A/N: Happy New year's everyone! And with a new Year comes a new chapter for now. I quite enjoyed writing this and I hope all of you do too. This has been a very fruitful year and I've enjoyed it and I hope all of your guys' gacha rolls are good! Now, it's time for responses!
drake202: Here is the next chapter! Prepare for the next chapter with more hijinks!
GoldStar77: Sadly, this chapter is a bit...tooned down(I'm sorry, that was horrible) in comparison to the first two, but I hope you enjoy it regardless. And yeah, drake is a cool guy, he is paying me to say that after all. And I'm fairly sure it was 'Meep', but I tried out your suggestion today, hope you enjoy it again!
Now, I think that's it. I hope you enjoy this story commissioned by drake202 and have a Happy New Year!
"Oh, you're approaching me?" A scruffy rabbit spoke, wearing a red jacket and a broadsword in hand. "You know of my power, yet you still approach, Doc."
In front of him, a distance away, a duck with the top feathers of his head slicked back huffs naughtily, "Well, bub, that power ain't yours until I take it, 'cause I need more power!" The duck says as he reveals a sheathed katana in hand.
The pair of brothers, separated by fate and reunited by coincidence stand in front of each other, hands on their respective weapons, both of them wondering one thing.
How long is it until we get to wherever the girl is going?
While the two play around, Ethan sighs, scratching his blonde hair and sighing as he follows after the young redhead, her fluffy crimson twintails bouncing with each step and her skirt accentuating her rear as his eyes occasionally went to her waist.
They quickly went back when they trailed down and Claire didn't notice thankfully, as there's no illusion in Ethan's mind that the little spitfire actually cares about him that much and would turn him into char should he catch him looking at her, though the same could be said about Granny. Though, her disapproving stare tends to hurt a lot more.
Regardless, each step into the forest is one laced with uncertainty, Ethan's heavy steps a stark contrast to Claire's lighter and livelier steps, which, if you consider the fact that Claire is wearing leather loafers and Ethan is wearing sneakers, says a lot about both of them.
Ethan's brow twitched, to Claire's confusion, as he seemed to look back on occasion and glare at random pockets of air, as if they personally offended his mother before returning with a wry grin. Little did she know, she was closer than she thought.
Finally, Claire looked in front, her expression brightening in recognition as she sped up, forcing Ethan to follow lest he be left behind, "Here it is." She muttered in front of an old and weathered path that cuts through the forest. He almost missed how Claire whirled around with her hands on her hips and looking at the blonde with a glare. "So, why are you following me, you pervert-peeping maniac?"
"I ain't a pervert." Ethan quickly retorts, "And you're the only person between us who knows anything about the area. If I go out there," he points out into the forest, "I'd get lost in this place and might cause trouble in the school for hunting something I shouldn't have. Also, it's Ethan, not 'pervert'."
"Ethan." She tries out the name before giving him a pointed look. "That's a fairly common name, how did a commoner gain the interest of a person like Headmistress Greyworth?"
Ethan's eyes glance to the side away from Claire's eyes as they land on Daffy and Bugs, squaring up in a circle of other Toons with Porky trying his best to calm them down, Yosemite Sam smoking a cigar the length of an arm, Marvin walking around with his blaster out and looking forward, and Sylvester laying down beside-Oh, Granny's back, gotta look away!
Before Granny can hit Ethan with a disappointed look he just shrugs, looking back to Claire and answering, "No idea." Turning back to the redhead, he couldn't help but note, "Speaking of names, yours is a fairly unique and on the nose, huh Claire Rouge?"
Claire's eyes narrowed as she snapped, "Do not call my name in a friendly manner. It's a strange name anyway." She grumbled to the side while Ethan just shrugged.
"Hey, I never said it was a bad name, I actually quite like it." Ethan admits as he follows after the young girl, missing Claire's flustered expression as she stutters.
"Wha-What are you saying, idiot!" She yells as she turns away in an attempt to hide the redness of her expression only to make it more obvious to the Toons, who smile knowingly at Ethan while he flips them off.
The two of them continue the trek as Ethan inspects the clothes she's wearing, "Hey, that dress, is that what the students wear?" What do the male students wear?
Claire nods, before turning towards him confrontationally, "Yeah. What, are you saying it doesn't suit me?" She turns, glaring at me as I hum while holding a hand to my chin as I look at the white uniform, from an outside perspective it was nice, really pretty and a stark contrast to Ethan's own taste of darker and cooler hues. It looked like a ceremonial outfit, fit with a strange feeling from it that was almost protective in nature as Granny couldn't help but inspect the outfit, something Claire must have noticed as she began to look confusedly at her surroundings, she could probably feel that something was looking at her, but couldn't tell what it was specifically.
Regardless, Ethan shrugs, "No, actually, it's the opposite, it suits you way too well, I didn't think a girl with such a fiery attitude could look so pretty. Consider me charmed."
Claire blinked, processing the words as her face flushed red as she gasped and stuttered, a strange and familiar feeling bubbling up as Ethan reached back and grabbed ahold of the handle of his frying pan and waited for the inevitable explosion.
"What are you saying!?" She yells out, her hand grasping the air as it was replaced by a whip as she reared her arm back in preparation. "Stop being an idiot!"
With a quick draw that made Yosemite Sam proud, a loud clang rang out as a frying pan met the end of a whip as he hopped back, his backpack rustling from the movement as he jostled it back. "Hey! Calm down already!"
"Wasn't it because you said something weird?" She points out as she prepares her arm for another hit as Ethan quickly moves to protect himself.
"It's ain't weird! It's the truth, so stop hiding your embarrassment with violence!" He requests as Claire ignores him completely and brings her whip down on him as he parries it once more. The ringing of a whip against a frying pan ringing out in the forest for a while as a new legend was born.
The Legend of the Fallen Knight, how he would for his princess' forgiveness as his heavy footsteps would be punctuated by the clangs of his decrepit armor as he'd yell out at random times in the day.
After the little tussle, the duo of noble and commoner, or in Ethan's eye, troublesome girl and unwitting fool, continue their trek towards the shrine, as Ethan perked up at the sight of a stone arch leading underground as he gulped audibly.
The archway is giving off a very strong vibe that seemed to repel anything and anyone from coming through except those who really want it. While Ethan does not want to go in there, like at all, his current unwilling guide really, really wanted to go in there, so continuing with his role as 'Unwitting Fool', he foolishly followed after the young girl.
His guide must have been more perceptive than he thought as she did...something and a shimmer disappeared before she turned to Ethan. "From here onward, it will be really dangerous, so, as a commoner, you should stay away."
"If it's dangerous, why are you still goin'?" He asks and Claire just sighs lightly, shaking her head.
"As I was saying, I need to contract with a strong spirit." She explains before stepping into the shrine, disappearing into the darkness as her steps receded slowly.
Sighing, he reached into his trusty bag of wonders and began to look through it, ignoring Granny's glare and the others stretching and moving, already aware of what'll happen inside as all are already used to hopping in to help Ethan whenever he gets, inevitably, roped into doing something stupid. Not that they'd wish for anything else, aside from Porky, the poor pig loses a hair for every misadventure Ethan is involved in and wishes Ethan would stop doing it.
Finally, he finds what he's looking for, a flashlight as he slings his backpack over his shoulder once more. Clicking it, the flashlight turns on before he turns it off, pocketing it before following after the crimson-haired noble. "Hey, wait up!"
While Granny's glare is enough to get my ass into gear, especially when it comes to girls, there are some things a guy has to do, especially when you're hopelessly lost and were told that forest spirits would lead you astray.
Not to mention she said this Spirit was sealed, and those things don't just happen for a reason. While Ethan has confidence in staying alive, he's not as confident in his ability to protect someone else, he'll have to figure it out as he goes.
He skips a steps and finds himself in front of a crimson-haired noble as she looks at him with narrowed eyes, "Why did you follow me? I cannot guarantee what will happen to you."
"Moral support, also, I've never seen a Spirit be tamed." He says, quickly turning to her as he asked with a raised brow. "You are confident you can tame it, right?"
She stuttered but she still answered. "O-Of course!"
"Then I'm glad you're willing to take my clueless self, miss Elementalist." Ethan said as she just huffed, shaking her head as she turns ahead before noticing how dark it gets.
Raising a hand, she speaks, "Flames, let there be light."
While Ethan mouthed out his surprise, he followed after the bright fireball in Claire's hand, revealing the tight space as the two continued their trek ever downwards and on to where the shrine is located. While his flashlight was useless, he was thankful as he looked at the weathered and worn rocks in interest.
Ethan was no geologist, but he can appreciate culture whenever, and as the two reached the main shrine area, Ethan couldn't keep his surprise silent. "Woah…" A circular area with an opening atop that let in light shined onto the center, where a shrine was located at with an unsheathed sword stabbed into the middle of the raised area.
As he continued marveling at the area his eyes finally spotted the practically new sword, the origin of the feeling he kept getting as he narrowed his eyes at it. "Is that it? Where the Spirit resides in? That weirdly pristine sword?"
Personally, it feels like a Daffy Duck patented scam, or more like a Bugs Bunny scam since the former's scams are usually successful.
"Aw, thanks Doc." Bugs said as he fixed his gloves and pulled up the armor...why was he wearing armor?
"I resent that bub." Daffy said, also wearing armor. "So, once the girl over there gets a try, do we try pulling out good ol' Excalibur?" Daffy asks as he pointed at the sword in the stone.
"A sword that has existed from even before the Academy was founded, The Sacred Sword of Severian." Claire spoke almost reverently about the sword as Daffy hummed.
"Who was its wielder? Doesn't matter, because I, Daffius Donaldus Duckus, will-." Before he could finish, Ethan ignored him as he turned back to the sword.
"Still, for something that old to be here, it looks pretty new." He mutters under his breath, but it must not have been as quiet as he wanted it to be since Claire still heard him.
"Idiot, there's no way that's the real thing." She said, her tone showing how amazed she is, not to mention her expression, "A Sacred Sword of Severian stabbed into a stone can be found everywhere in the Empire. Some remote villages even have one for the revitalization of the village. Anyhow, even if it's not the real deal, since it's a rune sword, there might be a powerful spirit sealed in it."
"Oh." Ethan mutters, blinking as he nods. "Makes sense."
For a second, the two fall into silence before Claire takes a determined step forward, her light steps now ringing out in the quiet din of the cavern they find themselves in As Ethan turns to her. "Hey."
"You stay back." She snaps before Ethan can take a step forward. Once again the two fall into silence as she reached the stone and slowly grabs the handle of the sword, the Toons and all of them watching with bated breath until Ethan spoke up.
"Knock'em dead." Claire nearly jumped in surprise at the strange saying before turning to him in confusion as she looked into his eyes and spotted the confidence in his eyes, the resolve even if it was a bit cautious as she realized that the words are meant to be motivating. It was strange, but she didn't dislike it much.
"...Right." She said as she turned to the sword in hand while she waited for Ethan to clear as he did so, his Toons following in the din of the silence. Finally, he was by the entrance, leaning on it and the Toons behind him, either cheering Claire on or waiting for something to happen.
The silence and atmosphere could be cut with a knife and Ethan wasn't looking to make any new tricks so all he had to do was wait for Claire to act.
She did so, taking a deep and audible breath as she mutters. "Let's do this, Claire Rouge." Her voice was trembling from her nervousness as she placed her other hand on the handle of the sword, putting the sword in a two-handed grip.
One last breath and she spoke, "Oh, Noble Spirit Sealed in an Ancient Holy Sword!" The words had power to them a power that interested Ethan as he mouthed the words, for some reason. "Thou shall accept me as thy Master and I shall be thy Sheath!"
Her cherry-red lips moved strangely, in a completely different language than the language Ethan talked with her as he noted the feeling he had only seemed to increase further. "Is it going well…" He trailed off, still watching.
A gust of wind passe by him as he flinched, still unsure as to what's happening, but the sword's resembling a lightsaber and he could hear the armored forms of Daffy and Bugs hit the floor. That is either just a joke or…
Another gust of wind surprises him as the feeling he previously had only increases as the energy coming from the sword and Claire increases as he couldn't help but smirk. Well wouldya look at that? She really had it in her.
Seems like the Contract is going well. A swell of pride rises in his breast as Claire speaks with finality. "Thrice I command thee, exchange vows with me!"
That single line echoed off the chamber as the next sound brought everyone into silence. The light disappears, leaving only a remnant of it on the sword as Claire stutters, "I-I pulled it out!?"
"Woah-hoh~!" Ethan noted as he whistled out and cheered, "Good work!"
Before they could continue celebrate, light begins to emanate from the runes on the sword as Ethan blinks as he moves on instinct, grabbing his frying pan and dropping his pack on the entrance.
"Huh?" Claire says, letting go of the sword in surprise as Ethan moves faster.
The blade falls into the ground in its previous form but it proceeded to explode into bits, the force sending Claire flying with a short shriek as a familiar feeling courses through Ethan's body as he hears a familiar, "Beep! Beep!"
In a second, he reached Claire before she can hit the ground, grabbing her as he ask worried, "Hey, you okay?"
"Wh-what exactly has-," She tries, holding her temple as Ethan inspected her and found no lasting injuries as the Roadrunner leaves his body, nodding at Ethan as Ethan returned the nod.
"I wouldn't know." Ethan answers, slowly helping Claire up as she looks around, almost desperately.
"My-My sealed Spirit?" She asks in a panic, looking around as Ethan does the same, but this time, looking for the origin of a very uncomfortable feeling coursing through his body. His grip on his weapon, a frying pan, tightens in fear.
"Sad to say, but that sword is gone." Ethan says as he bites his lip before looking up at the ceiling, "But I think I can see the Spirit." Ethan answers as he points up at the sword and Claire follows it.
The decorated sword is replaced by a simple steel sword, but with a sharp edge despite its rough appearance.
"It looks kinda irritated." Ethan notes as Claire whirls towards him.
"How would you know? You're not an Elementalist." Claire points out and Ethan just twirls the frying pan in hand as he nods in agreement.
"You can look at it upside down, with your eyes closed, or even underwater, but that Spirit don't seem like the type to pledge allegiance to a Master." Ethan retorted while pointing at the blade before pointing at the area where the original sword was located at. "Hell, I'm not sure if is set up the sword, but that thing could have blown you up!"
"Umm…" She trails off, rather meekly before adding, "Indeed so."
"'Indeed so', my a-." He was about to retort but the previously motionless word suddenly drops, moving and changing its trajectory to aim right at-"Down, damnit!"
Ethan tackles her onto the floor, the blade passing by his ears like a buzzsaw as he covers the noble young lady with his body as he sighs in relief once the blade misses. Looking down, he sees Claire's eyes wide and her face a red storm of embarrassment as she tries to push him off before punching his chest. "Wai-Wah-Wait, Wh-where are you touching me!? I'll turn you to cinders."
"Stop that!" He says while looking at the sword, trailing its destruction as it cleanly cut through everything and anything in its way. From rocks to stalagmites, nothing stopped it as he whistled. "I'm clueless about all this Elementalist stuff, but you've gotta be pretty good if you can release something that powerful." He chuckles wryly as he adds, "I'd compliment your skills but I think that should be left until after the sword isn't looking to cut us up like a cow in a butcher's shop."
"Sh-Shut up!" She stutters, cutely trying to save face. "Th-The taming of it starts now."
His eyes look up and spot the sword getting ready to attack again, but if there's something that Ethan learned in his time as a pseudo-bounty hunter, you don't want to fight someone better than you in a space as limited as this. Grabbing Claire's soft hands, Ethan pulls her up as Claire yelps, "Hwaah!"
"The cute reactions are appreciated, but unnecessary for every little thing. C'mon!" He says, pulling her along and out of the main area as he picks up his backpack along the way.
"Wha-What?...Me? Cute? Kyaa!" She yelped as I pulled her along and ignored her flustered expression.
"Outside we go!" Ethan yells as the two began to speed up and away from the sword. Ethan chances a glance back and notices how the sword hasn't followed them. Must be a bit confused, it barely woke up after all.
Finally, the two leap out of the exit as the exit bursts and the sword sails toward them, cutting a small line into Ethan's forehead as he reaches up to stop the bleeding. "Shit." He curses, "Thing's rowdy. Reminds me of a certain princess I know."
"You're so noisy." She grumbles awkwardly. She coughs before standing up to her full height, "What a rebellious child...I'll give you a proper spanking later."
Rolling up her skirt, she reaches into it before revealing the whip under it, the leather hitting the ground hard as Ethan gets up, wiping off the blood from his forehead. "You sure you can actually tame it?" Ethan asks while holding his frying pan tightly.
"Of course, it will be easy. So amateurs, stay back." She warned but Ethan wasn't convinced.
"Yeah, but a Spirit can't be used if you're dead ya know?" Ethan reaches for Claire's hand. "C'mon, let's g-."
She swats his hand away while shaking her head. "No, you escape yourself. I will absolutely make this Spirit mine."
"At the cost of your life? Are you insane?" He asks but Claire just averts her eyes.
"...You will never understand." She starts, "I need...power, I need a powerful Spirit that will not lose to any other Spirit!" She proclaimed as she chanted a different chant than before, the same chant that summoned the whip when they first met.
"The hunting begins, Scarlet!" A burst of flames appeared as a whip didn't appear, instead a vermilion red cat hops out and hisses at the sword, flames wrapping around the body of the Hell Cat, because what else could it be, as something seems to prod at Ethan.
I get the feeling that the fact that the cat appeared is very important.
Regardless, Claire pointed at her target, the sword, and snapped her whip. "Scarlet go get it!"
The cat leaped in response to Claire's order, blazing claws poised to leave marks on the sword as the two collide in mid-air, releasing sparks high above as the two continue clashing time after time as Claire moves her whip expertly, never hitting the Spirit and with each hit the flame cat would move in response, as if using the whip to signal the cat to do certain things.
The two moved together, as Claire seemed to wait for something as Scarlet collided with the sword time and time again, and Claire must have found it as she extended a hand at the frozen sword.
"Eat this. Searing Fireball!" She spoke in the strange language again and a large fire ball appeared in Claire's hand before she threw it at the Spirit, the heat coming off of it great enough to allow me to feel it from my spot a few meters away.
Raising his hand to remove the light from his eyes, Ethan narrowed his eyes at the sword Spirit as it hit and left Ethan feeling a bit surprised at the strength of the explosion. And wasn't Scarlet within the radius of the explosion? Wasn't it bad?
Once the heat stopped hitting Ethan's arms, he lowered them as he gaped at the destroyed and charred trees in the area with the cat still as fine as ever. Well, it's made of fire, so obviously fireballs wouldn't hurt it, probably.
Well, either the Spirit in the sword is also a fire Spirit, or it's strong enough to take a fireball to the face and not react. Because as soon as the first gust of cold air blew into the area, Claire was already moving, as if expecting it. "Scarlet!"
The cat moved, listening to its master's orders as the claws of the cat met the edge of the sword.
Shivers ran up Ethan's spine at the first note of the unholy sound that came from the sword as he clasped his hand around his ears, a very familiar sound, the sound of metal-on-metal. Is that from the struggle or is the sword making it?
Claire was too late and too close to do something as she crumpled down with her face scrunched in pain. Whilst this was happening, the sword changed into a huge bastard sword as it seemed to raise itself to strike then brought itself down.
A loud clang rang out as the sword was redirected slightly, leaving a deep gash on the cat's body as the sword seem to turn in surprise as it saw what hit it.
A frying pan.
While Scarlet fell, injured and nearly bisected, it was beginning to lose its strength to remain in this world, to Claire's shock. Her eyes were wide and blank as she watched her closest ally and friend struggle to stand up, the flames moving and covering the injury to try and stitch itself together to continue to fight but struggling to do so.
She watched, ignorant to the fact that the sword Spirit was pointing at her, only noticing once Scarlet yowled with wide eyes at the sword and missing how Ethan grabbed the cat as he positioned himself in front of Claire, letting Scarlet leap off his arms and in front of her master. "Claire! You-ah shit!"
He was going to ask whether she's okay or not but couldn't as the sword swooped in to attack at incredible speeds, spinning and looking to run Ethan through as a memory comes to mind. The words Claire spoke!
How did it go again?
"Err, Oh, um, N-Noble Spirit sealed in thy-why-thy! Thy Ancient Holy Sword!"
The sword collided with his extended right hand, knocking his concentration slightly as blood fell from his pierced hand as he continued with the words he tried to remember through the pain.
"Th-Thou shall accept me as thy Man-Master and we-I shall be thy Sheath!"
More and more blood gushed through his hand as he tried to remember the last words, or at least tried to mimic the sounds Claire made as he's sure he nearly fucked up a few words.
"Twi-Thrice I command thee!"
"No way…" Claire muttered, watching Ethan attempt to mimic the Spirit Language successfully as she realized what's going on. "A Spirit Contract?"
As Ethan dug his heels into the ground, he could feel his bones break inside him as he shivered but stood strong.
"Exchange saliv-vows with me!" He finished with a final yell of resolve as he withstood the horrible pain coursing through his very being.
Then it stopped as suddenly as it began, leaving Ethan to lose strength as he yelped and threw himself forward and into the ground with a yelp.
The last thing he heard before falling unconscious was the clamor of his Toons in comparison to the previous eerie quiet that he almost missed.
When he woke up the next time, he couldn't help but note the pretty girl in front of him, her red hair framing her face as she desperately shook me awake. Kinda sucks that he has to be awake at this point.
Groaning, he sits up, rubbing his head as the Toons moved around him in worry. "What…?"
He bring up his hand that throbbed for a second as he looked at the back of his hand, engraved on the back was the image of two swords crossing. Then that must mean…
"Huh…" Ethan mumbles, turning to Claire, just as lost as she is. "What does this mean?"
"That's what I wanna know." She responded weakly. "How can a male contract a Spirit?"
Meanwhile, Ethan just continues to marvel at the mark on the back of his hand as he gulps reluctantly. This was pretty cool.
Meanwhile, Claire was having enough of being ignored. "My Sword Spirit?!"
"Oh right." Ethan says. "The Spirit in the Sword. The Sword Spirit. A Spirit in a Sword. Your Sword Spirit. That Sword Spirit." He rambled on, to Claire's annoyance as he sucked in his lips and then let them pop out. "Yeah, that's gonna be a bit hard."
Looks like it's my Sword Spirit now.
"Seems like I made a contract with it by chanting that spell you did." He holds a hand to his chin as he hums. "Well, at least I tried to imitate him, I'm fairly sure I got a few things wrong."
"Wha-wha-whaaaa~?" She trailed off with a stunned expression as she looked at him with blank and absent eyes for a little too long.
"Err, hey…" He trails off himself, his eyes landing on his frying pan as he slowly got up, "I'm gonna...yeah." He says as he gets up, picking up his frying pan and his backpack.
Still, he was having trouble believing that what he did was that impressive. Greyworth herself said she was the Headmistress of an Academy that taught people, Elementalist is the term Claire used, so it shouldn't be surprising that he could do it, right?
As he picked up his backpack, subtly stowing away his flashlight, he begins to walk away backward, hoping his guide would wake up from whatever stupor she was in.
She did. "Wait, wait I say!" She starts, scrambling to get back up as she swiped at her skirt to get rid of the dirt. She looked around, running towards Ethan's location and found Ethan staring at her in confusion as she began to glare at him, resting her hand on her hips as her chest moved in exertion. "You stole..my Spirit, take responsibility for it!" She said in between breaths of exertion.
"Huh?" Ethan asked, confused since it sounds like she wants him to marry her, and she is a Noble, so if she wants the Sword Spirit and this place is as Medieval as he thinks it is… "Wait, hold on-."
"No." She interrupts, "I should have been the one to have obtained that Spirit, so I am saying that you have to take responsibility for denying me that Spirit."
"What, like marriage?" He asks, confused as Claire's face flushes at the word as he continues, "'Cause, I'm not gonna lie, you're cute and a-whoa!"
Quickly drawing his frying pan, he blocks an attack from her whip as she glares at him in embarrassment, "Y-You! Who said anything about m-ma-marriage!"
"Well, what do you mean when you say 'responsibility'." He asks as she coughs into a fist to try and regain her composure. After a bit, she turned to him confidently.
"Take responsibility," She starts quietly before cracking her whip while pointing a finger towards Ethan, "by becoming my contracted Spirit."
"...Well that's a nice way to say 'Slave'." He snarked as her whip cracked again and he ducked it and began to run. "Hell nah!"
"Get back here!" She yelled, masterfully moving her whip as it circled his throat and he choked as he pulled him back.
Meanwhile, the Toons were having the time of their life. "You go Doc! Be careful with that, she might start to enjoy it.
She continued to drag Ethan away as he flipped off the laughing Toons.