I Kill For Your Happiness
An Inspired NanoFate/"Higurashi" Crossover Story With Arf
Written by gonzotheanime
Nanoha characters belong to Seven Arcs. Higurashi belongs to 7th Expansion.
The Seed
A construction site. Uminari. It's dusk.
"I guess I'm a monster, now, am I?" asked Arf , atop a pile of bricks. Her hands were bloody. Nanoha and Fate, in their barrier jackets, are at the bottom, devices ready. They're trying to distract themselves from the stench of blood coming from a pile of trash bags and dirt to their left. Also at that pile was a broken shovel.
"As if I had any other choice," she continued. "As if there WAS any other choice."
"Please, Arf," begged Fate. "Tell me. Why did you do such a hideous thing?"
"You wanna know why?" responded the familiar. "Do you really wish to know why?"
"Yes, if it eases whatever pain you have."
"What pain? Once you hear this, Master, you're gonna question what pain is!"
A teenage Fate T. Harlaown arrived home one evening to Lindy's Uminari apartment. Her familiar, Arf was in her cute puppy form when she greeted her master at the door, smiling and wagging her tail.
"So how was your day?" she asked.
"I guess it's normal," the mage responded. "We had a few scuffles with Arisa's new bag, we had lunch together, and―oh right!―we had a chat on cute boys in the classes."
"Oh? So who do you like?"
"It's not a boy, particularly. But one guy did ask me out."
"A guy?" The familiar was in such a shock, she transformed into her human-dog form and went quickly for drinks and shoved Fate onto the couch. "C'mon, give me something juicy!"
"I dunno," spoke the mage, a bit uneasy. "I mean, he didn't give a name or anything, just asked me if I'd eat lunch with him."
"Well, what did he look like?"
Fate had to think for a minute. "He's a bit taller at about 6', has short brown hair, and blue eyes."
"Why does that sound familiar?" asked Arf. Somehow, Nanoha comes to mind.
"I dunno. But, should I accept it? I do have other interests, but would it be rude to decline?"
"Hmm." The dog-girl wasn't certain, but if Fate was to live (semi)normally, she had to take chances. "I say, go for it. It's worth a try. And if it goes bad, then abandon ship."
"Are you sure? You haven't had much luck to go on."
"So? You don't have much, either."
"I guess I should. It won't hurt..." She gets up. "Now for a shower."
"And," spoke Arf quickly, "If you see the guy, ask for his name."
The following day, Arf waited anxiously in human form for Fate to come home with the news about the potential suitor. Fate anticipated it, so as soon as she came in through the door, she said, "His name is Kouta."
"Wow. Short and sweet name."
"He sounds sweet. He even asked me for dinner, but I ended up asking him to come over."
"Just in time! Lindy's coming home this afternoon! I told her and she was gonna ask me to bring him over, but you beat me to it."
"Still, can you appear in your puppy form? I don't think he'll like someone with real dog ears and tail to appear at the table. Not to speak of any wrong."
"Nah," assured Arf. "No biggie. I can only hope he isn't allergic."
"No, it's better. He says he's a dog person."
That seemed a little troublesome to Arf. "You know, it's gonna be hard to keep up that, but I'm only doing this for you!"
"Thank you, Arf. I really appreciate it."
A green glow came from the kitchen. Arf and Fate glanced over to see, appearing in the glow, Lindy Harlaown.
"I don't think I'll ever get over something that creepy," spoke Arf to Lindy.
"It's not my fault! Even the other captains don't like it!" the lady whined. "And who are you to judge on the color of my magic?"
"Nevermind. By the way, Fate already invited that boy to dinner."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, mother," spoke Fate. "His name is Kouta. He's coming tonight."
"Splendid! Now to make dinner!"
The familiar was surprised. "This early? It's barely 4!"
"We also got the others to feed, you know!"
"Oh. Right."
The Harlaown family assembled at the table, with Amy Limietta and Fate's brother Chrono sitting closer together than usual. Across was Lindy and Fate, and to Fate's right at the end of the table was the boy of the evening, Kouta. (Under the table in puppy form was Arf.)
"Seems love is in the air," commented Amy.
"Why?" asked Fate.
"Guess who got engaged?"
"No!" gasped Lindy. "Don't tell me..."
"She got me, mother," spoke Chrono, blushing.
The captain squealed with glee. "I knew it! I knew right from the beginning you'd be the perfect couple! So, when's the ceremony?"
"Lindy!" whined Amy. "We haven't gone THAT far!"
"How many kids?"
"One!" The response was very quick.
"She did think that far," commented Kouta.
"It seems that way," replied Lindy with a smile. She turned her attention to the new couple. "So how did you come to know my daughter, Kouta?"
"I see her in some classes. She also sits near some brunette with a side-pony tail."
"Oh, that's Fate's friend, Nanoha Takamachi. Both are friends since elementary."
"I see. But really, this girl's beautiful, so I had to ask her out."
"Not the way I intended," spoke Fate frankly, "but I couldn't turn him down with his honesty."
"Honest men are rare to find these days," spoke Lindy. "Amy and Chrono probably know of that."
"And so are cute girls," Kouta said. "I see how she got it."
Fate started, "But, she—!"
Lindy blushed cherry red. "Oh, dear. I adopted Fate, but I didn't think there'd be anything between us."
"Enough of me! I just want to eat in peace!"
Kouta was in the enclosed bathing area as Arf snuck in for a peek. Before she got to the door, she heard paper rustling and pen scribblings. The she heard the word "mentally unbalanced" murmured. "This could work" soon followed. Arf was suspicious instantly.
She also had another thought: What's Nanoha thinking about of this?
The familiar snuck out late and headed to the Takamachi residence. A few taps woke the white mage up.
"What are you doing, Arf?" asked Nanoha, weary.
"I had a nagging thought in my head. Something that concerns Fate but she doesn't need to know this."
"Alright." She pulled Arf in through the window. "What is it?"
"I noticed Fate is dating. I thought she had interest in you."
Nanoha sat on her bed. "In all honesty, I just couldn't compete. We're both girls, and as much as I would love to, I had to let her live her own life the way she should and with a happy face."
"You let her date another classmate so she'd be happy?"
"In short, yes."
"But she's happier when she's with you."
"I can win against her in a magical battle, but I'm weak when it comes down to what she really loves." She tries to hid the obvious sadness behind a smile. Arf wasn't blind to this. "Not everything is meant to be."
Arf heard enough. No use troubling Nanoha over something small. She bid the mage a nightly farewell and left through the same window back to her home, trying to keep Nanoha's idea in mind.
A week has gone by, and it seemed to Arf that Nanoha was slowly becoming ancient history. The more Kouta and Fate are together, the more distant Fate was to Nanoha, and the more that Nanoha was losing her cheerful shelf.
One night, Arf had enough of the pain Nanoha endures constantly. The selfless deed Nanoha strained herself with, formulated almost 5 years ago and this was the thanks Fate could give her.
That same night could change the entire situation completely.
Kouta arrived early when Fate was readying her bath, so when she went to bathe, it was only puppy Arf and Kouta.
"I am so close, I can almost taste it," he spoke as the TV was running advertisements.
Try to get into her pants if you dare, thought Arf. Let's see how high you voice will be.
"All I need to do is get Saya to bitch Fate out and then she'd be broken. Then, I'll deny her love and it's one more for the tally."
What? I gotta be imagining this!
"Then it's that Nanoha brat. I've waited to turn that bitch into a miserable mistake of life for what she did to me!"
Arf was shocked. She couldn't believe the words she's hearing, and she had no idea what to make of it.
"This is so easy! Seeing Fate so unbalanced, who knows? She might even kill herself."
The familiar was in severe fright. She ran off and hid in Fate's room. His words were rushing so fast in her mind, they merged into one thought: break Fate's heart.
What even scared her worse is how Fate still hasn't gotten over the trauma of her real mother's deception, the lies of Precia Testarossa. Countless nights, Fate has cried in her sleep, tossed and turned in agony, even screamed herself and the entire apartment awake. There was even one time she went comatose for 5 days and wouldn't even look at Arf. With that trauma, she could end her life at the drop of a dime.
Arf was shivering uncontrollably for what seemed like hours. Not one sound came out when Fate came in for a new bottle of lip gloss and bolted out. She tried to walk around as her human form, only to chaotically collapse in front of the Takamachi House, screaming in horror. Nanoha was home alone, but was a miracle to Arf.
She couldn't even tell Nanoha, being in such mental disarray. She might be convinced that Arf became paranoid if the truth was told. Just to be safe, Nanoha made Arf take a bath to soothe her unhinged mind.
"How the hell did this happen?" she spoke to herself, crackling from her screams. "Why would he try to betray Fate? And why is he going for Nanoha? How the hell did he knew about Fate's psyche?" She teared up. "Or, have I lost my mind entirely? I can't even tell if it's real."
Deep Cut
"Arf," spoke Fate sternly as she arrived at Nanoha's for the familiar. "You shouldn't be running
off like that. I come home and found the place empty. With Mother and Onii-chan gone, the
place was eerie."
Arf just sulked.
"If something bothers you, tell me. Otherwise, I may have to punish you."
Arf made up a white lie. "I had too much of the silence. I guess I lost it."
Fate bought it. "I'm sorry for leaving you like that." She turned to Nanoha. "Thanks for taking
care of Arf. Sorry for bothering you."
"I need the company, too."
Fate was surprised. "I guess this works out after all."
Arf couldn't sleep that night. Worry kept her eyes open, so she glanced at Fate's snug face. It
was adorable until she then said "mother" and teared up.
It became unbearable. There is no damn chance in Hell I'm letting Fate fall for this, she thought. Nanoha can't be bugged and Lindy's out, so there only one thing. I have to stop him. Even if there's a grim chance it'll work.
She staked out a place a few blocks from home, an abandoned construction site. Tools and holes galore, and the wooden fence was high enough to hide any signs of a fight.
Now to drag the boy out before this person he called "Saya" comes in and drives Fate over the edge, right back into that bleak darkness that took so long to escape from.
The next day, Arf then asked if she could go out alone, donning a disguise to avoid getting caught by animal control. After searching a few blocks, she picks up Kouta's scent (from her first few encounters with him) near a cafe.
The cafe was small, yet roomy with few tables scattered about on its green carpet. Not many patrons was there, making her search easier and her choice seating perfect: a table away from Kouta.
A young girl in a school uniform similar to Fate's entered the cafe and went for Kouta. The girl had the same burgundy eyes as Fate's but her hair color was strange: pink. Kouta told the girl, "Hello, Saya. What's up?"
Arf couldn't believe it. Such a discovery made it all worth it, if it's for Fate's safety. She can only hope to bag her as well.
A while after leaving, she got Fate out of the apartment and over to Nanoha's home, then attempted to mimic Fate as she placed a call to Kouta's phone. His number was left on Fate's vanity mirror. It's evening.
"Kouta," she faked, "someone took my purse and went into this construction site two blocks from my place. I need help!"
"Alright, I'm coming!" It looked as if he's unaware of where Fate really is. One can only hope.
The site was dark for the most, with only one light. But Kouta can see no Fate at all. He did hear grumbling noises. A blur struck him down. On the ground, he turns and sees a strange silhouette. It looked like a human girl but with strange ears and a furry tail.
"Aw. Did that hurt?" she mocked.
"What the hell are you?"
"Remember that cute puppy hanging around Fate called Arf?"
"Yea."
"That puppy is me, alright. I'm her guardian beast. I can take on any form, even a cute little dog."
"What?"
"As if you was talking to yourself! I heard everything, on how you was gonna betray Fate's love with a girl named Saya, drive Fate into deep depression, and how you're using her just get Nanoha."
Kouta gets up and dusted himself off. Now the situation's familiar. "I see you done your homework. Do you do this to everyone Fate meets?"
"Not everyone's trying to manipulate her."
"Since I have a nice feeling this won't leave this place, I might as well." He began to circle Arf, but her eyes stayed focus on him. "I had loved Nanoha far longer than that bitch will, ever."
"My master? A bitch?"
"I was turned down because she was attached to her. I never lost a girl in my life!"
"It's no wonder, if you call Fate a bitch."
"All she is to me is juts a means to end Nanoha. But I'm not so bland as to ignore even the most minuscule details. Since I deal with women for most of my school years and my dad's a well-known local psychiatrist, I learned on signs of most mental problems. I wonder what kind of childhood trauma that thing face?"
Fate.
A thing.
Those brought back the painful memories of the whole incident. The lashings, the violence, the whole manipulation ordeal of Precia using Fate to gather such dangerous items for her own selfish desires without even thinking of Fate's health. And those thoughts of Fate being a "thing" to that wretched being.
"Don't..." whispered Arf.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't say that."
"I must've hit some nerve. Hard to believe a dog has feelings for such a thing."
The dog-girl's boiling point was past it's peak and Arf saw red. "MY MASTER'S NOT A THING!"
As he rounded to her left side, Arf flung her right leg to his torso with all her might, sending him to the hard fence. To Arf's horror, he manages to get up and grab a metal water pipe. He stormed to the familiar, swinging.
She dodged each swing, one more close to contact than the other. He then struck her stomach and kick her as she cringed. He grabbed a hold of her throat when the chance came. He hissed, "I'm not gonna let some mutt ruin my chance to take those two brats down! Not when I have this going just perfect!"
Quickly, she flung dirt into the crazed boy's eyes. It distracted him long enough for Arf to catch her breath. She realized the pipe he dropped foolishly. Her anger came back, this time, at a new level never discovered before.
Kouta cleared his eyes, and turned to Arf, the girl holding his pipe with a demonic glow in her eyes.
"You can't do this!" he yelped. She swung hard and struck his head, splitting it wide opening.
He should be dead, but the familiar was too mad to even notice. She kept swinging at the head, spattering brain, bone, and blood in every direction until she calmed down.
Exhausted, she sat herself to a metal post nearby and looked at the damage. She knows that he's dead, but she can't help to talk to the dead body.
"My master is not a thing! She has feelings, she has thoughts, she has love. She went through a hell that you never went to and I'll be damned if I let you send her back to it!" She rested some more before continuing. "I guess I went too far. I bashed your ego and your brains outta your skull. You probably aren't listening to me. Then again, you tried to kill me, you bastard. I just did it faster than you could."
A freshly prepared grave for the body was nearby. Before burying, Arf cleaned his pockets for anything tracing back to the Saya girl. She found his wallet and cell phone. The most recent outgoing text was soon after her call to Kouta, directing her to the site. "Don't care about your doctor dad," she told the dead boy. "You're still stupid."
A simple magical move of the dirt provided the quick burial, buying Arf enough time until the pink-haired girl shows up. The pipe was disposed to a hobo in an nearby alley. Luckily, familiars don't leave fingerprints.
She then dug around the abandoned office trailer at the construction site, finding a fire ax. This'll do nicely, she thought, hiding in the trailer as soon as the girl arrived.
"Kouta!" yelled the girl. "What the hell are you doing at this dump? I don't see that bitch anywhere!"
Arf prepared herself with the door opened quietly and Saya facing away from the trailer. All it took was one long jump and one precise hit to the head to kill her. Not one scream could be heard.
Now one thing struck her: she didn't prepare a hole for this one. Saya came too soon, and it could take hours to dig a new grave. Maybe I should cut her up and then dig a small-enough hole for the body parts.
It might be long, but she reminded herself of Fate. It's for her sake...
It didn't take Nanoha and Fate long enough to find Arf missing from the apartment, but it was much of a shock to find Arf tossing trash bags in a hole in the ground at the site. Blood was soaked through the soil and it's stench filled the air. The two confront the familiar, who strangely didn't try to hide anything but reluctantly explained as calmly as possible. Her only evidence was Kouta's and Saya's phones they had when they were killed. Nanoha and Fate browsed through the phones. Arf was very lucky that nothing was deleted, as several texts at strange times, some when Fate was with him, was discovered.
"It's still a wrongful deed," commented Nanoha.
"Wrongful?" gasped Arf. "Alright, tell me what you would've done if you were me."
"It's certainly not this."
"Then what would you do differently?"
Sadly, the white mage couldn't think of an answer.
"I figured. But above anything, why would someone want you guys torn apart and sad?"
"I dunno," spoke Fate.
"Kouta was really abusive to women, but he's just misled," said Nanoha. "I only turned him down once because I heard of how he drove someone to suicide, and how he was really mean to Arisa. Remember her?"
The dog-girl nodded. Arisa Bannings was one of Nanoha's best friends, before Fate. When Precia tried to kill her, Arf transported to Earth so she could recover. Arisa took her in to her ravish estate to nurse her to health. It's was fortunate that Arisa knew Nanoha and brought her over to show Arf, getting the two together and requesting Fate's rescue from the hell-spawn mother.
"I didn't like the way he treats women either," said Fate. "But I still don't find this justified."
"Don't you see?" scoffed Arf. "You meant every-damn-thing to me. You are my reason to live, and as long as you're happy, I'm happy. If you lost Nanoha, get betrayed by that bastard, sink into depression and leave this existence, I'd go to the grave with you. But I love you too much!
"No matter what anybody says, no matter if they say that I deserve better, I'm gonna say that I have the best life ever, and the best Master a familiar like me could ever had! I never ask for much, only for you to be happy! And I'd do anything to make you happy, and for you to stay happy, as long as possible. I'd give my life to make you smile. I'd even take a life to see you smile, like I did to that worthless sack of dog shit and his accomplice!
"It's criminal, I know. I'm willing—no, I am begging to pay the price for the horrible things I've done for your happiness, Fate! I had no other choice, and you have nothing to say to change that fact. All I could do is to spill and taste the blood of the cold-hearted, fucking bastard that wants to take everything you hold dear and destroy it. I had to kill, to erase him before he turns your world into hell!" The familiar then broke down sobbing.
"If you meant your word," whispered Fate as she wrapped her arms around Arf, "I'll forgive you."
"I mean it! You mean everything to me!"
"We're gonna keep this secret, and I promise things will be back to normal."
"Thanks. I don't deserve it, but thank you!"
"Besides," spoke Nanoha. "I missed Fate."
"I pretty much figured. You two were the perfect couple."
Both mages blushed. "Couple?" both spurted.
"Both of you were happy when you're around each other."
Nanoha giggled. "I guess so."
Fate still blushed. "I leave that impression on you?"
Arf answered, "Yeah."
"Nice. Now I have two problems: disposing bodies and those nasty rumors about us having sex."
Aftermath
Kouta and Saya became missing people, and their bodies was discovered at the site. The pipe Arf planted on the homeless person was determined as the murder weapon and since it only has the hobo's fingerprints, he was detained for assault, resulting in murder. The ax was also used against him, even though no prints was found.
Nanoha and Fate decided to become best friends again, but Nanoha stepped things up when she started to call Fate "her wife" and even coming over to Fate's place frequently. The bedroom door would be locked magically from Arf, and loud noises could be heard.
Arf would still be haunted by the crimes of that fateful night for some time, but everytime she looks at Fate's adorable eyes, it reminded Arf on why she did it. She killed them for her happiness, that's it. Familiars are faithful to their masters, after all, and they know what's best for their masters. Right or wrong, as Arf found out.