Chapter 1: Rays of the Shining Sun

[Xenos Skylark's View]

Hi, my name is Xenos Skylark, and I am considered to be one of those normal sixteen-year-olds living in America, who was, is, and will always be a bit of a sort of an 'otaku' when it comes to Kamen Rider. I watch Kamen Rider often, and I had been sketching the designs for my sort-of own custom Rider, complete with its own forms and Driver, in the hopes that I would become one, maybe now, maybe sometime in the future. However, I knew that this was nearly impossible, because Kamen Riders were merely fictional heroes shown on television, and they would probably not exist in this layer of reality.

On this particular day, I had heard that this particular day was going to be the first day of one of the biggest exhibitions in America. I wasn't one bit amused when I had recieved the news which was airing on the television, until I had found out that a few of the panels were related to Kamen Rider. It made me shocked and a little surprised, and I immediately took a shower and dressed up to head to the event. Once I had finished getting ready, I noticed that I looked like one of the characters in an anime I watched, particularly Issei Hyoudou from High School DxD, and it made me chuckle a little.

I got a backpack ready, and filled with the particular sketchbook I drew my Rider design in (so I could show it to my friends), a few Gaia Memories, Cosmic Switches, Wizard Rings and Ghost Eyecons (because those were what I had on hand), and the Fourze and Double Drivers respectively (because I also had them on hand). I did also have a rather large sword, which fit snugly on my back. I was a little lucky that I made this sword on my own, considering that it'd be expensive to ask someone to do it for me, and it looked like something out from SAO. However, I had not foreseen the events that would happen in thirty minutes that would change my life as I knew it.

[POV Change: Third Person's View]

Meanwhile, in another side of the universe, a dim, but rather bright orange sun and the chirping of birds signaled the dawn of another day, or at least that was what it seems to be. However, it wasn't just considered to be a normal day for some people. It was a rather interesting day for the second-year magi-in-training of the Tristain Academy in the center of Tristain; the familiar-summoning ritual, which was a ceremony to summon their life partners, their companion(s), whatever you want to call them.

In the rays of dawn, a certain girl woke up and got ready for the ritual. This particular pink-haired girl was a noble, and a student of the Academy, known as Louise Francoise de la Valliere. Another interesting to note about this particular female compared to other students of the Academy, is that she supposedly elementless, and she is famous for her big and destructive explosions, not to add to the fact that she a rather prodigious student in most theoretical classes, but not magic.

After getting a quick shower and dressing up in the normal Tristain Academy uniform, she got out of her dorm room, and headed to the great hall for breakfast, but she oddly walked a little slower than the usual, so that she could hear what the people were thinking about her at the moment. She did hear people talking bad about her, and it felt rather normal to hear; she heard people whispering many questions about her regarding her; "What's the Zero going to get?"; "Are you sure the Zero has any worth? She's been failing magic, and she probably would flunk these one. Imagine what her mother would tell her if she found out!"

If this was her first time hearing those words, she'd be blowing up and producing an explosion at the spot, but she has heard those same words and conversations too many times to count, so she didn't really care too much about the words those people had to say about her. However, out of all of those insults and questions, a few of them did seem to annoy her slightly, because they came from one of the people she hated most; Kirche. She was one of the fire mages in the academy, and they somehow seemed to have a long rivalry, which supposedly (according to rumors) originated from their ancestors. Odd, if you ask me.

Then, once everyone was done with breakfast, all of the second-year students were instructed to head to the school compound, where the ritual site was ready, and the symbols were present. And so began the familiar-summoning ritual. After roughly about a full hour of walking around the compound, being insulted by Kirche and dozing off in the shade, it was finally her turn to conduct the familiar-summoning ritual for her. Everybody was laughing at her, spitting out curse words and the such when Louise stepped onto the pentagram symbol to start the ritual.

[Xenos Skylark's View]

On my way to the exhibition, which was somewhat held nearby to my house, all of a sudden, a green portal with the symbol of a pentagon and a star on it began appearing right in front of my very eyes. I was just about surprised and shocked at the same time, because this was somewhat obviously a little unexpected. In all of my 16 years, I have never seen that portal before; much less ever seen one in front of my own eyes. For some odd and nonsensical reason, nobody else could see the portal but me, which actually made me shocked, surprised, and a little concerned.

Since I was the only one that could see it, and I had somewhat of a weapon on me, I decided to be the curious person I always was, and I decided to touch the portal, with hopes that I could get my hand out immediately. However, once I touched the portal, it completely sucked me in, and the portal happened to close a second after I was sucked into it. Suddenly, I found myself in a void, similar to what someone would feel like underwater, except I could breathe. I was fortunate that my backpack and weapon were still on me.

Then, amidst the emptiness of the void, words started being heard and flowed around my ears. "My servant that existed somewhere in this vast universe,". "my divine, beautiful, wise, powerful servant,". "heed my call,". "I wish from very bottom of my heart, ". "add to my guidance and appear!". As I pondered on what the hell I heard, I noticed a hole forming itself right under me, and I fell into it, and to somewhere which I would not know about. I did something I automatically switched gear into, and I began to calm myself down, to no effect. It did manage to make me at least shut the hell up, though.

Then, after what seemed to be a few minutes, which felt like hours, I fell down on what seemed to be a very soft and green surface, as if it was grass. Then, I held my hand to the surface, and I realized that it was actually grass. After that, as I felt my back, I noticed my sword's colors had paled considerably, and it felt heavier, to the point where it felt like real steel, and my backpack had become noticeable heavier. Once I realized I had everything on hand, I feel relieved. However, when I looked up, I was surprised by a somewhat odd twist that had occurred.

I was on a symbol which looked too similar to the one I had seen on the green portal, and there were people all around, which looked to be mostly off my age. They were also wearing somewhat standard school outfits, if not for the fact that the pendant they all had was very similar to the symbol on the portal, and it seemed to me that they were students, but not ones that I had seen before.

Then, I realized that there was a girl wearing a similar uniform standing right in front of me. The first thing I noticed was her pink hair, wait, pink hair?! Pink hair isn't common from whatever part of the world! The fact that she looked like Misha from Katawa Shoujo made me want to smile, but the fact she was holding a frown and something which magicians use, a wand made me tell myself not to smile.

I immediately got up and I was able to understand their language, and the first insult to this girl I heard, which came from a red-haired girl with big breasts (which I really got the urge to away my head from, which I did) was, "Always, as expected from Louise the ZERO!" Everybody was laughing loudly with an insulting tone, and I realized that the insult was thrown onto the pink-haired girl, who was now rather a bit humiliated. I immediately protected her as I threw a death glare onto everybody who was laughing. If looks could kill, in my opinion, they'd be burning like giant firecrackers waiting to explode, because the entire courtyard went silent in a matter of seconds.

It all somehow had made sense to me. What the term 'familiar' meant was that something akin to a ritual was going on, and I was going to be a 'familiar' of this pink-haired girl, who was named Louise. I'd have to ask this Louise what a 'familiar' has to do, in terms of duties. I immediately proceeded to tell Louise, in rather humble manner, "So, would you like to proceed with the familiar-summoning ritual, Louise, my master? You won't want people to wait, won't you?" Everybody including Louise was rather surprised by what I had just said.

She made somewhat a smile, and began chanting, "Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, grant your blessings upon this creature and bind it as my familiar." What she did next oddly only surprised me, because she immediately kissed me in the lips.

I was a little bit surprised at that, but I realized that she was sealing the 'contract' that she made in what seemed like a chant earlier. I then felt a really big pain starting to develop on the back palm of my left hand, which made me scream a little, although not loudly. Apparently, I was not the only one to feel the pain, as I noticed my 'master', 'Louise', screaming in pain as what seemed to be runes formed on her hand. I noticed that once the pain subsided away, runes were visible on my hand, in a language I could understand; Norse, although I wasn't the best at it.

Once that event was over, a bald man wearing glasses and a robe, and holding a book immediately screamed, "Class dismissed!" Everybody flew away, which made me rather surprised by that, because the sight of a flying human surprised me. I thought about the possibility for that for a while, as Louise walked away from the scene, before briefly being stopped by that old man.

I was immediately stopped by the old man himself, and he introduced himself, "I'm sorry for that rather sudden stop, but I wanted to check those runes you had on your hand. Louise too. By the way, my name is Sir Colbert." I replied, "Umm, I guess, sure. I don't really care too much about it, but what I can actually make out is the word, 'Gandalfr'. Not sure what that means though, by the way." He looked at me, shocked for a second, but he immediately gathered his composure, and he looked at the runes and noted it in the book that he was holding with a quill and some ink, after checking Louise's rune.

The one question I was having was 'Why was he using ink and quill, considering that ballpoint pens were easier to work with.' Once he was done, and left the area, I immediately proceeded to follow Louise to wherever she was going, with my backpack and my sword on my back.

When I arrived to Louise's room, what I immediately noticed was that her room looked rather clean, which also made me realize something about what her potential was. Based on what I just noticed around me, she must be an expert at self-grooming, and self-hygiene, and with a lot of books around the room, I assumed she was a genius. However, based on what those people that insulted Louise said, she wasn't a really good magician at her own powers. But, I probably would assume that with time, she will become better by the minute.

I did manage to hear her saying, "H-how did I get such a familiar? A rather weak human at first glance, but rather humble, to admit that I am his own master. But what am I supposed to do?! My reputation and pride, the ones I've been trying to take care of this whole time, are ruined! What will mother say when she hears about my failures? Maybe they're right. Maybe I am just a Zero."

After hearing what she said, I immediately walked over to her and calmed her down, hugging her gently and saying, "Listen here, Louise, or what I assume to be your name. I may be just a normal human, but it doesn't mean that I'm the weakest familiar you'll ever get. What I assume to be the definition of Zero is way different than what others probably think about your title as Zero."

She looked at me and smiled, as she surprisingly hugged me back and said, "You know, that actually moved me. I just realized, we haven't introduced ourselves to each other. I guess I'll start then; the full name is Louise Francoise de la Valliere." Then, I introduced myself to her, "Sorry for not introducing myself as well. Name's Xenos Skylark von Valliere. Call me Xenos. By the way, I have to admit that the name Louise fits nice to you."

She looked at me shocked for a second, then chuckled and replied, "That's actually a good name, Xenos. And I'm rather surprised by the fact that ancestors seem similar. I don't know about it." I smiled back and I told her that I needed to check on my belongings. I had left them in the corner when I went to comfort Louise's soul when she was on the verge of breaking down.

When I went to check on my sword and backpack, it noticeably looked a little different, and it felt a little heavier than the usual plastic and paper that I had used to make the framework and the sketchbook that I used to draw the belt on. The first thing I did was to check the sword, which had been on my , and it was heavier than the one that I had made weeks ago.

The hand guard was now a very bright shade of shining red, and the blade was sparkling white, as though it was purely made out of light. I felt the blade, and it felt sharper and more dangerous, and I was just about to cut my hand from the sharpness of the thing. I then realized that the sword had changed into something more realistic and stronger, which made it heavier and more dangerous.

The backpack, however, was a little different in its really weird own way. It looked the same from the naked eye, but there were odd bulges coming out from them that normally wouldn't be like that with the stuff that were inside it. As I shook the bag's contents which sounded more like metallic objects banging against each other than the plastic material that was used to make the toy versions of the Rider belts.

As I opened out the bag and poured out the contents onto the floor of the room, what I had suddenly noticed that was really off heavily shocked, surprised, and scared me a little. There were the Fourze and Double Drivers, a few Gaia Memories, Cosmic Switches, Wizard Rings and Ghost Eyecons, similar to what I had placed in the bag before I had been sucked into the portal, but I noticed the sketchbook on an empty page, a few Cosmic Switches and Memories of a design similar to what I had made, and a Rider Belt, which was the same as what I had drawn before.

I stared at it, shocked for the fact that what had been previously mere imagination had become reality. I called Louise over to see what I had gotten, and even she looked shocked, asking on what the items available were. I then replied to her, "This, Louise, is a Rider Belt. Used by fictional heroes of justice called Kamen Rider to fight monsters of pure evil." Once Louise began to regain the composure she had been lacking for the past few seconds, I asked Louise whether I could go out for a minute, and she replied, "Yes, but with my supervision."

I packed the stuff into my backpack, grabbed my sword and I went down into the courtyard where I was first summoned to, with Louise trailing behind me. As people were looking at me, backpack and sword on my back, I was surprised that nobody actually was shocked by that, even people who had and had not noticed it. Once we had arrived at the courtyard, we proceeded to find somewhere a little bit away from the public so that I could test this Rider Belt out.

After finding a spot, I proceeded to take out my belt, the only new Memory and one of my new Switches as I placed the belt onto my waist. The belt formed chains that surrounded my waist, and I maintained a calm composure as I pressed the Memory, which made it scream, "Elemental!" I then pressed the Switch, which made it scream, "Flame!" I then placed both switches into the two slots available on my Driver, and I screamed 'Henshin!' as I brought the Memory onto the Switch.

I smiled, as I transformed into the new rider I had dubbed as Kamen Rider Elementia, Ruler of the Infinite Elements. My armor was now a glowing red, which made it match the hand guard of my mega sword, and my mask now had the shape of the Fire, which marked Form Flame's appearance. The belt then screamed, "Phase Elemental, Form Flame!" Louise, who was standing a few feet behind me, was obviously shocked at what she had seen.

I immediately decided to do a little bit of training and I tried swinging my sword, which I had now decided to name the E-Calibur, around; and it technically seemed to be something that Ragnarok would wield. I played with it and my Flame form for a bit before de-transforming back into my civilian form. I brought Louise back to her room, bride-style, which shocked her like hell for a minute, and I told her to calm down before realizing that the moon had started to rise.

Louise then asked me, "Xenos? Can you do the laundry for me?" She then changed into her night gown, and I had no choice but to say yes. I then took the laundry basket that was full of similar-colored uniforms, and I searched around for a place to the laundry. Laundry, the thing that I hate most, and my nightmare, and I say that because I don't prefer doing laundry, because, that's why we have laundry machines on Earth. So, if you were to be one of the people who look closely, you'd be noticing me walking around in circles.

Coincidentally, a maid who was doing her chores happened to suddenly bump into me. I noticed her and I told her, "Sorry for what happened just now. My name is Xenos. What is your name?" She replied, "I'm sorry. You must be Louise's familiar. My name is Siesta." Siesta means 'nap' in Spanish. I'm not surprised. I replied, "Word sure spreads fast when it comes to her, doesn't it? Can you show me around the Academy? My master, Louise, has asked me to do her laundry." She said sure, and I followed her to where she was going to.

Down the stairs, and into the cellars, we found ourselves at the laundry area. Siesta showed me the basics on how to do all of the stuff, and I found myself following her rules pretty often in that short time period. After that was all settled, we hung the laundry, and to pass the time remaining in between then and the morning, we decided to go out to the courtyard for some fresh air. I asked her whether she'd want to see something I really wanted to show her. She smiled and said yes. It was obvious that she really was happy for company.

It was fortunate enough that I had brought out my backpack and my sword, and I brought her to the area where I had previously transformed in front of Louise, and I took out what I now called the Elementian Driver, the Elemental Memory and the Flame Switch, before transforming for a second time today in front of Siesta. I inserted the Elemental Memory and the Flame Switch into the slots, and I changed into Kamen Rider Elementia, Phase Elemental, Form Flame. Siesta saw what had happened, and she looked shocked, before I de-transformed and walked over to her.

I explained to Siestawhat a Rider Belt was, who the Kamen Riders were, and then I decided to ask her whether she wanted to help me and equip a Rider Belt, in case if she were to ever get attacked by the monsters I dubbed as the Kaijin. She nodded a small yes, and I decided to best option for now was to grab out the Fourze Driver, and I gave it to her, along with the Rocket, Launcher, Drill and Radar Switches, and I asked her whether she wanted to try it out for herself. She smiled and nodded a big yes, before equipping the Fourze Driver and placing it on her waist.

The belt's chains formed, and she inserted the Rocket, Launcher, Drill and Radar Switches into their respective slots, and as I taught her instructions on how to transform into Fourze, as she flipped the switches together, and the belt began the countdown to zero, as I guided her into making the hand posture for Fourze's transformation sequence. She followed my orders, and pulled the lever before transforming into the space warrior, known as Kamen Rider Fourze. She looked at the armor she had been donning, and she smiled behind her mask, something only I could tell from her intonation as she was talking.

I decided to train with her for a little bit before deciding to head up to the top of the tower where Louise stayed, and I asked Siesta whether she was willing to commit and take the risks necessary to fight as a Kamen Rider. She gave me a look of determination and told me, "You've given the responsibility to me to fight as a heroine. I won't fail you, Xenos." I gave a short smile before deciding to sleep on the top of the tower. We laid under the stars for a while before falling asleep, her head on my arm. She smiled as she dozed off.

I noticed that blonde-haired boy, who everybody calls Guiche, apparently flirting with another girl down by the courtyard. I did not mind him as I fell asleep under the glowing stars. The next morning, I immediately shot my eyes open as early as possible, and I immediately rushed to make sure that none of the events from last night were noticeable.

I immediately carried Siesta back to the maids' quarters, even though she was a bit heavy for me at first, and I grabbed the laundry and brought it up to Louise's room as quick as possible. I knew that if she knew what'd happened last night, she'd be really mad at me for what I was doing, and she'd probably whip me, because I saw a few whips lying around her room earlier on.

Once I reached her room, I noticed that she was still sleeping, even though it was long since sunrise. I frowned once I had realized the fact that she was a long sleeper. I tried waking her up gently, but to no avail. So, the first thing I did was to scream in her ear, and that did the trick, as she woke up and called me by my name, 'Xenos', and not by the term, 'familiar'.

Another problem came in after that was when she grabbed her uniform to dress. Once she had taken her uniform from her cupboard, she asked me to 'dress her'. I was a little bit shocked, and I tried to argue with that statement, but Louise replied by telling me, "A familiar must follow its master's orders." I gave in, and I dressed her slowly, the way I would dress myself up, excluding where ever felt really uncomfortable for me to handle.

Once I had dressed her up, we proceeded to go to the great hall (at least that is what she calls it) for breakfast, but I was immediately stopped by Siesta, who told me that 'familiars and commoners weren't allowed to enter the great hall'. I frowned at that statement, because I was hungry as hell, but Siesta told me that I could come to the kitchen to get some food, and a big grin went onto my face, as I followed her to the kitchen.

When I entered the kitchen, I met Sir Marteau, the head chef who was thankful of me for taking care of Siesta. I blushed a little at that statement, and he proceeded to make me a hearty breakfast as a sort-of reward, which was literally a hearty meal of bacon and eggs. I made my way through it in no time, and I gave my thanks to the man. He was a very nice man at heart. I also talked to a few of the other maids, before deciding to take a walk around the Academy for a few minutes, to get some of the surroundings into my head.

After the long but refreshing walk, I realized that I was so bored, and there were no video games to play, which only made it even worse. I went over and asked Siesta if she needed any help in anything, and she said that she could use some help in serving dessert to the students, which was some rich and sweet chocolate cake, but I could have a portion if there was any excess. I said yes, because I was bored and all, and so that I could get my slice of chocolate cake.

Then, I realized that taking the offer may have been a bad idea, because the replies I got mainly consisted of ignorance, and the thought of not bothering. I seriously felt pissed after what had happened, but I kept my cool and I continued serving the treats to the egoistic nobles and their probably-egoistic familiars.

When I had reached one of the tables, I noticed a glass bottle containing a liquid of some sort dropping from the table and onto the floor. I did what I'd normally do, and I picked it up and I placed it back on the table. However, what surprised me was me seeing the same blonde-haired boy, this time with another girl. How in the world was this happening?! Something has to be done about this.