Tristain Academy of Magic, Courtyard, Halkeginia.
A crowd consisting of second-year students stood with their wands ready and awaited their chance to perform the Summoning Spell. Around a quarter of the students have already done it. Guiche de Gramont had summoned a mole that after a small bit of talking agreed to the name Verdandi while his 'girlfriend' Montmorency Margarita de Montmorency summoned a frog that she named Robin. The frog was green and gave a ribbit of approval. One student who had not yet summoned a familiar was a boy around twelve years old who wore black robes along with a cape that had three symbols etched onto the outermost part and brown boots, had a black aura surrounding his skin, and glowing yellow eyes. Known as 'le Mage Noir' because of his inability to use magic that wasn't offensive in nature, Vivi Ornitier was looked down on by many of the second-year students but he did have one friend. That friend though was Louise de La Valliére and she was seemingly unable to cast any magic at all as every spell she tried to use ended up becoming an explosion.
"I believe that it is my turn to perform the spell." Vivi said, readying his staff. The staff was another reason why he was looked down upon by most of the second-year students: Vivi absolutely had to use a staff in order to effectively use any of his spells.
"Understood, Vivi. Kindly begin the spell if you please." Professor Jean Colbert said.
Vivi took a deep breath before he released it as he raised his staff and said, "My name is Vivi 'Le Mage Noir' Ornitier. Pentagon of the Five Elements, heed my call... and summon forth... my Familiar!"
A large glowing seal began to appear. The green glow of the seal was soothing to the eye with its color even as it got larger. Before long, the green glow enveloped everything in sight for thirty seconds before it died down to reveal a black-haired young man who wore strange clothes. If Vivi was surprised by this he did not show it.
"It seems that you've succeeded, Mr. Vivi." Professor Colbert said. The young man looked around and seemed clueless to his surroundings.
"He may be confused about his current location. If my hypothesis is correct, the Familiar's Contract Binding Ritual will need to be completed since I summoned him." Vivi said as he readied his staff again. The Black Mage then chanted, "Pentagon of the Five Elemental Magics, grant thy blessings upon this being and bind it as my Familiar!"
A red stream of magic shot out of the tip of Vivi's staff and began to etch runes into the flesh of the young man's left hand which caused him to yell out in pain. When it stopped, Vivi lowered his staff and asked, "Can you understand me?"
The young man, still wincing from the pain, replied, "Yes..." before he recovered and said, "My name is Hiraga. Saito Hiraga. Who are you, Master?"
"I am Vivi Ornitier, a Black Mage. You have become my Familiar, which is essentially a servant. I modified the Familiar Bonding Ritual a bit so that you retain your free will. Now then, let's join my peers." Vivi said as he joined the crowd of students who already summoned their familiars. Saito followed Vivi and from there the only notable events were that a Germanian female known as Kirche summoned a Fire Salamander while Louise summoned a Dragon Zombie, an undead dragon that did not require food or water to live. Afte everyone summoned a Familiar Professor Colbert looked at Saito's runes and said, "Hmm, these runes are very peculiar. I'll have to look into the library to find out." before he left.
"So, where to now Master?" Saito asked the Black Mage.
"We head for my dormitory." Vivi said as he led Saito to his dorm. Once at the dorm in Vivi's room, Vivi pointed to the bed in the room and said," You sleep there. I use a sleeping bag as I often have to camp overnight travelling to and from this place and the Black Mage Village, my home village. It takes a minimum of eighteen to twenty hours both ways on foot and no carriage goes to the Black Mage Village either as it's located deep inside a forest, so deep in fact that the nearest road is four hours away. I know this as I make the journey twice a year."
Saito was looking out the window seemingly in a trance and Vivi asked, "Saito?"
That snapped Saito out of it and he said, "Oh, I was just looking outside. This really is a different world than the one I was in before being summoned by you, Master. For one, my world only has one moon and for another there isn't a thick amount of mist just below the window."
"Since I'm a second-year student, we're on the second floor. The mist has never dissipated once so if anyone wants to see the sun they have to go above the first floor. I'm getting tired now, so good night." Vivi said before he got into his sleeping bag and fell asleep. Saito took that as the hint to get into bed himself and did so.
A/N: Okay, this is my first attempt at writing an actual Familiar of Zero story, even if it's also a crossover with Final Fantasy IX.