This is a work of fiction. All similarities to real people or events are purely coincidental. Unless they're not. Suprise!

Calendar Year 0072, May 05

"…and be sure to always give it your best. Be proud of what you joined, and know that everyone is proud of you. That is all."

Head Trainer Jonathan Kea finished his speech and took one last look over the many energetic youths lined up in front of him before he walked off the stage. Everyone was called to a sloppy attention as he left, then ushered them off to their individual units for processing and room assignments.

Fijisoma Naoko, who now goes by Ethan Frist to all but his own mind, was to say the least, pleasantly surprised. Despite being a mere 14 years old, he was expecting to join an Army when he signed up for the Time Space Administration Bureau. He had never been in an army before, but he was pretty sure that the initial training to an army, sometimes known as Boot Camp, usually involved a lot of yelling and insulting. Instead, this first day has been nothing but pleasant, if not a little hectic. Nice people nicely asked them to go here, sign this, pick up that, and just now the head instructor himself gave a long speech about trying hard and doing well with a few comments about open door policies thrown in. Then again, the vast majority of the trainees there were only 14.

Ethan probably shouldn't have been surprised. It's been like that for the 11 years he could remember being here. It was just a little hard to grasp where the majority of a society could be this genuinely nice.

Easily hefting his new sac of clothing over his shoulder, Ethan quietly followed the crowd of his group as they moseyed on over to an apartment looking complex 4 stories tall. Many of the others chatted along the way, talking about their pasts or goals for the future. He didn't feel a need to join in on that though. He didn't recognize anyone there, plus it's been a long day of standing around. He couldn't wait to get his room and some free time so he could throw in a workout.

They all dropped their bags in the main lobby and immediately filed through the rooms down the west hall for some final processing. Admittance into the dorm, a last minute scan in the Clinic room, Having their palm prints scanned for meals and room locks, signing for linen, etc. It was more a tour of the administrative wing than anything necessary.

When that was all done, and everyone was back in the main lobby, their group instructor stood up and announced some plans and instructions. Dinner is at 7, lights out at 10, wakeup call for breakfast is at 6am and a 7:30 am sharp attendance in the lobby again after that. His biggest pet peeve is people who are late to anything, so promises of punishment to late arrivals. Finally, some strictness! Kids need some discipline if they're going to work well in an organized military.

Other than that, room assignments were finally handed out and everyone was made aware that their roommate is also serving as their partner for the duration of the training.

Ethan stepped out of the stairwell and looked around at the nearby room numbers. His room is 423 so… that way.

The elevator opened up right then spilling out a group of his fellow trainees. One girl, who was practically dragging her stuff, actually paused to look at him. "You took the stairs lugging all that stuff?" she asked.

Ethan shrugged as he turned to look at her. She was a little taller than him, with flaming red hair and a hairstyle to match. "I work out, so it's not a problem" he said. She was pretty good looking he thought to himself.

His eyes told his thoughts, which the girl noticed. She scoffed and turned down the opposite hallway to drag her stuff to her own room. Ethan strayed a moment to enjoy the sight of her backside before smiling to himself and proceeding to his own room.

His roommate was already there, and had already claimed the top bunk. "Hi" he said cheerfully as Ethan walked in. "I'm Oberi Grey. I take it you're my new partner?"

Ethan took his outstretched hand and shook it. "Ethan Frist. Grey? Why does that sound so familiar?" He was thinking about some fanfictions from his first life, but this guy had no way of knowing that.

"I'm glad you noticed." He said as he took a prideful pose. "I've got the strongest Linker Core in the unit! How about you?"

Oh, so he's that kind of a person. Pity. "It doesn't really matter" Ethan said neutrally.

"Don't tell me…" Grey put on an exaggerated look of abject shock. "You're the one with the weakest!?" He fell to his knees and raised his hands into the air in an over melodramatic pose of righteous indignation. "Oh, dear departed mother in Heaven, How can I possibly live if I'm doomed to surpass and suppress the man I'm supposed to support? Surely I shant live with this shame!"

Oh, so he's THAT kind of a person. Ethan couldn't help but snicker at the sight.

Grey jumped to his feet and threw his arm around Ethan's shoulders, his weight causing Ethan to slump in such a way that for a moment he actually felt like Simon under the arm of Kamina. It helped that Grey was significantly taller than him too. "Worry not about your magic my friend. I've got enough for the both of us!" he started to slowly drag Ethan to the door, pumping his fist into the air. "Now what say we merry men embark on a quest to join in the feast of this mighty castle?"

Ethan finally threw his arm off. "Later. I've still got to unpack."

Grey was leaning in the now open doorway with two fingers holding up his bowed head. "Very well then. It seems I must adventure unaided this day." He looked away, as if to hide his tears. "I pray the goddess favor you this day. Should thou choose to tempt the spirits of these dungeon walls, then I shall have an offering ready by my side at the banquet. Until then, Adieu!" With a flourish, he left the room, leaving Ethan staring at the empty door.

"that was… strangely disturbing" he said to himself. This guy obviously reads way too much fantasy. Ethan isn't any stranger to eccentric behavior though, so rooming with the guy should prove to be entertaining if nothing else.

Not that he had any plans to add to his delusions.

****

The so called "Banquet room" was an ordinary looking cafeteria located on the first floor, a moderately sized room with 3 rows of plain tables and some units lining the walls that electronically dished food onto your plate. The floor to ceiling windows facing the open courtyard was nice though.

Oberi was already sitting at a small table, chatting it up with a couple of girls. True to his word, there was a plate of food sitting at the empty spot next to him. With a small sigh, Ethan went over to join him.

"Ethan my friend, How kind of you to join us. These lovely young maidens have agreed to dine with us this evening." He indicated the girls at the table with a sweep of his hand. "This fiery maiden is Lara, while this gentle maiden is Luna". The redhead he saw earlier was Lara, the other a smaller girl with long dark brown hair and a shy disposition. Ethan noticed that the rest of the tables were full, which would explain why the girls were still there, despite that look of annoyance.

"Ethan Frist" he said politely as he sat down in the empty seat.

"Lara Melt" the redhead said. She turned an angry glare to Oberi. "I told you already, Stop being so damn informal!"

"Ha Ha Ha!" he ha'd. "Such trivial formalities are beneath the toils of us friends"

"Ooooh, you…Say something damnit" she poked at the other girl.

"Luna Dawn" the shy girl finally got a chance to say. "I really don't mind"

"There, you see? Even the delicate maiden chooses to partake in the bounty of our friendship."

"You" Lara said at Ethan. "Do you think you can put up with that" she indicated Oberi as she said 'that'. Ha, he's already been demoted to a thing. "the entire time here?"

Ethan shrugged and smiled gently. "Words are just words, Miss Melt. So long as it…" Ethan decided to play along with the objectization of his roommate "doesn't keep me up at night or hold me back in training, than I have no problems." Luna noticed the trend and giggled.

"Alright, I'll accept that" Lara said. "We're done here. Let's go" she ordered to Luna.

Even before she could stand up, Grey was by her side with her hand in his. "Thank you for favoring us with the gift of your presence, my Fiery maiden." He bowed gracefully and gently kissed her fingers. "I pray your evening be peaceful and momentous."

Lara turned as red as her hair. "We're going!" she said to Luna again as she forcefully yanked her hand free and grabbed her tray to leave. "And WE ARE NOT FRIENDS!!" she screamed in Oberi's face before storming off. Luna bowed politely before standing up to hurry after her partner.

Many of the people nearby began laughing. Ethan put his head into his hand in an "I don't know him" pose, which made some of the other people laugh even harder. The pose was to cover his smile however. Ethan had never in his life, in either of his lives, encountered such a perfect example of a tsundere girl, and it nearly brought tears to his eyes the nostalgia it brought of the time so long ago when he swooned over Moe characters as much as the next otaku.

The rest of the evening was spent ignoring the wild ramblings of his roommate.

****

A little after 4:30am, Ethan was standing outside in the crisp morning air wearing a light sweat suit. An hour and a half until breakfast meant plenty of time for a morning workout.

Nothing much he thought to himself as he performed some stretches. A 45 minute long distance jog and some calisthenics aught to be enough. He'd have to learn his way around the campus and rules before he started any intense self training.

For now, a trip to those woods, then circle around the back of the dorm and repeat should be a decent route to run. Ethan set his watch and took off.

After one and a half laps, apparently someone else decided to join him in his run. It was a girl, and she caught up and kept pace by virtue of her rollerblades. "Morning" Ethan said when it became obvious that she was keeping pace, instead of passing.

"Morning" she replied with a smile. "You take this route often?"

Ethan snorted. Was that a pickup line? "I just got here yesterday. If you know of a better one, please let me know." He gave the girl a glance over. Well built, but nice looking. Short blue hair held back with a long white headband,

"Sorry, I'm new myself" she replied with a shrug. "I saw you running, and thought you might be able to show me where the good workout spots were."

"Not today. Sorry. It's only the first day though. If you manage to find some good ones, be sure to let me know"

"Ok" she replied cheerfully "but only if you promise to do the same"

"Deal" he said, sticking his hand out.

Without pausing, she took it and shook it. "Deal" she said.

"Ethan Frist" he finally got around to introducing himself.

"Frist-san, huh? So you're the guy with the weakest Linker Core."

Ethan slapped himself on the forehead. "It's not even been 24 hours yet. Why does everyone know that!?"

She smiled playfully. "It's big news when someone's able to so barely squeeze in like that" she said. It was true, his Linker Core only just barely met the minimum requirement for entry into the Bureau, and the nurse in charge of their medical checkup even had the honesty to mention how rare that was. "Don't worry about it though. Magic strength isn't everything, I'm sure you'll do fine!"

"Thanks" he mumbled irritably.

"By the way. I'm Nakajima Subaru. Nice to meet you" she said.

Ethan fell flat on his face. They had just entered the woods again, and he tripped over a high tree root. At least, that's what She thought. If she had been paying more attention, she would have noticed that Ethan was STARING at her, and consequently tripped over his own feet.

Subaru? Holy shit, How could I have missed that!? On hindsight, she really was the real life spitting image of the Anime character he could remember. Maybe it was because people here looked like people instead of anime.

This could be a problem, he thought to himself. Subaru is a Cyborg, a future Ace under the thumb of Nanoha herself, and one of the integral characters in the Jail Scalleti incident some 2 years from now. He couldn't get involved with her to any degree, not without potentially butterflying a different, less pleasant outcome to that incident.

Subaru laughed, but not in a snide way, as he fell. "Are you alright?" she asked as she rolled to a stop and reached down to help him up.

"Ugh, how embarrassing" he said as he accepted the help and started to brush himself off. "maybe you shouldn't hang around me. My clumsiness might rub off on you"

"Don't worry about me. I know how to keep my balance" she indicated her rollerblades as she said that. "But I'll stick around anyway, if only to stop you from falling again"

"Really? With those on, at my slow pace you'd never get a good workout"

"My blades are under restraints, so I can get a good workout at any speed." She put her hands on her hips. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to get rid of me."

"Is it working?" he asked with a half smile.

That was not the response she was expecting, but still answered "Nope" without hesitating.

"Well if I can't get rid of you, shall we continue then?" She acknowledged and they both started running again.

The rest of the run went in companionable silence, much to Ethan's relief. Never before in this life had he wanted the workout to end so quickly. However, one day lost requires three to catch up, so he resolved himself to continue, yet try his best to politely disinterest the cyborg from hanging out with him.

After the run, on the grass infront of the dorm, Ethan began to perform a light callisthenic routine. At least, it was light for him. It was pushups, situps, squats, and other related exercises intermixed in such a way as to force all the muscles to bear a constant strain the entire time. To most people, the routine would be considered torturous, and even people who work out regularly would find the aftereffects painful enough to try something different.

To Subaru's credit, she kept up with the whole thing. She didn't ask to join, just did, and barely made a grunt the whole time.

At around 5:45, Ethan finished and stood up to go inside. Subaru wobbled to her feet and had to lean against the wall to stay standing. "Woah" she said weakly. "You sure no how to make a good workout"

"Yeah? Well let's see how you feel tomorrow" Ethan said.

"What? You're going to make it harder?" damn, sounds like she intends to join his workout regularly. He probably could have worded it better though.

"Not that" he said. "Let's just say I recommend a really hot shower"

"Oh. Ok. Well I'll see you after breakfast then"

Ethan stopped to look at her questioningly. "wha?"

"You didn't know? We're in the same training group"

"Oh, then later it is" he said and walked inside. Same training group? Sonofabitch! There are 25 training groups that started this year, Why the hell does she have to be in this one? Oh… it's going to be hard trying to avoid her the whole time. Well, if the future stays close enough to the manga canon, then in a few weeks she's gonna vow to her partner to be the best, and work single-mindedly to that end.

It's also a good thing she has such lesbian tendencies, he hoped to himself. Life-threatening situations or not, a guy could really fall in love with a girl like that.

****

"Choose a staff if you're going to pursue the Mid-Childa style, the Spear for Belkin. Keep in mind that this is the only device we're going to give you, so take good care of it. If you break it, or choose to switch styles, it's out of your own pocket to buy a new one." Called out Assistant Instructor Michael Tundra. The morning so far had been a class introducing the basics of both styles, then the issuing of the Storage Devices themselves.

When it was Ethan's turn, he immediately grabbed the Staff, and after signing for it stepped back to wait for his partner.

Sure enough, Subaru Nakajima and her partner Teana Lanster were in his TNG. When he knew what to look for, the two of them stood out like a beacon. They were both standing to the side and out of the way. They both had their own custom devices already, but were kept with the group for unity's sake.

A moment later, Oberi Grey walked up and slapped Ethan on his shoulder. "A Staff? Wow man, I'd think that an active little guy like you would be of a more up close and personal style"

"Mid-Childa magic is more my style" Ethan responded. It was true. He researched the spells and magic structure beforehand, and felt that Mid-Childa spells could be more easily worked with towards what he had in mind. "What about you? I'd think that you'd be more of a heavy artillery kind of guy?" Grey was holding a spear in his hand.

"Nope, I prefer to wear the mark of a gentleman. Admittedly it's a spear, not a sword, but little details like that can be worked out later"

"To each his own I suppose" said Ethan.

"Indeed" responded Grey. "Oh look, there's Lara and Luna. What say we say hi?"

"Please try to be civil" begged Ethan. "I don't want Miss Melt to cause a commotion or murder you in your sleep because you agitated her too much"

Oberi smiled. "don't worry about me my little friend. I know what to do when it comes to the ladies" That worried Ethan a little. People who say that are usually the ones who get slapped first. "Lara! Luna! How nice to see you again!"

"Miss Melt, Miss Dawn" said Ethan politely. Luna bowed in greeting.

"Mr. Frist. You haven't thrown that thing out yet?" she asked, clearly meaning Oberi.

Ethan couldn't help but smile at that. "Can't say I haven't tried. It just crawls right back in."

"Oh comeon guy's, Don't be like that" lamented Oberi out loud. "We're all friends here, right?"

"Maybe if you learned to be a little more polite I'd consider being more civil!" Lara practically spit in his face.

Ethan interrupted before things could get out of hand. "So I see you both went with Mid-Childa style. Any particular reason?"

Lara was all for doing anything other than talking to Grey. It's amazing how much a guy can get a girl to hate him in only a single day by trying to be polite. "My whole family's always been practicing the style. I'm already used to most of it"

Ethan nodded approvingly. "So sticking to what you know. Always a good thing. Miss Dawn?"

"Luna is fine" she said meekly. "I don't like hurting people"

"Do no fret my gentle maiden. For I shall be there to protect-"

Ethan clocked Oberi lightly on the head. "Stop that. You're scaring her." He said.

Lara gave Ethan a thankful smile, and as it was the first smile he saw her wear, he couldn't help but notice how beautiful it made her. Tsundere indeed. "So how about you?" she asked him.

Ethan shrugged. "I'd like to see if I can't use both."

Lara got a little wide eyed. "You can do that?"

"I don't know" Ethan said "but every skill has it's uses and I like to try different things. As it stands though, my Linker Core is pretty small, so Mid-Childa would be easier to start with."

****

By then everyone else had gotten their devices, and the group was dismissed for lunch. The afternoon was mostly devoted to a class about the disassembly, cleaning, and general care for the devices. While the devices themselves had a measure of self repair, that only seemed to apply to cracks and stuff. Heavy use of the things saw a build up of magicite in the tubes and filters that could cause miscasting or even the outright destruction of the machines if not regularly cared for.

Ethan really envied the rare Intelligent devices. Those things had self cleaning in addition to the self repair.

Despite the difference in style, the staffs and spears had mostly identical internal workings, so it was a joint class.

There was an hour workout before dinner. To Ethan and a few others, including his roommate, it was a very light workout with a mere half-hour run and some light calisthenics. Many of these kids had never had any real exercise in their lives however, so they were complaining about how harsh and unnecessary it was.

Ethan noticed that his morning routine was already having an effect on Subaru. As they were stretching at the end, he idly overheard Teana complaining about how such an active girl could do so poorly in an exercise.

After dinner was free time. Most of the trainees opted to relax or watch TV. A few went to the gym for another workout, while others still chose to call home to say hi to their friends or cry to their mommies or whatever they did on the phone.

Ethan chose to lift some weights, then after his shower he immediately plugged his new Storage Device into the room's computer to start looking over the pre-programmed spells available.

Oberi came back a little later from his adventure of talking to the girls who idled about. He had a big, red, hand shaped mark on his face, so Ethan had a pretty good idea about how that went, and who did it.

"So what's your story?" Oberi asked, blithely ignoring the pain and swelling on his cheek.

"Huh?" asked Ethan in genuine confusion.

"Well I'm naturally the Dashing Hero who usually saves the day and has many romantic subplots of whom I'll never be able to decide between. So what's your story?"

"I don't think I understand" said Ethan honestly.

"Oh comeon. You're the guy with the weakest magic of whom fate chose to place as my partner, which means you've got to have some amazing trick up your sleeve to more than cover for the magic. So what's your story? Are you some specially bred martial artist with more Chi than you'll ever know how to use? Are you a genetically modified alien with a super advanced cloaked ship hovering nearby ready to drop hoards of loyal minions at a moment's notice? Do you posses amazing psychic abilities that allow you predict your opponents every move? Or are you perhaps a closet mechanical genius who's going to pull out mind-bogglingly useful inventions that seem custom tailored for any situation you may need to use it? Nothing approaching my level of ability of course, but do you have anything that allows you to keep up with me and allow me to trust my back to you when the oddly well-timed strange occurs?"

Ok, so this guy reads WAY too much fantasy, with a Capitol WAY and seven explanation points!!!!!!!

"Sorry, nothing of the sort" Ethan said, but for whatever reason, he decided to play along "I may develop some super telekinetic abilities during a moment of dire need, but we both know that you can't predict something like that"

"Or can we…" Oberi said thoughtfully. "I understand though. Your niche is something so secret and embarrassing or traumatic that you'll keep it suppressed until the time I am captured and you must overcome your geas to protect my life and our unbreakable friendship. Forgive me, it was rude to ask, just know that no mater what your secret talent may be that I shall never look down upon you for it."

"Uh… thanks" Ethan said as he turned away from his roommate to continue reviewing the spells.

****

The next morning, as expected, Subaru begged out of the morning workout. Her body was so sore that she could barely stand. That suited Ethan just fine. Out of a courtesy towards her pain, he suggested a few things she could do to help speed her recovery, as well as a friendly suggestion to keep at it.

His run this time took him around most of the entire campus. He was able to see more of where things were yesterday, and the morning gave him the opportunity to better learn his way around. He got lost when he hit the base proper, but a nice tech nursing a cup of coffee on a bench was able to direct him back.

They finally started on their regular routine that day. Mornings were devoted to classes, mostly Magic theory. The afternoon started the actual Magic practice, though it was cut short for a class on proper military edict. The evening workout was the same as the day before, and once again the after dinner time was free time.

The rest of the week followed mostly the same pattern, though purely educational classes were thrown in in the mornings.

Sunday was a half day. The morning was mostly review and practical application. Since all they practiced that week was protection spells, then all they had to do was protect themselves from some training lasers out on the range. The rest of the day was free time.

Ethan may have excelled in the physical trainings, and stayed awake in the classrooms, but when it came to the actual magic practice, he was lacking. The simple protection spell tired him out after only one use, yet he had to do it multiple times every day. Needless to say, by the end of the week, he was ranked at the bottom of the group.

Oberi Grey, out of a sense of showing off or even just seriously trying hard, was throwing out spells left and right like it was candy. As far as individual performance he was ranked at the top, but because of his partners' pitiful performance, his team score took a severe hit. To his credit, he didn't complain about it, merely promised to try to compensate for Ethan's lack of talent, and gave a few friendly pointers on how to do better, which Ethan ignored because it was stuff like "show your guts!"

****

Ethan always knew that his magic talent would drag him and his partner down, and spent most of this life trying to figure out a way around that. One of his answers came several years before when they started Magic Science and high end Math in school. And that was Spell alteration, the ability to use pure knowledge and book learning to be able to understand and alter the equation of a spell without destroying the spell or creating an unexpected side effect.

People with really high magic talent could simply wish for the effect and their device would alter the spell for them. Ethan didn't have that talent though, so he had to do it the hard way.

The path to the level of knowledge he felt he needed was by no ways easy. He'd had to sacrifice much of his time practicing the art or hanging out with friends to make the time to study. He was pretty sure that if he didn't study like that, that he'd be a 4th dan black belt by now.

As it were, he had spent his free time over the last week attempting to alter the protection spell to minimize the amount of magic needed to cast it. Shrinking the area coverage a little here, lessening the distance between it and him a little there, things like that. Apparently there were a lot of superfluous effects from the spell that he felt he could do without, such as the brightness or color pattern, however the versions he used in practice still had them in. He couldn't let it be known that he was altering spells unlicensed. It was considered too dangerous for the caster.

The original spell cost roughly 5000 mp to cast. By the end of the week, his in-practice versions were shaved down to 2700 mp, and his personal versions down to 1900mp. He felt he could go further with both, but not by much without sacrificing the ever necessary "Protection" aspects.

This was only a stop-gap measure, and He knew it. No matter how much he shaved off of whatever spells, he only had a magic tank of 20,000 units. Should he get in an actual fight, he's fall desperately short, and he'd never even be able to pass the D ranked mage test, if he were even allowed to take it.

He couldn't think of anything else he could do that was readily available however, so perhaps it was time to get a little creative.

****

Next time… Secret Training

I promise better dialogue in the future.