"Arashi! Arashi!" Vivio ran over to her uncle and gasped at the tear on his back. "Hold on, I know some healing spells."
Arashi grimaced as white light emerged from Vivio's hands and covered his back, slowly mending the damaged flesh. "You stole that from Yuuno, didn't you?" He nearly laughed at Vivio's glare. It wasn't her fault that she was able to copy various magic just by looking at it. Well, only if she could understand it, which was why she had to actually learn how to use Astral magic first.
"Oh, shut up before you hurt yourself worse." Vivio groused at him, thankful he wasn't dead. She couldn't imagine how bad her mother, or worse, her grandmother would have handled it.
Einhart was looking around, partially for any more Mazoku, and partially because that bunny creature was interesting. It looked like a stuffed rabbit, but, it couldn't be, could it? After all, it had used magic, what kind of stuffed animal could use actual magic?
"What?" Pokota asked as Einhart looked at him. "Never seen a stuffed animal use magic before?"
"Most stuffed animals don't cast massive explosions like that." Einhart pointed out and was worried if this bunny ever met Tio. 'But then again...' Her thoughts trailed off as she imagined Tio suddenly pouncing the bunny and the two tumbling into a dust cloud of hilarious violence. '...Yeah, probably something like that.'
Pokota smirked at her. "What? You've never seen a Dragon Slave before?" He blinked when she shook her head. "Seriously? What kind of sheltered life have you lived?"
"Pokota." Lyos warned his companion. "Just because they don't know of the Dragon Slave doesn't mean that they lived sheltered lives. After all, even you..."
"Ah! Okay, I get it!" Pokota swung his short arms back and forth to quiet Lyos down.
"It is fine." Einhart sighed softly. "We have not been..."
"Why?!" Corona interrupted, yelling at Nove as tears welled up in her eyes. "Why didn't you take that offer?! We could have just told them..." She whimpered as her legs gave out on her. "I just want to go home..." She muttered as she sat on the grass.
"You really wanted to make a deal with a demon?" Nove asked, her voice cold and eyes harsh as she looked at the young girl. "You saw what they did to Rio. Do you think that they would just let us go?"
"They... They..." Corona whimpered, the harsh reality of what was going on around her was crashing down on her so harsh that she didn't know what to do. This wasn't something that she knew how to deal with.
Nove knelt down next to Corona and cupped the young girl's chin so she could look at Corona right in the eyes. "Mazoku aren't to be trusted. Even if they would let us go, there's no question that they would twist our words to benefit them." Corona whimpered and Nove let go of her chin. "Come on, can you walk?" Corona nodded and accepted Nove's hand as she was helped up.
"It's not my place, but..." Lyos spoke to Nove, "would you like to follow us? There's a small village about a half hour from here." He pointed North, parallel to the forest. "It's an old fishing village, but it gets a lot of information. Pokota and I were heading there to meet with an informant for a job I took."
"Lyos!" Pokota flew up at the older man and glared at him. "What the heck?! They don't need to know that!"
Lyos sighed at his companion. "True, but there's no reason to be secretive about what we're doing. Besides, they look like they've been having a hard time, and you annoy me at times." He smirked as Pokota exploded and started yelling about how he wasn't the best traveling companion himself.
"Thank you." Nove nodded at him. She could already feel stress starting to peel away from her with these two around. Even if they were still being hunted at least they could defend themselves now. "I... Corona!" She yelled as she saw Corona start to walk off. "Don't just..."
"I'll go." Ixpellia said as she ran ahead to keep up with her friend.
"Thanks, Ixy, but don't get too far ahead."
"Sure!" Ixpellia nodded as she followed Corona. "And it's Ixpellia!"
Lyos raised an eyebrow at Nove as Vivio helped Arashi up off the ground. "What was that about?"
"Her name's Ixpellia, but it can be a handful to pronounce at times, so we call her Ixy for short, but she keeps reminding us that it's Ixpellia." Nove shrugged and looked at Arashi. "You good to go, kid?"
"My back's hurting, but I'll be okay." Arashi didn't like how his back felt, but at least it wasn't too bad. He wasn't bleeding out all over the place at least. "Now what?"
Nove jerked her thumb after Corona and Ixpellia. "We follow them. Come on."
As they started to head in the direction Lyos indicated, Pokota flew back and glared at him. "Why would you ask them to come with? I know we need to meet up with Nila, but..."
"For one, you annoy me at times." Lyos smirked at Pokota's annoyed growl. "Secondly, they look like they need some help, and we're here. What's wrong with letting them follow? And lastly..." He smirked as he looked at Nove as she walked in front of him. "The view is a lot more enjoyable."
"...Huh?" Pokota looked at Lyos in confusion, not really understanding what he was talking about. He twitched as Lyos just smirked at him. "Damn it, stop treating me like that!"
"I have no idea what you mean." Lyos chuckled as he and Pokota walked off, leaving the battlefield behind them.
(---)
It was almost an hour later when Einhart finally saw the fishing village that Lyos had spoken of earlier. "We're almost there." Her face flushed when her stomach growled. "Not a moment too soon either."
"Come on, come on!" Arashi was looking back as Nove, Lyos and Pokota finally joined them. "We're almost there!"
"Excitable." Nove rolled her eyes, but was thankful that they were almost to a town. Even if it was small, at least it was better than being outside and completely vulnerable. She just hoped that the Mazoku didn't try attacking and holding people hostage in an attempt to get the villagers angry at them in an effort to drive them to an area where they could easily be captured.
"Nove, are you thinking something weird again?" Uno popped up as she looked at Nove. "Lemme guess, you saw this in a movie?"
"Nah, read it in a book, about a heroine who was apparently badly injured and transported to the future, but it turned out that she was a clone and had to fight against her friends and find out why the people she used to work for were so evil. It ended up being a complex and overly complicated plot by someone who was once thought long dead to go back in time and set things right." Nove sighed as Uno, Pokota and Lyos all looked at her funny. "It's a long story, the cliff-notes version just isn't as good."
Fifteen minutes later, the group was in a moderately sized bar and sitting at a table, waiting for a waitress to show up.
Lyos suddenly started chuckling loudly, much to the other's surprise. "I'm suddenly reminded of a situation years ago, when we stayed in a village for a few days and, oh, what happened..?" He leaned back, looking up, trying to remember, before he caught sight of a pretty girl in a waitress outfit and his eyes widened. "Oh yeah!" He suddenly snapped forward, leaning over the table. "Now I remember. Lina had Amelia, Filia and Sylphiel all dressing up as really cute waitresses and..." He trailed off at the stunned look that he was getting from the group. "...What?"
"Lina?" Vivio spoke up softly. "Lina Takamachi?" Lyos nodded, wondering how she knew Lina. "You knew my grandmother?"
Lyos stared at her. "...I didn't realize your grandmother was so old." Really, she didn't look that old the last time he saw her. Then again, it was around ten years ago. He sweat-dropped at the glare Vivio gave him. "...I guess there's more to it..?"
"Mom's not that old yet." Arashi rolled his eyes at Lyos, who stared at him. "It's a little complicated, but I'm the youngest son of Lina Takamachi. Vivio here was adopted by my big sister, Nanoha."
"Never mind that!" Nove spat as she glared at him. "Why didn't you tell us that you knew Filia sooner?!"
Lyos sighed and shook his head. "What would have been the point? I didn't know that you knew either of them, and I only just remembered that incident. It was well over a decade ago."
As Nove sat down, Uno spoke up. "What my temperamental sister was trying to say... They've been wondering where they're at, and knowing that this is a world that the Bureau has in its data base makes it a lot easier to find and..." She trailed off and blinked. "Oh, lovely. So, not only are we on a non-administered planet, we're on 500? The only SS ranked planet that the Bureau knows of?!" She turned to Nove and narrowed her eyes. "If you don't wish to die a virgin, I'd suggest finding a guy right now, all reports that the doctor found on this world indicate that you'll end up dead in a week."
Nove's face turned red and she slapped her hand over Jet Calibur. "Knock it off!" Around the table, Einhart, Vivio, Corona and Arashi looked a bit confused, though Arashi and Einhart eventually turned red as they figured out what Uno had been talking about.
Ixpellia looked... Amused. "Really, Nove? You're lucky you live in this day and age then. Most people back when Ancient Belka was around were considered adults when they were eight and lost that when they were ten."
"Does that mean..?" Nove trailed off and twitched when Ixpellia just grinned and shrugged at her. "You're quite devious."
"Oh, I know." Ixpellia giggled at her. "Comes with being a king, you know."
"What are they talking about?" Corona asked Vivio, who shrugged. The two looked at Einhart and wondered why she was blushing hard. "...Einhart?"
"It's, ah..." She glared at Lyos as he laughed while Pokota was banging his head on the table. "it's not funny! We don't talk about this at dinner!"
"Meh, just go watch some pigs for awhile, it's how I learned the basics." Lyos shrugged at the looks he was getting. "What? Most kids back home learned by watching animals." Suddenly Lyos lurched forward as someone slapped him in the back of his head. Turning and glaring at the person, he was about to speak his mind when he saw who it was. "Ah, Nila, it's you."
The others at the table looked at the person and found themselves a bit underwhelmed. It was hard not to. The person was a little short, but wore a light colored hood that obscured their face and a cloak around their body that only revealed black pants and a green shirt.
At least the shirt was tight enough to show that this Nila person was a petite woman, though her breasts were a bit on the small side.
"This is Nila Vesnire." Lyos introduced the woman as she pulled up a chair and sat down at the table, snapping her fingers for a waitress. "She's really good at gathering information, but she doesn't talk much."
Nila snorted as a waitress finally made her way over and gave them menus. After the waitress left, she pulled out a rolled up scroll and dropped it in front of Lyos.
"A map?" He asked as he opened it up, getting a nod from her. "...You sure about these locations? I mean, it would take a week to travel on foot. And I don't have the money to even rent one of those new automatic vehicles for even a day."
Nila snorted at him and gestured to the others.
Lyos sighed softly. "They're traveling with me. Picked them up a bit ago..." He trailed off as she narrowed her eyes. "Fine. I'll make sure to look for any magical items while on this journey."
Nila nodded and looked at Pokota, who was trying to get a better look at her face. The cloaked woman held a hand up and a sphere of fire appeared in it.
"Hey!" Pokota jumped back. "You want to fight?!"
"I wouldn't," Lyos pointed out. "I like this place, if you two are going to fight, I'll freeze you both before you do anything." He nodded as the two of them calmed down. "Pokota, Nila doesn't like people looking at her face, that's all."
"So," Nove spoke up, "what's going on, Lyos? What's with that map?"
Looking at Pokota, the blue-haired swordsman bit his lip as Pokota suddenly looked nervous. "Pokota here is a survivor of a bad plague that wiped out his home country. Most of the people are magically sealed so they can't get any sicker, and there's a cure for the plague now, but..."
"Lyos!" Pokota growled at him. "You didn't need to tell them that much!"
"They're coming with us, Pokota, they'd find out sooner or later." Lyos knew what it meant to keep secrets, but there was no reason to hide something this basic from them. "Besides, you're just looking for a way to help everyone, right?"
"I suppose..." Pokota grumbled. "But no more secret spilling, got it!?"
Lyos nodded and looked at the map and narrowed his eyes at some of the notes there. "Hmm... You've got to be kidding me! That weapon-smith is still alive?!" Looking at Nila, who nodded, Lyos
chuckled and put the map down. "That'll be the first place we go then. If anyone can help, he can."
"What about us?" Vivio asked Lyos, who thought about it for awhile. "What are we going to do?"
"Well, stick with me for awhile. We're not too terribly far from Seiryuun, about two or three weeks on foot." He sweat-dropped at the stunned looks he was getting. "I said on foot. It'll take less if we can hitch a ride towards Seiryuun. Anyway," he waved them off, "Seiryuun has a way to contact the world where you're from."
Nila looked at him sharply and Lyos shrugged. "It's not out of the way too much, and besides, I'll just meet you at the next town..." He trailed off as she shook her head. "...You're joining us?" She nodded and Lyos stared at her in shock. "...You usually work alone. What changed?"
Nila just shrugged and snapped her fingers again to get the waitress's attention.
Lyos sighed, he didn't know why Nila was so quiet, but he didn't mind. He had worked with her in the past a couple of times, but those were just trips into a trap-infested dungeon or cave, not a trip to find a weapon or item that could break a suspended sleep spell.
Oh well, he could think about it more when he had something to eat.
The waitress sweat-dropped as she got everyone's orders. None of them were overweight, so how the hell were they going to eat everything on the menu?
Oh well, it could be interesting at least.
Two hours later and the manager was crying about how he was ruined since it was an all-you-could eat special that day.