FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!
Sorry, I, uh, needed to let that out.
Can this still be included in T-rating? Cursing out of the blue like that can still be accepted by the rating, right? I don't have to censor it, right?!
Ahem.
Well, putting that aside. Something came up while I was writing my other stories. Not exactly a plot bunny, because really, this is an idea that has been on my mind for quite some time. Probably a plot weasel? Weasels tend to hole up in homes and pop up in your attic at some point, don't they? Or does that makes it a plot cockroach?
Anyway…
As some of you probably know, I've started a Naruto – Toaru Majutsu no Index crossover a while back. Now, I haven't made any plans on updating it, because chronologically, I would have to finish 'Place to Try' first since that Naruto – Toaru crossover is going to be included in the New Chapter project.
...But really, that part of my brain that I reserved for that crossover is getting itchy. I kinda wanted to write down a part of the story here just to satisfy my inner muse. I hope you don't mind.
And, SPOILER ALERT: That same crossover is determined to be the continuation of 'Place to Try', though [Angel Beats!] will no longer be the main focus, obviously.
Naturally, Naruto is going to be present. In fact, as some of you probably know, it's been settled that Naruto will appear as an esper in the story. Overused character notwithstanding, the plot I have in mind feels to already be set in liquid concrete (I say this because future changes may occur, but not big ones).
And now for the important part:
This story will be a sort of teaser (I guess?) for the upcoming crossover. The scene portrayed here will be reeeaaally far in the future (like, needing-to-appear-as-a-sequel far), but I guarantee you this scene will be written. For those of you who had not read the New Testament part of the Toaru light novel, then this might contain some spoilers. If you enjoy being spoiled, then by all means.
Well then, with that out of the way…
Enjoy.
Seventh Story: An Act of Heresy Against the Most Powerful
Perfect_Recall
The world was destroyed.
It was perfectly and completely annihilated without leaving a single speck of dust behind. No, it was possible that even the atoms needed to construct that single speck of dust were no longer in existence. In its stead, a blank realm of eternal darkness expanded endlessly with no horizon in sight. If one were to try and stand here, they would definitely lose their sense of balance immediately.
Magic God Othinus.
That was the name of the culprit behind the world's destruction.
Kamijou Touma.
That was the name of the boy who survived that same destruction.
And…
Uzumaki Naruto.
He survived by accident.
In the beginning, the assault on Sargasso, GREMLIN's base of operation, was done by a group of six. Leivinia Birdway of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight, Lessar of England's magic cabal the New Light, Index Librorum Prohibitorum, Misaka Mikoto, Kamijou Touma, and lastly, Uzumaki Naruto. They had attacked with the assumption that they could stop the creation of Gungnir – Othinus's lance which would enable her to ascend to the level of Magic God. As it turned out, things didn't go as planned.
When they arrived, said lance was already in her hands.
And then, she had proceeded to destroy the world with it.
Of course, several things might have happened seconds before the blonde Magic God actually did it. Birdway might have been preparing to use one of her spells, Mikoto might have taken out an arcade coin with the intention of shooting her railgun, and Kamijou might have been in the process of sprinting towards Othinus with his right hand tightly clenched. In Naruto's case, he might have taken out a kunai from a holster strapped to his thigh – a kunai which emitted an AIM field identical to that of a certain Level 4 Teleporter – with his left hand before throwing it towards Othinus. The AIM Analyzer ability stored within his left hand had read the Level 4 Teleporter's AIM field, enabling him to use an adapted copy of it, and jump into the theoretical 11th dimension – a basic action of teleportation.
Then again, there was no telling whether all of that really happened.
An action was scientifically referred to as such when the surrounding objects give out some semblance of a reaction in response.
When the world as a whole was destroyed before it can even give so much of that deciding factor, there was nothing that could prove whether all of those actions ever took place.
That's right.
What we can rely on was the testament of one of the two boys who survived the destruction of the world, Uzumaki Naruto.
As a human being, his mind couldn't catch up quickly enough to register that the world was destroyed, so his standing might be as that of an 'unreliable narrator', but let's go with what he had at the moment.
At any rate, he was completely certain that he had definitely thrown a kunai towards Magic God Othinus.
What was supposed to happen next was him appearing where his kunai – acting as a beacon or point of reference connecting him to the real world – had flown, which was supposed to be in front of Othinus. But the conclusion of his action had veered off from what he had expected.
Moreover, despite Naruto having "jumped" from where he had been standing before, he didn't return to that world.
He was stuck in the theoretical 11th dimension used in the calculation of teleportation.
At least, that was the only viable explanation he could come up with. Technically, the 11th dimension was nothing more than a model used by Teleporters to calculate their spatial movement. A part of the string theory, it was supposed to be a dimension unobservable by human beings who existed in the third dimension consisting of length, width and height, plus the fourth dimension of time.
Now, as far as he knew, nothing in science had been able to confirm whether or not the 11th dimension physically existed, so he really had no idea what it actually was despite having used it countless times using his adapted Teleporter ability.
But he certainly didn't expect it to be a space filled with jewelry.
No, calling them jewelry might not be entirely correct. There were translucent crystal orbs weightlessly hovering around him in the blank, empty space. They might have numbered around the thousands, but he somehow felt like he would sooner lose his mind than finish counting all of those crystal orbs.
Just as he was starting to lose himself to the beauty of those crystal orbs, a girl appeared.
She was a blue-haired, purple-eyed girl who wore a light green, one-piece sundress.
For some reason, her face looked sad. It was the exemplary look of a child whose favorite plush toy had recently worn out and had to part with. He didn't know why that was the impression he got from the girl, though. That was pretty rude, considering she was a stranger.
That's right.
He didn't know her.
But she knew him.
"Uzumaki Naruto."
She spoke of his name, calling out to him.
Then, all of a sudden, pain exploded in his head. A stabbing, burning pain, wrenching away his control over his own thoughts. His brain honestly felt like it would melt and evaporate, and he would have no power to prevent it. But the pain was only there for a single moment. What followed along was a deluge of images invading his sight and knowledge; things that shocked him to his core.
Memories. Knowledge. A buried past, long forgotten. A world, long gone.
All of it came back to him as he naturally accepted all of it, much to his surprise.
That was right.
He had died once already.
He had also met this girl before.
He had visited the realm known as the Afterlife and met its inhabitants.
He was reincarnated.
He remembered it all.
The girl, who he then recognized as Frederica Bernkastel, the Saint of Time and Space, the Overseer responsible for governing all the memories of the entire universe – nay, the entire existence – since time immemorial, apologized to him for his current outcome. She confessed that she did not expect Othinus to destroy the entire world as they knew it; something that a being called a Magic God was fully capable of doing.
To make matters worse, the Magic God had proceeded to create a new world on which she had added an extra layer of reality on top of. The term Frederica used was "phase", though Naruto doubted he knew what that exactly was.
Apparently, the Saint's realm was unreachable even by that overpowered blonde Norse god, so there had been no changes in Frederica's realm. It also meant that this was probably the one safe haven that Othinus could never reach even with her newfound power.
Even so, Frederica had added, Othinus's actions could not be allowed to continue.
Constant destruction and recreation of the [A Certain Magical Index] world's reality would in effect rewrite the memories coming from that world over and over again. It was essentially the same as writing something on a paper, applying a correction pen on it, rewriting it, and repeating the process. If it keeps happening, it was possible that any record of that world would become too murky and distorted, in the end leading to the world not having any memories to keep record of. And such a world, in Frederica's words, would have no reason to exist.
When asked why Othinus was constantly shifting reality in the first place, Frederica's answer was that she didn't know either.
However, she did know that the Magic God was forcing a single boy through all of those phases and watching as he was slowly tortured in every way impossible.
Naruto begged to the Saint to send him to those phases; those distorted worlds Othinus had created. The need to stop Othinus had never been more stressed than now as the knowledge of that spiky-haired boy having to go through multiple hells became apparent to him.
At first, Frederica had hesitated. She was unsure if there was really anything he could do to stop the madness. Then, at last, she figured that if anyone had any chance of reverting things back to normal, it was the current Naruto who had regained his memories. The Imagine Breaker boy was still held captive by Magic God Othinus, so someone else had to do the job.
o-x-o-x-o
It was a nightmare.
The world had shifted so much just by slightly altering the perspective of the whole mankind. Academy City was in ruins, riots were taking over, but more importantly, the friends he thought he knew blamed one person and one person only for this whole mess, proceeding to hunt that person down with extreme prejudice.
'That person' was not Othinus.
It was Kamijou Touma.
This was a world where Kamijou Touma was the main villain everyone had to eliminate.
No matter who they were, whether they were allies he had gained through many hardships or friends he had spent time with throughout his school life with, they all turned against him with fists clenched and weapons in hand. Their perspective, forcefully changed by Othinus, had clouded even the memories they had of the boy.
It was broken.
And it was incomprehensibly cruel.
Amidst it all, Naruto couldn't find said boy. Despite all the hatred supposedly directed to him, Kamijou was not anywhere that he could see. What he found instead was a pissed off Misaka Mikoto with a dead Shirai Kuroko in her hands, a sight that he was certain would haunt him in his sleep for years to come. And it got worse.
The #3 Level 5 was out for blood. And it was Kamijou's, much to the whisker-marked blond's ultimate disbelief.
Then Judgment, Anti-Skill, and even some parts of Academy City's darkness rolled in, bringing about even more chaos. There was even a talking dog with the equivalent of a Gundam suit weaponry strapped to its back.
It took a full-powered Tailed Beast Bomb coupled with eight Planetary Rasenshuriken to ward them all off, decimating most of them and rendering the rest immobile with powers beyond this world's comprehension. He showed no mercy; he had to, or else Kamijou would really be swallowed by this distorted world's cruelty.
Before he could find him, though, the world was once again reset. Othinus had added yet another layer to the world and changed reality.
This time it was a world which denied Kamijou Touma's existence.
It was slightly different than how he worded it in his thoughts. 'Kamijou Touma' did exist. The fact that someone was there in the classroom wearing a school uniform, surrounded by his friends and their laughter was unavoidable.
But at the same time, the 'Kamijou Touma' sitting in that chair wasn't the Kamijou Touma he knew. It was an entirely different person.
At that moment, Naruto understood.
It wasn't that Kamijou Touma's 'existence' was denied. It was that the 'role' of 'Kamijou Touma' here, in this world, was turned into something that anybody can fill in, and it didn't even have to be the Kamijou Touma he knew as his childhood friend.
It was a thoroughly frightening reality.
And he rejected it; not because he couldn't accept it, but because he knew the real truth. 'Kamijou Touma' wasn't a role, not a costume that anyone can wear or a name that just anyone can bear. No matter what reality dictates, as long as he knew the truth, he would reject it continuously.
But it was not meant to be that way.
Frederica pulled him out of the phase he was in, explaining that he could never defeat Othinus if he doesn't understand that what he saw was reality as it was. No matter what kind of truth Naruto held in his mind, whatever memory he had of the previous world, it would not be considered valid in a reality written by Othinus the Magic God.
That was what made this such a huge problem.
Sooner or later, the validity of the memories stored inside Naruto's mind, and of course Kamijou's, would be too warped to be considered a memory. The further the world changes from how they knew it to be, the further their memories become something invalid.
And if Naruto didn't acknowledge that reality was changing by the second, he would never understand the scope of Othinus's power, and he would never be able to defeat her.
"...But if I do that, I'd be accepting that she holds the world in her hand. I'd be accepting her as a god," he said with contempt. "That's the same as admitting I can't win against her."
"At this point, I can consider her nothing less." Frederica nodded affirmatively.
"...Then help me," he pleaded. "A friend of mine is being tortured by realities he shouldn't be in, all because of an arrogant girl who thinks she can destroy the world, a world I live in. So help me kick her ass and set things right."
He needed a weapon.
No, more than that, he needed the power to slay a being powerful enough to alter reality.
Frederica gave him a grim look.
"...A Fragment of Time," she muttered. "The only thing that can help us is...oh Lord, please forgive us."
o-x-o-x-o
...Moments passed.
He had seen what kind of phase Othinus had used now.
Fire blazed behind his eyes. An anger contained so carefully as to keep it from bursting was seeping its way out from his eyes, currently glaring holes at a feminine figure sitting casually at the top of a school building.
"Well, isn't this nice? Sure am glad I don't need to waste my energy doing a mass search for you, y'know."
"...I had thought something felt off. So another one was here, after all."
"So you knew? That's good. Spares me from having to explain it all, then. Now come down here so I can rip you a new one."
"That's quite a brave statement, human. Empty, but brave. It's only suiting for someone who is ignorant of the full extent of a god's power, but you know better than that. I've subjugated the Imagine Breaker to a hell not even he could stand up to. What makes you think you stand a better chance?"
"You know how many fucks I've given to malevolent gods in my past life? None. And you're no god. You're just a whiny little girl who throws a tantrum when your favorite toy doesn't bend the way you want, when it doesn't change color no matter how much paint you use on it. You destroyed the world, reshaped it to your heart's content, and for what? So you can torture a single human being? So you can see how far he will bend before he breaks? Is that why you created this disgusting world where all of his past actions are rendered meaningless? Is that why you crushed him with the weight of those smiles he was trying to protect all this time? Because congratu-fucking-lations, you piece of shit, you've gone and done it now. Daddy's home, and you deserve a hell lot of spanking."
*BOOOOOOM!*
o-x-o-x-o
...
He had expected this.
A Magic God was a being so powerful they could overwrite reality. Direct confrontation was not something that he could rely on against someone of that level. He was even outmatched physically, despite Othinus's limbs being thin enough that he could break it like a twig.
Unfortunately, her appearance was a devious one.
With a single punch – he was not sure if it could even be called that when all she did was to stretch out her arm as she appear in front of him – Othinus was able to blow him back dozens of meters away, into and through concrete walls. The only reason he was still alive was because he was using his Bijū Mode and moved to dodge at a speed comparable to that of a bullet. As such, it wasn't even a direct hit; she had merely clipped him by the inches of his shoulder.
Even so, despite it not being a direct hit, his right shoulder was crushed, and his ribs collapsed and punctured his right lung.
Yes.
There was no logical way to best a being powerful enough to end a world in combat.
But this was all he got. Fighting a god directly like an idiot was the only way he knew how he should stop said god's rampage.
That's why...
No matter what it takes...
He. Will. Break. Her. Face. In.
'Let's take it up a notch, shall we?'
The sound of glass breaking resounded throughout the world.
Recall:/Fate-stay_night/source=Saber-Arturia_Pendragon.
o-x-o-x-o
Through the noise of falling rubbles, Othinus's ears picked up a unique sound.
The crumbling building she had just blasted the yellow-haired boy into undoubtedly had windows placed here and there. As such, it shouldn't be surprising to hear the sound of them breaking. Yet, that one sound had resounded so clearly that it almost sounded like it vibrated on its own unique frequency.
Before she could think further on that weird phenomenon, she heard something else.
This time, it was louder, more audible, and considerably angrier.
"Ex-"
The dust cloud forming around the falling rubbles shone brightly for a second before something fast broke through it.
At first, Othinus couldn't quite see what 'it' was, only that it was leaving a streak of golden light. When her eyes adjusted, however, she could finally see what the source of that golden light was.
A certain angry blond, holding a sword thrumming with golden energy, swinging said sword in a heavy downward slash.
"-CALIBUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRR!"
A huge blast of magical energy, far outmatching any that a normal magician could produce, filled the sky with a radiant shine. The attack, which could only be described as a humongous beam of golden light, destroyed everything unfortunate enough to be in its path. The other half of the school building was eradicated, leaving only a few broken rubble behind.
Yet Magic God Othinus remained.
Despite the enormity of the blast, she alone remained, proving once again just what a monster a Magic God truly was.
However...
"..."
Othinus looked down.
Both of her arms were outstretched, holding Gungnir in front of her to block. The fact that her survival instinct had reacted to the attack and drove her to put up her defense was something amazing by itself, but her eyes were focused on her arms instead.
They were trembling.
To top it off, a bit of her skin was blackened, possibly singed by the intensity of the blast just now.
In other words, she had just taken damage. It was miniscule, but the whisker-marked boy's attack had successfully damaged her.
Her single eye then moved up looking towards her opponent.
He was still coated in the yellow chakra shroud which flickered like flames just as before, but there were differences. In his right hand was a golden sword which symbolized victory. Hanging by his left hip was its ornate sheath that carried the name of a certain utopia. Both were once held by a certain king who failed her people and had once selfishly wished for a chance to undo her past mistakes.
Her people had known her as Arturia Pendragon.
Her Master had known her as Saber.
"That's…"
Othinus did not recognize it.
She recognized the name that her blond opponent had yelled out as the name of the sword that King Arthur from the legends was said to wield, but she didn't remember it being in that form. In other words, it was a different Excalibur from the one she had knowledge of.
Othinus had no way of knowing it, but her confusion was justified. The Excalibur that Naruto held in his hands was from a different universe entirely.
Then, what exactly happened?
Let's think about this for a second:
The Uzumaki Naruto of this universe was a reincarnated human who had a special left hand, which had a special power known as AIM Analyzer that could read an esper's AIM diffusion field when it makes contact.
However, what if that isn't really all there is to it?
And then, we have the Fragments of Time; crystallizations of memories from different universes which the Overseer, 'Saint of Time and Space' Frederica Bernkastel used to govern the flow of memories. Each of them contained memories of a world, which by function would serve to compile knowledge for other parallel worlds as a means to 'correct' its path to avoid what could be called in story terms as 'bad endings'.
Now, suppose the aforementioned left hand could read the memories stored within those Fragments. Suppose that left hand had the ability to perfectly imitate the abilities of an individual from the worlds those Fragments originated from.
That left hand was no longer a simple left hand.
It was now a tool that infringes the copyright of multiple universes.
"I told you, didn't I? This isn't about taking back my world. This isn't about deciding which one is made of lies or accepting the other as the true reality. This isn't about justice. This is me kicking your divine posterior, and believe me, I'm gonna kick it so fucking hard you'll WISH I had jammed Gungnir up your rectum instead. DOES THAT SOUND APPEALING TO YOU, YOU HORNY LITTLE BITCH?!"
Equipped with such an unfair tool, Uzumaki Naruto faced forward and snarled.
Yes.
He had to be at least this shameless if he were to face a being that could rewrite reality.
At least, in his honest opinion, it wasn't entirely his fault. To quote from his irrational train of thought, 'The bitch started it first when she turned so OP.'
"Gear up, Magic God. I won't be satisfied until I crush you in your strongest form."
...I'm sorry.
Truly, I apologize. I was so fired up when I started this one, but then the ending fell short with what I can only say as a poor, hurried narration that takes away the seriousness I wanted the scene to have initially.
Then again, this is a very rough draft. I hope you realize that, as well. After all, there are many inconsistencies here and there.
For starters, I am trying to introduce a concept (that I probably should have done from the very beginning, i.e. the bridge fic that started this series) of Frederica Bernkastel being an existence known as an 'Overseer'. In the beginning, I used the term 'Saint of Time and Space' because at the time I couldn't find a term nearly as powerful and all-encompassing as that. Now I see that the name simply drips eighth-grade syndrome delusion and over-the-top self-importance.
I suppose it's already too late, so I'm reintroducing Frederica as an Overseer with a title of 'Saint of Time and Space', thereby erasing the importance of the term Saint on her (I realize that 'Saint' will be a somewhat confusing term considering the Toaruverse has the 'less than 20 Saints' version).
Next is the AIM Analyzer.
AIM Analyzer is an ability that, quite frankly, I've created because I was lazy. I'm not as imaginative as other authors who can make up cool, practical esper abilities for their version of Naruto/OC, and I'm not deeply entrenched in the in-universe esper science enough to simply give Naruto a Level 3 Pyrokinesis and keep him classy with just that. In a way, AIM Analyzer is the product of me having only staccato knowledge of the abilities in the Toaruverse, thus letting myself borrow them (read: steal) from under Kamachi's nose.
Here, I've even given it the ridiculous power up of being able to read memories directly from a Fragment of Time (taken from the Higurashi universe, copyright of Ryukishi07). Yes, I know, this is a ridiculous idea. I can already feel some critics coming in the future to correct this overpowered hand-wave. But trust me, I will try my best that what comes in the real storyline will make sense to you readers.
Lastly, but not least, is the usage of Excalibur.
Yes, Nasuverse fans, my diabolical hands have reached into your territory. The sad thing is I'm not sure I'm doing you guys and the Nasuverse any justice. And I know well enough that Saber/Arturia Pendragon does not materialize Avalon anywhere in the series. As far as I know about the Fate route, Shirou simply returned it to her and it was stored within her...probably as a conceptual weapon? Anyway, as far as I know, Avalon is not materialized in its physical form in the Fate series' storyline (except Zero, I think). Correct me if I'm wrong.
Then again, I only need Avalon for its healing mechanism, so I probably shouldn't describe its appearance at all...? Oh, I dunno.
You know, I actually prefer the idea of having the AIM Analyzer scan the memory of Shirou from the Heaven's Feel route. Naruto having Archer's left arm is admittedly a cool idea. It coincides with my desire to have Excalibur show up as well, since Heaven's Feel Shirou can probably trace Excalibur Image. But then, the Type-Moon wiki says that Excalibur Image can only be used inside Unlimited Blade Works, so that takes away the possibility of having that golden sword show up.
Damn it, and I really wanted to try writing super ridiculous like:
"Trigger, off."
"Set...Excalibur Blade Works."
*Sigh*.
In any case, I'm simply overloading with ideas since I just turned AIM Analyzer into a copyright infringement machine. Gintoki would've been proud. Therefore, sorry for the long rant.
Well, basically, I just hope you'll continue to wait for the Naruto-Toaru crossover to come out. It's probably wrong for me to do so, but I hope you're just excited as I am for it.
...Though I'm pretty sure this idea bag doesn't get visited that often, so should I really write this here?
P.S: This story isn't really up for adoption, since I am planning to write it in the future. Sorry 'bout that.