We thirst for the seven wailings,
We bear the koan of Jericho.
We carry the wind of justice.
We become the shadow of peace.
We are the protectors of life.
We shall carry this oath till the end of time.
"It's all my fault."
?
That was the first thing 'he' heard… since… when?
"My decision and everything they caused." The feminine voice continued. "It had come to this for me to realize that you were right all along…"
After she finished that word, light shined, and 'he' saw her, sitting in front of 'him'.
She wore a militaristic-looking white uniform and had white hair. Although 'He' could not see her face, 'he' could tell she was in her late teens.
"... So forgive me for being bold, but I have to ask your help, * Sensei."
Sensei? Is she referring to 'him'? Does she know 'his name'?
"You'll forget these words, but it won't matter."
It matters, he needs to know what she is talking about; she is the only one who knows 'him', she is the only one with the "answers", but she continues to speak, almost as if she is ignoring 'him'.
"You are the only one I can trust, Sensei. Only you can free us from this twisted, distorted fate and lead us to a new reality."
Why me? 'He' asked himself. Was it because of who 'he' is to her?
Can 'he' do it?
"Don't worry, Sensei." she said, reassuring him. "With 'them', the 'key' in your hand, the 'power' you wield, I know you can lead us to a better tomorrow."
"Hah!"
He opened his eyes and looked around him, wondering where he is right now.
He felt water drop on the top of his head. He looked up and saw a leaking pipe above him, and it also confirmed that despite the water dropping on his head, the day was still clear.
Still, what is he doing here?
Actually…
"Who… am I?"
He can't remember who he is. What is he? Why is he here in this corner, under a leaking pipe in an alleyway?
He looked at himself and saw that he was wearing a pair of jeans and a blue and silver biker jacket on top of a white collar shirt. Heck, he is wearing a pair of biker gloves. Maybe he was a biker or someone who had owned a bike.
No, now it's not the time to guess that. Now he needs to see if there is anything on him that can clue him in on his identity.
He patted himself and felt there was something rectangular in his breast pocket. He pulled out the object and checked it.
On it, there is a mugshot of a person and a name under it. The person in the picture is wearing a smile and a business suit. The top of the picture has a logo with the work "Schale".
The person in the picture has well-kept hair and wears a black spectacle on his brown eyes. From his looks, he would safely presume to be in his early 20s. He presumes that this man might be him; After all, unless this was stolen, there is no way that anyone else might have this object.
It was then he looked below the picture, checking the name of the owner of this card.
Sendou Saito.
"Sendou… Saito…" The man muttered. "That… must be my name."
It has to be, he told himself. There should be no other explanations.
Now, he asks himself another question.
"What is this place? Where am I? Why was I here?" Saito muttered. He kept asking himself many different questions in his mind, such as did he have any family members, does anyone know him, whether were there any other belongings, etc.
But to him, the most important question now is…
"Who was Sendou Saito?"
Saito sat in the place he woke up, mulling over question after question in his head, wondering and hoping that at least he had something -anything- that he could remember…
But he just can't remember anything. He drew blanks on anything that was before he woke up.
Saito slumped down, feeling nothing but hopelessness and frustration in his mind. Then he heard someone walking closer to him.
He looked up and saw a woman looking at him with curiosity. She wore a black qipao with an elaborate flower design and a fur coat, holding a plastic bag in one hand and a gun in another. The standout features that caught Saito's eyes are the halo in the shape of an unidentifiable flower and a pair of tapir(?) ears on top of her.
"Are you alright?" She asked him.
Saito looked down and shook his head. He looked up at her again and wondered why she was there.
"Oh dear," she said. "Is there anything that I can possibly help you with?"
He wants to tell her not to be concerned with her, but he felt that it might be rude to her. Plus something tells him that she might know a thing or two about his situation.
He showed her the card, looking at her with some hope in his eyes. He asked, "Do you know anything about this?" About me? Which was left unsaid.
The woman bent down a little to look at the card a little closer. Her eyes then widened and let out a gasp, before turning to him.
"Are you perhaps one of the members of the General Student Council?" She asked. Saito looked at her with confusion, completely lost on what she was talking about. "Well, the card that you are holding has the name Schale on it, so I assume you are related to the General Student Council somehow, although I don't think I saw you before."
"I don't know." He replied. "I… don't know who I am and I want to find at least an answer."
She hummed a little before she spoke again. "Maybe I can get you to Schale and see what we can do?"
"Huh?" He was exasperated, "Erm… are you sure? I don't want to take your time."
She shook her head and brought her hand out. "It's alright, the place I am going is close enough to Schale, I don't mind bringing you there."
He looked at her, trying to figure out why she would help him, but the man could not come up with a reason. So he placed the card back into his pocket, stood up, -now only noticed that he is taller and bigger than her- and took her hand.
"Oh, I should have said that first." The woman said. "My name is Haruhara Shun, nice to meet you, sir…"
"Sendou… Saito…"
"Then, Mr. Sendou, shall we get going?" She asked and pulled his hand out of the alleyway.
In the few minutes that Saito walked around this new world, he knew that he was a fish out of water.
Everywhere around him are high-rise buildings with seemingly very advanced technologies. The concrete jungle that he is in is not the thing that threw him out of the loop (despite the fact that he is an amnesiac), it's the people.
As far as his eyes can see, they are all female, and with body parts such as pointed ears, horns, wings, tails, or other appendages. There are people without any of those extra appendages, but they all have halos on their heads, and all of them carries weapons. He asked Shun if this particular part of the city was just all female, to which he got a rather perplexing answer.
"No, there are males here too, it's just that none are like us. Look to your left."
He looked at where she told him, and he ended up seeing a walking dog, as in the dog is bipedal. Not just that but just right behind the dog, he saw a person with a robot head with an analog screen for its face.
Saito could not help but be baffled by the sight. He just can't wrap his head around what he just saw.
Shun tapped his shoulder twice to snap him out of his gawking. Then he heard multiple footsteps behind him, prompting him and Shun to look back.
He saw a small group of girls in white uniforms walking closer to them, with a serious-looking woman in glasses at the front most center of the group.
She has long black hair and a pair of blue eyes with a sharp blue halo on top of her. The clothes she wears are predominantly white; a white coat, white gloves, a white holster for her pistol, white heels, and a white dress. The only things that were not white are her tie and her stockings, which are blue and black respectively. The most striking thing that he noticed about her is that she has a pair of pointed ears, making her look like an elf.
They continue to walk until they are at a very close distance from each other. Saito felt nervous, as he had no idea who that woman was and why there was a group of armed girls looking at looked at Shun and noticed her widened eyes, recognizing the person in front of them.
"Ms. Vice President, what brings you here?" Shun began to ask the elf woman.
"Hello, Ms. Shun. I apologize for taking your time, but right now the General Student Council has an emergency related to Sensei, who is behind you."
"Me?"
Saito is completely baffled at what the woman is saying. Sensei? Him? As in, he is apparently a teacher?
Shun also shares his sentiment. "Mr. Saito is Sensei?"
"Yes." The Vice President answered.
"Then, do you know who I am?" Saito immediately walked closer to the elf woman. "Sorry, but right now, I… don't have any memories other than knowing my name. Like what is this place, and why am I here…"
Shun placed her hand on Saito, getting his attention. He looked at her, who gave him a small smile. "I know that you have many questions, Mr. Saito. I'm sure that the Vice President will tell you what you need, so take a deep breath and calm down."
Saito went silent for a few seconds, and then took a deep breath and sighed. She is right, amnesia or not, getting desperate right now will just put the elf woman off.
"Yes, as said, I will explain everything as I bring you to a better place to talk, so please follow me." The elf woman continued.
The only man in the crowd stayed still for a little while, him looking down on the floor not letting anyone look directly at his face and his thoughts. He raised his head and just nodded without a word; in turn, the Vice President also nodded.
"Before we go, let me quickly introduce myself first; I apologize for not telling you first, my name is Nanagami Rin, the Vice President of the General Student Council club from Kivitos, this academy city." Rin introduced herself to the (supposed) teacher.
The amnesiac stayed silent for a bit before he introduced himself. "...Sendou Saito…"
Rin then brings out her hand and gives them a gesture to follow her, where they walk down the street and all of them enter an SUV before it begins to drive to their supposed new location.
In the SUV, Rin pulled out a tablet before she began to speak again.
"Saito Sensei, I am sure that you have many questions that are in your mind right now.
I would like to begin by telling you what I, and the rest of the General Student Councils club, know about you."
She tapped the tablet a few times and then showed them the screen, which shows the city in the nighttime. Then after a few seconds, the video showed a bright light in the distance before it quickly vanished.
"This footage was recorded yesterday at midnight near this street. I bring this up because two days ago, we attempted to summon you, Sensei."
"Summoned?" He asked.
Rin nodded, continuing her explanation. "We say we summoned you, but really it's more like the President was the one who did it that day… before she disappeared the day after.."
Then Shun decides to join in the conversation. "So then… Mr. Saito is the Sensei of Kivotos now? And it was related to the sudden blackout in Kivotos. Was that also why the GSC suddenly announced the disappearance of the President?"
"Indeed," confirming Shun's question, Rin goes a little more into the details. "Mr. Saito is the Sensei that the President was summoning. We don't know the full details of how she does it, but we know that she had plans for it for quite some time now."
Saito then decided to ask who was the President, where Rin decided to continue where she left off.
"The President was the one who oversaw everything that happens in this city, Kivotos. Ah right, I believe that both Ms. Shun and I have not yet told you what kind of city Kivitos is. To put it simply, this is an academy city, home to thousands of different academies, and it will be where you will be working once we clear up the current situation."
She continued. "Right now, we will be driving you to the General Student Council HQ first because right now we have lost access to the Sanctum Tower due to the disappearance of our President."
"Then what do you know about me?" Saito asked.
"As for what we know about you… so far what the President left about information about you was your name, about your summoning, and an instruction only."
Saito slumped a little after hearing Rin. It was to be expected, with him being from a different world and all that, but it does not mean it sucks that they don't know much of anything about him.
"I understand this must be overwhelming and confusing for you, but this is the best that I can tell you right now since there is so little information about you that the President left for GSC." Rin apologized.
Saito stayed silent, absorbing the information in his head. From there he decided to ask some questions.
So he decided to summarize what was told so far. "So… I was presumed to be summoned here by the President of your club…and right now I am in Kivotos…and apparently, there is something that is related to me that your President left. Will you be showing me?"
Rin nodded, knowing that she had to carry out whatever task that was instructed before the disappearance. "We are very close to our HQ now. So I will be showing you what the President left us with."
Saito nodded, decided to leave the conversation there, and silently think about his situation. There are just a lot of things to take in.
But that begs the question…
"Then how does this connect with me or the President of yours?" He asked while pulling out the identity card that was with him when he woke up.
"That's-" Rin was shocked, recognizing what it was. "That is the Schale office keycard! Where did you get that… and when did you get registered?"
"Honestly, I have no idea. It has been with me since I woke up."
Rin raised her eyebrows, having doubts about what the teacher just said, but decided to let it slide since he does not have any memories, to begin with.
From there Rin decided to talk about his job as a teacher in Kivotos, which is all but not limited to teaching students in academic subjects, paperwork, solving problems involving the academies, and many other responsibilities as a teacher.
He was listening to her, at least half listening to her while stewing in his thoughts.
Saito wondered…
Is the girl in his dream the President?
After a few more minutes, the SUV stopped in front of a large tower and all the passengers except Shun left the SUV. Shun had requested if the driver could quickly drop her off at her place to put her groceries before returning to the GSC HQ, to which Rin allowed.
Both the newly appointed teacher and Rin then walked into the building and into the elevator, where the glass allowed Saito to look at the city below him.
He looked at it in awe, seeing just how advanced the city is, the numerous big and small buildings, and the lakes connecting to each small island. In the meantime, Rin also explained that the GSC handled everything that concerns Kivotos, and now Saito will also be in charge of the job too.
"How do you feel watching the city from here?" Rin asked.
"It's amazing… but also nervous since I will be in charge of all matters in this city. How is one person supposed to manage all of this?"
Rin smiled a little, knowing how he feels, just like how she felt when she first entered the club. "Rest assured, Sensei, I have a feeling that you will get used to this place despite being overwhelmed at first."
The elevator then stops with a ding sound, where the door then opens to a large office. The office looked fairly simple, with a coat rack, a bookshelf, a large table, and a swivel chair. The only thing that seems to stand out is a metal briefcase on the table.
Rin and Saito walked towards the table, where the elf woman then took the briefcase and opened it.
"From what the President said, she wants me to give this to you the day you are summoned, I'm not too sure what is inside, but I believe it will be of use to you."
Saito looked into the briefcase, where there are two devices in it. One is a larger device with a metal color for its main body and red color on a pulley-looking part, the middle section of the device, and a "hook" on the left side. The other item in the case was a rectangle blue and black object, with a design of a locust on it. It also has words on it, which are "Rocking Hopper", and "Type: Zetsumetsu".
He took both items from the chest and examined them a little bit, and could not help but feel some familiarity with them.
"With 'them', the 'key' in your hand, the 'power' you wield, I know you can lead us to a better tomorrow."
Suddenly, Saito felt a sharp pain in his head. He doesn't know who it was that said that, but it must be related to his missing memories.
"Are those words from the President that Rin was talking about?" He thought in his head.
"Are you alright Sensei?" Rin quickly rushed to his side when he reeled back from the pain.
"I'm alright, the pain is gone." He reassured her as he placed the items into his jacket. "Is there anything else that needs to be given to me?"
Rin shook her head. "For now, no. I would be giving it to you, but right now I have to request you to help us with something first. Let's go to the reception room."
The two of them walked back to the elevator and began to descend to the lower floor of the building.
Once the door opened he saw Shun and three more people occupying the place. One of them is a blue-haired twin-tail girl -which was held by a pair of futuristic-looking triangle hairbands (?)- wearing a formal shirt and tie along with a short skirt. She also wears a blue tie, a clipping with the word "Millennium" on it, and an oversized jacket with a rather impractical white belt with an SMG holster on it. She doesn't have any visible external appendages aside from the futuristic black halo on her head.
The other student that is present in the room is a tall raven-haired woman holding an intricately designed rifle with an all-black sailor dress uniform (the word "Justice" is also printed on the uniform) that has a white and red accent on the shoulder, black stockings, and black shoes. The standout feature that he can see aside from her height compared to the other girls, aside from Shun, is that she has large black wings connected to her by her hip and a crimson red, sharp halo on her head.
The third student is a shorter bespectacled lady with dark blonde hair, wearing a buttoned-up blouse, black skirt, and red leggings. She carries a large medical bag and her blouse has an armband on the left side. From what he can see, she also has pointed ears like Rin and she has a halo with a circle in a cross.
Finally, a silver-haired girl with a serious expression, wearing a gray, black, and white uniform along with standard black leggings and brown shoes is also present there. It is hard to see, but she has a small white wing on her head along with a light purple halo.
"There you are, Vice President! We have been waiting for you! We need an explanation about yesterday's announcement!" The blue-haired twin-tailed girl first spoke up in a demanding tone.
The tall woman with black wings then also stepped to the front. "I've been waiting for you too, Chief Officer."
The blond elf spoke next. "I come here on the behalf of our head prefect concerning the announcement of the General Student Council President's disappearance."
"And also about the fact that the streets in Kivotos are starting to become more chaotic." The silver-haired girl spoke right after the blonde elf.
Rin clicked her tongue in annoyance. Of all the time that she had to deal with demands from other schools, now is not the time.
Rin coughed out to get all the girl's attention, then she began to speak in a rather sarcastic tone. "Hello to all the representatives of the neighboring academies' student council."
Without missing a beat, she continued with the same sarcastic tone with a trace of frustration. "I understand the reason why all of you would come here, and I do not envy your frustrations. The blackouts, the sudden announcement this morning, and the current sharp increase in crime must have sent all of you to a panic state right now."
"That's right! Thousands of academic districts are now in a mess and all the students under custody have suddenly escaped!" The twin-tailed girl spoke up. This ended up being a signal for all three students to let out the problems that they are suddenly facing, directly at Rin.
Quite frankly, Saito can't even identify who is talking about what, all he can hear is four people screaming in panic. Shun, who was at the sideline this whole time, decided to intervene and ask them to calm down, but to no avail.
So Saito decided that he needed to step up.
"ALRIGHT, WE GET IT!" Saito shouted, which caught the attention of everyone in the room. "Things are not looking good outside, we get it! But unloading all your frustration on Ms. Nanagami will just make things worse, so shut up and calm down! One thing at a time!"
This… completely threw Rin and Shun off guard. Their Sensei was relatively quiet all this time and had let Rin handle the situation. His sudden outburst was not something that all of them did not see coming and his glare commands them to do as he says.
"Is this one of the reasons why the President chose him?" Rin thought inside her head that perhaps there is more going on with Saito than her first impression of him.
"He is right," Shun decided to capitalize on their stunted states and offer her words too. "We all know that the streets have suddenly become very unsafe and all of you are now very worried. However, please calm down so that we all can figure out what we can do to fix the current situation."
All four students looked at Shun for a few seconds before they conceded. Taking a deep breath, the first person to speak up was the blonde elf. "Very well, please explain to us what happened to the GSC President, and what should we do about our current state… that and who is this biker that is behind you."
Rin nodded, beginning her explanation. "Very well. Let's cut to the chase. This biker that you called is Sensei, Sendou Saito."
He stepped in front. "My name is Sendou Saito. Nice to meet all of you."
All the students -sans Shun- were shocked. They stared at Saito while he just gave them a small awkward wave.
"This guy?" The blond elf said in bafflement.
All he does is just shrug lazily and just mutter "I suppose I am."
"From this person's look, he seems to not be from Kivotos at all." The raven-haired woman walked closer to examine him, looking at him as if he was an alien.
"I suppose I am not, from what I heard." He answered. The raven-haired woman frowned at his answer, which led him to reply. "Sorry, I don't remember that much about what led me to Kivotos, Ms…"
"Hanekawa Hasumi, Third Year student of Trinity General School and a member of the Justice Realization Committee."
"Ok… Ms. Hanekawa… not sure what school and this 'committee' that you are talking about, but yeah, I don't really remember that much."
Rin then continued. "Right now the top administrations have no access to the Sanctum Tower after the President disappeared. And no, we have no idea how or where she went. All we know is that she summoned Sensei yesterday, and then suddenly she is not with us."
"So now all of you have to recapture it to start getting things back in order right?" The Sensei added.
"Correct, Sensei. And you will be the key to our success."
"What? Me?" He raised his eyebrows in confusion, not sure how he factors in all of these.
Rin nodded. "Sanctum Tower needs verification in order to reactivate since we could not bypass them, and you have the key to do so."
"You mean this right?" He pulled out the card once again and the elf woman nodded again before she continued to explain to him what he needed to do.
"Now we need to go to the Schale club room to gain back access, which is 30 km from here and we need to put something in the basement of the building under the President's request."
"So that is where the controls are?" Shun asked.
"Yes, and it is my job to bring Sensei there. I'll call one of my colleagues to send us a helicopter." She then took out a smartphone from her pocket and dialed a number as she walked away. "Momoka, I need a helicopter to take us to the Schale club room."
Saito watches Rin walking away and he decides to shift his focus on Shun and the others.
While he knows Shun and Hasumi's names, he has no idea who the rest of the girls are, so he politely asked them to introduce themselves.
"R-right! Nice to meet you, sensei. I'm Hayase Yuuka, a second-year student from Millenium Science School's student council, Seminar." The blue-haired girl introduced herself first. "You better remember my name alright!"
The blond elf continues from Yuuka. "Hinomia Chinantsu, first-year Prefect Team member of Gehenna Academy. Leave the medical support to me."
"My name is Morizuki Suzumi, a second-year student also from Trinity General School, and part of the Vigilante Crew Club."
With the students introducing themselves, they decided to wait for Rin. Which is not that long as she walked back to the group with tranquil fury in her eyes.
Saito looked at her with worry. "You okay?"
Rin glared at Sensei before she took a deep breath and just gave him a fake smile. "No, not really. I had just found out from a numbskull that the road to the Schale club room is not safe at all due to a riot and we need to go now."
"With that said," Rin shifted her eyes towards Shun, Yuuka, Hasumi, Suzumi, and Chinatsu. "It's reassuring to have you, trustworthy academy representatives, here with us."
All that they can do is give Rin a questioning look, all the while Saito silently pities all of them… and himself of course.
Yup. Another new one. This time for the Blue Archive. It's been something of a backburner for some time now and I just want to get this finally written out… which ended up me writing this for about a month or so, making what was supposed to be 2k to 3k doc to a 10 (approaching to 11) thousand-word mega chapter.
Don't worry, the other chapters will be uploaded once I double-check my grammar and make sure things go the way I want. I might upload it in about a few days.
For how close it would be to the canon, well, I will stick close to it, unfortunately. Mostly because my plans do intertwine with the canon's events. Not to say there will be no deviation, just that I won't stray too far.
As far as the update schedule goes. Like before there is none as I am now in a 4 months internship, so I am not sure how much time I have.
Other than playing Genshin Impact (not yet finishing the Aranara quest line yet and the second half of the 3.0 story quest).
Nothing much to say. I just want to say I hope you enjoy the first part of the prologue. See you soon.