Zero woke up to a bright light. As his optics adjusted to the tube, he noticed Roll looking in worriedly. The glass Retracted and he stepped out, without the dizziness or uncertainty that had been subjected to last time he had been in for in depth diagnostics. Roll seemed to be avoiding his eyes as he looked at her. "Alright, what's wrong with me?" Zero asked after she made no move to talk.
Roll shook her head and laughed harshly. "Zero... I think you should... Sit..."
Zero raised an eyebrow as he assessed Roll. "That bad? What is it, my core or something?"
"Zero...Please, just sit down. I'd like to talk to you calmly..." Roll replied softly.
Zero moved to one of the seats near a bank of computers, unsure exactly where this was going, but wondering just what was wrong with him to get this reaction. "What's going on, where is Mathilda?"
"She's in our closed room where we normally work. That doesn't matter right now. Right now this conversation is about you Zero... Do you remember how you spoke of changing and evolving?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Zero... How much do you believe you can change, how much do you think you can evolve?"
Zero looked thoughtful for a moment then answered,"Who knows, considering that every series of reploids that came along that was 'stronger' than me got put down by myself and X... I'd have to say almost an unlimited amount."
"I'm not talking combat... How far do you think you can evolve Zero, truly evolve?" Roll pressed, sounding angry for some reason.
Sensing something wrong, Zero shrugged and replied,"I do not know. What's wrong Roll?"
"Zero... You're getting both closer to humanity and farther. Your abilities have farther surpassed them... And yet..." Roll looked away hesitantly. "And yet... Your attributes are becoming closer..."
"What, what do you mean attributes?" Zero asked, this was getting annoying, he wished she'd just tell him what was wrong without this beating around the bush.
"Zero, you have repeatedly told the girls to find a nice human to settle down with, because you're not human. Because you can't create a family. Right?"
Zero nodded. "Well, yeah. It is true. What about it?"
"What if that wasn't true anymore Zero?" Roll asked
"I...I don't follow..." Zero said, feeling a sense of dread encroach upon him.
"What if that wasn't true? What if you could have a child with one of those girls..." Roll asked.
Zero shook his head, and protested,"That's stupid. That's one hell of a what if, so why even bother bringing it up?"
"Answer me Zero..." Roll said, refusing to back down.
"I... I don't know, it's not possible, so why even think about it?
"Zero... I don't know if I should hate you or not right now...You're being so dense..." Roll replied, tears running down her cheeks.
"Roll... Are you? You're crying too!" Zero replied, remembering her comment on his previous capability to cry where she was unable.
"Zero... You, you've changed. You're now... compatible, on more than just a basic physical level, with the humans..."
Zero's mind blanked at that. It wasn't possible... She had to be mistaken. Zero pushed the thought out of his mind, she'd tell him what she was really meant. As Zero's mind caught back up with reality he asked,"What? What are you talking about Roll?"
"You see... it all makes sense now. The tears, the heightened emotions, everything that has been happening to you has been a symptom of what has been changing in you. Zero, you're becoming more human like. I... I can't believe it, it is almost impossible to imagine, but here we are... "
"We?" Zero asked, trying to find some sort of grasp on this. This wasn't something that would be a joke. Roll was too serious and such an unusual circumstance... Was unthinkable.
"Zero...You... You did this to me too..." Roll replied as she brought her hands to cover her face.
"What?" Zero asked.
"When you transferred your armor to me, more than just that was left behind... I'm nowhere's near the state you are in... But I'm starting to adapt already, faster than you did it seems... Apparently my own changes are mirroring yours. Where you blazed a trail, it looks like I am forced to follow." Roll said, her voice becoming acidic towards the end.
Zero was frozen in shock. As he stared at Roll, trying to let it sink in, he felt lost. At least he should be thankful... Who knew what this would have meant if he had been back in his world. A reploid being able to create life? He could just see the riots and the demands for him to be retired... Well aside from the whole god of destruction thing he had going...
"I'm sorry Zero... I'm not angry with you I'm just..." Roll said, unsure how to finish the sentence. "What are we going to become? We won't be robot masters anymore, will we?"
Zero looked at her and shook his head,"I don't know. I'm a reploid... But who knows. What I do know... Is that you can't tell anyone about this. Nobody."
Roll looked at Zero curiously, "Why not?"
"Roll, you do realized what I am, how powerful I am, right? I'm... I'm far too powerful. What makes you think that if I were to have a kid that he or she wouldn't be like me? That isn't even taking into account how much harder those girls will try once they find out that... Never mind, just listen to me. You can't tell them anything."
"I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation, but the cat is already out of the bag. I know you asked me to stay quiet during your conversation with him Roll but there is another factor now." Rock chimed in, much to Zero and Roll's surprise. "Miss Cattelya has been standing in the hallway for the past few minutes."
As Cattleya walked in to the lab proper, she looked at the ground, her face red at having been caught. "I'm sorry, I came to see Miss Roll this morning... But did not wish to interrupt your conversation..."
"How much of what you heard did you understand?" Zero asked her.
"I understand you can start a family now. I do not see why you are upset by that fact."
Zero wanted to yell at the girl but couldn't. She was too nice, and too trusting to understand the true implications. "Cattelya, I'm a monster. I'm a nightmare. I've killed over sixty-thousand people and I nearly lost control since I've come to this world. Why on earth would I attempt to start a family? I thought I had banished my nightmare with Omega. When I fought my other self, I thought that perhaps some part of me, the worst part had been destroyed. I thought I knew what my power was for, but I didn't know anything. Who says I wouldn't make another monster just like me?" As he finished Zero caught Cattelya's hand before it could connect. "I knew you were going to do that, but it's the truth. Name one person in this world who has killed as many as me, even since I came to this world. Name one person who has felt a terrible glee at the thought of ripping someone slowly and painfully to pieces. My recent experiences have only reinforced that truth."
Cattleya laughed, surprising both Zero and Roll. When she was done laughing she met Zero's gaze and said,"You talk like that, but look at what you've spawned. I've heard much about that young man Guiche. I also have heard much of what he used to be, as well as a certain duel you had with him. While you fought and killed that many, how many would have died had multiple armies fought? Not only would the ones on that side have died, but the ones on our sides would have died. If the golem army was as large as they say it was... They would likely be down in this land now. You saved the people who wished to live in peace and protect their own land. What of the former thief, Fouquet? Louise told me about her as well, or that young girl Tiffania that you protected? Everyone loses control. Everyone has doubts. Everyone has to make a stand. Louise herself has many of these same types of doubts, does that make her not human? She has lost control, and driven a wedge between you at times. She has doubts about herself and her abilities and her ability to uphold our family honor. And she was ready to make a stand to fight the forces of Albion so you would not have to, even if it were to cost her her life! Looking at you now, I see nothing more than a human no matter what you say. A powerful human, but that is all you are to me. Reploid, human... It doesn't matter does it? Do you believe that no human has ever had these feelings? Tell me, what makes you so inhuman? What makes you so monstrous? I say again, that a monster wouldn't care about this. A monster would simply accept what they are. You fight what you believe you are, which ensures that you will never be the monster you so seem to fear."
Zero let go of Cattelya, her words and glare striking him like a charged buster shot. Was it true? He couldn't think of any words to counter what the irate pink haired woman said.
"You... You are just like many others Zero... You are like the ones who see far too much death, far too much blood... But in some ways, you're worse. Whereas most people only deal with this for a few years before they are either dead, or in a position of command and no longer are upon the front lines... How long have you really dealt with it? How long have you truly fought?" Cattelya asked, gentle concern clear in her voice.
"That is a good question Zero..." Roll replied, She had always wanted to ask the question but could never bring herself to do so. While she and Rock had fought against Wily it had never really been a war. The conflicts they had were much smaller and much less nasty than what Zero faced on a continuous basis for hundreds of years.
Zero turned away from the girls and shrugged. "Does it matter? Why would it change anything to know how long I've been fighting? Hundreds of years. Why get more specific? It doesn't matter anyhow. I need to get back to Louise before she freaks out again. Don't tell anyone about this Cattelya. And Roll, I need you to find a way to reverse this." Zero said coldly as he swept out of the room, leaving a stunned Cattelya and Roll in his wake.
"Miss Roll... Do you believe I pushed him too far?" Cattelya asked, a mask of worry covering her face.
"I... I don't know..." Roll replied hesitantly, her eyes on the door that Zero had exited through. Had she been right informing him of this? What it meant for her was still unforeseeable. She shook her head at the thought. She wondered if Dr. Light had ever imagined just how far they could go, how close to humanity his children could become.
***Break***
As Zero exited the tower, he was surprised to see the old Headmaster standing there, seemingly waiting for him. "So my boy, how are things going? In good enough shape that the young physician let you out?" Old Osmand asked, a knowing smile on his face.
With a stiff shrug Zero replied,"Yeah, just fine old man."
"Walk with me, would you?" The older man asked, but the tone implied that it was more of a statement or a command.
"I have to go meet Louise. I don't have time for this. Sorry old man."
"Make time. I already informed the girl I had to talk to you, and considering everything that has been happening we're going to take a walk or I'll simply talk to you about it with one of the girls present."
Zero turned to look at the old man,"What do you mean?"
"You may be older than me, but I'm far more crafty than you are boy. I know far more than I let on, because I listen, and I watch. do you understand?" Osmand asked, a bright smile on his face and in his eyes, but somehow conveying a certain seriousness at the same time.
"I... think that I do. So you know?"
"About the changes? Of course. I view you and your summoner as a responsibility of mine, and believe it or not... I take my responsibilities seriously."
"Really? Here I thought the only thing you took seriously was trying to get in a pipe when Roll couldn't find out, and using your mouse to see panties. By the way, I can smell it so she can too. I advise hanging out in Colbert's lab for a bit so you can claim that it's just residue from the materials in there."
With a laugh the headmaster started walking. "You see, while those are important things to me, they are also useful in other ways."
"How could they possibly be useful?"
"I'm a perverted old lecher with a number of vices and unusual habits. Who would think that I'm listening or paying attention, when I'm in all likelihood sending my mouse to look at a girl's undergarments? Who thinks that I am a threat? I'm simply an old man content to watch the children grow up. Why would anyone be cautious around me? Who would suspect me of putting scrying wards upon the permanence enchantments in that lab of yours?"
"So you're saying it's all an act then? I find that hard to believe."
"An act? Founder no, but I will admit I play it up as much as I can. The more eccentric I act, the more people discount me. It is how I have managed to keep a good number of secrets and powerful weapons in my vault without anyone making issue of it. Half of the materials in that vault are totally useless or are just wierd. You need to look for what is dangerous, and if you do not know what you're looking for it will simply be a large collection of trash that is of little use."
"So you're saying your actions are similar to your vault?"
"Mostly, yes. Although I do enjoy some of the toys I've secreted away. Would you believe I have a device that lets me find any number you can wish using calculations? It only works in the sun... But it's an amazing thing really. I will admit I thought it was useless until I managed to deciepher the numbers and meanings behind the symbols. With it you can easily find out what a number would be with any multiplier. Say 59, and 94! It gives the correct answer every time instantly, and saves a great deal of time when working with larger numbers. I bet even you couldn't figure it out so quickly."
"5546. Sounds like you found an old low tech calculator with a minor solar cell on it that gets it's energy from light. Although any high frequency light should supply it with the power that it needs to function. It was a common and useful tool from back home, mostly used for simple tasks and by children. A couple hundred years ago." Zero replied as he followed the old man, who seemed to be leading him to the gate. He wondered if the old man was purposely wasting time while he got him out of ear shot of everyone else.
"Truly? Such a wonder indeed, to have something like that be common place that even children would use it..."
"Yeah, well... People flying or doing anything at all with magic, even if it was just turning on a lamp would provoke about the same amount of 'wonder' back home too, so it's pretty even in that. As I said before, it's all about what you can understand. Magic was just as alien to me as technology is to you when I first got here..."
"I see, I see," Osmand said as he gentle tugged on his beard, looking deep in thought. The old man looked around, ensuring that nobody was near then he spoke again,"Zero, I have much to ask you. Kirche explained that you wanted the children taken care of. What do you want exactly?"
"I'm not really sure. Things operate differently here than where I came from. All children went to school till a decent age, and there wasn't really any 'noble' class so to speak. They weren't really shoved into one role from a young age..."
"Ah, I see... School... I do not know that a school would help them, but with the money you've made from our investments I can set up an orphanage for them, and put it into partnership with a number of the businesses that I've connected with. Have the children learn minor things about the different jobs until they make a decision on which one they want for the younger ones, and for the older ones, get them the skills they need to operate for themselves as they get older."
"Wait, money we have made? Investments?"
"Yes, remember, you said you didn't want to deal with it so I've been working with the money you gave me. It seems to keep growing with the more jobs I put into place though. You currently own two farms, a small ranch, a leather worker's shop, a cobblers store, a small lumber mill located on your farms, and a small woodworking shop. It mostly does smaller things like chests, cabinetry and wardrobes. I've also invested in a rather large foundry and smithy with Jean's help. We've made a very large return in the investments there, creating such simple things as minor steam engines as well as new ways to transfer energy with the gear housings and such that you developed. You wouldn't believe the money that we have been making on such simple things as clocks that are accurate down to a tenth of a second. We're thinking about hiring some gold or silversmiths for the finer work for those things, or some brass smiths because the lighter metals seem to be best. But anyhow, as a rule each store or service I buy seems to make more of a profit even with how well I treat the commoners. It is almost as if they're working harder because of the fact that I'm treating them like humans. In fluid cash you also have a little over three thousand gold left to your name, not counting the pending amounts from both nobles and commoners looking to take advantage of the new 'science' as you call it. Although I will admit that I had the finest wooden pipe carved for me on your coin. Would you like to see it?"
Zero looked at the old man, his jaw wide opened. "How?"
"Well, you see... I went to my old friend, who's been carving my pipes for years you understand, and told him how much I really wanted a maple pipe with polished case hardened brass fittings. Then I gave him a few gold..." Old Osmand said with a smile.
Zero glared at him. "Old man, you know that isn't what I met. Now either tell me or I'll let Roll know that you're using money that's supposed to be for public service... To support your smoking."
Osmand grinned and said," Now, now. No need to be rash. It's simple how I made it work actually. I just invested and bought out businesses that I figured would be low upkeep to run. I've also talked with Jean about a number of ideas based upon the so called 'simple' concepts that you brought up with him and we let that guide us to it. I mean, honestly... Who would consider an assembly line to be so functional? Add that to the fact that we had our head chef's help in staffing them and it's no wonder we're being so successful. He's a respected man among the commoners and he hates indolence as much as he hates the nobles who mistreat the commoners. This gave us a much better than average start for them. While many weren't employed it wasn't because of lack of work ethic, just the economy with the troubled times and all. I figured you would have noticed that he's a man that recognizes talent, considering how open he is with his thoughts on such things."
"I'll honestly say I didn't notice. The man kept trying to kiss me on the forehead. Were I not so fast, he likely would have succeeded..." Zero replied in a deadpan.
Osmand smiled at the thought of the unflappable Zero running in fear from the head chef. "Think about it Zero. Four thousand gold is not very much. It would do a large amount in the short run, but why throw it away? We can improve their lives in a more intelligent way and allow it to sustain that help, rather than making it an overall drop in the bucket."
"There is something weird about this. Where the hell did you come up with these ideas? This isn't anything at all like what you would see in this type of society." Zero couldn't stop himself from asking.
"Let us say that I'm of a small minority who have a differing belief on how the world, and even magic itself should be approached. Why else would Jean have a consistent job with me? He's constantly making new and weird things, and looking up new avenues of magic rather than teaching the children about stupid valueless honor that will kill them or the people below them for no real reason. We simply took the things that you have mentioned and applied them as best as we could. While probably nothing compared to where you're from, they've still made a rather large impact in my opinion."
Zero nodded in understanding. He probably should have just continued with the whole not wanting to know thing, but at least it was done and over with. "Okay, so... How much would the whole orphanage thing cost?"
"Well, considering the fact that I had a large building I was planning on buying and turning it into a small indoor market of sorts, I already put in a bid of seven-hundred gold on it... If we obtain it, it would easily be transformed into an orphanage, and is fairly close to the tanners, cobblers and the woodworking shops. That was why I had planned to use it as an all in one market truth be told, but if we're going to be housing people who will become apprentices like that... It would probably be the best spot possible... Although, it is large enough we could have a few stalls there, perhaps with the children helping in them I suppose." Osmand said while tugging his beard thoughtfully.
"You're pretty stuck on making the children work." Zero accused the old man.
"What do you mean?"
"Back home we had labor laws involving children, at least the human ones anyhow. Although if the old man was right, apparently even some reploid children went to school... It's kinda complicated... It seems, odd to say the least to considering having all of them just start working like this. It seems almost like we're stealing their childhood."
"Well, I suppose the youngest of them wouldn't start learning a trade yet, but they can still do minor things like assist with the stalls right? You can just give them money and have them come to expect it, or you can teach them a trade that they can use to earn their money in the years to come. I believe that if they have these skills, we're not stealing their childhood, it's not like we're going to make them work from sun up to sun down everyday... But without this they won't have the guidance or skill to make it in the world. Even if they do not take up any of the jobs that they are trained in, they'll still gain a sense of responsibility and work ethic, do you not think so?"
Zero thought on it and nodded, it made sense. "I can see how that's the case..."
"Yes, and I'm quite proud of the apprenticeship program I have going now. You see, an apprentice only sees one-eighth of the profit that he brings in. The rest is used to replace the materials he has used in his training, and the remainder gets set aside for tools and other such things that he will need when he is done and ready to set off on his own. Any left after that will be given to them to assist them when they leave, so that we're not throwing them out into the cold world completely unprepared." Osmand reasoned with a gentle smile, his eyes seeming distant as he considered the lives of the children that he was helping.
Zero looked at the old man and couldn't help but return the gentle smile. "I see... You seem like you've had a lot of time to think this out."
"Oh my yes. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get anyone with coin to back me for such an investment here. Truth be told, nobody wanted to listen to the crazy old man about such a thing. And most of my money has gone to this academy. Is it not funny how in the past forty years, which is roughly my tenure as the Headmaster here... That the fare of the commoners has improved a little bit... And that nobles no longer solve everything with a wand?" Osmand grinned smugly.
"Well I can see why nobody wanted to give you money for this... You ARE a crazy old man. Even if you have some good ideas." Zero flashed a grin at Osmand.
"Well, it's good that you seem calmer now, enough to crack an honest joke anyway. With what has happened lately, I would like to speak with you about a number of more serious things. The first thing I would like to ask is, why you brought Fouquet back with you? I know that was the person who was brought into the lab. What was your purpose behind it."
Zero sighed as he looked the old man in the eyes."You're not going to drop this, are you old man?"
Sporting a somehow resolute visage, Osmand shook his head. "The safety of my students is paramount. I will not."
"Fine then, what I'm about to tell you goes no further than you and I. You tell anyone I'll kill you and them if I need to to keep it contained. Got it?" Zero replied seriously.
Raising his eyebrows, the old man grunted. "Hmm... That must be serious. Fine, I won't say anything."
"It involves the blonde girl, Tiffania." Zero started, but was interrupted by Osmand.
"Ah yes, the one with the magnificent..." Upon feeling the heated glare of Zero, Old Osmand smiled and continued,"Temperament. What about her?"
"She was taking care of the orphanage village, and the rebels of Albion threatened to kill her because of her bloodlines."
"Oh ho. A member of the royal family?"
"Yes. But that's not all."
"Hmm."
"She's also a half elf. Fouquet volunteered her services and worked for the rebel government for that purpose. They were going to raze the whole village, just to ensure that Tiffania and all traces of her were gone."
"I see..."
"She admitted that Louise and I had every right to try and kill her. She understood what she was doing was wrong, but at the same time she was unapologetic because she was doing it to protect her family."
"Wait, so that means... Are you saying that she is royalty as well?"
"Yes, although disgraced. Apparently the late Prince Wales had a bastard of a father. He not only was the one responsible for the butchering of Tiffania's parents, but also Mathilda's parents. He then took her holdings of Saxe-Gotha."
"I see..." Osmand said, a frown on his face.
"Yeah. She's under my protection."
"I understand, although, why did Roll carry her into the lab?"
Zero was silent for a while. After a few minutes of awkward silence he whispered,"She can't walk."
"Oh, why not? She seemed perfectly fit the last time I saw her," the old man grinned moving his hand in a rather obscene way that would have gotten him beaten were any of the girls around.
"I severed her spine and kicked her off a hundred foot tall golem. The better question is how she's breathing, but apparently she's fairly good with water magic." was Zero's quiet response.
"Ah...I see..."
"Okay, next question?"
"Well... the new school year is starting. What do you think about the young Tiffania joining our school? It would keep her close at hand... And with the circumstances surrounding her, with you, Colbert and the young Axl around... There should be no danger to her. As long as she wears her hat she'll be able to keep her heritage secret as well."
"That seems like a good idea... I'm just concerned with the other students, considering the way Louise and the others treated her when they first found out."
"Don't worry, I'm sure things will work out. She'll be under my protection. What could go wrong?" Osmand asked with a reassuring smile.
"I dunno... I still don't like it, but there isn't any better solution I can think of..." Zero said as he looked at the old man.
"That's true. Sometimes you must go with the best solution available than try to find a perfect solution. Most times there is not a perfect solution."
"I suppose. At least this leaves the rest of the day open for my new troops." Zero replied with a smirk.
"Ah yes, I heard about the honor. Apparently a good number of the male students wish to join your knight corps." Osmand said with a frown.
"Trust me old man, I doubt any of them will stay. I'm going to let them know just how terrible war really is. Then I'm going to let them know the most noble use of any armed force," Zero replied. When he saw Osmand looking at him questioningly, he continued, "The best uses of weapons and soldiers is for the prevention of conflict."
"What?" Osmand asked, his eyebrows shooting up at such an unusual saying.
"The best use of soldiers, is to give others the impression that they can't win. Or if they can win, that it won't really be a victory, just a question of which side lost less. If you have a standing force and the weapons to arm them that gives pause to the other side, then you have achieved a state of peace through force. It's far better than actual wars, even if it involves more posturing." Zero replied.
"Ah... That is... Wisdom from your world?"
"I would not call it wisdom, just experience." Zero replied with a shrug.
"Well, I must wish you luck then. You seem to have a better handle on what war truly means than any of the other nobles about."
"Of course I do. I'm nothing if not the personification of it." Zero replied as he left the headmaster, who frowned at his back upon hearing such a bleak statement.
***Break***
Zero smiled at the gathered young men, all wanting to join his knight a loud voice he called,"Everyone, I would like to thank you for coming today. And I would like to let you know, that perhaps four or five of you will make my cut. I'm not making a social club, I'm making an armed force that's purpose is to kill people and break their shit. I'm making a group that is going to value their mission, and their comrades far more than petty concerns of honor or glory. If you are here for the respect of others, or glory, go away. You won't survive the training." When he said this, a few of the young men left reluctantly. When nobody else left, he spoke again,"I rejected the name that we were to be given by her Majesty and am naming our new order the Koga after a group from my own home. They have been famous for hundreds of years for their stealth, infiltration, training, espionage and assassination skills. While under my command during training, you will all be limited to normal mundane weapons until such a time as I judge you fit to hold a wand again. You must be able to join a group of commoners and not stand out. You must be able to blend in anywhere. You must be able to do everything you are required to in the way you are required to so that you can get in, accomplish your task, and get out safely with you and your team intact."
"We'll follow you to our graves, Sir Zero!" Guiche cried out.
With a glare Zero looked at him, and when he stood tall he smiled. "Guiche get your stupid ass over here now."
"Y-yes sir!" Guiche replied, his tone wavering, but he moved to stand in front of Zero.
"You're an experienced War veteran, at least as much as any of these kids. You've also taken the first steps to get away from that stupid useless noble mentality." Zero said as he looked him in the eyes. "You've made the cut already, although if you call me a Hero again I swear you're going to regret it. So what does this mean for the rest of you? This means that probably only four of you are going to make it through this. Give up now, if you want to avoid that 'disgrace' you fear so much." Zero said. When none moved Zero smirked. "Alright everyone. Strip to your waists. We're gonna get some exercise!" he cried out. He had to smirk as the nobles tried so hard but failed to hold in their groans. He saw two delicate hands go into the air as he said that. With a sigh Zero as he called out,"Yes? Do you have a question? Was I unclear?"
The young Katie and Montmorency stepped forward much to Zero's surprise. Montmorency spoke hesitantly,"Sir Zero... Do we really need to strip to the waist? Isn't that indecent?"
Zero chuckled as the question was posed. He could see Louise's face turn red, although he couldn't tell if it was anger or embarrassment. "I'll be honest. I didn't see you behind the guys. No, you don't. But I advise you change out of your skirts into something more... Durable. Unless you want to destroy them."
Montmorency and Katie nodded reluctantly.
"Alright then, we'll see you when you get changed. Now then. I'll lead, because I won't make you do anything I won't do myself... We're going to run around the outside of the academy until I get tired. Let's have some fun, right?" Zero cried out. Running at a speed that would be comfortable for most of the people following him. Now if it would be comfortable for them in forty-five minutes would be the key point. As he lead them around the school grounds repeatedly, he was rather surprised that Malicorne was not the first or even the fifth to drop out. Gimli, the muscular young man who looked more a warrior than a mage was the first to drop out. After their third round, Zero noted that there were four buckets of water as well as some simple cups placed out near the entrance to the school. Upon the next pass he noticed four more buckets, and saw Montmorency and Katie dressed in riding leathers carrying two more each. Zero halted, running in place waiting for them. When they arrived and placed their loads on the ground, Zero spoke,"What do you think you're doing?"
"Preparing water," Montmorency said willfully.
"Did I tell you to? Zero asked conversationally.
"No, but it doesn't matter. Any good water mage knows that you need to give people water when they do strenuous things or else they can risk injury or sickness."
Zero nodded, and then barked behind him. "If I'm running in place you'd damned well better be too!" After that he turned towards Montmorency and Katie again and asked,"So why did you bring buckets?"
"Because you told us we couldn't use magic until you gave us the right to." Katie replied hesitantly,"But we knew that it needed to be done...And even though we weren't running with you, it is exercise to pump the water and bring the buckets over here, so we believed that it was the best option..."
"Well, why didn't you tell the servants to do it?" Zero asked in an obvious fashion, making it seem like Katie and Montmorency were the stupidest people in the world.
"Would a commoner simply tell a servant to go fetch water? Going by what you said we could not use magic, but we still had to do what we could to protect our fellow knights. Nobody else considered this so it fell to us to do it." Montmorecy spoke willfully, looking for all the world like she wanted to hit Zero, who was looking down on her in such a way.
With a smirk Zero nodded. "I like that. You used your knowledge and experience and a touch of common sense. I like that a lot actually." Zero turned to face the young men behind him and called out,"Alright everyone, get a drink. Then we run again. Malicorne, Guiche, You take their spot getting water after this. Once you fill the twelve buckets again, you fall in behind us when we pass around again. Katie, Montmorency, fall in behind us. You get to run too!"
And so began the first day of training of the Shinobi Corps, and the first day that any of the spoiled noble brats used half the muscles in their bodies. Zero's ever present smirk that day would haunt some of the young nobles for the rest of their lives...
***Author's notes***
I will say Kudos for figuring out that you can do contracts on people you don't summon Ben, although I don't see anyone but the four void users doing it, since they're the only ones who CAN form the human contracts. And I don't think Zero would be happy with Louise forming a familiar bond with a commoner when he already views it as an almost slavery style system. And Louise seems to very VERY much want the approval of Zero. So while you figured out one thing from the series(I mean honestly, if Brimir could only summon 1 familiar, how did he have 4?), you missed entirely with my story. Also, Henrietta? she's not a void mage. Not really sure if you're throwing stuff at random and got lucky, or if you're on some entirely different train of thought. I'm running things off of how they worked in FoZ, even if only loosely.
Why does Zero seem like a bit of a jerk? Ask Col. about that. Or perhaps Axl when they first met. Or even Allouette during her good day. Zero is a jerk even to her, and even kinda shows that he realizes it after the fact. Zero IS kind of a jerk in the way gasoline IS kind of flammable. He tells off Dr. Light's Hologram because he's just that awesome. And lets not forget Megaman X command mission. Like, the ENTIRE GAME. Zero doesn't fit any of the classic hero roles that X and Axl fit into. Out of all of them he fits more into a Batman type mentality because he gets what needs to get done. He just kills more. And he makes more things explode, whereas batman's villains make the explosions happen.
Now, on to the question of the day! What anime am I borrowing from on what's happening to Zero/Roll? Have fun guessing! I will say it is NOT the transformation, that I'm basing it off of, but what Zero has pretty much become, and that Roll is on her way to becoming. The "final" product so to speak. If nobody gets it... Updates resume on Friday. Good luck!