Fanfic / Of Covens And Magicians

Izumi, a Fourthborn Witch who had given up on becoming a powerful magician years ago, receives a letter addressed to her father.

It requests assistance in the following two endeavors:

1: The restoration of the Mankai Coven, 2: The Education of a Firstborn Witch named Sakuya.

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"of covens and magicians" is an A3! fanfiction by flavovitta. It is an Urban Fantasy Alternate Universe Fic where Izumi becomes the director of a witches' coven instead of an acting company.

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of covens and magicians contains examples of:

• Alternate Universe Fic: Of the Urban Fantasy variety.
• Amicable Exes: What Izumi genuinely believed Tsuzuru and Kazunari were, much to the horror of Tsuzuru.
• Badass Normal: Izumi Tachibana, as a Fourthborn Witch, is the closest thing to a muggle within the Coven and can be considered the weakest magic user of the bunch. But just because she has little magic does not mean she is incapable of fighting back as shown during the undead invasion of the Mankai Coven when she proves how proficient she is in Krav Maga as she and the others protect the Coven from undead flesh-eating monsters
• Berserk Button: Muku's is being labeled as crazy.
• Black Sheep: Sakuya, being a Firstborn Witch, is this to the rest of his non-magical family.
• Blessed with Suck: Being blessed gives Banri the ability to do almost everything perfectly, from making omelettes to raising the dead. As a result, he's bored and apathetic.
  • Muku can be considered this as well. As a First-born seer, he is even more powerful than Citron. But prior to meeting the Mankai Coven, Muku's powers were often a source of distress as no one from the non-magical world could understand what was going on. This resulted in him being considered unstable by many, particularly psychiatrists.
• Big Eater: Taichi. His appetite is enormous, and many of the things he's eaten throughout of covens and magicians include but are not limited to: An entire Meat-lover's pizza and two-liter cola, five Big Macs, and enough bacon to feed a village. Taichi's voracious appetite is a side-effect of his powers. Shapeshifting burns through a lot of calories, and Taichi requires a lot of fuel.
• Born Lucky: Angels can bless people, basically resulting in this. Banri is one such person.
• Break the Cutie: Applies to most of the cast to a certain extent, but especially Muku. He's introduced into the series as a sweet, lovable middle-schooler who is incredibly relieved to finally find someone who could explain his seer abilities. However, the strength of his seer abilities creates crisis after crisis for Muku and leave him completely distraught. He gets incredibly shaken up when he accidentally discovers Kazunari's true aura, especially since he can't fully comprehend what he saw. Muku becomes uncharacteristically hostile towards Kazunari because his attempts to placate Muku remind Muku of how his past therapists hadn't believed or taken him seriously when he talked about the visions and thoughts he saw (the result of his seer abilities). If Muku was already a little "paranoid" before, the Kazunari aura incident definitely worsened things for him. Muku also begins to start seeing the thoughts of others against his will. When he accidentally sees another classmate's thoughts, Muku loses control and gives the boy a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. The beatdown leads to Muku's expulsion from school.
  • This can be applied to Yuki as well after he's kidnapped by Mythic Hunters. He has a rage-fueled Freak Out on one of his kidnappers as he beats them all the while screaming and demanding why he and other Mythics are considered lesser beings to human magic users
• Cassandra Truth: Muku has been an unfortunate victim of this in the past as a result of his seer abilities.
• Changeling Tale: Taichi is the first confirmed instance of one in-universe. He has doubts about who he really is and ran away from home in hopes to find the real Taichi he replaced as a baby.
• Doorstopper: Currently over 150,000 words, and according to the author, only ten percent done.
• Eyepatch of Power: Misumi wears an eyepatch and is one of the most powerful Witches in the Coven.
• Fantastic Racism: Brownies and other Mythics are looked down upon by the rest of Magical society.
• Fake Period Excuse: Utilized by Izumi to explain to Sakyo why she left the ball early and to prevent him from searching the dorms and find out that they are hiding an unconscious Omi in the basement. It works...a little too well.
• Freak Out: Muku does this after accidentally seeing Kazunari's true aura.
  • Muku has another one in Chapter 25 when he accidentally sees a classmate's thoughts, leading him to give the boy a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Between Kamekichi (a cockatoo familiar) and Monica (a shoebill).
• Japanese Christian: Tsuzuru and his family are Catholic, though he doesn't seem to be as devout compared to them.
  • According to Tsuzuru, although he definitely is Catholic, it took him a long time before he felt "true faith". There are a lot of controversies within Catholicism that make him uncomfortable to associate with it sometimes. Despite his uncertainties, he still believes in Jesus, God, Heaven, and occasionally he prays.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Tsuzuru and Banri. Tsuzuru has a tendency to be very brutally honest. Out of everyone, Izumi would know this best of all. On the other hand, Banri is unapologetic about coming off as an "asshole" because he knows he's right. And to be honest? Yeah, he usually is.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Izumi lets Misumi stay in the Coven as long as his memories are magically erased so that he doesn't remember why he summoned Itaru.
• Mage Born of Muggles: Sakuya is a Firstborn Witch, while the rest of his family is non-magical.
  • Additionally, this applies to Masumi and Muku, who are both a Firstborn Hunter and Firstborn Seer respectively.
• Magically-Binding Contract: Misumi's deal with Itaru, who is a demon. Currently, it's unknown why Misumi summoned Itaru in the first place. The contract cannot be dissolved until Itaru fulfills Misumi's wish, or the people involved in the summoning and contract die (whether that be of old age or something else). In order to protect Tsuzuru's soul from being collected by Itaru as "payment", Misumi's end of the bargain will never be fulfilled.
  • In the of covens and magicians universe, non-human species called Mythics often enter contracts when receiving work. The nature of these contracts is similar to indentured servitude, however, it isn't uncommon for their work conditions to be akin to slavery. If a mythic violates their contract, they'll be subjected to curses, the loss of one of their senses, and/or pain.
    • Taichi is a shapeshifter Mythic who is bound to such a contract. The terms of his contract violate his privacy and self-autonomy, legally allow his contractor to exploit him, and according to Tsuzuru, Yuki, and Tenma, a contract like his was "inhumane" and "extremely illegal".
• Mama Bear: Kanae Sakisaka. She gives both Citron and Izumi a tongue lashing for how they handled their guardianship of her son that resulted in a particularly bad Freak Out and his expulsion from St. Flora's
• Morality Pet: Itaru treats Sakuya with much less contempt than he does the other Coven members.
• Necromantic: A non-villainous, non-romantic example. Banri follows a necromancy tutorial he found on r/Necromancy in order to revive Juza so that they can fight. He inadvertently summons a hoard of zombies that attack the coven instead.
• Number Two: Izumi often refers to Tsuzuru as her second-in-command or her right-hand man. Tsuzuru acts as a sardonic voice of reason who balances out Izumi's more idealistic views. When she isn't around to run the Coven, he is usually the one left in charge. Chapter 38, which is dedicated to Tsuzuru's birthday, is also called "Second in Command"
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Citron when he sees the aftermath of Muku's Freak Out in Chapter 25. He becomes colder and even knocks Izumi to the ground after he hits Muku. He emphasizes that Muku beating up his classmate for thoughts that he could not help until he was black and blue was wrong and will NOT tolerate Izumi telling him otherwise in contrast to his more easy-going nature
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Juza, who died before the events of the story and became a wraith. Muku was the only family member he remembered after death, so he acted like a Guardian Entity of sorts to him before encountering Banri in Chapter 5.
  • The entire ensemble cast from the main game are ghosts who all haunt the Council's Main Hall.
• Our Mages Are Different: Some individuals are born with magic and since magic is hereditary, they can pass down their abilities to their children. However, as generations go by, the magic from the first individual will become more and more diluted. There are also 4 different classes of magicians: witches, casters, hunters, and seers. In addition to human magic users, like witches or casters, there are other species that use other forms of specialized magic, like brownies.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Omi. He instinctively bonds with Izumi after she rubs his tummy when he's in wolf form.
• Secret Room: Sakuya accidentally discovers a secret basement after using a spell that has the unfortunate side effect of making him sink through the floor. The same room is discovered by Itaru and Izumi when Itaru tears apart the floorboards to rescue Sakuya.
• Seers: Citron and Muku, the latter being the first Firstborn Seer in Japan in a long time.
• Sleep Deprivation: Tsuzuru. He refuses to sleep while he's working on experiments and reverse-engineering the anti-magic he acquired from the zombie hoard. Going days without proper sleep make Tsuzuru pretty susceptible to crying.
  • Additionally, Kazunari. Tsuzuru forces the poor boy to help him work on the experiments.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Almost every conversation between Tsuzuru and Izumi has shades of this.
• Stacy's Mom: Masumi. He was instantly attracted to Izumi, despite initially believing she was Sakuya's mom. Izumi is, in fact, not actually a mom. Yes, it was just as awkward as you would imagine it to be.
• Stepford Smiler: Kazunari. On the outside, Kazunari is happy, always smiling, and he acts as if he doesn't have a care in the world. He's fun-loving and sometimes he appears as "air-headed" or "shallow" to others. As revealed by Muku when the boy accidentally touches him though, Kazunari is not as happy as he appears. The details of his inner-self have yet to be revealed, but Kazunari's cheery, overly-energetic exterior is a mask that's hiding how hollow he truly feels.
  • Chapter 36 sheds a bit of light on to what exactly it is that Kazunari has bottled up. He has been hiding his anger at how unfair the world was, how he struggles to truly be himself because he spent too long trying to change his personality to please others, his purpose (or lack thereof), and how lonely Kazunari feels because everyone around him seems genuinely fine and he's struggling to feel the same. It's clear that he's held onto these thoughts for an incredibly long time. Yet, he feels immense guilt for feeling negative emotions in the first place due to his perceived priviledge. In his eyes, there are people starving in third-world countries, people with abusive parents, people who've lost their body parts, people who are dying. They are the ones who are actually suffering, so why is he himself so miserable? The most amazing thing though? According to the author, Kazunari's rant is only scratching the surface of the entirety of what he's feeling.

Kazunari: Sometimes it feels like the mask I've put up is stuck so close to my face, if I try to take it off I'll rip my own skin.

• Team Mom: Izumi. Despite the other members of Mankai being in their late teens or already legal adults and Izumi herself not being much older than either of them, she dotes on them and acts as a motherly or older-sister figure towards them. She's the one holding Mankai Coven's Ragtag Bunch of Misfits together. Izumi is especially over-protective of Sakuya, much to the complaint of Tsuzuru.
  • In addition to Izumi, there is also Team Mom Omi. He cooks meals for the companies, helps out with chores the most, and has a "maternal" energy that is similar to Izumi.
• Team Pet: Monica, an African shoebill who the coven rescues from Mythic Poachers along with Yuki and Fido (actually Omi in wolf form). Misumi can somehow communicate with her.
• The Swear Jar: Izumi, who is uncomfortable with anyone under the age of 18 swearing or hearing others swear, enforces a no cussing rule. Anyone who violates it must pay up. Banri is, by far, the Swear Jar's biggest benefactor.
• Tranquil Fury: Citron after the fallout of Muku giving a schoolmate a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown during a bad Freak Out in Chapter 25. He slaps Muku across the head for seeing someone's thoughts and attacking them and would have hit Muku a second time had Izumi not grabbed Citron and held him back
  • Tsuzuru displays this in the same chapter when he verbally confirms that the Izumi in front of him is an imposter
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Izumi is insistent on this. She is shocked when Citron strikes Muku across the face and physically holds him back from hitting him again in the aftermath of Muku mauling his schoolmate.