Ever since ancient time, Daten City existed as a port between spirits from Heaven and Hell meeting to discuss treaties and co-existing side by side to help the humans maintain a balance until neither class were needed. Unfortunately, something happened to cause the beings known as Ghosts to appear, therefore inflicting a new problem to the balance of the world. Though the Angels and Demons could easily handle destroying these beings, the Earth was human territory, which meant that this was now their problem to take care of.
That isn't to say that they weren't given any aid from the spirits though. The Angels, as their gift to the humans, taught them the ancient method of sealing spirits into talismans and special cards that would hold the target spirit until they were freed. The owner of the card could also split the power of the card in half to give to another individual, allowing for the original holder to have two copies, or for two people to have their own copy of the same card. In tribute to them, they named a class of card type Divina.
Not to be outdone by their sworn enemy, the Demons gave them the method to creating Cabal Chains; An item that guaranteed domination over as Ghost; however, the user had to say the ancient word for demon in order to activate the chains. Hence, the term Daemon came to be, as well as the class of Phantom. Phantom daemon were never easy to handle, though Divina daemon normally were enough to take care of them.
The final class came out of human hands, who poured their very spirits into the weapons they used as they fought against the Phantoms, or during the wars. Some items, such as silver spoons and masks, also developed enough spiritual energy from the user to become their very own Daemon class: Anima, which became the main class humans used to attack and defend themselves against the Ghost threat.
As time passed, those who were trained under the knowledge of sealing Daemon were called Ghost Agents, and it was thanks to them that they learned the circle of basic Daemon. Phantoms were weak against Divina class Daemons, yet were stronger than the Anima class. Anima, therefore, were strong enough to take care of Divina class cards, which made some of the more rare spirits wary of entering humanity's grasp, making them far and in-between of spotting, let along handling.
Those who were trained to become Ghost Agents learned that Daten City became a no-man's land for any Agent due to the Fallen-class spirits that ultimately refused to go down peacefully. The amount of Cabal Chains needed to successfully "negotiate" with it was astounding, and the property damage they did to the city was something they couldn't deal with. Hence, they abandoned it to the residents of Daten City to handle.
With one exception...
-Chapter 1: How It Began-
Briefers Rock was not your normal twelve year old boy. Not by a long shot, though not for all good reasons. He was the heir to the Rock Foundation, which was not only the most profitable company of all of Daten City, but was the oldest business to exist! He and his family were very rich, making it very hard for people and children his age to come up to him with any honest intentions of being his friend.
On top of everything else, from the tutors to not being able to play at a park without the Black Suits watching over him, he found himself looking over the field where the personal Rock graveyard was located. His mother had died very recently, and her grave was placed within that very graveyard, yet he hadn't had the courage to go over there to talk to her again. It was unusual, he had to admit, being able to talk to his dead mother, but he felt more at peace doing so.
That was, until his father had found out about what he was visiting the graveyard to do. Not only had he ordered the Black Suits to keep him away from the her grave, but he also ordered one of "Them" to purify the area of any Ghosts. He didn't know who "Them" were, but he didn't like that he could no longer see his mom, and often had the Black Suits take him out to the bookstore where he could enjoy something that he liked to do, rather than learn math.
He picked up a manga called Dragonball and skimmed through the first volume, only to put it down with a shake of his head. Manga after manga, he couldn't find anything that he liked either the art or the plot for it, which bothered him quite the bit. The only manga he had at the moment were Princess Ai, Naruto, and some random series that he bought with the intention of reading back to back when he had time to do so. After looking around the D section some more, he came across one that looked very interesting, Dragon Drive, and picked it up the last copy of it.
Unfortunately for him, someone else, who was much taller than him might he add, also grabbed the last one as well. He looked up to see the palest woman he had ever seen, yet she had the most beautiful ruby red eyes he ever laid his eyes on. Her hair was bright silver with part of the right bundle dangling down her head, though what interested him was that she wore some form of Japanese clothing.
"Excuse me, but could I see that really quick?" She asked him with a polite tone. When he nodded and let go of the manga, she smiled, showing him a fang before she thanked him and began to read. He began looking for other manga, glancing at her ever so often to take in more of her beauty, though something was off to him.
The first thing was that she wore some sort of black diamond undershirt to go with the white kimono, and that material also went down her right leg. A legging, his mom called it? The second thing about her was her left leg, which was in a fish-net material than a black diamond cloth. It was different, though he knew nothing about what looked good or bad on a girl. The last thing was that she looked as if she came out of a manga herself! It wasn't Halloween, so there shouldn't have been someone dressed so elegantly, he thought the word was called, which confused him.
'I should be trying to find a manga before the Black Suits try to take me home without me getting something.' He found himself picking up a Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist manga, which also had a card game that he was very interested in playing when he gets friends in the future, and began reading it. It was the first volume, so he was happy to see Yugi facing down against Kaiba with his Blue-Eyes White Dragons with a limited field and only one card to draw to turn the game in his favor. He heard a high pitched coo, and looked up to see the woman looking down at the manga in his hand.
"Oh my~ the physique of that dragon is astounding!" Brief nodded with a smile on his face.
"Uh huh! The Blue-Eyes White Dragon has 3000 attack points and 2500 defense. It is VERY powerful for a normal monster!" The woman looked at him with a confused expression on her face. Did she not know the game?
"A normal monster? Attack points? Defense points?" Yea, she didn't know the game of Yu-Gi-Oh. Not that he knew much more than what the show taught him, but it was enough to explain to her as to what the manga was about. "Are these cards real?"
"Uh huh!" Brief said happily. "The Duelist saga is rather old, seeing as they've already went into the 5D season, but I love the classic series, even if the newest season has plenty of Dragons in it."
"Can I see some of them?" He nodded and took her to the front of the store where they had the newest Yu-Gi-Oh packs in stock. Some of them were from the GX era, but they fortunately had the new 5D packs. "This one, The Dueling Genesis, is the first of the Synchro monster series, with this pack having the first Dragon Synchro monsters like Stardust Dragon and Red Dragon Archfiend!"
"If I could get some of these Dragon cards, I'd be so happy!" The woman said, which was something that Brief thought of as well. If he bought some packs. No, he could use some of his allowance to buy the store out of their packs, bring them home, and hopefully be able to build a deck that he can use to play with her!
"I could always buy the packs." Brief brought up, catching her attention. He didn't know why, but looking at those eyes of hers made him feel happy. "I could buy the packs they have here, take you home with me, and we could open them up and see if we're lucky to get the Dragons!" Her eyes lit up brighter than a star in the sky, or a campfire with the color of her eyes. She looked so happy, and that alone made him feel much better about everything.
"Your master." Brief turned around to see two of the Black Suits look at him with a look of boredom in their eyes. "Did you accept that you want to start collecting Yu-Gi-Oh cards?"
"Yea!" Brief replied with a big smile on his face. He turned to look at all of the packs, from the oldest Metal Raiders to the newest pack, Ancient Prophecy, and nodded. "I want all of the packs he has in storage, as well as the ones up here so I can share them with my new friend!" The two men looked at each other before looking back at him. Why did they look so confused?
"Your new friend?" They had asked. He nodded and turned around, only to see that she disappeared. Why did she leave? He looked down to see that the Yu-Gi-Oh manga was left by his feet, and that was something that struck him as odd. He would have seen her leave, and the Black Suits would have said something too!
"Oh wait." One of the Black Suits looked down at him with a small smile. "You saw a girl who was looking at the cards, and developed a crush on her!" Brief found himself blushing at that. It was not true! It wasn't, even if she was very pretty... No!
"Hahaha! I think you called it right John." The second Black Suit spoke up as he walked past him to talk to the owner about the packs of cards. It was a few minutes later that Brief found himself leaving the store with the complete set of the Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist manga, as well as all of the packs, card sleeves, and card pages the bookstore had, yet he wasn't happy about the purchases any more.
'Just where did she go?'
By the time he ate dinner with his father and moved on to desert, one of the Black Suits walked into the dining room and whispered something into father's ear. By the sight of father's stern gaze, someone rather important or unexpected came for a late night visit. That, from previous experiences, was never a good thing.
"Briefers. It is time for bed." No way! It was only seven o'clock, and he normally went to bed at nine at the earliest!
"But father, that is way too-" His father slammed his hand on the table, scaring him from finishing what he was going to say.
"Go. To. Bed. NOW!" Brief didn't even nod at his father before running out of the room. Why did he yell at him with such a mad expression on his face? What was so important that he had to go to bed so early tonight?
He couldn't do a thing against his father, so he went to the bathroom and washed up before laying down. He noticed that, thanks to his shower and brushing his teeth, it was now close to eight at night, and sat on his bed with his gaze to the floor. With all of the Yu-Gi-Oh products that were bought earlier today, about a third of his floor was surrounded by bags filled with everything the store had. He sighed, unsure if he even wanted to open any of the packs that he wanted to share with the woman from earlier, yet didn't want to waste his money.
"I should at least read the manga to make me happy." Brief nodded to himself. He could read past what happened in the duel between Kaiba and Yugi for the first time! Right as he leaned down to pick up the first volume, a flicker of light caught his attention, and quickly saw the family graveyard turn into a sickly purple fog. "MOM!"
He jumped off the bed with one of his spare winter jackets and older shoes on before he ran out of the room. None of the Black Suits were roaming the halls of the mansion, which made it easy for him to get outside from the back gates, and allowed him to head towards the foggy graveyard. He heard th shuffling of feet storm towards him, and turned his head to see four Black Suits running after him.
"Crap!" He shouted as he ran into the fog, uncaring for the disgusting scent that ran through his nose as he pressed forward. He no longer heard them run after him, though he heard the shouts of 'Master Brief', 'Briefers' and 'Brief' as he continued on his way. He had a feeling that something was happening to his mother, and he had to protect her before something horrible happened to her!
As he ran through the fog, he noticed that there was an odd, sickly green light coming from a few rows of graves away, and found himself stuck to his feet at the sight that stood before him. Hooded men who wore black kimono were doing something to his mother!
"AHHHHH!" The pure agony of her scream awoke fear from within him. Why were they hurting his mother for? She was doing nothing wrong to them before at all! So why...Why would they hurt her?! As she continued screaming, her pale, see-through body began to take a more dark shade. As if her skin was turning into a twisted, vile black with parts of her body taking a bright red shade.
"No! She is entering transmigration into a Ghost!" One of the hooded men shouted in shock.
"We aren't equip to dealing with a Daten level Ghost! Quick, switch over to your Anima Daemon and lets strike her while we have the chance!" No...He couldn't let them continue to hurt his mom! That was not right for them to do at all!
"NO!" His scream attracted the attention of the hooded men, who mostly pointed at the closest members of the group and then at him. Brief prepared himself to run around them, when a shout he didn't expect to hear caught his attention.
"Briefers!" His dad was standing behind mom with a grim expression upon his face. Behind him was a man who he didn't recognize, nor did he care to know who that person was. All he knew was that his father was helping these people hurt his mom, and he had to stop it!
"How can you allow this to happen dad!" He shouted back. He felt so much anger form inside him as he saw the two men walk towards him. "How could you do this to mom! You loved each other! She loved you with all of her heart!" For the first time since ever, he saw his father look away with a tear falling from his left eye, yet after that he heard four words that torn any feelings he had for him.
"Take care of him." Suddenly, two women who were dressed similarly to kunoichi appeared in front of him, causing the boy to nearly fall due shock. The two women didn't seem to care about what they were about to do, whatever it was, but Brief wasn't going to allow himself to be taken so easily!
"I won't allow you to hurt my mom!" Brief ran towards the right, and barely ducked from one of the kunoichi grabbing him by the collar of his jacket. When he saw the second one about to appear in front of him, he took of his jacket and slapped her face with it, and rolled between her legs like he was taught by the Black Suits. They were very good instructors in terms of self defense, even if he couldn't take one down as of yet.
He ran past the two kunoichi with every intention of getting through the hooded men to stop whatever they were doing to hurt his mom. He didn't expect for one of the men to lift a card in the air and shout something he couldn't comprehend, but the sudden sight of a blonde woman who wore some puffy dress and held a morning star in her hands was something he had no defense against.
"I'm sorry...But you need to go to sleep...now." The woman swung the weapon towards him faster than he could duck or dodge. He didn't know what was going to happen to him, nor did he want to stop here. He wanted to save his mom! He had to save her from what father was doing to her! He had to...
He had to survive this!
SMACK!
For a moment, the sudden breeze that ran past his hair made him think that he was flying through the air like a ball thrown from the pitcher. Yet he felt his feet were firmly on the ground, so was his head decapitated from his neck and shoulders? When he heard a soft gasp, he opened his eyes to see the woman who he met at the bookstore holding a wicked black handled katana with the blade bring crimson red. The blade was blocking the morning star with ease, though the look upon the blonde's face was rather comical.
"It...This is unexpected!" And, with a slash of the katana, she disappeared in a flash of green and white energy. The two kunoichi tried to grab him from behind, only to be rammed by a long white snake unlike anything he ever seen before. There was no way an anaconda could be up around these parts right now!
"Its a four star Phantom! Original class! Just how the hell did one of them appear here?! Taichou, what do we do?" One of the hooded men stared at the woman before bringing out five cards of his own. Two of them were two more copies of the blonde who was destroyed, the other two were a pale girl who barely wore any clothing except for an odd blue kimono, and had a large star-shaped weapon on their backs, and the last girl was wearing a military uniform with a machine gun in her hands.
"I REALLY wish I would get a better budget from the Guild sometimes. Girls!"
"On it master!" In a flash, two of the large throwing stars were nearing them, causing Brief to grab the hand of the woman who protected him.
"We need to move!" He shouted to her. He didn't expect for a chuckle to escape her lips, nor did he enjoy the gleam in her eyes.
"Have a little faith in me. Its only a bit of Scaley Despair!" A red aura appeared over the five girls that appeared, making them widen their eyes as they slouched over as if they were exhausted. The two stars were slashed in half, and in a blink of an eye the two girl who threw them were destroyed by a muramasa that seemed sinister despite its simple design.
"Fumas!" The red-head of the group screamed before she released a rain of bullets upon the two of them, which prevented the two blondes with the morning stars from getting closer to them; however, even with the sudden appearance of the anaconda slithering itself around him as a shield, he wanted the woman to be protected too!
"She's protecting the boy! Is he an Agent?" Though it was muffled, someone yelled it loud enough for him to hear it, and it was followed with a painful scream. Brief, if he had the room to, would have pressed his hands to his ears to block the screams and the yelling that he heard, yet, in some way, he wanted to keep on hearing. He wanted to hear so when things were silent, he could go and make sure that his mom was safe from the hooded men.
For what seemed to be hours, the noises continued without stopping. Men were shouting orders, the sound of girls screaming in pain came repeatedly until they were suddenly silenced again and again. The anaconda tightened at one point, yet eased away for no reason Brief could understand. A huge wave of energy phased through the snake though, making him wonder if something had happened to the woman who was protecting him, as it didn't feel like her energy at all.
Soon, the screams died to a faint whimper, no orders were being delivered to the others, and the only major sound he could hear was the muttering of a girl. As soon as the anaconda slithered away from him, his gaze focused on his mom, who seemed to be in pain as the vile black skin grew further along her body. He also noticed his father, who raised a gun towards the woman who protect him, and widened his eyes.
"Father no!" The anaconda was upon his father in an instant, wrapping itself around the man's arms and legs faster than a fly avoiding being smacked by a roll of paper. With the sight of his father bound, Brief ran up to the woman who stood next to his mother without a second to waste. Though his mother's lower jaw was black, everything from the nose up were their normal color, which showed surprise as she looked at him with tears pouring.
"Brief!" The sound of his mother's voice brought tears of his own as he wrapped his arms around his mother's torso. At least, he would have, had they not phased through her form. This brought the two of them to look at his arms floating inside her, and earned a chuckle. "I should have expected this...Brief, I-"
"No mom...Please don't say it." Brief shook his head, looking up at her in tears. After everything that the woman had done for him...It couldn't have been all for naught! "I don't want to say goodbye to you! Not now! Not ever!" A hand, though as faint as it felt, ran itself through his hair, making him focus a bit more on his mother.
"Brief darling. I know this isn't easy." His mom shook her head. "No, this isn't easy for either of us, but I want you to know that mommy is very proud of you, and hopes that you can make plenty of friends for her to meet one day when you're all grown. I know that you father means well."
"He was the one who brought these men here to hurt you!"
"They were brought here to make sure I didn't become a Ghost. Daten City is famous for them you know Briefers. You should know, seeing as you told me you wanted to heal them without having to destroy them." A soft chuckle escaped from her lips, causing Brief to smile with a choked nod. He could see her body becoming brighter with each word that she spoke to him. She turned to the woman and gave her a nod with a smile as well. "Please...I don't know who you are, but please protect my son from the wrong sort of Agents like the ones my father hired. Help my son grow into his talent for Ghost, and help him with whatever he wishes to do from this point forward. I-"
"Yamata no Orochi." Both he and his mother looked at the woman. "My name is Yamata no Orochi, and I will honor your request Mrs. Rock."
'Yamata no Orochi...' Brief turned back to his mother, who glowed brighter than any flashlight, and mouthed something to him. Though no sound came, the expression on her face said all that needed to be said.
"I love you Briefers. Goodbye." And, in an explosion of bright white and blue, she disappeared. All the strength seemed to leave him in that moment, making him fall the the ground where she once stood, and cried. He wouldn't call for her to return back to him. He wouldn't even blame her for the pain and loneliness he felt at this moment. No, he took his time to grieve, allowing for the tears that he would ever let go to leave him now.
And...
With a single breath of air...
He stood and turned to Yamata no Orochi with a serious look upon his face. She expressed a nod before walking over to him with her hand extended, which he grabbed without hesitation. He didn't expect for a small white snake to bite his wrist, and the pain he felt was too sudden for him to pull away, yet he kept his eyes focused upon hers. He dared not look away from the one who allowed him to say his final goodbye.
"It is done." The snake pulled away from his wrist, revealing a set of kanji he couldn't understand, but that didn't bother him in the slightest. It felt right to have after everything that had happened tonight. "I am your first Daemon. The leader, the original Yamata no Orochi, and I am yours to help you no matter what your order may be."
"I am Briefers Rock, though I prefer to be called Brief." He smiled and, though the wrist hurt, pointed at his room, which the lights within it were still on. Following his finger, he continued to speak. "And I still have all of those packs of card for us to open for the Dragon cards you show so much interest in!"
In that moment, a light laughter was shared between the two, and a bond that would lead to become a web of change had formed in no-man's land known as Daten City.
-Author Note-
Hello readers, reviewers, and followers! As usual, I don't own Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Ayakashi: Ghost Guild, or any references that come into this story. Now, with that said, for those who don't know, Ayakashi is a fantasy card game for Android, Ipods, and other devices that is rather fun, addictive, and can sometimes lead to headaches with how many Daemon there are to collect and one day see within your own library.
In short, you start off as a character of your own name who picks between one of three beginning Daemon: Pipe Fox (Phantom), Ameno Uzume (Divina), and Kotetsu (Anima), and you're main objective is to cleanse the area of Japan you're in, further along the storyline, as well as participate in events, each of which are quite different from one another. You are taught the basics of the game through the tutorial, such as battling, fusing weaker Daemon to improve the strength of others, as well as seal stones that hold, for the most part, very useful Daemon to use in future battles.
It has RPG elements, mostly in the form of battling other players, leveling up with distributing Ability Points, and I could go on with how the game is played, yet I've placed too much time on it. Moving on, this story is based on a blend between Ayakashi and Panty & Stocking, which is quite easy to do seeing as they both share common elements in terms of story.
You, as the main character, have to cleanse the area of Ghosts and Daemon. Panty and Stocking have to purify the Ghosts that run amok through Daten City, as well as obtain Heaven Coins along the way. Ghosts in Ayakashi don't have to be evil, just like how some Ghosts in the show weren't evil, but were either kind (Mr. Peter), messy (Stocking's Boyfriend), or just protective of their duty (The Sperm Ghosts).
There will obviously be changes to the overall timeline of Panty & Stocking, though as to what I can't exactly say without ruining the plot I have for this story. What I can tell you is to not expect Brief to bring out more than the standard five Daemon unless necessary, to have multiple copies of high-ranking Daemon, and understand that there will plenty of original characters in this to help flow the timeline of the story along. With that said, let me introduce to you the Daemon which I used for this chapter:
Yamata no Orochi: Phantom class, 4 Star. Has the skill Scaley Despair, which reduces the opponent's Anima Defense.
Kaede: Divina class, 1 star. No skill
Starla: Anima class, 3 star. Has the skill Clean Hit, which reduces Phantom Defense.
Fuma Shuriken: Anima class, 3 star. Has the skill Overthrow, which slightly increases Anima defense.
Maggie: Anima class, 3 star. Has the skill Relentless Pounding, which slightly reduces Anima attack.
I want to make something clear before I forget to type this now. Players of Ayakashi already know that Phantoms are strong against Anima, yet weak against Divina. Now, with that said, to those who are preparing to ask me why I displayed only Kaede as a Divina class when I could have had a more mixed team, as well as why did I make things so in favor for Yamata no Orochi, my reply to you is this. I explained early on that humanity, after they were first taught by the Angels of Heaven about how to use Ghosts/spirits and gave them the Divina class, used them for quite the long time. Even when the Phantoms gave them the Cabal Chain, as well as told them the true name of the Ghosts (Daemon), Divina were still the preferred Daemon to use.
Why the humans prefer to use Anima now is because there are so many of them to be used and obtained, unlike how the game only gives you Anima during free summoning for most of the early chapters of the game. In exchange for preferring to use Anima Daemon in excess, the Divina class is much harder to come by, especially to those who won't simply treat them as replaceable beings like the humans began to do.
Trust me, one of the things I do not like about the game is how you get plenty of weak Daemon of the same kind in various levels for most of the beginning chapters, yet never explain as to why there are multiple copies of Daemon who actually have a name and aren't the spirit of an item like an Anima.
I don't know for sure when the next chapter will come out, but since I have more freedom in terms of story ideas with Ayakashi, expect some more chapters within the future. So, to all of my readers and followers, thank you for reading this opening chapter, and to everyone who liked this, I do hope to hear your opinions and questions in the reviews!
Until next time, stay golden!