Guiche really had to leave the theatrics for when he was in private. By the look on the teacher's face, Colbert agreed. His verbal putdown had been the most interesting thing Louise had heard all morning. Clearly, one does not fuck with Jean Colbert, because Jean Colbert will fuck with you, and for being a forty year old or so man, he knew how to put down a teenager and strike where it hurt.
Either that or Guiche's reaction to the giant mole thing that came out of the ground. She had to admit, the blond fop was proving uncharacteristically entertaining that day. She pointedly ignored Colbert's praise for Kirche's summoned salamander. Because, evidently, it wasn't the teacher's fault that the boob monster could work her charms in any situation. Stupid bouncy goodness!
"It's a result that fits my runic name, Kirche The Ardent perfectly!" Though she seemed way too pleased with her summon, she didn't seem to be bragging about it so much as she was simply stating how proud she was of her summoned creature. She simply liked her familiar.
Louise jumped to mentally accusing her of bragging, though. It's what happens when you hate that person for their curiously attractive, round, firm brea—stop that, bad thought! Get back to writing mode, brain! Save porn for later! Actually, no, I can write and watch porn at the same time. I can multitask!
"Is that everyone?" Asked Colbert, the teacher, as he scanned the class. He didn't truly have to, as he assumed that students would be loath to leave the clearing without their familiars. He just wanted to get a second look at what had been summoned. And, by the way, he still found that dragon to be mighty impressive.
"Not yet." Kirche smirked evilly. "Miss Valliere still hasn't summoned her familiar." Oh, if she hadn't sounded like a bitch, Louise might've been inclined to believe that Zerbst was actually not trying to do this to annoy Louise. Again, the damnable Germanian sought to ruin Louise's good mood!
Of course she'd be put in the center of attention right after that. The murmurs and whispers regarding her "runic" name were starting to get on her nerves about the third repeat through. She wasn't about to fail.
"After what you said yesterday, I'm sure you'll summon something more impressive than me!" Kirche sounded way too condescending with that one. Unknown to Louise, she was actually hopeful that the pinkette would manage to summon something impressive enough that she'd make the name calling stop. It wasn't funny the 2593926th time. Maybe she'd even get them to make up a new nickname or something... Maybe Louise the Wormtongue? It would be hilarious if she did summon a worm, considering she'd used the insult once or twice in regards to the Germanian herself.
"Of course!" Louise nearly shouted, thinking that, for a second, she'd channeled a man by the name of Raul Julia although she was confused as to why. She did not know who Raul Julia was, nor did she know why Raul Julia is awesome. Because to him, it was the last movie he worked on, but to her, it was just a slow week day.
"Please..." A soft murmur, something she'd never say out loud, a Valliere did NOT ask for things, a Valliere demanded them, she just wasn't in a position to do so right now. She felt the energy gather. She felt it pool. She enhanced it. She poured everything she had. She had to dig into the depths of her willpower, and bring everything out. Her inner strength. She found it, and pulled all of it out. She did not notice the circle, once pink underneath her, darken into a deep red. "My servant who is in some place of the confines of the universe!" She ignored the further questioning of her abilities and the snickers. She knew her chant was uncommon. Because her familiar would be uncommon, no, unique. Her familiar would be the familiar to end all familiars! The best familiar ever summoned! "The sacred, beautiful and above all else powerful familiar..!"
It would be a holy spirit unlike no other, beautiful enough to make the Zerbst green with envy, and powerful enough to match a mage of her caliber!
Kirche didn't miss the way her blue haired companion's eyes seemed to widen the slightest fraction, or how she'd dropped the staring-into-the-book thing in favor of staring at the girl shouting the odd incantation. Because her own bad feelings had intensified. She knew something was wrong. Something felt wrong. Louise wanted a powerful familiar...
"I summon you from my heart, I ask you to answer my call!"
Louise's hand drew a circle with her wand in the air, taking care to make it as perfect as her pulse would allow. Then, she punched her wand through, and the circle she'd drawn took transparent form, only to crash like glass, as did the circle that had appeared and widened considerably under her. The ground was eaten away by the ever expanding red lines, that grew closer and closer to black by the second. Then they vanished, and the grass was back where it'd been before.
A spark left the tip of her wand. It was a spark of darkness. It was the only thing that Louise could call it. All of a sudden, everything felt wrong. She feared her spell had failed. She feared that everything she'd worked for, every scrap of power she'd poured into the spell, had been in vain. The spark faded, although the feeling of wrongness did not.
The sound of a thunderclap, so close, nearly made her eardrums burst, and she was violently thrown off her feet when the usual result of her magic took place. There was a dustcloud formed from the explosion. Louise felt her butt hit the floor and she was certain she'd been thrown at least a few meters away, because the epicenter of the explosion was still shrouded in moving dust. There was a second, distant thunderclap, and a sound like lightning hitting the ground.
Seconds later, the complaints about her failure began, along groans of pain for those who'd been scared enough to try to jump away or fallen facefirst. They'd been swept away by the explosion, and it had to have been painful. Louise had been at the center of it herself, so she understood it.
Oddly enough, both Kirche and her silent companion appeared to be standing without too much difficulty, but Louise was too afraid of failure right now to notice that. The pinkette stood back up and walked forward, braving the cloud of dust.
Guiche de Gramont did not consider himself a man who was truly hard to impress. In fact, it was fairly easy to impress him, all things considered. However, this summoning took the cake, as it had been possibly the most violent example of the ritual ever. Heck, she had probably killed whatever she had summoned. Guiche didn't feel sorry for whatever poor creature it'd been, though. He was too busy picking up his jaw, as both he and the one he'd actually dived behind, Montmorency (entirely so she fell on him and the pain she'd had upon hitting the ground was reduced, it was not because her bottom landed squarely in his lap, no sir!), stared at the new arrival.
It was not something that was seen every day.
The stranger was tall... although not enough to be a terrible difference. He was probably a fully grown adult man, or very close to. His hair was a shade of red dissimilar from Kirche's, and he wore strange clothing that he assumed was of commoner make, even though from a preliminary glance he was forced to admit that the make was probably beyond most clothing he'd seen, and the fabric was very much unlike what he knew. A foreigner, then, since it was clear that he was somewhat confused as to his whereabouts.
A commoner that the Zero had hired to make it seem as if she'd summoned something?
"What a violent summon..."
Maybe it was the fact that he seemed to talk in an odd, unintelligible language, or how he seemed to be that much more than the naked eye could see, but Guiche felt the comment about commoners die in his throat. No, it had to be the aura of power the man had around himself. Or the fact that he had come out unscathed from being blown right the hell up by the Zero.
"A... A human?"
"Is it a commoner?"
"No doubt, it's a commoner."
"Yep, no matter how you look at it..."
Guiche almost laughed when whatever had been possessing him dispelled with his classmates' dismissal.
The man frowned for a minute, he seemed pensive, thinking to himself about something unfathomable. What they did not know was that the man was identifying their language. "Where am I?" Now that one had been perfectly understandable... if a bit accented.
Louise didn't much care. "Is t-this my sacred, beautiful and above all else, powerful familiar?" Commoners were commoners, and she wouldn't dignify him with an answer. For the moment, anyway. Because her sheer surprise had dulled her manners, and she would not reply. Meanwhile, the man in front of her looked confused at her words. This was so not going well.
"Who are you?" She didn't have good manners, it seemed, or couldn't understand or hear him. Either way, he was a perfectly groomed English Gentleman and therefore, he'd actually answer. He'd been taught to treat ladies nicely.
"My name is Haru Springfield." He replied. "Who are You?"
She continued to ignore his question. "Where are you from, commoner?"
He frowned, or rather, smiled the smile that concealed a frown, at being ignored again, while still looking down on the pink thing that wasn't trying to get up. "Wales." he replied on reflex. "Where am I?" He made an attempt at ignoring how she'd called him. He would be unfailingly polite, as he needed the answers and being gung ho was simply not his style. A gentleman's style was very important to said gentleman.
"Oh my! This does match up with your declaration!" It sounded like an insult, but had anyone been listening and been familiar with Kirche, they'd have realized there wasn't an ounce of sarcasm in her voice. She had a faint blush on her face and a perverted smirk, all that Louise needed to know that she'd have to pry her off her familiar with a crowbar, if she'd seen it. She only wished those had been invented at some point... "This commoner? No... can't be... too refined..." The camera cuts away before her hands reach her chest, and only her perverted giggle is heard, muffled as it was.
He focused on Louise, and the pinkette's knees grew weak, both from shock and a sensation she couldn't quite place. She blushed in clear embarrassment, and fell on her butt yet again. Her poor rear had taken quite the abuse that day, and it'd probably bother her later. He offered her a hand, clearly looking apologetic at having surprised her, and it was even worse when she squeaked, which made her even further indignant.
"It's only a little mistake!" Louise cried, scrambling back to her feet and ignoring the hand that had been extended her way. She wouldn't give that commoner the benefit of touching someone of her position, even if he was impossibly handsome!
"As expected of Louise the Zero!"
"Always surpassing our expectations!"
Haru smiled at her, trying his best to look as mellow as Takamichi did, the insulting nature of the comments flying right over his head. He didn't even know what the hell was going on, yet. So far, he'd managed to gather the information that she'd summoned him. That much was clear. Although he wasn't certain about the nature of the summons, according to what Zazie had explained, so long as you had the power, you could potentially summon anything that can be classified as a "demon". Even Zazie herself could be summoned at a moment's notice, if someone could muster enough power to reach high enough in the demonic hierarchy.
Demons were often summoned to accomplish tasks that mortal mages cannot do on their own. Demons are mercenaries, in a sense, whose only price is whatever you're willing to give them. If it is good enough and they accept, then they do it. If it isn't, then they cancel the summons and go home. So long as it wasn't morally reprehensible, a random task for someone else was a welcome break from routine.
He did find it odd that he could be summoned just like that, since as far as he knew he was pretty high ranked, as demonkind go, granted he'd willingly walked into the portal... Why were they laughing, anyway?
"Mr. Colbert, please allow me to try again!" The girl shouted at the oddly unmoving teacher. Haru stared at the staff he was clutching. It'd only been moved a fraction of an inch, and it'd dug up the ground on where it'd been moved. The teacher had been close to the center of the explosion, but he was totally unharmed. Not to mention, the man had narrowed his eyes at him, examining him.
"I can't do that!" Jean Colbert spoke, the spirit of the flames of youth possessing him and gifting him the passion of a young man.
"Why not!" Louise screamed, clearly exasperated at her situation. Her, a daughter of the Valliere family, summoning a commoner was an insult to her name!
"This ceremony is a sacred ritual that dictates the life of a mage!" he explained, oddly passionately. "Asking to repeat it is to dishonor the entire ordeal, nevermind allowing it!" he finished, his eyes only slightly narrowed.
Louise, still fuming, sighed dejectedly.
"Wether you approve or not, it has been decided that he is your familiar." That one made Haru stop for a second. A familiar? Those kinds of contracts lasted for the entirety of the mage's lifespan! That was not good.
Simply walking into such a contract was a very stupid decision, it was indeed a very important moment in the life of a mage... He'd chosen his own familiar after careful consideration (or rather, after Chamo had suggested it, but that was beside the point) and as a gentleman, it was his task to have this man reconsider. Because, clearly, the man couldn't possibly be entirely sane.
"Excuse me, choosing a familiar is a very important matter." Haru said, trying not to be too intrusive. "While I do agree that it's a sacred ritual, shouldn't she be allowed to try again if she doesn't like the result? She's gonna be stuck with me for a long time, after all..." what he didn't say was that that long time would be the rest of her life. He was mildly hopeful that the spell would reverse once he was dismissed and he'd be back on the ISSDA's headquarters. The man chose to ignore him, further adding to Haru's annoyance level. He was a gentleman, but even his patience had its limits. They were still far from reaching them, though.
"I've never heard of anyone with a commoner as a familiar!" Louise seemed to still be hopeful about Colbert reconsidering, though she still glared at the next round of laughter. It was clearly getting on her nerves.
"Be it a commoner or anything else, I don't accept exceptions!" Colbert finished, slamming his staff against the ground to shut everyone up. "Bind the familiar with the contract." He ordered, a tone of finality that broke for no argument.
Haru gulped. He'd gone and gotten himself into more trouble like a moron. Both he and Louise seemed to react similarly, though her discomfort had been much more obvious. "Eh..? With this..?" Okay, that would get annoying after a while. Not the name calling, the poking with the wand. Seriously, that thing is pointy!
"Hurry." the balding teacher ordered. "Or I will have to expel you." That prompted another wave of taunts and laughter that went ignored. Oddly enough, they were only male voices this time...
She turned to him and reluctantly came close to him. "You should be grateful. Normally, no commoner would receive this from a noble in their entire life!" She said, noticeably angry. She raised her wand and seemed to fall into chanting mode, clearly concentrating yet again. Haru felt the power being gathered, and he cursed his fate.
He could get out. He could incapacitate everyone in the clearing in less than a few seconds. Had he been a knave, he would have. His mind warred. He had been raised to be the perfect gentleman, and robbing a young lady of the chance to accomplish a ritual that was considered sacred by some was NOT a gentlemanly thing to do. Clearly, he only had Nekane to blame because she'd done too good a job raising him to be a nice, polite and kind young man.
"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc De La Valliere! Pentagon of the five elemental powers, grant your blessing upon this creature, and bind it as my familiar!"
Getting a wand swung into his face wasn't a new occurrence for Haru. Generally, they proceeded to unleash some sort of spell, most of the time. The last time he'd visited the younger classes in Ariadne he'd almost gotten his face blown up by an overenthusiastic first year student. But that being directly followed by a kiss, however, was. Generally, people didn't try to make out with him directly after blowing up. Okay, maybe some did.
When Louise pulled back, they were both pink in the face, although she was significantly more so.
While to her it'd probably been her first kiss, to him it was a slow Tuesday at the office. My god I just repeated this joke!
"It seems you've completed the contract with your familiar."
There was an odd stinging sensation running through Haru's arm, soon it became a burning pain that coated his left fist. He stared at it bemusedly. Was that normal? He hadn't marked Chamo... Maybe he was being branded so he'd be recognized as hers. Still, he should probably slap himself. Wait a minute. Why was he being so calm about the whole deal? Maybe it was just the fact that his hand was fucking burning and he was thus more concentrated on the pain than much else. He bit back the need to scream.
"Huh?"
"It'll be over soon. You are getting the runes of a familiar engraved." Louise explained, still looking everywhere but at him. He noticed Colbert's eyes widening when the man spent a second staring at the newfound runes in his hand. However, his eyes focused once again on Louise and the rather displeased frown on her face.
So she hadn't wanted him as a familiar, and he, if he were to be honest, didn't want to be her familiar either. A wonderful partnership. He'd have to suck it up.
"That was certainly painful." He said, frowning slightly... Meaning his smile hadn't even faltered a bit.
Once the rest was done (apparently, they were all too giddy about fraternizing with their familiars to fly off right away), Louise finally allowed herself to relax and let the gravity of her situation sink in. It just wasn't salvageable at all. She'd summoned a commoner in the middle of class and brought shame to her name. At least it couldn't go any worse, right?
She wondered if thinking the words had the same effect as saying them. That tended to jinx her almost instantly. And once she turned around again to face her familiar, she found him chatting rather amicably with Kirche. The redhead rapidly turned around to change target to Louise. She didn't even notice the vein throbbing in the latter's forehead, a clear sign of anger.
Frikkin' Boob Monster trying to steal her familiar.
"Congratulations, Louise, you've summoned a marvelous familiar!" her perverted giggle further drove up the pinkette's nerves. Her familiar had no right to be so calm and collected when talking to women other than herself!
Wait, calm and collected? In fact, his sight hadn't lowered to Kirche's cleavage even once, although the Germanian seemed mildly offended by that, and was probably intending to fix that issue at once. At least that was the image given, seeing as she seemed to be tugging at and lowering the line of her cleavage. It still failed to work spectacularly.
"Kirche, you..."
She smiled, the most perverted smile so far. "I don't intend to do anything..." An obvious lie. "For now." Okay, that much is true. "I'll come later to greet you formally some other time. See you!" Insert heart emoticon here.
"See you later, Ms. Zerbst!" Haru said, waving as Kirche levitated away. "Man, flying like that seems really convenient." he said, not even blushing at the sight of Kirche's rather racy undergarments. Still tame in comparison to what he had become used to. But really, he had to learn to fly under his own power. Spending nine years behind a desk and all of his battles as a sentient bolt of lightning hadn't reminded him of that little fact.
"We're going back too." Louise said.
"I kind of need you to explain a few things to me." Haru said, trying not to sound too ignorant of their customs. He was only used to the kind of magic he was taught (and a bit of eastern magic he'd seen used), so learning something new was interesting. As much as teaching someone something new, or at the very least, close enough that the comparison was pointless.