Zero No Tsukaima Fan Fiction ❯ A Cat is Fine Too ❯ A Cat is Fine Too ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XI is Copyright of Square-Enix. They own all mentions of their world in this fanfiction. Zero no Tsukaima?) owned by the late Noboru Yamaguchi. Rest in peace and keep writing in for everyone on the other side.

Kho Chalahki sighed as the last Yagudo dropped before her. The young Mithra was currently in the very top part of Castle Oztroja hunting down a chest. The client for the Tenshodo, her organization that she was working for had asked for some gems that he apparently was too lazy to get himself, thus the reason she was busy killing the giant birds here looking for one that might have a key that would open the coffer she found earlier in a hidden room.

Normally, this would be stupid for most people to try alone, but Kho was a little more skilled then that. She knew her targets, and with a bit of ninja tricks she specialized in, they didn't even see her coming when she did strike. After that, it was just making sure that the bodies she had were pulled away from prying eyes. Should have been an easy job, but there was one problem. None of these feathered bastards had a key.

Wiping the blood from her two katanas, Shusui and Unji, she leaned against a wall away from the sight of wandering patrols. Her Tonko ninja trick should be holding up to avoid being spotted, so that gave her a bit of breathing room. Reaching into her small bag on her side of her belt, she pulled out a stick of slightly grilled meat and started eating with a swig of water from a flask she had as well in the bag. One of the great things about being an adventurer is that she had worked out a deal with some goblins on how they set up their bags. The little bastards charge a lot for them but the bag was enchanted with the beastmen's magic, making the small bag hold almost a house worth of stuff.

She wondered how she had ended up like this, doing odd jobs for an organization that was more a group of cut throats then business men. She could have joined the rest of the adventurers out there in epic battles and getting renown for famous deeds of daring. There was that group that took out the Shadow Lord when he resurfaced again after the war, or the group that was rumored to have fought the god Promathia, but she was more for the creature comforts then other adventurers. Granted, she was a skilled ninja and well taught in how to fight and avoid fighting, but maybe there was just a bit too much cat in her then most Mithra. She enjoyed sleeping in the sun, eating good food and enjoying good drink. Her favorite hobby was simply fishing.

That is where the Tenshodo came in. With being a member of that organization she could have all that with only a few jobs a month. They were dangerous, but she never failed to provide the skills needed to pull them off. Most of the jobs were just quick collection things like this. It wasn't like she was some common thief, but when things like this paid the bills, who could complain.

Leaning back after eating she sat down against the wall with her red hair just touching it. That is when she felt the air suddenly shift. Dodging to the side a few shuriken embedded themselves into the wall where her head was. Rolling out with Shusui drawn and the other arm tossing her own shurikens at the shadow that the sharp metal stars came from. There was a flash of metal as her stars were knocked out of the air and the Yagudo stepped into the light. It always irked her how the damn birds could be bigger then her. Their arms were a bit longer then what would be normal for a mammal, but being so close to birds, their wings had seemed to adapt. Long talons tipped the three fingers on each hand with large feathers covering the back of their arms. Their legs ended with the same talons making Kho wonder if they could use them to pick up objects. The faces were large bird heads with long beaks and what seemed to be a permanent scowl to their yellow eyes. This one showed training as one of their assassins with the way it blended into the shadows and she didn't sense it was there. One of these days she is going to have to figure out how to sex the buzzards.

“I was trrying to enjoy my lunch, Yag. I hope you arre willing to pay the toll for interrrupting my digestion.” Kho whispered as her second blade was pulled out.

The Yagudo snorted. “Smooth skin thinks she has free rein in OUR castle? Juu Zeni will show the cat does not know of our way.”

Kho raked her brain when she heard the name. The Tenshodo liked to keep track of all the big names of both the Alliance and Beastmen factions. This guy's name was something she remembered, but he was in the wrong location. Normally, he was one of the top guys out of that outpost the Yagudo had near Windurst and never left there. Why was he here?

With a quick swipe of her hand the small paper figures spread out around her and shimmered into mirror images of her self. “I guess I'll have to teach you I know a bit morre then you then.” her voice echoed in the room from the multiple figures that appeared.

She swore that the damn Yag grinned at her as it did the same trick and mirror images of himself appeared in the room but it was hard to tell with him only having a beak. Rushing forward, Kho tried to make it in close and quick. Juu was no slouch if she had heard intel on the guy correctly and she needed to end this now. One of his shuriken flashed out of his open hand and a shadow self of her's disappeared. The katana in his other hand quickly sweep aside her own duel katanas and flashed again taking out another shadow.

Flatting her ears against her head, she passed by his next follow up and did an upward strike followed by a spin slash to his mid section. She watched in frustration as both strikes just caused two of his shadows to disappear.

She backed up quickly and knocked two more of his shuriken out of the air. What she wasn't expecting was the pull back of his arms and the sharp feathers to shoot out like darts. Her last two shadows was dispersed and she felt a pin prick on her arm in an open part of her koga chainmail shirt. From the sluggish feeling she could tell that the feather that just stuck her was coated in that damn Yagudo poison they were so fond of using.

Stumbling back from the next slash from Juu she looked in the alcove she was in,toward the stairs down lower to the castle. The poison was working fast in her veins as she jumped down to the next level, rolling to a stop against the wall on the bottom of the stairs. Looking back up she watched as Juu focused into his shadow technique again. Quick thinking she focused into her own technique and threw her kaginawa at the Yaguto, tangling his arms in her Hojo technique and slowing his Utsusemi from taking affect.

As she turned down the last set of steps, strange chanting seem to whisper in her head.

“My servant that existed somewhere in this vast universe,”

Turning quickly as the large Yagudo jumped down with a slashing blade toward her neck, Kho deflected the strike with quick parry and spin, diving under the bird's legs. She wasn't sure what Juu was doing, but the strange voice in her head kept going.

“my divine, beautiful, wise, powerful servant, heed my call,”

Her heart sank as she looked up. The sound of combat between the two ninjas had gotten the attention of a nearby patrol. She saw five more of the birds rushing down toward her, swords and sharp claws bare and a priest standing at top to support them.

“I wish from very bottom of my heart and add to my guidance and appear!"

Still feeling the poison, Kho turned back to flee hoping to overpower Juu and get past only to see a strange glowing portal pop into existence in front of her. Her tail hairs puffed out and ears pressed back against her head as she flew right into it and disappeared.

Juu Zeni looked in shock as the Mithra ninja that dared to raid Castle Oztroja just popped out of existence in front of some of the best Yagudo elite. He quickly barked out some orders to the patrol to search everywhere for the girl, not knowing that she was not just out of the castle, but gone from even Altana's sight.


Her name was Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, youngest daughter of the Vallière and she had just witnessed the final failure of her schooling. Standing at 5' with pink hair and pink eyes with a thin frame, she was one of the smallest girls in her class. Even at the age of 16 she looked like she had a body three years younger then that and right now she was feeling like the young girl her oldest sister treated her like. She had tried and tried for the familiar summoning, but nothing had shown to work until the very last time.

But instead of nothing happening, there was a large explosion, the normal reaction when she casts her magic. The grounds were now covered in smoke and everyone was waving dust out of their eyes. Louise took another hit to her pride from the sound of her rival's mocking voice. “Good going Zero! If you did summon some grand familiar like you were bragging about, then it is in pieces now.” Kirche Augusta Frederica Von Anhalt Zerbst said. Being a head taller then Louise and two years older, she was in figure everything Louise was not. Instead of light pink hair, she has a long mane of blood red hair. Instead of a small body with little in the ways of curves, she had a voluptuous body with large breasts she flaunted with the top two buttons on her school uniform unbutton, tempting anyone to peek into the valley between them. Her hips held a nice swell and filled out her behind enough that the skirt of her uniform was hard tasked to hide what was underneath it.

“Sir Colbert, please let me try one more time!” Louise turned to beg from her teacher.

Jean Colbert, the teacher put in charge of the Spring-Time Familiar Summoning Ritual shook his head sadly. Being in his 40s, he had taken well to the job of teaching. His age showed in the balding of his head only leaving a bit of hair around the back and ears, which he kept short. With his age came a bit of loss of eyesight, which he had a small set of glasses to correct. The students always seem to take a liking to him because of his friendly demeanor and openness to hear their problems. Louise was one of the brightest students in Tristanian Academy of Magic, but she lacked the skill to even cast one successful spell. “I'm sorry Miss Vallière, but we can no longer indulge you anymore. The class must continue.”

As Louise bowed her head in shame and listened to the mocking voices of her peers all around her whisper about her final failure there was a blast of wind, blowing her pink hair over her shoulder. Turning with dull eyes back to the location of the blast, her eyes widened in shock.

Standing in the middle of the crater was a person... sort of. Her head was bowed and she had one hand in front of her face, index and middle finger raised up next to her face, her other two fingers holding a strange single bladed short sword in a backhand grip. In her other hand was a similar sword held slightly behind her back. Her hair was brushed back and a dark red, showing slight spiking like it was stiffer then normal hair should be. Her outfit was a strange sort of tunic around her body with what looked like cloth covered fine metal chain, leather gauntlets of excellent craftsmanship, skin tight pants that seemed to be almost leather panties with what looked like wire netting holding leather chaps around her thighs. Leather shin guards were strapped to her lower legs with what were soft split toe shoes.

As strange as her outfit was, the woman her self was even stranger. Instead of human ears, she had furry cat like ears on top of her head that were slightly held back. From her behind was a brown, swishing cat tail tipped with a tuft of red hair matching the hair on her head. A fine layer of fur seemed to cover her whole body, almost unnoticeable to the naked eye until Louise took notice of the stripped markings on her face that were a darker brown then the tan color of the rest of her face. Her nose seemed to be hairless, but for being black and almost button like on her face. When she opened her eyes to look around, everyone backed off in shock. Her eyes were a bright blue, but the iris was slitted, matching the cat like look the woman was putting out.

Jean Colbert had his staff raised up in ready to defend his students when the strange girl collapsed to her knees, dropping the two swords. Her head bowed as her eyes finally closed.

Walking up to the strange girl, Jean noticed there was a minor wound on her arm with a strange black feather from what seemed to be a large bird sticking out of her flesh. Waving his staff in front of the cat woman's eyes ,but she showed no reaction. From the look of her chest moving, she was still breathing.

Carefully setting down his staff he waved Louise closer as he kneeled to the girl's level. Louise was surprised at the size of the girl, she was barely taller then she was. “Miss Louise, I need you to hold her while I pull out this strange feather. The skin around it doesn't look right and would explain why she is unconscious.”

Nodding her head, Louise went behind the girl and held her still by the shoulders. From just looking down the back of the cat girl's tunic she saw all the muscles of her back were well defined. It was like she was made of steel wire held under a soft wrapping of fur. She grimaced as Professor Colbert pulled the feather out slowly. It was a good inch into the cat girl's arm. He studied the feather for a moment before he tasted the tip with his tongue. Quickly spitting out the fowl taste he nodded in conformation. “She is poisoned.”

He turned to his shocked class over the events that had just happened and spotted the one he needed. “ Miss Montmorency, I believe that you have a detox potion on your person that you were working on for one of your projects?”

The blond haired girl in the crowd looked shocked for a moment before she silently nodded and walked over, pulling out the small vial of bright blue liquid. It was well know that Montmorency was skilled in potion crafting. Her hair was long and done up in large ringlets giving it a look like she had large drills hanging from her head. “Yes Professor. It's right here.”

Nodding, the professor took the offered vial and poured it into the cat girl's mouth, turning her head up and working her throat so the potion would go down the right pipe. After a few moments there was a groan from the girl. Her bright blue eyes looked around her for a moment, landing on the two girls faces and the older man. Just as quick, she flipped and rolled back into a defensive stance. “Wherre am I? Who arrre you Humes?!” Seeing that along with all these Humes were strange beasts all around, including a large mole, a lizard with his tail on fire and a dragon, Kho became even more nervous. “Beastmasters?!”

“Ha! Louise summoned some sort of beast creature! Fitting for the Zero.” Kho's ears twitched in direction of that voice, taking note of the tall Hume woman with.. she blinked wondering how the girl walked with those huge breasts without falling on her face.

“Well then, she seems fine, even if she is some sort of beast woman and she understands our language. Complete the ritual Miss Vallière.”

Kho looked to the older man. His robes said he was some type of mage, possible a black mage. The others around her seemed to be Hume teens. In her rush to get away she lamented on leaving her two katanas on the ground. Still the people were not attacking and weren't beastmen. In fact, they seemed to think she was one. Strange.

Looking around at each one they all seemed to be around the same age group and all wore the same uniform, but she couldn't tell if they were military. It was almost like she was the subject of some Tarutaru's experiment at the Aurastery in Windurst. That was when it clicked, she was in a school. Maybe a school for Scholars or Beastmasters with they way they dress so similar?

“But professor, she isn't even human! Can't I try again?” Kho's eye twitched at the remark. The little girl didn't have room to talk. She looked like she was a barely weened kitten that still had her mother's milk on her lips. Shorter then most of the humans there, with a flat board chest and no muscle structure, speaking of an easy life. Plus, everyone was ignoring her questions.

“OK, I'm not sticking arround to be some Scholarr's experiment. I'm leaving.” With this stated and no one looking to stop her, she walked over, picked up her katanas and started to walk away.

Professor Colbert sighed. “Miss Tabitha, if you would.”

Kho heard that and turned just as wind seemed to pick up around her and lift her off her feet. When her arms reached for her tools they were bound behind her back. Looking around she noticed a small blue haired girl moving a staff larger then she was with a glow that said she was the caster of this strange Paralyzing spell. She was even shorter then the pink haired girl that was arguing with the older Hume. Her hair was cut short to her neckline and she wore a large cloak covering most of her body. From what she could see of this Tabitha, there really wasn't much of a body to hide. She had a figure even more young looking then the first girl. What pissed off the Mithra even more was the fact this girl wasn't even really paying attention to what she was doing. She was reading some damn book!

“Listen hearr, you bunch of Goblin bat-mad Humes, put me down orr I'll make you all rregrret it!” The hair on her tail was fluffed out in full making the appendage look like a long bottle brush and her mouth was set in a savage growl, showing off sharp canine teeth to the assembled students.

Louise backed off a bit when the cat girl was landed in front of her. Her words of complaint died as soon as she looked to Professor Colbert for a reprieve. The stern look showed there would be none. Sighing in resignation, she looked up slightly into the angry girl's eyes.

“I don't like this as well, but this is our lot. Be grateful that you will have such a kind mistress to take care of you, beast woman.” Kho's eye started to twitch even more on hearing that remark.

"Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, grant your blessings upon this creature and bind it as my familiar.”

Kho blinked. The voice she had heard in the castle was the exact same as the girl's in front of her. She didn't understand why she hadn't noticed before. Her surprise on this revelation prevented her from paying attention to the wand that lightly tapped her head. The real shock was when the girl pressed forward and kissed her on the lips.

Kho felt the air around her shift, freeing her limbs. She shot up and harshly glared down at the girl. “What do you think you'rre doing?!!”

Louise turned away from the cat girl with a faint blush on her cheeks. “Finalizing our contract. Th-there was-s no meaning behind it!”

As she was about to lay into the pinkette hard over doing some strange kissing ritual on her the back of her left hand felt like it was burning. Quickly pulling off her Tekko on that hand she saw some strange runes branding into the back of her hand. Her other hand lashed out, grabbing Louise by the front of her uniform and lifting her up in the air.

Louise was now truly scared. Her familiar was suppose to obey her and never bring her to harm, but this beast woman had lifted her weight over her head like she was a piece of paper. Her eyes were like looking into cold glaciers of ice, the irises at their smallest, like two lines bisecting the ice. “Explain kitten, orr I will make you rrregrret it.”

He arms came up to hold the pressure off her neck. A quick peek at the professor showed he was as shocked to these events as herself. Meeting her familiars gaze again she tried to explain. “Th-they are the familiar runes. Th-the mark th-that shows you are my familiar.”

“Oh...” What ever Kho was going to finish saying came to an end as the pain finally became too much for her training. As the world went dark for her, she fell back. Louise landed on top of her still in shock over what just happened.

Professor Colbert reached down and helped his student off her familiar. “Are you going to be OK, Miss Vallière?”

Louise looked around at the group of students, all of them just as much in shock as she was. Straightening her self out she lifted her chin. “Yes, of course Professor.” She had to hold her composure in front of her peers even now. “May I have someone assist me in moving my familiar to my dorm room?”

With a slight cough, the professor nodded and directed Tabatha to help transport the girl. “I will have to ask to take your familiar's weapons. When we are sure of what she is and she is of no harm to the students you may have them back.” With the nod from his student, he pulled the strange swords from the girl's waist and walked away.

Tabatha walked up next to Louise and with a small swirl of her staff, the Mithra raised from the ground on a bed of air. “Come.”

Louise sighed and nodded to the quiet girl, walking toward her dorm room.


Author's Notes: I'm trying to focus on school and in my final semester. Next thing I know, I have this crazy stupid idea. Now I'm writing about it. That is what I get for not indulging my writing bug now and again.

Terms: Spells for ninjas in FFXI are a bit different then the ones of other classes. They don't attract attention from monsters when they are cast. Normally, some monsters will attack when they sense magic being cast, but ninjas are not part of that rule. Instead of using mana to cast, they use tools. How this will affect Kho is that her tool supply is limited. Some of them can be crafted, but some have materials that are only found on Vana'diel.

Tonko: Invisibility spell.

Utsusemi: Produces 4 or 3 shadows that will be destroyed when the ninja is attacked, instead of the ninja being hurt. Area affects will prevent them from working.

Hojo: Restricts the enemy's movement and attack, slowing them down.