Discard, Draw, Three of a Kind? [Multi-SI/Nanoha/Yu-Yu]

[Mizu]

Another multi-author story brought to you by myself, @InfiniteDaze and @Nero200. Enjoy!

Spoiler: Index

Chapter 1 - Mizu POV
Chapter 1 - Daze POV
Chapter 1 - Nero POV

 

[Mizu]

Chapter 1 – Mizu POV​

I yawn as I climb the ramp into the station, bleary-eyed from a mixture of late-night gaming and having to get up at six for this exam today. It was the last of my classes for the year, the final exam for my final subject, and just as past experiences and habits have shown I haven't studied a whit for the thing.

I whip my wallet free of my jacket pockets, swipe it through the turnstile gates, and stumble towards the waiting area with eyes half-closed from exhaustion. The station was crowded, a number of people milling around the area due to some delay or other earlier in the morning, but all I was focused on was boarding the machine and taking a nap as it chugged its way into the city and my exam venue.

Turns out wandering about a crowded area with your eyes closed is a bad idea, as my current desire never ended up materializing.

An outstretched foot, a sudden hop for stability, wildly pinwheeling arms as the crowd parted before me and the tracks zoomed into my face – these were the events which detailed the next few seconds of my life. Arguably the last, really, seeing as the train promptly ran me over in a hoot of screeching brakes and crunching metal under skin and bones. I got to admire the chrome framework from directly underneath the engine for a moment or two until my head popped like a grape, although at the time all that was going through my mind was a fast-paced stream of curses at rotten luck.

Now, the general reaction to dying is that you'll be heading to some sort of afterlife, and mass media and the sheer spread of Christianity has influenced the majority into thinking it's either clouds, a bright light or fire and brimstone. I don't know what other religion involve, those ones not following one of the Abrahamic faiths, but I get the impression a giant glass floor and three bright lights on daise probably don't get mentioned.

I...uhh...what?

My mind's on loop, shock and disbelief flowing through my veins, my last moments before the train wheel dancing through my sight in ghostly mirages and sharp, high-definition details. The bright morning sunlight peeking through the clouds, illuminating the tiny yellow flowers growing between boards of the train tracks. Shock and horror painted across the crowd's faces just metres away from me, a few people even glancing at the oncoming train or reaching out to pull me back to safety. The cartoon image of those weird rainbow animal-things, stuck on a sign in various poses of unfortunate death, this particular one involving the creature missing half it's torso due to looking at a phone instead of where it was going.

These scenes play through my mind, over and over, new details standing out every time the metal goliath thunders over me and reduces my being to nothing but paste and crushed body bits. I'm not sure how long I just stood there, frozen from the experience, but eventually other things began to take priority and I started listening to my eyeballs and feet telling me they're picking up sensations and light from their respective sensors and organs.

OK. OK, OK, OK. I...died. And yet, I didn't die? Or perhaps this is an afterlife, where people end up when they don't believe in any one religion in particular. Stuck in a blank black room with nothing but darkness around them, a few bright lights shining from three pillars off in the distance.

...Gods, atheism has a sucky afterlife.

With nothing better to do, I resolve to make my way towards one of those beams of shining gold off in the distance, blinding in radiance if one decides to stare directly at the pillar of light ascending into the sky. And the ground, perhaps, as I can see it travelling down through the floor as well, continuing on until distance renders it naught but a bright dot.

It takes me maybe five minutes walk to reach the first pillar, and that's heading directly towards it. As I get closer the light fades somehow, turning from a pure white dazzle to a softer, kinder light less likely to sear my eyeballs when I stare in its direction. The pillar itself appears to be what it's emanating from, a thick stone rectangle rising to about mid-chest for my 180 or so centimetres of height and containing a floating object a short distance above it.

It was a book, with a golden rectangle patterned across the brown covers. A strange symbol resided within said rectangle, resembling a dagger in a circle with two pointy bits sticking out to either side of the handle. Kinda reminds me of the stereotypical spellbook, what with the mystery symbol and floating and all.

I watch it for a few moments, and when nothing happens beyond bobbing up and down a bit above the pillar, promptly poke it with my finger. Not like anything worse than dying can happen to me, eh? Why not indulge my inner kleptomaniac hero tendencies, poking random mystic objects to see what they do and obtain neat loot and–

The book shimmers, bursting into a number of shimmery black and purple wisps which fade away a moment later. At the same time, the ground shudders, rocking under my feet, and the glassy floor cracks into a series of rivulets and lines under my feet and around the column.

...Ah. So that's why you don't touch the mysterious glowing object.

Then it shatters entirely, everything around the column heaving into the air as a loud bang echoed through the area, and promptly succumbs to gravity and falls to the pitch darkness of the void far below.

0–––––––––––-0​

I came back to reality lying on something hard and unforgiving, and opened my eyes to find out it was dirt. To be specific, rainbow coloured dirt, with this particular patch being yellow and splotches of dark violet, pink, orange and blue a short distance from my current location of spread-out on my stomach.

Accompanying this strange multicoloured dirt were weird tendrils of the same, resembling nothing more than giant roots burrowing into the ground, rising into the sky and generally sloping downwards to some unknown destination. At a guess, a giant pool of water, but who knows what rainbow roots feed on. Or would that be a rainbow tree?

Only mythology I know of involving giant tree is Norse, but last I checked that also didn't involve multicoloured roots. I did fall down from the void place, though, and Hel was located about where the roots ended…

With a mental shake of the head to clear away the thoughts I clamber back upright, pushing against the dirt with my hands both as leverage and to reaffirm I'm alive once more. I've got touch, I've got sight, I probably have scent but can't quite tell and the other two aren't testable due to the lack of noise and having no desire to place dirt in my mouth to check respectively. Three out of five is good enough proof of living for me, so all I need to do now is find people. Maybe~ not partake of their food and drink for a bit, just in case.

Course thus decided, I move towards a particularly large root sloping slowly up into the sky, one end low enough to my position I could probably climb aboard and get a nice big aerial view of the surrounds. This plan stuttered to a halt a few moments later when I felt bangs brushing against my cheeks as I walked, brown hair flicking into sight for a second around the corners of my eyes.

"What the–"

And my voice is different, too. Lovely. Thing's a bit softer than what my own should be, and maybe also higher in pitch. Not sure if I could reach the same tone as I just muttered normally, but that fact alone hints my 'base' range has been edited somewhat.

A glance down at my body revealed a wardrobe swap had also been part of the deal, with my jeans and hoodie combo replaced with a white blouse over a shirt and leggings. Least, I think it's a blouse...what do people call skirts that go down to a bit past one's waist and lack any frills?

Ah, whatever, isn't important. What is important is that my body is different, I don't know how or why, and there's a high likelihood I'm now female. Wait, no, just checked, make that a certainty I'm female...or genderless, but option one is more likely until I remove my pants and/or find a mirror.

This...probably rules out Norse mythology. That had no mention of genderbending, after all, and I actually don't believe any religious afterlife mentions it. Gods swapping into the opposing sex is a thing, though.

With a shrug I decide to put this new discovery behind me, ignore the annoying bangs sweeping at the corners of my eyes occasionally and focus on something more important, like actually finding out where I am and which way lies people. The root I'd chosen fulfilled this task nicely, ferrying me up higher into the air the more I ascended, till I became very nervous of the ground indeed and stuck as close to the center as possible.

And then I found a book. The Book, perhaps I should say, the thing which I'd poked just before the floor shattered in the maybe-afterlife area, just lying in the center of the path dead ahead of me. Considering what happened last time I poked it, the next several minutes were spent tensed for flight as I slowly watched the tome do nothing but sit there.

"...OK, it might be safe after all." I mutter after five minutes have passed in silence. "Would love to have a stick handy to poke it with, but absent of that I guess it's time for hands mark one to give it a go. Or would that be mark two, considering the new body?"

With another shrug, I put it out of mind, reaching a hand out once more and poking the thing with the tip of my finger. Nothing happened, as the waiting period led me to expect, barring the sensation of cold leather being felt for about a second at my fingertip. As it also didn't decide to burst into smoke this time round, I deemed it safe to pick up and promptly did so.

The glowing magic circle which formed underneath me almost made me drop it like a hot potato, and the only reason I didn't was the sudden appearance of a silver-haired woman right next to me.

"Um...hi?"

She blinked at me for a second, looking around the area, and a tiny corner of my mind couldn't help but notice she had red pupils akin to albino and various creatures generally considered evil. Coupled with the hair and that black sleeveless dress she's wearing, and I'm rather inclined to think 'baddie' and keep up my guard.

"Greetings." She replies, bowing low to the ground as she does. "I am Reinforce Eins, Master Program of the Tome of the Night Sky. It is a pleasure to meet you, Master."

"It's...uhh, a pleasure to meet you as well. I think. I'm not falling, so this is already an improvement to first poking the book." She just blinked at me for that, proving that whatever happened in that void she wasn't aware of it. Yay? "Never mind, never mind. So, what do you mean by me being your Master? It happen to anyone who just stumbles onto you? For that matter, what are you exactly, to form from nowhere as soon as I pick up the book?"

"Me?" She tilts her head. "I've already told you, Master. I'm the Master Program–"

"And that means what, exactly?" I interrupt. "All very well telling me that, but keep in mind I've got no context to go along with it. I'd be inclined to think you're an AI considering the mention of programs, but last I knew those didn't live in paper books!"

"The Tome of the Night Sky isn't actually a 'paper book', Master. It's a collection of artifacts and technologies, with the physical shell of the book functioning as storage space." She gestures for me to open said tome, and after a brief pause I do so, to find the pages full of complex diagrams and words I have no clue how to decipher. "My coding, alongside all of the spells and technology gathered, reside within these pages."

Right, I'm just gonna go with 'magic book' and 'magic AI inside said book' and move on, methinks.

"What language is this written in?" I mutter as I flip through the pages, trying to find something I can even vaguely recognize. "Seems to use the latin alphabet, but it isn't English, that's for sure. Although the fact I can even recognize said alphabet is something of a blessing, to be honest."

"It's Belkan, Master. The official language of my creators."

Belkan? That sounds familiar for some reason.

"I see. Doesn't help me read the stuff, but we could come back to that later. You mentioned magic earlier; could you go into more detail about it? What exactly do you mean by the word, 'just say a few words and stuff happens' magic?"

"Magic is the shaping of magical energy, commonly referred to as mana, into specific forms to achieve a result. These forms are known as spells, and are shaped into said forms through a process known as 'linking' utilizing a special organ called a 'Linker Core'. Visual manifestation of a spell would be the formation of a magic circle, and once the program has been compiled a trigger is used for activation."

This is starting to sound more and more like something I recognize, and I swear the information is just on the tip of my tongue. I swear, if I had one more clue I could–

"What's that pink ball off in the distance?" I interject, interrupting Reinforce in the middle of her explanation on the four types of trigger and how to create them. "It seems to be flitting about from one spot to another, and...is it coming this way?"

Reinforce frowns, glancing in the direction I pointed, and we watch the ball gradually grow larger as it approaches our position. "It seems to be an Area Search spell, Master, used for identification and scanning of one's surroundings. Judging by its existence you evidently aren't the only mage in the area."

"Would seem so." I drawl, watching the orb hover in front of my face and blink slowly for a few seconds. Each blink turns the object a brighter shade of pink, the light emitted stronger alongside it, and I'm forced to raise a hand over my face lest I suffer blindness alongside bodyswapping. When I lower the limb a moment later, it's gone.

"Well, guess we weren't what it was after?" I mutter, blinking the remaining spots out of my eyes as I do. I'm left with nothing but silence from Reinforce, and when I turn towards her she's staring off into the distance with a worried frown upon her face. "Hey, everything all right?"

"I'm...unsure, Master. I'm picking up some odd readings from that direction, akin to a Dimensional Transfer, but it doesn't quite fit any records for how such a thing should appear."

"We sure your records are accurate?" I guess, looking after her as I do. Nothing but roots greet my sight, beyond a blue shimmer on the horizon which may~ be water. "Could be some new spell you've never encountered before, perhaps? How detailed is the book's repository?"

"Several hundred thousand years old, at least, Master. So I'm somewhat suspicious that it's odd simply because I haven't 'found anything like it before', and–" She cuts off, eyes widening, and a moment later I'm tackled to the ground right before a giant flaming sphere flies over our twin heads. The explosion sends dust and root bark flying everywhere, a crackling roar of burning and smashing filling my ears, and I cough from a mix of smoke and getting the air knocked out of me from a surprise tackle.

"Incoming projectiles, Master!" Reinforce reports in a bark, and all I can do is groan in reply. Gee, you don't say? "Enemy is roughly four hundred metres to our left and closing! I heavily advise we either flee or set up for combat!"

I thump her on the back, reminding her it's kinda hard to do so when she's sitting on me, and she shuffles off with an embarrassed little smile. I mutter a curse at my twinging ribs as I clamber to my feet, and get my glimpse of the enemy the next moment as it floats off in the distance charging the next blow.

It's...a sword. Or at least, that's my first thought upon seeing the pink monstrosity standing off in the distance. A curved pommel as the 'head' with a cloak of scrappy-looking cloth floating around it, combined with some thicker ropes wrapping the middle while the end formed into a point. Which I correct into anteater-snout a moment later, as it rises above the root blocking it and shows the small hole and elongated nose pointing our way, glowing an ominous orange as it charges up in preparation of the next fireball.

"Crap. Death by train earlier, death by living sword-monster now." I mutter, staring with wide eyes for a second before tearing myself away. "I vote flee, I definitely vote flee. And with the route thus decided, I'm fleeing!" I snatch her hand, grabbing the book with the other, and proceed to hightail it further up the root I'm on in the hopes hiding works if I get far enough away from the monster.

The sudden loss of ground under my feet as it blows the root to pieces kinda wrecks that plan.

I clutch Reinforce tight as the far-below ground reverses its positioning of 'away from me' with every second which passes, nothing but a low roaring and panic filling my ears and mind. And then a bell chime, for some odd reason, followed seconds after by a voice neither my own nor Reinforce's echoing in my head.

'One, two, testing.' The speaker muttered, as if testing out a new microphone. Voice reminded me of a little girl, all squeaky and high-pitched. 'This is White Devil, over. If anyone can hear me please answer. Oh, and an explanation of what the fuck is going on here would really be nice. Thank you.'

Sadly, my response was limited by the pure panic I was feeling at that moment, so all I think she got in reply was repeats of 'falling!' and possibly some screams of gibberish.

The headlong descent into the dirt at high speed is promptly stopped, by a shouted cry of 'Master!' and Reinforce catching me before I went splat. I collided with her instead, floating in midair on a glowing white triangle as the air whooshed out of my lungs, wrapped around her outstretched arms as I was. "Are you unharmed, Master?"

"Owww…" I moan, coughing as I do. "This shall leave a bruise. This shall definitely leave a bruise."

Reinforce just smiles at me. "Better than dying, Master. And in the interests of continuing that state, I recommend you Unison with me, being completely inexperienced in magic as your questions revealed you are."

"Unison being…?" I start, inching off her arm onto the triangle as I do. The sudden fireball right to the face, only repelled by a barrier Reinforce spawned to block, kinda helped in making up my mind. "Never mind what, sure, let's do it!"

Nodding, Reinforce glows white and vanishes, and a second later the book pulls itself free from my grip, floating in midair and rifling through pages. It pauses, on a page depicting a human with a tiny light near their chest, and then it's my turn to be engulfed in light.

When the blinding glare leaves my eyes, I find myself floating in a white space. I'm nude, but seconds later not, as with a flash a sleeveless black mini dress forms around my torso, threaded with golden lining around the edges and buttons. Black gloves form on my hands in the same moment, and a second later a blue and gold staff appears directly in front of me. The object reaches from the floor to my chest, and ends in a golden circle with a cross inlaid in the centre; the 'arms' extend outwards slightly in pointed tips.

Next up is a pair of gauntlet and shoulderguards forming on my arms as a jacket, alongside a golden pauldron circling the lower skirt. I feel my hair depress slightly as a hat spawns atop my head, a poofy white thing I vaguely recall being known as a balmoral, and continuing the transformation six black wings form behind me, floating inches away from my upper, middle and lower back.

The moment that's done, a tiny blue ball of light appears, my mind somehow instinctively recognizing it as Reinforce. She flies around my form a few times, circling higher up my body every rotation, before pausing in front of my chest and slowly sinking inside me.

As she does, I feel...secure, safe, like she's watching over me completely and shall protect me from all harm and danger. Seeing as she likely just became a part of me, I'm not all too surprised I'm getting this impression. The boost of confidence regarding living past the next five minutes is nice too, though.

I come back to awareness floating on my lonesome, the tiny purple wings doing nothing but flickering slightly, and yet it's evidently enough to continue whatever magic is keeping me in midair. Not gonna complain much.

No visible time difference appears to have passed, going by the angry orange glow from the sword-monster as it charges another attack, and I'm suddenly forced to test movement in a strenuous situation as I dodge incoming fire from the enemy once more.

"Woah there, calm down bucko." A voice echoes in my head, startling me until I remember the girl who spoke to me what feels a lot longer than thirty seconds ago. I fly behind a root, then three more further away, and pause to check if that's enough explody-sword lost me for the moment.

The crash and explosion just above my head, charring my hat slightly, kinda hints the answer is 'no'.

"Bit busy dodging death here!" I snap back at the voice, both in my thoughts and out-loud. The subsequent fireball at my current position informs me the second method is a bad idea. "How you speaking in my head, anyway?"

She's using Telepathy, Master, one of the various spells one can perform. I'm doing the same, incidentally, although being inside you I am also immune to jamming.

Well, there's one up of this Unison already; chatting with Reinforce without her needing to dodge incoming fire alongside me. "Ah, Reinforce tells me telepathy. Neato."

"Serious Ni No Kuni flashbacks here." She retorts, the mention leaving me kinda lost. I know it's a Wii game, and has some similarities to Pokémon...somehow...but what I said matching it as a reference? Not a clue.

"I have completely failed to get that–" The sword-thing roars, vibrating in place, and suddenly I find out the reason it has those floating ropes alongside the fireball nose. They function as very effective whips, smacking into the roots and sending bark chunks flying, and I barely avoid getting caught by them as they whip left and right in attempts to intertwine and presumably squeeze me to death.

One particular whip almost catches my foot, the tip barely touching in an attempt to wind around me, and I kick it away and into the closest pile of roots. The massive smash and line of broken plant this leaves is rather impressive. "Ooh, close one. And that is a big~ gap in the roots."

Reinforce, how do I attack? Just point the staff and yell 'fire!' or something? Dodging's only doing so much against this thing, even in the 3D environment flight grants me!

"It's a JRPG. Fun one at that." This girl is beginning to get on my nerves with her nonchalance about the fight. "By the way, your name's Olly now."

You can perform a petrifying bombardment spell known as Mistilteinn, Master. It has low overall power, but its additional petrification effect would be useful in paralyzing those whips.

Great, great, how do we do it? And, uh, can I even do it in the first place, newbie mage as I am?

I'd say you...hmm. Normally I'd advocate you chant and I cast, so I can focus on managing the mana going into the spell, but considering our situation something different might be in order.

I swerve, ducking an incoming whip and catching the tail-end of a fireball the next moment, and do a quick guesstimate of my chances of dodging and chanting at once. They don't seem good.

Agreed. Right, guess I'll have to do this after all. Just...don't panic?

A moment later I find out why she said that, as I'm suddenly relegated to the back seat in the vehicle of my body, unable to move a muscle as a tendril of old sword-thing decides to slam towards my face. The hand raised to block, and more importantly the big triangle barrier created from it, kinda render the issue null as Reinforce takes point.

"Approach from beyond, mistletoe branches," I feel my lips murmuring as my companion and now puppeteer flows around incoming attacks, dodging many scarf whips and the occasional fireball while blocking those she cannot. "become spears of the silver moon, shoot and pierce!"

I suddenly recall I was chatting to that telepathic girl before Reinforce decided to puppet me for a bit, and that she named me Olly. Why that, I ask? Why?

"I...uhh. Right, whatever. You going to be helpful, or just a pest as I'm trying to survive here?"

My weapon staff is getting very bright now, many spears of light forming around the tip. They look to be almost double my length, and get launched into the air with the final words of Reinforce's chant.

"Petrifying spears, Mistilteinn!"

Tendrils wave and fireballs roar as the sword-thing attempts to whack the incoming projectiles down before they end up landing. The fact the spears are tending to pierce through said fireball and tendrils both renders this attempt rather useless, and I can't help but grin as they impale its torso and begin spreading a dark grey shade across the skin surrounding impact.

When the scarf whips severed by the blocking begin to regenerate, I get concerned. When the encroaching petrification decides to join in and retreat once more, that feeling only intensifies, resulting in a mix of curses and glares as our progress is undone by what totally feels like a cheat when you can't do it too.

"Oh, you're kidding! It can regenerate?!"

"Hm...let's see…" The girl replies, only being listened to faintly as I watch the sword-thing heal a tendril and immediately whack it in our direction. "Yeah, I kinda feel like being an asshole. But, if you can tell me what you're fighting against and who you are I might help you out."

Help would be lovely, if only it didn't come with such an attitude. I suspect I'm going to need more firepower.

"...Wow, that was really dickish." The girl mutters a moment later, barely heard. Too late, kiddo, already got insulted!

"White Devil, an asshole. Why am I unsurprised." Really, the name was a hint all on its own. "Well, I'm fighting what looks to be a giant pink sword which shoots energy beams at me. And presuming you're in the same area as me, it can blow those roots into tiny fragments with each hit, and fire multiple at once."

Well, I'm not actually sure if it's 'three at once' or 'three in rapid succession', but the end result is similar honestly. They come hard, they come fast, and they leave crispy remnants wherever they land. Thank gods for Reinforce's barriers.

The sword swells, evidently getting tired of my continued existence, and I feel both my and Reinforce's eyes widen in sync at the latest set of blows. Wait, should that be 'I feel Reinforce widen my eyes', or...doesn't matter, doesn't matter!

"Oh crap, eight! Eight! Dodge!"

Happily for me, Reinforce had the same idea, fleeing behind a root and ducking and weaving under several others before a sudden surge upwards. The massive explosion which lit the area behind us was not something I wanted to experience, and even being far away as we were Reinforce was forced to put up a barrier less the encroaching firewall cooked us.

"So, a Pokémon version of EMIYA." The girl continues, her disconnect from my panic feeling distinctly odd. "Oh, and who the fuck are you."

She's really living up to her name with this cussing and insult combo.

"Oh hey, I get that one." Nasu knowledge go! "Doesn't quite apply, as the sword's like thirty feet tall and can't summon more swords–" thank gods "-but sure, why not." Reinforce has been doing something with the staff while I chatted, a glowing black orb forming around the head, and she decides to toss it towards an incoming fireball and the monster right behind it.

The resultant explosion, and rather large crater it happened to form, kinda hints this is wasn't a wise choice. "And I have now learned exploding them is bad. Very bad. Also, I'm...uhh...crap, what do I call myself now?" Do I use my real name? A girl name? My username?

"Olly."

"...It works for the moment." Gods darn me and my inability to come up with something on-demand.

Reinforce swaps tactics, the large black ball turning into several considerably tinier ones, which shoot off in large numbers as some sort of laser buckshot to pepper the enemy. Many tiny holes have as little effect as a few large ones, misfortunately.

"So, Olly, do you have a general location at the moment?" Devil kid asks, "Or do I have to Area Search your ass again?"

Ah, aid! Right, where's a good landmark, where is...a...good...gods darn, everything is holes! The place is either exploded, nothing but roots, the sky and what looks to be a very big sloping pit. Wait, that last one might work.

"Location, location...near a big hole? Follow the sound of explosions, cursing and bright lights." I'm using the magical version of cursing here, although the physical one fits too; spells meant to harm fall under curse more than anything else, anyway.

"So, the area where shit gets done. Great, I'll be there in a flash." Reinforce blocks a triple fireball as she replies, and I feel myself tremble slightly from strain. Going by my heaving chest, this fight's taking a toll on me. "Takamachi Nanoha, at your service."

Wait, we're speaking Japanese? Double wait, Nanoha?!

"I'm in the Nanoha-verse? What the heck's this thing I'm fighting then, a gods-darn familiar?!" Sure doesn't look like a giant kitty.

"Not a familiar." My lips move, Reinforce joining in as she watches the monster carefully from a distance. "No familiar in my records has this thing's capabilities. Feels different, too."

"Wait, Reinforce says 'no', so...I got nothing." Sword-monster, that is now your official title! That or explody-blade, either works.

"Lost Logia are bullshit and everyone knows it." I...that...has no seeming reference on our last exchange, and is something I don't get at all. This is becoming a theme. "Also, Reinforce hm? Eins or Zwei?"

"I have no idea." Does Reinforce have sibling books? "Reinforce is a silver-haired woman, though, if it helps?"

"Full-grown woman or tiny child?" Ah, so the sibling is a little kid. Does it have a card or something as it's repository, I wonder? Also, here's a chance to snark at her for earlier!

"What do you think someone double the height of a–" Crap, how old am I now? Uhh, lesse, I'm shorter than before, female, no mirror so I don't know appearance beyond clothing and...I have no clue.

"Thirteen." Reinforce chimes in, shooting a few incoming tendrils as she ducks around one of the few surviving roots in this area. "You're thirteen, Master, as far as my analysis can prove. How are you unaware of that?"

I'm very forgetful of my age.

"Huh, I'm thirteen now. Anyway, adult."

"Right, Reinforce Eins." She replies, evidently recognizing the book from her sibling by description alone. Reinforce must be famous here. "Look, does she know any sealing spells? Lay that on the monster's ass."

Um. You heard that, right, Reinforce?

The glowing light forming in her hands, black in shade like almost every other attack thus far, seems like a good indication. The fact the projectile turned into ropes when it landed on the sword-monster, binding around its – ah, snap, it has no limbs to bind – body and snout prove the point even further.

"I can cast tentacles!" I cheer to the girl, privately adding on using them around woman as a big no-no. The sudden creak and snap as the bondage restraints pop from the sword-thing are a considerable dampener on my brief good mood. "Crap, only held it for a second. What does it take to stop this thing?!"

"Explosions, probably." The girl suggests, sounding busy with something of her own. "Look up the spell Ragnok, I'm going to see if I can get my own boom-boom-pow spell working." And~ I was right.

Well, Reinforce? We got a spell called 'Ragnok'?

"No spell under that name is known to me."

Welp, there goes that route. "I tried explosions, it healed from them!" I told you this like a minute ago, too. "Even when it was in multiple pieces! Thing's like a Buu, but less pink, humanoid and genocidal!" Well, actually, it is trying to kill me and everything else it can find, so– "Maybe not that last one."

"...The fuck's a Buu?" The girl replies, sounding very confused. "Is it that thing from DBZ?"

"Also, I don't know any spells called 'Ragnok', apparently." And she knows DBZ? Nanoha likes blaster-shooter shows, evidently, and in hindsight her personality quirks regarding forming friends suddenly make a lot more sense. "Yep! Villain of third series arc, pink jelly blob which regenerated. Hence my comparisons to the sword-monster."

"Rein's probably keeping it from you. It's S-Class, after all." Nanoha informs me in a gush, sounding out of breath as she does. She fighting something too, perhaps, and that's what's delaying her? "On a side note, I only got into the very beginning of the Android arc."

...Yeah, think my theory still works. There was enough punching equals friendship during those arcs for it to apply. Vegeta, for example! And Piccolo!

"Changing topics, where the heck are you?" I demand, tensing nervously as Reinforce dodges a number of fireballs and tendrils seeking to entrap her. "We're having entirely too much–"

"Master, a new combatant is approaching." Reinforce interrupts, grabbing my attention as she does a stomach-turning twist and dive around the entangling whips of sword-thing. "She reads as a human, and...somewhat similar to a mage. Again, it's different to my records."

Ah, this just keeps happening. Well, we can hope she's friendly and take it at that. Move us towards her?

In response, Reinforce twists my body in midair, swivelling to the lower left of our current position while blocking the incoming tentacles with a barrier. Another forms under my feet, the triangle acting as a piece of solid ground to push off, and I rocket towards a tiny figure barely visible off in the distance. They've got another, even smaller figure floating just above their head, and...that is a big sword they're heaving about!

Reinforce, let me talk when we land? I'm probably better at making a new friend. Asperger's be damned, I'll get me an ally or die trying!

We arrow down to just in front of their position, the figure – now resolved to be a girl – tensing warily as I fall closer. With a cloud of dust and a bang we hit the dust, and suddenly I'm in control and need to jog a few steps lest I teeter over from the remaining momentum.

Oops, bit too soon.

No duh! Well, best be on with it. I raise a hand towards the girl in front of me, a small grin on my face as I do, and use my best welcome line. "Yo. How you going?"

It may not be a good welcome line.

"So...uhh…" I cannot social. "You here to help with the monster? As so far I've tried lasers, petrification and binding, and nothing's worked. The discovery it could regen was particularly annoying."

The blonde blinks, lowering the sword from where she'd readied it in surprise. "I didn't know there were other Heroes sent out already! You already started fighting the Vertex without us?"

"Moooore like stumbled into it, then attempted to survive till aid arrived." I admit. "So it's known as a Vertex? Sounds cooler than my nicknames of sword-thing or explody-sword."

She looks confused for a moment, before slipping a hand into one of her pockets and pulling out a… phone? After looking at it for a couple seconds, tapping the screen, she looks back up at me. "You're… not a Hero, are you?" There's something to the way she was saying Hero, like it isn't translating right, or she's putting a weird emphasis on the word.

...Wait, translating?

"We're speaking Japanese, right? And by hero, you're meaning 'one who protects', like in comic books and films? The guys and girls who save the world from threats, occasionally wearing spandex?" Or should I use magical girls as an example, considering it's Japan? Presuming it's Japan. Crap, this place is foreign enough I got nothing but Nanoha as proof it's the land of the rising sun, and she can trawl dimensions so it isn't even solid!

"Yes, we are. But, I mean... " She pauses for a second, looking around almost guiltily, before shaking her head. "How did you become like that, if you aren't a Hero? Did the Taishi recruit you?" She gestures to my outfit, the thing I turned into when I Unison'd with Reinforce. Think it was known as a Barrier Jacket?

"I met a magic book." I reply bluntly. "Apparently whomsoever picks it up becomes its owner, which in this case is me, and it comes with a nifty outfit and shared-body element for surviving attacks."

Reinforce, can you, like, materialize in some manner without us desyncing? Tiny little virtual body or whatnot?

The staff in my hand makes a tiny 'ding' upon my request, so...guess that works.

"That seems a little like my Fairy? Oh! I'm Fū. Inubōzaki Fū". I'm a little distracted from her interruption by the sudden appearance of a floating blue-green dog in the air next to her head.

"And this is Inugami, the source of my Girl Power!" She strikes a pose, victory sign with one hand as the other performs some strange version of a fist pump.

"Girl...Power, you say." Reinforce, the dog match your definition of Familiar? Last I knew the mage gave the familiar power, not the other way about. "I just call it magic, myself. Catchall term for anything which the laws of physics say shouldn't happen, although from what my book has told me so far it actually is using physics. Kinda." Math making spells counts!

"Well, you've introduced yourself, so I might as well." I continue with a smile. "The staff's called Reinforce...Eins, apparently, although the second part I only know from a voice in my head, and my name is–"

Incoming!

Reinforce takes hold again, whirling me about in a lightning-fast skid of dust, and forms a big triangular barrier just in time to block the fireball and whip combo cracking down upon our location. Seems old swordy decided to follow us over, instead of waiting kindly off in the distance or something.

A glance to the left shows that Fū shielded herself with the sword, the giant slab of steel apparently as maneuverable as my own staff. That is just not fair.

"It can't be killed with one person! It needs to be sealed before it can be finished, so can I ask you for a little more help?" She spins the sword like it weighs nothing, apparently readying herself for a jump.

"Well, yes, I found that out already." I snap back, Reinforce swapping once more as the barrier fades away. "Also tried sealing already, for that matter, and it broke the bonds annoyingly quickly. How're you're meant to restrain it when it breaks free in a few seconds?!"

Fū blinks, looking slightly put out at the snappy tone, before brushing it off as she parrys a brace of sword-tentacle-missiles. "Why would sealing bind it? That's meant to open up its core so we can kill it!"

Reinforce, did we use the wrong type of 'sealing' spell?

The common definition of the 'Sealing' spell is one used to restrain, hence the name. A number of spells in my library do have the ability to extract a creature's heart, however.

Right, blaming Nanoha. She gave us faulty info, darn it! Wait–

"How do you extract the thing's heart when it regens? Wouldn't it heal up from any wounds the Sealing causes?"

The girl starts to answer, before a ballistic missile that resembles her to an remarkable extent lands between us. Except instead of a yellow outfit, she's clad in green. Hair's shorter, too.

What happened to warnings, Reinforce? You pick up Yu, but miss the newcomer?

She moves very fast. One moment she was far off, the next here.Alongside that, she also reads similarly to this Fū, and thus was assumed friendly.

"Itsuki! Are you okay?" The older, original, blond immediately starts checking over the newcomer, before another Fairy creature appears, this one resembling a… flying plant seed?

Familiar scans result in vastly different creatures to those inscribed in my database. Whatever they are, they're either very new or older than I am. Which is saying something, in the case of the second.

Yes, could've guessed from the seed and dog, although the first one kinda~ could have been a dog-person akin to Arf. And now I'm wondering how old Reinforce is; being an AI doesn't make appearance-guesses useful for this.

"Yuki?" A glance over shows that the both of the girls, apparently sisters if I caught that last snippet of conversation right, are on the phone. I'm...kinda curious how they get signal here, actually, unless the town's like a mile off from the root forest we find ourselves in presently.

"So, why the decision to poke about on the phone?" I inquire, swapping to Reinforce to blast the monster a bit as I do. Swap. "I mean, we are in the middle of a fight here, and if driving a car while doing phones is bad I suspect this is too."

The younger magical girl, Itsuki, looks a little chastised, but Fū just flashes me a grin. Something tells me that is a depressingly common reaction from her, even if I have only known her for a minute.

Incoming!

And then the sword reminds me it exists again, in the method of a giant whip attack on all three of us from directly above. Reinforce can barely get a barrier up in time, centimetres from our trio of heads, and I start cursing at myself for the stupidity it requires to forget about a monster just after mentioning it.

...What's taking our famous mage girl, anyway? Where's Nanoha when you need her?

"Oy, Nanoha!" I shout, vaguely in the hope the girl shall actually respond and this does something. "Where the heck are you, kid? We're a bit busy over here dealing with the giant sword and wondering when you were gonna stop the darn tea party and show already!"

The two sisters finally decide to scatter from under my barrier, resulting in Reinforce taking me on a skidding exit right before it cracks and shatters from the strain. I spin back to facing it as momentum skids my butt forwards, pointing the staff at the thing's center-of-mass for the second it takes to shoot a black energy blast it's way. And then it's time to play dodge-the-fireballs once more.

"Gods darn it, respond already girl! Help! SOS! I need aid, and you aren't bothering to even pick up the phone at the moment! What's taking you?!"

"Fine, fine." I hear as a grumpy reply, the annoyance who doubles as heavy artillery sounding all too put out by the idea. "Gotta go fast!"

A quick check around shows the sisters got thrown to different roots by the blasts, and I momentarily give thanks the Vertex wasn't focusing on them while they were down.

Wait, if it isn't focusing on them, and it's not shooting me, then who-

I have decrypted their communications, Master. Like everything else here, it seems, the security was foreign. Not enough thousands of years of knowledge and techniques can't help, though.

"-eave me and run!"

Oh. That's why. The Vertex apparently found a better target after slapping us three around, in the form of at least two other girls somewhere else in the area. Higher up, too, judging by the angle of the snout.

The two blondes are still down from that last attack, and seem a tad less damage-resistant than my own form. Bugger.

"If I just abandoned my friends here-" The new voice is cut off by the first, the girl that had been yelling about running. "Yuna-chan!" "I wouldn't be a Hero!"

I swivel, glancing at the phone for a second from that heartfelt plea, and thus am facing completely the wrong direction when the Vertex finishes charging and shoots a fireball over my head. It arcs up, up, up, into the sky, and more importantly into the really large root off in the distance where those girls probably are.

"Oooh crap." Not good, not good, not good.

And then the shot comes screaming back out, exploding against a root to the left of the considerably-bigger root. I can feel Reinforce influencing something in my sight, before my vision jumps closer, letting me see a pink glow from within the dust cloud slowly dissipating atop the root.

"I...um...do you guys glow rainbow when you TF? As someone's up there and glowing pink." The silence in reply reminds me they're currently unconscious. Oops again. "Right, gonna presume a 'yes' and start moving our collective asses up there. Reinforce, binding time!"

This is such a bad, and yet hilarious idea.

The phone-tap activates as I start readying the spell with Reinforce's help, and I listen in with one ear as I proceed to point the staff in the direction of the two KO'd children. Which I may also count as, considering this body, but I'm twenty-one mentally and refuse to behave different!

"I don't like it when people get hurt, or people suffer!" I can hear running in the background, and the volume drops before it adjusts back up to compensate, the explosion of a second shot from the Vertex thankfully muted as another flash of pink light sends it veering off course.

At the same moment, my staff finishes charging, and Reinforce promptly does as I suggested and wraps the twin siblings with ropes of shadowy light, puppeting them in place over my head with a single strand connecting them to the staff. Movement of KO'd people with no effort and the opportunity for puns! Genius!

That done, we promptly get moving towards the big root where the pink booms are coming from, jumping into the air and accelerating rapidly with the aid of my little black wings which-don't-flap-but-still-provide-thrust. Magic makes no sense, even math magic.

As I grow closer, and the tiny figures in the distance become not-so-tiny, I can make out that it's a pair of young girls in wheelchair and feet, the second moving steadily forwards and punching the fireballs chucked her way. Each hit, with both fist and foot, appears to be spawning a new piece of armour onto her form, until finally she pulls a complete uppercut of one particularly arced attack and transforms entirely, taking to the air.

"I'd rather do everything I can!"

Her new form is a lot pinker than her old. Red hair fades to a pale pink, a school uniform vanishing to be replaced with bodysuit and coat. A giant pink flower ties back shoulder-length hair which had a sudden growth spurt to mid-waist, while what looks like a curved flower petal pins the left bang of the two about her face into place. Finally, a red and silver ribbon adorns her chest, alongside shoes which spiral upwards akin to springs.

...I think my own form is more practical. Although the weapons don't seem too gaudy?

"...AHH! Yuna-chan!!" Oh gods my ears.

The smaller blonde seems to have woken up and decided the best way to react to my chosen method of transport is screaming, before she spotted her pink friend hurtling towards the Vertex as it fired on her.

"AHH! It's trying to take our Girl Power!" That would be the older sister, who I'm honestly not sure is serious or joking. "Yuna?! Wait, what's happening?!" She snaps to deadly serious after spotting her friend's flight path, however.

"Courtesy of the Tendril Taxi, ladies!" I yell at my two pri...allies as they strain towards Yuna's fast-moving form. "You were unconscious, so I decided to help out and get you here before we lost an ally." Yuna proceeds to punch another fireball out of the sky as she plummets towards the Vertex. "May not have been needed."

...I'm loving myself for that name at present. Ah, the punny!

A surge of pink from the hurtling magical girl draws my attention, just before she hits the Vertex.

"Hero! PUNCH!"

Ah, she's the shounen type, naming attacks and all. Then again, I kinda am too, although at least in my situation it's for focusing the energy and less for...wait, how do I know she isn't the same? Darn, this is gonna bug me!

I'm dragged out of my thoughts by the sound of her hitting the Vertex, the punch tearing one of the tentacles clean off. A good effort, kid, but it's just gonna regen again in ten seconds or so.

"We're from the hero club. We volunteer to do anything that will help people." Yuna shouts, looking back at the segment of scarf as it proceeds to turn white and dissolve into the air. "The Sansyu middle school hero club! I'm Yuna Yuki, and I will be a Hero!"

"I have eyes on the target, proceeding to open fire!" Nanoha yells in my head a moment later, somewhat ruining the impressed feeling I was having from Yuna's proclamation. "I'll be acting as a distraction so if you've found a way to seal it do it now!"

Sealing? Already tried that, but considering it's Nanoha and her penchant for scenery destruction, worth another go. I let Reinforce take control once more, pointing the staff towards the giant pink sword as we charge up another shadow blob for movement restriction of those annoying scarf tendrils. Would do general as well, but the whole 'floating' thing kinda puts a stop to that.

Then the tentacles shattered, Fū breaking free with a cry of "Girl Power!", and I have barely a second to recall those were a thing again before the sister dropped down alongside her. Oops.

"Sorry!" I shout back as they plop down on a root next to me, a chagrined expression taking root on my face. Oh hey, puns. "Forgot you two were up the–"

"And when in doubt, always go back to the basics!" Nanoha interrupts, evidently not finished talking to me as she shoots towards the enemy. Whatever basics she happens to be referring to, my lack of training kinda renders them useless. Ah well, Reinforce can probably do it fine anyway.

Binding is fully charged, Master. Ready on your signal.

"You forgot!?" Fū jumps up, Itsuki following as they ascend to a higher root, roughly the same level as Yuna, before the phone-tap activates again as she starts filling the other two girls in that the Vertex can regenerate any damage we do, pointing out the lack of wounds despite Yuna's attack ten seconds ago as exhibit A.

That's about when a barrage of pink bullets descended from to our right, smashing into the Vertex and giving live demonstration of exactly what Fu was talking about. Well, maybe I should call it more live? Anyway, it involves booms, smoke and rapidly healing flesh, with a tiny pink light occasionally glimpsed through the smoke as it circled at high speed.

Ah, whoops, forgot to bind before Nanoha fired. Even had the glowing triangle beneath my feet as a reminder. Correcting now, go go go!

Firing.

As Reinforce said, so she did, swapping with me once more and letting loose the black orbs slowly swirling around my staff. They arced towards the monster, a few impacting on writhing tendrils as it recoiled from the blow, and expanded into lines of shadow which pulled tightly around it's scarf and midsection.

"That's my binding, now for yours!" I yell back with a mental swap, talking to Fū and Nanoha at the same time. "Attack!"

Fū and the other two Fairy-using magical girls had been darting about the area, while their nominal leader instructed them on the ritual that would apparently make it vulnerable, before she noticed the binding snapping into place. "If you can hold it there, we can do the sealing ritual!"

"Yeah, not a problem!" I yell as I slip into the driver's seat again, Reinforce focusing on keeping those bindings tight and unbreaking while the Vertex struggled in place. "I'll just–"

"Dumbass!" I said I was the distraction!" She did? I thought it was just an order to bind. "I'll move onto trying to weaken it and keep the aggro on me, but get the fucker sealed or it won't be the only thing having my hot, throbbing pink thing inside of it!!!"

...This is evidently futunari-Nanoha. How awkward.

Fū cut through that thought, "Is that your friend?! Doesn't matter, see if she can keep hitting it! Itsuki, Yuna, you ready!"

"I'm in position!" "Me too, Sis!"

"Oliver, how long until the sealing will work?!" Nanoha yells into my ear, just as the pink dot above us shoots the bound Vertex once more as she spirals. "It's kind just being bound at the moment!"

"Well, mine's already up, but you probably don't mean that." I retort, swivelling around to the three girls nearby as I do. "I'll ask!"

"She's gonna keep whacking it, but wants to know how long you'll be. Got any estimations, Fu?"

"Less than a minute, let's get started Hero Club!"

I nod, swapping Reinforce back in control once more, and give Nanoha a mental poke to get her attention. "Right, got it. Less than a minute, so aim for about forty seconds. That help?" No clue what she's doing that has her want the time, but eh, team coordination is always useful.

The smaller blonde starts the ritual, the flower seed fairy appearing in front of her in a burst of glitter. "Oh, Master of the Afterlife, have pity on us."

The bindings shake, Reinforce struggling to keep sword-thing contained, as the pink girl continues the vaguely religious-sounding chant. A magic circle forms under the Vertex as they chant, distinctly different to my own, and I decide to ask Reinforce to record their words in case we could replicate it later.

"Bring us your blessings, protect our happiness and fortune, and bring us joy." Her Fairy turns out to be a tiny white cow, blue-white wings upon its back, which joins the seed-fairy in gazing towards the monster. A distinct feeling of serenity appears to be growing from their actions, an odd contrast to the situation.

"Give it a rest!" Which is shattered by Fū slamming the hunk of metal shaped like a sword into the Vertex's head. I'll admit, I was expecting more ritual, and less...what she did, the other two evidently feeling the same way.

"Wait, that's it?!" Yuna exclaims, both swivelling to stare at the grinning blonde in surprise. She just smirks, hands on her blade, and retorts "It doesn't matter what you say, as long as you say it with spirit!"

...Erasing recording.

As soon as those words leave her lips a torrent of light explodes from the circle, glittering shards of white and gold spiralling upwards into the heavens around the Vertex. As they reach and swiftly bypass the head, various sections peel back to release a large floating pyramid, black in shade and floating point-down towards us. Purple lines also run through it, forming miniature triangles along the sides and tip.

"Sealing it exposes the soul, that thing is it's heart" Fū shouts, pointing at the floating shape as she does. "Destroy it, and we win!"

"Then I'll do it!" Yuna takes the initiative, leaping from the ground as she pulls back her arm for a second rendition of her 'hero punch'.

...Before stopping on top of it, waving her hand about as she sways back and forth in pain. "It's hard! It's way too hard!"

Well, I'm now even more happy we've got someone good at smashing stuff here, then! "Nanoha, it's sealed! Attack the floating triangle, that's it's soul!" Also heart, somehow, but then again it's a floating sword which automatically tends to shuffle any protests from biology off the stage.

"...I've played enough RPGs to recognize a weak point when I see it." She snarks back at me, my advice evidently kinda obvious when one just saw it happen. A moment later the pink dot was joined with another dot, which rapidly grew larger in front of it, firing off towards the triangle a moment later. While Yuna was still sitting on it.

Crap.

"Yuna, look out!" I cry, the projectile impacting a moment later in a cloud of light and smoke. There's a thud, accompanied by a faint skid of metal across metal, and I can barely see a white hand dangling over the edge of the triangle tip. Darn it Nanoha, what happened to friendly fire avoidance?!

"The hell angel girl!? Tell your friend to aim better!"

"Doing it! You think this was on purpose or something?!" I retort, half wondering as I am what caused her to label me as anything angelic. The wings are black, so you'd think 'devil' is more accurate, but then again Nanoha's the white devil and doesn't fit any–

Yuna promptly drops back off the floating triangle, proving she's unharmed and cutting me off in one stroke. She doesn't look that injured, beyond a slight wince from her fist when she touches down on a root, and proceeds to jump over to Fū and Itsuki with a smile.

Before Fū can properly lambaste me now she knows Nanoha didn't accidentally commit a team-kill, Itsuki cuts in to ask about something that had been bugging me for a bit.

Namely, the fact that a timer was ticking down gradually in the center of the ritual circle below the Vertex's heart.

"Ah, that's our remaining power," Fu replies, sounding juuust a bit lighthearted for admitting we've got a time limit, "we'll lose our hold on it if it runs out, and then the Vertex will be free to continue on to Shinju-sama!"

Think we can replicate the chant on our own, Reinforce? Even if they're limited, we sure aren't. Well, I think we aren't.

The magic is foreign, Master. It shall take time to reproduce, if I can even do so in the first place, and in all likelihood more than we have before this 'Vertex' reaches whatever the Shinju happens to be.

I would recommend absorbing the Linker Core of one of these strange mage to increase reproduction speed, but there's a high chance it would disrupt the ritual and thus invalidate our aim in the first place.

"So we just have to finish it fast!" Good to see Yuna is still motivated. Now, what's Nanoha up to after she shot the kid? Panicking, I hope!

"Oy, Nanoha, what the hell! Shoot the triangle, not the girl who was on it. Check your targets!" Hmm, should let her know about, "Oh, and we've got a time limit. The circle goes poof, so does the heart, and thus any chance of beating this thing. Timer's in the center."

"Fuck off Yagami." She snarls back a moment later, proving both she has a potty mouth and memory of a goldfish. Wait, no, haven't told my name so the second is invalid. Still, who's Yagami? Wasn't I Ollie to her? "There was a 99.9% chance that it would hit, and why the hell was I not informed about the time limit?"

"How am I meant to inform you about something I just learned a minute ago, eh?" I can't time travel, gods darn it. "Fū only just told us about it, and was altogether too chipper while she did! Now quit complaining and start hitting it!"

With a mental switch I cut the conversation, Reinforce taking hold once more, and we angle our staff towards the triangle and begin charging. The petrification didn't work on the tendrils, yeah, but nothing wrong with trying again on the weak spot!

"Approach from beyond, mistletoe branches," Reinforce intones through me once more, shining white orbs forming around the staff head. They lengthen, elongating into the spears this next part references, growing longer and sharper as we speak. "become spears of the silver moon–"

Then a pink bullet came roaring into me and we had to cancel for emergency shielding. Gods darn it, Nanoha, we told you about friendly fire and want you to avoid it! I scowl, glaring at the glowing triangle which barely stopped the shot in time, and begin the charge once more with a mental flex to Reinforce.

Least she's hitting for the most part, going by those pink explosions colliding with the triangle above us. Now, wonder what Fū and company shall do?

Apparently a charging assault, it turns out, Fū leading the others with a superhuman leap with Yuna following close behind, both girls slamming their weapons into the triangle at the apex of their arc and jolting it enough it pauses in the slow rotation it's been performing thus far. I still don't know how Fū lifts her sword, honestly, but magic probably helps in slugging about a chunk of metal the same height as her. And occasionally sometimes triple that, considering how it enlarged before she smashed it down.

Then Nanoha fires, a second after the duo whacked the sword-thing, sending them flying backwards from the backlash and pretty explosion of shards the pyramid is now composed of. Glad to know that worked, and Nanoha is certainly living up to her reputation in the art of Blowing Stuff Up.

The girls fall back to the roots with a thump, big grins on their faces, and the Vertex's main body shimmers and begins to dissolve into a weird brown substance.

Sand, Master.

"The corruption's stopped!" Fū cheers, gesturing at the roots around the circle as she does. I follow her hand and do a double-take, wondering when the surrounding roots decided to become less solid and more withered husks looking like they hadn't been hydrated in months. She leaps over to me, grabbing my hand, then tugs me back to Yuna and Itsuki before enveloping us all in her arms.

"Wait, wha?" I'm left a bit devoid of words by this. "Why the hug? What about pinky floating up above us?!"

Incoming Aerial mage, Master.

Like the mermaid?

That's Ariel, Master.

Ah, whoops. Well, we know who it is? Enemy? Friend? Nanoha, and you decided to call her that instead of her name? Which direction, for that matter? I start wriggling in Fū s grip, trying to get free, or if not that just look about in the hopes they're visible using one's eyes alongside magic radar.

I barely manage to turn my head before a blinding light spawns where the sword-thing's corpse is, growing larger every second before we're all engulfed by this strange new phenomenon. By the time my eyes clear, we've changed places, the root forest and sand replaced with clear skies overlooking a city, concrete under our feet and wire fencing us in. Think we're on a roof, at a guess.

"Fuuuuuuck! Thunder Arm! Defensor!" I, um, what?

A gold blur resolves at the edge of the roof, a spiralling circle of magic being cracked by a blonde girl, her left arm smashing into it with a roar of thunder, wind billowing in a rush against me from her speed.

"Why in Maeve's name is the answer for brake not seven, Bardiche? Any sane and rational method of finishing that equation says it should be bloody seven!" She seems to be talking to the staff in her other hand, it chiming in response to her yelling.

The girl turns around, shaking the arm that she seems to have used as an improv brake before looking between me and Nanoha, then at the other girls who look as surprised as I am at her sudden appearance.

Telepathy detected, Master.

"I'm going to have to assume that neither of you two are the original holders of those bodies. Big shiny void?"

 

[InfiniteDaze]

So many formatting issues...

Never leave things to a goldfish.
***

Chapter 1 – InfiniteDaze POV​

This Game of Life​

I'm not even sure how the hell I died.

No, really, it was one thing to be killed by a knife or a passing car but it was another to just fall over and die.

My body was shit, that was something I had established a few months ago. Sores, headaches, the occasional cramps, the week long migraine, and the heart burns.

Goddamn the heart burns. Every fucking night.

Granted, I wasn't taking care of myself well but I never expected me to just up and die. One moment I was suffering from my usual headache, the next my vision goes blurry and I fall to the floor.

Heh, to think my life ended right there. I hadn't even graduated middle school yet…

Eh, who was I to say anything? Sure I might have taken care of my body terribly but I recently had the nagging suspicion that I wouldn't survive past high school. Not really a right set of mind to think but…

Not like I had a goal to strive for anyways. I never could get a future set in stone, just kind of felt like I was drifting. Maybe that's the reason I seem to adapt really well.

What was it my friend said again? Ah yes, I either love everyone or hate everyone because I treat them all the same. He's right on some of it, I'd probably just be annoyed if my family died for some reason, I had a tendency to forget friends, and as for everyone else…

Who?

I think SV is the place I actually made real friends, which is kind of sad when I think about it. I lost any energy I had for Real Life somewhere along the line.

Now here I was, dead.

...Wait, I could think right? What was the saying again? I think therefore I am? Yeah, let's just go with that.

If I think then that means, I could move?

It was an odd sensation, like I had both energy and no energy at the same time. My eyelids opened to a black world, and unlike most places, it really was completely black. There was nothing to get used to…

Or so I thought. Using what I had, I could drag myself off the… black? Am I floating or is there actually a floor?

Who knows, I'm not going to question it at least.

I stood up, or at least I think I did, and looked around the black space. Three golden pillars adorned the world and it seared into my eyes. There was one near me but all the others were at a distance.

So, this was the light at the the end of the tunnel? Certainly hurts as hell. The afterlife manager needs to fix something.

The sound of glass shattering sounded through my ears and echoed throughout beyond.

"The hell?" I muttered to myself, whipping around to find one of the pillars gone, a cracked area left standing where it was.

...So, there's a time limit to get to the afterlife? Guess I better hurry up then.

I started a mad sprint to the closest pillar, the blackness of the world making it contrast against everything else. I wasn't tired, for I couldn't get tired. I was dead, there was no body for me to have stamina, just the movement of my soul.

And my soul went to a screeching halt as it observed what lied in the pillar of light. It was… Raising Heart, the staff used by Nanoha Takamachi. A golden shaft extending to a crescent in which a red orb floated inside, I could recognize this thing anywhere.

Was this some kind of sick joke? I hardly doubt that Nanoha's device would just be laying around somewhere in the afterlife and yet here it was.

Maybe it was a replica?

I guess there was only one thing to do. No choice, just what I had to do.

Still no choice for the future. Dammit.

My arm reached out into the pillar until my hand grasped around the shaft of the device, only to recoil back as it disperses into wisps of black and purple.

So it was a trap.

The sound of glass shattering once again hit my ears before the world gave way to gravity and I tumbled into the darkness.

***

Something changed, I know that. As the darkness wrapped around me it changed something about me until the light once again blinded my eyes. The weight of being alive again coming back in full force.

Heart beats, you didn't know how used to them you are until they're gone.

Somewhere along the line the wind hit me and my eyes opened to a city coming… closer?

Wait what? Is it floating? The trees, the city, the…

Oh, I was the one coming closer.

"Oh goddammit." I muttered, only to realise that my voice was a few pitches higher."...What just happened?"

Wait, voice higher? I knew the signs of being Genderbent and if I was some assholes were gonna pay. Okay, don't panic- fuck that PANIC!

"WAHHHHH!!!" I screamed out as high as I could. "Okay, quick, what do you remember about falling!?"

From this height, I would be meat paste by the time I reached the ground. Anything I could remember about falling probably wouldn't matter.

User detected. A voice declared inside my mind. It was at that moment that I noticed my hand was clenched around something.

I quickly opened my hands hoping for a miracle, only to find a red marble attached to a brown piece of string.

"This," I began. "is both a blessing and a curse."

Raising Heart, of course.

Please state passward to deploy.

Well, Nanoha could fly right? I'm pretty sure the spell was somewhere inside it, so that might save me. Now what was the password again…

"I am the one who has been given a mission." I stated in my new voice's best official tone. "Under the contract release those powers unto me."

C'mon, the rest follows a basic pattern…

"Winds to the sky, stars to the heavens!" I shouted quickly. "And the Unyielding Soul, to this heart!"

I can feel the device pulsing, as much as I can feel the wind whipping my face.

One more line dammit!

"Magic to these hands!" I yelled towards the device. "Raising Heart, Set Up!"

The world gets wrapped in a pink light and I let out a sigh of relief. Almost done….

Would you like to create a barrier jacket or use a preset?

"Preset." I declare, feeling cloth wrap around me like a warm blanket. I could already hazard a guess that it was Nanoha's standard mech in disguise uniform.

"Stand by, ready." Raising Heart stated as my hand grasped its shaft once again and the world began returning to normal.

Finally! Okay, now to get that flight spell up and running…

"Raising Heart, you have a flight spell right?" I asked, "Mind using it?!"

A brief flash of math interrupts whatever other thought I could have before the words "Flier Fin" intones from Raising Heart.

Small pink wings form at the edge of my feet and suddenly the wind stops pushing against me. Leaving me hovering over the town as I scan over the area.

"Huh." I say in an awed tone. "So this is flight. Hey, Raising Heart, anything I should know about flight?"

Negative

"Ah well."

Right, time to figure this out.

I began trying to push my body forward…. only to end up doing flips in the air.

My stomach lurched with how many times it was forced to turn upside down, and my head began to feel dizzy.

"Okay! Here we… Go!" I yelled, as I began a frantic attempt to stabilize myself. A few more flips in the air in spite of the protests my body was giving and I had finally managed to stabilize myself so that I didn't look like a circus act.

Heh, the cartwheeling Mahou Shoujo, flying in the sky right now!

I began to slowly push my body forward, feeling my legs fly upwards so that my whole body was vertical.

"This is pretty cool." I state, beginning a glide over the area. "You're going to have to tell me those other spells you keep in there."

Affirmative. Would you like to begin a simulation?

"Aha… Not now, no." I laughed out, looking down at the ocean below me.

Did I seriously just use aha? I must have been more out of it then I thought.

"Raising Heart, how fast can I go?" I asked the device, pointing it forward. How did that song go again? Ah right.

It is not recommend to go full speed.

Okay, damnit, definitely going to listen to that warning after what happened earlier. My head still feels dizzy. Doesn't mean I couldn't try to go fast though.

With all the force I could muster I willed myself to go fast while imagining an invisible accelerator being stepped on. Instantly my body lurched forward, the feeling of the wind whipping against me as I shot around like a rocket.

And then, unable to help myself, I began to sing.

"Going fast, makes me feel alive! My heartbeat's in hyperdrive!"

***

Flying, I concluded after a few minutes, took a lot more effort than previously thought. You think all it takes is will? Ha ha- fuck no.

You had to constantly keep yourself in control, and even the slightest movement could throw off high speed flying. Lean that way, lean this way, it all had to be used correctly.

Never, have I ever been so grateful to the fact that I was good at Mario Kart. It was similar in a way, just that you had to take into account all the other things like wind. I was sure it would all become instinctual eventually but for now I had to focus.

I was on an island apparently, if the nearby swaths of ocean was anything. Probably somewhere in the Atlantic judging by the color, the pacific had a more greenish tint. Though it could really be any other ocean, I had only seen those two after all.

Wave after wave roared as I flew over them, not impressed at the least. I lived on a tropical island and had seen waves higher than that. I wasn't planning on going swimming but I was certainly going to check the other side of the island to see the height of the waves over there.

And then everything stopped with a shiver crawling up my spine. The wind vanished and the ocean frozen in place, revealing my reflection. Long orange hair tied up by two white ribbons into pigtails and dark blue eyes stared back at me. It was a face I could recognize from anywhere at this point.

"Ahahaha… bullshit." I laughed out, looking away from the still waters. "This is bullshit."

I was Nanoha Takamachi. I really should have seen this coming.

"I'm going to say this one more fucking time." I say, hoping that whatever God could hear me was listening. "Is this some kind of sick joke?"

Suddenly, the word warning flashed across Raising Heart's red core in a fashion that almost reminded me of sci fi movies. A loud crack echoed behind me, snapping me out of my anger.

Warning, barrier approaching. Proceed with caution.

...Shit. I floated there, frozen in fear until curiosity won me over, forcing me to turn around and look at the source.

There, right in front of me, stood a huge crack in reality. It ascended all the way to the tops of the sky, the bottom half formless and wispy as it seemed to descend beneath me, a massive wall stretching on and outwards. Slowly, the blackness turned to a rainbow light and began to form a wave, sweeping away everything in its path to form the world anew.

A small memory tugged at the back of my mind, one from long ago. Waves like this one crashing down on me until I managed to escape back to shore. It was this fact that led me to remember one small insight.

Waves have more impact if you're standing still.

I sped off like a rocket in the direction it was going, trying to outfly the wave. If that thing did indeed have some mass then it would at least give me a boost back to the island.

It quickly began to pick up speed until in a matter of seconds it was right behind me, dangling right at the edges of my feet.

And then I made the fatal mistake of looking behind me.

****

It was like staring into the sun, blinding my eyes with the intensity, but I found myself unable to look away as it swept over me. I felt myself losing control and beginning a steep descent downwards.

Aw shit not again. Gravity just plain hates me today.

"Raising Heart!" I called out through the light that blinded my eyes. "Cast protection just before I hit the ground!"

Affirmative

Hopefully that would slow down any momentum I had picked up. It was a risky gamble but hey, magic. If a basic protection spell didn't work to featherfall then I would be surprised.

My eyes began clearing up revealing a light blue sky, surrounded by huge snake-like things all around it.

Protection status: All Green

The edges of something pink briefly appeared in my eyes before it vanished and I landed with a dull thud on the ground, allowing me to take in the sights of this new world.

Holy hell this is getting trippy.

"Look, Raising Heart." I coughed out, still recovering from the small fall. "I'll have to rely on you to cast all the spells for me at the moment."

Affirmative. Please speak incantation to unlock spell.

I weakly lifted the staff up, pointing it to the sky.

Incantation huh? If I remember correctly Nanoha's was Magical Lyrical or something but…

Screw it! Making my own!

"Infinite Daze! Area Search!" I declared, balls of pink light forming at the end of the staff. "Seek out all human life."

The balls flew off, separating into pink trails in different directions.

I honestly had no idea what I was doing but as Saitama once said, the presentation was more important than the context. Besides, don't want to end up like Kotarou.

Ah, Rewrite. I never finished it, did I? Well, I guess that's one thing I regret.

Five humans detected.

So I wasn't the only one? Great!

Though now the question was if I actually wanted to meet up with them or not.

More than once had people proven to just be an annoyance.

Actually…

"Physical characteristics?" I asked the device, pulling myself up onto my knees and holding the staff out in front of me.

Pubescent females. High mana aptitude. Most likely mages. Querying. Device found. Caution is advised.

….That….

Well, considering my situation, physical description wouldn't really matter now would it? Hm…

You know, I'm probably going to regret this.

"Establish mental telepathy with the mage."

Establishing.

There was no change in feeling, only what I had to guess as I began trying to broadcast my thoughts.

'One, two, testing.' I tried out. 'This is White Devil, over. If anyone can hear me please answer. Oh, and an explanation of what the fuck is going on here would really be nice. Thank you.'

In a matter of minutes I got my response, in the form of a headache.

"Falling falling falling falling falling!" A girl's voice screamed in my mind, causing me to drop down on the floor and cover my ears instinctively. It was vaguely British and if I hadn't gotten it mixed up with Australian before then I would have thought it was.

Damn, do the gods just like dropping people from the sky? Sick bastards.

"Woah there, calm down bucko." I say, trying to reassure her in the only way I can.

Wait, bucko?

...Oh, right. Telepathy involves the thoughts. Well this is going to go to hell in a handbasket.

"Bit busy dodging death here! How you speaking in my head anyway?" The girl replied, still raving like a lunatic before calming down. "Ah, Reinforce tells me telepathy. Neato."

"Serious Ni No Kuni flashbacks here." I say, memories of my time playing the game clagging my mind before I shook them away.

Neato.

"I have completely failed to get that-" Uncultured swine. "Ooh, close one. And that is a big~ gap in the roots."

That's what she- not the time.

"It's a JRPG. Fun one at that." I answer, beginning a flight upwards. "By the way, your name's Olly now."

Short for Oliver, which is her new last name. Her first being John.

Last Week Tonight, about the only talk show I actually watch.

"I...uhh. Right, whatever. You going to be helpful, or just a pest while I'm trying to survive here?" She asks, presumably dodging for her life. "Oh you're kidding, it can regenerate?!"

Well fuck you too. This, is why I don't deal with people. Fuck it, she's getting one of my many asshole treatments.

"Hm... Let's see...." I say, mock-pretending to think it over. "Yeah, I kinda feel like being an asshole. But if you can tell me what you're fighting against and who you are I might help you out."

I pause in mid flight as I mentally go over that response.

"....Wow, that was really dickish."

Normally I wouldn't treat someone like this but it's hard to actually talk normal when you don't know who you're talking to and you're talking through your mind. My thoughts are shooting out faster than I can think them over.

"White Devil, an asshole. Why am I unsurprised. Well, I'm fighting what looks to be a giant pink sword which shoots energy beams at me. And presuming you're in the same area as me, it can blow those roots into tiny fragments with each hit, and fire multiple at once." She rants, accent making it hard not to try and chuckle. "Oh crap, eight! Eight! Dodge!"

A thundering sound appears at the edge of my vision, bright lights illuminating the area. A series of more explosions rapidly repeating.

As if this world wasn't bright enough. It looked like a fairytale for Kaiser's sake!

"So, a Pokemon version of EMIYA." I reply. Broken phantasms OP pls nerf. "Oh, and who the fuck are you?"

"Oh hey, I get that one. Doesn't quite apply, as the sword's like thirty feet tall and can't summon more swords, but sure, why not." Olly answers. "And I have now learned that exploding them is bad. Very bad. Also, I'm...uhh...crap, what do I call myself now?"

Hmph, so she is in the same situation as me.

"Olly." I declare, not taking no for an answer.

Serves the bastard right.

"...It works for the moment."

Damn right it does.

"So, Olly, do you have a general location at the moment?" I ask, watching the battle from afar. "Or do I have to Area Search your ass again?"

Who knows, she might be some place else-

"Location, location...near a big hole? Follow the sound of explosions, cursing and bright lights." Olly answers.

Bitch don't cut off my thoughts.

"So, the area where shit gets done. Great, I'll be there in a flash." I respond. "Takamachi Nanoha, at your service."

...Well if I'm going to look the part I might as well name the part.

"I'm in the Nanoha-verse? What the heck's this thing I'm fighting then, a gods-darn Familiar?" Olly rants. "Right, Reinforce says 'no', so...I got nothing."

Wait a minute- did she just say Reinforce?!

"Lost Logia are bullshit and everyone knows it." I vaguely respond in an all knowing manner. "Also, Reinforce hm? Eins or Zwei?"

"I have no idea."

...If you recognise the Nanoha-verse then how the fuck do you not know Reinforce?!

Right, calm. Calm is thy name- Screw calm! This is just bullshit- shut up before I castrate you.

"Reinforce is a silver-haired woman, though, if it helps?" Olly asks, not knowing the mental battle that was going on in my head. It does help, immensely.

"Full grown women or tiny child?" I ask, trying to confirm my suspicion.

"What do you think someone double the height of a-" Olly begins, only to pause and take a moment before replying again. "Huh, I'm thirteen now. Anyway, adult."

Eins. Of course it would be fucking Eins.

"Right, Reinforce Eins. Look, does she know any sealing spells? Lay that on the monster's ass." I advise, flying back down to the ground.

Hopefully a Unison Device that has been around for centuries would suffice but in the case it doesn't I might have to get involved with the fight. And considering I don't have a handy dandy Unison Device….

"Raising Heart," I call out loud. "I'm taking you up on the simulation offer, shooting and aerial combat and make it as quick as possible. Keep the connection active."

Multitasking is one of the most useful skills in today's society and I intended to speed-rush this for all it's worth.

Commencing Image Training

The world fades away until I'm floating in the skies once more, surrounded by pink circle with the word target on them floating around me.

The basic spell is Shoot Barrett. It is simply a ball of condensed of mana in the shape of a bullet being accelerated. Shoot the bullet.

I quickly hold up the staff and point it at a nearby target, imagining a pink bullet flying forward. Sure enough, a bullet quickly forms and destroys the target.

...D-Do I have danmaku?!

19 targets left.

Tch, typical. I had to quickly destroy the targets with bullets. Insufficient dakka.

"I can cast tentacles!" Olly's voice booms from the sky, pausing for a moment then coming back more angered. "Crap, only held it for a second. What does it take to stop this thing!?"

I quickly burst off in a rush of speed, shooting bullets at the targets as fast as I could.

"Explosions, probably. Look up the spell Ragnarok, I'm going to see if I can get my own boom-boom-pow spell working." I replied, twisting my body in the imaginary air.

"Dammit Raising Heart, auto-lock on the targets!" I roared, destroying another target.

15 targets left. Negative.

"I tried explosions, it healed from them! Even when it was in multiple pieces! Thing's like a Buu, but less pink, humanoid and genocidal!" Olly yelled, throwing me off for a moment. "Maybe not that last one."

Son of a bitch!

"...The fuck's a Buu? Is it that thing from DBZ?" I asked confusedly. Okay, if I can only form more than one bullet…

Wait, the concept of this is simple! Of course I could fire more than one bullet!

"Double shot!" I yelled, firing two shots at different targets.

More...POWER!!!!

13 targets left.

Sweet yes! I quickly try and gain on the targets, turning and spinning to keep focus of them.
"Also, I don't know any spells called 'Ragnarok', apparently." Ollys answers, before sounding much more cheery. "Yep! Villain of third series arc, pink jelly blob which regenerated. Hence my comparisons to the sword-monster."

I quickly spun around in a right hook before destroying two more targets.

7 targets left.

"Rein's probably keeping it from you. It's S Class after all." I inform, flipping myself around and quickly dispatching one more target. "On a side note, I only got into the very beginning of the Android arc."

Okay, almost done...

"Four shots this time!" I yell desperately, creating four bullets in front of me before firing at the targets I could see, only for them to pick up speed and start moving around faster than before.

3 targets left.

"DAMMIT! NON DIRECTIONAL LASERS!!!" I called out, double shooting wildly.

1 target left

"Changing topics, where the heck are you? We're having entirely too much-" Olly yells at me, only to be cut off. I quickly dispatch the final target and stop my rampage.

Training complete. Recommendation: Less rush

"Not...funny…" I pant out, falling to my knees as the world returns back to the way it was.

Oliver's voice cuts back in a few minutes later.

"at the moment! What's taking you?!"

LEARNING SHIT!!

Guess there's no rest for me…

Not like it affected me that much physically.

"Fine fine. Gotta go fast!" I hastily reply, shooting up off the ground and to the sound of the battle.

I better be getting some damn compensation for this.

***

I quickly sped through the air in an attempt to find Olly. The explosions had died down a minute ago and I was doing all I can to try and locate her.

Emphasis on I.

600 feet to the left

Thanks Raising Heart.

Taking a sharp turn to where Raising Heart had directed me, I mentally tried to think up a plan.

From what Olly had mentioned, this thing was a pain in the ass that can regenerate and cannot be sealed. From what I knew of regeneration, it only works if the damage is not constant so my current plan was to spam Shoot Barrett for all it's worth.

I call it Shoot Barrett : Rapid Fire. Pretty cool huh?

It's not.

Ohh…. Tough crowd.

Stop acting like an idiot and focus on the plan. Your plan has the flaw of having to never stop firing. Plus, both Olly and highly likely the other people are fighting. She used the word we.

That hurt, but do you have any other plans?

….No.

Score one for me none for you.

Subtract that score because you're talking to yourself.

I quickly shake my head and lightly slap myself just as explosions once again start up. Along with the screams, Kaiser my ears!

The good thing about them is that I now know there's more than one person there. The bad thing is so fucking obvious that if I even had to point it out then you were an idiot.

...Crap, okay. What you're going to be up against is probably a eldritch horror so you might want to try keeping your cool.

Or a tentacle monster….

I slapped myself harder.

Master?

"Bad thoughts Raising Heart." I answer, focusing up ahead. "Bad thoughts."

The voices were getting clearer now, along with the sound of explosions. This was not the time to play around, people's lives could be in danger and I didn't even know what I was up against.

"...You know Raising Heart, it hasn't even been an hour since we met and yet we're already going into a fight." I said, a depressing laugh escaping my lips. "Are you ready?"

All systems are go Master. I will help you in any way I can.

I blinked slightly before a much happier laugh sounded through the air.

"Well then, is the plan feasible?"

Master's Linker Core will deplete eventually.

...I had completely forgotten about that. A mistake I shouldn't look over in the future if all goes well.

Wow, I sure am depressing at the moment. Considering how happy I acted earlier…

I shook my head. No, this was a new body with a new name. I could accept that right? From now on my name was Takamachi Nanoha- I just couldn't forget who I was before that was all. It was already faint, like watching the story of someone else.

If only I could see all the pages rather than the footnotes. I knew my memory would be the death of me someday but I didn't imagine this.

As the roots parted ways I could hear the voice of a girl shouting to the world, the type of thing you'd only hear in fiction. It was a cry of declaration, a rare thing in this age if I said so myself. Even though I only caught the end it was quite inspiring.

"-na, and I will be a Hero!!!"

A hero, could I be one too?

Ah well, time to get to work.

The creature stood in front of me, glowing by the light of explosions. It was a sight not of a reality, and it kinda looked like a flower with petals that hadn't quite bloomed yet. I could see why Olly called it a sword but it was a flower to me and a flower it will be.

But it was a dangerous flower in this forest of fantasy and weeds needed to be exterminated.

"I have eyes on the target, proceeding to open fire! I'll be acting as a distraction so if you've found a way to seal it do it now!" I yelled through the mental link with Oliver, pointing Raising Heart at the creature. "And when in doubt, always go back to the basics!"

"Now," I grinned at Raising Heart. "Target Lock-On!"

Target Locked.

"Shoot Barrett : Continuous Fire!"

And then suddenly a trail of pink bullets shot out of Raising Heart as I flew in and began a circle around the beast.

I did not change the name, no what are you talking about.

In my daze of pink and my target, I slowly noticed the others in the area. I didn't have time to pick out their individual features, just focusing on shooting this fucker to the ground.

Before I realized it, multiple orbs of black came flying toward it, a few slamming into the target. All of them exploded and transformed into ribbons the same shade that quickly wrapped around the monster.

Suddenly Oliver's voice cut through the haze. "That's my binding, now for yours! Attack!"

"Dumbass! I said I was the distraction!" I yelled back, not giving up my ensemble. "I'll move onto trying to weaken it and keep the aggro on me but get the fucker sealed or it won't be the only thing having my hot, throbbing, pink thing inside of it!!!"

And there goes that military facade I was going for. Should probably work on keeping my acts together.

All right Raising Heart, is the spell Divine Buster in your directory?

Affirmative.

How long would it take for you to do the calculations all by yourself?

One minute.

Right. Go.

As is your command.

"Oliver, how long until the sealing will work?!" I asked, doing another shoot and relay into the now bound monster. "It's kind just being bound at the moment!"

"Well, mine's already up, but you probably don't mean that. I'll ask!"

...Wait there was more than one sealing spell going up? Hah… should have known with multiple screams.

"Right, got it. Less than a minute, so aim for about forty seconds. That help?" Olly answered as the sound of chanting reached my ears.

Well it wasn't Latin so that was a good sign. No chant in Latin ever ended well.

Raising Heart…

Calculations Stopped.

Thank you.

...You know, after a while of spinning and shooting the impact I first felt kinda dulls. Sure I still feel the rush of the fight but I've just been spamming one attack this whole time.

I mentally slapped myself in the face just as some blond girl shouted and stabbed what looked to be a bastardized sword into the weed's head.

There was an odd beat for some reason before the world began to give me a surprise light show. I naturally refused and didn't even bother to continue looking at it, squinting my eyes and continuing to fire.

The world did not like my answer, having the flower bloom and release a black prism into the air. Purple lines pulsed as I moved Raising Heart to the object.

"Nanoha, it's sealed! Attack the floating triangle, that's it's soul!"

"...I've played enough RPGs to recognize a weak point when I see it. " I grumbled through the line before snarling at the object.

"Alright listen up you primitive son of a bitch." I yelled, creating a bullet in front of me with as much power as I can muster. "This is my BOOMSTICK!!"

And then I shot forth the bullet, with enough knockback to punch me back a few feet.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw a pink blur coming through the skies. It took me a few seconds before I was able to identify it as a human girl with her fist out flying right towards the… weak point…

"Raising Heart," I called out fearfully. "On a scale from one to invading Russia in the winter, how dangerous is that move?"

3.14159265359-

"You can stop calculating Pi."

At the current angles, both objects will hit their target without interference.

"You sure?"

99.9%

"What about the other percent?"

The world didn't bother to wait as the girl punched the sphere before yelling in pain and quickly pulling her hand back, swaying about in a way that puts her into the path of my bullet, shaking in pain before her head suddenly turns to the hurtling pink bullet.

Son of a bitch.

It quickly slammed into her side, sending her flying to the edge of the floating pyramid.

That.

Hah… Raising Heart, open a telepathic channel with her.

Affirmative.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked hesitantly, "Sorry."

She sounds more surprised than hurt. "Ah! What was that?! Where did my Fairy go?"

Raising Heart…?

A small creature appeared just before the attack hit, taking the blow.

The girl lifts her phone up, before a tiny white cow with blue-white wings appears above it, looking… rather singed.

"Oh hey, a digimon." I commented. "....You don't get it do you?"

"..No?"

I fear if Pokemon is the only franchise here.

".....Sooooo, um, do you have any special moves to defeat that thing?"

Resuming calculations.

You still kept those?

Affirmative.

"Special moves? Oh! Fu is explaining now." With that she jumps off the floating target-soul-thing and lands next to the two blondes.

"Oy, Nanoha, what the hell! Shoot the triangle, not the girl who was on it. Check your targets!" Oliver scolded me. "Oh, and we've got a time limit. The circle goes poof, so does the heart, and thus any chance of beating this thing. Timer's in the center."

Sure enough there was a timer in the center, counting down every second I wasted.

Bastard. Who the hell designed this system!?

I whipped my head around to find where she was hiding, before my eyes settled into a glare on a girl who was dressed in a Reinforce's Uni- wait was that Hayate?!

Oh.

Oh.

I see how this is. If I got turned into Nanoha then it was not too far off to say the same happened to someone else.

"Fuck off Yagami." I growled. "There was 99.9% chance that it would hit, and why the hell was I not informed about this time limit?!"

I did not use that name to confuse her, no sirree I wouldn't be that petty.

"How am I meant to inform you about something I just learned a minute ago, eh?" I will murder you. "Fū only just told us about it, and was altogether too chipper while she did! Now quit complaining and start hitting it!"

I quickly whipped my arm and shot a bullet at Hayate before returning back to my regular target.

"Annoy me one more time and I'm making good on that threat from earlier." I snarled, before unleashing a barrage of bullets at the triangle.

Calculations are complete.

About time.

"Thanks."

As I hit a group of girls led by a hyperactive blonde roared at the triangle and leaped to it, slamming their weapons together against the sides. I quickly soared until I was directly above it before aiming at the floating pyramid.

"Finishing move…" I said dramatically, psyching myself up. Raising Heart began to glow before the name of the spell scrawled itself across the orb.

"Divine Buster!!!/Divine Buster, fire."

An explosion of pink swarmed my vision as it flew down to the triangle.

So, this was the power of math.

"Holy fuck, who pulled out the big guns?" A new voice blinked in my head, unheard by this beam of pure power.

As it died down the only thing left of the object were shards that were slowly falling to the ground.

Incoming Aerial Mage, Master.

Backup would have been really helpful five minutes ago.

Sure enough, a blond and black shape was speeding towards us but not before a flash of bright light appeared and the world returned back to- ohmygodthere'sgroundundermyfeet.

I quickly stumbled back before regaining my balance, missing the appearance of some blond girl who landed in front of us. Said appearance involved thunder and yelled spells.

It is a sad thing to say but this is not the first time some blond girl has appeared out of nowhere for me.

"Why in Maeve's name is the answer for brake not seven, Bardiche? Any sane and rational method of finishing that equation says it should be bloody seven!" She raged at the Device in her hand, getting only a bleep in response.

I glanced across at Raising Heart.

She forgot to carry over the one.

Ah- wait that was a joke.

She stopped her rampage before looking at me and Hayate, switching between us before stopping as a bell chimed in my head.

"I'm going to have to assume that neither of you two are the original holders of those bodies." Her voice asks in my head. "Big shiny void?"

Actually, the void was more black than shiny.

Don't be a smartass.

Yes ma'am.

 

[Nero200]

Chapter 1 - Nero POV

If you had asked me how I was going to die, I would have responded either with car crash or falling. When asked to elaborate, I would have responded that I drive a bike, with a grin I thought was vaguely roughish, and stopped there.

Most don't ask further on the matter. The answer of falling is more a suicidal one, how a fifteen year old me decided he would pull the plug if it came to that in a fit of teenage drama.

As said though, most don't inquire that deeply, they just laugh awkwardly at my little joke about motorcyclist mortality rates and then jump into explaining how they think they would die.

This? This I didn't expect.

I died somewhere in the Canary Islands, trying to flee a tsunami on a motorcycle. So I guess a motorcycle crash is technically true?

Three hundred and twenty kilometers an hour, rev counter in the ten thousands as I demanded more speed from the screaming engine. My left foot was hooked against the gear pedal and the throttle was open to the point that the rubber had torn beneath my glove to eek out a few more dregs of power to cash in for speed.

The wave roared behind me as I cut through the abandoned cars across soaked tarmac, the thunderous water nearly deafening, my earbuds drowned, ah HA, out within the helmet to snuff the beat of music, my throbbing heartbeat the only rhythm left to me and yet it still wasn't enough.

Ramping the black bike off a broken chunk of asphalt spent a few precious units of speed before I reached for the sky with the knowledge that this was the end, and the satisfaction that it was a damn fucking metal ending.

The sky wasn't willing to take such an obvious adrenaline junkie as me.

I died crashing into a nigh-endless torrent of ocean, nature's wrath allowing it to easily outpace my gorgeous piece of machinery, cracking my body with sheer kinetic force, my chest going white hot with pain before my visor cracked and the helmet filled. My vision blurred, both from the salt-water burning my eyes and from the draining of heat by the freezing water. Just like falling asleep my fucking arse, it was pain that felt like my lungs were being turned inside out along with lava-like heartburn.

Even so, I think that death was worth the chase. Given the chance, I would happily play out those last fifteen minutes of my life again.

-

Waking up after that is even more unexpected than my death itself.

I have been atheist since I was twelve, so the waking up itself was worrying enough as it was, given that the burning agony I had felt the last time my brain was turning over.

The fact that I can see through the shimmering outlines of my fingers into an endless black void is even more so. My body doesn't seem to have made it to this afterlife with me.

This place seems to be illuminated by a trio of pillars made of golden light that seem to stretch endlessly into the sky from somewhere so far below I can't see the source. Could be coming down from the sky I guess, not like I can tell with the geometry of this place.

"Suppose I should go have a look at these mystic glowing pillars of light." It is a hard choice to be honest. There is a great deal of temptation to just lay down on the not-ground and stop moving for a short eternity or two. It seems peaceful enough and going by nearly every story I've read like this, what comes next is going to be either me waking back up in the broken remains of my body, or some other kind of reincarnation. I may be willing to live out my end again, but not without the fun parts.

I contemplate it for another moment, stopping for a second, looking down at the shimmering outline that is apparently subbing in for my body at the moment before sighing.

"And here I thought dying would be the weirdest part of today." After a couple seconds of thought, I can't help the pedantic question that occurs to me. "...Assuming time still applies here in… whatever afterlife this is. Am I in purgatory?"

Making it to the pillar of golden illumination takes about five minutes in all, most of it spent asking the endless dark various questions that went unanswered. They're mostly to distract me from the 'I died drowning and brok- stop' thing, so I'm not going to hold the timeless void's silence against it.

Once I reach the pillar, I can tell there is something inside it. A long metal-looking shaft, and black metal at the bottom and atop… it.

Solid gold energy makes up the blade of what I can now see is a scythe. A scythe I recognise, one I have written about extensively in a story. I look into the golden circle that makes up its core as I ask. "Bardiche?" My voice echoes throughout the void, even as a part of my mind that shock has yet to drown out protests that the lack of walls should prelude an echo. You think my brain would be rolling with the punches by now, but...

Crack

The gem glowed for a moment, but what I guess was the characteristic bell-ring of Bardiche's response was drowned out by the sound of glass cracking, the sound flooding the area.

One of the other pillars is gone, the gold light that had made it up shattering outward in a thunderclap of broken glass and reality.

"...That can't be good." Not that much of today has been, to be honest. I'm going to be feeling this whenever my mind decides processing trauma is on the to-do list.

I step closer to the Device as a second thunderclap, twice as loud as the first rips through this void-afterlife, making me wince.

"Well fuck."

The aftermath of that one was far more apparent, a swirling mass of refracted space growing outward from where the pillar had once been.

...and the other area of warped space seems to have been inspired, since it has also become a blender of reality.

"This is not my day." The spiralling masses of what, with my apparent luck, I am going to presume is a whole new level of death are growing faster, approaching me.

I turn back to Bardiche, noting that the Device has turned so it would be easily picked up by me if I chose to do so.

"Bardiche, if Fate is going to hunt me down for this, give me fair warning?"

Chime

"I guess that'll have to do."

I turn to face the approaching wave of fragmented space, my translucent face forming a wry grin as I realise it is a wave coming to end me again. My hand wraps around the haft, the barely there fingers shrinking in a way that seems right even as it terrifies me.

"Bardiche, Get Set."

Chime

The final pillar of light explodes in a roar of finality.

-

Waking up, everything is very yellowy-gold. And something is tickling my nose.

"Ahh-CHOO!"

My lungs! ...are actually fine. Huh.

I sit up, the yellow swishing mostly out of my vision. That's hair. "Why do I have hilarious amounts of blonde hair? Like, I don't mind, but I'm still confused." I look down at myself.

Ah.

"Okay, new question, why am I in a world made of rainbow branches and why am I a teenage girl?" Oh sweet lady Maeve my voice is so damn high.

Chime

A glance down reveals that there is a golden triangle on the back of my glove (My hands are so small!).

Golden triangle. Bardiche. Ridiculously long yellow hair.

I'm Fate. Well fuck.

I slump back down, noticing the motion feels kinda weird in a body this small, compared to the 6'1 I had been before my death. Great, so I can't rely on any of my mind's ideas on what I can do. On the other hand, this should give me roughly a decade more lifespan in the long run, barring the situation killing me. Oh, and perfect eyesight. Actually… Yeah, that makes it worth it. All my fears that I was slowly going blind, the money I was saving for laser surgery?

Gone. Fate had perfect eyesight and so now do I. Fuck the hell yes! Money is also gone, but losing money to gain something I would have spent it on anyway is no issue. Plus, magic.

Right, accept the body, either it's Fate's and she will be getting it back once her mind or soul return, or it's mine now for whatever reason, or I have a copy of some sort, with a granted Device, or one of the Alic-

Breath In. Breath Out. I pull the confusion and despair into a bundle in my mind, then blast it with mental fire powered by the fact that I have perfect eyesight, forcing it away.

Shaking my head, I turn my attention to one of the other good parts of this. "Heya Bardiche."

Welcome, User.

"That was inside my head, wasn't it?"

Yes Sir.

"Well, at least if I'm going crazy my mind chose a fun fantasy to live out. How are you here? I'm assuming Bardiche Assault? Also, what happened to Fate and why am I apparently in her body?"

I am here… ERROR, Records damaged. Last known event is in an unknown area, as a new user registered, you. Yes, I am Bardiche Assault. You are Fate, Sir is not showing signs of head trauma...

Right, so the Device has damaged memories and is registering me as Fate. So I may have bodyjacked her by proxy, if whatever happened in the void is what led to this.

"Do I have a Linker Core? Also, can you give me a physical report?"

Linker Core present, but not synced to me. Physical report requires synchronization to give accurate data.

"Right, we need to do a full setup ritual? You said I was registered?"

Command phrase alone is required, Sir.

Excellent, because the show never actually showed Fate's setup process. I had fun writing it for Therapy, but I doubt I was all that accurate.

"Bardiche, sync with my Linker Core." I try to sink into my mind, feeling mentally for the sphere of golden energy that this body should possess.

"Arcus Cultus Aegeas!" And that just gave me shivers with how much I sounded like Fate. Note to self, avoid speaking Japanese.

The triangular gem lights up, decoupling from the glove for me to snag and pull close to my chest as a surge of light engulfs my new body, a golden circle unfolding below my feet.

Setup complete, Physical status: Green. Default Barrier Jacket equip?

Oh, OH!

I can feel equations on the edge of my mind, flickering with every movement I make. If this is just standby, how the hell am I going to manage casting spells? Golden numbers and details flicker in my vision, the HUD glimpsed in the movie continuity, apparently.

If we are synced… "Bardiche, options?"

Overlaying HUD with Jacket options.

I blink as gold glimmers at the very edge of my sight, before a few empty outfits appear in front of me like a character select screen. Cool.

Options are Sonic Form, the standard jacket, and Blaze form. Not sure what the difference between standard and Blaze are, Blaze is the only one that doesn't look like I am going to be worried about flashing people and isn't that a really fucking weird thing to have to worry about?

I glance into the editor to see about making my own Jacket right here and now, but my sweet Lady Maeve that looks more complicated than any character creator I have seen in any game.

After flicking my hair over my shoulder in an oddly satisfying move, I decide on "Blaze Form, add shorts under the second skirt, and you shift to standard Device form. I'll make a custom Jacket later, maybe base it off Signum's or a more combat-y version or Nanoha's, but this will do."

Yes Sir, Get Set.

The jacket and skirt I had woken up in vanish in a surge of light, replaced with my chosen Barrier Jacket, the armored clothing manifesting on this new body in an instant.

Huh, no naked transformation sequence. Excellent. Makes sense, since in the show the girls could transform in a matter of seconds.

Dragging my thoughts away from the fact that I am going to need a shower to feel clean after seeing this new body nak- fuck, I have to be naked for a shower.

...I'm going to need a blindfold to feel right. Wait, shit, touching. Mad damn it all to hell, I'll figure that out later.

Looking at the Barrier Jacket to distract myself, I note that it fits incredibly well. A swimsuit or one-piece undershirt garment forms the base, black with red lines acting as highlights, white line from the collar down the middle and four gold tabs in a square on my chest, two on each side as if to hold a chestplate.

The bottom of the garment flares out to form a skirt, with an attached light pink mini-skirt layering over that, held on by a strangely angled belt. Plain short shorts under that, as I requested.
Black gloves extrude from wrist mounted armor plates, one with a slot to 'sheath' Bardiche's standby form on the back. Black thigh high stockings with gold stylings and what feel like thin metal sheets for ankle support lead into metal boots, the inside of which are hilariously comfortable.

An expansive white cloak over the top, lined with red, finishes off the ensemble from where it is anchored by the top two tabs on my chest, hiding a belt wrapped snugly around my left forearm as it sits loosely over my shoulders.

My hair is now held by black ribbons, up and mostly out of the way in a pair of golden pigtails that swish as I tilt my head, considering. I can feel the flow of mana from a bundle of energy nestled into my chest, reaching out to power this Jacket.

Make the gauntlets less bulky? Longer skirt into a more battle dress style thing? I thought I would need to adjust the collar of the undershirt, since I usually flip out if something is tight around my neck, but this fits just right.

Maybe I still will, but "Yeah, I'm going to need to edit this later, but looks good for now."

Chime

I snag the now transformed Device, giving the polearm a twirl to test my dexterity.

The previous form of a small golden triangle on a second triangle like a pedestal is gone, replaced by a polearm slash staff headed by a golden orb embedded in black metal with a spike on top. Two spikes on the back of that orb, with a pair of nubs above them that can open to vent pressure. Opposite those, a sizable axe blade that looks capable of slicing through people like butter. The silver haft ends in more black metal, with a gold spike protruding from that. The Cartridge system is just below the head, a revolver cylinder covered by a wrap-round armor piece.

Best Device is best Device, in both looks and ahahaha it gives me MAGIC!

He spins easily and muscle memory kicks in at the end, pushing me to brace Bardiche against my shoulder. Nice one, even if I don't know how to fight with a scythe-halberd-massive fucking sword-thing, the body does. Should speed up any attempts to learn how at any rate.

"Right then Bardiche, my wonderful Device made of magic and knowledge, scan for any traces that would explain how the hell we got here?" If I'm here, like this, then I'm going to focus on that. Trauma can wait it's damn turn, I have more important things to focus on.

I shove the memories of drowning down, the act far easier now that I can feel the flow of magic throughout my new body. Why bother with that crap when I can learn how to throw lightning at people?

Dimensional Transfer traces detected, but they have been distorted massively by a second effect. Apologies.

"Eh, it's okay." I figured as much, it would be way too easy to be able to just jump back to my world with a new body and magical powers.

That does raise a question though, "Where are we then?"

Unknown, Sir.

Right then, that might be an issue. Rainbow-tree world does not look like a place I would want to live. It does, however, look like a place I could use as a training ground to break in this nifty set of magical powers. Now, if I remember right, Nanoha-verse mages get telepathy as standard, telekinesis… maybe? Precia had it, but she was a mad scientist. Bardiche probably has all of Fate's spells on file if he has her Jackets though.

"Bardiche, how do I use telepathy? Or telekinesis for that matter?"

I am able to manage mental links for you, but if you wish to use them by yourself Sir? Telekinesis is the harder of the two.

I nod and as my new favorite possession starts explaining the basics, I let a smile cross my lips. Dying isn't all bad.

Once I have the explanation for basic telepathy, I give it a try, tugging a tendril of golden power from my Linker and threading it with thought, letting the power reach out slowly, before it shifts.

"Like th-ARRGH!"

I crumple to my knees, spasming as lighting flickers through my body, trying not to fall over completely as it arcs through my hair and into the Jacket. "Fuckfuckfuckfuck-Mab's bloody tits that hurt! Bardiche?!"

Your Lightning Mana Conversion Affinity activated.

Fuck. If I'm remembering right, that's a natural ability Fate had, which allowed her to easily convert her mana into raw electrical energy. A handy ability that should make lightning type spells easier, but is apparently a bloody hazard in using mind links.

"Should it have… unfolded, like that?"

No, Sir. That was the conversion taking place when control slipped.

Right then. I pull another thread of mana, concentrating carefully, matching the pulse of mana to my movements of it. "Arcus Cultus Aegeas" for focus, thread the thought, wait a moment till… there!

"Bardiche, calling, one two three?"

Well done, sir.

His words are a little bit blurred, like bad reaction. I poke the mental link, before letting the, I guess it is a spell, drop.

"Kay, resume your one, I'm probably not going to be able to match that for a good while." I could talk to him mentally, but I need to get used to this voice first I think.

Practice makes perfect Sir.

"Point. Can you pull up Plasma Lancer and Defensor? Oh, and Arc Saber." Three nice standard spells, they should be easy enough to…

"These… are the equations?" Oh Hell's Bells. There are so many numbers. I did a math module in college, and a physics one. What in the name of the empty night are these?

Fuck it. "Bardiche, Plasma Lancer." I can feel the AI working in sync with me, pulling up the pattern and 'offering' me the spell's equation. Multiple variables, that looks like distance, set that to 10, power to a nice 80%, range for a few hundred meters, targeting that root that lifts from the ground, projectile load of three. Fate could do this at eight, I can do this at twenty with her abilities.

A golden circle unfolds beneath my feet, a trio of golden orbs with purple electricity arcing off them manifesting in the air beside me.

Attack command's "Fire!" Bardiche burns a cartridge from the revolver-like chamber below the Device's head and suddenly the equation isn't solid. Everything changes from plug-in variables to a thousand rapidly altering factors, magnetism and gravity influences making my internal calculator scream in the corner, before the orbs clash together a mere meter from my face!

BOOMCRACKLE-

"AHHH!/Defensor!" Bardiche slams the Auto-Defense spell into place, a two dimension barrier of gold imposing itself between me and my failure.

"...The spell became completely malleable once I said fire."

Yes. Plasma Lancer is under your control once fired, I merely prepare and hold the spell.
...Sir, did you mean to exspend a Cartridge when you fired?

No, no I did not. Right, got over confident, I can not match eight year old Fate because eight year old Fate had a teacher. Also, that eight year old grew up, developed city buster attacks and didn't leave any notes. So I'm stuck with spells with a massive skill requirement and a booster system that I don't even know how to use.

"No, I didn't… Lock down the Cartridge system unless I give an express order that I want to use it. How many rounds do we have left?"

A stylised image of a revolver chamber appeared in the bottom left of my eyes, showing a single empty chamber with a strange sym- with the number 32 beneath it. Translation, excellent.

I focus my mind, tapping the link rather than speaking. "Can we create more?"

Yes, the process is complicated but ritualized. Cartridge system has been sealed by [ERROR].

Well at least I'm not locked to a limited amount of casts for the nuke-spells. I try not to let the smugness of the telepathy working wash away too much of the terror from having nearly blown myself up.

Error, username required for records. Would you mind, Sir?

A name eh? I would use Fate, but that might confuse my Device. Could use Alicia, but that is a bad idea for multiple reasons.

"..."

Sir?

Buuuut, I can't think of any others that aren't some stupid portmanteau of Nero and Fate.

"Alicia. Call me Alicia." Precia can hunt me down if she wants, I'll just try and get her to teach me magic so I can pay back all those lessons she gave Fate.

User name set. Thank you Sir.

"Defensor next I think but can you, umm, simulate the spell first? Don't actually draw any mana in, I want to do a dry run." Because if I screw up the shield, then I am going to be relying on the Jacket to protect my loli-fied arse.

"Get Set."

I'm braced for it this time when the circle unfolds between me, the equation offered up.
Okay, equation is different, fewer variables. Size as an area of circle equation, what looks like density, a toggle that I think is for anchoring to myself vs leaving it where cast.

"Fire." The spell formula actualizes, nothing happening because I didn't power it, but from the overlay Bardiche is giving me, it should have worked. No sudden swamping of my mind with a thousand factors that need to be tended to, just a simple 'bar' that I could move to increase or decrease the power I would be pouring into it.

Right, let's try that for real.

Warning, High energy presence detected.

My vision flashed red as a HUD flickered into place, a red arrow marking the apparent attacker. It's the tree, of course it's the tree, why wouldn't the tree be attacking me. Fuck this day and fuck this tree in particular.

I'm assuming visible only with Bardiche's help, a rainbow of color is reaching out from the section of trunk closest to me at an alarming speed.

"Defensor!" It was instinct to call on the defensive spell, because I had just done so, and because my body had already moved, combat trained as it was.

I scramble mentally to fill in the viables setting defensive power to max and making it large enough to entirely block my body, the circle beneath my feet barely having time to actualize before before I mentally push it into existence.

Glorious gold shield blocks the tendrils of rainbow, the colors bouncing off before attacking again.

I realise it a second before Bardiche warns me, each hit causing a surge of mana from my core to reinforce the barrier. It is draining the power of the shield!

Right then, it wants my mana? It was trying to bloody eat me! Fucking trees!

On automatic, I increase the power flow, watching as the rainbow shifts, becoming more yellow as it gorges itself on the mana I am offering and can still vaguely feel. That is my mana.

"Lightning Conversion, right?" I'm concentrating too much to vocalize the question.

Yes Sir.

I pull with my mana even as the answer flickers across my mind, letting the bundle of energy that makes up both my shield and the meal it has already had shift to raw Maeve blessed lightning.

Lightning crackles before actualizing in gold and purple arcs from the spiritual presence, and I can hear a faint roar of thunder as the rainbow shatters, the more physical energy type ripping the construct to shreds.

Good work Sir.

I grin, letting satisfaction fill my mind. Math? That part is going to take some work. Same for most of the rest. But this is mine now. no bloody tree is going to take that from me.

Another red arrow appears, marking the appearance of a much larger rainbow shroud.

"For Mab's sake!"

Right, getting the fuck away. "Bardiche, power up the flight spell and scytheform!"

I panic as it lunges for me, swinging my Device as the axe blade shifts shifts ninety degrees on the head, a blade of dense mana forming to give the appearance of a scythe. It tears through the mana tendrils like a knife through butter, but that doesn't exactly help much when the attacking butter is ten feet fucking tall!

Thunder's Passage!

Holy shit, fastfastfast! The tree becomes a lot smaller as I zoom up, wind rushing as I smile. Speed has always been my favori-

-water rushing thunderously it's going to drown me forever, why am I not fast enou- Shut up.

I backhand the sudden burst of terror down, shifting my attention to the equation runing in the corner of Bardiche and I's shared 'spell space'.

...That thing is worse than Plasma Lancer. The hell is that variable? The fuck is that one? "Where is the Mab-damned brake?!"

Bardiche highlights a flickering equation for me, which is about as helpful as saying 'The brake' and then pointing to the wheel of a car. I try to shift the value down, but that just makes me spin in place so I am looking at the ground.

The ground is getting awfully far away. This is going to suck. "Bardiche terminate the flight spell, then re-enable it without any active movement, just float, got it?"

Readying for reboot. 3, 2, 1!

The motion that had been feeding the adrenaline junkie in me jerks to nil, negative acceleration slamming into place with a couple of gee's as gravity tries to reclaim me. My Device chimed calmingly at me but I am honestly loving this, skydiving is always fun.

Awaiting parabolic arc…

Ah, Bardiche is waiting until my movement vector is zero before toggling the spell back on. Makes sense.

Thunder's Passage!

And I am floating. I look down at the tree, now small enough that I can cover it with one hand.

Rainbow colored roots leading into it, like a mass of tendrils. Almost like the roots are just… above… ground.

"Bardiche, scan for human life forms, in the opposite direction of the tree." If I'm right, then I know why the tree tried to eat me.

Life detected in given direction. Large abnormal energy reading also found, it is distorting my long range passive scanning abilities, though it bares a resemblance to the Tree.

And without me being able to direct a proper search spell, we are probably not going to punch through the distortion. Doesn't matter, I know where I am now that I can see the 'abnormal energy reading' in the distance. A massive being known as a Vertex, a god if we are using the Japanese definition, that was here to destroy the tree.

The tree had been trying to eat me for my mana, because that is how it functioned.
I even fit the target demographic now!

"Log this world as 'YuYu', and cloak our presence if you can." Yuuki Yuna is a Hero, an anime that many claimed was the 'Madoka of Madoka'.

Chime

And I am not getting involved. Horrible things happen, cute things happen, monsters are killed and a God gets a meal in the end. But it does end happily for everyone involved.

All of that relies on coincidence and specific interactions, or else the nutjob sniper in blue could actually doom the world this time round.

I have more important things to do, like figure out how to actually fly. Bardiche seems to have been following my thoughts because he pushes the 'Thunder's Passage' equation towards me, and seems ready to answer questions.

"Right, so where's the throttle?" ...that is most of the spell Bardiche. And oh Mab the entire thing is a variable, why?

After about five minutes of trying to figure out the flight spell, I concede that it's going to have to wait for another time, when I have access to a library or the internet to explain a few dozen physics concepts that are apparently related to magical flight. Bardiche tried but there seems to be a lower limit on how basic he can make things, probably because Fate already knew this crap.

"Okay, new plan, because this world is probably going to fold back into something resembling a normal world in about… five minutes? Call up, hmm, Blitz Action and every other spell we have that affects momentum, either granting it or canceling it. We can just use this as a single direction speed move slash hover technique until I can find a physics book to explain these." I gestured mentally at the mass of equations that flickered even as I shifted my weight to push my bangs out of my eyes.

Heh, I'm liking having long hair. Always ended up looking scruffy on my old body. Might have something to do with the different gender?

Bah. I flick my wrist, scrolling through the spell list Bardich compiled while I was distracted with my hair. Blitz Action needs a starting movement to boost, so that's no good when I'm hurtling along in Thunder's Passage. But what if I tried the boosted movement in reverse, the equation looks similar to this section of the flight math, so if I-

"Aiiiiii!"

I cut the spell then recast from my upside down position, swishing blonde hair dangling below me as I slowly rotate in the air. Right then, that won't be how I'm going to solve this. Would have been too easy.

Next on the list is a… defensive spell? Thunder Arm, a defensive field that surrounds a limb and negates energy that hits it. That sounds like a painful plan. Even if the Jacket can compensate for the massive negative acceleration- It is within capabilities Sir. Huh. The angle I hit the wall will snap my arm, unless the Jacket can cover that too. But… I can create walls of any angle.

"Bardiche, Thunder Arm and Defensor, if used at perfectly equal angles to ensure the spells eat the collision energy?"

It should work.

Excellent. I pull the equation for Thunder Arm up while directing Bardiche to figure out how to use the Auto-Guard to cover that half of the 'Brake'.

The localised defensive field seems easy enough, since the spell is calibrated to the limb it is cast on, with the angles of shoulder and elbow being the major variables. Those I can let Bardiche calculate, so I just need to control the output.

Bombardment Class spell detected in direction of the A.E.S!

I turn just in time to see something that has absolutely no fucking business in YuYu tear through the Vertex like tissue paper, the pink laser destroying it in an instant.

"Divine Buster. Nanoha is here. Or another like me."

...Well, there goes any fucking chance of letting canon play out safely. And I had really hoped to test my brake beyond 'it should work' before needing it.

I pull a string of gold power free and feed it to Bardiche to reach out mentally with telepathy on an open 'frequency', carefully not letting it shift to lightning.

"Holy fuck, who pulled out the big guns?" I know Raising Heart brought Nanoha up to caster status stupid fast, but if this is another like me I want to know how the hell they are managing the containment field calc's on that bombardment. I saw what Thunder Rain's apparent targeting system uses.

No response so I give the command. "Full speed towards the caster, prepare Defensor for stopping." Scythe Form and uncontrolled lightning are my only combat options but no one there should be hostile. Hopefully.

Gold flashes as the spell kicks into high gear. Then I feel my Jacket buckle and pull more mana to deal with the insane level of acceleration. I'm subsonic as the view of the YuYu's and two others rapidly expand, but the near attempt to break the sound barrier is waging war on my Jacket's integrity.

Wait, the Vertex is dead, those streamers mean- fuckfuckfuck! I panickedly try a rushed solution to halt my momentum, but it just boosts my speed to the edge of the sound barrier.

"Drop the spell, Jacket to max!" I mentally scream the order at my Device as I draw on the Thunder Arm spell, coating my left arm in the defensive field to ready for impact. I really hope the fact that it is so simple is enough for it to work.

Dimensional Shift detected!

The world vanishes in a blaze of light, and- "Fuck! Thunder Arm!" "Defensor!" -I slam my gold-wreathed fist into Bardiche's hastily cast golden circle of spiraling magic, red warnings filling the HUD as the Defensor tanks enough kinetic energy to crack a tank open, the Jacket warning that my boots have nearly shattered from friction of digging trenches into the rooftop.

"Why in Maeve's name is the answer for brake not seven, Bardiche? Any sane and rational method of finishing that equation says it should be bloody seven!" Seriously! It's a bloody flight spell, not rocket sci… well, maybe? Bardiche chimes in response, having deduced that I am just ranting.

I breath out slowly, eyes wide, before composing myself and turning to face the others on the rooftop I have found myself at the edge of.

Expected YuYu's are here, the Homura knock-off is present, need to keep an eye on that one, and…

Well then. Hayate and Nanoha, both in transformed states. Unaltered transformed states meaning put some damn shorts on, Hayate.

"Devices genuine, or at least registering like you?" I query Bardiche as I take in the situation again, letting my mind consider the details, shoving the sudden oh fuck at the sight of the Tome of Darkness down. She hasn't yan-yan'd the YuYus or Nanoha for mana yet and I don't see the Wolfgang about, so I'm going to assume she is stable.

Yes Sir.

Hm. Going by the fact that it took that long for the Vertex to die…

"I'm going to have to assume that neither of you two are the original holders of those bodies."

I link to both of them using my own telepathy carefully. Going to need to be able to talk without the YuYu's hearing if the plan forming in my brain is going to work.

These two must have left the void-plane ahead of me. Bastards cost me my post-death breather. Best check we actually came from the same place though.

"Big shiny void?"

The Nanoha's response of "No shit Sherlock." confirms that no, this is not the White Devil. The Hayate is probably an SI of sorts as well, statistically speaking.

"Excellent."

Now let's see about some blackmail.

 

[Mizu]

Chapter 2 – Mizu POV​

"No shit Sherlock." Nanoha gets a reply off before I can. Wait, she didn't own that body originally? Perhaps that's why she's futa now – canon her got placed in an alt-verse clone's body or something?

"Excellent." The blonde girl draws my mind back to the discussion. "I have a cunning plan."

"Would you mind informing us, your greatness?"

"But of course, Watson. Just follow my lead, I'm playing this half by the ear and half by pressing every button Miss Girl Power has, which may or may not exist."

Why are we quoting detective novel characters? Watson's...who was he again? Sherlock Holmes, that was it!

"I don't know why but I'm hating you almost as much as I do Hayate at the moment. Speak your peace."

"Hey!" What'd I do, what'd I do? "Why the hate, Nanoha? Was it the scolding? As if so, you should've gotten there faster!"

The blond with the scythe sighs, before rubbing her forehead with her free hand. "Focus! YuYu's to extort here, we can sort out the stellar interactions of you two so far afterwards."

"I hate all of you. 'Cept Red- holy crap her hair is red. Like, really, is that natural?"

"Red's natural, yep." What, hasn't Nanoha ever seen a person with that shade before? Was sure there was a few people in canon with that colour. "Comes in lots of different shades, too."

"Yeah but is it seriously that dark? Looked like she dyed her hair in blood and sold her eyes to Satan." Well, that paints a grim picture. This Nanoha's odd. " ...Which isn't the best comparison, I know."

"Sweet Lady Maeve. Right, you two… debate, or whatever you are doing. Is it flirting?"

"Pissing you off Reaper-chan." And Nanoha once more proves she's got a sharp tongue. Also, how can our talking constitute flirting? I wasn't flirting!

"Mitts off my new body til it's at least somewhat legal, Nano-chan." With that, she turns to the awkwardly staring Hero club with a somewhat strained smile, her scythe vanishing with a flash of gold that leaves her toying with a yellow triangle.

"Right then, you lot are the Hero Club right?" "Oh, translation! Best Device is Best Device! Mab's name I sound like whoever the hell her voice actor was." ...I don't think she remembered to close the mental link.

"Umm, yes, that's us, Miss…?" Yuna is the one that steps forward, Fū looking suspiciously at her.

"You left the link on."

"...You heard nothing. Bardiche, take the helm." Oh, oh, that was Fate's Device in canon? That make this...wait, yes, in hindsight this blondy really looks like Fate. Different behavior to canon Fate though, so maybe she's like Nanoha?

Bathtime will reveal the truth! Provided I can think of a way to convince them to have a bath with me, anyway. This is Japan, so shouldn't be too hard – that's a thing people do for socializing, no? Wait, crap, we're talking now, go back to paying attention me.

"You can call me Alicia for now." She frowns as she glances at one of the girls – who happens to be in a wheelchair for some reason – before turning to Fū, ignoring Yuna.

"Bullshit!" Nanoha seems unhappy to hear blondy's name. I'm just pleased to get an explanation for her behavior changes from Fate; Of course the original would be different to the clone! Wonder what happened in Nanoha-verse to have her survive?

"Call me Nero if that works better, isn't a girl's name but that hardly matters in the end. Either way, stop distracting me."

Nero was a Roman emperor, if I'm recalling history right. This seems to hint I wasn't quite wrong about her and similarities with Nanoha, if it has anything to do with 'conquering'. I shall be wary when we meet in the bathtub now.

"...I'm shutting up now."

She shifts her attention back to the apparent leader of the Hero Club. "Fū, you're the contact for the Taisha in this group of 'heroes', right?" Ouch. Evidently Fū's 'Hero' role and Nanoha-verse TSAB don't get along? Or she's grumpy from almost faceplanting with a roof from a few miles in the air, I guess.

"Hey!" Either way, Yuna seems to have taken offense. Fū seems to be more stunned or shocked by something.

Nanoha waves her hand in a signal for everyone to calm down.

"Okay everyone, that's enough." She interrupts. "Well… I'm not good at explaining, never have been and probably never will be, but I can already tell that this is becoming a clusterfuck of epic proportions so I might as well throw in my two cents before you girls have a catfight."

"...I swear I am going to force-feed you a sodding scythe. Do you happen to have a place to live in this bloody dimension? Because I am trying to get us one!"

She walks in between the groups before sighing. "Testarossa-san is the same as me and Hayate, and I suspect that like me she's tired as well. We've been friends for…. a bit. Even if she does dress like a dark magical girl who has a stripper problem, well, you shouldn't judge people with whom they are on the outside. Now if you excuse me, I think I'm just… gonna.. go." Alicia looks ready to stab Nanoha with the newly-resummoned glowing scythe.

"Who's Hayate? Is this another name for me, Nanoha? First it was Olly, now this?"

"Would you just-"

"I called you Hayate during the fight, you goldfish." She did? Oops.

"Wait. Goldfish? ...horribly offensive, multiple names, oh in the name of Maeve's ever-perky tits."

Alicia turned from an angrily blushing Fū to look at Nanoha, asking hesitantly, "Team Ados, represent?"

"ADOS?" I echo, tilting my head as I blink back at Alicia. "What's ADOS? Is it some military code thing the TSAB made up?"

"Mab's name, the void only made you worse." The scythe has been lowered, its blond wielder looking far less tense, and almost… fond?

And then suddenly my air-supply receives an unexpected rationing, courtesy of the hand squeezing around my neck. I gasp, flailing blindly at the fingers draining my life away, before realizing it's less my neck and more my collar being pulled tight as Nanoha proceeds to drag me down towards the tiled floor of the roof. I'm...not entirely sure how to react here.

Well, beyond the whole 'cannot breathe' thing. Does this count as courtship? Relationship attempts? Alicia did mention flirting earlier, so has Nanoha decided we're close enough to begin mounting?

...I don't wanna experience mounting! Not here! Not yet! Preferably not with viewers!

"...What are you two doing?" Itsuki seems to have chosen now of all times to speak up.

"Ignore them, this is normal." Alicia, you traitor! "Fū, I need you to contact the Taisha about a tree for me."

"YOU. IDIOT." Nanoha whispers into my ear, making me shiver from the experience. No! Not while there's people! The whole 'different body' element surprisingly doesn't bug me, though.

"W-Why do you want me to.. no, what are they doing?" The leader of the hero club doesn't seem to be willing to take Alicia's word for it. I struggle, pushing back against Nanoha's grip, but her chokehold is too strong to do squat but push me against her. Crap.

"Oh for Mab's sake! Bardiche, Thunder Bind!" And suddenly I can move, with Nanoha suspended above me by gold bands of energy. I feel silly now, seeing as I can do a similar thing with Reinforce's tentacles, but panic is said to be a mind-killer.

"Daze. Stop molesting Mizu. Mizu. Stop being a bloody goldfish. Fū. Make the bloody phone call." The gold bands vanish once I am out from under the brunette, dropping her as Alicia shakes out her wrist. Who is also...Nero?

The bath shall still need to happen, methinks, but now it's for science! Who knows what changes we experienced! I'll just need to be wary of both of them now instead of just Nero.

"I wasn't molesting her, just what the hell do you take me for? Hayate's The Worst."

"...Moving on, before we end up traumatizing the midget over there." With a gesture to Itsuki, she turned from the protesting girl to Fū. Who was staring with a phone loosely held in her hand. "Call the Taisha, I need to talk to them about your god, the Vertex, and the so-called 'Hero' System." Fū looks uncertain, but motions for the other Hero Club members to wait a moment, and brings the phone to her ear.

"Only one god? What happened to Shinto's millions?" Least, I think Shinto had that much. Gods for everything, from concepts to rice and clouds.

"It ate them all." Alicia – or should I call him...her...Nero? Alicia's more fitting for her girl form, though – replies. "Like it tried to eat me. Well, it ate most of them, the others tried to eat humanity, you shot one of those ones. Gods gotta eat, apparently. And they like little girls. Strangely, it's worse than it sounds."

"Finally, I can achieve my lifelong dream. I'm gonna burn that tree, no matter how much Napalm it takes."

"I….highly recommend against destroying a population's god. That tends to get people angry." Like, say, these Hero Club girls. "Can we try talking first? Or beating the ones threatening humans?"

"Fuck Gods, burn all to the ground. It might as well end in flames but from the ashes we will rise. HUMANITY BABY!!!"

Nanoha is very...bombastic, it seems.

"Hello? Yes, it's Inubōzaki. There's a girl who- Well there are three girls who showed up in the fight with the Vertex. One of them wants to speak with you about the Vertex, and the Hero System?"

Alicia steps forward impatiently as Fū listens to the response and- "Ao, Taisha person? This is one Alicia, I woke up in your Tree. I've got some information you are going to want, it has to do with Nogi and Washio. I somehow doubt you want me letting your new batch of minions in on the secret?" -snatches the phone from her hand.

"Minions? Magical girls are minions now?" Does that make Taisha their leader's name? "And does anyone besides Alicia even know where we are? Beyond 'somewhere in Japan'?"

"Yep. Uh huh. No. For a price, maybe. I know exactly what the system does, don't even start that bullshit, I have had a long fucking day."

Beep Beep

The other Hero Club members look down at their chiming phones, before Yuna steps closer to Fū . "Umm, it says to leave them on the roof for a bit?" The wheelchair-bound girl is looking increasingly uneasy as Alicia paces about the roof, phone to her ear and a somewhat smugly evil look on her face.

"Red," Nanoha says. "I think Alicia just blackmailed a cult. ...Speaking of, I don't know your name. Mine's Takamachi Nanoha, what's yours?"

"What happened to 'Daze'? Decided on a new moniker like Alicia?"

"Well, I can't go around calling myself Infinite Daze now can I? That's dumb, you're dumb."

"I can use mine!" I mentally cheer, grinning as I do. "Mizu's gender-neutral. And if not, there's always 'Mizuki'."

"And your last name?"

"I need one why again?"

"...I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer."

"I'm Yuki Yuna, member of the Hero Club." The redhead seems a little off balance. Probably due to the strange events us three have caused by showing up.

She glances between Nanoha and me, shooting a strange look at Alicia – "We'll be in the club room, okay?" – before leaving with the rest of the Hero Club, pushing the dark-haired girl on the wheelchair with her.

"See ya!" "Later!" I reply with Nanoha chiming in a moment later, both of us waving at her retreating back as she moves towards the little hut and stairwell within. "Now then...do we just wait for Alicia to finish or what?"

Nanoha turns to look at Alicia. "So, Alicia huh? You know you still have Fū's phone in your hand right?"

The only remaining blonde looks up with said phone still pressed to her ear, giving her what is clearly a 'so what?' look before replying to something the 'Taisha' said. "The sacrifices have, yes."

"I don't think she's gonna respond to you." I inform Nanoha, likely stating the obvious as I do. "Chatting to two different people at once is kinda hard, especially when it involves phones."

"Yeah, no shit." Nanoha says blandly, not even turning to look at me. "Look, let's just wait for her to be finished. Not like anything else is going to happen.

Huh. Tempting fate there, but then again not like there's any dangers on a suburban rooftop in the first place. Might as well take this opportunity to–

"So, what delayed you? I never got an answer, and due to you piddling about taking your time almost got munched on by old swordy. Even after the teamup with Fū and her sister."

"I had to do a rush job tutorial lesson on how to aerial combat as well as shooting." Nanoha replies, leaning on Raising Heart. "Not like I have a Unison Device from Ancient Belka to do it for me you cheat sheet."

"Ancient?" I echo, tilting my head. "Reinforce just called the book writing Belkan. I mean, she did also say it was several thousand years old, so I suppose it could be multiple iterations of the language…"

"The Belka civilization fell years ago Mizu." Nanoha answered, yawning a bit. "I think it might be something to do with war and how their leaders turned their bodies into the ultimate weapon or something like that. Anyways, from the ashes of Belka came Mid-Mid-... fuck, I can't pronounce it."

"Mid-Childa? Mid-Childra?" I guess. "I vaguely recall the TSAB's organization being from something like that."

Nanoha snaps her fingers before pointing at me. "Yeah, that one."

"...Which one, exactly? You said yes to both." And if Nanoha does it again, we're going to be going in conversation circles for a while. "Eh, not like it matters. What're the differences between Unison and whatever Device type Raising Heart is? Or was that Raging Heart?"

The second fits better, thematically, but it's not like I could understand moonrunes well enough to know anyway. Completely reliant on fansubs, and those can get stuff wrong depending on interpretation of kanji and whatnot.

"First, yes." Gah, the non-answer! "It's Raising Heart. Something about how the japanese pronounce si as ji or something. Though it was officially Raging Heart in English before they fixed it." Nanoha corrects, wagging her finger from side to side.

"And Device differences?"

Nanoha stares at me before holding up Raising Heart. "Staff." She declares, before pointing at me. "Not staff."

I look at the golden pole held in my hand, with the little circle at the top and pointy cross within it. "Eh, looks like a staff. Even if it isn't, Alicia uses a scythe-thing which is also a gold triangle, so Device come in many appearances." Wonder if melee versions exist? "Does Raising Heart have a human form, Nanoha?"

"No, that's only Unison Devices." Nanoha answers. "I believe they're something of a Belka invention that is hard to recreate today or something. That's why you'd see so few of them around or we'd all be going Starforce."

"Starforce?" I'm asking question after question, it seems. Ah well, least it's something to do while Alicia finishes the phone call. "What do you mean by 'going Starforce'? Only thing by that name I know's the Megaman DS series."

"Yeah that's the one I'm talking about." She answers, before striking a pose and putting one finger pointing up towards the sky. "EM Wave Change! Takamachi Nanoha, ON AIR!!!"

Nothing happened.

"Was...that meant to do something?" Besides look silly. "As if so, it didn't work."

"....That was a joke." Nanoha replies, lowering her hand back to her side. "Though if I change Takamachi Nanoha to Raising Heart and on air to set up…. hm…."

"I didn't need to say anything for my own transformation." I contribute, recalling the event with a wince. Bad sword thing, blowing up my ground! "Admittedly, still don't know exactly what Unison'ing is, barring fusion with Reinforce. Don't suppose you do?"

"Lucky. I had to remember this whole chant thing while falling from the fucking sky." Nanoha sighs. "Also, go ask Reinforce."

Oh yeah, good point. Of course the actual person Unison'd with me can tell me what it was – Reinforce?

When Unison'd with you, Master, I provide mana control and assistance. Thus far, it's been only assistance, due to your...beginner...status as a mage.

Magic wasn't a thing where I come from, what do you expect? We can't all be genius like Nanoha and–

"Hey, how did you first learn magic again?" I ask, pausing my mental conversation to glance Nanoha's way. "Wasn't it in the midst of combat against a monster? Alongside the first time you transformed?"

Note to self, find a video camera somewhere and record myself transforming. I wanna know how long it takes in realtime, and if functionally-nude-colours is a thing.

"I spammed the most basic spell which requires no calculation at all while waiting for Raising Heart to calculate a Divine Buster." Nanoha admits. "I essentially just shot the bullet."

"...My view of you as a combat genius just died a horrible, tiny death." Oh so tiny! "Well, what about after the first time? Think I heard you do a bunch of simulations in your head as training? Even during school?"

"Okay, first off, fuck you too." Nanoha replied. "Second, image training or whatever it's called is done by Raising Heart and I just got this device forty minutes ago why the hell do you think I had it during school!?"

Ooh, that's mad. Am I thinking of the wrong person?

"Huh? But….oh, wait, you're Daze, not Nanoha. Forgot." I blame the appearance. "Not used to thinking of you as a little girl, in all honesty, although age-wise I don't think there's any change for you."

Before I could blink, Nano- Daze's fist came slamming down on top of my head.

"Oh my god, you fucking goldfish." She sighs. "Next thing I know you'd be thinking you're still in Australia."

"No, I know this is Japan. Checked with Fu." Plus, uhh, that billboard over there is nothing but kanji, which is a big hint. "And if I was in Australia it'd be warmer. By like ten degrees celsius. Blasted desert summers..."

Ooh, there's an idea. Need to find out if Reinforce can keep me cool and such, like my own personal air conditioner. Or heater, depending on climate.

Nanoha just sighs before her right hand goes on her forehead.

"You OK? Do you have a headache? Can...uhh...can spells cure headaches?" Do we even know any healing spells? I wanna be the white mage if we do! Ah, wait, I can bombard so red fits me better. "We can ask for medicine from Yuna and friends once Alicia's done, if you do."

Nanoha remains silent.

"Ahh, you're not responding." I look her over carefully, but she remains in the same position. Thus, I do what anyone sensible would do and poke her. "Hey. Hey. You fine? Not fine? I can't help you if you don't tell~ me~"

"...Liam," She responds after a while. "You are a birdbrain with the memory of a goldfish and the libido of a fallen angel."

"I disagree with the last part!" Not~ gonna deny the memory thing, that's something I'm well aware is a problem. Particularly when I need to take exams or other knowledge tests. "How would one even know the libido of angels, fallen or not?"

"Most angels fell because of sex." Nanoha says bluntly.

"I thought it was because they sided with Saten when he rebelled? Satan? However you pronounce it." Why would they fall from sex, of all things. Weird. "And I can't have that libido, anyway, I haven't even experienced it before. In any of the myriad ways one can."

Admittedly, if we're talking about sex in the gender sense it might apply now, but then Nanoha and Alicia would also be fallen. Should I check for tiny wings in the bathroom as well?

"Say that to Azrael." Nanoha grumbled, before turning back to Alicia. "I think she's almost done."

Said girl had started walking back over to us, with a smile like the cat that got the canary. "One month. And my demands. Got it?"

Evidently whatever she did, it went well. "All good, Alicia? End up achieving whatever you were after? ...What was that, again? I've forgotten."

"Keys for a house, unlimited cash, and a promise not to try and kill me for at least a month." She stretched, fingers interlaced above her head. "Was a good deal."

"Ah, right, housing. Glad you thought of that, didn't even occur to me till now." And now, I guess we're all set for– "Wait, killing you?"

"It's an evil, menacing, manipulative organization from what I can tell." Nanoha comments. "Think seal."

"...I fail to see how the sea animals kill people." Little fluffy bundles of blubber eat fish, not humans. "Particularly when Alicia can fly, and thus can't be reached by them."

Alicia cut in before the train of thought could get any further. "Stop giving the Clefairy things to fall over, Daze. I need to give Miss Girl-Power back her phone and then a driver should show up to take us to whatever house they are giving us."

"I'm coming with you." Nanoha says seriously. "I can feel a shitstorm waiting to happen if I leave you alone with those girls." Alicia shoots her a look, but doesn't argue with the statement.

"I'm...um…" Hmm, do I wanna go with or wait for the car? "I'm not sure. What're you doing besides phone delivery? Oh, wait, got an idea – need to thank Fū for keeping us alive. Me alive. Nanoha didn't help till the end."

Nanoha sighs before in a flash of light transforms into normal civilian clothes. "Let's go."

––––––––––––––––​

Alicia led the way to the club room, having also shifted into a more civilian-looking attire, barring the cloak she's wearing over them and some gloves. I haven't bothered, partly because I don't know how and partly because I suspect lugging a heavy book about is a tad more annoying than the staff I'm carrying thus far.

Surprisingly, we found them quickly, Alicia leading us directly to this little classroom without even pausing once. That went for entering the room as well, just pulling the door open and stepping inside.

Things would've been awkward~ if it was the wrong spot, but judging by the familiar faces that swivelled to look at us that confidence Alicia had thus far paid off. Or she's got a really good poker face and great luck.

"Fū, thanks for the lend of the phone." She tossed it towards the leader of the group, who caught it with a panicked look. "Eh! Oh.. you're welcome?"

Speaking of the group, I noticed Fū, her sister and Yuna looked different to before. Presumably what they were wearing presently was their normal clothes, like what Nanoha and Alicia turned into a few minutes prior. It looks a bit familiar actually, so...think they've been wearing that since the roof, and I only just realized.

Embarrassing.

However long ago it was, the outfit they all wore now was composed of a grey shirt descending to the waist, alongside white skirts. The shirt was split in two down the middle, a red ribbon tying the two halves together, while white cufflinks and collar finished off the image. In the case of Fu, she wore a grey jumper over the half-shirt, though (winter wear?).

"Speaking of welcome," I interject, taking the opportunity this provides, "thanks for helping out against big swordy back there. I...wasn't having much luck on my own, even with Reinforce to help out."

You mean only with, Master. Being controlled akin to puppetry doesn't give one claim to credit.

We lived, and that's the important thing. Now keep quiet so I can listen to her response, Reinforce!

"Ah, you're welcome. Helping people is what the Hero Club does, even if you were mostly helping us as it turned out." She smiled towards me, her exuberant personality coming back as she shifted attention away from Alicia. Considering how blunt the girl's been to this group thus far, I suppose some nervousness is to be expected.

"So, the hero club helps people? Is that in the sense of 'transforming and stopping criminals using your powers', or 'pick up the trash'?" Do secret identities exist here? It's a trope of the magical girl genre, but who knows how it works in reality. Isn't a thing for Nanoha-verse, for example.

Yuna decided to speak up, "The Hero Club does whatever it can to help people! The magical girl thing is new though." Judging by what I saw, can't say I'm surprised it's new in her situation, but what about the blonde siblings? They sure seemed to know what they were doing.

Well, Fū did.

"I have no regrets, this is the only path huh?" Nanoha comments from off to the side. I have no clue what she's on about. Daze being chuunibyou, perhaps?

"Really? Shirou? Eh, I suppose the fake janitor would fit in with this group. Huh, arm thing fits too I guess." Alicia added onto her comment.

"We seem to be quoting anime a lot." I drawl, shaking my head as I do. "I vote we ignore them. OK, you said the hero thing was new, but going by behavior at least Fū's been doing it for a while. Am I correct?"

The girl in question looks a bit like a deer in headlights. "Er, I've used the transformation before, but that was the first time I've actually fought Vertex."

"Mm, understood. Why didn't your...is she sister, or twin? Well, anyway, how come only you knew how to seal the Vertex? Did you just toss your family into the fray without any training whatsoever? Heck, why was wheelchair girl – sorry, don't know your name – even there? She's disabled." Fū's face fell, and Yuna's cheer seemed to vanish.

...I may have been offensive with that last remark. Oops. "Snrk." I think Alicia is choking or something.

"Hey, calm down there." Nanoha interrupts. "Did you forget? Big, menacing organization pulling the strings behind everything? Heck, when your club's name is the Hero Club something is bound to go down."

"Daze. Can it with the mentions of the Taisha, that's dangerously close to screwing up my deal with them and we need to at least acclimate before declaring war on the only ones with access to the Shinju."

"Oh really? Fuck."

"And I claim that's silly." I retort, catching up on the mental chatting a moment later and throwing my next line in. "Life isn't a conspiracy novel, Nanoha, even when you add magic to the mix."

"Hey! How many people can walk in the Hero Club? Three! How many people in the Hero Club in total? Four! Three times four equals twelve and how many blonds are there? Two! Twelve divided by two equals six! How many people just walked in? Three! Three six's." Nanoha throws her hands up in the air. "Illuminati confirmed!"

I just stare at Nanoha for a bit as she rants, mental gears clunking as they try and follow whatever strange logic she's using. "...Right, conspiracy theorist. Ignore her."

"Oh thank Mab, the car is here. Time to go, nice meeting you all, kinda, not really, bye bye!" And then Alicia is dragging me and Nanoha out of the room, regardless of our objections. Which sucks, as I kinda want to get an answer to those questions.

Or just the sealing formula for Reinforce. Either works.

 

[InfiniteDaze]

Chapter 2 – InfiniteDaze POV​

Meltdown​

There's a feeling.

You know that one? The one you get when you're in the middle of doing something and then you go "This is a really bad idea".

That's the one I was currently feeling, only five times worse and the damage was already dealt.

You'd think from my earlier rampage that I'd be all sunshine and firepower, always joking to lighten up the mood.

I'm not. It's all just an act. An act so good that it's even fooled me.

Then again, I'm not a creature of logic, I'm a creature of reaction. Who's to say I wasn't a jokester. And now that the Rush was gone….

But this had gone on long enough. Now, a blond grim reaper had appeared and asked me and the fallen angel who the hell we are because she had deduced that we weren't the ones we appeared to be.

So I responded in kind through the mental link she gave me.

"No shit Sherlock."

"Excellent." She purred out in a heavily British accent through the chat. "I have a cunning plan."

Plans, plans, fuck plans. Too many factors involved, too many ways for them to go wrong. Better to wing everything by ear then expect things to go your way.

Selfish jerks. No plan survives contact with the enemy.

"Would you mind informing us, your greatness?" I shot back, trying to see how much bullshit the girl in front of me was about to spew.

"But of course, Watson. Just follow my lead," She informs me. Fuckimg brits, of course they'd bring out Watson after the Sherlock comment. "I'm playing this half by the ear and half by pressing every button Miss Girl Power has, which may or may not exist."

Miss Girl Power….?

Who's that?

Must be one of the school girls, maybe it's the redhead? She seemed nice and bombastic, pretty fun if you ask me.

However one part stood out to me, her plan was basically to antagonize one of the girls who just helped me and Hayate for…. What?

It was a plan to rupture a blood vessel in a sane person's mind. She was definitely the same as me and Hayate, a person who was just holding the body of Fate and she definitely knew something about the girls and because of it was just going into this all guns blazing.

Essentially, she was gonna act like a SI protagonist who was gonna abuse the shit out of the meta knowledge they knew from a piece of fiction.

The fool.

"I don't know why but I'm hating you almost as much as I do Hayate at the moment." I answered. That was a lie, but I couldn't just up and spit in her face. "Speak your piece."

If I could, Raising Heart would be at her throat in a blink of an eye but I couldn't start a fight, not here.

I am Armed and Ready Master.

"Hey!" Hayate complained. "Why the hate, Nanoha? Was it the scolding? As if so, you should've gotten there faster!"

You're annoying.

"Focus! YuYu's to extort here, we can sort out the stellar interactions of you two so far afterwards." The Fate copy sighed, rubbing her head.

The blackmailing bitch! You know all of their weaknesses and they know none of yours! They're not 'waifus' they're real girls!

….What? I had my humanity, unlike this bitch. Probably lost it with her soul.

"I hate all of you." I growled out through the chat. "'Cept Red- holy crap her hair is red. Like, really, is that natural?"

"Red's natural, yep." Hayate answered. "Comes in lots of different shades, too."

Pretty sure genetics don't work like that.

"Yeah but is it seriously that dark? Looked like she dyed her hair in blood and sold her eyes to Satan." I criticized, fairly certain a bunch of evangelist just put me on their hit list. " ...Which isn't the best comparison, I know."

"Sweet Lady Maeve. Right, you two… debate, or whatever you are doing. Is it flirting?" Fate's voice cut in.

I'm pretty sure every interaction Nanoha has with a female is flirting to the opposite party but hey, that's what you get when you have a raging fandom of 20 year old men who like lesbian pairings.

Some day, Eva will make his final stand!

….I'd totally play that game.

"Pissing you off Reaper-chan~" I teased in my best cutesy voice, not that there was much of a change any more.

"Mitts off my new body til it's at least somewhat legal, Nano-chan." She replied as she walked towards the girls with a clearly fake smile, scythe vanishing as she did so.

I wasn't even legal mentally.

"Right then, you lot are the Hero Club right?" She asked the group of friends. Whom, Hero Club. Why do I feel I know that- "Oh, translation! Best Device is Best Device! Mab's name I sound like whoever the hell her voice actor was."

So does the real Fate. Too bad I'll never find out who my voice actor is, though I'm kinda glad she won't have to voice my lines with my potty mouth like it's Panty and Stockings 2: Quantum Boogaloo.

"Umm, yes, that's us, Miss…?" Red said, courageously stepping forward.

I chose this moment to throw the Reaper off her rails.

"You left the link on." I commented offhand, smirking slightly as I dropped that bomb.

"...You heard nothing. Bardiche, take the helm."

Ha! White Devil one, Reaper-bitch none!

"You can call me Alicia for now." She introduced herself, words silencing me until I spoke out in the most eloquent way possible.

"Bullshit!"

When in doubt, always head back to the basics.

"Call me Nero if that works better, isn't a girls name but that hardly matters in the end. Either way, stop distracting me." She replied.

And then everything clicked like a puzzle as it all started to fit together as one thing entered my mind.

I know this guy.

He- now she I guess- was a friend of mine from back in my old life who also went by the name of Nero on the Internet, and just so happens to also swear like a Dresden.
However, none of that matters. I knew this guy.

Fuck.

Most people go hang out with friends, I tend to avoid them. A lot.

My eyes glanced over to the Hayate replica. If Nero was here then by the Law of Chance Meeting this girl must be Mizu and I'll eat my Kaiser damn face if it wasn't true.
And if it was I was going to curse the world for being so cliche as to do this to me. Like, seriously, why are the cliches acting up now of all times?

"...I'm shutting up now." I answered, watching the scene silently.

I really need to calm before things go wrong-

"Fū, you're the contact for the Taisha in this group of 'heroes', right?" Fate mocked, the word hero coming off as a parent scolding a child.

Alright bitch that's enough.

"Hey!" Yuna justifiably shouted, rising to the group's defense.

Atta girl. I really do like her out of all the people on the roof.

But I can smell a shitstorm in progress and it's fairly bad so I'm gonna have to step in for once. I can't just be on the sidelines and watch it happen this time.

I don't get paid enough for this crap.

"Okay everyone, that's enough." I interrupt, waving my hand in an odd gesture. "Well… I'm not good at explaining, never have been and probably never will be, but I can already tell that this is becoming a clusterfuck of epic proportions so I might as well throw in my two cents before you girls have a catfight."

Fate yells something at me but I ignore it as I step in between the two groups.

Go fuck yourself Nero.

Now, how to convey this to a group of Japanese middle schoolers? Wait! Those name things! Got it!

"Testarossa-san is the same as me and Hayate, and I suspect that like me she's tired as well." I explain, throwing around my hands in weird movements. "We've been friends for…. a bit. Even if she does dress like a dark magical girl who has a stripper problem, well, you shouldn't judge people with whom they are on the outside. Now if you excuse me, I think I'm just… gonna.. go."

In hindsight, I should have used Alicia-chan to express more familiarity but I have a feeling that wouldn't work here.

Now I only need to do one thing…

Raising Heart, open telepathic channels with all four girls, and make sure to block out the current one.

Yes my Master.

Good, there's a few things I need to make clear.

"One, yes this is telepathy. Two, don't react." I whisper off the line. "You might not believe me but Alicia does know your worst secrets and is not afraid to use them against you. She also knows your personality as well, and all your triggers."

"But that doesn't make her a bad person." I sighed over the line. "Like I said, we're all tired and, well, none of us are from Japan. I'm from Hawaii, actually, if you can believe that."

"Look just keep calm, and it will all be fine." I warned, before deciding to fuck with Nero one more time. "Oh, and her name isn't Alicia, it's Fate. Fate Testarossa Harlaown. Alicia's the name of her sister. Oh! But don't tell her I told you guys that otherwise she'll get mad at me.

I closed the line and stepped away from the girls, telling Raising Heart to reopen the line.

"Who's Hayate? Is this another name for me, Nanoha?" Mizu asks. "First it was Olly, now this?"

Goddamit.

"I called you Hayate during the fight, you goldfish." I respond in the middle of Fate who was about to say something probably unimportant.

….Oh hey, she resumed her scythe.

"Wait. Goldfish? ...horribly offensive, multiple names, oh in the name of Maeve's ever-perky tits." Fate swears in a fond manner.

Lookie here, the dumbass finally got it.

She turns to me hesitantly before opening her mouth."Team Ados, represent?"

...You dumbass. WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU SAY IT OUT LOUD!?

This was a new life wasn't it? Stuck with a meta-abusing Reaper and a clueless Fallen Angel.

Fuck my life.

"ADOS?" Hayate asks, interrupting my rant. "What's ADOS? Is it some military code thing the TSAB made up?"

I'm sorry, can someone confirm that she really just said that.

She did.

Affirmative.

Right right, I'm guessing we're invoking the clueless idiot SI here? The one we'd have to explain everything to. I know the team name is officially 'Attention Deficit- Oh! Shiny!' But how could one person forget this much?

Oh right, Goldfish.

Now where was I before going off on a rant? Aha! Invoking the I am surrounded by idiots trope.

Fate says something but I ignore her as my hand reaches towards Hayate's neck in a practiced motion. As soon as I get a good grip I immediately tightened my hand and began pushing downwards.

It wasn't choking per say, more like pushing pressure points, but it got the job done.

I leaned forward, up close to Hayate's face before growling out my next words immediately.

"YOU. IDIOT."

I'm fairly certain one of the School Girls asked what I was doing but Fate decided to be useful for once and brushed them off.

...It occurs to me that this look of agony Hayate is giving is fun, I quickly slapped that part of me and had her weeping about Battle Lust.

"W-Why do you want me to.. no, what are they doing?" Another girl asked. I quickly turned my head around and gave her a look telling her she didn't want to know.

"Oh for Mab's sake! Bardiche, Thunder Bind!" Fate yelled, seemingly done with our crap as a bunch of gold ropes restrained me in the sky above Mizu. "Daze. Stop molesting Mizu. Mizu. Stop being a bloody goldfish. Fū. Make the bloody phone call."

The binds disappear as I land with a thud on the floor. I quickly pulled myself up before raising one eyebrow at the blond.

Seriously? Molesting? I've had worse thrown up against me and I had more to throw up against her.

If she was gonna throw down with an american teenager she better prepare herself.

"I wasn't molesting her, just what the hell do you take me for?" I asked. "Hayate's The Worst."

There's some part of me that isn't surprised Mizu is now Hayate because seriously, the guy was a pervert. Like, not Issei Hyoudou levels of perversion but the guy was definitely a pervert on par with Hayate.

He once told me it was due to him being a "Healthy Adult Male" but hah! Look at you now! You don't have the excuse of Testosterone to back you up!

"...Moving on, before we end up traumatizing the midget over there." Fate said, pointing to a small blond girl who promptly looked at an older blond, probably her sister. "Call the Taisha, I need to talk to them about your god, the Vertex, and the so-called 'Hero' System."

Wut.
This is way too early in the story to be revealing all the plot twists Nero!

"Only one god? What happened to Shinto's millions?" Hayate asked, cutting in through the mental chat.

Fairly certain it's only 600.

"It ate them all." Fate replied bluntly. "Like it tried to eat me. Well, it ate most of them, the others tried to eat humanity, you shot one of those ones. Gods gotta eat, apparently. And they like little girls. Strangely, it's worse than it sounds."

So, a god who can eat other gods and is also a pedophile.

This is just great.

Also, how the hell is that even possible? Didn't the Shinto gods pull a Greece and become Buddhist… whatever they are? Did that mean the tree actually ate Buddha?!

….Is the Monkey King free?

Also, what about the other gods and, well, God?

Wait, Gods do not form to humanity's rules. I better stop thinking about this.

And suddenly an idea came to me.

"Finally, I can achieve my lifelong dream." I replied with passion. "I'm gonna burn that tree, no matter how much Napalm it takes."

"I….highly recommend against destroying a population's god. That tends to get people angry." Hayate informs me hesitantly. "Can we try talking first? Or beating the ones threatening humans?"

Silly Mizu, that's not how it works. ALL MUST BURN.

"Fuck Gods, burn all to the ground. It might as well end in flames but from the ashes we will rise. HUMANITY BABY!!!" I roared through the chat, mentally doing a fist pump.

I am armed and ready.

Raising Heart, you are the best Device a guy- er, girl could ask for.

"Hello? Yes, it's Inubōzaki. There's a girl who- Well there are three girls who showed up in the fight with the Vertex." The older blond says into her phone. "One of them wants to speak with you about the Vertex, and the Hero System?"

Nobody makes a move, everyone is silent as they wait for a response from the organization Blond was calling.

...Everyone except Nero apparently, as she quickly walked up to the blond and snatched the phone from her.

"Ao, Taisha person? This is one Alicia, I woke up in your Tree." She speaks into the phone impatiently. "I've got some information you are going to want, it has to do with Nogi and Washio. I somehow doubt you want me letting your new batch of minions in on the secret?"

I think calling them minions out loud might throw someone off, if any of them was genre savvy enough to get it.

Because really? She was talking to a secret organization that apparently recruited young girls into fighting monsters and she had literally called them minions. That's enough to make anyone be wary about the organization because goddammit this is starting to sound like a bad fanfictio-

"Minions? Magical girls are minions now?" Hayate asked in confusion, stopping my rant just when it was coming to a climax. "And does anyone besides Alicia even know where we are? Beyond 'somewhere in Japan'?"

...I suppressed the urge to groan. Of course she wouldn't get it, she was half audience surrogate as it was.

Kaizer, my life was starting to sound even more like an anime by the minute. I swear to god if this school has cherry blossom trees I will…

...Not do anything because they will probably be much more pleasing to the eye then my old school's flower trees.

Ugh, during the spring it's like a hundred of those things fall every minute. It's a goddamn miracle that they never actually land on anyone.

I whipped my head around in a random direction while everyone was focused on Fate and gave a glare.

Fuck you audience.

Oh god you're starting up with the fake fourth wall joke aga-

SHUT UP I HAVE HUMOR.

I quickly whipped my head back to the blond and pretended that did not just happen.

"Yep. Uh huh. No. For a price, maybe. I know exactly what the system does, don't even start that bullshit, I have had a long fucking day." Fate continues, probably not even realizing what she's saying.

That totally confirms my suspicions.

What if they have a good reason? Does that still make them bad people?

...Shut up.

My fist clenches up in response to the doubt and my teeth begin to press together. I can feel my nails denting my skin but I ignore the pain.

I'm just common sense.

You're not common sense shut up.

….Dammit, it happened again.

Self mockery. I know it's a bad habit, that I might go insane, but I might have been insane when I started talking to myself back when I was… nine…

Heh, funny coincidence.

The sound of phones going off snap me out of my trance and put me in a more relaxed state.

"Umm, it says to leave them on the roof for a bit?" Red reads in confusion turning to the older blond.

I spared a glance at Fate who was pacing around phone in hand with a cat-like grin on her face, causing shivers to crawl up my spine.

I don't know why but I just get the feeling that the expression she's making doesn't belong on her face.

...It must run in the family.

"Red, I think Alicia just blackmailed a cult." I say out loud, careful not to call Nero Fate before realizing something. "...Speaking of, I don't know your name. Mine's Takamachi Nanoha, what's yours?"

The name rolled off my tongue as smoothly as my old one did. Then again, I barely even bothered to remember my name seven eighths of the time and only relied on instincts to do so.

"What happened to 'Daze'? Decided on a new moniker like Alicia?" Hayate asked through the link.

Oh for Kaiser's…

"Well, I can't go around calling myself Infinite Daze now can I?" I replied. "That's dumb, you're dumb."

Seriously, every SI who can even get away with calling themselves Shade or Poe and what not most severely underestimate how smart people coul- wait no someone called Poe out on it didn't they?

Hm…

"I can use mine!" Hayate cheered. "Mizu's gender-neutral. And if not, there's always 'Mizuki'."

"And your last name?" I countered, feeling like I had won the argume-

"I need one why again?"

….Did she just…. Did she just ask why a last name was important?!

WELL I'M SORRY LIAM, NOT EVERYONE HAS THE IQ OF A CROW!

Idiot!

I'm so glad the other girls know her as Hayate because otherwise this could end in disaster.

"...I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer."

"I'm Yuki Yuna, member of the Hero Club." The redhead replied, grabbing my attention from the amount of brain cells I might have just lost talking to this goldfish.

She gives a few glances around towards me and the rest of the aces before grabbing the handlebars of the wheelchair one of the other girls was sitting in.

"We'll be in the club room, okay?" She says as she and the other girls leave the roof.

I sigh. Raising Heart?

Connection reopened.

"I really wish this could've been different." I told Yuki through the connection. "But what can you do? Murphy's law states that what can go wrong will go wrong and I have a feeling that will be in full effect here."

"...It was nice meeting you."

I quickly shut down the connection before waving her goodbye with Hayate before turning to face Nero.

"So, Alicia huh?" I smirked, knowing just how to disprove that. "You know you still have Fū's phone in your hand right?"

She just shot me a look that told me she gave zero fucks before returning to her conversation with the creepy government-cult (Cultment?).

Fair enough. Raising Heart.

Status: Still Armed and Ready.

Good.

I hope you guys realize Plans Never survive contact with the enemy.

"I don't think she's gonna respond to you." Mizu says, stating the obvious. "Chatting to two different people at once is kinda hard, especially when it involves phones."

Thank you.

"Yeah, no shit." I respond, not taking my eyes off Nero. "Look, let's just wait for her to be finished. Not like anything else is going to happen.

If anything did- oh shit did I seriously just do that? Have I never learned the lesson of tempting Fate? Or in simpler terms…

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH SHIT WHAT THE HELL HAVE I DONE!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

….You done yet?

Fuck.

"So, what delayed you? I never got an answer, and due to you piddling about taking your time almost got munched on by old swordy. Even after the teamup with Fū and her sister." Hayate asks, interrupting my internal panic.

Right, okay Nanoha, keep your cool. Keep your cool…

"I had to do a rush job tutorial lesson on how to aerial combat as well as shooting." I reply as calm as I can manage, leaning on Raising Heart for added effect. "Not like I have a Unison Device from Ancient Belka to do it for me you cheat sheet."

Right, cool. Mockery to have her focus on something else and-

Status: I am not meant to be leaned on.

Look, can you please just let me have this for a moment. Please?

...Affirmative.

Thanks Raising Heart, you're the best.

"Ancient?" Hayate asks in confusion. "Reinforce just called the book writing Belkan. I mean, she did also say it was several thousand years old, so I suppose it could be multiple iterations of the language…"

Dammit Rein! Why am I the one who has to give a lecture instead of you! You're the Lost Logia from Belka!

"The Belka civilization fell years ago Mizu." I respond in a casual manner, in no attempt to make it look like this is common knowledge- stop looking at me like that viewer. Fuck you too. "I think it might be something to do with war and how their leaders turned their bodies into the ultimate weapon or something like that. Anyways, from the ashes of Belka came Mid-Mid-... fuck, I can't pronounce it."

Note to self: Learn how to pronounce shit.

Noted.

Fuck off.

"Mid-Childa? Mid-Childra?" Hayate guesses, also appearing to struggle with the name. "I vaguely recall the TSAB's organization being from something like that."

"Yeah, that one." I reply, snapping my fingers and pointing at her.

I love being able to snap.

"...Which one, exactly? You said yes to both." Hayate asked, before shrugging her shoulders. "Eh, not like it matters. What're the differences between Unison and whatever Device type Raising Heart is? Or was that Raging Heart?"

….I thought this was obvious.

Ah well, she said the magic Or word.

"First, yes." I begin, pulling my free hand up in a finger motion before beginning to wave it side to side, pushing my hips out a bit. "It's Raising Heart. Something about how the japanese pronounce si as ji or something. Though it was officially Raging Heart in English before they fixed it."

Query.

Denied on a Need-to-know basis.

"And Device differences?" Hayate asks, not giving up on the question.

I'm going to be totally honest, I don't know how to put it in words.

And that's why I'm going to try it in the simplest way possible!

"Staff." I declare, lifting up Raising Heart before pointing at Hayate. "Not staff."

She held a staff up in her hands yes, but the actual magic was going through Reinforce or something. I'm fairly certain that the staff is more of an aiming/channeling device than anything else.

Besides, I could redesign Raising Heart later. Nanoha was the one who came up with the original design after all.

Affirmative. Master came up with current device resignation deploy mode.

Human speak Raising Heart.

...Yes, you can.

"Eh, looks like a staff. Even if it isn't, Alicia uses a scythe-thing which is also a gold triangle, so Device come in many appearances." Hayate interrupts, looking at her staff. "Does Raising Heart have a human form, Nanoha?"

No dumbass that's what Unison Devices are for. It can fly on it's own in standby mode I think but-

Negative.

What?

Movement in Standby mode is not possible.

Ah.

"No, that's only Unison Devices." I answer, not totally convinced Mizu was in a sane state of mind if she was asking me all these questions when she had an actual Unison Device that she was currently merged with. "I believe they're something of a Belka invention that is hard to recreate today or something. That's why you'd see so few of them around or we'd all be going Starforce."

Ah yes, Megaman Starforce. One of the first Megaman games I ever played and I fucking love it. I would actually pay money (Read: Worthless Internet Currency) to see that kind of world.

Though I was pretty sure I was already out of Worthless Internet Currency after the Bozo inflation of July or something. Plus with Salt Tokens pretty much being rendered moot and wpoints not being used any more after the government's downfall…

Oh? What? You want me to explain?

Well fuck you.

If you're done talking to the invisible, and not to mention fake audience, then get back to work.

"Starforce?" Hayate asks in confusion. "What do you mean by 'going Starforce'? Only thing by that name I know's the Megaman DS series."

Bingo. Give the girl a prize.

"Yeah that's the one I'm talking about." I answer, before an idea comes to mind. My legs spread apart before I begin pointing my hand to the sky. "EM Wave Change! Takamachi Nanoha, ON AIR!!!"

I hold the pose for a few more seconds as nothing happens. Either because I'm already transformed or because that was a fucking joke.

….It's not the-

"Was...that meant to do something?" Hayate asks. "As if so, it didn't work."

"....That was a joke." I replied, quitting the silly pose. "Though if I change Takamachi Nanoha to Raising Heart and on air to set up…. hm…."

Shortcut saved.

Wha? Dammit Raising Heart!

"I didn't need to say anything for my own transformation." Hayate comments with a wince. "Admittedly, still don't know exactly what Unison'ing is, barring fusion with Reinforce. Don't suppose you do?"

Aw come on! Dammit! No chant!

Eh, I pretty much had the whole chant memorized to heart for no reason.

"Lucky. I had to remember this whole chant thing while falling from the fucking sky." I reply. "Also go ask Reinforce."

I was not really in the mood to admit that I didn't know all the functions of what a Unison is considering the fact that Unison didn't exist an hour ago.

Uwah! Why does she keep asking me!? She knows that I'm the same as her!

Ehe….

Shut up!

I think it would be best for everyone involved if you cut this train of thought off right now.

Right right.

"Hey, how did you first learn magic again?" Huh? Where did that come from? "Wasn't it in the midst of combat against a monster? Alongside the first time you transformed?"

...It just happened you goldfish.

Oh who the fuck am I kidding, this is Mizu we're talking about here. Plus, the void made her worse. I wouldn't be surprised if she actually forgot what just happened.

Ah well, might as well fill Mrs. Audience Surrogate in for what I did, though I doubt anyone watching didn't already know.

...Yeah yeah, I know. Stopping that trainwreck there.

"I spammed the most basic spell which requires no calculation at all while waiting for Raising Heart to calculate a Divine Buster." I admit with a shrug of my shoulders. "I essentially just shot the bullet."

Hey, I didn't say it would be good.

"...My view of you as a combat genius just died a horrible, tiny death." Oh come on! "Well, what about after the first time? Think I heard you do a bunch of simulations in your head as training? Even during school?"

...What? Raising Heart do you have any idea what she's talking about?

Negative.

Yeah I thought so.

"Okay, first off, fuck you too." I replied. Who was the one who came up with half the battle plan less than an hour ago?! "Second, image training or whatever it's called is done by Raising Heart and I just got this device forty minutes ago why the hell do you think I had it during school!?"

Wait. Wait no. Please don't tell me that she actually-

"Huh? But….oh, wait, you're Daze, not Nanoha. Forgot." She did. "Not used to thinking of you as a little girl, in all honesty, although age-wise I don't think there's any change for you."

My hand instantly bopped her on the top of the head for the sheer idiocy of that.

Kaiser, hopefully that'll get the message across for once. If violence doesn't work, then you're clearly not using enough violence.

You could talk to them first yeah sure, but in my experience it doesn't usually work.

"Oh my god, you fucking goldfish." I sigh out. "Next thing I know you'd be thinking you're still in Australia."

"No, I know this is Japan. Checked with Fu." She points out. "And if I was in Australia it'd be warmer. By like ten degrees celsius. Blasted desert summers."

The Meaning did not get through. The meaning did not get through at all.

My hand instantly went up to my face and covered it as much as my now slender hands could. My eyes closed slowly and I could only see darkness as I began to contemplate how fucked I was if I just shot off Mizu's head right there.

Sure, I didn't want to actually kill her, maybe, but I could tell that I was going to have to spend a long time with this girl. It was obvious as day to me, along with the fact that Nero was joining us for the ride.

Which, was frankly, bullshit. The odds of me meeting the two of them in the body of Nanoha while they were in the bodies of Fate and Hayate were so astronomically slim that it'd be much more likely for them to be Fate and Hayate with the personality of Nero and Mizu respectively.

Though in all honestly, that situation has been already crossed off because they also have the memoires of Mizu and Nero, and they don't either of the girls. Just like I don't have memories from Nanoha barring things that were on camera.

Which raises an interesting question, if memories are connected to the brain, and this is the body of Nanoha, then how did these memories get there? Along with my personality?

Bah. Look at me, asking weird questions.

"You OK? Do you have a headache? Can...uhh...can spells cure headaches?" Hayate asked in concern. "We can ask for medicine from Yuna and friends once Alicia's done, if you do."

….Fuck this, not even gonna deal with it.

"Ahh, you're not responding." No shit. "Hey. Hey. You fine? Not fine? I can't help you if you don't tell~ me~"

And then she poked me causing me to flinch back a bit and my eye to twitch under my hand.

My left hand clenched around Raising Heart and- wait I'm left handed?

Affirmative.

Huh.

"...Liam," I called out. "You are a birdbrain with the memory of a goldfish and the libido of a fallen angel."

….That actually brought a quite a scary image to mind. Almost like Six Ball but without the Libido part.

My shoulders shudder at the thought of having to go adventuring with someone like that.

...Adventuring?

"I disagree with the last part!" Hayate interrupted. "How would one even know the libido of angels, fallen or not?"

"Most angels fell because of sex." I said bluntly, not even one hundred percent sure on that.

Okay so that could be false, sue me. You think this is easy? Think again.

"I thought it was because they sided with Saten when he rebelled? Satan? However you pronounce it." Hayate countered. "And I can't have that libido, anyway, I haven't even experienced it before. In any of the myriad ways one can."

...sigh.

Fuck it, you win this time.

"Say that to Azrael." I grumble, closing the argument. Bastard fell because he fell in love with a women or something. He also gave humanity, or well, women in general, jewelry and shit making him the enemy of all males everywhere. My eyes gave a quick glance over to Fate who seemed to have amped the smugness by ten percent. "I think she's almost done."

"One month. And my demands. Got it?" She says, concerning my suspicions before walking on over to the two of us.

"All good, Alicia? End up achieving whatever you were after? ...What was that, again? I've forgotten." Hayate asks.

"Keys for a house, unlimited cash, and a promise not to try and kill me for at least a month." Fate responds, grin still wide on her face. "Was a good deal."

Understatement of the fucking century.

There's the pretty obvious downside of only having a month before assassination attempts because, aha, fuck death.

You know what? I'll rant about death later. Job to do.

"Ah, right, housing. Glad you thought of that, didn't even occur to me till now." Unfortunately, I'm going to have to agree with the goldfish. I'm…Not that much of a responsible person. "Wait, killing you?"

Dammit Mizu get a hint.

"It's an evil, menacing, manipulative organization from what I can tell." I answer, trying to think of an evil organization off the top of my head. "Think SEELE."

"...I fail to see how the sea animals kill people." Mizu comments. "Particularly when Alicia can fly, and thus can't be reached by them."

Oh come on! That's not even recent how the fuck did you not get it?!

I'm surrounded by idiots aren't I? Fuck…

Adults, even if they share similarities, are still adults.

Fuck 'em.

"Stop giving the Clefairy things to fall over, Daze." Fate interrupts. "I need to give Miss Girl-Power back her phone and then a driver should show up to take us to whatever house they are giving us."

A shiver crawls down my spine and the orb that I call feelings starts pulling as I instantly go on high alert as my shitstorm sensors blare.

"I'm coming with you." I declare. "I can feel a shitstorm waiting to happen if I leave you alone with those girls."

Fate glares but no argument is given. Good.

"I'm...um…" Hayate draws out. "I'm not sure. What're you doing besides phone delivery? Oh, wait, got an idea – need to thank Fū for keeping us alive. Me alive. Nanoha didn't help till the end."

Looks like we're all in agreement then. Now where were they again…. Ah right, the Hero Club so probably inside the building. Raising Heart?

Deactivating barrier jacket.

There's a flash of light before I'm standing in the clothes I arrived in, not that I know what they look like.

"Let's go." I declare, waiting for the others to also deactivate only to find Nero doing the same, leaving Hayate in her cosplay outfit.

Oh for Kaiser's sake you're going to be going inside a school why would you wear your barrier jack-

And it was at that moment that a breeze hit my arms and I suddenly felt very naked.

I need a jacket. Stat.

****

These 'civilian clothes' were dumb. Plain and simple.

You ever been a Boy Scout? Let me explain.

The class A uniform or the official uniform you see on ads and stuff mainly consisted of a plain green pair of pants with a very floppy piece of vest over a Class B shirt (the troops official shirt) tucked in and held together with an official Boy Scout belt.

It was essentially that but make the pants rounder and the belt thing into some sort of blouse. Also I could feel, um, straps every time I moved my arms but let's not talk about that.

I only got glimpses of it in the mirror that we occasionally passed by as we stealthy passed through the hallways to the Hero Club and let me give you my second assessment.

It made me look fat.

If you're wondering why I don't want to look fat….

You can blame my dad's side of the family, specifically my grandparents. Apparently both my dad and cousin were fat little boys and I broke the norm by being skinny and dad's always going on about how there's no escaping about being just like him and- argh!

No Ye Ye, I'm full! I don't want anymore food, stop pestering me to eat more! And you have the gals to make me eat less food every time we go to my favorite Chinese restaurant?! Overeating?! Shut up!

Well look at me now, I'm now a Japanese girl that looks nothing like any of you! Except the fact that I now have blue eyes like mom.

Fuck.

Before I knew it, we had arrived at the room in question, forcing me to snap back into reality. The only thing that told me this was the place was that sign that read a Hero-

Fate slammed the door open and walked into the room, phone in hand. I blinked for a bit, letting myself register what had just happened before stepping inside to be greeted by the familiar hair- Imeanfaces of the Hero Club.

I swear I've heard that name from somewhere before….

"Fū, thanks for the lend of the phone." Fate says before tossing the phone at the startled blond. She panics for a bit before catching the phone.

"Eh! Oh.. you're welcome?" She yelps, atmosphere dropping dead at the end of her sentence. You'd swear you could've heard a pin drop, and I fidgeted for a bit before walking inside. I need something to break the ice-

"Speaking of welcome," Oh Mizu thank the Kaiser you're my hero. "thanks for helping out against big swordy back there. I...wasn't having much luck on my own, even with Reinforce to help out."

And with that the atmosphere becomes much more softer now that the Heroes don't have to deal with the bitch that is Nero.

I knew she was bad but this is seriously not making a good impression. At all.

"Ah, you're welcome. Helping people is what the Hero Club does, even if you were mostly helping us as it turned out." Fu thanks cheerfully, a much more energetic personality coming into play.

So, the hero club helps people? Is that in the sense of 'transforming and stopping criminals using your powers', or 'pick up the trash'?" Mizu questions, apparently not knowing the limits of common sense.

"The Hero Club does whatever it can to help people!" Yuna answers, fist pumping in the air before calming down. "The magical girl thing is new though.".

Though she's taking this whole thing rather well. Then again, I haven't gone on a mass destruction spree so I guess I'm also taking it rather well.

Guess as long as she can be a hero she's fine huh?

"I have no regrets, this is the only path huh?" I answer, mind going back to the story of a boy who was suddenly dragged into a world of magic with desire to be a hero.

Remarkably alike-

"Really? Shirou?" Fate interrupts. "Eh, I suppose the fake janitor would fit in with this group. Huh, arm thing fits too I guess."

No- Dammit I- THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!

Ha, I'm not even going to bother to explain it.

"We seem to be quoting anime a lot." And Hayate has ruined it forever. Nah, it was ruined the moment it got responded to. "I vote we ignore them. OK, you said the hero thing was new, but going by behavior at least Fū's been doing it for a while. Am I correct?"

Oh, really? Huh.

"Er, I've used the transformation before, but that was the first time I've actually fought Vertex." Fu answered nervously, not looking anyone in the eye.

What's the story behind that? Was it the cult? I bet it was the cult.

"Mm, understood. Why didn't your...is she sister, or twin? Well, anyway, how come only you knew how to seal the Vertex? Did you just toss your family into the fray without any training whatsoever? Heck, why was wheelchair girl – sorry, don't know your name – even there? She's disabled." Mizu rants, outright murdering the atmosphere.

Wow. Okay, that came out of nowhere.

What a bitch.

Please show me where the fuck that rant came from because once again, what a bitch.

"...snrk." Fuck Nero too.

Okay, okay, calm the shit storms down. I can do this.

"Hey, calm down there." I interrupt quickly. "Did you forget? Big, menacing organization pulling the strings behind everything? Heck, when your club's name is the Hero Club something is bound to go down."

Correction: I can not calm the shit storm down.

That was like, absolutely terrible-

"Daze. Can it with the mentions of the Taisha, that's dangerously close to screwing up my deal with them and we need to at least acclimate before declaring war on the only ones with access to the Shinju." Nero informs me through the chat.

"Oh really? Fuck."

"And I claim that's silly." Mizu interjects. "Life isn't a conspiracy novel, Nanoha, even when you add magic to the mix."

No, it's an anime the moment you add magical girls to the mic. But ignoring all that
I needed to come up with a cover before I get shot through the heart.

Think! Think!

"Hey! How many people can walk in the Hero Club? Three! How many people in the Hero Club in total? Four! Three times four equals twelve and how many blonds are there? Two! Twelve divided by two equals six! How many people just walked in? Three! Three six's."I quickly yelled, using my most valued skill of bullshitting out of my ass while waving my hands around. "Illuminati confirmed!"

...Welp, I'm done for. Plan's fucked. Hasta la vista motherfuckers-

The sound of Nero's face meeting with her hand caused me to look around and realize something.

Everyone took me seriously, or as seriously as they'd take an idiot.

What the actual fuck.

I gave the Hero Club the biggest look of disappointment I had ever made in my life.

"...Right, conspiracy theorist. Ignore her." Screw Mizu. Where's my knife? Do I have a knife? I wanna stab her through the heart!

"Oh thank Mab, the car is here. Time to go, nice meeting you all, kinda, not really, bye bye!" Fate interrupts, grabbing me and Hayate's arms and- Ow! Ow! That hurts!

The entire time we were leaving I didn't once let up the look of disappointment on my face.

If anyone was fluent in adultneese then they would obviously know the message I was trying to send across.

Failures, all of you.

 

[Nero200]

Chapter 2 – Nero200 POV
​

"No shit Sherlock." Hello Nanoha-copy. Suspicions confirmed then, going by that and the lack of protest from the Hayate.

Right then. Worries and trauma, backseat. Now. Confidence and mania, take the wheel you glorious enablers!

I let the familiar emotional rush wash over my mind with a mental kick, smoothing over my worries with unwarranted mania and adrenaline as I respond. "Excellent, I have a cunning plan." It involves blackmailing what is practically the government. Go big or go home.

"Would you mind informing us, your greatness?" Someone is feeling snarky. Hayate and the YuYu's just look confused, but the Nanoha just looks annoyed. "But of course, Watson. Just follow my lead, I'm playing this half by the ear and half by pressing every button Miss Girl Power has, which may or may not exist."

To be fair, I'm probably not going to push the Club's buttons much if I don't have to, I just need a line to the Taisha. Blackmail alone should be enough, no need to sabotage the existing Vertex counter force yet.

If I had to… Yes, I could. Togo is an easy takedown with her lost memories, Fū's even easier by just tapping the risk to her sister to eliminate Itsuki, and then the responsibilities she feels towards said sister for her herself. Yuna can be taken out at least temporarily as a duo with Togo.

"I don't know why but I'm hating you almost as much as I do Hayate at the moment. Speak your piece." I check that I hadn't broadcast that for a panicky moment, but it seems like Nanoha-copy is just being melodramatic. Not like it would be a bad thing to shut this 'Hero' business down now in any case, being literally eternal human sacrifices isn't something I would wish on many people.

The Hayate responds indignantly, "Hey! Why the hate, Nanoha? Was it the scolding? As if so, you should've gotten there faster!"

Wonderful, my most likely allies are at odds. "Focus! YuYu's to extort here, we can sort out the stellar interactions of you two so far afterwards." I rub my forehead, flicking through my available options. Hmmm, Fū's probably the best choice, I'll just get her to call the Taisha and hand me the phone.

"I hate all of you." And Nanoha is being a brat in the mind-link again. "'Cept Red- holy crap her hair is red. Like, really, is that natural?" Really, that's what you are going to focus on? We appeared in an anime universe, in different bodies, wielding void granted magic for fucks sake.

"Red's natural, yep. Comes in lots of different shades, too." Mab give me strength you two are useless at being quiet.

"Yeah but is it seriously that dark? Looked like she dyed her hair in blood and sold her eyes to Satan… Which isn't the best comparison, I know."

I cut in before they kill anymore of my brain cells with this nonsense "Sweet Lady Maeve. Right, you two… debate, or whatever you are doing. Is it flirting?" It probably isn't flirting, but insinuating such is always decent way of killing conversations.

"Pissing you off, Reaper-chan~" I'm going to get along well with this nutcase of a Nanoha, I can just tell. Reaper? I guess I do have a scythe, should probably put that away before talking with the YuYu group.

"Mitts off my new body til it's at least somewhat legal, Nano-chan." I respond with more vaguely lewd references and step back a little from the link. Even with thought speed communication the YuYu's are going to notice we are just standing still fairly quickly.

I command Bardiche to return to standby, catching the golden triangle as I turn to the non-body swapped inhabitants of the roof with a pasted on smile. "Right then, you lot are the Hero Club right?"

Oh, translation! Best Device is Best Device! Mab's name I sound like whoever the hell her voice actor was.

"Umm, yes, that's us, Miss…?" Red head, I mean Yuna is the one that steps forward to answer me, with leader girl looking suspiciously at my not-at-all-suspicious self.

A smug american mental-voice cuts in. "You left the link on."

Bollocks. "...You heard nothing. Bardiche, take the helm." I push the link to Bardiche, feeling it smoothen out, the borders between broadcast thoughts and private thoughts tightening. Ah, I had the threshold set too low, so when I thought specifically about Bardiche it picked up as a 'send'.

Hmm. That name will do. Not like Togo is using her proper name either.

Actually… I glance at the wheelchair-bound girl, weighing up the chances in my head as something cold settles in my chest. Blitz Action, resummon scythe, ram the blade through her skull. She's not immortal right now, her contract is inactive so her previous two fairies won't block the attack. Kill her now, save the world from her tantrum later on when she figures out that they're all doomed to be eaten piecemeal by the one they call 'god'. If I'm stuck here...

The moment passes and I laugh mentally to myself. And who's to say that timeline will play out the same way here? The shock must be hitting harder than I thought if that kind of thought is popping up.

Not missing a beat in my budding conversation with the others, I answered Yuna's question.

"You can call me Alicia for now."

"Bullshit." For Maeve's ever bitchy sake, can you not keep quiet for five fucking seconds? At least that confirms you know Nanoha canon.

"Call me Nero if that works better, isn't a girls name but that hardly matters in the end. Either way, stop distracting me." I am going to force feed her a bloody scythe in a minute.

"...I'm shutting up now." Stay shut up.

For the third time I shift my attention back to Fū, ignoring Yuna. Social niceties can fuck off, I can turn them all into crying wreaks in about ten seconds if I want to, this is being nice.

"Fū, you're the contact for the Taisha in this group of 'heroes', right?" Some heroes they are, walking buffets of limbs and senses for the god-tree to eat.

"Hey!" Oh shut up Yuna, before I make you. I am at the very fucking end of my patience.

The one wearing the Nanoha suit waves her hand in what looks like a gesture to calm down. Calm down. I fucking died! I'm going to-

"Okay everyone, that's enough." She interrupts. "Well… I'm not good at explaining, never have been and probably never will be, but I can already tell that this is becoming a clusterfuck of epic proportions so I might as well throw in my two cents before you girls have a catfight."

Catfight. "I swear I am going to force-feed you a sodding scythe." Deep breath. She's one of the only two that have a chance of helping you get back to your own world. "Do you happen to have a place to live in this bloody dimension? Because I am trying to get us one!"

The bitch walks in-between myself and the YuYu's before having the temerity to sigh like she has been the one trying to actually get something done beyond interfering with a nice stable timeline. "Testarossa-san is the same as me and Hayate, and I suspect that like me she's tired as well. We've been friends for…. a bit. Even if she does dress like a dark magical girl who has a stripper problem, well, you shouldn't judge people with whom they are on the outside. Now if you excuse me, I think I'm just… gonna.. go."

…

Stripper problem. I did not design this Jacket and you fucking know it! Fuck it, I can just take Raising Heart from her bloody corpse and use the data from that! "Scythe mode, prep a Blitz and a shield." I surge mana from my Linker, feeding the spells.

Yes Sir.

"Who's Hayate? Is this another name for me, Nanoha? First it was Olly, now this?" Maeve Hayate is dumb. She won't be able to get in my way at least.

"Would you just-"

"I called you Hayate during the fight, you goldfish."

Pause. My brain stalls as I half-instinctually tug the magic back from the flash step, the spell guttering like a flooded engine. I...

"Wait. Goldfish?" ...I know this irritating brat. "...horribly offensive, multiple names, oh in the name of Maeve's ever-perky tits." Daze. You colossal arse.

I turn from Fu, who seems to have a blushy reaction to my use of her given name comboed with either my general attitude or Daze saying I have a stripper problem, and face the other two 'Aces' with a hopeful feeling. If me and Daze are here… Mizu should be having fun, considering.

"Team Ados, represent?"

The walking lost-logia responds first, blinking and tilting her head "ADOS? What's ADOS? Is it some military code thing the TSAB made up?"

...That is definitely Mizu. Goldfish of an author he is. He was, she is?

I can't help the smile, dismissing my prepared spells and lowering Bardiche. "Mab's name, the void only made you worse."

And then Mizu crashed to the ground with Daze atop her. Not that I disagree with the general feeling of bopping the neo-Hayate on the head for being a goldfish, but that's a bit too violent. Sort of what I expected Daze to act like in real life though.

"YOU IDIOT!"

Well. I'll leave them to that then. "...What are you two doing?" The mini-blond speaks! About unimportant things. Well, best she uses her voice while she still has it I guess.

"Ignore them, this is normal." First time it's turned physical, but that probably has more to do with it being the first time they've been in the same room over any lack of desire on Daze's part.

Moving on and ignoring the unimportant moe-blob sister character, "Fū, I need you to contact the Taisha about a tree for me." Quickly, while Daze can't interrupt for the dozenth time.

"W-Why do you want me to.. no, what are they doing?" The leader of the hero club doesn't seem to be willing to look away from the… attempted murder? "Oh for Mab's sake!" Right, that's enough, "Binding spell, take the wheel for a basic one, would you my wand?"

Yes Sir. The equation sparks, and I target the bindings before mentally stepping back and letting Bardiche handle the exact details.

"Bardiche, Thunder Bind!" Gold rings of light manifest in a flicker, dragging Daze up and off Hayate to dangle in the air. "Daze. Stop molesting Mizu. Mizu. Stop being a bloody goldfish. Fū. Make the bloody phone call." Seriously, can't you do anything right Fū? I've asked nicely like three times now.

I drop the spell once Mizu is free from the loli-fied Daze, shaking my wrist out theatrically as I note the equation. Seems Bardiche can handle most of it, being a support class spell.

"I wasn't molesting her, just what the hell do you take me for? Hayate's The Worst." She's Mizu, which means at least half the pervertedness isn't intended.

Still. "...moving on, before we end up traumatizing the midget over there." I gesture at said midget, whose name still escapes me, before giving her older sister a look. "Call the Taisha, I need to talk to them about your god, the Vertex, and the so-called 'Hero' System."

All I want to do is exploit a desperate government slash religion for a house and unlimited money. It shouldn't be this difficult. Ah, she is finally making the call.

"Only one god? What happened to Shinto's millions?" Good question Mizu. "It ate them all." Or they all fused into one, but that is still kinda eating them. Auto-cannibalism? No, that would be if it ate the parts after. Retroactive auto-cannibalism. "Like it tried to eat me. Well, it ate most of them, the others tried to eat humanity, you shot one of those ones. Gods gotta eat, apparently. And they like little girls. Strangely, it's worse than it sounds."

It really is. The Hero System is powered by the girls sacrificing parts of their body to the Tree in return for power boosts that are pretty much essential to beating the Vertex. And they aren't told beforehand of the costs involved. I… might have a way to put a stop to it. Something to work on once I have us three secure and paid, if the Taisha are willing to play ball on that I'll try and help on their end.

"Finally, I can achieve my lifelong dream. I'm gonna burn that tree, no matter how much Napalm it takes." That's nice Daze. Go burn the anchor to the entire dimension, see how that works out for us. "I….highly recommend against destroying a population's god. That tends to get people angry." "Can we try talking first? Or beating the ones threatening humans?"
Mizu is being the voice of reason, excellent, I was worried I would have to be.

I push the mental link down in my mind as Fū gets through on the phone. "Hello? Yes, it's Inubōzaki. There's a girl who- Well there are three girls who showed up in the fight with the Vertex. One of them wants to speak with you about the Vertex, and the Hero System?"

Good enough for me. Letting Bardiche shift back to standby mode, I step forward and deftly pluck the phone from her hand, pressing it my ear with a grin. Now, best way to leverage the blackmail… ah, yes.

"Ao, Taisha person? This is one Alicia, I woke up in your Tree. I've got some information you are going to want, it has to do with Nogi and Washio. I somehow doubt you want me letting your new batch of minions in on the secret?"

The sound of surprise from the cultist manning the phones makes me happy, as does the scrambling on the other end of "Call Ji-sama!". Critical strike, boyo~

"This is 'Alicia'-san?" This must be the Ji mentioned. Probably a higher ranked, or possibly a PR type. "Yep."

"You wished to speak about the Hero system?" Indeed I do. "Uh huh."

"Do you wish to join? You seem to be… knowledgeable about our work."

Did he seriously just… "Nooope."

His tone shifts to a more aggravated one, my attitude apparently getting to him. "Would you be willing to share how you came by such private knowledge?"

"For a price, maybe." Should I feel ashamed for blackmailing them? Probably. I don't though.

"A price?! We accomplish the Shinju-sama's work!" "Bardiche, start tracing the call, see how much data you can rip from the phone while I have it."

"I know exactly what the system does, don't even start that bullshit, I have had a long fucking day."

Beep beep

The punch-using girl's phone has received a message. She looks over to Fū, "Umm, it says to leave them on the roof for a bit?"

Content: Please leave the girl on roof with the phone, she is a danger to you Heroes. We will contact you shortly using this device.

I can feel a grin growing on my face. Gotcha, you manipulative fucks. This means they are taking me seriously, which means getting what I want out of them isn't too far away.

"Best Device. Bardiche, tighten defensive fields, we good for sniper shots, fifty cal kinetic weapon type?"

Yes Sir, easily.

"Excellent." Hell, they could probably airstrike the rooftop and I would survive it with the Jacket active, Fate took bombardment spells that cracked buildings in this thing.
I pace, feeling rather smug, as Daze attempts to open a conversation with Yuna. Wait, why is he.. she, calling herself Nanoha? That is going to get confusing real fast.

Anyway, the YuYu cast quickly clears off the rooftop to their club room. "Track them Bardiche, okay? The black haired one is priority, but I want to be able to find them all. See if you can snag their positions from their phones tracking, I know they have an inbuilt function for that."

My wonderful Device pings affirmation in my mind, siphoning a swirl of my mana to start his efforts. I ignore the map opening up beyond noting that I am going to have to find some kind of GPS data to fill in the blank space it is currently reading.

"So, Alicia huh? You know you still have Fū's phone in your hand right?" Daze. Daze. Daaaaaze. Do I look like I care?

The phone line crackles to life, drawing my attention. "The Heroes have left the rooftop?" Was wondering when you were going to speak up, Ji-boy.

"The sacrifices have, yes." I take a small amount of pleasure in the gasp, before pressing on. "And no, that isn't up for debate. I know where their path will lead them, and I also know how to make them put down the phones and never pick them back up. Washio should be proof enough, no?"

"How dare-" Oh are you upset?

"Fuck up. I'm talking." Not sure if that's shocked outrage, or him obeying. Don't care either.

"You are going to hand over the deed to a house big enough for three people to live in comfortably, give me unlimited access to the Taisha bank accounts, and you are going to do it with a smile. Or else I march down to that club room and tear their motivation for defending the Tree to shreds with nothing but words."

"You're threatening us. Those girls are the best hope we have of saving our world! I don't know who you are, but you'll die too if the Shinju-sama falls!"

I laugh. It's not a nice laugh, edging on manic as I tilt my head back and stare at the fake sky.

"I entered this plane through a dimensional rift from a world that has never heard of Vertex, and then your tree tried to eat me. Do I look like I give a single fuck? You are going to do as I say. You're going to call in Karin as per the plan, lie to the girls so they fight for you and you are going to make it worth their while after the Sange, if it comes to that."

I trail off, the timeline unfolding in my mind. Karin needs to go as per canon, or else she'll break. It also means she can't be used against us as an assassin. Given her offensive power, a suicide run might be enough, even with barrier spells. Sange is only temporary with my knowledge, so it isn't a problem to let it happen and it leads into my next statement.

"But." There has to be a carrot, I can't just blackmail them without end, that leads to them having to strike against me, boxes them in.

"In a month, once you have restrained yourselves from trying to kill me, sworn so on the Tree's name?"

Ji's response is through clenched teeth. "Yes?"

Bombshell time, lock'n load~ "I'll tell you how to fix the Hero System, how to return the girls sacrifices. How to save the Shinju from the slow starvation it is suffering as it tries to defend you." The solution is only logical. The Shinju is a mass of bonafide gods. Humans are a crappy substitute food for such a diet.

Ji is stunned into stammered yelling, "You... How!?" Hook line and sinker. The one thing they want, along with the threat to take something essential. Carrot and stick at it's most basic.

I start walking towards the other two, feeling the end of the conversation. "One month. And my demands. Got it?"

"...Yes. A member will meet you outside the school shortly. Please return Inubōzaki-san's phone to her, if you wish for this 'plan' you speak of to proceed." He sounds off balance, but functional. Wait, plan?

Ah. That was probably a mistake. Haven't blown up like that since last christmas.

I click the phone off, flipping it in my hand as I reach my fellow dimensionally-displaced authors.

Call traced Sir. Location saved for later perusal. Phone data also accessed and copied.

"Good work, pull map data from the files we got from the phone if you can, make sure not to broadcast our position though. Make sure not to activate a contract using the Hero System data."

An affirmative chime, and the hard part is done.

Mizu speaks up first. "All good, Alicia? End up achieving whatever you were after? ...What was that, again? I've forgotten." Sorry. The goldfish speaks up first.

"Keys for a house, unlimited cash, and a promise not to try and kill me for at least a month." I stretch, pressing my arms up and interlacing my fingers to work out the stiffness from the phone call. "Was a good deal." It really was.

"Ah, right, housing. Glad you thought of that, didn't even occur to me till now. Wait, killing you?" I'm going to have to explain the entire YuYu story, aren't I? Bah, I'll do it once we are in the house, after Bardiche sweeps for eavesdropping.

Daze jumps in, "It's an evil, menacing, manipulative organization from what I can tell. Think SEELE." That'll do for now, though I think SEELE was a good bit more malicious.

"...I fail to see how the sea animals kill people. Particularly when Alicia can fly, and thus can't be reached by them."

…

sigh

Moving on. "Stop giving the Clefairy things to fall over, Daze. I need to give Miss Girl-Power back her phone and then a driver should show up to take us to whatever house they are giving us."

Daze glares, the expression looking odd on Nanoha's face, "I'm coming with you, I can feel a shitstorm waiting to happen if I leave you alone with those girls." I'm almost offended but given I half-considered executing Togo a few minutes ago that's a fair point to make.

"I'm...um… I'm not sure. What're you doing besides phone delivery? Oh, wait, got an idea – need to thank Fū for keeping us alive. Me alive. Nanoha didn't help till the end."

Huh, suppose none of us landed near each other then. Closeness to Vertex determined by the order in which we left the void, or was it just chance? Something to investigate later, maybe pool data from our Devices.

Daze switches back to civilian clothes with a burst of light, Bardiche confirming the loss of her Barrier Jacket on the psuedo-HUD he is rendering for me. Defenseless in other words.

Don't think I'll be doing that.

"Bardiche, can we switch back to normal, but keep gloves and a cloak on as the Jacket? I don't want to risk a surprise attack. Also, let me know when the Taishi get here if you can."

Yes. Blaze Form's?

I nod, before my Device and the majority of my Jacket vanish, replaced by the clothes I had on when I first woke up here. Ah, skirt. Awkward.

Gloves are still there, Bardiche slotted into the back of my right hand and the white cloak is a nice security blanket made of raw defensive magic.

I wait a moment to see if Mizu is going to return to unpowered state, before starting to lead the way to the YuYu's via the tracking icons Bardiche is supplying me.

---

I push the door open as I reach it, glancing between the icons representing the Hero Club with little pictures of their heads that blink out as the actual humans come into vision.

"Fū, thanks for the lend of the phone." I toss it to her, smirking a little at her fumbling catch.

"Eh! Oh.. you're welcome?" Ah, Fū. The Mami analogue in the Madoka comparison.

I step back as Mizu starts thanking the older girl, mentally pulling the Thunder's Passage equation into view to have another look at it.

Half a minute's worth of blank staring at the equation later, Daze makes a comment that pulls my full attention back to the ongoing conversation about the Hero club's activities. "I have no regrets, this is the only path huh?"

"Really? Shirou?" Hmm. Fits better than you would think at first glance. "Eh, I suppose the fake janitor would fit in with this group. Huh, arm thing fits too I guess." Hero Club would be that idiot's thing, help people with whatever menial task they need and later sacrifice yourself piecemeal to kill supernatural threats in time for dinner.

"We seem to be quoting anime a lot." Mizu seems less appreciative of the comparison, or more likely just misses the similarities since I'm the only one who recognizes the setting. "I vote we ignore them. OK, you said the hero thing was new, but going by behavior at least Fū's been doing it for a while. Am I correct?"

Oh, this should be funny. Squirm leader girl, squirm. "Er, I've used the transformation before, but that was the first time I've actually fought Vertex." Interesting, she must have been trained in the basic usage.

Mizu doesn't seem done. "Mm, understood. Why didn't your...is she sister, or twin? Well, anyway, how come only you knew how to seal the Vertex? Did you just toss your family into the fray without any training whatsoever? Heck, why was wheelchair girl – sorry, don't know your name – even there? She's disabled." Fū freezes, any cheer leaving her in a heartbeat. Yuna follows.

"...snrk." Did Mizu just…?

Well, triple crit on Fu. As I said, Fū's the 'Mami' of the group, mostly because of a guilt complex about dragging her friends, and especially her sister into the fight. And hitting Togo for her disability at the same time?

"Have any popcorn in storage 'Diche?" This is going to be hilarious. Regrettably no, Sir.

"Hey, calm down there." Daze interrupts. "Did you forget? Big, menacing organization pulling the strings behind everything? Heck, when your club's name is the Hero Club something is bound to go down."

For fucks sake, why must you ruin every plan?

…

Because you're Daze, right. I spin a telepathy net into existence with a slip of mana, impressing the purpose onto the magical energy in a vaguely mnemonic way, calling on my memory of the last mental network rather than running through the equation again. Variables should be roughly the same.

It stutters, but works, "Daze. Can it with the mentions of the Taisha, that's dangerously close to screwing up my deal with them and we need to at least acclimate before declaring war on the only ones with access to the Shinju." I wouldn't mind taking on the Shinju if it comes to it, but we are nowhere near the level required to try that.

"Oh really? Fuck." Wonders never cease, he can listen to reason. Er, she can listen to reason.

"And I claim that's silly." Mizu interjects, and oh my Lady Maeve she got the hint. Clefairy is on board and countering Daze's point, "Life isn't a conspiracy novel, Nanoha, even when you add magic to the mix."

"Hey! How many people can walk in the Hero Club? Three! How many people in the Hero Club in total? Four! Three times four equals twelve and how many blonds are there? Two! Twelve divided by two equals six! How many people just walked in? Three! Three six's." Daze throws her hands up in the air as I rest my face in the palms of my hands. That, that isn't even the real number of the devil. She's crazy and an idiot. "Illuminati confirmed!"

I take back every nice thing I ever said about Daze. It will be quick, there aren't many such things.

A car has arrived outside the school, containing two adult humans, Sir.

"Oh thank Mab, the car is here. Time to go, nice meeting you all, kinda, not really, bye bye!" I grab each of my two cohorts by their arms and drag them from the room before they can offend anyone else. Which is weird, I'm usually the offensive one in a group.

"Remind me to crack open the personal settings menu when we have some down time, being called Sir feels weird."

Noted.

 

[Nero200]

Chapter 3 – Nero POV​

"Well. This is a fuck up of a situation." I flick my hair out of my eyes with one hand, leaning back on the other arm as I catch the other two neo-girls eyes.

The house seems fine, if almost painfully Japanese in style. I'm going to need to buy a couch.

"I'm going to go claim a room as mine before using the bathroom." Daze declares, walking off. "I seriously need a nap."

Why did it have to be Daze? I don't remember getting any bonus worth that level of difficulty modifier.

"Why do you need a nap?" Mizu blinks, looking after Daze as she wanders down a hallway. "I'm not tired. Which is weird, considering we got done fighting big swordy twenty minutes ago, but hey. New bodies, weird stuff can happen sometimes."

"Because I just flew around a giant tentacle monster from the second level of the void, that's why." Daze replies bluntly, the sound of a door opening before being shut sounding through the house.

"Bardiche, any luck with finding eavesdropping devices or cameras?"

I mutter to Mizu, who is still standing. "You would think he, er, she, would cope better than us. That body is pretty close to his original age. We've lost like a decade as well as a gender." Bloody pronouns. Fuck off tumblr.

Twelve such devices detected. Updating HUD.

I blink as glowing markers appear, marking the devices positions. "As expected. Any counters? EMP seems like something Fate should have been able to do with her affinity." I wonder if my eyes are glowing.

"A decade?" Mizu frowns, counting on her fingers. "Let's see, I was twenty-one before, Reinforce said I was thirteen now, that makes it–"

I wince, pushing myself up quickly and clamping a hand over the goldfish's mouth. "Spy devices. Twelve of them in the house." Spinning the mental link into existence was getting easier with each cast, but I still hand it off to Bardiche after creating it.

Yes. I… am unsure that you will be able to use it though. Apologies Sir.

...That pretty much means it's an equation heavy bastard of a spell, doesn't it?

Mizu blinks, looking at me, then peels my hand off her mouth and glances down the hallway. "I can't help but think this revelation comes at a bad time for one of us. Although I'm somewhat curious whether they set up camera in the bathroom."

"Oi, Fate." Daze calls through the mental chat, Bardiche adding the final member of our trio to the 'call' when he detects the incoming mind link. "Raising Heart just picked up a spell from you. What's up with that?"

"Camera!" Mizu chirps back before I can reply. "It's a search for camera, apparently! And microphone, and possibly some sort of normal phone if they can get them that tiny and want to talk to us while they spy on us. I dunno, spies are weird by default."

"Of course." Daze sighs. "Give me a sec…. Ah, here we go. One in the lamp and one in the door. Perverts."

I let my new body fall back onto the carpeted floor, pulling the EMP spell to the front of my mind. "Bardiche is showing me an EMP spell, but balancing the power flow with the range is going to be a bitch… Oh for fuck's sake, why is the targeting a variable? Gah." This magic system is a pain in the, wait, could I use that for jamming phones with an area? Target the air instead, increase interference...

"I've never done spells manually before, Reinforce has handled it so far. Which is good, as again, big swordy found me like five minutes after waking and if I was a newbie then I'd be squished flat." Mizu snaps my train of thought back from spell theory with a comment that makes me want to punch my newly female friend. "What's it like?"

Reinforce casts for him, her, fuck it. Reinforce is a unison Device, of course she does. Lucky fucker. That means Mizu is getting an insane amount of AI assist, in addition to a spell library to dwarf mine and Daze's put together.

"An absolute pain in the arse, because nearly all of my spell library has been designed for or by Fate. As in, someone who has spent the majority of a decade studying magic theory and practicing it."

"That sounds annoying, yep. Least you can get telepathy and transforming working now, though?" Mizu picks at her jacket. "I've still got no clue how to undo this. And, uh, kinda don't wanna if it means I have to lug Reinforce about in book form everywhere. Unless she can float? Or shrink to pen-size? Both?"

"I think she can float." Daze helpfully comments, before a dull thud echoed through the the house. "Don't worry, that wasn't anything important."

"Please don't destroy the house. I'm readying an EMP to wipe out the spy things." I switch my attention back to the spell, highlighting sections for Bardiche to clarify. What if I just nuked everything electrical within range? We have Devices, do we really need… anything? Wait, showers. Fuck.

"...So I just threw a camera on the floor and smashed it. Is that bad? It's probably bad isn't it?"

The fuck?

"They were big enough you could do that?"

That would be my train of thought too Mizu. I push the spell away for a moment, hopping up from the floor and over to where Bardiche had marked one of them.

"The one in the lamp was big enough and poorly fitted in. I think they might have been in a rush." There was a brief pause for a minute before she continued. "Though not rushed enough to not have enough time to screw one in the door. Go with the emp, otherwise we might have to break a few doors and walls."

"It's EMP, not emp." Mizu corrects. "Emp isn't a word."

"You literally said the exact same thing as me- oh. This is one of those 'I can't see it but it's there' jokes isn't it?"

"No, just pronounciation. You spelled it emp, as a single word, when it's meant to be placing emphasis on different letters – E, M, P."

"How did I spell it wrong this is kaiser damn telepathy! You can't misspell! There's nothing to misspell!"

I sigh at my companions, pulling a small black clip from the underside of the table. It was held on with bluetack… I expected better. Not sure why, they were hilariously incompetent in the anime, but I dunno. Maybe a time issue, like Daze said?

"Bardiche, drop the spell. Show me exactly where the ones in the wall are." Range indicators add themselves to the markers overlaying my sight as I walk towards them.

"So, are the camera visual as well as audio?" Mizu speaks up, apparently choosing to ignore Daze's complaints in favour of a topic change. "Won't wrecking them just, I dunno, get the people to replace them first time we're all out of the house for over an hour?"

"I'm going to scan every time I come back. Now, let me concentrate, I've technically never been taught how to use a scythe."

Bardiche slips free from the glove, a flicker of golden light obscuring him before I am left with a scythe in my hands, listening to the hum of the mana-blade as it is fed from my Linker. Right then, remodeling.

"Oh Kaiser you're actually tearing down walls aren't you?" Daze interrupts.

Shh Daze. "I like showers, even if figuring how to shower in this body without feeling like a lolicon is going to be difficult." Still going to ignore that for the next while.

First one is… Inside what looks like drywall, three point seven inches deep. I check with Bardiche that I'm not about to hit a support beam, before I heft the scythe up and slam the blade through the wall like it's made of cardboard.

Target eliminated.

Mm~ I like this scythe.

"That doesn't actually count as a 'no' to Nanoha's question." Mizu points out. "And speaking for myself, I'm wanting showers with walls just as much as her. Prevents water flying everywhere and making stuff damp."

"It also prevents anybody from watching you shower because you know, there's no hole in the fucking door." Daze 'helpfully' comments.

For Maeve's sake, all I did was stab the drywall. "Both of you calm down and get rid of the ones not inside the walls. I can only see two more that I'm going to need to remodel to deal with.

Mizu blinks, glances about, then looks up towards the ceiling. She hefts her staff in one hand, staring at the tip for a moment, then stabs upwards into the roof. "This is gonna take a while. And need lots of plaster to fix holes."

...There isn't even a device in the roof.

"Remodel she says." Daze grumbles. "How does stabbing holes in the wall count as remodeling? Why can't I have ended up with sane partners?"

I facepalm, hugging Bardiche because he's the only other competent thing in the building, possibly the universe.

---

Ten minutes later, after stopping Mizu from bringing the roof down on us, we are all back in the living room with the house cleared of eavesdropping devices.

"OK, so in my defence, I didn't know the roof had nothing in it. Or where the rest of the camera were." I'm hovering a couple feet off the ground, very slightly tweaking the flight spell holding me there. Mizu's sitting on the floor with her staff lying on the ground next to her, and Daze is leaning on the wall next to the door. "No one told me how to scan for stuff either. Did you tell Nanoha, actually?"

"You see, the thing is, I asked the device to activate a scanning spell." Daze responds, whacking Mizu upside the head. "You're the one with the most advanced A.I. here with a repertoire of spells, fucking. Use. It."

I lean back, toying with the gold gem that is Bardiche with one hand, the other flipping the Taishi credit card about. "Yeah, Daze has some common sense in her head. Only a little, but it's there."

"I have been!" Mizu scowls, rubbing her head where Daze hit. "Who do you think kept me alive during the sword monster battle? Not Nanoha, that's for sure!"

"If it wasn't for me acting as a distraction, you would have had to kept dodging projectiles longer!" Daze replies hotly. "I'm the one who gave you time to activate the sealing spell!"

Ignoring their fighting, that's an idea. "Reinforce, Raising Heart, any idea on how to planeshift out of here?" "Bardiche, same question, any record of how we got here?" Actually, fuck it, that's inefficient as hell.

"Link." I tap my mana, smoothing it out, then lance each of the three Devices into a mental network.

"See if you three can figure anything out while we plan what to do?" I mentally pull back from the Device's link, careful not to let the equation snap before the Devices take it over.

"I have a question. Nanoha interjects, raising her hand slightly. "Um, why do we need to plane shift out of here? I mean… There's no reason not to."

"What, the fact the people who got us this house wanna kill us doesn't count?" Mizu snarks in reply. "Admittedly, don't know why they wanna, but Alicia sure seemed to have a good guess. She also knows where we are, come to think of it, so…?"

I lean back, sighing. "This world has a pretty good chance of being unraveled into ether in about…" Hmm. A month time skip, about the same in actual story. "In about two months, and a smaller chance of the same every time one of those Vertex attack. These islands are all that are left of this world." Not like there's much to do here anyway, gaming probably took a sizable hit when every major studio went under. "Aside from the whole 'world ending' thing, I don't particularly want to be stuck on these crappy islands for the rest of my life. I have work back on… well, I guess I don't anymore, but I still have shit to do back on our Plane." I need to feed my cats.

"Wait if the apocalypse is in two months why would you be stuck here for the rest of our life?" Daze replies, scratching her head. "I highly doubt we'd be here forever… 'Cause that'd just be boring."

Does he ever listen? She, ever listen? "I said aside from that, you dunce."

"Hah!" Mizu grins at Daze. "For once I'm not the silly one! Ooh, ooh, my question
– what is...ummm…uhh–"

"Bullshit!" Nanoha yells back, interrupting Mizu before she has time to ask. "Alright, that touched a nerve. Nero where the hell are we and why is the world ending?!"

"Might it be monsters like sword thingy?" Mizu guesses. "We battled it in some area quite differently to the cityscape here, after all, and it's possible such a thing is common. Actually, going by Fu and her friends having the name 'Vertex' for it and knowing how to combat the creature it seems rather common. Like a bunch of soldiers fighting an army, except secret!"

Going to answer Daze first, so I nod to the Nanoha-ian. "We currently reside in the anime known as 'Yuki Yuna is a Hero', YuYu for short." I twirl the gold triangle between my fingers, idly noting that dexterity isn't going to be an issue. "It's kind of known as the Madoka of Madokas. Starts happy, goes dark as fuck, then ends on a positive note."

"...I think I've heard of it, there was a quest in SV that caught my attention, mostly because the QM used YuYu as the acronym for Yuki Yuna." Daze replied. "From the little I managed to pick up, sacrifices are involved, one of the girls goes batshit insane, they, and by this I mean the hero club, managed to get evil cult plus gods to go 'Oh shit they're pissed', and one of the girls is a former hero right?"

Damn she can ramble. "Togo, the 'cripple', as Mizu put it. Goes batshit crazy after she figures out that they are immortal and tries to let the Vertex win so they don't have to keep sacrificing pieces of their bodies to pull off super mode to fight the things." Running a hand through my hair, I turn to Mizu. "The soldiers are those girls we saw. There's another one that the Taishi will be sending down in a few weeks, Karin." Might actually have to grab her for combat training because I have no idea how to wield a polearm.

"Ah, I see." Mizu nods in understanding, before frowning. "You said this is similar to Madoka, somewhat, and the big infodump Nanoha just gave gives some insight into the plot. Are we sure things shall be the same as canon now, though? We are an OCP, after all, and if some elements of the story depended on random chance there's basically no guarantee that'll happen the same as it did in the fictional media. Oh, and are the girls lich?"

"...No, they are not lichs." Somehow it doesn't surprise me that Mizu chose to focus on that.

"Why not? You said they're immortal, and compared it to Madoka. Admittedly, Madoka had the Soul Gem things the magical girls kept their souls in, and we don't know of anything similar here yet, but…"

"Think of them like Shrine Maidens of a certain kind." Daze explained, waving her hands around in the air. "That sacrifice things to the uh, Shin- fuck it, Divine Tree-sama and gain power in reply."

"'Things' being…?"

Well, that little bit coming out eliminates a few of the shadier plans flickering through my mind. "Body parts. Or senses. Taken after activating a supermode of sorts in payment to the Tree."

"What a sucky supermode." Mizu comments, frowning at the information. "How's it compare to that one Nanoha had? The one where Device were guns or something? Beyond the whole 'does not lose a sense upon using' thing, that is."

"Cartridges can be deadly if used too much in a short amount of time." Daze remarks. "Though let's face it, those things are basically magical energy battery packs on steroids."

"Bardiche?" I poke him mentally, trying not to mess with the mental network between our Devices.

Potentially, but I wouldn't allow it to harm you, Sir.

I feel a surge of affection for the Device. "Thanks."

"I was moreso meaning in the sense of 'is it stronger or equal in power', actually." Mizu clarifies. "I mean, presumably there would be a reason they'd go super, and I'm curious as to whether we would stand a chance against anything that caused them to do so. Actually, we don't have cartridge anyway so this comparison doesn't matter, right?"

Why would..? "We have Cartridges Mizu. I had Bardiche lock mine down for now, but they are definitely there." The sheer power packed into that one I set off by accident… Strong stuff.

"Wait we have Cartridges?!" Daze yells, before pulling out the red orb that is Raising Heart and giving it a scandalized look. "Why the fuck didn't you tell me?!"

"Did you ask?" Mizu grins at Daze. "I mean, that's the reason I didn't know. Plus, uh, dunno if Reinforce actually has Cartridge due to being a spear-book instead of your staff-cannon-marble and Alicia's lightning-scythe-triangle. I mean, I don't think Reinforce ever used it in the battle against sword-thing…"

"Fair point, I know the wolfgang had them, but Rein herself I'm not sure of, at least for canon."

Not that we seem to be dealing with canon here, since Mizu should either be crippled, or Reinforce dead.

"So...what now?" Mizu fiddles with Reinforce, lifting the staff off her lap and looking it over. "We kinda got sidetracked a lot, and I've completely forgotten what we were talking about originally. Something about spying device? Heck, what are we going to do for other things, like ID? Did you get us that in the deal, Alicia?"

...No I did not. On the other hand~ "We have magic powers, unlimited cash, and the ability to fly. What else do we need, other than a way off these rocks?" I smirk to Mizu. "And maybe some way of keeping Daze's schooling going~" I'm mostly joking.

"Right, yes school. Of which only one of us really needs to attend education-wise." Mizu looks at Daze pointedly. "By the by, anyone know what season it is? Isn't snowy and cold, nor are plants brown everywhere, and I can't just go ahead and announce it summer due to the Oz version being kinda~ different to the norm in most countries. What with Summer generally having a nickname of 'why is everything burning' and all."

"Seems like summer? Didn't see anyone wearing overcoats or the like. Though this is a false world powered by a dying god, so…" I trail off, trying to figure out how that would work.

Only to be jogged out of my musings by Mizu clapping her hands together a few seconds later. "Ah, now I remember! My question! Why can't we just use that alternate-dimension ability Nanoha mage can use whenever we need to talk about something secret? And for training? Allows us to blow stuff up and not wreck half the city by accident, right?"

"The phase shift thing?" Huh. Possible, but I don't like my chances on managing that equation. And, "Could be an issue with screwing around with alt-dimensional magics when this one is paper thin to start with. We do have mind to mind communications we can use, and access to.. Whatever that thing Nanoha uses in canon is called."

"We're gonna need to mess about with that sort of magic to go somewhere besides here anyway, though?" She points out. "And if it'd end up causing issues with this area we're in now, we could just wander outside it and cast the spell – pretty sure Reinforce could do it in a few seconds…"

"Actually… Can Rein use it? She didn't tend to in canon, but I'm not sure if that was a choice vs the virus meaning she couldn't." I mentally peek at the link between the Devices, watching the equation.

Sir?

"Any chance we can use one of the dimensional zones? I think they are usually for keeping magic out of-"

I cut off as a monster of an equation is brought up. There is no way in hell I can cast that. Not even close. How in the name of Maeve's ever perky tits did the ferret manage that thing? Without a device?

"Thanks anyway Bardiche."

"So?" Mizu presses, leaning towards me as she does. "Going by your expression you figured out something. Possibly something bad. Can we cast the barrier after all? Keep in mind it doesn't have to be just you, it could be–" She glances at Daze. "Wait, no, just you or me. Daze wouldn't know math enough."

"Fuck off Mi." The neogirl retorts, with a light fist to the goldfish's face. "And it can't be that baaaaaaaaa- OH SAINT KAISER OLIVIE ROUND ASS, JESUS CHRIST, I DON'T CARE WHO HEARS ME JUST GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD IT HURTS!"

…

I turn back to Mizu from Daze. "As Daze and I assume Raising Heart just demonstrated, the spell is a monster of an equation. As in..." I run some quick numbers in my head. "About fifteen times worse than the EMP, and that's not counting the fact that there is less locked-in factors." Huh. That was easy to calc.

"Ah, so it's tricky for people." Mizu nods. "Just let me do it then. Reinforce can probably handle it, and I doubt that petrify-spell she used earlier was light on the numbers either. What, it'd rapidly age the targeted area to the point it fossilizes?" Broken as fuck AI-assist.

"I think I have a headache." Daze moans, clutching her head on front of her. "Does anyone mind if I retire to my room?"

I sigh, before pausing. "You already picked a room?"

"Yeah, one of the first things I said I'd do when I came here. Have Bardiche do a playback or something because fuck this shit I'm out."

I swore I could hear her humming some type of song as she left the room clutching her head.

Brat.

---

AN: We're back. My colleagues will be by shortly with their pieces, we are trying a new style to avoid repeating ourselves.

 

[Mizu]

Chapter 3 – Mizu POV​

Alicia seemed to have some trouble with her spells. Admittedly, if I was doing them manually as well I'd be in the same boat, due to barely passing middling-level math in secondary, but I'm not and thus the issue is nonexistent. Shame even with Reinforce we couldn't get the phasing spell to work, but the Tree's world seems too fragile to anchor it to.

Wonder if all magical effects are spells, like the barrier jacket outfits they get, or the flashy transformation scene with lights and sound and going nude for a split–

"Alicia! Where would a video camera be?" I yell, wandering the area looking for her. "I wanna record something and don't think I could do it with Reinforce in this case. Presuming she can record stuff. And possibly play back video as well. Hey, Reinforce, can you act as a TV?"

TV?

Yeah, TV. You know, device which displays images frame-by-frame in millisecond or less intervals, tricking the mind into thinking it's a moving picture, commonly obtaining the data for said images from radio waves? Also storage media in the form of CD, DVD, VHS and USB flash drives.

...Do I need to cover what those are too?

Ah, you mean visual recording and playback. I am perfectly capable of capturing and storing information from a variety of different data sources; not just radio waves and electronic storage devices, but also physical sensations such as heat, light, sound, pressure differentials-

crackle-BOOM

I blink, interrupted in my chat with Reinforce, glancing over in the direction of the noise and what turned out to be Alicia standing with a glowing arm between her and a new crater that stinks of ozone. "Bloody hell, this is the basic shoot spell… Bardiche, relock, and pull the footage again."

"Ah, there you are Alicia. What ya doing, and why are you allowed to poke holes in stuff but tell me off for the same?"

Can you do X-Rays? Uh, think it stood for...X-radiation, probably?

Barring the strange magic we encountered earlier today, I am familiar with all known energy sources, Master. Why do you ask?

"Because I'm outside the house."

That would explain the fact I'm looking at her through a hole, actually.

"Well, why you shooting holes in the house from outside the house, then? As again, I got in trouble for doing the same when spy-machine hunting in the roof." Except stabbing, not shooting.

Alicia facepalms. "I really do feel sorry for Reinforce. Mizu, does this look like the house?"
She gestures to the brick wall I am looking at her through.

"...Yes?" I look about, and notice a distinct lack of walls beyond the one I'm facing. Also, that's a tree to my right, and come to think of it that's wind I'm feeling. "How'd I get here? Could've sworn I was inside." This looks more like a construction site.

"..."

"Ouch! There's no need for violence…"

She lowers Bardiche from bopping position. "In this case, yes, yes there was. Clefairy."

But those are pink? Eh. "Anyway, what ya doing? I came hunting to quiz ya on something Reinforce can do, but she answered me on the way, so that's kinda irrelevant now."

Wanna scan Alicia and Nanoha, see what they look like. Can you do it?

"Trying to get Photon Lancer working so I have attack options that don't need me in melee range. Bardiche can handle it, but I need to start somewhere. Nearly have it, but getting the targeting to work after the spheres are stable is difficult." She gestures to the various scorch marks.

"If they go boom after you shoot them off, haven't you achieved what you're after though?" I tilt my head. "Or do they only explode when you punch stuff thus far? And wasn't magic non-damaging on..." Oh wait, concrete. Not living. "Never mind."

"Fate could control them after firing, and set them to track targets to an extent. I'm having issues doing better than straight firing lines." She tilts her head. "Also, I'm not sure about the non-damaging aspects, I am having to shield from my screw ups." She flicks her glowing arm, the gold light fading.

"Didn't seem to bother me when it exploded," I reflect, looking down at myself as I do, "Although that could be from a combo of range and still being sync'd with Reinforce. How do I customize barrier jackets?" I want pants.

"Shouldn't you be asking Reinforce that? Bardiche opened the editor for me when I asked, but I'm leaving that mostly alone until I can have a proper look at the logic behind the presets."

Reinforce?

Ready to scan anytime, Master.

Uh, meant the jacket config screen. We'll do that later, when I'm out of whacking range.

Instead of replying again, I get a rectangle springing into existence in front of my face, a little cartoon picture of me slowly rotating inside it. To the left are colour dials, while the right has an outline of the basic human shape with clothing pieces arrayed inside the arms, legs, chest and so on.

"Ooh, it's all holographic!" I remark, dragging my right arm free, and subsequently losing a shoulder's worth of jacket both in the diagram and reality. "Also realtime. What'd you do with yours?"

Alicia grins, before flipping her skirt up. "I added shorts, a la Misaka."

I wanna leave the jacket as-is, the white and blue looks neat. The dress needs to turn into a vest and shorts, so I need to remove the golden things on the bottom-bit of the dress like so, double-tap on the dress to go into more detail and–

Why's it got breezy all of a sudden?

"Err, Mi? You might want to hit undo." Alicia is covering her eyes with one hand, looking up into the air. I just stare in confusion for a second, looking at her, then down at myself, before making a little "ah" of comprehension.

"Oh, now I see. Double-tapping removes, not expands detail. How'd you make shorts then?"

Alicia uncovers her eyes, before blinking. "Why haven't you re-equipped your clothes yet, can I ask?"

"You can?" Don't see why one couldn't ask such a question. "And it's only undies. You've got them too, after all, and it's not like they're gonna vanish accidentally while I–" Wait, this happened with the dress thing already. Hm. "OK, it's unlikely I'll remove those too. Probably. They're a section lower in the diagram, and oh wow it expands into undergarments when you've removed a layer!"

"Huh, that's a little different to mine, it didn't edit live. UI differences I guess. I just asked Bardiche to add shorts, I think one of the other presets had them."

Oh yeah, AI are a thing alongside the diagram. Reinforce?

Versions of this outfit created or customized by previous Master are available in storage. An icon highlights, flashing gently. Be aware that while a single tap expands the menu and double-tapping removes individual items, a single tap here-

I click the button, and the breeziness intensifies.

-removes them all, Master.

"Oh for Mabs… Reinforce, put some bloody clothes on her, please?"

The world flashes, blue light obscuring my eyes, and when it ends I'm back in the clothing I started with, several hours and minus one book ago. Except not, as she's in my hands now. Reinforce has a gender despite being an AI, right? I think they would. Probably.

"Should I stick with normal clothes, you think?" Also, drat. Forgot to record the TF.

"If the alternative is you standing around naked in public, then yes. Just edit the Jacket while in normal mode." She pauses, looking at the book, "Actually, Reinforce.." She hesitates a moment. "Would you mind copying the Knights Armour and Clothes spells to Bardiche, with the saved designs?"

Why? Oh hey, Alicia's reacting. Reinforce must've said that to her too.

"Knights armour? Why've you got knight outfits in ya, Reinforce?"

Alicia winces. "Reinforce can explain better, but Hayate had a… personal guard of sorts that came with the Book."

The Wolkenritter.

The blonde addresses Reinforce, Bardiche flickering back into a gem for her to toy with. "Yeah. I'm asking for the spell so I can compare it to the Barrier Jacket, to try and understand it. The designs so I have bases to work off, but if you don't want to, that's completely understandable Reinforce."

...You mean my TF outfit isn't a Barrier Jacket? And I can get wolf familiar in a set?

They were people, Master, not wolves. Reinforce corrects, fondness mixed with longing in her voice. Friends, companions, I had known them for many, many years before we parted. If there had been a way, any way, to retain their company without hurting my previous Master, I would have taken it.

Ah. So good friends, then.

Alicia nods awkwardly, starting to say something before cutting herself off. "Sorry for your loss Reinforce."

There was no other choice. I have made my peace with it. And now it's my turn to feel awkward. Wonder what the previous Master was like; more skilled? More confident? Knew Reinforce for more than six hours at most?

Bardiche flips in Alicia's hands as she visibly stops herself talking.

I will transfer the code for the spells themselves, but no more. The book flashes, the golden clasp on the cover glowing for a second, before Bardiche's triangle does the same.

"Knights Garb, Knights Armor, Saved." "Thanks Reinforce, that's more than fair."

Uwwah, the mood's still so awkward and somber. Quick, quick, what can I do to change it...Oh! Reinforce, do it now!

The clasp flashes again, startling Alicia out of her gloom, and I grin at a success in two parts. Scan recorded. Full body analysis is available when desired, Master.

The only still-transformed magical girl steps back on what seems like instinct, the glow engulfing her arm again, Bardiche flicking to "Scythe Mode".

"...what?" Red eyes narrow.

"What do you mean, what?" Seems there's a valid reason so many monsters have red eyes; they're quite intimidating trained on you! "Gonna need to be more specific there, Alicia."

"Full body scan? Why?" She looks more confused than angry, or at least isn't trying to put the scythe to use quite yet. This may change on my next few words.

"Now, don't get mad, but Nanoha said something kinda confusing when I first met her and since you showed up too I just wanted to confirm. To quote, her exact words were," Play the recording, Reinforce, "'get the fucker sealed or it won't be the only thing having my hot, throbbing pink thing inside of it!!!'".

Alicia blinks, before slowly facepalming.

 

[Nero200]

Chapter 3 (Bonus) - Nero POV
​

The sun had set by the time I headed back to the house with some basic necessities.
And a few luxuries, because it isn't my money I'm spending.

It's… irritating, that I still lack the ability to cast the vast majority of Fate's arsenal.

Thunder Arm is the easiest, the set equation basically functions as an on/off switch with a power draw.

Photon Lancer is mostly available, through the tracking is a little weak since I am having trouble managing to handle the equations that allow reactive tracking. But as a blaster spell, it works. Plasma Lancer will have to wait until I master the 'session one' abilities. At least Thunder Bullet seems to be mostly working, probably because it uses conversion as a main component.

Defenser can be cast by Bardiche near instantly, and I can summon it fairly easily since it is mostly a fixed spell. Holding it can be difficult, but that seems to be more of an experience thing. Image Training will fix that, and again Bardiche can handle it.

Telekinesis is nearly as much as a pain as flight, my preconceptions screwing up what should be a mostly raw force ability, similar to telepathy.

Annnd…. I'm distracting myself again.

I shake my head, closing down the tabs holding the spell formula.

Going to have to see what I have to work with sometime, "Bardiche, pull up Fate's physical statistics, give me a run down on anything I should be concerned about."

Flicking through the new 'screen' as I turn to the mirror, I come to a few quick conclusions. Firstly, while I'm obviously weaker than I was, Fate took way better care of herself. Healthier, better exercise, better habits altogether. Perfect eyesight as I had thought, decent muscle mass, reflexes are a fair bit better than I'm used to and flexibility is a hell of a lot higher, but that might just be due to age rather than lifestyle. Dexterity is higher too, though I'm not sure how much of that is muscle memory I am accessing.

In a way, I suppose it's time to put my money where my mouth is, I did always moan that if I could have my body set back to a decent condition that I would be able to maintain that. Just never had the motivation to actually go and set it to that point myself.

More concerning is the mental… I don't want to say alterations. It feels more like an expansion. I am reasonably sure I wouldn't have been capable of holding these equations in my mind and modifying the variables on the fly a day ago. Given training, yes, but not this fast.

Best way I can think to describe it is more RAM, or maybe even a better processor.
My stream of consciousness was continuous from my death to waking up piloting this body, but who's to say once I sleep the old patterns won't revert to Fate? No, wait, if I'm experiencing boosted mental power, then I'm probably using the hardware? Or is that just the result of being mind-linked to Bardiche?

Gah, it's a headache waiting to happen, so I drop the train of thought and shift my attention back to the medical report.

…

"Bardiche, why is this report saying…"

Sir?

I turn, putting my back to the mirror and tugging the shirt up.

Scars. Precia.

My tone is calm as I let the shirt fall. "Roughly three-to-four years old?"

...Yes Sir.

I let the air in Fa- My- Fate's.. I let the air out of the body's lungs and pull another breath in. The mirror shatters in a burst of yellow gold, Thunder Arm fading as I look into the shards, balled fist pressed to the empty frame.

Huh. Haven't had a reaction like that since I broke Jordan's nose when he told me he threw a cat on a bonfire.

With a mental push, I drop the anger, smoothing over the edges of my mind. Nothing I can do about it and Precia died alone as a result of what she did.

Moving on before I decide to start testing the effects of emotions on spells, what else is a 'need to check' right now?

Could be interesting to see if my sexual preferences switched, but that immediately sparks the same reaction that thinking of showering does. The body is both way too young, and is possibly only a loan. Hopefully exposure is going to burn that reaction out quickly if I'm going to be keeping it.

Only other immediately pressing thing is…

Ah.

"Bardiche, we need to have a talk. About who I am, who I was.. and who I'm not."

​