[ Tokyo Ravens x Type-Moon x Touhou ] - Fate/Dream Ravens
So I begin my first post as a random person here.
Why hello everyone~
I'm not that much of an old member, in fact, I used to be here for quite some time, but I've probably been forgotten by a greater part of the community I guess since I ghosted myself away for a couple of years.
Why am I not posting as my old self? Probably because I can't recall my old password, nor to which alternate mail account I had my thing bonded to. At any rate, turning over a fresh new page is fun.
Ignoring all this digression though, this is a project of mine which I've gotten the idea to write while doing a certain quest somewhere else. I don't really have words to describe this attempt of mine other than "Ambitious" and "Large-scale", but then, doesn't that fit to most writers?
Read below, and you'll understand hopefully a bit more what I'm trying to achieve.
Feedback as always is welcome, so is pointing out things that you think are wrong with my way of writing (I'm not a native English speaker after all), or just voicing your appreciation/curiosity/interest is always good to motivate me to work even harder on this project.
Now, without further ado...
[Click on image for larger sample]
|Summary|
Tsuchimikado Yakou left a great mark on the world when he released the secret of Magecraft to humanity. While few approved his daring move, the majority of the magic world branded him as a heretic, including the Mage's Association. Rumors of his reincarnation stir a new storm in the life of a Crimson Magus and a Shrine Maiden of Lost Paradise.
INDEX
Summary, Opening Info & Prologue
(In this post, below the INDEX)
Act 1 - Coming Storm
Chapter 1: Present Shaman of the Past Paradise
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Chapter 2: Red And White
Part 1 | Part 2 | ???
Chapter 3: ???
Part 1 | Part 2 | ???
Chapter 4: ???
Part 1 | Part 2 | ???
Chapter 5: ???
Part 1 | Part 2 | ???
Act 2 - ???
Chapter 1: ???
Part 1 | Part 2 | ???
Chapter 2: ???
Part 1 | Part 2 | ???
|Timline|
1884 A.D. - One of the last bastion of Phantasmal Beings in Japan, Gensoukyou, is sealed off the influence of modern humanity so that it preserves its essence.
1930s A.D. - On the Eve of the Second World War, the 3rd Holy Grail War of Fuyuki occurs.
1936 A.D. - The Second World War begins. Bolstered by Tsuchimikado Yakou's unprecedented revitalization of Onmyoudou Magecraft, and making it available for conventional use, Japan is a force to be reckoned
1945 A.D. - The Great Spiritual Disaster Occurs. Tsuchimikado Yakou vanishes and leaves in his trail great teachings, but also a great plague that defeats Japan under the form of Spiritual Disasters, after effects of the original one. It is rumored that Yakou completed the Taizan Fukun Ritual.
2004 A.D. - 5th Heaven's Feel occurs. The Grail is Destroyed by the Noble Phantasm Excalibur.
201x A.D. - One of Gensoukyou's residents dies in an accident. Hakurei Reimu steps down from her position as the Shrine Maiden of the Hakurei and then leaves for the Outside World.
Two years after - The Present
|Encylopedia & Facts|
Magecraft:
Magecraft is the ability to reproduce what can be scientifically realized regardless of time and funds. The limits of Magecraft have changed with time, as science evolved and sorceries from before became technically possible through science. However, modern Magecraft remains far inferior from that of the past.
Houjutsu
Houjutsu (方術／法術, Hōjutsu/Hōjutsu) is the other name given to the Thaumaturgical Theory of the Onmyoudou, a variant of the Chinese school of Thaumaturgy that uses the concept of yin and yang as foundation. The predominant system of Magecraft in Japan, it is ideologically incompatible with the Western schools of Thaumaturgy. A system that excels at divination, curses and the like, its most famous practitioner was Abe no Seimei. While it seemed to be following the same path as all the other kinds of magecraft in the world, Tsuchimikadou Yakou revitalized it for use in the Second World War.
Prologue
The sky was of an azure blue on this fine morning, nearly without any cloud. There were a few white speckles here and there, but for the greater part, Tokyo's heaven was at its purest.
For Tsuchimikado Harutora, it was a great way to start the day. The radiant colors gave the young man a light and energized demeanor as he walked down Shibuya's busy streets. Harutora wondered what the day held in store for him; with excitation palpitating inside, every new day at Onmyou Prep was a like new adventure.
It wasn't a lone adventure either.
“Harutora? Is something bothering you?”
A tomboyish voice reached his ears, a mild infusion of worry and curiosity embedded into its ever so light tone. To any one hearing it for the first time, they would only be thrown into confusion by such a beautiful voice, which while having masculine undertones, forever hovered close to the boundary of the feminine. Was it a girl or a boy that spoke?
Harutora didn't need to ask himself this question, since he had gotten used to it ever since he arrived at Onmyou Prep. Looking to his side, he smiled at the young 'boy', who with such a slim figure, sooth fair skin, and silky waist-length hair, fitted the adjective 'beautiful' a lot more than 'handsome'.
Well. Tsuchimikado Natsume was a girl in truth. That he knew too since a long time ago, but it didn't mean that he had become accustomed to it. There were times where he wished the family tradition which forced Natsume to crossdress as a boy in front of strangers simply didn't exist. Thinking of it reminded the Harutora how much it added unnecessary pressure onto Natsume's already heavily burdened mind.
“Oh, don't worry. I'm just day-dreaming as usual,” Harutora answered casually He mostly aimed to elicit some comfort with his nonchalant attitude and high spirits. It seemed to have worked when Natsume smiled back, but then...
“Hey, you shouldn't daydream that much. As my shikigami, it is very important to remain vigilant at all times!”
Natsume always loved to preach about what the duties of a shikigami should be. While it was somewhat cute to see his childhood friend act so strict, the novelty had worn off some time ago, and Harutora only wished that she could take life a little bit more easily. The circumstances surrounding them at times were already tough enough.
“Yes, yes, Master.”
“Sigh, stupid-tora, do you even listen to other people?”
Natsume let her complaint out, but she didn't seem interested to follow up on it, much to Harutora's relief. That girl could get very persistent at times, in fact, so persistent that whenever things came to that point, Harutora could not even consider saying 'no'. A white flag raised before the battle even began, truly.
Whom else fit that description already? The question momentarily slipped inside his head, but he had little time to ponder over it as Onmyo Prep came into sight.
“Well, looks like we're there.”
“You don't say, stupid-tora?” a deep voice added, not doing any effort to hide the sarcasm behind it.
Ato Touji always loved to tease others, especially Harutora. It wasn't something though that the latter made a big deal out of, since the two have been very close friends for a long time. Harutora really felt like he could call Touji a brother at times – well, weren't they already that, brothers that is?
As Touji and Natsume laughed in silent complicity, Harutora thought he could probably just laugh too. Not in self-derision, but because he was happy of having such great friends by his side. One a caring girl that he himself equally cared about, a precious gem from the past which he had found once more – even if she was a bit too caring at times, and the other, a young man with whom he shared an unshakable brotherhood.
Friends. There were also Kurahashi Kyouko and Tenma Momoe, two others with whom he had come to share a strong bond, and then, even the entire class was quite the amicable one.
Coming to Tokyo really was the best thing that had happened to Harutora in a while, or could he say... in a lifetime?
As the three friends walked into Onmyou Prep and made their way towards their classroom, nothing that seemed unusual caught their eye.
Following them though, or rather, walking right behind them out of coincidence, was this girl none had ever seen before at the school. She wore the establishment's uniform, and was bound to the same destination as Harutora, Natsume and Touji – the very same class.
A transient butterfly fluttering after the Ravens
......
The news of a transfer student coming on this day held the class in quite the agitation. Left and right, Harutora heard gossips on how it was “a beautiful girl of the countryside”, and that “she is of the ice-type, always bland and emotionless.” While he tried to distance himself from all this hype and chatter for the sake of keeping up a relatively good and “sage” image, just so that Natsume wouldn't come down on him with all the dishonorable shikigami business... Harutora couldn't help from giving in a bit to curiosity.
“I wonder if everyone was talking like that on the day we enrolled in?” Touji commented, leaned back on his chair at Harutora's left, carefree as always.
“Might've been the case,” Harutora replied. There had been... quite the commotion on the day that both him and Touji were introduced after all.
“Was it?”
Touji had a knowing smile.
Harutora glanced at Natsume who was also sitting right next to him, the girl diligently revising the material Otomo-sensei had gone through yesterday. Her gentle, focused expression was somewhat cute and soothing to see. It was just one of the many faces that Natsume could make though – and talking about transfer students reminded Harutora of that one heated dispute she had with Kyouko on the day of his arrival. Was there going to be any commotion as big as what had happened back then?
In hindsight if the transfer student was just a 'mystery from the countryside', then there'd be no reason for anyone to antagonize her here. Harutora somewhat had expectations that she'd have a much more peaceful introduction than the one he did.
He'd know soon if he was right or not.
The sound of a a cane tapping onto the floor's tiles could be heard as the homeroom teacher, Otomo Jin, walked the few last steps he had to before being able to cross the classroom's door. Behind him without doubt, the transfer student would follow.
Trailing humbly after the one-legged professor, a young girl in Onmyo Prep's casual uniform appeared. She had a fairly traditional haircut decorated by a large red bow, her long dark brown hair gently undulating like a field of sublime grass under the morning breeze.
“Hello there everyone~ It looks like you've already caught wind of it, but why don't we all get a seat to properly welcome our new friend here?”
Otomo Jin spoke as always in a fairly relaxed and nonchalant way. There were times where Harutora found it really hard to understand what kind of teacher Otomo-sensei was, with his lack of strictness. He seemed more like someone that had picked up the job and was winging everything on the spot – yet he did do an admirable job at it. Maybe it was just his unusual style.
All students were quick to obey Jin's friendly suggestion, and in a matter of seconds, the chatter that had animated the room so much turned into total silence.
Harutora could feel it, the weight of all the glares that poured onto that transfer student's shoulders. A weight so heavy it felt like a world was coming down on her.
“Well then,” Jin began once he made sure that all had settled down, “I am pleased to announce to you that we have a new student joining us today. Be my guest, do introduce yourself young lady.”
At the man's words, which were a bit overly courteous for a mere homeroom teacher, the girl took a few steps forwards as to present herself to the rest of the class. She glanced around silently, appearing neither nervous nor over excited - she just had that peaceful, somewhat indifferent expression. Having glanced at all the students, the girl took in a light breath... then, she spoke, in voice filled with the tranquil whispers of transience.
“Greetings, it is a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Hakurei Reimu, and I look forward to spending a good time with all of you here at Onmyou Preparatory School.”
She spoke the minimum, not really giving that much information about herself. But was it even needed? All the students could only watch in silent amazement as she gave her formal bow. She bent with such grace and elegance that literally, there was no difference between her and the ideal rice stalk bending to the wind.
There was good, there was great, and there was perfect. Reimu's bow was beyond perfect, floating above reality. In a gesture, she managed to capture the essence of the supernatural, as if a goddess herself had moved.
While the class looked at Reimu in amazement, Harutora had a little bit of a different reaction. A vision which did not belong to this world took hold of him - the Tiger saw the image of a butterfly fluttering in its last moments towards a fire. It greatly confused him... and deep inside, planted the seed of worry.
Harutora had the impression that this wasn't an actual greeting that he had seen, but an ongoing requiem which Hakurei Reimu couldn't part herself from.
Yes. He saw sadness hidden behind that peerless, yet so simple serenity she displayed.
Was it intuition, or just him having been drowned in her aura?
Harutora didn't have much time to think about this, because lecture was about to start. If Natsume caught him dozing off or being absent-minded, 'unpleasant' things could follow, including an increasingly heavier cram course. The latter wasn't of course the worst thing on the list.
The day was going to be a long one.
|[]|
A woman in her early twenties stood atop this skyscraper, observing the neighboring Onmyou Preparatory School. Her raven-black hair and crimson coat flowed as a strong wind blew – she stood well over a hundred meters above the ground after all, the currents of air were nothing to be scoffed at.
It was nothing unfamiliar to this person though, such a kind of sight-seeing that is. Back in her hometown, she used to head to the top of a skyscraper too and observe the events transpiring below, as for to magically reinforced eyes, having a sight like an eagle's wasn't that much of a difficulty. Bird's eye's views were always the best for tactical observations.
This magus wasn't here though to spy or do any secretive information gathering, but to get a feel of what the environment was like. She had come to Tokyo before, but never had she lingered to long in the area – work and other duties rarely kept the Crimson Magus in place, except when she had to tend to the land she owned.
Now though, there was an actual mission – one of surveillance. She was to be an observer... and if needed, intervention wasn't out of the mandate. Hopefully though, there would be no such time in the coming future. That is what she wished for, even if she reckoned that it was quite the wishful thinking.
As the Crimson Magus was lost in her thoughts, the sound of metal hinges grinding reached her ears.
Someone had opened the rooftop's door and joined her.
Or... something - a cat.
“Enjoying the view, Tohsaka-san?” the cat spoke in a perfectly human language, its timber, tone and pitch all having the traits of an old lady.
To the Crimson Magus' trained eyes, it was obvious that what spoke to her here wasn't a shape-shifted individual, but nothing more than a familiar, or as they were called in Houjutsu, a shikigami.
Tohsaka turned around to face the cat, giving it a small greeting bow. From a third observer's perspective, this would look like a very silly scene, but Tohsaka knew that there was only one person she was supposed to meet here, and that said person was one of high rank – Kurahashi Miyo, headmaster of Onmyou Preparatory School.
“You could say that it's different from London and Fuyuki,” Tohsaka answered.
“Aha, I should really go visit both of these places some times, but that'd be troublesome for you, wouldn't it be?”
“Quite. While I wouldn't mind hosting you in Fuyuki, there'd be more than one hostile head towards you at the Clock Tower.”
“How unfortunate.”
Silence slid in between the two. Rin stared at the cat, and the cat stared back at her. The Crimson Magus wondered about what there was to be said, as the details of her mission had already been outlined - what could come from out from this talk? Was this old lady probing her or checking up on the strange specimen which would soon join her school?
It was true that a Magus from the Mage's Association merely interacting on friendly terms with Japan's Onmyou departments sounded outlandish, with both parties having ideals that conflicted so much.
But this old lady wasn't here out of suspicion or just to show that she remained on her guard – the cat's eyes held a stare imbibed with nostalgia, the very same its master had at this moment.
Most importantly, the eyes of the cat were set not on Rin, but at the ethereal being standing next to her, invisible from normal sight.
“That is a splendid familiar that you have. Even if I can't see it, I can already feel a spiritual pressure harkening back to that one time... when 'he' summoned his own.”
“He”?
Rin took some time to process the implications of the old lady's words, repeating that so mysterious 'he' after her. The affectionate way she had spoken though... it could only refer to one person. Tsuchimikado Yakou. It eventually clicked in with the crimson magus, to which point she looked back up at the cat.
“So he did participate in the third Holy Grail War.”
The cat smiled after letting out a faint chuckle.
“This is quite nostalgic. Your ancestor questioned me with that very same gaze, you know? Noble eyes, and a refined, elegant demeanor. Yakou often said that Tohsaka was the 'Eagle' to his 'Raven'.”
Whatever words Tohsaka Rin replied to Kurahashi Miyo, they were lost in the sudden draft of air that blew them away.
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Originally Posted by shiningphoenix
