Welp, this is my very first story posted on this sight, and as usual, it's all about some crappy self insert OC. Yay.
Anyway, for those of you who decide to stick around, this will eventually become a very large crossover featuring many different shows / games. It started out as something to pass the time with, and I've decided to finally post the first ever chapter of the Sephra Series.
Please enjoy the worst first chapter in all of writing history in all of its self deprecating and sarcastic glory.
Chapter 1
The five stood, bloodied and beaten. The haze settling around their feet only managed to act as a small distraction to the amalgamation of flesh and bone present before them. Three stories of pure, unadulterated evil, and the only things standing in its way were an eighteen year old, three seventeen year olds, and a sixteen year old, all of which who were way over their heads.
"Guys?"
One of them spoke, a small and exhausted voice that masked the true strength hidden below.
"Yeah?"
The boy pointed a gauntlet towards the creature before them, the darkness coagulation seeping through the floor, and his own eyes, which were a glowing shade of scarlet red, and said what was undoubtedly one of the most eloquent things he'd ever muttered.
"How in the actual fuck did we go from normal teenagers to the mortal enemies of some creepy Goddess bitch?"
The lone girl tried to block out the swears by putting her hands over her ears, but by the time she'd managed such a feat, the damage was done. The eldest put a light hand on her shoulder, to which she sympathetically smashed her head into his torso. The three remaining boys physically winced as skull collided with chest, making a noise that couldn't have been soothing whatsoever. The recipient of the headbutt looked winded, something that had never been accomplished in quite some time. Rolling his eyes, the loudmouth of the group decided to answer the question. Carelessly.
"We don't know. We never knew. Shit happens that we don't understand. Hey, Yu, care to shed some important plot points that might give us something to work off of right now?"
The eldest, Yu, rubbed his chest painfully still, but still looked serious enough to keep the others attentive. His grey eyes looked over his four comrades, the innocent girl, the vulgar boy, the loudmouth, and the sympathetic one.
"I'm not going to drone on with exposition when we're in the middle of the fate of the multiverse. Just, how about the short version?"
Uncharacteristically, the sympathetic one was the one who groaned in annoyance. The vulgar one took up his mantle temporarily in return.
"Yeah, that's probably best. I'm probably gonna end up writing this shit into a book. Maybe I'll post it on the internet or something."
The loudmouth scoffed.
"This is the tale of five children, the new heroes, the places they'd visited, and the tragedies they'd endured…"
The vulgar boy joined the sympathetic one in annoyance, groaning even louder. The innocent girl looked to the gargantuan beast in the vicinity, as if asking for its input as well.
"Could you be leading up to it any stupider?"
Yu glared at the vulgar boy, grumbling under his breath. The loudmouth had already thrown himself to the ground to sit and listen attentively, and the innocent one joined him. The grinned to one another as the other boys took to the floor as well, leaving the eldest to his story.
None of them seemed to remember the fate of the universe was at stake as they started their story, nor that their friends were in the middle of fighting off an army of corpses.
Who didn't like a good old story time?
The inside of a plane was relatively boring. Everyone around was donned in boring colors, most often suits, and it was a very dull area. The only dashes of color were from the opened shades of the windows on each side of the planes.
Which was why a boy with copper red hair and an orange shirt was extremely out of place. He was merely humming along to a song playing from a set of headphones covering his ears, his eyes focused on a pamphlet in his hands about all kind of facts surrounding Japan and the area he was traveling to, Tengu City.
His eyes brows rose as he digested the information regarding Spacequakes, a sort of natural disaster that happened periodically. It seemed as if part of the world just randomly explodes, as if someone were to have popped a pimple on the Earth. The very thought of ending up close to one sent shivers down his spine, and he found himself intensely detesting ending up near one.
"Would all passengers please close their trays and turn off their electronics? We are now beginning our descent."
He heard the announcement over his music, leaving him to unhappily sigh and turn off his phone. He looked out the window to his left, looking down at the city in awe.
Tengu City was nestled securely in the ground, rebuilt from the crater that formed after one of the first spacequakes. It had the feel of a new beginning.
And maybe, the one that he needed to fix the physical pain in his chest.
...
The teen disembarked quickly and efficiently, making quick work of the tight line that formed as everyone rose to exit the plane. His sneakers dragged across the polished linoleum floor as he hefted his bag over his shoulder. His brown eyes darted around the airport, taking in what little there was he could call unique. He read the kanji of the shops nearby with ease, linking it to English he was born with. Two and a half years of nonstop studying for this very day, where he could aptly read 'shampoo' in another language.
Oh, if his parents could see him now, they probably wouldn't be that awestruck.
His gait was quick as he traversed the halls, looking for the European clock he was told would mark the place to meet. From what little he knew, the Itsuka family was quite capable of keeping a promise. He pushed through the crowds of people and the white noise around him until the ticking hands came into view.
"Alright, now I just need to find someone holding my name…"
He stopped in front of the clock, gripping the straps of his bag as he glanced around for heads of bright red hair. He was vaguely aware of the people looking at him with curiosity, as if asking what a foreign boy was doing all alone and looking around in anticipation. His brown eyes scanned the crowds of people, incapable of keeping a little fear creep into his heart. Had the Itsuka's forgotten that he was showing up today?
He took a seat at a nearby bench, watching as the other people all flowed past with ease, damning him into the confines of social anxiety.
"Honey, come on! We're late for meeting Ean!"
His attitude perked up at the sound of his name in all of its American glory, sounding awkward in the jumble of Japanese. His eyes shot forwards to two adults, likely in their early forties, the woman with a head of vibrant red hair and the voice of a sports announcer. The man had let out a string of apologies to his wife as Ean rose from his seat and slowly wandered forwards, rehearsing what he was going to say in his head time and time again.
All of that preparation crumbled when the woman noticed his advance and fixed him with an apprehensive look. 'Hello, I'm Ean McBride. Are you my host family' flew out the window and into a plane engine.
"Are you Tatsuo and Haruko Itsuka?"
Oh, that wasn't actually that bad. The woman's face lightened substantially as the man gave him an apologetic and sympathetic look.
"Yes, we are! You must be Ean McBride, correct?"
The woman had a kind smile on her face. One of a mother.
One he hadn't seen in two months, and he missed the feeling.
"Yeah. It's nice to meet you."
A smile must've spread across his face, because the Itsuka's looked much more bright. The man, Tatsuo, started asking him numerous questions about America, to which Ean unpreparedly rattled of vague, unfulfilling answers to. Haruko, on the other hand, had already moved on to the next part of her agenda, a hand blurring into Tatsuo's stomach and knocking his senses straight.
"Shido and Kotori should be somewhere around here…"
As the two looked for what Ean could assume was their children, he silently fumbled with his bag and looked aimlessly about the area. If he remembered what he'd read right, Tengu City was built, or rather rebuilt, in the crater of the Eurasian Sky Disaster, a spacequake incident thirty years prior that absolutely leveled part of Japan.
That had been the day spacequakes started, hadn't it? This entire city had to be a testament to human nature, to adapt and overcome. It was larger than Chicago, but it brought up one very worrying question to his mind.
What caused the spacequakes, and how did a single one obliterate an entire city with ease?
How the hell hadn't he heard about it? That seemed about as big as 9/11, yet no source he'd ever even seen had spoken about the disasters.
"Mom, Dad, look what Shido got me!"
His internal rambling was cut off by a loud and preppy voice, probably powerful enough to blast a hole into a battleship and then some. It took all of Ean's willpower to not cover his ears and shout in pain. A girl with twintails dashed towards them, a small keychain in her outstretched hand. Her flaming red hair was only amplified by the fact she was donned in a white sailor uniform, and had two white ribbons keeping her hairstyle intact. She had this wide smile on her face, and her hand wrapped around a boy's, most likely Shido's.
"Ooh, who's this?"
Without even a chance to look closely at his fellow sixteen year old, the girl practically teleported in front of Ean.
Of course, since he was a guy, he didn't give a little shout of panic at her red eyes gazing unstoppably into his soul. That would be preposterous.
Ean desperately looked to the Itsuka parents for help. Tatsuo just smiled and waved, and he had a suspicion that Haruko was laughing behind the pamphlet she had hidden her face behind. Great.
He looked back to the girl, who was eagerly meeting his gaze. She seemed happy enough to power a lightbulb, which seriously didn't help his social anxiety. He did his best to mirror her smile, and put out a friendly hand to introduce himself.
"My name is Ean McBride. I just came from America with the Kawajiri exchange program. I-I hope you treat me well."
The girl looked to his outstretched hand, back to his face, up to his hair? He could see a laugh bubbling up in her expression as she turned to her brother, scanned him, scanned Ean again, and then giggled like a maniac.
"You're like Shido with red hair!"
Shido with…
Great. Delegated to a rehash already. Ean eyed up the boy, who like his father, had an apologetic smile. The only things different about them were Shido's blue hair and Ean's height. The rest seemed almost spot on: thin body type, hair going to the lower neck, brown eyes, and even the way that they stood was similar.
Punch his self esteem in the balls, why don't you?
"I think you two look more like siblings, Kotori. Maybe I should be the stranger in the house."
Shido had a tinge of mirth in his voice, but also some small sadness. Ean looked from his fellow male to the other members of the family. Blue hair instead of red or light brown, different body type and eye color.
Shido was adopted. It was the only reasonable possibility.
No one else seemed to notice the slight self deprecation, judging by the way their expressions didn't change. Haruko pulled her kids over and rubbed her knuckles on their heads, a wide grin as the teens protested with everything in their souls.
"These little scamps are Shido and Kotori. Say hello to your host brother, kids."
Tatsuo smiled behind the others in his family, and Ean looked at the four of them with a smile on his face as Shido broke from his mother's embrace, stepped forwards, and put a hand out with a smile.
"Good to meet you."
Ean happily shook hands with the bluenette before Shido was shoved out of the way by Kotori, the youngest of the family taking her turn with a wide smile on her face and a lollipop in her mouth.
"I'm Kotori! Do you like anime?"
Yeah, he'd enjoy his time in Japan.
"So, long story short, we're gonna be around for two days."
Ean's panic came back tenfold when Haruko declared that they were relocating to the United States for their jobs, effectively leaving him to live with Shido and Kotori alone. He was flabbergasted. They trusted their kids enough to leave for months without coming back and expecting to see a burning husk of a building?! What?!
"Mom, I think Ean's shutting down."
Kotori's voice pulled him from his dimension of disbelief and back into the Itsuka family's car, where he realized both Shido and Kotori were looking at him with… concern?
Oh, he was definitely concerned when Haruko choked on her throat and accidentally lurched the car to the side and squished Ean into the window. When everyone had gotten situated, Haruko kept her eyes stuck on the road, but seemed more surprised than anyone else was.
"Oh shit, did I not tell you?! Oh my lord, Ean I am so sorry! It must have skipped my mind!"
Skipped her mind?! How does something like that skip someone's mind?!
"N-no, it's fine! I'm just a bit surprised!"
The remainder of the ride was filled with a few apologies as Ean's eyes remained glued on the sky, where he finally accepted his fate.
"I guess I'm adjusting to Japan with my new siblings…"
He could only hope that nothing too crazy was going to happen. After all, it's not like anything would happen to him again, would it?