{PROLOGUE}
A boy no older than ten opens suddenly his eyes. He looks around him, seeing nothing but complete blackness.
"Where am I?" He asks himself somewhat spooked by the dark surroundings.
He then looks down at his hands, and notices how he is able to see them normally despite the darkness around him.
"Oh..." He stays silent like that for a few seconds before looking at the darkness before him again, having realized something.
"Am I dead?" He asks himself once more.
When he did that, fast flashes from his memory shows him walking toward the other side of a road, and a vehicle moving at high speed toward him, without him noticing anything till the very end.
The boy remains seated on the black ground, trying to cope with the fact. But he can't. His world comes crashing down, as he starts rubbing his now filled with tears eyes from the bitter revelation.
"It's not fair..." The boy says as he weeps. "The little person in the pole-thing was glowing green. I could pass!"
He continues to weep like that for some more time there.
"Mom..." He says as he weeps.
"Dad..." He says in the same despair filled manner.
"Sad, isn't it?" A voice coming from behind the boy says suddenly, with the said boy turning his head around in surprise to look at whoever said that.
What he sees is a black desk, outlined by grey lines, the only thing that makes it visible in this blackness, before noticing a person being seated behind it. The man behind the desk, indicated by the masculine voice earlier, is wearing a black cloak which is also outlined in grey like the desk, with his hood having two inwardly curved points at the sides of the top, somewhat resembling the letter M.
His face could not be seen through the opening of the hood at all. Only blackness like the cloth itself and the room. He currently has both his elbows upon the desk, with his hands placed together.
"For a boy so young to die like that." The cloaked person continues. "Truly a shame how the world can be at times."
That moment two glowing red eyes appear through his hood, catching the boy by surprise as he pushes a bit himself away from the hooded stranger startled. Then a scary thought comes to the boy's mind.
"A-Are you...?" The boy says, afraid to finish that sentence as he trembles scared.
"Oh-ho, no, no!" The cloaked person shakes his head amused as he responds to that. "I'm not related to big G. or the downer D. in any way."
He then places a hand at the chin of his hood in a contemplating manner.
"I think..." The cloaked person says unsure now.
The boy can only look at him confused after hearing that. The stranger then brings forward the same hand again in front of him and toward the boy, palm facing upward as if expecting from him something, and suddenly a chair appears before his desk, much to the child's furthest surprise.
"Take a seat, small one." The cloaked person says to the boy. "We have much to talk about you and I."
The boy just looks at him for some seconds, unsure about it, before finally deciding to get up, approach the desk, and take a seat on the chair placed for him. The boy is worried, but at the same time curious as he looks at the person with the cloak.
"Now then-" The cloaked stranger begins. "Some introductions are needed before everything else. You may call me Kremant, little guy. And you are?"
"I'm... Aristidis." The boy answers rather hesitantly, understandably wary of the mysterious figure behind the desk.
Kremant nods. "Well, Aristidis, I know you're a smart kid and all, but I'll say this just to be clear. You died."
The boy lowers his head at the sound of that, with tears starting to form in his eyes like before.
Kremant snaps his fingers once and loud to get the boy's attention, snapping him out of his sadness for the moment as the boy raises his head to look at him.
"I know it's distressing, but you must not let that get you down. I know you're much smarter for your age and you can understand a lot better situations like this. What happened happened, and you should focus on the "now"." Kremant says.
The boy simply looks at him for a moment longer, before lowering his head again in sadness. In the meantime, Kremant pulls out from below his desk a piece of paper, which he proceeds to look at.
"I hear you have great scores at school." Kremant says while still looking at the paper.
That gets the attention of the boy as he lifts his head to look at Kremant once more.
"Not only that, but a great memory as well. I know from a fact that you don't really get crazy about learning stuff in school, but thanks to that memory of yours you were able to get to the top of all your classes without an issue." Kremant says before looking at the boy. "I will be lying if I say that's not impressive."
The boy is about to speak, but Kremant cuts him off with an upwardly extended palm of his equally like the rest of his being pitch-black hand. "I also know how much you like comics, manga, and the such. You always loved those varied stories and scenarios. So much that you know most of them in such detail, that they would say YOU are the one who gave the ideas to their creators."
The boy can't help but feel flattered, while Kremant in the meantime places the paper below the desk again. But at the same time, the boy now can't help but wonder about something.
"Who..." The boy begins a little hesitantly. "What are you supposed to be if not-"
"Now, now." Kremant cuts him off with a finger extended upward. "I can understand your curiosity at this point, but we both know this is not about me here, now is it?"
Kremant moves his head a bit forward, as he looks at the boy with his intensely glowing red eyed gaze.
"What you really wonder about, is What happens to me now?" He says to the little one while mimicking perfectly his voice.
The boy is a bit creeped out with the way the cloaked man said that one to him, but after a few seconds he simply nods in confirmation.
Kremant straightens himself back normally on his seat. "Exactly, my little pal." His expression then turns serious. "Now listen. I know that losing everything and everyone important to you in such a way is hard, I really do."
The boy at the sound of that brings back his saddened face.
"But you should not be sad." Kremant says, which draws the confusion of the boy.
Kremant continues. "As surprising as this sounds, this was in the program. Your life on Earth had to come to an end early." His tone then turns back to the usual. "Don't ask me why, it had to happen for some reason. But despite that, this is not the end for you."
"Huh?" Is all the boy can respond with to that.
"Isn't that great?" Kremant says in a cheerful tone. "Normally you would go to either Heaven or Hell, Heaven for you most likely, but instead you get one more chance in life! In another world that is. Not many get to be so lucky. So, good for you!"
As he says that, an applauding can be heard from everywhere that moment, with the boy being stunned by the information he just received, trying to process it. After some more seconds the applauding ceases.
"I... Why?" The boy asks too confused and surprised to find better words to use.
"Because-" Kremant begins as he gets up, showing to be quite tall, moves forward as his lower half phases through the desk, which surprises the boy for a moment, before stopping right in front of him. "I saw something in you."
Kremant places a hand on the boy's shoulder. "And letting that go to waste, is not how I work."
Kremant lets the boy and gestures him with a finger to get up, which the boy does so.
"Consider yourself something like a chosen one. Because I will reincarnate you not as just another normal human, but as something more. You can even think of yourself as the protagonist of your own story if you want to." He tells to the child who is unsure of how to respond through the constant bombardment of surprises Kremant keeps on giving. But then immediately screams in excitement as his eyes get all starry-like.
"That means I'll get to shoot fire from my hands, or fly around the sky, or-" The kid starts speaking loudly about all the possible super power ideas that comes to mind, till Kremant stops him by closing his mouth with a hand.
"Easy there, kid." Kremant says amused by the kid's reaction, before taking his hand away. "But to answer your excitement, depending on how you use the power I will give to you, you might just BE able to do all those things too."
The boy looks at the cloaked being as if looking at a store with free candy. With such an excitement that the previous sadness has been totally forgotten.
"Anyway, here is the catch in all of this." Kremant says as he crouches close to the boy and placing an upward palm in front of their faces, as a sphere of light appears there, before becoming as big as their heads, and becoming less bright till it looks like a blurry bubble. The boy looks at the whole thing with amazement.
"Look carefully, friend." Kremant tells him. "That's how you will look once reincarnated."
The scene moves in a way that shows the two looking at the bubble, but without the viewers/readers able to see what exactly they look at.
The boy looks at it confused. "That- Why am I-"
"The real question is, why not?" Kremant says by cutting him off. "See it that way, you will be unique."
The boy looks at him for a moment, then at his future image, before he decides to shrug about it.
"Also-" Kremant starts, with the scene then moving in a way for the viewers/readers to be able to look at the bubble as well now, with the image inside shifting, before showing now within it the face of a very well known pink-haired girl.
The boy looks somewhat surprised. "Anime girl?"
"And apparently not one you know about." Kremant responds. "From quite an old anime. This girl you see here is Louise Francoise Le Blanc De La Valliere."
The boy looks at Kremant with a look that obviously questions whether he is serious about the name or not.
"Aristocracy." Kremant says with a shrug. "They love their big names, what can I say?"
The boy "Ohs" in understanding.
Kremant turns his head to the kid. "And just so you know, and to bring out the meme, anime is real."
The boy looks at him shocked. "Really?!"
Kremant chuckles "Oh yes, my little friend. Anime, cartoons, and all the stories in general that have ever been created, are as real as you and I."
The boy looks at the girl's image, then at Kremant, then at the image again, unable to respond in any other way to the incredibly surprising for him revelation that he has just been given. Then as he looks at Kremant, a big smile starts to form on the boys face, trying to contain his newfound excitement and understanding of what Kremant is pretty much trying to say, but waits for him to explain as he holds his big smile.
"BOY, and they say MY smile is creepy." Says Kremant as he looks at the boy amused, which makes the boy realize himself and drop the smile while rubbing the back of his head in awkwardness.
"Anyway, back on topic." Kremant begins once more. "In roughly ten years from now, this girl you see here will perform a summoning ritual spell, to summon something the students of the academy she attends to in that world call: Familiar Spirit."
"Huh? What is that? Like a Guardian Spirit?" The boy asks rather unsure.
"Not far from truth." Kremant answers. "But it varies depending on WHAT each student summons. They usually summon animals at those ceremonies, and not all are big or unique. Most are outright normal domestic animals, so you can understand."
The boy sweat drops at that. "What a waste of a spell, just to get a pet."
"But here is the surprising difference." The cloaked being says with excitement, before pointing at the girl in the bubble. "SHE will summon YOU."
The boy looks at Kremant with wide open eyes, and then points silently at himself.
Kremant nods. "That's right. You will be summoned by her to be her Familiar."
The boy remains silent for a moment, and then looks troubled. "Eh-Sh-She will not treat me like pet, right?"
Kremant pops the image bubble with a sharp finger, and places a hand on the chin of his hood in contemplation. "If you play your cards right from day one, I don't think so. But don't you worry-"
He goes fast around the boy and crouches down before placing an arm around his shoulders, as he then makes them both walk forward. "Your universal godparent Kremant will give you some basic knowledge about their world's society, to get an idea or two about how to approach the future to come situation properly like a boss."
"Godparent?" The boy questions.
"Go with it." Kremant whispers simply.
As Kremant straightens up, while still keeping a hand behind the boy's shoulder as they walk together, a swirling circular portal that moment appears some meters in front of them, much to the boy's near-silent amazement.
"Tell me." Kremant gains the boy's attention. "You know about the DC Universe, right?"
"Who doesn't?!" The boy answers shocked at the fact Kremant asked him something that he believes to be common knowledge among fans his age.
Kremant chuckles. "Relax. I know you know. Now what I'm trying to say is that the power I will give you, is inspired by one as such from that place."
The boy turns his head as they walk to look up to him with surprise.
"Can you guess after our little talk what power that is?" Kremant asks.
The boy tries to remember the previous conversations, but has a hard time putting the puzzle pieces in his mind together.
Kremant decides to help a bit. "I'll make it a bit easier for you. The power belongs to a super villain who fought against the Justice League."
The boy tries to narrow down the possibilities, but just can't seem to be able to pinpoint the power Kremant could be talking about, which makes the frustration in the kid's face obvious.
"Really?" Kremant asks, and then shakes his head. "You disappoint, Aristidis."
The boy lowers his head in shame, not believing that he cannot remember that one power Kremant is referring to.
"Well, here is another hint for you." Kremant says, and then brings an open palm in front of the boy, before energies gather around and in front of it, and manifesting as a large closed tome. The said tome has a thick black leather for covering, with white papers pages being apparent from the side in the middle of the two coverings, and from the inner parts of the two coverings of the said tome is a golden colored design of a meander complex in each side, with the top cover having in big golden words in the middle as title: TALES AND FABLES: MULTIVERSAL EDITION.
The boy looks at it for a moment, and then gets shocked in realization of what person's power Kremant was talking about. He looks at the cloaked being once more, who now has a big grin filled with triangular teeth like a cartoon shark in his face, as he looks at the boy himself.
"I will explain how your power works exactly once through. One thing for sure, you will have MUCH of reading to do." He tells to the still shocked boy as they pass through the portal, with it closing right behind them.
{END OF PROLOGUE}
[AUTHOR: Hey there, everyone. I'm back with a new story! In case you're confused, those who know me, I am leaving the script based writing to adopt the one you usually see around Fanfiction, out of inspiration. Now I know what some will ask: "Why the Familiar Of Zero and not How Not To Summon A Demon Lord?" Two reasons for that. One: Because only two fan votes on the Fanfiction Pole for the second one are not enough of a reason to. And two: Because I was bored and needed to write something since the other idea was not acceptable enough. So here we are with one of the classics. In any case, I hope you will enjoy the story from here onward, and I'll see you all on your next reading session.]