Mini Mini Miko-chama
Disclaimers: I do NOT own ANY of the characters in Tales of Symphonia (I wish I would... sigh), they are property of Namco, as well as the series. This fic is rated K, and although I'm a hopeless Zelos x Seles fan (yes, and I mean that in a romantic way... don't sue me please, anyone has its own fandom), you won't be able to find any disturbing incestual pairings hintings, unless you watch veeeeery closely... I guess. Ah ah!
Last but not least, but you might have been able to figure it out by yourselves already, I'm not anglophone, so please forgive whenever you find any grammatical/syntactical mistake. Thank you for selecting this fic and enjoy your reading!
It was a random boring day, and young Seles Wilder stood leaning out the balcony of the abbey where she was secluded. "This isle will be my grave." thought the girl bitterly. "I will never get out of here. If I keep believing in what brother says, I might as well be waiting for ever and ever..."
Her older brother, (or at least, they shared the same father) the "great" Chosen from Tethe'alla, wasn't forced to spend the rest of his life in an abbey just like her, and it was maybe because of this that he visited her such a few times. And those times when he visited her, he would just tell her about all his many vicissitudes, something the poor girl would have never been able to experience - at least that was what she firmly believed. His escapades were the ones which irritated her the most: want it or not, that irritating brother of her was the only contact she had with the whole world, and if he would have married one of those similiarly irritating ladies, Seles would have been robbed of that as well. Or perhaps this wasn't the only reason for her jealousy toward a hypothetical soon-to-be-sister-in-law...?
Anyway, he had promised her that one day, after purifying the world as a good little Chosen, he would have come back to her for the last time, and brought her to Meltokio, where they would have lived together.
How much time does a world take to be purified? pondered the girl, staring at the far away clouds.
Sighing and sobbing, she noticed all of a sudden that a couple of clouds were changing shape into something that vaguely resembled three small grey dragons.
Incredulous, she rubbed her eyes profusely and widened them, focusing those strange visions that grew bigger the closer they got, until they finally became clear: they were three Rheiards. Squinting her eyes, Seles could even spot the clothes' colours of two of the riding people, a very bright red and orange.
The girl quickly jumped. No else human in the world could dare to wear a suit of such a burning red, also because the human beings paying a visit to the abbey, that small church lost in the ocean, were really a few. With such a colour, it couldn't be anybody else but Lloyd, one of his brother's comrades. All of them visited together some days before, to ask her one last favour, along with that moronical voluptuos witch, who as her brother Zelos claimed, was to be his darling wife.
"Oh, how wonderful." the girl cried out, rolling her eyes. "Guess they came here to invite me to the wedding." Fuming, she abandoned her stage to step toward the abbey's main door, while the three Rheiards and their knights were landing on the surrounding field.
Although in her heart she felt a bit upset since she hadn't caught any glimpse of her brother's pink over-jacket on any of the three aircrafts, she opened to her guests with the coldest expression the world ever knew.
But boredom and rage were immediately replaced by horror when she saw the mourning faces of her brother's comrades; a charming half-elf, young Lloyd wearing clothes of impossible colour and fashion, and a grumpsy looking guy who stood beside, apart from them both.
Since no one of the four was yet about to speak, the half-elf stepped up, icey blue eyes glaring at the young girl. "Lady Seles, I suppose?" she proclaimed with a very thin voice.
"Yes, it's me." replied the summoned one, startled.
The half-elf smiled, a bitter smirk. "Pleased to meet you. Perhaps you remember us. We are... your older brother's... friends. We saw each others three days ago. I am Raine Sage, but I don't think this could be relevant to your interest, I assume."
Seles nodded slowly. "Your assumptions are right. What is the reason you came back here for? I believe I had already given you what you were looking for."
The mysterious man stepped forward a bit. "We came to let you know that he..." Lloyd didn't allow him to finish the sentence, and after giving him and Seles a pitiful look, his face darkened and he said, almost whispering: "Miss Seles... Please put the blame on me. It was only my fault... I wouldn't have... But Zelos left us no other choi..."
Raine, as well, stopped Lloyd before he could finish his sentence, raising her arm as in hitting him.
"Enough, Lloyd. Kratos, you too. Let me be the one to tell her."
Tell her? The youngster was more and more puzzled, but she guessed something had occurred to her brother, a rather serious something. She swallowed.
Finally, the woman gave out a sigh, and started the unfortunate tale.
"Today, in the morning we went to the Tower of Salvation along with your brother, but he... Well... He betrayed us, by stabbing our backs. Everything was sudden and unexpected, we didn't know how to react at first..."
Of course. Everything was clear now. Once again, her older brother proved just how much of a wretched coward he was. And this one time, once and for all.
"Therefore" continued Raine, impassive but with a gloomy ring in her voice. "We were forced to fight against him. Although we were superior in number, he proved to be really dangerous, but, in the end..."
"... He died, didn't he? You killed him..." not nociting, Seles pronounced those words out loud.
"The wounds we gave him were deadly. When he was passing away, he begged us for something... He explained his reasons for betraying us... He wished for us to kill him. He longed for his very death. And one of the main reasons he wanted to die was... it was your happiness, Milady."
The half-elf's words were followed by a heavy silence, which lasted several minutes.
Seles felt her hands becoming a puddle of sweat and she found herself kneeling down on the ground. How could he ever think he could make her happy... By dying? What kind of sick idea was that?
Nevertheless, Raine cleared her throath and kept on. "His motivations touched us, therefore we didn't feel like letting him die. But on the other hand, leaving him die would have been the best thing to do, all in all, this is what he wanted: that we killed him! This is why I didn't use my strongest magic to help him escape from death's clutch, but I rather used something else..." thus said, she waved to Lloyd and to the other one, who nodded, returning to the Rheiards.
Seles stared at their movements, and was surprised of her very anxiety. "Something else what...?"
As a reply, Raine waved her hand and almost smiled. "Ancient elven magic. So much ancient, we only know a part of it! In fact, unfortunately, nobody seems to possess the counter-spell... I'm afraid you will have to look for it yourself."
"Counter-spell... What did you do to my brother?" whispered Seles clutching her teeth. In her head a thousand frightening images were floating. What if she had turned him into a beast using magitecnology? And what if he had been tore apart in tiny pieces?
Seles's stream of consciousness was interrupted abruptly when she saw Lloyd stepping forward with a lot, his companion helping him into lifting it up. "Here are you. Your brother... It's right inside here." he moaned panting, while placing the lot on the ground. It had to be really heavy. It's because it had to contain his miserable brother's corpse, thought the girl.
Raine came closer to the lot on her tiptoes: "This is the result of the spell." she exclaimed, untangling the knot tieing the two ends of the luggage. "Magic will last until midnight. If it won't be undone within that time, Zelos's wish will finally be granted. But if you, Milady, will be able to find the counter-spell, in that case..."
"I will give my very best to find it." asserted a resolute Seles, once again stunned in acknowledging those to be her own words.
The three gave each other a witty look, Lloyd with a hopeful expression. Then, admist the stupefied screams of the young girl, the lot started to move upside, and a shapeless mass of red hair popped out from it, only to rumble down to earth.
Seles was on her knees already, but if she could, she would have sinked even more. In those few istants so many odd ideas had travelled into her mind concerning the spell's result, but that... Oh! That was the oddest of them all. Reality had surpassed imagination! Before her stood, not taller than roughly fifty centimetres, the funniest little being she had ever seen, holding a very creepy resemblance to her brother, and wearing a tiny copy of his clothes.
With a weak voice, and pointing to the cute little guy, who was turning his head left and right, Seles asked: "Co-could this possibly be...?"
Raine and the other two had already got onto the Rheiards, and the only answer was a "Good luck, Miss." grumbled by the mysterious guy in blue. Some minutes later, the field was desert.
Except for Seles and the strange little gnome, of course.
With a noisy boom, her room's door was closed behind her shoulders.
Seles sobbed, still panting because of the rush on the stairs to get to her chamber. She was deeply hoping that no one of the monks had seen her, because she really wouldn't have been able to give a reason for the presence of the cute puny critter that was trotting about her room. Luckily, most of the inhabitants of the abbey were deaf and half-blind old men, therefore there was a high percentage they didn't bother.
Now, the most important thing was to find out the counter-spell in order to break that half-elf's charm. Nice try! Easier said than done!
The ancient dusty books in the library had all been read by Seles, and from what she remembered about them, they didn't contain anything useful. At this rate, the only thing left, was to risk everything on a single thrown.
She grabbed rather violently her tinified brother, busy with fighting against some of her panties which had fallen off onto him from the underwear basket he had tripped into, and shook him. "Stop creeping out and slipping into other people's things, you silly one! Whatever may your shape be, you really are never untrue to yourself!" even though the words used against him were rather unkind, the tone was sad and begging.
The itty-bitty Chosen stared at her with two big tear-filled eyes. "Meanie! Me good!"
"I am not being mean, you are just troublesome." sobbed the girl, sitting on her bed, and placing the critter next to her. "I see you are at least able to speak, beside moaning and shrilling. Do you remember who I am? I am Seles. And you are Zelos!"
Straight on his legs, Zelos's mini version frowned up in a composed and serious expression, a funny attempt to emulate his sister's look. "I ham Cheles. An jou, you awe Jeelos."
The girl shook her head unvolontarly smiling. She couldn't feel any kind of hatred, when her eyes crossed those of that small being. Now that he was frozen in that form, her brother had became even more loveable. "No, no! I, am, Seles, and, you, are, Zelos!"
The critter looked as though as he was thinking about this for quite some time. "Yesh, I Jeelos."
"Great!" she let out a giggle. "Now, now, Zelos, what would you like to do?" It was a stupid question to ask in such a moment, but at least, Seles thought, if I can't manage to save him, I will be able to entertain him at least until midnight...
Once again, little Zelos showed a pensive face, crossing his puny little arms on his small chest.
"Jeelos need huggles." he finished some seconds later, brightening up, holding his arms open toward Seles. "Cheles, you huggles Jeelos!"
A not surprising request. Seles nevertheless was stunned. Thinking about that, her brother had tried to hug her more than just once, but lately she had grown up to be even colder to him, specially after knowing of the so-called bride-to-be. Thinking that all those times she had denied him her love had withered his heart, pushing him to plot suicide; she couldn't hold back a lump in her throath and she felt tears invading her eyes. But she didn't cry, instead, she gently smiled to what had become of her older brother and squeezed him hard against her chest, cuddling him tenderly. While she was cuddling him, her chin placed against the little being's head, her languid azure eyes were glowing on the bright pink of her cheeks.
They stayed like that for quite a while, Seles resolved into giving her brother back all those hugs she had bitterly refused. When she noticed about the cry coming from the poor little head, she jumped up, and eased her clutch. The small critter shook his head quickly from side to side, and then he glared at his sister straight into her face. "Huggles ons mowe, Cheles, ons mowe! Softie, softie!", and to make things even clearer, he sinked his tiny hands inside the girl's breasts, which probably looked quite huge in his small eyes.
What followed up was a terrible roar. "You pervert! I should have figured out, that you would have ended up doing such a thing to me! I was deceived by your cute outlooks and your childlike language! Well, I am not one of your hunnies or so. You are not allowed to touch me, nor in your normal, nor in your tiny size!"
After having litterally screamed him off the ground, Seles started to stare at her brother, her face darkened. Perhaps she had been a little too harsh, perhaps he would have bursted off into tears, and she would have cried along with him. It would have been so liberating...
But the little one did someting unexpected, he climbed up his sister's legs and, (after many attempts) went to sit on her lap, exchanging looks with her. He was looking at her with an innocent face, widened eyes and a sorrowful expression. Then, he said that. "Cheles wight. 'Owwy Cheles."
Seles observed without a blink the small critter rocking on her knees, and drew her head closer to his. Afraid to be scolded once more, Zelos covered his head with the hands. This time, anyway, no shout came, but a small kiss. "I can't get mad at you, in this shape, even though all the things you put me through. This is so unfair." Seles silently sentenced with a smile, her tears finally winning her over, so that she finished her phrase in a choked voice. On his tiptoes, the critter extended himself until the girl's cheeks, and blowed a kiss where tears were falling abundantly.
"Y Cheles 'ad? Jeelos loves!" Seles couldn't hear those words. Her mind was in too much pain by that time. Not even a kiss given out of love was enough to turn him back into his normal size, she thought.
The pendulum in her room had ticked half past eleven in the evening already. Never, like that day, Seles had wished time could stop. Usually she always prayed hours would pass faster, in that abbey, where days followed one other with no apparent changing, the monotony only broken by his brother seldom visiting. A brother who, in some minutes, wouldn't have been able to visit her anymore, nor make her laugh, nor carry her on a piggy-back ride admist the rye.
With her vision totally blurred by tears, the young girl smiled to the small being sitting on her desk, right before her.
Mini Zelos's eyes were blear and tired, after the uncountable tests his sister had put him through: throwing cold and hot water on him; making him sneeze by rubbing some purple pepper under his nose; tickling him... All those kind of remedies that usually work as a counter-spell for the most incredible curses in fairytales, this time had proved to be completely useless.
Defeated and disappointed, Seles grabbed one end of the critter's puny over-jacket, making him roll into her arms. "You have been such an idiot," she whispered, stroking his hair. "thinking you could make me happy by doing such a kind of thing. You, who supposedly could read into women' hearts like an open book, you failed to read into the heart of your very sister. Yes, I felt hatred for you because you were the Chosen... But not as you imagined. I envied your place, but never I could have wished for something like this to happen. I hated Zelos the Chosen, who took his role so easy, who used his title for his own biddings, who despised those priviledges which should have been mine. But I always loved my brother Zelos, whose eyes were sad even when he smiled, and his superficial yet so adorable ways... Just like when we played toad catching by the pond of Meltokio, do you remember? I have always been unwell, so you were the one who caught them for me. And after all the effort you had made, when you brought them to me, I always felt sorry and begged you to let them free... And although you knew it was all a waste of time in the end, you kept on catching them just to make me happy..." Seles had to pause for a while to dry her eyes and give out a deep breath, since her voice had been utterly spoiled by crying. "Those were my happiest days... Knowing you were close to me, along with mommy and dad, always made me so much happy. Now that mommy and dad passed away, you were the only one left for me... Zelos the Chosen traded his place with me... But what about my beloved brother? What kind of useless Chosen will I be now that I lost my reason to live?"
"Eh eh eh... Com'on, Seles, don't you think you are getting a bit too romantical there? If one of the monks would come in and see us now, who knows what the hell he would think!"
Hearing her name, the girl jumped. She tried to recognize the source of the voice, in the few next istants, and when she realized her brother had replaced the funny little guy on the desk, she shouted, threw away all the books on the table (including a random chair), and threw herself under the blankets.
"I-i-i-impossible!" she moaned, her cheeks as red as her eyes. "I didn't find the counter-spell...! You should be..."
"... Dead?" sentenced Zelos grinning, knelt down at his sister's bedside. "Do you really think it would take so little to kill the great Me?"
Seles jumped onto her bed frowing up, grabbed her pillow and slammed it into her older brother's face. "If there's one person in this world who has the right to kill you, that's only me!"
The red-locked young Chosen chuckled, patting his pillow-slammed forehead. "I don't doubt so, specially since you are even stronger than a goril... Owww!" A small bag with a star drawn onto it hit him hard on the head. "What the hell do you have in that bag of yours?"
"All the rubbish you brought me from all your... wonderful journeys." ticked off she replied, her face still burning.
"Woah... Impressive... You kept all that stuff. You really do have a crush on me, after all. Well, I can't blame you... If I were a woman, I'd marry me!" exclaimed Zelos, laughing hysterically at his own joke.
His sister surrounded his head with her arms, and hugged him, still sitting on her bed. "You really are a moron."
"And you are a moron's sister." he replied sobbing, caressing her head trembling with sighs.
They went on with this for a long time, silently, until Zelos felt his legs numb and stood straight. Seles dried her eyes for the last time during that day, and whispered: "What are we going to do, anyway? I mean... Now everybody think you are..."
"No problem." Zelos came to the point. "Tomorrow a Royal Messenger will arrive to bring you to Meltokio. Once we get there, we can stay at my home. Sebastian will surely be alright with it and keep the secret."
"How will you manage to escape from everyone else? And what if they found you?" she urged him.
"They won't find me out, I assure you. I will dress up as a nun and ask the Messenger to escort you til Meltokio. They surely won't allow the brand new little Chosen to travel all alone admist some rude macho guys, right? And if they catch us in Meltokio... Well, you know your brother has always been number one in running, even when he was carrying you on his back."
Seles's eyes lighted up, and finally, after so much sorrow, she laughed at her heart's content. "Sure. Just like the old times..."
In the meanwhile, in Flanoir's inn, Lloyd's party was sitting in silence around the centre table.
"Professor..." murmured softly a pretty young girl with long, golden hair, breaking a mourning silence. "Do you think Miss Seles was able to find the counter-spell?"
The half-elf named Raine took a sip from her herbal tea, "There is no counter-spell." and placed her cup on the table, creating a wave of general horror.
"So, Zelos is..." exclaimed Lloyd in a choking voice.
"I didn't say this." promptly replied Raine, giving the young swordman the killing glare. "That charm is meant to last for twelve hours. As the bells struck midnight, the mana flow sleeping in the body was reverted to its normal flowing, and his whole body was recovered."
The party members, except Raine, her younger brother and Kratos, weren't really sure about it, the only certain thing seemed to be that Zelos was doing fine.
"In other words," began Genis, Raine's little brother. "my sister performed a rather powerful healing spell onto Zelos. But being a rather ancient and rough one, it needs much more time than the normal Resurrection spell to actually start working. With Zelos's body shrinking, his mana, that was diminuishing with him dying, returned to his normal flow, and grew in intensity as time passed. The excessive amount of mana gathered inside him, made him back into his normal size after twelve hours, safe and sound."
Nobody had yet understood all of it, but with the confirmation of Zelos's good health, everyone sighed in relief. "Then, why did you lie to Seles about the counter-spell?" asked a little girl with ponytails.
"I wanted her to tell her feelings straight. Zelos became some sort of Gnomelette, alright, but his mental faculties were more or less the same. So whatever she might have told him, she has been understood. I bet we will hear of them again... Very soon..." Raine replied, with a mischievous grin.