Zero's Dog
Chapter 1: A Bonding Experience
The day had finally come. The day that every second year student at the Tristain Academy of Magic summoned their familiar, the partner that was not only an indicator the summoner's magical affinity but also the skill and power of which they could wield their magic. For Louise, who had been a point of ridicule for most of her young life, this was the last chance to prove she was a capable mage in the eyes of her peers, her family, and herself. Throughout the ritual she watched her fellow second years each summoned a familiar, a mix of anxiety and anticipation welling within her petite body. Louise just knew that her familiar would be the most impressive of all, more than even the salamander Kirche had summoned. The pride of Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Valliére could accept no less.
It was Louise's turn to summon, the final summon of the ritual. Silence engulfed the crowd of students as they watched the final summoning of the year, their jeers fading into the forest that surrounded the clearing as dozens of eyes fixed themselves on the petite, pink haired noble who was long considered a joke. In the center of the clearing Louise raised her wand and began her spell:
"My servant that exists somewhere in the universe. Oh wonderful, powerful and graceful familiar. It is my heart's desire that you appear, and serve me," as she waved her wand directly in front of her. An immense explosion occurred just beyond the wand tip, creating a dust cloud that filled the clearing causing everyone to cough and gag. Louise was heartbroken, any second now the jeers and cruel jokes would resume with her unable to stop them. A silhouette appeared in front of her and before Louise could react and hand shot forward and seized her cloak at the shoulder.
As the dust cleared, the shape became more defined. The one who had grabbed her was a teenaged boy clad mostly in black. He had a well-defined face and a mane of ebony hair from which a long ponytail extended. His height suggested that he was about Louise's age as he was a full head taller. However, his most distinguishing features were the pair of ears that appeared canine in nature, rising from his unkempt mass of hair and the black-furred tail that extended from his lower back.
A moment later, the face of the man went from a look of anger, to realization, to a mix of fear and guilt. The canine ears folded back against his head as he released the young girls shoulder. The other hand that had been drawn back in preparation to attack relaxed and drew a mass of orange woolen cloth from his pocket. The pink-haired girl didn't understand its meaning till the hat was put on, covering the unusual ears as it covered the head down to the boy's brow. A strange symbol marked the strange hat in the part that encircled his brow. That was a question for later though. If later ever came. Before Louise could demand answers from this strange teenager while the rest of her class was impeded in the rapidly settling dust, the boy sheepishly spoke, "I'm sorry for grabbing you like that; I thought you were someone else."
The young mage was livid, not only was her familiar a child but he spoke a completely other language and had even threatened her. Her, Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Valliére, daughter of the duke of Tristain, this was the greatest of personal insults. It was one matter to be insulted and be subjected to cruel jokes by her classmates, it had upset her but the years of exposer had numbed her to it, and besides they were nobles too. This boy, this WHELP, did appear to be a noble and went as far as to physically assault her. His tone may have said "I sincerely apologize for my actions," but it didn't settle the short pink haired girl, only retribution would.
By this time the dust had settled enough for the crowd to see Louise interacting with the boy and had heard the strange language he spoke with. But before the first jibe could be made at Louise for failing, the pink haired mage swung her wand again with a speed born of fury and another explosion albeit smaller than the first rocked the meadow. The dust cleared sooner this time and before even Kirche could cast an insult to her rival, a different voice cast itself over the stillness.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR," shouted the boy in black.
"Wait, I can understand what you're saying now," Louise spoke with an air of shock.
"AND YOU COULDN'T BEFORE," the boy retorted, irritation replacing the anger in his voice. "You should have least read the tone in my voice," he continued, no longer yelling but irritated regardless.
"Well," Louise began indignantly before being cut off by a voice from the group.
"Look, 'Louise the Zero' summoned a peasant, but she did exceed all expectations by summoning anything," called a girl with blond hair that extended in coils to just past the shoulders. Other characteristics were a pink bow near the back of her head and a small frog perched on her left shoulder. To call the comment insincere would be understating it.
"Shut up 'Montmorency the Flood,'" came Louise's retort to the grating comment that came from, as the summoned boy noted, the girl named Montmorency.
"It's 'Montmorency the Fragrance.' Get it through your head, moron!"
"Alright, that is enough," a stern voice cut through the argument. The man who had stepped appeared to be their teacher. The hair that he did have was brown and clung to the sides of his head but his scalp was bald to the point of shining in the sunlight. The glasses he wore gave him the appearance of a simple academic but the seriousness in his eyes spoke of a past involving battle. Extended in his right arm before him was a simple wooden staff aimed between his arguing students. "I will tolerate no further insults from either side. You are nobility, act like it," he declared with all the authority of a parent.
"Nobility," the summoned boy asked, "I thought I was hearing a couple children who were name-calling out a pathetic need to feel superior. I do believe it was the girl with the curly blond hair, Montmorency was it, who started it," added the newly summoned boy regarding what he heard the older man say. Several of the crowd smirked at this new boy's assessment.
"YOU UN…," started Montmorency at the boy for the implication of his comment, but had silence forced upon her by the teacher's use of a silencing spell. Turning away from the silenced girl who continued to act as if she could still speak despite her enforced silence, the teacher's eyes focused upon the short pink-haired girl and the boy with the orange woolen hat.
"Miss Valliére, have you completed the ritual," he asked politely, causing the girl, Louise as the summoned boy remembered, to fidget uncomfortably where she stood.
"Mr. Colbert," pleaded Louise, providing the boy with another name, "I messed up, may I please try again?"
"I'm sorry," Colbert replied in a stern yet sincere voice, "the familiar summoning ritual is a sacred rite of passage, and so I cannot allow for you to try again because your familiar was undesirable."
"But who has ever heard of having a commoner as a familiar," Louise pleaded back at the verge of tears.
"It's tradition," spoke the professor with finality, "finish it," closing the discussion.
After the exchange, the clearing remained silent. Louise returned her attention to the boy she had summoned. His face showed a mix of curiosity and concern. Then he started to speak.
"Familiar? Is that like a Minister Mag. . . .," he started but was cut off when Louise pressed a finger to his lips.
"You should consider yourself lucky to receive this from a noble. Normally your entire life would pass without receiving anything like this," she growled at him as she also bid him to kneel.
With a sigh, Louise began, "My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Valliére," reaching behind the boy's head she continued, "Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers; bless this humble being and make him my Familiar," she finished, and sealed the contract with a kiss.
Upon finishing the ritual Louise released the boy, who tried to flee in the middle of the contracting, without a second glance as the boy began to rapidly spout, almost incoherently.
"Was that a pactio? Why was there no circle? Do I get an artifact from this? What kind of contract . . . Argghh," his train of thought interrupted by a searing pain in his left hand. As he gazed upon it, glowing runic symbols etched themselves into the back as if with a heated razor. Then, as quickly as it had started the pain ceased, the glowing runes fading revealing as scar shaped like the runes on the back of his left hand, like the scar a brand leaves when the burn heals.
As he checked his surroundings again, he discovered that the rest of the group had left, levitating themselves above the forest and out of sight. The only other besides himself in the forest clearing was the petite, pink-haired girl Louise who was standing at the edge of the clearing by an overgrown trail, gazing off into the distance in contemplation.
The boy began his approach of her, irritation in his eyes, teeth bared, as he thought about the last 10 minutes. So far he had been magically transported, blown up, screamed at, spoken to with contempt, kissed, branded with an unknown symbol, and, above all else, ignored. Any of those things would be bad enough, but all of them at once was beyond his level of patience. Being ignored the whole time as a 'thing' was the last Sagitta Magica to the teeth he would take. He had questions, this girl, Louise Fran-something or other, had answers. Answers would be given or tears would be shed. Though he knew in his heart that he couldn't bring himself to physically hurt a girl, he felt intimidation might work reasonably well to get the answers he wanted from this small, helpless girl alone in a forest. He had almost reached her when he decided his first demands would be "Where am I," and "Why am I here?" He smirked at the simplicity of his plan and noticed that Louise was gazing at him with a smirk too. It struck him as odd and nostalgic of Evangeline but ignored the feeling as he moved closer, visualizing the interrogation.
His plan was to start a casual conversation, then trap her with intimidation, and finish by getting his answers. When he moved in striking range, he realized she had similar sentiments, only she was willing to be more direct and had no qualms with using violence as a tactic. Before the boy could react, Louise had brought her foot up to meet his groin. As he stumbled about in pain Louise pushed him down onto his front, tugged off the hat, and began twisting his arm. With her other hand she pulled erect one of the strange ears she had seen earlier, leaned down to speak into it, and made her proclamation.
"LISTEN HERE DOG-BOY, I HAVE QUESTIONS AND YOU ARE GOING TO ANSWER THEM. THIS CAN BE LONG, DRAWN OUT, AND INCREDIBLY PAINFUL OR," her voice dropping in volume but keeping its serious tone, "this can be short, easy, and with comparatively less pain. It's your choice as it depends on how you answer my questions." Then with a smile and tone that one would expect from greeting a good friend, "So shall we begin? We'll start with 'Who are you, where are you from, and why are you here?"
The boy fought back tears of pain as he prepared his answer.
"My name is Kotaro Inugami, I'm from Mahora Academy in Japan, and I don't know why I'm here. I had planned on asking you that because I don't know where 'here' is."
"You're in Tristain near the Academy of Magic. Also Kotaro you are my familiar, I am your master now, understand?"
"I suppose," replied the beaten Kotaro with a resigned whimper, inwardly wishing that his "wouldn't hit a girl" mentality had been beaten out of him completely back when he first joined Ala Alba. Maybe this girl would break that habit for him after years of having it.
Author's Notes
Hi there and thank you for reading this first chapter of "Zero's Dog." This is my first real fanfiction so I probably have a lot to work on as a writer. I only recently returned to reading fan fiction with "The Hill of Swords" by Gabriel Blessing which is another crossover involving "Zero No Tsukaima" (or "Familiar of Zero" or "Zero's Familiar" depending on your preference of title). I'll admit though before that I liked the crossover potential ZnT had but really did nothing with it because I could imagine one great scene but not anything that followed. I also wanted to cross ZnT with Negima which is another personal favorite but by the time I found ZnT I was at chapter 300 of negima which, for those who haven't read it, is a point that many characters especially the protagonist are stupidly powerful when comparing strength and abilities between series. Kotaro may be pushing that envelope but when compared to characters like Negi, Tertium, and Jack Rakan there is little contest over who is the weaker party. Also as I thought about it having Kotaro in it made for a good use of an element of the original ZnT: Louise's tendency to call her familiar a stupid dog when he does things she dislikes, namely oogling other girls.
Now for the chapter itself, I did age Kotaro up a few years to give him some experience in some areas. I intend to use this as a way to make him slightly different and more pragmatic than the 10 year old version while keeping some things the same like his reluctance to hit girls. I hope to expand his character in the following chapters.
And as for Louise, whoa boy. The firm followers of the light novels will probably have much to say about her 'bitchiness' in this chapter but I did intend originally for Kotaro be completely beaten in the first chapter as a result of being unable to raise a hand to a girl and therefore underestimating her. My plan may have not been as cruel to start with as it turned out but I decided that for Kotaro's loss to a girl with 'zero ability' to happen, a single sucker punch wouldn't be enough. That's also a reason why I added age to Kotaro because between 15 year old version and 10 year old version the threshold for pain wouldn't be too different and brutality on a 10 year old child is much less socially accepted than a 15 year hormonally active teen. I'm not saying that either is better but I'd rather not be regarded the same way as a person who kicks a puppy around the block daily. Don't worry I plan to make Louise better in the future, or make Kotaro less vulnerable to her.
For the story as a whole, please review it if only to state your opinion, and please tell me why, so that I can continue to use popular elements and possibly write out the less popular ones. I'm currently in college so I may not be able to update often and I shall try to be bi-weekly if not more often but it may become every three weeks as the semester progresses. Again, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it.