His sense of awareness was stirred by the sound of a heartbeat’s slow rhythm. But when Yuuno opened his green eyes, he saw only endless darkness.
It was only a small wish.
‘What was that?’ That voice sounded familiar.
The wish to grow up happy and healthy surrounded by loved ones is something many take for granted. But for children in broken homes, children who were suddenly struck by reality far too early…
In a second, the scenery changed to an accident scene at a traffic intersection in Nanoha’s hometown. Ambulances, police and fire crew were there, assessing the multi vehicle collision. On the left side, Yuuno could see a number of bodies being covered by sheets while survivors were being carried on stretchers by paramedics. Among them was a young girl with short brown hair, no older than seven.
He recognized her face quickly. ‘What is Hayate doing there?!’
They say that life is unfair and unforgiving. That is a fact created by an illogical and irrational world.
The librarian moved over to help but found that he was simply an observer of events once he saw someone pass through his body. ‘How did I get pulled into Hayate’s memory? What’s going on here?’
Dealing with the trauma from an event like this was more than enough for a young child to bear. But the flawed system created by human hands served only to magnify the mental stress.
The scenery changed again, showing the young Hayate stuck in a wheelchair in different waiting areas in Japanese family courtrooms.
They had the best of intentions to care for the wellbeing of the child but there was no sense of cohesion and harmony. Every decision was debated, every action was questioned and every single individual expressed their own opinion, save for the child herself. With such a flawed system, it was no wonder that old Uncle Graham managed to set things up the way he did.
It was only now that Yuuno recognized the voice. At first, it sounded a lot like Hayate but as it continued, the tone grew more cynical and regal. Just like…
It was truly a foolish tragedy, caused by the world’s lack of logic.
The scene exploded in a flurry of black feathers that eventually assembled into the familiar figure of Material-D. Yuuno tried to approach her but it was like his body refused to move. “Yami, what is this?”
“It is time to fix the irrationality of the world. We have to do this to ensure no more foolish tragedies like hers happen again. The people have had many opportunities over the centuries to correct this mistake. For all the ‘power’ that they have to make life free, to make life a beautiful adventure and create happiness, what have they accomplished?”
Her statement was accompanied with her magical aura flaring up.
“We are through with waiting. It is time to usher in the new era and fix the logic of the world once and for all.”
A beat…
“Even if we must drag every man, woman and child kicking and screaming to their new future.”
[hr]
“That took longer than expected. I thought you had mentioned that this spell of yours would be able to destroy all of these dragons simultaneously,” commented Sette as the last of the dragons finally sputtered their last breaths.
“Einheimische Seuche should have triggered a full reaction from each dragon the moment the carrier’s life force was extinguished. Perhaps it is because we used a hatchling as a carrier while the other dragons were older with stronger immune systems…?” Yami had her usual scowl on her face as she tried to figure out this riddle. “That should not make any difference! Accursed universal logic…”
“Universal logic?” That was the first time the Combat Cyborg heard of such a concept.
“All aspects of life and magic are governed by a general set of rules and logic as defined by the Root of Genesis, a metaphysical object believed to be the source of everything. Since Dragons in general are considered to be fierce creatures and highly resilient in many cultures, the Root reinforces that concept and makes them very difficult to deal with.”
She noted that her two retainers had spent quite a considerable amount of energy to deal with those creatures as it took nearly forty minutes for the first symptoms to show up once the carrier had been killed. Then it took nearly another forty five minutes to mop up everything as the effects of the Endemic Plague spell took a while to fully manifest and cause physical and mental fatigue for those elder dragons and actually become easy pickings.
“With this much time elapsed, they certainly would have escaped from the planet by now,” said Material-S with her usual monotone laced with a hint of anger.
“No, they’re still on this world,” replied Material-L.
“How do you know?” remarked the Starlight Destroyer.
“Because I have the techniques of Mantracker, my good friend.” Rai got into a pose. “Know your land, know your prey.”
“Then go apprehend them already!” screeched Yami.
Within moments, the Fate replica was blasting off back to the Alpine compound to begin her search there. A lot of things had definitely been packed up, mostly essential items and items of strong emotional value. It was obvious that they did not stay for too long here so her next step was to check the immediate outdoor surrounding of the residence.
‘If they had taken into the air, Seikou’s search spells would have picked up something.’ That left moving along the ground and in a few moments, her senses picked up light traces of movement such as footprints on the soil and blades of grass bending at a different angle due to someone moving past them. There had been some attempt to cover their tracks but it had been a rushed job as she could still pick up a trail.
And so Material-L moved. Each disturbance of the surroundings along with the attempted spell to hide those was quickly categorized and calculated to extrapolate the trail. But by the time she caught sight of them near a stretch of buildings no longer in use, a transportation spell had taken effect and teleported the group away. This time, they were definitely off world and judging by the magical array she had spotted before the group vanished; it was of Mid-Childan origin.
The prey had escaped and there was only one thought that ran through Rai’s head at the moment.
“With a performance like that, I would probably flunk Mantracker auditions.”
[hr]
Sickbay had been a flurry of activity with medical personnel being divided to look after their new patients. More of the focus was on Erio, Caro, Fried and Garyu as they had the more serious injuries. Lutecia did have someone examine her and thankfully, the ship had the tools to deal with the paralysis enchantment placed earlier so it was one less thing for Megane to worry about. However, her state of mind did not improve much.
For starters, they had essentially lost everything they had built on Carnaaji. Even with a big bank account on Mid-Childa thanks to years of interest on her savings and an offer from the Bureau to assist with housing needs, nothing could replace what they considered their home for many years.
Another thing that bothered Megane was the whereabouts of the Combat Cyborg who accompanied Yuuno and the Materials. She did mention this to the captain as part of the witness situation report she had given as soon as she came on board. Of course, he didn’t seem too pleased hearing about that development but said he would bring this up with the fleet commander.
So in the meantime, while the medical staff spent more time treating the injuries on the insectoid warrior and the Dragon summon, Megane could only sit by her child and listen to her vent as both Erio and Caro were asleep, recovering from their wounds.
“All those device projects I had been working on are down the drain. And it’s going to take a long time to build a new device workshop and restock it with all those parts.” Lutecia sighed. “I had been looking forward to testing those upgrades on Brunzel to see if it would have cut down on the time to create a Golem. Also, I had a surprise for Solfège but I guess that’s out the window for now.”
She was chattering away, trying to seem like her usual self but her mother was observant enough to see otherwise. “You should just rest for now.”
The sliding sound of the sickbay doors opening alerted her to the arrival of the ship’s captain, a seasoned man in his forties with light skin and hints of grey in his otherwise black hair. “I see that everyone is recovering nicely. That’s good news.”
“Captain, if you wanted a status report, you could have just called from the bridge,” replied one of the nurses assisting with Garyu’s treatment.
“Shouldn’t you be glad that I’m actually taking your advice and getting more exercise?” joked the other man.
“Um, Captain Jarama?” Megane suddenly stood up. “If I may ask, what was the outcome of your discussion with the fleet commander?”
He paused for a moment before addressing her. “Let’s take this discussion somewhere more private.”
[hr]
“So, yeah… that’s what happened. Their bodies turned all sparkly and disappeared. It kinda reminded me about transporter energizing special effects from the Enterprise-D and-”
“Enough.” That one single word from the Starlight Destroyer immediately caused Material-L’s yapping to cease. “It’s unfortunate that things have turned out like this but if I recall correctly, Her Majesty has sufficient information to transport us to where Yuuno-san is being held.”
Yami looked a little startled before responding. “To be honest, I would like a bit more certainty in regards to where those coordinates would lead us.”
“Even in the event that we do transport into the heart of enemy territory, we will be mentally prepared for the possibility of fighting our way out while the enemy would be caught completely off guard.”
Rai quickly grinned. “So today is the day you plan to surpass Asura? Defy all sense of logic with recklessness just to get Yuu-nii back?”
Any response Seikou might have had was cut off by Sette. “Incoming objects detected.”
Rifugio Spirituale.
The instant the spell had been activated by Sette’s book to protect the group, one of the objects slammed hard on the ground. Even though the actual landing was five kilometres away from their position, it still created quite the shockwave and sent dust and debris scattering everywhere.
“Ugh… it’s raining photon torpedoes!” complained Material-L.
“So they’ve resorted to orbital bombardment,” muttered Material-D. “Everyone standby and prepare for Dimensional Transfer!”
“How long will you need to prepare for transport?” asked Sette as another charge detonated in close proximity to the shield.
On cue, a large Belkan Triangle sprang up beneath the group of four. “Everything is already in place. However, the spell is likely to take a fairly large amount of magical power. I will need some time to recover afterwards.”
“Understood,” replied Material-S. “Rai, Sette: form a perimeter around Yami.”
“Hmph… and now you go back to not calling me ‘Your Majesty’,” grumbled the Hayate replica. Once the others got into position, she triggered the spell and within moments, the four were off the planet.