The Medals of Zero
By JirouGarulu
Disclaimer:
I do not own any aspect of this story, neither Kamen Rider OOO nor Familiar of Zero belong to me, they belong to their respective companies. This is a fan-made piece of work and should not be distributed for profit. This is only to be posted on for the purpose of free entertainment and as such I will find out if it appears anywhere else.
Chapter 1: Summoning, Familiar's Brand, and Five Core Medals
The last thing I remember was walking home after a lesson, coming across what looked like a hole in the air. It was strange, but I felt like I had to touch it, just to see if it was real. As my hand drew closer to it, I began to hear a girl's voice, calling out to me. My hand entered the gap in space and I suddenly was pulled forward, completely into the strange space on the other side.
It was a dark, endless void, deep indigo and yet I could see everything clear as day. My body began to glow, quickly changing between eight colours: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, White, Purple, Orange and Black. Looking around, I saw several balls of light fly past me, all in colours that coincided with the ever changing light that surrounded me. While most of them flew into the distance, five of the lights stayed with me, one of from five of the eight colours, the only ones that ignored completely me were the Purple, Orange and Black lights, while only one light from each of the remaining colours stayed.
It was at that point, the void turned white as it began to reveal an exit. On the other side, I saw a large stone wall, lush green grass, and without control, I drifted closer towards the opening. For some reason, upon reaching the exit, I was hit by an explosion, forcing me onto my back, splayed out on the ground.
You know, all this and I never thought to introduce myself. My name's Jonathan Harris. I'm from the central area of the UK, and I'm a rather big Tokusatsu and Anime fan. I'm also a University Student who is currently in the first half of his final year.
Not that most of that mattered anymore.
When I came to, I looked around, and saw a large number of people dressed in cloaks, mostly teenagers; I'd say around 15 years old at the latest. There was also a much older man, I'd say he was probably in his forties, and unlike most of the teenagers, he was holding a staff (I had seen one girl with one as I looked around.) Gathering my bearings, I checked to see if anything had happened to me.
No injuries thankfully, but I was now wearing a rather familiar belt. It was black with light blue circuit lines running over it, with three slots on the front, all in a straight line. In my pocket I felt five small discs, taking them out; I saw that they were oddly coloured coins.
Each of them was a different colour, and they had animals marked on them. The red one had a hawk engraved onto it, while the others were a yellow tiger, a green grasshopper, a blue eel and a grey elephant. These things couldn't be what I thought they were, could they? I decided that I'd give them a better look later and quickly shoved them into my pocket.
Looking around again, in a bit more detail this time, I noticed a girl stood before me, looking down at me. Getting to my feet, I saw that I was much taller than her, the top of her head met with the middle of my chest. It was only then that I realized that she also happened to be bright red with what I could only guess was embarrassment.
"Are you serious?" She asked no one in particular. "This is my familiar? The divine, beautiful, and powerful familiar that I requested? Is this some form of joke?"
From there things only served to be even more embarrassing, at least, what I could imagine was the case, there were a few people with various animals stood in the crowd. I saw what could only be a dragon and a large fire-tailed lizard. On the other end of the spectrum I saw frogs, parrots, and snakes, even one abnormally large mole. And the kids that were there were starting to comment on what was happening.
"Did you see that?" One asked, another then piped up.
"She summoned a Commoner for a familiar!"
"She really is Louise the Zero!"
With each comment I saw the girl in front of me turn redder and redder. The fact that some people were quietly laughing didn't help much either. I had the feeling this wasn't the first time something like this had happened, so I decided to help her out a little. I crouched down and whispered to her, "Looks like you could use a hand, what do you need me to do to shut them up?"
Her expression changed at that point, it wasn't so much embarrassment now as much as it was confusion. "Excuse me?" She whispered back.
"Tell me what I need to do to shut them up and I'll do what I can. So, what do you need?"
"Get down on one knee, and just follow my lead." She replied, her face losing a lot of the redness that was there before. I winked to let her know I understood and got into position. She took a more confident stance.
"T-Tell me your name and where you're from."
"My name is Jonathan Harris; I'm from the country of England." I replied.
"You've been brought from very far away then. There isn't a country by that name in Halkeginia. My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. Now stay still as I complete the contract." She said, as she lifted a wand into the air. "Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, grant your blessings upon this creature and bind it as my familiar." She declared as she tapped me on the head with the wand, following it up by lifting my head up and kissing me. To say the least I did not expect that part or the searing pain in my left hand. I tried my best to withstand it, the only sign that it hurt being the fact that my right hand was clenched tightly. When it subsided I lifted my hand up to see what had happened and I saw some strange symbols on my hand.
"It is done." Louise said as I stood up. "We are now Master and Familiar."
"I look forward to a fruitful partnership." I replied with a grin. "We should be able to lay down a few ground rules later, right?"
"... Agreed." Louise replied hesitantly, as she looked towards the older gentleman.
"Very nice Miss Vallière. Now that everyone present has a familiar, you have no lessons until the day after tomorrow. Use this time to acquaint yourselves with your familiars. Class is dismissed!" He said as the crowd began to disperse. Sadly the co-operation I displayed did little to improve her apparent reputation. The most it had done was to stop them from commenting, at least for now. Louise was the one to break the silence.
"Follow me, we need to talk." She said calmly, turning towards the building behind us and walking towards it, I followed her, staying behind her so she could lead the way.
About ten minutes later we arrived in a bedroom, which I could only guess was hers.
"Why did you help me like that?" Louise asked sternly. "You even made it clear to me that as far as you were concerned, I needed it."
"Well let's just say I know what it's like to get treated like that. I figured you could use a hand because they were talking about you like you were a failure. Speaking of which, what did they mean by 'Louise the Zero' anyway?" I replied, curious about the nickname.
"It's nothing for you to be concerned about." She said, clearly this was a difficult topic for her,
"Say no more, I'll be clear though, you ever need a person to talk to, I'll be waiting."
"Like you have a choice in the matter. You're expected to obey me regardless of the task." Louise said coolly as she stood up and began unbuttoning her blouse.
"Erm, what are you doing?" I asked, thoroughly confused.
"Changing. What does it look like?" She replied, continuing on as if I wasn't even there. I quickly turned around so I wasn't looking.
"In front of me? That's not really something a girl should do."
"Well, you are only a familiar. You wouldn't be hesitant to change your clothes if the only other living being in the room was a house pet, so why should I hesitate in front of you, my familiar?" Louise argued. While she had a point with the pet part, she really needed to realise that I was human first, and a familiar second.
"And keep in mind Louise that I'm a human boy. There's more to take into account than my apparent social status." I replied, walking to the door. "I'll be back a little later, I'm gonna go explore the grounds a bit. Learn the layout of the area. Besides, I want to go see if any of my stuff turned up on the grounds. If you're still awake when I get back we'll be able to set up ground rules then, OK?"
I left the room without giving her a chance to respond and began looking for the stairs. Reaching into my pocket, I took out the five coins that had appeared in my possession when I arrived here. My gaze also shifted to the belt that I was still wearing for some reason. I pulled at the buckle and it came off, the rest of the belt vanishing. These things couldn't really be the OOO Driver and the Core Medals from the Kamen Rider franchise, could they? Looking at the medals I had, if these were the real deal, then I had Taka, Tora, Batta, Unagi and Zou, enough for a total of two Random Combos, and the TaToBa Combo. I couldn't leave this alone, if I had the powers of a Kamen Rider now, then they would be a real asset to me in this world.
Now, where was the courtyard again?
It took me about five minutes to find the stairs, allowing me to head down to the courtyard, which had emptied since everyone had gotten their familiars. I put the driver to my waist, the belt reforming around me, and slotted in the Taka, Tora and Batta Medals.
I had rotated the belt, ready to scan it, when I heard a scream from another area of the grounds. Looks like the medals would have to wait. Putting the scanner back in its holder, I ran towards the person who had screamed. When I arrived I didn't expect to see the source. It was a maid being attacked by a Yummy of all things!
It was a humanoid Yummy, a Heavy Mammal type. Its legs were wrapped in some form of hide, while its feet looked more like hands. Moving up the body, its chest and arms were covered by thick black hair, all the way down the arms (which were ridiculously muscular), only stopping at the creature's hands, and even then, the hair had covered the backs of them. Around it's neck and waist were the standard attachments to a Yummy, the belt made from chains and a small pair of hands reaching around its neck and closing around a white disc. I couldn't tell if there were any of the same discs on its shoulders because of the hair. The Yummy's head resembled an ape, with the typical human-style face inside the ape's mouth, aside from the two faces (the human and the ape) its head was covered in the same hair. Looking at it, it appeared to be screaming in anger. All in all it looked a lot like one would expect from a Gorilla Yummy.
How the heck did they get into this world, and if they were here, was there a Greeed nearby? I didn't have time to think, I had to act fast, and if these medals were legit, I knew how to face it on even grounds. I grabbed the scanner and ran it across my still loaded belt.
"Time to see if these work, HENSHIN!"
TAKA! TORA! BATTA!
TA-TO-BA! TATOBA! TA-TO-BA!
The air filled with light as the familiar looking armour formed around me, the Helmet, styled after a red hawk, the black with yellow torso with the retracted claws forming a type of armguard, and the black with green legs featuring insect styled armour on each shin, leading to green feet. All three of these sections had lines leading to the chest plate of the armour, which carried a three part emblem featuring the designs on the medals, a section at the top representing the hawk, a yellow tiger in the middle, and a green grasshopper at the bottom. I looked down at myself, still not really believing what had happened.
"I-I can't believe it, these things are real!" I exclaimed, trying to take it all in before putting my hands to my face. "Focus Jonathan, you've got something to do right now." I muttered to myself, running to protect the maid that was under attack, once I was close enough I leapt towards the Yummy, landing a kick squarely in the chest.
"Now, now, now, attacking a poor defenceless maid? Looks like I'm gonna have to smack you around a bit as a punishment. Get ready Monkey Man, here comes the Kamen Rider!" I shouted as I landed.
Looks like Louise got part of what she wanted. If I got enough medals together now, I'd certainly be a powerful familiar.
To Be Continued...
Well then, first chapter done with, and we've already got an original Yummy for the first Rider Battle! I was originally going to name this story 'Familiar of ZerOOO', but Ten-Faced-Paladin beat me to it, so I quickly changed it to 'Medals of Zero'. This has been an idea in my head for a while now, and I starting writing it about 3 weeks ago, balancing it with schoolwork. Either way, Chapter 2 of this story is almost complete, I only need to finish off the scene that I'm up to and then round off the chapter, so an update to this one may be up soon! See you next time, and if you have an idea for an original Yummy, let me know and if I like it, I'll credit you for helping out with the story!