AN: This is a Story I started roughly... a year ago in January, only just now thought to bring...
Seraph of Blades (Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha)
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Conception I
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- United States, Texas
AN: This is a Story I started roughly... a year ago in January, only just now thought to bring it over here after talking with a... friend.
The basic premise of this story started as a 'Nanoha uses a close-combat weapon instead of her normal stave'. It has since that year ago grown tremendously to something that I didn't expect it to... not that I actually have gotten there yet, but I digress. I'll likely be posting a 'new' chapter here every weekend, maybe shorter if I have time and energy to do so.
Also, don't worry about offending me by criticizing Seraph, so long as it is the constructive sort, if it just criticizes me or Seraph for no reason other than to do it, I'll ignore it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha nor any of the various seasons made after the original.
It was always cold and dark when Nanoha awoke. Though given where she woke up and the time she did, never later than three in the morning, it was expected really. Still she dragged herself from her bed and dressed herself in her morning attire, soon Otou-sama would collect her and they'd start their morning rituals.
Onee-sama and Onii-sama kept to themselves for the most part, never really spending time with her or Otou-sama except at dinner and breakfast, or even with each other now that she thought about it. They would always be away in separate places from her and Otou-sama when the entire family was home, which she could understand somewhat, Otou-sama was rather harsh in training. They probably didn't want to see their precious Imouto being hurt so badly.
Her door quietly opened with barely any noise as her clock near-silently chimed three times, with herself looking back from the single dresser to find Otou-sama standing at the door with a passive expression. He waited for her to put on the last set of bandages around her hands before she skipped over to his side with a smile, not a word spoken between them as they headed out through the home to the dojo.
They kept to the same path as they always did, her smile brightening a tiny bit when they reached the grass in-between the two 'traditional'-styled buildings before it dimmed back to a regular smile as they made their way into the dojo, she was always happier with the grass beneath her. She had no idea really why beyond it just felt nice.
Otou-sama retrieved a bokken without any words as was customary between the them, she herself following about two steps behind and grabbing one for herself without much thought behind it. Directly after, she moved to take her place in front of Otou-sama before taking her beginning form and began her routine without any prompting from him.
Her Otou-sama was better than her, he always moved so much more gracefully than her, faster, and deadlier than her. But he was her kind Otou-sama, and he would always keep her, Onee-sama and Onii-sama safe, because that was Otou-sama's duty once Okaa-sama passed. "Nanoha."
The first word of the day caught her attention, but did little to distract her from her routine, continuing to slash downwards twice, once diagonally upward and back downwards before answering her Otou-sama. "Yes Otou-sama?" Neither paused, lagged behind or speed up, perfectly in sync as they often were now, though Nanoha knew her Otou-sama could easily leave her in the dust if he wished simply from the practical experience he had.
"Your wounds from last night will likely open again when we train tonight. You will not stop until we are finished." She gave no visible sign of agreement, focused as she was on keeping her movements as perfect as humanly possible, Otou-sama wouldn't accept anything less from her after so long, even if it reopened her wounds she would continue perfectly until she was finished.
Finally after a short pause between his words and now, she quickly gave an affirmative reply of "Yes Otou-sama." before continuing on silently. They continued for the rest of an hour, whereupon she left towards her room to change out of her home clothes, a simple kendogi consisting of a white uwagi and black hakama, nothing special, and into her school uniform, another simple white robe with some black details.
She took care not to aggravate any of the fresher wounds while still going quickly enough to do her morning chores, that would make Otou-sama mad if she didn't do her chores before the next hour turned. Because of that, she rushed across the grass of the compound to her home, then through the wooden hallways to her room and entering it again and heading directly over to the dresser.
With grace that she assumed was common among her peers, she took off her home clothes and replaced them with her school uniform, neatly folding the former before placing it back on her bed to be worn later. Humming quietly to herself, she turned about, and still with the smile she'd had throughout the morning, walked out the door, and tried to recall what her chore was for the morning.
For a good minute she tried to remember what exactly she was supposed to be doing before recalling, nodding her head and walking in the opposite direction to fetch a broom, humming as she did.
Breakfast arrived roughly another two hours after her chores were done, Onee-sama and Onii-sama waking up shortly after she had finished and beginning their own morning rituals, Onee-sama cooking while Onii-sama went and practiced for a while. Breakfast was a bit livelier than the rest of the time spent at home, a bit less lively than dinner but still better than the silence that usually dominated since Okaa-sama left.
Onee-sama and Onii-sama talked with one another and occasionally with Otou-sama whenever he asked them a question while she just ate and listened to the conversation. Otou-sama was a kind man, always looking out for his children and helping them whenever possible, always helping his students whenever they were brave enough to ask him for assistance, it was always funny to see them afraid of Otou-sama.
Today's conversation wasn't that interesting, but she listened anyway since it wouldn't be a good idea to not know what the conversation was about on the off-chance that one of them asked her about whatever was being talked about. Onee-chan was talking about something she didn't fully understand, probably another attempt to 'find a hobby' as she put it. "-ry to do calligraphy. It's nice but, it's really hard…"
As always, she finished first, getting up from the table, moving her dishes to the sink and cleaning them while continuing to listen to the conversation behind her, Onii-sama was talking now, exasperated given the sigh but otherwise deadpan and blunt. "Miyuki, you should really stop trying so hard to find something you like doing in your spare time. It will come eventually, you can't expect to just try something and find you love it on top of being good at it."
"I'll be leaving now." With a single interjection, just like always, she bid goodbye to her family, the reply from Onee-sama the only thing she was given and heard as she walked out of the house, through the gate and onto the side of the road, and then heading towards the bus stop. She wasn't in any particular hurry there, as she was always early to the bus despite the distance she had to walk, Otou-sama had drilled it into her head that she should always be early and always finish correctly early.
Though in this case, like almost always, every time she would wait for the bus to arrive for a half-hour or longer, she debated with herself if she should stay a little while longer at home and do another chore before leaving or stay as she was currently doing. The latter always won as Otou-sama's teaching were always were better than her own whims.
And as usual she stopped the internal debate as the bus drove up, her smile in place as she climbed in before it brightened slightly at the call of her name before moving towards Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan at the back. The two happily welcoming her with cheer and smiles, even as several people she passed started shifting for whatever reason, people's reactions were strange most of the time, especially the ones where no sound accompanied the actions.
Few among her schoolmates wanted to be her friend… actually only two really, Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan were the only two that weren't really uncomfortable with her always smiling or her tendency to overperform when called upon… Well there was one kind of subject she wasn't good with no matter how much time she spent studying… that being languages…
Either way she enjoyed having her two friends, even if they were closer to one another than with her, they were nice, made her laugh, Arisa-chan kept her in line and Suzuka-chan managed to always keep her happy and calm, they kept her grounded like Okaa-sama once did for Otou-sama.
School went as it always did, she studied, she did her work, Arisa-chan got mad at her again for some reason and they tussled with one another, Suzuka-chan tried to get them away from one another and she hit others with a dodgeball in P.E.. That was fun, especially since she was on Suzuka's team.
The walk home went the same way as well, aside for her finding an injured ferret with a black jewel with a red ring around its neck while taking a shortcut Arisa-chan suggested. That was such a nice little path, she'd have to use it again sometime.
She had decided to take the little thing in and help it recover without any prompting from either of her friends after taking it to the veterinarian's, Otou-sama wouldn't mind it so long as she kept good care of the animal and didn't let the care of it distract her from any part of her routine.
She arrived home as the dark was setting in and Onee-sama was finishing making dinner, so she quickly made her way to her room and switched to her home clothes before making her way back and sitting across from Otou-sama.
Dinner was about as lively as breakfast, perhaps a bit more than usual considering she spoke up for once, "Otou-sama?" which despite her never talking at the table caused the conversation to pause and her family to look at her, only Onee-sama looking curious. Shortly after the pause she continued while looking at Otou-sama next to her, "I found a ferret on the way home today. It was injured and I took it to the veterinarian's office. Can I go by tomorrow afternoon to pick it up and bring it here to take care of it?"
When she finished her request, she quickly looked at the reactions, Onii-sama was looking slightly confused for some reason, Onee-sama had soft joy in her expression, and Otou-sama as always she couldn't tell. Otou-sama took a couple of seconds before nodding and returning to his food, stating as he did so, "So long as you keep with your training and studies, there is no reason you can not." Her smile brightened slightly as she bowed minutely to Otou-sama.
"Thank you Otou-sama." Other than that, nothing else out of the ordinary took place, and so they returned to normal and finished their meals at their own pace, with herself and Otou-sama finishing first and stating to clean up. Onee-sama and Onii-sama finished a few minutes after and gave their own plates to her and Otou-sama, as was the custom they shared.
It didn't take long to finish, and soon she was following Otou-sama outside towards their dojo, skipping happily at the thought of holding her blade again, even if it wasn't really the one she would be using after the year ended, it was hers for now, and it had special meaning to her.
They entered the building and her smile didn't dim the moment her feet left the grass like it had ever morning prior, immediately making her way over to the far wall, reaching up to take the sheathed sword off the wall and holding it gingerly between her fingers. It only took a moment to put it at her waist and tie the sheathe into her obi, facing around after she was done and marching to stand opposite Otou-sama, who forwent the sheathe and simply held his blade loosely at his side.
The blade Otou-sama had given her for these nightly practices was longer than most, the blade itself being roughly about 84cm long, her own would be longer, about 91cm, an odachi rather than a katana like Otou-sama and Onee-sama or a tanto like Onii-sama. Supposedly it was because she was the only actual Takamachi by blood in the family, but given she was the only one still around in her branch, and there weren't and books or scrolls on the subject, she had no idea.
Gingerly she took the sword from the sheathe, drawing it out smoothly and holding it in both hands as Otou-sama instructed her, a single breath in, a clang of metal upon one another before separating, a breath let out, a breath in, two clangs sounding, a breath out. Like always whenever this training occurred, she lost herself in the calm of their spar, letting her instincts take over for the most part as she had in the beginning since a few months prior.
She savored the calm and rings of metal with a bliss-filled smile and slightly closed eyes, before she was abruptly removed from the rapture with a single hard blow.
Her smile brightened just a miniscule amount, Otou-sama's blade sliding along her own's length, a simultaneous clack whispering through the night air as both father and daughter moved away from the other, swords moving from one-handed grasps back to the normal two as they came to a rest. Then without any given signal, they closed again and descended into the calm yet again,
She felt a wound wrench itself open, followed by another as she deflected Otou-sama's aggressive strikes with a bit of effort, a small red blotch appeared on the fabric at her right shoulder and left hip, she paid it no heed and continued with the practice. A semi-successful deflection sent her father's blade far off to the side at the cost of another slash mark etching itself into her left side, only a few centimeters above her reopened wound, but the cost was worth it as the move allowed her to make a single counterattack.
Her attack was easily deflected away, but it allowed her to take the offensive for a while, specifically only three and a half strokes before Otou-sama swung into her developing swing, and thus did the dance begin again, a dance that would last until the clocks chimed nine times.
In not quite perfect sync they brought their swords to rest, and then their swords were at their side as they bowed to one another, a bright smile on Nanoha's face while Otou-sama had a small smile on his own. Otou-sama as usual sported no cuts, either on his skin or his own kendogi, she fared only a little worse off compared to him, a total of 5 small cuts, two on her left arm, the one at the side, one larger one across her back and a vertical line etching itself from her chest to the tip of her shoulder.
"You are getting better, Nanoha. Perhaps you'll manage to beat me before you get your actual sword." She beamed under the praise and challenge Otou-sama gave her, joy coming to the forefront of her while she smashed any sense of pride she gained. Takamachi were never proud of their skills. With those words said, Otou-sama went over to a small desk littered with maintenance supplies, one which she also went to wish a skip in her step.
It was probably bad that she hardly registered the wounds at all, it didn't matter much to her though, little cuts like those would heal by the morning with nothing more than bandages and a bit of disinfectant. Her body ran on autopilot for the minute she thought and observed, cleaning the blade with oil, paper and cloth as she had countless times before, after so long it was a instinctual habit that Otou-sama approved of, one that he himself as well as Onee-sama and Onii-sama had ingrained in them.
Otou-sama had said that she would be among the youngest of their family to get her blade. She wouldn't be the youngest, that honor belonged to one of her distant ancestors who was an accomplished swordmaster at her age and had earned his blade three years before she would, though that was likely due to it being the Sengoku period.
Still, she was the first in almost a century to have earned her blade before her first decade had come to pass, and that gave her a bit of pride that almost immediately was quashed, pride had no meaning to those of the Takamachi line. That was the first rule Otou-sama had taught her, and it was reinforced each and every spar they had. Pride was for the samurai and soldiers, it was not for the bodyguards, shinobi and assassins, such was the fact of their occupation and history, Otou-sama had learned that the hard way when Okaa-sama was killed.
She continued to think until she finished her cleaning, putting away the two cloths and oil back on the desk before gently sheathing her blade, standing and making her way back to the spot on the wall that would always hold the sword, placing it back in its proper place. Before she walked out of the dojo to get cleaned up herself, she noticed that Otou-sama had already left sometime in her musings and cleaning, not that it was unexpected.
Walking out, she closed the screen to the dojo and started heading back to the house, looking from the porch to see if there was anything that needed to be addressed around the building before nodding to herself and beginning the walk back. The moment she reached the grass though, she lingered, looking up at the night sky and seeing the little stars gleaming dimly in the darkness, the moon looking rather sleepy hanging above the buildings in the distance.
She looked away after a few minutes of simply basking in the pale light and walked quietly through the house, taking the time to go to the bathroom and wash up, then mend her torn clothes to the best of her… rather poor ability. Onii-sama was much better at it then her or Onee-sama, which was rather amusing. Lastly she changed her bandages again, and as the clock chimed ten times, she made her way into her room, curled up under her few covers and promptly went to sleep.
It was a normal day, it would be one of the last normal days for a while.
*****
"Please… Help me!"
And of course, she would immediately be woken up by the strange voice from the night before, one again asking for help, only this time they were asking for her to help specifically. So immediately upon becoming awake, she threw off her covers, dressed herself in her home clothing, and rushed over to the dojo as quietly as she could so as to not disturb her finally, and quickly ran off in the direction of the voice, towards the veterinarian's office.
Shortly upon arriving in the area she heard a very high-pitched chime that hurt her ears, followed by all the color being muted to grey, except strangely herself, and the ferret that just jumped out the window after a crash… and some black… foggy… thing with antennae came rushing after it, only to hit a tree and get stuck under it. And somehow she found the ferret in her right hand, it felt strangely appropriate to just talk out loud then, "I have no idea what's going on…"
"You came for me?" …Why not have the ferret talking, after the black… thing… she was a bit numb to 'shock'. If such a thing existed, why not a talking animal? Either way, she looked down for a moment, simply stating blankly with a somewhat strained smile, "You talk." before immediately bolting out of the yard around the office and into the streets.
They ran, or she ran with the ferret in hand to be precise, and she repeated what she had first said, with the ferret explaining the situation… somewhat. "You have talent." She looked down and tilted her head in question at the last word, not really wanting to speak and waste energy that would probably be useful to keep for running. It looked up, saw the question in her expression and continued on with whatever explanation was this was.
"I came here from another world, in order to search for a certain something." … That did not help at all to understand what was going on, but she looked up to continue running and not trip herself due to a lapse of concentration. The Ferret continued talking after a pause, hopefully he would actually answer her this time. "But I'm not able to fulfill that goal with my own powers alone."
Was it… asking if she'd take a job for it? "So, I know this will be a burden on you, but I want a person with talent to help me." Yes he was… well, Takamachi never declined a job unless they were already on one. With a start, the ferret started moving in her hands, causing her to stop before it jumped to the ground, turning around on landing and facing her. "I will reward you, I'll make sure to no matter what happens!"
Her smile twitched slightly in amusement, all jobs had a reward proportional to their difficulty, and saying that he would pay her later meant she had the freedom to tell her price when this was over. That was… unexpected. The ferret must be young if he was making that mistake.
With that said, though it was a bit rushed and cryptic, which was somewhat expected given circumstances, her first job would be helping to collect some item or items for a 'magic' ferret. That would be an interesting tale to talk about after all was done regardless of what happened.
Before the ferret had a chance to continue, whatever it was that they were fleeing from somehow flew and crashed directly into the ground in front of them… it's magic, you don't question magic, you can hate it or curse it later, but you never question it. Without any warning the ferret tossed her the jewel around its neck which she caught on instinct, strangely warm and glittering a bright pink, while saying, "Hold it, close your eyes, and open your heart. Repeat after me."
She gave a nod, though quickly became confused as to why the thing hadn't gotten up and attacked them yet… maybe it was stuck like with the tree? Who knew, and now wasn't the time to dwell on such things, two voices rang out softly, one following the other within barely a few seconds between them,
"Grant me power, so that my duty may be done. Sing for the world. Darkness engulfing the deep, Light bathing the sky. Unfurl your wings and take flight. Guide this blade, wielder of Magic and Steel… Razing Heart, wake up!"
And then she was in the center of a pink beam of light that apparently was piercing the clouds above, and both the ferret and thing were shocked, or the thing was still stuck, with the ferret regaining its composure and calling out to her, "Now imagine yourself a weapon to channel your magic, and armor to protect you!" … Umm…
Well… the 'armor' was easy enough to think of, a white kimono with detached red sleeves that went to just above her hands bound together with rope, little blue flowers dotting both with wild abandon, a black hakama dotted with pink flowers and no shoes or sandals. Being without shoes or sandals was impractical, but she enjoyed being without them and frankly, magic should help out. The wand though… oh… who said she needed to make one?
With a quickness a child her age shouldn't have possessed, she half-drew her sword from its sheathe and brought her left hand holding the pulsing jewel directly next to the blade, quickly and firmly forcing the jewel into the metal. Strangely for some reason, the grey steel turned white as the last of the black-red jewel sunk in somehow, the handle turning to pink cloth over a dull gold wood from the original black on brown.
… She would never describe what happened after she inserted the jewel, only saying simply that she changed clothes from what she had been wearing to what she imagined on the spot without any warning or consent. Her eyes took a very hard gleam and her smile almost dropped to a thin line as she turned to the ferret for a moment, said animal freezing the moment he looked at her, before her smile returned after a deep breath in and out.
The thing came out of its daze and tried to pounce on her while she was breathing, but she simply side-stepped it moments before it came down to smash her, with her sword flashing out a bit faster than she was used to. What happened next was … for lack of better word, the thing imploding on itself somehow after a quick and loud shriek of pain that sent pieces of itself flying as shrapnel.
She backed away from where the creature once stood something telling her that it wouldn't die the same way a normal animal or human would, and whatever it was confirmed not only by it reforming, but also by the ferret stating as such. "It's a thought entity, created from one of the items I'm seeking. To stop it you have to seal it inside your weapon."
"How do I seal it?" Her question was asked shortly after the ferret was done explaining, the creature having reformed halfway back to what it had been before it imploded by the time she stopped speaking, her blade having moved to have the hilt by her head, blade pointing downward and edge up.
He, the ferret had sounded like a he so she would refer to him as such unless told otherwise, answered just as quickly as she asked "To use magic at higher levels you have to use spells. To get the spell to work, you need to find an incantation in your heart that resonates with you." She took her time, stilling herself and trusting her instincts to see her through as her eyes closed for the few moments it would take to find her words.
Faintly she heard the thing's roar and the lumbering gait it somehow had despite being without visible legs, her body stepping forward and sword swing out into a block against something, a whisper barely heard but not understood, as she finally found the words she was looking for.
"Ensnare and choke."
She opened her eyes and beheld the thing only a few meters ahead, the remnants of something of it fluttering down in front of her. Her blade came to rest in front of her, and from the little black and red jewel sitting only a few centimeters above the guard came several streamer-like pieces of pink light, that darted through the air towards the thing. When they reached the creature, they twisted around its form and bound it, whereupon she rushed forward with her sword nearly scraping the ground.
Vaguely she saw the roman numeral XXI appear on its forehead, but she paid it no mind, once more stating brightly, "Ensnare and choke." before adding on to it with things she knew she was probably something instinctual within the jewel she was given, "Jewel Seed, Serial 21, Seal!"
The blade came back, and she dashed forward with a speed she knew wasn't hers, slashing horizontally as she passed and hearing the creature roar in pain, then roaring again as something else tore into it. For whatever reason, it felt… 'right' to flick her blade to the side as if something was coating it before turning around to find it simply gone… leaving only something sparkling within the ruptured pavement.
She waited for the ferret to tell her what to do next, which came swiftly "That is a Jewel Seed. Touch it with Razing Heart to seal it." The name he gave for the object seemed appropriate as it did somewhat look like a seed and it glimmered like a jewel. She didn't really do anything for this part, it just… sort of happened automatically. Which was fine thing since she had no idea what she was even supposed to have done during that other than a vague 'touch it with Razing Heart'.
Once the little seed had managed to reach and be absorbed by the jewel in her sword, a machine-like monotone whispered in her ear, calmly stating 'Receipt: No. XXI.' before dying away into silence a moment before she was enveloped again in a layer of pink light. Thankfully it left her with her original clothing when it faded, as well as leaving Razing Heart in her right hand and her sword back to normal in her other, so she sheathed the latter without any further thoughts. "It's over."
It was a statement rather than a question, softly spoken yet loud enough for the ferret to hear, at which point he gave a relieved reply "Yes… all thanks to you. Thank you…", before falling to his side as what she assumed his prior injuries finally caught up. She crouched down to make sure he was alright before she heard sirens starting up… and immediately came to the conclusion that it was time to leave, and leave quickly.
So, after gently picking up the ferret, she bolted from the area, her smile turning smaller and somewhat sheepish as she left when she noticed the damage caused by the creature… and herself… not stopping until the sirens had dulled to almost nothing. She did not want to be thrown in jail for a misunderstanding… somewhat of a misunderstanding, Otou-sama would kill her if she was caught after this, especially since it wasn't even her fault. … Mostly.
She and the ferret found themselves in the middle of the woods in some park by the time the sirens faded away, which one she had no idea since they all looked the same to her, herself only now noticing where they were and letting her smile turn gentle at the sight of so many trees and grass. "I'm sorry." She blinked twice before looking down at the little ferret and giving him a smile as she continued walking through the forest, getting lost somehow wasn't possible for her when it came to forests, so she was free to wander for however long she liked while they talked.
"Did you have a nice nap little ferret? Are you still hurt?" Her first question was answered with a simple nod, while the second was answered by with a simple 'I'm not' and shaking off the bandages to reveal he was physically fine… That ability or 'spell' would be quite nice to have considering how much she tended to get hurt with Otou-sama in practice, she'd have to remember to ask him about it when it came time for payment.
It was probably time to introduce herself to him, given that he was technically her employer since she had accepted his request for help and he promised her payment. That wasn't even mentioning the fact that she was taking him home now in the off-chance there was another thing that went after him, it wouldn't do to get contracted only for the employer to die. "I'm Takamachi Nanoha, my services are yours until the contract is done."
The little ferret blinked once, then twice before shaking his head lightly, probably to clear his head or similar, his response being a simple introduction of "I am Yuuno Scrya." Afterwards he bowed his head and once more gave an apology of "I'm sorry for dragging you into this.", at which point she held him up to look her in the face before tapping him on the forehead and letting out a little laugh.
She didn't give that last part any verbal response, not when she was full of happiness for getting her first job already, simply continuing to wander until she felt it was long enough for them to safely return home. Casually she walked through the dark woods until finally reaching the compound, passing through the gate and entering the lightless home without hesitation, then finally making her way through the three corridors needed back to her room.
Entering the dark room that she called her own, she immediately shed her clothing except for the bandages set around pretty much all of her body besides her forearms, lower legs, and neck before changing into some basic white nightwear. After she was finished, she sat on the edge of her bed, watching as Scrya-san ran around the room trying to find somewhere to sleep himself, before she went back under the covers and let herself sleep for the second time tonight.
*****
Otou-sama said nothing about Scrya-san when he came to collect her the next morning and saw him lying on top of her dresser, even when the latter woke up at the sound of her dressing and saw a few of her scars. Scrya-san hadn't said anything about them, though had look… 'disturbed' by them, even though he likely should have seen them last night, but he'd come along to watch morning training with Otou-sama.
The training started as it always did, with her and Otou-sama each grabbing a bokken and starting at rest before moving on into their routine, Otou-sama following her for once which was somewhat strange compared to their usual, but she paid it no mind, it was just a distraction from her practice.
And then her Otou-sama spoke and she almost stumbled once the words registered, key being almost since she caught herself and kept going, "Was your excursion last night fruitful, Nanoha?"
She said nothing for a moment, thinking over the question before deciding to reply honestly. It was better to confess if Otou-sama knew something, it was less trouble for her and she likely would get some useful piece of advice out of it, Otou-sama had a lot of advice to give from his many jobs. "It was Otou-sama, I retrieved Scrya and killed the creature that wounded him. It looked like a big fox."
Otou-sama simply nodded once as Scrya-san looked over at her strangely, she paid the magic ferret no heed for the moment, she needed her full attention to deal with Otou-sama. Speaking of… she just now noticed something out of place as she looked past Otou-sama, or rather missing from the wall. "I forgot to put it back since I was so tired…"
Once more Otou-sama simply nodded his head, though a small smile was adorning his face as she came to the realization, himself stopping his routine to look over at her as his smile faded back to a thin line, "Are you certain that was the only reason you took the sword?"
At this point she stopped her own set and turned to stare at her Otou-sama, bowing lightly before straightening to her full, very unimposing height, taking a light breath and stating simply, "You told me to never be outside in the dark without a weapon of some kind to protect myself Otou-sama. I just followed your advice and it saved Scrya and myself from the fox."
He gave a light laugh for some reason, something which unnerved her a bit before he clarified the reason for his laughter with a blank voice, "If I didn't know your tells, I wouldn't know better that you were hiding something from me…" For a few moments Otou-sama was silent, which gave her small amount of time to lessen her smile somewhat as she tried to think about what 'tells' she had… She'd need to fix that.
Otou-sama finished his impromptu silence without any actual reaction gracing him, instead simply continuing exactly where he left off. "Very well, I will not pry and should whatever it is need you to take your temporary weapon with you, you have my blessing to take it, so long as you don't get caught."
Her smile grew a tad bit brighter before she ran and hugged her Otou-sama tightly, something he didn't reciprocate, before backing off and putting her practice sword away in its spot. She ran out with a spring in her step, followed shortly by a frantic Scrya-san outside, across the yard with a happy smile and into the house again, through the hallways again and back into her room.
She quickly and efficiently changed out of her current clothing and took a swift shower then put on her school uniform, set her hair into a single side ponytail before putting on new bandages. Upon becoming done with those morning rituals, she moved out of her room to begin her chores with gusto normally absent from her, followed faithfully by the still-frantic Scrya-san trying to keep up.
Scrya-san was very tired by the end of those chores, having run himself ragged trying to keep up., it was slightly amusing, and she didn't keep it out of her smile and she picked him up and headed over to the breakfast table. It took a while for everyone else to arrive, but she spent that time content to bask in her current mood.
Onee-sama was the first to arrive, immediately walking over and commenting on Scrya-san the moment she saw him after arriving, gently picking him up and holding him out to look at him, uncaring for any discomfort she was unintentionally causing. "He's quite cute, Kaa-sama would have loved to hold him. Even if she accidently was too rough." After a little bit longer of holding Scrya-san, Onee-sama put him down on the table, before walking over to the kitchen and started cooking, without anything else said or done.
Otou-sama and Onii-sama both didn't react at all to Scrya-san's presence when they walked in and took their seat, though Onii-sama did look between her still her happy mood and Scrya-san still dazed from Onee-sama for a moment before simply shaking his head. Onii-sama took a moment to look her in the eye and catch her attention before stating, "Nanoha, please make sure to keep your 'ward' well-treated. It would look bad on you to promise to take care of something, only to fail in taking care of it."
She gave a nod of acknowledgment before turning to regard Onee-sama as she placed the meal before them with a gentle smile and took her place at Onii-sama's side. Then with the customary blessing, they began the meal, and it proceeded as normal.
Once again, she was the first one finished and after saying another goodbye, walked along to the bus, calmly listening to Scrya-san explain several things about the Jewel Seeds from the safety of her room as she waited for the bus, examining the little gem he had gifted to her last night as he did. "Jewels Seeds are ancient treasures to my people, named as a set of Lost Logia for the power they contain in them. They were just magic stones at one point, capable of granting wishes for their owners, only in an erratic method."
"Occasionally they'll go berserk on their own, and cause damage to the environment while they search for a new user. In addition, they'll also be accidently used by a random bystander or animal that happens to find them." She didn't say anything in response to that… mostly because she was still trying to grasp how to actually send messages via 'telepathy'. Unsurprisingly the thing was rather hard, especially since the ferret had forgotten to tell her how.
"… I'm sorry for involving you Nanoha. As soon as I get strong enough, I'll return to hunting the rest of the twenty-one and leave you alone." It was a bit… annoying to have him apologize for getting her involved and then try and leave her after she had accepted the contract, well that wouldn't happen. A Takamachi had never failed a job yet in the six centuries they had existed, and she wouldn't be the first because of her employer simply up and leaving to continue on his own.
Thankfully, she thought she could reliably use the 'telepathy' that Scrya-san was using to talk to her, which she immediately tried to cut him off from making another apology, and apparently succeeded in doing if him cutting himself off was an indication. "I won't allow that. The contract is set and until it is fulfilled I will not leave you alone in your task. I won't tarnish our reputation simply because you walked away before the job was finished, Scrya-san."
He didn't give a response to that for a long while, and so she continued on with a last sentence before quieting for a while, "And even if I'm not good right now, you can teach me to use magic as you said you would in payment." He gave a soft agreement before leaving her to her own devices, shortly before the bus proceeded to drive up, and another day of school began without any incident so far.
School went just like it did yesterday, and every other day before then, had gone, she did well in every class besides language, she and Arisa-chan tussled while Suzuka-chan tried to get them to stop unsuccessfully, and they ended school without anything noteworthy.
It took little time for her to return home given no one came this way unless they were leaving town, with her just entering the house before another high-pitched chime sounded through her head, immediately making her run through the halls yet again to her room and enter. Just as fast as she'd entered the room, she made the decision not to change to her other set of clothing in her haste and simply took her katana and Scrya-san with her.
She did wrap the sword in a random piece cloth to hopefully fool others on what it was, it wouldn't do for someone to call the police on her just because she had a sword in her hand. The result was patchwork, but it was the best she could do given the lack of time and resources she had at her disposal, hopefully it would serve her enough this one time before she found something to replace it.
Pretty much she followed Scrya-san to the site of where the Jewel Seed was located, garnering a few looks because of the long object almost her height held in her hands and seemingly chasing after a ferret through the outskirts of town, but thankfully no one saw fit to stop her. The two of them went up a long flight of stone steps leading to… she thought it was a temple… there was torii at the top so she thought it was likely that. What they found at the top of the flight of steps was something that would likely haunt her for a time, and judging by Scry-san's reaction, him as well.
There was a black, wolf-like or panther-like thing with four red eyes, two tusks, two red antler-like growths and two blue orb like growths above its eyes ripping apart a woman's corpse, its muzzle stained red and blood dripping onto the stone. The creature paused in its meal to look at them with murderous intent, growling and starting to ready itself as she untied the cloth from around her sheathe.
As soon as the cloth was off, she drew her sword from its sheathe, and dropped the sheathe to the ground, causing it to clatter against the stones and startle Scrya-san from his stupor as Razing Heart found itself in her hands. "How do I get it to work again?"
A low growl carried over from the creature, a paw moving forward and narrowly avoiding crushing the corpse into paste, its teeth bared as Scrya-san spoke as deathly calm as he could given the situation. "Say the boot up spell, starting at 'I am the one who has been given a mission'." The wolf/panther-like jewel seed began padding forward the moment he finished speaking, continuing to growl with bloody teeth bared before suddenly bolting forward with an unexpected quickness given its size…
She wouldn't have time to say the full spell like before… so she just rammed Razing Heart into her sword and called out the last line in the hope it would work. "Razing Heart, wake up!" Quickly she positioned her rapidly shifting katana in a block, instinct guiding her more than actual thought before she was sent flying by creature down the steps, skidding to a stop just as it leapt from under the torii towards her, vaguely hearing Scrya-san yell something about armor… not the priority currently.
This time she brought up her sword deliberately, watching the beast for a second before side-stepping as fast as she could out of its path, barely managing to avoid one of its claws cutting her shoulder as it passed. A pink light engulfed her for a few seconds before fading, leaving her with her 'armor' as it faded, another side-step made as it tried to jump again, this time though her blade swung out and elicited blood from it, sending it crashing down at her side before it struggled to get back to its feet.
She decided to do something rather… uncalled for as it came close to getting back to its feet, she walked up to the Jewel Seed, reared back her fist and punched it back into the ground. The action hurt far too much to be anywhere remotely effective, but it served as a distraction long enough for her to call the ribbons out again and tangle it.
"Ensnare and choke, Jewel Seed, Serial 16, Seal." Only instead of like last night, she held her blade in reverse and raised it above the creature's head, now sporting the numeral XVI on its forehead, the thing giving a half-hearted growl at its predicament a moment before she plunged the blade through it. The beast went still, then fell limp to the ground as it began to disappear and leave behind the jewel… and a corgi still impaled on her blade whimpering weakly…
Gently she took her blade out of the little thing, moving it a few centimeters to hover over its neck before plunging downwards again, ending the suffering corgi quickly and with as little pain as she could.
She flicked as much of the blood off as she could, not really reacting much beyond her smile being sad, before walking back up the steps to the cloth and scabbard left at the top of the steps next to Scrya-san. Gingerly she picked up the former and wiped the remainder of the liquid off her sword before sheathing it and covering both in the now blood-stained flower-print of white and pink.
Calmly she placed the bundle against her right shoulder and started to leave the area, Scrya-san bounding up her clothing until he reached her shoulder, it would be better not be around when someone eventually found the sight behind her. Knowing how people would overreact, they'd blame her for what happened, and trying to explain 'magic' wouldn't be… a good defense.
A sigh left her for a moment, the ferret looking at her from his place, before she simply shook her head and continued walking calmly down the stairs. A hollow-feeling smile crept into place and stayed there until she returned home, whereupon it became lively again. She'd tell Otou-sama during nightly practice about what had happened, but otherwise she would keep that event to herself, Onee-sama and Onii-sama already worried enough…
Two days later saw her learning… or rather trying to learn how to fly… she had found a second thing she was quite terrible at… Apparently, she was so terrible that Scrya-san was shocked… which made her… somewhat ashamed since it was her thirty-seventh try…
She was a bit bruised and battered, having been thrown into a few trees and been 'exploded' for lack of better word by her failures to fly, thankfully it didn't hurt as much since she had tried to make herself a bit tougher… it somewhat worked? All she did was circulate mana through her body, centered mostly in her skeleton and skin to increase their density and harden respectively, she'd really only know if it worked well when it came time to use it in a fight.
Now the reason she was learning flight… yesterday… yesterday was supposed to be a relaxing day at the pool with Arisa-chan, Suzuka-chan, Suzuka-chan's Onee-chan, Onee-sama, and Onii-sama … instead a Jewel Seed decided to show up and ruin it for them… That Jewel Seed had gained her 'anger' rather easily because of what it had been doing…
She blew up again from the lapse in concentration, Scrya-san twitching as she broke through yet another tree in her failure, needless to say she didn't like that Seed very much, especially since she couldn't hit it properly with her sword due to it being made of water… Quietly she mumbled "Stupid… perverted… Seed…" before getting back up and walking back to where Scrya-san was quietly thinking and muttering to himself. She was quickly becoming frustrated with her lack of progress, so she tried to make the spell in a slightly different manner, only to gain the result of it not happening again… "Isn't there any other spell for flight Scrya-san?"
She looked over in time to see him shake his head lightly, making her turn a little crestfallen before perking up as he clarified a moment later, "That's the Midchildan system's version of the flight spell, however I don't know any of the other systems' version of flight. Your issue with it may stem simply from Flier Fin not being compatible for you. You may have to just make your own at the rate your failing though."
She gave a nod at the last part, from what he had just said and her current failures, it would appear she would be making her own version of flight… She had a feeling this would either go extremely well or she would be hurting for the rest of the day from the result of this… no sense wasting time though.
So first she had to try and visualize what she was wanting, or at the least have a very clear thought of what she wanted as was the case in her currently unnamed defensive spell, since intent and 'wishing' was what made things happen in 'magic'. That was simple enough, just her standing on air was fine, actual flying wasn't that big of a deal to her.
Next was also simple, simply channel mana to what felt like the natural point to make the spell work, the case for this one probably being to let it pool at the soles of her feet. The third and last was to try and make it work… please let this work… and so she jumped up, and immediately felt her feet touch something the moment she should have sunk back to the ground.
Looking down saw her standing on thin air and Scrya-san looking up in shock again, only a barely noticeable ripple appearing from the lowest point of her foot signaling anything that she was standing on… something… probably mana. Her smile brightened at finally being capable of 'flight', before one of her feet failed her in standing while the other tried to compensate… Needless to say she went flying into the upper branches of one tree again.
Well… she should have considered the possibility that both options would happen as well as neither… it was too late to consider seeing as she was now stuck in a tree… The pain from her accident finally set in as she tried to climb out of the tree, a dull ache going through almost all of her body before she got out and hit the ground with a thud. She had the restraint to not let out a groan of pain, instead just getting back up and checking over herself, noticing a few areas that were slowly bruising over through the bandages.
Well, the good news was at the very least she knew how to 'fly'… even if it wasn't fine-tuned just yet, she had the time today to practice this and the other spell she wanted to make, she wasn't needed for anything today except nightly practice much later.
And so went her day, spent refining her 'flight', trying to make a spell to gather mana together in order to strengthen her strikes before moving on to practice her swordsmanship. The only time she stopped was to go eat lunch with Otou-sama, Onee-sama and Onii-sama, which was a nice, calm affair with nothing happening beyond the usual.
Four Seeds were currently sealed, another seventeen to go from what Scrya-san had said and her first job would be complete. Otou-sama would be so proud of her when she told him she had finished a job already and got a practical payment, hopefully Otou-sama would give her another smile and then praise
The basic premise of this story started as a 'Nanoha uses a close-combat weapon instead of her normal stave'. It has since that year ago grown tremendously to something that I didn't expect it to... not that I actually have gotten there yet, but I digress. I'll likely be posting a 'new' chapter here every weekend, maybe shorter if I have time and energy to do so.
Also, don't worry about offending me by criticizing Seraph, so long as it is the constructive sort, if it just criticizes me or Seraph for no reason other than to do it, I'll ignore it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha nor any of the various seasons made after the original.
*****
It was always cold and dark when Nanoha awoke. Though given where she woke up and the time she did, never later than three in the morning, it was expected really. Still she dragged herself from her bed and dressed herself in her morning attire, soon Otou-sama would collect her and they'd start their morning rituals.
Onee-sama and Onii-sama kept to themselves for the most part, never really spending time with her or Otou-sama except at dinner and breakfast, or even with each other now that she thought about it. They would always be away in separate places from her and Otou-sama when the entire family was home, which she could understand somewhat, Otou-sama was rather harsh in training. They probably didn't want to see their precious Imouto being hurt so badly.
Her door quietly opened with barely any noise as her clock near-silently chimed three times, with herself looking back from the single dresser to find Otou-sama standing at the door with a passive expression. He waited for her to put on the last set of bandages around her hands before she skipped over to his side with a smile, not a word spoken between them as they headed out through the home to the dojo.
They kept to the same path as they always did, her smile brightening a tiny bit when they reached the grass in-between the two 'traditional'-styled buildings before it dimmed back to a regular smile as they made their way into the dojo, she was always happier with the grass beneath her. She had no idea really why beyond it just felt nice.
Otou-sama retrieved a bokken without any words as was customary between the them, she herself following about two steps behind and grabbing one for herself without much thought behind it. Directly after, she moved to take her place in front of Otou-sama before taking her beginning form and began her routine without any prompting from him.
Her Otou-sama was better than her, he always moved so much more gracefully than her, faster, and deadlier than her. But he was her kind Otou-sama, and he would always keep her, Onee-sama and Onii-sama safe, because that was Otou-sama's duty once Okaa-sama passed. "Nanoha."
The first word of the day caught her attention, but did little to distract her from her routine, continuing to slash downwards twice, once diagonally upward and back downwards before answering her Otou-sama. "Yes Otou-sama?" Neither paused, lagged behind or speed up, perfectly in sync as they often were now, though Nanoha knew her Otou-sama could easily leave her in the dust if he wished simply from the practical experience he had.
"Your wounds from last night will likely open again when we train tonight. You will not stop until we are finished." She gave no visible sign of agreement, focused as she was on keeping her movements as perfect as humanly possible, Otou-sama wouldn't accept anything less from her after so long, even if it reopened her wounds she would continue perfectly until she was finished.
Finally after a short pause between his words and now, she quickly gave an affirmative reply of "Yes Otou-sama." before continuing on silently. They continued for the rest of an hour, whereupon she left towards her room to change out of her home clothes, a simple kendogi consisting of a white uwagi and black hakama, nothing special, and into her school uniform, another simple white robe with some black details.
She took care not to aggravate any of the fresher wounds while still going quickly enough to do her morning chores, that would make Otou-sama mad if she didn't do her chores before the next hour turned. Because of that, she rushed across the grass of the compound to her home, then through the wooden hallways to her room and entering it again and heading directly over to the dresser.
With grace that she assumed was common among her peers, she took off her home clothes and replaced them with her school uniform, neatly folding the former before placing it back on her bed to be worn later. Humming quietly to herself, she turned about, and still with the smile she'd had throughout the morning, walked out the door, and tried to recall what her chore was for the morning.
For a good minute she tried to remember what exactly she was supposed to be doing before recalling, nodding her head and walking in the opposite direction to fetch a broom, humming as she did.
*****
Breakfast arrived roughly another two hours after her chores were done, Onee-sama and Onii-sama waking up shortly after she had finished and beginning their own morning rituals, Onee-sama cooking while Onii-sama went and practiced for a while. Breakfast was a bit livelier than the rest of the time spent at home, a bit less lively than dinner but still better than the silence that usually dominated since Okaa-sama left.
Onee-sama and Onii-sama talked with one another and occasionally with Otou-sama whenever he asked them a question while she just ate and listened to the conversation. Otou-sama was a kind man, always looking out for his children and helping them whenever possible, always helping his students whenever they were brave enough to ask him for assistance, it was always funny to see them afraid of Otou-sama.
Today's conversation wasn't that interesting, but she listened anyway since it wouldn't be a good idea to not know what the conversation was about on the off-chance that one of them asked her about whatever was being talked about. Onee-chan was talking about something she didn't fully understand, probably another attempt to 'find a hobby' as she put it. "-ry to do calligraphy. It's nice but, it's really hard…"
As always, she finished first, getting up from the table, moving her dishes to the sink and cleaning them while continuing to listen to the conversation behind her, Onii-sama was talking now, exasperated given the sigh but otherwise deadpan and blunt. "Miyuki, you should really stop trying so hard to find something you like doing in your spare time. It will come eventually, you can't expect to just try something and find you love it on top of being good at it."
"I'll be leaving now." With a single interjection, just like always, she bid goodbye to her family, the reply from Onee-sama the only thing she was given and heard as she walked out of the house, through the gate and onto the side of the road, and then heading towards the bus stop. She wasn't in any particular hurry there, as she was always early to the bus despite the distance she had to walk, Otou-sama had drilled it into her head that she should always be early and always finish correctly early.
Though in this case, like almost always, every time she would wait for the bus to arrive for a half-hour or longer, she debated with herself if she should stay a little while longer at home and do another chore before leaving or stay as she was currently doing. The latter always won as Otou-sama's teaching were always were better than her own whims.
And as usual she stopped the internal debate as the bus drove up, her smile in place as she climbed in before it brightened slightly at the call of her name before moving towards Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan at the back. The two happily welcoming her with cheer and smiles, even as several people she passed started shifting for whatever reason, people's reactions were strange most of the time, especially the ones where no sound accompanied the actions.
Few among her schoolmates wanted to be her friend… actually only two really, Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan were the only two that weren't really uncomfortable with her always smiling or her tendency to overperform when called upon… Well there was one kind of subject she wasn't good with no matter how much time she spent studying… that being languages…
Either way she enjoyed having her two friends, even if they were closer to one another than with her, they were nice, made her laugh, Arisa-chan kept her in line and Suzuka-chan managed to always keep her happy and calm, they kept her grounded like Okaa-sama once did for Otou-sama.
*****
School went as it always did, she studied, she did her work, Arisa-chan got mad at her again for some reason and they tussled with one another, Suzuka-chan tried to get them away from one another and she hit others with a dodgeball in P.E.. That was fun, especially since she was on Suzuka's team.
The walk home went the same way as well, aside for her finding an injured ferret with a black jewel with a red ring around its neck while taking a shortcut Arisa-chan suggested. That was such a nice little path, she'd have to use it again sometime.
She had decided to take the little thing in and help it recover without any prompting from either of her friends after taking it to the veterinarian's, Otou-sama wouldn't mind it so long as she kept good care of the animal and didn't let the care of it distract her from any part of her routine.
She arrived home as the dark was setting in and Onee-sama was finishing making dinner, so she quickly made her way to her room and switched to her home clothes before making her way back and sitting across from Otou-sama.
Dinner was about as lively as breakfast, perhaps a bit more than usual considering she spoke up for once, "Otou-sama?" which despite her never talking at the table caused the conversation to pause and her family to look at her, only Onee-sama looking curious. Shortly after the pause she continued while looking at Otou-sama next to her, "I found a ferret on the way home today. It was injured and I took it to the veterinarian's office. Can I go by tomorrow afternoon to pick it up and bring it here to take care of it?"
When she finished her request, she quickly looked at the reactions, Onii-sama was looking slightly confused for some reason, Onee-sama had soft joy in her expression, and Otou-sama as always she couldn't tell. Otou-sama took a couple of seconds before nodding and returning to his food, stating as he did so, "So long as you keep with your training and studies, there is no reason you can not." Her smile brightened slightly as she bowed minutely to Otou-sama.
"Thank you Otou-sama." Other than that, nothing else out of the ordinary took place, and so they returned to normal and finished their meals at their own pace, with herself and Otou-sama finishing first and stating to clean up. Onee-sama and Onii-sama finished a few minutes after and gave their own plates to her and Otou-sama, as was the custom they shared.
It didn't take long to finish, and soon she was following Otou-sama outside towards their dojo, skipping happily at the thought of holding her blade again, even if it wasn't really the one she would be using after the year ended, it was hers for now, and it had special meaning to her.
They entered the building and her smile didn't dim the moment her feet left the grass like it had ever morning prior, immediately making her way over to the far wall, reaching up to take the sheathed sword off the wall and holding it gingerly between her fingers. It only took a moment to put it at her waist and tie the sheathe into her obi, facing around after she was done and marching to stand opposite Otou-sama, who forwent the sheathe and simply held his blade loosely at his side.
The blade Otou-sama had given her for these nightly practices was longer than most, the blade itself being roughly about 84cm long, her own would be longer, about 91cm, an odachi rather than a katana like Otou-sama and Onee-sama or a tanto like Onii-sama. Supposedly it was because she was the only actual Takamachi by blood in the family, but given she was the only one still around in her branch, and there weren't and books or scrolls on the subject, she had no idea.
Gingerly she took the sword from the sheathe, drawing it out smoothly and holding it in both hands as Otou-sama instructed her, a single breath in, a clang of metal upon one another before separating, a breath let out, a breath in, two clangs sounding, a breath out. Like always whenever this training occurred, she lost herself in the calm of their spar, letting her instincts take over for the most part as she had in the beginning since a few months prior.
She savored the calm and rings of metal with a bliss-filled smile and slightly closed eyes, before she was abruptly removed from the rapture with a single hard blow.
Her smile brightened just a miniscule amount, Otou-sama's blade sliding along her own's length, a simultaneous clack whispering through the night air as both father and daughter moved away from the other, swords moving from one-handed grasps back to the normal two as they came to a rest. Then without any given signal, they closed again and descended into the calm yet again,
She felt a wound wrench itself open, followed by another as she deflected Otou-sama's aggressive strikes with a bit of effort, a small red blotch appeared on the fabric at her right shoulder and left hip, she paid it no heed and continued with the practice. A semi-successful deflection sent her father's blade far off to the side at the cost of another slash mark etching itself into her left side, only a few centimeters above her reopened wound, but the cost was worth it as the move allowed her to make a single counterattack.
Her attack was easily deflected away, but it allowed her to take the offensive for a while, specifically only three and a half strokes before Otou-sama swung into her developing swing, and thus did the dance begin again, a dance that would last until the clocks chimed nine times.
In not quite perfect sync they brought their swords to rest, and then their swords were at their side as they bowed to one another, a bright smile on Nanoha's face while Otou-sama had a small smile on his own. Otou-sama as usual sported no cuts, either on his skin or his own kendogi, she fared only a little worse off compared to him, a total of 5 small cuts, two on her left arm, the one at the side, one larger one across her back and a vertical line etching itself from her chest to the tip of her shoulder.
"You are getting better, Nanoha. Perhaps you'll manage to beat me before you get your actual sword." She beamed under the praise and challenge Otou-sama gave her, joy coming to the forefront of her while she smashed any sense of pride she gained. Takamachi were never proud of their skills. With those words said, Otou-sama went over to a small desk littered with maintenance supplies, one which she also went to wish a skip in her step.
It was probably bad that she hardly registered the wounds at all, it didn't matter much to her though, little cuts like those would heal by the morning with nothing more than bandages and a bit of disinfectant. Her body ran on autopilot for the minute she thought and observed, cleaning the blade with oil, paper and cloth as she had countless times before, after so long it was a instinctual habit that Otou-sama approved of, one that he himself as well as Onee-sama and Onii-sama had ingrained in them.
Otou-sama had said that she would be among the youngest of their family to get her blade. She wouldn't be the youngest, that honor belonged to one of her distant ancestors who was an accomplished swordmaster at her age and had earned his blade three years before she would, though that was likely due to it being the Sengoku period.
Still, she was the first in almost a century to have earned her blade before her first decade had come to pass, and that gave her a bit of pride that almost immediately was quashed, pride had no meaning to those of the Takamachi line. That was the first rule Otou-sama had taught her, and it was reinforced each and every spar they had. Pride was for the samurai and soldiers, it was not for the bodyguards, shinobi and assassins, such was the fact of their occupation and history, Otou-sama had learned that the hard way when Okaa-sama was killed.
She continued to think until she finished her cleaning, putting away the two cloths and oil back on the desk before gently sheathing her blade, standing and making her way back to the spot on the wall that would always hold the sword, placing it back in its proper place. Before she walked out of the dojo to get cleaned up herself, she noticed that Otou-sama had already left sometime in her musings and cleaning, not that it was unexpected.
Walking out, she closed the screen to the dojo and started heading back to the house, looking from the porch to see if there was anything that needed to be addressed around the building before nodding to herself and beginning the walk back. The moment she reached the grass though, she lingered, looking up at the night sky and seeing the little stars gleaming dimly in the darkness, the moon looking rather sleepy hanging above the buildings in the distance.
She looked away after a few minutes of simply basking in the pale light and walked quietly through the house, taking the time to go to the bathroom and wash up, then mend her torn clothes to the best of her… rather poor ability. Onii-sama was much better at it then her or Onee-sama, which was rather amusing. Lastly she changed her bandages again, and as the clock chimed ten times, she made her way into her room, curled up under her few covers and promptly went to sleep.
It was a normal day, it would be one of the last normal days for a while.
*****
"Please… Help me!"
And of course, she would immediately be woken up by the strange voice from the night before, one again asking for help, only this time they were asking for her to help specifically. So immediately upon becoming awake, she threw off her covers, dressed herself in her home clothing, and rushed over to the dojo as quietly as she could so as to not disturb her finally, and quickly ran off in the direction of the voice, towards the veterinarian's office.
Shortly upon arriving in the area she heard a very high-pitched chime that hurt her ears, followed by all the color being muted to grey, except strangely herself, and the ferret that just jumped out the window after a crash… and some black… foggy… thing with antennae came rushing after it, only to hit a tree and get stuck under it. And somehow she found the ferret in her right hand, it felt strangely appropriate to just talk out loud then, "I have no idea what's going on…"
"You came for me?" …Why not have the ferret talking, after the black… thing… she was a bit numb to 'shock'. If such a thing existed, why not a talking animal? Either way, she looked down for a moment, simply stating blankly with a somewhat strained smile, "You talk." before immediately bolting out of the yard around the office and into the streets.
They ran, or she ran with the ferret in hand to be precise, and she repeated what she had first said, with the ferret explaining the situation… somewhat. "You have talent." She looked down and tilted her head in question at the last word, not really wanting to speak and waste energy that would probably be useful to keep for running. It looked up, saw the question in her expression and continued on with whatever explanation was this was.
"I came here from another world, in order to search for a certain something." … That did not help at all to understand what was going on, but she looked up to continue running and not trip herself due to a lapse of concentration. The Ferret continued talking after a pause, hopefully he would actually answer her this time. "But I'm not able to fulfill that goal with my own powers alone."
Was it… asking if she'd take a job for it? "So, I know this will be a burden on you, but I want a person with talent to help me." Yes he was… well, Takamachi never declined a job unless they were already on one. With a start, the ferret started moving in her hands, causing her to stop before it jumped to the ground, turning around on landing and facing her. "I will reward you, I'll make sure to no matter what happens!"
Her smile twitched slightly in amusement, all jobs had a reward proportional to their difficulty, and saying that he would pay her later meant she had the freedom to tell her price when this was over. That was… unexpected. The ferret must be young if he was making that mistake.
With that said, though it was a bit rushed and cryptic, which was somewhat expected given circumstances, her first job would be helping to collect some item or items for a 'magic' ferret. That would be an interesting tale to talk about after all was done regardless of what happened.
Before the ferret had a chance to continue, whatever it was that they were fleeing from somehow flew and crashed directly into the ground in front of them… it's magic, you don't question magic, you can hate it or curse it later, but you never question it. Without any warning the ferret tossed her the jewel around its neck which she caught on instinct, strangely warm and glittering a bright pink, while saying, "Hold it, close your eyes, and open your heart. Repeat after me."
She gave a nod, though quickly became confused as to why the thing hadn't gotten up and attacked them yet… maybe it was stuck like with the tree? Who knew, and now wasn't the time to dwell on such things, two voices rang out softly, one following the other within barely a few seconds between them,
"Grant me power, so that my duty may be done. Sing for the world. Darkness engulfing the deep, Light bathing the sky. Unfurl your wings and take flight. Guide this blade, wielder of Magic and Steel… Razing Heart, wake up!"
And then she was in the center of a pink beam of light that apparently was piercing the clouds above, and both the ferret and thing were shocked, or the thing was still stuck, with the ferret regaining its composure and calling out to her, "Now imagine yourself a weapon to channel your magic, and armor to protect you!" … Umm…
Well… the 'armor' was easy enough to think of, a white kimono with detached red sleeves that went to just above her hands bound together with rope, little blue flowers dotting both with wild abandon, a black hakama dotted with pink flowers and no shoes or sandals. Being without shoes or sandals was impractical, but she enjoyed being without them and frankly, magic should help out. The wand though… oh… who said she needed to make one?
With a quickness a child her age shouldn't have possessed, she half-drew her sword from its sheathe and brought her left hand holding the pulsing jewel directly next to the blade, quickly and firmly forcing the jewel into the metal. Strangely for some reason, the grey steel turned white as the last of the black-red jewel sunk in somehow, the handle turning to pink cloth over a dull gold wood from the original black on brown.
… She would never describe what happened after she inserted the jewel, only saying simply that she changed clothes from what she had been wearing to what she imagined on the spot without any warning or consent. Her eyes took a very hard gleam and her smile almost dropped to a thin line as she turned to the ferret for a moment, said animal freezing the moment he looked at her, before her smile returned after a deep breath in and out.
The thing came out of its daze and tried to pounce on her while she was breathing, but she simply side-stepped it moments before it came down to smash her, with her sword flashing out a bit faster than she was used to. What happened next was … for lack of better word, the thing imploding on itself somehow after a quick and loud shriek of pain that sent pieces of itself flying as shrapnel.
She backed away from where the creature once stood something telling her that it wouldn't die the same way a normal animal or human would, and whatever it was confirmed not only by it reforming, but also by the ferret stating as such. "It's a thought entity, created from one of the items I'm seeking. To stop it you have to seal it inside your weapon."
"How do I seal it?" Her question was asked shortly after the ferret was done explaining, the creature having reformed halfway back to what it had been before it imploded by the time she stopped speaking, her blade having moved to have the hilt by her head, blade pointing downward and edge up.
He, the ferret had sounded like a he so she would refer to him as such unless told otherwise, answered just as quickly as she asked "To use magic at higher levels you have to use spells. To get the spell to work, you need to find an incantation in your heart that resonates with you." She took her time, stilling herself and trusting her instincts to see her through as her eyes closed for the few moments it would take to find her words.
Faintly she heard the thing's roar and the lumbering gait it somehow had despite being without visible legs, her body stepping forward and sword swing out into a block against something, a whisper barely heard but not understood, as she finally found the words she was looking for.
"Ensnare and choke."
She opened her eyes and beheld the thing only a few meters ahead, the remnants of something of it fluttering down in front of her. Her blade came to rest in front of her, and from the little black and red jewel sitting only a few centimeters above the guard came several streamer-like pieces of pink light, that darted through the air towards the thing. When they reached the creature, they twisted around its form and bound it, whereupon she rushed forward with her sword nearly scraping the ground.
Vaguely she saw the roman numeral XXI appear on its forehead, but she paid it no mind, once more stating brightly, "Ensnare and choke." before adding on to it with things she knew she was probably something instinctual within the jewel she was given, "Jewel Seed, Serial 21, Seal!"
The blade came back, and she dashed forward with a speed she knew wasn't hers, slashing horizontally as she passed and hearing the creature roar in pain, then roaring again as something else tore into it. For whatever reason, it felt… 'right' to flick her blade to the side as if something was coating it before turning around to find it simply gone… leaving only something sparkling within the ruptured pavement.
She waited for the ferret to tell her what to do next, which came swiftly "That is a Jewel Seed. Touch it with Razing Heart to seal it." The name he gave for the object seemed appropriate as it did somewhat look like a seed and it glimmered like a jewel. She didn't really do anything for this part, it just… sort of happened automatically. Which was fine thing since she had no idea what she was even supposed to have done during that other than a vague 'touch it with Razing Heart'.
Once the little seed had managed to reach and be absorbed by the jewel in her sword, a machine-like monotone whispered in her ear, calmly stating 'Receipt: No. XXI.' before dying away into silence a moment before she was enveloped again in a layer of pink light. Thankfully it left her with her original clothing when it faded, as well as leaving Razing Heart in her right hand and her sword back to normal in her other, so she sheathed the latter without any further thoughts. "It's over."
It was a statement rather than a question, softly spoken yet loud enough for the ferret to hear, at which point he gave a relieved reply "Yes… all thanks to you. Thank you…", before falling to his side as what she assumed his prior injuries finally caught up. She crouched down to make sure he was alright before she heard sirens starting up… and immediately came to the conclusion that it was time to leave, and leave quickly.
So, after gently picking up the ferret, she bolted from the area, her smile turning smaller and somewhat sheepish as she left when she noticed the damage caused by the creature… and herself… not stopping until the sirens had dulled to almost nothing. She did not want to be thrown in jail for a misunderstanding… somewhat of a misunderstanding, Otou-sama would kill her if she was caught after this, especially since it wasn't even her fault. … Mostly.
She and the ferret found themselves in the middle of the woods in some park by the time the sirens faded away, which one she had no idea since they all looked the same to her, herself only now noticing where they were and letting her smile turn gentle at the sight of so many trees and grass. "I'm sorry." She blinked twice before looking down at the little ferret and giving him a smile as she continued walking through the forest, getting lost somehow wasn't possible for her when it came to forests, so she was free to wander for however long she liked while they talked.
"Did you have a nice nap little ferret? Are you still hurt?" Her first question was answered with a simple nod, while the second was answered by with a simple 'I'm not' and shaking off the bandages to reveal he was physically fine… That ability or 'spell' would be quite nice to have considering how much she tended to get hurt with Otou-sama in practice, she'd have to remember to ask him about it when it came time for payment.
It was probably time to introduce herself to him, given that he was technically her employer since she had accepted his request for help and he promised her payment. That wasn't even mentioning the fact that she was taking him home now in the off-chance there was another thing that went after him, it wouldn't do to get contracted only for the employer to die. "I'm Takamachi Nanoha, my services are yours until the contract is done."
The little ferret blinked once, then twice before shaking his head lightly, probably to clear his head or similar, his response being a simple introduction of "I am Yuuno Scrya." Afterwards he bowed his head and once more gave an apology of "I'm sorry for dragging you into this.", at which point she held him up to look her in the face before tapping him on the forehead and letting out a little laugh.
She didn't give that last part any verbal response, not when she was full of happiness for getting her first job already, simply continuing to wander until she felt it was long enough for them to safely return home. Casually she walked through the dark woods until finally reaching the compound, passing through the gate and entering the lightless home without hesitation, then finally making her way through the three corridors needed back to her room.
Entering the dark room that she called her own, she immediately shed her clothing except for the bandages set around pretty much all of her body besides her forearms, lower legs, and neck before changing into some basic white nightwear. After she was finished, she sat on the edge of her bed, watching as Scrya-san ran around the room trying to find somewhere to sleep himself, before she went back under the covers and let herself sleep for the second time tonight.
*****
Otou-sama said nothing about Scrya-san when he came to collect her the next morning and saw him lying on top of her dresser, even when the latter woke up at the sound of her dressing and saw a few of her scars. Scrya-san hadn't said anything about them, though had look… 'disturbed' by them, even though he likely should have seen them last night, but he'd come along to watch morning training with Otou-sama.
The training started as it always did, with her and Otou-sama each grabbing a bokken and starting at rest before moving on into their routine, Otou-sama following her for once which was somewhat strange compared to their usual, but she paid it no mind, it was just a distraction from her practice.
And then her Otou-sama spoke and she almost stumbled once the words registered, key being almost since she caught herself and kept going, "Was your excursion last night fruitful, Nanoha?"
She said nothing for a moment, thinking over the question before deciding to reply honestly. It was better to confess if Otou-sama knew something, it was less trouble for her and she likely would get some useful piece of advice out of it, Otou-sama had a lot of advice to give from his many jobs. "It was Otou-sama, I retrieved Scrya and killed the creature that wounded him. It looked like a big fox."
Otou-sama simply nodded once as Scrya-san looked over at her strangely, she paid the magic ferret no heed for the moment, she needed her full attention to deal with Otou-sama. Speaking of… she just now noticed something out of place as she looked past Otou-sama, or rather missing from the wall. "I forgot to put it back since I was so tired…"
Once more Otou-sama simply nodded his head, though a small smile was adorning his face as she came to the realization, himself stopping his routine to look over at her as his smile faded back to a thin line, "Are you certain that was the only reason you took the sword?"
At this point she stopped her own set and turned to stare at her Otou-sama, bowing lightly before straightening to her full, very unimposing height, taking a light breath and stating simply, "You told me to never be outside in the dark without a weapon of some kind to protect myself Otou-sama. I just followed your advice and it saved Scrya and myself from the fox."
He gave a light laugh for some reason, something which unnerved her a bit before he clarified the reason for his laughter with a blank voice, "If I didn't know your tells, I wouldn't know better that you were hiding something from me…" For a few moments Otou-sama was silent, which gave her small amount of time to lessen her smile somewhat as she tried to think about what 'tells' she had… She'd need to fix that.
Otou-sama finished his impromptu silence without any actual reaction gracing him, instead simply continuing exactly where he left off. "Very well, I will not pry and should whatever it is need you to take your temporary weapon with you, you have my blessing to take it, so long as you don't get caught."
Her smile grew a tad bit brighter before she ran and hugged her Otou-sama tightly, something he didn't reciprocate, before backing off and putting her practice sword away in its spot. She ran out with a spring in her step, followed shortly by a frantic Scrya-san outside, across the yard with a happy smile and into the house again, through the hallways again and back into her room.
She quickly and efficiently changed out of her current clothing and took a swift shower then put on her school uniform, set her hair into a single side ponytail before putting on new bandages. Upon becoming done with those morning rituals, she moved out of her room to begin her chores with gusto normally absent from her, followed faithfully by the still-frantic Scrya-san trying to keep up.
Scrya-san was very tired by the end of those chores, having run himself ragged trying to keep up., it was slightly amusing, and she didn't keep it out of her smile and she picked him up and headed over to the breakfast table. It took a while for everyone else to arrive, but she spent that time content to bask in her current mood.
Onee-sama was the first to arrive, immediately walking over and commenting on Scrya-san the moment she saw him after arriving, gently picking him up and holding him out to look at him, uncaring for any discomfort she was unintentionally causing. "He's quite cute, Kaa-sama would have loved to hold him. Even if she accidently was too rough." After a little bit longer of holding Scrya-san, Onee-sama put him down on the table, before walking over to the kitchen and started cooking, without anything else said or done.
Otou-sama and Onii-sama both didn't react at all to Scrya-san's presence when they walked in and took their seat, though Onii-sama did look between her still her happy mood and Scrya-san still dazed from Onee-sama for a moment before simply shaking his head. Onii-sama took a moment to look her in the eye and catch her attention before stating, "Nanoha, please make sure to keep your 'ward' well-treated. It would look bad on you to promise to take care of something, only to fail in taking care of it."
She gave a nod of acknowledgment before turning to regard Onee-sama as she placed the meal before them with a gentle smile and took her place at Onii-sama's side. Then with the customary blessing, they began the meal, and it proceeded as normal.
Once again, she was the first one finished and after saying another goodbye, walked along to the bus, calmly listening to Scrya-san explain several things about the Jewel Seeds from the safety of her room as she waited for the bus, examining the little gem he had gifted to her last night as he did. "Jewels Seeds are ancient treasures to my people, named as a set of Lost Logia for the power they contain in them. They were just magic stones at one point, capable of granting wishes for their owners, only in an erratic method."
"Occasionally they'll go berserk on their own, and cause damage to the environment while they search for a new user. In addition, they'll also be accidently used by a random bystander or animal that happens to find them." She didn't say anything in response to that… mostly because she was still trying to grasp how to actually send messages via 'telepathy'. Unsurprisingly the thing was rather hard, especially since the ferret had forgotten to tell her how.
"… I'm sorry for involving you Nanoha. As soon as I get strong enough, I'll return to hunting the rest of the twenty-one and leave you alone." It was a bit… annoying to have him apologize for getting her involved and then try and leave her after she had accepted the contract, well that wouldn't happen. A Takamachi had never failed a job yet in the six centuries they had existed, and she wouldn't be the first because of her employer simply up and leaving to continue on his own.
Thankfully, she thought she could reliably use the 'telepathy' that Scrya-san was using to talk to her, which she immediately tried to cut him off from making another apology, and apparently succeeded in doing if him cutting himself off was an indication. "I won't allow that. The contract is set and until it is fulfilled I will not leave you alone in your task. I won't tarnish our reputation simply because you walked away before the job was finished, Scrya-san."
He didn't give a response to that for a long while, and so she continued on with a last sentence before quieting for a while, "And even if I'm not good right now, you can teach me to use magic as you said you would in payment." He gave a soft agreement before leaving her to her own devices, shortly before the bus proceeded to drive up, and another day of school began without any incident so far.
*****
School went just like it did yesterday, and every other day before then, had gone, she did well in every class besides language, she and Arisa-chan tussled while Suzuka-chan tried to get them to stop unsuccessfully, and they ended school without anything noteworthy.
It took little time for her to return home given no one came this way unless they were leaving town, with her just entering the house before another high-pitched chime sounded through her head, immediately making her run through the halls yet again to her room and enter. Just as fast as she'd entered the room, she made the decision not to change to her other set of clothing in her haste and simply took her katana and Scrya-san with her.
She did wrap the sword in a random piece cloth to hopefully fool others on what it was, it wouldn't do for someone to call the police on her just because she had a sword in her hand. The result was patchwork, but it was the best she could do given the lack of time and resources she had at her disposal, hopefully it would serve her enough this one time before she found something to replace it.
Pretty much she followed Scrya-san to the site of where the Jewel Seed was located, garnering a few looks because of the long object almost her height held in her hands and seemingly chasing after a ferret through the outskirts of town, but thankfully no one saw fit to stop her. The two of them went up a long flight of stone steps leading to… she thought it was a temple… there was torii at the top so she thought it was likely that. What they found at the top of the flight of steps was something that would likely haunt her for a time, and judging by Scry-san's reaction, him as well.
There was a black, wolf-like or panther-like thing with four red eyes, two tusks, two red antler-like growths and two blue orb like growths above its eyes ripping apart a woman's corpse, its muzzle stained red and blood dripping onto the stone. The creature paused in its meal to look at them with murderous intent, growling and starting to ready itself as she untied the cloth from around her sheathe.
As soon as the cloth was off, she drew her sword from its sheathe, and dropped the sheathe to the ground, causing it to clatter against the stones and startle Scrya-san from his stupor as Razing Heart found itself in her hands. "How do I get it to work again?"
A low growl carried over from the creature, a paw moving forward and narrowly avoiding crushing the corpse into paste, its teeth bared as Scrya-san spoke as deathly calm as he could given the situation. "Say the boot up spell, starting at 'I am the one who has been given a mission'." The wolf/panther-like jewel seed began padding forward the moment he finished speaking, continuing to growl with bloody teeth bared before suddenly bolting forward with an unexpected quickness given its size…
She wouldn't have time to say the full spell like before… so she just rammed Razing Heart into her sword and called out the last line in the hope it would work. "Razing Heart, wake up!" Quickly she positioned her rapidly shifting katana in a block, instinct guiding her more than actual thought before she was sent flying by creature down the steps, skidding to a stop just as it leapt from under the torii towards her, vaguely hearing Scrya-san yell something about armor… not the priority currently.
This time she brought up her sword deliberately, watching the beast for a second before side-stepping as fast as she could out of its path, barely managing to avoid one of its claws cutting her shoulder as it passed. A pink light engulfed her for a few seconds before fading, leaving her with her 'armor' as it faded, another side-step made as it tried to jump again, this time though her blade swung out and elicited blood from it, sending it crashing down at her side before it struggled to get back to its feet.
She decided to do something rather… uncalled for as it came close to getting back to its feet, she walked up to the Jewel Seed, reared back her fist and punched it back into the ground. The action hurt far too much to be anywhere remotely effective, but it served as a distraction long enough for her to call the ribbons out again and tangle it.
"Ensnare and choke, Jewel Seed, Serial 16, Seal." Only instead of like last night, she held her blade in reverse and raised it above the creature's head, now sporting the numeral XVI on its forehead, the thing giving a half-hearted growl at its predicament a moment before she plunged the blade through it. The beast went still, then fell limp to the ground as it began to disappear and leave behind the jewel… and a corgi still impaled on her blade whimpering weakly…
Gently she took her blade out of the little thing, moving it a few centimeters to hover over its neck before plunging downwards again, ending the suffering corgi quickly and with as little pain as she could.
She flicked as much of the blood off as she could, not really reacting much beyond her smile being sad, before walking back up the steps to the cloth and scabbard left at the top of the steps next to Scrya-san. Gingerly she picked up the former and wiped the remainder of the liquid off her sword before sheathing it and covering both in the now blood-stained flower-print of white and pink.
Calmly she placed the bundle against her right shoulder and started to leave the area, Scrya-san bounding up her clothing until he reached her shoulder, it would be better not be around when someone eventually found the sight behind her. Knowing how people would overreact, they'd blame her for what happened, and trying to explain 'magic' wouldn't be… a good defense.
A sigh left her for a moment, the ferret looking at her from his place, before she simply shook her head and continued walking calmly down the stairs. A hollow-feeling smile crept into place and stayed there until she returned home, whereupon it became lively again. She'd tell Otou-sama during nightly practice about what had happened, but otherwise she would keep that event to herself, Onee-sama and Onii-sama already worried enough…
*****
Two days later saw her learning… or rather trying to learn how to fly… she had found a second thing she was quite terrible at… Apparently, she was so terrible that Scrya-san was shocked… which made her… somewhat ashamed since it was her thirty-seventh try…
She was a bit bruised and battered, having been thrown into a few trees and been 'exploded' for lack of better word by her failures to fly, thankfully it didn't hurt as much since she had tried to make herself a bit tougher… it somewhat worked? All she did was circulate mana through her body, centered mostly in her skeleton and skin to increase their density and harden respectively, she'd really only know if it worked well when it came time to use it in a fight.
Now the reason she was learning flight… yesterday… yesterday was supposed to be a relaxing day at the pool with Arisa-chan, Suzuka-chan, Suzuka-chan's Onee-chan, Onee-sama, and Onii-sama … instead a Jewel Seed decided to show up and ruin it for them… That Jewel Seed had gained her 'anger' rather easily because of what it had been doing…
She blew up again from the lapse in concentration, Scrya-san twitching as she broke through yet another tree in her failure, needless to say she didn't like that Seed very much, especially since she couldn't hit it properly with her sword due to it being made of water… Quietly she mumbled "Stupid… perverted… Seed…" before getting back up and walking back to where Scrya-san was quietly thinking and muttering to himself. She was quickly becoming frustrated with her lack of progress, so she tried to make the spell in a slightly different manner, only to gain the result of it not happening again… "Isn't there any other spell for flight Scrya-san?"
She looked over in time to see him shake his head lightly, making her turn a little crestfallen before perking up as he clarified a moment later, "That's the Midchildan system's version of the flight spell, however I don't know any of the other systems' version of flight. Your issue with it may stem simply from Flier Fin not being compatible for you. You may have to just make your own at the rate your failing though."
She gave a nod at the last part, from what he had just said and her current failures, it would appear she would be making her own version of flight… She had a feeling this would either go extremely well or she would be hurting for the rest of the day from the result of this… no sense wasting time though.
So first she had to try and visualize what she was wanting, or at the least have a very clear thought of what she wanted as was the case in her currently unnamed defensive spell, since intent and 'wishing' was what made things happen in 'magic'. That was simple enough, just her standing on air was fine, actual flying wasn't that big of a deal to her.
Next was also simple, simply channel mana to what felt like the natural point to make the spell work, the case for this one probably being to let it pool at the soles of her feet. The third and last was to try and make it work… please let this work… and so she jumped up, and immediately felt her feet touch something the moment she should have sunk back to the ground.
Looking down saw her standing on thin air and Scrya-san looking up in shock again, only a barely noticeable ripple appearing from the lowest point of her foot signaling anything that she was standing on… something… probably mana. Her smile brightened at finally being capable of 'flight', before one of her feet failed her in standing while the other tried to compensate… Needless to say she went flying into the upper branches of one tree again.
Well… she should have considered the possibility that both options would happen as well as neither… it was too late to consider seeing as she was now stuck in a tree… The pain from her accident finally set in as she tried to climb out of the tree, a dull ache going through almost all of her body before she got out and hit the ground with a thud. She had the restraint to not let out a groan of pain, instead just getting back up and checking over herself, noticing a few areas that were slowly bruising over through the bandages.
Well, the good news was at the very least she knew how to 'fly'… even if it wasn't fine-tuned just yet, she had the time today to practice this and the other spell she wanted to make, she wasn't needed for anything today except nightly practice much later.
And so went her day, spent refining her 'flight', trying to make a spell to gather mana together in order to strengthen her strikes before moving on to practice her swordsmanship. The only time she stopped was to go eat lunch with Otou-sama, Onee-sama and Onii-sama, which was a nice, calm affair with nothing happening beyond the usual.
Four Seeds were currently sealed, another seventeen to go from what Scrya-san had said and her first job would be complete. Otou-sama would be so proud of her when she told him she had finished a job already and got a practical payment, hopefully Otou-sama would give her another smile and then praise
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Conception II
- Location
- United States, Texas
AN: For a visual representation of this Nanoha's flight spell, should you not be able to imagine it from my descriptions, both before, during and after this chapter, look up Miyu Edelfelt and watch her use her flight spell, it is quite similar in nature to that. Now a disclaimer, and then enjoy.
Secondary AN solely for here: Was busy during Summer, Beta that looks over my stuff now was busy as well. Only with college are we both not busy (For some inane reason).
I'll be posting a chapter every few days here up until the latest one that's been made and is waiting for Beta. Enjoy, critique and whatever else is needed.
Above all though, just have a good day, whenever you read this.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha nor any of the various seasons made after the original.
*****
She was quite used to being without much sleep, a normal night's rest for her was roughly only about five hours. Yet even still, that didn't mean that she could go without much more sleep, her normal schedule pushed it to the limits as it was.
That was the main reason as to why she was currently dragging her weapon behind her rather than placing it back into the sheathe as she was supposed to… that and her head wasn't thinking quickly enough to register that she should even be putting it away. To be honest as well, the scraping sounded quite relaxing, especially when it skipped every once in a while from the uneven ground, she would have to…
And that was when she fell face-first into the ground, she barely made out Scrya-san's voice asking "Nanoha! Are you alright?" Her only response was a yawn into the pavement before she picked herself back up and continued walking, or rather stumbling, back home. The last Jewel Seed she'd fought was easy, much easier than the previous ones, barely putting up a fight by the time she had sealed it.
That said it was more akin to the first one rather than the second or third ones, so that was kind of expected.
She would be so glad that tomorrow was Sunday, she'd be allowed to rest once morning exercises were over and the only reason she would need to leave would be to go with Onee-sama to get groceries for the coming week if she needed assistance… Oh wait there was the game for Otou-sama's team tomorrow, the one he had been working with for almost two years now… There went resting the day away… well it was probably best that she did something rather than sleep all day.
Either way, sleep beckoned… it was already past midnight, at the current time she would only get two hours of sleep before Otou-sama came to collect her… Oh this was not going to be a good morning…
… She made far too many mistakes the next morning, Otou-sama actually had a frown rather than a neutral face when he watched her perform her routine, which made her quite… depressed… especially so soon after Otou-sama had smiled at her… At least after that realization she had managed to run through the routine perfectly without a single miniscule mistake, that at least made Otou-sama return to giving a blank look rather than the frown.
Her chores were completed swiftly, seeing as she chose one of the easier chores to do that morning, 'easier' meaning that it was just quicker to do rather than easy, but that mattered little. Just from completing it quickly, she was allowed to go back to her room to rest and catch up on much needed sleep before Otou-sama's team played.
She was out and asleep instantly, only to wake up just as fast.
At the very least she felt better even if her sleep was only for an hour going by the hall clock's time, she would get to nap a bit more later after breakfast was made, and then after she would become awake again and watch Otou-sama's team play… even if she'd rather rest more… Haa… that line of thinking would get her nowhere, especially since she had promised to watch them when one of them had asked her… she thought it was the goalie but she could have been mistaken.
Either way she wouldn't break a promise, those were just as binding as any contract made, once again she sighed as she got up from her bedding, dressing again in her home clothing while Scrya-san looked away, and walking towards breakfast.
Onee-sama and Onii-sama were slightly worried about her tiredness but didn't ask about it again after the last time. Otou-sama had asked her how her job was going two dinners ago and had managed to quell them, mostly Onii-sama really, when they argued that she was far too young to accept a job.
Otou-sama was so nice to her when it came to the family business, maybe it was because she had a resemblance to Okaa-sama? ...No Otou-sama wouldn't let the past clutch him in its embrace, there was a reason that the murderers of Okaa-sama weren't assassinated within a single night… then again Otou-sama did call a few favors in and ruin that family in every way besides killing…
What did it really matter right now anyway to think about such things, today was for relaxation and rest, not a day to dwell on things related to business… maybe after the game she could do a bit of sword practice and then nap a bit after, that would be nice.
Now… how to pass the time until the time came for them to leave? Maybe she could ask Scrya-san for more information about magic, or what the place he came from was like… maybe…
Well, she did manage to get Scrya-san to explain a bit more about magic to her, mainly everything he spoke about was for what he called the Midchildan system, though there were a few things that were generalized between systems from what he explained. There were barriers and shields that protected the user or the surrounding the area and allies, there were binds and cages, which did as the names implied and sometimes had additional effects.
Augments and auxiliary spells also were used, the first improving some aspect of the user passively and rarely turning off, auxiliary simply being spells that were used to somehow aid the user in some fashion, whether it be for flight, searching, sealing or something else entirely. The former was more of a rarity in the Midchildan system considering their way of using magic in combat, that of using ranged spells, either the simpler 'shooting' spells or the more complex and destructive 'bombardment' spells, while the latter was more… specialized.
Combat-wise there were two ways of going about, as there was in most forms of combat, those two being ranged and melee. Both of those were sub-divided into different categories, ranged being 'shooting', 'area-of-effect', some cases of 'energy blade' and 'bombardment' spells, melee being simply 'melee', 'energy blade' and 'magic-enhanced' spells.
How melee was its own kind of spell was something to ask about latter, since she was solely focused on absorbing the knowledge Scrya-san gave given, even if it was just a short summary of them since Scrya-san knew little of combat spells beyond common knowledge and rarely actually used them, he himself said he was more of support mage than a combatant.
Besides the summary was enough, 'shooting' shot basic magic at foes, 'energy blade' made magic blades as the name implied, 'area-of-effect' attacked wide amounts of area, 'bombardment' were more punishing versions of 'shooting', 'magic-enhanced' did as implied as did 'melee'.
Soon enough though, the impromptu lesson came to an end as the clock chimed a single time, letting her know that her time to leave was now. So after wrapping her blade in its cloth, since she had thought of no other way to even try and hide it, she along with Scrya-san left her room. Otou-sama was waiting for her at the entrance to the house with a bag around his shoulder, giving a glance at the bundle in her hands before he nodded minutely and walked through the gate.
She followed after him quickly, neither her nor him saying a word as they walked along the streets, each having their customary expressions up and causing everyone they walked past shy away from them. With the fast walk they took, it didn't take long for them to reach the field where the match would occur, and it wasn't surprising that they were early given they'd left earlier than they actually needed to with not a single soul around, there was still an hour left before they were even supposed to be arriving.
They only had to wait a half-hour for Otou-sama's team to arrive, the boys except one all being loud and cheerful, the single one that wasn't was only silent yet still had happiness, and when he looked over at her he had a faint color in his face and looked away when she looked his way… that was strange. Otou-sama got a ball out from the bag he had brought along and rolled it over to one of the other children, letting them run around and practice in the time before the match was set to start.
She wasn't interested in watching them play around, but the amount of time she had before the game would start wasn't enough to get an explanation from Scrya-san… at least she could muse a bit about several of the things she was told earlier in that time.
She had no want of ever being in a fight that was long-range, and so she would probably never make a single 'shooting' or 'bombardment' spell if she could help it. 'Area-of-effect' spells on the other hand would probably be good to have least one of since from what few of those Scrya-san had explained about were centered around the caster.
Honestly speaking, she'd likely focus more on a close-combat style of fighting rather than utilizing ranged attacks. It just didn't feel right to try and use something she knew nothing about after having spent so long in the company of her blade, even her first spell, if it could even be called one helped in that regard.
She hadn't named it, though she thought she heard a whisper in her head whenever she activated it. It was probably just a figment of her imagination, she would ask Scrya-san about her jewel another time, but regardless of that she'd likely make a few more spells in a similar manner to her singular one, the only thing though that stood out was her lacking strength, as the last actual battle showed.
Out of the three types of melee spells she had access to, she'd likely be making spells for 'magic-enhanced' and 'energy blade' rather than 'melee', she was more of a swordsman than a brawler after all. With that said she'd very likely would make one or two 'melee' spells in the off-chance she lost her weapon, better prepared than not after all.
Moving on from combat, she'd have to learn how to make a shield at some point, how it was going to work, she had no idea at this point, but that and her flight spell were going to be the priority in her making of spells right now…
Her flight spell… it was… decent enough…
…That was a lie… it was going poorly aside from she could get it to actually work for up to a quarter of a minute at most currently without moving, and it tended to fail before ten seconds went by if she was moving. All she really knew was it would work, she just needed time and lots of practice… maybe more than lots at her rate of progress after three days…
She left her thoughts abruptly at the sound of more noise approaching, her head turning minutely to note the arrival of the other team before trying to put together what time it was… it should be a few minutes before the game was to begin so there would be a little warm-up before then.
Hmm… Her attention was brought to Scrya-san as he shuffled in her lap a bit, he had seemingly taken an interest in the sport from the way he was watching the game. Either that, or he was at just watching the other children play the game with intense focus and curiosity, though since he didn't say anything about it she didn't say anything in turn, if he wanted to ask she would answer him, if not it didn't matter really.
Finally it came time for the game to begin, and so she turned her attention to the game she had no interest in, keeping the smile on her face even as boredom dulled her eyes. O? Her smile grew brighter as she gave a wave at her two approaching friends, two very different waves given in turn before they came over.
Well, at least she wouldn't be bored if Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan were here, even if she didn't know why exactly they were here.
Regardless of the outcome, Otou-sama liked to show respect to those he fought against, even in little games like this, and it appeared to rub off on his team.
If there was one thing to ease her disappointment on missing out on sleep and being forced to come, it was the fact that Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan had enjoyed it, even if they had arrived a bit late. The only thing of concern was the way Arisa-chan was handling Scrya-san though… she may need to rescue him before some lasting damage happened by accident.
Otou-sama liked to treat his team and any student of his that performed exceptionally with a reward of some kind depending on the occasion, in the current case that was simply a meal at a local café, it didn't apply to either her, Arisa-chan or Suzuka-chan but it didn't matter much. They went along anyway since she was staying with Otou-sama all day, and Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan were staying since they had nothing else to do… and Arisa-chan didn't like being at her home.
Somewhere between fifteen minutes and thirty were spent at that café, which ended with Arisa-chan now amusing herself with Scrya-san while Suzuka-chan watched sheepishly, she gave a quick apology to Scrya-san when she noticed the… treatment her friend was giving. "Sorry Scrya-san… Arisa-chan doesn't know how be gentle that well…"
"Ahh… it's al-right. She hasn't hurt me or anything... Though I am getting rather uncomfortable…" Her apology was brushed off a bit hesitantly, which she didn't really understand, but she acquiesced to him on the subject for the moment. With that said, it was a 'duty' of hers to protect her client, so after a while she spoke up, causing both her friends and Scrya-san to look at her. "Arisa-chan, can I have Scrya-san back now?"
Arisa-chan pouted for a moment before holding Scrya-san up to the sky, which he was not at all ready for given his immediate reaction was to flail about for a moment, before she nodded her head and smiled. "Alright Nanoha-chan." And with that she was handed Scrya-san back, who immediately scurried to her shoulder, shook himself for a second and laid down, then Arisa-chan decided to continue in a cheery note. "
A few moments after Arisa-chan finished talking, all of Otou-sama's team assembled outside the building in front of Otou-sama in front of them, where he gave a short 'speech'. "You all did well today." Each of the boys seemed to shuffle slightly at Otou-sama's words, even if those words were delivered in Otou-sama's normal monotone, they were still considered praise and the boys reacted appropriately to it. "Continue practicing hard, and the next match will end up like today's."
There were nods of seriousness, or as serious as boys could manage, before Otou-sama gave a small smile and finished up his 'speech'. "That is all. Be careful on your way home. We'll meet again at the usual time."
Shortly after he was finished speaking, Otou-sama sent the other children on their way with a wave of his hand, each player beaming under the praise from Otou-sama, though for some reason the goalie stalled behind his friends for a moment before turning towards them and heading in their direction. She couldn't say she wasn't curious as to his intention, it wasn't often that she was approached by people other than Otou-sama, Onee-sama, Onii-sama, Arisa-chan or Suzuka-chan after all.
Getting up from her seat at the confusion of Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan she made her way around the table and walked up to him with her normal smile in place and bundled sword held in her right hand, even if she didn't expect anything to happen, it was best to be prepared. The boy's face was a bit red as they both stopped in front of the other, vaguely she could hear Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan giggling over something behind her as he rifled through his pocket for something.
"Umm…" That was certainly an… amusing way to start a conversation, and it made her smile brighten minutely, an action that apparently made him a bit redder in the face… was he sick or something? "I… uh… found this and wanted you to have it. It's just a normal stone I think…"
After withdrawing his hand from his pocket and opening it up, she was given… quite a big surprise, in the hands of the boy, was another Jewel Seed, and he was just giving it to her… well this made coming well worth the time spent. Her smile brightened even more as she closed her eyes briefly, missing his face redden more before she gave a reply of her own, a simple, "It's quite beautiful." as she gingerly took the offered Jewel into her hand before continuing after a single breath while bowing, "Thank you very much."
He gave a smile in return and gave a slight bow as well, backing away for two steps before turning around and running off to catch his friends, leaving her with her own friends, Otou-sama and Scrya-san. Both of her friends were still giggling for some reason as they walked up to her while she turned to face them, Arisa-chan speaking first as her levity quickly turned to an ugly expression of disgust, "Unfortunately, I have to go home and meet with my family now. I'll see you both tomorrow for the tea party!"
And with those words said, Arisa-chan walked away with a wave behind her, leaving both herself and Suzuka-chan standing there with only herself returning the wave. After Arisa-chan was out of sight, she turned to face Suzuka-chan, who shifted in place nervously before muttering out softly "Bye-bye Nanoha-chan." And then her first friend ran the opposite direction from Arisa-chan's path, with herself waving with her bundle-holding hand at Suzuka-chan's retreating figure. before heading over to Otou-sama and beginning the rather long walk home.
The walk back home was silent and uneventful, just the usual nervousness and wariness directed at her and Otou-sama from random bystanders for whatever reason, which was quite nice seeing as she wanted only to relax today. The Jewel Seed she was given didn't act up as she and Otou-sama entered the compound and house, Otou-sama immediately walked off into one of the other hallways while she turned to the one leading to her room. Another much shorter walk spent humming placed her at the door to here room, which she entered without hesitation.
Scrya-san immediately jumped off as the door closed and padded along to the side of the room before hopping onto the bed, while she walked after him and sat on the bed, taking out the necklace holding Razing Heart with one hand and the Jewel Seed given freely with the other, before quietly muttering to herself. "Ensnare and Choke. Jewel Seed, serial 10, Seal." The blue Seed shined while her black Device seemed to pulse before the former floated from her grasp and was quickly absorbed by the latter, her little jewel stating 'Receipt: No. X' before returning to its usual inert self.
Seeing as that was now done and over with, and she was rested enough now that she likely wouldn't fall asleep even if she tried that left her with three options on things to do. First, was to try and likely fail to make progress on her flight spell, which at this point she hated the thought of flying after so much failure. Second, she could ask Scrya-san to explain more on magic or other things from where he came from, or third she could try and make another spell to aid her later down the line.
Hmm… well there was always the option of doing all three, she could listen to Scrya-san explain something new while practicing flight, and when she finally grew tired of being blown up she'd move on to making something new. At least she'd be doing that until it came close to dinner.
Her mind now made up, she stood from her bed, collected her still bundled sword from beside her and proceeded outside, Scrya-san scrambling behind her to catch up at her sudden departure. A quick walk had her outside without trouble, and a bit farther across the lawn saw her at the treeline where she finally pulled the cloth from around her sword and put the fabric around a random branch before continuing further into the forest.
If there was one good thing about the very long walks home from the city proper, it was that there was a forest right outside her home, letting her practice in secret for the most part alongside being quiet.
After a few minutes, at least she thought it was a few minutes it could have been only one for all she knew, she decided it was far enough and pulled out Razing Heart, stating "Wake up." happily just as Scrya-san caught up and embedded it in her weapon. "Scrya-san." The magic ferret looked up at her when she said his name, catching her gaze as she attempted her flight for the first time today… and slipped right through what she was supposed to be standing on… Well that boded well, anyway, "Could you explain a bit more to me about the… organization you work for while I practice?"
Scrya-san gave a nod that she barely noticed before she jumped up and tried again to stand on the air… only to blow up directly into a tree… She was quite glad she decided to make that first spell increasing her toughness … even if it still hurt a bit, it was better than likely getting bruises and broken or cracked bones. Shaking the debris from her crash landing into the branches, she made another attempt below her at her… platform? below her and jumped down… only to explode again back into the branches, with the tree creaking beneath her before groaning and deciding to fall…
A crash and the tree toppled with a plume of smoke, herself thankfully jumping from the branches before it fully fell and Scrya-san looking on with a worried, yet resigned look before he finally began his 'lecture'. "Well, to begin the Time-Space Administrative Bureau, shortened to just Bureau or 'TSAB' normally, is split into four main branches, the Main Office, the Central Office, the Faurus Central Office and the Frontier Nature Conservation Corps. The first…"
Scrya-san paused as another explosion erupted from another of her failures to 'fly', getting sent straight into the ground before getting up and trying again… which resulted in her blowing up a second time into another tree and sending it toppling to the ground behind her. "… The first is composed of, the Dimensional Navy, which oversees all warships, the Armaments Service, the armed forces which are then further divided into ground and air. Then there are..."
Another explosion, slightly louder and more destructive this time, stopped Scrya-san's explanation again, this time he didn't start up again immediately after the next explosion went off, which made her wonder briefly what he was doing. At least she did before she went through one tree completely and slammed into another before slumping to the ground with a groan of frustration, taking a moment to calm herself before standing up from the debris and brushing herself off.
Once she was finished, she looked up and found Scrya-san watching her from atop one of the fallen trees, that explained why he wasn't speaking at least, he'd come to check on her, he didn't need to if she was being honest.
Looking over at him let her notice Scrya-san giving her a resigned look, which she ignored in favor of trying once again to make her spell work, barely hearing him give a sigh before he started continuing right where he left off, "…The Inspection Department, that makes sure all other divisions are doing their duties correctly, the Disaster Response Department, which does as the name implies, Resources Management Department, which allocates where people and equipment are sent, and…"
Her 'platform' cracked under her at his last word, which made her internally seethe before being shot across the clearing, another 'platform' manifesting where she thought she was going to land, only for her to hear another crack sound. That explosion sent her into the tree branches… where she fell through and eventually came to a stop as Scrya-san looking around worried below her. Finally his darting eyes found her, and immediately his face went into confusion at the sight of her hanging from a branch by her foot.
Considering that she was having next to no luck with her 'flight' spell, she'd move on to something that would hopefully have more success, her mood was quickly approaching the point where she'd 'blow up' if she kept doing it. That'd just waste time and energy better spent being productive.
"Finally there's the Infinite Library where I work, it's a great trove of knowledge and history and is where all documents and books procured by the Bureau go. Moving on to the other branches…" Yet another explosion stopped him again, the result of that attempt causing her to finally stop trying to make the 'flight' spell work. Her smile went back to normal as she took a break from that spell, even though she was still annoyed with her lack of progress, she'd focus on it another time, it wasn't that important and she'd need 'strength' over 'flight' in the future more anyway.
After making sure that she was fine, Scrya-san continued after taking a breath, and left her wondering how she was going to make this new spell. "… they're all rather simple. The Central Office is responsible for taking care of Midchilda, Faurus Central Office is responsible with overseeing criminals, even though they aren't actually based on Faurus anymore. And lastly the Frontier Nature Conservation Corps are responsible for protecting nature on the frontier worlds."
Having finally finished the rather long explanation Scrya-san let out a breath and hung his head, upon him finishing she nodded her head, both in acknowledgement and finally deciding on how to try and make her new spell work. Finding a random tree that wasn't fallen over, she walked over to it, poured mana into her body and spell, and punched with all the strength she could muster.
The resulting crash set off several birds flying into the air and made Scrya-san jump and whirl about in surprise before focusing on her. It was rather amusing to watch if she was honest.
Scrya-san found her in front of the remains of the tree, the thing having been split in two broken pieces from her attempt. Considering it had gone almost cleanly through with only a bit of resistance, she was pretty sure she already had the spell complete, if only needing to perfect it and make it not hurt. Since she already had her 'toughness' spell, it wasn't that hard to think up how to make a way to improve her strength and use a similar method to make it happen.
Instead of bones and skin like her 'Endurance' spell augmented, she instead just flooded her muscular system with mana, not the safest thing to attempt but it worked so she was justified… Except for the slight pain and spasms in her right hand… she'd have to make it 'better' so it wouldn't do that. Well, there was still time before she should start heading back, she may as well spend it making the spell less inhibiting to her ability.
It'd be rather… annoying to be beaten or fail because a simple spasm interrupted her after all.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful, she made her new spell a bit less debilitating, had a quiet dinner and sparred with Otou-sama right after, thankfully with the spar being much better than morning practice had, before going to bed and sleeping. The morning routine for the next day also went better than yesterday, she didn't mess up once in practice and managed to get Otou-sama's approval for doing well, that made her smile brighten and stay bright for the rest of the morning.
Chores were done quickly, and breakfast was finished with the usual near-silence and quickness they normally had, then came time to prepare for the trip to Suzuka-chan's home, all that really needed to be done was make sure she and her clothing were proper. A few minutes were taken to freshen up a second time that morning, before she pulled on one of the several spare set of her home clothing she had.
Then all that she had left to do she was wait a while until it was time to leave to Suzuka-chan's home, which arrived quickly. A knock on her door had Scrya-san look up briefly in tiredness while yawning while she walked over and opened the door to reveal Onii-sama there, whereupon she raced over to her bedside and picked up her bundled sword, Onii-sama giving her and the bundle a once-over before asking in a deadpan, "Really?"
Her response was to simply close her eyes and reply with a cheerful, "You never know when you need it.", eliciting a sigh from Onii-sama and making him shake his head as she turned back to what she was doing. She looked around her room for a second to see if there was anything else she needed to get, meanwhile when she looked over at Onii-sama, he seemed to take a moment to try and figure out what to say in response to that. In the meantime, she had Scrya-san clamber up onto her shoulder with a snack in his paws. Onee-chan was spoiling him it seemed.
"Please tell me you don't take that to school."
She perked up at Onii-sama's equally deadpan statement, turning around to look him in the face before tilting her head slightly while her smile becoming slightly amused at the accusation. She wasn't stupid enough to do that. "I don't take it to school, Otou-sama told me not to." That answer apparently satisfied him enough, though he gave a shake as he walked off towards the gate while muttering to himself about something, she herself followed after him without pause, cheerfully dashing through until she caught up to him on the road to town.
Suzuka-chan's tea party was today and even if she could take care of herself and Otou-sama said she was alright going over alone, Onii-sama wouldn't let her go alone for some reason, hmm… he did tend to speak with Suzuka-chan's big sister for long periods of time… Now she just had to recall… ah her name was Shinobu.
Onee-sama also tended to… tease him about going and seeing her after each time he went over. She had no idea exactly why Onee-sama did that since Shinobu-san and Onii-sama had been friends since highschool, but she did it anyway. Whatever the case was, Onii-sama would be escorting her over to Suzuka-chan's home, and because of that they got to talk a little bit on the way over. "How are your classes going, Nanoha?"
She hummed a bit at the question, idly moving her legs a bit before noticing the action and stopping it, turning from looking out the window of the bus to Onii-sama and answering his question truthfully. "I'm tied with Arisa-chan at a perfect score in every class besides the two languages. I'm just above passing in those two." Another hum filled the air between them from her as Onii-sama let out an amused smile, a chuckle rising up before he shook his head.
"I see." His amusement faded quickly, changing quickly to something she was rather… 'uncomfortable' with. It wasn't the emotion itself, but rather what the emotion was directed at that made her 'uncomfortable'… though that wasn't the exact right thing to call it, she just didn't know what to call it. "And your 'training' with Tou-san, how is that going?"
She turned back to the window, giving a shrug when she thought Onii-sama was looking at her, it was going as well as she could expect given her current schedule, there hadn't been any new wounds added to her body and she was doing well enough to get praise. "I'm doing well. Otou-sama has been praising me a few times in the past week. I haven't even gotten a scar in a while." She didn't act or even sound proud at the accomplishment, it was just a statement to answer Onii-sama's question, one that he took with another nod and a short-lived smile of relief.
Really, most of trip was mostly just talking about the usual things an older brother would ask his little sister.
After that they waited until the bus came to the stop they needed to depart at just walked in comfortable silence the rest of the way to the bus stop, then they boarded the bus over to the closest stop to their destination, and finally continued to the mansion.
As they slowly made their way up to the far too big home in her opinion… then again, she thought her own home was a bit too big for her own tastes so who was she to judge other peoples' homes? Back to outside her thoughts, both her and Onii-sama had made it up the walkway and were at the door, where Onii-sama pressed the doorbell without any hesitation.
A minute passed before there was a quiet clamor of sorts on the other side, and the door opened to reveal the head maid… at least she thought it was the head maid, she couldn't remember off-hand… The maid smiled softly at seeing them before she bowed and moved back, beckoning them in with an equally soft greeting, "Welcome, Kyōya-sama, Nanoha-ojou-sama."
They both gave a light bow in return, Onii-sama taking the time to give the maid… Noel-san? a somewhat blank yet respectful "Thank you." given that she copied seconds later with her customary smile, though hers was just respectful. While she may not know what position 'Noel-san' was within the household, she knew the maid by description along with a basic grasp on her personality. She was a good role model to try and imitate, nobody expected kind or gentle people to be dangerous after all.
Shaking herself of that thought, figuratively as that would have been both rude and strange of her to just shake her head for no reason, she followed the maid and Onii-sama as they both were led through the mansion. They passed by several other servants of the house, both maids and butlers doing some manner of cleaning or passing to and fro through the halls and doors, none of them looked at her, 'Noel-san' or Onii-sama, actively making themselves scarce to avoid attention.
She didn't understand why, but they always did that for whatever reason.
After a bit of walking they were let into a sunroom where Suzuka-chan, Arisa-chan and Shinobu-san were along with 'Noel-san's' little sister… she thought 'Falin' was her name. 'Falin' was also a maid, Suzuka-chan's personal one if she was remembering correctly, she was nice like Suzuka-chan, if a little clumsy.
There were also all the cats scattered around the room lounging, maybe that was why the house was so big, cats apparently needed more indoor space than a dog did… or it could be something else… Why was she trying to rationalize why houses were big when she came for a tea party?
After entering the room, 'Noel-san' looked towards them with a gentle look, softly asking them quietly, "Nanoha-ojou-sama, Kyōya-sama, what would like for me to bring you to drink?" Both Onii-sama and herself didn't really have a preference so, they simply gave 'Noel-san' an answer that they'd take anything they had, which had her nod her head still with the same expression.
Shinobu-san walked around to stand in front of Onii-sama the moment they gave their reply, 'Noel-san' taking her leave at that moment through the still open door, then moved around him to the door with a smile before calmly stating with a tinge of happiness in her voice. "Kyōya and I will be in my room. If you three need anything don't hesitate to ask one of the maids or Falin." She gave a nod alongside Suzuka-chan, while Arisa just exclaimed an affirmative from her seat, both of her friends happy, though Suzuka-chan seemed slightly subdued for a moment before it was gone.
With that Falin-san, Onii-sama and Shinobu-san all left through the door one after the other, Falin-san being the last and closing it on her way out, leaving her with Suzuka-chan, Arisa-chan, Scrya-san and the rather large number of cats… One of which was lazily sprawled out on her seat…
It's just a cat… it doesn't know that's your seat… no need to be angry with it. Annoyed, yes.
Setting her bundle down against the table, she pried the offending feline from her seat, placed it on the ground and watched it scamper off in a manner that remined her of 'smugness', immediately after becoming confused until she heard giggling from her friends. Turning around, she found another cat had taken up residence in her chair, looking just as 'smug' as the other one had on her seat. It meowed once, likely to spite her for whatever reason as she narrowed her eyes minutely at the animal and proceeding to do the same process as the first cat had.
After the fourth cat repeating the exact same actions she had lost her patience, though Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan were giggling quietly again over the event happily, which made it somewhat less annoying at least once she'd taken a seat and calmed slightly. Thankfully none of the other cats made a move to claim her seat after the fourth one, at which point she sat down and finally was ready to talk with her friends.
The first thing Arisa-chan brought up was, "Nanoha's Onii-chan and Suzuka's Onee-chan are as lovey-dovey as ever!" … They were?
Then Suzuka-chan replied with an slight affirmative noise and a smile, though her eyes weren't the same as the smile. "Onee-chan has seemed very happy ever since she got to know Kyouya-san." … Well… she wasn't as close to Onii-sama as Suzuka-chan was to her Onee-chan… so she didn't know if Onii-sama was happier after they had met one another… she assumed so.
When both of her friends looked to her, curiosity in their gaze for the most part alongside some other things she couldn't tell, she took a moment to seemingly think before randomly spouting off something. "I think Onii-sama is the same way, he does like coming over and visiting with her." Both of her friends had amused expressions on their faces as she finished, they were both aware that she was… clueless about things like this and probably wouldn't take what she said as accurate.
Still, they giggled and had amusement written into their expressions, which was enough to make her just ignore the prior conversation and move on with life, looking around at the lavishly decorated room as she waited for her friends to stop giggling. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Scrya-san pop out of her bag, and immediately freeze at the sight of one of the cats prowling towards him.
Her smile twitched as it lessened at the sight before she picked him up, partly to ensure he didn't get injured by accident and partly to spite the felines for always taking her chair. She blinked once as a thought hit her, smile turning apologetic as she turned to Suzuka-chan, her friend looking confused as her giggling died, promptly saying something she had forgotten to say because of the cats and conversation taking place shortly after them. "Oh, Suzuka-chan. Thank you for inviting me over today."
Suzuka-chan looked down for a moment with a slight smile on her face, "It's not a problem Nanoha-chan." She paused for a moment before looking up and happily giving a warm look towards her, taking a moment of silence to find more words before starting again, "… I should be thanking you for coming. We don't get to do this that often anymore." Immediately following Suzuka-chan's response and the subsequent agreement, Falin-san came back into the room with some tea and cookies at which point they stopped for a moment, accepted the beverages and snacks and started talking about random things.
After a few minutes, she thought it was somewhere above ten minutes but she couldn't be sure, they all stood up after one another and went outside, her picking up and taking the bundle with her, to another table on the pavilion outside… And of course, another cat was sitting in her seat…
Ignoring the giggles behind her, she picked up the cat by the scruff, ignoring its incensed struggles as she did, quickly sat down on the chair so no other cat could take her seat and finally put the cat down. The feline looked up at her and seemingly glared for the rough treatment she gave it, to which she just stared back in annoyance.
After a lot of giggling and staring, the cat decided it had better things to do and went off to the side of the pavilion to curl up and fall asleep, at which point she finally stopped staring at it and turned back to Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan, the latter barely able to say the words on her mind between her laughter. Finally after a moment taken to calm down, Arisa-chan spoke with lingering amusement in her voice,
"Animals really don't like you Nanoha-chan. Suzuka's cats mess with you every time you've been over her, you need an escort to get through my house without a dog chasing you, and pretty much every other animal I know of besides Scrya tends to run off if you come near them." She gave a sigh and a nod, leading to a bit more giggling at her expense before they on from the subject… it wasn't her fault they didn't like her… She hadn't done anything bad to any animal and they still didn't like her for whatever reason… the corgi was a mercy killing since it was already dying so that was a good deed done to ease the suffering of it.
As all things came to her in recent time however, her trip was about to come to a rather… poor ending.
The chime of a Jewel Seed activating sounded once more in her mind, however, rather than immediately get up and bolt she looked over at Suzuka-chan and asked, "Suzuka-chan? Do you mind if I go for a quick walk through the woods?" While she received a look of confusion, her friend did end up shaking her head after picking up a kitten by her feet and petting it, much to the feline's delight.
Happily nodding in thanks, she stood up and picked up Scrya-san from the table, before walking towards the treeline, not even acknowledging Arisa-chan's laughter at something behind her. Knowing the place they were at, a cat definitely just took her seat and was curling up in it now, she'd deal with that later when this was over with and done.
She kept walking sedately until she was no longer in view of Arisa-chan or Suzuka-chan, immediately undoing the cloth bundle and setting her sword at its rightful place at her hip. She took a moment to think to herself before wrapping the cloth around her arm, she'd probably lose it due to the unfamiliar woods if she put it somewhere and she'd rather not return to the party with an uncovered sword… Otou-sama wouldn't let her use her sword again if someone found out she had it.
"Wake up, Razing Heart." A little command had her jewel awaken and garb her in her combat clothing, shortly before she slotted it into the metal of her sword and crept off into the woods, wary of whatever the Jewel Seed could be this time. Scrya-san was already on the ground and setting up some form of barrier that was supposed to act like the time she had properly met Scrya-san, and apparently it worked the exact same way as everything became grey and muted…
Then came another chime… and a huge kitten emerged from the trees…
That was actually quite frightening if it kept to what the other cats liked to do and messed with her, just because of who big the cat was now and it not realizing how dangerous it was. The fact that it looked through the branches directly at her and seemed to gain a sparkle in its eye when the moment it saw who she was…
Nope, nope, nope.
Without saying anything to Scrya-san, she bolted away in slight fright from the giant kitten, not noticing if he said anything in response to her departure, rushing further into the forest to escape the kitten before it did something unfortunate to her. She wasn't in the least surprised that the cat let out a rumbling meow, one that was more a playful growl than a meow, just after she started running away before it started chasing after her.
She was not dealing with a giant cat, especially since it was Suzuka-chan's and the risk of hurting it was high… the corgi incident came unbidden to her mind. So seeing as she wasn't going to fight the cat, she just ran as fast as possible from it… then out of seemingly nowhere as they passed through a clearing in the forest, something hit the kitten stopping its pursuit with a startled yelp.
… She may not enjoy being around animals because of them being… 'mean' to her, but they hadn't ever done anything to make her hate them or wish them pain, only beat them in their little 'games'. So, the moment she heard the yelp, she immediately turned on her heel and charged towards the cowering cat, looking up and watching as a light descended towards it she reacted as quickly as she could in doing something.
Pink light hardened in front of her as she ran, vaguely hearing Razing heart whisper something in her head as it, but she wasn't focused on hearing it, moments before a rather absurd amount of yellow beam-like lights rained down against her pink. One of the beams managed to get past her and her battered shield, hitting the kitten another time and causing it to whimper and press itself into the ground behind her, paws covering its head as it shook violently.
The rain stopped after a while, but she didn't let that dissuade her from keeping the cracked shield of light up, several seconds passing by in silence until a girl that looked her age peered down at her and the cat from a tree branch at the edge of the treeline with cold, pretty red eyes. The girl was dressed primarily in black, the main outfit looking somewhat like a swimsuit with an attached pink skirt and a belt seemingly separating the two pieces of clothing. There was a pair of gloves adorning her hands, a pair of laced shoes with rather long stockings, and two ribbons tying her blonde hair into ponytails as well, as well as a rather… obstructive cloak on her back.
All in all, she looked rather pretty, though that wouldn't stop her from beating up the unknown girl for hurting one of Suzuka-chan's kittens.
Judging both by the fact that she was on a tree branch and that she was dressed strangely she assumed that the girl either was a very fit girl from out of country, or she came from the same place as Scrya-san. When she finally looked a second time and saw the strange looking polearm in her hands, she was inclined to believe the latter, or at least some place that had the same technology and 'magic' as. "A magic-user, different than normal. One after the Lost Logia?" That and her muttering was rather indicative that she was looking for something, and then came the single phrase that sealed that questioning. "Device… unknown? … Unimportant. Lost Logia, Jewel Seed retrieval in progress." Her smile, which had already been strained, nearly dropped completely from her face as she readied herself for a fight.
She didn't have long to wait as the girl transformed the 'staff' into a scythe with a blade of light… that was a rather strange weapon, it wasn't practical unless you were very experienced with it. Her body moved on autopilot as she thought, immediately moving her sword in the path of the scythe before parrying it away.
A horizontal swing she made in turn was jumped over by the strange girl, the retaliatory strike from the scythe meant to strike her shoulder once more parried off to the side before she spun and tried once more to cut her opponent. This time the blow was deterred by the girl ducking and using the scythe as a fulcrum to rapidly get behind her. Three more bouts were exchanged in similar if slightly different manners where nothing important occurred, the fourth clash consisting of the girl backing away from her after the prior engagement and the scythe reverting to its default state.
Quickly pointing the stave at her as she gave chase, several yellow orbs appeared in the air around the girl before being sent straight at her. The first was cut in half as if it was nothing, the second sidestepped with ease, the third parried clumsily, with the fourth and final one catching her in the chest… it hurt about as much as her failures in flying did, that boded well for her at least.
The unknown girl with dead eyes took advantage of her momentary thought and lapse of attention, changing her weapon back into a scythe before somehow the device called out "Arc Saber." and sent the blade of the scythe spinning directly at her like a ring. She chose the stupid brain-dead decision for whatever reason after the realization that the beams didn't hurt. and ran straight into it. She quickly and painfully paid the price for her foolishness by being sent straight into a tree with an attack that hurt a bit more than a dull ache…
Then the tree decided to fall on top of her… of course it did…
A roll out of the tree's way save her from death by tree, or at least injury by tree, and placed her directly in the path of the girl as she tried to swipe at her neck. It was good for her that her sword was already coming up and managed to block it, otherwise she may have been seriously hurt that time. Clenching her fist tightly, she decided to try and at least get some questions answered while there was an apparent lull in their skirmish, "Who are you, and why are you after the Jewel Seeds?"
Perhaps it was due to her being rather… unimposing, or maybe it was just because the girl was either confident that she would win or simply didn't care, but she didn't answer her question the way she wanted, instead merely applying more force against her before saying briefly in a similarly dead voice, "Even if I answered, it would likely be meaningless." … Well that was just being vague for vague's sake… so seeing as she probably wouldn't get anything out of her, or rather nothing important, she decided to continue with the fight with a single action.
Said action was just a simple punch. Nobody really expected them when you fought with actual weapons.
She reared her fist back, pushed against the other girl's stave with her 'strength' spell active, taking the girl by surprise at the sudden force pushing against her, and punched her straight in the chest. She expected the other girl to skid back from the blow and be ready to fight again, she did not however expect her to go flying into a tree and then through it into another one… were other magic-users not as durable as her?
Oh, she was getting up again… and she was flying… haa… this was going to hurt wasn't it?
And again the other girl treated her to a bombardment of yellow beams, while they didn't hurt as much, the rain of bolts were still annoying to wade through, and that didn't even include the annoyance she felt at the other girl's apparent mastery of flight.
After probably a minute and a half her body stopped getting hit by the other girl's spells, with the dust kicked up around her finally settling. By the end of the barrage she was in a bit of pain even with her 'endurance' spell active… that spell really needed a name as did the other one, just calling them 'strength' and 'endurance' was rather… dull, even if they were simple things.
At some point during the rain of magic, she had been pushed back to the fallen tree she'd thrown the girl into… An idea came unbidden to her mind, a bad idea likely, a very bad idea but she was annoyed enough at the girl to try and do it regardless. Impaling her blade into the earth, she gripped part of the fallen trunk with one hand and another part with her other before lifting up, thanking whatever governed luck that she had made the 'strength' spell yesterday and was trying this with a smaller, lighter tree than the rest.
Her muscles strained under the thing's weight regardless, it wasn't like she was ever trained to do this in the first place… Then again no one was supposed to throw a tree at another person anyway…
The dust began settling, letting her see the girl slowly descending towards the ground towards where she assumed the cat was. Finding her target she quickly brought herself to throwing the thing, her muscles still straining under the weight of the tree as she took a step forward, rearing the trunk back as far as she could without losing her grip or balance. Feeling a little generous seeing as almost no one would expect this she called out once just as she let the trunk fly, "This will hurt slightly."
Confusion quickly turned to a very muted panic as a yellow circle of symbols lit up in front of her, the tree uncaring of whatever defense that offered and smashing through the upper right of the circle, the entire shield shattering on the impac. As the tree slowly fell back to the ground, the other girl watched it sail through the air until landing with a crash at some point in the forest, turning back to her the moment the crash.
Well, this was going to hurt. This was going to hurt far more than the previous attack from the girl had…
On the bright side, at least she knew a limit of her strength right now… her thoughts stopped as a large beam with purple lightning raced forward. Knowing what was almost certainly going to happen she pulled her sword from the earth and sheathed it in one motion, calmly accepting the hit without a word and a neutral smile. The bolt of magic treated her to a pain that was almost as bad as Otou-sama's slashes, blasting her through two trees with lightning coursing through her body and causing her to convulse minutely before hitting a third tree hard enough to cause it to fall on top of her.
Fortunately, the tree didn't kill her, unfortunately, she wasn't knocked out from the painful blow and she was now stuck under the tree… and the after effects of the lightning and blunt force were making everything hard to concentrate on through the pain. Faintly, she heard the kitten yowl in pain, and a moment later Scrya-san was at her side with concern in his body language… she had completely forgotten her employer was here… Wait… the kitten was yowling… and the girl was after Jewel Seeds as well…
Awkwardly, she raised her right arm up and brought her elbow down on top of the bark pinning her down, jarring the limb into numbness and breaking the tree in half. Immediately after getting to her feet, she bolted towards where she had heard the yowl come from, stumbling slightly with each step. Her right arm now hanging limply at her side, she drew her sword as quickly as she could while running with a single hand, failing rather miserably as she took the sheathe with it somehow…
Otou-sama would berate her quietly if he had seen that.
Shaking her head of that thought she leapt through the treeline back into the clearing just as the Jewel Seed materialized above the rapidly shrinking cat. Wasting no time, she charged as fast as she could towards the other girl, only barely being slow enough to not interrupt the girl from sealing the Jewel Seed before she barreled into them. For a brief moment after the impact, the girl's face lit up in emotion for the first time as actual surprise formed on her face at the unexpected action, before both of them tumbled to the ground.
Her opponent stopped rolling first and climbed to her feet, surprise quickly fading to be replaced with the blank face she normally wore, with herself coming to a rest panting on the ground in front of the girl. Exhausted and in pain, she pulled herself up from the ground, leaning heavily on her sheathed sword to keep herself standing, at that point the other girl deigned to speak again in the same dead tone as before. "You're tenacious."
… She probably wasn't thinking straight at this point, her head had taken a lot of hits in the past… however long it was… but still there was one thing that she could recall with perfect clarity right now. A Takamachi always completes their job, regardless of if it ends in their death or the deaths of innocents. A job was fulfilled no matter the cost, the only exception being if another Takamachi was in the way, or their employer died… the former hadn't happened in a long, long time…
She was in her way… she was trying to take the Jewel Seeds for herself… She was in her way… she… wouldn't… let… her… Darkness claimed her sight, before she felt herself falling, faintly hearing "I'm sorry." In the same dead voice as before she heard nothing else.
The sky and sun had changed color by the time she woke up.
Trying to raise herself from the bed she found herself in, uncomfortably soft, only for her to wince in pain and slump into the bed as a surge of pain engulfed her body. Looking over herself, she saw that she was in her normal clothing, with her right arm bandaged rather tightly and several other bandages pressing into her chest and stomach.
One of the maids, she thought it was Falin-san because of the violet hair but she could be mistaken, came in to check on her, immediately leaving upon seeing she was awake, likely to let others know she was awake. Shortly after that, the door burst open and she was surrounded by Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan demanding she tell them what happened and why she was hurt… well, it was mostly just Arisa-chan that did it.
"What happened!? You didn't come back for an hour so went looking for you. Then you get found under a big tree branch with a cat next to you and your covered in bruises. What happened?" Arisa-chan wasn't letting up, even after a couple of minutes, which wasn't a surprise in the least… which meant that she had to deflect somehow while keeping it believable and not mention magic.
She didn't like lying unless she was told to, but it was better to let Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan remain unaware of what she was doing, they'd only worry or get themselves worked up and try and get her to stop.
"Ah, I was walking along with Scrya-san through the forest, and a rather large tree branch fell on me and knocked me out. I don't remember anything else." A little lie, one that was partially true, though while Arisa-chan seemed to accept it, Suzuka-chan had a frown on her face and looked as though she didn't believe her in the slightest. Suzuka-chan didn't say anything at least about it, instead just fussing over her quietly.
She managed to weather the storm of Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan worrying over her, being allowed to get up and out of the uncomfortable bed the moment Onii-sama arrived at the room, Onii-sama helping her out of the bed as she said goodbye to Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan. Quietly they left without anything else happening, though Onii-sama was quieter than usual as well was holding on to her sword… she wanted it back… it was important to her.
They walked the streets toward home in silence, the evening light eventually fading from view until night took its place just as they reached the gate into the compound. She momentarily stopped at the threshold upon seeing Otou-sama standing in front of the building, with Onee-sama sitting slightly worried on the deck, immediately losing the worry upon seeing her walking.
Her pause was brief enough that she was moving again before anyone caught her stopping, especially since Onii-sama had Otou-sama's attention, even though nothing was said at all. A simple "I'll handle it from here." from Otou-sama was enough to make Onii-sama bow and hand over her sword and its cloth covering to Otou-sama, Otou-sama motioning for her to follow him which she did without question.
Onee-sama looked her over quickly before nodding and walking away without a word, leaving her to slowly follow behind Otou-sama as he took them not to their usual destination of the dojo outside but to Otou-sama's room… She'd never been inside of this room before, neither her, Onii-sama or Onee-sama were allowed in here unless Otou-sama allowed them, something that wasn't looked forward to.
"I take it that your job is the reason for your current condition." She gave a slight nod of her head at Otou-sama's calm words, unwrapping the bandages around her arm, working the limb as she did, to show unmarred skin. She was rather thankful that, between her own magic and Scrya-san's, she would likely be in a good condition come the morning, not perfect but that was expected given she wasn't capable of healing herself.
"Hmm…" Her attention turned back to Otou-sama as he made a noise of contemplation, one of his currently closed eyes opening minutely to look at her, before continuing his questioning, "Were your injuries related to the nature of the job… or outside interference?"
The darkening of her face spoke enough, and so Otou-sama gave a single grave nod before holding out her blade to her, her demeanor immediately brightening into a joyful expression as she held onto her treasure happily, barely listening to Otou-sama as she basked in her blade's return. "… Until you are finished with this job we will postpone all training. These sessions will be made up at a later time. As well, whatever it is you have been doing in the forest, you have my full permission to use our previous times to indulge in it, so long as your schedule remains intact."
She gave another nod, happily basking in the return of her blade before standing, bowing once with a "Thank you", that Otou-sama waved off without a change in his expression. Only as she was leaving did she have the presence of mind to look around, noting that aside from a few pictures and a desk with neatly organized papers it was remarkably similar to her own. It wasn't like it mattered, since she wouldn't be here often, so she walked out of the room and started
She wouldn't let Otou-sama be disappointed in her, after that fight with the other magic-user she was… quite annoyed with her lack of progress on flight, as well as her lack of ability to fight with the girl. And seeing as they were both collecting Jewel Seeds, they would be meeting again in battle, so she was fully prepared to focus solely on her uncooperative spell work during her free time.
Mulling over those thoughts on her way back to her room through the wooden hallway, seeing as it was nearly time for her to sleep again, she put together a simple checklist of sorts for what she'd need to do in the coming days.
First and foremost, she'd have to finish working on was flight, then after that she'd have to make herself somehow faster, otherwise even with flight, she'd be unable to even catch her foe as all the dodging showed. Lastly, in response to all the spells thrown her way, she'd have to make something to at least be able to exchange in those situations, or possibly use to intercept some of the more dangerous shooting spells the other girl used.
Regardless, her face darkened as she thought of her foe to be, she wouldn't allow the other girl to interfere any more than she already had with her job. She'd very much like to not kill her, as she was probably much nicer in person, but if it came down to it… nothing stood in a Takamachi's way when a job was concerned.
Secondary AN solely for here: Was busy during Summer, Beta that looks over my stuff now was busy as well. Only with college are we both not busy (For some inane reason).
I'll be posting a chapter every few days here up until the latest one that's been made and is waiting for Beta. Enjoy, critique and whatever else is needed.
Above all though, just have a good day, whenever you read this.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha nor any of the various seasons made after the original.
*****
She was quite used to being without much sleep, a normal night's rest for her was roughly only about five hours. Yet even still, that didn't mean that she could go without much more sleep, her normal schedule pushed it to the limits as it was.
That was the main reason as to why she was currently dragging her weapon behind her rather than placing it back into the sheathe as she was supposed to… that and her head wasn't thinking quickly enough to register that she should even be putting it away. To be honest as well, the scraping sounded quite relaxing, especially when it skipped every once in a while from the uneven ground, she would have to…
And that was when she fell face-first into the ground, she barely made out Scrya-san's voice asking "Nanoha! Are you alright?" Her only response was a yawn into the pavement before she picked herself back up and continued walking, or rather stumbling, back home. The last Jewel Seed she'd fought was easy, much easier than the previous ones, barely putting up a fight by the time she had sealed it.
That said it was more akin to the first one rather than the second or third ones, so that was kind of expected.
She would be so glad that tomorrow was Sunday, she'd be allowed to rest once morning exercises were over and the only reason she would need to leave would be to go with Onee-sama to get groceries for the coming week if she needed assistance… Oh wait there was the game for Otou-sama's team tomorrow, the one he had been working with for almost two years now… There went resting the day away… well it was probably best that she did something rather than sleep all day.
Either way, sleep beckoned… it was already past midnight, at the current time she would only get two hours of sleep before Otou-sama came to collect her… Oh this was not going to be a good morning…
*****
… She made far too many mistakes the next morning, Otou-sama actually had a frown rather than a neutral face when he watched her perform her routine, which made her quite… depressed… especially so soon after Otou-sama had smiled at her… At least after that realization she had managed to run through the routine perfectly without a single miniscule mistake, that at least made Otou-sama return to giving a blank look rather than the frown.
Her chores were completed swiftly, seeing as she chose one of the easier chores to do that morning, 'easier' meaning that it was just quicker to do rather than easy, but that mattered little. Just from completing it quickly, she was allowed to go back to her room to rest and catch up on much needed sleep before Otou-sama's team played.
She was out and asleep instantly, only to wake up just as fast.
At the very least she felt better even if her sleep was only for an hour going by the hall clock's time, she would get to nap a bit more later after breakfast was made, and then after she would become awake again and watch Otou-sama's team play… even if she'd rather rest more… Haa… that line of thinking would get her nowhere, especially since she had promised to watch them when one of them had asked her… she thought it was the goalie but she could have been mistaken.
Either way she wouldn't break a promise, those were just as binding as any contract made, once again she sighed as she got up from her bedding, dressing again in her home clothing while Scrya-san looked away, and walking towards breakfast.
Onee-sama and Onii-sama were slightly worried about her tiredness but didn't ask about it again after the last time. Otou-sama had asked her how her job was going two dinners ago and had managed to quell them, mostly Onii-sama really, when they argued that she was far too young to accept a job.
Otou-sama was so nice to her when it came to the family business, maybe it was because she had a resemblance to Okaa-sama? ...No Otou-sama wouldn't let the past clutch him in its embrace, there was a reason that the murderers of Okaa-sama weren't assassinated within a single night… then again Otou-sama did call a few favors in and ruin that family in every way besides killing…
What did it really matter right now anyway to think about such things, today was for relaxation and rest, not a day to dwell on things related to business… maybe after the game she could do a bit of sword practice and then nap a bit after, that would be nice.
Now… how to pass the time until the time came for them to leave? Maybe she could ask Scrya-san for more information about magic, or what the place he came from was like… maybe…
*****
Well, she did manage to get Scrya-san to explain a bit more about magic to her, mainly everything he spoke about was for what he called the Midchildan system, though there were a few things that were generalized between systems from what he explained. There were barriers and shields that protected the user or the surrounding the area and allies, there were binds and cages, which did as the names implied and sometimes had additional effects.
Augments and auxiliary spells also were used, the first improving some aspect of the user passively and rarely turning off, auxiliary simply being spells that were used to somehow aid the user in some fashion, whether it be for flight, searching, sealing or something else entirely. The former was more of a rarity in the Midchildan system considering their way of using magic in combat, that of using ranged spells, either the simpler 'shooting' spells or the more complex and destructive 'bombardment' spells, while the latter was more… specialized.
Combat-wise there were two ways of going about, as there was in most forms of combat, those two being ranged and melee. Both of those were sub-divided into different categories, ranged being 'shooting', 'area-of-effect', some cases of 'energy blade' and 'bombardment' spells, melee being simply 'melee', 'energy blade' and 'magic-enhanced' spells.
How melee was its own kind of spell was something to ask about latter, since she was solely focused on absorbing the knowledge Scrya-san gave given, even if it was just a short summary of them since Scrya-san knew little of combat spells beyond common knowledge and rarely actually used them, he himself said he was more of support mage than a combatant.
Besides the summary was enough, 'shooting' shot basic magic at foes, 'energy blade' made magic blades as the name implied, 'area-of-effect' attacked wide amounts of area, 'bombardment' were more punishing versions of 'shooting', 'magic-enhanced' did as implied as did 'melee'.
Soon enough though, the impromptu lesson came to an end as the clock chimed a single time, letting her know that her time to leave was now. So after wrapping her blade in its cloth, since she had thought of no other way to even try and hide it, she along with Scrya-san left her room. Otou-sama was waiting for her at the entrance to the house with a bag around his shoulder, giving a glance at the bundle in her hands before he nodded minutely and walked through the gate.
She followed after him quickly, neither her nor him saying a word as they walked along the streets, each having their customary expressions up and causing everyone they walked past shy away from them. With the fast walk they took, it didn't take long for them to reach the field where the match would occur, and it wasn't surprising that they were early given they'd left earlier than they actually needed to with not a single soul around, there was still an hour left before they were even supposed to be arriving.
They only had to wait a half-hour for Otou-sama's team to arrive, the boys except one all being loud and cheerful, the single one that wasn't was only silent yet still had happiness, and when he looked over at her he had a faint color in his face and looked away when she looked his way… that was strange. Otou-sama got a ball out from the bag he had brought along and rolled it over to one of the other children, letting them run around and practice in the time before the match was set to start.
She wasn't interested in watching them play around, but the amount of time she had before the game would start wasn't enough to get an explanation from Scrya-san… at least she could muse a bit about several of the things she was told earlier in that time.
She had no want of ever being in a fight that was long-range, and so she would probably never make a single 'shooting' or 'bombardment' spell if she could help it. 'Area-of-effect' spells on the other hand would probably be good to have least one of since from what few of those Scrya-san had explained about were centered around the caster.
Honestly speaking, she'd likely focus more on a close-combat style of fighting rather than utilizing ranged attacks. It just didn't feel right to try and use something she knew nothing about after having spent so long in the company of her blade, even her first spell, if it could even be called one helped in that regard.
She hadn't named it, though she thought she heard a whisper in her head whenever she activated it. It was probably just a figment of her imagination, she would ask Scrya-san about her jewel another time, but regardless of that she'd likely make a few more spells in a similar manner to her singular one, the only thing though that stood out was her lacking strength, as the last actual battle showed.
Out of the three types of melee spells she had access to, she'd likely be making spells for 'magic-enhanced' and 'energy blade' rather than 'melee', she was more of a swordsman than a brawler after all. With that said she'd very likely would make one or two 'melee' spells in the off-chance she lost her weapon, better prepared than not after all.
Moving on from combat, she'd have to learn how to make a shield at some point, how it was going to work, she had no idea at this point, but that and her flight spell were going to be the priority in her making of spells right now…
Her flight spell… it was… decent enough…
…That was a lie… it was going poorly aside from she could get it to actually work for up to a quarter of a minute at most currently without moving, and it tended to fail before ten seconds went by if she was moving. All she really knew was it would work, she just needed time and lots of practice… maybe more than lots at her rate of progress after three days…
She left her thoughts abruptly at the sound of more noise approaching, her head turning minutely to note the arrival of the other team before trying to put together what time it was… it should be a few minutes before the game was to begin so there would be a little warm-up before then.
Hmm… Her attention was brought to Scrya-san as he shuffled in her lap a bit, he had seemingly taken an interest in the sport from the way he was watching the game. Either that, or he was at just watching the other children play the game with intense focus and curiosity, though since he didn't say anything about it she didn't say anything in turn, if he wanted to ask she would answer him, if not it didn't matter really.
Finally it came time for the game to begin, and so she turned her attention to the game she had no interest in, keeping the smile on her face even as boredom dulled her eyes. O? Her smile grew brighter as she gave a wave at her two approaching friends, two very different waves given in turn before they came over.
Well, at least she wouldn't be bored if Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan were here, even if she didn't know why exactly they were here.
*****
It was a decent game after everything was done, Otou-sama's team had won three to nothing, the goalie managing to keep every shot made at his net, something like five shots which was somewhat interesting and made the boredom somewhat fade, but only barely. Otou-sama had congratulated his team with a simple 'Good job.' making his entire team happy, before both teams and their coaches gave the other side a bow.
Regardless of the outcome, Otou-sama liked to show respect to those he fought against, even in little games like this, and it appeared to rub off on his team.
If there was one thing to ease her disappointment on missing out on sleep and being forced to come, it was the fact that Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan had enjoyed it, even if they had arrived a bit late. The only thing of concern was the way Arisa-chan was handling Scrya-san though… she may need to rescue him before some lasting damage happened by accident.
Otou-sama liked to treat his team and any student of his that performed exceptionally with a reward of some kind depending on the occasion, in the current case that was simply a meal at a local café, it didn't apply to either her, Arisa-chan or Suzuka-chan but it didn't matter much. They went along anyway since she was staying with Otou-sama all day, and Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan were staying since they had nothing else to do… and Arisa-chan didn't like being at her home.
Somewhere between fifteen minutes and thirty were spent at that café, which ended with Arisa-chan now amusing herself with Scrya-san while Suzuka-chan watched sheepishly, she gave a quick apology to Scrya-san when she noticed the… treatment her friend was giving. "Sorry Scrya-san… Arisa-chan doesn't know how be gentle that well…"
"Ahh… it's al-right. She hasn't hurt me or anything... Though I am getting rather uncomfortable…" Her apology was brushed off a bit hesitantly, which she didn't really understand, but she acquiesced to him on the subject for the moment. With that said, it was a 'duty' of hers to protect her client, so after a while she spoke up, causing both her friends and Scrya-san to look at her. "Arisa-chan, can I have Scrya-san back now?"
Arisa-chan pouted for a moment before holding Scrya-san up to the sky, which he was not at all ready for given his immediate reaction was to flail about for a moment, before she nodded her head and smiled. "Alright Nanoha-chan." And with that she was handed Scrya-san back, who immediately scurried to her shoulder, shook himself for a second and laid down, then Arisa-chan decided to continue in a cheery note. "
A few moments after Arisa-chan finished talking, all of Otou-sama's team assembled outside the building in front of Otou-sama in front of them, where he gave a short 'speech'. "You all did well today." Each of the boys seemed to shuffle slightly at Otou-sama's words, even if those words were delivered in Otou-sama's normal monotone, they were still considered praise and the boys reacted appropriately to it. "Continue practicing hard, and the next match will end up like today's."
There were nods of seriousness, or as serious as boys could manage, before Otou-sama gave a small smile and finished up his 'speech'. "That is all. Be careful on your way home. We'll meet again at the usual time."
Shortly after he was finished speaking, Otou-sama sent the other children on their way with a wave of his hand, each player beaming under the praise from Otou-sama, though for some reason the goalie stalled behind his friends for a moment before turning towards them and heading in their direction. She couldn't say she wasn't curious as to his intention, it wasn't often that she was approached by people other than Otou-sama, Onee-sama, Onii-sama, Arisa-chan or Suzuka-chan after all.
Getting up from her seat at the confusion of Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan she made her way around the table and walked up to him with her normal smile in place and bundled sword held in her right hand, even if she didn't expect anything to happen, it was best to be prepared. The boy's face was a bit red as they both stopped in front of the other, vaguely she could hear Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan giggling over something behind her as he rifled through his pocket for something.
"Umm…" That was certainly an… amusing way to start a conversation, and it made her smile brighten minutely, an action that apparently made him a bit redder in the face… was he sick or something? "I… uh… found this and wanted you to have it. It's just a normal stone I think…"
After withdrawing his hand from his pocket and opening it up, she was given… quite a big surprise, in the hands of the boy, was another Jewel Seed, and he was just giving it to her… well this made coming well worth the time spent. Her smile brightened even more as she closed her eyes briefly, missing his face redden more before she gave a reply of her own, a simple, "It's quite beautiful." as she gingerly took the offered Jewel into her hand before continuing after a single breath while bowing, "Thank you very much."
He gave a smile in return and gave a slight bow as well, backing away for two steps before turning around and running off to catch his friends, leaving her with her own friends, Otou-sama and Scrya-san. Both of her friends were still giggling for some reason as they walked up to her while she turned to face them, Arisa-chan speaking first as her levity quickly turned to an ugly expression of disgust, "Unfortunately, I have to go home and meet with my family now. I'll see you both tomorrow for the tea party!"
And with those words said, Arisa-chan walked away with a wave behind her, leaving both herself and Suzuka-chan standing there with only herself returning the wave. After Arisa-chan was out of sight, she turned to face Suzuka-chan, who shifted in place nervously before muttering out softly "Bye-bye Nanoha-chan." And then her first friend ran the opposite direction from Arisa-chan's path, with herself waving with her bundle-holding hand at Suzuka-chan's retreating figure. before heading over to Otou-sama and beginning the rather long walk home.
The walk back home was silent and uneventful, just the usual nervousness and wariness directed at her and Otou-sama from random bystanders for whatever reason, which was quite nice seeing as she wanted only to relax today. The Jewel Seed she was given didn't act up as she and Otou-sama entered the compound and house, Otou-sama immediately walked off into one of the other hallways while she turned to the one leading to her room. Another much shorter walk spent humming placed her at the door to here room, which she entered without hesitation.
Scrya-san immediately jumped off as the door closed and padded along to the side of the room before hopping onto the bed, while she walked after him and sat on the bed, taking out the necklace holding Razing Heart with one hand and the Jewel Seed given freely with the other, before quietly muttering to herself. "Ensnare and Choke. Jewel Seed, serial 10, Seal." The blue Seed shined while her black Device seemed to pulse before the former floated from her grasp and was quickly absorbed by the latter, her little jewel stating 'Receipt: No. X' before returning to its usual inert self.
Seeing as that was now done and over with, and she was rested enough now that she likely wouldn't fall asleep even if she tried that left her with three options on things to do. First, was to try and likely fail to make progress on her flight spell, which at this point she hated the thought of flying after so much failure. Second, she could ask Scrya-san to explain more on magic or other things from where he came from, or third she could try and make another spell to aid her later down the line.
Hmm… well there was always the option of doing all three, she could listen to Scrya-san explain something new while practicing flight, and when she finally grew tired of being blown up she'd move on to making something new. At least she'd be doing that until it came close to dinner.
Her mind now made up, she stood from her bed, collected her still bundled sword from beside her and proceeded outside, Scrya-san scrambling behind her to catch up at her sudden departure. A quick walk had her outside without trouble, and a bit farther across the lawn saw her at the treeline where she finally pulled the cloth from around her sword and put the fabric around a random branch before continuing further into the forest.
If there was one good thing about the very long walks home from the city proper, it was that there was a forest right outside her home, letting her practice in secret for the most part alongside being quiet.
After a few minutes, at least she thought it was a few minutes it could have been only one for all she knew, she decided it was far enough and pulled out Razing Heart, stating "Wake up." happily just as Scrya-san caught up and embedded it in her weapon. "Scrya-san." The magic ferret looked up at her when she said his name, catching her gaze as she attempted her flight for the first time today… and slipped right through what she was supposed to be standing on… Well that boded well, anyway, "Could you explain a bit more to me about the… organization you work for while I practice?"
Scrya-san gave a nod that she barely noticed before she jumped up and tried again to stand on the air… only to blow up directly into a tree… She was quite glad she decided to make that first spell increasing her toughness … even if it still hurt a bit, it was better than likely getting bruises and broken or cracked bones. Shaking the debris from her crash landing into the branches, she made another attempt below her at her… platform? below her and jumped down… only to explode again back into the branches, with the tree creaking beneath her before groaning and deciding to fall…
A crash and the tree toppled with a plume of smoke, herself thankfully jumping from the branches before it fully fell and Scrya-san looking on with a worried, yet resigned look before he finally began his 'lecture'. "Well, to begin the Time-Space Administrative Bureau, shortened to just Bureau or 'TSAB' normally, is split into four main branches, the Main Office, the Central Office, the Faurus Central Office and the Frontier Nature Conservation Corps. The first…"
Scrya-san paused as another explosion erupted from another of her failures to 'fly', getting sent straight into the ground before getting up and trying again… which resulted in her blowing up a second time into another tree and sending it toppling to the ground behind her. "… The first is composed of, the Dimensional Navy, which oversees all warships, the Armaments Service, the armed forces which are then further divided into ground and air. Then there are..."
Another explosion, slightly louder and more destructive this time, stopped Scrya-san's explanation again, this time he didn't start up again immediately after the next explosion went off, which made her wonder briefly what he was doing. At least she did before she went through one tree completely and slammed into another before slumping to the ground with a groan of frustration, taking a moment to calm herself before standing up from the debris and brushing herself off.
Once she was finished, she looked up and found Scrya-san watching her from atop one of the fallen trees, that explained why he wasn't speaking at least, he'd come to check on her, he didn't need to if she was being honest.
Looking over at him let her notice Scrya-san giving her a resigned look, which she ignored in favor of trying once again to make her spell work, barely hearing him give a sigh before he started continuing right where he left off, "…The Inspection Department, that makes sure all other divisions are doing their duties correctly, the Disaster Response Department, which does as the name implies, Resources Management Department, which allocates where people and equipment are sent, and…"
Her 'platform' cracked under her at his last word, which made her internally seethe before being shot across the clearing, another 'platform' manifesting where she thought she was going to land, only for her to hear another crack sound. That explosion sent her into the tree branches… where she fell through and eventually came to a stop as Scrya-san looking around worried below her. Finally his darting eyes found her, and immediately his face went into confusion at the sight of her hanging from a branch by her foot.
Considering that she was having next to no luck with her 'flight' spell, she'd move on to something that would hopefully have more success, her mood was quickly approaching the point where she'd 'blow up' if she kept doing it. That'd just waste time and energy better spent being productive.
"Finally there's the Infinite Library where I work, it's a great trove of knowledge and history and is where all documents and books procured by the Bureau go. Moving on to the other branches…" Yet another explosion stopped him again, the result of that attempt causing her to finally stop trying to make the 'flight' spell work. Her smile went back to normal as she took a break from that spell, even though she was still annoyed with her lack of progress, she'd focus on it another time, it wasn't that important and she'd need 'strength' over 'flight' in the future more anyway.
After making sure that she was fine, Scrya-san continued after taking a breath, and left her wondering how she was going to make this new spell. "… they're all rather simple. The Central Office is responsible for taking care of Midchilda, Faurus Central Office is responsible with overseeing criminals, even though they aren't actually based on Faurus anymore. And lastly the Frontier Nature Conservation Corps are responsible for protecting nature on the frontier worlds."
Having finally finished the rather long explanation Scrya-san let out a breath and hung his head, upon him finishing she nodded her head, both in acknowledgement and finally deciding on how to try and make her new spell work. Finding a random tree that wasn't fallen over, she walked over to it, poured mana into her body and spell, and punched with all the strength she could muster.
The resulting crash set off several birds flying into the air and made Scrya-san jump and whirl about in surprise before focusing on her. It was rather amusing to watch if she was honest.
Scrya-san found her in front of the remains of the tree, the thing having been split in two broken pieces from her attempt. Considering it had gone almost cleanly through with only a bit of resistance, she was pretty sure she already had the spell complete, if only needing to perfect it and make it not hurt. Since she already had her 'toughness' spell, it wasn't that hard to think up how to make a way to improve her strength and use a similar method to make it happen.
Instead of bones and skin like her 'Endurance' spell augmented, she instead just flooded her muscular system with mana, not the safest thing to attempt but it worked so she was justified… Except for the slight pain and spasms in her right hand… she'd have to make it 'better' so it wouldn't do that. Well, there was still time before she should start heading back, she may as well spend it making the spell less inhibiting to her ability.
It'd be rather… annoying to be beaten or fail because a simple spasm interrupted her after all.
*****
The rest of the day was rather uneventful, she made her new spell a bit less debilitating, had a quiet dinner and sparred with Otou-sama right after, thankfully with the spar being much better than morning practice had, before going to bed and sleeping. The morning routine for the next day also went better than yesterday, she didn't mess up once in practice and managed to get Otou-sama's approval for doing well, that made her smile brighten and stay bright for the rest of the morning.
Chores were done quickly, and breakfast was finished with the usual near-silence and quickness they normally had, then came time to prepare for the trip to Suzuka-chan's home, all that really needed to be done was make sure she and her clothing were proper. A few minutes were taken to freshen up a second time that morning, before she pulled on one of the several spare set of her home clothing she had.
Then all that she had left to do she was wait a while until it was time to leave to Suzuka-chan's home, which arrived quickly. A knock on her door had Scrya-san look up briefly in tiredness while yawning while she walked over and opened the door to reveal Onii-sama there, whereupon she raced over to her bedside and picked up her bundled sword, Onii-sama giving her and the bundle a once-over before asking in a deadpan, "Really?"
Her response was to simply close her eyes and reply with a cheerful, "You never know when you need it.", eliciting a sigh from Onii-sama and making him shake his head as she turned back to what she was doing. She looked around her room for a second to see if there was anything else she needed to get, meanwhile when she looked over at Onii-sama, he seemed to take a moment to try and figure out what to say in response to that. In the meantime, she had Scrya-san clamber up onto her shoulder with a snack in his paws. Onee-chan was spoiling him it seemed.
"Please tell me you don't take that to school."
She perked up at Onii-sama's equally deadpan statement, turning around to look him in the face before tilting her head slightly while her smile becoming slightly amused at the accusation. She wasn't stupid enough to do that. "I don't take it to school, Otou-sama told me not to." That answer apparently satisfied him enough, though he gave a shake as he walked off towards the gate while muttering to himself about something, she herself followed after him without pause, cheerfully dashing through until she caught up to him on the road to town.
Suzuka-chan's tea party was today and even if she could take care of herself and Otou-sama said she was alright going over alone, Onii-sama wouldn't let her go alone for some reason, hmm… he did tend to speak with Suzuka-chan's big sister for long periods of time… Now she just had to recall… ah her name was Shinobu.
Onee-sama also tended to… tease him about going and seeing her after each time he went over. She had no idea exactly why Onee-sama did that since Shinobu-san and Onii-sama had been friends since highschool, but she did it anyway. Whatever the case was, Onii-sama would be escorting her over to Suzuka-chan's home, and because of that they got to talk a little bit on the way over. "How are your classes going, Nanoha?"
She hummed a bit at the question, idly moving her legs a bit before noticing the action and stopping it, turning from looking out the window of the bus to Onii-sama and answering his question truthfully. "I'm tied with Arisa-chan at a perfect score in every class besides the two languages. I'm just above passing in those two." Another hum filled the air between them from her as Onii-sama let out an amused smile, a chuckle rising up before he shook his head.
"I see." His amusement faded quickly, changing quickly to something she was rather… 'uncomfortable' with. It wasn't the emotion itself, but rather what the emotion was directed at that made her 'uncomfortable'… though that wasn't the exact right thing to call it, she just didn't know what to call it. "And your 'training' with Tou-san, how is that going?"
She turned back to the window, giving a shrug when she thought Onii-sama was looking at her, it was going as well as she could expect given her current schedule, there hadn't been any new wounds added to her body and she was doing well enough to get praise. "I'm doing well. Otou-sama has been praising me a few times in the past week. I haven't even gotten a scar in a while." She didn't act or even sound proud at the accomplishment, it was just a statement to answer Onii-sama's question, one that he took with another nod and a short-lived smile of relief.
Really, most of trip was mostly just talking about the usual things an older brother would ask his little sister.
After that they waited until the bus came to the stop they needed to depart at just walked in comfortable silence the rest of the way to the bus stop, then they boarded the bus over to the closest stop to their destination, and finally continued to the mansion.
As they slowly made their way up to the far too big home in her opinion… then again, she thought her own home was a bit too big for her own tastes so who was she to judge other peoples' homes? Back to outside her thoughts, both her and Onii-sama had made it up the walkway and were at the door, where Onii-sama pressed the doorbell without any hesitation.
A minute passed before there was a quiet clamor of sorts on the other side, and the door opened to reveal the head maid… at least she thought it was the head maid, she couldn't remember off-hand… The maid smiled softly at seeing them before she bowed and moved back, beckoning them in with an equally soft greeting, "Welcome, Kyōya-sama, Nanoha-ojou-sama."
They both gave a light bow in return, Onii-sama taking the time to give the maid… Noel-san? a somewhat blank yet respectful "Thank you." given that she copied seconds later with her customary smile, though hers was just respectful. While she may not know what position 'Noel-san' was within the household, she knew the maid by description along with a basic grasp on her personality. She was a good role model to try and imitate, nobody expected kind or gentle people to be dangerous after all.
Shaking herself of that thought, figuratively as that would have been both rude and strange of her to just shake her head for no reason, she followed the maid and Onii-sama as they both were led through the mansion. They passed by several other servants of the house, both maids and butlers doing some manner of cleaning or passing to and fro through the halls and doors, none of them looked at her, 'Noel-san' or Onii-sama, actively making themselves scarce to avoid attention.
She didn't understand why, but they always did that for whatever reason.
After a bit of walking they were let into a sunroom where Suzuka-chan, Arisa-chan and Shinobu-san were along with 'Noel-san's' little sister… she thought 'Falin' was her name. 'Falin' was also a maid, Suzuka-chan's personal one if she was remembering correctly, she was nice like Suzuka-chan, if a little clumsy.
There were also all the cats scattered around the room lounging, maybe that was why the house was so big, cats apparently needed more indoor space than a dog did… or it could be something else… Why was she trying to rationalize why houses were big when she came for a tea party?
After entering the room, 'Noel-san' looked towards them with a gentle look, softly asking them quietly, "Nanoha-ojou-sama, Kyōya-sama, what would like for me to bring you to drink?" Both Onii-sama and herself didn't really have a preference so, they simply gave 'Noel-san' an answer that they'd take anything they had, which had her nod her head still with the same expression.
Shinobu-san walked around to stand in front of Onii-sama the moment they gave their reply, 'Noel-san' taking her leave at that moment through the still open door, then moved around him to the door with a smile before calmly stating with a tinge of happiness in her voice. "Kyōya and I will be in my room. If you three need anything don't hesitate to ask one of the maids or Falin." She gave a nod alongside Suzuka-chan, while Arisa just exclaimed an affirmative from her seat, both of her friends happy, though Suzuka-chan seemed slightly subdued for a moment before it was gone.
With that Falin-san, Onii-sama and Shinobu-san all left through the door one after the other, Falin-san being the last and closing it on her way out, leaving her with Suzuka-chan, Arisa-chan, Scrya-san and the rather large number of cats… One of which was lazily sprawled out on her seat…
It's just a cat… it doesn't know that's your seat… no need to be angry with it. Annoyed, yes.
Setting her bundle down against the table, she pried the offending feline from her seat, placed it on the ground and watched it scamper off in a manner that remined her of 'smugness', immediately after becoming confused until she heard giggling from her friends. Turning around, she found another cat had taken up residence in her chair, looking just as 'smug' as the other one had on her seat. It meowed once, likely to spite her for whatever reason as she narrowed her eyes minutely at the animal and proceeding to do the same process as the first cat had.
After the fourth cat repeating the exact same actions she had lost her patience, though Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan were giggling quietly again over the event happily, which made it somewhat less annoying at least once she'd taken a seat and calmed slightly. Thankfully none of the other cats made a move to claim her seat after the fourth one, at which point she sat down and finally was ready to talk with her friends.
The first thing Arisa-chan brought up was, "Nanoha's Onii-chan and Suzuka's Onee-chan are as lovey-dovey as ever!" … They were?
Then Suzuka-chan replied with an slight affirmative noise and a smile, though her eyes weren't the same as the smile. "Onee-chan has seemed very happy ever since she got to know Kyouya-san." … Well… she wasn't as close to Onii-sama as Suzuka-chan was to her Onee-chan… so she didn't know if Onii-sama was happier after they had met one another… she assumed so.
When both of her friends looked to her, curiosity in their gaze for the most part alongside some other things she couldn't tell, she took a moment to seemingly think before randomly spouting off something. "I think Onii-sama is the same way, he does like coming over and visiting with her." Both of her friends had amused expressions on their faces as she finished, they were both aware that she was… clueless about things like this and probably wouldn't take what she said as accurate.
Still, they giggled and had amusement written into their expressions, which was enough to make her just ignore the prior conversation and move on with life, looking around at the lavishly decorated room as she waited for her friends to stop giggling. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Scrya-san pop out of her bag, and immediately freeze at the sight of one of the cats prowling towards him.
Her smile twitched as it lessened at the sight before she picked him up, partly to ensure he didn't get injured by accident and partly to spite the felines for always taking her chair. She blinked once as a thought hit her, smile turning apologetic as she turned to Suzuka-chan, her friend looking confused as her giggling died, promptly saying something she had forgotten to say because of the cats and conversation taking place shortly after them. "Oh, Suzuka-chan. Thank you for inviting me over today."
Suzuka-chan looked down for a moment with a slight smile on her face, "It's not a problem Nanoha-chan." She paused for a moment before looking up and happily giving a warm look towards her, taking a moment of silence to find more words before starting again, "… I should be thanking you for coming. We don't get to do this that often anymore." Immediately following Suzuka-chan's response and the subsequent agreement, Falin-san came back into the room with some tea and cookies at which point they stopped for a moment, accepted the beverages and snacks and started talking about random things.
After a few minutes, she thought it was somewhere above ten minutes but she couldn't be sure, they all stood up after one another and went outside, her picking up and taking the bundle with her, to another table on the pavilion outside… And of course, another cat was sitting in her seat…
Ignoring the giggles behind her, she picked up the cat by the scruff, ignoring its incensed struggles as she did, quickly sat down on the chair so no other cat could take her seat and finally put the cat down. The feline looked up at her and seemingly glared for the rough treatment she gave it, to which she just stared back in annoyance.
After a lot of giggling and staring, the cat decided it had better things to do and went off to the side of the pavilion to curl up and fall asleep, at which point she finally stopped staring at it and turned back to Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan, the latter barely able to say the words on her mind between her laughter. Finally after a moment taken to calm down, Arisa-chan spoke with lingering amusement in her voice,
"Animals really don't like you Nanoha-chan. Suzuka's cats mess with you every time you've been over her, you need an escort to get through my house without a dog chasing you, and pretty much every other animal I know of besides Scrya tends to run off if you come near them." She gave a sigh and a nod, leading to a bit more giggling at her expense before they on from the subject… it wasn't her fault they didn't like her… She hadn't done anything bad to any animal and they still didn't like her for whatever reason… the corgi was a mercy killing since it was already dying so that was a good deed done to ease the suffering of it.
As all things came to her in recent time however, her trip was about to come to a rather… poor ending.
The chime of a Jewel Seed activating sounded once more in her mind, however, rather than immediately get up and bolt she looked over at Suzuka-chan and asked, "Suzuka-chan? Do you mind if I go for a quick walk through the woods?" While she received a look of confusion, her friend did end up shaking her head after picking up a kitten by her feet and petting it, much to the feline's delight.
Happily nodding in thanks, she stood up and picked up Scrya-san from the table, before walking towards the treeline, not even acknowledging Arisa-chan's laughter at something behind her. Knowing the place they were at, a cat definitely just took her seat and was curling up in it now, she'd deal with that later when this was over with and done.
She kept walking sedately until she was no longer in view of Arisa-chan or Suzuka-chan, immediately undoing the cloth bundle and setting her sword at its rightful place at her hip. She took a moment to think to herself before wrapping the cloth around her arm, she'd probably lose it due to the unfamiliar woods if she put it somewhere and she'd rather not return to the party with an uncovered sword… Otou-sama wouldn't let her use her sword again if someone found out she had it.
"Wake up, Razing Heart." A little command had her jewel awaken and garb her in her combat clothing, shortly before she slotted it into the metal of her sword and crept off into the woods, wary of whatever the Jewel Seed could be this time. Scrya-san was already on the ground and setting up some form of barrier that was supposed to act like the time she had properly met Scrya-san, and apparently it worked the exact same way as everything became grey and muted…
Then came another chime… and a huge kitten emerged from the trees…
That was actually quite frightening if it kept to what the other cats liked to do and messed with her, just because of who big the cat was now and it not realizing how dangerous it was. The fact that it looked through the branches directly at her and seemed to gain a sparkle in its eye when the moment it saw who she was…
Nope, nope, nope.
Without saying anything to Scrya-san, she bolted away in slight fright from the giant kitten, not noticing if he said anything in response to her departure, rushing further into the forest to escape the kitten before it did something unfortunate to her. She wasn't in the least surprised that the cat let out a rumbling meow, one that was more a playful growl than a meow, just after she started running away before it started chasing after her.
She was not dealing with a giant cat, especially since it was Suzuka-chan's and the risk of hurting it was high… the corgi incident came unbidden to her mind. So seeing as she wasn't going to fight the cat, she just ran as fast as possible from it… then out of seemingly nowhere as they passed through a clearing in the forest, something hit the kitten stopping its pursuit with a startled yelp.
… She may not enjoy being around animals because of them being… 'mean' to her, but they hadn't ever done anything to make her hate them or wish them pain, only beat them in their little 'games'. So, the moment she heard the yelp, she immediately turned on her heel and charged towards the cowering cat, looking up and watching as a light descended towards it she reacted as quickly as she could in doing something.
Pink light hardened in front of her as she ran, vaguely hearing Razing heart whisper something in her head as it, but she wasn't focused on hearing it, moments before a rather absurd amount of yellow beam-like lights rained down against her pink. One of the beams managed to get past her and her battered shield, hitting the kitten another time and causing it to whimper and press itself into the ground behind her, paws covering its head as it shook violently.
The rain stopped after a while, but she didn't let that dissuade her from keeping the cracked shield of light up, several seconds passing by in silence until a girl that looked her age peered down at her and the cat from a tree branch at the edge of the treeline with cold, pretty red eyes. The girl was dressed primarily in black, the main outfit looking somewhat like a swimsuit with an attached pink skirt and a belt seemingly separating the two pieces of clothing. There was a pair of gloves adorning her hands, a pair of laced shoes with rather long stockings, and two ribbons tying her blonde hair into ponytails as well, as well as a rather… obstructive cloak on her back.
All in all, she looked rather pretty, though that wouldn't stop her from beating up the unknown girl for hurting one of Suzuka-chan's kittens.
Judging both by the fact that she was on a tree branch and that she was dressed strangely she assumed that the girl either was a very fit girl from out of country, or she came from the same place as Scrya-san. When she finally looked a second time and saw the strange looking polearm in her hands, she was inclined to believe the latter, or at least some place that had the same technology and 'magic' as. "A magic-user, different than normal. One after the Lost Logia?" That and her muttering was rather indicative that she was looking for something, and then came the single phrase that sealed that questioning. "Device… unknown? … Unimportant. Lost Logia, Jewel Seed retrieval in progress." Her smile, which had already been strained, nearly dropped completely from her face as she readied herself for a fight.
She didn't have long to wait as the girl transformed the 'staff' into a scythe with a blade of light… that was a rather strange weapon, it wasn't practical unless you were very experienced with it. Her body moved on autopilot as she thought, immediately moving her sword in the path of the scythe before parrying it away.
A horizontal swing she made in turn was jumped over by the strange girl, the retaliatory strike from the scythe meant to strike her shoulder once more parried off to the side before she spun and tried once more to cut her opponent. This time the blow was deterred by the girl ducking and using the scythe as a fulcrum to rapidly get behind her. Three more bouts were exchanged in similar if slightly different manners where nothing important occurred, the fourth clash consisting of the girl backing away from her after the prior engagement and the scythe reverting to its default state.
Quickly pointing the stave at her as she gave chase, several yellow orbs appeared in the air around the girl before being sent straight at her. The first was cut in half as if it was nothing, the second sidestepped with ease, the third parried clumsily, with the fourth and final one catching her in the chest… it hurt about as much as her failures in flying did, that boded well for her at least.
The unknown girl with dead eyes took advantage of her momentary thought and lapse of attention, changing her weapon back into a scythe before somehow the device called out "Arc Saber." and sent the blade of the scythe spinning directly at her like a ring. She chose the stupid brain-dead decision for whatever reason after the realization that the beams didn't hurt. and ran straight into it. She quickly and painfully paid the price for her foolishness by being sent straight into a tree with an attack that hurt a bit more than a dull ache…
Then the tree decided to fall on top of her… of course it did…
A roll out of the tree's way save her from death by tree, or at least injury by tree, and placed her directly in the path of the girl as she tried to swipe at her neck. It was good for her that her sword was already coming up and managed to block it, otherwise she may have been seriously hurt that time. Clenching her fist tightly, she decided to try and at least get some questions answered while there was an apparent lull in their skirmish, "Who are you, and why are you after the Jewel Seeds?"
Perhaps it was due to her being rather… unimposing, or maybe it was just because the girl was either confident that she would win or simply didn't care, but she didn't answer her question the way she wanted, instead merely applying more force against her before saying briefly in a similarly dead voice, "Even if I answered, it would likely be meaningless." … Well that was just being vague for vague's sake… so seeing as she probably wouldn't get anything out of her, or rather nothing important, she decided to continue with the fight with a single action.
Said action was just a simple punch. Nobody really expected them when you fought with actual weapons.
She reared her fist back, pushed against the other girl's stave with her 'strength' spell active, taking the girl by surprise at the sudden force pushing against her, and punched her straight in the chest. She expected the other girl to skid back from the blow and be ready to fight again, she did not however expect her to go flying into a tree and then through it into another one… were other magic-users not as durable as her?
Oh, she was getting up again… and she was flying… haa… this was going to hurt wasn't it?
And again the other girl treated her to a bombardment of yellow beams, while they didn't hurt as much, the rain of bolts were still annoying to wade through, and that didn't even include the annoyance she felt at the other girl's apparent mastery of flight.
After probably a minute and a half her body stopped getting hit by the other girl's spells, with the dust kicked up around her finally settling. By the end of the barrage she was in a bit of pain even with her 'endurance' spell active… that spell really needed a name as did the other one, just calling them 'strength' and 'endurance' was rather… dull, even if they were simple things.
At some point during the rain of magic, she had been pushed back to the fallen tree she'd thrown the girl into… An idea came unbidden to her mind, a bad idea likely, a very bad idea but she was annoyed enough at the girl to try and do it regardless. Impaling her blade into the earth, she gripped part of the fallen trunk with one hand and another part with her other before lifting up, thanking whatever governed luck that she had made the 'strength' spell yesterday and was trying this with a smaller, lighter tree than the rest.
Her muscles strained under the thing's weight regardless, it wasn't like she was ever trained to do this in the first place… Then again no one was supposed to throw a tree at another person anyway…
The dust began settling, letting her see the girl slowly descending towards the ground towards where she assumed the cat was. Finding her target she quickly brought herself to throwing the thing, her muscles still straining under the weight of the tree as she took a step forward, rearing the trunk back as far as she could without losing her grip or balance. Feeling a little generous seeing as almost no one would expect this she called out once just as she let the trunk fly, "This will hurt slightly."
Confusion quickly turned to a very muted panic as a yellow circle of symbols lit up in front of her, the tree uncaring of whatever defense that offered and smashing through the upper right of the circle, the entire shield shattering on the impac. As the tree slowly fell back to the ground, the other girl watched it sail through the air until landing with a crash at some point in the forest, turning back to her the moment the crash.
Well, this was going to hurt. This was going to hurt far more than the previous attack from the girl had…
On the bright side, at least she knew a limit of her strength right now… her thoughts stopped as a large beam with purple lightning raced forward. Knowing what was almost certainly going to happen she pulled her sword from the earth and sheathed it in one motion, calmly accepting the hit without a word and a neutral smile. The bolt of magic treated her to a pain that was almost as bad as Otou-sama's slashes, blasting her through two trees with lightning coursing through her body and causing her to convulse minutely before hitting a third tree hard enough to cause it to fall on top of her.
Fortunately, the tree didn't kill her, unfortunately, she wasn't knocked out from the painful blow and she was now stuck under the tree… and the after effects of the lightning and blunt force were making everything hard to concentrate on through the pain. Faintly, she heard the kitten yowl in pain, and a moment later Scrya-san was at her side with concern in his body language… she had completely forgotten her employer was here… Wait… the kitten was yowling… and the girl was after Jewel Seeds as well…
Awkwardly, she raised her right arm up and brought her elbow down on top of the bark pinning her down, jarring the limb into numbness and breaking the tree in half. Immediately after getting to her feet, she bolted towards where she had heard the yowl come from, stumbling slightly with each step. Her right arm now hanging limply at her side, she drew her sword as quickly as she could while running with a single hand, failing rather miserably as she took the sheathe with it somehow…
Otou-sama would berate her quietly if he had seen that.
Shaking her head of that thought she leapt through the treeline back into the clearing just as the Jewel Seed materialized above the rapidly shrinking cat. Wasting no time, she charged as fast as she could towards the other girl, only barely being slow enough to not interrupt the girl from sealing the Jewel Seed before she barreled into them. For a brief moment after the impact, the girl's face lit up in emotion for the first time as actual surprise formed on her face at the unexpected action, before both of them tumbled to the ground.
Her opponent stopped rolling first and climbed to her feet, surprise quickly fading to be replaced with the blank face she normally wore, with herself coming to a rest panting on the ground in front of the girl. Exhausted and in pain, she pulled herself up from the ground, leaning heavily on her sheathed sword to keep herself standing, at that point the other girl deigned to speak again in the same dead tone as before. "You're tenacious."
… She probably wasn't thinking straight at this point, her head had taken a lot of hits in the past… however long it was… but still there was one thing that she could recall with perfect clarity right now. A Takamachi always completes their job, regardless of if it ends in their death or the deaths of innocents. A job was fulfilled no matter the cost, the only exception being if another Takamachi was in the way, or their employer died… the former hadn't happened in a long, long time…
She was in her way… she was trying to take the Jewel Seeds for herself… She was in her way… she… wouldn't… let… her… Darkness claimed her sight, before she felt herself falling, faintly hearing "I'm sorry." In the same dead voice as before she heard nothing else.
*****
The sky and sun had changed color by the time she woke up.
Trying to raise herself from the bed she found herself in, uncomfortably soft, only for her to wince in pain and slump into the bed as a surge of pain engulfed her body. Looking over herself, she saw that she was in her normal clothing, with her right arm bandaged rather tightly and several other bandages pressing into her chest and stomach.
One of the maids, she thought it was Falin-san because of the violet hair but she could be mistaken, came in to check on her, immediately leaving upon seeing she was awake, likely to let others know she was awake. Shortly after that, the door burst open and she was surrounded by Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan demanding she tell them what happened and why she was hurt… well, it was mostly just Arisa-chan that did it.
"What happened!? You didn't come back for an hour so went looking for you. Then you get found under a big tree branch with a cat next to you and your covered in bruises. What happened?" Arisa-chan wasn't letting up, even after a couple of minutes, which wasn't a surprise in the least… which meant that she had to deflect somehow while keeping it believable and not mention magic.
She didn't like lying unless she was told to, but it was better to let Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan remain unaware of what she was doing, they'd only worry or get themselves worked up and try and get her to stop.
"Ah, I was walking along with Scrya-san through the forest, and a rather large tree branch fell on me and knocked me out. I don't remember anything else." A little lie, one that was partially true, though while Arisa-chan seemed to accept it, Suzuka-chan had a frown on her face and looked as though she didn't believe her in the slightest. Suzuka-chan didn't say anything at least about it, instead just fussing over her quietly.
She managed to weather the storm of Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan worrying over her, being allowed to get up and out of the uncomfortable bed the moment Onii-sama arrived at the room, Onii-sama helping her out of the bed as she said goodbye to Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan. Quietly they left without anything else happening, though Onii-sama was quieter than usual as well was holding on to her sword… she wanted it back… it was important to her.
They walked the streets toward home in silence, the evening light eventually fading from view until night took its place just as they reached the gate into the compound. She momentarily stopped at the threshold upon seeing Otou-sama standing in front of the building, with Onee-sama sitting slightly worried on the deck, immediately losing the worry upon seeing her walking.
Her pause was brief enough that she was moving again before anyone caught her stopping, especially since Onii-sama had Otou-sama's attention, even though nothing was said at all. A simple "I'll handle it from here." from Otou-sama was enough to make Onii-sama bow and hand over her sword and its cloth covering to Otou-sama, Otou-sama motioning for her to follow him which she did without question.
Onee-sama looked her over quickly before nodding and walking away without a word, leaving her to slowly follow behind Otou-sama as he took them not to their usual destination of the dojo outside but to Otou-sama's room… She'd never been inside of this room before, neither her, Onii-sama or Onee-sama were allowed in here unless Otou-sama allowed them, something that wasn't looked forward to.
"I take it that your job is the reason for your current condition." She gave a slight nod of her head at Otou-sama's calm words, unwrapping the bandages around her arm, working the limb as she did, to show unmarred skin. She was rather thankful that, between her own magic and Scrya-san's, she would likely be in a good condition come the morning, not perfect but that was expected given she wasn't capable of healing herself.
"Hmm…" Her attention turned back to Otou-sama as he made a noise of contemplation, one of his currently closed eyes opening minutely to look at her, before continuing his questioning, "Were your injuries related to the nature of the job… or outside interference?"
The darkening of her face spoke enough, and so Otou-sama gave a single grave nod before holding out her blade to her, her demeanor immediately brightening into a joyful expression as she held onto her treasure happily, barely listening to Otou-sama as she basked in her blade's return. "… Until you are finished with this job we will postpone all training. These sessions will be made up at a later time. As well, whatever it is you have been doing in the forest, you have my full permission to use our previous times to indulge in it, so long as your schedule remains intact."
She gave another nod, happily basking in the return of her blade before standing, bowing once with a "Thank you", that Otou-sama waved off without a change in his expression. Only as she was leaving did she have the presence of mind to look around, noting that aside from a few pictures and a desk with neatly organized papers it was remarkably similar to her own. It wasn't like it mattered, since she wouldn't be here often, so she walked out of the room and started
She wouldn't let Otou-sama be disappointed in her, after that fight with the other magic-user she was… quite annoyed with her lack of progress on flight, as well as her lack of ability to fight with the girl. And seeing as they were both collecting Jewel Seeds, they would be meeting again in battle, so she was fully prepared to focus solely on her uncooperative spell work during her free time.
Mulling over those thoughts on her way back to her room through the wooden hallway, seeing as it was nearly time for her to sleep again, she put together a simple checklist of sorts for what she'd need to do in the coming days.
First and foremost, she'd have to finish working on was flight, then after that she'd have to make herself somehow faster, otherwise even with flight, she'd be unable to even catch her foe as all the dodging showed. Lastly, in response to all the spells thrown her way, she'd have to make something to at least be able to exchange in those situations, or possibly use to intercept some of the more dangerous shooting spells the other girl used.
Regardless, her face darkened as she thought of her foe to be, she wouldn't allow the other girl to interfere any more than she already had with her job. She'd very much like to not kill her, as she was probably much nicer in person, but if it came down to it… nothing stood in a Takamachi's way when a job was concerned.
Conception III
- Location
- United States, Texas
Disclaimer: I do not own Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha nor any of the various seasons made after the original.
The next morning she woke at her usual time, dressing herself quickly and quietly in her normal clothing before walking out of her room just before the clock chimed three times, making her way through the halls until she reached outside and continued to walk until the woods consumed her. Scrya-san wasn't with her this time, something that suited her after yesterday's fight with the strange girl, she had several things she needed to learn and make if she wanted to be able complete her job.
Her hand tightened around the handle of her sword as she drew it, a low creak heard as she did, roughly pulling Razing Heart off her necklace before slotting it into the metal and changed into her 'work' clothes with a flash of pink before beginning her practice. She wouldn't fail Scrya-san again, one failure was already too many marks against her and would only drag her name through the dirt.
The first and most important thing that needed to be addressed was her flight spell, she had to make it work otherwise she would never be able to match the other girl.
So with that simple thought in mind she set to work, blowing up on the first try before immediately setting up another try in the direction she was going. She went straight through that attempt, so another was made directly behind it, this one she managed to brush against for a second before it exploded, progress was being made towards her first attempt's lucky try.
Trying to flip around to present her legs towards wherever it was she was going to land was a good idea, however while she was rather good in physical education, she wasn't that skilled in acrobatics yet, so all she managed to do was send herself flying into a tree with the side of her chest taking the hit. A grimace worked its way onto her face at both the failure to right herself and continue, alongside the dull pain her 'endurance' spell couldn't block out completely. Immediately after gathering herself, she scrambled to a foothold and leapt down, another attempt of her spell conjured beneath her that immediately shattered…
That was progress, now it was behaving more like a solid surface rather than… something, she had no idea what to describe her prior attempts…
Pushing that thought out of her head as she stood up from the ground, she immediately got back to work jumping up and onto a platform, managing once more to stand on it for a moment before it blew up and sent her flying. Once more she set up another platform where she was going, only to shatter through it without remotely slowing, then through the next as well before landing in the branches of a tree, thankfully slow enough after going through the second to not hurt herself too much.
Again, she jumped from the branches to the ground below, another attempt made under her that exploded her straight back up, the attempt after finding amusement in sending her straight back down into the dirt. Picking herself up and giving herself a light dusting off, she took a deep breath to calm herself of her frustration before once more jumping up, and immediately got sent flying sideways through a tree.
Lying still amidst the broken tree as the severed portion fell half a meter from her, she took another deep breath to calm herself, then another before climbing back to her feet and walked back to the little, battered grove. Yet another breath taken before she jumped up again, landing on a platform that cracked immediately upon her touching it, two seconds passing before it shattered completely like most of them, the one made underneath giving the same results before she was back on the ground.
Now a fourth of the way through her usual count of attempts, a fact that she idly remembered for whatever reason, she stilled and let out the frustration slowly consuming her.
After what she assumed was about a minute she stopped, regular smile back in place, and proceeded to begin again, hopping onto a new platform that immediately cracked the moment she put her weight on it, shattering a single moment later and letting her fall. Another platform appeared below her, holding her for a short moment before sending her flying up again, the third platform taking the same amusement as one of the prior ones in sending her hurtling towards the ground.
This time however she managed to make a platform underneath her shortly before she would have hit the dirt, a rather loud cracking sound echoing out until five seconds later the platform broke. Her smile grew a bit brighter at the progress made there, it seemed that finally she was getting the hang of flight after so many attempts and time spent, and so motivated after that 'success' she hopped up to another platform, her smile brightening when it didn't immediately blow up.
Unfortunately for her however, her apparent success lulled her to a false sense of security, and she was sent careening into a tree, through it and into another tree, through that one as well before indenting herself into a third tree by an explosion that was much more violent than the previous ones. Even with that… accident and the dull pain shooting through her body, her smile was still bright as she pried herself from the tree…
Though upon looking down she noticed her sword wasn't in her hand, her smile dimmed before immediately looking up in a somewhat frantic manner, where she found it impaled through the 'carcass' of the first tree.
Her body, even with her 'endurance' spell active, ached as she forced herself to walk over and retrieve her sword from the tree. If there was one thing above all the others she was glad that her training with Otou-sama it was she had a rather… high amount of pain tolerance. Upon reaching her sword, she pulled it out of the bark with ease, taking care to look it over for any chips that may have come from the weapons landing. Upon checking it over and finding nothing thankfully, she made a strained hum of happiness before she walked back into the open-aired grove, beginning her training again with a short hop onto a readily made platform.
She counted four seconds before she was rapidly sent skyward by another concussive explosion. Cresting the treetops had her make another platform beneath her quickly, her feet barely touching it before she leapt off it and onto another one, her intuition failing her there as her first one cracked and shattered shortly before her second exploded sending her higher into the air.
If she had been paying attention to the scenery around her, she probably would have been treated to quite a beautiful view of the city she lived near and the ocean beyond it. As it was, she was preoccupied making sure she'd impact the next platform she made to stop her from going any higher up and trying to figure out how to get down without severely injuring herself. And trying to stop herself from spinning, she may not get motion sickness, but it was very annoying to have to figure out what direction was what.
With a heavy impact, she rammed against the newest platform completely upside down, mentally giving thanks that this one was the more solid type instead of the fragile one, before she pushed off of it back towards the ground, leaving the platform to detonate behind her. Rapidly approaching the second platform, she brought her right side to bear before landing roughly onto it, her side taking the brunt of impact.
A second after the impact the entire platform cracked with an audible noise before shattering and forcing her to fall again, another platform made just lower than that one to try and give her a reprieve. The new platform cracked and shattered just as quickly as the prior one, but by the point it exploded she had managed to regain her breath from the hard landing and leapt off it back into the air.
The next platform she made and dropped onto was solid and unyielding, giving her a brief moment to catch her breath for a second before she leapt off and fell as it detonated harmlessly above her. Her next platform gave her a bit of respite as it cracked on impact, five seconds passing barely giving her enough time for her to get back to her feet. Just like before she leapt and was falling again for whatever time it was now, though this time she was just above the treetops, something that she felt relief for.
With the trees passing beside her now, she made a final platform that would hopefully see her safely to the ground, landing heavily in a crouch on it with an impact that jarred her entire body, before mentally counting the seconds as they passed by. At least, she did until she passed six seconds and the platform didn't send her flying or just break entirely, which left her incredibly confused as to why it hadn't.
She waited a short while longer just to make sure the entire thing wouldn't just collapse on her before gingerly beginning to stand up from her crouch, still confused why it didn't shatter. Taking a few steps to the side, she made another platform a bit lower than her current one before hopping over to it, the thing neither cracking or exploding as she expected when she landed on it lightly.
Realization quickly dawned on her before she let a vibrant smile break out on her face, triumphantly holding her sword up to the sky in what she assumed was joy. Finally, finally she had beaten her flight spell and was able to use it… probably. She hoped very dearly that there was nothing else in the future, barring something to do with swordsmanship, that needed her to put that much effort into, she'd have grey hair before she was twenty if that were to happen.
Taking a few moments after that… eventful bit of training to rest, catch her breath and come down from her exhilaration at finally beating her 'most fearsome enemy', she took the time to think of her next plan of action the moment she stood back up. Said plan being to think up some way to stand toe-to-toe with the other girl, which meant being able to actually hit her in the first place, in turn meaning she'd have to become faster than she currently was. Hopefully that was something that should hopefully come easier to her than 'flight' did.
While thinking of whatever would be used, she took to performing a portion of her prior training, mindlessly slashing really since she needed to think, it was a better usage of time than just sitting around and thinking anyway. It took much longer than her prior attempts to figure out how her new spell would work, but eventually she managed to think up something worthwhile enough to make an attempt with.
Taking a bit from her other two augments, notably just the locations of where to put her mana, she'd make her bones hollow like that of a bird's, something that would by itself make her bones brittler if not for her 'endurance' spell strengthening them. In addition to that, she'd be sending more mana into the muscles of her arms and legs to strengthen them, but the main idea behind the entire spell would be to reduce her weight instead of speeding her up.
…Now came the even harder part… figuring out how to test if it was working or not…
She didn't have anything on hand that could tell time, she hadn't needed to since Otou-sama always made sure that they were done by a certain time before. Now that she was on her own, she'd have to bring a watch out to keep track of time… wait… what even was time? And with that thought she immediately discarded her Barrier Jacket for her regular clothing, sheathed her sword while taking out Razing Heart before slipping it back around her neck before bolting back through the woods towards home.
Bursting through the trees she hastily made her way over to the house, slowing down to a quick walk just before she reached the corridor and making her way to her room. Quietly slipping in, she swiftly moved over to check her clock at the bedside, a silent sigh of relief leaving her as it read only a minute and a half before the next hour came.
With that crisis averted she set about changing into her school clothing, the light amount of noise finally waking up Scrya-san from his sleep as she was stripping off the bandages if the rustling behind her was any indication. Finishing her dressing after a minute, she set out to do her morning chores with Scrya-san following behind her rather closely before suddenly running up her back to perch on her shoulder.
The unexpected movement didn't gain any reaction from her, seeing as she somewhat expected it, so she moved on to her single chore this morning, sweeping each building in the compound, a long, arduous chore she didn't like doing. Haa… well, the faster she got it done, the faster she would be finished with her chores this morning and be able to get back to work making spells.
Aside from that, school went well in the last week before the short break, she managed to get to passing in her English and Japanese classes, just barely though as was common with her due how bad she was with the class. The other classes were aced with ease, though P.E. was brutal on the second to last day... Suzuka-chan was a monster when it came to dodgeball…
Regardless of that… it wasn't unpleasant but neither was it really pleasant… well she could just say it was fun as the word wasn't coming to mind, which was a true statement. Regardless of that, other than school ending for a while there wasn't much else that happened aside from her daily activities, she had gone out with Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan twice and done random things. Going to a café and talking, shopping or wandering around a park among a few other things, nothing worthwhile to remember or talk about really.
Making her newest spell progressed decently in the two days after she created it, managing to get the spell to work without most of the backlash it caused as a side-effect. She had learned the night that she'd made it that the damage that particular spell could cause if it was used poorly was much more painful than the other two augments. Strained muscles and cracked bones together was enough that her pain tolerance was at its limit, and something she would never want to experience again.
Thankfully she wouldn't have to deal with that issue much anymore, though having said that, the actual speed difference between her without the augment and with it and the others on wasn't as much as she had hoped it would be.
Other than her rather lackluster speed augment, she had only worked on two other spells, one more augment and her first shooting spell. The former of the two was the simplest spell she had made so far, all it was was mana coursing along her blade, which in turn just meant that she put her mana around the blade, simple and, beyond the initial explosion on trying it out, it worked well.
The shooting spell on the other hand… that was tricky, though nowhere near as tricky as flight had been. Her first instinct had been to make a single slash that was sent from the sword at an enemy while her newest augment was up, then she accidently discovered something that was just a bit better. Whenever her sword was swung with the augment up it left a vague trail of motes in its wake.
Seeing as it would just be a waste of mana to let those motes dissipate and do nothing, she set about trying to 'weaponize' them, which was much harder than one would assume. The trail left in the sword's wake didn't have enough mana supplied to it naturally to be utilized in the way she wanted, that was obvious by the fifth attempt, so she had to actively force mana into the trail to make the motes linger around her.
Unfortunately, while that allowed the motes to linger longer, they were then abysmally slow compared to before, let alone the other girl's spells, barely able to move a meter in a minute's time, and even if she'd use them in that state, they were too few to be worth any factor. The twelfth try alleviated the speed and numbers problem, not by much seeing as they were still slower than her walking slowly, all that had happened by then was the motes had gotten smaller, about the size of a baseball, and faster.
Each consecutive time she attempted the spell until the twenty-third and final try had the motes becoming increasingly smaller, to about the size of a golfball at the end, quicker and more numerous. By the she finished with the spell, she made out seventeen motes being made with every swing whenever she pushed mana into the trail, and eight whenever she didn't.
Yet even, with all the improvements and refinements to it she couldn't make them anywhere near as quick as the other girl's spells had been. So, she decided to move on from that spell on back to her original idea, though she kept the newer spell close to herself, just like her other spells she'd made, eventually she would try and find the correct place for it.
After the fight, and loss, with the other girl, Scrya-san had tried unsuccessfully to get her to rest and relax, annoying her into excluding him from the morning sessions, she'd have done the evening sessions as well if it wasn't insulting to do so. Though with the way he was continuing to try and reign in her training habits to what he considered 'manageable', she'd probably ignore him when it came to anything beyond the lectures and orders for the collection of Jewel Seeds.
Having said that, most of her new spells were now made, tested, and completed solely in the morning, for the reason of not upsetting him and not annoying her to the point it made their relationship more strained. He was a very nice employer after all, one she would like to work for again on some other job he needed done after this was all over with.
She was so lucky to have such a nice employer for her first job. From what Otou-sama told both her and Onee-sama whenever he did talked about his old jobs, it was rare for anyone to be 'nice', especially with the jobs that were normal for them. Most of the time employers didn't care about their hired muscle as long as the job was done, which she could understand with how the world was and them being unconcerned with people they didn't know.
Speaking of Onee-sama though, she, Onii-sama, Shinobu-san, Suzuka-chan, Arisa-chan, Falin-san and Noel-san had all set out to a hot spring a bit outside of the city. She'd been invited to go along by Arisa-chan, but she'd given the excuse… or was it a lie?… probably a lie, that Otou-sama had grounded her from taking any trips outside the city.
While Arisa-chan had been saddened by her words she'd said at the time, Suzuka-chan had narrowed her eyes slightly at her before she quickly gave them a promise that she'd go somewhere else with them whenever her 'grounding' was over without any complaints… Considering the devious smile Arisa-chan had the moment she finished giving that promise she had a feeling she somehow had messed up somehow…
That aside she had an actual reason for not going, the same one that had Otou-sama only driving them there and was coming home the moment they were in the building, but that reason was far too private to reveal to anyone other than her family.
Having declined going to the hot spring and now waiting for Otou-sama to return, she was stuck alone with Scrya-san with nothing to occupy her for the moment. Training was… not particularly looking promising with Scrya-san there, at best she'd get a lecture from him about something that was possibly interesting, and there were no chores that needed to be done until the next day.
Well, with a lecture she'd at least learn something new and spend her free time until something better came along. A brief thought passed about what she would ask about, quickly coming to a conclusion before then wondering what Scrya-san would tell her about the subject. With a shake of her head amidst her unceasing walk in the grass, she looked over at Scrya-san before asking her question, "Scrya-san, what are Devices?"
Her employer jolted in surprise at the abrupt question, though he quickly went back to sitting down on the porch, still somewhat off-balance, and continued to watch her pace around. Before she turned her head back to watching where she was going, she saw Scrya-san nod to himself a few times, maybe to try and get himself back to somewhat composed before he started the lecture. "Umm, to start Devices are tools that mages use to augment their natural magical ability and to help them in the casting."
Scrya-san took a quick breath as she turned about in quickly alleviating boredom, continuing the moment after he let out the breath. "They tend to run the calculations faster than most humans, lowering the cast time for their users, as well as memorizing spells that are cast by mages and storing them for later use." …Huh, that was nice to know. If she could figure out if the device she used was doing that or not, and if it wasn't helping her she'd have to figure out to get it to work. "Most also tend to have certain programs such as a stopwatch, alarm, calculator, simple little things to aid in a mage's everyday life." … She stopped walking the moment Scrya-san said the first item that could be used from a Device, something Scrya-san seemed to notice since he didn't say anymore after, though she didn't see what he was doing.
Taking a very deep breathe, she started harshly berating herself now that she knew the little jewel around her neck was also a stopwatch, annoyance creeping into her from the information. If she had known that she would have had her 'speed' spell done a day earlier, meaning every other spell after would have been done earlier, possibly even managing to finish her other shooting spell by now…
Scrya-san waited for her to begin moving again before continuing on the moment she had stopped, he was getting to understand when she was paying attention after so long, "There are six types of devices that I know of, though I've only seen three of them in person, there are Storage Devices, Boost Devices, Armed Devices, Intelligent Devices, Unison Devices and lastly Hybrid-Intelligent Devices."
Scrya-san finished that long sentence with a drawn-out breath, taking a few seconds to properly get back his breath before continuing with a passion-filled voice, Scrya-san enjoyed teaching others about things. "Storage Devices are the most common in today's time, while not as good as several of other devices in terms of intelligence they tend to process spells faster than most of the others. However, they're normally not particularly… 'good' at doing things without someone directly guiding them, so they can't help their wielders with unexpected surprises."
Again, Scrya-san took a breath from yet another long-winded explanation, one she took advantage in thinking over the Device he spoke of. Razing Heart likely wasn't a Storage Device, it hadn't 'stored' any of the spells she'd made or made them easier to cast like Scrya-san said they did, which meant Razing Heart was one of the others.
"Boost Devices are an off-shoot of Storage Devices, specializing almost solely in support spells that aid the caster or one of their allies, those that dabble in summoning spells also tend to use them exclusively." At this point she went and sat down in front of her employer, having tired of simply walking around listening to him for the moment and waited for him to continue, mentally crossing off another type of Device that Razing Heart probably wasn't as she did.
"I only know of Armed Devices, though they are used by a few individuals that practice Modern Belkan magic, that is a lecture for another day Nanoha." She gave a quick nod in understanding before the ferret went back to speaking, "Their origin lies somewhere in Ancient Belka, another lecture for yet another time, and were primarily devices used in combat situations. From what little I know, they possess a bit more intelligence than Storage Devices, though far less than Intelligent Devices, and are more weapons than anything else."
A sigh was given as he finished that part, one she waited patiently for to end as her body silently swayed with a smile in place, taking in everything he said without issue. After a while of resting, Scrya-san continued with his lecture, only slightly winded despite the energy he was putting it. "Intelligent Devices are among the most advanced in terms of artificial intelligence the Bureau knows about an is able to make. The few I've seen have different personalities and think in different ways as well, which suits their wielders well."
She looked down at the black jewel at her neck, wondering what exactly its personality was, she didn't know what gender the device had, if it even had one, so she'd have to settle for 'it' until she heard the voice. "Having said that, they are fully capable of acting in the user's best intentions, you've been on the receiving end a few times now."
She gave another nod at that, she had never actively been using a spell to protect herself… come to think of it she would need to figure out how to set up or develop one at some point… that was something Scrya-san should be happy with teaching her compared to everything else. Returning to back to the world after that thought went through her head, she saw Scrya-san looking up at her, waiting a patiently for her to focus before he continued with the exact same passion he had at the start.
Scrya-san was a good teacher as well as good employer, even if he tried to continually keep her from the more strenuous parts of her training.
"I've never seen a Unison Device, and to be frank I don't expect to no matter how much I may dream of it, such is their rarity and the fact that no one know how to make one in current times. What little I can tell you about them is that they are essentially a Device given human form that were created in Ancient Belka. Other than that all I can do is assume." She nodded her head as he paused, just from his description alone, Unison Devices seemed to be extremely difficult to make. And whatever Belka was, given it had the moniker 'Ancient' attached, it was probably long before now, and as with everything, things and people died and were lost to time.
Again she returned to her employer, this time ending her thoughts as he finished regaining his breath and letting him continue without wasting any time. "Neither have I seen a Hybrid-Intelligent device, which I don't rightly know what those are. All I understand of it is that it is the closest thing that the Bureau has made to a Unison Device, and even then, that's just a rumor that floated among the archaeologists I've talked with."
"For all we know, Ancient Belka could have made their own Hybrid-Intelligent Devices." Scrya-san gave a shrug as he finished speaking, letting her know when he was done as he made no effort to continue the lecture. She gave one last nod before standing back up to her full, rather meager height, stretching her limbs for a short bit while ruminating on the two likely types of Devices that Razing Heart could be.
Stopped her thoughts as she faintly heard something from the front, signaling that Otou-sama was back, though she didn't move a muscle to go in that direction. Instead, she watching as Scrya-san let out a yawn before starting to pad back towards her room, waiting until he was out of sight before walking towards the forest.
She needed to work on her spells a bit more… maybe make something to protect herself with before she headed to bed for the night.
Well… at least she had started moving before she made that realization, somewhere above the just above the treetops to the point of almost brushing against the leaves, going as fast as possible with the aid of her 'speed' augment and her platforms. Her 'endurance' spell was off, it slowed her down and right now given the likely distance, she needed to go as fast as possible to make sure she was there before the other girl.
After what felt like a minute of her bounding along her platforms with a brief brush against the leaves below, a simple, if completely dangerous, idea came to mind. A single bound after the idea came was given to think on it before she went through with it stepping onto the next platform, its face angled towards her destination. With a pulse of mana, she forced it to explode and sent herself flying towards where the chime of the Jewel Seed had come from.
While that method was certainly quicker than just running along her platforms, she forgot one slightly important fact, her 'endurance' spell was off.
That single instance resulted in a miniscule wince of pain directly after she detonated the platform beneath her, feeling something off about her leg that was disregarded before switching on her endurance spell just before she landed on the next platform, slamming into it and giving another wince of pain. 'Endurance' was turned off for three steps across the new platform, then put up again for the next before she was 'flying' again.
She repeated those actions two more times before settling for running across her platforms, a few steps more seeing a corona of light shining into the sky a bit farther ahead further inside the forest. The other girl had already beaten her to the Jewel Seed…
Her smile drooped slightly as she let the platform fade from under her and fell through the foliage towards the ground, a random branch ripped from its tree as she crashed through it by complete accident. It didn't matter much to her other than a slight jarring since she had 'endurance' spell before hitting the ground with a thud and immediately bolting towards where the other girl was supposed to be.
It took only a short few seconds before she was close to the end of the trees, her smile back to its natural 'setting' just as she was about burst from the woods, a platform readily made and pointing ahead that she stepped on.
A clap of noise and shattered mana sounded before she hurtled out of the trees, her eyes taking in the barest of detail around her before finding and focusing on her foe walking away without an ounce of worry or care. She took a step on something wooden before continuing the charge, sending her straight at the other girl's back with her pink-coated sword singing through the air poised to impale the girl in the back.
A brief moment passed before her blade was caught on something, jerking her to a stop and making the attack fail, the girl continuing on without a care off whatever they were on, while her eyes started to refocus off the other girl. Her eyes moved from the other girl to whoever was blocking her, her feet leaving the ground and moving up as she vaguely heard the words "My, my…" uttered in a woman's voice.
Whatever else was said was tuned out as she brought her feet up and placed them just in front of the orange light blocking her, making a platform between and pushed off with an explosion.
There were two sounds she heard, a yelp that probably came from the woman that she barely heard, and quite clearly the shattering of magic ringing out above everything, though she paid both little heed as she flipped to try and get back to an up-right position, landing on the wood surface with a light stumble. Her balance was addressed quickly, before she instantly sped forward as fast she could through the dust made.
Or rather she would have had a hand not caught the back of hakama and thrown her back across the bridge, this time she just slid back for a few meters, one of her hands trying to grip against the wood before she stopped just from momentum running out.
Getting up from her crouch at a somewhat sedate pace, she finally took in the woman protecting the strange girl… that clothing was not decent, not from what she'd been told or seen… A white shirt that looked too short for her, pink… they looked like shorts… red garters near her ankles, black gloves and shoes and two short black capes, one from her shoulders and another at her waist behind the… shorts… though the strangest part about her, was the jewel in her forehead, fox tail and ears…
It said something about her that the first thought she had when she saw those was '… Of course the fox-woman is going to get in my way, every animal loves to mess with me…' That said, considering how many animals messed with her, she figured it was a valid thought.
As the dust cleared, she saw the other girl had stopped at some point during the quick exchange, looking over her shoulder with cold red eyes that ignored her and focused on the fox-woman. She idly heard the fox-woman and the girl talk to one another, well more like the fox-woman talked and the other girl agreed, though she did hear "Don't be reckless…" from the other girl before she took off into the trees, the fox-woman cracking her knuckles before getting into a stance.
"It's been a long while since I got to fight someone, so I'm not going to bother fighting you too seriously. Still, I'm not going to go easy on you kiddo, though I'll make sure you don't die." The woman's eyes glinted and her smile turned feral like an animal's, it didn't really bother herself to see it on another person, though she did tense in preparation as the woman finished. "You really shouldn't have got in our way, kiddo." That last part was hypocritical… though she wasn't about to say anything.
Regardless she paid that no mind, walking forward with her sword pointing down, little motes of mana drifting up from the metal, until she was only a few meters away, at which point both she and the fox-woman sped forward towards one another. A punch directed at her head was ducked under, with a retaliatory slash scraping along another orange shield popping into existence, a second slash directed to the woman's side dodged with a cocky smirk before she was forced to jump back to avoid being swept to the ground with a kick.
Her opponent gave her no respite, chasing after her and throwing three quick punches, the first and third barely dodged while the second managed to graze her chest, thankfully not enough of a hit to hurt her, before a fourth was sent at her prompting a reply in kind. Both fists hit one another, and even with her 'endurance' and 'strength' spells active she barely held against the other fist, a feat that apparently wasn't something the fox-woman was expecting given the slight shock she had on her face. The fox-woman got over her surprise quickly before throwing a kick came into her side.
She braced as much as she could, yet that single solid hit was enough to almost go over her pain tolerance on its own, sending her through the railing of the bridge into the water below. She would have been in the water if not for a hastily set up platform breaking her fall and driving the wind out of her lungs. Immediately upon getting her breath she trusted her instinct and rolled back, narrowly avoiding the fox-woman slamming into the river where she just was in a plume of water, though the she didn't let the rising water to impede her.
A stab through the water found its path blocked by something, so she allowed it to scrape along and off what she assumed was the shield, the mana trailing behind her sword reshaping itself into motes sent into the 'shield' with a simple thought. They wouldn't do much individually, but with the sheer number up above descending, and the amount she was gradually sending into the shield with each swing, it was bound to break eventually.
She managed four more swings at the fox-woman before the last of the water fully collapsed back into the river, allowing both her and the fox-woman to see one another and trading a feral smile and a calm one. Dilated eyes met her own with just a hint of glee and annoyance for a moment after, the moment ending as the woman's shield failed from the fifth blow of her weapon and some large number of motes causing the older woman to leap away.
In a near complete reversal of before, she chased after the woman as another shield was made just as she swung again at her… the amount of shields being thrown around was getting quite aggravating, especially since she wasn't getting through them quickly… Considering she was getting nowhere with trying to overpower the shield, yet another thing she'd have to address at a later date, she changed her strategy and feinted into attacking the shield again.
The moment before she hit the orange shield however, she exploded the platform keeping her above the water, sending both water and herself into the air and momentarily blinding the woman and likely surprising her again. Immediately following that action, she flipped herself to point down and slammed against another platform before immediately exploding it as well to send her over and past the shield.
Her sword lashed out as she passed by, nicking the woman somewhere, where exactly, she had no idea due to both the water and moving far faster than she was used to. Skidding along a platform just above the water's surface, she used her sword as a momentary anchor to twist her back to facing the fox-woman before leaping straight back at her.
No shield was made this time, a move that momentarily caught her off guard and caused her to be hit with an uppercut to the chest, a gasp leaving her before she was sent upwards into, through and over the bridge before landing back in the river.
She managed to catch herself just before she hit the river surface, the platform readily made catching her before shattering and sending her into the warm water, narrowly avoiding the woman crashing down where she would have been had the platform not shattered. Her sword broke through the surface and nearly impaled the woman a few seconds later, missing her target but causing the fox-woman to dodge away from her.
Quickly surfacing she took two gasps for air before leaping aside to avoid the woman again, another exploding platform sending her back onto the bridge railing, a hand reaching the wooden rail and pulling her up. Once on it, she turned around to face the fox-woman before kneeling down to sit on it, legs resting over the wood while staring down at her current foe. It was easy to tell that simple action aggravated the fox-woman far more than anything else so far, it showed in what little remained in the smile turning to a deep scowl.
Otou-sama had said before that people tended to be worse off when they got frustrated with someone… she wondered if that was true? That was a thought and experiment for another time, when there wasn't a job that was important.
Seeing as the woman was seemingly content she took the moment to rest and finally speak once to her opponent, using a… polite tone, considering that the woman was fighting evenly with her, "You're doing a lot better than I expected, at least better than the other girl did when we fought in close-quarters. Then again, she hit very hard with her ranged spells, so I guess that makes up for a lack-luster melee…" She shook off her musing quickly before she looking back down at the woman, who appeared to be a cross between angered and… it may have been pride or it could have been joy… she had no idea, she wasn't good with specific emotions…
She waited a few moments before receiving a reply, the fox-woman being a bit angrier than whatever the other emotion was judging by the lower tone and scowl… maybe… "You're not even close to my Master's strength kiddo, and I haven't been taking you seriously in the slightest. I don't want to upset her if I end up accidently crippling or killing you. Understand kiddo?"
… Well, the other woman managed to annoy her slightly with that, but she put that down shortly after, if she wanted to underestimate her, that was completely fine by her… Then again for all she knew about the fox-woman she could be a lot stronger than her… not a good thought to think. Disregarding that she returned her focus to the woman, eyes narrowing slightly before returning to normal as she gave her short reply to the woman's words, "I think I can handle anything a fox throws my way."
A complete and utter bluff after last week's fight, but the other woman didn't need to know that… and she was now angrier for some reason, talking was done apparently. And with that observation she slipped from the railing back to the water, the woman smashing through the railing and bridge on that side with a single punch, a snarl heard clearly over the destruction above. "Fox? Fox? I'm a wolf you little-!"
… She didn't look like a wolf-woman, her tail was orange with a white tip and fluffy, so unless she showed why she called herself a wolf she would remain fox-woman. That little musing of hers stopping the moment her feet touched the platform covering the river, immediately detonating the platform and sending her towards the shore. Where she was supposed to be was obliterated by the woman as she smashed through the remains of the platform, sending a plume of water straight into the air as she jumped back, carrying her further away from the furious woman.
The other woman charged through the plume with a speed that she hadn't show yet, making her twist around an extremely fast punch that barely missed her own shoulder. She swung her blade diagonally in response, only to miss completely and get her legs swept out from under her before being punched in the chest again, coughing once and feeling something wet dribble from her mouth before being sent flying.
Another platform stopped her from being sent into the trees, her back smashing into it, before she made it explode her up into another platform, the woman's next punch passing harmlessly beneath her as she did. She received no respite, as she got a knee pressed into her chest again, much less powerful due to her height though still enough to send her the platform.
Faintly she felt something crack through the pain, before a new punch sent her flying into tree, and then through the tree… with an aching body and several winces of pain, she stood back up as the top part of the tree fell at her side. Given she wasn't being pummeled into the ground and the woman was both waling away and had her back to her, the fox-woman was seemingly confident that she had put her out of commission with that…
She didn't know whether to be grateful for the overconfidence or angered at the dismissal… she settled for both.
… After this, she'd have to train herself harder than she was prior, especially since apparently trees were her hardest hitting weapon out of everything and she could barely lift the things and throw them… That and she wasn't physically good enough to keep up with either of her known opponents, and none of her spells were aiding her enough to really help her out.
Regardless, she wasn't doing the same thing as last time, picking up the fallen trunk with as little difficulty as she could manage, taking two steps forward and hurling her impromptu weapon straight at the back of the woman. This time she said nothing to warn her foe, pulling her blade from the ground just as the fox-woman felt something wrong and looked back, the tree smashing into her heavily with splinters flying from the impact before what remained of the 'missile' careened into the river.
Motes scattered around behind her as she took step after painful step, her free hand rising to her face to wipe off some blood trickling down from her mouth before falling back to her side, the other woman rising a bit shakily from the ground before turning her head around to look at her, a grimace set in place. If there was any consolation in this fight, they were both injured, to what degree she had no idea but they were. But given the way the fight had been and the way it was continuing to go, alongside the fact that the other girl was long gone… there was no point in continuing.
"What is it with you and throwing trees at people kiddo?" The question was sudden, unexpected and said with no small amount of pain, but was a good question regardless from another person. She looked back at the woman, finding her positioning herself back into a stance, even with pain in her form and no small amount of anger. She didn't give a verbal reply to the fox-woman's question for a moment, letting the motes surrounding her fade away before pulling Razing Heart from her sword, her 'Jacket' disappearing in pink light to reveal her normal clothing as she did, while returning her sword to its sheathe.
She didn't give the woman's question an answer, it wasn't like she even had one in the first place, instead she turned around and began heading off back towards home, her parting words being simple enough and were accepted without any further conversation, "I have nothing to gain from further fighting, go home to your Master and rest, you did your job well. Next time though… I'll beat you and your Master and get the Jewel Seed."
She heard a pained chuckle a few seconds after she said that, a "Whatever you say kiddo." caught a moment after the laugh before she faded back into the forest on the long journey home, idly getting lost in her musing again. … Fox-woman was good and loyal to that girl, such a shame they both were interfering, she had the feeling they would get along rather well if that wasn't the case, ha… She'd have to ask for a name next time as well, from the both of them and not just the girl.
Hopefully they wouldn't die or force her to kill one or both of them… the moment the job was done she had no reason to fight either of them, and it wasn't like she hated them or anything, they were only in her way and could be dealt with nonlethally… hopefully…
Her walk came to a stop as recalled where she was, or rather, where she was near… the other reason she hadn't wanted to go to the hot springs in the first place… she really didn't want to, but it was a promise so she'd follow through regardless… even if she really didn't want to… So, after turning back towards the river, she walked to it before turning again to follow the stream, not making a sound beyond the crunch of leaves under her feet as she passed innumerable trees until she came upon a cliff and a large pool the river fed into.
She paid no attention to that or the calm tranquility the place held, her eyes were on something overlooking the water, a little stone marker nestled near some trees, a few flowers laid at the marker's feet… Okaa-sama's grave marker… The moment she laid eyes on it sadness welled up in her, and fittingly the sky let tears fall from its few clouds down onto her in response to the emotion, even though it was only a coincidence, it would let her grief be known even now.
Taking a breath, she quietly went up to the grave and knelt down, laying her sword at her side and closing her eyes, another breath taken before her eyes opened again and she finally said something, "Hi Okaa-sama… It's been a while since I last visited you… A lot has happened since then, Otou-sama's been training me just a little harder than before, and I'm making less mistakes."
She stopped for a moment, her smile sad yet bright as she talked to the grave marker… Okaa-sama maybe would hear her here, this was her grave after all. Her talking continued after a moment, her eyes closing as she talked to Okaa-sama. "I'm nine now… and I started third grade with Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan… Otou-sama's also getting me a sword soon for doing so well in training, he was so proud of me. Onii-sama and Onee-sama are doing well, they came and brought you flowers earlier today, Onii-sama is worried about me and Otou-sama, but we're doing fine."
She stopped for a moment and took a breath, a 'tear' running down her face ignored as she took another breath before continuing with the same sad yet happy smile, "I also got my first job, my employer's name is Scrya Yuuno, though I just call him Scrya-san. He's a nice person, teaching me new things that I can use later. He also gave me a little tool that I've come to enjoy greatly, I don't know if it's a girl or boy so I have to use 'it' to describe the tool. Its name is Razing Heart, and it likes to whisper to me, I hope sometime in the near future I can hear its voice."
Her talking paused for a moment as she remembered something, the sadness retreating for a moment as pure excitement went straight through her body, her voice tinted with it as she began again. "Oh yeah. Okaa-sama, magic is real and I'm someone able to use it! I've made a few spells already, though one fought me all the way throughout making it, kind of like language did and still does…" Her posture lost the excitement quickly, replaced with the solemn sadness and happiness that she had before as the next words came.
"I… also met another girl recently, someone that has gotten in the way of my current job… she can use magic and has and has beaten me twice already… something I'm not proud to say… However, I think I like her. She's quite pretty and she has this woman that acts like her bodyguard, both of them are nice and not unwilling to fight for what they need to do… I'd like to be acquaintances in the future whenever my job finishes…" The next words she spoke were quieter, not really meant for Okaa-sama, but something she felt needed to be breathed out. "Hopefully they will want to as well…"
More 'tears' fell down her face and clothing as she talked about things she wished her mother would comment on or reply to… and finally she let out a silent sob before whispering, "I miss you Okaa-sama… I wish you could see me, and hold me. I wish you could meet the pretty girl and her fox-woman… I miss you… I miss you…" At that point she 'broke down', repeating the last three words several times over for a good minute, coming to a stop before picking herself up and preparing to leave, stopping in place only to look back with a sad smile and give parting words to the grave.
"Bye bye… Okaa-sama…"
She made her way straight home after turning around and leaving through the woods, using the platforms to make her way over the forest quickly and without incident, eventually coming to stop in front of the compound's gate. Once there, she silently walked through the halls to her room and opened the door, taking care to make sure Scrya-san wouldn't wake as she entered, and promptly went over to her bed, laid down and covered herself in the few blankets she had before falling asleep.
A simple dream of her playing with Okaa-sama was the only thing she saw that night, a happy and sad dream where Okaa-sama could see her smile and have fun.
*****
The next morning she woke at her usual time, dressing herself quickly and quietly in her normal clothing before walking out of her room just before the clock chimed three times, making her way through the halls until she reached outside and continued to walk until the woods consumed her. Scrya-san wasn't with her this time, something that suited her after yesterday's fight with the strange girl, she had several things she needed to learn and make if she wanted to be able complete her job.
Her hand tightened around the handle of her sword as she drew it, a low creak heard as she did, roughly pulling Razing Heart off her necklace before slotting it into the metal and changed into her 'work' clothes with a flash of pink before beginning her practice. She wouldn't fail Scrya-san again, one failure was already too many marks against her and would only drag her name through the dirt.
The first and most important thing that needed to be addressed was her flight spell, she had to make it work otherwise she would never be able to match the other girl.
So with that simple thought in mind she set to work, blowing up on the first try before immediately setting up another try in the direction she was going. She went straight through that attempt, so another was made directly behind it, this one she managed to brush against for a second before it exploded, progress was being made towards her first attempt's lucky try.
Trying to flip around to present her legs towards wherever it was she was going to land was a good idea, however while she was rather good in physical education, she wasn't that skilled in acrobatics yet, so all she managed to do was send herself flying into a tree with the side of her chest taking the hit. A grimace worked its way onto her face at both the failure to right herself and continue, alongside the dull pain her 'endurance' spell couldn't block out completely. Immediately after gathering herself, she scrambled to a foothold and leapt down, another attempt of her spell conjured beneath her that immediately shattered…
That was progress, now it was behaving more like a solid surface rather than… something, she had no idea what to describe her prior attempts…
Pushing that thought out of her head as she stood up from the ground, she immediately got back to work jumping up and onto a platform, managing once more to stand on it for a moment before it blew up and sent her flying. Once more she set up another platform where she was going, only to shatter through it without remotely slowing, then through the next as well before landing in the branches of a tree, thankfully slow enough after going through the second to not hurt herself too much.
Again, she jumped from the branches to the ground below, another attempt made under her that exploded her straight back up, the attempt after finding amusement in sending her straight back down into the dirt. Picking herself up and giving herself a light dusting off, she took a deep breath to calm herself of her frustration before once more jumping up, and immediately got sent flying sideways through a tree.
Lying still amidst the broken tree as the severed portion fell half a meter from her, she took another deep breath to calm herself, then another before climbing back to her feet and walked back to the little, battered grove. Yet another breath taken before she jumped up again, landing on a platform that cracked immediately upon her touching it, two seconds passing before it shattered completely like most of them, the one made underneath giving the same results before she was back on the ground.
Now a fourth of the way through her usual count of attempts, a fact that she idly remembered for whatever reason, she stilled and let out the frustration slowly consuming her.
After what she assumed was about a minute she stopped, regular smile back in place, and proceeded to begin again, hopping onto a new platform that immediately cracked the moment she put her weight on it, shattering a single moment later and letting her fall. Another platform appeared below her, holding her for a short moment before sending her flying up again, the third platform taking the same amusement as one of the prior ones in sending her hurtling towards the ground.
This time however she managed to make a platform underneath her shortly before she would have hit the dirt, a rather loud cracking sound echoing out until five seconds later the platform broke. Her smile grew a bit brighter at the progress made there, it seemed that finally she was getting the hang of flight after so many attempts and time spent, and so motivated after that 'success' she hopped up to another platform, her smile brightening when it didn't immediately blow up.
Unfortunately for her however, her apparent success lulled her to a false sense of security, and she was sent careening into a tree, through it and into another tree, through that one as well before indenting herself into a third tree by an explosion that was much more violent than the previous ones. Even with that… accident and the dull pain shooting through her body, her smile was still bright as she pried herself from the tree…
Though upon looking down she noticed her sword wasn't in her hand, her smile dimmed before immediately looking up in a somewhat frantic manner, where she found it impaled through the 'carcass' of the first tree.
Her body, even with her 'endurance' spell active, ached as she forced herself to walk over and retrieve her sword from the tree. If there was one thing above all the others she was glad that her training with Otou-sama it was she had a rather… high amount of pain tolerance. Upon reaching her sword, she pulled it out of the bark with ease, taking care to look it over for any chips that may have come from the weapons landing. Upon checking it over and finding nothing thankfully, she made a strained hum of happiness before she walked back into the open-aired grove, beginning her training again with a short hop onto a readily made platform.
She counted four seconds before she was rapidly sent skyward by another concussive explosion. Cresting the treetops had her make another platform beneath her quickly, her feet barely touching it before she leapt off it and onto another one, her intuition failing her there as her first one cracked and shattered shortly before her second exploded sending her higher into the air.
If she had been paying attention to the scenery around her, she probably would have been treated to quite a beautiful view of the city she lived near and the ocean beyond it. As it was, she was preoccupied making sure she'd impact the next platform she made to stop her from going any higher up and trying to figure out how to get down without severely injuring herself. And trying to stop herself from spinning, she may not get motion sickness, but it was very annoying to have to figure out what direction was what.
With a heavy impact, she rammed against the newest platform completely upside down, mentally giving thanks that this one was the more solid type instead of the fragile one, before she pushed off of it back towards the ground, leaving the platform to detonate behind her. Rapidly approaching the second platform, she brought her right side to bear before landing roughly onto it, her side taking the brunt of impact.
A second after the impact the entire platform cracked with an audible noise before shattering and forcing her to fall again, another platform made just lower than that one to try and give her a reprieve. The new platform cracked and shattered just as quickly as the prior one, but by the point it exploded she had managed to regain her breath from the hard landing and leapt off it back into the air.
The next platform she made and dropped onto was solid and unyielding, giving her a brief moment to catch her breath for a second before she leapt off and fell as it detonated harmlessly above her. Her next platform gave her a bit of respite as it cracked on impact, five seconds passing barely giving her enough time for her to get back to her feet. Just like before she leapt and was falling again for whatever time it was now, though this time she was just above the treetops, something that she felt relief for.
With the trees passing beside her now, she made a final platform that would hopefully see her safely to the ground, landing heavily in a crouch on it with an impact that jarred her entire body, before mentally counting the seconds as they passed by. At least, she did until she passed six seconds and the platform didn't send her flying or just break entirely, which left her incredibly confused as to why it hadn't.
She waited a short while longer just to make sure the entire thing wouldn't just collapse on her before gingerly beginning to stand up from her crouch, still confused why it didn't shatter. Taking a few steps to the side, she made another platform a bit lower than her current one before hopping over to it, the thing neither cracking or exploding as she expected when she landed on it lightly.
Realization quickly dawned on her before she let a vibrant smile break out on her face, triumphantly holding her sword up to the sky in what she assumed was joy. Finally, finally she had beaten her flight spell and was able to use it… probably. She hoped very dearly that there was nothing else in the future, barring something to do with swordsmanship, that needed her to put that much effort into, she'd have grey hair before she was twenty if that were to happen.
Taking a few moments after that… eventful bit of training to rest, catch her breath and come down from her exhilaration at finally beating her 'most fearsome enemy', she took the time to think of her next plan of action the moment she stood back up. Said plan being to think up some way to stand toe-to-toe with the other girl, which meant being able to actually hit her in the first place, in turn meaning she'd have to become faster than she currently was. Hopefully that was something that should hopefully come easier to her than 'flight' did.
While thinking of whatever would be used, she took to performing a portion of her prior training, mindlessly slashing really since she needed to think, it was a better usage of time than just sitting around and thinking anyway. It took much longer than her prior attempts to figure out how her new spell would work, but eventually she managed to think up something worthwhile enough to make an attempt with.
Taking a bit from her other two augments, notably just the locations of where to put her mana, she'd make her bones hollow like that of a bird's, something that would by itself make her bones brittler if not for her 'endurance' spell strengthening them. In addition to that, she'd be sending more mana into the muscles of her arms and legs to strengthen them, but the main idea behind the entire spell would be to reduce her weight instead of speeding her up.
…Now came the even harder part… figuring out how to test if it was working or not…
She didn't have anything on hand that could tell time, she hadn't needed to since Otou-sama always made sure that they were done by a certain time before. Now that she was on her own, she'd have to bring a watch out to keep track of time… wait… what even was time? And with that thought she immediately discarded her Barrier Jacket for her regular clothing, sheathed her sword while taking out Razing Heart before slipping it back around her neck before bolting back through the woods towards home.
Bursting through the trees she hastily made her way over to the house, slowing down to a quick walk just before she reached the corridor and making her way to her room. Quietly slipping in, she swiftly moved over to check her clock at the bedside, a silent sigh of relief leaving her as it read only a minute and a half before the next hour came.
With that crisis averted she set about changing into her school clothing, the light amount of noise finally waking up Scrya-san from his sleep as she was stripping off the bandages if the rustling behind her was any indication. Finishing her dressing after a minute, she set out to do her morning chores with Scrya-san following behind her rather closely before suddenly running up her back to perch on her shoulder.
The unexpected movement didn't gain any reaction from her, seeing as she somewhat expected it, so she moved on to her single chore this morning, sweeping each building in the compound, a long, arduous chore she didn't like doing. Haa… well, the faster she got it done, the faster she would be finished with her chores this morning and be able to get back to work making spells.
*****
The next week passed by in silence, something that unnerved her greatly as neither the strange girl or any Jewel Seeds came up within the city or its outskirts. At least, as far as she could feel, there hadn't been any new Jewel Seeds appearing, though that didn't mean the girl hadn't collected some of the other Seeds.
Aside from that, school went well in the last week before the short break, she managed to get to passing in her English and Japanese classes, just barely though as was common with her due how bad she was with the class. The other classes were aced with ease, though P.E. was brutal on the second to last day... Suzuka-chan was a monster when it came to dodgeball…
Regardless of that… it wasn't unpleasant but neither was it really pleasant… well she could just say it was fun as the word wasn't coming to mind, which was a true statement. Regardless of that, other than school ending for a while there wasn't much else that happened aside from her daily activities, she had gone out with Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan twice and done random things. Going to a café and talking, shopping or wandering around a park among a few other things, nothing worthwhile to remember or talk about really.
Making her newest spell progressed decently in the two days after she created it, managing to get the spell to work without most of the backlash it caused as a side-effect. She had learned the night that she'd made it that the damage that particular spell could cause if it was used poorly was much more painful than the other two augments. Strained muscles and cracked bones together was enough that her pain tolerance was at its limit, and something she would never want to experience again.
Thankfully she wouldn't have to deal with that issue much anymore, though having said that, the actual speed difference between her without the augment and with it and the others on wasn't as much as she had hoped it would be.
Other than her rather lackluster speed augment, she had only worked on two other spells, one more augment and her first shooting spell. The former of the two was the simplest spell she had made so far, all it was was mana coursing along her blade, which in turn just meant that she put her mana around the blade, simple and, beyond the initial explosion on trying it out, it worked well.
The shooting spell on the other hand… that was tricky, though nowhere near as tricky as flight had been. Her first instinct had been to make a single slash that was sent from the sword at an enemy while her newest augment was up, then she accidently discovered something that was just a bit better. Whenever her sword was swung with the augment up it left a vague trail of motes in its wake.
Seeing as it would just be a waste of mana to let those motes dissipate and do nothing, she set about trying to 'weaponize' them, which was much harder than one would assume. The trail left in the sword's wake didn't have enough mana supplied to it naturally to be utilized in the way she wanted, that was obvious by the fifth attempt, so she had to actively force mana into the trail to make the motes linger around her.
Unfortunately, while that allowed the motes to linger longer, they were then abysmally slow compared to before, let alone the other girl's spells, barely able to move a meter in a minute's time, and even if she'd use them in that state, they were too few to be worth any factor. The twelfth try alleviated the speed and numbers problem, not by much seeing as they were still slower than her walking slowly, all that had happened by then was the motes had gotten smaller, about the size of a baseball, and faster.
Each consecutive time she attempted the spell until the twenty-third and final try had the motes becoming increasingly smaller, to about the size of a golfball at the end, quicker and more numerous. By the she finished with the spell, she made out seventeen motes being made with every swing whenever she pushed mana into the trail, and eight whenever she didn't.
Yet even, with all the improvements and refinements to it she couldn't make them anywhere near as quick as the other girl's spells had been. So, she decided to move on from that spell on back to her original idea, though she kept the newer spell close to herself, just like her other spells she'd made, eventually she would try and find the correct place for it.
After the fight, and loss, with the other girl, Scrya-san had tried unsuccessfully to get her to rest and relax, annoying her into excluding him from the morning sessions, she'd have done the evening sessions as well if it wasn't insulting to do so. Though with the way he was continuing to try and reign in her training habits to what he considered 'manageable', she'd probably ignore him when it came to anything beyond the lectures and orders for the collection of Jewel Seeds.
Having said that, most of her new spells were now made, tested, and completed solely in the morning, for the reason of not upsetting him and not annoying her to the point it made their relationship more strained. He was a very nice employer after all, one she would like to work for again on some other job he needed done after this was all over with.
She was so lucky to have such a nice employer for her first job. From what Otou-sama told both her and Onee-sama whenever he did talked about his old jobs, it was rare for anyone to be 'nice', especially with the jobs that were normal for them. Most of the time employers didn't care about their hired muscle as long as the job was done, which she could understand with how the world was and them being unconcerned with people they didn't know.
Speaking of Onee-sama though, she, Onii-sama, Shinobu-san, Suzuka-chan, Arisa-chan, Falin-san and Noel-san had all set out to a hot spring a bit outside of the city. She'd been invited to go along by Arisa-chan, but she'd given the excuse… or was it a lie?… probably a lie, that Otou-sama had grounded her from taking any trips outside the city.
While Arisa-chan had been saddened by her words she'd said at the time, Suzuka-chan had narrowed her eyes slightly at her before she quickly gave them a promise that she'd go somewhere else with them whenever her 'grounding' was over without any complaints… Considering the devious smile Arisa-chan had the moment she finished giving that promise she had a feeling she somehow had messed up somehow…
That aside she had an actual reason for not going, the same one that had Otou-sama only driving them there and was coming home the moment they were in the building, but that reason was far too private to reveal to anyone other than her family.
Having declined going to the hot spring and now waiting for Otou-sama to return, she was stuck alone with Scrya-san with nothing to occupy her for the moment. Training was… not particularly looking promising with Scrya-san there, at best she'd get a lecture from him about something that was possibly interesting, and there were no chores that needed to be done until the next day.
Well, with a lecture she'd at least learn something new and spend her free time until something better came along. A brief thought passed about what she would ask about, quickly coming to a conclusion before then wondering what Scrya-san would tell her about the subject. With a shake of her head amidst her unceasing walk in the grass, she looked over at Scrya-san before asking her question, "Scrya-san, what are Devices?"
Her employer jolted in surprise at the abrupt question, though he quickly went back to sitting down on the porch, still somewhat off-balance, and continued to watch her pace around. Before she turned her head back to watching where she was going, she saw Scrya-san nod to himself a few times, maybe to try and get himself back to somewhat composed before he started the lecture. "Umm, to start Devices are tools that mages use to augment their natural magical ability and to help them in the casting."
Scrya-san took a quick breath as she turned about in quickly alleviating boredom, continuing the moment after he let out the breath. "They tend to run the calculations faster than most humans, lowering the cast time for their users, as well as memorizing spells that are cast by mages and storing them for later use." …Huh, that was nice to know. If she could figure out if the device she used was doing that or not, and if it wasn't helping her she'd have to figure out to get it to work. "Most also tend to have certain programs such as a stopwatch, alarm, calculator, simple little things to aid in a mage's everyday life." … She stopped walking the moment Scrya-san said the first item that could be used from a Device, something Scrya-san seemed to notice since he didn't say anymore after, though she didn't see what he was doing.
Taking a very deep breathe, she started harshly berating herself now that she knew the little jewel around her neck was also a stopwatch, annoyance creeping into her from the information. If she had known that she would have had her 'speed' spell done a day earlier, meaning every other spell after would have been done earlier, possibly even managing to finish her other shooting spell by now…
Scrya-san waited for her to begin moving again before continuing on the moment she had stopped, he was getting to understand when she was paying attention after so long, "There are six types of devices that I know of, though I've only seen three of them in person, there are Storage Devices, Boost Devices, Armed Devices, Intelligent Devices, Unison Devices and lastly Hybrid-Intelligent Devices."
Scrya-san finished that long sentence with a drawn-out breath, taking a few seconds to properly get back his breath before continuing with a passion-filled voice, Scrya-san enjoyed teaching others about things. "Storage Devices are the most common in today's time, while not as good as several of other devices in terms of intelligence they tend to process spells faster than most of the others. However, they're normally not particularly… 'good' at doing things without someone directly guiding them, so they can't help their wielders with unexpected surprises."
Again, Scrya-san took a breath from yet another long-winded explanation, one she took advantage in thinking over the Device he spoke of. Razing Heart likely wasn't a Storage Device, it hadn't 'stored' any of the spells she'd made or made them easier to cast like Scrya-san said they did, which meant Razing Heart was one of the others.
"Boost Devices are an off-shoot of Storage Devices, specializing almost solely in support spells that aid the caster or one of their allies, those that dabble in summoning spells also tend to use them exclusively." At this point she went and sat down in front of her employer, having tired of simply walking around listening to him for the moment and waited for him to continue, mentally crossing off another type of Device that Razing Heart probably wasn't as she did.
"I only know of Armed Devices, though they are used by a few individuals that practice Modern Belkan magic, that is a lecture for another day Nanoha." She gave a quick nod in understanding before the ferret went back to speaking, "Their origin lies somewhere in Ancient Belka, another lecture for yet another time, and were primarily devices used in combat situations. From what little I know, they possess a bit more intelligence than Storage Devices, though far less than Intelligent Devices, and are more weapons than anything else."
A sigh was given as he finished that part, one she waited patiently for to end as her body silently swayed with a smile in place, taking in everything he said without issue. After a while of resting, Scrya-san continued with his lecture, only slightly winded despite the energy he was putting it. "Intelligent Devices are among the most advanced in terms of artificial intelligence the Bureau knows about an is able to make. The few I've seen have different personalities and think in different ways as well, which suits their wielders well."
She looked down at the black jewel at her neck, wondering what exactly its personality was, she didn't know what gender the device had, if it even had one, so she'd have to settle for 'it' until she heard the voice. "Having said that, they are fully capable of acting in the user's best intentions, you've been on the receiving end a few times now."
She gave another nod at that, she had never actively been using a spell to protect herself… come to think of it she would need to figure out how to set up or develop one at some point… that was something Scrya-san should be happy with teaching her compared to everything else. Returning to back to the world after that thought went through her head, she saw Scrya-san looking up at her, waiting a patiently for her to focus before he continued with the exact same passion he had at the start.
Scrya-san was a good teacher as well as good employer, even if he tried to continually keep her from the more strenuous parts of her training.
"I've never seen a Unison Device, and to be frank I don't expect to no matter how much I may dream of it, such is their rarity and the fact that no one know how to make one in current times. What little I can tell you about them is that they are essentially a Device given human form that were created in Ancient Belka. Other than that all I can do is assume." She nodded her head as he paused, just from his description alone, Unison Devices seemed to be extremely difficult to make. And whatever Belka was, given it had the moniker 'Ancient' attached, it was probably long before now, and as with everything, things and people died and were lost to time.
Again she returned to her employer, this time ending her thoughts as he finished regaining his breath and letting him continue without wasting any time. "Neither have I seen a Hybrid-Intelligent device, which I don't rightly know what those are. All I understand of it is that it is the closest thing that the Bureau has made to a Unison Device, and even then, that's just a rumor that floated among the archaeologists I've talked with."
"For all we know, Ancient Belka could have made their own Hybrid-Intelligent Devices." Scrya-san gave a shrug as he finished speaking, letting her know when he was done as he made no effort to continue the lecture. She gave one last nod before standing back up to her full, rather meager height, stretching her limbs for a short bit while ruminating on the two likely types of Devices that Razing Heart could be.
Stopped her thoughts as she faintly heard something from the front, signaling that Otou-sama was back, though she didn't move a muscle to go in that direction. Instead, she watching as Scrya-san let out a yawn before starting to pad back towards her room, waiting until he was out of sight before walking towards the forest.
She needed to work on her spells a bit more… maybe make something to protect herself with before she headed to bed for the night.
*****
She barely heard the chime of a new Jewel Seed as she wandered through the trees, the noise just louder as whatever Razing Heart whispered whenever she was using it. Considering that the sound was that low in volume… she probably had a long way to go before she was anywhere near where the Jewel activated.
Well… at least she had started moving before she made that realization, somewhere above the just above the treetops to the point of almost brushing against the leaves, going as fast as possible with the aid of her 'speed' augment and her platforms. Her 'endurance' spell was off, it slowed her down and right now given the likely distance, she needed to go as fast as possible to make sure she was there before the other girl.
After what felt like a minute of her bounding along her platforms with a brief brush against the leaves below, a simple, if completely dangerous, idea came to mind. A single bound after the idea came was given to think on it before she went through with it stepping onto the next platform, its face angled towards her destination. With a pulse of mana, she forced it to explode and sent herself flying towards where the chime of the Jewel Seed had come from.
While that method was certainly quicker than just running along her platforms, she forgot one slightly important fact, her 'endurance' spell was off.
That single instance resulted in a miniscule wince of pain directly after she detonated the platform beneath her, feeling something off about her leg that was disregarded before switching on her endurance spell just before she landed on the next platform, slamming into it and giving another wince of pain. 'Endurance' was turned off for three steps across the new platform, then put up again for the next before she was 'flying' again.
She repeated those actions two more times before settling for running across her platforms, a few steps more seeing a corona of light shining into the sky a bit farther ahead further inside the forest. The other girl had already beaten her to the Jewel Seed…
Her smile drooped slightly as she let the platform fade from under her and fell through the foliage towards the ground, a random branch ripped from its tree as she crashed through it by complete accident. It didn't matter much to her other than a slight jarring since she had 'endurance' spell before hitting the ground with a thud and immediately bolting towards where the other girl was supposed to be.
It took only a short few seconds before she was close to the end of the trees, her smile back to its natural 'setting' just as she was about burst from the woods, a platform readily made and pointing ahead that she stepped on.
A clap of noise and shattered mana sounded before she hurtled out of the trees, her eyes taking in the barest of detail around her before finding and focusing on her foe walking away without an ounce of worry or care. She took a step on something wooden before continuing the charge, sending her straight at the other girl's back with her pink-coated sword singing through the air poised to impale the girl in the back.
A brief moment passed before her blade was caught on something, jerking her to a stop and making the attack fail, the girl continuing on without a care off whatever they were on, while her eyes started to refocus off the other girl. Her eyes moved from the other girl to whoever was blocking her, her feet leaving the ground and moving up as she vaguely heard the words "My, my…" uttered in a woman's voice.
Whatever else was said was tuned out as she brought her feet up and placed them just in front of the orange light blocking her, making a platform between and pushed off with an explosion.
There were two sounds she heard, a yelp that probably came from the woman that she barely heard, and quite clearly the shattering of magic ringing out above everything, though she paid both little heed as she flipped to try and get back to an up-right position, landing on the wood surface with a light stumble. Her balance was addressed quickly, before she instantly sped forward as fast she could through the dust made.
Or rather she would have had a hand not caught the back of hakama and thrown her back across the bridge, this time she just slid back for a few meters, one of her hands trying to grip against the wood before she stopped just from momentum running out.
Getting up from her crouch at a somewhat sedate pace, she finally took in the woman protecting the strange girl… that clothing was not decent, not from what she'd been told or seen… A white shirt that looked too short for her, pink… they looked like shorts… red garters near her ankles, black gloves and shoes and two short black capes, one from her shoulders and another at her waist behind the… shorts… though the strangest part about her, was the jewel in her forehead, fox tail and ears…
It said something about her that the first thought she had when she saw those was '… Of course the fox-woman is going to get in my way, every animal loves to mess with me…' That said, considering how many animals messed with her, she figured it was a valid thought.
As the dust cleared, she saw the other girl had stopped at some point during the quick exchange, looking over her shoulder with cold red eyes that ignored her and focused on the fox-woman. She idly heard the fox-woman and the girl talk to one another, well more like the fox-woman talked and the other girl agreed, though she did hear "Don't be reckless…" from the other girl before she took off into the trees, the fox-woman cracking her knuckles before getting into a stance.
"It's been a long while since I got to fight someone, so I'm not going to bother fighting you too seriously. Still, I'm not going to go easy on you kiddo, though I'll make sure you don't die." The woman's eyes glinted and her smile turned feral like an animal's, it didn't really bother herself to see it on another person, though she did tense in preparation as the woman finished. "You really shouldn't have got in our way, kiddo." That last part was hypocritical… though she wasn't about to say anything.
Regardless she paid that no mind, walking forward with her sword pointing down, little motes of mana drifting up from the metal, until she was only a few meters away, at which point both she and the fox-woman sped forward towards one another. A punch directed at her head was ducked under, with a retaliatory slash scraping along another orange shield popping into existence, a second slash directed to the woman's side dodged with a cocky smirk before she was forced to jump back to avoid being swept to the ground with a kick.
Her opponent gave her no respite, chasing after her and throwing three quick punches, the first and third barely dodged while the second managed to graze her chest, thankfully not enough of a hit to hurt her, before a fourth was sent at her prompting a reply in kind. Both fists hit one another, and even with her 'endurance' and 'strength' spells active she barely held against the other fist, a feat that apparently wasn't something the fox-woman was expecting given the slight shock she had on her face. The fox-woman got over her surprise quickly before throwing a kick came into her side.
She braced as much as she could, yet that single solid hit was enough to almost go over her pain tolerance on its own, sending her through the railing of the bridge into the water below. She would have been in the water if not for a hastily set up platform breaking her fall and driving the wind out of her lungs. Immediately upon getting her breath she trusted her instinct and rolled back, narrowly avoiding the fox-woman slamming into the river where she just was in a plume of water, though the she didn't let the rising water to impede her.
A stab through the water found its path blocked by something, so she allowed it to scrape along and off what she assumed was the shield, the mana trailing behind her sword reshaping itself into motes sent into the 'shield' with a simple thought. They wouldn't do much individually, but with the sheer number up above descending, and the amount she was gradually sending into the shield with each swing, it was bound to break eventually.
She managed four more swings at the fox-woman before the last of the water fully collapsed back into the river, allowing both her and the fox-woman to see one another and trading a feral smile and a calm one. Dilated eyes met her own with just a hint of glee and annoyance for a moment after, the moment ending as the woman's shield failed from the fifth blow of her weapon and some large number of motes causing the older woman to leap away.
In a near complete reversal of before, she chased after the woman as another shield was made just as she swung again at her… the amount of shields being thrown around was getting quite aggravating, especially since she wasn't getting through them quickly… Considering she was getting nowhere with trying to overpower the shield, yet another thing she'd have to address at a later date, she changed her strategy and feinted into attacking the shield again.
The moment before she hit the orange shield however, she exploded the platform keeping her above the water, sending both water and herself into the air and momentarily blinding the woman and likely surprising her again. Immediately following that action, she flipped herself to point down and slammed against another platform before immediately exploding it as well to send her over and past the shield.
Her sword lashed out as she passed by, nicking the woman somewhere, where exactly, she had no idea due to both the water and moving far faster than she was used to. Skidding along a platform just above the water's surface, she used her sword as a momentary anchor to twist her back to facing the fox-woman before leaping straight back at her.
No shield was made this time, a move that momentarily caught her off guard and caused her to be hit with an uppercut to the chest, a gasp leaving her before she was sent upwards into, through and over the bridge before landing back in the river.
She managed to catch herself just before she hit the river surface, the platform readily made catching her before shattering and sending her into the warm water, narrowly avoiding the woman crashing down where she would have been had the platform not shattered. Her sword broke through the surface and nearly impaled the woman a few seconds later, missing her target but causing the fox-woman to dodge away from her.
Quickly surfacing she took two gasps for air before leaping aside to avoid the woman again, another exploding platform sending her back onto the bridge railing, a hand reaching the wooden rail and pulling her up. Once on it, she turned around to face the fox-woman before kneeling down to sit on it, legs resting over the wood while staring down at her current foe. It was easy to tell that simple action aggravated the fox-woman far more than anything else so far, it showed in what little remained in the smile turning to a deep scowl.
Otou-sama had said before that people tended to be worse off when they got frustrated with someone… she wondered if that was true? That was a thought and experiment for another time, when there wasn't a job that was important.
Seeing as the woman was seemingly content she took the moment to rest and finally speak once to her opponent, using a… polite tone, considering that the woman was fighting evenly with her, "You're doing a lot better than I expected, at least better than the other girl did when we fought in close-quarters. Then again, she hit very hard with her ranged spells, so I guess that makes up for a lack-luster melee…" She shook off her musing quickly before she looking back down at the woman, who appeared to be a cross between angered and… it may have been pride or it could have been joy… she had no idea, she wasn't good with specific emotions…
She waited a few moments before receiving a reply, the fox-woman being a bit angrier than whatever the other emotion was judging by the lower tone and scowl… maybe… "You're not even close to my Master's strength kiddo, and I haven't been taking you seriously in the slightest. I don't want to upset her if I end up accidently crippling or killing you. Understand kiddo?"
… Well, the other woman managed to annoy her slightly with that, but she put that down shortly after, if she wanted to underestimate her, that was completely fine by her… Then again for all she knew about the fox-woman she could be a lot stronger than her… not a good thought to think. Disregarding that she returned her focus to the woman, eyes narrowing slightly before returning to normal as she gave her short reply to the woman's words, "I think I can handle anything a fox throws my way."
A complete and utter bluff after last week's fight, but the other woman didn't need to know that… and she was now angrier for some reason, talking was done apparently. And with that observation she slipped from the railing back to the water, the woman smashing through the railing and bridge on that side with a single punch, a snarl heard clearly over the destruction above. "Fox? Fox? I'm a wolf you little-!"
… She didn't look like a wolf-woman, her tail was orange with a white tip and fluffy, so unless she showed why she called herself a wolf she would remain fox-woman. That little musing of hers stopping the moment her feet touched the platform covering the river, immediately detonating the platform and sending her towards the shore. Where she was supposed to be was obliterated by the woman as she smashed through the remains of the platform, sending a plume of water straight into the air as she jumped back, carrying her further away from the furious woman.
The other woman charged through the plume with a speed that she hadn't show yet, making her twist around an extremely fast punch that barely missed her own shoulder. She swung her blade diagonally in response, only to miss completely and get her legs swept out from under her before being punched in the chest again, coughing once and feeling something wet dribble from her mouth before being sent flying.
Another platform stopped her from being sent into the trees, her back smashing into it, before she made it explode her up into another platform, the woman's next punch passing harmlessly beneath her as she did. She received no respite, as she got a knee pressed into her chest again, much less powerful due to her height though still enough to send her the platform.
Faintly she felt something crack through the pain, before a new punch sent her flying into tree, and then through the tree… with an aching body and several winces of pain, she stood back up as the top part of the tree fell at her side. Given she wasn't being pummeled into the ground and the woman was both waling away and had her back to her, the fox-woman was seemingly confident that she had put her out of commission with that…
She didn't know whether to be grateful for the overconfidence or angered at the dismissal… she settled for both.
… After this, she'd have to train herself harder than she was prior, especially since apparently trees were her hardest hitting weapon out of everything and she could barely lift the things and throw them… That and she wasn't physically good enough to keep up with either of her known opponents, and none of her spells were aiding her enough to really help her out.
Regardless, she wasn't doing the same thing as last time, picking up the fallen trunk with as little difficulty as she could manage, taking two steps forward and hurling her impromptu weapon straight at the back of the woman. This time she said nothing to warn her foe, pulling her blade from the ground just as the fox-woman felt something wrong and looked back, the tree smashing into her heavily with splinters flying from the impact before what remained of the 'missile' careened into the river.
Motes scattered around behind her as she took step after painful step, her free hand rising to her face to wipe off some blood trickling down from her mouth before falling back to her side, the other woman rising a bit shakily from the ground before turning her head around to look at her, a grimace set in place. If there was any consolation in this fight, they were both injured, to what degree she had no idea but they were. But given the way the fight had been and the way it was continuing to go, alongside the fact that the other girl was long gone… there was no point in continuing.
"What is it with you and throwing trees at people kiddo?" The question was sudden, unexpected and said with no small amount of pain, but was a good question regardless from another person. She looked back at the woman, finding her positioning herself back into a stance, even with pain in her form and no small amount of anger. She didn't give a verbal reply to the fox-woman's question for a moment, letting the motes surrounding her fade away before pulling Razing Heart from her sword, her 'Jacket' disappearing in pink light to reveal her normal clothing as she did, while returning her sword to its sheathe.
She didn't give the woman's question an answer, it wasn't like she even had one in the first place, instead she turned around and began heading off back towards home, her parting words being simple enough and were accepted without any further conversation, "I have nothing to gain from further fighting, go home to your Master and rest, you did your job well. Next time though… I'll beat you and your Master and get the Jewel Seed."
She heard a pained chuckle a few seconds after she said that, a "Whatever you say kiddo." caught a moment after the laugh before she faded back into the forest on the long journey home, idly getting lost in her musing again. … Fox-woman was good and loyal to that girl, such a shame they both were interfering, she had the feeling they would get along rather well if that wasn't the case, ha… She'd have to ask for a name next time as well, from the both of them and not just the girl.
Hopefully they wouldn't die or force her to kill one or both of them… the moment the job was done she had no reason to fight either of them, and it wasn't like she hated them or anything, they were only in her way and could be dealt with nonlethally… hopefully…
Her walk came to a stop as recalled where she was, or rather, where she was near… the other reason she hadn't wanted to go to the hot springs in the first place… she really didn't want to, but it was a promise so she'd follow through regardless… even if she really didn't want to… So, after turning back towards the river, she walked to it before turning again to follow the stream, not making a sound beyond the crunch of leaves under her feet as she passed innumerable trees until she came upon a cliff and a large pool the river fed into.
She paid no attention to that or the calm tranquility the place held, her eyes were on something overlooking the water, a little stone marker nestled near some trees, a few flowers laid at the marker's feet… Okaa-sama's grave marker… The moment she laid eyes on it sadness welled up in her, and fittingly the sky let tears fall from its few clouds down onto her in response to the emotion, even though it was only a coincidence, it would let her grief be known even now.
Taking a breath, she quietly went up to the grave and knelt down, laying her sword at her side and closing her eyes, another breath taken before her eyes opened again and she finally said something, "Hi Okaa-sama… It's been a while since I last visited you… A lot has happened since then, Otou-sama's been training me just a little harder than before, and I'm making less mistakes."
She stopped for a moment, her smile sad yet bright as she talked to the grave marker… Okaa-sama maybe would hear her here, this was her grave after all. Her talking continued after a moment, her eyes closing as she talked to Okaa-sama. "I'm nine now… and I started third grade with Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan… Otou-sama's also getting me a sword soon for doing so well in training, he was so proud of me. Onii-sama and Onee-sama are doing well, they came and brought you flowers earlier today, Onii-sama is worried about me and Otou-sama, but we're doing fine."
She stopped for a moment and took a breath, a 'tear' running down her face ignored as she took another breath before continuing with the same sad yet happy smile, "I also got my first job, my employer's name is Scrya Yuuno, though I just call him Scrya-san. He's a nice person, teaching me new things that I can use later. He also gave me a little tool that I've come to enjoy greatly, I don't know if it's a girl or boy so I have to use 'it' to describe the tool. Its name is Razing Heart, and it likes to whisper to me, I hope sometime in the near future I can hear its voice."
Her talking paused for a moment as she remembered something, the sadness retreating for a moment as pure excitement went straight through her body, her voice tinted with it as she began again. "Oh yeah. Okaa-sama, magic is real and I'm someone able to use it! I've made a few spells already, though one fought me all the way throughout making it, kind of like language did and still does…" Her posture lost the excitement quickly, replaced with the solemn sadness and happiness that she had before as the next words came.
"I… also met another girl recently, someone that has gotten in the way of my current job… she can use magic and has and has beaten me twice already… something I'm not proud to say… However, I think I like her. She's quite pretty and she has this woman that acts like her bodyguard, both of them are nice and not unwilling to fight for what they need to do… I'd like to be acquaintances in the future whenever my job finishes…" The next words she spoke were quieter, not really meant for Okaa-sama, but something she felt needed to be breathed out. "Hopefully they will want to as well…"
More 'tears' fell down her face and clothing as she talked about things she wished her mother would comment on or reply to… and finally she let out a silent sob before whispering, "I miss you Okaa-sama… I wish you could see me, and hold me. I wish you could meet the pretty girl and her fox-woman… I miss you… I miss you…" At that point she 'broke down', repeating the last three words several times over for a good minute, coming to a stop before picking herself up and preparing to leave, stopping in place only to look back with a sad smile and give parting words to the grave.
"Bye bye… Okaa-sama…"
She made her way straight home after turning around and leaving through the woods, using the platforms to make her way over the forest quickly and without incident, eventually coming to stop in front of the compound's gate. Once there, she silently walked through the halls to her room and opened the door, taking care to make sure Scrya-san wouldn't wake as she entered, and promptly went over to her bed, laid down and covered herself in the few blankets she had before falling asleep.
A simple dream of her playing with Okaa-sama was the only thing she saw that night, a happy and sad dream where Okaa-sama could see her smile and have fun.
Conception IV
- Location
- United States, Texas
Disclaimer: I do not own Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha nor any of the various seasons made after the original.
Moving from that, Onee-sama and Onii-sama returned from their trip two days after her fight with the fox-woman, they were happier after what she assumed had been a very nice and relaxing trip for them, and it stayed with them for a few more days before they were back to their normal selves.
Two days after they and everyone else came back, she was invited back to the café by Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan, an invitation she had accepted happily. It was a nice relaxation from the pain, stress and 'annoyance' of her job, one she'd have to partake in every so often, at least for now anyway, maybe if she enjoyed it enough she'd continue even after this job was over… Yes… that'd be nice.
They talked for a while, saying that it was an enjoyable trip, there had been a strange woman that Arisa-chan hadn't really liked but hadn't bothered them, they'd wished that she had come with them, etc. What made her almost twitch was when they said they had taken a stroll through the woods and found a broken bridge and a tree trunk in the water near the springs. 'Apparently', a 'freak storm' had come in during the night and threw a tree into the bridge.
After they were done talking she spoke about her time, she'd done chores, walked among the trees outside her home and played with Scrya-san… Technically she wasn't lying since she was only omitting some of the truth. Regardless the trip to the café was enjoyable, maybe not for Scrya-san as he was held a bit too much by Arisa-chan, and so she was in higher spirits than normal for the rest of that day.
She spent some time with Onii-sama and Onee-sama as well, nothing as… grand was far too great a word… as with Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan, but just as enjoyable, it felt… nice to be around them and 'play' like they had when she was younger… So very nice… She was going off-track again, but that was alright at the moment, anyway aside from her morning training and nightly training she didn't spend as much time training after they got back, she mostly kept to being around her family or friends for the time being.
And that led to where she was now, sitting in class as the clock slowly ticked away the last few minutes, idly recalling this was supposed to be history… She may have blanked out a few times during the class but the Teacher allowed her to… there were a few nice things about being a near-perfect student. The bell ringing tossed her out of her thoughts, just as Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan came over and they started chatting with one another. At some point she must have blanked out again, as Arisa-chan brought her out of it by shaking her vigorously by the shoulders… that hadn't happened before.
After quickly regaining her bearings, Arisa-chan stopping her shaking and herself shaking her head a few times she was brought back out of 'Lalaland' or… whatever it was called by other people, and was greeted with Suzuka-chan looking concerned and Arisa-chan a cross between angry and concerned. "That's enough! You've been spacing out more than usual since you got hurt at Suzuka's!"
She gave a sheepish smile at those words, she hadn't even noticed that she was doing it more than before, normally it only happened whenever she was thinking of training or Okaa-sama, and there was the shaking again.
Now Arisa-chan was more angry than concerned now… not good. "Stop! Zoning! Out!" Once more the sheepish smile returned, but before any words were said Arisa-chan continued with her near-shouting, "And don't you dare apologize either! I know you have issues, I know you can't talk about certain subjects or else you stay quiet for hours or until the subject is changed." Her face softened a bit back to its original angry yet concerned look before adding "So whenever you get done we'll talk again alright. Come on Suzuka."
And with that Arisa-chan marched off, Suzuka-chan making to move after Arisa-chan before looking back at her, a short "Nanoha…" uttered before she waved Suzuka-chan away, giving a dim smile and saying she'd be fine before her friend left. She sat there for a minute before she slouched slightly, her eyes dimming to a near-dead quality before she cupped her hands around her face…
Was this what would happen in the future with Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan, them leaving her alone for stretches of time simply because she wasn't allowed to speak about her profession?
What a lonely fate that would be… at least she'd have Otou-sama, Onee-sama and Onii-sama to alleviate the loneliness. Silently shaking her head of that line of thought, it wouldn't help her in the slightest, she adjusted her expression back to its normal look before continuing with the rest of school, which thankfully was only one more class before she was allowed to leave.
Again, there hadn't been any other Jewel Seeds that she could find or sense, nor had she seen any trace of the girl or fox-woman going around either but that wasn't much of a concern… hopefully. Aside from that she'd talked a bit with Scrya-san while on their outings when it became apparent that nothing was going to happen, just a few clarifications on some of his prior lectures for the most part.
Training-wise with Scrya-san she'd tried, and succeeded in,… convincing him to teach her how to set up a shield, or at the very least give her the theory/steps to shield spells. Needless to say, she couldn't get any shield, or even the lesser barrier, up during the three days between when she asked and now, nor had she made her own off the top of her head like she'd been doing with most of her spells.
At the very least she wasn't blowing up into trees like with the 'flight' spell, she was just… missing something crucial.
Other than that she'd gotten a lecture on history from him, a very detailed one at that which she supposed was to be expected given his stated profession. Apparently Ancient Belka was an incredibly war-like nation that grew to empire status thanks to advanced technology, what kind exactly was unclear to her as she barely understood the terms he had been using. They had long-lived rulers, which Scrya-san attributed towards advanced technology rather than natural causes, that were incredibly strong compared to the average individual during that time.
The reason being behind them not being in charge now was rather simple, the Belkans' world became uninhabitable and most their people settled down quietly among the many worlds, the only exception that he knew of being a lineage called the Saint King. All Scrya-san could tell her about that line was they warred until their last descendent perished after ending the war and was worshipped by an organization called the Saint Church, an 'ally' of TSAB from what her employer told her.
Well there was a lot more that he had said and told her, but those were the major points that she could recall off-hand, which suited her fine for the moment.
Her other training proved only somewhat fruitful, she had finished making her other 'shooting' spell, though it still needed to be modified a little more to be both safe and viable. It was just too slow to be effective right now, and speeding it up would have the chance of making it explode whenever she tried to use it.
Other than that, she'd begun working on seeing what she could do with the mana coating around her blade when her augment was on, so far it looked… promising. Given time she could very likely make something extremely dangerous, but for now, she was settling for just changing the type of force a swing generated, which was more difficult than expected.
Ha… here she was distracting herself from the loneliness walking alone along the sea brought her by thinking of what she'd done… neither Arisa-chan or Suzuka-chan had met up with her after school, which was expected given what Arisa-chan had said… Even so it was depressing being alone again.
Perhaps she was too used to the company of others after the few years, or maybe she just didn't like being alone? She thought the latter more than the former, being alone brought on thinking, and thinking brought along memories best laid to rest if she didn't distract herself with other things.
Well, there was things to be done, and until she was finished she'd endure the loneliness, with only Scrya-san keeping her company. It was best to get used to it seeing as this would likely be her life in the future.
It'd been a long time since she was alone the entire way home, not since before she had met her friends… She stood still for a minute before she shook her head and looked around, finding herself having walked into the middle of a park among the trees, not a soul to be found anywhere near her, moving over to a random tree and gently sitting against it to rest and wait until the loneliness passed.
Two years she'd been in her friends' company, Suzuka-chan she'd met before school had started, while Arisa-chan… they didn't get along well back at the beginning, but both of them warmed up to the other after a while, even if a few of the other kids tried to warn them away from her… Something about her being creepy or unnatural because of her always smiling. Suzuka-chan paid their words no heed, she'd known her for longer than the other kids had and wasn't dissuaded from her, Arisa-chan… Arisa-chan got violent twice and that was the end of it.
Her friends were very nice to her.
She'd met Suzuka-chan at her home before the semester had started, about a week and a half before if her memory served right, Otou-sama had brought her and Onii-sama along as he went to speak business with Suzuka-chan's mother. Suzuka-chan and Shinobu-san had been there to greet them in the foyer along with Noel-san and Falin-san, Otou-sama had told both her and Onii-sama to behave and followed Noel-san to where Suzuka-chan's mother was.
Following that Onii-sama had gone with Shinobu-san to her room, which left her with Falin-san and Suzuka-chan. Suzuka-chan was quiet the entire time as Falin-san led them to her friend's room, passing by numerous maids that shrank away from them as they did before arriving at her door.
It had been… an awkward time trying to get Suzuka-chan to say anything to her throughout the entire visit, she acted very timid and wouldn't speak her mind… at least until they had entered her room, and one of the cats had almost immediately jumped and latched onto her face… That wasn't a pleasant experience to recall.
At least she'd managed to get Suzuka-chan to laugh at her flailing with the cat before she and Falin pried the cat away from her… still it'd made Suzuka-chan open up a bit, so that little misery was fine.
By the time she left with Onii-sama and Otou-sama, they were tentatively friends, and over two more visits, once more over to Suzuka-chan's home, and once by Suzuka-chan's family over to hers, they could be called friends. She never did ask or know what Otou-sama talked with Suzuka-chan's mother about, but that was between them, it was probably over some job in the past or a favor.
The first day of school of that year was when she met Arisa-chan for the first time… though not in a good way…
It had started with a walk along the rooftop with Suzuka-chan, Arisa-chan had come up and took Suzuka-chan's headband, and then in the attempt to get it back, she herself had slapped Arisa-chan and it had quickly escalated into a fight until Suzuka-chan had yelled at them to stop… Not the best way to be introduced to someone… even if they were smiling widely throughout the entire fight…
It had taken two more incidents like that before Arisa-chan stopped her bullying, at least on Suzuka-chan, and a quarter of the semester after the last time before Arisa-chan spent time with them as a friend. The few attempts to warn Arisa-chan away from them came a bit later after that, but Arisa-chan dealt with it in her own way, and eventually the other kids stopped, which lead them to how they were now, three friends uncaring of how others saw them.
Breaking her reverie abruptly with a sigh, Nanoha forced herself up from her seat against the tree, dusting her clothes off and stretching to remove the kinks in her bones from sitting against the tree. Somehow, and she'd likely never understand how, the loneliness receded from her as she thought about the past… she wouldn't question it too much, it helped make it bearable to move around again, the least she could do was just accept it.
Now back to home and Scrya-san, then onto walking around fruitlessly searching for a Jewel Seed, and perhaps a chance to meet with the pretty girl again.
That had been back when the sun was starting to set, around about an hour and a half she'd have to guess, almost two now, since then and nothing had come up like usual, Scrya-san telling her to go home and rest while he would continue searching for a bit longer. She nodded and gave her employer a wave of farewell, one that was returned somewhat tentatively before she was off.
Barely three blocks of walking away and she heard the chiming begin, the distinctive chime she hadn't heard for two weeks letting her know that a Jewel Seed was finally activating, though having two pillars of light and an abrupt weather change was not normal to an activation… A realization was made as she set off in a dead sprint towards the second light, Razing Heart and her katana brought out swiftly before her clothing changed.
A few moments later the world muted itself to grey from something, likely Scrya-san's doing to make sure no one else got involved.
One of the pillars, an orange one that seemed just a bit smaller than the blue one, gradually dissipated as she ran, mana coated her blade with a thought before she heard Scrya-san in her head, rather calm which was nice. "Nanoha. Can you see the executed Jewel Seed?" She gave an affirmative quickly while continuing to run, listening to Scrya-san even as her smile brightened just a minute amount at her realization being confirmed before confusion came. "That girl and a wolf are here, seal it before they do!"
Wolf?
Confusion was pushed aside to focus on the task given to her, a thought was given to the distance between her and the Seed, her smile fading back to normal slowly as the thought registered, given the distance and the fact that the other girl was proficient in ranged… she wouldn't make it in time…
…
… Unacceptable.
A platform formed beneath her, tilted enough that it would send her towards the Jewel Seed without her sliding down it, her 'endurance' spell turned off as it would only slow her down with the mana once directed at it instead gifted to the 'speed' spell. For all she knew that action could do nothing, to rapidly causing harm to herself or speed herself up drastically, or any combination and variance of the two, regardless of any consequences. A few injuries to obtain a Jewel Seed was a trade she'd take anytime.
A second passed by before she was off with an explosion, flying for a few moments before her legs touched the ground and an audible crack resounded through her body, pain lancing through her left leg that was resolutely ignored with a strained grimace. Another step and she only received a light amount of pain, a third sending worse up into her body, the fourth holding nothing as she fixed the initial issues, with the fifth doing a patchwork fix on her leg to dull the pain. Four more steps and a rushed incantation saw her approaching the Jewel Seed as a yellow beam from above came at it.
Her sword swung out, striking the jewel with a clang before sending it flying away from her and the incoming beam, one last step ending with a stumble and pain which led to her sliding along the ground after the Jewel Seed. Embedding her sword in the ground proved effective at slowing her to a stop by the jewel, her free hand grabbing her prize before finishing the incantation, "… Serial 19, Seal."
'Receipt: No. XIX.' Her smile returned after that confirmation, pained yet content, forcing herself back up to her feet shortly after, heedless of her leg's condition, before looking up at her opponents. Both of them were looking at her in what looked like shock, or at least the orange wolf was doing as good an impression as it could, though the girl looked to be recovering swiftly and focusing on her.
Pulling her blade from the ground she took a step forward… only to immediately almost fall back down as her leg gave out on her… she'd need to patch it more if she needed to keep going, even if that did more harm in the long-run.
Once again, she forced herself to her feet and pulled her katana from the earth, a look up letting her see the orange wolf descending from above towards her, a shouted "Nanoha!" barely heard before the wolf crashed into her, or would have had it not been a green-blue barrier manifesting over her. The wolf, or was it wolf-woman?, leapt off the barrier a few seconds later, sliding along the road as the barrier shattered and revealed the other girl staring stoically with a hint of sadness at her from atop a lamppost.
For a few moments neither of them spoke, then the other girl's device changed into its scythe form, a prompt that made her coat her blade in mana quickly before she let her smile soften as she finally realized something. "I don't know your name, and you don't know mine." The other girl didn't appear to react at those words, standing still and near lifeless much like a doll would with only her cape waving softly amidst the slow wind, so she continued speaking, "My name is Takamachi Nanoha, third child of Takamachi Shirō. What's your name?"
A second passed, then a third and the girl's expression didn't change, a fourth passing slowly before she answered blankly, "Fate. Testarossa Fate." She gave a happy nod at Fate's answer, and with those few words now passed they started their second fight.
It began with Fate rushing disappearing from the lamp and reappearing behind her, yellow scythe set on drawing blood before it was deflected by a pink-coated blade, the blonde-haired girl flying up quickly as she swung her sword at her. A platform was made and detonated on a moment's notice to send her after Fate, her opponent managing to block the upwards cut even as her face clearly showed she hadn't been expecting that action.
The scythe was pushed upwards with only a little effort, her sword redirected into a slash into Fate's chest, a gasp of air let out by her opponent at the hit before the swing was completed and she was sent hurtling away. Fate caught herself quickly with only a moment taken to catch herself before she was off again, flying away from Nanoha as the latter chased after slowly.
The scythe reverted to its default state, the head aimed back at her before multiple yellow beams were shot at her, none of which were paid any mind as she ran straight through them, trusting her 'endurance' spell to do its job. Just as she came close however, Fate seemingly blurred before she disappeared from where she was, a sharp pain along her back letting her know exactly where the other girl had gone, while a look back showed her flying away with another spell-hail sent behind her. She chased after the other girl as quickly as she could, using platforms to slowly catch up and turn through the streets after Fate on a dime.
Three times she got close to Fate, three times Fate rapidly got around her and sent a parting shot with her scythe, four times she went through a hail of yellow bolts without consequence, then came a huge beam that had several weeks prior sent her through a forest. The platform holding her exploded the moment she saw it coming, she had no wish to replicate that event with buildings instead of trees, another platform made as she reached the peak of her 'flight', no movement made as she processed what was happening.
She was still too slow to catch Fate, while she was too durable to be harmed by most of what little she knew of Fate's spells, and what few things Fate had that could hurt her she could either easily dodge or were used in melee. A bolt pinged off her cheek as she started walking towards her foe, taking her time since the small hail wasn't deadly in the slightest, at least to her it wasn't. Chasing her wouldn't yield anything, her first shooting spell wouldn't be fast enough and she didn't have anything to get close enough… which left her with the unrefined 'shooting' spell… could be worse.
Five of Fate's shots pinged off of her as she stopped walking and lifted her sword up with both hands before cutting diagonally through the air, a pink, crescent-shaped light flying from the blade as it ended the swing towards Fate's general direction… hard to tell where she was when there was a sea of yellow around Fate. Her spell lasted for a while, taking a few hits from the barrage before shattering after one too many hit it, but by that point several others were sent in its place to avenge it, yet they too failed to get through the wall of lights.
That tactic wouldn't work, far too many hostile projectiles and too fragile friendly projectiles… at least the spell worked.
Well, onto 'Plan B' then… her leg was going to be a mess by the end of this without a doubt.
Several more of the bolts pinged off her skin and clothing, oddly not even a dull pain gained from them hitting her, as she set about with a quick set of preparations, an idle thought given at why the bolts weren't hitting her platform before she dismissed it and focused. The platform under her was ready, and with a thought she was sent flying through the hail, another platform manifesting amidst the storm ready to take her above it.
A single step with her uninjured leg along the surface taken before she was directed above the storm, another waiting platform exploding as she reached it sending her towards where Fate should be. Two more platforms used to maintain momentum, the storm constantly redirected to aim at her instead of where she used to be as she went from platform to platform, and finally after a half-minute she could see Fate… her device aimed directly at her…
This was going to hurt a lot wasn't it?
Purple lightning dancing along yellow light came forth from the device, gathering at the head for several seconds before flaring out in its entirety towards her. Given she was currently in the midst of 'flying' uncontrollably towards Fate and a platform would take a second more than she had time to make it manifest, she had no viable options to try and get clear. Even still she made a platform in front of her, raising her blade as if to block despite knowing it would do nothing, and touched the platform just as the beam was set to plow through her.
She didn't know why, nor did she understand how, but the moment she set foot on the platform she heard the whispering of her device, louder than it usually was but still too quiet to make out the words. And with the whispers came light shaping itself in front of her, it took the vague shape of a triangle before it began to shatter from the strain of Fate's spell, but the two seconds that half-formed shield/barrier bought her was enough to let her get clear.
Another platform awaited her above, and with only a moment being spent upon its surface she was gone again, though the wild spinning was a vast down-grade from her previous straight line… Her flight was erratic, but she had enough control to keep going in the right direction… maybe… either way with the way she was spinning slashing was bound to miss… which left only one option.
A platform was made somewhere in front of Fate, as well as what looked like a shield spell… hard to tell with all the spinning… she was thankful she wasn't prone to motion sic-
And that was when she hit her platform back-first, a dull pain sent through her reinforced body that turned slightly sharp when it reached her leg, before the platform detonated amidst a shattering and sent her forward into another, her scrambling along its surface for a short time before pulling herself back to her feet. That platform too exploded, thankfully this time she had more control and could see in front of her, sending her back at Fate, receiving several bolts to the chest that stung slightly before she was in front of the other girl again.
A quick horizontal slash was deflected off to the side, the axe-head smashing into her side with an barely audible crunch, a punch dodged before she was uppercutted by the device followed shortly by getting hit by another shooting spell in the shoulder. There was a cross between a snap and hiss heard before a mechanical voice called out 'Arc Saber', and then before she could react or even look back at Fate she was hit and sent flying with a light boom.
An idea came unbidden as she flew and smashed through one of her platforms, a stupid idea but it had worked the first time so she was… hopeful it would work again.
The second platform managed to stop her momentum, albeit barely as it cracked to the point of almost shattering, it served its purpose though as she launched off the invisible 'wall' straight back into and through the smoke cloud. She felt a sharp pain in her left leg, enough to make her grimace before she impacted into something softer than what she was used to, and given the gasp she caught and audible cracking, somehow her 'aim' was accurate… it probably wouldn't happen a third time.
From the cloud they emerged, Fate gripping her scythe, still embedded in her now thoroughly broken leg, with one hand while the other was held out and gathering mana and lightning, a somewhat pained look on her face. Herself… she braced for the building they both were rapidly approaching.
Fortunately for Fate, her device made a barrier to absorb a bit of the impact before they both smashed through it and into the building, the impact jarring both of them away from one another, the scythe coming loose in a spray of blood in the resulting tumble.
In almost perfect sync, two weapons hit the ground and were used as leverage to hoist their masters back to their unsteady feet, herself falling to a knee a second later as her leg finally gave out on her after the hell she put it through. Fate stumbled several steps backward before catching herself and making to come over, only to stop as she cradled her stomach and let out a hiss of pain.
"Fate!" Both girls' attention was drawn to the hole to the outside, just as the fox-woman jumped through with a worried expression, taking in their states with a glance before grabbing Fate and jumping back out into the world outside. A few minutes passed by before Scrya-san managed to get up there, immediately looking over her as she sat amidst the rubble with a pained smile, and telling her that her leg was broken in multiple places.
…That… that was better than him just saying it was broken and stating the obvious.
Thankfully he had enough mana and was recovered enough to teleport her back home, unfortunately they arrived outside rather than inside her room, but it was close enough to her room that no one saw or heard her as they made their way in. It took a minute to take off her clothing and change into her nightwear, and another to bind her leg as best as she could with bandages before she went to bed exhausted and in pain.
Moving on from that, she got out of bed and winced as pressure was put on her foot, she'd need another roll of bandages… and the mana binding she had made up on the spot last night to move around for the day. Though given exactly what her injuries where, she was faring much better than most others would.
Scrya-san could only give her a preliminary… guess as to how bad the damage was, but from the way he acted when he was telling her, she was sure he was surprised that she was both able to move, and still be doing things 'normally'. The best result he got was her femur was broken into three pieces, thankfully still near one another, as was her tibia, also in the same condition. He couldn't get an accurate read on the fibula, but it was likely in a similar state, and that didn't even count the muscles…
All she knew was that she wasn't supposed to be using her leg… at all if it wanted to heal properly… which went against her job in trying to get the Jewel Seeds… it was an easy decision to make.
Despite Scrya-san's insistence, she went about the rest of her morning as normal, doing her morning chore, changing her bandages, sitting down for breakfast and listening to Onii-sama and Otou-sama talk to one another. Most of the time, one of them simply stated facts or requests to the other whenever it was necessary, the only time they actively had a conversation was whenever someone showed up for a meeting with Otou-sama… or was about to show up…
Either way that didn't concern her, those people were Otou-sama's old employers or friends and they would only be coming over if he called for them. They didn't have any reason anymore to call Otou-sama since he retired to raise her and her siblings.
She was roused from her thoughts as a chair screeched back against the floor, her and Onee-sama's attention given to Onii-sama as he got up and glared at Otou-sama for some reason… She really should pay more attention to conversations going on around her… but it was easy to tune it out when it didn't involve her.
Otou-sama gave a blank look at Onii-sama, not saying a word as he calmly stood and beckoned for Onii-sama to follow him with a single gesture, which Onii-sama did after a short moment standing, leaving her and Onee-sama alone. Onee-sama let out a sigh as she finished her meal and began to clean up, she herself finished a few moments later and helped clean the table and dishes, idly wondering what Otou-sama and Onii-sama had been talking about.
She stopped thinking about it after a while, it probably didn't have anything to do with her, so she wouldn't dwell on it.
The rest of the morning was spent normally, she went on her way to school, listened to Scrya-san tell her to 'take it easy today', which probably wouldn't work out well. A random pulse of mana brushed against her senses from behind her, yet she didn't turn to look at it, there wasn't a chime accompanying the feeling, along with it felt like it was a long way away, so it didn't matter at all to her.
With that last thought she continued towards school, leg aching with every step she took but otherwise not hurting, only two rolls of bandages and mana bracing keeping it together.
… Well school could have gone better…
Everything was fine until it came time for P.E., language had been good today, which should have tipped her off to something bad compensating for a decent time in that class, and every other class went as it always did. P.E. today, more than made up for her having a decent time in learning English and Japanese…
Today they played soccer… the quick version of what had happened was she stumbled and was hit by another student, and she fell straight on her injured leg. The game had stopped when she didn't get back up, and shortly after she was escorted to the Nurse's office, then after a check-up by the nurse that echoed Scrya-san's 'guess', Otou-sama arrived and took her home early.
Otou-sama had immediately taken her to her room and helped her lie down on her bed when they arrived home, coming and going to bring in common first aid materials. Another roll of bandages to swap out the old, now blood-stained ones, some painkillers and water to numb what the little pain there was to nothing. And finally, a 'simple' setting of every bone to roughly where it should be, and pushing one back in…
She was glad the painkillers were first…
Afterwards, Otou-sama went back outside before returning one last time with a second roll of bandages and proceeded to bind her leg back up, not once did he speak about or ask where the injury came from, and that suited her fine. Hmm… she'd probably get scolded by Scrya-san if she was to get up and wander, and Otou-sama seemed to want her to rest if he had put her here, so that left resting until there was a chime…
…
This was uncomfortable…
Razing Heart went into its spot quickly, changing her blade to its other colors as it socketed into the metal, her bracing wrapping around her broken bones and binding them together again, and finally her flower-ridden kimono and hakama appeared over her bandages.
She… took her time getting there, she ran yes, but she didn't use any of her spells to aid her in getting to the Jewel Seed quicker… she just had a feeling that she had no need to use them to get there in time. Distantly she heard an explosion, and then the world became muted as Scrya-san did… whatever it was that he did to make the world void of others, followed by another explosion as they came upon a park and saw the Jewel Seed…
Why was it a tree?
She let confusion wash over her for a short moment, before shaking herself off and looking at the other two things worth looking at, wolf-woman, as a woman, sending shooting spells at the tree while Fate was flying around sending her own spells at it. With a near-silent hiss she drew her sword from its sheathe, taking a single step forward, covering her blade in light with a thought and letting her own spell loose at the strange… monster… thing…
Whatever it was, her spell did as much damage as the other two were causing, barely any dent at all in the barrier it had. On the bright side, for her anyway, the tree didn't acknowledge her in the slightest because of that, keeping its focus on Fate.
The thing sent roots towards the other girl, none of which came anywhere close to even hitting her before she tore them apart with her scythe, another of her spells was sent from the blade at the monster, where it too failed to hurt its target. Another volley of spells were sent at it, to no avail yet again… looking over at the other two, it seemed that the lack of anything happening was wearing away at the wolf-woman given her expression, Fate looked like she normally did though, even as her scythe reverted to normal.
The 'tree' gave a roar, or something close it, before sending another batch of roots at Fate, and a few lesser batches at the her and the wolf-woman, once more they were dealt with before any damage could be done. She cut them apart like Fate did, and wolf-woman just ripped them apart with sheer brute strength.
Shortly after that batch of roots, they all sent some spell at the Jewel Seed, Fate using the 'big gun' she reserved for her most times, wolf-woman using a volley of spells and herself using another slash.
It worked… somewhat well… the barrier went down after the bombardment spell rammed into it, the following volley splintered parts of the trunk and her own slash sheared a limb off the 'tree', but by that point the barrier was up again, and a host of roots were after them all. She dealt with the roots sent after her the same way as before, though unfortunately she couldn't get all of them even with her 'speed' augment up, which led to her receiving a root through her lower right stomach…
Thankfully it barely bit into her skin, but it still hurt and bled slightly. That offending root was cut off shortly after the pain registered, two seconds later having the last root sent at her taken care of before she performed another stupid idea, she charged.
Her spells were next to worthless at range, despite several being effective at their purpose, most of her spells required contact with an enemy to be useful, so standing back was… not a good idea. Even still charging straight in was probably the stupidest thing to do in this situation, the other method had worked, even if it was slow, and was likely safer…
Then again, she didn't care about safety if it meant her goal was accomplished, her leg was testament to that.
She didn't get far, four roots cut apart before being blindsided by a sweeping root and sent off to the side towards the copse of trees surrounding the Jewel Seed, a slash sent back cutting through the root bef. For once she wasn't sent through a tree, only tumbling across the ground until she stopped in front of one, her sword used to help her up before she looked back at the 'tree', then turned to the tree behind her… another stupid idea.
Another explosion and volley of spells alongside another roar from the thing before she was back on her feet without aid of her weapon, a shout of "Nanoha!" from Scrya-san as he saw her smash part of a random tree away with a hit, a creak sounding as the trunk tipped towards her. She didn't pay attention to another sound as it fell, backing up two steps before swinging and separating the top half of the severed tree from the other.
Then she stepped aside to avoid both parts of the tree before they could crush her accidently, watching it fall with a crash before kneeling down and picking up the lower portion of the tree with a light grunt. Even with a lighter… projectile she still had issues with picking up and holding the thing, mostly from the fact that her leg was held together by bandages and mana. Still she persevered and took a step forward with her injured leg, it'd be a bad idea to put all that weight on that leg, and threw the 'small' missile at her target just as Fate shot another bombardment at it.
The flying tree hit the Jewel Seed a moment before Fate's spell, hitting the barrier around it for a half-second before shattering the barrier and plowing into the thing's… face. A short pause occurred before Fate's spell hit the 'tree' and ended its life, the actual Jewel Seed coming out and floating between the two of them after a moment.
Neither of them moved or spoke, merely looking at one another, they both found cold eyes, one found a smile feigning happiness, the other a blank thin line. Both set themselves up for their next action, Fate's device setting itself into its sealing mode while she herself simply pulled her sword out of the ground and readied herself to charge forward, the Jewel gleaming for a second before both began the chant in sync.
"Jewel Seed, Serial 7, Seal!" She exploded the platform she made at the same time Fate sent a thin yellow beam, both her and the beam travelling quickly through the air at the Jewel Seed until they reached it and clashed somehow. And then she was engulfed by white and sent flying back into the ground with a crash, a wince made as her leg felt most of the impact before she gingerly got back to her feet.
Neither she or Fate said anything as they contemplated what just occurred, Fate's device changing back normal for a moment before turning into a scythe again, casually gripping the weapon with both hands as she did the same with her sword. A moment passed, then another four before she leapt at Fate right as the other girl flew down to meet her, both of them drawing their weapons back to slash before another light decided it wanted to get involved and blinded both of them.
She heard and felt something stop her sword with a crash of metal and a clack as something was caught, then came a voice that made her smile dim, a platform made under her to keep her afloat as she started to slide down. "Stop!"
The light faded shortly after the male voice delivered that word and she could finally see the interloper, a boy older than her by a few years with blackish-blue hair and grey eyes, wearing a black coat with metal gloves, with a single hand holding back Fate and the other holding her back with black staff-looking object.
… As for listening to the boy, who was sternly telling them that fighting here was dangerous and he was an Enforcer for TSAB, she stopped listening after that… He was after the Jewels as well likely… that wouldn't do. She was fine with a second person out collecting the Jewels, Fate was pretty and was probably quite nice, and she was confident that she could beat Fate given a bit of time and a long fight, but a new person? … No… they would have to be dealt with.
He was switching between looking at both of them with a stern gaze for a few seconds before she calmly looked around him at Fate, catching her attention rather easily somehow as she kept pressure on her blade. "Truce?" Fate looked over at her with a quick glance, eyes shifting from surprise to determination, back to surprise with a hint of confusion before settling back to determination, giving a light nod of her head before giving her answer.
"Truce."
*****
A week passed by and it came time for school to resume, a… pleasant yet unwelcome change after being able to wander around the woods, relax, and talk with Scrya-san a bit, he actually compliment her 'flight' spell when she finally showed it to him. There hadn't been any more Jewel Seeds in that week, a fact that she was annoyed with but only marginally. Both prior fights with both the fox-woman and girl had taught her that she wasn't… ready for a fight, not yet.
Moving from that, Onee-sama and Onii-sama returned from their trip two days after her fight with the fox-woman, they were happier after what she assumed had been a very nice and relaxing trip for them, and it stayed with them for a few more days before they were back to their normal selves.
Two days after they and everyone else came back, she was invited back to the café by Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan, an invitation she had accepted happily. It was a nice relaxation from the pain, stress and 'annoyance' of her job, one she'd have to partake in every so often, at least for now anyway, maybe if she enjoyed it enough she'd continue even after this job was over… Yes… that'd be nice.
They talked for a while, saying that it was an enjoyable trip, there had been a strange woman that Arisa-chan hadn't really liked but hadn't bothered them, they'd wished that she had come with them, etc. What made her almost twitch was when they said they had taken a stroll through the woods and found a broken bridge and a tree trunk in the water near the springs. 'Apparently', a 'freak storm' had come in during the night and threw a tree into the bridge.
After they were done talking she spoke about her time, she'd done chores, walked among the trees outside her home and played with Scrya-san… Technically she wasn't lying since she was only omitting some of the truth. Regardless the trip to the café was enjoyable, maybe not for Scrya-san as he was held a bit too much by Arisa-chan, and so she was in higher spirits than normal for the rest of that day.
She spent some time with Onii-sama and Onee-sama as well, nothing as… grand was far too great a word… as with Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan, but just as enjoyable, it felt… nice to be around them and 'play' like they had when she was younger… So very nice… She was going off-track again, but that was alright at the moment, anyway aside from her morning training and nightly training she didn't spend as much time training after they got back, she mostly kept to being around her family or friends for the time being.
And that led to where she was now, sitting in class as the clock slowly ticked away the last few minutes, idly recalling this was supposed to be history… She may have blanked out a few times during the class but the Teacher allowed her to… there were a few nice things about being a near-perfect student. The bell ringing tossed her out of her thoughts, just as Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan came over and they started chatting with one another. At some point she must have blanked out again, as Arisa-chan brought her out of it by shaking her vigorously by the shoulders… that hadn't happened before.
After quickly regaining her bearings, Arisa-chan stopping her shaking and herself shaking her head a few times she was brought back out of 'Lalaland' or… whatever it was called by other people, and was greeted with Suzuka-chan looking concerned and Arisa-chan a cross between angry and concerned. "That's enough! You've been spacing out more than usual since you got hurt at Suzuka's!"
She gave a sheepish smile at those words, she hadn't even noticed that she was doing it more than before, normally it only happened whenever she was thinking of training or Okaa-sama, and there was the shaking again.
Now Arisa-chan was more angry than concerned now… not good. "Stop! Zoning! Out!" Once more the sheepish smile returned, but before any words were said Arisa-chan continued with her near-shouting, "And don't you dare apologize either! I know you have issues, I know you can't talk about certain subjects or else you stay quiet for hours or until the subject is changed." Her face softened a bit back to its original angry yet concerned look before adding "So whenever you get done we'll talk again alright. Come on Suzuka."
And with that Arisa-chan marched off, Suzuka-chan making to move after Arisa-chan before looking back at her, a short "Nanoha…" uttered before she waved Suzuka-chan away, giving a dim smile and saying she'd be fine before her friend left. She sat there for a minute before she slouched slightly, her eyes dimming to a near-dead quality before she cupped her hands around her face…
Was this what would happen in the future with Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan, them leaving her alone for stretches of time simply because she wasn't allowed to speak about her profession?
What a lonely fate that would be… at least she'd have Otou-sama, Onee-sama and Onii-sama to alleviate the loneliness. Silently shaking her head of that line of thought, it wouldn't help her in the slightest, she adjusted her expression back to its normal look before continuing with the rest of school, which thankfully was only one more class before she was allowed to leave.
*****
While making her way home she thought over everything that had occurred in the last week, mainly focusing on her job and training but also dipping into her overall life and studies.
Again, there hadn't been any other Jewel Seeds that she could find or sense, nor had she seen any trace of the girl or fox-woman going around either but that wasn't much of a concern… hopefully. Aside from that she'd talked a bit with Scrya-san while on their outings when it became apparent that nothing was going to happen, just a few clarifications on some of his prior lectures for the most part.
Training-wise with Scrya-san she'd tried, and succeeded in,… convincing him to teach her how to set up a shield, or at the very least give her the theory/steps to shield spells. Needless to say, she couldn't get any shield, or even the lesser barrier, up during the three days between when she asked and now, nor had she made her own off the top of her head like she'd been doing with most of her spells.
At the very least she wasn't blowing up into trees like with the 'flight' spell, she was just… missing something crucial.
Other than that she'd gotten a lecture on history from him, a very detailed one at that which she supposed was to be expected given his stated profession. Apparently Ancient Belka was an incredibly war-like nation that grew to empire status thanks to advanced technology, what kind exactly was unclear to her as she barely understood the terms he had been using. They had long-lived rulers, which Scrya-san attributed towards advanced technology rather than natural causes, that were incredibly strong compared to the average individual during that time.
The reason being behind them not being in charge now was rather simple, the Belkans' world became uninhabitable and most their people settled down quietly among the many worlds, the only exception that he knew of being a lineage called the Saint King. All Scrya-san could tell her about that line was they warred until their last descendent perished after ending the war and was worshipped by an organization called the Saint Church, an 'ally' of TSAB from what her employer told her.
Well there was a lot more that he had said and told her, but those were the major points that she could recall off-hand, which suited her fine for the moment.
Her other training proved only somewhat fruitful, she had finished making her other 'shooting' spell, though it still needed to be modified a little more to be both safe and viable. It was just too slow to be effective right now, and speeding it up would have the chance of making it explode whenever she tried to use it.
Other than that, she'd begun working on seeing what she could do with the mana coating around her blade when her augment was on, so far it looked… promising. Given time she could very likely make something extremely dangerous, but for now, she was settling for just changing the type of force a swing generated, which was more difficult than expected.
Ha… here she was distracting herself from the loneliness walking alone along the sea brought her by thinking of what she'd done… neither Arisa-chan or Suzuka-chan had met up with her after school, which was expected given what Arisa-chan had said… Even so it was depressing being alone again.
Perhaps she was too used to the company of others after the few years, or maybe she just didn't like being alone? She thought the latter more than the former, being alone brought on thinking, and thinking brought along memories best laid to rest if she didn't distract herself with other things.
Well, there was things to be done, and until she was finished she'd endure the loneliness, with only Scrya-san keeping her company. It was best to get used to it seeing as this would likely be her life in the future.
*****
She didn't manage to make it home before the oppressive feeling of being alone brought her to a stop, her thoughts going through her various issues before focusing on the unintentional reason why she was here, Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan...
It'd been a long time since she was alone the entire way home, not since before she had met her friends… She stood still for a minute before she shook her head and looked around, finding herself having walked into the middle of a park among the trees, not a soul to be found anywhere near her, moving over to a random tree and gently sitting against it to rest and wait until the loneliness passed.
Two years she'd been in her friends' company, Suzuka-chan she'd met before school had started, while Arisa-chan… they didn't get along well back at the beginning, but both of them warmed up to the other after a while, even if a few of the other kids tried to warn them away from her… Something about her being creepy or unnatural because of her always smiling. Suzuka-chan paid their words no heed, she'd known her for longer than the other kids had and wasn't dissuaded from her, Arisa-chan… Arisa-chan got violent twice and that was the end of it.
Her friends were very nice to her.
She'd met Suzuka-chan at her home before the semester had started, about a week and a half before if her memory served right, Otou-sama had brought her and Onii-sama along as he went to speak business with Suzuka-chan's mother. Suzuka-chan and Shinobu-san had been there to greet them in the foyer along with Noel-san and Falin-san, Otou-sama had told both her and Onii-sama to behave and followed Noel-san to where Suzuka-chan's mother was.
Following that Onii-sama had gone with Shinobu-san to her room, which left her with Falin-san and Suzuka-chan. Suzuka-chan was quiet the entire time as Falin-san led them to her friend's room, passing by numerous maids that shrank away from them as they did before arriving at her door.
It had been… an awkward time trying to get Suzuka-chan to say anything to her throughout the entire visit, she acted very timid and wouldn't speak her mind… at least until they had entered her room, and one of the cats had almost immediately jumped and latched onto her face… That wasn't a pleasant experience to recall.
At least she'd managed to get Suzuka-chan to laugh at her flailing with the cat before she and Falin pried the cat away from her… still it'd made Suzuka-chan open up a bit, so that little misery was fine.
By the time she left with Onii-sama and Otou-sama, they were tentatively friends, and over two more visits, once more over to Suzuka-chan's home, and once by Suzuka-chan's family over to hers, they could be called friends. She never did ask or know what Otou-sama talked with Suzuka-chan's mother about, but that was between them, it was probably over some job in the past or a favor.
The first day of school of that year was when she met Arisa-chan for the first time… though not in a good way…
It had started with a walk along the rooftop with Suzuka-chan, Arisa-chan had come up and took Suzuka-chan's headband, and then in the attempt to get it back, she herself had slapped Arisa-chan and it had quickly escalated into a fight until Suzuka-chan had yelled at them to stop… Not the best way to be introduced to someone… even if they were smiling widely throughout the entire fight…
It had taken two more incidents like that before Arisa-chan stopped her bullying, at least on Suzuka-chan, and a quarter of the semester after the last time before Arisa-chan spent time with them as a friend. The few attempts to warn Arisa-chan away from them came a bit later after that, but Arisa-chan dealt with it in her own way, and eventually the other kids stopped, which lead them to how they were now, three friends uncaring of how others saw them.
Breaking her reverie abruptly with a sigh, Nanoha forced herself up from her seat against the tree, dusting her clothes off and stretching to remove the kinks in her bones from sitting against the tree. Somehow, and she'd likely never understand how, the loneliness receded from her as she thought about the past… she wouldn't question it too much, it helped make it bearable to move around again, the least she could do was just accept it.
Now back to home and Scrya-san, then onto walking around fruitlessly searching for a Jewel Seed, and perhaps a chance to meet with the pretty girl again.
*****
Shortly after her… it wasn't big enough to be called a breakdown… she was bad at describing these things, she arrived home and immediately began preparing to go out with Scrya-san, grabbing a small snack for herself and Scrya-san before walking out with a short goodbye to Otou-sama.
That had been back when the sun was starting to set, around about an hour and a half she'd have to guess, almost two now, since then and nothing had come up like usual, Scrya-san telling her to go home and rest while he would continue searching for a bit longer. She nodded and gave her employer a wave of farewell, one that was returned somewhat tentatively before she was off.
Barely three blocks of walking away and she heard the chiming begin, the distinctive chime she hadn't heard for two weeks letting her know that a Jewel Seed was finally activating, though having two pillars of light and an abrupt weather change was not normal to an activation… A realization was made as she set off in a dead sprint towards the second light, Razing Heart and her katana brought out swiftly before her clothing changed.
A few moments later the world muted itself to grey from something, likely Scrya-san's doing to make sure no one else got involved.
One of the pillars, an orange one that seemed just a bit smaller than the blue one, gradually dissipated as she ran, mana coated her blade with a thought before she heard Scrya-san in her head, rather calm which was nice. "Nanoha. Can you see the executed Jewel Seed?" She gave an affirmative quickly while continuing to run, listening to Scrya-san even as her smile brightened just a minute amount at her realization being confirmed before confusion came. "That girl and a wolf are here, seal it before they do!"
Wolf?
Confusion was pushed aside to focus on the task given to her, a thought was given to the distance between her and the Seed, her smile fading back to normal slowly as the thought registered, given the distance and the fact that the other girl was proficient in ranged… she wouldn't make it in time…
…
… Unacceptable.
A platform formed beneath her, tilted enough that it would send her towards the Jewel Seed without her sliding down it, her 'endurance' spell turned off as it would only slow her down with the mana once directed at it instead gifted to the 'speed' spell. For all she knew that action could do nothing, to rapidly causing harm to herself or speed herself up drastically, or any combination and variance of the two, regardless of any consequences. A few injuries to obtain a Jewel Seed was a trade she'd take anytime.
A second passed by before she was off with an explosion, flying for a few moments before her legs touched the ground and an audible crack resounded through her body, pain lancing through her left leg that was resolutely ignored with a strained grimace. Another step and she only received a light amount of pain, a third sending worse up into her body, the fourth holding nothing as she fixed the initial issues, with the fifth doing a patchwork fix on her leg to dull the pain. Four more steps and a rushed incantation saw her approaching the Jewel Seed as a yellow beam from above came at it.
Her sword swung out, striking the jewel with a clang before sending it flying away from her and the incoming beam, one last step ending with a stumble and pain which led to her sliding along the ground after the Jewel Seed. Embedding her sword in the ground proved effective at slowing her to a stop by the jewel, her free hand grabbing her prize before finishing the incantation, "… Serial 19, Seal."
'Receipt: No. XIX.' Her smile returned after that confirmation, pained yet content, forcing herself back up to her feet shortly after, heedless of her leg's condition, before looking up at her opponents. Both of them were looking at her in what looked like shock, or at least the orange wolf was doing as good an impression as it could, though the girl looked to be recovering swiftly and focusing on her.
Pulling her blade from the ground she took a step forward… only to immediately almost fall back down as her leg gave out on her… she'd need to patch it more if she needed to keep going, even if that did more harm in the long-run.
Once again, she forced herself to her feet and pulled her katana from the earth, a look up letting her see the orange wolf descending from above towards her, a shouted "Nanoha!" barely heard before the wolf crashed into her, or would have had it not been a green-blue barrier manifesting over her. The wolf, or was it wolf-woman?, leapt off the barrier a few seconds later, sliding along the road as the barrier shattered and revealed the other girl staring stoically with a hint of sadness at her from atop a lamppost.
For a few moments neither of them spoke, then the other girl's device changed into its scythe form, a prompt that made her coat her blade in mana quickly before she let her smile soften as she finally realized something. "I don't know your name, and you don't know mine." The other girl didn't appear to react at those words, standing still and near lifeless much like a doll would with only her cape waving softly amidst the slow wind, so she continued speaking, "My name is Takamachi Nanoha, third child of Takamachi Shirō. What's your name?"
A second passed, then a third and the girl's expression didn't change, a fourth passing slowly before she answered blankly, "Fate. Testarossa Fate." She gave a happy nod at Fate's answer, and with those few words now passed they started their second fight.
It began with Fate rushing disappearing from the lamp and reappearing behind her, yellow scythe set on drawing blood before it was deflected by a pink-coated blade, the blonde-haired girl flying up quickly as she swung her sword at her. A platform was made and detonated on a moment's notice to send her after Fate, her opponent managing to block the upwards cut even as her face clearly showed she hadn't been expecting that action.
The scythe was pushed upwards with only a little effort, her sword redirected into a slash into Fate's chest, a gasp of air let out by her opponent at the hit before the swing was completed and she was sent hurtling away. Fate caught herself quickly with only a moment taken to catch herself before she was off again, flying away from Nanoha as the latter chased after slowly.
The scythe reverted to its default state, the head aimed back at her before multiple yellow beams were shot at her, none of which were paid any mind as she ran straight through them, trusting her 'endurance' spell to do its job. Just as she came close however, Fate seemingly blurred before she disappeared from where she was, a sharp pain along her back letting her know exactly where the other girl had gone, while a look back showed her flying away with another spell-hail sent behind her. She chased after the other girl as quickly as she could, using platforms to slowly catch up and turn through the streets after Fate on a dime.
Three times she got close to Fate, three times Fate rapidly got around her and sent a parting shot with her scythe, four times she went through a hail of yellow bolts without consequence, then came a huge beam that had several weeks prior sent her through a forest. The platform holding her exploded the moment she saw it coming, she had no wish to replicate that event with buildings instead of trees, another platform made as she reached the peak of her 'flight', no movement made as she processed what was happening.
She was still too slow to catch Fate, while she was too durable to be harmed by most of what little she knew of Fate's spells, and what few things Fate had that could hurt her she could either easily dodge or were used in melee. A bolt pinged off her cheek as she started walking towards her foe, taking her time since the small hail wasn't deadly in the slightest, at least to her it wasn't. Chasing her wouldn't yield anything, her first shooting spell wouldn't be fast enough and she didn't have anything to get close enough… which left her with the unrefined 'shooting' spell… could be worse.
Five of Fate's shots pinged off of her as she stopped walking and lifted her sword up with both hands before cutting diagonally through the air, a pink, crescent-shaped light flying from the blade as it ended the swing towards Fate's general direction… hard to tell where she was when there was a sea of yellow around Fate. Her spell lasted for a while, taking a few hits from the barrage before shattering after one too many hit it, but by that point several others were sent in its place to avenge it, yet they too failed to get through the wall of lights.
That tactic wouldn't work, far too many hostile projectiles and too fragile friendly projectiles… at least the spell worked.
Well, onto 'Plan B' then… her leg was going to be a mess by the end of this without a doubt.
Several more of the bolts pinged off her skin and clothing, oddly not even a dull pain gained from them hitting her, as she set about with a quick set of preparations, an idle thought given at why the bolts weren't hitting her platform before she dismissed it and focused. The platform under her was ready, and with a thought she was sent flying through the hail, another platform manifesting amidst the storm ready to take her above it.
A single step with her uninjured leg along the surface taken before she was directed above the storm, another waiting platform exploding as she reached it sending her towards where Fate should be. Two more platforms used to maintain momentum, the storm constantly redirected to aim at her instead of where she used to be as she went from platform to platform, and finally after a half-minute she could see Fate… her device aimed directly at her…
This was going to hurt a lot wasn't it?
Purple lightning dancing along yellow light came forth from the device, gathering at the head for several seconds before flaring out in its entirety towards her. Given she was currently in the midst of 'flying' uncontrollably towards Fate and a platform would take a second more than she had time to make it manifest, she had no viable options to try and get clear. Even still she made a platform in front of her, raising her blade as if to block despite knowing it would do nothing, and touched the platform just as the beam was set to plow through her.
She didn't know why, nor did she understand how, but the moment she set foot on the platform she heard the whispering of her device, louder than it usually was but still too quiet to make out the words. And with the whispers came light shaping itself in front of her, it took the vague shape of a triangle before it began to shatter from the strain of Fate's spell, but the two seconds that half-formed shield/barrier bought her was enough to let her get clear.
Another platform awaited her above, and with only a moment being spent upon its surface she was gone again, though the wild spinning was a vast down-grade from her previous straight line… Her flight was erratic, but she had enough control to keep going in the right direction… maybe… either way with the way she was spinning slashing was bound to miss… which left only one option.
A platform was made somewhere in front of Fate, as well as what looked like a shield spell… hard to tell with all the spinning… she was thankful she wasn't prone to motion sic-
And that was when she hit her platform back-first, a dull pain sent through her reinforced body that turned slightly sharp when it reached her leg, before the platform detonated amidst a shattering and sent her forward into another, her scrambling along its surface for a short time before pulling herself back to her feet. That platform too exploded, thankfully this time she had more control and could see in front of her, sending her back at Fate, receiving several bolts to the chest that stung slightly before she was in front of the other girl again.
A quick horizontal slash was deflected off to the side, the axe-head smashing into her side with an barely audible crunch, a punch dodged before she was uppercutted by the device followed shortly by getting hit by another shooting spell in the shoulder. There was a cross between a snap and hiss heard before a mechanical voice called out 'Arc Saber', and then before she could react or even look back at Fate she was hit and sent flying with a light boom.
An idea came unbidden as she flew and smashed through one of her platforms, a stupid idea but it had worked the first time so she was… hopeful it would work again.
The second platform managed to stop her momentum, albeit barely as it cracked to the point of almost shattering, it served its purpose though as she launched off the invisible 'wall' straight back into and through the smoke cloud. She felt a sharp pain in her left leg, enough to make her grimace before she impacted into something softer than what she was used to, and given the gasp she caught and audible cracking, somehow her 'aim' was accurate… it probably wouldn't happen a third time.
From the cloud they emerged, Fate gripping her scythe, still embedded in her now thoroughly broken leg, with one hand while the other was held out and gathering mana and lightning, a somewhat pained look on her face. Herself… she braced for the building they both were rapidly approaching.
Fortunately for Fate, her device made a barrier to absorb a bit of the impact before they both smashed through it and into the building, the impact jarring both of them away from one another, the scythe coming loose in a spray of blood in the resulting tumble.
In almost perfect sync, two weapons hit the ground and were used as leverage to hoist their masters back to their unsteady feet, herself falling to a knee a second later as her leg finally gave out on her after the hell she put it through. Fate stumbled several steps backward before catching herself and making to come over, only to stop as she cradled her stomach and let out a hiss of pain.
"Fate!" Both girls' attention was drawn to the hole to the outside, just as the fox-woman jumped through with a worried expression, taking in their states with a glance before grabbing Fate and jumping back out into the world outside. A few minutes passed by before Scrya-san managed to get up there, immediately looking over her as she sat amidst the rubble with a pained smile, and telling her that her leg was broken in multiple places.
…That… that was better than him just saying it was broken and stating the obvious.
Thankfully he had enough mana and was recovered enough to teleport her back home, unfortunately they arrived outside rather than inside her room, but it was close enough to her room that no one saw or heard her as they made their way in. It took a minute to take off her clothing and change into her nightwear, and another to bind her leg as best as she could with bandages before she went to bed exhausted and in pain.
*****
She woke late the next morning, nearly two hours later than her normal wake-up… that was fine for today, given her rather grievous injury from last night. She couldn't let it happen another time though, otherwise she may start waking up at that time instead, which Otou-sama would scold her for… maybe.
Moving on from that, she got out of bed and winced as pressure was put on her foot, she'd need another roll of bandages… and the mana binding she had made up on the spot last night to move around for the day. Though given exactly what her injuries where, she was faring much better than most others would.
Scrya-san could only give her a preliminary… guess as to how bad the damage was, but from the way he acted when he was telling her, she was sure he was surprised that she was both able to move, and still be doing things 'normally'. The best result he got was her femur was broken into three pieces, thankfully still near one another, as was her tibia, also in the same condition. He couldn't get an accurate read on the fibula, but it was likely in a similar state, and that didn't even count the muscles…
All she knew was that she wasn't supposed to be using her leg… at all if it wanted to heal properly… which went against her job in trying to get the Jewel Seeds… it was an easy decision to make.
Despite Scrya-san's insistence, she went about the rest of her morning as normal, doing her morning chore, changing her bandages, sitting down for breakfast and listening to Onii-sama and Otou-sama talk to one another. Most of the time, one of them simply stated facts or requests to the other whenever it was necessary, the only time they actively had a conversation was whenever someone showed up for a meeting with Otou-sama… or was about to show up…
Either way that didn't concern her, those people were Otou-sama's old employers or friends and they would only be coming over if he called for them. They didn't have any reason anymore to call Otou-sama since he retired to raise her and her siblings.
She was roused from her thoughts as a chair screeched back against the floor, her and Onee-sama's attention given to Onii-sama as he got up and glared at Otou-sama for some reason… She really should pay more attention to conversations going on around her… but it was easy to tune it out when it didn't involve her.
Otou-sama gave a blank look at Onii-sama, not saying a word as he calmly stood and beckoned for Onii-sama to follow him with a single gesture, which Onii-sama did after a short moment standing, leaving her and Onee-sama alone. Onee-sama let out a sigh as she finished her meal and began to clean up, she herself finished a few moments later and helped clean the table and dishes, idly wondering what Otou-sama and Onii-sama had been talking about.
She stopped thinking about it after a while, it probably didn't have anything to do with her, so she wouldn't dwell on it.
The rest of the morning was spent normally, she went on her way to school, listened to Scrya-san tell her to 'take it easy today', which probably wouldn't work out well. A random pulse of mana brushed against her senses from behind her, yet she didn't turn to look at it, there wasn't a chime accompanying the feeling, along with it felt like it was a long way away, so it didn't matter at all to her.
With that last thought she continued towards school, leg aching with every step she took but otherwise not hurting, only two rolls of bandages and mana bracing keeping it together.
*****
… Well school could have gone better…
Everything was fine until it came time for P.E., language had been good today, which should have tipped her off to something bad compensating for a decent time in that class, and every other class went as it always did. P.E. today, more than made up for her having a decent time in learning English and Japanese…
Today they played soccer… the quick version of what had happened was she stumbled and was hit by another student, and she fell straight on her injured leg. The game had stopped when she didn't get back up, and shortly after she was escorted to the Nurse's office, then after a check-up by the nurse that echoed Scrya-san's 'guess', Otou-sama arrived and took her home early.
Otou-sama had immediately taken her to her room and helped her lie down on her bed when they arrived home, coming and going to bring in common first aid materials. Another roll of bandages to swap out the old, now blood-stained ones, some painkillers and water to numb what the little pain there was to nothing. And finally, a 'simple' setting of every bone to roughly where it should be, and pushing one back in…
She was glad the painkillers were first…
Afterwards, Otou-sama went back outside before returning one last time with a second roll of bandages and proceeded to bind her leg back up, not once did he speak about or ask where the injury came from, and that suited her fine. Hmm… she'd probably get scolded by Scrya-san if she was to get up and wander, and Otou-sama seemed to want her to rest if he had put her here, so that left resting until there was a chime…
…
This was uncomfortable…
*****
Fortunately for her the distinctive chime ended her discomfort about two hours later, and so ignoring Scrya-san's concern that she should be in bed, she grabbed her weapon and Razing Heart before walking out of the house.
Razing Heart went into its spot quickly, changing her blade to its other colors as it socketed into the metal, her bracing wrapping around her broken bones and binding them together again, and finally her flower-ridden kimono and hakama appeared over her bandages.
She… took her time getting there, she ran yes, but she didn't use any of her spells to aid her in getting to the Jewel Seed quicker… she just had a feeling that she had no need to use them to get there in time. Distantly she heard an explosion, and then the world became muted as Scrya-san did… whatever it was that he did to make the world void of others, followed by another explosion as they came upon a park and saw the Jewel Seed…
Why was it a tree?
She let confusion wash over her for a short moment, before shaking herself off and looking at the other two things worth looking at, wolf-woman, as a woman, sending shooting spells at the tree while Fate was flying around sending her own spells at it. With a near-silent hiss she drew her sword from its sheathe, taking a single step forward, covering her blade in light with a thought and letting her own spell loose at the strange… monster… thing…
Whatever it was, her spell did as much damage as the other two were causing, barely any dent at all in the barrier it had. On the bright side, for her anyway, the tree didn't acknowledge her in the slightest because of that, keeping its focus on Fate.
The thing sent roots towards the other girl, none of which came anywhere close to even hitting her before she tore them apart with her scythe, another of her spells was sent from the blade at the monster, where it too failed to hurt its target. Another volley of spells were sent at it, to no avail yet again… looking over at the other two, it seemed that the lack of anything happening was wearing away at the wolf-woman given her expression, Fate looked like she normally did though, even as her scythe reverted to normal.
The 'tree' gave a roar, or something close it, before sending another batch of roots at Fate, and a few lesser batches at the her and the wolf-woman, once more they were dealt with before any damage could be done. She cut them apart like Fate did, and wolf-woman just ripped them apart with sheer brute strength.
Shortly after that batch of roots, they all sent some spell at the Jewel Seed, Fate using the 'big gun' she reserved for her most times, wolf-woman using a volley of spells and herself using another slash.
It worked… somewhat well… the barrier went down after the bombardment spell rammed into it, the following volley splintered parts of the trunk and her own slash sheared a limb off the 'tree', but by that point the barrier was up again, and a host of roots were after them all. She dealt with the roots sent after her the same way as before, though unfortunately she couldn't get all of them even with her 'speed' augment up, which led to her receiving a root through her lower right stomach…
Thankfully it barely bit into her skin, but it still hurt and bled slightly. That offending root was cut off shortly after the pain registered, two seconds later having the last root sent at her taken care of before she performed another stupid idea, she charged.
Her spells were next to worthless at range, despite several being effective at their purpose, most of her spells required contact with an enemy to be useful, so standing back was… not a good idea. Even still charging straight in was probably the stupidest thing to do in this situation, the other method had worked, even if it was slow, and was likely safer…
Then again, she didn't care about safety if it meant her goal was accomplished, her leg was testament to that.
She didn't get far, four roots cut apart before being blindsided by a sweeping root and sent off to the side towards the copse of trees surrounding the Jewel Seed, a slash sent back cutting through the root bef. For once she wasn't sent through a tree, only tumbling across the ground until she stopped in front of one, her sword used to help her up before she looked back at the 'tree', then turned to the tree behind her… another stupid idea.
Another explosion and volley of spells alongside another roar from the thing before she was back on her feet without aid of her weapon, a shout of "Nanoha!" from Scrya-san as he saw her smash part of a random tree away with a hit, a creak sounding as the trunk tipped towards her. She didn't pay attention to another sound as it fell, backing up two steps before swinging and separating the top half of the severed tree from the other.
Then she stepped aside to avoid both parts of the tree before they could crush her accidently, watching it fall with a crash before kneeling down and picking up the lower portion of the tree with a light grunt. Even with a lighter… projectile she still had issues with picking up and holding the thing, mostly from the fact that her leg was held together by bandages and mana. Still she persevered and took a step forward with her injured leg, it'd be a bad idea to put all that weight on that leg, and threw the 'small' missile at her target just as Fate shot another bombardment at it.
The flying tree hit the Jewel Seed a moment before Fate's spell, hitting the barrier around it for a half-second before shattering the barrier and plowing into the thing's… face. A short pause occurred before Fate's spell hit the 'tree' and ended its life, the actual Jewel Seed coming out and floating between the two of them after a moment.
Neither of them moved or spoke, merely looking at one another, they both found cold eyes, one found a smile feigning happiness, the other a blank thin line. Both set themselves up for their next action, Fate's device setting itself into its sealing mode while she herself simply pulled her sword out of the ground and readied herself to charge forward, the Jewel gleaming for a second before both began the chant in sync.
"Jewel Seed, Serial 7, Seal!" She exploded the platform she made at the same time Fate sent a thin yellow beam, both her and the beam travelling quickly through the air at the Jewel Seed until they reached it and clashed somehow. And then she was engulfed by white and sent flying back into the ground with a crash, a wince made as her leg felt most of the impact before she gingerly got back to her feet.
Neither she or Fate said anything as they contemplated what just occurred, Fate's device changing back normal for a moment before turning into a scythe again, casually gripping the weapon with both hands as she did the same with her sword. A moment passed, then another four before she leapt at Fate right as the other girl flew down to meet her, both of them drawing their weapons back to slash before another light decided it wanted to get involved and blinded both of them.
She heard and felt something stop her sword with a crash of metal and a clack as something was caught, then came a voice that made her smile dim, a platform made under her to keep her afloat as she started to slide down. "Stop!"
The light faded shortly after the male voice delivered that word and she could finally see the interloper, a boy older than her by a few years with blackish-blue hair and grey eyes, wearing a black coat with metal gloves, with a single hand holding back Fate and the other holding her back with black staff-looking object.
… As for listening to the boy, who was sternly telling them that fighting here was dangerous and he was an Enforcer for TSAB, she stopped listening after that… He was after the Jewels as well likely… that wouldn't do. She was fine with a second person out collecting the Jewels, Fate was pretty and was probably quite nice, and she was confident that she could beat Fate given a bit of time and a long fight, but a new person? … No… they would have to be dealt with.
He was switching between looking at both of them with a stern gaze for a few seconds before she calmly looked around him at Fate, catching her attention rather easily somehow as she kept pressure on her blade. "Truce?" Fate looked over at her with a quick glance, eyes shifting from surprise to determination, back to surprise with a hint of confusion before settling back to determination, giving a light nod of her head before giving her answer.
"Truce."
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