The Schools
A modern-setting anime-style world where non-romance shounen and shoujo tropes such as ninjas and savants are actually separate races, split into seven factions known as Schools and separated from the regular people and from each other.
World Description
The World Itself
The world of the Schools does not have a name. By our standards, it would be considered small, with the area occupied by the Schools being at the center of the land and only stretching about 300 miles in diameter (about the size of Rhode Island), and the entire world a perfect circle stretching out to 2,000 miles in diameter (the length of Japan). It is a flat world with edges that people can fall off of (though there are plenty of signs and fences to prevent that), and it is frequently plagued by otherworld demons and monsters.
Besides the Schools, there are no magical people. Originally, the people of the Schools were part of the rest of the world normally, but they began to fight amongst each other, involving the ordinary people into their fight. So, individuals from each school got together, splitting up an area for each people away from the ordinary folk, and forming the 7-Alliance, an absolute authority council with representatives from each people to watch over the different Schools and make sure they don't get out of hand, but also protect their own School's interests.
As something of a parody-world, this universe has a large variety of influences including Sasuga no Sarutobi, Hidan no Aria, the Bartimaeus Trilogy, and basically every magical girl anime ever made.
Ninjas
Ninjas are users of the secret arts of ninjutsu specializing in stealthy assassinations and superhuman physical feats.
Martial Artists
Similar to the ninjas, martial artists are masters of physical ability. On the other hand, there is no “ninjutsu”-like magic to their abilities, nor do they specialize in stealth. They do use the elements to their advantage, such as heat, wind, smell, etc, etc, but cannot do things like form balls of water in the air or make people magically fall asleep like the ninjas do. Of course, people are separated by subsets, but they can’t be listed out here as there are hundreds, stemming from all different countries on OUR earth, that are separated by similarity in category, the most prominent separation being bare-hand versus weapon usage.
The more popular are, of course, the Asian martial arts, and different forms of fencing. By far this has the most variety of student types in both physique and temperament. No wonder, really, because rules of combat are extremely important as well as VASTLY different for different styles of martial arts around the world, and require very different types of bodies to be executed well. Chi is essential for both ninjas and martial artists, since martial artists are also capable of extraordinary, almost superhuman feats, despite the lack of the “magic” aspect, and it is this that separates them from simply "strong" Others.
Magical Girls
Each outfit, weapons, and magical abilities are dependent on the girl in question, what they manage to summon during their first high-stress situation. Thus, it is normal to find some magical girls whose power does not awaken until late in life. While they’re called magical GIRLS, and men born into magical girl families usually do not have any such summoning power, the actual teaching institutions within the School are typically co-ed, particularly due to the fact that some males do actually have the ability to summon weapons, outfits, and unique magical abilities, though of course, none so feminine as the girls do.
Boys without abilities are referred to as Blanks, and this is the only School where children are ever born without the abilities their people are known for.
Savants
The savants are known for their exceptionally quick ability to assess a situation with high precision, almost exclusively in times of high stress, using a kind of absolute calculation magic.
Seers
Similar to the martial artists, there are several subsets of seers. Clairvoyant, prophet, oracle, diviner, shaman all rolled into one. These people use different mediums to consciously divine the future either long or short-term. While all are part of the same School and go to the same teaching institutions, clairvoyants, prophets, oracles, diviners, and shamans use respectively: mental will power induced “flash forwards,” contact with a single being, a specific gaseous concoction to improve contact with a contracted being only one out of twelve, magic crystal balls and bones, special rituals potions and smoke as mediums (rather than stimulators) for contact with elemental spirits of which there are numerous. Shamans alone also have the ability to heal with their brand of magic.
In order of the most time-consuming to retrieve answers to the least time-consuming would be shaman, diviner, prophet, oracle, and clairvoyants. In return, however, clairvoyants have the least control over what they see and can see the shortest distance from the present. Oracles cannot prevent others from hearing their prophecies and only the most skilled can force their minds to retain memories of the cryptic words and images they spout, and prophets are only told what the single entity wants them to know.
Alchemists
Alchemists play with the various chemical elements and the ability to manipulate specific ones. Some specialize in changing the chemicals to different ones, while others specialize in using a single one without altering its properties, but manipulating at will. They are also creators and controllers of simulacra, though not golems.
Mages
Much like seers, mages are split into witches, magicians, warlocks, and sorcerers. Witches use specialized potions and concoctions typically “natural” in ingredients to affect people and enchant objects with the help of familiars. Magicians rely solely on the use of magical items such as rings and pendants, and are often paired with witches, as they cannot make magical items themselves but are more experimental potioneers. Warlocks, on the other hand, use spells and incantations found in ancient grimoires, and it is these that can summon other creatures, and create and control golems. Sorcerers and sorceresses, finally, unlike all the other mages, require no outside help at all to do magic. They perform a variety of magics, each unique to them from the time they’re born, much like the magical girls, but a lot more like the martial artists, they require a lot of instruction to learn to do their brand of magic properly.
Others
Known among the peoples of the 7-Alliance as Others, simply speaking, they are ordinary people. They do not belong to any School, and are specifically sheltered from the un-Others. They contract with members of the Schools and tend to treat them as mercenary organizations, but they are not allowed to actually enter the Schools themselves, and have to send in formal requests by mail.
The Schools
by firejay1
For the first time in history, the ninja School produces a child with no ninja abilities whatsoever. At first she is persecuted as an outcast, but later becomes embroiled in a plot that will lead to the reuniting of all seven of the increasingly divided and hostile factions. Unless it goes horribly wrong.
School 1: Home
In a moment of classic cliché, the black-clad ninja knelt in front of the bamboo screen respectfully. “You called for me, sir?”
“I have a task for you. As you know, the Yukikawa School you attend has long been at odds with the Akamori School. As a member of the council, and to stop the feuding” at which point the boy could hear his superior’s eye-roll as if he could see it “I have decided that you will marry the daughter of the Akamori School’s president.”
“What?!” The boy looked up at the screen in surprise, forgetting to be respectful. “But, dad, I-”
“Do not call me dad when we are discussing business, Shinya.” The man said, sharply.
“Yes sir.” The boy bowed his head again.
“Now tell me, do you have a woman you have interest in?”
“No sir.” It was the dead truth. He’d never taken much interest in girls, mostly because the majority of them had their eyes on his lineage, and not him as a person. The only girl who didn’t care about that was very much a sister to him. Well, thankfully not his real sister. His real sister was a demon with the face of an angel.
“Very well, then it is set.” A picture of a plain-looking girl grinning and making a peace sign at the camera, with a stunning, glaring, sharp-eyed beauty arms crossed some distance behind her, appeared out of nowhere, floating down in front of him. “Your object is the girl in the photo. You are to meet her and court her before the omiai.”
“Eh? Why?”
The man sighed. “This marriage was decided with the condition from her father that she approve of you herself, at least as a man. She has not been told anything about the omiai yet, so as not to be predisposed against you as a Yukikawa.”
“Understood.” There was a moment of hesitation, but the boy’s father knew his son was working up the courage to say something, so he waited, instead of dismissing him. “But… why me, and not the president of Yukikawa’s son?”
There was a grim silence for a moment. “True, that would have been ideal, but we tried that already. In the end, the president’s son harshly offended the girl and the two schools nearly went to war over it. You, the pride of Yukikawa, are being sent as a peace offering.”
“Not to be rude, but may I inquire as to how exactly he offended her, so I may avoid making the same mistake?”
“Ah yes, I forgot. The girl has an important friend, you can see her in the picture making a scary face at the camera. The friend might actually be more dangerous than the heiress herself. If you offend, bully, or hurt her in any way, not only will the omiai most likely be called off, you may tip the very narrow balance we are walking on right now, and not in the favor of either party. Do not make the mistake the other boy made. She understands her duty, but her father wants her to at least be able to respect and live in peace with her partner, and it is up to you to ensure the union is fulfilled.”
“Yes, father, I understand.”
“Good. You are dismissed.”
As the boy bounded away, he looked again at the picture. They were a rather odd-looking pair of girls. Oddly enough, the heir looked harmless and cheerful, while her friend seemed more like the type to inherit one of the most powerful schools of advancing ninjas, not the other way around, but then again, he knew very well he looked nothing like an A-class ninja assassin prodigy likely to inherit his father’s position as one of the Council, representing all ninja in the 7-Alliance, but that was just how things were.