Nanoha FanFiction Discussion

[Nanya01]

Dammit! stop being so awesome with these chapters! It keeps getting my blood pumping each chapter!

Looking forward to more.

[shiroi mahotsukai]

Another awesome chapter Kaijo, and I'm just glad I'm not hanging by my fingernails from a highly unstable cliff face this time.

[Satashi]

Puppy Love II Posted on FF.N
It's rated Mature for a reason!!!!!

Please Enjoy ^_^

[SilentOutlaw]

Another awesome chapter, Kaijo, I assume next chapter or so, we get Vivio awesomeness?

It's nice to see you included Vice.

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

It's time once again to bring you the search that's as elusive as canon confirmation of any Ace's romance,

~Fate-chan's Lost Title Hunt~

Spoiler for Mostly they chat with professor types:

Dr. Julian Alero, curator of the Provincial Museum of Ancient History, was almost the exact opposite of his stern, arrogant "executive assistant." In his mid-fifties, he was a short, plump man with thinning brown hair and a smiling, apple-cheeked face.

"Ah! Adjutant Aztek, I didn't expect to see you again so soon. I suspect these ladies are the cause?"


"That's right. These are Enforcers Valentine Yaris and Fate Harlaown."


"A pleasure," he greeted them with a little bow. "Please, have a seat and tell me how I can be of service. We all do so want to see the Circlet of Thessidor recovered, you see, so if there's anything at all I can help with I would be more than happy to be able to assist. Oh! Can I offer you any refreshment? Coffee, perhaps?"


"No, thank you," Yaris said. "I'm afraid we really don't have time to socialize."


"Quite right, quite right," Alero chattered on, taking his own well-cushioned seat behind his desk and gesturing invitingly towards a half-circle of visitor's chairs facing it. "After all, the Circlet is not only a rare treasure of historical significance, but so important for its value in research. Indeed, it has been more valuable towards the study of ancient Legaria than all of the other archaeological discoveries of that civilization put together."


"Why is that?" Fate asked as the officers sat down.


"Well, are you familiar with the Circlet's abilities, Enforcer?"


"Mm-hm. Our file on the Lost Logia says that it holds a record of the memories of its creator, a mage named Thessidor."


"Exactly. But what's more significant is that when the Circlet is activated, the wearer experiences those memories as if he or she was in a kind of virtual reality, as five-sense impressions. You could see with the eyes of someone who was actually there—observe the daily life of the citizens, see the actual uses of their magic, listen to discussions on politics, religion, philosophy, or the ordinary minutiae of daily life. Why, you could even taste the food! Now, it isn't interactive—you can't choose a course of action or zoom in on a particular area, for example, but the amount of available information is astonishing. It gives us the chance to do primary research in a civilization that's six thousand years in the past!"


"Wow! My friend Yuuno would really love to use something like that! He's an archaeologist from the Scrya clan," Fate added.


"Yes, I'm sure he would appreciate it, then," Alero agreed. "To a professional in the field, the Circlet of Thessidor's worth is...it is beyond price!"


"Beyond price in the sense of 'would do anything to get their hands on it'?" Yaris interjected mildly.


The curator rocked back in his chair, blinking owlishly at his visitor like her question had completely derailed his thought process.


"Oh, my. But I...I thought that a professional thief must surely be responsible."


"We're examining all possibilities," Yaris said.


"Well, I certainly can't think that any of our researchers here would do such a thing. We're talking of—oh!" He straightened up out of his slouch as, apparently, a thought came to him. "You must also consider, Enforcer, that even if an archaeologist or historian did steal the Circlet, they could not benefit from it. It would impart knowledge, yes, but they could not use that knowledge. Any attempt to publish an article or book based on what they could gain would immediately mark them as the thief, and any attempt to disguise the source of the information would ruin the publication's academic credibility."


"Is publication so important?" Fate asked.


"My dear girl, have you ever heard the expression 'publish or perish'? An academic's reputation and career prospects are all built on the strength of his or her production of new work. After all, what is the point of a scholar who does not study?"


"I see."


"That's actually one of the reasons we initially focused our investigation towards the collector's market," Aztek supplied. "There's no practical benefit to be gained from the theft."


"Maybe not scholarly," Yaris agreed, "and I presume we can rule out melodramatic nonsense like lost treasures?" She arched an eyebrow at the curator, who chuckled.


"Oh, my, yes. Certainly no one has found anything of that sort. No directions to cached loot, no wizard's laboratories or guides to even more wondrous artifacts."


"Thank Heaven," the blue-haired Enforcer said with deep feeling. She'd actually had a couple of cases that had turned into such adventure-movie ridiculousness and hated every minute of them. "What about information that would have a more directly financial benefit than through scholarship?"


"Oh? What do you mean?" Alero's interest was piqued.


"Well, Legaria was an ancient civilization with magical technology that produced at least one Lost Logia. What about their scientific secrets, their spell techniques and applied technologies? If the mage who created the Circlet of Thessidor is the man whose memories are storied inside, then, well, that's one Lost Logia he knew how to create, at least."


The curator shook his head.


"No, as I said, I'm afraid that using the Circlet provides the wearer with only sense impressions of the stored memories, not access to Thessidor's thoughts or knowledge."


"Yes, but couldn't those sense impressions include him looking at his notes? Or studying in their schools or the like? Or the sound of him talking with other people about Legarian magic?" she said, warming to her theme.


Dr. Alero stared at her in surprise for nearly fifteen seconds before he spoke up.


"Do you know, there might be something in what you say, Ms. Yaris."


"A thief might plan to sell the Circlet to a technology company with an R&D department. Their use of it could then be publicized as 'new breakthroughs.' Is that a possibility?"


"It's...I suppose it's possible..." Alero mused. "You would have to speak to some of the other researchers, perhaps Professor Vanza, for example, is more focused on the technological and magical aspects of Legarian civilization; my own inquiries are primarily social, cultural, rather than concerned with the mechanical aspects of daily life. But the thing is..." He paused, as if trying to best frame his thoughts.


"Yes?" she prompted.


"Well, when we speak of 'Lost Logia' or 'ancient advanced civilizations,' there is a strong aspect of fantasy and imagination involved. We look back at the past through a gaze tinged with romanticism. We see giants, gods, even where there were only men and women."


"So you're saying that Legaria was no Al-Hazard, then," Yaris summed up.


"You understand me exactly." He steeped his fingers and leaned forward across his desk, his intensity growing as the discussion turned to more academic matters. "The point would, I think, be illustrated perfectly if you were to visit our Legarian exhibits here, but I doubt that you have the time. The mystique of the culture rests in the fact that at a time when the other peoples of Andorel were discovering the basic concepts of agriculture and learning the use of metals such as copper and bronze to replace stone tools, the Legarians were mastering the principles of magical power. Although their learning advanced by leaps and bounds, enabling stunning gains in construction, methods of transport, climate control, communications, resource management, and, yes, combat, their organization was still based on a master-apprentice method of education; knowledge and, hence, power, was concentrated among the magically gifted."


"I'm not quite sure how that's relevant."


"Well, it's like this, Ms. Yaris. In the advanced magical societies that we know of in history, magic is treated practically, as a science. There are a variety of cultures, governments, values, but in all of them, magic is a force to be researched. Legaria had a lot of magical knowledge and they applied it through a system of guilds. The flying city, for example, or powered vehicles and the like, but not to the point that it became a totally industrialized civilization in the sense that we understand it—the technology base wasn't advanced enough for that, either magical or non-magical."


"Oh!" exclaimed Fate. "Then it's like one of those magic societies in a sword-and-sorcery fantasy RPG!" Fate exclaimed, then suddenly blushed.


Sorry, I didn't mean to drag my friends' hobbies into this. Hayate and Arisa especially like those kinds of games, and... Fate's "voice" in Yaris's mind faded out.


I just wish I got the reference.


"So your bet is that, while Legarian magic was advanced, it wasn't to the point that people would be stealing it?"


Alero nodded.


"Exactly. Or at least that's my best understanding of the situation. I could be wrong—as I said, it isn't my area of expertise."


"Whose expertise would it be, exactly? You mentioned a Professor Vanza before." Yaris then stopped and redirected her questioning. "With what you've said about the Circlet's importance to Legarian scholars, you'd have to have access to it to be one of those experts. I assume that not just anyone can walk in and use the Circlet?"


"Good heavens, no! On the contrary, access is quite closely regulated, due not only to the Circlet's value as a historical treasure, but also to the fundamentally unknown nature of its magic. Only a very particular group of scholars is given that access, and that under restricted conditions."


"Names?" Aztek suggested.


"Well, the list changes from term to term, since the Legarian Research Project is run through the University. Professor Janos Vanza of the Applied Magical Studies Department and I are the co-chairs. The others are Dr. Alexis Accord of Ancient History; Dr. Gordon Saab, anthropologist; Professor Blake Montana, a colleague of Vanza's in Applied Magical Studies; and visiting scholar Dr. Dalen Equinox from Tarediya Memorial University in Shala Merai."


"And who among them has the passcodes to the museum security system?" Yaris asked.


"Only myself and Professor Vanza, other than the museum security chief, of course."


"Then it sounds to me like we need to talk with this Professor Vanza for several reasons, doesn't it?"


"Oh, but surely you cannot suspect him of being involved in theft. I tell you, it simply isn't possible! He just isn't capable of such a thing!"


"It's been my experience," Fate—Fate, of all people! Yaris thought—said somberly, "that people are capable of almost anything if they have a good enough reason."


~X X X~


In retrospect, Yaris decided, Fate's remark hadn't been so out-of-character as it had seemed at first blush. The girl's very existence, after all, had been due to illegal research into cloning. Yaris also remembered a note concerning Fate's involvement in the Jewel Seed incident—found not criminally responsible. That meant that she had acted during that incident in a fashion which had given rise to charges, but that there had been extenuating circumstances. So Fate probably did have personal knowledge of what people were willing to do and how far they'd go for the right cause, despite her age.


Dr. Alero's directions to his colleague's office were easy to follow, especially with the campus map they'd downloaded to their Devices. They were lucky enough to catch him in, and his secretary was positively friendly.


"Oh, of course he's available," she said. "I'm sure that he'll want to help you with whatever you need. There's a student with him now, but it shouldn't be more than a few minutes, if you wouldn't mind waiting."


As it turned out, it was in fact less than five minutes before the door slid open and a red-haired coed wearing a clinging, bare-midriff top and a skimpy miniskirt backed out of Vanza's inner office.


"Thank you so much for your help, Professor. I really feel like I'm making progress with the material, but..." She coiled a lock of hair around her fingertip. "...I really think that I could use some additional...private...tutoring."


The man she was talking to was certainly handsome: tall, chocolate-skinned, with sharp-edged features and dark green hair. He blinked twice, his dark amber eyes looking somewhat unfocused.


"Of course I'd be glad to make time for you," he said. "Just make an appointment with Miss Accent."


The secretary couldn't suppress a sudden grin. The student turned to her, as if not believing what she had heard. Miss Accent just shrugged, as if to say, "Told you." The amorous coed looked back at Vanza, who kept watching her with that same oblivious, smiling expression. He then looked past her, catching sight of the three law officers standing there.


"Um, Helen, who are these people? Did I forget an appointment again?"


"No, professor. They're investigating the theft of the Circlet of Thessidor from the museum and wanted to talk to you. I told them you'd be glad to help."


"Oh, yes, of course. Do come in." He beckoned them on, and they approached, passing the now red-faced girl, who was mortified to realize she'd had four witnesses to her inability to not merely seduce her professor, but to even get him to realize that she was making the attempt.


"Think she'll make that appointment?" Aztek murmured under his breath.


"Five to one she drops the class," Yaris decided.


Fate, remember what I said at breakfast about playing it carefully with these academics so that they don't get defensive?


Yes.


Never mind it, Yaris instructed. With this guy, we're going to have to ask direct questions to get direct answers.


Vanza's office was as disordered as Yaris would have expected from the exchange in the outer room. Four holoscreens hung open in seemingly random places, adding to the clutter of books, data units, and even hard-copy paper printouts scattered everywhere.


"Now, ladies, sir, how can I help? I'm very happy to do whatever I can; we need the Circlet recovered if we're to advance our work with the Legarian Research Project."


"Dr. Alero said that you and he were the co-chairs of that group?" Aztek asked.


"Yes, absolutely, and we're making some fascinating discoveries. Were you aware that certain magical principles used by the Legarians weren't rediscovered until over five thousand years later, when Andorel encountered the Belkan Empire? And yet other techniques entered into the global culture and were disseminated throughout the wold even after Legaria fell. Dr. Saab things there may be some connection between the religious history of the period and the speed of acceptance; she's been able to trace connections between certain miraculous events attributed to certain saints and Legarian magic. It's positively fascinating! It's exactly the kind of thing we need to recover the Circlet for. Or poor Blake's work on the connections between the process of the Circlet's functions in memory record and our modern principles of telepathy; he can hardly do anything with that project without the Circlet, and he'd been working so hard on it, too. To say nothing of Dr. Equinox. His visiting professorship ends at the close of the semester, so he'd have to go back home and leave his work to others! No, we absolutely need you to recover the Circlet. So go on; how can I be of help?"


Yaris blinked at the torrent of words. Vanza's thoughts—his speech was so stream-of-consciousness that calling it anything but "thoughts" would be fundamentally inaccurate—were coherent enough, but completely overwhelming. He had the absent-minded professor routine down to an art form, which made her suspicious Enforcer's mind wonder if it was an act on any level.


"We're looking into possible reasons for the Circlet's theft," she said. "As a scholar of magical history, would you say that Legarian magic would have commercial value?"


"Commerical? How do you mean?"


"Would it be worth something to a company to try and develop some of Legaria's magical technology for modern use?"


"Oh, I see! Well, that is a very good question, isn't it?"


"Dr. Alero suggested it would be unlikely, since Legarian technology was generally inferior to ours," Aztek prompted.


"Well, that's generally true, but...see, the most significant difference in our relative magic culture levels isn't so much that our technology can do more but how we do it. Legarian magical technology was generally created through the enchantment method, while ours is largely imbued."


"What's the difference?" Aztek asked.


"Enchantments are the expression of the magical power of a specific mage, while imbuements are more of a matter of the magical properties of the materials or programs themselves. You see enchantment in a pre-industrial society, where magical knowledge is concentrated in the hands of a certain select few; you need imbuements to be able to create, say..." He glanced around the room. "Ah! Video displays in a factory. An enchantment-based technology might also have video displays, but each one would have to be hand-crafted by a mage who knows the proper spell combinations. You can't really have mass production that way. So Legarian magic may well include some valuable concepts worthy of development—the Circlet itself, for example—but further substantial research would be needed to apply those concepts in a commercially viable fashion."


"I see. Is this information widely known?" Yaris asked.


"Some discussion of it appears in a number of scholarly works about Legaria," he said. "Three months ago I published an article in the Journal of Applied Magical Studies which compared the magic cultures of several so-called 'lost civilizations.' It was mostly a 'fluff piece,' you might say, but it did contain the data."


So much for that bright idea, Yaris thought.


Why? Fate asked.


The odds are, someone ambitious enough to extend their industrial espionage into antiquities theft would do their research beforehand to learn if there's anything to gain from the risk and expense.


"I understand that you're one of three people who knows the passcode to the security system?"


"Oh, yes," he said. "That's right, I do have it, though I can't see why I'd need it; I always do my research work during regular hours and have the security chief or Julian code me in to get the Circlet from the display." He chuckled, then grinned broadly. "You've probably guessed already that I can barely remember my link address. Now, where was it again?" He began shuffling through the papers.


"Your...link address?" Fate asked hesitantly.


"The passcode. Ah! Here we are." He pulled a sheet of paper out of a stack.


If he just keeps it lying around, then anyone could see and copy it! Fate's mental "voice" rang with excitement.


And I'm betting any of his colleagues that's known him for more than five minutes would know they could look for it.


"Have you given that passcode to anyone else?"


Vanza shook his head.


"No, I'm not allowed to, worse the luck. They should have let Blake have it; he spends half the night there, sometimes. Or Alexis; she'd have been a better choice for project leader than I am, but the administration wanted someone from the technical/engineering side of things to balance out Julian's anthropological approach. I'm glad, of course, because the work is absolutely fascinating, but I'm simply not the best choice for leadership."


It would have been impolite to agree. The casual ease with which Vanza had rattled off answers told Yaris why he'd been added to the project, for his expertise rather than his administrative skills. The concept was not entirely different from how a certain child prodigy with no investigative experience but immense magical talent had been assigned to this case.


"Can you think of any one of your colleagues who'd have a reason to steal the Circlet?" she put it bluntly.


Vanza drew himself up.


"Enforcer, you are talking about my friends and associates! They're scholars and scientists, not thieves!"


"The two categories aren't mutually exclusive," Yaris observed dryly.


"In this case they are. None of them would even think of stealing the Circlet for monetary value, and they could hardly gain any other benefit from it. Besides, it's not even the most valuable item in the museum's collection." His eyes widened as he realized the implications of what he was saying. "Why, that's true, isn't it? A thief certainly wouldn't just take the Circlet."


"It's a Lost Logia," Yaris pointed out. "That gives it value." But he had a point. Precious metals, gemstones, artistic merit, or association with historical figures and events conveyed worth on an object; the Circlet definitely had value to someone, but the kind that made someone pass up other, more valuable rarities? "Though your point goes to illustrate mine, Professor: a thief, seeking a prize that would bring him or her the most money, wouldn't take one single item after passing by things that are more valuable, more easily sold, and which wouldn't draw the attention of the TSAB."


"That is a point," Aztek agreed. "Taking, say, Queen Meliane's sapphire necklace would be a local theft investigated by the Caledon City police. Taking the Circlet makes it a matter for the Enforcers and brings in the National Security Forces for planetwide support. It doesn't make sense."


The three law officers looked at one another.


"There's no other conclusion to draw. This wasn't about money at all."


~X X X~


The fog had begun to roll back as the morning wore on, leaving the cold, steel-gray sky visible above.


A fitting day, he decided, for his purpose. A faint wind stirred the water before him, making waves lap against the retaining wall—dull, dark waves without the promise or brightness that blue skies lent the water. A fisher-bird screeched ominously as he turned his feet towards the causeway's pedestrian path long, arching bridge and began to walk.

Previously:

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

I have to admit I skipped through a bit, mostly because it's talking and exposition, and I have short attention span for those, sadly. Sorry! But still, a very fun chapter. It was nice to see Yaris and Fate further interacting and to see how Fate has become more open and honest towards her partner, though my "death to character" senses are tingling now that you've gone and established that they have that kind of connection.

Nice touch on having it mentioned that the artifact wasn't sold for money; it has no value in that sense, so it takes the reason why it was stolen and makes it much, much creepier.

....

Also, that bit at the end? Chills down my spine. x_x

Side note: I've been debating whether or not to add "Within Temptation" to "Shadowfire". Any thoughts?

[FlameSparkZ]

Originally Posted by Satashi

Puppy Love II Posted on FF.N
It's rated Mature for a reason!!!!!

Please Enjoy ^_^

*reads*
Klaus, rolling in his grave, in embarrassement
Also, the "grandchildren" was a surprise.

Anyway...how old are they supposed to be in that fic? (same as Adult Mode?)

[DezoPenguin]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

Future Tense

Chapter 9: Point of Contention

In which we get off that cliff and have us some interesting confrontations...

Previous chapters can be found here.

Spoiler for Future Tense, Chapter 9: Point of Contention:

*snip*

Yet more concentrated awesomeness. It's good to see that Nanoha's not going to be completely alone throughout this. However, given the nature of the story (which basically seems to consist of "Timeskip into a Crapsack World"), I'm not going to trust that the (ahem) "Kaiser Force" actually consists of "good" guys, per se. They may be "La Resistance," as it were, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're nice...I'm suspecting a bit of the ol' religious fanaticism driving this particular group, giving them the will to resist...but we'll see...

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

Side note: I've been debating whether or not to add "Within Temptation" to "Shadowfire". Any thoughts?

Which one was that?

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

Which one was that?

The one in which Olivie takes control of Vivio's body and gets Lutecia to help her. Honestly I'm thinking not to, since it may be ViCia but it's kind of a standalone and doesn't pertain to anything I've established.

[DezoPenguin]

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

The one in which Olivie takes control of Vivio's body and gets Lutecia to help her. Honestly I'm thinking not to, since it may be ViCia but it's kind of a standalone and doesn't pertain to anything I've established.

Ah, okay. I never remember your shorts by their name. (Heck, I rarely remember my shorts by name. Which may explain why I don't have a title yet for my current story...) Yeah, I'd say no, since on the one hand it's a different AU than regular "Shadowverse" continuity, and on the other hand it doesn't even contain any references to Lutecia being a Shadow the way that other Shadowverse AUs like "Borderline" and "Sunset" did.

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

on the other hand it doesn't even contain any references to Lutecia being a Shadow the way that other Shadowverse AUs like "Borderline" and "Sunset" did.

Well, you could argue that all of my ViCia fluff shorts up until I wrote "Shadow" don't connect to my Shadowverse either, but then again they were stand alone, so they'd fit in anywhere. But yeah, I'm agreeing with what you're saying; just leave it by itself, unless I can think of a reason to put it up in "Shadowfire".

[Yasanagi]

Spoiler for A Certain Divided Force 5:

It really seemed like that they were only withholding that information for my sake. Perhaps to protect me from something that hurt me in the past. But if I can't face up to that, I can't even call myself a man. "Even if it's something painful, I want to know just what happened. Please tell me, Einhart."

She scanned my face carefully as if she were evaluating the strength of my resolve. After a few moments, she conceded and begun to tell her tale. "It will take some time to thoroughly explain so please bear with me."

I merely settled back into the bed so I could be comfortable while listening to this.

"As the descendent of the Hegemon of Shutra, I have inherited certain aspects of his life. The hair and my unusual eyes for one thing. My Kaiser Arts for another... and finally, some of his memories. A few joyful ones here and there but the one that continues to burn into my soul is the feeling of loss. The failure to protect what was held dear." She looked at me straight in the eye. "You, Thoma Avenir, had carried that same feeling of loss and failure for some time. It was that shared understanding that served as the foundation of our friendship."

A feeling of loss... and failure? I was starting to get a bad feeling in my stomach just from hearing it. "Just what... did I lose?"

"Not what. Who."

That uneasy feeling was twisting itself even further in my gut while the room fell into silence. My hands started shaking from some ghostly chill that crawled up and down my spine. After a few moments, I managed to stammer out the next question that I dreaded to ask. "W-who...?"

"It was your mother, Thoma," said Steed from his position hovering near Vivio's head. "Her murder occurred during the Reading Week in late February, MC 0078. You had returned home at the time to introduce me to your parents..."

Even though Steed continued droning on, I had stopped listening as something flooded back to me. I saw the image of my frightened mother standing in front of a hill that had turned white from the snowfall in the season. In that memory, my vision kept blacking out because I recalled something gripping my neck tightly and forcing me to fight for air...

"Please don't hurt my son! I'll do anything!!"

"Then answer this question. Where is the location of Ix?"

"Ix? You can't mean... Dark King Ixpellia?!"

"Ix must guide us to the next war."

"I don't know enough about Ixpellia to even guess where he was buried!"

"Then who might know?"

"I don't know!! G-GAH~!! My head...!!"

"Give me a name."

"C-Coleru MacBad..."

*THUMP*

"Thank you for your co-operation."

"......T-Thoma-urrrkk!!"

"......"

"......"

"You are not worthy of being a sacrifice for Ix, child. Lie there and regret your weakness..."

I gasped for air as soon as that memory stopped playing in my mind. Out of that entire experience, the name Ixpellia kept standing out. And somehow, I knew that Ix wasn't too far away from here. I wasn't sure how I knew that but before I could even get my head straight, I felt something start burning from within my body... like something was going to explode. My chest hurt and my hands wouldn't stop shaking. Around me, I could hear the girls scrambling to help.

"I think he's going into shock!"

"Kris, contact Dr. Shamal!"

"Lio, help me find a sedative or something!"

"I'm trying, Einhart! But how are we gonna administer it?!"

That burning feeling just wouldn't stop but the least I could do was protect them from whatever was happening to me. I started getting out of the bed when I felt someone push me back down. "Don't even think about getting up right now, mister!"

"STAY BACK!!" The sudden way those words escaped my throat startled Lio enough for me to roll out of the bed.

"Thoma?!" Corona tried to approach me but suddenly, the small box that had contained their gift started shaking as well in sync with the spasms that were wracking my body. Before anybody knew it, whatever was inside ripped itself out of the box and attached itself to my right wrist.

"What just happened there?!" exclaimed Lio. "That bracelet's not a device, right?!"

"G-get back...!!" I tried putting some distance between myself and them, knowing that it won't be long until I succumbed to whatever impulse was driving me at the moment. And just before I blacked out, I heard my own distorted voice spew out two words.

"EC... Divider..."

...

...

...

...

...

Thoma...

That voice that echoed in my head... I swear that I could have identified a name that went with it.

...

...

...

...

What was it... again? Li... Lil-

THOMA!!!

**********

The first sensation I had felt when I came to... was that I was falling. The world looked strangely beautiful even though the city and the sky had switched pla-

Wait a minute... "...... the hell?!"

My brain was rapidly informing me of what was going on. First off, I really was in the outside world and am currently in a state of freefall. Second, I was now clad in some freaky clothes with a pair of black trousers, combat boots and a top that bared my midriff and my shoulders with my arms being covered by lengthy gloves of some sort. And I could feel my right hand gripping on something. A quick glance showed me that it was a weapon. A gunsword of sorts...

And just out of the corner of my eye, I saw something fast heading towards me. An attack?! Something else...?! Dammit... I gotta choose fast!

A - Make a clumsy attempt to dodge it!
B - Try to block it with my weapon!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

[shiroi mahotsukai]

You could always create a new section for those shorts that are "vaguely set in the shadowverse yet not containing anything that proves it and straying from established 'canon'"

[Nanya01]

No time to dodge, guess he's gotta Block it.

[Kaijo]

@Nanya, shiroi mahotsukai: Thanks! Glad it's still entertaining. =)

Originally Posted by SilentOutlaw

Another awesome chapter, Kaijo, I assume next chapter or so, we get Vivio awesomeness?

Hmm, in a manner of speaking, there's a fairly good possibility.^^

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

Yet more concentrated awesomeness. It's good to see that Nanoha's not going to be completely alone throughout this. However, given the nature of the story (which basically seems to consist of "Timeskip into a Crapsack World"), I'm not going to trust that the (ahem) "Kaiser Force" actually consists of "good" guys, per se. They may be "La Resistance," as it were, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're nice...I'm suspecting a bit of the ol' religious fanaticism driving this particular group, giving them the will to resist...but we'll see...

Not completely alone, no, but I had to set up the stakes. Think of it like an RPG, where members come and go for various reasons, as I get around to mentioning almost everyone in one fashion or another. ;p

And we'll be getting into the resistance a bit next chapter, so we'll see if you're correct. Hope it continues to live up to expectations.^^

[shiroi mahotsukai]

Both of those choices seem to lead to pain "Clumsy attempt" and "Try to block it", ah well no choice really, you'll never dodge anything clumsily unless blessed with boundless luck. For some reason I doubt there will be much luck involved so Blocking is the only option.

[Satashi]

Originally Posted by FlameSparkZ

*reads*
Klaus, rolling in his grave, in embarrassement
Also, the "grandchildren" was a surprise.

Anyway...how old are they supposed to be in that fic? (same as Adult Mode?)

Yeah, same as adult mode. About 16-ish ^_^

*huggles FlameSparkZ* glad you liked it!

[vic-vic]

Siquel to "So don`t fell lonely". Can be find here

Sorry for bad grammars, but this is alpha-version

Spoiler for Forbidden to cry:

Forbidden to cry.

Since funeral of my mother I was forbidden to cry. After coffin with body of Marisa Gaiz was buried my father give me hug and said:
- Auris. Today – the last day when you see my tears. It was mine weakness fault that you mother died in that bombing, so from today I forbid myself to cry. I will use everything in my grasp to gain position and strength and became powerful enough to protect you and world around you. In future I may be seemed as ruthless and cold but please remember I do that only in order to defend everyone.
I was so touched by determination in my father voice. So astonished by passion that glimmered inside his eyes, so I made vow on my own,
- Don`t worry daddy. Auris will help papa, I will grow into strong girl and definitely help you. So from today I also won`t cry. Never.
So did I. No matter how hard my life can become I never allowed my tears to flow. Even when I was beaten up by upperclassman I never shed tears. I stay absolutely calm when entire class laugh at me when father was late at work and I was only child whose parent didn`t come to our class meeting. Ny face didn`t flinch when my boyfriend broke up with me telling me that “he have no intention to became life-partner with freak like me”.
And I didn`t cry during your funeral, father.
I still hear those whispers: “…what a freak, her father died and she can` even mourn for him”, “…maybe she was the one who killed him, what a bitch”, ”…well. What did you expect from Gaiz daughter, he was a bastard himself, who betray everyone, so it`s form of karmic justice to have such creepy daughter”.
I force myself to stay calm, to ignore those horrible words. Wrong, they all wrong. I not shade tears for you father because I despite every bad choices you did I still love and respect you dad. And I will keep the promise I gave to you. And not a single tears leave my eyes when I watched how your coffin disappear under countless throws of soil. I waited ceremony to end and only after I leave Clanagan cemetery.
After father`s death everything become even more harder for me. Even though I have no part in my father`s deal with Jail Scaglietti, I was still daughter of “corrupted high-ranked officer” so I every order that HQ give to me was very difficult as if they WANTED me to fail. Well I can understand why they do that – if I fail command will have excuse to send me far away from Mid-Childa out of eyes and mind of civilians, officers and OF COURCE media.
I never complain. I have completed every task they give to me. And despite soul-crushing hardness I never let myself to cry. A smiled, I argued, I even laughed when my subordinates, who still was loyal to me throw a birthday party for me. But I never allow myself to show my sorrow or weakness.
Because I forbidden to cry.
After few years after JS incident higher-ups decided that I clean myself. So they give me promotion and new assigned Department of Interdimensional Intelligence and Support (DIIS). Our task was gathering of information and providing support to army and Enforcer corps. It wasn`t a heroic job we didn’t fight the bad guys we just gather information about them and give it to field brigades of enforcers and provide support and medical aide, we didn`t even allowed to participated in rescue team job. Still I was proud of my work. Because I and my team was able to participate in helping numerous people like my father and mother always wanted.
Then I again meet Hayate Yagami. She was assigned as DIIS overseer.
In the beginning I wasn’t amused be this event – which what I directly said to her in our first private meeting. She replied that she too don`t very like to be advisor to “little bad girl”. After that war is started.
I used every opportunity to wrap information that I gave to her. I delayed deliveries of equipment and medicaments as long as I can. And I never missed a chance to speak out of loud about “Book of darkness” incident.
Hayate also didn`t seat and take a slaps. She turn a normal store inspection into pure nightmare, moreover, she carried out them every week. And I often heard how she sweetly ask me how I feel about “corrupted higher-ups”.
That struggle lasted for almost five months when sudden incident help turn situation around.
It was already 10.20 PM and I was last person (expect the guards) in building (as I think) when Hayate stormed in my office. Her breath was heavy and her cheeks stained scarlet but my attention was involved by folder, which she carried in her arms.
- What`s wrong, lieutenant-general? – I asked calmly.
- Almost nothing, director Gaiz, - she answered sweetly, - just minor case of incompetency.
- Oh, that so? – I raised my eyebrow.
- It is, - she opened a folder and pull large pack of paper out of it, - It`s your yesterday report about band of drug dealers.
- Yes, I personally edit information that was gathered by my subordinate.
- Oh, what a lovely addiction to work. But I afraid, I found some “mistakes”.
I cursed inwardly. She was right; I did some “correction” to gathered information to be short – I change a little address of targeted building. It didn`t affect entire operation, because standard procedure for actions of such proportion required entire block to be isolated. So criminals won`t escape but Hayate will be forced to met consequences for destruction of innocent toy store. But for some reason she don`t buy this. Well, maybe because I already pull this trick o her.
- And what mistake you mean, lieutenant-general? - i managed not to show my displease to her.
- Oh, I mean this. – she flipped pages and show me, - You maintain that drug produced by this factory called “Foul eye”.
- Yes.
- But you know, I do my homework: “foul eye” required for his creation extract of juice of rare flower – Abikharan`s Rod and this flower can`t survive under temperature higher than 5 degrees C. That mean this factory, judging by scale of this cartel operations, required a large orangery with powerful freezer. And I must say that size of a building where presumably stay a factory doesn’t meet that criterion.
I cursed again, I didn`t add information of “foul eye” creation process in my report, so it`s mean that Hayate was forced to go through many and many information sources, impressive I must admit.
- I see, - I started slowly, - But I must notice, that such reaction show incompetency of your troops, lieutenant-general, Yagami.
- Wha… - she almost gawked, but quickly calmed herself and continued more steady- can I say, what do you mean, director Gaiz?
- Well, our department job to gather information, edit her and send to army, yes? But it didn`t mean that we must to take your hand and guide to goal. As you can see I just noted this place as “most probable” not as a target. I can recommend you to inspect this food shop`s store – I pointed onto “right” building. - Actually, if you give me some time I can even show by arrows a patch from TSAB HQ to destination point.
- Oh, so generous, - she give me a dazzling smile, - But I think I can do it myself, moreover, I think I will keep this report and show it to my subordinate. We just love to read absurd stories sometime.
She close the folder in tried to take it but I quickly grab it myself.
- If you love absurd stories so much I can advise you to go to book store for school grader, I won`t allow you to humiliate my work. – I forced my grip on folder and tried to pull it to me but she won`t allow that.
- You do it by yourself, - she snarled and add more strange to her arms, forcing me to stand from chair.
It became literal power struggle between us when we tried to pull out folder from opponent arms. But first to give up was pitiful report. With loud “screesh” folder was ripped in half and we, shrieking felled on floor. For ten second we just sat there, breathing heavily and staring at each other. And the Hayate burst in laughing I was unable to resist and followed her example. When storm come to end we stand up adjust our clothes, then Hayate broke the silence.
- I fell so stupid now. It`s more like kid`s quarrel than a adult talk.
- I heard phrase: adults – just grow up kids.
- Maybe- maybe, - hen she became serious, - Director Auris Gaiz, I think we must rethink and rebuild our relationship, our never-ending quarrels affect overall efficiency of TSAB forces. And for start please take my deep apologies, - she bowed and then stretch her arm toward me.
- And you too, lieutenant-general, Hayate Yagami, please take mine apologies for my behavior.
A stretched my own arm and shake her hand.
After this our relationships change dramatically and from being my bitterest rival Hayate turned in my greatest helper. She never refuses to help me to get more equipment for mine subordinates through web of bureaucracy. She always was the first to lend help and she was just great woman.
Slowly she got her way into my heart. And for the long time I have person in my life that I can call a friend.
But we never think that our newborn friendship will evolve even further.
It`s all started when, during the break, you asked me:
- Why did you always so stoic? Everybody who working with you for long time notices – your face never show any sad expression. Whenever you get hurt you just tightly compress your lips and your voice loses any trace of humanity. You now Auris, it`s not a bad thing to ask somebody for compassion.
Normally I never answer to that question. I always think that my vow to my father must remain only between me and him, but for some reason (now I think that the reason was your gentle smile) I decide to answer. I told her everything: mother funeral, father oath, my own promise, school days, beginning working in TSAB, JS incident and father funeral.
During the story you don`t say anything, just chewing on you lip but your eyes was set firmly on my face. When I finished you stand from coach came close and… give me a hug.
For instance I froze. I wanted to push her away and give her a few VERY unpleasant words about her behavior. But I found myself utterly unable to move. Her warmth burns me, melting away my resolve to fight. This tender embrace, this soft warmth…
It was feeling that I already forgot – sensation of comfort, sensation of protection. I was unable to resist the urge to enjoy this situation. Ah yes, now I clearly remember that nobody embrace my since mother funeral. What a pitiful woman I am.
- “You had such a sad life Auris-san.” - Whispered Yagami. - “You didn`t expect to love or be loved, you throw away your humanity just because you want to predict to be strong. You know everybody have right to cry, to be sad, to mourn, this nothing wrong with it. Long ago I heard one memorable phrase: when people stop crying they became monsters. So please. Stop torturing yourself.”
But I still wasn`t able to give away my promise. Despite the fact that me heart want to burst out of feelings that was storming inside. I looked up and meet her gaze. My eyes said everything to her.
- “Mou, - she pouted. – You so stubborn. Okay, it`s decided then, tomorrow we call the day off and go on vacation.
- B…but what if somebody see us together. Aren`t we make a deal to hide our true relationship from higher-ups?
- He-he, so you afraid that your boyfriend will get jealous? – giggled Hayate.
I sure, that it was first time in my entire life when I blushed.
- I… I don’t` have a boyfriend or girlfriend,,, or friend – the last word I nearly whispered.
Hayate smile changed from teasing to reassuring.
- I AM your friend, Aury. So cheer.
- Aury?!!
Her smile again became a mischievous one. She let me go and make two steps back.
- Yup. “Auris” is just SO formal, we need to get closer to each other. So let`s call our self Aury and Hayate, how about it?.
- DEFINETLY NO!! – I shrieked.
- Okay, But still we HAVE to go on vacation tomorrow. If you so afraid about secrecy how about this plan. I can invoke sudden inspection on DIIS tomorrow, and you will have no other choice to confront me personally, aren`t you? DIIS have five stores across the city, normally it will take about five hours and fourteen minutes to inspect them all – fourteen minutes for each store and time for the road between them.
- You point?
- How about to turn this time to nine hours. We will have three hours and twenty minutes for fun.
- And how about report?
- Let`s just keep him as a souvenir. Or as a proof our undying love.
- Shut up. Please!
- He-he, so it`s decided then. So I will wait you tomorrow around 9 AM in front of TSAB administrative centre. Don`t be late.
- Hey, wait I don`t say yes!
- Oh, your mouth don`t, but your heart yes. I repeat – don`t be late tomorrow.
After that she turn around and leave my office. I sighed and continue to work, I still need to complete my report and search some information. And moreover make preparation for tomorrow events.
That day was… how can I said… turbulent. Hayate surely enjoyed herself – not only she turn entire stores inside out, but she actually GROPED me every time when she get opportunity, moreover when we was INSIDE DIIS buildings.
After inspection of first store she drag me to the game club and force me to content with her in fighting games. But I get some form of revenge when total score of win/draw/lose get totally in my favor in the end.
After the second inspection I found myself watching CARTOON in local cinema. I can`t properly recall name of the cartoon, it was show about never endings battles between cat and mouse… Tim and Berry of something like that. But Hayate really liked that show and I was totally fascinated of how beautiful was her face filled with child-like happiness.
In the end of the day we have gone to the amusement park. I think Yagami make me go through every attraction that park have. Roundabout, shooting gallery, vending machine and etc. etc. etc.
When we leave park I was totally exhausted, covered in sweat… and happy. Despite the every odds that filled this day I never feel myself so… live. If I am make some mistake, my only punishment was teasing remark. I was able to laugh at jokes like a fool, eat ice cream and cakes. I was able to do everything that I forbid myself to do before today.
And for the first time in my life I forced back tears of happiness.
Hayate see that and give me a pinch on shoulder.
- Mou, you a stubborn girl aren`t you. If you want cry out of happiness then just do it.
I give her a smile (my first sincere smile I give to her).
- Sorry, no can do, lieutenant-general. My promise still my promise and I never broke it.
- Well, at last you can shed some happy tears In order to repay me for this wonderful day.
- Hey! – I shouted. – Wonderful day?! You actually GROPE my a… uh. Private area.
- Can`t help, Auris-chan, - Hayate grinned, - you have SUCH cute butty.
I yelped and my face flushed bright red.
- S-s-s-shut up.
- Make me, u-fu-fu-fu.
Looking at her laughing dace I feel how anger aroused in my chest. But then I decide to payback Hayte using her own methods. I stormed forward, grab her shoulders and crush my lips on her.
After a few seconds my brains reactivate. What in the interdimensional plane I am doing?!! K-kissing a GIRL, moreover HAYTE YAGAMI for all people. But everything became every complicated when Hayete (who stood flabbergasted with eyes shoot wide open) regain her sense… hug me and return the kiss.
When we broke apart my breath was heavy and face stained with red. To my little comfort Hayate`s expression mirrored my own. When we calmed a bit it was Hayate who broke the silence.
- Wow, it was incredible. It seems you quite skillful in erotic stuff, Auris-chan,
- N-no i… I am no. I-it was my first kiss, - a almost whined blushing even harder. To my utter surprise she flushed too.
- M,, me.. mine too.
- Oh. So we each other’s first. He..he, - I tried to laugh in to hide my deep confusion. I never suspected that Hayate never kissed anybody before that. – W-well. It was very good.
- Really, - her face flared up – You really think so? I wasn`t do anything wrong?
- No. You were quite a good kisser and your lips were so soft and w…warm.
Oh my. It`s my imagination or my glasses started to melt? Few minutes we just stay still and try to calm ourselves down.
- Auris, - Hayate looked in my eyes, while her lips trembling her gaze was firm, - How about to repeat this event next week.
- Gladly, - was my instant answer.
It became some type of every week ritual for us. Rote was always the same: inspection – video game salon (of movie) – park – and kiss. After the third “inspection” I take a part in the planning of entire “date”. After the five one I decide to took control of it. And after the eighth I admitted my love to her.
I didn`t know, who was more flabbergasted by this confession – I, because I can`t believe that I at last manage to gather enough courage, or Hayate who lost her ability to speak due shock. After a few moments of heavy silence my heart dropped. It`s seems Hayate doesn’t love in the same way as I did for her. I again, as numerous times before that, suppress me tears and prepare for leave… When you flung your arm around me and press your lips to mine.
When we parted she looked directly in my eyes and give me answer that I longed for.
- Me too. I love you too, Auris-chan.
Then we didn`t follow our normal procedure and don`t go to our apartments, but instead we go to hotel.
I never intended to have homosexual relationship and as every girl in my class I wanted a handsome and rich man, but when Hayate press our naked bodies together I stop thinking about everything and drown myself in passion and love.
When our bodies lost every capability to continue and we lay in each other`s arm gasping and sweating, Hayate suddenly say:
- I think I must send “thank you” note to Catherine-chan.
- Catherine-chan? – I asked surprised, - Wait, you mean this weird albino girl whom captain Takamachi dragged in your group.
- Yup, it`s she. You know she was the one who make my assignment to this place.
- How? - that`s perked my interest, - If I remember correctly, she worked in Staff department.
- She already became head of Staff department. It`s hard to believe that two years ago she was lost sad girl, who was found by Nanoha-chan. And now she Nanoha-chan peer and even studying illusion magic under Teana tutoring.
- So she was the reason behind my suffering, - I playfully narrowed.
- Hey, - pocked me Hayate, - you mean behind the unimaginable happiness.
- Okay, you win, - I smiled and kissed her again.
- Good night Auris-chan, - she yawned and snuggled close to me.
- Good night, Hayate, - I murmured while gently hugging her. Feeling of her voluptuous and warm body in my arms was almost unbearable and I was afraid that everything is just dream. But it was true, her smell, her warmth and her love – everything was real.
I didn`t know why, but I again don`t let tears of happiness to flow. Maybe because, I was so foolish to think that this happiness will last for eternity. Maybe because I think that Hayate`s love will forever protect me from sadness. I don`t know and a never will.
Because today I receive message that, lieutenant-general Hayate Yagami died in terrorist bombing. I didn`t want to believe that you die, I didn`t want to recognize the truth that everything you worked about now is crumbled and I definitely didn`t want to admit the fact that you leave me alone. I wasn`t able to save her, I don`t have power to make proper investigate about this incident and I wasn`t able to make in time to your funeral.
When I stormed in, your casket was already buried. All I can do it was to stay and look at your tomb, and because of our promise to go at top positions, I can`t even mourn about you properly. It`s end for everything, for dreams, for happiness, for love.
And I can`t even shed a single tear for this.
- You! – furious roar reverberate behind me. I turned around and my gaze meets hatred-filled eyes of captain Vita. – What are YOU doing here, four-eye?!! Did you come to gloat?!
Her voice dripped with venom and was filled with disgust bur her words were most painful to hear.
“No, I came to mourn someone who was precious to me. And now I can`t even do that”
- Everyone knows that you hated Hayate. You always wanted her to disappear, to go away from your path!
“It`s a lie, lie, lie!!! I loved her, more than anyone, I never wanted to let her go and every paths who lied before me was worth only if I can go through it together with Hayate!”
- What?! You still here? – snarled red-hair, her lips twisted, - If you want to cry out of delight than FUCKING get your ass out of here!!
I wanted to hit her, really. I didn’t care that she was AAA class and I didn`t have any trace of magical power, it didn’t matter to me at all. I wanted to make her swallow those horrible words. But I can`t do that. If I do, my and Hayate work for cover up became meaningless. I can`t show any sight of despair about her death. And to my utter disgust now I must show a SATISFACTION about her disappearance. It`s not fair, not fair, NOT FAIR!!!
- C-captain Vita! W-what are you doing! – Suddenly a new voice pierced an unpleasant silence between me and short captain. We turned and see tall albino yellow eyed women who dashed toward us. Catherine de Volga – chief of Staff department. Latest updating to their group. As always she seemed almost scared, and when she stopped she didn`t have courage to stare directly into mine or captain Vita eye.
- I-it`s a funeral, h-how could you said s-such a horrible words to anybody?
- Why are you defending her?! That four-eyed bitch always…
- Captain Vita! – she suddenly shouted startling both of us. – Please stop. I can understand your situation, but saying such horrible words on miss Hayate funeral is just unforgivable. Moreover you insulting director Auris judging only on rumors just unfair. Apologize to director Auris right now, captain Vita!
During few seconds Catherine and Vita staring in each other eyes, but then Vita turned away.
- Okay, I am sorry, director Gaiz, I said something really disrespectful toward you. I was deeply affected by…by – her voice broke and tears start to leak. Albino woman`s face instantly lose any trace of anger and she kneeled before redhead, hugging her and gently whispering words of consolation to her.
- Shhhh. Vita dear. I am here, I am here for you. Mourn, it`s nothing wrong in crying for your beloved friend, I am and every of our friends here for you.
“It`s not fair. I also want to cry for her, I want to say for loud how I missing her, how I loved her, how I want her back. I gladly give anything I achieved just to get Hayate back. And I can`t. I lose any chances to mourn for peoples a care the most.”
I turned and go away. I don`t want to be here, in the entire dimensional planes now don`t exist anybody who care for me, now everything I have it`s my oath to my father and me promise to Hayate.
When I returned to my office it was already past 10 PM. I was tired, mentally exhausted and my stomach twitched in hungry pain. I feel sick: I could never present that exist so many people ready to gloat about death of someone. The remember about Book of Darkness incident, about her connection with General Graham, about patronage of admiral Harlaown and Saint Church. How few in numbers were men and woman who remembered her hardworking nature, her resolute actions during JS incident. How many people today praised me with mine soon-to-be promotion. I sighed, hyenas always promise their loyalty to lion when he strong and always stab him in the back when he weak.
I slumped in my chair and try to relax. Tomorrow will be a very hard day, since Hayate death new overseer need to be commissioned. At last it will be a temporal overseer because, as I hear, HQ recognizes mine efforts and decide that DIIS can now functional without careful watch. Just couple days ago I was so glad to hear it, but now,,, without Hayate world seems so empty.
I looked up. Cellar in me office was always carefully washed. Despite whispers that I was “perfection freak” in truth I just suffer of powerful allergy on dust. It was white, clean and empty. So empty. Bitter irony of my life that I promise I give my father turned my existents in something as empty as cellar in me office. Just work, work and work – no friends, no happiness, just notion of compulsion that forbidding myself to cry I can became strong, respectful and famous. Only my time with Hayate showed me true happiness and true strength. And now she`s gone. I open my drawer to get some soothing pills, and suddenly froze. On the top of papers and disks lied red ribbon. Hayate`s present – the same red ribbon as her own. She was dark red when she give it to me and became as red as she when Hayate herself tied it on my hairs. I carefully lifted ribbon holding it in both hand. The ribbon still holding warmth of her hands, smell of her perfume and feeling of her love. The last thing, Hayate left in this world.
The reminder of her death, force me to shudder in pain. I clutched my chest moaning and sobbing, But tears won`t come. Why?! WHY?!! WHY-Y-Y?! I am some type monster?! Why I cannot cry because of my most beloved person death. It`s some type of curse. Or I just condemned to not able to have human feelings. What else in this world left for me?
Tears finally burst out. Now I broke oath to my father. I laughed bitterly. It`s seems everything that I hold dear for me start to disappear.
Through my tear filled vision suddenly sparked blink of red. I froze when I suddenly understand what was that. Hayate`s ribbon that still lied in my hand.
That`s it! I still have my promise to Hayate. To rise through the ranks and gain the power to protect everyone. Yes, I must live in order to defend her vision of future. And her good name.
I stand, now regaining my confidence and whipping tears. I looked down on the red ribbon and gentle touch it with my lips. Thank you Hayate I love you so much.
My though was interrupted by sound of explosion and distant screams. The roar quickly came nearer and after few seconds door explode with thunderous roar, powers of impact send me flying on a floor.
In the middle of dust cloud and rubble that dimming the floor stood captain Vita. Her barrier jacket was intact and her hands grips her infamous hammer so tight that staff was soiled by blood. Her eyes was glassy as if she almost don`t understand what happening around her. But something in it was certain. Her hatred. She almost radiate the astonishing wave of loathe, and target of her feeling was undoubtfully me.
- You! – She bellowed. – It was you-u-u!!! She charges toward me raising Graf Eisen over her head preparing to deliver killing strike. I didn`t try to evade the blow, it was hopeless. I can see the armed soldiers appearing behind enraged knight, aiming their staffs at her. But it`s too late. I closed my eyes and prepare to receive bonecrushing strike of battle hammer.
- I`m sorry Hayate, I can` t fulfill my promise to you. It`s seems I am just a loser to the end.
But suddenly I was overwhelmed by wave of warmth. That presence, I know it,,, it,,, it was.
I didn`t fell how captain Vita`s strike shatter my head, blast my brains apart and smash my upper body, I didn`t feel pain. Every I feel was Hayate gentle embrace, warmth of her bode, her tender lips on my own. My last moment was filled with joy and the very last tears in my life were tears of happiness.
Epilogue

Four hours later.
Work in morgue never was a pleasant. Sergeant Hilbert Dolvert always cursed his lack of a talent that never allows him to get more prestigious role in the entire TSAB Mid-Childa machine. His work was dirty, stinky and often gives him nightmares. Moreover he wasn`t a heartless guy and his heart always ached when he watched people in despair, when they recognizes in the mutilated corpses they beloved ones. And now, this incident.
As if death of famous officer Yagami Hayate wasn`t enough now they was stroked with another tragedy. For some reasons one of the Wolkenritters, the Captain Vita charge in the head of DIIS (a very creepy woman) office and splat her brains all over room. Named DIIS head`s bodyguards wasn`t amused by this events and almost ripped short captain body apart in devastetful volley. And now entire TSAB was stayed on ears. Man, that will be a long night.
His somber thoughts was interrupted by sounds oh steps. Door opened a bit and slightly embarrassed woman looked in.
- Ah, um. Hello. – She slipped in room and Hilbert yelped and immediately stand when he recognize the head of Staff Department. – Can I come in?
- Yes, ma`am. Of course ma`ma. – Howled sergeant Dolvert.
- Easy, sergeant. - She raised her hands almost in protective gesture, - Please. It`s no need to be so formal.
- As your wish, ma`am. – Replied Hilbert.
Hilbert relaxed a bit. It was hard to believe that such shy and weak looking woman can be head of entire department. She still held her arms near her mouth palm forward almost trying to shield herself from him. Her eyes were yellow and her nose has swelled. After careful look at her morgue overseer notice that woman chewed on something.
- It`s a gum? – He asked carefully.
- Ah-eh? – She startled by his question, but quickly calmed down. –Oh, it is. Yes, it`s a gum. It`s always help me to calm down. And now… after those deaths…
She suddenly became silent and sniff. Dolvert has understood that he made a mistake and quickly told.
- I`m sorry, ma`am. It was a tactless question. Please forgive me.
- Oh. No-no. – She waved her hands. – It`s nothing. Eeer, can I have a look on Director Auris Gaiz body?
- Yes, ma`am. Allow me help you.
Hilbert turn around and guide albino director (to be more correct her hairs was very bright color of ash gray) toward one of freezers. He pushes the button and with a low hum stretchers went forward, revealing a black plastic bag. Content of the bug was clear to both of them, but when he stretch his arm to unzip the bug Dolvert was interrupted when she put her arm on his shoulder.
- Um, sergeant, can I investigate her body privately. – Her face brightened. – You know, you can go home, I suppose you very tired. I will clean everything up and lock when I leave. If someone will try to scold you for leaving you post, just send them to me.
- Eh, really? Oh, I mean, thank you ma`am.
Superior officer give him a nod.
- No problem. Now, dismissed.
Dolvert quickly pick up his property and dashed away leaving the keys on the table. Catherine de Volga don`t look away until he leave and when door closed turned back to target of her visit. Then her face expression changed dramatically. Her dull yellow eye shined bright her tightly compressed mouth turned into broad smile and her hand resolutely unzipped the bug. Then she bend over and greedily inhaled the smell.
- A…aaah. The smell of dead flesh. I missed it so much. – She sped almost a three minutes by savoring the aroma of Auris Gaiz dead body. After that she makes a step backward and, while smiling like a little girl, she started to speak.
- You know Auris-chan… Can I call you like that, just like Hayate? Aha, you didn`t say “no”, so I can. Back to deal. You know, I can`t even say how I grateful to you. It`s you stubborn refusal to cry help me convinced Vita-chan that main perpetrator behind Hayate-chan death was you. Ufufufu. When you leave us I and Vita goes to café where I reveal to her “unchecked and unfair rumors how you seduced Hayate and then killed her”. Ah, her hate-filled expression when drugs kick in…oh, pure bliss. I`m so sorry that I missed the chance to see how your office was baptized in beautiful red. – Catherine clutched her chest for emphasis.
- It`s so sad, I wasn`t able to lick your warm and tasty blood. But your smashed body wonderful smells almost made up for it. Wow!! What I sight! She friggin smashed your entire head, neck and left shoulder to bits!
Catherine giggled and licked her lips.
- Auris-chan do you want to hear the secret. – Catherine give Auris body a mischievous blink. – first script of the plan give role of first victim to you, and Hayate would go to your side after a month, when I was be able to crate “incident” for her. But you know she has too many friends on her side to sooth her and overtook the sadness of her loss. You on the other hand, became totally alone, and I always took a GREAT pleasure while seeming how you try to remain calm when you almost wanted to scream in despair.
Then Catherine de Volga face twisted in grimace of sorrow.
- But you now, I am also in despair. After such hard work, after such efforts my soul was crushed. I was so happy when I was able to get it imperceptibly and SUCH disappointment.
Her lips twisted and she spitted out her gum.
- Hayate flesh has SUCH NASTY TASTE!
The something that Catherine spitted was not a gum. It was an index finger.
- My soul was crushed, really. It`s too cruel to do that to me. And after I worked so hard to keep you relationship in secret. So I will punish both of you.
She give Auris almost apologetic smile.
- I didn`t really want to do that, bat bad girls must be punished. So today I will send to mass media edited information about your and Hayate lovey-dovey deals. I almost can predict heading of newspapers. “Lesbian relation of corrupted TSAB officials” of “DIIS gets in bed with ground forces”. A think Arus0chan, after this your and Hayate reputation will be grinded in dirt for maaaany years. I think I also dispose of that’s annoying pink-haired knight-girl and that familiar. Nothing personal, but after Hayate so brutally crushed my heart just soling her reputation can`t facilitate pain in my heart.
Catherine facial expression again turned into smile.
- Well, good buy. Now you can cry as much as you can in afterlife. A-u-ris-chan.
With these words she closed the freezer turned away and goes toward exit. And before she leave the morgue she turned lights off, leaving Auris Gaiuz in eternal darkness.

@Kaijo. Poor Wendy - every time she meet Nanoha she recive a very hard hit. But at last she wasn`t the one nakajima sisters to be beated.

Hope for soon continuation. This story realy good.

[Nanya01]

I know that most people aren't really looking forward to this, so sometimes I wonder why I bother, but...

Anyway...

Numbers in Nerima

Chapter 6

Spoiler for Time Loop VII:

Rubbing her eyes as she walked to the table, Dieci was understandably confused when she was yanked into one of the special rooms by Ranma, or at least one of his clones, since there were two others in the room with the one that pulled her into the room. "So, what's going on?" She asked as she looked around the room, more of a lab, now that she had more of a look to it.

"Well, we've spent a long time working on it, but I think you'll be pleased." One of the clones smiled as he looked at the brown-haired cyborg while gesturing to an item underneath a white towel. "Finally managed to get your cannon to work properly."

Another clone rolled his eyes at the giddy one. "What he means is that he finally managed to work the "Brianna Special" into this thing."

"Oh please! Like you don't like the Brianna Special!" The first one yelled back as he threw a wrench at the one who was bad-mouthing him.

"Knock it off before I knock you off." The second one yelled as he grabbed the wrench out of mid-air. "Better show Dieci what you did before I give her the BFG-9000 MKIII to use on you."

"YIPE!" The first one yelped and grabbed the sheet, pulling it free of the table. "Ta-da!"

"...A hand-gun?" Dieci was completely confused as she picked it up and studied it. "...What's with the scope?"

"Ah, based it on a version of Megatron that we met once." The one holding the sheet shrugged. "I will admit that Teana's "Cross Mirage" was also used as a basis of this model."

Dieci blinked a few times as the gun in her hand suddenly became two guns, one in each hand. "What the heck?"

"Like I said, stole the Cross Mirage design." Another shrug from the clone as the other one sighed and shook his head.

"The design was mostly used because it's easier to carry around than a gigantic freaking cannon all the time. Plus it's useful in a pinch."

"Oh..." Dieci blinked as the second gun disappeared. "What else can it do?"

"Ask for it to go to mode two."

"Mode... Two?" Dieci blinked as their was a whirring sound from the gun as the handle shifted outwards, the barrel increased in length before it shifted and gained a few pounds of mass as it became larger and filled her hands completely. "...A rifle?"

"Hand-cannon actually." Another clone pointed out to her. "Lighter than your normal cannon and packs enough of a punch that it can rattle someone's cage even with a shield up. Plus, it's more useful in case you need to move in a hurry or get caught in a fire fight with a crowd around you."

"My normal cannon? Is that... Mode three?" Dieci blinked as the small cannon became her normal-sized body-length cannon. "Wow..." She did like the fact it was quite a bit lighter than it had been before. The light blue coloring was very nice too.

"Go for the Overdrive mode!"

"Over...drive mode?" Dieci said slowly, before yelping as her cannon seemed to merge with her arm, though she could feel her fingers around some sort of trigger mechanism, as though it was a comfort to her. She blinked as her clothing seemed to glow and disappear, leaving her nude for an instant as clothes materialized around her chest and hips, followed by her arms and legs, boots that went up to her knees over the cloth on her legs. She blinked as her ears got covered by headphones and a visor went from one side of her face to the other, completely tinted green as various numerical data appeared. She could feel her shoulders getting covered and a short column extend backwards behind her, she then looked at her covered left arm, blinking as the cannon was a bit longer, there were four smaller guns lined up in a square pattern surrounded by circular binds as it gleamed in the light. "...whoa..." Dieci was rather stunned at that moment.

She was more stunned as she was surrounded by mirrors to see all sides of her body. Her outfit was a bright red, though her upper chest was bare, though her breasts were covered, her abdomen and upper thighs were bare and as she looked at the mirror, she could see that the outer edges of her butt were visible to everyone looking. Her face warmed up a bit as she saw how... Exposed she was. "Um... This is revealing, isn't it?"

"Trust me, between the Gatling cannon and the missiles that's in your shoulder pads, no one's really going to be staring at your ass or chest." The snarky clone shrugged and rolled his eyes at the first one, who was grinning perversely. "Besides, this is still pretty modest, your butt's fine, I don't see why you're embarrassed by showing it off a bit."

"Um... Thank you." Dieci was still blushing pretty badly. Maybe she could modify this later? Still... "This is... Really cool."

"I suggest you take the time to get used to the various modes, otherwise you'll have trouble with them if you end up in any sort of combat." Dieci nodded as she moved around in the "overdrive mode" and found that she rather liked it, despite the awkward-looking Gatling cannon on her left arm.

"This... Could be fun." Dieci grinned slightly, getting a laugh from the giddy clone.

"Told you that the Brianna Special would do this to her."

"Yeah, yeah... Smart-ass." The other clone rolled his eyes at the attitude.

(---)

Nove looked at Dieci as she walked into the room. "What's up with you?"

Dieci has a faint blush on her face as she shrugged. "Um... Nothing much." That outfit had been very, very embarrassing to be in, she just hoped that she could at least add a few extra pieces of clothing to the armor of her overdrive form.

"So why are you moving funny?" Wendi asked curiously as she grabbed some food.

Dieci twitched and sat down at the table, ignoring the looks that her sisters were giving her. "Not going to talk about it." She muttered as she filled her plate. She didn't like the looks that she was getting and she really couldn't get them to stop looking at her. She was about to say something when an arrow embedded itself into the table in front of Ranma.

Soun's hair, as long as it was, suddenly poofed out in all directions, giving him the largest afro in the world. Interestingly enough, Cinque's hair suddenly stuck out at various angles as Ranma pulled the arrow out of the table and pulled the small letter that was stuck to the shaft. "Hmm... Looks like Ryoga's been training hard."

Deed growled at that name, how dare that jerk chop her hair up like that? "Lemme at him! I need to hurt him!"

Tre sweat-dropped as she looked at her shorter, younger sister. "That was days ago, you can let it go, can't you?"

"So says someone who keeps trying and failing to master the Mach Impulse." Cinque replied calmly as she took a sip of her tea.

Turning and glaring at the shortest of her sisters, Tre nearly snarled at the silver-haired girl. "I'll get it one of these days!" It wasn't her fault, but she almost had it. She was able to not pass out or be laying face down after the technique ended last time at least. She still had a hard time moving afterwords though, so she really needed to work on it. But she was almost there, she could feel it.

Ranma shook his head and got up. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go have a talk with someone."

The others shrugged as he got up and left the room.

"...So Dieci." Sein asked after a few minutes.

"Hmm?" The brown-haired cyborg turned to her sister, wondering why she was suddenly grinning like that.

"Why WERE you walking funny when you came to the table?"

Dieci groaned and slumped, banging her head on the table. She had nearly forgotten just how much Sein liked to tease her and her other sisters.

(---)

"I was wondering when you'd show up." Ranma heard as he touched down in an abandoned warehouse. "Don't worry, I'm alone."

"I wouldn't worry even if you brought the entire Jusendo Valley with you." Ranma muttered as he looked at Cologne, who chuckled. "So, why not just send a letter in the mail like a normal person?"

"Bah! Mail service takes too long." The old woman waved her hand and smirked at him. "Anyway, I've been doing some training to an acquaintance of yours."

"Ryoga." He sighed when she nodded, that smirk of her was really beginning to get on his nerves. "What do you want?" He asked bruskly, his patience with the old crone running thin. "You and I both know that the training is only really good for toughening him up. Making the ground explode might cut up some of the girls a little bit, but they're born fighters." Okay, so maybe Sein and Uno weren't meant for straight-up combat, but that was fine.

"What makes you think that he wants to fight them?" She raised an eyebrow when he chuckled.

"Trust me, right now, Deed wants to hurt him for cutting her hair a few days ago." Cologne shook her head and laughed softly. "Anyway, we both know that it won't work on living flesh."

"Of course, the chi flows disrupt the technique as it is." Cologne shrugged at that. "However, you can't tell me that you wouldn't want to have some... Amusement." Just for a instant, the very air seemed to grow heavier, clammy and oily and just wrong somehow and for the first time in a very, very long time, the Joketsuzoku matriarch wondered if she had made too big a mistake. Then the felling was just gone, as if it had never existed. Seeing him raise an eyebrow, she smirked, though still a little jumpy from the odd experience. "Imagine if this "Deed" girl thought that one touch could kill her, hmm? It might keep her on her toes and make the fight interesting."

Ranma shook his head, even though he was chuckling. "Interesting, but I'm pretty sure that the rest of her sisters would try to get involved if they thought she was at serious risk."

The old woman chuckled at that. "Well, I need to get back, see if you can think of a way for this to happen, it might be fun."

Ranma shrugged, though he would admit, the reactions could be funny, but he just couldn't see the others not jumping in and interfering. "I'll see what I can do."

Jumping leisurely away, while unconsciously keeping an "eye" on Collogne's aura of course, Ranma tried to shook of what little hold it had gained on him. A focused mental blow latter, and the annoyance had settled back in its rightful place, the very bottom of his psyche, leaving behind mere phantom of felling. Anger, possessiveness and its always present and at time overwhelming hunger. Oh well, he had other things to think about, a quick trip in his own mind-scape to remind the useless piece of garbage what its place in the local food chain was and would be able to concentrate on the important matters, like how to get a one-on-one fight to actually happen. "Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?"

(---)

"Soon, soon I shall have my revenge... And then..." A smirk appeared on his face as he looked at the water that was around him. "Shampoo will be all mine!" He stood up and took a dramatic pose. Which would have been impressive if he hadn't tripped over one of the buckets and went crashing into a dusty table in the corner of the dusty room. "My glasses." He muttered, before spotting something that was shiny. "There you are." He reached for the shiny thing. "Now then, I'll Quack!"

The newly minted duck just blinked a few times, wondering what just happened.

(---)

Deed blinked a few times as she looked at Ranma, then she looked at her other sisters, who were slightly confused, before she turned back to him. "Bakusei Tenketsu..?" She scratched her head, that was a weird name for a technique.

"Yep." He nodded to her as he and the girls were sitting around at the Tendo house-hold about twenty minutes after his meeting with Cologne, well, except for Uno, she was taking a day off and helping Kasumi with something in town. Genma and Soun were playing Go, or rather, were looking at the board, but paying more attention to his conversation with Deed. "I've seen the technique shatter roads, mountains, level forests and cause cave-ins, and all with a touch of a finger."

"The Breaking Point..." Genma spoke up, causing several of the girls to spin to him as he looked on gravely. "It's said that everyone and everything has one, a single touch to that point will destroy anything."

"Wait, are you saying that anyone could kill with a touch with this technique?" Tre suddenly shot up, her eyes wide as Deed paled at the thought.

When Genma nodded, Nove slammed her hands onto the table. "Hell no!" She pointed at Deed while frowning. "You aren't going to do something like that." She wasn't going to lose a sister over something so stupid, that was for sure.

Deed nodded, even though she was certain she could win, a lucky touch and she'd be dead? No, she'd rather not risk it over something that wasn't that important.

"Boy! Why don't you, woah!" Genma suddenly found himself weightless as he floated up when Ranma raised his hand up and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Look, Genma, if I fought anyone, it wouldn't be fair to them, since I would have to hold back so much that I might actually lose." With that, Ranma dropped Genma onto the floor next to the chair.

"Ommph! Yes, I can see that." Genma nodded as he stood up and tried to look wise, which was ruined as he rubbed his backside. "An ability to win a fight so easily should only be used if needed."

"Riiiiight." Ranma drawled out, knowing that if Genma had such an ability, he wouldn't stop to use it at every opportunity, of course, Genma probably was just saying that because he didn't want to get beaten up without having a chance to at least attempt to fight back. Suddenly Ranma shivered slightly. Jedi Master Genma was probably the most terrifying thought he could have ever thought up in a long time.

He vowed to make it a reality some day, just to prove to both Yoda and Anakin that there were some things worse than a drunk Palpatine in a Hutt slave girl outfit trying to convince everyone that he was a pretty girl.

"Anyway..." Ranma cleared his throat to get their attention. "The thing here is, Ryoga wants to test his new technique out, he's not really that bad a person, just stubborn, stupid and ornery, but he wouldn't want to kill any of you." Mostly because they were women and Ryoga really didn't know any of them. Ranma then shrugged as he thought about it. "Anyway, as for the technique itself, well, I've fought against someone with it before."

The cyborgs looked at him, interested in this information. "Oh?" Sein, who was laying across Dieci and Wendi's laps, blinked a few times. Some people might have thought it was odd that Sein was laying like that, but other than Cinque, who was the smallest, Sein was pretty light for her size. "How'd that turn out?"

Ranma shrugged at that. "Well, I can tell you that it really doesn't matter if someone can kill you with a touch, if you don't let that touch happen, you can't die, right?"

"I'll fight him." Everyone blinked as Tre stood up and scowled lightly. "He wanted to fight me originally anyway, so I'll give him a fight." She quickly left the room while most of the more combat-oriented cyborgs, and Genma, followed after her, promising to help her train her reflexes, just in case.

Sein, who had been deposited to the floor when Wendi and Dieci both got up, blinked at Ranma. "What's wrong?"

"...Nothing..." Ranma blinked as Sein suddenly sat in his lap and looped her arms around his neck. "Sein?"

She frowned at him slightly. "You've never acted like this before, what's wrong? Tre'll be alright, she's tough and fast, Ryoga'll never kill her with that..." She blinked as Ranma sighed again and shook his head. "Then what?"

"...Actually, can you keep a secret?" When she nodded, he leaned in close to her ear and whispered to her. "That technique's worthless in combat actually, it can't kill a person with a touch."

Sein blinked as he pulled back. "Then why not..." When Ranma explained the reasons why, Sein started giggling uncontrollably. "That... Hee hee... Is the funniest... Ha ha... Thing ever!" She laughed for a few more moments before pressing herself against Ranma and hugging him tightly. "Don't worry, I won't tell, but thanks, I was worried for Tre too." When Ranma hugged her back tightly, she blinked a few times, it felt like he was clinging desperately to her. "...Dad..?" Honestly, she had never thought of Ranma like that until that moment, but he seemed to need that at this time.

"Sorry, it's just... I'm worried that they'll hate me for manipulating them like this." He didn't let go of her, even as she shook her head.

"Nah, they won't hate you, they'll be upset, but a good prank is always worth it." Sein was sure that Tre wouldn't be happy, maybe Nove wouldn't either, but at the very least they'd forgive him, since she was sure that she or Wendi would probably do the same thing to them.

Ranma chuckled softly, oh, how he knew that. Still, it did make him feel a little better.

(---)

Looking at Genma with a frown, Tre wondered why he had brought her to a construction lot. When she asked, Genma had a weird smirk on his face that just felt wrong for some reason. "Well, there's a lot of debris for one, for two, no one will care if we destroy stuff." Maybe the construction companies, but they seemed to like it when stuff was destroyed for some odd reason. Genma smirked as he picked up a few rocks. "Plus, if that technique really can do what my boy says it can, you'll need to learn how to dodge... And I know that some of your sisters can attack at a distance..."

Wendi blinked a few times before speaking up as she caught onto the idea. "Wait, does this mean that we all are going to attack Tre?"

Genma's smirk was incredibly nasty at this point. "Yep. All she has to do is dodge. Shouldn't be too hard considering how fast she is." Genma flipped back and away from Tre. "So... Shall we begin... Oh, don't forget to DODGE!" He yelled as he threw a rock at Tre far faster than it had any right to go.

(---)

Meanwhile...

Nabiki blinked and looked around, the hair on the back of her neck was standing up. She had opted to actually go to school this day, mostly because she wanted something to do and people to talk to.

"Boss, you okay?" One of her classmates asked, before Nabiki blinked a few times and shuddered almost violently.

"Either Ranma's training someone that way again, or I'm being paranoid..." There was the chance that Genma was training someone in the "dodge" method, but that didn't seem likely.

(---)

A few hours later, Uno blinked as she saw Sette carrying Tre over her shoulder as she walked into the Tendo home. Her carrying Tre made sense at least, since Sette was the only one who was tall enough to carry Tre without dragging her on the floor. "What happened?" She was worried as Sette set Tre down, and there were bruises, burns, some shrapnel stuck in her skin as the rest of her sisters looked on pretty nervously.

"Training got a little out of hand." Sette said, looking upset as she looked at Tre. "Where's dad?"

"I'm... Not sure actually." Uno blinked as she thought about it, before blinking as Cinque and Otto did what they could to get shrapnel out of Tre's body. At least it wasn't big, just chunks of rock, some glass, and... "Cinque, is that your knife?"

"...I missed." She said softly as she pulled the knife out of Tre's leg. She was just thankful that she hadn't made it explode, otherwise Tre would be missing a leg at that moment.

"Where's Genma?" Uno wasn't surprised as the others just shrugged. She didn't care for him too much herself. Eventually, Wendi admitted that Genma had accidentally been in the way of a Ray Storm when Otto missed Tre. Considering that he had been breathing and still alive afterwords, they just decided to leave him there.

Still, Uno did wonder just where Ranma disappeared to.

(---)

Sein found herself on her hands and knees, panting hard. Looking up, she glowered at Ranma, even though there was no anger in her eyes. "You're... Insane..."

Ranma shrugged, honestly, he had been insane for the longest time, hearing that was nothing new to him. Still, at least their session had been productive. "Well?"

Sein shook her head and nearly passed out, before blinking as she was picked off the ground. "Huh?" She blinked at Ranma as he smiled at her softly.

"Come on, let's get you home then."

"Sorry." She muttered, sighing softly as he carried her home, the gentle rocking from his running actually caused her to close her eyes and rest her head on his chest, where she fell asleep.

Looking at her, Ranma smiled softly. Sein honestly had put in a lot of effort into what they had done. It wasn't her fault that she had worn out. Still, he wondered how long it would take her to actually get her Deep Diver skill to the point where she could phase through living matter, or at the very least, be able to use her skill without calling it out all the time.

For some odd reason, he got a weird mental image in his head at that moment.

*Mind-scape*

"Banzai!" Sein yelled as she grinned and jumped at Erio, who stared at her stupidly.

"GAH!" He crashed into the wall that sprouted up behind him, causing him to see stars while Sein got up, unharmed and pouted.

"Drat! I was hoping to phase through you that time."

*Mind-scape*

Ranma sweat-dropped and wondered where that came from. "That's something that Orihime would've thought up." Hell, he was certain that if Orihime took Sein's place for a loop with her phasing powers that she'd attempt to phase through Ichigo just to see what she could do with them.

(---)

The next thing Sein knew was a warm, wet, cloth-like substance rubbing her body down. "Huh?"

"You can go back to sleep." She heard Dieci's voice as she looked up at the naked brown-haired cyborg. "You were pretty worn out when Ranma brought you back in."

"Oh..." Sein muttered and snuggled her head against Dieci's naked lap. "Mmmm... Your lap's comfy."

Dieci didn't say anything as she quietly cleaned Sein's body of sweat and dirt. Though, she wasn't sure if she should be insulted or not about having Sein call her lap comfortable. Especially since Sein was nuzzling her head against Dieci's crotch. Oh well, at least it wasn't sexual in nature, since Sein was just trying to get more comfortable.

(---)

Soun looked at the board in front of him. He looked up at his opponent, who just smiled back at him pleasantly. Smiling, he looked back at the board. Who knew that the young-looking girl was so good at Go?

Sitting across from Soun, Cinque found that the game was a nice distraction from her guilt at accidentally hurting Tre, at least the wound had just been skin deep and not as serious as it appeared. Still, how the heck was Ryoga supposed to touch Tre with that attack? She honestly hadn't seen him do much of anything that was dangerous at all. 'Then again...' She thought to herself, rolling her shoulder. As big and harmless-looking as Genma was, his attacks hurt when he hit you with them, then again, maybe it was worse because he was in his panda form.

Both Cinque and Soun were surprised when two naked bodies suddenly came through the floor and crashed onto the table. "Ouch!" Dieci cried out, rubbing her butt in pain.

Soun stared the sight before him, Sein was sitting up and looking around for someone, like she was just attacked out of nowhere, and inadvertently giving him a complete and total free look of her complete and totally naked body. A small dribble of blood escaped from his nose as he looked at the cyborg. It got worse as she spun around, letting him see her backside completely. The weird thing was, if he discounted Sein's hair color, she looked almost like a younger version of his dear departed wife.

'Oh Kimiko, I'm sorry, but I've been single for so long and... Why does it feel like I'm about to die?' Soun thought to himself as he slowly turned around, gulping as he looked at the glowing blue eyes of Ranma. "Uh, now... You can't blame me... She appeared just in front of me and it would be rude to just look away."

"I could forgive that... If you would have at least tried to mention to Sein and Dieci that they weren't in the bath anymore..." Grabbing Soun by his shoulder, he dragged the older-looking man out of the room. "We need to... Have a talk."

"Kimiko, help me!" Soun bawled as he was dragged away.

Meanwhile, Dieci was blushing as she wrapped herself up in the towel that Uno offered her, she couldn't believe that she had been completely seen like that. Sein, on the other hand, just put her towel on quietly while looking for short-tempered tomboys and mallets trying to take either hers or Dieci's head off.

Nabiki wore a bewildered expression as she walked into the room. "Anyone know why my dad looked like... oh." She finished lamely as she saw Sein and Dieci in their state of dress, or undress as the case was. "I thought you were washing her?"

"I was, but your sister thought I was doing something perverted..." Dieci complained and wished that she had brought her gun with her, at least then she could have defended herself better. She might have had super strength, but she wasn't much for hand-to-hand or close-range combat.

Nabiki rubbed her head. Honestly, she thought that Akane was pretty mellow in this loop for someone who wasn't in the know. Sighing, she just decided to ignore it. With any luck, Ranma wouldn't kill her for what she tried to do. Nabiki took five steps towards the kitchen before sighing and turning around. Who the hell was she kidding? Once Sein or Dieci complained about it, Ranma would likely blow a gasket and seriously maim her baby sister. Which was how she found herself coming face-to-face with Akane as she tore out of the bathroom with a serious look on her face. "What the hell?"

"Out of my way, Nabiki!" She yelled, trying to shove her older sister out of the way, only to blink as she couldn't get Nabiki to budge. Oh well, she'd move the instant that she knew why she was so upset. "Two of those girls were being perverted in the bathroom."

"...You do realize that Sein was likely to drown in the bath if she tried to clean herself off, right?" Nabiki raised an eyebrow at Akane. "And Dieci was just being a good sister and cleaning her off."

"Bu...Bu...But..." Akane couldn't believe this, Nabiki was taking their side?

"Besides, if those two say anything to Ranma, well... I'm pretty sure that you won't like the results."

Akane frowned and squeezed her mallet tightly. "That pervert, bringing in all these perverted girls into this house and doing things..." She gasped as she felt a stinging, burning sensation on her cheek. "...Nabiki?"

"Listen, and listen well, little sister..." Nabiki narrowed her eyes at the youngest Tendo. "Those girls mean a lot to Ranma, they're like his daughters, if you go and try to hurt them..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "Just let it go. If you see them doing something weird, just ask what's going on."

"Who are you and what did you do with my sister?" Akane pointed dramatically at Nabiki, who just sighed and held out her hand.

"600 yen." Seeing Akane face-fault was enough to make her smile. "Akane, let's just say that it's better for everyone if you keep your temper in check." She turned around and sighed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I better make sure that daddy's still alive and try to diffuse the situation..." Or she could make it worse, she could go either way at that moment.

After telling Akane to go back and take a bath, Nabiki sighed as she walked towards the dojo, sometimes she wondered just why she was doing this. The mental image of her sister horribly bloody, beaten and mutilated came to her, answering her question. "...I hate you so much, Saotome." She muttered to herself as she caught Ranma walking out of the dojo. "I do hope that you didn't hurt daddy too much." When he shrugged, she sighed and grabbed his arm as he was about to leave. "Anyway, I need to tell you just why that happened."

"What?" Ranma said flatly after Nabiki explained everything to him. He was tempted to go to Akane and mallet her across town, then dismissed it, since Akane didn't have the conditioning to survive that. Honestly, he didn't want to do any killing in this loop if he could avoid it. Well, for some people. Others could just go straight to hell. He could probably give Hild a call and express deliver some of the people himself if he wanted to.

"Look, just... Don't go and..." She trailed off as there was a loud crashing sound, nothing unusual about that, but the helicopter sound that came afterwords wasn't something that was heard too often. "...Please don't tell me..."

Ranma rolled his eyes as he stepped outside, before blinking. There was Otto in the arms of a pink-haired catgirl. "Nuku? What's going on?"

"Huh?" The catgirl blinked and turned to look. "Oh, hey Ranma!" She grinned at him as she danced around the bullets that were being fired at her. "Seems that Emi-chan wanted to have some fun, but then I accidentally ran over someone who said that you were his dad," she gestured at Otto in her arms, "so I thought I'd bring him here to see if you were here and you were, but I'm honestly shocked, I thought that loops prevented people from having children since we'd all go insane if we had to watch our children grow up a little bit, then disappear and get born again and again and again and again and..."

"Nuku..." Ranma interrupted her, getting the excitable catgirl to stop saying anything. "I think Emi's going to get pretty upset at you if you don't pay more attention to her."

"Oh. Sorry." She put Otto down before jumping onto the wall of the compound, then up into the air, grabbing the tail of the helicopter and spinning around in mid air, causing the helicopter to spin and wobble through the air before crashing into the ground several blocks away. "Okay, Emi's done." She bounced back into the yard. "It's weird though, Otto looks like a boy but smells like a girl, what happened? Another mirror clone or something?"

"Actually, I'm a girl." Otto said as she stood up and dusted herself off. "Really, you grabbed my chest when you pulled me off of my bike, you should know my gender."

"Oh, sorry." Nuku rubbed the back of her head before blinking as her stomach growled. "Man! I forgot, it's almost time for dinner." Waving to Ranma and Otto, she jumped over the wall and ran fast enough to leave a giant dust cloud in her wake.

"Uh..." Otto blinked a few times as she looked at Ranma. "So, you know her?"

Ranma chuckled and nodded. "She lives on the other side of Nerima and stays there, normally. Her name's Nuku Nuku."

"Weird name." Otto muttered, getting a laugh from Nabiki.

"She used to be a cat."

"Eh?" Otto stared as Nabiki smirked at her.

"Yep. Then she got ran over, her brain put into an android body and she stayed that way for awhile, but then..." She trailed off, looking at Ranma, who shrugged.

"She ended up getting a real flesh-and-blood catgirl body." Sighing, he shook his head at that. "Interestingly enough, she only has the cat ears and tail and she can make her finger and toe nails long and hard enough to be claws, other than that... She's pretty much human."

"Except when she goes into heat." Nabiki snarked at him.

"Right, except when she..." He trailed off and mock-glared at her as Nabiki stuck her tongue out at him. "I hate you."

"Feeling's mutual." Nabiki smirked as she headed towards the kitchen, she wanted that snack.

"Hey, dad..." When Ranma looked at her, Otto rubbed the back of her head. "My bike exploded... Um... Can I have a new one?"

Ranma rolled his eyes at her, honestly, she looked too dammed cute with that embarrassed expression on her face. "Fine, but I'll teach you how to make one this time, okay?" Otto nodded as the two went into the house.

Hours later, Genma finally found his way back to the dojo. He was rather beaten up and extremely hungry as he stumbled into the compound. "Growf?" He wasn't surprised to see everyone sitting at the table, well, Soun wasn't, which was odd, and Akane looked oddly subdued at the table while two, Sein and Dieci if Genma could remember correctly, looked at her with some light glares.

"Took you long enough." Nabiki chuckled, getting an angry growf from the panda as he sat down at the table.

I was out conscious and then I got wet, *Flip* what did you expect? The panda "signed" to her as it started to eat He blinked as Wendi stole the sign from him and started to inspect it.

"How the heck? You can only write on one side, how the..."

You learn quickly *Flip* when you need to *Flip* speak and have no human *Flip* vocal cords.

"...You're just messing with me, aren't you?" Wendi deadpanned, getting a shrug from the panda as it went back to eating.

"Just ignore him, Wendi. Everyone else does." Genma gave a sad sound as he looked at Ranma. There was something about his demeanor that kept the panda from actually challenging what he just said. What it was, he wasn't sure, though he suspected that it had something to do with why Dieci and Sein were upset.

(---)

A few days later...

Tre sighed as she looked at her sisters. "How long does it take for him to show up?" They were at the construction lot that she had been using as a training ground for the past few days.

"Depends on how long it takes them to correct his direction." Ranma chuckled as Deed tapped his shoulder. "Huh?" Looking to where she was pointing, he shook his head. "Well, there he is, I'm surprised."

"Why?" Sette was curious, she was rather enjoying the sparring matches that she had been getting with Tre in the past few days.

"Normally it takes Ryoga at least four hours to get somewhere, even with someone leading him, this time it only took about forty-five minutes." He shrugged at the disbelieving looks he was given. "Hey, I didn't give him the directional curse, regardless of what he thinks at times."

"I'm starting to believe everything you're telling us." Sette muttered before settling back to watch the fight. Honestly, she wondered just how much of a fight Ryoga could put up against Tre. Still, a part of her worried for her older sister, which got a sigh from the tall cyborg.

Cinque looked at Sette, concerned. "What's wrong?" When Sette was silent for awhile, Cinque shook the pink-haired girl's leg to get a response from her.

"...It was easier when I didn't feel anything." Sette murmured softly, blinking as she suddenly found herself sitting on Ranma's lap. "...Dad?" He was partly hugging her, one arm behind her back, the other across her body as she sat in his lap. She felt her face heat up, but it was rather nice.

It wasn't anything sexual, just a concerned parent holding their daughter. But Sette wasn't used to such close and comforting contact. It made her feel quite shy and embarrassed.

"Don't." He said softly as the rest of her sisters, except for Cinque, since she had been the one to ask, and Uno, since she was sitting right next to Ranma. "It might be true that not having emotions makes things easier, but all it does is make you feel empty inside."

Sette, her face still slightly red, looked at Ranma as his eyes seemed to dull and get unfocused. She wasn't the best at reading people's emotions, but something seemed wrong here. "Dad?"

He shook his head quickly and looked at her, smiling softly. "Sorry, but even if things would be simpler without emotions, you should never, ever wish to have none. It's better to feel some emotions and be alive, than move through life feeling nothing."

Ranma blinked as he felt a hand on his shoulder, turning to look, he saw Cinque's smiling softly at him. "What?"

Cinque shook her head, unable to really put into words how happy she was that Sette was feeling emotions and her younger sisters were all becoming more and more human, rather than just fighting machines. The only thing she hoped for was that her sisters didn't suddenly decide to be as crazy as Wendi or as silly as Sein. It was alright in small amounts, but if they all decided to be like Wendi or Sein, well, Cinque wasn't sure what she'd do at that.

(---)

Ryoga looked at Tre, his face heated up slightly, he just couldn't get that mental image of when he first saw her out of his head. Coughing to hopefully clear away the images of her long legs, toned body, the scent and her large breasts...

Tre sweat-dropped as Ryoga turned bright red and face-faulted to the ground. "...He does this often?"

"Shampoo think that Lost Boy is just moron." The purple-haired Amazon sighed as Ryoga jumped to his feet and yelled at her. "Just fight now!" She yelled at him and really, really wished that he wasn't such a complete idiot.

Contrary to what Shampoo thought, Ryoga wasn't a total moron, he just tended to be less educated than most, due to him not able to get to school all that much. Despite that, he was still relatively smart, capable of reading, writing and speaking in several languages due to his travels. It wasn't his fault that he was totally inept at finding his way out of a room with one door and no windows with the aid of maps, compasses and a GPS.

Those doors tended to be hard to find after all. And he swore to high heaven that they liked to move around on him. Really, was it so much to ask for a door to be in front of him at all times?

"As much as I hate replying to someone who can barely speak the language, I do agree with her." Tre shifted into a stance. "So, just shut up and fight."

Ryoga got into his own stance and blinked as Tre rushed at him and punched him in the gut, the sheer speed and strength behind that attack was nothing to sneeze at, but he had seen her move, at least briefly, he just hadn't expected her to go so fast like that. Still, such an attack, well, he was pretty sure that if he hadn't just taken the Bakusei Tenketsu training, he'd probably be out with that one attack right then and there.

On the side-lines, Cologne smirked as Ryoga went falling to the ground. "It's not over."

"What makes you say that?" Nove asked as she looked at the little woman before shuddering. For some odd reason, the look on her face gave her the feeling that the old woman knew something she didn't. "Tre's the best fighter of my sisters." Or at the very least; the fastest and strongest, but Cologne didn't need to know that. "He's out."

"You think so?" Cologne smirked as Ryoga got up with no problem, much to the shock of the cyborgs watching. This was going to be fun, and she wondered just how long it would take for Tre to get poked by Ryoga, before mentally chuckling and sitting back to enjoy the show.

"What the heck?" Wendi could only stare as Ryoga rushed forward towards Tre, who merely side-stepped, only to have to block and parry the exploding shrapnel caused by Ryoga's finger touching the ground. Thankfully the two were far enough away from the group that none of the rocks got to them.

"Holy crap! Dad was right!" Otto nearly jumped in to help but Sein grabbed her shoulder and shook her head. "But, Sein..."

"Don't worry. Tre's strong, right?" Sein smiled at Otto as the boyish girl nodded. "Just relax then and hope that he doesn't touch her."

Otto wasn't too sure, but after a few more misses by Ryoga, she relaxed, after all, if he kept missing, he'd just wear himself out with all those rocks pelting him. Not to mention that Tre looked like she was starting to enjoy how easy this was going to be.

When Ryoga missed again, Tre smirked and kicked him in the gut, lifting Ryoga off the ground and allowing her to punch him in the jaw and into a nearby steamroller. "Really, this is pretty easy." Tre rolled her eyes and turned to look at Cologne. "You were a tougher opponent."

Cologne started laughing and pointed her staff at Ryoga. Turning to look, Tre blinked a few times as Ryoga effortlessly got up. "What the hell?"

"Was that all?" Ryoga smirked at her. "I barely felt that. In fact, it kind of tickled."

"What kind of freak is he?!" Wendi glomped Nove as she trembled slightly. Nove didn't even bother pushing the other redhead off of her that time, since she knew just how hard Tre could hit. Hell, even she couldn't take her older sister's attacks and shrug them off like that. What kind of training did this Bakusei Tenketsu entail anyway?

"To be able to take a punch like that..." Cinque trailed off, her face paling, not that anyone was looking at her, since she was sitting the furthest back. For some reason, the shortest cyborg was imagining Ryoga having to suffer from several dozen Excellion or Divine Busters at maximum power. Anything that could survive that had to be tough enough to take a single punch from Tre.

Oddly enough, Sette was imagining Ryoga having to listen to Kodachi and Deed laugh at him. She looked at her shorter sister, sitting just in front of her and Ranma and stared at the brunette oddly.

Deed suddenly got the urge to start laughing, and she wasn't sure why.

As Ryoga tried to poke her again, Tre grabbed his outstretched arm and spun around, getting his feet off of the ground as she spun around a couple of times before letting go and letting him crash into pile of steel beams. Looking around, she grabbed a piece of pipe and rushed at him, cracking the pipe across his ribs and sending him tumbling away from her. "...There's an analogy here somewhere, but I'm not sure what it is."

"Homerun?" Cologne spoke up, remembering how fun baseball was when she was little. Hey, she was old and had seen a lot. Sports like Volleyball, Baseball and even Basketball were actually pretty popular back in her village. She was thankful that football, both versions, had never caught on in the village, that would have been messy.

"Hole in one?" Wendi shrugged and blinked when Nove looked at her weirdly. "I was bored that day."

"Strike?" Sette raised her hand and Ranma shrugged before adding his two cents to the conversation.

"Timber?"

"Gooooaaaallll!" Sein jumped up with her hands straight up in the air. "What? The Spanish guys were yelling that and getting their hands up in the air like this after making goals."

"What kind of weirdos do I have for family members again?" Tre wondered, before she found herself suddenly leaving the ground before getting slammed into the ground onto her back. Grimacing, she let go of the pipe and rolled away and onto her feet and stared at Ryoga as he looked at her with an amused look on his face. "...Are you sure you're human?"

Ryoga scratched his head, if he thought about it, it was a pretty good question. He couldn't even recall the last time he had seen his parents. Still, he was having fun with this fight, even if he was starting to hurt slightly from those attacks she was landing on him. "If that's all you've got, you should just give up."

"Too hell with this..." Tre grumbled, purple bladed wings appearing from her wrists and ankles. "Ride Impulse!"

Ryoga's eyes widened as she glowed purple and suddenly disappeared in a flash, no wait, there was a purple thing flying at him, the way his body jerked from it as it passed by was no illusion. Even before he recovered, he took another shot to the back, causing him to stumble forward, another hit to his side had him twisting to the side before a hit to the back of his head sent him stumbling forward. He spun on his heel and saw a purple blur heading right at him. Smirking, he waited until the last moment before sticking his finger out.

Tre's eyes widened, dammit, she had been to eager, too hasty and now she was going to pay the price as his finger touched her right in the chest above her breasts. The shock knocked her out of Ride Impulse and caused her to crash into Ryoga, the two bouncing on the ground for a couple of feet before they slid to a stop. She could only blink at him stupidly as he stared up at her, continuing to poke her in the chest, her breasts pressing against his body as she straddled him, the two of them wondered what the hell just happened.

The two looked at the spectators, their faces still stuck in that same stupid look.

Cologne started chuckling, she couldn't help it, it was always so funny to see people's faces when they learned that a technique didn't do what they thought it could do. She often wondered why people didn't do more research into new techniques. Oh well, it did provide extreme amusement for her.

"What the heck?" Nove turned to Cologne as the old woman was starting to laugh more at everyone's confusion. "What's going on? I thought that was lethal."

"What? You mean this little Bakusei Tenketsu?" Cologne poked Nove in the forehead, getting a surprised look from the redhead and her hair standing on end. "You honestly think I'd teach him a lethal Amazon technique when he's not even a member of our tribe?"

"So... How can it make rocks explode if it can't do the same to people?" Cinque was glad that Tre didn't blow up, but still, she wondered why someone would develop such a technique for battle if it was useless on people.

Cologne laughed at the small girl's question. "That's the whole point of the technique. You see, it was designed years ago by construction workers in order to clear away large boulders, since we didn't have modern technology back then. The toughening up part was a nice bonus, especially since that's useful in conflicts, unarmed or not."

Tre suddenly shot up and glared at Ranma. "You said that you saw the technique make forests explode."

"I think the actual words were "I've seen the technique shatter roads, mountains, level forests and cause cave-ins," nowhere in there did I say anything about it killing someone."

Tre twitched, held her finger up as she looked at him, before sighing and realizing that he did have a point. "You could have said something."

Ranma shrugged at her. "Actually, I was kind of curious to see how you would handle it."

Ryoga stood up and rubbed the back of his head. "So... That's it then?"

"Would either of you had fought if you knew that the technique was worthless as an attack?" Cologne chuckled as they shook their heads. "Besides, no one got hurt, it was a fun fight to watch, and I got to have fun at you young kids' expense!" She laughed as she bounded away, Shampoo following her with a wave.

Sette looked at Ranma, she was a little disappointed that Ryoga didn't get what was coming to him, but she wanted to know something. "Hey, dad..?" She asked as she got off of his lap and the two walked to Tre, who was looking rather pissed off.

"Hmm?" Ranma looked at the other girls as they started to clear out of the lot, well, except Uno and Cinque. He mentally laughed as he heard Sein admit to the others that she knew it was a useless fighting technique, only to get yelled at by Nove and Deed.

"Are all fighting techniques in this world based on something else?"

"More or less. Some are designed for food, some are designed for drinks, others designed for construction, and some are designed for thievery." He grabbed Tre's hand as she tried to punch him in the face.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" She snapped as the tall cyborg glared at him.

"Other than wanting to see how you'd react if you thought someone could kill you with a touch, I have no excuse." When Tre growled at him, he sighed. "Look, Tre, I'll admit, I'm a bastard at times," he poked her in the chest, right between her breasts, causing her to fall on her ass as he let go of her hand, "but I've also trained a lot of people over the course of these loops, and if I hold your hand the entire way as you learn, you won't be able to think for yourself." Sighing, Ranma turned around and started to walk away. "And that would be the worst thing for you and your sisters, being unable to think for yourself."

Tre looked at Uno, who shook her head as she walked up to her sister. "What happened?"

"I think, that in all these loops, that he's made a lot of mistakes, hurt a lot of people and did stupid things, so sometimes the situations he finds himself in with us brings back painful memories."

Tre sighed, she wasn't really mad at him, she was just in a state of shock and she needed to do something to get rid of the shock. "We should go home before something happens to make things worse, huh?" The others nodded and started to walk back to the dojo.

"Hey, Cinque..."

"Hmm?" The smallest cyborg looked up at her taller, but much younger, sister. "What is it, Sette?"

"We should do something nice for dad." The girl sighed and slumped when Cinque asked her what she had in mind. "I'll... Get back to you on that."

Cinque nodded, but was smiling inside. Even if this world was weird and crazy, it was making her sisters develop and open up. A little bit of trickery more than made up for it, at least in her opinion.

If nothing else, then Cinque was grateful for that at least.

[SilentOutlaw]

Where can I read the previous chapters?

[Nanya01]

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