Final Fantasy Type-0 Side Story: The Ice Reaper

Final Fantasy Type-0 Side Story: The Reaper of the Icy Blade is a manga that takes place around nine years before the events of Final Fantasy Type-0. It follows the story Kurasame Susaya during his time as a student of Akademeia and as a member of the Four Champions of Rubrum. It is drawn by Takatoshi Shiozawa and published in Shounen Gangan along with the game's manga version.

Western manga distribution company Yen Press has licensed the manga for an English release, beginning with the release of the first volume in July 2015.

Characters

 * Kurasame - The main protagonist, the Agito Cadet from Class Third and one of the Four Champions of Rubrum.
 * Miwa - The leader of the Four Champions of Rubrum, and also the only female member in the group.
 * Guren - The mood maker of the class.
 * Kotetsu
 * Sayo
 * Emina Hanaharu - Said to be one of the most beautiful cadets. She seems to be suffering from loneliness, but is a close friend to Kurasame and Kazusa.
 * Kazusa Futahito - Nicknamed "Metamorphosing Glasses" . Despite being a weird person, he has a strong friendship with Kurasame and Emina.

Story
Kurasame is a member of Class Third at Akademeia. He thinks his classmates are weak, immature, and unfit to be Agito Cadets. He's trying his best to get promoted to Class First, the class of top tiers cadets, and the only class that frequently gets to partake in military missions. With Kazusa's advice, Kurasame tries to be more friendly with the others, and befriends Miwa, Guren, and Oruto.

One day, Class Third cadets have a test of courage at a cave in Rubrum territory. A couple of mysterious Concordian outlaws attack them and wipe out the class except for five survivors: Kurasame, Miwa, Guren, Kotetsu, and Oruto, who defeat the Concordians and return to Akademeia. Unfortunately, Oruto dies shortly after their return.

Akademia authorities decide to cover up the incident and treat it as an accident where Class Third was attacked and killed by monsters. It is a political decision to maintain the relationship between Rubrum and Concordia, as they already have enough issues with Milites Empire as their enemy.

Several weeks after the incident, the Cadetmaster Miotsk orders the four survivors to take on a mission in Concordia territory, as a formal request from the royal family of Concordia. The four cadets don't want to take the mission at first since they still hold a grudge against the Concordians, but they change their mind as it might be an opportunity to get promoted to Class First.

Kurasame and Guren decide to take the mission and fly to the Dragon Sanctuary on a Rubran airship, while Miwa chooses to stay since her heart is not ready. Miwa blames herself for being the one who came up with the test of courage game led to her classmates' death, and for not being able to use healing magics to save any of them. Kotetsu also chooses to stay with Miwa.

Takatsugu, commander of Class First encourages Miwa to fight for her living friends instead of moaning for the dead ones. Miwa and Kotetsu decide to follow Kurasame and Guren to Concordia.

In Concordia, Kurasame and Guren meet an old Concordian woman who lives with a tonberry in an old cabin in the forest. The old lady changes Guren's attitude about how Concordian people are all evil and tell him that Agito Cadets are not fighting for Rubrans only but they need to lead all of Orience citizens to happiness.

Kurasame and Guren arrive in the town of Amiter, where Kurasame is later lured out alone to the forest. Yumemi, an Akademeia reject ambushes Kurasame and stabs him in the stomach. She reveals herself as a Rubran who is now living in Concordia and can still use magics with the power of the Vermilion Bird Crystal. Yumemi spots an old carbin where the old lady lives and attack her. Kurasame tries to save the old lady but his wound is too severe. Miwa arrives at the scene and defeats Yumemi. However, the old lady is killed in the burning cabin. Miwa heals Kurasame's wound with her healing magic that she learned after the cave incident.

Meanwhile, Kotetsu arrives in Amiter, where the false mayor tries to fool him. Kotetsu smells the fishy and exposes them. Guren comes back to help Kotetsu but they are outnumbered by the bad guys who are now revealed themselves as criminals who fled from Rubrum to live in Concordia.

The criminals are able to use the power of both Vermilion Bird Crystal and Azure Dragon Crystal, giving them the ability to use magics and to control monsters. Parts of Amiter are burnt down by their magics.

Miwa arrives in the town with Kurasame. She declares the name of the group "The Four Champions of Rubrum" and the four cadets defeat all the criminals and also rescue the real mayor of the town. The citizens of Amiter thank the cadets and say that they will remember the name "Four Champions of Rubrum" til the day they die and their name will be told from generations to generations of Concordians. The old lady's tonberry decides to tag along with Kurasame from now on.

The four cadets return to Akademeia. As the result of this successful mission, Kurasame and Guren get promoted to Class First.

Two years later, the Four Champions of Rubrum became the strongest cadets of Rubrum, being called "The faces of the Dominion", and is said to be the strongest forces in all Orience. One day, the Four Champions are invited to a party where Kurasame meets Aoi Tomoshibi, the daughter of the Deputy Prime Liaison Fuyou Tomoshibi. An imperial assassin attempts to assassinate the dominion leader but gets caught by Kurasame. The assassin says that he's "not the only one" before committing suicide.

The assassin's Knowing Tag proves that the man was a Rubran-born citizen who betrayed the dominion and worked for the empire. Commander Takatsugu orders the Four Champions to investigate the case and search for more traitors hiding in the dominion. Takatsugu then assigns Guren and Kotetsu to accompany the Deputy Prime Liaison to Meroë while Kurasame and Miwa are deployed to protect Lady Aoi to attend a ceremony in Mi-Go.

A group of imperial men ambush Lady Aoi's entourage in the forest and capture her. Miwa decides to fight alone and tells Kurasame to go after Aoi. Kurasame successfully rescues Aoi and get out of the forest safely. According to Miwa, by the time she found them, they both were already in their own little world.

One night after the forest incident, with help from Miwa, Kurasame confesses his feelings to Aoi in the plains of flower on the terrace of the east tower at Akademeia and the two kiss each other.