Preface
A Twisted Whim
Seventeen year old Nick Negron's screams were muffled silent by the rolling of his mother's car, the vehicle barreling down a hill into a deep ravine. His mother was motionless in the driver's seat, and his little sister Yuna was limp against his arm, but Nick refused to think she was gone as well. Please, God, don't let this be the end! He pleaded in his head, shutting his eyes tightly as he felt the harsh bump of one last impact, losing consciousness as his head bashed the window next to his head open from the force.
Elsewhere, Location Unknown..
The man dressed in a flowing robe hurried over the clouds that served as a floor, his footfalls silently absorbed by the cushiony substance. "My Father, there's been an incident." He said, bowing in front of a lavish desk.
The Big Man looked at his angelic disciple. "Michael, whatever has happened? What kind of incident?"
Michael, Archangel of Heaven, sighed sadly. "That human you wanted me watching over because of how pure he has always been? Nick Negron? Him and his family have all just perished in a freak car accident. Nothing suggested any such event was to happen today, otherwise we would have altered their plans and-" He was stopped by a hand, the other being stroking his bearded chin.
"Fuck." It was one of the rarest things to hear God curse, and Michael's eyes went wide. "Alright, take the scroll to the location we discussed. Do it."
"But, Father.. That dimensional reality is too warped, too meshed together. It's too unstable to consider-"
The reality Michael was talking about was known as a side-project the Big Man had been working on, a Utopian sort of space he'd built using the boy Nick for a template. It was only supposed to be used when the boy had died, but if they used the ritual in the scroll, it would cause the present reality to otherwise collapse in on itself. But, apparently God had thought of that outcome as he chuckled. "It is only so unstable because I keep it that way, Michael. It is only to be used when in tandem with Nick's soul, after all. Most of the people in that world are technically fictional, you forget. In rewriting the world like this, even if we cease to exist, it will give the boy some happiness. Perhaps too much in time, but the boy is smart, he'll figure it all out. Now go and perform the ritual. If we don't cease to be afterward, I'm interested to see how the world works."
Michael looked hesitantly at the scroll before nodding. "If you think it's best, Father."
God hummed. "That boy was going places, had things lining up for him. Now, without him, see the chaos?" He waved one huge hand and a cloud parted like a pair of curtains, scenes of worldwide destruction and a woman with an absolutely psychotic, hurt smile. "All by one person dying, another becomes a worse threat. It's the issue I've faced for hundreds of years with no prevailing positive results. It's time for that to change, even if that means slapping the proverbial reset button. Now, go. We only have a few more minutes before the ritual won't do us any good as it is."
Michael spun on his heel then, understanding the position his Father had put himself in for millennia and why he would decide to want a change. One could only deal with so much of a problem before it became too much. His wings sprang from his shoulder blades as he took flight, heading to the other end of the cloud they were situated on. He landed in front of what appeared to be a large pit.
Michael looked at the scroll in his hands one last time before he unfurled it to read the incantation. "By the powers of Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Metal and Heart; I, Michael of the Archangels, invoke the ancient powers God himself has put in place. With this ritual, wash away this world and bring forth the Utopian design!" There was a blinding flash that emanated from the scroll, engulfing everything until the world was nothing but whiteness as a new world was stitched together.
Another Earth, Atlantic Ocean..
Alone in the tumultuous sea stood an island where a huge prison, triangular in shape, loomed menacingly over the seascape. This was Azkaban prison, home of the Wizards and Witches considered the worst of the worst. In two cells, both near each other, sat Bellatrix Black Lestrange and her cousin, Sirius Black.
"You just wait, fucking filthy blood traitors! This cell won't hold me forever. Master will return and bring me back to his side and none of you scum will survive the New World Order." Bellatrix cackled as Sirius pounded his fist on the square 'window' of his own cell.
"Oh, shut the fuck up, Bella! Voldemort is dead and gone, he's not coming back!"
Bellatrix smirked and was about to reply when suddenly the sky outside the prison seemed to rip and tear to shreds, leaving a white nothingness in it's wake. Bellatrix, thinking this was somehow a show of power from her Master, cackled and held her arms up in glee as the light washed over her and Sirius..
Scottish Highlands..
Meanwhile, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Golden Trio sat in the Great Hall, eating the night's dinner. There was a commotion as students began pointing out the tall windows as the sky began brightening unnaturally. "What is that?" Harry Potter asked his best friend Hermione Granger.
Hermione, smartest witch of their age, shook her head with a horrified look on her face. "I.. I don't know. I've never read about such magic."
Draco Malfoy as well as a few of the girls sitting near him at the Slytherin House table got up as the light penetrated the castle walls, Hogwarts' ancient and powerful protection magic doing nothing against the world reset as everyone was engulfed as the world and reality the Wizards and Witches lived in ceased to exist in the way they had known..
Another World, Keyblade Graveyard..
Sora and his friends stood in the time-dilated space that was Scala Ad Caelum, facing their enemy in Master Xehanort, who's form was now beginning to fade away. With a crash that sounded like thunder, Sora looked to the sky to see Kingdom Hearts above them cracking, the dimensional passage back home threatening to crumble and leave them all stranded in a time here yet not.
Kairi was on Sora's arm, saying something he couldn't hear over the white noise that seemed to come from the intense white light seeping through the cracks in Kingdom Hearts. The moon exploded into white nothingness, even the fading spirit of Xehanort looking on in shocked awe as they all too became engulfed by the spreading light of destruction..
Another Earth, Fire Country, Hidden Leaf Village..
Tsunade Senju, Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, frowned at the young blonde teen in front of her, his impulsiveness as grating as always, even when it got results. "Just tell me what you found on the mission, Naruto." She asked him, motioning with her hand in a circle.
Naruto Uzumaki nodded. 'Well, Granny, you see.. What's that light? A genjutsu?" He said, Tsunade following his gaze out the window where a light was coming towards Konoha at an alarming speed.
Kit, you have to run, now! Or we'll be just as dead as the rest of these fools. Panicked Kurama as Naruto frowned.
Tsunade stood up to sound the alarm when the village became overtaken, one more world in the spread of God's will to reset the universe.
Nowhere..
The light was almost finished with its mission, feeling the last few worlds needed in God's plan being absorbed into the light. When the final world had been overtaken, the light stopped, before it imploded back into itself to form a massive explosion. As the blast blew outwards, the universe began to form once again.
The sun, the planets and their moons, and the rest of the stars and planets unknown came into being first, Earth being the last and most complex in this new reality.
The Earth appeared back where it always had stood in space, looking mostly unchanged from before the reset. The only noticeable difference from space being the addition of several island nations of various sizes. On what was still known as North America, in the southwestern part of the United States of America, a city came into being. In this new world, the town had always been there and it showed as Crystal Springs became a sort of Utopia for people who had previously occupied other worlds and realities.
None of the residents of the city, nor any other ex otherworldly resident of this new Earth, had any memory of the old worlds they'd come from, but those worlds still came into being in some form or another. As Harry Potter was a real person here, the book series originally written about him had been altered into that of the Harvey Porter series of novels.
It was in this new city that Nick Negron would wake up in his own bed, remembering everything about the reality before including his fatal car accident. He would never have the insight to know, however, that this new world was truly created for him by a higher power, one who hadn't wanted to lose such a value to the original world.
Utopia Earth, July 2022..
Nick Negron shot up from his bed for the third time that week, all from the same nightmare of the crash that should have and probably did kill him, judging by the state of the world he found himself in now. It had been two weeks since he'd first actually woken up in this world, full of figures who shouldn't even exist, let alone in the same space. When he'd first seen the many different kinds of denizens of this city, named Crystal Springs, he had thought he had woken up somehow on the film set to a movie such as Ready Player One. It would have made the most sense, but that was when he had gone to his journals for more insight since it had easily been proven false.
Nick had thought for a short time that maybe he was having some kind of grand delusion caused by a coma, the shock of the accident triggering it. But then it became all too real, when he'd gotten cut several days ago. The pain he felt was too real to be anything but. His journals, however, told him much to keep himself from looking insane.
For one thing, all the witches, wizards, Keyblade bearers, Ninja, Pirates, Soul Reapers and Arrancars he was familiar with, even some of the would be older characters were now just the people he had known before the accident, down to his neighbor's lost cat repeatedly running away which oddly had happened quite a lot before the accident two weeks earlier. His friends were now even a mix of his old friends and the characters they now embodied. Some names had surprised Nick at first, but then he had begun to have flashbacks from reading his journals, causing him to see the actions of such people for himself, in a way. That was until he'd read the journals encompassing his experiences in ninth grade, freshman year. Everything that had happened throughout his life had indeed happened here, but where there were people he had grown up with in that old life there was someone here who had taken their spot in his life.
In freshman year, however, the bonds he'd grown accustomed to changed. His group of friends polarized themselves, and the powerless (but should eventually have something according to his journals) Nick was left to salvage what was left. Now it was the summer before junior year, and Nick had already been seeing the lines that had been drawn. The witches and wizards from what was Slytherin House against those of the other three like in their original source material. The Keyblade wielders stayed to themselves. Only the Ninja, Pirates and Soul Reapers got along, but even then there were groups within groups there. The strangest thing about this new world, it seemed, was the lack of true evil. There were plenty of villains around, of course, but they all acted more like regular grumpy elders. Voldemort, Lord of Dark Wizards, wasn't even scheming to kill Harry like he probably should have been, but he was also Nick's History teacher.
Nick stood up from his bed, looking out at the rest of Crystal Springs as it stretched out towards the horizon and the Geode Mountains. In the north of town was the high school, blocks away from there was the Magical Quarter, where any Witch or Wizard Nick had known from Harry Potter lived. Then, east of that and built into the side of the Geodes was the home of the Keyblade wielders, Locke Castle. In the bay several miles from shore was the Isle, where Nick believed the children of villains from such properties as Disney movies lived, but he couldn't be too sure, as those teens kept their home life pretty close to their chests. Behind him, he heard the chirping of his cell phone, a text message most likely.
He looked at the screen and smiled sadly. So different from the old days.. Why am I so popular with these girls here? He thought before typing a short reply back, hitting send and then placing the phone back down to get ready for the day. Lot to do for a normal person living in a town full of quite literal superhumans.
Magical Quarter, Same Time..
Seventeen year old Bellatrix Black sighed at the texts from her boyfriend, or more like betrothed Draco Malfoy, her nephew, for Merlin's sake! It didn't mean anything they were related because of tradition with their family, they were both of similar age and they would so called 'bring the family into more power'. Bellatrix hated it, but she had a duty to her family to go through with it. Draco felt the same way, but he had always been more of a brown-noser towards his dad. Draco's mother, Bellatrix's oldest sister Narcissa, absolutely hated the arrangement and was looking for any way out of such an ordeal.
Bellatrix found her mind wandering to simpler times, before high school. Before the marriage contract. Back when she knew what she wanted in her life, and what she was being dealt now was not that by a longshot. Nick.. She thought, swiping her phone screen to another text message with a rolling of her emerald green eyes.
Little Konoha, West Crystal Springs..
The blonde girl of seventeen ran down the street, headphones in her ears blasting Cardio by Timmy Trumpet as the sound lowered momentarily to indicate a new text. Stopping to jog in place at the intersection where the Yamanaka Flower Shop stood, Tsunade Senju adjusted the phone latched onto her arm, laughing at whatever Bellatrix had written back to her about before seeing another new message come in, this time from Nick. Bella needs to realize that boy will have more than just her, if things with the marriage contract go south. She thought as the crossing signal turned and allowed her to continue on her way.
Locke Castle..
A girl in front of a small altar, a stone statuette of some otherworldly deity sitting on the altar. "Oh, Phoenix, please keep us safe in the name of Bahamut, King of Eidolons." With a clap, the white and pink haired teenager sighed and grabbed her Keyblade from next to her. She felt her back pocket vibrate and took her phone out, rolling her cerulean eyes. "Oh, Bella.. If only we could do something, although then Nick might be off the table once again, hmm? And Fayth Farron-Estheim doesn't like to lose, bestie." She giggled as she typed a reply and went down to eat breakfast.
Downtown, 7th Heaven Bar and Grill..
The bar hadn't yet opened, but that didn't stop the few teenagers who helped out from coming in and setting up shop for the day. Tifa Lockhart, the daughter of the bar owner, hummed as she stood at the triple sink behind the counter, washing glasses. Otherwise there were three girls wiping down tables, one with shoulder length auburn red hair, one with very long silver hair and the last with short golden blonde hair. "Gen, are you almost done with your tables over there? I'm a bit behind." Giggled the blonde as the brunette rolled her eyes, the red matching her hair.
"Oh come on, Tia! Can't you just do one of those supernatural tricks of yours and get them done? Seph, help me out here." She said, hands on her hips.
The silver-haired beauty giggled. "Come now, Genesis. You know as well as I do that Tia is lazy. Plus, you can use Haste, can't you?"
"Doesn't make a difference, Sephy!" Genesis said, her brown-red eyes looking towards the bar, where Tifa had stopped and was now listening to the other three bicker as they usually did, raising an eyebrow as all three of them took their phones out at the same time.
"What's little miss snake saying now?" Asked Tifa, an amused smile on her face.
Genesis sighed. "Same shit, different day. I miss him she says. I want things back to how they were before high school. Jeez, if she wanted things to be like that, then Bella should have told her father and Draco's to fuck off."
"She should have. Then, us girls wouldn't be technically fighting each other over him."
"Over him? Ladies, none of us are fighting over Nick, because we all know we're all going to have him once we figure out exactly how that's going to work."
"All of you?!" Tifa asked incredulously. "Isn't there seven of you, including Bellatrix Black?"
"Seven? No way," Tia said, bringing one tanned hand up and began counting on her fingers. "Me, Bellatrix, Genesis, Sephiroth.. Tsunade, Fayth and.. Oh, yeah, Cynthia.. Huh, I guess there really is seven of us after Nick. Jeez, lucky guy, then. If it works out in all of our favor." The Hollow-powered girl smiled.
"Thank Bahamut I never joined that rat race." Tifa laughed as she wiped the bar down. "Cloud is more than enough for me, thank you."
"That's fine, Tif. We wouldn't want the extra competition anyway, would we girls?" Genesis smirked. "After all, Nick is pretty much the real life equivalent to the Gift of the Goddess."
"Oh, for fuck's sake, Gen! Enough of your LOVELESS bullshit. Bad enough you've dragged me to see it five times. In a week." Sephiroth said, arms across her chest with a pout on her lips. "You're lucky I haven't run Masamune through you, yet."
"Sephy! You wouldn't dare! I keep you, Angeal, Zack, Cloud, even Sora in very high regard to be struck down. Yozora, though? Keep him the fuck away from me."
"You three are something else." Tifa said as her attention was brought to the door as it opened, revealing a girl dressed in a pink ensemble holding a flower basket. "Oh, Aerith! Hey! Listen, what do you think of this situation with Nick and the seven women who want to date or even share him?"
Aerith Gainsborough stared at her best friend like she was crazy as Genesis, Sephiroth and Tia all began explaining things at once..
Hisuian Inn, Southside..
Seventeen year old Cynthia Shirona snored quietly as her Lucario stood over her, the girl's phone in his hand. The jackal Pokémon barked a few times, earning no response. So, he pushed a wave of Aura over the girl, making Cynthia shoot up in bed, looking at Lucario sleepily. "Lucario?"
The Pokémon held the phone out, the screen open on a text thread. Cynthia looked at it and cursed as she jumped out of the bed and rushed to her closet. "I'm going to be late! I have to meet him at the library in an hour." She said, smiling to herself as she held a navy blue blouse against her chest. "It's not a date, but it'll help Nick see me that way, I'm sure." She giggled as she put the blouse back, picking another from the closet rack.
Heaven..
Michael was looking over the numbers about how the new world was progressing. All seemed fine, except it seemed there was always a spike in some form of energy whenever Nick was anywhere around the seven women who held feelings for him, all now being previously fictional characters before the world reset. Hell, a couple of those girls were actually men in the old world. He was fairly sure nothing bad was going to happen, but one could never be too sure, could they?
"Father, are you sure this is safe? You've put one boy with seven women, and yet none of them are actually together. What's your aim with this?"
God chuckled. "Honestly, Michael, I didn't expect to even exist at this point. I figured when we reset everything, even our existences would be reset and rewritten as well. Now that the reset worked without our own destruction, I think we'll need to observe the situation for a while. Honestly, these girls amused me much more than their original counterparts."
"Original counterparts? But, Father, weren't they all just fictional characters beforehand?"
"In a way, yes. While they share the same likenesses and personalities of those once fictional characters, now they are completely real in existence. With those alterations, however, it needed to come with some erasure. So, I implanted the seven girls you've now seen as the seven who would have tried confessing their feelings to the boy come the school year. With his accident happening during the summer, it has given Nick a chance to catch up with this world before school starts. When it does? Well, a high school full of different kinds of magics and powers can only be a dramatic, chaos-filled powder keg that I'm most interested in seeing through. I didn't do all the work setting this world up if I didn't intend to- hopefully- see it to fruition. As I said before the reset, Nick dying was the catalyst for at least one of those seven girls he had known to go insane and practically destroy the world. Admirably so, but my whole existence hinges on whether or not the people down there even exist."
"I get it, Father. Don't worry, I will only interfere with those issues you deem necessary. I hope you know what you're doing, Father. I have an inkling of a very bad feeling about it all." God nodded as Michael turned away..
A/N: This is a pet project of mine, one of three stories, two of which take place in alternate versions of the same setting, the city of Crystal Springs. The third is a SI/AU of Harry Potter, in pretty big ways honestly. This and the other are basically just a mishmash of fandoms all existing as one, with the first big baddie to be hinted at during the events of the next chaprer. Fandoms include Naruto, Bleach, Pokémon, Harry Potter, Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy, and plenty more as far as references go.
