Draco: Just a little something that I've been slow-cooking since I got Bravely Default. Probably just going to get this one up as a teaser and then get to finishing Legend of Ransei.

Bravely Default and all related properties © Square Enix

Prelude: Interrupting An Idle Afternoon

The advantage to a hermit's life in Yulyana Woods comes with the expansive lake resting in the middle of the forest. The large body of water is home to a great deal of aquatic life - and aquatic monsters - and the water itself, separate from both the oceans and the nearby Flor-Cheim Sea, remains pure and clean, leaving anyone in the woods with something to eat and something to drink at any given time.

Naturally, the elder Sage living in the Yulyana Needleworks took advantage of this bounty. His walking staff was designed with a weaving wheel at the head, which he used to his advantage when working on the garments he was famous for selling in the city of Florem - a city which became a more profitable, yet less favourable, visit each time. But needle and thread have their other advantages - and now, the Sage stepped to the edge of the dock not thirty paces from his place of living.

From the weaving wheel, the Sage drew a length of thread, so thin as to be transparent to all but the most attentive of eyes. To the end of it he tied a knitting needle, and upon that needle he set a small fragment of meat that he had prepared earlier. Once that was prepared, he glanced around, ensuring that he was alone; then he lifted his staff, which proceeded to turn in the air above his head, gaining momentum. Once it reached the desired speed, he lashed it forward in a thrust, aiming it slightly skyward, before jerking it back suddenly, leaving needle, threat, and bait to soar forward and strike the water near the center of the lake.

At that, he took the staff in hand again and sat down lightly, sitting there, idle.

A few moments passed before the wheel began to turn, a slight tug catching his hand; and the Sage raised his gaze, the staff leaving his grip once more as it lashed back.

"Fish!"

The wheel spiralled, the thread drawing in, and motion showed on the lake as he drew his bounty out - a great Megalodon, the strongest shark in the sea. They had been appearing with disturbing frequency of late, and with an idle sigh, the Sage set his staff against the dock as the beast released his needle, which withdrew with the thread back into the head of his staff.

"Well, no sense in taking this challenge alone," he mused idly to the beast. "Bringing any friends with you?"

The shark rose, most of its body emerging above the body of water as another rose on either side. The Sage was never quite sure how sea beasts managed to stand on the surface of the water when they saw fit to challenge anyone on the shore - but he only sighed, his staff beginning to tremble as an updraft rose around him, causing his robes to waver.

Then something else shot out of the water with frightening speed.

The three Megalodon and the Sage both raised their gaze to the figure that rose above them, rising so high as to obscure the sun. Its face was masked, its leggings carried sharpened points, and in its hand was a spear headed with a star-tip blade. No sooner had the Sage picked out these details - with the sharpened eyes of a weaver, and reflexes that defied time's remorseless arrow - than the figure surged down, impaling the center Megalodon with enough force to send a wave towards both other and the Sage as well.

The attacker pulled his spear out as the strike landed; his weight forced the Megalodon to sink, and he quickly drove his spear in and leapt atop it - this left everything from his ankles up above the water as the other two Megalodon spun towards him.

Glance left, glance right; then he lashed his right hand down - prompting six minute crystalline figures to appear before him - figures that prompted the Sage to step back in astonishment. His hand struck one of those figures, and a light wrapped his body as he turned - and the obscuring armour of a male Valkyrie vanished, replaced with the ornate sundial crown of a Time Mage. A casting staff appeared in his hand, yet he had not time to raise it before the sharks leapt at him.

He crossed his arms and shouted, "Default!"

A barrier of icy cobalt appeared around him as the sharks collided, mitigating the damage if not eliminating it, and he quickly leapt away as the sharks landed, raising his staff above him. A rift of time cast a shadow over the sharks as a shower of meteors tore down, striking the creatures, and the attacker hit the water. The headgear provided enough drag before he sunk that he was able to surge a flurry of stones from the lakebed to provide him a platform.

He was greeted unkindly when the Megalodon leapt at him again - weakened, but not defeated.

A curse tore through his lips as he leapt away, landing on the shores as he lashed his hand down again. The six stones appeared before him again as he ran along the shore, the sharks tearing through the water to approach him, and he struck one stone to summon another flurry of light around him, forming the black armour of a Dark Knight with five points at the helm's crown.

The sharks leapt again; the fighter only dove forward as they collided with the earth, rolling back into the water. He reached forward to grab his sword in his off hand - a straight-edged katana, blade marked with the name of swordsmith Masamune - as the sharks approached him. "Brave, Brave, Brave!" he shouted, flares of crimson emerging around him. He lashed his sword towards them, not slowing his pace as one, two, three waves of darkness surged out, striking the sharks each time. One fell sooner than the other, which leapt towards him, but the warrior only flipped the over his head, catching it in his good hand and lashing it with an uppercut that tore the Megalodon in half.

He was still for a long moment. No more sea beasts chose to attack him as he recovered his bravery.

Then he sighed, casting his blade to the earth. He was near the dock at this point, and he shook his head as he stepped forward. "I wasn't sure that was going to work," he admitted idly. Slowly, he raised his gaze to the Sage, who stood there with his hand on his casting staff.

The Sage kept his gaze on the one-way black visor of the helm of the Dark Knight armour.

"Yulyana, Sage of Yulyana, archbishop of the Crystal Orthodoxy against the forces of Lord Lester DeRosso, creator of the asterisk system, co-founder of the Council of Six of the Duchy of Eternia."

Slowly, the needleworker nodded, not moving his gaze.

The warrior swept his hand down again, prompting the six asterisks to appear before him again, and he set his hand on that holding the power of a Dark Knight - and the light flared around him, removing the armour from him.

And leaving him in freelancer garments that belonged in Norende Village.

"Am I the first one here?"

Draco: I don't know what you think this is going to be, you're wrong. Unless you're right.

I'll go into deeper elaboration of my version of the Brave/Default system as this progresses. The Special Movie unlocked after the end credits helped influence it, so if you've watched that one then my writing will make more sense to you without my own elaboration.