The Sitri Manor
As Ziz began to open his eyes, he realized something. He had been crying all throughout his sleep, and he was shaking violently. As he looked around, he noticed his two assistants were looking up at him.
"Are you ok master? I heard you crying in your sleep." Annalise said while constricting her arms around his head, nuzzling her head on his collar bone. As she did this, Kuraki started to wake up.
"Ziz, why are there tears in your eyes? Come here dear, I'll comfort you." She said with a purr. Kuraki pulled Ziz's head into her chest to comfort him. She started to pet his head in an attempt to sooth his emotional turmoil. It seemed to have worked, because he started to doze off.
As he began to fall asleep, the two wonderful women began to talk in a whispered tone.
"Is he alright?" Kuraki asked.
"I can't tell, all I heard was him talking about some Gannon person and he began to cry. I'm worried for him sis, is there anything we can do?" Annalise asked with concern.
"We have to let him take his time, when he's ready he'll tell us. In the meantime, we can make sure he doesn't do anything rash." Kuraki replied.
"Alright Kuraki." Annalise said, starting to doze off.
It was morning, the sun shining in through the drapes of the bedroom of Ziz Gannon. As he woke up, he noticed that the two young ladies had moved their position from when they first got into bed.
"Alright ladies, it time to get up." Ziz said with a yawn.
"Yes master." Annalise said with an even larger yawn than Ziz. She had to be honest, Ziz was quite cute when he yawned. It was then that Kuraki began to stir.
"Uh, just five more minutes." Kuraki pleaded with Ziz.
"Alright, but make sure you make it to breakfast, I'd feel bad if you didn't get something to eat." Ziz said. Both Ziz and Annalise left the room, heading over to the dining room. As they walked through the hall, they heard speaking in the dining room. Ziz recognized one of the voices. It was Saji. The second voice was unknown to him.
"Hey master, I was wondering if you would like to learn some magic." Said Annalise.
"Magic huh? I guess I'll give it a try. What type of magic do you suggest I learn?" Ziz asked his assistant.
"Well since you use guns, you might want to use summoning magic to conjure up more ammunition." Annalise said.
"That would help, yes but he should also learn some offensive and defensive magic in case he loses his weapons." Kuraki said as she walked up to the two.
"Kuraki! It's nice to see you!" Annalise said with much excitement. The three of them walked through the doors to find Saji and a young cat-like woman arguing. The woman had black cat ears and two black cat tails. Her hair was the same shade of black as her ears and tail's. She had a larger bust than both Kuraki's and Annalise's.
"I suddenly feel less confident." Annalise said with a disappointed sigh.
"Yea, I can empathize." Kuraki said in the same disappointed sigh.
"Oh, why hello there. My name is Kuroka, what yours?" Kuroka said with a purr. She sauntered towards him with a swing of her hips. When she was at arm length she slowly and seductively placed her hands on his shoulders.
"M-my name is Z-Ziz. Nice to make your acquaintance, Kuroka." Ziz said with a startled voice.
"Oh, is that so?" Kuroka said while tracing her index finger along his chest. "If you want, we can talk later." Kuroka said with an erotic tone.
"N-no I'm fine." Ziz countered quickly.
"Stop. That's enough." Kuraki said in a stern tone. She walked over to Ziz, noticing how out of his element he was at this straight-forward advance on him. As Kuroka walked out of the room, Ziz gave a heavy sigh.
"Thanks for that Kuraki. I didn't know what to do." Ziz said as Kuraki blushed.
"Hey Ziz, I got some info on the familiar forest for you." Saji said.
"And what might that be?" Ziz questioned.
"I'll be coming along for the ride!" Saji said victoriously. He seemed quite excited about this fact.
"By the way, where are all of the others? Are they sleeping in?" Ziz asked his friend.
"No, they're on some urgent business regarding some internal affairs with one of the 72 pillars." Saji said with a sigh.
"Well, let's have some breakfast then!" Annalise said with excitement. As the four of them ate Ziz couldn't help but smile at the scene he was witnessing. Saji, Annalise, and Kuraki talking to each other as if they were friends. It's not that they would have any reason to hate each other, but rather it was nice to see his friends getting along so well. He had never experienced anything like it.
When they finished with their first meal of the day, the four of them went to the training grounds to try and help Ziz with some magic.
"Alright master, the first type of magic you'll want to excel in would be conjuration. Conjuration spell can summon creatures or items to be used in battle. For example, one could summon their familiar once they acquire one. Another example would be summoning a sword or staff. But for you, you'll want to summon ammunition. First, you're going to want to visualize what it is you want to summon in your head. Second, you're going to want to make a magical circle to act as a portal to transport your conjuration. The third and final thing is, that you will need enough magic to be able to then pull out that object. Give it a try master!" Annalise explained. Ziz took a battle stance and closed his eyes. All of a sudden, a purple magical circle appeared in front of Ziz.
"Summon, ammunition!" Ziz shouted. Then a small box of ammunition appeared out of the magical circle. "Is there a way to summon the ammo directly into chamber?" Ziz inquired.
"Try focusing the spell on the weapon itself." Kuraki said.
"Ok, I'll give it another try." Ziz said with determination. He pulled out his lever-action rifle, he focused his magical circle around the barrel of the gun.
"Summon ammunition!" Ziz shouted, he felt the rifle heavy. He aimed at two targets down range, firing the rifle.
"Very good master!" Annalise said with excitement.
"Now it's time to work on some basic combat magic." Kuraki said with a stern tone. "First, you're going to want to focus your energy on the first element that comes to mind. Then focus it in an offensive form." Kuraki said like a teacher. Ziz took a stance, focusing all his energy on the first thing that came to mind. Of the many this swirling around in his head, ice was the one that came to mind. Ice, it's cold, freezing form wrapping around him. It's unyielding fury to destroy entire towns in layers of ice and snow. Its ability to make solid steel bars into the consistency of glass. The pure emotion of ice, the emotion of isolation.
A large sphere of ice appeared in his hand, rotating on its invisible pedestal. Ziz threw it, it's form shifting from a sphere to that of a lance. The ice lance pierced the dummy, it's straw form impaled by the icy weapon.
"Good, very good." Kuraki said with pride. "Next, find your defensive element, one that would work well as a shield." Kuraki said.
Ziz began to search once more, but this time for a shield, not a sword. Water, water was what he would look for when in danger. Its density was enough to slow down or even stop bullets from reaching him. Every time he would pick a fight that was over his head, he would look for a lake. He would dive into it, avoid death by an inch.
A disc of water appeared in Ziz's palm. It expanded into the form of a wall about four inches thick. It stood for about ten minutes before it collapsed, saturating the ground under it.
"That is good for now. You should take a rest." Saji said while giving him a pat on the back.
"I think I'll take you up on that offer." Ziz said with a small chuckle. The four of them went to their respective rooms for a quick nap. As they began to doze off, four figures entered the Sitri manor. Serafall Leviathan, Sona Sitri, Tsubaki, and Rias Gremory.
Serafall walked over to her queen's room, quietly opening the door, she walked over to his bed to find him sleeping with his two assistants. She gave a sorrowful smile.
"It's a shame, I hope he takes it well." She said to herself. She didn't want to worry him, because tomorrow he was going to get his familiar. She remembered all the things he had been through, the things he had seen. She began to comb her fingers through Ziz's hair. She wondered how he would take the news.s
The Ruins
Ziz walked around the ruins of what Gannon would have called, the old world. From what Ziz was taught, the old world used to have towering buildings, vehicles which could cover miles in mere minutes, and weapons that could cause massive destruction. The latter of the three was what created this world, the new world. He knew it was not a place where people would be nice to others. He heard from Gannon that there were deadly creatures in the ruins. The radiation of the bombs is what changed them. Hundreds of years of mutation and natural selection is what created these inhospitable beasts.
As he meandered throughout the ruins he heard some screaming about five hundred feet north of his position. He quickly move towards the position. As he took cover behind a collapsed wall.
"What should we do with her?" One voice asked.
"Well, we could rape her." A second voice replied.
"Naw, we should torture the bitch first." A third voice said.
Ziz realized what they were. Gannon referred to them as raiders. They did two main things. They raped and killed. Ziz knew he should do something, but what? Should he kill them? But what then? Where would the woman have to go? Would she even have family to go home to? From what Ziz was taught. Raiders generally slaughtered entire towns, and rarely took prisoners.
It was then that Ziz decided to act. He took out two of the three raiders, while the third took the woman captive.
"Hey! You want her to live don't you? Well if you do, then put your fucking weapon down!" The raider commanded. Ziz shook his head and began to take aim. The raider tensed up. He knew this type of person. They were generally the lone wolves. Hell, it was a lone wolf that nearly killed all of him men. He called himself, Six. He decided to take a chance. He tensed his trigger finger.
Ziz took the shot. What he saw next, he would never be able to forget. The sight of a bullet hole wound. He nearly puked. The woman walked up to him, her extreme shaking being a sign of shock.
"Thank you." She whispered in his ear, before she took the raider's pistol and shot herself in the head. Ziz's eyes widened at the sight of the action the woman took. He just stood there, thinking as to why someone might take such drastic action. He couldn't comprehend why someone was just kill themselves. Was this world really that devoid of hope? Was this what Gannon was shielding him from the entire time he was in the facility. Was that what happened to Gannon's love?
As Ziz was thinking about these things, a few men approached from his rear. He turned around, seeing three men, each wearing identical green combat armor with a black diamond in center of it.
"Who are you?" Ziz asked with a shaky voice.
"We are the local patrol. We've been looking for a missing wo-" The man paused, looking at the now dead woman on the ground. He eyed Ziz then the woman again.
"What happened here?" asked the second man.
"There were three raiders, they were torturing this woman. I managed to kill two of them, but the third took her captive. I managed to free her. But then she just, she just k-killed herself." Ziz said on the verge of tears. "Why would someone do that?!" Ziz shouted at the three men.
"Well it might be because here, we've lost all hope of a better life. Here, the only thing you can hope for is that you get to die the way you choose." The third man said. Then, all Ziz could see was black.