World & Setting

Let’s introduce the setting elements of Cocoro Session!

Heart Beats

The world of Cocoro Session is a world full of songs.

The people who live in this world each have a song that lies at the center of their heart, a song deeply connected to its owner’s way of life. Plants and Animals, Mountains and Oceans—these all can have songs of their own, too; even manmade constructs like tools and machinery within which songs lie are not unheard of.

Songs that celebrate life, songs that deliver love, songs made to impress one’s existence unto the world, songs honoring a past forever unforgotten, songs blessing or cursing humanity... these are the kinds of songs that flow in this world.

However, these songs cannot be heard by everyone—only Songspirits, Songsmiths, and Soundsiphons can hear them.

Songspirits

Songspirits are, simply put, musical spirits. They are the personification of the little stories we know as songs. They love both Heart Beats and the people who give life to them, and serve as protectors over the people they so adore.

Most Songspirits take the form of young, beautiful men or women, and individual Songspirits from the same lineage may look very similar or the same. The forms that Songspirits take can only be seen by other Songspirits, Songsmiths, and Soundsiphons.

*In this book, there are six kinds of Songspirits whose data have been compiled. However, there are said to be many, many more Songspirits in this world.

Songsmiths

Songsmiths are humans who have lost or parted with their own Heart Beat. People born without Heart Beats certainly exist, as do those who have lost their Heart Beats as the result of trauma or other psychological stress. A great proportion of victims who have escaped the song-eating Soundsiphons alive become Songsmiths. Often perceptive and having a sensitive side, Songsmiths who do not have a Heart Beat of their own sometimes hide a feeling of loss or wanting within. Some may even have lost important memories when they lost their Heart Beat. For these reasons, many of them often have a goal of regaining their Heart Beat.

Among Songsmiths, there are some who did not lose their Heart Beat; some sacrifice their Heart Beats to make pacts with Songspirits and gain the power to manipulate them. While Songsmiths of the past were able to manipulate Songspirits through musical instruments and dance, Songsmiths of today use a Headphone-like device called Heartphones.

Among the Songspirits used this way, there are many Songspirits with a weak sense of self. Songspirits with a strong interest in humans can absorb tics of humanity through a pact with an Songsmith, often taking on personalities and interests similar to the partners they work with.

Songsmiths use Numbers—special songs imbued with power—to fight the monsters known as Soundsiphons. Numbers have the power to manipulate the mysterious areas known as Heartacombs. This power can be used to produce weapons that can fell Soundsiphons or harm them through more natural means, such as through electricity or heat. As such, the combined powers of an Songspirits and their Songsmiths are uniquely suited to dealing with Soundsiphons.

Noise

Songsmiths come together to help one another through the secret organization called Noise, a space that can be accessed over the Internet. On sites and social media of all sorts, Songsmiths install entry pages to Noise. These entry pages can only be accessed by those who can hear Heart Beats, who use them to find each other and work together.

The more popular Songsmiths in Noise have their own Profile pages, which can be used to converse through mail or chat. Very few openly display their personal information on their pages, and most go by a handle of some sort. Typically, a Songsmith’s handle ends in -P, which is said to stand for either “Player” or “Prayer”, depending on who you ask.

The main purpose of Noise is to offer support to Songsmith. For example, they supply Songsmith newly awoken to their powers with Heartphones, and sell them useful applications for searching Heartacombs for small fees.

Additionally, Noise is also allows requests to be sent to Songsmiths to subdue particular Soundsiphons. While monetary compensation is sometimes offered for requests, the reward of saving an endangered life is often motivator enough. Noise is an organization formed only around the notion of helping each other out, so there aren’t really the financial resources to offer gratuitous rewards so to speak.

Soundsiphons

Haunting people and devouring their Heart Beats is how the monsters known as Soundsiphons grow. They lurk in the hearts of their victims, creating labyrinths of their souls—Heartacombs, from within which they slowly devour the Heart Beats of their hosts.

Low-Level Soundsiphons usually take the shape of animals or objects, and aren’t particularly intelligent, in contrast to Songspirits, who often become more humanlike through taking on aspects of their partners by influence of them. Low level Soundsiphons generally act on their own.

On the other hand, Soundsiphons who consume enough Heart Beats become High-level Soundsiphons, which are generally humanoid and highly intelligent. They are capable of acting strategically and even communicating with Songspirits. They may work in tandem with other Soundsiphons.

All Soundsiphons are missing pieces of themselves, which causes them great pain. Consuming Heart Beats temporarily relieves them of this pain, and so Soundsiphons who have recently eaten may even be reasoned with. Conversely, Soundsiphons who have not eaten cannot be negotiated with on account of how unbearable their pain is.

Some say that they’ve seen Soundsiphons who look suspiciously like Songspirits.

Soundless

Victims of Soundsiphons are called Soundless. As their Heart Beats are consumed bit by bit, their vitality is lost in turn, and the Heartacomb within their heart expands. Soundless in these situations slowly lose their motivation to talk to others, leave their homes, and even eat. Soundless who have had the entirety of their Heart Beat eaten weaken gradually until they die. However, Soundless aren’t a lost cause—if the Soundsiphon eating their Heart Beats are defeated before they die, Soundless can begin recovering immediately.

In fact, things can proceed in many ways from this point. Some Soundless recover their Heart Beats safely, while some go on to become Songsmiths. Some Soundless’ Heart Beats take on different forms after recovering, and are never quite the same.

Heartacombs

Heartacombs are labyrinths that expand in the hearts of Soundless, holes left behind by the eating of Soundsiphons or crevices deep in the heart. The realms of Heartacombs usually resemble the Heart Beats that their owners used to have. They are dreamy and fragmented.

On account of their cause, they are usually eerily silent until Songsmiths enter them.

Although these labyrinths lie within their hosts’ souls, the things that occur in them have noticeable effects on the real world. For example, if a Songsmith is wounded in a Cocoro Dungeon, they will gain injuries in the real world similarly. In worst-case scenarios, death can even occur; they are truly dangerous.

Heartacombs are divided up into Areas filled with trials and difficulties for Songsmiths.

In order to invade a Heartacomb, one must make direct contact with its host’s real body in the real world. Additionally, some people are predisposed towards having far stronger souls than bodies. If one of these people becomes victim to a Soundsiphon, the border between the Heartacomb in their heart begins to encroach on the real world. Heartacombs that encroach on the real world like this are called Heartscapes. Entrances to Heartscapes appear in the real world, and unlike Heartacombs, they can be entered directly without needing contact with their hosts. Ordinary people may enter and become lost in them accidentally, and may become the Soundsiphons’ next victims.