Hey, hey.

One thing I've always been annoyed by was the fact that no one bothered to teach Louise to use a sword, despite her mother being famed as one of the best swordsman in Tristain. Like, really? Anyway, enough from me. Enjoy.


Louise didn't know what to expect when Hanami offered help.

It certainly wasn't this.

Louise winced as a knife stabbed through her thigh. The goblin grinned wildly, green cheeks pulled taut as it saw the blood running down her leg. She grit her teeth, and with a swipe she parted the goblin's neck in two. Its head went flying, and greenish blood splattered onto the thin edge of her blade.

She quickly turned to her left, at the roof of one of the derelict buildings in this ruined world. Hanami stood there, and Louise shook her head. Don't heal me, she told with her eyes. Hanami frowned for a moment before she nodded.

Instead, she went down to her knees and began wrapping a bandage around her thigh.

She could use her Void Magic to heal it, but the last time she'd tried to [Reconstruct] her own body, she nearly twisted her arm beyond recognition. It was only because of Hanami that she even had an arm still. Hanami told her that it was just her inexperience with Void Magic, but she was still queasy on another attempt.

She held back a sigh.

Void Magic. 'The border between Magic and Science', was what Hanami had explained it as. A catalog of Spells that didn't adhere to the Four-Elements archetype that the Mages of her world followed. It was why all her spells had turned into explosions—her affinity for the Void had been too strong for her spells to be anything else.

It'd been about two weeks since she began learning under Lady Hanami. And in those two weeks alone, she'd learnt more than she had in her year in the Academy. What that said about the institution her mother had entrusted her to,

Well,

She now had three spells under her belt. [Explosion, [Record, and [Analyze]. Or four, if one included her [Reconstruct]. It was…liberating. To know that she wasn't a failure. That she was a Mage more special than most. That it wasn't her fault for being born wrong.

Hanami had taught her Swordplay as well, and though she found herself disliking it at first, the more she used her blade—a beautiful rapier Lady Hanami had granted her—the more comforting it became. She wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was just her blood as a Vallière?

Whatever the case,

Lady Hanami had tutored her herself. When night fell back in Louise's world, she would step through the door, and Hanami would be there. She would pull down the blinds of her store's windows, and she would teach Louise. In what art of wading the Void, in the dance of the sword, and in the grit of fighting to survive.

Then, Lady Hanami brought her here, to this ruined world destroyed by goblins of all manners and sizes. She knew that Hanami had the power to traverse through worlds, but jumping into a different world herself—it was mesmerizing to watch just how powerful her new tutor was.

And now here she was.

Distant growls sounded, and Louise looked up to find a group of goblins approaching her. They came at her, with rusted knives and crooked bows, their noses twitching as they caught the scent of her blood. Louise took a breath and stood, whipping the edge of her rapier towards the concrete below.

"Come," She whispered, and she brought her rapier forward. The edge glimmered unnaturally beneath the lightless sky, filled with the weight of her Willpower. "For I am Louise of the Vallière!"

Atop a building, Hanami shook her head as she watched Louise charge forward. She'd taught the girl much these past couple weeks, but the whole 'Honor' thing still stuck around.

Oh well.

Time flew by faster than Louise wished it did. Before she knew it, a whole month had gone by since she first stepped through that magical door. There was only hours before the day of the Familiar Summoning, and though she was no seer, Louise knew by instinct that she would fail. There was this feeling inside her that she would, no matter what. As if the path she was destined to follow was no more.

And even if she did, she had no desire to bind an intelligent creature to her will. The Binding Ritual was…foul, in a way she hadn't realized. To rob a creature of its will—stripping all but the instinctual desire to obey it's master-

If that had been cast on a human, it would've been no different than turning someone into a slave.

"It's time, isn't it?" Hanami began, sat across the table from where Louise sat. Her fingers were curled around a mug of warm chocolate. "Are you sure of your return? I'm sure you know what would occur if you do."

Louise closed her eyes, quiet and pensive. "I do." She whispered.

Hanami hummed. "If that is your will, then follow it through 'til it's end." She took a long sip of her drink. "And you can always return here, if you find yourself in need."

Louise nodded. The last few days had been spent acquainting herself with her newest Void spell, [Portal]. At her desire, she could create a gate to connect her world to this one. She could do more, but at her level, this was as much as she could do.

"Well, if that's the case," She heard Hanami tap her knuckle onto the table, followed by a soft thud. "Let this be a present. A congratulatory gift, so to say."

Louise opened her eyes, and she held back a gasp. There was a uniform of sorts on the table, neatly folded. She brushed a finger across the fabric, and she shivered at the incredible weight she felt. The amount of magic she could feel in every line of fabric was incredible; mighty yet impossibly warm.

She did her best not to cry, relying fully on [Mind of Steel] to keep herself whole.

Silently, she took the clothes and went through the door to the kitchens. She dressed herself in the new clothes her tutor had given her, and she couldn't help but smile as she stood before an errant mirror.

The girl in the reflection was almost unrecognizable. Dressed in a white dress shirt, buttoned together by bronze clasps. A pair of black shorts befit for skirmishes and battle. A white flowing cape that wrapped around her shoulders, the pink below complimentary to the pinks of her hair and eyes.

She stepped back out, and the tips of her ears went red at the proud smile on Hanami's lips. "You look beautiful." She said, and though Louise had heard such words hundreds of times before, it felt wholly different coming from her tutor.

"T-Thank you." She stuttered. She took a breath. "For everything."

"Thank me by staying safe, okay?"

Louise nodded, resolute. "I will."

And unlike the first time she entered into this world, she walked out the Pâtissière with her head held high. The doors shimmered as she left, and the world twisted as she stepped back into her room in the dormitory. A flash of light came from behind her, and when she turned, she saw that the door leading to Hanami's Pâtissière was no longer there.

Not that she needed it anymore. She could [Portal] there whenever she wanted.

Louise looked out the window. At the black skies slowly being painted a warm orange by the rising sun.

She smiled.

Morning came, and all the students gathered at a courtyard for the Familiar Summoning. The students would summon creatures that would be their companion for the rest of their lives. Some of them were small, some of them were large. And through it all Louise stood just behind the others, watching with mild interest.

She was back in her Academy uniform, though she'd likely change back to the clothes Lady Hanami had gifted her once she was out of this Academy.

Before long, everyone but her had summoned their familiars. She closed her eyes and waited for the verdict. For the professor to call for her name. It didn't happen, unfortunately, as it was that damned Zerbst instead that reminded the rest of the class. The students jeered at her, calling her a Zero and laughing at her inevitable failure.

She smiled. Zero, they called her. She once considered that name foul, and some part of her still did. But Lady Hanami had shown her the branch of Seer Magic called the 'Tarot Cards', and the so-called Zero of it. The Fool, it was. Someone without anything, but with the potential to do anything.

She stepped forward with confidence and recited the summoning spell from memory. She felt the Willpower flood her wand. Felt the air grow heavy with power.

And then nothing happened. The weight vanished, the Willpower stilted, and her wand exploded into shrapnel as she mouthed the last of the chant. The court went silent, and then laughter. The other students laughed and laughed and laughed, all except the ever-silent Tabitha and a horrified Zerbst.

Yet, despite her failure, her heart felt light.

Louise smiled.

.

.

.

Barely a week later, a rumor about a female knight dressed in brilliant whites would begin circulating throughout Tristain. Of a girl, barely an adult, that felled monsters and brigands that'd gone ignored by the nobles.

But that was a story for another time.


She will make her own story, now. Perhaps she'd visit from time to time. Perhaps not. Who knows? Fate no longer has any power over her, and she will be the catalyst to break her world away from its predestination.

How exciting!