I do not own Familiar of Zero. It belongs to their respective creators and publishers.
Saito and Louise have been best friends since their childhood.
They willingly challenge the world with their backs against each other, relying on each other for everything.
However, in every friendship there are times you want to strangle your friends for the sheer stupidity they possess.
"Why." Louise said with disappointment.
"He's an asshole."
"That's not what I mean!"
Saito simply rolled his eyes. "Okay, I want to punch his pompous face for being an asshole to me."
"That's not a justification to accept his mage duel!"
"Relax," Saito rolled his eyes and scoffed at Louise's concern. "As long as I can catch him before he cast anything, I'm good."
"It's not that simple!" Saito jumped a little at her outburst. It is not often she would become this intense.
"Right now, whatever actions you take will reflect on me. I don't care far too much about my fame, but you need to know that if you fucked this up-"
"It's going to make more complications in the future, especially if you want to help people." Saito interrupted her naturally. It's one of the same songs and dance they had before. Whenever one of her assistants got themselves into a bad situation by their own volition, she would speak the same exact words to them.
Saito can count with his fingers how many times she did not say those words.
Louise merely sighs and pinched the bridge of the nose. "Well, now there are two choices you can choose. Either you apologize to him and call off the duel..."
She subtly glanced at Saito, who's facial expression told her he dislikes this. "... or just fuck it and kick his ass while breaking your ribs."
"How bad can that pompous ass be anyway? He looks like you can break his arms like sticks." Once more, he scoffed at her choice of words.
"For one, he won't be fighting fairly. Secondly, he specializes in summoning metal golems; So, unless you can punch metal I won't be worrying much."
Saito frowns a bit, acknowledging that dealing with metal golems can be a problem. "Unless I am fast enough, right?"
Louise sigh, perhaps nothing can convince him. Not like her reasons are good enough really. Something inside her just made her overreacted. "Very well, but one last question."
Saito tilted his head, giving her the green light for the question.
"Did you bring any weapons with you? Like something that at least helps you?" Saito became stiff and remained silent. "You didn't bring it." She plainly stated and he flinched.
His face became haunted as if reliving old memories. "Mom confiscated them after… I tried to cut myself."
Oh.
"It's okay, I'm over that phase. But now I'm defenseless."
Louise pondered for a moment before grinning evilly. "Well, we could do something about it."
"I'm sorry?" A blond boy looked indecorously at Louise and Saito.
"He needs a sword to make the fight fair, and I will be the referee for this duel." Louise repeated to him.
"Yes, yes, I heard that. But why are you refereeing our duel?" The blond eyes Louise suspiciously, having a bad feeling about her being the referee.
The girl merely shrug. "I just want to make things fair." She then looked at the boy with a smirk. "Unless you're too scared of some commoner, Guiche."
This riles up the boy and he swung his rose wand. One of the petals landed on the ground and it glowed. Rising from the ground, a bronze sword materialized which Saito took it without hesitation.
"Thanks for that." Saito thanked the boy (sarcastically) while Louise's smirk became a grin from that. She raised her right hand into the air and announced the duel.
"This is a duel between Guiche the Bronze and Saito Hiraga! No action like using magic nor attacking is allowed before the duel begins." Both boys nodded before Louise continue. "Please state your stake in this battle, and both must be equal value!"
"I want the commoner to grovel and apologize to me for breaking two maiden's heart!" Guiche haughtily stated.
"Get real, jerk! You'll be the one apologizing to the girls!" Saito countered with a snarl.
"With the stakes stated…" The air became tense, where both boys readied themselves. "BEGIN!"
Without hesitation, Saito dashed towards Guiche, not noticing the rune on his hand glowed brightly. Louise merely narrowed her eyes on the glowing rune.
Guiche, on the other hand, got caught off guard by the sudden burst of speed and tried to take a step back to make space. It got worse for him as he tripped and landed on his ass, which earned a dodge from a sword swing.
Saito, who knew he missed, didn't waste another chance to tilt his body and brought the sword tip to the blond boy's neck. "Surrender!" He emphasized his threat by pressing the cold metal closer to the skin.
"I- I surrender! Please spare me!" Fear clearly overwhelmed the loser and he eventually fainted from it. Saito merely blinked twice at the display while the bronze sword slowly crumbles into rocks.
"I was hoping something better but… this is anti-climactic." Saito mumbled.
The crowd whispered to each other, talking about the event that just happened. While that was happening, Louise approached Saito with a smile.
"Good job there." She praised him before giving a serious expression. With a more commanding tone, she speaks. "Though we might have some discussion to do about the battle later."
Afterwards, a bald man came to the scene to disperse the situation before calling Louise and Saito to the principal's office.
Osmond has told himself he is feeling his age every time there is a new trouble in his academy. He understood teenagers are, well, teenagers. High on emotions and dramas that amount to nothing bound to happen.
But when it comes to his best student, Louise Valliere, he wished the answer to his problem was throwing his desk out of the window out of frustration.
"Miss Valliere…" Osmond began with an exhausted sigh.
"Yes, Principal Osmond?" The strawberry blond tilted her head, trying to look innocent. Oh joy, it is one of those days.
"I heard you referee your familiar's duel with Mister Gramont." He spoke to her with accusatory tone.
"Yes, your point? I don't remember referee your familiar's duel is illegal."
"My point is, why did you not prevent your familiar from dueling?" Oh great, now she crossed her arms on her chest.
"Well, he's particularly stubborn" she bobbed her to the boy in question. "… and I would have to seduce him to stop him."
The boy gave her a deadpanned stare. "I would go to jail for you doing that. And for your information, I'm into mature looking girls."
"Having a big boob doesn't mean maturity!" Louise countered with indignation.
"But they're more beautiful… usually."
Osmond watched as the pair bicker about womanly looks and their opinions about it. If he were younger, he would have joined their bickering. But as of now…
"Both of you cease your bickering." Still using the same calm tone, Osmond used his authoritative voice to stop them. This shut them up immediately.
"Now, I have no punishments for you Miss Valliere since you technically did not break the rule." The girl nodded before Osmond continued. "However, I will not tolerate another one happening. You're the academy's best student aside from Miss Tabitha."
"I know. I'll try my hardest next time." Louise replied with a business-like tone.
Seeing there was nothing else to spoke about, the principal excuse the two from the room.
He felt like he forgotten something.
Probably nothing important.
Saito looked at the rune on his left hand with a newfound fascination. From what Louise had told him, the rune glowed when he fought just now.
And from what he remembered, he experienced being given the full knowledge of the weapon, how it can be efficiently used, and the state of the weapon.
"It's almost like EMIYA's Tracing mixed with Berserkelot's Knight of Owner?"
Louise thought for a moment before nodding. "I supposed. All we have right now is based on what we had observed. I might have to sneak into the Fenrir's Library section for more information."
Saito simply took a parchment and a quill before writing down something in it. "Well, another project for you work on?"
"Should be simple enough." She stood up from her chair and went to her cabinet. From the cabinet, she took out a set of dark blue clothes similar to a ninja outfit. "Just go to sleep. I'll be back on midnight with the information."
"Actually, I was planning to help you with the laundry."
Louise thought for a moment before shrugging. "Sure, just go to the staff dorm and look for my maid Siesta. Tell her you want to help me with the laundry."
With that, Louise gave Saito the direction to the dorm and excuse him from the room. The girl changed her clothing into the ninja outfit, hiding it under her normal uniform before departing for the library.
Colbert carefully placed an old book to an out of reach shelf. The library was now pitched black, and his lamp was the only source of light left, aside from the moonlight.
Regardless, he felt enlightened by the new information he discovered. He spent his yesterday to reach the discovery of his goal. Now, he just must discuss what more can be done for Miss Valliere and Saito.
But still, to think Miss Valliere was a Void Mage. Something akin to heresy, but to a scientist it merely serves as a point of fascination. He must wonder did the young girl figured out her element by herself.
She was the best student in the academy after all.
Stifling a yawn, the bald teacher berated himself for putting too much time in his research again.
"Hm?" Why is there a sound of something being slipped off?
Turning around, he saw nothing but an empty hall. He looked up to see if there was something he missed. As a veteran soldier, he made sure he curbed the habit of not looking up unlike most.
People need to look up to keep their heads attached to their neck!
"Probably my exhaustion." With that, he left the part of the library.
If only he was willing to looked 90 degrees upward, he would see a pair of pink eyes staring downwards.
"Silent Step." Louise whispered before dropping from the ceiling to the shelf without a sound.
Silent Step worked liked it name's sake, silencing any footsteps Louise made by literally 'voiding' any form of sound production. To her, however, was just her element 'voiding' the molecular vibration to create sound while also trying to ensure physics was not broken.
Black holes are not to be trifled with.
Taking the same book as Colbert, she smirked under her mask.
She got the [Encyclopedia of Familiar runes].
Whelp, another 2 months I took to make this chapter. I wasn't too happy with the first part when it comes to Louise's overreaction. I planned to not included it before thinking it could be a plot point in the future. Honestly, I don't exactly planned too far since the goal of this story is just a re-telling of the original FOZ. Oh well, hopefully I won't become demotivated over time. Anyway, have a nice day everyone.