Xamusel: Okay, here's a story being rewritten for what could possibly be the last time, especially since Takeshi seems to have dropped out of the desire to work on this story as much as he and I used to work on this together.
Takeshi Yamato: For the record, my Muse can be rather fickle, and I'd rather not let that hold this story back. Not to mention, with my current focus, watching shows like Kamen Rider Wizard to learn what I'd need to run that plot concurrently with P3 is a bit lower on my priorities, which would hold the story up further if I was more involved. I'll still write for a couple of my OCs, and help with the planning stages as best I can, but that's about it.
Xamusel: Yeah, that's the sad reality of what's going on. However, I'm somewhat unsure if I should accept help co-writing this from anyone else. The truth is, I'd rather not risk the story going off the rails that aren't canon's rails, especially since this is going to be as long as it possibly can without it going all crazier than intended. If you've read the previous two versions of this story, no, Xenosaga won't be a sidestory for this that will be official.
Well, in any case… The Wheel Of Fate Is Turning. Rebel 1, Action!
Long ago, magic and science worked together in harmony. But with the rise of civilization, magic fell into the shadows. It is now the present day. One man uses magic to hold back forces that science is powerless to stop. He is known as… the Wizard.
Ten years ago, an explosion happened in the city of Iwatodai. In the aftermath of that explosion, a 'hidden' 25th hour of the day began to occur - every day, at midnight Japanese Time, this hidden hour would occur, casting an eerie green glow over the environment, turning water to blood, and placing all of humanity in coffins. Any humans not found in coffins at this time would have their minds devoured by beasts known as Shadows, causing an 'illness' that people began to term Apathy Syndrome.
However, the Kirijo Group, one of Japan's largest mega-corporations, managed to discover a way to fight the Shadows: The power of Persona, and those who have the 'Potential' to summon one through special devices known as Evokers. A group of High-Schoolers, led by Mitsuru Kirijo, daughter of the Kirijo Group CEO, was formed, and are currently based out of the Kirijo Dorm for Gekkoukan High School.
They are the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, or SEES.
A Wizard in Iwatodai
Story primarily written by Xamusel this time, with some help from Takeshi Yamato
Prologue: The Wizard Arrives
A young brown-haired man in a black leather coat and motorcycle helmet that matched his eyes, with hot pink pants and a shirt with pink specks on it, was riding down the highway from one end of the country to the end of the country where Tatsumi Port Island was. He knew he was going to be late in getting to his guardian's current home, but he also knew that he couldn't just break the speed limit, either. He didn't want to have a criminal record on top of being a dropout from his previous high school on his list of negligent behavior that would need to be corrected.
As he moved through extremely slow traffic, he finally found a place to move through to exit the highway, so he took it. It was when he had taken the exit and had gone down the road a few miles when he found that he had made something of a mistake.
"Uh-oh… I forgot that Mikage-cho was between where I started and Iwatodai," the young man said, looking at his left after stopping momentarily. "I wouldn't have had to see the old SEBEC building if I remembered about this."
Indeed, with the unintended detour to Mikage-cho, he saw an old and abandoned building that had seen way better days… even if it was only in the last 13 years that the SEBEC branch was actually desecrated. In fact, hardly anyone wanted to go in there for normal business, what with the fact that there wasn't anyone around who would consider it good for business to go in there ever. It was so bad—
"Hey!" a police officer called out from a distance away and ahead of him. "What are you doing out here at this late a time?!"
"Sorry, officer," the young man said, after riding his motorcycle over to the police officer. "I was headed for Iwatodai, but I got stuck in traffic before I got off near here. Do you know which way to a good back road from here?"
Before the police officer could give the young man some advice, however, he transmogrified into a dark-green crystalline coffin.
The young man sighed in exasperation. "Again?!" he nearly yelled out loud. "How come I keep on experiencing this event whenever it's midnight? It's starting to get really annoying…"
With that, he looked around for a sign of which way to go from there, before, when he did find one, he rode on his motorcycle out of town. He figured that he had about 15 minutes after this strange time-stopping event before he could find his way to his guardian's shop and house. It was about time to prove that to be the case.
Later
In the area of Iwatodai
A young man with blue hair and eyes, wearing the boys uniform of the local co-ed high school, was walking in what he thought was the direction of his assigned dormitory. He looked around for the signposts to signify that he was on his way to where he needed to go, but it seemed like he was utterly lost. For all that he was able to ascertain, it seemed like the streets he wanted didn't exist… it was a bit disheartening, but he wouldn't want to be completely lost on his first day back in town after ten years away.
This young man sighed deeply. 'Well, this is a bummer,' he thought. 'How did I get lost on the first day back home? Wait, I don't want to think of the possible answer to that. In any case, I wonder how my friend is in this hour? I hope she's doing alright, as well as whoever she's staying with…
'No, she has to be okay, I just know it! I don't want to find out later that she suffered from Apathy Syndrome, so I'll protect her from the danger, even if she doesn't know that I'm doing it for her. All I need to do is find out if she's in a coffin or not, due to the time-space paradox, while being targeted by - is that a motorcycle?'
Indeed, there was a motorcycle headed down the road in his direction, with the rider being the young man from earlier. The rider, noticing the schoolboy, stopped a bit away from him and opened his visor up. "Hey," the rider said, "need a lift?"
The schoolboy looked at the rider and asked, "How come you're active in this time-space paradox? I mean, normal people are in coffins for one reason or another during this paradox, so, why aren't you?"
The rider looked at a belt buckle of sorts on his waist, prompting the schoolboy to wonder if he'd ever saw it before, and where he might have seen it. Before he could figure it out on his own, though, the rider said, "I'm not normal to begin with. I was abducted a few years ago, having been made a survivor of a mess out near the coast, all because of a ritual that made me and others like me unleash monsters of despair from within."
The schoolboy blinked a few times in rapid succession, before asking, "How come you said you're a survivor in this case? Did the others die or something?"
The rider grimaced, before answering, "The people they once were died, leaving behind their bodies as shells for the monsters to assume as they blend in, somehow or another fooling the senses of nearly everyone around them."
The schoolboy, wisely enough, decided not to press the matter. "Okay, I'll leave it be," he said. "In any case, you wouldn't happen to know how to get to the Kirijo Dormitory from here, would you?"
The rider looked at the schoolboy and asked, "Do you have instructions to where you need to be?" Upon being shown a piece of paper that had the directions to the dorm from the train station, the rider took it in hand and silently read the directions to the end, where he winced. "Okay, that's on the other end of town from here… and in the area of my destination."
The schoolboy looked about ready to facepalm, but he refrained. "Okay," he said, walking over to the motorcycle, "I'll take you up on your offer. Do you have a spare helmet, mister…?"
"Oh, right," the rider said, grabbing a helmet for the schoolboy and giving it to him. "My name's Haruto, Soma Haruto. I'm 16 right now, and about to head to my guardian's shop in town to help him out. Please call me by my given name."
The schoolboy took the paper back and put it away, before putting on the helmet. "My name's Minato, Haruto-san," he said. "Arisato Minato. Feel free to address me politely however you like to." With that, he got on the bike, signalling to Haruto to go on after positioning himself properly.
A short time later
In front of the Kirijo Dorms
Minato and Haruto came to a stop in front of the correct building, before Minato looked as carefully as possible at the windows. "Er, Haruto-san?" Minato asked.
"Yes?"
"Does electricity really run during this time-space paradox as I've noticed it?"
Haruto opened his mouth to answer, but then shut it almost immediately. "Not to my knowledge, unless the electric devices are supplemented by something not normal to begin with, like Magical energy," he answered.
Minato looked at Haruto for a brief moment, asking, "Speaking from experience?" After receiving a nod, the blue-haired youth sighed. "I see… well, this definitely proves that something strange is going on in town."
Haruto nodded, but, before they could go their separate ways, he felt with his mystic senses that there was someone in the building who was similar to his friend Koyomi. Heeding his own supernatural senses for once, he got off the motorcycle and walked over to the dorm, Minato getting off and following right behind him.
"Haruto-san, don't you have somewhere else to go?" Minato asked, bringing Haruto back to reality a few steps away from the door.
"Oh, there's something inside," Haruto replied. "I can feel it somehow, Minato-san, and it feels somewhat familiar."
Minato nodded, before he said, "I'll open the door and see who, or what, is inside. Who knows? It might be nothing important at all." Before Haruto could argue against that, Minato opened the door and walked in, taking the helmet off of his head—
"You're late," a boy's voice said from Minato's left. "I've been waiting a long time for you."
Minato looked in the direction of his left, even as Haruto rushed in to see the source of the noise. "Who said that?!" Haruto questioned.
"Hmm? A second Mage is in town?" The boy, who wore prison-like garments as if they were pajamas, looked perplexed as he asked. "I wonder what the meaning of this is?"
"Okay, what do you mean, 'a second Mage is in town'?" Haruto questioned the boy. "I should be the only one in town, right?"
"You can see and hear me, too? Very peculiar," the boy answered. "I guess you're the first Mage to do that at all."
"Okay, what's going on?" Minato asked, looking between the other two in confusion. "Who is the little guy, Haruto-san, and why is he that important to you?"
Before Haruto could reply to that, however, a snapping of fingers brought the two of them to reality in front of them. "Now, if you want to proceed," the boy, having somehow managed to appear there out of thin air, said, indicating Minato with one hand, "please sign your name there." While he was indicating Minato, the other hand was facing the sign-in counter, where there was a red folder on top. "It's a contract," the boy elaborated. "D—"
"CONNECT, PLEASE!" A voice called out from Haruto's belt buckle, before what seemed to be a red magic circle appeared beside him as he spun around and pulled out a gun from the circle, aiming the weapon at the boy.
"What sort of contract are we talking about?" Haruto questioned, a wary and threatening tone in his voice.
"Oh, the sort that specifies that he'll take full responsibility for his actions," the boy answered. "If he doesn't sign it, he can't proceed, and the world will be in grave danger without him there to protect it."
Minato looked absolutely confused as he glanced between Haruto and the little boy. "Um, what am I missing?" he asked. "It seems like there's a dispute between you two that I'm unaware of, and I would like to know why."
Haruto, unwavering in keeping the weapon held at the boy, eyed Minato carefully and answered, "This is the first I've met him, but he's honestly not someone, or even something, to be trifled with. I'm fairly certain that this boy is some sort of demon that would offer contracts for people to foolishly give up their lives in a set amount of time for some worldly thing that is overall useless to the human condition."
It was then that the boy chuckled, in the face of what Haruto said. "You're only half-right, mister Mage," he said. "This is the first we've met, true, but I wouldn't offer a contract to anyone if I didn't feel that they could fulfill the terms written inside. Besides which, if I were a demon, I would've done something to remove your presence by this point."
Haruto hesitated for a brief second, before he lowered his gun. "Alright, you have a point," he conceded. "I hope that there's only the one contract available here, however."
The boy nodded for only a brief amount of time, before he paused and brought a hand to his chin. "Oh, there's another contract here, but I don't know who to give it to," he admitted at last. "It's meant to go to a certain Soma Haruto, but—"
"That would be me," Haruto said, indicating himself.
"Ah, good, I was worried I wouldn't get you your contract," the boy said, looking rather relieved. "Okay, then, I'll be sure to get you your contract in just a bit."
Minato, in the meantime, looked at the contract and took a bit to look over the terms he was going to agree to. What he found in the contract said exactly what the boy was talking about before. When he finished reading it over, he took the quill and signed it, giving his own name to it.
The boy, having seen that Minato signed his contract, walked over to him and said, "Okay, that's one signed. Now for Soma-san's contract." He then picked up the red contract folder and replaced it with a blue one from out of thin air.
Haruto walked over to the contract and took a careful look at it. "Okay, let's see here," he said. "It says, 'I hereby solemnly swear that I will defeat the Phantom known as Wiseman before he can hold Sabbat again, regardless of the cost it might have. If I don't stop said Sabbat from happening, I will have to loop through the prior two months until I get it right, in which case the effect on my soul will be nullified after the final battle. I also solemnly swear to assist the organization known as SEES in their times of crisis, to prevent the Fall of Death, and whatever else would come about from the effects of the hidden 25th hour.' Is this contract meant to be followed to the letter, by spirit, or both?"
"Both," the boy answered. "I hope you manage to come to a good decision soon…"
"Right, I see now," Haruto replied when he saw the boy pause. "I'll sign it, but only when I know what SEES is, and how I'm supposed to assist them."
The boy nodded in understanding. "This dorm is the home of SEES, actually," he said. "It's a group meant to fight monsters of the human psyche. You have one way to fight monsters, but you'll possibly get a second one soon, for a different set of monsters altogether."
Haruto nodded, before he decided to sign the contract. After signing, he handed the contract to the boy. "Here you go," he said.
"Thank you very much," the boy said, taking the blue contract folder in hand. "No one can escape time," he said ominously, holding both contracts in one hand. "It delivers us all to the same end. You can't plug your ears and cover your eyes." With that, he waved his other hand over the contracts and caused them to vanish. As if the electricity was finally going back to normal for the hour, the shadows of the room expanded over the room, before the boy started fading into the dark. "And so it begins…" he said, hand outstretched for a bit, before he fully vanished.
"Okay, are we sure that's not a demon?" Haruto asked, somewhat regretting his actions earlier. "I don't know of any human being that could pull that—"
"Who's there?!" the voice of a young woman called out, causing Haruto and Minato to look in her direction. The young woman was clad in a pink cardigan, a black skirt that went to her thighs, a red ribbon, a red armband on her left upper arm, and… a gun holster on her right femur? It was her face, however, that had Minato looking at her as a whole.
'What the - Yukari?! She never said anything about being at this dorm!' he thought, reeling from the revelation that his childhood friend was able to move in this hidden hour, all without having to worry about Apathy Syndrome. 'I have to do something to d—'
Haruto, at that moment, moved his gun back into position and ready to shoot at his target. "Another demon?!" he exclaimed, holding his weapon steady. "I don't know what kind you are, but you'd better drop your disguise before I pump you full of silver!"
Minato, shaking himself out of shock, rushed towards Haruto and forced the gun to move away from Yukari, at least to some degree. "Haruto-san, that's no demon!" he yelled. "That's my childhood friend Yukari!"
Yukari Takeba, who had been about to draw her gun out from the holster, stopped in mid-motion and exclaimed in shock, "Minato-kun?! What are you doing here at the Kirijo Dorm?! I thought you said you'd be going to a boy's dorm, not this one!" As if just realizing something, she questioned, "Wait, do you know this delinquent, Minato-kun?!"
Before Minato could reply to her, Haruto pushed him away from his gun arm and re-steadied his weapon at Yukari. "Don't evade the inevitable!" he yelled. "You have the same aura around you as a demon hiding in human form! Reveal your true form now, or else I'll—"
"What's going on here?!" Another voice was heard, as two more women stepped into view, one with red hair, one with blue. Both had rather ample busts, DDs at the least, and looked to be a year older than Yukari. The redhead was wearing a white long-sleeve shirt and a black skirt, while the bluenette was wearing a dark red jacket over a black shirt with a dark red skirt.
Yukari whirled to face the speaker and exclaimed, "Nayuki-senpai! I thought there were intruders, but one of them is a student at Gekkoukan High School! The other one's threatening to kill me for something I don't know anything about!"
Nayuki, the one with blue hair, noticed the two 'visitors', including the one pointing the strange gun at Yukari. "So I see," she said slowly, even as she reached for her own pistol, holstered on her hip.
At that point, the hidden hour ended, with Minato's ear phones, which were now on his coat, playing Burn My Dread.
Next time on A Wizard in Iwatodai:
"I really missed you, Yukari."
"Aishiteru, Minato-koi."
"'Sup, dude? How's it goin'?"
"You found it, Garuda?"
"I'll be fine. Protecting people is a cop's duty."
"Anything you try is useless!"
"It's… showtime!"
Xamusel: FINISH!
…one of these days, I'm going to stop the BlazBlue references, at least before and after each chapter is completed.
Takeshi Yamato: You could always go to Guilty Gear instead for the references.
Xamusel: Not what I had in mind… I'm trying to cut back on the fighting game references in general. But, what do I know, huh? Besides, I don't own copies of the Guilty Gear franchise, since my focus was on BlazBlue instead.
Well, in any case, Takeshi and I finally have the rough draft of this done on the 28th of March, 2016. Before I do any publishing, I'm going to have some help with looking it over to see what could be expanded on and so on and so forth.
Takeshi Yamato: Also, minor trivia apropos to nothing in particular, March 28th is also my Parents' Wedding Anniversary! I won't name them for privacy's sake, or even mention them at all aside from this little notice (and perhaps similar ones on their respective birthdays), but still, thought I'd give them this brief shout-out. :D
Xamusel: I would hope your parents don't mind you giving them that shout-out, Takeshi. I don't know how it works with your folks, though… but, yeah, I'm getting side-tracked.
Now, what could I have had Haruto mean by his comments towards Yukari? As far as how come he said that, well… I'll just say he's distantly related to Raidou Kuzunoha XIV. I don't know for sure how far removed he is, but he's related, at least by way of the same ancestor from a minimum of five generations or so back.
No, I'm not planning on making Haruto Raidou Kuzunoha XV, because there's someone else in line for that position. Besides, Haruto would need to actually know of said relation to the original Raidou, which is on his mother's side of the family. All he knows is that his mother taught him about the differences between real humans and demons hiding as humans… but even that's faulty information.
Well, time to see how this will go, so I'll shut up for now and let the other people I know look this over for us. See you when this is published! -Xamusel
EDIT 4/6/2016: Okay, finished the edits, since the previous version had a bit less description than the current version. This is the first published version of what I'll say for this story.
Thank you, everyone, and have a good day. I will see you all next chapter, whenever it will be released, anyway.
