I don't own Zero no Tsukaima or The Familiar of Zero, However I do own Bearry
AN : I've been replaying both Mass Effects, you may notice some stuff from it. I've also recently finished replaying Oblivion, in anticipation for Skyrim. I'm a bit meh about this chapter, though the action is ramping up. Anyway, answers to reviews.
BraveEagle, Well, my Saito is an OC, although I don't really mind if you steal him. You don't even need to use ALL CAPS! The original Saito will not be making an appearance.
Aishata, I am glad you are eagerly waiting
Madork Gunna, it is.
Dunov, I enjoyed making both costumes, though I doubt I'll ever wear the censored suit again because, well, my nine year old wife is dead sexy. That, and it gave me a really bad wedgie and it is terrible outside during the night.
FaceMeltor, Louise is getting her own time to shine in this chapter. Also, there will be no "yuri shipping teasing for epic win" unless I think it fits, and the scene from the last chapter was meant to set the scene. Also, Saito's lack of reaction to some of his ammo being taken will be explained in time, and the purpose for it being taken will be explained as well. All in due time.
Vallavarayan, Both spells and mages can be broken into classes. The higher a mages class implies how many elements he can layer, like water+wind, or wind+wind+water. A spell that uses three elements layered is triangle class, and a mage that is capable of layering 3 elements is a triangle class. even if all three elements are the same.
watcherinthevoid, I did not take canon and kick it in the balls, I just decided to give it a quad instead of a pair. And yeah, I agree with the backbone should make Saito leave bit, as most of the fics on this site don't seem to diverge from canon at all, and that always seemed so boring to me.
NightShade The Patient One., I'm glad you enjoy the "Just add Backbone" I've made, and I spent a lot of time writing the Guiche-Saito duel, and I am not through with it yet. You will see more of the affects of it later on.
ChronoMitsurugi, I like obscure stuff, and Saito doesn't only have balls, he has a quad.
Prodigal Priest, are you sure, you're never sure what you might need to know.
Damn there were a lot of reviews. Anyway, enjoy.
Today was the day. It was the day of the Evaluation Fair. Saito was still nowhere to be found. Louise let out a long sigh, of course he hadn't come back. Still, the Evaluations wasn't starting yet, maybe he would be back later today. Louise knew that it was an empty hope, but it was still hope.
Louise was dressed and ready to endure the day, when there was a knock at her door before it was abruptly opened. It was one of Princess Henrietta's personal guards. "Miss Vallière, Her Royal Highness Princess Henrietta has requested your presence." He said as he gave a bow
"Of course." Louise quickly answered as she followed the guard. They walked up a few flights of stairs, and out onto a balcony overlooking the stage they were to demonstrate their familiars on.
"Good afternoon Louise Francois, sit with me." Princess Henrietta greeted from her seat, gesturing toward a seat adjacent to her.
"Of course, Princess." Louise formally answered as she took a seat behind Princess Henrietta, as she should.
"Louise! Come sit with me, please? There is something I would like to tell you."
"I am not worthy to sit beside you, Princess." Louise formally said. "Surely that seat is reserved for Headmaster Osmond?"
"Louise François, there is no one I would rather have beside me." Henrietta said with what Louise was almost certain was sincerity.
Louise took the offered seat, as she couldn't say no after that. "Thank you, Princess." Louise gazed down at the stage, and saw as the rest of the Academy gathered down in Vestri Square.
"After our conversation last night, I asked about your Familiar. Is it true that he dueled one of the students in the Square?"
"Yes, Princess. He fought and beat Guiche De Gramont." Louise simply replied.
"It is unfortunate that your Familiar isn't here, from what I have heard he was very skilled."
Louise thought back on Saito. He was skilled, there was no denying that, but every moment he caused problems! "Princess, every moment he caused problems. He picked fights with Nobles, he stole food, he refused to listen to anybody around him, at times it seemed like he was a spiraling mass of chaos! He also wasn't that nice. Still, it would be nice if he was here."
"Well, Louise François, last night, I sent out of my people to find your Familiar."
Louise didn't know how to respond, as she thought of how Saito would react to people following him.
"Come with us commoner." The Royal guardsman asked.
"I'M MAD! I'M NOT A COMMONER!" Imaginary Saito screamed. Violence ensued.
"Princess, I don't think that's a good idea. Saito would probably respond... poorly to that." There was no way that her familiar would respond positively to it.
"What is the problem? Would it not be helpful to have my guard return your familiar?"
"My familiar... Saito would..." Louise tried to think of a way to say what her familiar would do eloquently, but in the end, she decided to be blunt. "My familiar would attack them, and run further. He would hate the idea of anything forcing him to come back here."
"Oh... I'll be sure to rescind my orders, Louise..." Henrietta began when a booming voice interrupted. It was Headmaster Osmond.
It was time for the Evaluation Fair.
Sasaki had just shown Saito the "Thunder Dragon Raiment." It was an F-4E Phantom II. Saito could feel how to control the aircraft when he touched it, he could feel how heavily armed it was (which begged the question of how it landed so heavily armed). He could feel the missiles, air-to-air, air-to-surface, an M61 Vulcan 6-barreled Gatling cannon with 640 rounds, a damn 130-gallon napalm bomb using Napalm B. It was a death machine, that didn't have enough fuel to take off.
Still, Saito thought it was beautiful. "Sasaki, this is incredible. We need to find a way..." Sasaki wasn't there. "Where are you?"
"I'm out back, and before you come out here, is there anything you haven't told me about why you're here?" Sasaki asked in french. Saito began to feel nervous, when someone says that in an angry tone, it means they know that they were lied to. The only question now was what.
Saito let out a dejected sigh as he walked to the back of the makeshift hanger, "What did I do?"
"Well, when you let me take your bullets without complaining, I figured you might have not known that you were being followed. Or, if you were just incredibly stupid, wanted to keep it a secret. So why was this mage following you."
Saito froze, there was a mage here who was hunting him! Saito quietly pulled Derflinger from its sheath, and quietly kept moving. He jumped out, ready to strike before he paused at the confusing sight. One, the noble was tied to a tree and gagged, two, the noble looked like he was about to piss himself.
"So?"
"...I don't know why this one is following me, but two others are trying to... um... kill me." Saito said in English.
Sasaki removed the bound mage's gag. "I'm not here to hurt you I want to see if you want to go back to the Tristain Academy of Magic and I would have told you sooner but you're scary please don't hurt me!" The noble told them in a single breath.
The three of them were silent for a few moments. "What did you do to the nobles that caused this shit. No, no wait, I don't want to know. Why didn't you tell me when we first met?"
"...I was... Planning on leaving before anything happened?" Sasaki glared at the response, and Saito could swear that his heart would implode under the old pilots gaze. "Look, I got in a couple of duels, and I won. So they're trying to have me killed. Except for this one, I guess."
"You... You are the stupidest person I have ever met. You just don't think at all. We are going back to my home, you will gather your things, and we will pray that the ones trying to kill you aren't there. My family better not be hurt because of this or I swear I will shoot you myself." Sasaki hissed with a scowl.
Saito stood, staring at his own feet. He shouldn't have stayed for so long, for 4 days. "I... I'm sorry, if there is any way I can make it up to you, I'll do it."
"Yeah, well don't expect much help from me. Doubt I have anything useful."
The two walked away from the makeshift hanger, both oblivious to the small, black crow, pecking at the ropes binding the noble.
"We know he is here, that is his satchel. Now where is Saito Hiraga!" Gerald demanded. The commoner was still here, and it would not evade him. It was going to die.
"H-he left t-t-to..." The common woman began. A Takeo or some ridiculous name like that.
André roughly grabbed the woman and held her up against the wall of her house. Fafnir, sitting besides his master, growled in annoyance. "You will stop stuttering this instant you old hag! You will answer us this instant as it is your duty to answer to the Nobility! Tell us now!"
Gerald rushed forward and grabbed André. "Set the commoner down!" André began to set it down. Gerald glared at his friend, he was always to aggressive.
"He le-left to s-s-see the Ra-Raiment." It shakily said.
Gerald was familiar with that useless piece of scrap, and it was perfect. "André, take to the skies and let me know when he approaches, we'll catch him by surprise and kill it."
Louise watched as Tabitha's familiar, a wind dragon named Slyphid, twisted and turned in the sky. Just watching the dragon made it clear which familiar would be named the best in the Evaluations. Still, all this really did was remind Louise that Saito ran away. That she didn't have anything to show the Princess. She really wanted a reason to leave, to stop watching others' familiars. To stop watching others' success.
"Excuse me Princess, but I must leave for a moment."
Of course, Louise François, return quickly." Henrietta responded as she gazed in awe at the wind dragon.
Louise turned and walked away, quickly growing jealous of Tabitha and her Familiar. Louise just wanted to be alone right now. She kept going until she was outside, opposite of where the Evaluation was taking place. She was alone, and took solace in the quiet. There weren't even any guards, all near the Evaluation grounds, to make sure Princess Henrietta was safe.
Suddenly, Louise heard shifting stone, and turned to see a growing figure of stone and dirt. A golem rose from the earth, tall enough to take a step over the walls of the academy. It prepared a massive fist, and threw a devastating punch at the tower. As the stone fist made contact Louise felt her entire world shake.
Louise stood, and pulled out her wand. She was shaking as the golem prepared another strike. She steeled her resolve, and shouted, "STOP! IN THE NAME OF HER ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCESS HENRIETTA I ORDER YOU TO STOP!"
The earth shook again, and Louise told herself that she would stop this assault. She pointed her wand at the head of the golem, and began a chant for a fireball. The golem threw a punch a third time as Louise unleashed her magic at the head of the golem.
The fist of the golem disappeared right as it struck the wall, destroyed in a powerful explosion that had no trace of fire. Unfortunately a hole it the tower was also created.
"Nothing's more dangerous than a well placed explosion; you should try and take advantage of that."
Louise's gaze steeled as she remembered what her Familiar said before he leaved. Sure she had missed, but she had damaged it! Louise began chanting for another doomed fireball, adjusting her aim for the center of the golem as the fist reformed, and a cloaked figure left and climbed atop the golem, clutching a box.
The center of the golem exploded, and massive chunks of it fell before the figure atop the golem waved a wand. The golem turned away as it began to regenerate.
Louise prepared a third fireball, aiming for the golem's left leg. She ignored as a few guards went rushing past her as she unleashed her spell. The golem's leg disappeared, and began to fall over. It reached out, and the figure atop the golem dashed across it's out stretched arm and leaped. The golem collapsed into a pile of dirt as the figure floated over the wall as a new golem formed. It wasn't tall enough to step over the wall, but it looked just as formidable. The thief landed on the golem, and disappeared into the surrounding forest.
"Noble girl, what just happened?" A man dressed in ornate armor of the Royal Guard asked. "Was that Fouquet? What was stolen?"
"Dude, why did you get a bear statue?" I asked as I gazed at the wood statue, I can't recall how big it was.
"His name is Berry the bear, spelt B-E-A-R-R-Y, for the sake of being punny." My skinny blond friend announced with a grin.
"I didn't ask what it was called."
"His name is Bearry, I expect you to get it right, and the guy carved him with a chainsaw! It was badass! He also threw in a fish he carved out of redwood, check it out!" He said as he took out a wooden fish.
I grabbed the fish, and sighed at how ridiculous this was. "You are weird as hell."
"Hello? -?" It was the girl from my computer's background, she opened the door. She looked into the room with a confused look on her face.
"Hey -, this is Bearry, some chainsaw statue - bought for reasons I don't want to understand." I told her.
"Um, i-is this the only reason you called us?" Her confusion was understandable.
He grabbed the fish and put it into Bearry's hands... paws... whatever. Then he grabbed an overly ornate dagger out of nowhere, with clearly plastic gems in it, and put it in the bear's other paw. "I wanted to let you both know that this is Bearry, the bear God of War and Fish! Fear HIM!" He stated in a supremely dramatic way.
We both stared at him, before we broke out laughing.
"Finally you guys laughed. Anyway, I won four prescreening tickets to Up, guys want to check it out?"
"That's why you called us? What was the point of Bearry?" I asked between chuckles.
"Point? Who needs a point, I just thought it would be funny. Oh! And who should the fourth wheel be?"
"Ahhhhhhhh shit." Saito groaned at he kept looking up.
"So, the nobles trying to kill you are here. Great." Sasaki said with a glare.
"It's like God is trying to screw me over or something." Saito moaned as he watched the red dragon soar through the sky. He pulled out his Beretta and aimed at the dragon before he stopped himself. The dragon was too far away, and even with the rune's help he doubted that his pistol even had the range to reach the dragon.
"You're not going to try to get him with your pistol, are you?"
"No, I'm not sure what to do, to be honest. What am I supposed to do?" Saito admitted. André was probably on the dragon unless they recruited a third person to join them, and Gerald's dog was also probably here. So he was outnumbered, 4 against one. The odds of success were non-existent. However, he couldn't just leave, he needed his ammo, his computer, his food! Then there were the people in Tarbes, the nobles might punish them for helping him! "Could you hit him with your musket?"
"If I were flying, what, do you think I'm an expert sniper or something? I'm a fucking pilot!" Sasaki indignantly shouted. "Besides, this isn't a musket, it's a rifle."
Saito's eyes widened as he put his pistol away and grabbed the musket strapped to Sasaki's back.
"What the hell!" Sasaki seethed as Saito took the musket. "You could have asked."
"Right." Saito said with a grin. This rifle was great! He could feel that the barrel had a spiral, to get the bullet spinning, and the bullet itself! Saito could feel it inside of the rifle, with the base of the conical bullet hollow, to expand from the gun powder so that the bullet would grip the rifling. Sure, the Beretta would have better rifling, and better bullets, but Sasaki's rifle might have the range to hit the dragon!
Saito took a knee, took aim with a grin, and calmed his breathing. Saito felt the runes working as he followed the dragon. Still, he needed to be careful. He needed to hit the dragon with this shot, since it would draw the mages to him. Still, he couldn't kill them, as that would REALLY make things bad for Tarbes. Saito began to slowly exhale, as he slowly pulled the trigger.
BANG!
Saito gazed at the dragon, trying to see if he hit it. "Can you tell if I hit it? It is really far away."
"I'm old, I can barely see it!"
Saito kept staring, it seemed that the dragon was moving one wing more erratically, maybe. Saito didn't really understand enough about dragon flight mechanics to know if it was flying differently. Then again, it seemed to start flying lower.
"I think I hit it? Maybe. Either way, I better act first, only chance I have of winning."
Fafnir was hurt! André was determined to find out what had caused his Familiar's pain. He gave a whine as they continued their long descent. "Shhh, shhhh, it's okay. We'll get on the ground and we'll see what's wrong."
This must have something to do with that loud noise! André had been encouraging his Familiar to go down faster, but it seems that Fafnir didn't want to land quickly. That itself was concerning as Fafnir always landed at full speed.
"Fafnir, I'll meet you on the ground." André said as he jumped and began preparing a levitation spell. Saito Hiraga was the most likely cause for his Familiar's pain, which meant that Gerald would be under attack soon. André didn't think that his friend and his dog would be able to take the commoner down, he was more dangerous than they thought, that much was certain.
André scanned the surroundings, trying to find Hiraga Saito. He could still see Gerald in the middle of Tarbes, but his mutt was nowhere to be seen.
Gerald was patrolling Tarbes with his Familiar, Cabal (1), just in case the commoner Familiar evades his flying friend. He had given strict orders to all of the commoners of Tarbes that they were to stay indoors for the rest of the day, or face execution. Either by hanging, or being caught accidentally in a spell.
The commoner being a familiar was a surprise in and of itself, a detail his younger brother conveniently left out. If André hadn't met that maid, Siesta, they would still be chasing that commoner with no information on what it was. Even now, all they knew was that it was summoned by a mage who couldn't do magic, that it had already beaten 2 mages in duels, and they had no idea where it was from. After all, it was the only commoner capable of defeating a mage.
And that weapon. Gerald rubbed his knee, of all the wounds that weapon inflicted, the knee was the only one that still hurt, that he had trouble moving. It was some kind of advanced pistol that could shoot four times. Four! He felt that it was safe to assume that it could only shoot four times before the commoner would need to add more powder and balls.
Gerald glanced back, and sighed. André missed the commoner. He began readying a strong spell, aiming to end this fight before it begins. He would not underestimate this commoner again. Gerald layered wind upon wind upon wind, preparing his strongest triangle spell. The spell will dice the commoner, and throw the bits remaining all over Tarbes.
Gerald spun around and unleashed his might through the nearly empty street. A twister left his wand, shredding everything in its path. The spell quickly subsided, and Gerald walked toward the wreckage, prepared to be attacked. Nothing was whole, destroyed metal, wood and chunks of flesh and bone. Gerald realized that he either caught some random commoner in his attack, the right commoner, or maybe some animal.
He then noticed some bloody fur. Animal it is.
Gerald knew he needed to use his magic more conservatively, he was only strong enough to use a spell that powerful 2 or 3 times a day.
"Hi Gerald." Gerald turned up toward the voice. The blunt edge of a blade approaching from above. A short realization that the commoner got on the roof of a building while he wasn't looking. Gerald brought his arms up to absorb the blow, and as the blunt edge made contact he could feel each crack in form as the bones in his arms were reduced to dust.
His voice left him as it gave a cocky grin and reached into his shirt, pulling out his backup wand and throwing it away. Gerald looked to his hand and noticed through the haze of pain that the combat wand was no longer in his hand.
"You know what? I should take my enemies by surprise more often, makes things much easier." The commoner said with a grin. It looked out at the destruction the mage's spell unleashed. "By the way, thanks for missing me."
(1) Cabal was the name of King Arthur's dog, it also makes me think of C&C.
Also, I recently realized that I forgot to explain Fafnir,
Fafnir is from Norse Mythology, a dwarf who is consumed by his greed, and turns into a black dragon (A Norse symbol for greed)
AN : Well, this was shorter than I thought it was going to be, but it is satisfactory. Next chapter is very important for Saito and Louise. Also, Fouquet. This chapter also featured Gerald and André, two nobles who have a very different view on commoners, but are great friends. I like them, and I like writing them.
Also, if you beleive in BEARRY THE BEAR GOD OF WAR AND FISH and you fear him, post this on your profile, and add your name.
The Real Lee is Here
Anyway, Read and Review.
This is Lee, and I'm out!