Chapter 1
Magic is Real
A young man sits in a nearly empty room. The man is thin, dangerously so. He wears sweatshorts and a t-shirt, both grey, and a purple trilby. He is pale, has long, brown hair, and has a scar below his right knee. He has been sitting here for three hours, holding a wooden katana, or, as he calls it, a bokkun. The man has done this every day for the past seven years. Crack! A bolt of lightning strikes nearby, causing the man to smile. At that moment, the bokkun leaves the man's hands, and begins floating, ever so slightly. The man shouts with joy, causing himself to lose concentration, and the bokkun falls. "It doesn't matter." the man says. "With this, I know magic is real. Now, I can show all those idiots who told me I was wasting my time. I'll become famous!"
"Yes, yes, dreams of revenge and all that. Unfortunately for you, that's not going to happen." comes a woman's voice from behind the man.
The man deftly gets up and points the bokkun in the direction of the voice. The room, with the lights off, is too dark for him to make out anything about the woman besides her location. "Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" he asks.
"Oh? Since when did you start paying the bills for your parents?" the woman says mockingly.
"Fine, what are you doing in my parents' house, then?" the man says.
"Watching you." the woman replies. She says "Oh, and making sure you don't cause any problems for my home. We don't want anyone finding out about us." Crack! This flash of lightning allows the man to see the woman's features. She is blond, pale, and wearing a white dress. However, the thing his eyes are drawn to the most is her smile. It is cruel, twisted, and aimed at him. That one instant of light is all it takes to make the man tremble in fear.
"If you really are intent upon showing your magic to the world," she says, drawing out the word magic, as if making fun of it, "then you'll just need to come with me, won't you?" A thing opens by the woman, and she pulls something- no, someone- out of it. It is a dangerously thin man, who is pale, and wears a grey t-shirt with grey sweatshorts. This man has long brown hair, on top of which is a purple trilby.
"H-hey! W-wh-what a-are yo-" SNAP! This man falls silent as the woman breaks his neck. Another thing opens, and the woman pulls a rope out of it. The first man falls backwards, stammering. He manages to say, as the woman ties the rope to the other man's neck, "Y-y-y-you j-just k-k-k-KILLED him!"
"Yes." says the woman, tying the other end of the rope to the fan, then tightening it enough that the other man is hanging off the ground. Crack! Another flash of lightning gives the man a better view of the body.
"I-I'm not going to let you get away with this, b-bitch!" the man yells, getting up, charging the woman and swinging the bokkun at her neck. It bounces off.
It seems he can already put a little magic into his attacks the woman thinks, rubbing her neck. "Try that again and I'll replace that corpse with yours." she says. The man drops the bokkun and stares at her in disbelief. "Thank you, now I don't need to break anything to make you leave it here." says the woman, pulling the man into another thing that opened up behind her.
The only thing the man notices are the eyes. Thousands upon thousands of them. All staring. Staring at him. Despite being terrified, the man's curious mind manages to wonder Why are they not eyeballs? They'd need to be set into something to look like that, but what? The journey lasts a few seconds, a hundred years too long for the man's tastes.
They exit into a large room, with rice paper walls and a kotatsu in the middle. At the kotatsu sit two women, one with nine fox tails, and one with two cat tails. The man notices none of this, his mind too focused on one, single question. "Who the hell are you?" the man says quietly, his eyes wide and his mouth open slightly.
"Ah, yes. Introductions." the woman says. "My name is Yukari Yakumo. This is my shikigami, Ran, and her shikigami, Chen." Yukari says, indicating each in turn. The man's jaw drops when he notices the two at the kotatsu.
"T-t-t-tails!?" says the dumbstruck man.
"Yes. And you, your name is Alex, correct?" says Yukari. The man, evidently named Alex, nods.
"W-why'd you kill that guy back there?" Alex says.
"Oh that? I needed to make sure no one would go looking for you." Yukari answers.
"So that was . . ." Alex trails off.
"You, from a different universe." Yukari finishes the statement.