Indeed, it as quite the shame, those things were faster than I thought they were, I underestimated them and took too long to fully adapt to them."
"I believe you did really well, Noctis."
"It's a pleasure of hearing you say that, Daeron. Now, what do you all say we go back to the Dining Room and try some of the food we didn't get to try due to time constraints?" Noctis offered.
In the end, only Solvane refused to go, retiring to her quarters. The rest went with Noctis back to the dining room to keep trying modern food.
Meanwhile in the Void
"I hope this is the last time you make me do your job for me, Mask I." The Mask that was handing out the rewards said.
"Aw, come on, Mask II. You can't help your pal? We are the same person, are we not?"
"No, we are simply masks that THEY use to interact with this world. Proof of that is that you are so goofy when dealing with such a dark series."
"Pfft- Have you not seen the Disney Slave allegations? I say the project you are in charge of is darker."
"JJK is not that dark. Besides, I need to start working. I still need to create the rooms and prepare the content for them to react. Do. Not. Call. Me. AGAIN."
And with that, The Mask that had been handing out the rewards, Mask II, disappeared, leaving Mask I hanging.
"What a killjoy, don't you think so?" They said to no one that he could look at.
The silhouette shrugged and stretched.
"Well, time for a time-skip, tomorrow they will react to the academy and the GOAT Julius!" And with that, Mask I disappeared from the Void as well.
******
A/N: A shorter chapter where they get the rewards, next chapter will be the voting and presentation of the next viewing, they are mostly about Sunny spying Nephis' class, class with Julius and the last day before going to the Forgotten Shore.
I also teased a upcoming Reaction Fic of JJK, it is still far from even beggining to be written however, just wanted to tease a bit.
Check Out my other Fanfics:
Cursed Shadow (JJK/JJK Modulo x Shadow Slave Fic)
Trailblazing Shadow (HSR x Shadow Slave Fic)