I do not own Familiar of Zero or Touhou Project. Those belongs to Noboru Yamaguchi and ZUN, respectively
And I am not a good writer, nor an English speaker, do give me criticism if necessary.
Desperate
154.
154 years of isolation.
154 years that Ran had been waiting for something, anything to happen.
But she knew that nothing will ever happen, because everything is gone.
Gensokyo had fallen.
Ruins of the past surrounded her, dirty and filthy beffiting of an ancient relic, void of all life except one. Yet, the fox youkai still remained clean and regal, as all servants of all masters should be.
But Ran has no masters, nor does she have a servant. Even if she used to had both of one.
Her white dress was clean, absent of all filth around her, a contrast to the world that she is currently living on. Her fox ears were exposed to the world, golden like her hair with white tips on top.
Not that she could show it to anyone anyway.
Ran had nothing to do, no one to talk with. No humans, youkais, or even spirits that she could interact with.
Just her, and memories around her, reminding her of what could have been.
Every other days were the same, she woke up, make breakfast from what is left, bath herself, clean, dress herself and mourn. Rinse and repeat.
The only thing that kept her sane is her training that she used to go through when she was still with her former master, who passed away trying to protect Gensokyo.
And her.
But Chen... oh, Chen. The world was cruel, not sparing even the young nekomata during their extermination. She had failed to protect her master, she had failed to protect her shikigami.
She had failed as a shikigami, as well.
Not even the hourai immortals could even kept their own eternal life, they were wiped out as if they had never exist at all. No one managed to survive the fall, not even her master, not even the immortals. No one.
No one, but her.
And so everyday, she pleaded. For anyone, anything for her to serve to. Whether she would be a slave to a monster, or a breeding stock to a perverted man, she would have those rather than living in this never-ending cycle of painless torment.
She doesn't want to be alone.
Ran cried silently, she was desperate. She didn't have powers like her master to create a gap and travel between worlds, or anything similar to it. She was trapped here, with the ruins of Gensokyo being her only companion.
She should just give up.
Even if she died, there would be no shinigami to ferry her soul to the Yama to be judged. There won't be any other souls with her that had died once as well. There won't the Yama to judge her, even.
She's all alone to herself.
Until 'it' happend.
As if her prayers were answered, a green portal emerged from nowhere, and while it stood in it's glory. Ran can only stare at it with wide eyes and open mouth.
Calculations ran through her mind, simulating all the possibilities that could happen if she enter through the portal, creating hope for her and casting some doubts.
But only then, a voice interrupted her thoughts.
"My servant that existed somewhere in this vast universe..."
The voice was female, she noted. A voice from a young girl, chanting some kind of spell judging from the concentrated form of magical energy around the portal.
"...my beautiful, wise and powerful servant..."
Yet, it was as if the person behind the portal were begging for something to appear. As if the person knew that it was futile for her to try out the spell, she could feel those emotions of despair and desperate coming from the portal itself.
But she won't dissapoint the girl behind that portal, no. She will appear before her, congratulate her for her success. She will become her familiar, her shikigami.
And she will finally leave this place.
"...heed my call, I wish from the very bottom of my heart and add to my guidance..."
And so she ran towards, no, she leapt towards the portal as it swallows her form, leaving the place that she used to call home once and for all.
"...and appear!"
And so she did, in Halkeginia.
Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière had not expected much from the ritual. And yet, here she was, desperately chanting the rite of summoning a familiar in hopes of summoning just, anything. Whether it would be a dragon or some ancient creatures, ugly or beautiful. Hell, if she summoned some commoner from another place, she would gladly accept it.
But she would never expect anything to come out, just like the rest of the school, jeering and laughing at her for even trying to do so.
"My servant that existed somewhere in this vast universe..."
She start chanting, pointing her wand towards the pentagon drawing on the ground. Building up her willpower and channeled them through her wand as she did so.
"...my beautiful, wise and powerful servant..."
The pentagon below started to glow with ethereal light, indicating that her chant is working. Even then, she did not lose her focus on task at hand. The surprised look from her schoolmates behind her, however, she would cherish it for all eternity.
"...heed my call, I wish from the very bottom of my heart and add to my guidance..."
If she did summon an amazing familiar, then she would be glad. No longer will she ever be the Zero ever again, her schoolmates will respect her, especially the Zerbst. As well as winning the bet she had against Kirche.
"...and appear!"
The pentagon drawn on the ground started to glow brighter, soon bright enough for her and other schoolmates to cover their eyes from the blinding light coming from it.
Then it exploded.
Smoke covered the entire court, black-grey particles and dust blinded the line of sight of the young mage. She coughed and wheezed, some of the smoke from the explosion that she had made entered her lungs, it seems.
"Damn Zero!" A voice of a male student she did not know of, and a cough from him. "Can't you at least make your failure smaller? My clothes are dirty now!"
She ignored the voice, while frantically trying to find the center that the pentagon sigil had once resided, and find her familiar.
But Louise could not see the area with the smoke covering the entire place, she didn't have wind magic to push the smoke away.
But someone else did, and they called out for the wind and casted it across the entire place, clearing them from all smoke and dust that once occupied the court.
And the sight on the center that had been delivered to her as she watches in astonishment, is her familiar.
It was a blonde woman, yet, with a pair of fox ears presenting her inhumanity with nine tails behind her. She wears a unique, white dress that has a blue tabard with strange markings at the center of her chest. Her eyes, however, were golden and piercing.
But that did not made Louise forget what she did.
She had summoned a familiar.
Louise doesn't know how powerful the familiar is, all she knew is that she had succeeded a spell. Her practice and training had been fruitful and gave her result, Brimir seems to be smiling at her today.
"I summoned a familiar..."
"Indeed you did, Miss Vallière." A voice of her professor, Jean Colbert, told her. "But you shouldn't just stand there now, please make a contract with your familiar, she seems to be confused."
"O-of course, Professor." And trodded towards her familiar to establish contract between master and servant.
Once she neared the female fox-eared human-like creature, the familiar seems to be staring around, looking for something, or someone. Only then did her gaze had fall upon her, she felt a chill down her spine.
But her familiar only smiled, and opened her mouth.
"Miss Vallière, my new mistress, perhaps?"
The familiar spoke with no small amount of amusement, still, she remain composed through the entire chattering voice of her schoolmates by folding her hands together in front of her.
That alone, surprised Louise greatly. She had not expected a humanoid familiar and she had not expected a familiar that could speak.
Louise had truly summoned something special.
Though, what did she meant by her 'new' master?
She brushed off the thought, she have a contract waiting to be formed.
Before she noticed it, or even voiced it. Her familiar had already crouched down to her height level and stared at her face with a smile still intact, Louise noticed that her familiar is taller than her which is obvious. But, she had estimated the height to be at least as tall as Miss Longueville, the headmaster's secretary.
"Miss Vallière, please form the contract with your familiar. We do not have much time left."
Oh, right. She nodded at her professor and look back at her soon-to-be familiar with a straight face.
She closed both of her eyelids, and began to chant once again.
The supposed familiar only stared at her, as if to study her appearance and personality.
"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of five elemental powers, bless this humble being, and make her my familiar."
She finished her chant, and kissed her familiar on the lips.
The familiar only stood there, wide eyed at her new mistress. It would seem that she had finally noticed that the familiar contract was formed differently from her homeland.
Then the pain came, she hissed as if the burning pain within her body would dissipate from it. As it goes on, runes started to form around at the back of her hand, symbols containing words to represent the familiar and the master, glowing once it finished. Once the pain subsided, the glowing light that came from the back of her hand started to fade as well. And left with a bound familiar and a mistress.
And the deed was done, a full set of familiars and masters in the springtime familiar summoning ritual of the Academy.
"Congratulations on your success in familiar contract, Miss Vallière. Though, you have failed other magic spells, you have managed to succeed in both summoning and binding them."
Professor Colbert voiced his analysis to the young mage.
"Now that we've all finished the Springtime Familiar Summoning ritual. Everyone, except Miss Vallière, can now go on to the next class! May you all have a wonderful day with your familiar." With that, Professor Colbert walked away from the other students, as they go back to their dormitory, and towards Louise' familiar.
Louise, on the other hand, was staring at her own familiar. Her very own familiar, her very first success. She had even formed a contract correctly without an explosion! Either she was lucky, or Brimir above had finally pitied her enough to give her... this.
Her familiar is no elf, nor a wingman. She didn't have any pointed ears or wings around her back or arms. What confirmed the fact that her familiar isn't human, would be the pair of fox ears on top of her head. It looks kind of soft and blends well with the colour of the familiar's hair.
"Miss Vall- Mistress?"
Louise was pulled off from her musing at the voice of her familiar, staring at her with a small amount of confusion.
But she had called her 'mistress', while it was not uncommon for a familiar to acknownledged their own masters. Intellegent creatures on the other hand, are different. There is a case when a mage had summoned manticore as their familiar, but does not accept their masters right away. One must prove themselves to be stronger than them in a fight and overpower them for the manticores to accept their summoners as their masters.
She knew this because her mother, Karin the Heavy Wind, has a manticore as her own familiar. And the title 'Heavy Wind' were not displayed just for show, either. It implies power and influence of her mother with just a mention of the name, the person herself is also strong enough to put down a manticore into submission.
Even then, those kinds of familiars are unable to speak languages as they lacked complex vocal cords that humans had since birth.
While wingmen had the appearance of a human with human vocal cords and anatomy, excluding the wings, they were not intelligent enough to process basic languages. Elves are out of the question, as they were humanity's greatest enemy for centuries.
But, what about Louise' familiar? She was able to speak human languages and have enough decency to wear clothes, the way she handles herself is that of a maid while standing within their master's range. Either way, it would mean that she was trained to be a maid or already is one. But, one thing thing for sure is that; she may not even be a normal fox.
Reason? Foxes don't have nine tails behind their backs, nor do they look a lot like a human and acted like a human.
"My lady, as I am your possession from now on. I must congratulate you on successfully binding me as your familiar, it is my joy to see you as my mistress. What are your orders?"
And foxes are not always obedient, not even to their masters.
Perhaps her familiar is different, she needed some time to go to the library to know more. Louise knew that her familiar is very unique, maybe one of a kind, even.
Before she could order her familiar to follow her back to her room, Professor Colbert interrupted her.
"Oh, before you go, Miss Vallière. May I take a look at your familiar's runes for a moment?" asked Professor Colbert. Louise stared at him for a while and move away to make way for her professor to her familiar.
While then, her familiar only looked at him impassively. Staring at him as if to judge, calculate on how she should deal with him.
Colbert however, only cleared his throat and spoke up. "Excuse me, if you would let me see your-"
"No."
Only to be cut off by the fox-eared humanoid.
The Professor was dumbfounded for a moment, not knowing how to deal with a possibly the very first talking, humanoid familiar. "I am sorry if this is too sudden, but I need to see the runes on your hand. It doesn't seem like the usual-"
"You are not my mistress, I am not your familiar. You have no authority to order me." Again, the familiar ignored his request.
"Familiar!" This time, it's Louise' voice.
"Yes, Mistress?" The fox demi-human's gaze snapped back at her mistress and wait on standby for her orders, in which it startled said mistress slightly.
Seeing that her familiar is not going to say anything soon, she ordered her familiar. "Familiar, can you... uh, can you let him take a look at your hand?"
The youkai stared at her skeptically, then back at the professor as well as holding out her left hand to the professor with the back of the hand facing him.
"The... other one."
She complied, the familiar lifted her right hand to the professor in the same manner as before. She waited for him to study the runes on it.
Professor Colbert tried to hold her right hand to get a closer look on the runes, only for blonde fox-woman to tense up at his action. Seeing this, the professor withdrew his hand and use only his eyes on the runes etched on the back of the familiar's hand.
"How intriguing..." the professor finally voiced out his opinion. "I have seen these runes before, yet I couldn't place exactly what it..." he murmmured until both of the girls were unable to hear what he was saying anymore.
"Ah! Please, let me sketch it in my notes so that I may-"
"If only my mistress allows it."
Once again, she interrupted him with a deadpan expression. She moved her hand back from the view of the professor.
And Professor Colbert could do nothing but sigh in mild frustration, the familiar seems to be really loyal towards her mistress, perhaps a little too much that it gets annoying. Now, it seems he'll have to rely on Louise if he wanted get at least a detailed sketch of the runes to study on, or anything from her familiar.
So he gave his student a look. Louise seems to understand.
"Familiar, give him permission to take drawings of your runes."
She commanded, her familiar obeyed and show off the her right hand again.
Colbert brought out his notebook and a short coal as he scribbled down each every details he could make out on the runes at the back of the hand of Louise' familiar. Though, the process was quite unnerving when said familiar is staring down at the professor's bald head intently.
And once he's done, she drew her right hand back. Much to Louise' dismay.
"Thank you, Miss Vallière, and you too... Miss...?"
Only for this time that the fox familiar does not require her mistress' permission to grant the professor's request, she spoke out her name to the professor and Louise.
"Call me Ran Yakumo, but to you, my mistress. Refer to me however you want."
Chapter 2 in progress, in 2 weeks.