CardMaster Of Zero
First Crossover between YuGiOh and The Familiar of Zero
Do I own either of the two? No.
With the formalities done...I present to you, CardMaster Of Zero!
"Gorz The Emissary of Darkness!" He yelled, and with a flash he held his sword up, protecting himself from a series of claw slashes. Sparks flew as the blade met claws.
••••
Duel Universe, a developing virtual reality world centered around duel monsters. Though it is still in its early stages the game shows a promising future. The goal is simple; the player starts out with their deck of cards and aims to be the strongest person in the game. It focuses mainly around monsters and a few non-monster cards. Monster summoning does not require tributes, instead the summons are limited by cooldown times, 1-4 stared monsters take only a few minutes, 5-7 take hours, and 8+ star cards take a few days until they can be summoned again. Magic and Trap cards follow a different rule, but those rules haven't been implemented yet since Duel Universe is still at an early stage. Though summoning cards is fun, the real eyecatcher of Duel Universe is the player's ability to take on the appearance, strength, and weaknesses of the summoned card.
Very few people were allowed the honor of beta testing this game, from highly experienced testers to clueless people, these people were chosen to work out the kinks in the game. Since the game was still in its developmental stage, all of the testers were given a master card; this allowed the player to summon any card that they call out, look up a card's strengths and weaknesses, and understand opposing monsters.
One of the few testers, Maki, was a complete novice when he first started, but now he is one of the best (and only) testers of Duel Universe. He has never lost in an encounter against duel monsters…against males.
Outside of Duel Universe, Maki was like most teenagers. He had black hair, near black eyes, and a normal build. But that's where the similarities ended. At his school he was respected and not respected at the same time. The guys respected him because of his strict morals, never to hurt women emotionally or physically and his insistence on staying that way. The girls however, saw him not as a respectful person but as a toy for them to beat on him physically and emotionally.
This frustrated him to no end. Whenever he attempted to talk and make friends with the girls he would be insulted and called a creep and they would walk away. Girls shouldn't be like that…scratch that, he knew that some girls were like that, but it seemed impossible for all of them to be in the same school.
Everyday just repeated itself, go to school, get insulted, take classes, get insulted, leave school, and get insulted...again. When he was chosen to be one of the testers of Duel Universe he just thought of it as a boring job, but it wasn't, after a few days of testing he had an idea. If he wasn't able to gain the respect of girls in real life, then he would try to get respect from the girls in Duel Universe!
His little plan didn't work out so well. At every attempt to make friends with duel monsters like Dark Magician Girl or Card Ejector they would either insult him and run away, or scream and run away…he felt as if he was cursed to forever have girls hate him.
••••
Said person was currently depressed beyond normal, Maki journeyed into the mountain region to find a good place to be alone and sulk at his cursed fate. Yes he was depressed when he got here, but sulking doesn't make a person obscenely depressed…getting attacked by a duel monster who was a girl made him depressed as hell.
He had taken the form of Gorz The Emissary of Darkness on instinct, since it was one of his favorite cards. Black and gunmetal gray armor appeared on his body, a blood red cape formed at the middle of his back and various blades appeared on the armored sections of his arms, there were two notably large blades attached to his forearm armor also. His hair turned blood red and a black visor formed, shrouding the upper half of his face and a bit of his hair. In his hands was a single longsword, the handle was silver with black lines in the center, the blade had a polish so reflective it put mirrors to shame, and the sword was honed to an air-cutting level.
The attacking monster was an average monster by the name of Harpie Lady. The monster had the same blood red hair as Gorz, but unlike his hair, her hair reached down to her hips, and she also wore purple and blue clothing that hugged her body. The avian temptress had pale blue skin that matched her blue wings, which were attached to arms reaching her back. She was equipped with a set of talons and claws so that she could attack with her feet and hands.
Most of the testers would just swat the monster away with some overpowered card…except Maki. He was in a bind, Harpie Lady fell under his category of 'Must Not Hurt' so he was kinda caught between a rock and a hard place. Most of the female monsters he encountered never went straight into a fight so this was Maki's first time actually fighting a woman.
He blocked the harpie's attacks with the blunt side of his single edge sword, taking care not to cut himself whenever he blocked. Maki saw the fury of the harpie's face whenever she attacked, and this just made him even more depressed. He couldn't think of a way to stop the fighting without getting the harpie hurt. Blocking slash after slash, he decided to take a gamble and hope that the harpie wouldn't get hurt.
He lifted his arms up, opening himself up to an attack. The harpie lunged straight at him and one of her claws with the intention of slashing through his stomach.
Klink
Her attack did hit him but it didn't slash through the armor. This left the duel monster surprised, and this was enough of a distraction for Maki to take action. He used one of his hands to push the her to the ground. Then he brought his sword down, driving it into the ground…near her face.
"Can you calm down now?" Maki asked her. All he got in response was a hard glare that said, 'I lost, kill me now'
"Are you ok?" He asked kindly, earning a confused look from the winged beast.
"I mean are you hurt anywhere?" He said with concern. She shook her head and Maki sighed in relief.
He got up and held his hand out for her to grab. After a few seconds she held up her hand…claws, for Maki to bring Harpie Lady to her feet…err, talons.
Still holding hands/claws Maki looked at the red-haired harpie and swallowed in fear. He was going to ask the question that had always left him dismally depressed in the end.
"Umm…Will you be my friend?" He asked…silence.
He looked at her, trying to discern what she was thinking. More silence.
He was about to give up; usually silence meant 'no' to him. He lowered his gaze and began to loosen his grip on her claws until he felt a gentle squeeze on his hand. He looked up to find out why.
She gave a small nod.
"Thank you," He gave the winged girl a smile and she also returned with a small smile. Truth is, he was so happy he wanted to scream, but his mind put a firm shackle on his vocal cords.
'…I call my servant from the ends of the universe…'
'Dang, the makers just had to make an in-game announcement…' He sighed at the disturbance and looked up at the sky, waiting for a message screen to appear.
'…My sacred, beautiful, and powerful familiar, I call you…answer me…'
Maki's concentration was thrown off when he saw a red dragon lumber toward the two. It had several torn chains with a gem in its forehead. It reared up on its hind legs and began to beat its wings, creating gale force winds.
"Hold on!" He yelled as he tightened his grip on the harpie's wrist. He fought against the wind and walked up to get a grip on his sword that was planted on the ground. The red dragon roared and the winds grew stronger, now the two were off the ground. The harpie held on to Maki's hand and he was holding to their only anchor, his sword embedded into the ground.
'…Answer to my guidance!'
"Damn" Was the only word Maki could let out as his sword was torn out of the ground, sending the two flying back and into a jade-green portal, which swallowed up the two.
••••
Louise De La Valliere, a mage-in-training stood among her fellow students in an open courtyard. The students were performing some sort of ritual with their balding teacher, Mr. Colbert. The male students wore their uniforms; a fancy white long-sleeved shirt, black pants and a cloak. The female students wore similar uniforms; they had the same type of shirt, skirts, and a cloak of their own.
The students took their turns performing the ritual, they went one at a time and after each student finished their chant a monster, or their familiar, would appear.
Louise, known to the students as Louise the Zero, was the last of the students to go. The students gave her nickname, Louise the Zero, and this reflected her magical talent…zip, none, zero. All her spells would end in catastrophe, mainly an explosion…a large one.
Just as their teacher was about to finish, one of the female students piped up. "Mr. Colbert! Louise hasn't gone yet!" Many of the students turned to look at Louise.
"I'll show you K-Kirche! I'm g-going to s-s-summon a b-eautiful, and powerful familiar!" Louise stammered as she went to the center of the grassy courtyard to perform the ritual.
"I call my servant from the ends of the universe!" Louise's chant earned a few puzzled looks.
"My sacred, beautiful, and powerful familiar! I call you! Answer me!" Her voice increased in volume and some of the students responded by backing up a bit, waiting for the imminent explosion.
"Answer to my guidance!" And with those last words Louise waved her wand and brought it down.
BOOM
The dreaded explosion came right on time. Black smoke filled the courtyard, coughs and complaints were shouted, directed at another of Louise the Zero's many failures…or so they thought.
Most of the smoke cleared with a sudden gust of wind. In the center of the courtyard was a creature unheard of in their world. It seemed human at first, but upon closer inspection she had pale blue skin, blood red hair, blue wings, talons and claws. The creature looked around quizzically and saw the little pink haired girl in front of her.
Louise was stunned, she was fine if she only summoned a mouse, but it seems her prayers were answered. She had indeed summoned a familiar that was sacred, beautiful, and powerful. Her familiar did look sacred with its blue wings, it was definitely beautiful with its graceful body and long hair, and it definitely was powerful judging by the claws and talons on her familiar. She was so happy that she started to point her wand at her future familiar…
THUNK
"Huh?" Was all she could say as she instantly saw her refection. She looked around and saw that she wasn't looking at a mirror, but a large sword and its wielder.
••••
"What do you think you're doing to my friend?" Maki growled at the pink-haired mage. He felt something touch his back and turned his head to see that his harpie friend hide behind his back.
He got angrier at the sight of his first friend being scared. He took out his blade from the ground and took a few steps back with his friend and pointed his blade at the young mage, who was stunned…not in surprise but in anger.
"You filthy commoner! Its mine!" Louise yelled at the armored figure.
"IT!? What the hell do you think you're doing calling her an IT!?" He yelled back, he was beyond angry when he heard her treat his friend as a mere object.
The students just stood shocked at the development in front of them. Louise the Zero had summoned two familiars, a commoner and an actual familiar, and the commoner was keeping Louise from forming the contract between her familiar!
Mr. Colbert walked up and put his hand on Louise's shoulder and nudged her behind him. He pointed his staff at Maki before speaking.
"What do you want? We were just doing our traditional ritual and you interrupted the ceremony!"
Maki narrowed his eyes at him and spoke in an angry tone, "If any of you dare take away my friend…be grateful if you ever see the light." He was ready to break out and use his dragons to obliterate the entire damn area into a crater.
"I see…it is tradition to complete the ceremony…and seeing you were also summoned, I propose a compromise. You become miss Valliere's familiar and keep the honor of our tradition unstained, and your friend won't be her familiar?" The balding teacher suggested.
"I accept…I wouldn't want to fight you all, since it goes against my morals." Maki nodded and walked with the man toward the pink-haired student.
"Miss Valliere, this man…" Colbert trailed off.
"Call me Maki."
Colbert continued, "This man, Maki, has accepted to become your familiar in exchange of his friend." His words shocked her.
"Why should I form a contract with a commoner when I have that!" Louise was instantly staring at the tip of the commoner's sword when she said 'that'.
The teacher coughed, "Miss Valliere, if you don't complete the ritual I'll have to expel you."
"But!"
Mr. Colbert coughed again.
"Yes sensei," Louise grudgingly gave up and walked toward Maki, who had lowered his sword.
"Be grateful commoner! This is the only time you'll ever get this chance with a noble!" She yelled. Louise then began leaning forward and found out that the height difference was pretty big.
"Get down!" She yelled as she pulled Maki down.
Maki relaxed his muscles and let him get pulled down. "Eh?" Was all he heard Louise say as Maki felt a soft sensation on his forehead…she kissed him on his forehead.
He rose back to his full height and walked back to the harpie. "It ok everyth-ARGH!" Maki began to yell in pain as he felt an intense pain burn through his hand. He jammed his sword down in an attempt to prevent himself from falling, his friend rushed over and brought her claw over his back to try to help him.
The students were still shocked and more so at the fact that Louise made the commoner her familiar instead of the winged beauty.
Mr. Colbert had his attention on other matters, he was looking at the light coming from under the glove of Maki.
After a few more seconds of searing pain, Maki felt the pain fade away and fell to his knees, exhausted. He saw the teacher come up and walk up to him.
"My name is Jean Colbert, may I ask you to remove that glove?" Colbert pointed to the one that had light. Maki was too tired to ask why and just took off the glove. The three people, Mr. Colbert, Maki, and the harpie, looked at the markings on the back of his hand.
Colbert jotted down the runes he saw and began to usher the still-shocked students to their next class. Louise started walking to her next class, not before taking a look back at her familiar that was out cold with his winged friend who fanned him with one of her wings.
Author's Note: Reviews would be much appreciated. I wouldn't be able to improve work with only my own point of view to work with.