Background info for AKAG AU (which is from skiretehfox over there at tumblr, follow if you like nozoeli and rinmaki) is at the bottom A/N to avoid clogging up the beginning. If you want to guess what's going on, you can avoid reading it altogether, but it's pretty cool just saying really really cool, should get its own high-budget anime.
I'm writing this kind of like just basing it on whatever Skire decides to say about it, without asking questions myself, so it's literally like trying to write canon universe fanfiction except based on trailers and promotional material since that's all we've got to go on. Very fun and a good creative exercise. Also if any of you are tarot nerds you might catch some references and motif hints here and there in this fic.
Coronation
Eli barks out an order as soon as she steps into the command room. "Lieutenant Sonoda," she says, voice tight, "report on the southwest district."
"A mess," says Umi, seated calmly at the desk and writing over a map as she speaks. "Resources haven't been sufficiently replenished since the siege last week, and combined with news about the king's assassination, the civilians are hungry and in a panic. Saiki arrived last hour with news that an old butcher from that area was robbed of his goods and murdered yesterday. The ration transportation remains severely impeded by the surrounding terrain, so we can't expect the situation to improve."
"Incredible." Eli pulls out a chair across Umi and drops her weight on it with a grumbling sigh. "They've started killing among themselves, now. Would you say we're losing?"
Just for a moment, Umi looks up from her planning to meet Eli's eyes, letting little other than resolution surface in her stare, and Eli finds her silence answer enough. Then after a blink she continues as if she let the question go over her head. "Morishima was here minutes ago looking for you. It seemed urgent."
"I just sat down."
The door slams open. Umi sets her pen on the table and rises from her seat. "Speak of the devil."
Morishima, hair slightly mussed and scarf crooked, stands just out of the boundaries of the room, eyes locking onto Eli as soon as the door permits. "Kn-Knight General Ayase!" she breathes. "I've been searching for you for hours!"
"What is it?" Eli says.
Morishima's hands begin to gesture erratically, and she speaks as if she has so much to say that the words are trampling over each other. "Th-The king, he —you have to—y-you're—"
"She means to tell you that you have to report to the throne room as soon as possible," Umi says, already out the door as if to lead. "I haven't caught what for, but if Morishima is this excited…"
The intrigue raises Eli's eyebrow. "But what was that I heard about the King? Hadn't he just been assassinated?"
A sound like steam from a kettle escapes Morishima's throat. "That's the thing! G-General, you're King now!"
Eli stands up so quickly the legs of the chair scrape against the floor with a harsh screech. "I-I'm afraid I don't understand…"
"We'll explain in the throne room, just please, please hurry… But you'll have to get there without me, I'm gonna…" Her hand rises to her forehead, and Morishima begins to wobble on her feet, her sputtering reduced to breathless mumbles. "Could you catch me, Lieutenant?"
The life escapes her then and she passes out, Umi just barely catching her, but it hardly registers in Eli's mind on top of having to think of how best to spread out the dwindling resources the army is left with, the emergent disarray in the southwest district, and the power vacuum left by the death of the King—an immense power vacuum that, apparently, she is set to fill very soon.
She strides out the room with a pace quick and heavy as her heartbeat. "Come with me, Lieutenant."
"B-But Morishima—"
"Have Kadota send her to the medics. Your top priority is accompanying me."
Eli doesn't wait for any affirmation from Umi before she hurries to the throne room.
She shoves the double doors open, lacking the patience to manage the chattering that she hears from the outside.
"Pardon me," she says, with little of the expression's courtesy, "but I've just been informed that I am to succeed King Toyohara as—"
"It's true!" A bespectacled old man whom Eli recognizes as the Vizier shoves his way through a crowd of a dozen others of his rank, running toward Eli and pulling her into the room. Toward the throne. "The King himself chose you as his heir. It was written in his will before his—" Eli wrenches her arm out of his grasp. "G-General Ayase!"
"Explain first," Eli says. "The matter of royal succession will affect the entire kingdom. We can't make such a decision so hastily."
"But the decision has already been made for us!" the Vizier says. "King Toyohara himself wrote in his will before his death that the crown is to be given to the current Knight General, Eli Ayase, should he die within the span of the war. To defy the will of the king is treason, punishable by death, and for every moment we spend without a reigning monarch, we—"
A hand comes between him and Eli. "Vizier Kizaki, please do not speak to the General that way," Umi says. "With all due respect, I don't believe it would be a wise decision to threaten our only prospective heir."
Eli allows herself a subtle grin, grateful for having such a reliable lieutenant, before she returns to the issue. "That being said, however, are there really no other candidates? I don't believe I'm fit for the throne."
"Toyohara believed you had the makings." The Vizier snaps his fingers. Someone hands him a sheet of paper, leaving as quickly as they came, and he opens it, clearing his throat. "'Should I die during this time of war against the Empire, I abdicate my position to General Eli Ayase, whom I deem most capable of bearing the weight of the crown.' Your name is the only one he mentioned."
"Then you see no other choice."
As far as Eli's attention says, the Vizier answers with something vaguely affirmative while her gaze wanders over to the empty throne at the back of the room. Looking at it makes a rock fall in her stomach. Saving her kingdom from the recession isn't a mantle she can see herself taking. Eli knows herself; she people she leads, she leads to war, not prosperity. The title has turned her into a person of sacrifice, which she knows she can't be when she's entrusted with the lives of entire families—civilians without a single drop of blood on their hands. She could kill them.
There's a firm grip around her forearm. Umi tugs her to the side, away from the small crowd in the center of the hall, so they can speak in private. "As overbearing as he might be, Kizaki has a point," she says, voice low. "We need a king. Our army is without direction otherwise, and we're losing ground quickly with our forces spread out and uncoordinated."
"I'm no king, Umi." Eli doesn't notice she dropped titles. "I'm too much of a general to be any good to them."
"Why? Because you believe you'll see them as soldiers and not people?"
Eli's lips tighten to a grim line before she can stop herself, and she knows the moment of weakness doesn't slip by Umi.
"I've known you since before the academy," she says. "Cadet Eli Ayase and Knight General Eli Ayase have always been one and the same at heart. Your soldiers never stopped being people, and you saw them as they were. This won't be any different. The crown can't change you, and you won't have to change for the crown."
"And what if I do change, then, Umi?"
This time Umi turns silent. Her eyebrows furrow. "Then I, at least, won't have changed. I'll still be at your side, and if I see you go too far, I'll stop you." She grasps the hilt of the sword at her side. "One way or another."
The darkness in her tone doesn't escape Eli.
"But I only say that because you tell me, all the time, to be ready for any and every outcome, no matter how unlikely." Umi lets go of her sword. "Even if it may never happen. Now, will you take the throne?"
Eli doesn't doubt Umi's words, but the fear isn't quite gone, and the pressure to make a decision turns the air thin. When she looks at the throne again, it isn't any more welcoming than before. Her throat is drying, her chest is cold, and the awareness of all the lives she's in charge of is weighing her down.
Umi is right. It's just another battle.
So Eli forgets her feeling for just the five seconds it takes her to walk up to the throne—to make the decision that could mean life or death for the thousands in her charge—and before she can even hesitate, she sits down. Her coronation starts.
The sound of distant thunder seems to emanate from every point in the room. The people in the hall begin to stir, but Eli can't move at all, can't feel, can't even breathe. White begins to creep into her eyes, and she thinks she's starting to lose her sight, too, until she grasps that it's the light coming from the throne, growing to a blinding radiance that forces eyes shut. Her eyelids are frozen, though, so Eli's only choice is to watch as the light swallows everything in the room. The last semblance of a shape disappears into white.
That's when she appears.
For a moment so fleeting it could've been imaginary, a woman stands before her, hands laxly resting behind her back and looking down at Eli's seated figure. Her hair is colored like the night, seemingly endless, and the depth of the green in her eyes seems to surpass all the world's forests and valleys. The look on her face is blank as she stares holes into Eli and through her, but then she blinks. She smiles.
And then the world returns without her.
Dazed, Eli clutches the edges of the blockish armrests so hard that her fingers turn numb. Umi rushes to her side and gently pushes her onto the backrest.
"E-Eli, are you okay?" she stammers. Despite how quiet she makes her voice, the sound still makes Eli's head pulse.
But she manages to choke out a response. "I-I'm fine," she says. "A little dizzy."
Umi lets out a small, relieved breath. "I was worried. Coronations are seldom so… harsh, you could say." She stands. "I think the crown does suit you, though."
"The crown?" Eli reaches for her head, looking back at Umi when her hands hit empty air.
Umi only shakes her head and removes her sheathed sword from her belt, offering it to Eli. "You'll have to see for yourself."
Wordlessly, Eli takes the sword, pulls it halfway out of its scabbard and points the flat of the blade at her face. The surface of the metal isn't half as smooth at the knives in the dining halls, but the colors are there, and mixed among the blonde of her hair are rays of pale blue fenced around her skull. She'd known since she was a child that the crown was made of light, but she hadn't expected it to truly feel like nothing when worn. How was she supposed to take it off if she couldn't touch it?
She stares for another moment, contemplating it, before sheathing the sword and handing it back to Umi. Everything seems to need at least a few more hours to sink in.
Hours that Eli doesn't have, because as soon as the sword is back on Umi's belt, the double doors open with a crash.
"General Ayase! There you are!" A tall brunette with a low ponytail rushes into the room so hurriedly that the cap on her head nearly falls off. "Courier Shun Kurosaki reporting! A guerilla unit from the southeastern districts has been spotted en route to the southern front, which has a heavy concentration of enemy forces! We estimate they will arrive at their destination within an hour!"
Eli jumps to her feet. "How big is it? The guerilla?"
"Only a few hundred, ma'am," Kurosaki answers.
"Meanwhile, the enemies at the southern front are around the thousands," Umi adds darkly. "Not only will that unit be severely outnumbered, it may provoke the enemies to begin a counterattack beyond it. As you know, we can't afford such a fight."
"Have you tried to intercept them?" Eli asks.
"The entire military seems preoccupied. The other couriers have attempted to stop them, but they answer with threats, ma'am."
Eli snarls. "Figures everyone's busy with their own agenda. Lieutenant, are there any of our own troops on standby right now?"
"They won't make it in time to stop the guerilla," Umi says. "However, with due respect, I believe we only need one person to resolve this, Your Majesty."
The title hits Eli like a sack of bricks. Your Majesty. She's king now, with all the new powers the position encompasses. It frightens her to admit so, but it wouldn't be an understatement to say she has control over every citizen in her kingdom.
And as with any resource in the midst of war, she has to make the best of that privilege.
She walks down the steps to the throne, tears off the general's badge from her uniform, and places it in Umi's hand. "You raise an excellent point, Knight General Sonoda," she says. "The kingdom is lucky to have a mind as sharp as yours running its army."
Umi stands stunned for a moment. "Th-thank you, Your Majesty."
Eli nods at her before continuing to the door. "Courier Kurosaki. Send a message to Major Tsurugi Kadota informing her that she's been promoted to Lieutenant."
"Y-Yes, General—I mean, Y-Your Majesty."
"And have the other couriers inform the kingdom that former Knight General Eli Ayase has ascended to the throne."
The shortest path to the guerilla from the castle is a forested one, and with the night fast approaching, it's a dangerous race.
The ride itself is deceptively quiet, though. Eli finds herself a little appreciative of the scenery despite everything that's been foisted onto her in just a few hours. Aside from their horses' hooves beating on the leaf-covered trail, the only sound in the forest is the rustling of leaves stirred by the evening breeze. It's become so dark that the green of the leaves are nearly lost in the shadow, appearing nearly black.
A pair of eyes resurfaces in her memory.
"Umi," she says.
"Yes?" Umi answers from behind.
"During the coronation, when the room was full of light, did you happen to see anything strange?"
Umi stays quiet for a moment, maybe to ponder Eli's question. "…I'm afraid I didn't. It was all too bright for me to see anything, honestly."
Eli hums. The conversation seems to have been dropped for a moment.
"Was there something you saw, Eli?"
"Actually, I—"
Don't say anything.
The thought is uncomfortably misplaced. She wonders why the woman she saw should be kept secret.
But why had she never heard of such a person from past kings?
She decides it might be safer to leave it for now. It isn't as if she can't bring it up again later.
"I just thought I might've missed something," Eli says instead. "I was blinded, too, after all."
"I see," Umi says. "I doubt there was anything too important. Everything was in place afterwards."
"Of course. Thanks."
They say nothing more on the subject, but it occupies Eli's thoughts for the better part of the journey.
For some reason, she feels like someone is delighted over her musing.
Important reminder: this is au fanfiction, so this hasn't actually happened, even in the au it's based on. Skire could decide to promote it to canon if they wanted but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one writing for it. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
The center of the au, the big thing, is that freshly-crowned King Eli Ayase is running a kingdom, but being a king means that she also gets the special crown+throne, where the goddess Nozomi has been trapped for several lifetimes. It shouldn't be too bad except for the fine print that her being around gives the king all this power, which corrupts the mind and body and makes kings screw up, so usually she stays away from them and keeps hush hush about all this.
But Eli is so interesting! She wants to interact with her, but that also exposes Eli to the corruption more than before, which escalates until Eli decides that she needs to figure out how to free Nozomi from the throne and crown while staying sensible and running the kingdom. How's that for secret identities and hidden agendas. (Also somewhere there is Umi whose role amounts to basically Eli's #2 right now as you can see.)
While all this is happening, Maki Nishikino, a regular college student from a completely different world, is transported here to Eli's world completely by accident. In the middle of finding her way around, she meets Rin, an abused fortune deity, and they probably save the world from the hack that opened the interdimensional portal. (Skire never said anything about that. They also never said anything about these duos meeting and working together but I think it's gonna happen.)
Where is everyone else?
Maki's world of science and technology: Printemps, Nico and of course Maki herself. Eventually I believe everyone winds up in...
Eli's (Nozomi's tbh) world of kings, queens and gods: lily white and Eli. And eventually the Maki squad when the plot gets around to it.
No word of Yukiho, Arisa and A-RISE, though.
This fic only covers the length of time between Eli's coronation and the point where she really meets Nozomi and turns her into her Queen.
Generally, more info on this if you ask Skire on tumblr and sift through their AKAG AU tag. (But it's so cool! There's gods and kings and science and two opposite worlds coming together and there are two protagonists! and then we can talk about things like what u believe in and justice and morals and also they can be rly gay! this is a very nice universe, lots of potential)