Barian of the Void: Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Siesta sighed as she put down another basket of laundry and wiped her brow. Another day, another cleaning of students clothing. It was as busy as usual for the servants of the academy and the workload didn't seem like it would be slowing down. Normally that wouldn't be a problem for the young maid as she was used to such manual labor, but lately her mind had been distracted and caused her to lose focus on her work.

That distraction being the infamous "familiar" named Shark.

Ever since the duel the young maid couldn't stop thinking of the duelist and his actions. He has stood up to a noble, defended the commoners and questioned the nobles, and had even defeated Guiche. Of course the methods in which he had done so brought much concern and suspicion to everyone in the academy, as most began to assume he was in fact a noble himself, or even a fallen noble. Even her boss wasn't sure what to think of the boy, as Shark-san had brought the nobles down a peg, but he himself was a possible noble.

Yet none of that mattered to her as she choose to believe his words that he wasn't a noble and that what he did was not magic. Not only because she wanted to trust her new friend and simply saw him as himself, but because he had proved that even people like her could stand up to the actions and cruelty of nobles who abused their power.

Of course she didn't find that much trouble in the school as many of the students were well behaved, with the worst actions being ignoring her. Never the less she was happy over how things had turned out, and only wished she had a chance to speak to Shark-san again. She hoped that soon she'd be able to get the chance to spend time with him. Just the two of them alone, and talk to each other like he had the night she met him. To learn more about him, what he did, what he liked, where he was from, if he had any-

"Ah what am I thinking?!" Siesta said aloud with a blush as she shook her head from the thoughts. She was getting distracted again and these clothes wouldn't clean themselves. Grabbing the one on top she turned to the wash bin before her and began working. She could think about Shark-san another time and talk to him the next time she got the chance.

Well, so long as he could handle the time spent with the nobles and Miss Valliere.

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Kamishiro Ryoga was bored.

Absolutely bored. He had never been one for classes as he had always found them troublesome, so it was no surprise to find that he could give two cents towards the current lecture he was forced to attend.

One of the negatives of being Louise's "familiar" was that he was forced to attend every class she was in despite the fact he was just there for showing. At first the concept didn't seem so bad as he was able to learn a lot about this world and the methods behind how things worked, such as magic. But at the same time it was a classroom, and after a while he had just grown irritated just being there, though he wouldn't do anything about it.

Beside him Louise was completely focused on the class lecture and the professor's words. He had to give credit that at least the pinkette was not one to slack off on her studies. Showed how determined she was to prove everybody wrong and actually brought up his respect points for her a bit.

Only a bit.

"The elements fire, water, wind, and earth can be combined to create stronger and more diverse effects," The voice of the professor spoke out as Ryoga turned back to the lecture, "And our levels as mages determine just how many we can combine. Can anyone tell me what they are?"

"Yes sensei," A voice of Montmorency spoke up from behind the duelist, "If you combine two elements it makes a line. Three elements make a triangle, and four makes a square."

Ryoga raised an eyebrow as he looked up at the blonde,"A rather simple but effective method of understanding. The more elements you wield the more dangerous and powerful you are. Kind of obvious, but good to know if I ever face someone labeled a triangle mage."

A huff caught his attention as he looked to see Louise slightly glaring at him before turning away. What had he done now?

"Now since I can assume most of you have only one element let us-"

"Mrs. Chevreuse, pardon the interruption but I believe you're mistaken," Kirche spoke up with a smirk, "as there is one person in this classroom who can't even use any elements with zero percent chance of success."

At this Ryoga blinked as he noticed everyone's gaze turn towards his direction, rather towards his "master's" direction as he realized what they were implying. Louise herself remained completely calm and focused, but the duelist noticed the slight twitch of her hand and frowned.

Even after the duel Louise had still been addressed as a "zero" many times by the students, though with Ryoga around this was usually done either in secret, or by those simply unafraid like Kirche. He had already spoke aloud about his opinion on bullies during his duel, so it wasn't really his concern to be involved in such a thing so long as Louise herself was able to handle it and the people didn't openly attack her with it.

Still the constant phrase of "zero" and mockery reminded him of how Yuma was always mocked and bullied for his Kattobingu and poor dueling skills, and so he couldn't help but wonder just how long the pinkette had put up with this sort of thing and how much of it she had allowed to affect her. The duel had clearly shown that it hurt her a lot, but she choose hide it all away like it was nothing, much like he done so long ago.

And he knew that such an action could only spell trouble for Louise if she wasn't careful.

Still so long as it didn't go beyond what he and his "master" could ignore than it wasn't a problem for him. Besides he had a feeling bringing the subject up around her would just cause her to yell at him again.

And possibly blown up.

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Lunch had started soon after the class had ended, and as such all the students gathered to the main dinning hall and ate together while the familiars were fed outside by the servants. A fact Ryoga was made all to aware of the first day thanks to Louise.

While annoyed that he was being treated once more as an animal than a human, the duelist eventually decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Besides the workers had at least the decency to give him a meal for actual humans than some of the creatures he had seen, to which he thanked them for. As such the boy calmly ate his meal despite being surrounded by dozens of odd looking and bizarre creatures.

To be fair he HAD seen much stranger and scarier things back in his world.

As Ryoga ate he looked around to the other creatures, specifically the ones closet to him. For some reason a select few familiars always seemed to stay by him, ranging in appearance from turtles to frogs to snakes, and even some that looked fish like in appearance. He even recognized one frog as the familiar of Montmorency.

Figuring that these familiars were all water based from their appearance, the duelist didn't find himself too bothered as he could understand their interest in him and his water attribute deck. In fact he felt more comfortable around the all familiars than the nobles, which he found hilarious.

"Kyuui."

Correction. There was ONE familiar he was bothered with.

As a shadow hovered over him Ryoga's brow twitched as he looked up. Turning his gaze upward he took in the sight of a small blue and white dragon with large green eyes. Well small as in being about five to six times the size of a normal person, which to be fair was much smaller than the dragons he had seen like Galaxy-Eyes.

The dragon simply stared at Ryoga as he stared back. A silence filled the air as the other familiars simply watched. After a moment of staring the duelist sighed and held up his tray.

"Here."

"KYUUI!!

Ryoga gasped as the dragon tackled him with its' arms and scoped the plate happily in it's jaws.

"Oy get off me! I'm not some fucking toy for you to jump on!"

The dragon didn't listen as it ate the food happily, along with the plate, before nuzzling its' face against Ryoga's, much to his displeasure. This had been a constant occurrence since the first day he met the damn flying lizard. It wouldn't leave him alone because of the food he had and so he had reluctantly given it a piece of his meal to eat. That turned to be a mistake since now the beast wouldn't leave him alone during lunch, always looking for an extra meal from its' fellow familiar.

The attention from said familiar was broken though by the sound of giggling. Both familiars turned their heads towards the noise, with the boy being surprised by the source.

"Katie?"

The first-year smiled, "I'm sorry for laughing, but it was just too cute seeing how well you get along with the other familiars."

Ryoga grunted as he looked at the dragon, "Who's getting along with who?" the boy pushed against the dragon's face as it reluctantly got off him and whined at the action, clearly enjoying being on top of him. Katie simply giggled again at the sight before Ryoga turned to her, "So, what are you doing here?"

Katie broke from her laughter and looked down nervously, "I...that is..." Ryoga just stared silently. After a moment though the young girl took a deep breath and thrust her arms out to Ryoga.

"Here!" Katie nearly shouted as the duelist saw a small basket in her hands. Confusion written on his face he looks at the object as the girl spoke, "T-This is for you. To t-thank you."

"Thank me?" Ryoga questioned confused as the girl nodded.

"Yes. For what happened with Si-with Guiche."

That comment made the duelist flinch slightly. The truth was he had hoped this conversation wouldn't happen. It wasn't that he had forgotten Katie's involvement in the event with Guiche, but it was more along the lines that he wasn't sure what to say to her. While it was Guiches fault for cheating on the women, it was because of him that the truth had been brought out so publicly and hurt the first-year in such a way. As such he wasn't quite sure how to apologize to the girl, or even how she would react to him if he saw her again.

He certainly didn't expect for Katie to be thanking him though and looked away, "You shouldn't be thanking me for something like that. All I did was cause trouble and hurt you."

"You're wrong. You didn't hurt me, you helped me," Katie responded as she looked up with a sad smile, "I probably would have found out one way or another, and because I'm a first-year the chances would be that Guiche would have denied me and pretended nothing had happened."

That caused Ryoga's fist to clench slightly. He REALLY didn't like it when people were treated like that.

Katie continued though as her sadness faded into a real smile, "But because of your aid Mister Ryoga, I was able to learn the truth much sooner and avoid such an event. Plus, watching you defeat Guiche in that duel helped me to get over the pain of what happened and move on from it. So I wanted to find some way to thank you and made you this. Please accept it."

Ryoga looked at the girl in surprise. He really didn't expect such a reaction from her considering the circumstance. In truth it probably would have been easier had she hated him, but if she was happier now because of what happened then he could be happy for her.

"Alright then," Ryoga said as he took the basket from her causing the girl to smile brightly.

"I really hope you like it Mister Ryoga. I made it myself."

Seeing her smile the boy nodded and opened the basket. His eyes widened at the sight as a full decor of sweets and dessert, ranging from cookies to cupcakes to even miniature cut cakes. While he had never been much of a sweets person this sheer amount of bakery goods even made the normally calm duelist stare in awe.

"T-This is-"

"W-Well I'll talk to you later! I hope you enjoy them!"

"Huh?" Ryoga looked up to see the first-year running off, her face slightly red and the smile still on her face as she waved to him. Unsure of what else to do he just waved back, a bit confused and stunned by the current events.

Till of course he felt nudging behind him.

"No."

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Later that night Ryoga sat calmly in the corner of Louise's room as the pinkette dressed herself for bed, much to her distaste.

Despite the agreement to be her "familiar" Ryoga quickly displayed the fact that he was NOT going to be the young mage's servant. He would stay beside her during the day, attend her classes, and even grab stuff she needed if necessary, but he drew the line as doing her laundry and dressing the girl up. This had caused yet another argument between the two but eventually the stubbornness of a duelist was superior to that of a mage's.

Though there was still the issue of him sleeping on a pile of hay for a "bed", but Louise refused to move on that subject and so the duelist begrudgingly accepted it. Not like he hadn't slept on much worse.

Ignoring the thought though Ryoga looked back at the basket next to him. He had to admit that Katie was very good at making sweets. He hadn't eaten them all for fear of a stomach ache later, but he definitely would be finishing them off soon enough. He chuckled a little at remembering how Louise had reacted to seeing him with such a present and questioning where he got it from. Seeing the shock and annoyance in her face was just hilarious.

"What's so funny?"

Ryoga blinked and looked up at Louise, who was now fully dressed. Huffing slightly the duelist simply shrugged, "Nothing."

Louise stared confused but sighed at his response, "Whatever. Just go to bed, and make sure you get up early tomorrow alright?"

"What for?"

Seeing his confused look Louise crossed her arms and began explaining, "Tomorrow is Void Day. Classes are canceled for the whole day and the students are allowed to leave the campus so long as we don't go anywhere too far and return by the end of the day. As such, I've decided that you and I are going to head to town tomorrow and get you a weapon."

That surprised Ryoga, "A weapon?"

"That's right. While your 'duel disk' and 'summonings' are certainly strong," The girl spoke out with a bit of annoyance and jealousy, "they stand out too much for any regular mage, let alone a commoner. And while everyone here thinks you're some sort of fallen noble it'd be best to keep any attention on you, and in turn me, from growing more than necessary. As such getting you a more suitable weapon would help you blend into the role as my familiar and let you have something else to use for defense. It also helps that you seem to have some level of weapon training, seeing how you handled yourself against Guiche's golems."

Ryoga was slightly stunned by her level of thought but quickly agreed with her reasoning. While he could easily defend himself now the fact remained that he was trying to keep a low profile. At the moment almost everybody in the academy save for Louise, Colbert, and headmaster thought that he was a "fallen noble", which Louise had helped to explain the meaning of, that had water magic and Big Jaws as a familiar. While a bit annoying he could understand their reasoning behind their opinions, and so would anyone else who heard the story. If word spread however over what else he could do then it could bring far more trouble and consequences than he was willing to take at the moment. Plus if the duel with Guiche showed him anything, it was that he'd be better prepared having a backup should anything happen to his cards or powers.

"Alright. But if it comes to choice I'd like a sword. I've had some experience using one in the past and am better with it than any spear."

"Eh? You're a swordsman?," Louise asked a bit surprised as she buried herself beneath her blankets, "That makes things easier then. The shop I had planned for was specialized in swords. In any case we'll worry about it tomorrow so just go to sleep."

"Right. Goodnight Louise."

"Mhm."

With that the pinkette instantly fell asleep, something Ryoga had taken notice of her over the past days. Shutting his own eyes the duelist laid down on the hay pile and tried to let himself drift away into his dreams.

It hadn't even felt like an hour had passed before a noise woke him up. Light scratching could be heard emitting from the door as the duelist sat up from the ground. Looking up at Louise he noticed she was still asleep despite the noise.

Deciding it'd probably not be the best idea to wake up the groggy chibi, the Ryoga stood up and quietly walked over to the door, opening it slightly to take a look out. What surprised him though was that it wasn't a person at the door making the noise, but a red human-sized lizard with a live fire on its' tail.

"Huh? Aren't you Kirche's familiar?" Ryoga questioned confused. The familiar, Flame, simply looked up at him and stared before nudging at the door with his head. Despite the confusion Ryoga decided to open the door to let the other familiar inside.

Or at least that was what was supposed to happen. Not the lizard suddenly biting onto the edge of his sleeve and dragging him out of the room.

"What the!? Oy! Let go!!" Ryoga yelled at the giant lizard as he tried to pull away, but clearly Flame was a lot stronger than he looked and had a tight grasp on the duelist sleeve. As such the boy found himself forcibly dragged down several hallways and corridors, cursing the whole way.

After a short time of being dragged around Ryoga found himself forced into a dark room that was lit only by a single candle and the moonlight. Flame then tossed him to the ground and turned away.

"What the hell was that for?!" Ryoga shouted at the lizard as it simply closed the door with its' head.

"Welcome."

The voice surprised Ryoga as he turned towards the sound, and immediately turned red upon the sight.

It was Flame's master, Kirche, standing in the middle of what looked to be her room, and dressed in a very loose and very revealing nightgown and panties.

"K-Kirche!?" Ryoga shouted as he sat up and in shock and embarrassment. What the hell was she wearing!?

"Welcome to my sweet room, Ryoga. Or do you prefer Shark?," Kirche asked seductively as she posed before the duelist.

Ryoga blushed harder and turned his gaze away. What the fuck kind of circumstance was this? "The hell is this? Why am I here?"

The redhead simply smiled at the reaction, "Well that's easy. It's because I wanted to see you."

"To see me?"

"Yes. I know it seems dirty of me, and you must think me a horrible woman. But my runic name is The Ardent, and like a torch I'm easy to turn on."

That comment nearly made Ryoga fall over in shock, "W-What the heck are you saying?

Not seeing the reaction she wanted Kirche pouted slightly but then smiled and leaned closer to him, "Don't you get it yet? I'm in love. I'm in love with you, Ryoga."

That comment DID cause Ryoga to fall over in shock, "Huh?!"

"Love always starts unannounced I know, but I can't help it. The way you looked when you defeated Guiche, the strength you displayed during the entire duel. Even as a fire mage, it felt as if I was being boiled alive by your watery passion. It was so amazing. So fantastic. So hot," Kirche suddenly leaned over Ryoga as he looked up nervously, "Seeing you then turned Kirche the Ardent into Kirche the Passion. So please..."

With those words Kirche leaned close to try and kiss Ryoga. Seeing this finally snapped the duelist to his senses.

"Don't screw with me!" Ryoga shouted as he pushed Kirche back startling her.

"Ryoga?"

"Who the hell do you think you are huh? You think you can just use people's emotions with such shallow words?" Ryoga questioned angrily as he glared at the woman.

"Huh? N-No, of course not," Kirche replied back a bit surprised. She hadn't expected this sort of reaction from the boy. She had simply thought he'd fall for her charm like all the others, but the circumstance seemed to dictate otherwise, "I just wanted to share my affection and passion with you. To show you how much my burning heart has come to love you! Do you think me so cruel as to misunderstand how I feel? Do you think my love is misplaced?"

"Misplaced? I'm thinking it was never even there to begin with," Ryoga replied angrily.

"How can you say that? It is there, burning inside my very breast! It was there on that day you defeated Guiche. I fell in love with you the moment you won that fierce battle. Don't you believe me?"

Ryoga scoffed at that, "Love? That's such bullshit. Claiming you love someone just from seeing them win some stupid duel, what do you think this is some stupid fairy tail? Love doesn't work in such a ridiculous way."

"But it does for me! My passion for you is burning even now as we speak! Allow me to show you my love if you just-"

"You don't know the first thing about love!"

The loud anger from Ryoga actually stung at Kirche as her thoughts were halted and looked at him in shock, "W-What?"

The boy simply glared at her with cold eyes as he spoke, "I've heard stories about you you know. About how you flirt with almost any guy you see. How like Guiche, you string their hearts along and using your words and body to seduce them to your hearts content. How they constantly brag about dating you and how you've even invited some of them to your room."

"W-What do you mean my love? I've neve-"

"Louise told me all about it," Ryoga interrupted, "When I asked about people to look out for like Guiche she took a LOT of extra time to talk about you. The rivarly between your families, how you've treated her, and how you flirt and use guys like Guiche did with girls. She even warned me that you might try something on me because of the duel, though I didn't actually believe any of that nonsenses till now."

That caught Kirche off guard. She knew her reputation amongst the school was a bit of a balance point, with both praises and hatred being thrown at her for her actions, but she didn't think he would find out about it so soon, let alone entice such a hostile response from him. Then again based on how he responded to Guiche's actions maybe she should have been more cautious over her actions to him.

"T-Those are just stories my love. Nothing more," Kirche tried again, hoping to still somehow save this event as she gave a look of sorrow and pleading, "I swear my heart only burns for you and you alone! I would never-"

"Kirche!"

Kirche and Ryoga both turned towards the window to see another guy standing, rather floating, at the window with an annoyed expression on his face.

"S-Styx! What are you doing here?" Kirche questioned nervously.

"You didn't show up for the scheduled meeting so I came here to check on you."

Kirche paled as she realized her mistake and tried to wave him off, "I-I don't know what you mean. We never scheduled anything."

"That's not what you said earlier!"

Feeling a bit of annoyance Kirche pulled out her wand and flicked it towards the boy, as the candle flame suddenly burst out into a small serpent of fire and collided with the boy's head, causing him to cry out and fall down from the window.

"So," the cold voice of her other guest spoke, "Who was that?"

Kirche turned back to the duelist and smiled nervously, "N-Nobody my love. Just a friend. Now please, let me show you how wrong you are by-"

"Kirche!"

The two turned again as another boy, this time a blond, floated at the window like the previous one, "What are you doing Kirche? I thought you and I were going to have a hot ni-"

Another flaming serpent interrupted the lad and set him to the same fate.

"Another 'friend'?"

"H-He and I share the same classes together," Kirche said, her tone betraying her words. This was very bad. She couldn't afford for anything else to-

"KIRCHE!!"

Ryoga was actually impressed. This time there were three guys.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THIS PUNK!? YOU SAID YOU DIDN'T HAVE A BOYFRIEND!!"

"M-Manica, Ajax, Gimly!" Kirche paled at the sight of the trio, her mind racing rapidly, "Ah, y-you guys just, uhhh..."

"WELL?!"

Kirche had enough, "Flame!"

The salamander sat up and unleashed a stream of fire from its' mouth at the trio, sending all three plummeting to meet their fallen brethren. Kirche sighed slightly as they disappeared only for the sound of a door opening to catch her attention as she turned to see Ryoga about to walk out.

"Wait!" She reached out grabbing his wrist as he simply stood there with his back turned, "I promise, this is all a misunderstanding! Don't leave my love. Just come back inside and we can-"

"Shut up."

He looked at her and the sight caused her to flinch in fear and surprise. His eyes were no longer filled with anger, but something worse.

Disgust.

Pure disgust at the woman before him. Kirche was stunned silent at the look, as she had never seen such eyes directed at her before from any male.

Using her silence as an opportunity Ryoga snapped his wrist away and turned towards her, "You're just like him. You put on a nice smile and pretty face and get everyone to fall for your act. But deep down you could care less for any of them and only care for yourself. You use them all for your own means and would hurt every single one of them without any hesitation so long as you get what you wanted. You know NOTHING of real love, and NOTHING of what it means to be in love!"

Kirche's eyes widened further as Ryoga turned away once more, "And I doubt you ever will."

"R-Ryoga?"

"Have a PLEASANT night Kirche."

"W-Wa-"

With that Ryoga walked out of the room, slamming the door shut as he did. As he turned to walk off though he stopped in surprise upon seeing seeing familiar pinkette standing there, "Louise?"

The girl looked at him in silence, the look of surprise on her face. She looked towards Kirche's door for a moment and then back to Ryoga, as if trying to contemplate something, "You-"

"I didn't do anything if that's what you're wondering," He replied calmly though his tone still held some anger in it, "I was dragged here against my will but did nothing with HER. So don't go accusing me of anything got it?"

Louise looked at his face trying to find any form of deception on it, but the truth was she already knew. She had been awoken to his leaving of the room and had guessed what had happened. However just as she was to enter Kirche's room was stopped by Ryoga's words to Kirche and had simply stayed outside listening to everything.

She wasn't sure what to think. She had warned Ryoga of Kirche and what she was like, yet the boy had acted like he was brushing it off as usual. That he wasn't taking it serious and would just ignore her warning and threats about Kirche. She had even expected to find him completely taken by Kirche's methods and seduction techniques.

Yet none of that happened, and instead Ryoga had done the exact opposite and actually rejected Kirche. REJECTED her.That simple act had left her stunned, but at the same time she couldn't help but feel happy. Her rival had not only finally been rejected by someone, but by him of all people. Her worst fear that Kirche would steal him from her was completely wiped away, and while he was still a jerk of a "familiar" to her, she couldn't help but feel absolute joy in knowing that her rival had no chance of ever taking him away.

It was this thought that actually caused Louise to let out a small yet bright smile, as she quickly turned around to hide it, "Good. You can go about flirting with any girl you want, just as long as you remember that Zerbst is completely off the list."

Ryoga looked at her surprised, as if expecting a bigger reaction but then frowned, "Flirting?"

Louise simply shook her head, "Come on. Let's go before Zerbst gets any more ideas. We have a busy day tomorrow after all."

"Yeah yeah I got it."

And so the two back walked down the halls, with Louise's smile never leaving her face. Because of this though neither of them noticed Siesta hiding around the corner watching.