Nanoha FanFiction Discussion

[spawnofthejudge]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

Well, you got Agito in StrikerS telling Signum that if she ever betrayed the ideals that Zest talked about... and Signum replied that she would want Agito to kill her with her flame. I really couldn't avoid the consequences of that one (and to my knowledge, I haven't really seen any fic take up the consequences of that fatal promise). And Signum did die and come back to life once in A's already, so was her "sacrifice" pointless there? ;p

She didn't sacrifice herself so much as she was killed. Agito's sacrifice is the one I think Justin_Brett is talking about.

[mega1987]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

Not a very long part, but, hey, it's what I got.

New

Shine Parts 1-5

Shine Part 6

Shine Part 7

Shine Part 8

Shine Part 9

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - Shine Part 10:

Meanwhile...

Filia rubbed her arm as the nurse smiled at her softly and left the room, telling her that she could put her shirt back on. "You can see your wife now." The nurse said, getting a flush from Filia and a sputtering from Chrono, who was just outside the room.

"She's not my wife!"

"Oh?" The nurse sounded confused. "I apologize, most men wouldn't bring in a woman when her baby is being born and convince them to see a doctor as well. I guess I was wrong, I'm sorry."

Chrono walked in, twitching. The thought, well, it didn't disgust him, he would admit that, Filia was quite attractive, it was just that he didn't think that he was going to get married anytime soon.

She wasn't even in the same species, he didn't know if anything would or could come of it. In his hands was Val, sleeping soundly and Filia couldn't help but smile as she saw him carrying the little Dragon. "Sorry, guess the nurse was confused." Chrono chuckled nervously as the blonde Dragon just continued to smile at him. "Um..."

"You'll be a good father." Filia said suddenly and Chrono found himself suddenly stiffening and paling, getting a laugh from her in response. Filia had to admit, Lindy was right, teasing a guy about being a good father and they just went stone stiff. "I'm sorry." Filia said as she walked up to him and hugged him gently. "You're good with Val though."

"I wonder if he's alive..." Chrono admitted as the baby Dragon just slept, dead to the world. If it wasn't for his tail twitching, he could be confused for dead.

(---)

"Ah, excellent..." the doctor said as he looked over the reports that his nurse had given him.

"I'm taking a half-day, remember?" She smiled at him and the doctor nodded in remembrance.

"Ah, yes, well, have a good day." He nodded to her as he took another look at the papers and tilted his head in confusion. "Did I order blood work for that woman?" He must have, his signature was on the papers, but he couldn't recall saying that he wanted it done.

(---)

As the nurse got into her car, she patted a metal briefcase before driving off. As she drove, her form changed, her short dark hair becoming long and blonde, her frame toned itself, her eyes went from brown to amber even as her clothes changed from a nurse's outfit into stylish pants and a shirt.

Due might have followed Jail's orders, but that didn't mean that she liked the bodysuit all that much. Not when she wasn't on missions. Now if she could just convince Tre to wear something other than that suit when not on missions... Oh well, if she couldn't get Tre to lighten up somewhat, she would just have to make sure that all her cute little sisters didn't end up like her.

"Darn frowny face..." Due muttered as she stopped the car near a cliff and grabbed the briefcase, and getting out.

"What about my face?" Tre asked as she walked out from behind a rock. She smirked slightly as Due shrieked in shock. "I might not smile that much, Due, but you don't need to point it out all the time."

"Meh, you're just frowning all the time." Due made an exaggerated angry scowl on her face. "One of these days I'm going to tie you down and torture you until you stop frowning."

"You'd have to catch me." Tre shook her head and looked at the car. "So, now what?"

Due rolled her eyes and pulled out a small cylinder from her pocket before throwing it into the car, shattering the glass and causing it to start lighting up. "Pure magnesium."

Tre kicked the car over the edge and the two cyborgs watched as it flipped, end over end, on fire. "How did you get that stuff? I thought you couldn't get it in the hospital."

Due rolled her eyes. "The doctor gave it to me. Now, let's get back, I need to give him this stuff."

Tre looked at it in confusion. "Just what's in there?" She asked as the two walked over to the designated teleportation spot.

Due grinned. "The DNA of a baby Dragon and the DNA of a Dragon that can turn into a human woman. Even that baby Dragon can turn into a human, at least according to her." She then threw her free arm around Tre's shoulders, much to the taller cyborg's shock. "When we get back, you and I are going to take a bath."

"Huh?" Tre blinked as the teleportation energy started to surround them.

"You stink, and I'm sore." Due stuck her tongue out at her before the two disappeared in a flash of light.

i got one nasty idea, nanya...

After your StrikerS arc, can you integrate your "Due" story to this one?

[shiroi mahotsukai]

Originally Posted by mega1987

i got one nasty idea, nanya...

After your StrikerS arc, can you integrate your "Due" story to this one?

Y'know that is the first thing that crossed my mind when she started talking...Except or course she's older.

[Nagumo]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

Not a very long part, but, hey, it's what I got.

New

Shine Parts 1-5

Shine Part 6

Shine Part 7

Shine Part 8

Shine Part 9

I assume Due picks on Tre for entertainment value. Much like how fun it would be to pick on Nove.

The 'Frowny' ones have the most entertaining reactions.

[Justin_Brett]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

Well, you got Agito in StrikerS telling Signum that if she ever betrayed the ideals that Zest talked about... and Signum replied that she would want Agito to kill her with her flame. I really couldn't avoid the consequences of that one (and to my knowledge, I haven't really seen any fic take up the consequences of that fatal promise). And Signum did die and come back to life once in A's already, so was her "sacrifice" pointless there? ;p

I meant Agito there >_>.

And in that case, it's equally pointless since it didn't actually put her down for good, and Agito just wants to kill Hayate now.

[Kaijo]

Originally Posted by Justin_Brett

I meant Agito there >_>.

And in that case, it's equally pointless since it didn't actually put her down for good, and Agito just wants to kill Hayate now.

Signum's death in A's was equally pointless because she came back? ;p Sometimes it's not whether they come back, but the effect it has on those around them.^^

At any rate, posted Future Tense, Chapter 29: The Longest Night up on ff.net.

[JokerD]

Spoiler for Tales of the Librarians:

Tales of the library

Librarians, belong in the library. Even one as advance as the Infinity Library employs them. Their always there in the background, until you make some noise whereby they will appear behind you and attack with their “Shhhh...” attack. This is their story...

Four librarians working out a battle plan, the enemy is powerful and tricky to deal with, but with the combined IQs of four librarian minds, he is sure to go down.

The four, whose names are unimportant, despite it being written in large lettering covering the upper left of their work shirts, (let's just call them L1, L2, L3 and L4) are speaking of 'he-who-brings-urgent-work', a persistent enemy who has plagued them for many years, always strolling in and demanding stuff, this time, it will taste the wrath of the the Librarians!!

“Are all the preparations in place?” L1 said quietly, one must always be quite in the library.
“All are in readiness, the calculations have also been complete and the trap is in place.” L2 replied.
“We have received word that this enemy is to arrive today, we will put our plan into motion then.” L3 added.
“Then today will be the day we rid ourselves of this pest forever!!” L4 declared.
“YES!!” The four cheered.
“Shhhh....”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chrono Harlaown, Admiral in the TSAB was there to see Yuuno, the chief librarian. He need help with a case again. It did make him a little guilty that he always came in with urgent business for the library, but hey, it's what they're paid to do after all.

“Admiral Harlaown, to see the chief librarian?” One of the librarians asked.

Chrono nodded, “Yes, I have some urgent business with him.”

The librarian narrowed his eyes briefly but said, “I see, please deposit your magical device at the counter and come with me to the waiting area.”

Chrono blinked, this was unexpected, “I didn't need to part with my device before, is this something new?”

“Yes sir, recently there has been too many cases where people tried magic in the library, while most normal magic are unable to damage the books, magical devices amplify the magic being cast, endangering the book, so this rule is a precaution.” The librarian explained.

“Surely you don't expect a ranking member of the TSAB to be so careless...” Chrono started.

“I'm sorry sir, we can't have a separate set of rule for special guest, I hope you understand.” The librarian continued.

Sighing in defeat, Chrono left Durandal at the counter.

The librarian lead Chrono to a room with a sofa in the middle, which was just outside Yuuno's office.
“Please take the seat, the chief librarian will be with you shortly.” The librarian said as he left to attend to other duties.

Or some reason, Chrono hesitated.
It could be that the sofa is the only piece of furniture in the middle of a rather large room.

Or maybe it's because of the large X on the floor of which the sofa is right in the middle of.

Or maybe it's because of the look in the librarian's eye when he said “take a seat” to Chrono.

'Come on, it's the library, what can happen?' Chrono thought as he took the seat.

A shadow forming under him was the last thing he saw before he felt a pain in his head and his world went black.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Chrono, Chrono, for goodness sake, wake up.”
That annoying ferret, didn't he know when to shut up?
Wait, wasn't he at the library?

Chrono snapped awake, here he was again in the waiting room of Yuuno's office.
“What happened?” Chrono said.

“I should be the one asking you, you were asleep in my waiting room” Yunno replied, rather puzzled with his old friend's behaviour.

“There was a shadow, then pain and...” Chrono started.

“Are you sure your all right? I think you better go home and take a rest, I'll send one of my staff to escort you home.” Yunno said, seeing Chrono in such a confused state.

Chrono let himself be let away, maybe he was working too hard lately...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The librarian meeting was in progress once again.
“Curses, the plan failed to eliminate the enemy.” L1 said
“Well, it did stop the enemy temporarily, a small success” L2 noted
“Indeed, should we use the Stone-Tome-of-Squish instead of the Heavy-Tome-of-Concussion next time?” This came from L3
“Yes... next time, we shell achieve complete success, he-who-brings-urgent-work, be prepared for your demise.” L4 said

“Bwahahahaha!!!!” The four librarians laughed in anticipation of the next visit.

“Shhhh....”

It's supposed to be a comedy, but I don't think it turned out too well, ah well, at least the idea is out of my head for now.

PS be nice to the support staff

[DezoPenguin]

Speaking of librarians, here's a Shadowverse fic about Vivio! Hey, it's not just Lutecia who gets to go out in the field in the 'verse!

(note: unproofread)

Spoiler for They Take These Matters Seriously:

A cold, wet wind, heavy with the rain that had fallen that morning and the promise of more later in the day, swept through the streets of Aegis, capital city of Administered World #103. The blonde girl shivered as it bit at her, wishing now that she'd brought her coat. She knocked on the heavy steel door in front of her, making it rattle under her fist. A slot in the door snapped open, revealing dark, suspicious eyes.


"Whattya want?" a man's voice barked.


"My name is Takamachi Vivio," the seventeen-year-old said. While she identified herself, the gaze watching her went from suspicious to leering, traveling up and down her tall, leggy, busty form in a fashion that she only wanted her girlfriend doing. "I'm here to speak with a Mr. Martan Audi on behalf of the Time-Space Administration—"


"It's the damned Bureau!" the voice shouted, cutting her off even as its owner was slamming the hatch shut.


"Protection," intoned Vivio's Intelligent Device, Burning Glory, and a shimmering dome of shifting rainbow light sprang up around her to stop the spray of slugs that smashed into her from two directions. The door had clearly been watched by sentries, which was no surprise; the Aegis police had told her that this was the home ground of one of the city's nastiest street gangs, the 207s. They were hard-core criminals, involved in drug and weapons trafficking as well as extortion who did not hesitate to defend themselves and their bottom line with assault and murder.


Still, Vivio had hoped things wouldn't have to get violent. Even criminals could be reasonable businessmen, couldn't they? At least she'd thought so, but they seemed intent on fighting.


"Burning Glory, set up!" she ordered. If they wanted a fight, she could give them one.


"Barrier Jacket: Royal Mode." In the next instant she wore a snug-fitting blue-gray bodysuit underneath a short white jacket, with armored gloves clutching a long staff capped by a Belka Kreuz, the blue gem of Burning Glory's core set at the cross's center.


"Track and identify targets; mark for homing."


"Target Bind."


"Radiant Shooter!"


A half-dozen bullets of rainbow light appeared around the staff's tip and went shooting off in two separate directions, following the target lock. The hail of fire stopped at once; apparently the shooters had lacked Barrier Jackets or other magical defenses.


"I think that gives us just cause to enter the premises by force, don't you, Burning Glory?"


"I agree, mistress."


Vivio spun and drove her fist into the door in a Strike Arts technique that channeled magic into the punch like a Belkan-style attack, but the door only shivered without breaking. Apparently it had been magically reinforced.


"Revolver Form!"


The staff transformed in an instant into what looked very much like a large handgun with a heavily built-up barrel, except that there was no opening in the muzzle—which wasn't as crazy as it seemed, because this gun wasn't for shooting people. Vivio pulled the trigger, discharging a stored-magic cartridge, and Burning Glory was wreathed in a rainbow aura. Vivio slammed the Device's revolver barrel into the door once, denting it badly; twice, crumpling it in so that gaps showed around the edges; three times, tearing it off its hinges and launching it into the building where it crashed into a wall in a shower of broken plaster.


"Let's go!" She sprang into the air for greater mobility and flew through the now-open door, only to freeze in place. A leprous-green magic circle had appeared beneath her and a bright golden aura above, both spraying out binding chains that fastened tightly around her, holding her in place.


Nanoha-mama will scold me if she finds out I walked right into a trap, Vivio thought glumly. The special defensive magic of her Barrier Jacket started to decay the binds at once, but it wouldn't be in time to stop the eight people that surrounded her in a semicircle, carrying two automatic mass-drivers, two shotgun-like ones that no doubt threw high-energy slugs, a military-grade linear rifle, and three genuine Storage Devices. She tried to cast a defensive spell to augment her protections, but at least one of the trap spells must have been like her mentor Yuuno's Struggle Bind, keeping her from linking mana to invoke new magic.


Vivio screamed as physical and magical blasts hammered her simultaneously. She actually missed the point when the bindings were erased, her head was ringing so thoroughly, until she was jolted by falling onto the concrete floor. Fortunately, her Intelligent Device was clear-headed.


"Protection Powered."


The pain stopped almost at once, excepting only a dull headache and a pulsing throb in her side where a linear rifle shot had found a soft spot. She was going to have un ugly bruise, she just knew it. She was lucky that was all; those things were designed through a low-grade Barrier Jacket at close range, especially when that Hacket had been simultaneously stressed holding off the attack magic of three mages of at least C rank. If she'd been even a B-ranker defensively, she'd have been seriously injured or dead.


I guess that's why they sent me on this job...


Vivio pulled Burning Glory's trigger twice, charging the defensive spell until it glowed brightly. It wasn't to get extra protection; the spell was shedding the continuing hail of attacks fine on its own.


"Do it!"


"Barrier Burst."


The energy stored in the barrier spell exploded outward, slamming into the attackers and knocking them sprawling. The five non-mages were stunned unconscious outright, and Vivio was already springing for one of the other three the moment the burst went off. One had been knocked down, so she dove at the nearer of the other two, punching him hard in the belly to double him up and smashing Burning Glory down on the back of his head. Even as he dropped, Vivio was spinning around towards the other still-upright mage. She loaded another cartridge and sprang.


"Round Shield!" the Sevener babbled desperately, conjuring up a defense.


"Burning Cross!" Vivio already had the counter ready and used the cartridge's energy to whip Burning Glory in two slashes, vertical and horizontal, that tore the shield to shreds and slammed the mage onto his butt just from the backblast. She pivoted and kicked—stomped, more like—his chin, adding him to the sleeping set. The last mage didn't even try getting up or fighting. He just scrambled on his hands and knees for the wrecked door, fleeing out into the street. Vivio ignored him; she had a job to do and beating up every last thug wasn't it.


"Burning Glory, are we close enough for you to lock on to the beacon's tracing signature?"


"Yes, mistress. It is within the building, seventy-nine feet from our current position."


"Let's go get it, then."


She ran down the hall to her left, then up another one and through a door onto what was obviously the work floor of the old factory the 207s had taken over for their home. Vivio shifted Burning Glory back to Kreuz Form and launched into the air, even as she was coming under fire. Remembering her air combat lessons, she kept in three-dimensional motion in order to reduce her target profile and the ability of the enemy to lead her or to keep homing attacks properly on her tail. As she wove among catwalks and gantries, ducking in and around machinery, she launched her own counterattacks, spraying a Radiant Shooter to scatter the Seveners on the floor, then another at a catwalk sniper. A mage firing stun charges at her ended up eating a Sacred Cluster, which didn't defeat the woman outright due to a hastily-conjured Defenser, but obliterated the catwalk around her and allowed her to demonstrate her lack of flight skills. Since the mage's Barrier Jacket had been nearly shredded in the attack, Vivio kindly caught her in midair before dumping her on the floor and stunning her.


In approximately two and a half minutes, the room was clear of conscious Sevener, all of them either having been downed or fled. The beacon from Vivio's target wasn't in the work area, though, but apparently came from the next room over, which seemed to be some kind of pressure chamber with an airlock-style door.


"Is that room reinforced?"


"Yes," Burning Glory reported. "The walls and door alike have been strengthened with multiple defensive spells designed to resist impact, particularly kinetic and heat damage."


"Particularly? How about purely magic damage?"


"Less so, with fewer and less permanent spells, although the overall structural resistance would also reduce the force of magic damage."


"I see. So I guess it was originally some kind of blast chamber, but the 207 gang decided to turn it into a bunker or safe room," Vivio deduced. She hoped they didn't intent to blow up the factory itself with some kind of hidden self-destruct that the bunker could resist but would be likely to take out anyone outside it in a "last resort" kind of defense. She really didn't need any more headaches.


Then again, she could also solve two problems at once just by cracking open that particular egg. Like Nanoha-mama says, the reason she seems so trigger-happy is because so often the direct solution is the best one!


"Barrier Jacket: Saint Mode!"


Externally, the only change seemed to be that the colors flipped: the bodysuit had become white, its electric-blue tracery silver, and the jacket dark blue. This form, though, sacrificed defense to augment Vivio's offensive magic power. She leveled Burning Glory's tip at the door, the triangular Belkan spell-rune shining beneath her.


"Sing to the shining glory of the heavens!"


"Sacred Heart."


Three blasts of magic exploded from a triangular pattern around Burning Glory's tip, the beams coiling together in a blazing pillar of energy. The searing bolt hammered into the door, the twisting coils making it seem like the spell was a giant drill grinding away at the barrier, and then it suddenly broke through, obliterating the door and a good chunk of the wall. Vivio flew down at once, taking stock of the four shell-shocked occupants of the bunker. Well, more accurately it was three, because she'd collected a young woman wearing a yellow-striped minidress when the spell blew out the door.


"Fucking Kaiser's ass!" cursed the apparent leader, a big, muscular man with tattoo-like patterns shaved into his close-cropped hair and a mace-like Armed Device in his hand.


"Now, that's just rude," Vivio huffed. "Burning Glory, let's teach them some manners."


"Yes, mistress. Loading cartridges."


The two sharp detonations of the last two cartridges in the cylinder loading echoed in the cavernous work room, as did the high-pitched whine of gathering magic.


"Sacred..."


The Belkan spell-rune spun into position beneath Vivio's feet again.


"...Cluster!"


"Sacred Cluster Augmented."


The searing beam looked, at first, like a typical cannon-type shooting magic, but after traveling thirty feet or so suddenly split into six separate comets which spread out, then zigzagged in, homing in two to a target, exploding in bomb-like detonations as they hit. Only one of the three got up any active defenses, which shattered under the first impact. One Sevener was left unconscious, the other two dazed and sprawling, smoke rising theatrically from their shredded Barrier Jackets.


"Nicely done, mistress," Burning Glory said brightly.


"Thank you," Vivio replied. Since this was an official field mission, she carried extra cartridges with her, and she fed a fresh supply into her Device's cylinder, the glided down inside the bunker, ready to deal with anything the last gang-members had to offer. They did not, however, seem inclined to fight.


"No more! I surrender!" the leader shouted, throwing down his Device. His associate, a dark-skinned woman with blonde cornrows, released hers back to its standby mode, dropping her Barrier Jacket in favor of her ordinary T-shirt and jeans. She extended the card to Vivio, who took it along with picking up the leader's mace, just in case either one was inclined to make more trouble.


"You agree to cease hostilities and submit to custody?" Vivio said a bit stiffly, not used to being lead officer on field missions.


"Kaiser's rack, yes, just tell us what you want?"


Vivio pouted.


"I want you to stop using my body parts as profanities, for one thing. It's really obnoxious!" She cleared her throat while they were digesting that. "Now, if I can finish what I was saying when you guys ambushed me at the door, my name is Takamachi Vivio and I am here to speak with a Mr. Martan Audi on behalf of the Time-Space Administration Bureau Infinity Library. He is registered as the borrower of Manipulations of Etheric Symbology by Van Carolus, via inter-library loan, and it's four weeks overdue."


"Tracking beacon indicates the target book is six feet, four inches at ten-forty-five from your current facing and position, mistress," Burning Glory suggested helpfully.


"Oh, thanks!"


Vivio went over to the remains of a table where one of the unconscious 207s was sprawled, then retrieved the book from the man's backpack.


"You blew up our whole gang over a library book!" the woman babbled incredulously.


"You were the ones who attacked me! I guess now I know why the local branch wanted us to send an agent to collect it. I can only imagine what you'd have tried if we wanted to collect the late fees!"

~X X X~

A/N: Linear rifles are the creation of synaesthetic, author of false light and "The Call." Never let it be said that I'm not willing to snarf up the contribution of another Shadowverse author and misuse it for my own ends!


With regard to the tracking beacon in the book, offhand, while the Infinity Library does not put "active" trackers in its works due to privacy concerns, it does mark each book with a uniquely coded beacon that will "ping" on active locator spells that any librarian learns in their training courses.

~X X X~


Vivio's Magical Omake Theater!

"...and so the local police took the entire gang into custody on charges of assaulting a TSAB officer in the course of her duties and possession of unlicensed restricted weapons. That also gave them probable cause to search the factory and the data storage of various Devices and comm terminals, which gave rise to more serious indictments. Apparently, the gang's completely smashed, now!" Vivio said proudly.


Lutecia Alphine took a sip of her cherry Coke, then smiled at her girlfriend.


"That's really nice work, Vivio."


"Thanks! But...there is one thing I wonder about."


"Oh?"


"Well..." she began hesitantly, "Cia...do people really use my body parts as swear words?"


Lutecia spent the next couple of minutes coughing and trying to clear the soda she'd snorted up the back of her nose.


"Cia!"


"S-sorry, Vivio. Seriously, no, I haven't heard that before. The only cursing I know of concerning your body is when I swear about it not being eighteen years old yet."

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

Speaking of librarians, here's a Shadowverse fic about Vivio! Hey, it's not just Lutecia who gets to go out in the field in the 'verse!

(note: unproofread)

Spoiler for They Take These Matters Seriously:

A cold, wet wind, heavy with the rain that had fallen that morning and the promise of more later in the day, swept through the streets of Aegis, capital city of Administered World #103. The blonde girl shivered as it bit at her, wishing now that she'd brought her coat. She knocked on the heavy steel door in front of her, making it rattle under her fist. A slot in the door snapped open, revealing dark, suspicious eyes.


"Whattya want?" a man's voice barked.


"My name is Takamachi Vivio," the seventeen-year-old said. While she identified herself, the gaze watching her went from suspicious to leering, traveling up and down her tall, leggy, busty form in a fashion that she only wanted her girlfriend doing. "I'm here to speak with a Mr. Martan Audi on behalf of the Time-Space Administration—"


"It's the damned Bureau!" the voice shouted, cutting her off even as its owner was slamming the hatch shut.


"Protection," intoned Vivio's Intelligent Device, Burning Glory, and a shimmering dome of shifting rainbow light sprang up around her to stop the spray of slugs that smashed into her from two directions. The door had clearly been watched by sentries, which was no surprise; the Aegis police had told her that this was the home ground of one of the city's nastiest street gangs, the 207s. They were hard-core criminals, involved in drug and weapons trafficking as well as extortion who did not hesitate to defend themselves and their bottom line with assault and murder.


Still, Vivio had hoped things wouldn't have to get violent. Even criminals could be reasonable businessmen, couldn't they? At least she'd thought so, but they seemed intent on fighting.


"Burning Glory, set up!" she ordered. If they wanted a fight, she could give them one.


"Barrier Jacket: Royal Mode." In the next instant she wore a snug-fitting blue-gray bodysuit underneath a short white jacket, with armored gloves clutching a long staff capped by a Belka Kreuz, the blue gem of Burning Glory's core set at the cross's center.


"Track and identify targets; mark for homing."


"Target Bind."


"Radiant Shooter!"


A half-dozen bullets of rainbow light appeared around the staff's tip and went shooting off in two separate directions, following the target lock. The hail of fire stopped at once; apparently the shooters had lacked Barrier Jackets or other magical defenses.


"I think that gives us just cause to enter the premises by force, don't you, Burning Glory?"


"I agree, mistress."


Vivio spun and drove her fist into the door in a Strike Arts technique that channeled magic into the punch like a Belkan-style attack, but the door only shivered without breaking. Apparently it had been magically reinforced.


"Revolver Form!"


The staff transformed in an instant into what looked very much like a large handgun with a heavily built-up barrel, except that there was no opening in the muzzle—which wasn't as crazy as it seemed, because this gun wasn't for shooting people. Vivio pulled the trigger, discharging a stored-magic cartridge, and Burning Glory was wreathed in a rainbow aura. Vivio slammed the Device's revolver barrel into the door once, denting it badly; twice, crumpling it in so that gaps showed around the edges; three times, tearing it off its hinges and launching it into the building where it crashed into a wall in a shower of broken plaster.


"Let's go!" She sprang into the air for greater mobility and flew through the now-open door, only to freeze in place. A leprous-green magic circle had appeared beneath her and a bright golden aura above, both spraying out binding chains that fastened tightly around her, holding her in place.


Nanoha-mama will scold me if she finds out I walked right into a trap, Vivio thought glumly. The special defensive magic of her Barrier Jacket started to decay the binds at once, but it wouldn't be in time to stop the eight people that surrounded her in a semicircle, carrying two automatic mass-drivers, two shotgun-like ones that no doubt threw high-energy slugs, a military-grade linear rifle, and three genuine Storage Devices. She tried to cast a defensive spell to augment her protections, but at least one of the trap spells must have been like her mentor Yuuno's Struggle Bind, keeping her from linking mana to invoke new magic.


Vivio screamed as physical and magical blasts hammered her simultaneously. She actually missed the point when the bindings were erased, her head was ringing so thoroughly, until she was jolted by falling onto the concrete floor. Fortunately, her Intelligent Device was clear-headed.


"Protection Powered."


The pain stopped almost at once, excepting only a dull headache and a pulsing throb in her side where a linear rifle shot had found a soft spot. She was going to have un ugly bruise, she just knew it. She was lucky that was all; those things were designed through a low-grade Barrier Jacket at close range, especially when that Hacket had been simultaneously stressed holding off the attack magic of three mages of at least C rank. If she'd been even a B-ranker defensively, she'd have been seriously injured or dead.


I guess that's why they sent me on this job...


Vivio pulled Burning Glory's trigger twice, charging the defensive spell until it glowed brightly. It wasn't to get extra protection; the spell was shedding the continuing hail of attacks fine on its own.


"Do it!"


"Barrier Burst."


The energy stored in the barrier spell exploded outward, slamming into the attackers and knocking them sprawling. The five non-mages were stunned unconscious outright, and Vivio was already springing for one of the other three the moment the burst went off. One had been knocked down, so she dove at the nearer of the other two, punching him hard in the belly to double him up and smashing Burning Glory down on the back of his head. Even as he dropped, Vivio was spinning around towards the other still-upright mage. She loaded another cartridge and sprang.


"Round Shield!" the Sevener babbled desperately, conjuring up a defense.


"Burning Cross!" Vivio already had the counter ready and used the cartridge's energy to whip Burning Glory in two slashes, vertical and horizontal, that tore the shield to shreds and slammed the mage onto his butt just from the backblast. She pivoted and kicked—stomped, more like—his chin, adding him to the sleeping set. The last mage didn't even try getting up or fighting. He just scrambled on his hands and knees for the wrecked door, fleeing out into the street. Vivio ignored him; she had a job to do and beating up every last thug wasn't it.


"Burning Glory, are we close enough for you to lock on to the beacon's tracing signature?"


"Yes, mistress. It is within the building, seventy-nine feet from our current position."


"Let's go get it, then."


She ran down the hall to her left, then up another one and through a door onto what was obviously the work floor of the old factory the 207s had taken over for their home. Vivio shifted Burning Glory back to Kreuz Form and launched into the air, even as she was coming under fire. Remembering her air combat lessons, she kept in three-dimensional motion in order to reduce her target profile and the ability of the enemy to lead her or to keep homing attacks properly on her tail. As she wove among catwalks and gantries, ducking in and around machinery, she launched her own counterattacks, spraying a Radiant Shooter to scatter the Seveners on the floor, then another at a catwalk sniper. A mage firing stun charges at her ended up eating a Sacred Cluster, which didn't defeat the woman outright due to a hastily-conjured Defenser, but obliterated the catwalk around her and allowed her to demonstrate her lack of flight skills. Since the mage's Barrier Jacket had been nearly shredded in the attack, Vivio kindly caught her in midair before dumping her on the floor and stunning her.


In approximately two and a half minutes, the room was clear of conscious Sevener, all of them either having been downed or fled. The beacon from Vivio's target wasn't in the work area, though, but apparently came from the next room over, which seemed to be some kind of pressure chamber with an airlock-style door.


"Is that room reinforced?"


"Yes," Burning Glory reported. "The walls and door alike have been strengthened with multiple defensive spells designed to resist impact, particularly kinetic and heat damage."


"Particularly? How about purely magic damage?"


"Less so, with fewer and less permanent spells, although the overall structural resistance would also reduce the force of magic damage."


"I see. So I guess it was originally some kind of blast chamber, but the 207 gang decided to turn it into a bunker or safe room," Vivio deduced. She hoped they didn't intent to blow up the factory itself with some kind of hidden self-destruct that the bunker could resist but would be likely to take out anyone outside it in a "last resort" kind of defense. She really didn't need any more headaches.


Then again, she could also solve two problems at once just by cracking open that particular egg. Like Nanoha-mama says, the reason she seems so trigger-happy is because so often the direct solution is the best one!


"Barrier Jacket: Saint Mode!"


Externally, the only change seemed to be that the colors flipped: the bodysuit had become white, its electric-blue tracery silver, and the jacket dark blue. This form, though, sacrificed defense to augment Vivio's offensive magic power. She leveled Burning Glory's tip at the door, the triangular Belkan spell-rune shining beneath her.


"Sing to the shining glory of the heavens!"


"Sacred Heart."


Three blasts of magic exploded from a triangular pattern around Burning Glory's tip, the beams coiling together in a blazing pillar of energy. The searing bolt hammered into the door, the twisting coils making it seem like the spell was a giant drill grinding away at the barrier, and then it suddenly broke through, obliterating the door and a good chunk of the wall. Vivio flew down at once, taking stock of the four shell-shocked occupants of the bunker. Well, more accurately it was three, because she'd collected a young woman wearing a yellow-striped minidress when the spell blew out the door.


"Fucking Kaiser's ass!" cursed the apparent leader, a big, muscular man with tattoo-like patterns shaved into his close-cropped hair and a mace-like Armed Device in his hand.


"Now, that's just rude," Vivio huffed. "Burning Glory, let's teach them some manners."


"Yes, mistress. Loading cartridges."


The two sharp detonations of the last two cartridges in the cylinder loading echoed in the cavernous work room, as did the high-pitched whine of gathering magic.


"Sacred..."


The Belkan spell-rune spun into position beneath Vivio's feet again.


"...Cluster!"


"Sacred Cluster Augmented."


The searing beam looked, at first, like a typical cannon-type shooting magic, but after traveling thirty feet or so suddenly split into six separate comets which spread out, then zigzagged in, homing in two to a target, exploding in bomb-like detonations as they hit. Only one of the three got up any active defenses, which shattered under the first impact. One Sevener was left unconscious, the other two dazed and sprawling, smoke rising theatrically from their shredded Barrier Jackets.


"Nicely done, mistress," Burning Glory said brightly.


"Thank you," Vivio replied. Since this was an official field mission, she carried extra cartridges with her, and she fed a fresh supply into her Device's cylinder, the glided down inside the bunker, ready to deal with anything the last gang-members had to offer. They did not, however, seem inclined to fight.


"No more! I surrender!" the leader shouted, throwing down his Device. His associate, a dark-skinned woman with blonde cornrows, released hers back to its standby mode, dropping her Barrier Jacket in favor of her ordinary T-shirt and jeans. She extended the card to Vivio, who took it along with picking up the leader's mace, just in case either one was inclined to make more trouble.


"You agree to cease hostilities and submit to custody?" Vivio said a bit stiffly, not used to being lead officer on field missions.


"Kaiser's rack, yes, just tell us what you want?"


Vivio pouted.


"I want you to stop using my body parts as profanities, for one thing. It's really obnoxious!" She cleared her throat while they were digesting that. "Now, if I can finish what I was saying when you guys ambushed me at the door, my name is Takamachi Vivio and I am here to speak with a Mr. Martan Audi on behalf of the Time-Space Administration Bureau Infinity Library. He is registered as the borrower of Manipulations of Etheric Symbology by Van Carolus, via inter-library loan, and it's four weeks overdue."


"Tracking beacon indicates the target book is six feet, four inches at ten-forty-five from your current facing and position, mistress," Burning Glory suggested helpfully.


"Oh, thanks!"


Vivio went over to the remains of a table where one of the unconscious 207s was sprawled, then retrieved the book from the man's backpack.


"You blew up our whole gang over a library book!" the woman babbled incredulously.


"You were the ones who attacked me! I guess now I know why the local branch wanted us to send an agent to collect it. I can only imagine what you'd have tried if we wanted to collect the late fees!"

~X X X~

A/N: Linear rifles are the creation of synaesthetic, author of false light and "The Call." Never let it be said that I'm not willing to snarf up the contribution of another Shadowverse author and misuse it for my own ends!


With regard to the tracking beacon in the book, offhand, while the Infinity Library does not put "active" trackers in its works due to privacy concerns, it does mark each book with a uniquely coded beacon that will "ping" on active locator spells that any librarian learns in their training courses.

~X X X~


Vivio's Magical Omake Theater!

"...and so the local police took the entire gang into custody on charges of assaulting a TSAB officer in the course of her duties and possession of unlicensed restricted weapons. That also gave them probable cause to search the factory and the data storage of various Devices and comm terminals, which gave rise to more serious indictments. Apparently, the gang's completely smashed, now!" Vivio said proudly.


Lutecia Alphine took a sip of her cherry Coke, then smiled at her girlfriend.


"That's really nice work, Vivio."


"Thanks! But...there is one thing I wonder about."


"Oh?"


"Well..." she began hesitantly, "Cia...do people really use my body parts as swear words?"


Lutecia spent the next couple of minutes coughing and trying to clear the soda she'd snorted up the back of her nose.


"Cia!"


"S-sorry, Vivio. Seriously, no, I haven't heard that before. The only cursing I know of concerning your body is when I swear about it not being eighteen years old yet."

...

HA!

Can I just say that this fits Vivio so completely, blasting apart everything in her way to reach a book? Now I can imagine Yuuno sending her on these kinds of missions all the time! It would certainly make sure people return the books when they're due instead of keeping them late!

Also, hang in there, Cia! Only one more year! If I ever update...

[Nanya01]

Originally Posted by Nagumo

I assume Due picks on Tre for entertainment value. Much like how fun it would be to pick on Nove.

The 'Frowny' ones have the most entertaining reactions.

Yeah.

Just wait till you guys see how she tortures the 'frowny faces'. XD

[deathcurse]

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

Speaking of librarians, here's a Shadowverse fic about Vivio! Hey, it's not just Lutecia who gets to go out in the field in the 'verse!

(note: unproofread)

Spoiler for They Take These Matters Seriously:

A cold, wet wind, heavy with the rain that had fallen that morning and the promise of more later in the day, swept through the streets of Aegis, capital city of Administered World #103. The blonde girl shivered as it bit at her, wishing now that she'd brought her coat. She knocked on the heavy steel door in front of her, making it rattle under her fist. A slot in the door snapped open, revealing dark, suspicious eyes.


"Whattya want?" a man's voice barked.


"My name is Takamachi Vivio," the seventeen-year-old said. While she identified herself, the gaze watching her went from suspicious to leering, traveling up and down her tall, leggy, busty form in a fashion that she only wanted her girlfriend doing. "I'm here to speak with a Mr. Martan Audi on behalf of the Time-Space Administration—"


"It's the damned Bureau!" the voice shouted, cutting her off even as its owner was slamming the hatch shut.


"Protection," intoned Vivio's Intelligent Device, Burning Glory, and a shimmering dome of shifting rainbow light sprang up around her to stop the spray of slugs that smashed into her from two directions. The door had clearly been watched by sentries, which was no surprise; the Aegis police had told her that this was the home ground of one of the city's nastiest street gangs, the 207s. They were hard-core criminals, involved in drug and weapons trafficking as well as extortion who did not hesitate to defend themselves and their bottom line with assault and murder.


Still, Vivio had hoped things wouldn't have to get violent. Even criminals could be reasonable businessmen, couldn't they? At least she'd thought so, but they seemed intent on fighting.


"Burning Glory, set up!" she ordered. If they wanted a fight, she could give them one.


"Barrier Jacket: Royal Mode." In the next instant she wore a snug-fitting blue-gray bodysuit underneath a short white jacket, with armored gloves clutching a long staff capped by a Belka Kreuz, the blue gem of Burning Glory's core set at the cross's center.


"Track and identify targets; mark for homing."


"Target Bind."


"Radiant Shooter!"


A half-dozen bullets of rainbow light appeared around the staff's tip and went shooting off in two separate directions, following the target lock. The hail of fire stopped at once; apparently the shooters had lacked Barrier Jackets or other magical defenses.


"I think that gives us just cause to enter the premises by force, don't you, Burning Glory?"


"I agree, mistress."


Vivio spun and drove her fist into the door in a Strike Arts technique that channeled magic into the punch like a Belkan-style attack, but the door only shivered without breaking. Apparently it had been magically reinforced.


"Revolver Form!"


The staff transformed in an instant into what looked very much like a large handgun with a heavily built-up barrel, except that there was no opening in the muzzle—which wasn't as crazy as it seemed, because this gun wasn't for shooting people. Vivio pulled the trigger, discharging a stored-magic cartridge, and Burning Glory was wreathed in a rainbow aura. Vivio slammed the Device's revolver barrel into the door once, denting it badly; twice, crumpling it in so that gaps showed around the edges; three times, tearing it off its hinges and launching it into the building where it crashed into a wall in a shower of broken plaster.


"Let's go!" She sprang into the air for greater mobility and flew through the now-open door, only to freeze in place. A leprous-green magic circle had appeared beneath her and a bright golden aura above, both spraying out binding chains that fastened tightly around her, holding her in place.


Nanoha-mama will scold me if she finds out I walked right into a trap, Vivio thought glumly. The special defensive magic of her Barrier Jacket started to decay the binds at once, but it wouldn't be in time to stop the eight people that surrounded her in a semicircle, carrying two automatic mass-drivers, two shotgun-like ones that no doubt threw high-energy slugs, a military-grade linear rifle, and three genuine Storage Devices. She tried to cast a defensive spell to augment her protections, but at least one of the trap spells must have been like her mentor Yuuno's Struggle Bind, keeping her from linking mana to invoke new magic.


Vivio screamed as physical and magical blasts hammered her simultaneously. She actually missed the point when the bindings were erased, her head was ringing so thoroughly, until she was jolted by falling onto the concrete floor. Fortunately, her Intelligent Device was clear-headed.


"Protection Powered."


The pain stopped almost at once, excepting only a dull headache and a pulsing throb in her side where a linear rifle shot had found a soft spot. She was going to have un ugly bruise, she just knew it. She was lucky that was all; those things were designed through a low-grade Barrier Jacket at close range, especially when that Hacket had been simultaneously stressed holding off the attack magic of three mages of at least C rank. If she'd been even a B-ranker defensively, she'd have been seriously injured or dead.


I guess that's why they sent me on this job...


Vivio pulled Burning Glory's trigger twice, charging the defensive spell until it glowed brightly. It wasn't to get extra protection; the spell was shedding the continuing hail of attacks fine on its own.


"Do it!"


"Barrier Burst."


The energy stored in the barrier spell exploded outward, slamming into the attackers and knocking them sprawling. The five non-mages were stunned unconscious outright, and Vivio was already springing for one of the other three the moment the burst went off. One had been knocked down, so she dove at the nearer of the other two, punching him hard in the belly to double him up and smashing Burning Glory down on the back of his head. Even as he dropped, Vivio was spinning around towards the other still-upright mage. She loaded another cartridge and sprang.


"Round Shield!" the Sevener babbled desperately, conjuring up a defense.


"Burning Cross!" Vivio already had the counter ready and used the cartridge's energy to whip Burning Glory in two slashes, vertical and horizontal, that tore the shield to shreds and slammed the mage onto his butt just from the backblast. She pivoted and kicked—stomped, more like—his chin, adding him to the sleeping set. The last mage didn't even try getting up or fighting. He just scrambled on his hands and knees for the wrecked door, fleeing out into the street. Vivio ignored him; she had a job to do and beating up every last thug wasn't it.


"Burning Glory, are we close enough for you to lock on to the beacon's tracing signature?"


"Yes, mistress. It is within the building, seventy-nine feet from our current position."


"Let's go get it, then."


She ran down the hall to her left, then up another one and through a door onto what was obviously the work floor of the old factory the 207s had taken over for their home. Vivio shifted Burning Glory back to Kreuz Form and launched into the air, even as she was coming under fire. Remembering her air combat lessons, she kept in three-dimensional motion in order to reduce her target profile and the ability of the enemy to lead her or to keep homing attacks properly on her tail. As she wove among catwalks and gantries, ducking in and around machinery, she launched her own counterattacks, spraying a Radiant Shooter to scatter the Seveners on the floor, then another at a catwalk sniper. A mage firing stun charges at her ended up eating a Sacred Cluster, which didn't defeat the woman outright due to a hastily-conjured Defenser, but obliterated the catwalk around her and allowed her to demonstrate her lack of flight skills. Since the mage's Barrier Jacket had been nearly shredded in the attack, Vivio kindly caught her in midair before dumping her on the floor and stunning her.


In approximately two and a half minutes, the room was clear of conscious Sevener, all of them either having been downed or fled. The beacon from Vivio's target wasn't in the work area, though, but apparently came from the next room over, which seemed to be some kind of pressure chamber with an airlock-style door.


"Is that room reinforced?"


"Yes," Burning Glory reported. "The walls and door alike have been strengthened with multiple defensive spells designed to resist impact, particularly kinetic and heat damage."


"Particularly? How about purely magic damage?"


"Less so, with fewer and less permanent spells, although the overall structural resistance would also reduce the force of magic damage."


"I see. So I guess it was originally some kind of blast chamber, but the 207 gang decided to turn it into a bunker or safe room," Vivio deduced. She hoped they didn't intent to blow up the factory itself with some kind of hidden self-destruct that the bunker could resist but would be likely to take out anyone outside it in a "last resort" kind of defense. She really didn't need any more headaches.


Then again, she could also solve two problems at once just by cracking open that particular egg. Like Nanoha-mama says, the reason she seems so trigger-happy is because so often the direct solution is the best one!


"Barrier Jacket: Saint Mode!"


Externally, the only change seemed to be that the colors flipped: the bodysuit had become white, its electric-blue tracery silver, and the jacket dark blue. This form, though, sacrificed defense to augment Vivio's offensive magic power. She leveled Burning Glory's tip at the door, the triangular Belkan spell-rune shining beneath her.


"Sing to the shining glory of the heavens!"


"Sacred Heart."


Three blasts of magic exploded from a triangular pattern around Burning Glory's tip, the beams coiling together in a blazing pillar of energy. The searing bolt hammered into the door, the twisting coils making it seem like the spell was a giant drill grinding away at the barrier, and then it suddenly broke through, obliterating the door and a good chunk of the wall. Vivio flew down at once, taking stock of the four shell-shocked occupants of the bunker. Well, more accurately it was three, because she'd collected a young woman wearing a yellow-striped minidress when the spell blew out the door.


"Fucking Kaiser's ass!" cursed the apparent leader, a big, muscular man with tattoo-like patterns shaved into his close-cropped hair and a mace-like Armed Device in his hand.


"Now, that's just rude," Vivio huffed. "Burning Glory, let's teach them some manners."


"Yes, mistress. Loading cartridges."


The two sharp detonations of the last two cartridges in the cylinder loading echoed in the cavernous work room, as did the high-pitched whine of gathering magic.


"Sacred..."


The Belkan spell-rune spun into position beneath Vivio's feet again.


"...Cluster!"


"Sacred Cluster Augmented."


The searing beam looked, at first, like a typical cannon-type shooting magic, but after traveling thirty feet or so suddenly split into six separate comets which spread out, then zigzagged in, homing in two to a target, exploding in bomb-like detonations as they hit. Only one of the three got up any active defenses, which shattered under the first impact. One Sevener was left unconscious, the other two dazed and sprawling, smoke rising theatrically from their shredded Barrier Jackets.


"Nicely done, mistress," Burning Glory said brightly.


"Thank you," Vivio replied. Since this was an official field mission, she carried extra cartridges with her, and she fed a fresh supply into her Device's cylinder, the glided down inside the bunker, ready to deal with anything the last gang-members had to offer. They did not, however, seem inclined to fight.


"No more! I surrender!" the leader shouted, throwing down his Device. His associate, a dark-skinned woman with blonde cornrows, released hers back to its standby mode, dropping her Barrier Jacket in favor of her ordinary T-shirt and jeans. She extended the card to Vivio, who took it along with picking up the leader's mace, just in case either one was inclined to make more trouble.


"You agree to cease hostilities and submit to custody?" Vivio said a bit stiffly, not used to being lead officer on field missions.


"Kaiser's rack, yes, just tell us what you want?"


Vivio pouted.


"I want you to stop using my body parts as profanities, for one thing. It's really obnoxious!" She cleared her throat while they were digesting that. "Now, if I can finish what I was saying when you guys ambushed me at the door, my name is Takamachi Vivio and I am here to speak with a Mr. Martan Audi on behalf of the Time-Space Administration Bureau Infinity Library. He is registered as the borrower of Manipulations of Etheric Symbology by Van Carolus, via inter-library loan, and it's four weeks overdue."


"Tracking beacon indicates the target book is six feet, four inches at ten-forty-five from your current facing and position, mistress," Burning Glory suggested helpfully.


"Oh, thanks!"


Vivio went over to the remains of a table where one of the unconscious 207s was sprawled, then retrieved the book from the man's backpack.


"You blew up our whole gang over a library book!" the woman babbled incredulously.


"You were the ones who attacked me! I guess now I know why the local branch wanted us to send an agent to collect it. I can only imagine what you'd have tried if we wanted to collect the late fees!"

~X X X~

A/N: Linear rifles are the creation of synaesthetic, author of false light and "The Call." Never let it be said that I'm not willing to snarf up the contribution of another Shadowverse author and misuse it for my own ends!


With regard to the tracking beacon in the book, offhand, while the Infinity Library does not put "active" trackers in its works due to privacy concerns, it does mark each book with a uniquely coded beacon that will "ping" on active locator spells that any librarian learns in their training courses.

~X X X~


Vivio's Magical Omake Theater!

"...and so the local police took the entire gang into custody on charges of assaulting a TSAB officer in the course of her duties and possession of unlicensed restricted weapons. That also gave them probable cause to search the factory and the data storage of various Devices and comm terminals, which gave rise to more serious indictments. Apparently, the gang's completely smashed, now!" Vivio said proudly.


Lutecia Alphine took a sip of her cherry Coke, then smiled at her girlfriend.


"That's really nice work, Vivio."


"Thanks! But...there is one thing I wonder about."


"Oh?"


"Well..." she began hesitantly, "Cia...do people really use my body parts as swear words?"


Lutecia spent the next couple of minutes coughing and trying to clear the soda she'd snorted up the back of her nose.


"Cia!"


"S-sorry, Vivio. Seriously, no, I haven't heard that before. The only cursing I know of concerning your body is when I swear about it not being eighteen years old yet."

I know you said it's not proofed , but one paragraph just jumped out at me so much I had to comment....

The pain stopped almost at once, excepting only a dull headache and a pulsing throb in her side where a linear rifle shot had found a soft spot. She was going to have an ugly bruise, she just knew it. She was lucky that was all; those things were designed through [designed to go through]? a low-grade Barrier Jacket at close range, especially when that Jacket had been simultaneously stressed holding off the attack magic of three mages of at least C rank. If she'd been even a B-ranker defensively, she'd have been seriously injured or dead.

The gangsters using Vivio/the Kaiser's body-parts for swear words is hilarious , and brings me to mind of the more pagan societies in literature who often do the same thing. It's weird, even though yes, the last Saint King was a woman, but the moniker "king" would still have people swearing by his/her "rack" ....

A fun fight , Vivio vs. Whole Building. Of course we know who would win!

I liked how Burning Glory and Vivio would have little witty dialogues with each other.

Your Author's Note about the tracking beacons was quite interesting--it makes sense that it could be a violation of privacy to actively track books, but the usages of that...imagine putting one of these passive trackers inside an innocuous object that can be activated by someone.... I'm probably thinking about it too much, eh?

[JokerD]

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

Speaking of librarians, here's a Shadowverse fic about Vivio! Hey, it's not just Lutecia who gets to go out in the field in the 'verse!

(note: unproofread)

Spoiler for They Take These Matters Seriously:

A cold, wet wind, heavy with the rain that had fallen that morning and the promise of more later in the day, swept through the streets of Aegis, capital city of Administered World #103. The blonde girl shivered as it bit at her, wishing now that she'd brought her coat. She knocked on the heavy steel door in front of her, making it rattle under her fist. A slot in the door snapped open, revealing dark, suspicious eyes.


"Whattya want?" a man's voice barked.


"My name is Takamachi Vivio," the seventeen-year-old said. While she identified herself, the gaze watching her went from suspicious to leering, traveling up and down her tall, leggy, busty form in a fashion that she only wanted her girlfriend doing. "I'm here to speak with a Mr. Martan Audi on behalf of the Time-Space Administration—"


"It's the damned Bureau!" the voice shouted, cutting her off even as its owner was slamming the hatch shut.


"Protection," intoned Vivio's Intelligent Device, Burning Glory, and a shimmering dome of shifting rainbow light sprang up around her to stop the spray of slugs that smashed into her from two directions. The door had clearly been watched by sentries, which was no surprise; the Aegis police had told her that this was the home ground of one of the city's nastiest street gangs, the 207s. They were hard-core criminals, involved in drug and weapons trafficking as well as extortion who did not hesitate to defend themselves and their bottom line with assault and murder.


Still, Vivio had hoped things wouldn't have to get violent. Even criminals could be reasonable businessmen, couldn't they? At least she'd thought so, but they seemed intent on fighting.


"Burning Glory, set up!" she ordered. If they wanted a fight, she could give them one.


"Barrier Jacket: Royal Mode." In the next instant she wore a snug-fitting blue-gray bodysuit underneath a short white jacket, with armored gloves clutching a long staff capped by a Belka Kreuz, the blue gem of Burning Glory's core set at the cross's center.


"Track and identify targets; mark for homing."


"Target Bind."


"Radiant Shooter!"


A half-dozen bullets of rainbow light appeared around the staff's tip and went shooting off in two separate directions, following the target lock. The hail of fire stopped at once; apparently the shooters had lacked Barrier Jackets or other magical defenses.


"I think that gives us just cause to enter the premises by force, don't you, Burning Glory?"


"I agree, mistress."


Vivio spun and drove her fist into the door in a Strike Arts technique that channeled magic into the punch like a Belkan-style attack, but the door only shivered without breaking. Apparently it had been magically reinforced.


"Revolver Form!"


The staff transformed in an instant into what looked very much like a large handgun with a heavily built-up barrel, except that there was no opening in the muzzle—which wasn't as crazy as it seemed, because this gun wasn't for shooting people. Vivio pulled the trigger, discharging a stored-magic cartridge, and Burning Glory was wreathed in a rainbow aura. Vivio slammed the Device's revolver barrel into the door once, denting it badly; twice, crumpling it in so that gaps showed around the edges; three times, tearing it off its hinges and launching it into the building where it crashed into a wall in a shower of broken plaster.


"Let's go!" She sprang into the air for greater mobility and flew through the now-open door, only to freeze in place. A leprous-green magic circle had appeared beneath her and a bright golden aura above, both spraying out binding chains that fastened tightly around her, holding her in place.


Nanoha-mama will scold me if she finds out I walked right into a trap, Vivio thought glumly. The special defensive magic of her Barrier Jacket started to decay the binds at once, but it wouldn't be in time to stop the eight people that surrounded her in a semicircle, carrying two automatic mass-drivers, two shotgun-like ones that no doubt threw high-energy slugs, a military-grade linear rifle, and three genuine Storage Devices. She tried to cast a defensive spell to augment her protections, but at least one of the trap spells must have been like her mentor Yuuno's Struggle Bind, keeping her from linking mana to invoke new magic.


Vivio screamed as physical and magical blasts hammered her simultaneously. She actually missed the point when the bindings were erased, her head was ringing so thoroughly, until she was jolted by falling onto the concrete floor. Fortunately, her Intelligent Device was clear-headed.


"Protection Powered."


The pain stopped almost at once, excepting only a dull headache and a pulsing throb in her side where a linear rifle shot had found a soft spot. She was going to have un ugly bruise, she just knew it. She was lucky that was all; those things were designed through a low-grade Barrier Jacket at close range, especially when that Hacket had been simultaneously stressed holding off the attack magic of three mages of at least C rank. If she'd been even a B-ranker defensively, she'd have been seriously injured or dead.


I guess that's why they sent me on this job...


Vivio pulled Burning Glory's trigger twice, charging the defensive spell until it glowed brightly. It wasn't to get extra protection; the spell was shedding the continuing hail of attacks fine on its own.


"Do it!"


"Barrier Burst."


The energy stored in the barrier spell exploded outward, slamming into the attackers and knocking them sprawling. The five non-mages were stunned unconscious outright, and Vivio was already springing for one of the other three the moment the burst went off. One had been knocked down, so she dove at the nearer of the other two, punching him hard in the belly to double him up and smashing Burning Glory down on the back of his head. Even as he dropped, Vivio was spinning around towards the other still-upright mage. She loaded another cartridge and sprang.


"Round Shield!" the Sevener babbled desperately, conjuring up a defense.


"Burning Cross!" Vivio already had the counter ready and used the cartridge's energy to whip Burning Glory in two slashes, vertical and horizontal, that tore the shield to shreds and slammed the mage onto his butt just from the backblast. She pivoted and kicked—stomped, more like—his chin, adding him to the sleeping set. The last mage didn't even try getting up or fighting. He just scrambled on his hands and knees for the wrecked door, fleeing out into the street. Vivio ignored him; she had a job to do and beating up every last thug wasn't it.


"Burning Glory, are we close enough for you to lock on to the beacon's tracing signature?"


"Yes, mistress. It is within the building, seventy-nine feet from our current position."


"Let's go get it, then."


She ran down the hall to her left, then up another one and through a door onto what was obviously the work floor of the old factory the 207s had taken over for their home. Vivio shifted Burning Glory back to Kreuz Form and launched into the air, even as she was coming under fire. Remembering her air combat lessons, she kept in three-dimensional motion in order to reduce her target profile and the ability of the enemy to lead her or to keep homing attacks properly on her tail. As she wove among catwalks and gantries, ducking in and around machinery, she launched her own counterattacks, spraying a Radiant Shooter to scatter the Seveners on the floor, then another at a catwalk sniper. A mage firing stun charges at her ended up eating a Sacred Cluster, which didn't defeat the woman outright due to a hastily-conjured Defenser, but obliterated the catwalk around her and allowed her to demonstrate her lack of flight skills. Since the mage's Barrier Jacket had been nearly shredded in the attack, Vivio kindly caught her in midair before dumping her on the floor and stunning her.


In approximately two and a half minutes, the room was clear of conscious Sevener, all of them either having been downed or fled. The beacon from Vivio's target wasn't in the work area, though, but apparently came from the next room over, which seemed to be some kind of pressure chamber with an airlock-style door.


"Is that room reinforced?"


"Yes," Burning Glory reported. "The walls and door alike have been strengthened with multiple defensive spells designed to resist impact, particularly kinetic and heat damage."


"Particularly? How about purely magic damage?"


"Less so, with fewer and less permanent spells, although the overall structural resistance would also reduce the force of magic damage."


"I see. So I guess it was originally some kind of blast chamber, but the 207 gang decided to turn it into a bunker or safe room," Vivio deduced. She hoped they didn't intent to blow up the factory itself with some kind of hidden self-destruct that the bunker could resist but would be likely to take out anyone outside it in a "last resort" kind of defense. She really didn't need any more headaches.


Then again, she could also solve two problems at once just by cracking open that particular egg. Like Nanoha-mama says, the reason she seems so trigger-happy is because so often the direct solution is the best one!


"Barrier Jacket: Saint Mode!"


Externally, the only change seemed to be that the colors flipped: the bodysuit had become white, its electric-blue tracery silver, and the jacket dark blue. This form, though, sacrificed defense to augment Vivio's offensive magic power. She leveled Burning Glory's tip at the door, the triangular Belkan spell-rune shining beneath her.


"Sing to the shining glory of the heavens!"


"Sacred Heart."


Three blasts of magic exploded from a triangular pattern around Burning Glory's tip, the beams coiling together in a blazing pillar of energy. The searing bolt hammered into the door, the twisting coils making it seem like the spell was a giant drill grinding away at the barrier, and then it suddenly broke through, obliterating the door and a good chunk of the wall. Vivio flew down at once, taking stock of the four shell-shocked occupants of the bunker. Well, more accurately it was three, because she'd collected a young woman wearing a yellow-striped minidress when the spell blew out the door.


"Fucking Kaiser's ass!" cursed the apparent leader, a big, muscular man with tattoo-like patterns shaved into his close-cropped hair and a mace-like Armed Device in his hand.


"Now, that's just rude," Vivio huffed. "Burning Glory, let's teach them some manners."


"Yes, mistress. Loading cartridges."


The two sharp detonations of the last two cartridges in the cylinder loading echoed in the cavernous work room, as did the high-pitched whine of gathering magic.


"Sacred..."


The Belkan spell-rune spun into position beneath Vivio's feet again.


"...Cluster!"


"Sacred Cluster Augmented."


The searing beam looked, at first, like a typical cannon-type shooting magic, but after traveling thirty feet or so suddenly split into six separate comets which spread out, then zigzagged in, homing in two to a target, exploding in bomb-like detonations as they hit. Only one of the three got up any active defenses, which shattered under the first impact. One Sevener was left unconscious, the other two dazed and sprawling, smoke rising theatrically from their shredded Barrier Jackets.


"Nicely done, mistress," Burning Glory said brightly.


"Thank you," Vivio replied. Since this was an official field mission, she carried extra cartridges with her, and she fed a fresh supply into her Device's cylinder, the glided down inside the bunker, ready to deal with anything the last gang-members had to offer. They did not, however, seem inclined to fight.


"No more! I surrender!" the leader shouted, throwing down his Device. His associate, a dark-skinned woman with blonde cornrows, released hers back to its standby mode, dropping her Barrier Jacket in favor of her ordinary T-shirt and jeans. She extended the card to Vivio, who took it along with picking up the leader's mace, just in case either one was inclined to make more trouble.


"You agree to cease hostilities and submit to custody?" Vivio said a bit stiffly, not used to being lead officer on field missions.


"Kaiser's rack, yes, just tell us what you want?"


Vivio pouted.


"I want you to stop using my body parts as profanities, for one thing. It's really obnoxious!" She cleared her throat while they were digesting that. "Now, if I can finish what I was saying when you guys ambushed me at the door, my name is Takamachi Vivio and I am here to speak with a Mr. Martan Audi on behalf of the Time-Space Administration Bureau Infinity Library. He is registered as the borrower of Manipulations of Etheric Symbology by Van Carolus, via inter-library loan, and it's four weeks overdue."


"Tracking beacon indicates the target book is six feet, four inches at ten-forty-five from your current facing and position, mistress," Burning Glory suggested helpfully.


"Oh, thanks!"


Vivio went over to the remains of a table where one of the unconscious 207s was sprawled, then retrieved the book from the man's backpack.


"You blew up our whole gang over a library book!" the woman babbled incredulously.


"You were the ones who attacked me! I guess now I know why the local branch wanted us to send an agent to collect it. I can only imagine what you'd have tried if we wanted to collect the late fees!"

~X X X~

A/N: Linear rifles are the creation of synaesthetic, author of false light and "The Call." Never let it be said that I'm not willing to snarf up the contribution of another Shadowverse author and misuse it for my own ends!


With regard to the tracking beacon in the book, offhand, while the Infinity Library does not put "active" trackers in its works due to privacy concerns, it does mark each book with a uniquely coded beacon that will "ping" on active locator spells that any librarian learns in their training courses.

~X X X~


Vivio's Magical Omake Theater!

"...and so the local police took the entire gang into custody on charges of assaulting a TSAB officer in the course of her duties and possession of unlicensed restricted weapons. That also gave them probable cause to search the factory and the data storage of various Devices and comm terminals, which gave rise to more serious indictments. Apparently, the gang's completely smashed, now!" Vivio said proudly.


Lutecia Alphine took a sip of her cherry Coke, then smiled at her girlfriend.


"That's really nice work, Vivio."


"Thanks! But...there is one thing I wonder about."


"Oh?"


"Well..." she began hesitantly, "Cia...do people really use my body parts as swear words?"


Lutecia spent the next couple of minutes coughing and trying to clear the soda she'd snorted up the back of her nose.


"Cia!"


"S-sorry, Vivio. Seriously, no, I haven't heard that before. The only cursing I know of concerning your body is when I swear about it not being eighteen years old yet."

Funny that my second tale was to be about ninja librarians trying to retrieve overdue books, ah well.

But using a savior's body parts as swear words is pretty new to me, funny too. (I'm so going into hell for that)

[yuiseppe]

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

Speaking of librarians, here's a Shadowverse fic about Vivio! Hey, it's not just Lutecia who gets to go out in the field in the 'verse!

(note: unproofread)

Spoiler for They Take These Matters Seriously:

"Kaiser's rack, yes, just tell us what you want?"


Vivio pouted.


"I want you to stop using my body parts as profanities, for one thing. It's really obnoxious!" She cleared her throat while they were digesting that. "Now, if I can finish what I was saying when you guys ambushed me at the door, my name is Takamachi Vivio and I am here to speak with a Mr. Martan Audi on behalf of the Time-Space Administration Bureau Infinity Library. He is registered as the borrower of Manipulations of Etheric Symbology by Van Carolus, via inter-library loan, and it's four weeks overdue."


"Tracking beacon indicates the target book is six feet, four inches at ten-forty-five from your current facing and position, mistress," Burning Glory suggested helpfully.


"Oh, thanks!"


Vivio went over to the remains of a table where one of the unconscious 207s was sprawled, then retrieved the book from the man's backpack.


"You blew up our whole gang over a library book!" the woman babbled incredulously.


"You were the ones who attacked me! I guess now I know why the local branch wanted us to send an agent to collect it. I can only imagine what you'd have tried if we wanted to collect the late fees!"

~X X X~

A/N: Linear rifles are the creation of synaesthetic, author of false light and "The Call." Never let it be said that I'm not willing to snarf up the contribution of another Shadowverse author and misuse it for my own ends!


With regard to the tracking beacon in the book, offhand, while the Infinity Library does not put "active" trackers in its works due to privacy concerns, it does mark each book with a uniquely coded beacon that will "ping" on active locator spells that any librarian learns in their training courses.

~X X X~


Vivio's Magical Omake Theater!

"...and so the local police took the entire gang into custody on charges of assaulting a TSAB officer in the course of her duties and possession of unlicensed restricted weapons. That also gave them probable cause to search the factory and the data storage of various Devices and comm terminals, which gave rise to more serious indictments. Apparently, the gang's completely smashed, now!" Vivio said proudly.


Lutecia Alphine took a sip of her cherry Coke, then smiled at her girlfriend.


"That's really nice work, Vivio."


"Thanks! But...there is one thing I wonder about."


"Oh?"


"Well..." she began hesitantly, "Cia...do people really use my body parts as swear words?"


Lutecia spent the next couple of minutes coughing and trying to clear the soda she'd snorted up the back of her nose.


"Cia!"


"S-sorry, Vivio. Seriously, no, I haven't heard that before. The only cursing I know of concerning your body is when I swear about it not being eighteen years old yet."

ahahahahha!! I kept thinking while Vi was busy demolishing the building that she might just blow up the thing she came to get lol. She takes the overkill thing a little seriously too.

And Kaiser's knickers I absolutely loved Lulu's last line ;D

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by yuiseppe

She takes the overkill thing a little seriously too.

She's Nanoha's daughter, that kind of thing just runs in the family.

[Moczo]

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

Speaking of librarians, here's a Shadowverse fic about Vivio! Hey, it's not just Lutecia who gets to go out in the field in the 'verse!

(note: unproofread)

Spoiler for They Take These Matters Seriously:

A cold, wet wind, heavy with the rain that had fallen that morning and the promise of more later in the day, swept through the streets of Aegis, capital city of Administered World #103. The blonde girl shivered as it bit at her, wishing now that she'd brought her coat. She knocked on the heavy steel door in front of her, making it rattle under her fist. A slot in the door snapped open, revealing dark, suspicious eyes.


"Whattya want?" a man's voice barked.


"My name is Takamachi Vivio," the seventeen-year-old said. While she identified herself, the gaze watching her went from suspicious to leering, traveling up and down her tall, leggy, busty form in a fashion that she only wanted her girlfriend doing. "I'm here to speak with a Mr. Martan Audi on behalf of the Time-Space Administration—"


"It's the damned Bureau!" the voice shouted, cutting her off even as its owner was slamming the hatch shut.


"Protection," intoned Vivio's Intelligent Device, Burning Glory, and a shimmering dome of shifting rainbow light sprang up around her to stop the spray of slugs that smashed into her from two directions. The door had clearly been watched by sentries, which was no surprise; the Aegis police had told her that this was the home ground of one of the city's nastiest street gangs, the 207s. They were hard-core criminals, involved in drug and weapons trafficking as well as extortion who did not hesitate to defend themselves and their bottom line with assault and murder.


Still, Vivio had hoped things wouldn't have to get violent. Even criminals could be reasonable businessmen, couldn't they? At least she'd thought so, but they seemed intent on fighting.


"Burning Glory, set up!" she ordered. If they wanted a fight, she could give them one.


"Barrier Jacket: Royal Mode." In the next instant she wore a snug-fitting blue-gray bodysuit underneath a short white jacket, with armored gloves clutching a long staff capped by a Belka Kreuz, the blue gem of Burning Glory's core set at the cross's center.


"Track and identify targets; mark for homing."


"Target Bind."


"Radiant Shooter!"


A half-dozen bullets of rainbow light appeared around the staff's tip and went shooting off in two separate directions, following the target lock. The hail of fire stopped at once; apparently the shooters had lacked Barrier Jackets or other magical defenses.


"I think that gives us just cause to enter the premises by force, don't you, Burning Glory?"


"I agree, mistress."


Vivio spun and drove her fist into the door in a Strike Arts technique that channeled magic into the punch like a Belkan-style attack, but the door only shivered without breaking. Apparently it had been magically reinforced.


"Revolver Form!"


The staff transformed in an instant into what looked very much like a large handgun with a heavily built-up barrel, except that there was no opening in the muzzle—which wasn't as crazy as it seemed, because this gun wasn't for shooting people. Vivio pulled the trigger, discharging a stored-magic cartridge, and Burning Glory was wreathed in a rainbow aura. Vivio slammed the Device's revolver barrel into the door once, denting it badly; twice, crumpling it in so that gaps showed around the edges; three times, tearing it off its hinges and launching it into the building where it crashed into a wall in a shower of broken plaster.


"Let's go!" She sprang into the air for greater mobility and flew through the now-open door, only to freeze in place. A leprous-green magic circle had appeared beneath her and a bright golden aura above, both spraying out binding chains that fastened tightly around her, holding her in place.


Nanoha-mama will scold me if she finds out I walked right into a trap, Vivio thought glumly. The special defensive magic of her Barrier Jacket started to decay the binds at once, but it wouldn't be in time to stop the eight people that surrounded her in a semicircle, carrying two automatic mass-drivers, two shotgun-like ones that no doubt threw high-energy slugs, a military-grade linear rifle, and three genuine Storage Devices. She tried to cast a defensive spell to augment her protections, but at least one of the trap spells must have been like her mentor Yuuno's Struggle Bind, keeping her from linking mana to invoke new magic.


Vivio screamed as physical and magical blasts hammered her simultaneously. She actually missed the point when the bindings were erased, her head was ringing so thoroughly, until she was jolted by falling onto the concrete floor. Fortunately, her Intelligent Device was clear-headed.


"Protection Powered."


The pain stopped almost at once, excepting only a dull headache and a pulsing throb in her side where a linear rifle shot had found a soft spot. She was going to have un ugly bruise, she just knew it. She was lucky that was all; those things were designed through a low-grade Barrier Jacket at close range, especially when that Hacket had been simultaneously stressed holding off the attack magic of three mages of at least C rank. If she'd been even a B-ranker defensively, she'd have been seriously injured or dead.


I guess that's why they sent me on this job...


Vivio pulled Burning Glory's trigger twice, charging the defensive spell until it glowed brightly. It wasn't to get extra protection; the spell was shedding the continuing hail of attacks fine on its own.


"Do it!"


"Barrier Burst."


The energy stored in the barrier spell exploded outward, slamming into the attackers and knocking them sprawling. The five non-mages were stunned unconscious outright, and Vivio was already springing for one of the other three the moment the burst went off. One had been knocked down, so she dove at the nearer of the other two, punching him hard in the belly to double him up and smashing Burning Glory down on the back of his head. Even as he dropped, Vivio was spinning around towards the other still-upright mage. She loaded another cartridge and sprang.


"Round Shield!" the Sevener babbled desperately, conjuring up a defense.


"Burning Cross!" Vivio already had the counter ready and used the cartridge's energy to whip Burning Glory in two slashes, vertical and horizontal, that tore the shield to shreds and slammed the mage onto his butt just from the backblast. She pivoted and kicked—stomped, more like—his chin, adding him to the sleeping set. The last mage didn't even try getting up or fighting. He just scrambled on his hands and knees for the wrecked door, fleeing out into the street. Vivio ignored him; she had a job to do and beating up every last thug wasn't it.


"Burning Glory, are we close enough for you to lock on to the beacon's tracing signature?"


"Yes, mistress. It is within the building, seventy-nine feet from our current position."


"Let's go get it, then."


She ran down the hall to her left, then up another one and through a door onto what was obviously the work floor of the old factory the 207s had taken over for their home. Vivio shifted Burning Glory back to Kreuz Form and launched into the air, even as she was coming under fire. Remembering her air combat lessons, she kept in three-dimensional motion in order to reduce her target profile and the ability of the enemy to lead her or to keep homing attacks properly on her tail. As she wove among catwalks and gantries, ducking in and around machinery, she launched her own counterattacks, spraying a Radiant Shooter to scatter the Seveners on the floor, then another at a catwalk sniper. A mage firing stun charges at her ended up eating a Sacred Cluster, which didn't defeat the woman outright due to a hastily-conjured Defenser, but obliterated the catwalk around her and allowed her to demonstrate her lack of flight skills. Since the mage's Barrier Jacket had been nearly shredded in the attack, Vivio kindly caught her in midair before dumping her on the floor and stunning her.


In approximately two and a half minutes, the room was clear of conscious Sevener, all of them either having been downed or fled. The beacon from Vivio's target wasn't in the work area, though, but apparently came from the next room over, which seemed to be some kind of pressure chamber with an airlock-style door.


"Is that room reinforced?"


"Yes," Burning Glory reported. "The walls and door alike have been strengthened with multiple defensive spells designed to resist impact, particularly kinetic and heat damage."


"Particularly? How about purely magic damage?"


"Less so, with fewer and less permanent spells, although the overall structural resistance would also reduce the force of magic damage."


"I see. So I guess it was originally some kind of blast chamber, but the 207 gang decided to turn it into a bunker or safe room," Vivio deduced. She hoped they didn't intent to blow up the factory itself with some kind of hidden self-destruct that the bunker could resist but would be likely to take out anyone outside it in a "last resort" kind of defense. She really didn't need any more headaches.


Then again, she could also solve two problems at once just by cracking open that particular egg. Like Nanoha-mama says, the reason she seems so trigger-happy is because so often the direct solution is the best one!


"Barrier Jacket: Saint Mode!"


Externally, the only change seemed to be that the colors flipped: the bodysuit had become white, its electric-blue tracery silver, and the jacket dark blue. This form, though, sacrificed defense to augment Vivio's offensive magic power. She leveled Burning Glory's tip at the door, the triangular Belkan spell-rune shining beneath her.


"Sing to the shining glory of the heavens!"


"Sacred Heart."


Three blasts of magic exploded from a triangular pattern around Burning Glory's tip, the beams coiling together in a blazing pillar of energy. The searing bolt hammered into the door, the twisting coils making it seem like the spell was a giant drill grinding away at the barrier, and then it suddenly broke through, obliterating the door and a good chunk of the wall. Vivio flew down at once, taking stock of the four shell-shocked occupants of the bunker. Well, more accurately it was three, because she'd collected a young woman wearing a yellow-striped minidress when the spell blew out the door.


"Fucking Kaiser's ass!" cursed the apparent leader, a big, muscular man with tattoo-like patterns shaved into his close-cropped hair and a mace-like Armed Device in his hand.


"Now, that's just rude," Vivio huffed. "Burning Glory, let's teach them some manners."


"Yes, mistress. Loading cartridges."


The two sharp detonations of the last two cartridges in the cylinder loading echoed in the cavernous work room, as did the high-pitched whine of gathering magic.


"Sacred..."


The Belkan spell-rune spun into position beneath Vivio's feet again.


"...Cluster!"


"Sacred Cluster Augmented."


The searing beam looked, at first, like a typical cannon-type shooting magic, but after traveling thirty feet or so suddenly split into six separate comets which spread out, then zigzagged in, homing in two to a target, exploding in bomb-like detonations as they hit. Only one of the three got up any active defenses, which shattered under the first impact. One Sevener was left unconscious, the other two dazed and sprawling, smoke rising theatrically from their shredded Barrier Jackets.


"Nicely done, mistress," Burning Glory said brightly.


"Thank you," Vivio replied. Since this was an official field mission, she carried extra cartridges with her, and she fed a fresh supply into her Device's cylinder, the glided down inside the bunker, ready to deal with anything the last gang-members had to offer. They did not, however, seem inclined to fight.


"No more! I surrender!" the leader shouted, throwing down his Device. His associate, a dark-skinned woman with blonde cornrows, released hers back to its standby mode, dropping her Barrier Jacket in favor of her ordinary T-shirt and jeans. She extended the card to Vivio, who took it along with picking up the leader's mace, just in case either one was inclined to make more trouble.


"You agree to cease hostilities and submit to custody?" Vivio said a bit stiffly, not used to being lead officer on field missions.


"Kaiser's rack, yes, just tell us what you want?"


Vivio pouted.


"I want you to stop using my body parts as profanities, for one thing. It's really obnoxious!" She cleared her throat while they were digesting that. "Now, if I can finish what I was saying when you guys ambushed me at the door, my name is Takamachi Vivio and I am here to speak with a Mr. Martan Audi on behalf of the Time-Space Administration Bureau Infinity Library. He is registered as the borrower of Manipulations of Etheric Symbology by Van Carolus, via inter-library loan, and it's four weeks overdue."


"Tracking beacon indicates the target book is six feet, four inches at ten-forty-five from your current facing and position, mistress," Burning Glory suggested helpfully.


"Oh, thanks!"


Vivio went over to the remains of a table where one of the unconscious 207s was sprawled, then retrieved the book from the man's backpack.


"You blew up our whole gang over a library book!" the woman babbled incredulously.


"You were the ones who attacked me! I guess now I know why the local branch wanted us to send an agent to collect it. I can only imagine what you'd have tried if we wanted to collect the late fees!"

~X X X~

A/N: Linear rifles are the creation of synaesthetic, author of false light and "The Call." Never let it be said that I'm not willing to snarf up the contribution of another Shadowverse author and misuse it for my own ends!


With regard to the tracking beacon in the book, offhand, while the Infinity Library does not put "active" trackers in its works due to privacy concerns, it does mark each book with a uniquely coded beacon that will "ping" on active locator spells that any librarian learns in their training courses.

~X X X~


Vivio's Magical Omake Theater!

"...and so the local police took the entire gang into custody on charges of assaulting a TSAB officer in the course of her duties and possession of unlicensed restricted weapons. That also gave them probable cause to search the factory and the data storage of various Devices and comm terminals, which gave rise to more serious indictments. Apparently, the gang's completely smashed, now!" Vivio said proudly.


Lutecia Alphine took a sip of her cherry Coke, then smiled at her girlfriend.


"That's really nice work, Vivio."


"Thanks! But...there is one thing I wonder about."


"Oh?"


"Well..." she began hesitantly, "Cia...do people really use my body parts as swear words?"


Lutecia spent the next couple of minutes coughing and trying to clear the soda she'd snorted up the back of her nose.


"Cia!"


"S-sorry, Vivio. Seriously, no, I haven't heard that before. The only cursing I know of concerning your body is when I swear about it not being eighteen years old yet."

... ... ... ... ... Vivio the Librarian Terminator is jumping up the list of my favorite interpretations of the character, and she's only been in this one short.

That is all.

[spawnofthejudge]

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

"They Take These Matters Seriously"

Best was "Kaiser's rack", by far, though I think there should have been more from Vivio about that.

Hysterical and awesome, and not only something that Yuuno would do just because, also something Chrono might tell him to do.

Chrono: I have something on my desk that I think shouldn't be handled by us.
Yuuno: Oh?
Chrono: We found that there's an overdue library book in the hideout, and I'm pretty sure they can't break a B to A rank defense.
Yuuno: ...again?
Chrono: It's something about these criminal types; they keep forgetting that probable cause includes a great many small things.
Yuuno: I mean, all of them have overdue books! Are you planting them?
Chrono: ... no...

Originally Posted by yuiseppe

And Kaiser's knickers I absolutely loved Lulu's last line ;D

That was more "Your body is an object to me" than Lulu tends to get, but I think the frustration can be forgiven for coming out quite like that.

[deathcurse]

Originally Posted by spawnofthejudge

Hysterical and awesome, and not only something that Yuuno would do just because, also something Chrono might tell him to do.

Chrono: I have something on my desk that I think shouldn't be handled by us.
Yuuno: Oh?
Chrono: We found that there's an overdue library book in the hideout, and I'm pretty sure they can't break a B to A rank defense.
Yuuno: ...again?
Chrono: It's something about these criminal types; they keep forgetting that probable cause includes a great many small things.
Yuuno: I mean, all of them have overdue books! Are you planting them?
Chrono: ... no...

LOL, I love how unsketchy Chrono sounds .....

[Moczo]

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

...
Also, hang in there, Cia! Only one more year! If I ever update...

... ... ... Poor Cia. She'll be fifty by the time she finally gets some.

[Nanya01]

Well, another update. Though it seems like everyone's interested in something else in my topic lately. =/

I kid, this isn't my topic, but I WAS the only one posting because everyone else was doing something else during November and December.

New

Shine Parts 1-10

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - Shine Part 11:

It was just after breakfast and Yuuno, Fate and Nanoha all were looking at Lina and Shiro oddly. "You want us to what?" Nanoha asked, making sure that she heard her mother correctly.

"School's out for the winter break." Lina repeated to the children. "And Lindy's been talking to us, you three need some extra training."

"But, six months..?" Fate said confused and Lina shook her head, smiling.

"After a couple weeks, as long as you don't screw up horribly, you'll be allowed back home on weekends." Shiro continued for Lina. "We agree with Lindy on this. You three could use some fine-tuning and refining of your Mid-childa magic. Plus, Yuuno, Lindy said that Mary could craft an Intelligent Device for you if she got a better idea of your magic."

"But, what about my brother?" Nanoha looked at Lina's belly and her mother laughed at her. "What?"

"Family situations such as that allow for you to make an emergency trip home for a few days." Lina smiled softly. "I already talked to Lindy about everything about that. As for your school, Shiro and I have talked to your teachers and, well..." She slid some papers across the table to Fate and Nanoha, who blinked as they read them over. "The official story is that you're going to be living with some relatives of Fate's in Italy for six months and experiencing the culture over there."

"But, I was adopted by you, so..."

"Officially, you'll be living with some cousins that only just found out that you're alive and they want to get to know you and your sister more." Lina smiled at the girl gently. "If you don't want this, we can come up with a different cover story to tell everyone."

Fate shook her head. "No, it's fine... But, can you at least name one of them Linith, please?"

"Sure." Lina smiled softly.

"Hey, mom." Lina blinked as Miyuki walked into the room. "You tell them that I was going with?"

"HAUH?!" The kids all gaped at Miyuki, who shrugged.

"Someone has to make sure that Fate's skill with the sword is kept up, if all she's going to do is practice magic..."

"And I told you, there probably won't be time for you to work with her, she's going to be worked hard by trainers." Lina grumbled and wondered how her own parents put up with her being so stubborn. And Miyuki wasn't even her blood daughter, but somedays it was hard to tell. Her whole family was stubborn as hell when it came to certain things.

Miyuki shrugged. "Well, I still wanna go."

"I know." Lina grumbled and looked at Shiro, who looked on, amused. "Oh sure, it's easy for you to be amused by the fact that our eldest daughter wants to run off to some alien world just because she has the Sword of Light now."

"I seem to recall a woman with red hair, only slightly older than Miyuki, who wanted to explore the Amazon when we were in Belgum on our honeymoon." Shiro chuckled as Lina's face turned red. "Though, I have to admit, crashing in on the Pope was rather funny." Seeing the kids all look at him funny, Shiro laughed. "Oh, that was fun, though I'm sure that the Swiss army was less than amused."

"We spent three days in prison." Lina chuckled at the memories. "Oh well, at least John Paul was pretty cool about it when he talked to us later." It could have been worse. The old man was pretty tough as well.

"You... Crashed in on the Pope?" Miyuki sat down at the table and grinned. "What else happened on your trip to Europe?"

"Remember the Leprechauns?" Shiro laughed as Lina's face darkened. "I'm sure that they didn't mean anything by it." At least they apologized for what they did later.

"They called me a boy! They're lucky the only thing I broke was their mech." Lina grumbled, but calmed down when she felt her baby kick her. "Then again, the Oompa Loompas were worse."

"Still can't believe that they were all real." Shiro shook his head in amusement. Those were some fun times.

"Oompa Loompas..?" Yuuno said slowly, trying to make sense of what he heard.

"Leprechauns with mechs?" Nanoha continued, though she was more interested in that last bit.

"It was just five pairs of shoes, but then they combined." Lina chuckled softly. "I think I got interested in mecha anime right after seeing that."

"Shoes... that combine?" Miyuki was beginning to wonder if that actually happened. Even if her parents never lied to her, they tended to exaggerate things at times, or at least she thought so.

It sounded too unreal. Then again, magic seemed fairly unreal, but considering that her sisters and mother could use magic and she had a freaking magic laser sword, it might be real.

Lina shook her head. "Anyway, you three will be heading out by the end of the week. As much as I can teach you about magic, Lindy is right, you three could use some fine points on your original style of magic, and I can't teach that to you." She smiled at Yuuno. "Plus this will let you see your family again."

Yuuno smiled at that. It had been a long while. "I do miss them."

"But, why can't we just train here?" Nanoha asked in confusion. "We're doing fine, aren't we?"

"We're not saying that you aren't." Lina shook her head. "But there are things that can only be taught by teachers who can pay more attention to what you're doing and note mistakes. My magic's fine for blowing stuff up and slaying gods, demons and monsters. But what if something comes up and you have to use your magic and you don't want to kill your opponent? I admit, it's a long time, but this way you can get some new spells out of it, and share the spells you know among the Bureau's mages." Lindy had confided that most of the people who heard about this hybrid style almost dismissed it outright, saying that it was too flashy and wasn't for most mages.

It probably wasn't, Lina would admit, one had to have magical talent to use magic after all.

Lina sighed as Miyuki gave her a look that was both stubborn and annoying. "Alright, alright... You can go with, Miyuki..." She held up a hand to stop any cheering. "But, I don't want to hear any complaints from anyone about you causing trouble while you're there and I don't want you to overwork Fate if she wants to practice... If they let you stay, of course, if they want you to leave, you'll come back right away, do you understand?"

Miyuki nodded. The biggest reason she wanted to go was because she wanted to at least be near if another adventure cropped up. And with a magic sword like the Sword of Light, well... At least she wouldn't be a liability if something did happen.

Lina sighed, but smiled as she felt Shiro pull her into a hug. She knew that her kids would be like this, she was no different.

It didn't stop her from worrying about them and hoping that they would be come home in one piece.

[mega1987]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

Well, another update. Though it seems like everyone's interested in something else in my topic lately. =/

I kid, this isn't my topic, but I WAS the only one posting because everyone else was doing something else during November and December.

Nope nanya.... your fanfic post of "BTF" is damn interesting for everyone here...

and oh boy... am I expecting the "White Nightmare" (Well... the title of White Devil is not gonna fit Nanoha when she gone berserk...) to pop out at that little incident in the cannon?