Disclaimer: I do not own either of these wonderful animes.
Ryner Lute, the man known by many names such as 'Roland's greatest magician' and 'monster' among other things, was not happy. Ferris was making him look for the next hero relic all by himself. It was just his luck that the town they had come to specialized in dango for some reason. Ferris had rushed off, exclaiming that she 'needed to compare the tastes of the dango for research reasons'. With all the dango she has eaten, one would think that she'd be sick of it by now. For some reason, she loved the dessert. Somehow, just somehow, he could now say the same of himself. Ferris had too much of an influence on him.
Ryner shot one last lingering glance in the direction Ferris had run off in. It looked like he was truly by himself in this one. Sighing, the brunet turned around and stalked off in the direction of the town library. They were in one of the border towns of Roland; this hero relic was very close to home for them. He just needed to do some more research in the library before setting off. He was worried about the 'disappearances' the relic supposedly caused.
He entered the library after a short trek from the market place. The library itself was a big, seemingly infinite structure on the inside, belying its dusty old appearance from outside. It really was amazing. Bookshelves stretched from end to end and he wasn't sure where to start. Giving a nod to the librarian, Ryner aimlessly wandered the aisles until a book caught his attention.
It was an old, dirty blue book, so worn that the original title didn't appear anymore. Thankfully though, someone had the forethought to inscribe a new one. It said Local Legends as its title. Normally Ryner researched old books and those on the mythology of the place he was in to find information on hero relics. To find such a book as this one, that was both old and about legends, was a plus. Its gigantic size also interested him.
When he picked the book up, it was surprisingly light, almost as if it was hollow. He carefully held the books between his hands as he searched for a table to sit at. Once he was seated, his brown eyes peered curiously at the book before him on the table. He cautiously started to open it. He didn't want to get chewed out by another librarian ever again for 'mistreating' old books.
The book opened to reveal a hollow inside, an object ensconced there. On the remaining parts of the pages, words were written in dark red ink. He ignored those for now. First he wanted to examine the object found within.
He picked up the weirdly shaped metallic object inside. It seemed to be a three dimensional grid of some sorts and was made up of all the colors of the rainbow. Dismissing it for the moment, he looked back over at the book to read the words.
His fingers played with the grid as he read Do not touch over and over again: almost as if it was a warning or mantra. A warning it was, he decided, when the grid suddenly erupted in a shower of sparks when he put his fingers inside.
Ryner's eyes widened, switching over to a glowing red with pentagrams inscribed inside of them. These eyes were known as the Alpha Stigma and allowed the user to analyze and understand all magic. However, because of their nature to go berserk, Alpha Stigma users are usually regarded as monsters.
The Alpha Stigma didn't show any comprehensible readings to Ryner. It was if the grid was a hero relic. Which on second thought, it probably was. Ryner had only one option now: to run.
Deactivating his eyes, lest someone see them, Ryner dropped the grid back into the book and tried to high tail it out of there. It didn't work. Unfortunately, the relic had just finished activating, illuminating the area around Ryner with an explosion of white light.
The next thing he knew, Ryner was floating in some kind of weird, distorted space. It seemed to have every color ever discovered and those not yet discovered all together, but at the same time it seemed colorless. It made his head hurt just by looking at it. It was not meant to be seen. Eventually, he seemed to reach his destination. There, in front of him was a large square. A black nothingness filled it, and as much as Ryner tried, he could not even move to try to avoid falling in. He fell in, and a light just like that which had brought him there engulfed his body.
He was spat out onto a hard wooden floor a second later. Seeing as he was rather dizzy from his unwanted trip, Ryner didn't react in time to avoid hitting the floor face first. He stayed like that for a minute before sitting up and rubbing his nose which took the brunt of the damage. At least he was out of that place. Then again, the situation was looking bad. He didn't even know where he was!
A few days ago…
Mai was making tea for Naru when the door to the SPR violently burst open. Wanting to find the cause, Mai left the kitchen and entered the front room of the office. There, leaning against the door frame shakily was a man in his fifties. Mai calmly walked up to him and guided him to the couch. She was used to dealing with frazzled clients.
She left him on the couch and walked to Naru's office. She knocked and said, "Naru, we have a client." She then turned around and went towards the kitchen, knowing that the door behind her would open and Naru would come out.
Mai shortly finished making the tea and came out with three cups: one for Naru, one for their guest, and one for herself.
As she expected, Naru was already attentively listening to their new client's request. She gave them their tea and tuned in.
Naru was speaking as she sat down next to him on the other couch. "So, you told me that there is a ghost trying to kill you, is that correct?" The other man nodded and Naru continued on. "Furthermore, you said that the occurrences only happened at your house and are increasing in intensity as time goes on? Those occurrences being, of course, what could be mistaken as accidents: a bookshelf falling down, objects moving randomly around." The man agreed. "What really caught my attention though," Naru discussed, "Was the writing you found written on the walls. It appeared right before your eyes, even though there was nobody there to write it. It said 'return it or else' in a bloody scrawl." Naru leaned forward at this point, "By any chance, Mr. Yukito, do you happen to possess any old artifacts?"
Mr. Yukito looked started at this question. He answered, surprised. "Y-yes, yes I do. How did you know?"
Naru explained. "Ghosts often have a feeling of attachment to objects they held dear in life. It's possible that it feels like you have wrongly taken its treasure away from it. Ghosts can become quite possessive."
"Oh." Mr. Yukito expelled. He looked us in the eyes with a hopeless look. "Just one problem. I have hundreds of old artifacts, it could be any of them. I couldn't possibly find the correct one in time. You see, I'm a collector of artifacts."
Mai piped up, worried for the old man, "Don't worry, we'll take your case Mr. Yukino! Where do you live? We can meet up with you on Friday morning."
The old man visibly brightened at her words. Naru on the other hand, glared at her. She had accepted the case without asking him! He was her boss, not the other way around.
As Naru was sulking, Mai got the contact detail from Mr. Yukino. Once Mr. Yukino left, Mai quickly went to call the others before Naru could berate her on her behavior.
Present Day...
The team met up in front of Mr. Yukino's house. There were the usual greetings between Mai and her friends: a hug with Bou-san, a friendly smile from Ayako, a funny greeting from John, and a cold glare with Masako. Yasuharu wasn't coming until the next day. Then they set up. Everyone except for Naru and Lin placed cameras around the house in case of supernatural activity. Naru and Lin stayed in base, checking to make sure each camera was set up correctly.
After the group was set up, Mr. Yukino came up to them and told them he was leaving. He didn't want to interfere with their investigation, and as Naru had pointed out earlier, they didn't really need him here. They could just call him for information.
A few hours after Mr. Yukino left, something weird happened in one of the rooms. A weird three-dimensional rainbow grid thing was shooting out sparks. It eventually escalated into an explosion of white light. That's when a weirdly dressed man seemed to appear out of nowhere and fell flat on his face.