I do not own MSLN or Harry Potter. Go ahead and steal from this.
Chapter 1 - Prologue
It was a busy afternoon, at least for the standards of the Midoriya. At least half the seats were filled, and customers came in just as fast as others left. The Midoriya was popular enough and did well as a business and as a cafe, but it doesn't usually fill with people, save for certain times of the year, now being one of them. This seemed to be flustering for Takamachi Miyuki, who was currently manning the register. She didn't worry too much, though. Part-time workers were called in for the expected increase in people, and there were at least three people right now serving drinks and cakes... including her little sister Nanoha.
Remembering that her sister returned two weeks ago, Miyuki managed not to double-take as she saw Nanoha serve a customer a tart after being away for more than four years to serve full-time at her... "interesting job". Miyuki was quite happy to see her sister again, but was also confused that she came back without much of a reason, or at least without telling anyone her reason for coming back. Miyuki was maybe flustered, not because of the customers, but of her sister coming back to stay for what could be a long time.
Two weeks ago, Miyuki was practicing in the dojo, a peculiar set of pink glowing symbols in the shape of a circle appeared on the floor behind her. Realizing something was going to happen without understanding what could happen, She quickly jumped away from the circle, waiting for it to disappear or for something to appear out of it. Within seconds, the circle emitted a steady light and faded, revealing Nanoha with an activated Raising Heart at her left hand, and a duffel bag at her right. Realizing Miyuki was there, Nanoha quickly deactivated her device and dropped her bag, then somehow had her arms around her sister almost faster than her sister could notice. The commotion alerted their parents, and they were taken surprise as they almost fell over when their nineteen-year-old daughter, who had been until recently at a faraway place, managed to be back home and hugging (in mid-tackle) them.
Nanoha had asked them to let her stay for awhile, to which they expectedly allowed. While her parents seemed to only be happy that their daughter would stay longer than a couples of days, Miyuki noticed that no one, not even Nanoha's... "best friend" Fate came with her. This wasn't a visit, nor was it a mission, so Miyuki could not figure out why her sister came out of the blue and came back to stay for a long time. After asking Nanoha, she replied rather vaguely that after a dangerous incident, Shamal, her doctor had to put her off active duty for 3 years, and told her to try not to do anything strenuous with her... "talent", so she came back home for a year or so to rest and calm down after the stress of her last mission.
Miyuki knew a little of her last mission, at least about Hayate putting together a special group of people, including Nanoha and the rest of her close friends, most likely to gather and process some form of advanced technology, which seemed to be one of the highest priorities in the organization Nanoha, Hayate, and Fate were in. Miyuki gathered this information from Nanoha's vague emails and from meeting the aforementioned group last year. Apparently Nanoha underwent some possibly cataclysmic event that required her to relax and calm down for the safety of her mental health. Miyuki was spooked upon hearing this, and so decided not to ask about what might be uncomfortable for her sister. Miyuki decided to just let Nanoha be, and let her relax without being bothered.
What still puzzled Miyuki was that she didn't get a message from either Nanoha or her friends about her returning for a long vacation, which either party normally would. Then again, she mused, her little sister and her friends weren't exactly normal, so she didn't think much of it frequently. That, or the stress Nanoha is trying to relieve is coming from her friends, and she left quickly and without notice to come home to stay with her family, which Miyuki thought. Most likely, Nanoha needed her family right now, so Miyuki would try to be supportive.
To Miyuki, her little sister was about the same kind of person last year and also the same as she was four years ago; she was energetic, cheerful, strong-willed, friendly, and still has the tendency to overdo things.. beyond plausibility, and yet she knew Nanoha wasn't dense. Miyuki thought her sister would notice that her family is concerned for her, and would try to ask for their help for whatever seemed to be her problem. Nanoha did not seem to be as active and enthusiastic as she was before; She lived through her last two weeks without doing anything other than help at the cafe and visit her friends back home, and even Arisa and Suzuka noticed something was wrong. They thought not to prod Nanoha and let her work things out her way, which usually turned out alright. They all hoped that Nanoha would feel better again, or that she'd ask them for help.
As Miyuki was playing out her thoughts of her sister, she stopped and noticed a familiar old man with a long silver beard enter the cafe.
Nanoha was busy slowly wiping up a table. She had been back for two weeks after being away for a few years, and the things in the Midoriya started to feel familiar again. Nanoha missed doing this kind of work after just completing... "that" kind of work. She was trying to forget her last mission and the trouble it brought her. She realized she still enjoyed working in her family's cafe.
But Nanoha knew inside that she also missed her old work. She missed training and sparring with recruits. She missed flying to indescribable places, doing jobs and solving problems few other people could. She enjoyed using her talent and helping as many people as she could with it. She missed the satisfaction of working with other people with similar altruistic goals.
Captain Takamachi Nanoha of the Time and Space Administration Bureau, Air Force Instruction Corps missed the "action", as other people would put it.
She knew however, that she needed to relax and recover, and she needed to get away from the TSAB, both physically but more importantly out of her thoughts, so she decided to come home to her parent's home on Earth. She still missed her old job, but she knew to stay away for a while after... the last incident.
Not knowing any other place to go, she returned home to live a temporary and otherwise normal life until she was ready to go back to the TSAB... or if the TSAB would be ready for her coming back. Soon enough, she got accustomed to life back home and felt she could prepare herself, physically, mentally and emotionally to be able to go back within a year.
After wiping the table, Nanoha noticed a peculiar old man with an odd smile on his face enter and set himself in the cafe.
