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This is the last fanfic I'll be posting before I take a hiatus to participate in NaNoWriMo. Five drabbles will posted in one day, so this will be (I hope) finished by Thursday or Friday.
Mach MESSER, Titanium Jazz is the TENTH piece in the TBY timeline, taking place two years prior to StrikerS, three years before the first MLR fanfic.
P.S: 'Messer' is German for 'knife'. Credit goes to BLEACH's Bount Arc for the idea.
The Bygone Years
Mach MESSER, Titanium Jazz
1. Meeting
If you were to ask Subaru Nakajima and Teana Lanstar how they met, you would get two different accounts.
To Subaru, she would say she had a run-in with a couple of thugs looking for small prey to rob from. The barracks was a little ways off, just further down the street, but to not be part of the action would be a serious understatement. With her trusty device, the one and only Mach Calibur, she would bring these rapscallions to justice!
To Teana, she would tell you she was on her way back to the magical academy's main campus, having journeyed from one of the numerous training grounds, when she heard an amazing ruckus. It was a voice; a very loud, very piercing voice. Normally she would expect a victim of crime to call for help, but this person in particular had no idea what she was getting herself into.
Proclaiming you're going to kick their ass to tall, burly men with plasma pistols and a vicious-looking needle gun was a disaster waiting to happen.
Especially when the recipient of those words turned out to be the school goofball.
So what did you do? you ask.
Before Subaru can get the chance to speak, Teana clamps a hand over her mouth and tells you what really went down in a single sentence: the thugs didn't wait for this scrawny little kid to finish and opened fire, prompting Tea to pull Subaru in a nearby alley (who was having one of her cowardly numbers) and allowing the men to escape.
"But I did fight them!" exclaims Subaru. "Mano e mano!"
"All you did was shit bricks and cry for a half hour," says Teana, deadpanned.
At this Subaru's face burns darkly and she turns away, unable to answer.