Osu! Mania

Welcome to Osu

A/N: Special thanks to violette_cupcake for writing this first chapter! 

Caitlin's fingers whizzed along the keyboard as she played the hardest beatmap on Taiko to the song Kyouran Hey Kids!! which was currently her favourite song. She even had it as her ringtone for notifications on her phone. Beside her, her best friend Leanne had taken a break off playing Taiko on her own laptop to watch Caitlin.

She was barely aware that the others were still playing. She knew that Claire was trying to improve her skills in Osu! and that Cailyn was helping Joy play.

As for Theresa, she was playing Catch The Beat while Helina and Anna refused to do anything but be an onlooker to the gamers.

A week ago, Caitlin had arranged for them all to gather at her house (and bring their laptops - or tablets, in Claire's case) to play Osu! together. Leanne and Cailyn heartily agreed. Theresa, Anna and Helina were quite reluctant, but Caitlin had persuaded them to go.

She finished the beatmap with a flourish. She grinned at her screen; she'd gotten an SS. A perfect score.

"Whoa, you're so good," Helina complimented her. She was staring at the screen, then back at Caitlin, in awe.

Caitlin fought the urge to blush. "Thanks. You should try it..."

Helina shuddered. "Oh no. Definitely not."

Caitlin opened her mouth to try and further convince her to play Osu!, but Leanne suddenly said, "I know! How about we play multiplayer?"

"Yes!" Cailyn and Joy said at the same time, beaming.

They began to play multiplayer, with Caitlin as the host. And naturally, she picked out a hard beatmap for them all to play. It was a taiko beatmap.

Even Anna and Helina had decided to play multiplayer too - although Anna had told them very sternly that she was only going to play once. Her expression looked murderous as she said it (as if she was daring someone to speak up against her); so the others quickly agreed without protest.

"Ready, set, go!" Leanne called.

Immediately, Caitlin placed her fingers on her keyboard and started tapping as fast as she could in time to the music. The song was Streaming Heart.

"How the heck do you - " Claire trailed off as she tried to hit the keys at the speed that the beatmap was going, but was failing.

"CAITLIN!" Theresa yelled in exasperation. "You're going to pay for this!"

"Totally," Caitlin called back, her eyes focused on the beatmap.

On the leaderboard, she was leading (obviously, out of everyone, she was the best at it), then it was Leanne, then Cailyn, then Claire, then Joy, then Theresa, then Anna, then Helina.

Joy had only played for a few seconds before she started missing nearly all the notes. "Goddammit!" she seethed, "Caitlin, why did you choose a hard one?!"

Caitlin smiled. "Because I did."

Suddenly, the beatmap froze and the screen turned to black.

"W-What happened?" Leanne asked uncertainly, staring at her screen. The same thing had happened to her computer too.

"Nani?" was all that Joy managed to say. If this was a different situation, Caitlin would have rolled her eyes at her Japanese.

"What the-" Claire began, but she was interrupted by a voice...a voice that sounded like it came from one of their worst nightmares...and it was coming from nowhere. Everywhere.

"Welcome to Osu."

Suddenly bright light shone from Caitlin's computer, and she felt a weird tugging sensation before darkness claimed her.