Hello everyone, I'm here with a new story. One of my friends and I have been watching this anime for a while now and I have to say, I like most of the characters, but there are a few that I want to see suffer like Guiche, Wades—freaking bastard—and a few others, but that's neither here nor there at the moment as I will most likely bash them throughout this story. This is an AU, a replacement for my long-abandoned story of the four horsemen…only because…well…I want to try to reboot it, or whatever you want to call it and try it for this series. Rated for later chapters and please enjoy the first chapter.
Four young adults, a young woman with long red hair, another with long, pink hair, and a third with shoulder length purple hair and a young man with messy black hair stood in the middle of a dark forest and looked around before the pinkette looked at the young man and narrowed her eyes, "Hey idiot! Where the hell are we and why are we here in the-"
"Louise," the purple-haired young woman put a hand on her shoulder and frowned before looking up, "We're sorry about Louise's behavior, my name is Henrietta de Tristian and this is my childhood friend Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière and our…acquaintance Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst,"
"Hey there," Kirche gave a flirtatious smile as she stepped closer to him, "So what's your name, darling?"
"Please don't call me that," he said and shook his head, "My name is Saito Hiraga and-" before he could finish, the four heard the sound of hoofbeats running towards them and the four looked up.
Soon, the silhouette of four horses, each with a ride approaching the four. Stopping in front of the four, the young adults saw that one of the riders was wearing white armor, another with black armor, the third wearing red armor and the fourth wearing a black cloak. Dismounting, the four stepped closer to them as the young adults stared at them in confusion, "Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière," the rider in the black armor spoke and Louise's pink eyes widened.
"Henrietta de Tristian," the white armored rider said and Henrietta stared in confusion.
The red armored rider looked at Kirche before speaking, "Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst,"
"And Hiraga Saito," the black cloaked rider spoke and Saito narrowed his eyes, "We have brought you four here to Other World to speak with the four of you,"
The four stared at them before the black armored rider spoke once more, "I suppose since we know all of your names, you're going to want to know ours, correct?" the four slowly nodded before the rider looked towards the white armored rider, "Would you care to start, brother?"
"Very well, my name is Pestilence and I am the First Rider," the rider spoke.
The four young adults looked at each other in confusion before the red armored rider spoke, "I am the Second Rider known as War,"
They looked up with wide eyes as the black armored rider stepped closer to them, "I am known as Famine, the Third Rider,"
"And that will make me Death, the Fourth and Pale Rider," the black cloaked figure spoke as the four of them stood in front of the young adults, "We are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and we have brought you four here today to-"
"You plan on killing us or you want us to trigger Armageddon, right?" Kirche hissed through her teeth and the four looked at him, unamused, "You want the world to end and you want us to be pawns in your little game and-"
"Not even close," Pestilence spoke before stepped closer to Henrietta, "Henrietta de Tristian, you have been chosen as my rightful successor and become the next Pestilence," Pestilence held out his hands and Henrietta looked down in confusion to see him holding our a bow, several arrows and a silk cloak, "Take my Bow and Arrows along with my Cloak of Invisibility and spread illnesses around the world as the next Pestilence," Henrietta slowly reached up and took the items, "Along with your newly acquired weaponry and title, you have command of the element of Water."
"Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst," War spoke, stepping closer to the redhead, "I have chosen you to be the next War," holding out his hand, Kirche looked down and saw a small, glowing red stone resting in the palm of his hand, "The Stone of Life will grant you the ability to cause havoc wherever you see fit, it will allow you to call on the demons of hell to do your bidden," Kirche took the stone and looked it over as War continued to speak, "Like your friend, you have command over the element of Fire,"
"Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière," Famine spoke, stepping closer to the pinkette, "As the new Famine, you are expected to take my Wand of Destruction and spread poverty all throughout the lands," Louise looked down at Famine's hand and saw a thin wand resting on the palm and she slowly reached up and took it, "Use it well, and like the other two, you have control of the element of Wind,"
"Hiraga Saito," Death stepped closer to the black-haired young man before holding out his scythe, "My Scythe of Despair will aid you as the new Death. Use it to reap the souls of the damned and from there you may send them to either Heaven, Hell, Purgatory or simply devour them to your liking," Saito hesitantly took the scythe from Death and looked it over, "As with the other three, you now have command over the element of Ice,"
The four looked up at the Riders and War spoke, "We are sure you four have many questions about all of this,"
"Yes…I thought the Four Horsemen were Conquest, War, Famine and Death," Henrietta shook her head, "What is the meaning of Pestilence?"
"Conquest isn't one of the four, my successor," Pestilence answered, "Biblical Figures in history have inaccurately mistaken Pestilence as Conquest when such a Rider doesn't even exist."
"Okay…but why call on us?" Kirche questioned, "There are over seven and a half billion people in the world, so what makes the four of us so special?"
"None of them were worthy of possessing the power of us," War answered, "The world today has fallen into hatred and we had to find four souls who can pass judgement fairly without any remorse. While you four do lack knowledge of many events that are happening in the world today, none of you have a problem of thinking before you act."
"Right…and why don't you just stay in your possession of power and we can live our lives as we were supposed to?" Louise arched a brow.
"We are nearing our retirement," Famine spoke, "But we cannot retire without our successors properly named and trained to understand their new titles and parts of the upcoming apocalypse,"
The air grew quiet before Death looked at Saito and Saito stared at him with narrowed eyes, "Do you have any questions, my successor?" Saito shook his head, "Are you sure about that?"
"I'm sure, now when the hell can we go home?"
"After we finish talking to you four," Famine spoke in a stern tone, "And after that, we will be sending you four to France an-"
"France?" Saito questioned, shaking his head, "No, no, no, no. I'm from Japan, I can't go to France just like that," Louise, Henrietta and Kirche looked at him in confusion, "Why do we have to go to France and…and how the hell do we understand each other and-"
"Hiraga Saito!" Death spoke and Saito's eyes widened, "You four are going to France to explain to their families about being the new Horsemen of the Apocalypse and it will be much easer to do so if all four of you are there and the language barrier know no limit to the four of you, whether or not you were our successors, you are in Other World and therefore can understand one another,"
Saito growled as he looked away and Louise, Henrietta and Kirche continued to stare at him, "We have some time before we send you back," Pestilence inhaled slowly and the young adults looked up again, "We'll explain everything to you kids to the best of our abilities, after which, we'll send you back to earth where you can explain everything to your families an-"
"What about Saito's family?" Henrietta questioned and Saito growled, "He just got done saying he's from Japan. Will we not be informing his family about this? They have a right to know that their son is the new-"
"It doesn't matter what we tell them!" everyone jumped and looked at Saito as he shook from anger, "It doesn't matter what we tell them! They won't listen for a damn!"
"W-what do you mean, Saito?" Louise questioned, "Are they dead or just too busy to-"
"Let's just hear what they have to talk about and then let's get the hell out of here." Saito shook his head, "We've already been here for five hours an-"
"Actually, you kids have been here for no more than five minutes," War stated and the four looked at him in confusion, "Time moves differently here in Other World, so while it feels like you've been here for hours, you've only been here a couple of minutes,"
The young adults stared at War in disbelief, "Now, we'll finish up before sending you kids back to France," Pestilence said and they began explaining everything to the four.
The four stood in the middle of the street and Saito growled as he pulled his hood up, covering his face, "Where do we go?" Louise, Henrietta and Kirche looked back in confusion, "Where do we go? I've never been to France before and I don't know where we're going an-"
"We'll meet up with our families in a minute…but first, why did Death refer to you as Hiraga Saito and you reversed the names when you introduced yourself?" Louise demanded.
"In Japan it's customary to give last name first, but I go against customs, now can we get going?" Saito looked around and the three stared at him, "I can see peoples time and it's…less than pleasant…let's just go…and where's my scythe?"
Everyone looked at him as he looked around in annoyance, "They're in Other World," Kirche answered as Saito's eyes focused on her, "Weren't you listening when they explained everything to us, darling? We were to leave our weapons of choice in Other World with them, we can call on them when we need them, but it's safer that they stay there for the time being, otherwise you and Henrietta will get in more trouble than Louise and I would," Saito growled and looked away, "You weren't listening, were you?"
"I'm sorry, but I kind of blocked them out after learning we'll be sent to France!" Saito snapped and panted, "Let's just go explain everything to your families and then I can go back to Japan,"
He began walking away and the three followed him, "Hey, wait up you idiot!" Louise called out to him, "You don't know where you're going and we don't feel like looking for you all night!"
"Then try to keep up!" Saito snapped over his shoulder, "I want to get this done and over with as soon as possible!" the three groaned as they caught up with Saito and they walked down the street.
The group stood outside of a decent size manor before Louise sighed and shook her head, "Well…let's go inside and tell our families what's going on and what happened before-"
"Wait what?"
"Our families are all inside of Vallière Manor," Henrietta answered and Saito looked at her, "Kirche and I called our families and asked them to meet us here so we can talk to them at the same time without having to travel all over France…but how will we contact your family? You are from Japan, aren't you, and since we're in-"
"Let's just get inside before something else happens," Louise took a deep breath and shook her head before reaching up to Saito's hood, "The hood stays up," the three stared at him with wide eyes as Saito sighed, "Can we just get this over with before something else happens?" the three nodded before the four of them walked towards the main door.
The six parents and Louise's older sisters Éléonore and Cattleya stared at the four before Louise's mother, Karin inhaled slowly and shook her head, "Okay, we'd like you ids to explain what's going on…and who is this young man in the hood?"
"We have a lot to explain, but first, this is Sa-" before Louise could finish, Saito quickly covered her mouth, angering the pinkette. Louise moved his hand away and harshly whispered to him, "What the hell, Saito? They're going to learn about us being the new Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but you don't want them knowing who you are?"
"No names," Saito shook his head before looking back at the eight adults in front of them, "I don't care who they are, just no names,"
Louise sighed and shook her head, "For the time being, let's call him Death," Saito's eyes widened before he cupped a hand over his eyes and shook his head and Henrietta and Kirche groaned, "And-"
"What's his real name?" Éléonore questioned, "No one calls their kid that and no one goes by that name even if they ar-"
"After you hear the story, you'll understand why she addressed me as Death," Saito answered, "If I feel comfortable enough for you to know my real name after that, I'll gladly tell you,"
"You're rather rude, boy, but I suppose we don't have much of a choice in the matter, do we?" Henrietta's father, Henry said and Saito slowly before the four of them began explaining everything to the adults in front of them.
Well…what can I say? The next chapter will of course of the reaction of the families along with something else I have planned. As I said in the opening AN, this is to replace my abandoned horsemen story because…not that I don't want to continue it, I don't feel like it's a SVTFOE story per say and that I'll have another story to replace that in the SVTFOE category. Please enjoy everyone and please let me know what everyone thinks.