Disclaimer

I own nothing but what I write. All intellectual properties belong to their respective owners, that is Noburo Yamaguchi owns Zero no Tsukaima aka Familiar of Zero.

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Please read & review as I appreciate any comments made

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Prologue

Louise Francoise Le Blanc De La Valliere had never cast a spell correctly in her life. Today would be her final chance to prove herself a mage and a true noble by successfully summoning a familiar in today's sacred second year summoning ritual. If she failed today she would be sent home and knowing her family she would be wed off early to save face by at least getting a political marriage out of Louise.

So it was with a lot of nervous energy that she put on her uniform for what could be the last time and trudged down the stairs towards the field where the summoning would be held, the summoning circle already pre-drawn for all to use. Her pink hair ruffled in the chill morning breeze causing her to pull her black second-year cape tighter around her white blouse and over her black pleated skirt.

"Ho! Ho!" the voice of one red-headed Germanian teased Louise, "I hope we get something other than an explosion in today's summoning!"

"You wait and see Kirche," Louise retorted, "I'm going to summon the most wonderful and amazing familiar ever!"

"Really… That I have to see for myself." Kirche replied.

When all the second-year students finally gathered around the field in front of the prepared summoning circle, under the watchful gaze of one Professor Colbert, a tall balding middle-aged man with glasses, the students began summoning their familiars one after another in alphabetical order by surname. Louise being a Valliere would be going at the end of the line. As each student successfully summoned a familiar, Louise was starting to get anxious and she regretted boasting to Kirche. Left with no other way out she did the only thing she could, she prayed. "O Founder Brimir, please, please, please let me summon something wonderful! If you could I would forever be in your debt!"

There were many different familiars summoned that day, from the mundane like frogs and dogs to the rare like bugbears, fire salamanders, and even a dragon. Louise was shaking like a leaf by the time it got to her turn. So much so that she didn't hear the professor call her name twice. "Why bother with her, she's Louise the Zero," came the callous remark from Guiche de Gramont, a pretty boy lothario with blonde curly locks, "She's just going to make another explosion."

Angrily Louise stepped forward and standing at the edge of the summoning circle she made a final prayer before beginning her incantation. "My wonderful, powerful, and beautiful familiar, somewhere out there, I beg of you, answer my call, and come forth!"

With the aria completed and the wand in her hand pointing forward, she poured forth all the will power she could as she felt the stirrings of her magic working inside her and then the biggest explosion she has ever created spread a cloud of smoke and dust so wide that all were engulfed in it.

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Chapter 1 – A Lesson in Humility

Louise had shut her eyes when her explosion engulfed her in a cloud of smoke and dust. It took her a while to open her eyes to see the result of her summons. She was curious to see what kind of familiar she would summon. What she did not expect to see was a forest all around her. The academy was gone, the other students were nowhere in sight. She was alone in a damp dark forest with no idea how she got there. She started to panic as a million thoughts raced through her head. Thoughts about what had happened, where did everyone go and how did she get here.

Compounding her problem was she didn't feel quite right about herself. Everything around her everything seemed taller and bigger. It was only by looking down at her hands that she realized she had shrunk to her body at 8 years old. As little as she was before, she was tiny now. Her clothes were way too large for her so she had to tighten her skirt with a tied knot and same for her blouse. Her cape was now her robe.

As far as Louise knew, she was reversed summoned to someplace in Halgenkia instead of summoning something to her side! "That must be it," she thought to herself, "there's no way I failed to summon. It must be just a small mistake in my summons. The others must be nearby or somewhere else in Halkegenia"

She did not believe for one second that she failed to summon. So instead she decided to walk back to the academy. Better a couple of jibes than to find out she completely messed up her spell. Deciding to walk back however still required her to know in which direction to walk. As she gazed around her environment she noted smoke coming from the south, or what she assumed was the south judging from the position of the sun. Smoke represented fire and generally if there's fire there's civilization, or a bush fire. She took the gambit that it was civilization as the smoke was smallish and seemed to be a controlled burn, so she headed slowly towards that direction.

When she finally reached the origin of the smoke, she was shocked to see that it wasn't civilization but a battlefield. All in front of her men were busy fighting each other, arrows were flying around all over the place. Men in strange armour sliced through ranks of pikemen. Men on horseback swung around wickedly sharp, curved blades around cutting down whoever was closest to them. Louise felt the fear of the uninitiated to combat rippling through her body, the sensation causing the hairs on the nape of her neck to stand up. She carefully and quietly tried to backtrack her steps but unfortunately two combatants were fighting in her path. Frightened, she fell back on her butt and closed her eyes and cast the first spell she could think of, "Fireball," she incanted.

With her eyes closed she didn't see the swordsman in front of her splatter, nor the cold gaze of the man in the hooded mask looking down at her or his ally come and question him. What she did see when she finally opened her terrified eyes was the blunt end of his sword hilt cracking down at her head rendering her unconscious.

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It would be hours later that Louise awoke, her headache still ringing in her ears. She found herself bound and gagged and tossed like some piece of rubbish into the corner of her crude wooden cage. With her was a small boy in the other corner, also bound and gagged and whimpering softly. A bruise was obvious above his dark eyes, partially covered by his black hair, a rare colour in Halgenkia. She sympathized with his predicament seeing as she was in the same predicament herself.

It wasn't long after she had awakened when a giant of a man opened up her cage door and reached in to free herself and the other boy in the room. The man grunted something in his language to the pair but Louise couldn't understand him. Luckily the young boy did and he looked even more crestfallen than before. The boy gestured to Louise to follow. Louise however starts shouting at the man and screamed out, "How dare you filthy peasant treat me, a Duke's daughter, a noble like this…" She didn't get any further as a huge hand slapped her hard and without restraint across her cheek. Tears welled up in her eyes as her vision became hazy. The man continued to slap her again all the while hollering something to her. No one had ever hit her before or treated her this way but without her wand she was helpless. Louise fell back down in pain before the man roughly kicked her in the ribs and motioned for her to stand and follow him, so finally she did as told.

They arrived at a small clearing in the woodlands nearby and then made to sit down in the rough clearing in front of the man as two more of his companions arrive dressed in all black including a hooded mask so only their eyes would show. They had another young boy in tow with them. Louise thought their garments were unusual but the boy next to her seemed to recognize the significance of the garments or the arrival of the other boy and started to visibly shake and tremble.

The original man pointed to Louise and told her to come forward. As she did so the two in the hooded masks drew their wickedly sharp swords. The hiss of drawn steel through scabbard sent shivers down Louise's spine. Even without understanding the language she easily understood the threat of physical violence. The first man drew Louise's wand out of his sleeves and handed it back to her and pointed to a tree in front of her and said something to her that she couldn't understand until he made some exploding noises.

Louise took a deep breath and chanted finally "Fireball." As usual she failed and instead the tree blew up. Louise closed her eyes thinking that they knew she failed and was ready to kill her or in some way get rid of her.

The man merely smirked and nodded his head cupping his chin with his hand in deep thought. Then he pulled out a mask in his left hand and a short dagger in his right and urged Louise to pick one. He turned his head to his companions while lifting the mask up then he gestured with the dagger across his own throat. Louise clearly understood what that meant. She had the choice to join them or to kill herself instead. Not really much of a choice in her eyes. She snatched the mask and clutched it tightly in her tiny fists like a lifeline. The man then went to reach for her wand and she handed it back unwillingly but all the men were eyeing her carefully.

The man then gestured to the masked men who then handed the other young boy the sword and pushed him into the clearing. He then pulled out his sword and offered it to the boy next to Louise. They spoke a little with the huge man yelling at him until the man put the dagger near his throat and threatened him. He weakly nodded and took the sword and headed for the other boy.

The men all started yelling at the two boys in the clearing and one even threw a dagger at them missing only by millimeters and wedged itself into a tree. Louise watched on in horror as the two started swinging their swords at each other. Both boys looked absolutely terrified but they continued to keep swinging at each other. The boys were crying tears and shouting something at each other sounding like, "Gomen-ne".

Louise stood there morbidly transfixed to the spectacle before her. She finally understood what was happening to the two little boys before her. Tears rolled down her cheek as the boys fought a deathmatch as only one was allowed to live. They fought clumsily, erratically both being amateurs at swordplay but they fought hard knowing their life was on the line until eventually, the boy Louise came with managed to skewer the boy through the heart and the poor boy simply fell over and died. Both Louise and the boy were sobbing really hard by now. The man then handed him a mask as well and nodded for the pair to follow him.

They arrived at a small hut and was pushed inside as the door latched shut. Inside they saw two hammocks so they each grabbed one and continued to bawl their eyes out.

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