Medals of Zero
By JirouGarulu
Disclaimer:
I do not own any aspect of this story, neither Kamen Rider OOO nor Familiar of Zero belong to me, they belong to their respective companies. This is a fan-made piece of work and should not be distributed for profit. This is only to be posted on for the purpose of free entertainment and as such I will find out if it appears anywhere else.
Chapter 4: Greeed, Swords, and a Rematch
"K-Kazari?" I asked, stepping back in shock.
"Judging from your reaction, you were expecting someone else to have that name?" Kazari replied, grinning, and then looking to his Yummy. "Get me the medals that he has, and then I'll give you more power than you can imagine."
That prompted a response from the Yummy, which proceeded to charge at me. Quickly putting the Lion Medal into the holder on my belt, I then used the Tora Claws to hold back the Yummy's own claws, only to then be met with a kick to the stomach that forced me backwards.
"Ok, so you're better than the monkey from yesterday." I said, trying to catch my breath. Looking up, I froze in shock.
The Yummy had vanished.
I could see Kazari, albeit barely, and I could easily see the school when I looked around, but the Yummy had completely vanished.
"What the? Where the hell-" I started, only to get struck on the side of my head, knocking me back to the ground. Struggling to my feet, I was quickly struck in the other side, forcing me to my knees. Looking back to Kazari, the Yummy had returned to his side, ready to attack again.
"It's over there now? Just how fast is this one?" I thought, keeping my eye on the Yummy. While watching it, I reached to my medals and felt for the Lion Core and the Kamakiri Core. After finding them, I swiftly changed the Cores and scanned them.
LION! KAMAKIRI! BATTA!
As my helmet and arms changed, I felt energy building up around my eyes as a bright light erupted from my face, blanketing the area in front of me. With the light there I could see the Yummy clear as day, and I could tell from its reactions that it didn't like the light. Leaping towards the Yummy I managed to land a couple of slashes, gaining some Cell Medals but not managing to defeat it before the light faded. At the same time, I had knocked the Yummy back towards its host, accidentally letting it get away.
"Hmmm, didn't see that weakness coming. I'll have to make a few preparations for next time." Kazari said, turning around before pausing for a moment. "Oh, and before I go, I'll tell you a little something, make things a little more interesting. As things stand now, you're the only one who has come into possession of Medals from more than one set." He said as he began walking away, as the Possessed Host got up and followed him. When I was certain he had left, I ended the transformation and grabbed the Cells that had been scattered around the area where the Yummy had been before I slashed it, only to be met by a group comprised of Louise, Siesta, Guiche and Montmorency, the teacher from the summoning, as well as a redhead and a small blue haired girl with glasses.
"J-just what was that thing!" Guiche asked, flustered.
"That Guiche was a Yummy. A monster made of these." I explained, showing the handful of Cells that I'd gained. "I'm guessing you want a more complete explanation though."
"I think that would be best." The teacher replied. "Come with me, we'll use one of the classrooms."
Once we had arrived in a classroom, I was properly introduced to Mr. Colbert, Kirche and Tabitha. During the introductions, I discovered that Kirche and Louise weren't too fond of each other, which Montmorency explained was because of a rivalry between their families. She didn't know much more than that though, so I didn't find out any finer details. After that, I then proceeded to give them a summarized version of events that detailed my powers, the Greeed, and the story of the TV Show. Hopefully I wouldn't have to explain again, it was tough dealing with long winded explanations multiple times in a relatively short time frame.
"So the person controlling the monster you fought, there's 5 more people like him?" Guiche asked,
"And the one from just now was the second one you know of?" Montmorency added.
"Yep, there are, well, at most there's five more. The first Yummy that I fought was the one that attacked Siesta last night. Because of that, and what Kazari told me, I can tell that someone got hold of the Heavy Mammal Cores. So long as that guy doesn't fully become his Greeed form, he's a lot less dangerous." I replied.
"Why's that?" Louise asked. "You never mentioned anything about the Greeed's abilities in the first place."
"I didn't, really? Ok then. Well, when a Greeed has all nine of their core medals, each of them gets a massive power boost and a new power of sorts. For Kazari, it would be a new weapon in the form of what would look like dreadlocks. Easy enough to deal with, you've just got to be more careful because there's more angles for him to attack from and he can strike from multiple directions at once. Gamel, the Heavy Mammal Greeed, on the other hand, gets the ability to convert anything he touches into large quantities of Cell Medals, be it animals, objects, or people. All he'd have to do in order to use that power is grab you." I explained, placing my hand on Louise's shoulder.
"If I was a fully revived Gamel, you'd be dead the moment my hand touched your shoulder." I added, Louise turning pale at the thought. "As you can imagine, that ability alone makes him one of the more dangerous Greeed, combined with his ability to create a fully matured Yummy with one Cell Medal, he becomes arguably one of the most dangerous Greeed. Thankfully though he's not all that bright, nor is he really all that evil, or else we'd not really stand a chance, plus I've got one of his Cores, so he can't fully restore himself right now anyway."
"That's good, but taking things one step at a time, how do you intend to beat the Yummy that you fought just now? It was pretty clear that you were struggling." Montmorency asked.
"I've got a plan now." I replied, "I noticed that when I used the Lion Core, the light it emitted practically crippled the thing. I don't know how it got that ability, but it appears to get stronger when fighting in darker environments. Either that or it was simply blinded and it doesn't like the light. If only I had some of the gear that used Cell Medals, then I'd have a much bigger chance against it, and any others like it."
"And what sort of items would they be?" Mr Colbert asked.
"It's kind of hard to explain. One item though, the Medajalibur, would be ideal right now, because I wouldn't need to get close to finish him." I replied.
"Why's that?" Montmorency asked.
"Well, the Medajalibur grows more powerful when Cell Medals are inserted into it. With three of them, well, let's just say that I'd be able to cut clean through the main building of the Academy... and the sky behind it." I answered, that last part got me a fair few gasps and surprised looks.
"They're that powerful?" Mr Colbert asked, stunned.
"Well, the safeties that the sword has means that any damage inflicted to anything but a Yummy or Greeed would be instantly repaired, but it is quite the display, seeing a sword cut a tower clean in two, even if it only lasts for a few seconds." I replied, smiling as I saw a mixture of relief and disbelief on everyone's faces. "Either way, if we could find that sword before the next attack, I'd have a much better chance, and a way to use the Cells, meaning they'd no longer be something to keep out of enemy hands, they'd be a valuable weapon for us."
"I believe that I can help you with your dilemma."
Turning to the door, I saw an elderly man with a long gray beard and a mouse in his hand, and a green haired woman with glasses.
"Headmaster Osmand! Miss Longueville!" Kirche said, surprised.
"From what I've heard, you're looking for a special sword that uses some of those Medals that you own. Well, given that the monster you fought is likely to reappear soon, I've decided to cancel classes for a few days so that creature can be defeated, that should allow for preparations to be put in place. As such, I recommend that you use tomorrow to find yourself a sword." Osmand said warmly. "You never know what you'll find. Don't worry though, we'll get the academy ready for a second assault while you search."
"But Headmaster!" Louise replied, "We don't know when that Yummy will attack again, nor do we know where to begin looking for that Medajalibur thing that Jonathan's told us about!"
"Yeah but Louise, when you think about it, I started with 5 medals and the driver, that's since increased to seven Cores, over 10 Cells, and the Driver, while 4 Yellow Cores are with Kazari. I think the summoning may have linked the medals to you and me, and if that's true, then maybe it applies to the related gear as well?" I explained, "Of course, I'm only theorising, for all I know this is one big coincidence or we're just that lucky. Or it could all just be entirely nonsense, you never know."
Saying that seemed to calm Louise down a little as she gave a slight chuckle.
"True, and if we can't find your... erm, Medajalibur?" She asked, I nodded in response, "We could always just opt for a regular sword for the time being, right?" She added, getting another nod from me.
"It's settled then, Ms Vallière and Mr Harris will try to find a Medajalibur Sword, while the Faculty and other Students will work to fortify the school and to prepare for a second attack." Osmand decided.
"I'll tell you what I know." I added, "Prepare a means of getting bright lights that can be turned on at will, directed and sustained. It didn't seem to like that sort of thing when I fought it. It should help, in theory."
"I'll see what I can do for that." Colbert replied, "I have an idea on something that could work, but right now I'll need to get some things prepared."
"Well, we need to be ready for tomorrow, so everyone get some rest. We'll see you tomorrow." Osmand finished, as he and Miss Longueville left, after that, we all said our goodbyes and separated for the night.
Well, most of us did, Kirche had decided that she wanted me to go with her, so while Louise and I were trying to head back to her room, Kirche had other ideas, and they involved her latching onto my arm. Suffice to say, Louise was not happy.
"Zerbst! Release my familiar this instant!" She growled, yep, I'm scared. I faced a Yummy with the utmost confidence just after discovering the medals were legit, I leapt out of a window to save someone without a second thought (at first, and even then, I should have thought differently about the window part), but seeing Louise seething with rage? That's what catches me out.
"Dream on Vallière, I can't just give up a man like him. You'll have to make do without him for tonight. Now then Jonathan, darling, why don't we head back to my room for some fun hmm?" Kirche asked, pressing her chest into my arm and making me very uncomfortable. It wasn't helped by the scary mood Louise was in.
"I-I'm going to have to pass. N-Now please, let go of my arm." I replied, trying to remove my arm from her grip, and struggling. The more I tried to remove my arm, the tighter she held on. "You've got to trust me Louise, I'm trying to get away from her, but damn she's strong!"
I should really clarify something right here. I tend to get really nervous when girls invade my personal space without my permission, forming the Contract with Louise being one of the few exceptions, because, well, I was helping her out.
"Jonathan... if you don't remove her from your arm this instant, you will go without food tomorrow, and you will be sleeping outside!" Louise roared, scaring me beyond all belief. I tried even harder to free my arm, ultimately trying to throw Kirche to get her to let go. Her response? Trying to drag me back to her room.
To cut a long story short, while I got Kirche to keep away from me for the time being, it wasn't in time to keep Louise happy, meaning I was forced to sleep outside. At the very least, we reached a compromise on the food issue, once the Yummy was defeated; I was to go without food the following day.
Anyway, moving on...
The next morning, I woke up from my bed for that night, an area near the entrance to the Dorms, to find Louise walking towards me.
"Are you ready to go?" She asked as I stood up.
"Aren't we eating first?" I replied.
"It's still a little early for that, so we'll have something to eat in town when we arrive." She replied, as the two of us walked towards the horses, Louise leading the way of course. After making sure I had the Medals, both Cores and Cells, which we had accumulated thus far (Now stored in two small bags that were now on my belt, one for each type of Medal), as well as the Driver, we set off for the town, arriving within around an hour or so of travel time.
"So this place is where we'll find me a sword huh?" I asked, taking in the area.
"That's right. We'll also be finding you some extra clothing as well. You've had the ones you're currently wearing on for two days now, so you could do with some spares." Louise replied, making sure the horses were tethered. (I had had a decent amount of trouble with riding a horse; it wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be; it definitely looked that way on TV.)
"Fair enough, the sword will likely cost more, so let's look for that first. We'll be able to work out how much of the budget is going to be good for clothes once the important bit's all sorted." I suggested, Louise nodding in agreement.
Remind me never to go shopping with Louise again. Nothing was good enough for her, and I'm not talking about quality of goods. She knew what she wanted; it just wound up being that what she wanted was extravagance. Nothing looked expensive or regal enough for her tastes, even though I was the one to be using what we bought today.
Finally, after three separate weapons shops, I managed to get Louise to try out a smaller place, which, despite its size, had a rather sizeable selection of swords on hand. Louise in particular was drawn to an overly elaborate Gilded Sword, which I knew just from looking at it was more for display than actual use.
"Louise, leave that one alone, I'm not interested in it!" I called to her, looking in a barrel of older swords, from the look of things, it was one of the shop's bargain bins.
"Just our luck, it's too expensive anyway." Louise replied, sounding disappointed, "It would have looked fantastic with your armour."
"Yeah and it probably would have broken first time I swing it. You do know that was more of a display piece right?" I argued, "Doubt it would have lasted in battle anyway."
"Sounds like you have a good grasp on sword quality; either that or you're looking for something in particular." I heard a voice say, apparently from nowhere.
"Who's there?" I asked, seeing a sword pop up out of the barrel to my left. To my surprise, it then began to speak.
"Over here kiddo," The sword replied, chuckling. "The name's Derflinger. What kind of sword are you after?"
"Well this is a surprise, never met a talking sword before. I'm looking for a blade that's sturdy to start off. One that won't break after a little rough combat." I replied, still coming to terms that I was talking to a sword.
"Well, sounds like I'm the one you'd be good with. I may be an old sword, but I'm as sturdy as they come. Plus, talking swords are really rare." Derflinger replied, trying to make himself sound better than he looked. He was pretty rusty, although after picking it up, I felt something similar to when I was fighting in Rider form.
"Yeah, hey, shopkeep! I'll take 'im!" I shouted; the guy's reaction was odd. He was happy to get rid of Derflinger, only requiring a fraction of the cost marked on the barrel that he was in. On the other hand though, he was disappointed that he couldn't get more money out of us (thanks to Louise talking him down, I had to hand it to her, she was clever, definitely good for getting a real bargin.) We also checked about the Medajalibur, and while the guy may have been a bit of a swindler when it came to nobles, I think he was still somewhat giddy about my purchase, since he told us where he had seen a sword like the Medajalibur a few days back, in one of the other stores that we had been to that day. Upon hearing that and paying the guy, we swiftly ran for one of the stores we'd been to previously.
The shopkeep's info had been accurate. We'd managed to find the Medajalibur in one of the previous stores that we'd been to. The guy had received it as an added piece of merchandise from a supplier, and had intended to sell it as scrap if no one had bought it by this time next week.
"Now that's lucky!" I exclaimed as we started to wander. "Not only did we find a talking sword with some good quality to it, we also found the Medajalibur, meaning the Cell's are a great tool to us now!"
"Hey Partner, why's this Medajalibur thing such a good find anyway, ya make it sound like ya didn't want me!" Derf asked, sounding slightly upset.
"It's kind of like that I'm afraid, we were looking for the Medajalibur at first because it's able to work in sync with my main skill set. As for you Derf, it's not like you'll simply collect dust like you were in that store. I'll be calling upon you if I have to fight without my normal selection of powers." I replied, starting to explain to him about my Rider Abilities and how I felt a similar response from him to my Rider Weapons.
"Wow, I've really found a great partner! You've got those abilities under your belt?" He asked, me groaning at the unintentional pun. "Looks like things'll be really interestin', even if I'm not always the one you reach for."
"Well, you never know, I may not have the Cells to use the Medajalibur at the time, that's the difference between you and it Derf, you don't require payment to use, so all in all, you're also the sword I'd rely on if I was low on Cells."
"Oooh Darling!" We heard, me freezing up. Louise starting to turn red, and Derf, taking our cues, sinking completely into his scabbard.
"Ah crap, she followed us?" I muttered, loud enough for only Louise and Derf to hear. I turned around to see Kirche running up to us, Tabitha in tow and the Display Sword from earlier in Kirche's arms. Quickly looking up I noticed a blue dragon in the sky. Thinking about it, it must've been Tabitha's familiar, given what I learned from Louise.
"Who's she, partner?" Derf asked, poking up out of his scabbard just enough for his 'mouth' to be able to move.
"That, Derf, is Kirche, she's a problematic one. You're about to see why." I replied, as Kirche reached us. The dragon landed near the group.
"Oh Darling I've been looking all over for you!" Kirche gushed, "I figured that finding the specific sword that you wanted was going to be a difficult task, and so, just in case you couldn't find it, I found you a sword that would look simply stunning with your armour!" She added, holding out the sword to me.
"Erm, Kirche? You do see the two swords on my back right?" I replied, keeping to a distance I was comfortable with, "See the one with a similar pattern to my Driver? That's the very sword we came here to find. Anyway, weren't you meant to be helping Mr Colbert and the other teachers prepare for the second battle with Kazari's Yummy?"
"Well, I figured that I'd be better off helping you get ready for the fight, and with this sword you'll have no trouble, and you'll have two spares if you need them!" Kirche replied, beaming.
"Well, points for the intent, but I'm afraid I'll be sticking with the two that Louise helped me find." I replied, trying to sound diplomatic. "After all, she is the one that summoned me, so I'm more inclined to go with her choices."
Again, Kirche's reply was to plead with me to take her sword anyway, despite my protests, she also began to get closer to me, making me a little nervous.
Now, during all this, Louise had caught on that I was trying my best to let Kirche down gently, but the fact that she was not taking no for an answer ultimately proved too much for the pink haired one to take.
"Zerbst! He has politely turned your offer down; now stop pestering us this instant!" Louise yelled, drawing her wand.
"OK, before this thing gets out of hand, we'll head back to the school and sort things out there while I rest up for the next round with Kazari and his Yummy." I interrupted, speaking a little quicker than normal. "I'll ride the horse I used to get here, Louise uses hers, and Kirche..."
"I'll ride with you Darling!" Kirche beamed,
"What? No! No, you'll be returning to the school the way you got here. Given that Tabitha's here with her familiar, I'm guessing you hitched a ride with her, so you'll be returning with her, if that's alright with you Tabitha?"
Now I didn't know that Tabitha was ridiculously quiet. In fact, her entire response to my request was a nod and a signal to her dragon, which Louise later told me was called Sylphid. Upon giving the signal, Tabitha clambered up onto its back and Sylphid began to lift off, also grabbing Kirche as it left.
"Well, shall we?" I asked Louise, smiling. We quickly returned to the horses and rode back to the Academy.
After we arrived at the academy, I proceeded to make sure I would be ready to face the Yummy. That involved things like making sure I'd eaten, that I knew which forms were available to me, and trying to come up with a battle plan should some of the preparations fail to have an effect.
To put things simply, one of the major things that had been made (and remarkably quickly too, magic must have been useful in the construction), was a large lantern-style burner that, given the parts that formed the structure around it, resembled a medieval style spotlight of sorts.
The dining hall had also been cleared for the purposes of luring the yummy into it, since the room could be kept lit up easily, and would provide consistent light, it was a good idea.
Once they had told me what they had ready and waiting and all my personal prepping was done, all we had left to do now was to wait.
That night, around midnight according to Louise, I had made sure everything was ready to go, and I had even arranged for something that would likely catch Kazari off guard. Just as we'd suspected, Kazari had shown up again with the Yummy in tow. Presumably it had engulfed its host during the day. Physically, it hadn't changed all that much, the only real difference was that it looked a bit bulkier.
I got up, Core Medals in my belt, and having left the Medajalibur with Louise. I was going to go straight for a form with Lion involved this time; after all, the Yummy had likely fully matured, so it would most likely gotten stronger since the last time. I needed to get the Yummy to an area where there was more light than dark, and with a little help from some new friends, my plan might just work.
"Kazari!" I called out, catching their attention.
"So, you want another shot at my Yummy huh?" Kazari replied, a sly grin on his face, "I don't know, you barely hurt it last time, and it wasn't completely mature yet. It is ready now though, so even that extra Core of mine won't help you now."
"Oh, really? I beg to differ." I replied, giving the signal for Mr Colbert to begin. On cue, several torches lit up around the area, and the large light began to shine, the operators adjusting it to shine on the Yummy.
"Don't think we didn't prepare. We were expecting you." I finished, scanning the medals in my driver. "HENSHIN!"
LION! TORA! BATTA!
As the armour formed around me and the blinding light flooded from the Lion Helmet, I leapt at the Yummy, claws extended and slashing straight into its torso, creating a large opening. Looking inside, I saw exactly what I expected, a man stuck in a swirling mass of Cell Medals. Quickly recalling the claws I reaching inside and tried to grab onto the guy's hand. He noticed me and after a little struggling, we managed to reach and grab each other's wrist.
"I'm here to get you out, but you'll need to hang on tight, and prepare for landing!" I called, he looked at me with a bit of confusion but he realised what I meant when I pulled him clean out of the Yummy, throwing him towards Guiche who was ready and waiting.
"Get him to an infirmary, but make sure he's restrained, we still don't know what his desire was." I shouted. As the man landed, he lost consciousness.
"Right away!" Guiche replied, him and a few other students lifting the man up and leaving the scene. Looking back towards the Yummy, it had begun trying to get up again, obviously weakened by the lack of its parent.
"And there's the chance we've been looking for." I said, Kazari's eyes widening in realisation. "NOW!"
At that moment we heard a roar as Sylphid flew in, grabbing the Yummy and dropping it towards Tabitha, who used some form of Wind Spell to throw the Yummy into the dining hall. She went in after it, the doors closing as she entered. Kirche should already be inside and the two of them were to keep the Yummy from interfering over here while I dealt with Kazari.
"Now it's just you and me." I sneered, changing my Medals.
TAKA! UNAGI! ZOU!
As the transformation finished and I stood before him with the TakaUZo armour in place, I noticed that Kazari had realised just what had happened, and he wasn't happy that I'd caught him out.
"Y-You will PAY for mocking me!" He snarled, throwing away his cloak to reveal the kind of clothing you'd see a fantasy Assassin wearing, on one of his armguards he even had some blades coming from it, resembling the claws from his namesake. Taking out a long dagger, he charged at me, thrusting it forward as he got close. I tried to jump backwards to stay out of range, but I wasn't all that used to the Zou legs at this point (They were much heavier than what I was used to, and I didn't expect him to fight like this), so I didn't get very far. It didn't matter though, because the medals in his arm began to glow, as did the blade of the dagger. It shot out a twister as it got close and hit me square in the gut. Needless to say it caught me off guard and I was thrown back, landing on my side and breaking the transformation, the Unagi and Zou Medals forced out of the belt.
"Ok, so you've got skills." I muttered, slotting the Tora and Batta Medals in place and readying the Scanner. "Henshin!"
TAKA! TORA! BATTA!
TA-TO-BA! TATOBA! TA-TO-BA!
"And you're a dead man!" Kazari snickered, grabbing the two Core Medals. Putting them into a pouch on his belt, he had calmed down and was arrogant once again.
I didn't give him a chance to react as I lunged for him, cutting across one of the medals in his arm, dragging it out of him.
"Well, what do you know," I said, noting that I had gotten a Cheetah Medal "I've got a Combo now." Looking back at Kazari, he had begun to lose his balance.
"W-Wha..." He tried to say before losing his balance, catching himself early enough to stay standing, "This isn't over you bastard." He finished, retreating and abandoning his Yummy to its fate as my transformation ended along with me losing my balance, and falling onto my ass. Kazari was much stronger than the Yummy, and just one attack had broken my transformation, something his Yummy hadn't managed to do. Moving on though, I had lost two medals and gained another new one, so I was down to six total, two for each section of the armour, and three of them forming a Combo.
"Jonathan!"
I turned my head to see Louise running towards me holding the Medajalibur. "Are you OK?"
"I'll be fine, just need a moment to catch my breath." I replied, managing to stand up. "Just got to finish off the Yummy now." Tonight's madness wasn't over just yet. Taking the sword from Louise, I checked the medals still in my belt, and went off to help Tabitha and Kirche, Louise following close behind.
Meanwhile, in the Dining Hall, the Yummy was having a difficult time facing off against Tabitha, who was fighting alongside Kirche.
"Fireball!" Kirche declared, sending a large ball of flame hurtling into the Yummy, knocking it back and chipping off a sizable chunk of Cell Medals. "I'll do everything I can to let Darling's plan succeed, and for that to happen, you won't get past us!"
The beast roared as it tried to strike Tabitha, albeit much slower than it would have if it was outside, given the fact that the room was brightly lit. The attack missed, Tabitha having ducked under the claws and placing the end of her staff against its chest.
"Air Hammer." Tabitha muttered, the punishing wind spell not needing any time to reach its target, sending the Yummy flying into the ceiling.
"We're really keeping it at bay, aren't we Tabitha?" Kirche asked, smiling.
"Focus." Tabitha replied, readying her staff again. Kirche quickly readied her wand in response.
The two nobles stood ready as the Yummy fell to the floor, getting up and struggling to stay standing. The three of them were surprised though when Louise and I opened the doors and walked into the room, having already transformed into the TaToBa Combo again.
"Darling! How did everything go outside?" Kirche asked, slightly curious.
"To cut a long story short, I've lost two medals, gained another, and the Yummy's now on its own." I replied, grinning under the helmet.
"Really? We've won?" Kirche asked, surprised.
"Not yet, but we're just about there. Just got to finish this guy off." I said, lifting up the Medajalibur. Grabbing three Cell Medals that the Yummy had lost while Kirche and Tabitha were dealing with it. I looked over to them, "Want to see what this sword can do?"
"Pay attention you idiot!" Louise shouted, jumping up and slapping me in the back of the head.
"Fine, I'll get on with it." I said, sighing. I loaded the three Cells into the sword and released them into the chamber inside the blade. Grabbing the scanner I ran it across the medals.
TRIPLE! SCANNING CHARGE!
Readying myself for an attack as the energy built up on the blade, the three girls stepped back, and I released the attack on the Yummy as it tried to strike me.
"OOO Bash!" I shouted, dividing the Yummy diagonally from the left shoulder, and cleaving the hall into two pieces at the same time, stunning Kirche and Louise, hell, even Tabitha had shown a little surprise at this attack, albeit amounting to her eyes being slightly wider as the attack finished, repairing the damage to the hall but leaving the Yummy in pieces, it exploding moments later. I turned to Louise, breaking the transformation as what looked like hundreds of Cell Medals fell to the ground like rain.
"Told you they explode." I said, falling to the ground, exhausted.
The next morning, after I had been given some minor first aid, and been given a chance to rest, I was sat in the principal's office. Louise, Kirche and Tabitha were sat on either side of me.
"I presume, given that there was a great explosion in the dining hall last night, and that since the four of you are sat before me, that you were victorious?" Osmand asked calmly.
"Headmaster, we were successful, but I'm afraid that two Core Medals were lost to the enemy in the attack." Louise replied, moving to answer before I could.
"However, I managed to take a Core Medal from them as well, weakening him in the long run." I added, holding up the Cheetah Core.
"I see. May I ask why Miss Zerbst and Miss Tabitha were involved in the battle as well? You never mentioned that part to the staff, and we were under the impression that they would be protecting younger students."
"About that, it was kind of at the last minute..." I started, Kirche taking over.
"We volunteered to assist Jonathan in battle because he had decided to attempt to weaken the one that created the Yummy. In order for that to be effective, keeping the Yummy away from its creator was paramount." She replied.
"Divide and Conquer." Tabitha muttered, as she continued to read.
"Very well. Next time, inform us when you decide to do something like that so we're aware of it ahead of time. Regardless, Ms Vallière, Ms Zerbst and Ms Tabitha, the three of you are going to receive awards for services to the school. Mr Harris, I'm afraid that because of your status as a Familiar, we cannot give a similar award to you. However, I can offer you one request, so is there anything else you'd like instead?" Osmand replied.
"I don't mind not getting an award, but seeing as I'm allowed one request... I've not had much luck with food since I arrived here. If you make it so that I can have the same quality of food that a student would get, I'd be happy with that." I replied, smiling. At the very least, it would mean that I could be a bit more open with what I ate, and I wouldn't have to take up the head chef on his offer of good food without Louise noticing.
"Very well, I'll arrange that for you." Osmand replied warmly. He dismissed us after that, and the girls left to go to study, while I decided to train with Derflinger.
Meanwhile, in another location, far away from the Academy, an odd racket could be heard from a property long thought to be abandoned.
"That bastard took one of my Medals! How dare he, I'll kill him!" Kazari roared, slamming his fist into a nearby wall. "Next time I see him I'll take all of the Cores he has and end his pathetic life!"
"Now now, you need to stay calm Kazari. You may have lost a Core in your battle against Rider boy, but don't forget, you took two from him."
"Yeah, but they're not ones from my set. You take them. One of them is yours after all." Kazari replied, snarling.
"Why, thank you. Right now, I think our best option is to gather Cell Medals, that way we can build our strength and launch an overwhelming attack on him when we're much stronger."
"And where do you think we'll get these Cells? All of the ones from my Panther Yummy is in OOO's hands now, and I doubt you're ready to start making your own. After all, you woke up after I did."
"You don't need to worry about me. You managed a Yummy not long after you woke up. I should be able to provide us with a sizable amount. All I need is a host, and if anything, I know just the place."
With that, Chapter 4 is finally complete! Clocking in at just over 6,100 words and around 12-13 pages on Word, it's been a long time coming for this, and I'm going to have to pick up the pace for this next one. I promise it won't be as long a wait between this chapter and the next. I had school work to do, not to mention job hunting and an untimely passing within the family. All in all, I found it really hard to get motivated for doing more of this, but that's all passed. I'm ready to go, so Chapter 5 is on the way!
I'll see you next time!