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"Speech"

/thoughts/

Powers!

Story!

Three days had passed since Louise had given up using wands and had given Saito a crash course in the local language, and both of them were liable to blow any moment. Saito had practically locked himself in the library looking at glyphs and sealing spells as well as lore on local spirits and the moons barely eating, sleeping, and at times breathing as he read. Louise had gone back to blowing things up but at a far less spectacular scale. It looked like all Saito did with removing the wand was some basic damage control and that's it. Currently Louise was looking for a new wolf fur cloak and she knew just where to get it.

"YOU BASTARD MUTT!!!!" Louise screeched as she stomped into the library and quickly found Saito in a dark corner looking like he had not only run a marathon but had his dog die and then was kicked in the sack.

"What!?" He snapped at her his eyes glowing red in his irritation. His hair and the fur on his ears and tail were matted with sweat as was his black t-shirt he had long thrown his jacket aside but from the look of him he hadn't washed since he got in there.

"You told me that taking away the wand would fix things! But I still can't keep up you lying bastard!" She shouted pulling out a bullwhip.

"I don't have time for your petty ego. There's much more at stake and if I don't get a handle on it soon blasts of smoke will be the least of our problems." He said in such a cold tone Louise actually stopped.

"What the hell are you talking about mutt?" she demanded and he didn't even bother to look up from the huge leather wrapped book this time.

"Those fucking twin moons. Spiritual power is amplified by celestial bodies, the closer they are the bigger the charge. On my world there's one moon that only appears at night and is only full three nights out of thirty, this one moon at half full sets Therians into a ****ing frenzy. Luckily I have more control then that but it's slipping. I have five more days at best before I degenerate into a bloodthirsty monster or blow up spraying my guts all over the landscape and cause and explosion of spiritual energy so huge that half the castle will be levelled. The fireball I shot off and modified when I first showed was supposed to just be twice the size of my head but I was barely able to make it non-lethal." He said snarling as he poured over tome after tome but from his expression came up with a cornucopia of... nothing.

"DAMNIT! I will not become my brother! There has to be something here! Anything will do!" he half shouted as he poured through another old tome his eyes a blur he was reading so fast.

/His brother? Just what happened to him?/ Louise thought before she heard someone running towards them.

"Saito I think I've figured it out and... Louise why do you have a bullwhip?" Colbert asked raising an eyebrow he was carrying a small box and was practically glowing in triumph.

"Not important. What did you find? Are you sure it'll work? We're on a countdown here and a failure just might speed it up. We can't risk that." Saito said seriously all traces of earlier frustration gone as he stared hopefully at the older man. Colbert could only smile as he opened the small box from the centre with a flourish revealing two silver bracers. They had a pentagram star in a circle on the outsides with four of the points holding the rune for each of the classic elements with the topmost one reading as "Spirit". Dead centre to each pentagram was a single moonstone as big as his pinkys nail. "Brilliant." Saito said wide eyed as he spiritually sensed just what they were. Just being near them his excess spirit levels were going down.

Not wasting any time he snapped them on and locked them in place, the moonstone and design started glowing brightly then settled to a light sparkle as Saito breathed a sigh of relief. "Nice one, I was so focused on keeping the lunar energy out that I never figured to just let it pass through. This'll take all the guesswork right out. How did you come up with this anyways?" Saito asked his eyes gleaming.

"We just have a different way of thinking. You try to stop problems from happening, I try to solve them. Prevention was you putting up a shield from the moonlight, solving it was just bleeding it out." Colbert said with pride, those bracers were works of art and the first items in this world designed to work with spiritual power and lunar energy.

"Well looks like I owe you one. You gonna call it in now or later?" Saito asked and Colbert took a sniff.

"Umm... how about you stop stinking up the library and get into a bath then something clean? You do have more then just that one clothing set right?" Colbert asked and Saito shook his head.

"I showed up less then a week ago. I haven't had the opportunity to bathe or get more then the clothes on my back." He sniffed at his armpit. "Phew!! I see what you mean though! My god how did I not notice?!" He sputtered with revulsion nearly tripping over himself. "Great I gotta put all this away first then..."

"If it get's you in a tub sooner I'll do it. There's one strait down the hall to the right, blue door." Louise said more to get Mr. Colbert and Saito away so she could think then anything else.

"Thanks. I'll stay in fur until I can either get this clean or something else. Though both would be nice." Saito said as he slipped on his jacket and transformed before dashing out of the library.

"Um... Mister Colbert Saito mentioned something about his brother earlier saying that he will not become him... any idea what he was talking about?" Louise asked and Colbert shook his head.

"He mentioned his brother in passing to me too but only because of his panic. My guess is that he had brother that went through something similar and he had to watch helplessly in horror as his brother succumbed to some kind of madness. But outside of that I have no idea." Colbert said as he picked up one of the books Saito had shifted through. "Although I must admit he certainly is honourable if he was trying to figure out why things were still blowing up while he was on the clock." He said noticing the page that was marked with a red ribbon.

"What is it?" Louise asked instantly attentive and alert.

"Magical theory on spells outside the four elements. It lists things such as lightning, raising the dead, voiding out other spells and such... My guess is that he believes that you have no known elemental affinity. We'll have to talk to him later about this." Colbert said and Louise nodded eagerly.

With Saito.

He was just slipping into a hot bath with a satisfied groan as he reclined in a small tub. "Nothing on the tubs back home but it's nice and hot..." he murmured as the water sapped out all of the exhaustion, stress and sweat that had caked onto his skin and into his core. He slipped off the bracers to wash the skin underneath then slipped them back on and relaxed further as he felt his overfull spirit reserves start to drain again.

"Man this world's just bursting with spiritual energy... No wonder they never heard of Therians this place is deadly." He murmured sleepily as he let himself slip into the water and he just let the slight ripples rock him back and forth. /Now what? If I harness the power of the moons I could in theory make a spirit gate home but... what am I going back to? I lost my brother to the madness two years ago and the rest of my family.../ he thought and the water around his closed eyes suddenly became salty due to tears. /Stay in the unfamiliar as a being of power... or go home back to normalcy and an empty house? Danger or loneliness? Discovery or boredom? Confusion or grief?/ he asked himself time and again the questions bouncing in his mind.

"...Looks like I'm staying." He said as he surfaced and leaned against the back of the tub. "It's not like I really had friends, so much as people who'd hang around just to hear me snap at someone..." /Maybe the best way to get over things is to leave it all behind.../ he thought slowly before slapping himself in the face to wake up. "Well first things first, get some clothes that can't be used as chemical weaponry. God damn how did I not notice that smell?!" he demanded covering his nose. Just then as luck would have it Siesta came in, she covered her nose quickly and Saito would have chuckled if the scent wasn't burning his nose as well.

"W-would you like for me to dispose of these Master Saito?" She asked.

"Please, thank you, and bless you for your good timing." Saito said and she gathered up the clothes and walked off with them. "Thanks again!" he shouted after her. "Cute girl." He said to himself as he sunk back into the bath then frowned. "I'm gonna have to find a hot spring or going to the bath will give me freaking leg cramps." He muttered and he heard the door open again. He breathed in and caught Louise's scent. "Something I can help you with?"

"Yes there is." She said sternly

"Alright, but first why did you just waltz into a room with a naked man your age inside it? Don't you know people will talk?" he said and he could almost smell her blush.

"That's not important! Tell me why I still can't use magic!" She half shouted at him looking downwards but still embarrassed.

"What!? You want another lecture? Good gawd...." he said hoping to get under her skin and hitting the nail on the head. "Anyways in this regard magic and spiritual powers are identical. You see to use an element different from the one that your power naturally takes you have to convert it. But to convert it you have to know what you have in the first place so..." he said then shrugged. "It's kinda up to you now. The most I can tell you is that I figured out my element by just sitting down and focusing on how I felt until I found something weird." He said turning to look at her, her shoulders were slumping and he felt kinda bad. "Tell you what, if you can find the out of place feeling describe it to me and I'll see if I can tell you what it is."

"Alright before I leave I was told that Headmaster Osman has some money for you so that you can get some clothing and that you're getting the room across from my own." Louise said and she started to leave the room.

"Thanks... just a heads up though my old clothes are being burnt as we speak so I'll have to be in a furry form the whole time. So ... Trying on clothes aught to be interesting." Saito said turning around so he could see Louise turn from a lovely pinkish colour to a deep crimson hue and dash out of the room. "Heh, heh, heh, I forgot how straight laced people in this time period could be... it's almost too easy heh, heh." He said chuckling to himself.

Timeskip two hours.

"So let me get this straight. You want me, a wolf human hybrid to ride on a horse?" Saito asked. He was in a combination form between wolf and man with fur covering everything and giving him an impressive build but his head was fur free so it looked like he was wearing a flattering and skin tight fur outfit. Or it would have if Louise hadn't threatened Guiche into handing over a spare pair of pants and cloak.

"Yes now get on." Louise said through clenched teeth.

"Screw that. I don't play with my food I eat it." Saito said eyeing the animal which started to sidle away in a cold sweat.

"Look you told me that you have to attune your clothing to transform with you and the only reason the bracers do is because they are laced with your power right?" Louise said shooting a glare that would make the moons back off.

"Yes." Saito said stiffly.

"Then get on the ****ing horse or so help me I'll cast a spell on your neck." She threatened the glare full force and fully directed at him. /Looks like she's catching onto my language. Let's see how far I can push this./ Saito thought inwardly grinning, he didn't actually have a problem with the horse he just liked to see her blood pressure go up.

"Go **** yourself! If that dumb beast can keep up it'll be a miracle. I don't need to ride any ****ing four legged four course meal." Saito snarled at her inwardly making up his mind on what her auto-win clause for this argument would be. An auto-win clause was a point that he would just accept, he only made them when he was arguing for fun.

"How the flying **** is a horse a four course meal!?" Louise snapped morbidly curious despite herself.

"Well first you snap its neck and rip off its hide. The first course is all the muscles on the main body. The second is all the internal organs including the brain but not including the bladder or any sexual organs. Course three is any muscles left on the body and the fourth is where you snap the bones and suck out the ****ing marrow." Saito said and watched Louise turn a little green. /Okay I'll admit that was nasty but it was the best I could come up with on the fly./

"Whatever." Louise said in defeat. Then she brightened up. "If you won't go on a horse as a wolf-human mix then turn into a full on human and lets go." She said grinning thinking she got him in a corner. /Well I'll be she found the clause./ Saito thought as he morphed into a full on human. Tightened his pants and climbed onto the horse behind her. "You were waiting for me to say that weren't you?" Louise asked and he laughed at her and she glared daggers at him.

"Caught on have you? Heh heh just having a little fun no need to glare like that, my, my someone's having a bad day." He noted teasingly as a vein bulged. "Anyways lets go!" He said and he kicked the horse in the sides causing it to break into a headlong run.

"You son of a bitch!" Louise yelled at him as she got control of the horse.

"My mother's birth was legit thank you very much!" Saito shot back grinning widely. She just screamed at him as worlds failed her and he laughed wrapped his arms around her gently and kissed her on the cheek. "You're way too easy to provoke, any sort of real power comes from discipline. Do you want to control it or it to control you?" he asked seriously but gently in her ear, Louise jerked her head to the side to look at him and he was grinning but with no hint of playfulness in it. She blinked owlishly then turned her attention to the road and nearby city.

Timeskip two hours

"I still can't figure out where you're holding all that!" Louise exclaimed as Saito shoved yet another pair of pants into a small throw bag he had bought. Louise found herself as a simple observer after she had explained the denominations of coins. She quickly found out that Saito's taste in clothing went straight to dark and practical. He had also bought a few lengths of white cloth that was an inch thick and very strong. "What are those cloths for anyways?" Louise asked and he smiled.

"Wraps. Basic but very comfortable and flexible clothing, essentially you just wrap the cloth around a part of your body and tie it in place, easy to wash, easy to store. They also don't need to be enchanted to expand if you tie them right, so it only takes half the regents to spiritualize them." Saito explained. /Hmm About fifty gold, twice as much silver and half as much bronze coins left./ Saito thought. "Hey Louise how much do swords go for around here?" He asked and Louise shrugged.

"So I look like I play with swords. Lovely." Louise said in a biting tone.

"Good god do you have one up your ass or something?" Saito asked in exasperation. "I swear you have the personality of a pit bull for god sakes." Saito muttered as he looked around for a weapon shop. Spotting one he walked in and looked around. /If that man didn't smell completely human I'd swear he was a Rat based Therian./ Saito thought looking at the owner. He felt a huge pulse of power from his left and immediately walked over to a small stand full of old blades until he got his hands on what was causing the surges.

"What are you lookin' at kid?" the sword asked with a flap on its hilt opening and closing like a mouth.

"You've got a lot of power for an oversized hunk of scrap metal." Saito said evenly staring at the mouth part.

"And you're packing something impressive yourself for a snot nosed brat." The sword replied matching his tone and (although it had no eyes) his glare too.

"Name's Saito, Werewolf, Spiritualist." Saito said by way of introduction.

"Derflinger, Broadsword, Enchanted." Derflinger returned and Saito nodded.

"How much?" Saito asked the owner who sneered.

"Fifty Gold." The man said and Saito frowned.

"The sign above says five."

"I'm not going lower then forty."

"A sword this rusted would barely sell for seven."

"It's magic thirty five."

"It's a smart mouth ten."

"It's a relic twenty."

"It's been poorly maintained. Fifteen." Saito said.

"Done." The merchant said and Saito walked up to the counter and gave him the money. He then quickly walked out of the store and Louise let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding.

"Damn you practically stole me partner." Derflinger said and Saito grinned.

"I'm just that good." Saito said smugly and Der laughed.

Authors Notes.

Alright I'm having fun with Saito now and his power source has been revealed. Don't worry about him not being a Gandelfr he can more then compensate. Also I have my own plans for unlocking Der's power so don't worry.