To aru no Summoner
Updated, extended and translated version.
Academy City, a city of millions inside the Tokyo bay area, a mecca of science, an unusual town. Why was academy city so unusual? One could say due to its name, but that would barely just scratch the surface of it. Eighty percent of this city`s 2.3 million inhabitants are students. They come from all around the world to learn a type of power that cannot be learnt anywhere else: Esper abilities, superpowers but in real life. Some Espers value the super in superpowers very much, these have reached a level of strength that allows them to defeat armies by themselves. Only seven Espers have reached the level 5 requirement that classifies them as a one-person army. One of them is Mikoto Misaka, she is the third ranked level 5, a so-called Electro master.
Today the students of Tokiwadai were getting their abilities examined, which happened every few months to track their progress in developing their abilities. "We both know that there are multiple types of abilities, some more common than others, yet yours is very much unusual" "What do you mean?", the girl that Mikoto was talking to said while floating about twenty centimetres above the ground. "I have the ability to manipulate and create vectors, but only those that I touch. It´s not like I have telekinesis, only a weird type of super strength" She floated towards a group of other students.
A girl emerged from the group and headed towards Mikoto. "And what did you get as results from the system scan?", she asked. "No surprising changes, a bit of improvement here and there. How about you, Kuroko?", Mikoto said to Kuroko Shirai, her roommate and underclassman. "A bit of improvement but not too much, in terms of teleporting distance only about two meters more and a handful of kilos as transporting mass", Kuroko replied, turning her head towards the floating girl: "Now, what are your results Olivia?" "Well, just like at the last scan, I fall slightly short of being a Level 5, they say that within the next year or so I should be rerated as a Level five. Anyone want to get crêpes? I have heard of a good one right around the corner from the dorms, we could check it out sometimes".
Less than an hour later the three were enjoying their crêpes with two other friends of Mikoto, Uiharu and Ruiko. "Sometimes it would be useful to have another scale of strength", Ruiko said grabbing everyone's attention. "There are Espers that can wreak havoc despite being very low level, such as Electro or telekinetic users" "Your right, since even a level two elecro-esper can cause a power outage in an area", Kuroko mentioned looking over to Mikoto who began blushing mildly. The ringing of a phone broke the silence, it´s ringtone: the song `Your running out of time `from S.W.A.T., Olivia jolted at the sound. "Sorry gotta get this", she said and hastily walked the few step out of earshot distance. After a few mumbled sentences though the small device she came back, telling everyone that she had to go to an appointment.
She had to run quite a distance to the meeting point, which was another small park-like area in another district of the city. She arrived a few minutes late and out of breath, just like the person she talked to on the phone, Arisa. Alisa was at the time on of the most known artists from Academy city, a street musician. And one with a mysterious problem at that. It had come to her attention that, when she sings all the people around her, those who are listening including herself fall into a type of light trance. And it was not due to the music, she tried it with other tracks than her own.
"As you might know, I have access to scanning devices that can scan people's brains from miles apart. These devices are somewhat like MP3-players, only on steroids. Since I had to rush over, I have them back at the dorm, but I could bring you "yours" over tomorrow afternoon", Olivia explained her next steps. "You know that on Friday I have to be ready on that concert, so that leave us with", Arisa looked at her watch "Ninety-four hours and a bit. The sooner we get to the root of this the better." They nodded and parted their ways with the intent to meet the next afternoon.
The next morning came and nothing unusual with it, class in the morning, lunch around 1pm, sports after lunch and then working through the small mountain of homework. After all this Olivia grabbed her small bag pack and began jogging to the address that Arisa had given her. It took a good twenty minutes to reach. Arisa heard someone knock at the door just after her flatmates went out to go shopping for dinner, even though it was only 3:40 in the afternoon. "Hey, there you are", Alisa welcomed her visitor, "Good thing my flatmates are shopping. Can you give me a rundown of what you and these devices", she pointed at the two MP3 players, "Are going to do?", Arisa asked.
"First of all, we need to synchronise these, then, when you go to sleep listen to your music on this, since they are synchronised, they play the same thing at the same time. They will send the raw brainwave pattern and bioelectric data to a supercomputer that has already deciphered my thinking pattern. During this your thinking pattern will be closest to mine so we can establish a translating protocol. And then they can read your subconscious and hopefully decipher your problems cause. Tomorrow afternoon I will present you the results"
That evening as Arisa went to bed she put in the earbuds from the MP3-player and switched on one of her tracks. At the same time in another bed in another part of academy city, Olivia began concentrating. As the song continued Arisa's memories flashed before her eyes, memories she knew, that Alisa didn´t know. A flashback of a girl walking through the seating aisle on a plane. After an hour she sat upright in her bed typing a short documentation of what and who Arisa is. Arisa had a measurable ability, you could call it "Sirens hymn", when she sings people around her focus on nothing about her. There is a known ability, which is quite similar, where espers that can use such an ability can convince people of things they would usually not do or believe.
Olivia called Arisa in her lunch break, which just so happens to line up with Arisa´s lunchbreak. "I´ve searched the data that resulted from scanning your brain and it seems like you do have a measurable ability. If I were to name it I would call it "Sirens Hymn" since it draws in the attention of your surrounding towards you and boosts other abilities slightly. If I had to put a tag on it I´d say your right around level 2, just shy of level 3. But the thing is, it is not an ability that is formed through academy city's ability development curriculum, it is another type of ability. That type is called "Gemstone Ability", abilities that are gained by other means than the curriculum."
Despite it being past the hottest point of the year, it was still blazing hot outside of the climatized dorm rooms. Understandably barely anyone was outside, except for a few students sitting out in the sun doing homework. "Oh, why does every teacher think they have the entire time of a student's afternoon for their homework?", Mikoto groaned as she turned the page in her notebook. Although math is nothing hard for her, the heat and amount of homework combined make it hard for her to complete the last stretch of the work, algebra. After a few more minutes she closed her notebook and looked over to Olivia. "Are you already done with your homework, Olivia?", Mikoto asked the girl who sat one table over and was typing endless columns of characters into her laptop. She paused typing, looked up and nodded, then went right back to typing.
The next afternoon Arisa and Olivia met the last time before her concert atop the Endymions orbital stations main stage. "I usually don´t have this much stage fright before a concert. I mean it is usual to have a bit of a tingling as you step on the stage, but not this early and not this intense" Olivia looked into Arisa's Eyes and said: "Don´t worry too much, things are going to be fine" "About not worrying too much, I almost forgot to give you this", Arisa said as she ruffled through her bag and pulled out an envelope. "I think you would enjoy the concert so I asked if I could invite any friends along and they gave me a few tickets" "Yes, I think I'm going to enjoy your concert. Oh, those are backstage tickets, all the better.", she began grinning. The afternoon was quite a bit more pleasant than the heat around noon, even more with the slight breeze rolling through academy city. "Hey Arisa, do you wanna go grab some Ice? There's a shop not far from here that I know has really good Ice", Olivia steered of the topic. Arisa agreed: "Sounds good, I'm in." So, they went and got some Ice and yes it was delicious.
As evening came around Arisa was back in the small apartment with her flatmates planning the songs for the concert that was just 15 hours away. "You really look tensed", one of her Flatmates said. "Really? It's just these few songs to order then I'm finished." She began snacking on her sandwich while she was making the song schedule. "I pfink I got it", she exclaimed with a full mouth. "Thats good, can I take a look?", her Flatmate said. "Yeah, this does seem like a nice Concert"
The next morning Arisa woke up early to eat breakfast and get the last few things sorted out before she got on stage. As she looked on her phone in between bites of her sandwich she read all of the incoming messages of people wishing her the best for the upcoming concert. She even announced on her social media that she was the main singer on the opening ceremony a few days ago. Among the flow of messages there also was one from Misaka wishing her the best of luck and one from Olivia stating that she`ll be in the audience as well.
About ninety minutes before the beginning of the concert only three people knew what would happen after the concert, and none had the same expectation. One being the very young-looking spokesperson of the Endymion Project, another being part of a mercenary team, and the last being Olivia well knowing what will happen.
The orbital station of Endymion is comprised of a core section with the elevator shafts and the carrying structure in it and multiple rings of substructures. In the innermost ring one third was taken up by the giant concert hall, while the rest was taken up by conference rooms, a mall, and the undocking systems for launching satellites directly into LEO (Low Earth Orbit). With the beginning of the concert coming nearer by the minute the large hall was filling up with thousands of people. The concert hall was almost the size of a football stadium able to fit a good 50000 people comfortably.
And now with only ten minutes until curtain rise all fifty thousand seats were filled and everyone was anticipating Arisa to step onto the stage and begin to sing.
As she did step onto the stage all eyes were fixated on her, no pair of eyes and no pair of ears was not focused on Arisa and her singing.
When she reached the chorus for the first time a dull bang could be heard, and the entire orbital Station began slightly shaking. Then the lights went dark, and people were getting nervous, almost frightened.
It was this moment in which Arisa remembered the text that Olivia had send her earlier that morning: "Whatever happens, pursue your dreams. I`ll ensure that no one will get hurt.", she had written to her friend. It was no more than five seconds later that Arisa, against all human instincts, began to sing. Each word she sang, each verse of her songs had a calming effect on everyone present.
Well, on everyone but one it had this effect. That one person was dragging themselves through one of the corridors leading to the main stage.
The last step Olivia had to complete to help Arisa was the riskiest one, but she was confident that she would complete it flawlessly. She used her ability to float over to Arisa on the Stage, meanwhile staying perfectly unnoticed by everyone around them. Olivia whispered into Arisas ear: "Now for the last part. I can explain everything that you want later."
More than twelve hours later, long after sunset, Arisa awoke in a bed. The moonlight was shining bright through the porthole. "Wait a second, why is there a porthole in my room?", Arisa thought out loud. "It`s because you're on a ship, sleepyhead"." Why am I on a ship?", Arias asked Olivia, who was standing in a corner of the cabin. "Before I answer you that question, I have to tell you what you truly are. You`re no normal human, but neither am I", she said as she stepped out of the corner. "A little more than three years ago, aboard the spaceplane Orion, you were born as a wish of all 88 people aboard. One of the people aboard was willing to sacrifice their life for 87 others. That was the price that had to be paid to save everyone else.", Olivia explained to Arisa.
Then Olivia continued explaining: "But sacrificing your life is not quite the ultimate sacrifice, you know. There is one type higher than sacrificing your life, it's sacrificing your death. That means being alive for all eternity allowing all other beings to live life at their own pace." Arisa was stunned for a second after Olivia had finished her sentence but soon broke out of that freeze and asked Olivia a very important question:
"Have you sacrificed your own death?", she asked her Friend. "Let me say it this way: Due to my ability I was presented with a choice, either defend earth and do a few superhuman side jobs or be killed on the spot. You already know what my choice was." She then handed Arisa a folder that was opened and a A4 sheet of paper was up front. There was almost no text on it except for a few lines near the top.
On my Honor, my Name and my right to existence, I lay down this oath which shall last until the last star has burned out and longer. I shall defend earth and the humans that live on it from all extraterrestrial dangers and themselves. While my watch may pause it will never truly end until the end of time. While my watch may be unarmed at times I shall always be prepared for the worst and the best and all between. I shall not be worshipped nor be prayed to, I have my duty to fulfill, from this moment on until infinity.
That was the text on the Paper, it was also the lines of an oath sworn by Olivia.
A girl in black slacks a white shirt and black vest was kneeling on one knee holding a glistening white sword. She was reciting this oath, her oath. All that while kneeling in a small stone church in an arid country. Once she was finished, she was being handed another sword, this one completely black with a dark grey hilt. She was then handed another few items, among them being a passport.
A diplomats passport at that, then there were two books and lastly a necklace, beautifully ornated with a dark blue and transparent jewel, that was depicting the Ying and Yang symbol. Balance between the light with dark in it and the dark with light in it.
In this moment a guardian angel was born, one to guide and guard humanity until eternity. Her Name is Olivia Amaterasu. One girl sacrificing her Death for the life of an infinitely large amount of people.