Zombie of Zero Ch. 2: Meetings

Okay, first off, sorry for taking so long to update, I temporarily lost the writing software on my computer, and from now on I will try to update every 4-8 days, which should give people time to review and leave comments. Secondly, there will be NO crossdressing zombies. This is mainly because Mysteltainn is with Haruna back in Ayumu's world, but to compensate, Ayumu will learn to use his own kind of magic, and I have something fun to replace him and the Staff of Destruction in the next chapter (Hint: it involves a tree and a certain temper challenged Lord of Monsters), imaginary cookie to anyone who can figure out who that is). Lastly, most of this chapter won't be canon, as the majority of episode 3 revolves around Saito getting Derflinger after Kirche tries to seduce him. Since I am not putting Derf in the story, and Ayumu will avoid the whole seduction thing, I am going to have Ayumu meet Loiuse's family now, rather than later. Also, I made some small changes to chapter 1 so reread it(Thank you Ordos Yama for pointing out what I forgot).

It has been about nine days since Ayumu's duel with Guiche, and nothing really eventful happened other thanKirche trying to seduce him through various means. However, after Ayumu explained just what he was she backed off from seductive to just friendly. Ayumu also got closer to Sylphid, and by extension her summoner Tabitha, and learned about her human form and promised to keep it a secret. Perhaps the most important thing that happened in that time was that Ayumu had managed to get Louise and Kirche to get over the issues their families had, to an extent. While you couldn't really call them friends yet, they were at least civil to each other, and louise found she actually got along well with Tabitha, so the four of them started spending most of their free time together, and Ayumu explained his magic cancellation ability to them.

It was during one of these times that Tabitha suddenly spoke up and said, "Seventh Abyss?"

Ayumu and Louise immediately looked at Kirche since she was still the only one who always knew what Tabitha was talking about.

"She wants to know what you meant when you identified yourself as a Seventh Abyss to Guiche. I must admit I too am curious, and just hadn't gotten around to asking you yet. Though I do wonder, just how extensive is your regeneration ability?" Kirche said.

"In order, the Seventh Abyss thing is actually more of a technical thing as the group disbanded a long time before I became a zombie. It used to be a Special Forces group that safeguarded the Underworld. They disbanded because another zombie who called himself the King of the Night killed their leader, and I later defeated him. So, basically, I will be one if the group ever reforms, which probably won't happen since they aren't really needed anymore. As for my regeneration, I can heal from just about anything short of my body being completely destroyed. In fact, before I fought the King of the Night, I was blown apart, and my friends had to put my body back together. As soon as they did, my body restored itself in a less than a minute." Ayumu explained.

The explanation stunned the three girls into silence as they tried to process the nearly unbelievable healing abilities he had. After saying nothing for about ten minutes, Louise suddenly spoke up, "Oh yeah, my family is coming to see you tomorrow Ayumu. I wrote them a letter saying we would visit during the next break, but they wrote back to say they would be coming here to see what I'd summoned, no offense."

"None taken." Ayumu replied.

After that revelation, the rest of the day past pretty uneventfully, except that Sylphid offered to take Ayumu, or as she called him 'big brother', flying, which they did.

(Time Skip: Next Day, School Gates)

Ayumu and Louise were standing at the gate to the school watching for the carriage that belonged to Louise's family, with Ayumu standing a few feet away from Louise. It turned out however that they brought three, one for each of her sisters and one for her parents. Ayumu immediately settled into a zombie glare, when he saw that they looked at Louise like she was something insignificant and beneath them, but his eyes softened slightly when he saw one of them, who Louise identified as 'Big Sister Cattleya' greeted Louise with genuine affection. It was kind of strange for him to see the interaction between the two since Cattleya looked exactly like an older Louise. After about two solid minutes of hugging, Louise remembered that she had yet to introduce Ayumu to her family.

"Everyone this is my familiar Ayumu Aikawa." She said with a hint of pride in her voice, which was immediately pounced upon by the blonde woman.

"You shouldn't be so proud just because you finally did something right! Ritual or not he is still a commoner, you are still a failure, and you should know your place!" The blonde yelled, pulling a bullwhip from who knows where, and moving to strike Louise, ignoring Cattleya's cries of "Stop it Eleanore!". Right as the whip was about to hit Louise Ayumu appeared in front of the newly identified Eleanore, and caught her wrist, his hold less than ounce of pressure away from breaking it, and throwing a glare at her that would make even Ariel nervous. Ignoring all evidence that the creature in front of her was dangerous, her pride refused to acknowledge him as such.

"Unhand me lowly comm-", Eleanore began before she was interrupted.

"I am the zombie Ayumu Aikawa, Guardian to Lady Eucliwood Hellscythe, Honorary Seventh Abyss, Vanquisher of the King of the Night, defeater of the ex-nobles Kyoko and Chris, and most recently, the familiar of Louise de la Valliere. As such, if you try to harm her, you will have to go through me!" Ayumu growled out, as he started to let out a white aura, and released Eleanore. At his words, titles, and creepy ethereal glowing, Louise's family started to back away, with Louise and Cattleya trying to calm Ayumu down. On the family's side, their fear was fairly reasonable for several reasons. First off, Ayumu claimed to be a zombie, which most people would be frightened by, as the stereotypical zombie is a mindless walking corpse that's only purpose is to consume humans. Secondly, he claimed that he was the protector of someone of the nobility, which would have repercussions for their family if true. Thirdly, he had claimed to have defeated three nobles, one of whom was a king. Lastly, the glowing made it look like he was using some kind of Ancient Magic, which only elves are supposed to be able to use. Add all these things together, and you get a person even Loise's mother, Karin "The Heavy Wind" Valliere, one of the strongest mages in Tristainian history, was nervous about. However, it was the last thing that clinched the situation. If Ayumu could use Ancient Magic, than he had some connection to the elves, the hated enemies of all humans, and therefore must be destroyed. Under that logic, Louise's family, sans Cattleya who was still with Louise, pulled out there wands and flung there strongest spells at Ayumu. Eleanore shot a fireball bigger than she was at him, Duke Valliere launched a large pile of rubble, and Karin launched a flurry of air blades. However, due to Ayumu's aura, the wind and fire attacks did no damage, as they dispersed before they hit him, due to both being generated and driven entirely by magic. The rocks and earth did some damage to him, but with the whole zombie regeneration thing, that damage was nullified in less than three seconds. At this point, the three of them have gone from incredibly nervous to downright terrified, and Ayumu went from angry to totally pissed off. The aura around him flared and all of a sudden he was in front of the three terrified mages and proceeded to knock them out. The last thing they heard as they blacked out was Louise berating Ayumu over his rough treatment of them.

(Time Skip: 1 Hour Later, Louise's room)

Ayumu, Louise, and Catlleya were all sitting in Louise's room, having gone there after delivering the other members of her family to the infirmary and being assured that they would be fine. Now, Louise and her sister were sitting on the bed talking about … whatever it is sisters talk about, while Ayumu was sitting at the table, deep in thought. He was thinking about the white aura he had used, and how it related to the power the King of the Night used. If he were being honest with himself, he would say he was afraid it meant that he was starting to become like the guy, but then he remembered that Eu had brought both him and the King of the Night back as zombies, so it made sense that they both developed similar abilities. He also realized that this could just be the way the magic he got from Haruna expressed itself without Mystelltain to work as a medium. Ayumu was dragged out of his musing by Louise clearing her throat, which caused him to shift his focus to the sisters sitting on the bed.

"So Ayumu, what was that aura thing you used earlier, it looked like Ancient Magic." Cattleya inquired.

"Honestly, I am not really sure. It's similar in appearance to an ability the King of the Night used, so it could be a zombie ability, but it could also be the way the magic I absorbed from my friend Haruna, since I don't have access to anything from Villiers to act as a medium for it." Ayumu explained.

"I'm confused, if this King of the Night was a zombie like you, why did you fight him? And for that matter, why don't you seem like what we know of as a zombie, when you look and act just like a human?" Louise asked.

"Well to the first one, the King of the Night had become obsessed with getting Eu back with him, to the point of threatening to kill the friends she had made, and almost killing our friend Sera to prove his point. After that I had no real choice but to go after him and save Eu, and we fought. I won, and he seemed to see the error of his ways before he… dissipated I guess. For the second, the only thing I can think of is that, with traditional zombies, whatever bring them to life only animates the body, but doesn't restore the soul. With me, I think Eu was able to get to me before my soul had fully left my body, and when she used her magic to help me, she told me to live. Since she is so powerful that her words affect reality on a fundamental level, that act bound my soul to my body, leaving me pretty much immortal, and able to heal myself."

"You mention this person 'Eu' a lot, just who is she, besides the one who brought you back to life I mean?" Cattleya asked, with Ayumu missing the playful teasing behind her words.

"Eu is actually short for Eucliwood Hellscythe, and, as I said, I'm her guardian, though in all honesty, she doesn't really need one, and for a while she thought of me as a servant, but now we're actual friends." Ayumu said.

"So, if this she's so powerful, why did she easte her time bringing you back?" Louise asked, incredulous at the notion.

"She said it was because I spent time with her and made her laugh even though she was a stranger to me." Ayumu said with a somewhat sad smile, but immediately perked up and asked, "Hey, could you guys help me learn to control my new powers? I mean you both have magic so I'm sure you can help with learning to call on the energy."

Louise and Cattleya looked at each other, than simultaneously said, "Sure, we'll start tomorrow."

Okay, so that is the end of chapter two. If you still don't get the reference from the beginning of the chapter, go play Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World. You'll get my reference, and play an awesome game at the same time. As to the Rosario+Vampire reference, well I just had to put that in there. Back to being serious, if I was wrong about Eleanore and Duke Valliere's elemental affinity, please tell me, and I will change it. As to the zombie explanation, that is my opinion on how it works, but again if I'm wrong please tell me. The next chapter will likely be longer than this one, and the first one, as it covers the rest of the visit, by Louise's family, and goes through the Staff of Destruction arc. Finally, if the characters seem OOC, it is simply because the circumstances are different, with the exception of Ayumu, since this takes place about a year after he has to deal with Chris.