Sorry it's been so long. I just haven't had the motivation to do write. This also means I'm going on hiatus until after the holidays. But with the coming New Year, I resolve to do better!
I hope you enjoy this chapter! Merry/Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!
This was one of the worst days Louise ever had.
Why was this day turning out to be so bad…? Well, first she's banished from the school until sunset, every noble and peasont in Tristain avoid her like the plague. Then she runs into an insufferable commoner named Kisuke Urahara, who not only managed to knock her unconscious but also taught her a very valuable lesson at the same time.
Though she was thankful that they treated her injuries afterwards, Louise wished that she didn't receive any injuries to begin with. On top of that, while she was still in a great amount of pain, two monsters just had to show up as she was more than halfway back.
Thankfully someone was around to save her but that was of little comfort. How exactly did this mysterious woman know that she had a Zanpakuto, and what exactly were those monsters who she identified as "Hollows"?
Shaking her head to clear her mind, she could ask the hooded woman when they finally communicated.
Upon entering the gate, Louise immediately dismounted and- painfully- guided her horse back to the stables. Louise was dead tired. She began to hope to Brimir that she didn't-
"Oh, Miss Louise, you're back." Siesta stated with a happy tone.
-run into anybody who would concern for her wellbeing.
It's not that she's ungrateful to people showing concern, it's just she didn't want to explain how she got the injuries or the eye-patch. Let alone how to explain how it worked.
"Hello, Siesta. How *yawn* are you doing?" Louise addressed her while keeping her head low, pretending to be tired.
"I'm very well, Miss Louise… But you looked haggard." Tilting her head to side Siesta looked Louise over. "Are you ok?"
Waving her right hand to brush off her concerns she continued to lead her horse to the stables.
This action however gave Siesta a perfect view of her arm that was currently wrapped in bandages.
Eyes widening in horror, Siesta screamed to the heavens, "What happened to you, Miss Louise!?"
The horse gave a whinny and bolted off, tripping Louise in the process who gave a very high pitched "Kyaah!" in the process.
Landing face first into the ground, was not a pleasant experience. It hurt… A lot! Add on the fact that she, was still covered in various bruises, and several bones still trying to heal.
Siesta stood still for a few seconds before, her brain finally processed what just happened. After a few seconds of just standing, her brain finally caught up to what she just witnessed.
Running over to Louise, she crouched on the ground and began to lift her up. "Miss Louise, are you alright, you're not hurt are you?"
Sitting up straight, Louise rubbed her forehead a few times before sending a glare to Siesta. "Yes Siesta, I'm fine… Just a little startled is all." It took, all of Louise's willpower to not blow up right there and then.
Louise saw the horrified expression on Siesta's face. Tilting her head to the side curiously she asked, "What's wrong?"
When Louise tilted her head to the side, it had the added effect of making her eye-patch more prominent and less obstructed by her hair.
Siesta's nerves reached an all-time high. She found it was becoming increasingly difficult to calm herself down before she couldn't control herself any longer. She sucked in a big lung full of air and… "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
(end scene)
Louise was in the infirmary, being tended too by a nurse. This wasn't so bad… except for the fact, that she had to be stripped all the way down to her undergarments- which mainly consisted of a pair of panties because her breasts were far too small to even be put into a bra- then poked and prodded to see what was actually broken and what was healed.
On top of that, Siesta, Kirche, Tabitha and Professor Colbert where standing behind the privacy curtain to preserve some modesty, but she was absolutely convinced that they could see her though.
"So Miss Valliere, what exactly happened that caused you to get such injuries?" The balding professor questioned… again for the fifth time.
"I told you." Louise was getting tired of repeating the cover story that Kisuke cooked up for her. "I was attacked by a wild animal while on my way to the capital and a commoner family took me in. They treated my wounds, gave me my horse back, and then sent me on my way."
"And why exactly do you wear have that eye-patch on then… you know for a fact that so long as a portion of your eye has remained, we can restore it." Colbert knew there was something wrong with this. It seemed like she was hiding something but he couldn't tell because of the privacy curtain.
"Apparently the commoner family felt how much power I was giving off, so they gave me this eye-patch to help limit how much I can use and vent at any given time.-
"Please lift up your arms dear." Nurse Matilda politely asked her.
Louise complied. "-So now I wear this eye-patch even though I can see perfectly."
Kirche put finger to chin and took on a contemplative pose. "Still, the fact that a commoner has knowledge and skills necessary to make a limiting device is pretty impressive."
"Agreed." Came the voice of Tabitha.
In the corner Siesta stood sniffling. "I'm so sorry Miss Louise. I should've been more careful." Stifling a sob she continued. "I just didn't know how badly injured you were."
"Turn around please." Came the polite voice of Matilda.
Turning around so she was facing the occupants in the room through the privacy curtain she saw that Siesta had her face in her hands. Which caused Louise's face to soften. "It's ok Siesta, I forgive you."
Siesta lifted her head from her hands and looked at Louise through the curtain. "Re-really?"
Louise nodded her head. "Yes. I forgive you."
Siesta was so overcome with emotions that she practically leaped through the curtain, shoving it aside, giving everybody a perfect view of her body in the process.
For a second no one moved or breathed. They just took in the sight of Louise's form. Colbert covered his eyes, blushing from embarrassment, Tabitha turned around to conceal her burning face, Kirche just licked her lips much like a predator does when sizing up prey, and Louise…
"SIESTA!"
(end scene)
After the whole debacle in the infirmary and all major injuries were healed, Louise was finally allowed to enter her dormitory and relax.
Of course dinner was the most awkward part of the night, aside from flashing everybody present while she was being examined for injuries.
Siesta sat in the chair in front of her, not meeting her eyes. She just looked at the table, or at her lap and did everything possible to avoid eye-contact.
Eventually Louise finished eating her dinner, wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Thank you for bringing my dinner Siesta… You may go."
"Yes Miss Louise." Siesta spoke barely above a whisper, but the downtrodden expression on her face spoke volumes of what she was feeling.
Louise who gained a frown on her face after Siesta was acting so submissive. She now realised why her Mother and Eleonarelooked so angry when she failed at magic.
Because they hated looking at something that was so weak, when they should be strong. And it made her feel even angrier because she was acting as they did.
So before Siesta could leave, Louise got up from her chair and hugged her. Unshed tears in her eyes as she saw who could possibly be considered her first and real friend- other than her elder sister Cattleya- be so down. It just didn't feel right seeing such a happy and exuberant person like Siesta to be sad.
Siesta first stiffened at the contact but once she realised that it was just Louise trying to comfort her up, her face quickly turned into a small smile.
"Thank you Louise… Will that be all?" Siesta's voice returned to its normal volume and Louise, released the hug after giving a very satisfied sigh.
"Yes… That will be all."
After giving her a bow, Siesta left Louise's room and began to make her way to the kitchens to deposit the dishes for cleaning before turning in for the night.
Louise just shut the door, locked it- to make sure that no one disturbed her- and then grabbed her Zanpakuto.
Getting into a lotus position with the blade resting on her lap, Louise began to focus inwardly. Her conscious mind began to fade away. She felt like she was beginning to lose herself and enter a trance-
*whack*
-Until someone threw an object directly at her head making her lose her focus completely.
"Alright! Who threw that!?" Fists clenched in anger and the sound of grinding teeth could be heard.
"Hey now…" That voice it couldn't be. "Is that the way to greet someone who came all this way to see how you were doing?"
Turning around to her window Louise saw the last person she ever wanted to see. "Kisuke… What are you doing here?" Louise practically growled out.
"Well just checking to see if you were actually going to perform Jinzen." Kisuke then brought out his signature fan and began to fan himself. "And I have to say, you're failing at it."
"Well if someone didn't interrupt me, then maybe I could've been doing it." Veins were popping all over her face and knuckles.
"No you see Louise, when you do it properly, you aren't aware of what's going on around you. And since you reacted to what I threw at you, then you weren't doing it right." Taking a seat on the window sill, Kisuke still continued to fan himself. "Also, I'm going to need that back, it is merchandise afterall."
Louise looked down and what she saw was… "A bar of soup?!"
"Yup, didn't want to throw anything breakable at you, so that's the best I could come up with." Kisuke finished the statement off with his "totally not innocent smile".
"You want it?" Louise asked in a completely, calm tone that sent off every single danger instinct inside of him. "Then you can have it!"
Louise threw the bar of soap so hard, that Kisuke- an expert in hand to hand combat- couldn't even hope to dodge, as it impacted him right in the face, making him lose his balance and fall right out of the window!
"AAAAHHHHH!" *thud*
Louise was about to sit down again to perform Jinzen when she heard a distant "I'm ok!"
"Stupid Kisuke Urahara." Shaking her head to clear it and focus on the task at hand.
Resuming the lotus position once more, Louise put her Zanpakuto across her lap, and began to focus inwardly. Her conscious mind, soon became non-existent as she opened her eyes and noticed she was on a familiar cloud, looking up at a city.
(end scene)
Standing up to get her bearings, Louise began to take in the sights and sounds of what was around her.
But something seemed off… Like the city was bigger and cleaner. The walls looked more siege-worthy, the buildings were wider, the streets went from dirt to stone and the castle looked grandeur.
The only thing that stayed the same was the people going about their business, all smiling and looking happy. "So this is my inner world… I wonder why it's like this."
"The inner world for each person is different, therefore the meaning is also different."
Louise turned around to look at the Hooded-woman. "What do you mean by that?"
"Louise, the reason your inner world looks like this is because you feel closer to everybody else." Looking up at the city, a lone tear fell from her face. "You're achieving happiness…
"And by achieving happiness, your soul has become like this. The city has become grander because you are filled with love and hope." Turning her gaze to Louise, she began to walk towards her. "This is the meaning your inner world."
Louise was awe-struck. The reason why the city looked so different is because she felt happiness? "I don't know where to begin."
"Walk with me." She began to walk away. After going about ten steps she turned around and motioned for Louise to follow. "Well come on."
And so they walked.
(end scene)
"So, a Zanpakuto only manifests in Shinigami or Soul Reapers, and they use it to cleanse Hollows of their madness and perform a ritual to send wayward souls to rest. And once the souls are either cleansed of their madness or had the ritual performed they go to this place call the Seireitei or Soul Society to live until they rejoin the cycle of reincarnation?" Louise was summarizing what her Zanpakuto told her.
"Yes, though the training to become a Shinigami is extremely tough, the profession is more so because you must face and kill Hollows on a daily basis." The hooded-woman stopped and then sat on a cloud and motioned for Louise to take a seat right next to her. "Not every soul has the necessary reiatsu to become one."
"So it's sort of like how Nobility work in my world." Putting finger to chin she continued. "Just because you have magic doesn't mean you'll become a square class mage."
"That's one way to look at it, I suppose." Turning her gaze the city she continued, "Though I must say Louise, you're taking this quite well."
"What do you mean?" Louise tilted her head to the side, with her eyes solely glued on the old woman.
"I'm a part of you Louise. A Zanpakuto is the physical manifestation of a person's soul. So I know all about the Brimiric religion." She returned her gaze to Louise. "So, I thought you would be openly protesting against such notions of a place called the Seireitei or souls that linger too long on the mortal plane become Hollows."
Louise turned away with her face red with embarrassment. "Well, it's just that…" Louise took a deep breath to regain some composure. "I've already had so many earth shattering revelations, like you being the physical manifestation of my soul and the like I guess, I'm just becoming more open minded."
Smiling softly, the Zanpakuto spirit brought Louise in a gentle hug, before getting up. "It's been nice having you here and talking but I'm afraid that it's almost morning."
After Louise recovered from her stupor and shock of being hugged by someone who could pass off as her mother, she quickly stood up. "Wait!"
Stopping mid-stride the cloaked figure turned around, "Yes, what is it?"
"What is your name?"
"My name is…"
Then all turned white.
(End scene)
When Louise finally ended her Jinzen session, the sun light was already beginning to filter in through her window.
Rubbing her eyes to remove any excess sleep, she stretched out her arms and heard some very satisfying pops. But she soon found herself looking at her Zanpakuto.
Louise's impassive expression soon contorted into one of anger.
"You still haven't told me your name yet!"
Removing her Zanpakuto from her lap, Louise tried to stand up but soon found that she couldn't feel her legs.
Meaning she fell over backwards, with her skirt lifted above her waist, but luckily no one was around to see.
"Great, just great." Straightening her legs out, she sat up and began to rub them hoping to get some feeling back into them.
"Good morning Louise!" But the happy tone and the subsequent opening of her door, revealing none other than her rival Kirche interrupted what she was doing.
"How are you-?"Kirche froze. Here was Louise, with her skirt hiked up, revealing her white panties from last night.
On top of which, the thin material hardly left anything to the imagination.
Kirche started to smile. But the smile sent a cold shiver up and down her spine. Louise couldn't exactly call the smile perverted, but it wasn't innocent either. Lust… No, she doesn't have that glint in her eye. This smile, it's more… mischievous.
"Breakfast is ready Louise~" Kirche then turned around but put a little sway in her gait, making her posterior sway in an alluring fashion. "I suggest you hurry up and look presentable~"
It took Louise a good couple of seconds to stop gaping like a fish. And when she did, she shook her head so violently that her hair- as messy as it already was- became even more disheveled.
Though that wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was the fact that Louise's face was as red as a tomato.
"She doesn't love me, she doesn't love me, she doesn't me…" But no matter how many times she repeated it, she could not make herself believe it.
"But, do I love her?" Looking up at the ceiling she decided that it was best not to ponder such things… Especially while on an empty stomach.
Standing up, she went over to her dresser, took off her dirty clothes and dressed into a fresh set before leaving her room and making her way down to the Alviss Dining Hall.
(end scene)
Breakfast wasn't anything too special. Just the usual high end fruits, meats and wines. Though with Albion in a state of turmoil, the wine began to degrade in quality. As such they had to resort to Germanian wine… Which Louise was very reluctant to say out loud was of… "Finer" quality.
Still, everything was almost set up. The stage, and piers were almost complete and most students were finishing up whatever tricks they were planning on showing to the Princess.
But Louise was mildly surprised that she was even allowed to compete because her… "Familiar" was of unique origin and not even a living breathing creature to begin with.
So, Louise decided to head back to the Western Courtyard to do some more practice and get better acquainted with her Zanpakuto.
Stabs, slashes, whirlwind, blocking, deflecting, all these and more Louise went over in the course of a few hours.
Rubbing the sweat from her brow, Louise set her Zanpakuto on the ground and went to follow suite-
*thud*
-except a giant blue object laid down right next to her.
"Hello Sylhpid." A little tired but mostly not caring Louise raised her right arm to begin petting the wind dragon's snout. "How are you?"
"Kyuuu!" Was they happy trill from the infant dragon.
Smiling the youngest of the Valliere daughters lowered her arm and looked up at the clear blue sky. "Do you think it's lonely?"
"Kyu?" Tilting her head in a curious manner while regarding the petit pinkete.
"The sky… Even though it's out of our reach, it's always there. Looking down at us. But it can never touch us… Knowing that there are people that it can never interact with, never speak to, never know… It's so beautiful but also so sad." Kinda like me…
"Kyu! Kyu, kyukyuuuuu!"Sylhpid may have been a baby dragon, but even she knew when somebody was sad. So she nuzzled Louise hoping this will calm her down.
Putting her left hand and giving a light giggle, Louise smiled again. "Thank you for cheering me up Sylphid."
"Kyuuuuuu!"
"Sylhpid, come."
The blue dragon rose up to all fours and began to walk towards her little master.
Louise also stood up because if the dragon was being called back to its master, then it means the Princess has arrived and that it was time to go greet her.
(End scene)
All the students lined up on either side on the main entrance, each eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Princess Henrietta.
The royal carriage was beautiful. Pulled by a team of six unicorns, the pure white ivory colored carriage, with rather ornate designs and decorated with royal colors.
The carriage stopped. The first person to step out was a woman wearing amour, most likely a captain or Chevalier by the cloak. Then another guard, they took their posts on either side of the door, with the captain extending her right hand, and the subordinate raising her left towards the door.
Then she stepped out… The Princess herself.
"Please welcome her Majesty, Princess Henrietta De Tristain!"
(End scene)
After the official greeting have taken place, everybody began making their way towards the stage where the familiar exhibition was about to begin.
Once all the first and third year students were seated in the piers and the judges- Headmaster Osmond, Princess Henrietta and Professor Colbert- were seated. The exhibition began.
First up was Malicorne, though all he did was raise his hand with a piece of meat and wait for his owl to come and grab it. Marcus- who summoned the Bugbear- did a comedy routine with his Familiar.
All Guiche did was shower his Vardandi with roses, then did various poses. Montmorency… nobody really expected much from her familiar Robin, except maybe show off how well she could jump or how far dexterous her tongue was.
All in all, the exhibition wasn't all that exciting until Kirche took the stage.
Her Fire Salamander Flame was spewing fireballs over the crowd, which Kirche would then manipulate into hearts or various other shapes. But the most disturbing one was probably when Kirche created a heart that had text written in it that said "K & V" that alone caused Louise's skin to crawl.
But the probably the best performance was Tabitha and Sylhpid. They did various aerial acrobatics, while Tabitha casted various spells and caused her ice to break apart to make it look like fireworks.
All in all, it was very well done. But who knew that the quiet little mage had a flair for the theatrical.
"Very well done Miss Tabitha, very well done." Colbert used a voice amplifying spell to speak over the roaring crowd. "Now, next up we have Louise Valliere."
Taking a few deep breaths to calm her nerves Louise made her way towards the stage, where her right hand that was holding her Zanpakuto tightened considerably.
Standing in front of everyone who ever taunted you was not a very easy task. In fact it was downright frightening. But Louise forced herself to take a few deep breaths before she got into the guard position. Then ever so slowly began to shadow fight.
Performing various stabs, slashes and blocks, it soon became a very intricate dance.
However, the dance was ruined all of the sudden an earthquake shook the ground. All the knights in various guard positions ran over to protect the Princess, but Louise without thinking went over to wherever the Earthquake originated and what she found was terrifying.
A giant earth golem! Louise figured that it would take at least a Triangle class mage to make one of that size.
But was very interesting was that it had its arm inside one of the towers of the school and out came a cloaked figure.
Upon noticing the little girl, the thief laughed.
"Well, this is certainly a surprise! Well little girl, you are probably the first and last person to ever see Foquet the Crumbling Dirt in the flesh. Bye-bye!"
Jumping onto the golem's left shoulders she commanded the golem to smack Louise away, but instead Louise began building up her reiatsu and the blue highlighted pink energy began to flow off of her like smoke from a fire.
Just as the hand was about to crush her, Louise condensed the reiatsu around the blade of her Zanpakuto and then stabbed into the palm of the golem, releasing her reiatsu into a beam like weapon completely destroying the left hand and it continued to obliterate the arm.
It was a miracle that Foquet lived because she merged herself with the golem and traveled to its head.
"Don't think you won yet! I'll be back!" and with that, she commanded her giant to leave.
Louise who stood down a golem, collapsed into a heap. All strength leaving her.
Once everybody showed up, they all expressed concern for her well being but Louise was only thinking of one thing and one thing only… Is it possible for things to get any worse?"
(Omake)
The Book of Mages, Chapter 5
"Finally… I finally get my turn to do this segment… And it's all mine!" Louise began to rub her hands together much like a cliché villain. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
-Five minutes later-
"Hello, my name is Louise Francoise le Blanc de La Valliere, and today I'm going to talk about Mage classes." Grabbing the chalk with her right hand, she moved to the left side of the board so the audience had a clear view of what she was writing. "Mages are classified into four groups; Dot, Line, Triangle and Square.
"Now, obviously a Dot mage can only use one element, while a Line mage can use two. But a Triangle and Square class mages can not only use three-four separate elements but also stack them on each other. For example; a Triangle mage can be classified as a Triangle mage even if he/she uses Earth, Earth, and brings me to my next point-
*Crash!*
"*cough, cough* who's messing with my segment!" Louise growled angrily looking though the smoke.
"Oops sorry, wrong room miss. I'll be going now." The cloaked figure then retreated through the hole she made- which was exactly where the chalkboard used to be.
"Wait, you didn't tell me who you were!"
"I'm Foquet the Crumbling Dirt… Do you know where the treasury room is?"
"Treasury room…? We barely have enough in the budget to do this omake segment!" Louise shouted angrily, with veins becoming visible on her face. "What makes you think we have anything worth stealing?"
"Good point, I'll see next chapter then. Bye-bye!" Louise looked out the hole to see the retreating form of her golem.
Sighing heavily, she began to look around at the mess Foquet made. "Great… Just great. How exactly are we going to find it in the budget to fix this?"
And so comes the showdown with Foquet. Will Louise learn the name of her Zanpakuto? Will she achieve greatness?
As always, please, review, favorite and follow!
Until Next time!