The midday sun hung high in the sky.

Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand. The flesh was sticky, she noticed, sweat formed from the heat of the sun and from her own nervousness. She sway slightly left and right, hand in hip, body rigid and tense. A sigh escaped through her lips in an involuntary manner.

Reddish-brown eyes were set forward, attention completely focused on the very special ritual that occurred before her.

The Springtime Summoning Ritual, it was a tradition, a sacred rite in which noble's participated and summon a creature that would act as their familiar. The familiar summon would be a constant companion of a noble and depending on the creature summon, it would show the power that the noble possess. At the very least, this was what Louise believed.

For someone like her, to summon something wicked like a dragon or a griffin would've been great for her…no, it would've been more than great, it would be beyond words.

"Louise?" A male voice called out. Louise turned, her strawberry-blonde hair fluttered as she turned toward the voice.

A middle aged man that carried a big wooden staff and wore a black robe, looked at her with a raised brow. He was the teacher in charge of overseen hers and the rest of her fellow students summoning ritual, Professor Colbert. He stood in-front the group of students and their familiars.

"Wha—!? Y-Yes professor?" Louise asked, embarrass, her cheeks reddened, though she still maintained a neutral expression.

"The summoning ritual, it's your turn Miss Vallière." Colbert said, he pointed forward with his staff. The other students looked at her in exasperation or in mockery, others just ignored everything else as they attended their familiars.

Louise took in a deep breath and walked forward.

"Right." Louise said simply, as dread filled her.

"Ooh, do please summon your beautiful, powerful, divine familiar Zero~! Don't botch this up!" A female voice cut in. Louise stopped walking, turned toward the sound of the voice and growled at the one who spoke. It was a young woman with flaming red hair, her dark skin gave her an exotic look among her peers. The young woman held a sly smile on her face as she looked at Louise, her hand was on top of the head of a giant fire salamander, her familiar.

Kirche Zerbst, another growled escaped Louise as she looked at the dark skin woman.

"Hah! What? Powerful? Divine? Beautiful? The Zero won't summon anything like that!" A student off by the side jeer, others started laughing.

"That's if she summons anything!" Another one mocked. At those words, their laughter grew in intensity. Louise scolded at everyone who laughed, but they ignored her as they continued their mockery. Colbert sighed and turned toward the students.

"Enough, mocking one of your fellow peers is unbecoming of a noble." Colbert said, his reprimand clear as many students around stopped their laughter, though some still remained with light laughter. Colbert shook his head and turned to Louise and beckoned her to continue. "Miss Vallière, do please continue with the ritual."

Louise looked at her professor and nodded, she stepped forward. Wand firmly on her right hand she pointed forward, a shaky breath escaped her, she was nervous. She was afraid that she would fail. Her entire body shook in anxiety, this was the moment. If she failed, then that was it for her.

No, renew determination filled her.

Her shaking stopped.

Her anxiety receded.

Her body tensed as determination to get this over with had settled deep into her very being.

With that, she closed her eyes and pointed the wand forward.

"I beg of you…" Louise started. "My servant that exists somewhere in the universe…"

Colbert and some of the students that paid attention to the ritual which was in process, noted the circle of blue light that appeared before Louise. Colbert eyes widened, surprised at the appearance of the magical circle. The other students, who ignored Louise in favor for their familiars or just to make small talk, noted the strange event that unfolded before them as the light grew more intense.

Yet Louise paid no mind to this, to absorb in her chant.

"My divine, beautiful and powerful servant...!" Louise said with more strength.

Unbeknownst to her, but something that the others noticed was the circle before her, formed strange figures, layers upon layers as it shone brighter.

"I wish and desire from the bottom of my heart…Heed my call and answer my guidance!"

Colbert and the others took a step back, the students braced themselves as they did not understand what was wrong with the sudden appearance magical circle. But they did know of Louise's tendency to fail every spell she performed and just how disastrous they were.

And then, the magical circle shot a bright light upward toward the sky.

Louise jumped back, surprised when a powerful light penetrated her shut eyelids. The crowd of students in the back gasped or yelp in surprise as the torrent of light continued to exude upward. Everyone could see the silhouette of something that had appeared inside the light.

Louise eyes widened with hope. Had what she summoned had been powerful? It had to be, if something could cause such torrent of light to emanate, then that meant that it had to be powerful.

Then the light flickered and veered off to the right, as if struck by something. The silhouette inside disappear, and alongside it were Louise's hope. She felt her heart plummet. The light abruptly disappeared, smoked rose from where the magical circle was and slowly began to dissipate.

Everyone present righted themselves and looked at the smoke as it fully dissipated to reveal a woman, a well-endowed and developed woman. The first thing that everyone took notice was of the woman long wavy crimson pink hair, blue eyes, pink lips and the scar that went across her face. The woman's clothing was another thing they took notice, she wore brown choker collar was on her neck. She had a long red trench coat that showed her breasts, brown belts that were tightly put just under her breast and reached down to her waist, white pants and long dark brown boots.

The pink hair woman stood casually, right hand on her hips, her pink hair and red coat fluttered flutter slightly as the wind began to pick up. The woman raised her left arm up, flexed her fingers, as if she was examining her hand.

Everyone stared curiously, but none more so than Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. The young strawberry blonde girl stared at the woman with an agape expression. Her mouth hung opened slightly, her eyes focused on the woman, her shoulder slumped.

"Is that my beautiful, divine, powerful familiar…?" Louise muttered in dismay, a frantic feeling denial filled her as she stare at the rather, vulgar woman with distaste.

The woman heard Louise and focused her eyes on the girl, though not moments later her eyes looked around at the crowd, her left arm falls back to her side, she leaned slightly back. Her pink lips parted in a slight smirk.

"Huh? This is pretty confusing, seems like I got summoned by a child…or was it by children? That much wasteful energy could only be achieved by a group, I think…" The pink hair woman muttered the last part, her blue eyes surveyed the area. Then her eyes settled on Louise. "Oy, girly, you know who summoned me?"

The works spoken by the woman caught everyone off-guard, not expecting someone like her to speak to them in such a manner. Louise's eyes widened, her expression grew aghast.

"W-What? How dare you speak in such way in front of a noble!? Where are you from commoner?" Louise demanded, livid at the fact that a commoner that dared address her in such manner. And what made it worse for her was that it was a commoner that dress like some common degraded woman and one that had been apparently summoned by her.

The woman didn't even seem insulted by the comment. No, her expression was more one of wry amusement, one eyebrow was raised as she looked at Louise.

"Louise, what were you thinking? Calling a commoner with 'Summon Servant'?" Someone from the crowd of students asked in mockery, as laughter erupted.

"I…I just made a little mistake!" Louise said quickly as she turned back to look at the crowd, the indignation was clear on her voice.

"What mistake are you talking about? Nothing unusual happened." Another student mocked.

"Of course! After all, she's Louise the Zero!" Someone else said, the crowd of students all burst out laughing.

"Hoho, I shall give you credit for one thing Zero! At the very least you did summoned a beautiful familiar, but that's about the only thing, right Tabitha?" Kirche mocked in laughter, her hand underneath her chin as laugh, she turned to look at a blue hair girl, Tabitha, who kept her gaze firmly on the woman for about a second before she tuned everything around her out. The smaller girl, had already lost interest in the events.

"Shut Up! Mr. Colbert!" Louise called out, her threshold of patience had already reached its peak, to have summon a commoner was bad enough, but the continue jeers and laughter of her peers did not help.

The balding teacher walked towards Louise, has he had most than figured that she only needed some sort of support over the mockery of her peers. Still, his eyes were locked with the form of the woman that had been summoned. He reached Louise position, his eyes still focused on the woman, who even through the blatant staring did not seem perturbed or even annoyed. His eye snapped toward Louise when he noticed that his robes had been tugged. He cleared his throat, his face flush red at his actions.

"What is that you want from me, Miss Vallière?" Colbert asked.

"Please! Let me try the summoning one more time!" Louise pleaded, her embarrassment over what she had gotten clear to him as day. Colbert opened his mouth to say something but was beaten to the punch as the pink hair woman let out a hearty laughter.

"Ho! I see, I see. So I was summoned by you then girl. No, I think it would make more sense to call you Master, huh?" The woman asked rhetorically, a smirk clear on her face.

"What!?" Louise snapped at the woman, who took in stride. "Yeah, I summoned you. But it was a mistake so just shut up while I try to fix this!"

"Fix this? Huh, so what? I wasn't your first choice then little girl?" The woman said in an easy tone, then she shrugged. "Just so you know little girl, no matter how much you would like for it to be different, I am your Servant and you my Master, girl."

Louise growled at her.

"I said shut up already! There's no way I'm going to have a commoner as a familiar!" Louise shouted in indignation, she did not like one bit how the commoner talked back at her. She turned toward her teacher, intent to ignore the woman. "Professor! Please, let me try ritual again!"

"I am sorry Miss Vallière." Colbert said, he shook his head, stood his ground and looked down at Louise. "But I cannot allow that. It is strictly forbidding. As a second year student, you must summon a familiar and must stay and care for the summon familiar. You cannot change the familiar once you have summoned it because the 'Springtime Familiar Summoning' is a sacred rite. Simply because you did not like your summon familiar does not mean you can simply change it for another one. You have no choice but to take her."

"But... I've never heard of having a commoner as a familiar!" Louise shouted in desperation. Laughter from the crowd of students behind her made Louise stopped and turned around with a scowl. The students continued their laughter.

"This is a tradition, there are no exceptions, she may be a commoner, but as long as she was summoned by you, she must be your familiar. It is true that no human summoned as familiar as been recorded in history, but ritual takes precedence over every rule. As I said Miss Vallière, you cannot change your familiar, she must become your familiar." Colbert said firmly, as he wished for Louise to understand the impossibility of what she asked.

"Oh by the founder, please tell me this is just a joke…" Louise said in low spirits, she looked down with slump shoulder as realization that she could not do ritual again settled in. She looked at her teacher once more in desperate hope, but the man shook his head and gave her a look of exasperation.

"Miss Vallière will you please hurry? How much more time is this summoning going to take? You have made countless mistakes in the past, yet finally you have managed to perform the summoned familiar ritual correctly, be it a special case. So hurry and form a contract." Colbert admonished her as he started to look inpatient.

Louise slumped down again and looked at the pink hair woman who watched the entire scene with amusement. Louise sighed dejectedly and walked towards her.

"Come on Zero do it!" A student jeered at Louise.

"Yeah form a contract with the commoner!" Another mocked through laughter. Louise barely paid any mind to the laughter as she glare at the woman.

"Hm… so now what little girl? Are you going to resign yourself to me then?" The woman asked, hand on her hips, head cocked slightly toward the right. Louise growled at the 'little girl' comment.

"Be silent…familiar." Louise said the words with distastes, as she pointed her wand at the woman. "What other choice do I have?"

"Really, is that how far your resolve goes? How disappointing, I expected a little more. Even if by at the end it would've been nothing but words that were empty and weightless…at the very least it would be something. But oh well, it seems that I have been summoned by a weak willed Master." The woman said, she shook her head and shrugged helplessly.

"I said SHUT UP!" Louise nearly screeched after she heard the words, she could not understand why this commoner had been running her mouth, but they had touched a nerve.

And they hurt.

"It would seem that even a commoner can recognize a Zero." The blonde hair noble, Montmorency mocked.

Louise ignored her, she walked up to the woman and beckoned her to lower herself. The woman raised an eyebrow at Louise and remained in the same position for a few seconds, until Louise beckoned her to lower herself once more in a more harsh and rapid manner. The woman relented, lowered her upper body down slightly, it gave the strawberry blonde girl a view of the woman's breast and of her face. Louise cringed and looked in distaste at the ugly scar on the woman's face.

"You should count yourself lucky. Normally, you'd go your whole life without a noble doing this to you." Louise said, her tone bitter. Angry, fiery bits of emotion were held behind the Louise's reddish-brown eyes. The woman smirked in satisfaction.

"Now that's a fine look on your face, Master." The woman said, as she acknowledged Louise spirit. The girl's look intensified and held her tongue for a few seconds. She breath in deeply and exhaled, in effort to relax herself. She closed her eyes.

"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers; bless this humble being and make her my familiar." Louise chanted her spell, touched the woman's forehead with the wand and drew her face closed to that of the woman. Louise felt the woman's lips upon hers, she had expected…she really didn't know what she had expected, but it was most definitely the worst. She was surprise by how soft yet firm the lips felt.

Louise opened her eyes, withdrew and looked off to the side. Her anger sipped out of her, it only left a feeling of bitterness and resignation on her very being.

"It's done." Louise said simply.

But at that very instant that those words left her lips and pain filled her left hand. Louise let out a squeak, she raised her left hand up toward her face, her eyes grew large when she noticed the back of her hand was red. Then a red flash exploded from her left hand, it blinded her temporarily.

"Miss Vallière!?" Colbert called out in worry, his eyes winded in shock and confusion over what had occurred. He walked with haste towards Louise, who was rubbing her eyes to get rid of the sting from the flash, her knees bend and she jumped when Colbert placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Miss Vallière, are you alright?"

Louise opened her eyes slightly, blinked several times, a tear escaped from her left eye, and her eyesight was restored fully after a few seconds. A hissed escaped her, she looked down at the left hand, Colbert behind her looked over shoulder and both let out a gasp.

A strange symbol had been marked on the back of her left hand. Louise looked at it in bewilderment, it looked like three arrows that pointed toward the opposite direction of each other. Louise face scrounge up as she tried to rub it off with her other hand, she stopped when a sharp pain coursed up from her hand all the way to her arm. She jumped slightly when Colbert grabbed her left hand and inspected the markings.

"Hmm…these…these are very weird markings, they do not seem to be runes. Yet I have never heard of a noble who has perform 'Summon Servant' to get this type of markings…this needs further investigating." Colbert said, distracted completely, he racked his brain over what the strange symbols could be. Louise just looked at the markings in concerned

"Oy!" A loud, rude feminine voice called out. Both Louise and Colbert looked abruptly at the pink hair woman, she held a look of irritation on her face as she glare at the two of them. On the woman's chest just on the upper top of her breast runes were inscribed into it. Colbert eyes widened when he noticed the quickness in which the runes had inscribed themselves and the unusualness that they presented. The man stood up, his eyes focused on the woman's runes, though to everyone else it looked as if he was ogling the woman's breast.

"Is he seriously checking out that commoner out?" Some male student asked.

"Eh? What the hack are talking about? Of course he is moron! Even though she may be a commoner she's got quite the exquisite body." Another male said with a great deal of smugness and sleaziness.

"Yeah, but that scar kind of kills it." Another disagree, disgust clear on his voice.

Colbert reached the woman, he drew closer toward the pink hair woman's chest, though he did not notice his own actions or how very perverted they were until…

"Hey, I don't believe we are that familiar, four eyes." The woman in the red coat said, the undertones of danger were clear to Colbert. And if that wasn't enough, the cold metal he felt underneath his chin along with the sound 'click' that he heard was enough.

He stopped looked down and noticed a flintlock pointed right at him, the trigger was ready to be pushed if Colbert decided to continue with his advances. Colbert raised both his hands, a show of peace and back off. Louise noticed this and anger swelled up inside her.

"Familiar! Put down that weapon right at this instant!" Louise commanded, the woman looked at her with a raised brow.

"Hmm? Is it not a woman's duty to protect their integrity or something like that? I mean, I just responded rather normally if you had to ask me. This kind of thing wouldn't really bother me had four eyes had at least bought me a couple booze." The woman said good-naturedly, a grin bloomed on her face, the hand that held the flintlock was lowered. They did not notice when the weapon disappeared out of the woman's hands.

"Familiar! Apologize at this instant!" Louise reprimanded in irritation and embarrassment, she turned toward Colbert who rubbed underneath his chin with a sheepish look. "Mr. Colbert, please I apologize for the behavior of my fam—!"

"There is no need for such thing, Miss Vallière." Colbert said, as he waved her off. "It was my fault by becoming so distracted that I did not notice how shameful my acts must have been."

"Well…she is commoner, but I guess…" Louise said as she backed down and crossed her arms.

"No, no, such behavior is unbecoming of noble. Please miss, I do humbly apologize." Colbert inclined his head slightly for about half a second. The pink hair woman just shrugged, harms underneath her breast, her eyes looked down at the runes on her chest with a raised brow.

"Ho! As if I could blame you for such a thing!" The woman said with a smirk, she gave Colbert a meaningful look. The man just cough into his fist and turned around, walked back toward the crowd of students who looked at the scene in bewilderment or mocking amusement. He looked at Louise before he passed her by.

"Miss Vallière I shall look into the incident of the strange markings on your hand. Of this you can rest assure." Colbert said kindly toward Louise, but he did not give her time to respond as he looked at the rest of his students."Well, let's go back to class, everyone."

With those words the man rose into the air, his black fluttered as the wind kicked up. The other students in the field did same and headed towards the stone walls of the castle off in the distance.

"Louise, you'd better walk back!"

"She shouldn't try to fly. She can't even manage levitation."

"A commoner is perfect as your familiar!" the students jeered as they flew away."

With that done, the only two people left behind were Louise and the pink hair woman who looked at the students in bemusement as they flew away. Louise turned around and glared at the woman, her anger from earlier may had seeped out of her body, but there were still traces left.

"Who are you!?" Louise yelled as she gave a fury-filled glare at the woman. The pink hair scar woman let out a loud bark of laughter when she heard question, with a big grin the woman looked a Louise, eyes squinted, she leaned to the side, as if she was showing off her body's great stature.

"It's about time we got to introduction Master! Then hear me well girl! And do well to remember my name by the death from my passing! I am the Servant summoned by you! Rider! Temeroso el Draque!" The woman, Rider, said with a loud voice.

"W-What!? What the heck is that supposed to mean!? Rider!? Temeroso el Draque!?" Louise asked in irritation, then her eyes widened, fear crept up at her as she looked at Rider. "Wait…you wouldn't be…are you a, noble?"

"Noble?" Rider scoffed at that. "If you want to consider me one then be my guest little girl, though I do consider myself quite the merchant. Getting riches and the finest wines are quite the thrill."

Louise looked at Rider weirdly, the woman's words still process over in her head. Not a moment later her eyes widened in despair.

"No…no don't tell me that I didn't just summon some commoner, but a commoner who is a sell-sword!" Louise yelled out in indignation, she fell, her butt hit the grassy ground and she let her head fall into her hands in frustration.

"What? A sell-sword, girl do I look like a sell-sword to you? Hell, I find that to be rather insulting…" Rider trailed off slightly at the words, she placed a finger on her chin as if in thought. Louise looked up, relief flooded her and a sigh escaped her.

"Really…?" Louise asked, her immediate shame had settled ever so slightly. Still though, she did feel embarrassment and bitter disappointment to have summoned a commoner as a familiar. But in the end she prefer to have a commoner over some disgusting mercenary. She looked at Rider, who stared back as if some realization had come to her.

"You know what Master, I think I got it wrong…because if you really looked at it from an outsiders perspective, I really am a sell-swords!" Rider proclaim loudly with a renew bark of laughter.

"What!?" Louise yelled, her jaw dropped, eyes wide as the moon. She trembled, a renewed fury filled up in her. But Rider was not done just yet with her self-assessment, the older woman gave Louise a smirk, a clear hint of misfit on her eyes.

"Yeah, I am a sell-sword. Or as I like to refer it to, a hired gunman, after all I don't exactly use swords." Rider explained, hand on her hip as she looked down at Louise with barely restraint amusement. Louise on the other hand looked nothing but the opposite, she looked downright murderous.

"Oh, do please explain what this difference between a sell-sword and this…'Hired gunman' commoner. Because from I stand, people like you are all the same." Louise growled out.

Rider let out a hearty, long, loud laugh. The woman continued her laughter for minutes, as her voice did not give out, nor did she stop to get a breath. The woman's amusement was almost touchable for anyone who could see her or was near her. And unfortunately for Louise, she was both, and she did not share the woman's joy or amusement. Louise stood from the ground, puffed out her chest and glared at woman even more dangerously.

Rider just continued her laughter until it finally subsided, she grin, gave Louise a look and crossed her harms under her breast, pushing them up accidentally. Louise just let another growled escaped her at the action.

"Well, I'll let you in a secret …little girl." Rider started, her grin grew even bigger at the girl's ever growing ire, as the comment set off Louise even more. "I am actually quite worse than sell-sword, by a large, large, large magnitude even."

"What…what is that supposed to mean, commoner?" Louise asked, caution now clear on her voice and body, but she did not take a step back. Pride, that was a reason has to why she did not back off. The fact that Rider did not give out any hostile intent helped out as well.

"Oh come now, girl. Can you not see how I am dress?" Rider gestured down at her body with her right hand. Louise was more than tempted to say that she looked like some common whore, even though she knew that if her mother heard her say such a thing she would get punish for being so crude. But her anger at the woman had already passed its peak.

But she humored, her…familiar…Louise looked at the woman's clothing. And still in the end she looked nothing more than some common whore for Louise, though the red trench coat did remind her of something…

"No…" Louise said, the words came out without her meaning to as realization dawned on her. Rider just smirked.

"Yes, that is very good Master! I guess I'll have to give you credit after all! Here I thought that I would have to carry you everywhere you went! But it seems you don't need that, thought as someone who has summoned me, I guess I'll have to care for a crew member, huh?" Rider said with amusement.

"No, no…" Louise again repeated, her head shook and she took a step back as denial coursed through her.

"Hah! But there is no use denying it Master! I am a woman who has sail through the seas in look for treasures and wine! A captain who commanded her men through each ordeal and adventure! Did I not tell you to listen well and remember! I am Temeroso el Draque!" Rider yelled with vigor.

"Oh please Founder, please don't let it be true…" Louise begged and begged as she knew that the reveal that would come, was one that she would be incapable of accepting.

"Come now, Miss Vallière…I am a pirate." Rider said a giant grin on her face.

"NOOOOOOO…!"


Author Notes

Hey there readers, first chapter for my first crossover. I do hope that you enjoy it. I had the idea to this story after reading The Hill of Swords by GB, loved that story. But I wanted to do something different and I found the perfect Servant to serve not as good assistant to Louise but as a great foil. I'll be taking into account the story of Familiar of Zero from the light novel. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Please review, would love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy and until next time.