Chapter Text
“REAN!”
Alisa felt her throat ache as she jumped back, avoiding a rapid swing of Rean’s blade. How did it come to this? Readying an arrow in her magical bow, she fired off another shot toward Rean, aiming to injure him, not to kill him. “REAN! Snap out of this!”
They were right at the entrance of the underworld, and it was a lot darker and grimmer than Alisa ever expected. It was so dark that even with the glow of her magical bow, she could barely see where she was aiming. Right at her classmate… her lov—
So, this was where Rean was born? With the dark cloak and mask that Rean wore, it seemed like he was an entirely different person than the one she first met back at Thors. Voices in Alisa’s head were at odds with each other: this was not Rean, yet it was Rean at the same time. If she shot him through his heart, he would be gone forever. Yet, his actions and the army behind him ready to march on the human world were not Rean’s own.
To her left, Laura was going sword to sword with Jusis. Jusis was quicker; Laura was stronger. Their blades clashed with loud sound of metal against metal echoed obnoxiously through Alisa’s head, but she couldn’t let it impact her shot.
To her right, Emma was firing magic that met Crow’s bullets as both tried to keep their distance. The guns were one thing, but with every shot Crow stepped closer toward Emma, readying to drop everything and take a slice at her with his double-sided blade.
How had they all been so blind, unable to figure out that their own classmates were demons this entire time? And more so, how were they unable to prevent this tragedy from happening at all? Firing another arrow, that was in turn reflected by Rean’s Tachi, Alisa continued her fight to save her friends, Thors, and all of Erebonia.
~
“Mommy! Daddy! Look! She’s gonna transform! She’s going to beat the bad guys!”
~
When Alisa transferred to Thors Private School across the country from her home in Roer, she wanted nothing but to live a normal life. Ever since her father passed away, she had found herself growing more and more distant from her mother. It didn’t help either that the family’s maid, Sharon, was always taking her mother’s side of the argument. She couldn’t bear it anymore. She had to get out of Roer, and away from the Reinford name.
That was the long and short of it as to why Alisa found herself on the train for hours on end. With her mother’s current workload, she probably had at least a couple of days without her absence being noted. That was all Alisa needed though. Maybe, for once, her mom would be proud of her for taking the initiative.
~
“Watching anime again, Lady Alisa?” “Just the newest season of Pearl Cure. Want to watch it with me, Sharon?”
~
There was no way that Sharon hadn’t noticed Alisa sneak out of the Reinford HQ building, which doubled as her childhood home. Especially not in this bright red blazer that made her stick out like a sore thumb. But, even if Sharon had seen Alisa, she didn’t even walk over to say goodbye… maybe that was for her own sake though. Though her family’s loyal maid may have seen the young lady sneaking out, and essentially running away, to call attention to Alisa would have likely ruined her entire plan to go to Thors in the first place. Sharon was nothing if not clever… though, Alisa felt her heart drop to her gut whenever she thought back to home. And, she knew for a fact she was not missing her mother.
The train ride from Roer to Trista, a suburb of the nation’s capital, was a lot longer than Alisa anticipated. Maybe it was because it was the first time she was outside of Roer all by herself, maybe it was the fact that most of the other students were wearing green blazers, but nerves boiled up inside Alisa as she stared out the window. Of all the students on this train car, Alisa was the only one who wore red. Yet, even with the anxiety that she had boarded the wrong train, there was something else that Alisa couldn’t help but notice.
It hit her like a wave, all at once as she boarded the train. The only stop on the line before Roer was the small town of Ymir, so most of the seats were empty. But that didn’t explain the feeling that tugged at Alisa. It was as if she had dark butterflies flying around within her stomach, trying to break free by tearing through her skin. It was like malice was thick in the air, and Alisa was having trouble breathing through it. Must be the nerves: that was the only explanation. Soon, the train stopped in Heimdallr, and Alisa could finally get a deep breath of the capital’s industrial air. It smelt like Roer, even all the way out here. The capital may have less industry and factories than her hometown did, but it was undeniably still a city.
Yet, even having stepped off the train toward the connection already waiting at the next platform, Alisa felt the dark feeling follow her. At least, as she was boarding the second train, she noticed a young man with dark hair and a red blazer board the other car. At least she was going to the right school.
-
“Elise… No, stay back! Run! Go get Mother and Father!”
-
The memories of the first time Rean awoke to the demonic powers within him played through Rean’s mind. The last time he was on the surface, he had nearly killed his sister, if not for his father’s quick thinking to subdue him. After Rean’s full demonic potential was revealed, he had been called back to the underworld, to be its prince and ruling sovereign in the absence of the Blood and Iron King of Hell.
As of right now, the Schwarzers were likely the only humans that knew of the demon realm below the surface, so Rean had no reason to venture back to his hometown. For Elise’s safety, going back to Ymir wasn’t an option. To those outside of his family, he had just vanished without a trace, like he had never been born in the first place. There was no one else to visit.
There was no more Rean Schwarzer to those up on the surface. Rean’s only existence was this vast, empty castle.
The incident with Elise was attributed to his demonic nature but knowing that he was a demon didn’t quell the pain that built up in Rean’s head.
“Hey, Jusis?” Rean spoke up turning to the other man across the library from him. When he had come down from Ymir, one of the King’s underlings had assigned the second son of a prominent family of demons to Rean’s side. That was Jusis Albarea, who was replacing some books on the shelves of the otherwise empty library within the expansive castle. For as long as Rean had lived in the underworld, the castle was empty other than Rean, Jusis, Rean’s second attendant, servants, and the occasional representative of the king. Lately, though, Rean’s second attendant had been out of the castle on a mission that came from the one person in the realm whose word was higher than Rean’s.
Nothing interesting ever happened, except for the occasional bursts of pain from uncontrollable power making Rean see red. After those, he would wake up lying on the floor, with his attendants above him debating who’s turn it was to carry the princeling back to his quarters.
“What is it, Rean?” Jusis turned his head from the shelf, stepping off the stepladder that was against the shelf. Most demons would have simply used flight magic to float up to whatever shelf. But, unless he was tutoring Rean in demonic magic to try and prevent the outbursts, Rean rarely saw Jusis’ hands glow with the dark flames. Maybe, it was a subtle act of rebellion against his father or brother… Rean didn’t know. Jusis wasn’t exactly the talkative sort.
“I was wondering if you found anything about my… headaches.” Rean asked, standing up from the table in the library, walking closer to Jusis so the two didn’t have to yell at each other.
If Jusis’ theory was right, the headaches had been the first sign of the pain that caused Rean to lose control of his demonic powers. Often, Rean’s head would just hurt so much that formulating thoughts became next to impossible. By the time he regained his composure, his sword was already within his grip, and destruction already surrounded him.
“Not yet,” Jusis confessed, putting the last medical journal back on the shelf. “It may be a shock, but in the past, I feel as if a demon having an uncontrollable power where he loses himself and kills anything in sight wasn’t something that any demons wanted to cure.”
That… made sense. “I know,” Rean confessed, slumping down, and looking toward the ground, “But even if I could control this power, that would make me far more of an asset than if I’m just going around flailing around my tachi trying to kill anything in sight.”
Rean had more to say, but his voice caught as his eyes drifted down the bookshelf to right by his feet. Most books in a demonic library found themselves matching with a demonic color scheme: dark reds and deep blacks with golden lining, not too different to the colours Rean found himself wearing since coming to the Underworld. And yet, this book, though maintained the golden lining, had a bright pink cover dulled only by the dust that sat on the book’s spine. Through the dust, Rean read a word in the underworld script that he had not read in a long time.
-
“Elise? What are you playing?” “I’m a Magical Girl, Rean! I’m a beautiful heroine that fights with love!”
-
“Magical girls… Why does the demonic library have manga?” Rean mumbled, picking the book off the shelf, and flipping the book wide open.
Rean had only flipped a few pages into the book when he dropped the book to the ground. The entire book was filled with pages and pages of underworld script, detailing all sorts of words Rean had no hope of getting. Fatal Sparkle beam? Killer Friendship blast? Why—
Before Rean knew it, Jusis took the book from the ground and tucked it back on the shelf. “It’s not manga, Rean. That book is part of all the knowledge that has been recorded on magical girls. As in, the very real-life magical girls who go around killing demons that cause problems up on the human world.”
“Magical girls are real?!” Rean exclaimed, looking back on the book on the shelf in shock. “Then—that book— ”
“I heard girls, and I heard books!” A voice called from the library’s entrance, causing both young men in the room to turn toward the entrance. “If our prince is finally ready for reading some porn, I should be the one he’s going for recommendations! No offense, I don’t trust you, Jusis! You’re going to give our demonic highness some softcore nonsense where the women are still fully clothed. He’s the future king of the underworld, he needs something hard.”
Rean’s second attendant was the first of his kind. Crow Armbrust was born from two demons that lived above the surface for the longest time. Following both of their deaths, and the deaths of Crow’s grandfather as well, he returned to the underworld to enlist in the king’s troops. Eventually, he had found himself at the prince’s side.
Crow looked different though. His long, white hair was tucked back with a bandana of sorts. Instead of his usual cloak and armor, he wore a green blazer, and instead of guns or a two sided blade in his hands, he carried two small, brown packages.
“I’m not showing him porn!” Jusis yelled back across the library, looking at Crow before raising an eyebrow. “I am telling him about magical girls. Somehow, our prince here didn’t even think they were real.”
“Well, that makes sense.” Crow argued, putting the two packages down on a nearby table and going to take the book once again off the shelf. “Most people who aren’t in the demonic army, or are fancy nobles like Lordling Albarea here, haven’t heard of magical girls these days. They haven’t been threats for like, over two hundred years.” He flipped the book open, and ran his fingers over a random, off-pink ribbon. The edges of the ribbon were torn and frayed, and right by the edge of it, there was a stain that Rean knew to be blood. Human blood.
“I suppose that’s a fair point. I’m admittedly only aware of them due to my brother warning me of them some time ago,” Jusis confessed, looking over the page Crow was reading. “However, it’s mostly believed nowadays that the demons prevailed, and humanity has lost the power to awaken magical girls.”
Rean stared at the page, slowly taking in the information from both of his aids. The page described a girl that was no older than a human highschooler, who fought and killed dozens of powerful demons alongside a few other girls. However, Rean could not tear his eyes from the word written below the ribbon: terminated. Did that mean—Rean stumbled back, looking up at Crow and Jusis with wide eyes. “A highschooler—”
“That’s enough of that, though,” Jusis declared, once again closing the book, and replacing it on the shelf. “I presume that Crow has something he wants to share, considering his attire and… what are you even wearing!”
“It’s my school uniform!” Crow declared, holding out his arms and twisting, as if to show Rean and Jusis the varied angles of the outfit. The green blazer was a far cry from Crow’s usual clothing. Unlike his armor, it didn’t provide any protection, and the soft green stood out against Crow’s usual black and blues. “I can finally share the details about my super-secret mission I’ve been on for the past year!”
Jusis sighed loudly, putting his hand to his face and shaking his head at Crow’s display. It was somewhat of a miracle that the two retainers had gotten along with each other to this point. Or, whatever was the Underworld’s version of a miracle.
“Well?” Rean spoke up, walking over to the table where Crow had deposited the two packages. “What’s the mission then? What kind of mission has had you in and out of the underworld for a year, wearing a uniform for a human high school?”
“Well, your highness!” Crow teased, despite Rean’s many protests throughout the years for Crow to not use a title for him. “For the past year, I have been attending a private academy in the human country of Erebonia as an exchange student from Jurai, a little country-adjacent thing to the North and a little bit to the West. Apparently, some demons noted a weird power hanging around that school, and with my experience in the human world in mind, I was tasked to investigate it. Now, the king wants to double down, so he’s sending me back there… and the two of you, with me!”
A silence hung over the library. Jusis’ jaw looked like it was about to hit the floor… and Rean…
Rean had never met the king. He understood demons had their own practices for inheritance, and the fact that he was unrelated to the king did not matter as much as the fact that he and the king were allegedly similar in soul.
But for his first order from his predecessor to be to infiltrate a human high school… Rean looked over at the packages. What kind of secrets laid hidden in a human high school of all places? “What are we even—”
“Nice to see you two all excited!” Crow exclaimed, seemingly choosing to ignore Jusis’ slack jawed expression and Rean’s question. “Your cover stories basically write themselves. You’ll blend right into the awkwardness of high school, I promise.”
There was no real room for arguing. It was an order straight from the King, and as the future King of the Underworld, this was a part of his duty for his future people. If there was a weird source of power around some random school, Rean would be the one to snuff it out.
~
“When I grow up, I wanna be a magical girl! Just like Mama!” “Your mother really is magical, isn’t she?”
~
Alisa Reinford is ready for anything. She was strong, and totally prepared to face off against the terrors of private school and prove to her mother that she could be—
There were only moments between Alisa stepping out of the train station, and her feeling the stone pathway in front of Trista’s against her skirt. It was as if she had run into a wall and fallen right on her ass. Except, it wasn’t a wall standing in the middle of the path leaving the train station.
Whatever Alisa was thinking about before she left the train station was far out of her head. First things first, she reached for her pocket. At least her phone hadn’t cracked when she fell.
“Sorry about that!” A young man’s voice broke Alisa’s train of thought for the second time in only a few mere seconds. The young man reached his hand out, kneeling down on the stone by Alisa. “Are you okay? You aren’t hurt, are you?”
“No, I’m alright. Thank you for your help.” Alisa assured, putting her hand in the young man’s hand, and letting him pull her up. His hair was dark, but his eyes were a unique violet colour unlike any eyes Alisa had ever seen. Sure, red eyes weren’t common either… and yet, even after the confirmation that someone else was in Trista, wearing the red uniform, the dark feeling didn’t dissipate. In fact, as Alisa stood up, her hand in the young man’s, Alisa felt as if the source of the feeling was right in front of her.
This guy seemed nice enough though. He wasn’t giving off any red flags—yet. But, maybe he was one of those nice guys that Alisa watched people complain about on her social media timelines… Guys that only acted nice to try and hit on girls… Focus, Alisa. This was supposed to be a new start. This guy didn’t even know her name yet, for the better. If Alisa could have her way, only the teachers at the new school would know she’s the Reinford scion.
“I’m Rean Schwarzer,” The young man spoke up, a tad bit of teenaged awkwardness that Alisa was used to from her past schools. He held out his hand, as if they hadn’t already touched when Rean had pulled Alisa off the ground. “And this is my first year here at Thors.”
“I’m Alisa,” she responded, trying to keep her composure as she adjusted her skirt, making sure the fall didn’t dirty it. “And it’s also my first year. Maybe that’s what the red uniform is meant to mean, then?”
“I don’t know. There don’t seem to be enough of us in the red uniforms to make up an entire graduating class.” Rean answered, standing on the tips of his toes as if to survey the other arriving students.
-
Rean noticed Jusis stepping out of the car, a butler that was no doubt was a fellow demon in disguise. When Crow had said that their cover stories in the human realm wrote themselves, he was not kidding. Rean Schwarzer being from a prolific family of hot spring resort owners up north made sense, considering he still used the name of the wonderful family that had adopted him while he still lived among humans so long ago. But, it was shocking to learn that Jusis’ cover story was just as convenient.
Apparently, as a member of one of the more prolific demonic families, Jusis’ brother that Rean had never met had become an establish businessman and politician in the human world. Another cog in another machine that contributed to a scheme that even as the Underworld’s future ruler… Rean was not privy to at all.
But, apparently both Crow and Jusis were.
Jusis looked uncomfortable without his sword by his side, with his hand constantly reaching for his waist. Crow was thorough when he explained that for the sake of their cover story, the three of them were not acquainted with one another: just three guys from three different parts of the country. But, either way, Jusis wore the red uniform as well… Crow had never mentioned that their job would involve some acting.
Alisa’s eyes focused on Jusis, and Rean suddenly felt sweat falling from his forehead. He was prepared to pretend he had no idea who Crow and Jusis were, but it was also something he knew would be easier said than done.
…Maybe he shouldn’t hang around with someone else for too long.
~
“I guess that guy by that car is also in red, though.” Alisa pointed out, looking over where Rean had stopped and looked. “He seems to be a pretty important guy. I know that car model, but I don’t know who he is.”
“Well, I guess people like us who needed to take a train down here wouldn’t know who a guy who came in a car,” Rean answered, his feet falling flat against the ground again. “Well, I guess I’ll see you over at the opening ceremonies.”
…Like an arrow from a bow, Alisa watched as Rean walked ahead of her, across the small town and toward the towering school beyond the small shops and stone paths.
Well, maybe Rean and the blond guy coming out of the car knew each other? Or maybe all the red flags that Alisa was initially preparing for ended up being reality. That would make sense as the dark feelings Alisa was feeling inside of her dissipated with every step that Rean took away from her.
A few moments after Rean left Alisa’s sight, she decided to follow his footsteps along the stone path. The opening ceremonies were meant to start in half an hour, and Alisa still had to find where she was meant to leave her belongings before the ceremony even started.
There was not a moment to spare. Not even to the black cat that weaved her way through Alisa’s feet. Not even to the girl with glasses and braids who watched Alisa over the book in her hand, red uniform jacket making her stand out against the other students. Not to the girl with the blue ponytail, parting with her family’s butler, a large sword wrapped in cloth within her arms.
Not even to the headbanded boy, watching her run off, dragging her suitcase behind on.
She wasn’t around to hear that boy whisper to himself…
“Well, it’s best to take them out before they even know what they are. Good work, Princey.”