Chapter 0 (Because what else would you call the prologue of a 'Familiar of Zero' fanfic?)

***Chapter-START!***

The spell exploded. It always did, somehow, when it was Louise casting it. Fortunately, her classmates had been expecting it and had been standing clear, ready with their 'clear smoke' spells and jeers. After all, with Louise the Zero casting, what other result could there be? Yet when the smoke cleared, they found her spell had not failed. Not completely, anyhow.

The breeze bought forth from the students to disperse the smoke revealed a figure in the remains of the summoning circle. A humanoid figure. It seemed to be human, and at first there were jeers about summoning a goblin or orc, but the quickly dissipating smoke revealed this to be false. The figure was human – an impossibility, but none the less, there it was.

The figure appeared to be some form of a hunter or brigand – its entire dress was made up of the light browns and greens favored by those professions. Unlike hunters or brigands however, the cloth of the creature in front of them was patterned - in order to make it blend in. The prohibitive cost of patterning cloth resulted in it being reserved for nobles – and the idea of using such a expensive technique to make a person blend into their environment rather than stand out among their peers was unthinkable. Yet there it was.

The figure had no weapon they could see. Rather than a rucksack strung to its back as a hunter might have, it had a number of small pouches attached to various belts across its body. In place of its rucksack, it had a strange black-ish metal contraption, slung across its back with a strap. The lack of a rucksack to carry its prey suggested a brigand… or perhaps a scout? There was something in the style of its dress that suggested military – especially the odd-looking patterned helmet on the figure's head.

As the smoke cleared, it turned to look at them in a quick lizard-like motion, impossibly fast for a human, and the crowd of students… well, they were both relieved and disquieted. The idea that Louise had managed to summon a human as her familiar – it smacked somewhat of heresy. To find that the figure merely appeared human came as something as a relief. The students disquiet came from the contrast between the figures humanity and inhumanity. Zubest had seen this before – there had been a talented doll maker within her kingdom, making ever-more realistic dolls for the daughters of nobility. The standard dolls made for the commoners were absurdly proportioned, and were both very cute and very popular. His realistic dolls however, were quite creepy. They were invariably destroyed, and the doll-maker was almost lynched for witchcraft before he restricted himself to the cute, 'commoner' dolls.

The figure in front of her reminded her very much of the destroyed dolls. Everything about it screamed almost-human. Alien. Other. There was the quick lizard-like motions of its head already mentioned, but there were more subtle things as well. There was something about the figures eyes – it would be looking right at something, but the eyes didn't seem to focus. The eyes didn't really change at all. The figures face was completely expressionless

Was it some sort of mimicry? But where on earth had it seen a human dressed in such clothing? Perhaps it was a really bad mimicry? It would certainly fit in with Louise's… talents.

'Louise... whatever the creature is, you need to complete the ceremony.'

The things inhumanity was revealed as it turned to face the speaker. But 'turned' is something of a misnomer. Rather, 'rotated on the spot', its feet gliding without moving over the grass. Louis looked on the figure with no small amount of trepidation. 'I need to kiss… this?' her voice uncertain.

Mr Colbert nodded. 'The summoning will have left it dazed. Completing the ceremony will bind it to you – rendering it powerless against you. This must be done before it shakes itself out of its daze.'

The creature's legs moved… it seemed to be attempting to walk. However despite the motions of its legs, the figure remained stationary. This did nothing to reassure Louise, who was cautiously moving towards it. The thing continued its attempts at walking -– sidestepping, and even jumping, yet remained firmly in place as Louis raised her courage. Its quick motions were creepy.

It really didn't seem dazed at all to her. But...
Mr Colbert was at her back, and she was surrounded by her classmates. It wasn't like she had a choice. If the thing in front of her mauled her, it would still be preferable to the mauling she would receive from her classmates if she refused to go near the thing.

And with this comforting thought, Louise finally leaned forward – within reach of the figure, leaned forward and kissed him. Kissed through him, her lips falling through the creatures face with no resistance, and onto a slightly cold, flat surface slightly behind it. She shrieked and bowled herself over backwards, her classmates… strangely not laughing at her for it, just as on edge as she was.

The creature glided towards her, and Louise scuttled backwards, shrieking – but the creature hadn't been attempting to attack her, it seems. Impossibly fast, it reversed – gliding backwards without the need to stop. It glided forward and back a few more times – making sure it could move now, it seemed, before turning to look at her. And at Mr Colbert – who now had his wand pointed firmly in its direction.

The strange metallic thing on the creatures back seemed to teleport to the creature's hand, and he pointed it back at Mr Colbert, looking through what looked like a short telescope on the top of the device. It was evidently some kind of stalemate. None of them was sure of what it would take to take down the creature, nor what the black device was capable of. Yet the creature – as creepy as it was, didn't attack. Just glided back and forth and jumped occasionally, keeping its expressionless face pointed at Mr Colbert.

The glowing of the Familiar Runes as they appeared caused Mr Colbert to relax. It seems he had feared the strange creature would not be Bound. The appearance of the runes didn't seem to cause the creature any pain, but their appearance had at least stopped it's obsession with Mr Colbert – instead staring expressionlessly at the runes appearing on its hand.

Mr Colbert motioned to Louise - who was standing behind him, looking at the thing nervously. 'He's… it's your familiar now. You should be able to talk with it.

Louise took a few cautious steps forward, her eyes taking in her classmates watching her. Why did they always have to be watching? There's nothing she would have rather done than leave this… thing. This abomination. Banish it, and call forth another. But there they were. As always. Watching, and waiting for her to fail.

She took on as imperial a bearing as she could manage, and issued her first order to her new familiar.
'Familiar – whatever you are, follow me. I'll lead you to your quarters.'
After a few moments, the creature glided after the girl, its feet neither fully connecting with the ground, nor leaving any mark to show its passage.
Unseen by the girl in front of the creature, text appeared above the creature's head – floating there slightly transparent, before fading away.

[Ub3rL33t1: WTF? WTF is this?]

***Authors Notes***

I love the Familiar of Zero universe, and have wanted to write something within it for ages, but hadn't come up with an idea till now. This is more just something for me to enjoy – to get me back into writing fanfics, and if I do continue it I'll not be taking it as seriously as past fics.

On a related note, to all those waiting for updates of my 'Ranma Half' series, I apologise. The serious direction the story has taken has meant the amount of notes I take before even starting each chapter has grown to about twenty times the amount of material in the chapter themselves. With all of this, the story stopped being fun to write a long time ago. I've got the next chapter mostly written, but it still needs a fair amount of polishing before I'm willing to upload it. While I can see myself finishing this chapter – maybe even this year, it's unlikely I'll continue the series after that point.