"This is impossible!" exclaimed Vanya Trebant, staring at the text scrolling across the four open holo-screens in front of her.

Her co-worker, Erika Fuso, did not respond to the redhead's complaint. Since Erika usually would cut Vanya down to size with a pointed (and sometimes witty) observation whenever Vanya started blowing off steam, she glanced over to see what was wrong.


Erika didn't look good. Sweat was dripping down the petite girl's pointed, foxlike features, she was trembling, and the light from her four screens as well as the Midchildan spell-rune beneath her feet. She was fading fast, and Vanya didn't know how long she could hold out.


Vanya turned her head to see how their superior was doing. As he had been for the past twelve minites, the blond man hovered in the air over his own rune, head thrown back, eyes closed, arms opened out at his sides, while rings of cabalistic symbols rotated and twisted in the air around him. She could only imagine the stress the process was placing on him; she and Erika were only maintaining a support role, while he was carrying the burden of the entire spell. But then again, he was the boss. He was supposed to have the hard jobs.


Erika gave a sudden high, sharp cry and the pink light of her rune vanished with her screens. She sagged forward, dropping to her knees, and would have fallen to the floor hand the other two not at once sprang to catch her.


"Erika, you idiot, you should disengage before you hit your limit!" Vanya yelped. She yanked on her own ponytail in frustration. "This isn't some combat mission where lives are on the line. We're librarians, for Kaiser's sake."


The slender girl mopped the sweat from her forehead on the back of her sleeve.


"That's...not true...Vanya."


Yuuno Scrya nodded.


"She's right. We may not be engaging the enemy directly, but the research we provide for the field operatives can be vital for their ability to complete their mission and protect both their own lives and those of civilians who might be hurt if they fail."


Vanya yanked at her ponytail again.


"Yeah, all right, I know there's an Enforcer team going in to try and secure the Jewel of the Seven Stars in six hours and it would help a lot if they knew its capabilities before they engaged the holder."


Yuuno nodded.


"Especially since our own knowledge of its properties is sketchy at best, but that we know from references that the ancient Belkans had a complete write-up on it in the Book of the Dark Kings. That reference alone suggests that it has something to do with the manipulation of the dead as the Gareans were very focused in their development of pre-Mariage prototypes."


He turned a kind smile on the exhausted girl.


"Vanya is right, though. It achieves nothing for you to push yourself to exhaustion. Just because this is scrying magic doesn't mean that it's any safer for the caster, and Linker Core drain could leave you in the hospital or worse. Doing your best is important, but so is remembering to take care of yourself."


"But the spell..."


Yuuno shook his head.


"Erika, even interfacing our scrying magic with the library's Interactive Search System, we were not only able to examine 2.3 percent of capacity. This could go on for hours even if we had infinite search resources." He sighed. "Look, let's take a break. It's nearly lunch hour in any case; Vanya, why don't you just go get something to eat while I make sure Erika is all right. Try and think if you can come up with any ideas if you can."


"...All right," she sighed after a long pause, then turned and left the office.


The problem was that the Infinity Library was itself a Belkan Lost Logia. It had to be, to contain physical copies as well as data records of the massive amount of information the Bureau, like the empire before it, needed and used to maintain its administration of well over a hundred different worlds. Indeed, without the Library Nexus scrounged from the Belkans, the TSAB probably would never have even gotten off the ground. The problem was that while the new data added by the Bureau was for the most part well-organized, indexed, and easily accessible, the old data, the much greater collection from the Belkan era, most emphatically was not. Worse yet, because the inheritors of the Library used Mid-style magic, there were regular breakdowns and glitches in the interface between the ISS and he Nexus central organizing system, where while sections would go "off the grid" temporarily or permanently. The librarians would then have to use scrying magic to manually hunt up what was needed—relatively simple if the item was under a hundred years old or so, since new entries were spell-tagged for precisely this purpose, virtually impossible if it was part of the original Belkan collection unless it had been located and marked before.


It was no wonder that Chrono Harlaown had assigned the post of Head Librarian to Yuuno, and archaeologist.


The elevator doors at the far end of the room swished open and a tall, curvaceous blonde stepped...no, stalked was a better way of putting it, Vanya decided...out, a scowl on her face.


"And where the hell have you been, Your Majesty?" Vanya snapped. That last line was often directed quite seriously at Takamachi Vivio, since the nineteen-year-old was a clone of the last Belkan Sankt Kaiser. That by itself was enough to make Vanya feel good about her fellow archivist, because most people who were considered a living object of worship by a sizable chunk of the largest religion in the administered dimensions would be egotistical jerkasses and Vivio wasn't. Under the circumstances, though, that wasn't nearly enough, and Vanya was very sarcastic.


"What's your problem?" Vivio snapped right back, clearly not in a modd to budge an inch.


"My problem is a co-worker who comes in two hours late without so much as calling to let anyone know you'd be late."


Vivio blinked.


"You're throwing a fit over that?"


"If the rest of us can't count on you to do your damn job, it's important. We all end up picking up the slack!"


"What the heck? I've missed less time than anyone on-staff this year except Lamerton! You just got back from a two-week vacation last month and you didn't hear me griping about pulling overtime in your place!"


"That's because Erika didn't nearly burn our her Linker Core trying to do the work of someone with S-rank potential!"


They stared at each other. Vivio's heterochromatic eyes made it hard for Vanya; her brain kept wanting to harmonize the colors and failing, making her a little dizzy. Finally, Vivio's face softened.


"Is she all right?" she asked.


"Yuuno thinks she should be all right, though he's running a couple of more tests."


"I didn't know we had a major project scheduled for this morning," Vivio said hesitantly. She was clearly wondering if she'd screwed up and lost track of a work assignment and let everyone down. The fact that it did concern her, though, made Vanya unable to really let fly like her temper wanted to.


"We didn't. It was a rush job fron the Navy," she explained. "The Enforcers are going after a Lost Logia in a little under six hours and need all the background we can get them. Yuuno located a reference, but it pointed to another book from the Belkan records.


"Why didn't you call me?" Vivio said at once. "I'd have come right away if—"


Vanya waved her hand and sighed.


"No, never mind." She turned and started heading back the way she'd come, the other woman falling into step. "I'm just pissy and looking for someone to take it out on. It's not your fault Erika never learned the difference between 'giving it everything you've got' and 'killing yourself trying.' Even if you'd been here it wouldn't have changed anything, not really. At least not in terms of success or failure."


"That makes me feel a little better. What are we looking for?"


"Nah, I'll let Yuuno give you the complete story. He's the boss, after all, and better with the technical details anyway. I'd rather hear your story. Why are you two hours late, and came in looking like you had your panties in a twist on top of it?"


"...I had a fight with my girlfriend."


"You? But you two are all, like, lovey-dovey and stuff."


"She's leaving on a mission assignment tomorrow and won't tell me where she's going."


"Really? Ouch, that's harsh."


They walked into the library office.


"Vanya, didn't I tell you to take a break?" Yuuno said.


"Yeah, but look who I ran into." She jerked a thumb at Vivio.


"Ah, Vivio. You didn't call; I was worried about you."


"I'm sorry; I just was in the middle of a huge fight with Lutecia. Oh, Erika, are you okay? Vanya told me what happened."


The dark-haired girl, now sitting in a chair in front of one of the fixed-station terminals, nodded.


"I'm fine. I'm just surrounded by people who like to fuss. So what's this stuff about a fight?"


"Miss Field Agent's leaving Vivio at home worrying and won't tell her what it's about," Vanya supplied.


"She kept saying it was classified and she couldn't tell me. My security clearance is higher than hers!"


That was very likely true, Vanya knew. The people whose responsibility it was to store, maintain, and acces the Bureau's secrets couldn't do their jobs if they didn't have the ability to touch that data. As Head Librarian, Yuuno's clearance was equal to the Council President's. Vivio's was nearly as high, which Vanya supposed made sense; the girl's own life history was the subject of any number of classified files.


"Vivio, it's not just about clearance. Classified data is given out only to people with the requisite clearance, yes, but also only to those who have a need to know or a legal right to demand the information," Yuuno explained patiently.


"This must be classified Don't Tell Your Wife," Vanya joked, making Vivio blush at the thought of being Lutecia's wife some day.


"I...I know, but...it just makes me worry so much knowing that she's out there on a job and not only can't I protect her, I can't even be with her in spirit because I can't know what she's doing. I don't know how Nanoha-mama did it all those years when Fate-mama was going out on extended deployments."


There was really nothing any of them could say to that.


"At least now I can work on helping to support the Enforcers with their job," Vivio brightened. "It's not the same as Lutecia's, but at least I can do something for someone who's going out there like she is. So what is it we're doing."


Yuuno quickly brought her up to speed.


"...so we tried to use the ISS to amplify our search magic through synchronization," he finished up, "but to no avail."


"Is there any chance we can establish what general area it's in so we could try a manual search?"


"No; apparently the only copy of the Book we have is part of the original Belkan records and hasn't been accessed since the Bureau established the library. We don't even know where to start looking."


"A similarity search through ISS as to books of similar age, topics, and type that we have located indicated at least eight general sections possible for its location," Erika provided.


The three of them fell silent following that remark, no doubt considering the scope of a search in the Infinity Library's zero-gravity, dimensional-shifted strange environment. Finding one of the old Belkan works definitely wasn't just a matter of walking along reading neatly alphabetized shelves. That sudden pause made the snap of Vanya's fingers echo even more loudly and dramatically in the room.


"Clearance!" Vanya exclaimed.


"What?"


"Vivio, you speak Old Belkan, don't you?"


"Y-yes, a little bit, though I'm better at reading and writing it."


"Vanya," Erika cut in, "are you going to explain what you're talking about, or do we have to sit here playing guessing games?"


"Clearance! Access to classified data! Ancient Belkan classified data."


Yuuno figured it out at once, his eyes lighting up with pure, delighted scholarly greed.


"I can't believe we didn't think of it before!" he exclaimed. "Retinal scans, DNA typing—why, we've even got positive proof that the concept will work from the JS Incident!"


Vivio blinked in confusion.


"The JS Incident? You mean, the Cradle?"


"Exactly! This library actually is completely organized and archived," Vanya rushed on. It was her idea, after all. "It's just that we can't use the system because it won't recognize any of us. But I figure it'll show Vivio—or rather, Sankt Kaiser Olivie Sedgbrecht—whatever she wants. I mean, we all know the old joke about somebody or other having higher security clearance than God, but thanks to Her Majesty, we can actually test out what that standard is!"


~X X X~


A/N: "The Jewel of Seven Stars" is a reference to the Bram Stoker book...which I haven't read, only heard the full-cast audio adaptation. ^^;;;


~X X X~


Vivio's Magical Omake Theater!


"Yuuno," Vivio asked, "if I understand correctly, the ISS is hooked into the Nexus, isn't it, as kind of an overlay?"


"Uh-huh."


"So if Vanya's plan works, I could backchannel from the Nexus into our Mid-era records, couldn't I? And since the Nexus is the Infinity Library's primary system, that would mean my access level would carry over too, wouldn't it?"


"Vivio, you are not to access NSIS classified data to find out where Lutecia was assigned."


"You're no fun."

“Almost two weeks ago, a reconnaissance team discov—”

“We’ve done this!” Subaru blurted out in the briefing room, tossing a folder to the table.

Hayate gave the girl a look halfway between disapproval at the interruption and amusement at the sudden outburst. “Subaru, we do this every time there’s a mission,” she said.

“I’m not talking about briefings in general, Commander Hayate, I’m talking about this briefing!” Subaru explained. “I’m talking about this day!”

All her outburst gained her was the blank stares of everyone else in the room, wondering if the girl had suddenly lost her mind.

“Subaru’s right,” Teana said. “Events are repeating themselves.”

“Since when?” Nanoha asked, putting a hand on her hip.

“Since we went to Non-Administrated World #42!” Subaru explained, almost fed up.

“We haven’t been to Non-Administrated World #42,” was Nanoha’s response.

“Yes we have!” she argued back, then pointed at the others. “‘No we haven’t!’ That’s what you were gonna say!”

“Of course that’s what we’re gonna say,” Yuuno reasoned, leaning forward on the table.

…

“Okay, bad example,” Subaru conceded.

“Subaru, I’m not quite sure what to make of this,” Hayate said.

Nanoha stepped forward. “If we’ve had this meeting before—”

“—then why are me and Tea the only ones who remember it? I know, that’s what you guys said last time!” Subaru cut her off.

“Well, I’ll venture a guess and say it has something to do with that Lost Logia,” Teana pointed out.

Nanoha looked back at the screen, looking rather unconvinced.

Subaru tapped at her wristwatch, looking at the time, and said, “And you’ll all believe us when Lightning Team shows up on the roof in… 4… 3… 2… 1…”

Hayate, Nanoha, and Yuuno looked about, as if waiting for something to happen. Nothing changed, and Subaru nervously looked down at her watch, tapping it to see if it was off.

“Lightning Team isn’t due back for another two days, Subaru,” Hayate said, frowning unamusedly.

And then the holographic window appeared, with Griffith’s flustered expression appearing within it.

“Commander Yagami, ma’am, we’re detecting an incoming dimensional transfer,” he explained. “It’s headed straight for the base.”

Subaru’s fist hit the edge of the table in frustration. “So close!”


Shamal lifted up the flashlight and turned it on, shooting the light right into Subaru’s eyes, who patiently waited for the doctor to examine both before she blinked away the discomfort. On the bed behind her, Teana was having her blood pressure taken, and further back a nurse was fussing over Fate’s injuries.

“You’re not going to find anything,” Teana said flatly.

“We’ll need to wait for the lab results before we jump to any conclusions,” Shamal replied, jotting a note on her clipboard.

“The results will be negative!” Subaru complained.

Shamal only smiled. “Humor me!” she said, as Hayate and Nanoha arrived. “Well, Hayate-chan, I—”

“Commander Hayate, ma’am,” Teana interrupted, holding up a hand to stall Shamal. “I know you’re thinking of postponing the mission, but there’s no point. We tried it last time, and it didn’t work.”

Subaru accepted the thermometer that the nurse plopped into her mouth, already getting the idea that Tea’s argument will be futile.


Once again, Subaru found herself headed to the commissary after Hayate had decreed their mission postponed. She had an idea, too, about what was going to happen. She gestured with her hands, ticking off the seconds until…

“Subaru, wait up!”

… Yuuno came down the hall after her, intent to discuss the explanation they once again tried giving to convince Hayate not to postpone the mission. She sighed in acceptance of the inevitable and turned to face the archaeologist.

They halted by the intersection as Yuuno spoke. “I was thinking about what Teana said, about a beam coming out—”

“Four hundred pages of old Belkan script,” Subaru blurted, causing Yuuno to blink in mild surprise.

“… right. The recon team took images of the ruins,” he went on as he brought up the window.

“Looks familiar,” Subaru said, frowning. Guess speeding up things wasn’t going to save the poor guy. “But I’m not that great at translating stuff.”

“No, I understand, I was just thinking, if you could give me more details about the layout of the ruins, I could—”

And once again, Yuuno found himself slammed to the ground as a distracted Shari turned the corner, sending them both to the ground.

Guiltily, Subaru realized she probably should’ve moved him out of harm’s way, as Shari spouted apologies for the accident.


Subaru knocked on the edge of the open door to Commander Hayate’s office, causing the woman to look up from her report as both of the lower Stars Team members entered her office.

“Any word from Shamal-sensei?” Subaru asked worriedly.

“We’re still waiting on the lab results,” Hayate replied.

Teana shook her head. “If we delay any more it’ll be too late, Commander!” she exclaimed.

“Too late for what?”

“To stop this mess from happening again!” Subaru nearly shouted.

“You realize, girls, this is a little difficult for me to accept, right?” Hayate said, propping her head up with her arm.

“Hey, if it was just me, I’d agree!” Subaru said. “But what about Tea?! C’mon, is this the face of a crazy woman!?”

Tea blinked and gave Subaru a side-long look. Subaru swallowed and calmed down. “Bad example,” she conceded.

“Girls, what do you want?” Hayate asked, no longer willing to put up with this.

“We want to go back to World #42,” Teana informed her.

Hayate sighed, weighing her options.


Light flashed as the dimensional transfer finished, and Subaru, Teana, Vita, Nanoha, and Yuuno appeared within the entryway to the ruins on Non-Administrated World #42. Already it was blazing hot, and as they stepped forward, Raising Heart chimed with a warning.

“A geo-magnetic storm is building,” came the smooth female voice from the red gemstone hanging from Nanoha’s neck. “Be careful, my master.”

“That’s the Lost Logia right there,” Teana said, pointing ahead of them before headed down the steps at a brisk pace. She already had Cross Mirage set up.

“I wonder how it works,” Vita said, frowning as she followed her with the others as they made their way to the Lost Logia.

“Beats me,” Teana admitted. “We got interrupted when Nanoha tried to explain last time.”

The scholar Bantam came around the corner of the ruins, not noticing the returned Stars Team as he made his way to the Lost Logia.

“Freeze!” Teana shouted, aiming her Device at the man and causing him to halt in his tracks.

“Hello,” he said, holding up his hands.

“Whoa, easy,” Yuuno said, stepping out before them.

Subaru shook her head. “That’s the guy,” she pointed out. She had her mother’s Revolver Knuckle out as well, ready to clobber him if he did something funny. “He’s the one who started all this.”

Bantam merely looked confused. “I-I-I-I don’t understand,” he said, panicky.

“Whatever you did, I want you to undo it!” Tea commanded, her aim not wavering in the least.

“I didn’t do anything!”

“Tea, I don’t think he knows what you’re talking about,” Nanoha said, looking over at the young woman.

Do you think he doesn’t remember, Tea? Subaru asked privately, sounding unsure.

Tea’s frown increased. “Oh he remembers,” she said. “He was the one pushing all those buttons.”

“Please, I’m just an archaeologist,” Bantam explained nervously as he approached his bag on the Lost Logia altar. Tea’s aim followed him, making sure he wouldn’t try anything funny. “I’ve been trying to translate these symbols. I-I-I-I-I told the others who came before you!”

“You mean the recon team?” Yuuno asked. Behind him, Vita was frowning, and had Graf Eisen in her hands, making the other archaeologist only more nervous.

“Yes! But they, uh, didn’t point Devices at me,” he said, though Teana remained unconvinced. Panicking, he reached for his pack. “Look, I can show you my notes—!”

“Ah! Don’t you dare!” Tea said, jolting forward. The women kept their Devices trained on him as he stumbled to explain, even as Subaru moved around and picked up the man’s knapsack from the Lost Logia. “I’ve been making periodic visits to this world for some time now, my research is almost complete!”

Subaru pulled something out of the pack—a thin, metallic card, a Storage Device similar to the ones the Lieze twins used during the Book of Darkness incident.

“What kind of archaeologist carries a combat device,” Subaru demanded, looking ever like a mother who’d caught her child with their hand in the cookie jar.

“Um, I did, for a while,” Yuuno volunteered.

…

“Bad example,” Subaru conceded. She reached in and pulled out another device, like a PDA. Turning it on, she was immediately greeted with the image of a beautiful woman smiling at her. Bantam only got more nervous.

“What’s this?” the cyborg asked of the man.

“If you must know,” the man spoke, sounding defensive, “It’s a picture of my wife.”

The PDA suddenly beeped, and immediately, the Lost Logia came to life as the tablet buttons started moving of their own accord. Subaru immediately backed away from the machine, as did the others. Teana made a soft curse under her breath.

“Who did that!?” Vita demanded, as energy built up behind the group.

“Nobody did anything, Vita-chan, it engaged on its own!” Nanoha exclaimed.

“Well, turn it off!” Vita shouted.

“I don’t know how!”

“It’s drawing off energy from the ionization in the atmosphere!” Bantam blurted out, explaining the phenomenon. “There’s nothing Captain Takamachi can do!”

“… how’d you know her name!?” Teana demanded, readying a magic bullet with Cross Mirage.

“You told me!” he sputtered.

“No we didn’t!” Subaru shouted back. “Not this time around!”

Sighing, Bantam dropped his arms, as well as the act. “It doesn’t matter, you’re too late now.”

“How do you shut this thing off!?” Vita demanded, aiming Graf Eisen at him.

“Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Nanoha, it’s building up some kind of charge,” Yuuno warned, looking back at the ruins behind them.

“Yuuno-kun, you know how to read this stuff, right?” she replied. “Try to shut it down!”

“Are you kidding me?” came his incredulous response. “I wouldn’t even know where to start!”

Behind them, a beam of energy lanced out of the nearest pillars, spearing through the smaller ones until it struck the array and activated it as Yuuno explained.

“It could take years to translate this, I don’t even have enough—”


“… anyways, I’m sorry, but that’s just how I happen to feel about it,” said the voice of Vice Granscenic as light faded. “What do you think?”

The spoon clattered into the bowl as Subaru dropped it, her palm quickly slapping against her forehead.

Alto blinked in surprise at Subaru’s sudden action.

“… It's just a question,” Vice grumbled.

Nanoha approached the large holographic screen and opened her mouth to begin the briefing.

“Alright, here’s the deal,” Subaru announced before she was even given the chance. “We’re all stuck in a time loop of some kind.”

That certainly got their attention. The three others present placed their attention on Subaru and Teana, both of whom were standing up together.

“However Tea and I seem to be the only one who realize it!” Subaru continued. “Now there’s this Lost Logia on Non-Administrated World #42, that shoots this magic beam at the transfer array. It uses the…”

Subaru fumbled for the terms and turned to Teana, a pleading look in her eyes. “It uses the dimensional barriers and the way the array travels through them for the effect. It’s powered by ionization.”

Subaru was nodding rapidly. “From the atmosphere, right! Which is caused by… ah!” she held up a hand to stall Tea, who was just about to fill in for her again. “I know this one! It’s caused by… magnets?”

“The geo-magnetic storm, Subaru,” Teana said patiently, rolling her eyes.

“Of course,” Subaru said, turning back to look at Nanoha and the others. Hayate opened her mouth, but she too was cut off as the cyborg continued.

“Anyway, we don’t know why none of you remember anything!” she explained quickly. “But I do know for a fact that there’s no point in having Shamal-sensei examine us again!”

Nanoha looked over at Hayate, who returned the gaze before looking back at Subaru and Teana, both of whom nervously awaited their response.


Shamal lifted up the flashlight and turned it on, shooting the light right into Subaru’s eyes, who patiently waited for the doctor to examine both before she blinked away the discomfort. On the bed behind her, Teana was having her blood pressure taken, and further back a nurse was fussing over Fate’s injuries.

“I ask you,” Subaru growled, getting fed up. “What could possibly be in my eye that could explain this!?”

Teana looked ready to chew on the thermometer that was placed in her mouth.


“So what do you make of all this, Nanoha-chan?” Hayate asked her friend as they made their way through the base.

“Well, Hayate-chan, when was the last time you heard Subaru use terms like ‘dimensional barrier’ and ‘geo-magnetic storm’?” Nanoha asked, shrugging.

“Good point.”

“And she actually used them correctly!” Nanoha continued, amazed at it. “For the most part.”

Hayate gave the other woman a sidelong glance. “You believe them, don’t you?”

“Well, I’m considering the possibility,” she admitted. “I mean, the more I think about it, if their right, the ramifications are huge!”

“And next time time loops, this conversation will haven’t even have happened,” Hayate noted, her shoulders sagging.

“I’m afraid so.”


Yuuno quickly gathered up the last of his notes on the recon team’s findings on the ruins, and stepped out of his temporary office, and right into Subaru’s waiting hands, which gently pushed him back inside.

“You’re better off in here,” she explained.

“I was just about to look for you,” he mentioned as moved back, letting both girls in.

“I know,” Subaru said, halfway frowning.

Yuuno set the report down on the desk and motioned to a holographic window he had up. “I managed to translate a section of the west wall,” he explained. “It appears to be some sort of planetary history—”

“Yuuno-san!” Teana cut him off with a shout. “That’s very nice, but can we please focus on the altar!?”

“Why?” the archaeologist asked, adjusting his glasses.

“Bantam initiated the time loop by manipulating the symbols on the surface,” Subaru explained.

“Figure out those symbols, and figure out how to stop this!”

Oh yeah. Teana was really getting fed up with this incident.

“Just because someone can recognize symbols on a keyboard doesn’t mean they know how to run a computer,” Yuuno explained to the girls, very patient with them. Thanks to Arisa back on Earth, he’s had a lot of practice at putting up with fed-up girls. “If I can translate the rest of the text, I can put up some sort of context and be able to figure out what it’s supposed to do.”

“We know what it does!” Teana exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. “It’s a time loop machine!”

“Well think about it,” Yuuno said. “Who’d build a device that loops time every ten hours?”

“Who knows!?” shouted the redhead, then continued in a quieter voice. “But that’s what it does.”

“But maybe that’s not what it’s supposed to do,” Yuuno pointed out. “I mean, for all we know, this may be an accidental byproduct of its true function.”

Before their argument could continue, a new screen appeared by Yuuno, displaying a series of text that he quickly read. He typed a reply and sent his message back, closing the screen.

“Shari has something on this.”

Hope in their eyes, the girls bolted from the room, with Yuuno quickly hurrying after them.


“According to Subaru,” Shari began in the briefing room. “She and Teana witnessed a beam striking the old Belkan dimensional transfer array on Non-Administrated World #42, and then the resulting portal that appeared became energized somehow.”

Hayate, Yuuno, and both Stars and Lightning Teams were present for this meeting, listening to what the scientist had to say. “And then back here, at the exact same moment, the portal that appeared here experienced the similar effect.”

“Sounds about right,” Teana replied, nodding.

“Okay, so, if we really are under the influence of a Lost Logia, the effect is clearly being translated through the dimensional transfer array! So it’s simple enough to stop it!” Shari declared excitedly.

Signum and Vita were both nodding, understanding how the device worked—they could only transport things across dimensions one way.

“We just need to connect to it ahead of time using another transfer array,” Signum said.

“Right! A few minutes before this loop is supposed to begin again, we create a Belkan-style dimensional transfer to Non-Administrated World #42’s transfer array, and that way the beam can’t translate to this planet. It’ll get a busy signal, for lack of a better term.”

Subaru and Teana looked at one another. Could the solution be so simple?

“Let’s give it a shot!” Hayate exclaimed.


“Let’s do this, Graf Eisen!” Vita shouted, readying her dimensional transfer.

“Jawohl!” the hammer Device replied, slamming a cartridge in. A blood-red Belkan magic circle erupted beneath the tiny Wolkenritter, in the courtyard that Subaru and Teana told them was where the transfer would occur. Back in the base, both girls, Hayate, Nanoha, and Fate stood watching through the window. Shamal and the others were waiting outside in case anything went wrong and Vita got hurt.

Vita concentrated, trying to complete the spell, and Teana and Subaru waited with baited breath. After a few moments, her eyes shot open with an expression of shock.

I can’t connect to the array! she yelled telepathically. It’s like it’s not even there!

“What? That can’t be right,” Shari muttered. She opened a screen and ran a diagnostic on Graf Eisen, but the Device showed no problems—just an error message stating that the spell couldn’t be completed as the destination just wasn’t there.

Suddenly, ahead of Vita, a second Belkan magic circle appeared, bright white in color.

“Aw, crap,” Teana cursed, her shoulders sagging. Subaru groaned.

Energy blazed out of the dimensional transfer, stunning all but two of them. Hayate whipped around to look at the girls.

Subaru lifted a hand and waved goodbye, just as the light became blinding.


“… anyways, I’m sorry, but that’s just how I happen to feel about it,” said the voice of Vice Granscenic as light faded. “What do you think?”

Subaru fell back into her seat with a sigh, her spoon clattering into the bowl once more. Vice and Alto both blinked at the action.

“Ask me tomorrow,” Subaru sighed resignedly.