Chapter 1

Damian stood in a vast dark room, looking at an enormous sword, reminiscent of a claymore perhaps. Though the blade was too wide. The color was pitch black with jagged cracks down one side. He didn't know what type of sword it was but it seemed to be gently urging him towards it. Hesitantly he reached out to touch it.

"That blade... Is waiting for someone," someone said, they sounded faraway.

"It's waiting? For who exactly?" Damian asked as he stared at it. His brown green amber colored eyes widened. 

"The right person." The voice responded.

"Wait who's talking—" Damian started but the dream ended.

He woke up in his bedroom. Various novels strewn everywhere, cookbooks, and jackets hung almost anywhere a hanger was present. His shelf holding the manga books was out of order, which meant his sister had been in his room. If she was going to be reading his books, couldn't she at least put things the way she found them?

He ran a hand through his shoulder length black hair, messing up the bangs and pulling the rest into a low loose bun held by a rubber band from somewhere. He stared in the bathroom mirror and grabbed a toothbrush.

"Teeth now, books later," he decided pointing the toothbrush at himself in the mirror.

After brushing his teeth he laid back down. Then rolled over, sighing as he stared at the cacophony of books not in order. 

"Nope that's enough of that," he remarked, putting the books in their respective order, with their proper series. JJK was at the top with AoT due to being heavily dark manga, along with a few others.That one cartoon that got a manga adaptation was last. When he finally got done he looked at the clock.

Deadpanning he got up to get started on breakfast. Leaving the room to enter the kitchen, Damian looked at the breakfast chart taped on the wall. 

"So you're up huh? I was going to make breakfast myself." A fourteen year old girl in a black, short sleeve sailor uniform and knee length skirt commented. Her brown hair had been pulled in twin tails. And right now her green eyes were aglow with mischief. 

"No you weren't," he snorted "not without me watching you to make sure you didn't add anything that didn't go in the meal in the first place"

"Yes I was," she refuted.

"Yeah then I'd get blamed by the fire department for you setting food on fire," he rolled his eyes and washed his hands. 

"You always tell me not to handle things without letting you know..." Lotte remarked. Then ran counterclockwise in a circlefor no reason.  "And I don't add unnecessary ingredients!" She shouted. 

'She's got a lot of energy... Must be because it's the last day of school.' he winced as he grabbed a grey towel to dry his hands. 

"You absolutely do. Yeah I remember the no cooking alone rule, thanks for waking me up with the manga books by the way," he commented.

"My pleasure! I knew seeing that sight would wake you," she remarked cheerfully. 

He looked up at the breakfast chart again and closed his eyes, pointing his finger at a random square on the chart. 

Opening his eyes he looked at what his finger pointed to: 'bacon and waffles'. In a very small version of Lotte's handwriting he saw the words 'add berry toppings'. 

"Alright time to get started on that," 

He mixed the batter for the waffles mentally noting things out loud as he did so. 

"Bacon should cook last because whenever I cook it first, someone always helps themselves to some pieces." He remarked just loud enough to be heard by his younger sister. 

"You must be talking about yourself," Lotte said innocently.  Over her school uniform she was now wearing a loose, somewhat puffy white jacket with ruffle detailing and a subtle leafy pattern. At the top it was adorned with several pink ribbon bows. 

"Denial is a river in Egypt, Lotte," he commented.

"Besides, you could stand to eat more, you're so tiny. I could probably pick you up with one hand." He hummed, stirring a little more to make sure there were no lumps in the waffle mixture.

"What?! No way" Lotte denied. "You're just tall! You are 6' 3"! Everything is tiny to you!"

"Mmhmm," he affirmed adding the mixture to the waffle iron. He set the bowl down just in time to see his sister charging at him. 

"Oi! Not when I'm cooking!" He protested so he didn't knock over anything. 

Lotte came to a screeching halt. Then he looked at the clutter of books on the breakfast table, as did Lotte. 

"Once again, Riley left his stuff here from when he stayed over to study trigonometry or whatever the hellish form of math you were doing yesterday was." Lotte commented.

"Oh? I'll hand it back to him when I get to school," Damian took the textbook from her to put on the sofa but a magazine promptly slid out when he opened it to see why the book wasn't closed all the way. 

In the corner of his eye, he saw Lotte had shoved the rest of the stuff on the table off onto the floor, carefully avoiding her Sanrio Kuromi lunchbox. 

Damian grimaced at the slime coated magazine. "Ugh I think some of the pages are glued together by that white stuff." 

Lotte walked over and leaned closer. Then cringed at the smell and backed away. "Gross! Throw it away," she said as she retreated.

"Your idea, you do it," Damian commented. Tossing the book aside he washed his hands and grabbed a platter to put the waffles on. 

"Huh?" She gawked. But her brother was back at making waffles. 

"Fine," she sulked.

She put her shoes on, grabbed some gloves and dumped the magazine in the trash bag by the door then proceeded to carry the trash out the door, not that it was a very large bag. 

At that moment he got a phone call. He dried his hands and answered it.

"Hello Riley - Oh that magazine?" Damian deadpanned.

"I threw it out." He replied. He braced himself for the outburst from his sister, who always protested when he took credit for her chores. Instead he only heard Riley and the faint chatter of insects outside.

The door was cracked slightly and through it he could see the trash bag sitting at the top of the dumpster. He did a double take. 'It's supposed to go in the opening on the top, not sit there unless the dumpster was full …'

"Aww man I really need that magazine" Riley said but he was half listening.

"Why is it some science experiment?" He asked sarcastically. 

'That's weird...' He looked in the living room that was strangely empty. The waffles and bacon were ready well the bacon had three more minutes left but that was different. The syrup sat on the table with a bowl of a collection of various berries.

'....Where's my sister?' he looked down the hall. Bathroom light wasn't on so she wasn't there. 

'Did she leave for school already? It'd be weird but not uncommon for her to leave ten minutes early-' his eyes fell in the open lunch box, leftovers from dinner occupying the empty space.

"Yeah right, as if she'd leave her lunch box," he snorted.

"Huh what are you -" Riley started. 

Damian interrupted. "I'll call you back, I need to see about my sister," and promptly hung up. 

A sigh left his lips. "I really don't like going to her school. All the girls her age start giggling for no reason when I show up. It's weird." He took off the green apron so his school uniform was properly visible. 

He approached Lotte's room, about to knock, then heard her talking.

"I know I have my responsibilities, but I don't want to just throw him to the wolves. I can't afford to be wrong again. Too much is at stake. More than just my existence," Lotte's voice quietly protested on the other side.

"Then come retrieve the Scales of Fortune. If you really need proof, your best course of action is to weigh his heart in them," a man's voice responded.

"No matter how kind he is to you, they'll reveal his true nature." The man commented. 

Inside the room, Lotte sulked, hanging her head lower. 

Damian chose then to knock and open the door. "Hey, if there's something going on you should tell me so I can he- eh?!" Damian started and stared shocked at the person he saw in place of where Lotte's reflection should have been. 

"Damian?!" Lotte blurted, stunned. The man standing in the mirror faded with a scowl and the entirety of the space began to glow. 

"What the fu--" Damian sputtered, averting his eyes from the brilliant glow. 

The full length mirror intensified the glow and with a flash, they disappeared. The mirror returned to normal.

In the new world, apparently beyond the mirror were lush green gardens, trees, the sound of a river in the distance. All the same the tranquility was off setting and Damian abruptly sat up in alarm as he processed the change in scenery. 

"Heh heh, it would be bad if my parents decided to come home for the first time in almost a decade," Damian chuckled nervously as he looked at his surroundings. 

Pouting next to him was a cute middle school age girl with a pale blue dress on. Her brown hair neatly pinned up in a braided bun. The pale blue sweater looked familiar with the small pink bows near the top. Though her green eyes reflected a whirl of emotions, none of them good -

Wait a minute.

"Lotte?! Where are we?" He demanded grabbing her shoulders and shaking her slightly.  "I have a confession to make," Lotte said, clearly suddenly nervous.

"Come to think of it, you're not wearing your school uniform anymore," Damian noted. 

"I'm a Guardian of the beautiful world you see before you," she declared. "This is Terravalonia,"