Prologue
Ryuu's P.O.V.
"I'm home!" That phrase. Every day, without fail, I'll say that phrase. And the reply?
"Welcome home bro!" My sister will always give me that reply, without fail. Now don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my life. I'm well fed, well equipped and I have a lot of friends. My sister Mei and I get on really well, we're basically inseparable at home, but still. It feels like my life is going nowhere. Do you ever get that feeling? That your life will happen and at the end of it, you really didn't do anything of consequence? I hate it. Well, I'd better introduce myself.
Hi, my name is Ryuu Sato, brother of Mei Sato. I'm 18 years old, nearing graduation and looking pretty good. Straight As across the board, I do relatively well in school and I don't lack physically either, being relatively good with a sword and a staff, just don't ever give me an axe. I have a personal weapon which I practice with, my Niuweidao (special Chinese sword) Yama, but I digress. I'm a decent shot, nothing special on that front. I have relatively long black hair, which entirely covers one of my eyes and partly covers the other. I can still see through it, though I'll save the reason for later. I'm relatively tall, and not particularly visibly ripped, although I can easily toss around people several times my weight. I have onyx eyes, and I'm usually relatively cool, calm and collected, and I always have all my stuff in order. Also, I play the piano and the violin, and I love both.
My sister is Mei is 16 years old, also pretty good at school academically and prefers to spar with me with her katana Hono. She is a crack shot, whenever we go shooting she makes me look stupid and she's quite an excitable girl. She has somewhat of a lazy streak, and I always end up caring for her and looking after her, even though we can both cook. She has long, dark hair and a rather slim figure, despite her strength. She has quite the pair of melons, and I end up getting protective whenever we go out into town. What? I'm allowed to protect my little sis right? She has onyx eyes, same as me but is a lot more impulsive and reckless than me. She is also a musician, playing the piano and singing, and she loves to sing.
Anyways, you know how I said I can see through my hair? Well, turns out both me and Mei are a little different. We can both do magic! Shame no-one else can, 'cause we can't show it to anyone, especially our familiars. Oh yeah, you don't know what they are. They're like spirits, we can talk to them and they lend us their power so we can do magic. Mine is the Earth Dragon Shi, she lets me do Jishin (Earthquake) and Sunaarashi (Sandstorm), as well as giving me super strength. Mei's familiar is the fire dragon Ignis, she lets her use Hi (Fire), as well as super strength. Both of us can use super strength as well as heighten our senses without showing our familiar features, basically in my case growing a giant spiny, clubbed tail and scaly ridges on my head, and in Mei's case growing a scaly red tail with two pointy red ears.
It sucks being a witch and wizard, it really does. Especially since our mother and father both died as a result. Neither I nor Mei dwell on it, but if someone tries to bully us about it… the last person was hospitalized. Oh well, time to carry on the standard ritual. Walking into the living room, I looked over at Mei.
"Being lazy again?" I asked smirking. She pouted.
"Nothing to do anyways, I'm so bored!" I guess that's true. I mean, we have basically nothing to do when we're at home. Both of us are abnormally smart for our age, and we rarely end up doing anything except from quizzing each other, playing strategy games (we always win, hehe) and sparring. And we always end up destroying something when sparring, so we don't do that anymore.
'Oi Ryuu!' I cringed at the loud voice in my head.
'Terra, not now.' I tried to ignore her but her whining quickly got me ticked off, causing a little tremor to pass through the house.
'Finally.'
'I swear if this isn't a good reason-' I didn't have a chance to finish my sentence, as a blinding light enveloped me and Mei.
When I finally came to, I found myself in Terra's domain again, a craggy cliff-face looking upon a large mass of swirling lava and crashing tectonic plates. I sighed before turning around at the dragon, the earth itself trembling.
"What the actual fuck Terra? Why'd you pull me out here!?"
"Oh calm down, Ignis did the same to Mei."
"Doesn't excuse you two you know!" I was furious at having this happen. Last time I went missing for a whole week. Do you know how hard to explain that is?!
"We pulled you out of there because you do not belong in that world." I blinked. Wha..?
"Not in that world?"
"Yes, you have magic, right?" I pondered the thought for a second, before it hit me.
"Oh! Magic exists in another world where we would be better accepted!" Terra blinked, before chuckling.
"Your quick mind surprises me again, yes indeed. However, two things."
"Shoot."
"Really?"
"Hey, I've got nothing to lose and I'm sure my sister will also accept."
"Hehe, very well. The first is you will stay here for two months to train."
"Acceptable, although having the two of you as our familiars, I doubt we count as weak."
"Indeed, the second is that the world you are heading to is at war." I raised an eyebrow.
"Elaborate."
"No reaction? My, your calm demeanour surprises me sometimes. Well, the world is at war with aliens called Neuroi, which shoot lasers."
"Okay, so we shield their lasers, so what?" I asked. Hey, it's not my fault these things are so damn obvious you know.
"Precisely, but the machines you'll be using to fight are these. Striker units." As she said that, Mei appeared next to me, along with a bunch of these 'striker units.'
The first two were obvious derivatives of existing Chinese weapons systems. The first was the Type 99 Main Battle Tank, armed with a paired up 125mm smoothbore cannon and 7.62mm co-axial machinegun, equipped with AP-T rounds. There was a handheld 12.7mm machinegun also in place next to what was obviously the main unit. A suit of armour composed of a chestplate, pauldrons, shoulder guard and knee guard, all in sleek and shiny dark green and sandy yellow. There were also a pair of leg units, each with a pair of tracks up the side, like Code Geass Landspinners. There was also a derivative of the Shenyang J-31 Gyrfalcon, composed of a wingpack with three pylons and two internal weapon bays at the back, a pair of leg units with jet nozzles coming out of the end and two air intakes extending just beyond the end of the top of the unit. There were a pair of rudders and elevators extending from both leg units, and the wingpack was a triangle shape. A GSh-30-1 cannon rested just next to it, being held up on a clamp.
The next one pair were a Russian fighter derivative and a Korean tank derivate. The tank was the K2 Black Panther, armed with a 120mm Rheinmetall L/55 cannon and a 7.62mm co-axial machinegun with AP-T rounds. In addition, there was also a 12.7mm K6 HMG for handheld combat. The armour was composed of the leg units, like the one on the Type 99, and a similar slew of additional pieces, the breastplate, pauldrons, shoulder guard and knee guards. The armour was a combination of dark green and brown. The aircraft was the Su-47 Berkut, or Firkin. There were the pair of leg units with jet nozzles, but unlike the J-31, the intakes did not extend over the top. In addition, the wingpack was not a simple triangle, but a pair of forwards swept wings. There were four pylons a wing, and four on the wingpack itself. There were also a pair of missile housings on the wingtip.
Alongside all this, there was a helmet on both stands, which also had a visor. The visor was lit up with a HUD, displaying speed, magic usage, and weapon state. There was also engine heat, and on the Su-47, also wing integrity and thrust vector status. Looking at the equipment, Mei and Ryuu both raised an eyebrow.
"These are the striker units, and are the main form of weaponry in the universe you're headed to. You'll have two month of training here, then you'll be headed to a base in the universe. You'll have to explain and see what happens," Shi explained. Both Mei and Ryuu grinned.
"Sounds like fun, we're in!"