Chapter 0
Unknown time and place somewhere in the final 'dumping ground' for the discarded remnants of countless other destroyed and now lost worlds - evening.
"... ey! ...ke ... p!"
"..."
"...i! Oi! Wa... p! Wak... up!"
'...Nn...?'
"Hey! Get up already!"
*BONK!*
'...!' "...Ngh!"
Feeling a sudden, stinging sensation on his forehead that accompanied the cute but annoyed voice practically yelling at him to get up, the young man who (apparently) was fast asleep until just then slowly sat himself up as he clumsily rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and pain from his forehead away only to glimpse the figure to whom said cute but annoyed voice belonged to.
"...Huh?"
"...Hm?"
"..."
She was... a little girl, with wings? ...Flying in front of him?
"...A, fairy...?"
"?" The small, slender girl with shortish bluish, violet hair styled in a loose bob, a fair complexion and bright friendly looking green eyes curiously tilting her head to the side as she took in the sight of the confused and still clearly not fully awake young man seated in front of her before pointing a finger at herself and asking. "You mean, me?"
"...Uh, I guess? I mean, you're the only one here who's like, four or so inches tall with wings flying around in front of me so..," the man flatly replied now that he was finally a little more awake. "By the way, were you the one who... did whatever it was you did to my forehead?"
"...Oh, Well, that makes sense. And yup, that was me! But hey, what else was I supposed to do? You wouldn't wake up no matter how much I tried so I didn't really ave a choice but to bonk you! Hey, at least I didn't use magic on you!"
"...Okay, fair I guess... And magic? Really?"
The apparent pixie nodded. "Uh huh, Watch!"
"?"
"... Eeiii!"
*ZZZAAAAPPPPZ!*
Following the direction the little fairy was pointing, the young man's eyes widened in total shock and surprise as he jumped up at the sight of a bright, light bluish aura surround her body before a bolt of lightning suddenly manifested in front of her and and launched itself at the wall in front of them, eliciting a loud crack and many sparks to fly from the impact.
"...Holy shit! Now fucking way! Was, was that really... magic!?"
"Hm? well, yeah. We may not look it, but Pixies are pretty good at wind, lightning and healing spells y'know! ...Though only the basic level stuff..," the blue haired fairy proudly declared, well... mostly. She did trail off there a bit there at the end. Fortunately for her, the still in shock young man was too stunned to notice and only really heard the first part.
"...Yeah, I'm really glad you didn't use whatever that was on me!" the young man said, now very, very grateful that all he got was a bonk to the forehead. "... A, anyway. Where even is this place?"
"Huh? Uh, dunno!" cheerfully replied the bluish, violet haired fairy after half a second of thought.
"...Okay, never mind me, what were you doing here then?"
"Cuz, I live here? And it's full of neat things I can trade for macca and other useful stuff!"
"... 'Macca'? The hell's that?"
"You don't know what macca is? Well, here! Look!" Then, as if out of thin air, the little winged bluenette produced a bronze coin slightly larger than a quarter that was engraved with a strange symbol on it.
"...So, macca is what passes for money around here, wherever 'here' is?"
"All I know is that some traders won't give me anything unless I have some macca to trade with. If that's what 'money' is then I guess it's money, or whatever. Oh, but it's really only Hollow Innocents that want stuff macca though. Demons like me usually just either trade or take what we want or need."
"The heck's a 'Hollow Innocent'? And did you say 'demon'? Anyway, if you just find or take stuff, then why use macca at all then?"
"Cuz sometimes it's just easier to use macca then to fight all the time?" the pixie replied as if the answer were obvious. "Besides, it's not like every demon in this world is some brutish savage that only ever resorts to violence, right? If we can get stuff just by trading or something like that, why wouldn't we?"
'...True. I mean, she's apparently a demon and we're having a conversation just fine.' "Okay, that's fair," the young man said, nodding his head in agreement before moving on. "So, yeah... Where the heck is this place and who even are you?"
"Oh, right... Uh, everyone living here calls this world 'Lionadh Talun', or the 'Junkyard', whichever works for you I guess. As for this place specifically? I dunno, but it's my home now! And before you ask, no I don't know when or how you got here. In fact... I was hoping you could answer that but..."
"...Right. All I know is that I fell asleep right after pulling another late night shift at work and then, the next thing I know is... well, meeting you."
"Oh, so you don't have amnesia at least. That's good."
"...Uh, no? Like, I can remember my name and what I did before I fell asleep anyway. Oh, and it's Ley by the way. Ley Archer. What about you? What's your name?"
"Me? Uh, I'm just Pixie but, all pixies are Pixie... which I suppose might be kinda confusing for you non-demons, huh? You can call me something else if you want, or don't, I don't really care either way. Actually... wait. It, might be nice having a name of my own. Well, you can think about that for me while I show you around, 'kay?"
"...Sure? I'm warning you now though, I'm not the best with the whole naming thing so don't get mad and zap me-
"Hey! Don't be rude!"
"-over it, alright? And yeah, getting a look around would probably be the smart thing to do for now, huh," Ley replied as he stood up and did a little stretch to get the post sleep kinks out of his system. "Okay, lead the way."
"Yup! Follow me!"
With a happy little twirl and giggle, the unlikely pair of human from who knows where and the little the little demon who found him set out on the first of their many, many adventures together in this strange, unknown world.
xxx xxx xxx
A/N:
The Pixie here is visually based on the Pixie design from Soul Hackers but shares much more rolewise with the Pixie from SMTIII: Nocturne