ZnT belongs to Noboru Yamaguchi and J.C. Staff. I own Cronoz. He mine.

Chapter 2: Little Question, Bad Luck

The calming morning light from the sun flooded through the windows of Louise's room. It lit up the room like an early morning candle, rising from the east right on schedule. The warmth from its rays tickled the strawberry-blonde's face, slowly waking her up. She sat up in her soft bed and stretched her arms out, yawning as she did so. Lazily rubbing her eyes, Louise rolled over out of her bed, and started to open her drawers. As she gripped the handle, she remembered something vitally important.

"F…familiar…" She moaned, tired.

No response.

"Familiar." Louise stated a little louder.

Still, no response. She finally turned around, angered with the excessive silence that kept slapping her in the face. She scanned her whole room, finding nothing out of the ordinary. A bad thing, of course. Fuming from the ears, Louise stomped to the front of the room, her facing slowly transforming into a tomato. She unlocked the door and flung it open. Her eyes started having a battle: they couldn't decide whether to burst out of her small head, or narrow with the increasing fury.

Sitting right outside the door was something that could only be described as a rusty metallic mushroom, like some great metal package that was delivered and left. To its left was a tray table, on top of which was all of the mage's laundry - cape, shirt, skirt, undershirt and panties. Louise walked up to the metal thing, and rapped it with her knuckle.

"Uh…familiar?" She asked in an odd curiosity.

Almost immediately, the formally unmoving object began to shake and contort. Its limbs spread out equally; two arms, two legs. As it rose up, Louise, whom had moved back in shock and awe, could hear gears and other mechanics CLANG and TING in response. Its torso doing a complete 360 turn, the robot finished changing from its resting form by sprouting out its horned four-eyed head, and stared at the girl who seconds ago he could sense hostility from.

"Good morning, Ms. Valliere." It monotony spoke, waving its large metal hand.

"Cro - familiar!" She shouted, stopping herself before actually calling her servant by its real name. "What are you doing out here? Sleeping on the job?" She folded her arms triumphantly.

Cronoz shook his head. "Negative. You locked the door behind me after I left. After I returned with your clothes, I decided to let you rest, rather than disturb you with my intrusion." He mimicked his master's pose.

"Hey! D-do not mock your me, familiar!" Louise fumed, stomping her foot on the ground.

As she swiped her clothes from the rack that stood next to the mechanical behemoth, the two could hear a door open down the hall. They both turned their heads, finding a student leaning on the wall, giggling.

"Well, well, Louise. Isn't it a little early to be getting into fights, especially with your own familiar?" The female student teased.

Cronoz scanned the girl. She was taller than his new master, with a much more tanned body. Her ruby red hair fell back, just as Louise's did. Her clothes, however, were completely opposite of the pink haired mage, exposing more skin than the rusty tin mech was used to. If he were human, he would have been blushing every shade of red there was.

Obviously, Louise knew this too. "H-hey! Familiar!" She knocked on his head repeatedly, getting his attention. "Get in here, now!"

"But-" The rusty 'familiar' protested, but was again interrupted just like the night before, with his master failing to get his hulking mass into her room. Sighing, he made a small wave to the busty student down the hall before leaning down to fit through the door, with a pushy Louise… well… pushing him. As soon as the duo were in the dorm, she slammed the door, leaving a laughing Kirche out in the hall.

"Don't even think about talking to that wretched Zerbst!" Louise commanded as she set her laundry on the round table in the middle of her room. As she began to undress out of her nightgown, Cronoz looked away again.

Without looking, he stuck out a finger. "Query."

"Must you say that every time before you ask me something?" Louise sighed.

"This Zerbst… you do not like her?" He stupidly asked. He was programmed to gather knowledge, and with that, confirmation of said knowledge. Even if it was something he could already guess on his own.

Louise turned to stab a stare at him. "What do you think?"

Cronoz said nothing, feeling stupid, and somewhat annoyed that his programmer actually made him have to ask something so obvious. His master shook her head.

"Forget about her. Here." She tossed him her clothes, to which he caught more carefully then last time.

"You want me to clothe you?" He guessed. His four-eyed head looked up, to find the familiar form of hands-on-hips, waiting impatiently for him. "You cannot do this yourself?"

"Do not talk back to your master, and do what you are told!" Louise shouted again. Never in his life had Cronoz met a louder human being. It was like talking to a walking talking record player on the 'high' setting. Obliging, the mech slowly lumbered to his child-for-a-master, and, as carefully as he could, began to dress her. It was… taxing, to say the least. It took the mech at least five minutes just to figure out how to get the undershirt on, before being able to accomplish the rest. The more time he wasted, the more impatience he could feel coming from his master. Eventually, thankfully, he was able to finish his task, using two fingers to pin Louise's cloak to her clothes.

With a sigh of relief, Cronoz squatted back down. "Finished."

Louise took a gander at herself, and found it satisfactory. "Good. Now, let's go. Class is about to begin."

As the unlikely duo left her room, Cronoz had a itching sensation begin in his mind. He spoke as Louise locked the door to her room. "Query."

"Yeah?" Louise responded without turning around.

"Is the reason you do not like the girl from before because of the difference in your breast size?"

Cronoz sighed as he sat down in the courtyard, his back up against a wall near some of the other familiars. Why was his programmer so evil, to make him have to ask such a stupid-ass question like that? Louise was furious, and shouted for about ten minutes, berating him and smacking him. Of course, the 'punishment' seemed to affect her more then him, thanks to his metal body. She, however, made him, a knowledge seeking android craving as much information as he possibly could, sit outside while she took her classes. He cursed himself, wanting to know what was going on inside her classroom. But, as a good 'familiar,' Cronoz waited outside until the bell releases his master.

A purple blob obscured his vision of his view of the courtyard. Cronoz stared at it, his four-eyed metal head expressionlessly gawking at it. The creature had tiny black wings on its bulbous purple form. No head, just one, terrifyingly huge yellow eye with long eyelashes. The whole thing was completed by a squiggly tail that looked like a road sign arrow if it had been crushed by an accordion.

Cronoz reached his hand and tried to grab it. The creature bobbed away from his reach, and avoided every other time he made a grab for it. Eventually, the mech stopped, feeling no use in his attempt to capture the thing. As it floated away, he scanned the other life forms that hung around one another out with him. He found a variety of creatures: a plump brown mole, a tiny orange frog, a fire-spewing salamander, and a larger-then-life sapphire creature with wings. His databanks read it off as a 'dragon,' a mythical monster like a giant lizard. Sounded pretty accurate to him. Although he didn't want to, Cronoz kept his distance from the others. It wasn't like him to disobey orders from his master, even if it's now a pink haired teenager.

"Home…" He mumbled under his breath. Even though he didn't need to, Cronoz rubbed his head, closing his lenses as he did so. When he opened them, he took a look at his hand. The 'runes' that he heard from the older teacher the other day. That's what he found. Marks. Lines. Dots. He did not know what they meant, the reason for his scratching of the head right after looking at his hand.

The sounds of a bell brought his head up. Ah. Lunch, he assumed. She was mad about that too. Apparently, his helping of her and final question made her miss breakfast. Of course, that's her mechanized familiar's fault. Who was else to blame? Herself?

Cronoz pushed those thoughts aside as he rose up. Students slowly began to emerge outside, ready to meet their familiars again. He peered through the crowd, trying to find his should-be-easy-to-find master. The mech could feel the stares of others as he slowly walked past the crowd. Maybe she left him. Would that be a good thing, or a bad thing?

A rattling on his leg got his attention. He looked down, somewhat unsurprised.

"There you are." Louise spat out. She was obviously still mad from earlier.

"Because, you know, I'm so hard to find…" Cronoz grunted quietly. The pinkette eyed him up.

"You say something?"

"No."

"Good. Let's go. I'm hungry." Louise turned to walk towards the school's dining room. Cronoz followed.

The room was indeed impressive. Long rowed tables filled to the brim with food. Cronoz couldn't believe how much food there was, even for a school this large and open. All he could think about was where all the table scraps went. He guessed the trash. What a waste.

"Well?" Louise's voice broke his thoughts. Again. She has a knack for doing that.

The mech looked back and forth from her and the chair she stood in front of. Seriously? Cronoz thought to himself as he grabbed the chair and moved it from under the table, letting his master sit down. He pushed it in as carefully as he could. "You're welcome." He added for good measure.

Rather then getting a verbal response, Louise pointed down on the ground. He looked in the direction, finding a small white plate with an even tinier piece of bread on it. Picking it up, his scans found it to be hard and raw. Food that shouldn't even be given to a dog. Or any animal for that manner.

"Query."

"Shush!" Louise silenced. Cronoz would have retorted, but decided to keep silent, finding that the students around him had all sat down and bowed their heads. A prayer. He only half-listened to it, still annoyed by the fact that this bread would be the only food a familiar would be given. What if, instead of himself, a human or some other sentient creature was given this sort of treatment? Now that is something Cronoz would want to watch.

As they finished, Louise turned her head around, finding her bulky familiar still staring at the food she so cordially gave him. "Are you going to eat?" She asked.

He eyed her as she did him. "Does it look like a have mouth?"

Carefully, he set the plate with bread on the ground from which it came, and began to walk back outside. He heard his master yell in protest.

"W-what! Get back here and… eat!" She stammered.

Without looking back, he stuck up his hand. "Don't need to. I'll be outside." The mech let his arm fall back to his side as he lumbered down the row of students feasting before him. He did not here any other complaints, so he assumed she gave up. As he passed the tables, he noticed that fluffy shirt wearing blonde sitting down, his arm draped around a girl with equally blonde hair, looking like she had drills in her hair. Hmm. What a player.

Unknowingly, Cronoz felt a tiny bump on his chest. He looked down to find someone on the floor. Oops. A closer inspection, thankfully, revealed it to be a familiar little maid.

"Siesta!" Cronoz spoke a little louder, a bit embarrassed for not seeing her. He knelt down. "I'm sorry, are you hurt?"

The black haired girl stared up into his face, her eyes looking on the verge of shutting. "Whoa… mister… your face is like… filled with circles. I… I think they sell a cream for that…" Probably hit her head a little too hard. Oops.

"Here. Let me help you up." The rusted machine stood up, and helped the girl to her feet, despite her swaying of dizziness. He looked down, finding a plate - luckily not shattered - with a piece of cake next to it. Delicately - or as delicate as a robot could - he plopped the pastry onto the tray and held it up for Siesta, who began to recover from her headache. He handed her the tray.

"Huh…?" Quickly realizing who it was and what he was holding, Siesta began to flush red. "S-sorry Cranass… I didn't watch where I was going…"

Cronoz stuck out his hand, ignoring the mispronunciation of his name. "It's alright. I'm the one who should be apologizing."

"Heh…" Siesta rubbed the back of her head, still flushing red. Cronoz decided against it, but he would have chuckled. Humans can be so humorous sometimes, with the whole feeling emotions and everything.

A voice broke the two's awkward non-conversation. "Hey, maid! Is my cake ready, or what?" The snobbish voice sounded familiar. Siesta made a small 'yipe' as she quickly dashed to the kid who asked the rude question, leaving Cronoz to narrow his optics. The kid, unsurprisingly, was the boy from earlier. He sneered as he took the cake from Siesta. "Took you long enough, didn't you?"

Making a low growling sound, Cronoz took a single step towards the punk, but stopped. He thought of Louise, and how embarrassed she would get. It was bad enough to get her mad with a single comment, but what if he lashed out against another student? No. There had to be another way for the kid to get his just deserts - pun intended. No one can just order another with such a behavior and be let off easy. Cronoz turned around and left the dining room for a few minutes. He returned quickly, with another in tow. He pointed to the place where Siesta and the two blondes were.

"There. That guy asked me to fetch you… what's his name…" The mech lied awkwardly. Thankfully, it worked.

"You mean Guiche?" The brown haired girl named Katie replied. Odd. He thought her hair was black last night. His eyes must be failing him.

Cronoz nodded. "Yeah…him." He politely waved his hand, sending her towards him. Siesta noticed the girl walk up, and looked back towards the sender, who silently waved his finger, telling her 'get over here, its going to get messy.' She did so, bowing right before heading to her new friend.

"Watch." He whispered, chuckling quietly. Siesta nodded.

The scene that unfolded was one that can only be described as hilarious for most, embarrassing for three, and hurt filled with only one of said three. The girl named Katie, that Cronoz was lucky enough to find in the hallways to begin with, walked up to the boy dubbed Guiche, who immediately began to stammer and sweat. The spiral haired girl started to raise her voice, as did the brown haired one. The boy continued to spout excuses, growing a larger audience as he did so. All the while, Siesta and Cronoz chuckled quietly from the sidelines, enjoying the show, one of them feeling half guilty for doing this. Finally, the sound of two hands slamming simultaneously onto a face ignited laughter from the rest of the cafeteria.

Cronoz was pleased. "Good."

"Umm… what if he finds out we did it?" Siesta tapped his leg worriedly.

"Illogical. It would take him a long time to deduce that-"

"Hey! You two!"

With a sigh, Cronoz turned. He hated being wrong. Siesta hid behind his massive frame, watching the blonde haired boy storm his way up to them. He was brave, the mech had to admit. Not everyone would usually walk up to him with such gusto. Not even a flinch from this 'Guiche,' who stared at him angrily.

"Do you believe this to be funny? Insulting not only me, but two girls as well?"

Cronoz chuckled softly. "They can be forgiven."

"What? How dare you speak to me in such a manner!" Guiche roared.

Annoyed, Cronoz lurched down to become eye level with the mage. "Logical. You do not own me, nor control me. Therefore, I can speak to you in any matter I want."

"B-but I am a noble! You're just a familiar!" The boy stammered, trying to keep his pride even with the number of eyes growing on the two's feud.

"And? Do you know the definition of noble?" The mech retorted.

"Y-yes! Of course I do! It is a position of respect, nobility obviously!"

"True," Cronoz stuck out his finger, almost smacking Guiche to the ground. "But that is only in the sense of a noun. Another definition for noble. Having or showing qualities of high moral character. Examples. Courage, honor, generosity." He stretched the final word out and motioned towards Siesta, who still cowered behind him. "You have shown none of those characteristics in your treatment of Siesta here. And you dare call yourself noble."

Guiche stood silently for a minute, staring into the familiar's four white eyes. Then he smiled. "Oh! I get it now! Your Zero Louise's familiar! I remember now!"

Cronoz slanted his optics. "Do not change the subject. I know what you are trying to do. It will not work."

"Really now?"

The mech balled his hand into a fist. He really wanted to clobber this chump, maybe it would knock out his obnoxious personality. Then he heard a voice come from the crowd of people who watched them.

"Familiar! Don't you dare!" Cronoz looked behind Guiche's shoulder to find Louise cut through the crowd. "Your master orders you to stop!"

"But-" Cronoz began.

Louise ran past Guiche and glared at him. "No! No buts!" She turned to the blonde mage. "Please Guiche. He's just stupid. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

Stupid? If anyone is stupid, it's him. Cronoz thought to himself.

Guiche folded his arms. "It's just like you to get a familiar that doesn't want to listen to you. You truly are a Zero Louise!"

Giggles and chuckles spread throughout the gathered students. Cronoz felt his master go red in the face as she looked down in shame. He gently pushed both Siesta and Louise away from him and stood up. With his large hands, he picked up the mocking Guiche by the back of his clothes and stared at him angrily. "Leave Ms. Valliere out of this."

"U-unhand me!" Guiche squirmed in his grip.

"No."

"Familiar!" The machine looked down, to find Louise still standing in front of him, her face on the verge of exploding. "Put him down! That is an order!"

"…As you wish." Cronoz replied. He let go of his grip on Guiche, sending him straight to the ground. The mage fell on his backside, igniting more laughter from the crowd.

"H-h-how dare you treat me that way! You obviously need a lesson in respect!" Guiche stammered as he shakily stood back up.

"I understand the concept of respect. I will return it to those who truly deserve it." Cronoz unintentionally teased.

"Familiar!" Louise kept shouting. He ignored her. Must unlike of him. His attention was solely on the annoying mage in front of him.

"Well. I do believe some type of treatment is in order. I, Guiche de Gramont, hereby challenge you, familiar, to a duel!"

Cronoz blinked. He turned his head towards Louise and Siesta, who stood right next to each other, staring back at him.

"A what?" He asked in monotone.

A/N: Ah, chapter two… I COMPLETE YOU NOW!

Anyway, I know nothing really major happens in this chapter. I'm just kinda building up for the duel for number three. After that, I'm going to try and deter from the main plot of the show…maybe. We'll have to see… I tell that to myself every time I finish one of these. That's probably a bad thing, right?

Thanks for reading, review if you want, and…uh…bye?