Disclaimer: I own no characters from Zero No Tsukaima. Many thanks to Noboru Yamaguchi for giving us this wonderful world to play in.

Zero No Tsukaima: Unlimited Realities.

Book 1: The Fires of Revolution

Prologue

Rain. Lots of rain. As if the heavens themselves were weeping, water poured from the skies of Tristain. The unrelenting rain pounded everything not protected, including a statue depicting two people. The statue was situated on a pedestal with a bronze plaque adorning the front. It was at the center of a ringed stone platform. The ring that made up the boundary of the platform also served as railing for visitors. Placed on the railing at equal intervals were more bronze plaques, depicting information about the statue's two subjects. An opening at the front of the ring allowed people to approach the statue. The occasional flash of lightning pierced the darkness of the night and illuminated the stone carving. It depicted a man and a woman facing each other, locked in an unending embrace. The facial features of the couple were worn and weathered, rendering them almost unrecognizable. It was apparently quite old, as was the rest of this memorial dedicated to these two people. No one had visited this memorial for a long, long time.

Standing in front of the statue, was a hooded figure. Tall, about average build, he seemed to be contemplating the stone couple in front of him. One could see hints of blonde hair peeking out from beneath the hood. On his hip was a sword, a curved blade of steel, with a hilt carved from ivory. It was a simple but effective weapon, meant to dispatch one's enemies with a single strike. Its previous owner called it a katana. The figure remained still for a long time, seemingly deep in thought. Suddenly a chirping noise intruded itself upon the solemn scene. The man fished an object out his pocket, and held it up. An unnatural glow illuminated his seemingly young face. Letters appeared on the face of the object, a message of sorts.

Intercepted message traffic. La Valliere has been dispatched to collect the object. Your window is closing.

He placed the object back in his pocket and sighed quietly. The time for tarrying had passed he supposed. He looked at the statue one last time and pulled the katana from his belt. Cradling the weapon in his arms he gently laid it at the base of the pedestal. He held his gaze on the blade for a few seconds, turned around, and began to slowly walk away towards the forest.

Rain water poured down the front of pedestal's plaque, giving the metal an ethereal sheen. On the plaque there was a phrase written in two languages, one of those languages not from this world. Though old, the phrase could still be read:

This is the history of the couple's love, which began with the first kiss.

The katana was now thoroughly soaked along with everything else.

As the rain continued to pour, a voice seemingly from nowhere said,

"I'm so sorry Partner. For everything."

**Scene Break**

General Tonagawa Hinoshi sat in an office chair waiting for others to arrive in the conference room. Decades spent with the Japan Self Defence Force had made him a steely commander with an impeccable sense of duty and responsibility. He had for his entire career followed orders without question, but now he was going to do something that was once unthinkable to him. He was going to question his superiors.

Though he did carry out his order without question at the time, it made no sense to him. This act put Japanese citizens at risk and resulted in the loss of JSDF property.

They're late. Thought the General.

A life spent living military discipline had made General Tonagawa a very punctual man.

Apparently the only thing these Americans value less than my opinion is my time.

Suddenly the door opened and several figures walked into the room.

"Good afternoon General. I'm CIA Deputy Director Daniel Mitchell. Sorry to keep you waiting. Welcome to Langley."

The General shook the American's hand without hesitation

"Good afternoon Deputy Director. I have some questions for you today."

Before the Deputy Director could respond a woman appeared behind him. Tall, thin, and very attractive, she had shoulder length black hair and was dressed in business pant suit. Despite her western attire, General Tonagawa could tell she was Japanese. Deputy Director Mitchell spoke,

"Let me introduce Miss Koishi Kutimura, Special Investigator for Naicho, the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office of Japan."

The General narrowed his eyes. Naicho, he thought. What are they doing here?

"I should not be surprised that Japanese Intelligence Officials would be involved in this"

The General said sarcastically while rolling his eyes.

"Konichiwa General" Miss Kutimura said, using the traditional Japanese greeting rather than the English "hello".

General Tonagawa gave the woman a hard look and began talking,

"Since you are Naicho, then I suppose it is you I need to direct my questions to."

"Ask away General."

"Very well." Tonagawa folded his hands in front of him and looked hard at the Japanese woman. He began his question carefully, putting his fury and shocked indignity into each word.

"Can you tell me Investigator Kutimura? Why…. The… Hell… Was I ordered to allow a teenager to just stroll onto my base and steal a fully loaded and fully fueled F-2 fighter craft?!"

General Tonagawa was shuddering in his anger as he fired each word at the Japanese investigator, like a bullet to her heart.

Koishi Kutimura simply kept a serene smile on her face and answered.

"It was for the sake of our investigation."

"Investigation!" The General slammed his fist down on the conference table. "That plane was fully armed. How could you have lived with yourself if that kid had started unloading missiles into downtown Tokyo?"

"I understand your anger General but the Prime Minister gave you a direct order and you were expected to simply follow it."

"I have never questioned orders my entire career." The General was now shaking with rage. "However I am accustomed to my orders making sense!"

"Perhaps the General would be a little more understanding if you shared with him the nature of your investigation."

It was Deputy Director Mitchell this time who spoke up.

"Fine" Miss Kutimura took out her laptop and connected it to the large screen on the wall in the conference room.

"This footage was taken from a street security camera in downtown Tokyo two years ago."

The men at the table stared at the screen on the wall as a young boy investigated a strange green oval that appeared in front of him, as the boy poked at it he was pulled in and vanished.

"What was that?" Asked Tonagawa.

"We don't know, some sort of portal" Miss Kutimura said. "However we were able to run facial recognition software on the boy's image. His name is Hiraga Saito, a local boy."

Miss Kutimura tapped some keys on her laptop and another image appeared on the screen.

"This was taken from another security camera a day before the aircraft incident. Again facial recognition software confirmed that it was the same boy."

"I don't see how this plays into you allowing him to steal a fighter plane." General Tonagawa said angrily.

Miss Kutimura opened another file on her computer and began a slide show on the main screen of the conference room.

First picture was of a World War II imperial fighter pilot in uniform posing in front of his Zero aircraft.

"Sasaki Takeo. Japanese Imperial Navy Ensign disappeared during a training flight in July 1941 along with his wingman Kazuki Honda. Ensign Honda returned, but Takeo was never seen nor heard from again. During debriefing Honda describes flying over Tokyo Bay during a solar eclipse and then suddenly seeing completely unfamiliar terrain below him. He eventually flew back into the eclipse with his wingman behind him and returned to Tokyo, but only Honda made it. When asked to describe the unfamiliar terrain to his superiors he simply described it as being in another world."

Investigator Kutimura went to the next slide:

Christopher Bolin, Private United States Marine Corp disappeared in Vietnam in 1972. His squad mates said a hole appeared out of nowhere in front of him while they were escaping enemy artillery, he was never seen again. However his fellow squad members did say that Private Bolin was gravely injured by enemy fire before disappearing into the portal. It would seem that wherever he went, he likely died there.

The Japanese investigator began to list disappearances of military equipment.

"Records obtained from Nazi Germany after World War II indicate a Tiger II tank just disappeared from their depot."

"So," Director Mitchell commented, "They just could have failed to account for its loss in action during the war."

"It was being guarded by four soldiers. They watched it fade away and vanish." Miss Kutimura paused before continuing, "During a solar eclipse."

"Maybe they had too much to drink before duty."

"Really Director? Were fifty Russian sailors who watched their submarine vanish with several nuclear weapons onboard also drunk?"

The Deputy Director pursed his lips. "Let me guess, there was a solar eclipse that day."

"Miss Kutimura looked at Mitchell with a sultry expression. "Why Director Mitchell I do believe you are catching on."

General Tonagawa interrupted the conversation. "This still does not tell me what happened to my plane."

Director Mitchell then chimed in. "It seems our party is one short."

Just then the conference room door opened again. A short bookish man with glasses and a pile of papers in his arms came into the room. He took the seat opposite from Miss Kutimura.

General Tonagawa this is Phillip De Lancie, a scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"Hello. Sorry I'm late."

"That's fine Phil." Mitchell replied. "Please tell General Tonagawa what you shared with us earlier."

"Yes Sir" Phil began looking through some papers. "After your plane took off General, we were able to track its path using the onboard transponder and satellite data. The pilot flew the plane directly into the eclipse, and at around 35,000 feet in altitude it vanished from radar."

"We were told to say it was a training accident." The General lamented. "That was lie."

Phil continued, "Yes sir, but the truth is that the plane really did just vanish. Almost like it ceased to exist."

Miss Kutimura also said, "We sent teams to look for wreckage in case it came apart in mid-air. No debris was ever found. However a week later this imaged popped up on another street security camera."

Miss Kutimura opened another video file and the men in the room stared. After a few seconds their mouths hung open. If their jaws could reach, they would have probably hit the floor.

On the screen was a crowded Tokyo street jammed with midday shoppers, and then in the center of the image, a small hole appeared. Hiraga Saito stepped through that hole only this time he was not alone. In his arms, like a wife being carried across a threshold, was a girl… a girl with pink hair.

Mitchell spoke first, "Who's the girl?"

"We don't know." Miss Kutimura replied. "We ran her face through multiple databases and found nothing. She does not exist. We dispatched authorities to shadow the couple but not interfere, unless of course they attempted another high profile theft."

The men in room were now listening to Miss Kutimura with rapt attention. So she continued.

The couple boarded an elevated train and apparently toured Tokyo. They went to a park and ate some crepe, did some shopping, and then they went to the residence of Mr. Hiraga's parents.

Director Mitchell interrupted, "So what your saying is this kid did what, brought a girlfriend back from another dimension or something, went sightseeing and then brought her home to meet the folks?"

"A bit crude but accurate Director."

General Tonagawa was still not satisfied, "What is the point of all this?"

"The point General is that we are on the cusp of the greatest discovery in all of human history. There is another world out there somewhere, and it is somehow connected to ours through these portals." Miss Kutimura then added, "When Kuzuki Honda came back from his trip through the eclipse, he mentioned one other thing. There were two moons in the sky, one large blue one and one smaller pink one."

All three men popeyed. Another world indeed.

Finally after what seemed to be an extended silence Director Mitchell spoke. "I have just one more question."

The Director looked over to the NASA scientist.

"When is the next solar eclipse?"