☆ GoF . HISTORY

[denouefate]

 The Game of Fate world is an Earth with magic. History reflects what you would find in a textbook, except that inventions tend to come sooner and conflicts start and end more rapidly thanks to the influence of magic. For example, World War II was ended more swiftly due to magic used on both sides to cause more damage faster or gain ground faster. Inventions no longer needed one thousand mistakes before a success, as the miracle of magic allowed inventors to bypass their mistakes and speed right to success. It's the year 2000 at the start of the story, but technology reflects well beyond 2010.

However, not all of the world knows that magic exists. Magical society is a well guarded secret because there are people out there that would not hesitate to slaughter magic users in cruel witch hunts-- a fact evidenced by this world's history, when witch hunters began killing innocents (The early witch hunts in this world were not misunderstandings, but the paranoid hunting of actual witches). Magic users do all in their power to not attract attention; they co-exist side by side with "the normal world", holding normal jobs and having normal identities. There is no "Hogwarts" for magical children and there are no full-time magical jobs. Despite their magical powers, most magic users understand that their natural enemy, Witch Hunters, have devised ways to nullify their powers and can easily outmatch a low-class witch. Magic may be powerful, but a well trained gun will always be a deadly foe.

 

Those that do try to use their magic openly are dealt with by the MASQ, A magical government that monitors magical society and protects it. The MASQ is responsible for maintaining the secret of magic by arresting magical criminals and cleaning up any magic-related messes. They also assign all grown magic users a "Title", which is a secret identity of sorts that allows their magical life to be separated from their normal life. The MASQ's second most notable job, for this summary anyway, is clearing magic prices.

 

Because magic in this world is not for free. All magic users have a "curse" on their gene for magic that is passed down from generation to generation. It limits how much magic they can use freely. If they go over their set limit then they pay a "price", which is something very important to them. It varies from magic user to magic user, as everyone has a different idea of what is "most important" to them. If a person accidentally gets priced and loses a lot of important stuff then they can turn to the MASQ. In exchange for community service the MASQ will slowly reverse the effects of the pricing and return lost things to those who lost them.

 

As previously stated, this world acknowledges most if not all historical events in the "real world". However, they typically happened anywhere between five to ten years sooner than in actual history. As explained earlier, this is because magic has allowed inventions to be invented faster and for society to therefore develop faster. Magic is based around emotions and willpower. If you have a strong will to make something happen then it can happen almost instantaneously with the use of magic. If you're not thinking seriously about it then magic can't help you. In Game of Fate land, the number of causalities in wars is significantly lower because magic users would use their powers to wrap conflicts up quickly or to heal the wounded. Laws imposed by the MASQ forbid the use of magic to revive the dead.

 

There is also the issue of the MASQ's founders and their pity fight, which is the central driving factor of Game of Fate's plot. The price of magic did indeed keep bad magic users in line, but it also caused create suffering for good and innocent people. Founder Felicity Dystini requested that Founder Benita Goodon nullify the curse. In the panic of the resulting fight, Benita sealed Felicity in a single moment in time so that she could not interfere with the magic pricing system. Even though she is sealed, Felicity-- who now calls herself "Fate"-- has found ways to manipulate the present time. She continues to plot and plan a way to bring the system down, while her old friend Benita (now calling herself "Vinita") searches for a way to ensure that the system lasts forever.

 

Their lasting conflict pulls the strings in the Game of Fate, with "Samantha Kuroneko" as a centerpiece in their plan. And Mikale unknowingly manipulated into being just another pawn in the Game of Fate.

 

 

Backstory:

 

Mikale Reed lives in a world of magic. Ever since he was a child, Mikale has had the capacity and ability to perform magic. In fact, Mikale is somewhat above normal when it comes to magic; his mother was exceptionally gifted and that trait passed down to her one and only son. Magic is a dominate X-linked inheritance, so boys who not only have magic but so much potential are uncommon. In the sense of magic, Mikale was a very special kid from the moment he was born.

 

Not that his mother, or even Mikale, knew that. As far as his three person family was concerned, they were completely normal. His father worked an office job and his mother worked at a department store. They had a decently sized apartment in the middle of the city and seemed like the ideal couple. The family went out to dinner most Fridays and was viewed as an absolutely normal and happy family for the first seven years of Mikale's life.

Until his father's business began to crumble, anyway. He lost his job and had to start over at a low paying entrance position. The growing pressure of raising a child and their low income put Mikale's father in a bad mood. Constantly. It started slow, but his unhappiness eventually took the form of abusive behavior. Mikale watched as his patient mother was hurt again and again, with the violence eventually turning in his direction as well. Again and again, Mikale returned to a home environment where he learned to be afraid.

And again and again, his mother begged him to stay quiet about it. Still in love with the man she'd married and confident that he'd snap out of it, Mikale's mother tried to keep her son from doing or saying anything that would get his father arrested. He was told that he shouldn't tell his teachers, he shouldn't let anyone see his bruises, and he should have some patience. Blindly trusting his mother, and wanting her to be happy, Mikale obediently kept his mouth shut and put up with it.

 

Despite his mother's confidence, things did not get better. Since they were both genetically capable of magic, Mikale and his mother healed from the abuse very quickly. Even when Mikale wished someone would notice their bruises and injuries, they healed too soon to attract attention. He tried misbehaving in school to get attention, but the parent-teacher conferences that followed just put his father in a worse mood. Any attempt he made to change things either got his father angry or made his mother cry because Mikale was "trying to get his loving father arrested."

Eventually, Mikale just gave up. He chose to quietly endure the abuse and did all he could to keep it from getting worse. As his heart became exhausted he just became grouchy, with his classmates thinking he was a brat and Mikale being too exhausted to make any effort to change that image. He resigned himself to his fate, at the pitiful age of eight.

 

Then all of that changed. When at the doctor's office to treat a broken arm (he'd "fallen out of a tree"), Mikale met a girl that changed his life. Samantha Kuroneko was one grade level below him and not like the other girls at his elementary school. While Mikale had a hard time making friends, Samantha had no trouble with it. She carefully but quickly became his one and only friend, even playing with him at recess and inviting him over to her house for playdates. She was his escape and eased his emotional burden with her gentle kindness. It did not take Samantha long to become Mikale's very best friend. They became so close that, as their first Christmas gift to each other, Mikale and Samantha promised to be together forever. It might have been fair to say that the pair had a playground-level kiddy crush on each other.

 

She seemed to have an indirect effect on his home life as well. Mikale's mother would often meet Samantha's parents when picking him up, and the sight of their son so happy now seemed to ease the strain on his parents. The abuse let up. Mikale's father got a a promotion. They began going on family outings and visiting the Kuroneko family together. Things were finally looking up, and Mikale was honestly happy.

 

This all quickly ended. Two years after meeting her and reestablishing his happiness, Mikale lost it. He came to school one day and found that Samantha had disappeared. Quite literally. Her teachers had not been informed. Her parents could not be reached. It somehow became a fact that the family had moved "somewhere". But no clues or traces that might help tell where they had gone could be found. Anywhere. By Mikale or the adults around him. Concern for the matter gradually faded, in sync with the shattering of Mikale's home life.

 

There was a recession. His father was laid off and went back to his old ways. His mother, who had had a taste of the fruits of her patience, was just as timid as ever. And Mikale, who was angry and upset over losing his best friend, became uncooperative and provoked more punishment from those around him. The new stress of Mikale's attitude finally broke his mother. She had been subconsciously using magic to heal herself and hide her physical abuse, and all of that came at the price of the thing most precious to her... ironically, that was her ability to endure pain. She collapsed from a mysterious (magic induced) heart disease and was hospitalized, leaving Mikale at home with his father.

 

His father began staying out late and sometimes not returning home for days on end. When did come home he would be in an awful mood or in the company of people Mikale did not know. Whenever possible Mikale would stay away from the house and lurk around town at all crazy hours of the night, hoping to get picked up the police and rescued from his situation.

 

It was on one of these lurktastic adventures that he met Marron Dystini. Though Mikale did not know the big picture, or that there even was a bigger picture to begin with, she was working for a girl named Fate Dystini. Centuries ago, Fate Dystini had helped create a secret magical government called the MASQ to regulate magic users and protect them from with hunters. However, Fate had learned to dislike the system and was sealed away to keep her from being able to destroy the MASQ. And unknown to Mikale, Samantha had been born and crafted to become a catalyst for the spell that would unseal Fate.

 

However, Marron never told him these nitty-gritty details. She never told Mikale about how Samantha's mother had changed her mind about letting her daughter be a catalyst and run away from Fate. She never even told Mikale that Fate planned to use the strong bond between Samantha and him to relocate her, by following the string of affection tied between their magical hearts. All she told Mikale was that he could use magic if he wanted to and use it to change his life.

 

Mikale accepted. As he began practicing magic, Mikale drew on the strength his feelings for Sam gave him and highlighted the magical bond of love enough that Marron and Fate could follow it back to Samantha. She was in Japan now, living under the name "Satou Kuroneko", and this had been the only way to find her.

 

With his new magic, Mikale decided to do just as Marron was doing; he wanted to relocate Samantha and keep his promise to always be together. But he understood that there were two things in his way; his abusive father and his sick mother. He wanted to get rid of his father first and provide his mother with the resources to live on her own. To accomplish this, ten year old Mikale began taking odd jobs around town. Other magic users approached him and offered high-paying tasks that only such a talented mage could pull off. The jobs were often dangerous and scary, but Mikale did everything that he could to collect money.

 

Then he approached his dad. With his new found strength/magic, Mikale threatened his father and chased him out of their apartment. He told him never to approach his mother again, or Mikale would kill him. Threats that were only scary from a ten year old who had destructive magical powers. His father fled the apartment, leaving Mikale to spend his money refurnishing it and making it a more pleasant place for his mother to live when she recovered.

 

Letting his father run was his downfall. His father's blabbering about his crazy magical son mostly made him look like the nutcase, but witch hunters overheard and took interest. They came to Mikale's apartment one night and attacked him, catching him completely off guard and nearly killing him. But just in time, the MASQ stepped in. Vinita Godono, the girl who had sealed Fate away, personally sent the witch hunters running in fear.

 

Vinita's influence on Mikale's life didn't end there. She recognized his lonely situation and invited him to join her growing family. Mikale was adopted into the Godono family and given not only a new last name, to hide him from his angry father, but a promise to cure his mother, a title, and access to the magic he needed to find Samantha. But most importantly, he had a new home. His elder sister Franziska treated him quite kindly, his younger sister Renae was very clingy, and his baby brother Richard looked up to him. At the center of the family of abandoned magic users was Vinita, who worked hard to keep her family happy.

 

All of this happiness was given for free. Vinita never asked her new family to do anything for her. But it was very clear that Vinita was stressing over something; she came home late and would be running high fevers from overworking herself. No one in the family needed to be asked in order to want to help shoulder her burden. And though Vinita was initially reluctant, she accepted their offers to help.

 

So Mikale ended up working for her. Mikale had a reputation as being a gun-for-hire and took a job arresting or disabling dangerous magic users. Not a strange task, with Vinita being so dedicated to the magical government. But he also began watching over a girl he did not find particularly dangerous; Satou Kuroneko, and her little sister Masume Sakura, were newbies at magic and had a strong sense of justice. They used their powers to stop bad guys and make people's dreams come true, which to Mikale made his job of keeping an eye on them more like watching a live action magical girl show. Still, he did it because he was asked to.

 

All while ironically trying to find Samantha, the very girl he was stalking. Mikale used his magic and resources to their limits, but couldn't ever find Samantha. Not because he was inept or too stupid to recognize her. It was quite the opposite. Mikale continuously gathered enough clues to trace Samantha and he was finding himself more and more interested in Satou, the girl who reminded him so much of Sam.

But making the connection was impossible. The price of Mikale's magic, just as with every other mage, was the thing most important to him: Keeping his promise to Samantha. This meant that it was impossible for Mikale to ever "find" Samantha. His magic curse interfered with his thought processes and blocked his brain's ability to recognize Satou as Samantha.

 

At this point, it may help to read Satou's history, because Mikale is crossing over with her's frequently. He was a witness to Satou's dark curse and was among the few who saw her murder her own father, and participated in the decision to block her memories of the incident.

When Masume and Satou entered the Title Competition, a contest where they hoped to gain recognition for their skills, Mikale continued to follow them. They eventually got into so much trouble that he was forced to reveal himself to protect them-- which wasn't initially part of his job, but something he felt compelled to do. From there, Satou and him began to interact more and more. He formed a fresh friendship with her, one he didn't associate with Samantha, and began becoming more and more fond of her as he continued watching her adventures.

 

When Touka Takamachi joined the team, this friendship had to be severed. Vinita realized that Satou was no longer "maybe a bit dangerous" but now "absolutely a problem." She informed Mikale that he was probably going to need to kill Satou before she could accidentally destroy the world. Mikale liked Satou a lot, but knew that a destroyed world would mean Samantha died... so, he accepted the contradicting task of hunting Satou to protect Samantha... Hunting Satou to protect Satou.

 

As the first arc wrapped up, Satou had recognized Mikale as her best friend from childhood and was determined to 'save' him. She had no way to get him to recognize her, so focused on building their relationship from scratch. Masume and Satou won the contest, but were separated on their way to the awards ceremony. Satou was forced into a fight with witch hunters, something Vinita had arranged, and forced to use a lot of magic to stay alive. She might have died then, if not for Mikale's decision to step in and save her.

Satou was still priced for her overuse of magic. The most important thing to her was being recognized, so people began to forget that she had ever and still did exist. This was Vinita's second attempt to kill her. Unable to be recognized, Satou could not find safe shelter at night, couldn't find food, and couldn't take care of herself. And once again, Mikale stepped in to provide Satou with the resources she needed. He was supposed to kill her, but Mikale's growing affections outweighed his job.

 

At age sixteen, three years after society forgot Satou (who was fifteen now), Mikale had still failed to kill her. Vinita had noticed his wavering resolve and given his siblings permission to step in, believing that it was best to cut his new love for Satou short before it really hurt him.

Mikale and Satou had developed an unhealthy relationship where they switched between being enemies to friends on a dime, both of them unsure of which side to take. Before her sixteenth birthday, Satou ran into someone who was unaffected by the price of her magic; Shugo Yumeno, a boy she had once saved, recognized Satou and took her home to his mothers. Yui Tamura and Charlotta Yumeno had loved Satou very much and their love had been impossible for even magic to erase. She was given a home and shelter, the things she once 'needed' Mikale for. Mikale realized not only that she didn't need him anymore, but that he wanted to be someone Satou needed. But he did not immediately know how to express this.

In the aftermath of what the agreed would be their last battle, where the winner 'took the loser's life', Satou declared that as the winner she now owned Mikale's life and he was forced to be her friend forever. He accepted this decision, since he wanted that just as much, and was allowed to move in with the Yumeno-Tamura family.

 

From there, Mikale began living a more positive life. It hadn't been a case of Vinita wanting Mikale to suffer, but she had accidentally become so obsessed with her goals that she took advantage of Mikale's weaknesses. Yui Tamura and Charlotta Yumeno were kind, supportive mothers who took to Mikale immediately and helped him overcome his insecurities. Mikale started going to school and learning to socialize, and learned that he not only had real hobbies but was incredibly talented. He was rewarded constantly and began building the self confidence that Vinita and his own family had taken from him. All of this happiness he credited to Satou, and he became even more smitten with her.

 

Then his happy new life was wrecked. Rather suddenly. Touka Takamachi returned in Satou's life, and she teamed up with Shugo Yumeno (Charlotta's son, whose room Mikale was sharing) to uncover the plot around Satou and save her. ( This is Mikale's canon point! ) This distressed Fate, who then initiated a plan to have Shugo 'killed'. In the dramatic and psychopathic aftermath that followed, Shugo's half-sister Usao Tamura murdered her mothers and essentially ruined everyone's good day with her creepy brother complex. Touka returned to the MASQ so that she could continue her research. In the meantime, Vinita declared Satou to be a dangerous criminal and encouraged the magical community to hunt her down and kill her. Mikale and Satou became fugitives, and tried to live under the radar while Touka collected intelligence for them to act on.