[5-15-18] Corrected error.
It was a good run, this life. The oldest of μ's and A-rise were in their 70's now.
Despite their hardships, they had all stayed in touch. Their bonds were never broken. They communicated with each other nearly everyday.
However, if there was something they all regretted: They never had children.
None of the couples within the groups ever decided to have any. The closest things they had were the apprentices of a few of the members, who were like family to them. For example, Umi and Maki had their successors chosen for the dojo and hospital chain respectively. They were like male versions of their younger selves, so it was easy to choose them, but it never felt right.
"Come on guys! Let's go!" A woman with long dulled orange hair yelled.
"Honoka! Stop dragging us around!" Similarly, this woman had long graying blue hair but it was tied back.
"Ah, sorry Umi-chan! But isn't the park beautiful today?" Honoka said with her back turned, Tsubasa's and Umi's hand in her own. Umi on her left, Tsubasa on her right.
"Ha, ha, mhm." Kotori making a sound of agreement, leaning on Umi a bit. She then adjusted her bag on her shoulder, standing up while still holding the latter's hand. She had kept her hairstyle consistent through the years. The only difference was that her hair had turned a much deeper gray, much like how she remembered her mother.
"Ah ha, yes it is." Tsubasa agreed, an amused smile on her face. She was holding the bags of both of them. Her hair was just starting to grey after dyeing it previously.
"So, let's..."
Honoka was about to let them go, but then her gripped tightened. Her speech trailed off, looking ahead of her.
"Honoka, are you okay?" Tsubasa asked her wife.
"Hey, what's that?" Honoka asked, still staring forward.
"Honoka-chan, we can't see what you can." Kotori said.
Unlike most of them, Honoka, Nozomi and Maki were different.
Nozomi had been a given, her spiritual powers had always proven to be legitimate throughout her life. It even made her famous, especially in the religious community. Though, she remained mostly neutral because religious arguments were scary once started.
Maki sometimes saw things a year after that one incident, the shared dream stunt with μ's . They were usually within her dreams, but on certain occasions they were outside of them. Despite telling the others this, she never elaborated when asked about it. Even Nico had given up on getting her to fess up after a few decades.
Then there was Honoka. Before her secret marriage with Tsubasa, she had gathered the groups together. The news she delivered was shocking on various levels: she could time travel, manipulating space too. She told them of meeting her future self in New York during their overseas live, how she slowly figured it out. This was especially after remembering none of the girls could see the woman next to her while they saw her bright as day while returning to the hotel. As a year passed after the official disbandment, her suspicions were confirmed. Her future self instructed her through her dreams. From there, she herself went back to ensure μ's assembly, such as taking Maki's ID and setting it in front of Hanayo. Though there was a cutoff point, there were multiple worlds.
While this was shocking, the two groups, just μ's in Maki's case, promised not to let anyone else know.
Back to the present, Umi assumed it had something to do with her powers, like the other two. Though deep down she knew it wasn't true, she could see it as well. On top of that, a muddled voice had started speaking inside her head. 'How are these things, if even, connected?' She wondered but pushed it all back.
With Honoka, she knew better. This wasn't something normal, even among her standards. Before her was a green portal, floating and shining above the ground.
With caution she walked forward, releasing Tsubasa's hand, as her right was dominant. Then she touched it. Before realizing it, she had been pulled halfway in.
"Honoka!" Umi cried, trying to pull her back.
Tsubasa stared in shock, seeing what any normal person would.
Honoka was halfway gone.
"Tsubasa-chan! Quickly grab on!" Kotori, who was pulling on Umi in support, yelled. Her not so high pitched voice still caused her to move in time, circling around Kotori's and Umi's arms as they were pulled in after Honoka.
.. ... ..
An explosion shook the field, sounds of students' coughs now dominated it as the resulting dust cloud fell upon them. The ones who were quicker to recover soon replaced the coughs with jeers at the classmate who stood nearest.
This person was a girl, a small pink haired girl, the youngest daughter in her prestigious family. Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. Well, the prestige had long left her. She was now known as 'Louise the Zero', in a negative light.
Still, she stood strong against the jeers, because failing the ritual equaled bigger things for her. Bad things that were now much more prominent in her mind.
The star student, a wind mage named Tabitha, blew away the access dust. That action revealed Louise hadn't failed at the summoning! In fact there were four... human... girls... who looked quite bewildered. What?
...
Each of the girls got up from the ground, coughing from the dust. Alongside them were the sounds of coughs of others, which turned into jeers as time passed.
The three childhood friends knew French, Tsubasa was left out, so they could understand the jeers. Who was Louise the Zero?
Anyways, Umi and Tsubasa asked their partners if they were okay. Roughly knowing where they were from their responses, they walked towards them. At that moment a gust of wind cleared the dust away.
Their belongings were mostly with them, they had felt that, and despite the rough experience they felt a pleasant difference. Like they were young again, or maybe it was their clothes, which were the belongings they felt weren't the same.
After the dust cleared, they saw each other. The trio wore their stylized maid outfits from their Mogyutto "love" de Sekkin Chuu! PV, while Tsubasa wore her Shocking Party outfit.
Besides the clothes change, they looked as they did when they first wore them, all those years ago.
Each pair looked baffled at each other, then they each looked over at the other pair.
"Wow! We're young again!" Honoka yelled, dragging Tsubasa towards her friends. The latter couldn't help but chuckle at her excitement even during this situation.
Umi had another opinion, "Honoka! This isn't the time, we should figure out what's happening."
"Boo... Umi-chan." Honoka grumbled, but complied.
"So, Umi what's your take on this?" Tsubasa asked, patting Honoka.
"Well, I think it's best if we talked to the people over there." Umi said while gesturing to the crowd, who had gotten quiet.
...
As soon as everyone saw people, they stopped.
Who were these people? Was it a noble and her maids? Yes that made sense, even if they were strange. Strange from their speech to their clothes.
Tabitha looked at them as her familiar, a dragon, commented on them telepathically. Kirche, Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst, a rival of Louise on a family feud level, looked too. She stood silent like the rest of her class, spectating.
With Louise, she was glad the jeers had stopped, but what was happening? Who were these people? What about her familier?
Professor Jean Colbert, who was supervising the summoning rituals, found it in his best interest to snap his class out of it after seeing one of them gesture towards them.
"Alright! Class dismissed! Please go bond with your familiars now that the springtime familiar summoning has been concluded!" He ordered as he turned to his class.
After giving them a teacher's glare, he made sure everyone but Louise, who wasn't responding anyway, evacuated.
He stepped forward and approached the girls. Immediately, he could tell the blue-haired maid was the most threatening. She stood between him and the rest without hesitation.
Raising his free hand, the one not holding his staff, to convey peace he asked with a genuine smile, "Who are you girls if I may ask?"
The orange haired maid immediately bounced out from behind her, ignoring what was probably a shout of protest from the blue one, after seeing the peaceful gesture.
"Hi there! I'm Kousaka Honoka!" She said with an energetic vibe to her actions, sticking her hand out for a handshake which he accepted.
The noble character followed her example, stepping out too, "Kira Tsubasa." Another friendly handshake.
The maid with ash-gray, it was a unique color, hair stepped up next. "My name is Minami Kotori, it's nice to meet you." Though her introduction was pleasant, she decided to stand next to the blue-haired maid.
Said maid eventually followed her companions' examples, guard dropping with a sigh, and introduced herself with a bow, "I am Sonoda Umi."
In return, he introduced himself as well, "I am Jean Colbert, professor here at the 'Tristain Academy of Magic'."
As he said that the blue-haired maid's, who he kept an eye on for his safety, expression darkened before being nudged. Her expression turned into an unreadable one as she became guarded once again.
Before continuing the conversation, Louise seemed to have recovered, somewhat. She stomped towards them with a new burning fury.
"P-Professor Colbert! What about my familiar?!"
...
The girls watched as the balding man in blue robes tried to calm down an angry student a distance away. Something about a familiar.
Umi would pity this 'Colbert' if she didn't have other things on her mind. Less than an hour and she's already stressed, just like the old days huh.
Kotori, seeing her distressed, leaned on her to ease her mind. Umi mumbled her thanks as she continued to observe the situation.
It seem the student, Miss Vallière, was fed up with him and stomped towards them. Stopping in front of them and pointing she demanded, anger and rudeness dominating, "Which one of you will be my servant?!"
While Honoka was conveying the entire situation to Tsubasa, Umi looked down on her.
With narrowed eyes and a demanding tone, "What do you mean by your servant?"
At that moment the professor approached, "Miss Vallière! We must discuss this with them in private. You can not be rash about this, and that is final!"
The addressed turned in anger but remembered her place, staying silent.
Turning to all of those present, "If you will, I'd like you all to follow me to the Headmaster's Office to discuss these events." He nodded at Tsubasa for confirmation.
With a nod, after Honoka explained, they were off.
AN: I intended to make this as a one-shot because I'm busy. This is an idea I came up, like, less than a day ago after all. REGRET.
But maybe I will abandon it on a future date, so. PM if you'd adopt this, lol.
Generally the series is meh to me so the ZnT side might be OOC majorly.