Alright! Why did I take so long? Well, I didn't want to use any excuses really, but I was hit with every author's nightmare for some reason, yea, AUTHOR BLOCK. Even while writing this I was having trouble. Not to mention my busy week at school. And also, my general procrastination combined with my recent interest in Bioshock Infinite is Not a good combination I tell ya!

So this is not nearly as interesting as I wanted it to be, author block wouldn't let me think, but I absolutely needed to write something before I lost the rhythm. So after posting SOMETHING, I should feel better with writing the next. :/

Zero's Reversal

Chapter 05

Right or Wrong

"Alright…" Louise closed the book harshly. "Why couldn't that translation spell work with writings too?" She absolutely couldn't understand anything. No symbol looked readable.

Saito looked up from the book he was reading impatiently. "Because I don't know the formula. No one does actually." He said as if it was obvious.

They were both in a library; a huge and bright place full of easily accessible stands of books, for a tall person at least, with different floors visible from below and with desks and chairs spread around evenly.

"Don't you mean the spell?"

"Same thing really."

After the small fiasco in the dining room, no more than an hour before, Saito showed a lot of curiosity for how she had cast the 'spell'. It was an obvious failure and she couldn't understand his interest.

Even so, he looked really keen in reading for less than five minutes, before giving up and looking for information in another book.

"I really don't have time for this. I should be in class right now!"

"Then why are you trying so much?" 'So much' was a misunderstanding. He wasn't trying nearly as hard as Louise did at home. As if he was used to knowledge appearing ever so easily for him.

"Because I need to know what's up with your magic before Christmas…" He mumbled.

Louise blinked and looked at the ceiling. What's 'up'? Shaking her head, she dismissed the thought in favor of something else. "What is this 'crismas'?"

"Holiday…"

Different world, different Holy Days. Understandable. She was mildly curious though.

"Okay, okay, let's start with the basics of what we know."

20 minutes of him rambling about foreign concepts and Louise already felt like she's been studying advanced magic for five hours straight. And that was their current discussion. Why couldn't she use any element in her spells.

"-so since an explosion is combustion, should be like, derivative from fire right? I don't remember much about chemistry, yet you said it's not fire… Then since your magic has nothing from the Basic Square system-" Saito started, as if talking to himself rather than her.

"What is that?"

"Ah, basic elemental classification. You know, water, fire, earth and wind. That stuff."

"It should be a pentagon then! There are five elements, and Void is the fifth." Louise crossed her arms. "Although the fifth is a lost element."

"Lower your voice please and… wait, what? That doesn't make sense." He shook his head. "The whole system doesn't make sense if you have something completely unrelated-"

"Are saying that what the Founder Brimir taught us was faulty?! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

"Not really 'faulty'. It works for your people because you don't know any better." With that, he yawned and closed the book. He didn't look all that patient anymore.

"Don't- don't know any better…?! We are the wisest mages! What do you know? The only thing you people seem to know about is cleaning and writing gibberish!"

It looked like he took offense to that statement. "Okay then, if you're going to start assuming things about us, then I'll play that game too." To mock her, Saito started clapping lightly as if singing to a child, "You are all too stupid, you walk on mud all day, you're all religious fanatics, and you all smell like crap because no one baths more than once a week!" And started laughing at a very embarrassed Louise whose face resembled a tomato. "Did you like it?"

"Y-y-y-you…!" With her fist shaking and eyes menacingly shadowed by her hair, her hand was slowly creeping on the nearest object she could find, a book, so she could hit her 'master' across the head with all her strength. She moved quickly before he could even think about reacting. "YOU GIVE ME PROPER RESPECT ALREADY!"

Before being able to actually hit him, and Louise felt the weight suddenly disappearing from her hands.

She blinked confusedly.

Looking at her hands, Louise saw that yes, the book was gone. One look at Saito, and no, he was holding no wand, so he didn't do anything. Saito frowned at her, but looked to the left anyway. Louise followed. A fox was there, with her book in its mouth.

It stared at them for a few seconds before walking away.

"Was that…?" Fortunately, her anger faded, and she could think logically again.

"Someone's familiar? Eeh… I've seen that fox before-" Even though Louise didn't like laughing at other people's pain, she found quite satisfying when a book hit Saito's head with a loud 'thud'.

"Ouch…!" Looking back, he saw a smaller boy frowning at him. The fox sitting beside its master. "What are you doing?" Asked Saito.

"You're being loud." Said the smaller boy, with a soft youngish voice. He was the most 'uncommon' she had seen around the place. Very dark red hair, brown eyes, much more familiar to her in terms of skin…

"She's the one who was being loud…"

"You're the master."

"I should not be responsible when I can't control her!"

Louise watched them bicker, while the fox, that apparently was the boy's familiar, sat on the table, very close to her. Sighing, she patted it on the head.

It seemed content with the touch, and to her never ending surprise, it suddenly turned into a weasel, then quickly climbed her arm, behind her neck and snuggled on her shoulder.

"A-aah! What...!? S-Saito! The fox! I-it changed! It-" She couldn't get his attention. He was busy talking to his friend she assumed, and neither of them paid her any mind. The fox-now-turned-weasel didn't seem to mind her discomfort, but its claws dug on her shoulder...

"G-get off! Don't do that! Saito!"

This time, he was asking the smaller friend for something, clapping his palms together in a way that almost looked like begging. Still not listening.

The weasel rubbed its furry face on her neck. It would have been cute, but it suddenly bit her ear, making things even less tolerable. "S-SAITO!"

"What is it?!" His face lost the irritated look quickly, and became more surprised when he saw the girl wince with the small familiar on her shoulder, merely being friendly. "Uh… hey man…" Addressing his friend, who was also slightly surprised, Saito tapped his shoulder a few times. "Do something?"

Sighing heavily, the smaller mage only pressed his hand against his forehead. "Sionn, here." He called impatiently.

The weasel on Louise stopped quickly and turned to its master. Louise waited for it to get down from her, but instead, it turned into a bird and flew away, stopping on the boy's shoulder instead.

Louise tried to straighten her disheveled hair. "W-what is that?!" She asked loudly, but the kid made a small 'Shh' sound to her.

"It changed…!"

"Yeah? Never seen a Kitsune before?" Saito asked, looking somewhat amused.

"What is it?!"

He looked at the bird, then back at her. "It's a fox that can shape-shift. Isn't it obvious?"

No it wasn't! Louise was fascinated. She'd never seen this particular magical creature. "I've never seen one… Can it turn into anything?" She asked the smaller mage. He thought for a second and answered with a curt reply. "No big things."

"Don't really trust your own Japanese yet, do you?" Saito commented. "Now, about that info I asked you. Can you find it?"

He nodded confidently and walked towards the bookshelves ahead. The small familiar turning into a hummingbird and quickly scanned the higher shelves that the master couldn't reach.

Leaning back on her chair, Louise sighed while rubbing her neck. "Friend of yours?"

"Yeah."

"Doesn't talk much?"

Saito nodded absently. "Not native. Talking gets difficult you know? He reads a lot though."

Louise felt a small pang of nostalgia. She was reminded of a certain blue haired classmate who was also very quiet, always reading on her own. And who was friends with a very obnoxious enemy. While this quiet kid was friends with a potential enemy. She was starting to miss home. It has been only a day now.

Louise sighed and looked down, frowning. 'I definitely won't get used to this life…'

Saito was looking to the other side, waiting for his bookworm friend to come back with what he needed. He gave Louise a quick look, but paused when he noticed the downcast expression on her face. He looked around for few seconds before speaking. "What's wrong?"

Louise raised her head quickly and huffed. "I'm perfectly fine, thank you." That was sarcastic. She definitely didn't want to show any kind of weakness in front of him, for his annoying personality.

She felt like he would want to use it against her. For sure.

"Waa… How Tsundere…"

"What does that mean?! Use actual words already!"

He only sighed and rolled his eyes. "You show your emotions so easily. I saw that look, really. Just tell me what it is. Maybe I can help you out." He looked sincere enough, but Louise didn't want his help. Not at all.

"Yes, sure. You caused the problem." Louise frowned at the offer and looked at him with a petulant gaze. "Send me back home. Now." Her tone was authoritative and unfazed.

Saito blinked at the order, but quickly become serious. Folding his hands on the table. "Can't." Was his curt answer, asserting his own authority to counter hers.

Louise scoffed. "Why not? Weren't you priding your world for having better magic before? I guess you're all just talk."

Saito frowned at her sarcastic tone. "I can't believe I'm doing this nonsense again…" He mumbled. "In case you don't know, before trying to create spells, we try to understand how nature does it first. We don't know how portals work entirely, and I bet my life that neither do you." Crossing his arms, he leaned back on his chair. "And also, you seem to be misunderstanding your position here. You have no right to demand things from me. I understand that you need time to adjust, but you're lucky I'm being way too tolerant with you. You owe me respect, and not the other way around."

Louise sat stunned for a few seconds.

"Still, if you really want respect, just earn it. For now, you're just a whiny brat." Saito seemed to think she needed some time to reflect and walked away, looking for his friend somewhere around the bookshelves.

Louise felt her lips starting to curve with the need to cry. But she swallowed her tears and replaced that feeling with anger instead.

She leaned on the table, resting her head on her arms. 'Why?! Why must I suffer?! Why must he act like… like he's superior?!' A part of her mind was saying that he was her master, so he was indeed superior. But the idea didn't go through her head entirely yet.

She didn't want to accept it. She didn't want to serve someone!

But instead she acted normally; like nothing happened. She kept her attitude the way it always was. To preserve that sense of normalcy. This much change wasn't welcome!

While he teased her in a friendly and annoying way she was not accustomed to, she felt the need to yell and hit him with something. As if he were her classmate.

But apparently, he did expect her to treat him as a superior. Otherwise, he wouldn't snap so easily with her demands or aggressive actions. She was no equal in his eyes.

Louise hit her head softly with her fists.

Being groomed her entire life to become a fitting noble. All her efforts, all the humiliation she endured. She hoped one day, all of that would pay off. But this is what she got instead.

'All of that... for nothing…!' But wait.

Louise raised her head quickly, hitting her closed fists on the table. That's right! She was a perfectly groomed noble. She deserved respect! But that's just it! This was another world. No one knew her family, her mother, so she couldn't prove that she had honor with words alone! That she was worthy of respect as a Valliére! "He wants me to prove it then. Fine. I'll prove it to him! I'll prove that I deserve my respect, one way or another!"

Saito walked angrily around the shelves until he found himself in a more enclosed area inside the library. This one also had a few desks around, for any student who decided to have a study session.

He found his friend at one of the desks with two piles of books near him, one smaller than the other, obviously quite engrossed with the research. It was more obvious when he had his reading glasses on.

Saito sighed, pulled a chair and sat in front of him. "Am I glad no senior was around to see that drama…" He slumped on the table, hiding his face from view under his arms. He only heard a page being flipped in response.

He tried, really. But apparently, acting friendly wasn't cutting with her! The way she demanded things so casually, without a care in the world and with no respect, it absolutely pissed him off.

While he expected the minimal amount of respect, she was expecting to be treated as a 'noble'. But the problem was that she was no noble here. She didn't deserve any better than him, or even the people outside. They were born in this world, and studied and worked here. Studied and worked very hard.

She did nothing.

"Really, do you have any idea how irritating that was? She acts like she's been spoon-fed her whole life, did nothing to be deserving of that prestige and even now, expects me to simply obey her? No way. That is off-limits! Don't you agree with me? Hey, Finlay, listen..."

His friend lowered the book to pay attention to his rant. He looked back at the book once, before passing it to Saito, pointing to a particular text. "Read it." And then picked another one from the larger pile and started flipping the pages.

Most of the stuff in this library wasn't for them really. They were both second year students and this particular library was just for those who intended to study serious magic, and not the 'almost basic stuff' they learned in the first three years. Those first years walked hand to hand with high-school, but above that, from the fourth yeah up to seventh year, it was solo.

So an actual research on human familiars wasn't a big deal. Of course it happened. He would've looked for it online even, but he didn't trust the internet with this particular information.

While reading for a few minutes, he was surprised with the information he received. Apparently, for a long time now, a lot of people studying this were betting on the thought that all human familiars, with exception of those rare time-travel summons, were possibly from the same place.

It was very plausible. Earth had a connection with another world through the solar eclipse, but he never felt really interested in knowing why, or what they did with that knowledge.

They also drew conclusion from the fact that the ones they talked to were speaking the same language, spoke of similar magic and lands.

Whatever that connection was, it was bringing people from there to Earth through summons every generation or so.

To confirm facts, scientist had to wait for the events. And of course, with time, they had enough cases and facts to act like they were omniscient.

All of them were mages, and showed a particular kind of magic that didn't exist on Earth.

Along with an odd and somewhat pessimistic impression of their own power...

Normal spells weren't doable with them as it was oddly destructive when trying something out of their nature. It was simply 'destruction magic' with odd proprieties, and most of those mages had absolutely no idea how to work with it. And neither did the scientists within the magic field.

Saito ruffled his hair and reached his simple conclusion. "So, Louise is a mage with weird magic that no one knows about. Great."

"Keep reading."

Saito sighed, obviously tired and in need for a more relaxing activity, but did as suggested.

Strangely enough, he found out the nomenclature for said magic has never being mentioned by a familiar more than once. And that was possibly six thousand years ago. When recording history was kind of a problem. So no one was even entirely sure to begin with.

"Long time huh?" Said Saito.

Nodding, Finlay closed his book and picked another one, the bigger pile steadily getting smaller. "It could be 'Void magic'."

"Void magic? Wasn't that what Louise called a fifth lost element…?" He was listening? But never mind that, the thought of adding something else to the basic elemental system still bugged him.

"That world's mages probably have no idea what their own powers can do. Simply chanting so the environment can obey your commands is just the basics. Classifying those four- no, five things as connected elements is nonsense." Saito said absently.

As if they would be able to agree with Earth's more analytical view on magic. Where scientists in the magic field would never affirm that 'wind' was an element instead of common flow of air in large scales, and would always make sure absolutely everyone thought the same.

Elements are the 118 known elements already classified through the periodic table. Wind is not one of them and that's it.

Louise would never understand that solid view when her own is still too abstract. So how could they have truly powerful magic when they didn't even understand how it works mechanically and naturally? Absolute nonsense.

Although he did understand where they were coming from. It was the truth for them, even though 'truth' in the sciences was always temporary.

But he was diverting from the topic. If all the others summoned mages showed similar proprieties, why wouldn't they be considered the same as the first who possibly claimed it? Was Louise in that class too? Was exploding stuff a synonymous for their so called Void magic?

"Louise mentioned something, about a 'founder'? I'm guessing the first mage on their lands, maybe? And also, do you have any idea of who was that familiar? The one from six thousand years ago? Oh, could they have been the same person?"

Finlay thought for a few seconds, tapping his chin with a thoughtful look. He frowned and shook his head. "Too long ago. No naming records."

"Damn… I needed some real progress for our winter break event. Just this won't do." Saito closed the book. "Really... Maybe Louise could answer a couple of questions. Since all the summons seem to have the same pattern, it would be useful if she had a known affinity we could work with." He mused shortly and stood up, ready to go back to his room and get some sleep before heading to class.

He already risked skipping the first few classes. If he skipped more, things would get ugly for him. Finlay had authorization for doing actual research on these things and knew his way around better than Saito ever could.

But Saito felt hesitant in going back and talking to Louise. He looked back at Finlay. "Do you think I was too harsh on her?" He asked innocently, almost pouting.

Unexpectedly for him, the smaller boy quickly closed the book and looked at him with an expression that implied sarcasm very clearly. As if saying 'What do you think, idiot?'

"Right… I- I knew that…" And continued on his way back awkwardly.

Maybe he was too harsh on her. Maybe he should try to understand her situation and be more tolerant. But he still couldn't accept the idea of ignoring her arrogant behavior.

It was definitely a no-no.

But the guilty feeling he had, that came along with knowing that she acted like that because he took her from her home so harshly, it didn't sit well with him, and he did his best to ignore it. There was no way back after all. No reason to think about it, right? 'I only need to get her to understand her place. And it will be fine. She'll be just like family…' And that's all he needed at the moment.

Aw god, I feel like they can't get along just yet!

Anyway, terrible I think. I'm really sleepy, can't concentrate on editing, but I want to post it! So I thank my Beta, ChaosxPaladin, really helping more than you can imagine! :D

Still, forgive me for taking so long, and not even compensating for it! Real life likes to piss me off. So review, fave or whatever, I really do appreciate it! :3