A/N: To tell you the truth, this story didn't actually come to me until i was writing another fic for the Nanoha universe. The other fic was the original one that i wanted to put up, but it occurred to me that i needed to explain the background of that fic. And i also wanted to do a fic with Cinque involved. So this one came out as a result.
Omake (because we know you want one):
Cinque: What is with this dress?
FW: Hm? Since you're going to be a magical girl, you have to look the part
Cinque: But what is with this frilly dress?
FW: ... Cinque, i know you like the dress suits, and i like them too... but magical girls have to have a certain type of uniform. I mean, look at Nanoha.
Points to where Nanoha was testing out a new giant cannon the size of a truck, looking more like cyborg than Cinque with all of the wires and gadgets attached to her. Nanoha's cannon blasted at the testers and they were all sent flying. You could see their smiling faces as they soon became mere stars in the sky.
FW: ... so that's what she meant by everyone in her unit loves to fly... anyway, to be a mahou shoujo (read as demonic cannon girl, this one you need to know the Kanji for magical girl and demonic cannon girl are different but sound exactly the same) you need to have a certain uniform.
Cinque: ... Must it be this colour?
FW: I didn't decide that.
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha
5ive
chapter 2
Gears in Motion
Scratching her head, the tiny combat cyborg tried to wrap her mind around the report that was on the screen before her. No matter how many times she read the report, it never made sense. She leaned back in her chair, looking out of her cubicle to others around her. But no one was there. Strange. She looked at her clock. Noon. Lunch break. Figures. Normally, she would be too wrapped up with her work that she would lose track of time. But Ginga would usually be there to remind Cinque that it was lunch. Maybe Ginga was busy this time. Still, for her not to notice that her co-workers had already gone off for lunch, she must be losing her touch.
Cinque Nakajima got up from her chair, and headed for the cafeteria. She had handed in her last report to her superiors just now, so they shouldn't be bothering her. Although Cinque, Nove, Wendi, and Dieci were under the 108th battalion, meaning Genya Nakajima was their overall boss, they each worked under a different section of the battalion. Cinque was closer to Ginga and Genya in work than the others, meaning Ginga usually grabs Cinque and go for a meal. Genya would be there too if he wasn't busy.
Looking back at her life in the Mid-childa military, Cinque had to admit that she quite enjoyed her life so far. That made her wonder about her previous choice to destroy it. She was working for her creator, Jail Scaglietti, and so she didn't really have a choice. But did she? She sometimes wondered about her time working under the doctor. The things she had done, the lives she had destroyed. It was haunting her, the flames, the screams of people. How could she forgive herself?
"Hey, Cinque! Want to join us?"
A voice jolted her out of her painful thoughts. Without realizing it, she had walked all the way to the cafeteria. A table at one end had a hand sticking out from the crowd, waving at her. She walked over to the table, and saw that the hand belonged to a member of her squad. The table sat four individuals, each being Cinque's co-worker and they fought beside her before.
"You looked bummed out. Is something bothering you? Maybe it's because Master Sergeant Nakajima isn't here?"
One of the guys asked. Cinque shook her head, not really wanting to bother them with her worries.
"It's nothing."
"Oh, i bet it's about the captain, isn't it? What, did he toss you more work?"
"No... you're guessing a lot, sergeant Gazelle."
Gazelle laughed at that, making some people look his way.
"Oi, you're laughing too hard. Everyone's looking this way."
"Oh come on, Vanette, you're way too serious. Got to learn to lighten up."
Vanette sighed, shaking her head in dismay. That was when she noticed Cinque was still standing.
"Cinque, take a seat. Or were you about to grab something?"
"Oh yeah... just wondered what's for lunch."
The cyborg looked over to the food area, though the crowd was making it hard for her to look at the food directly.
"Today's menu is soup, with salad and pie."
The second woman at the table spoke a monotonous voice.
"You make it sound boring, R'nessa. you should spice it up a bit."
Gazelle suggested.
"And what would you suggest?"
Vanette looked to Gazelle, who shrugged.
"I don't know... maybe like 'lovely cream of sliced roasted chicken, with freshly made greens, and a sirloin beef pie'. Sounds better, doesn't it?"
"Sounds disgusting, especially when you're the one saying it."
The group laughed at that, and while Cinque did enjoy the company of others, she still felt detached. Each of these members had joined the military for their own reasons, and most of them were along the lines of protecting their loved ones. No one entered the military just for the heck of it. Some do, but those never lasted long, especially with people like Takamichi Nanoha in the instructor corps. The 'white devil', as some began to call her. Cinque could certainly agree with that. Nanoha was certainly a 'devil' as an enemy.
"Hey, Cinque, you listening?"
Gazelle's voice brought Cinque's mind back to the table.
"Sorry... just remembering something."
"Oh? Like?"
"... Just how Nanoha got her nickname."
The moment she said that, the table went silent. Fear. She could smell fear from them. Well, there was also admiration, but Cinque must have triggered a bad memory for them.
"That's right, you didn't go through her training regime... It was hell... most of us got shipped to hospital twice a week."
Gazelle shivered as the memory came back to him.
"I still can't believe you're close to those legendary mages... Captain Takamichi Nanoha, Ace of aces of the aerial division, super 'white devil' of the training corps. Special Investigator Fate T. Harlown, also well known for cracking multiple cases across worlds. Major Hayate Yagami, founder of the riot six force that stopped the Jail Scaglietti case. Speaking of which, you were involved in that case, right?"
Vanette asked. Cinque never really told anyone about her involvement in the Jail Scaglietti incident, since she never wanted to stand out. But it was on her record that she was a criminal. The higher-ups all knew about it, but she guessed no one bothered to tell the lower ranks that they have war criminals who nearly destroyed the world working beside them.
"I was only involved slightly. I didn't do anything."
Half true. She was involved only for a short moment in a battle against the legendary mages, but Subaru blasted her away, crippling her and forcing her to be unable to participate in the final battle. In a way, she ended up doing almost nothing.
"Hmm, so you saw them fight?"
"Not really. I only saw Subaru fight."
"Oh? You mean the major's daughter? Oh wait, you're part of the Nakajima family too. So your sisters were in the war, and you weren't?"
"That's why i joined. Can't let them run off into danger all the time."
Cinque smiled at that, and the four at the table laughed.
"True, how true."
Cinque could not help but feel as though those words were ringing all too true for her.
The guard could only stare at the blade that had sunk into his chest. He did not know what to feel. He did not know what to think. But it may no difference. His mind blanked out and darkness swallowed him as the blade was pulled out, dropping his corpse onto the floor. The figure carrying the blade walked over to the door sealed with metal, electrical locks, and even magical seals. Such a pitiful state.
"... Jail Scaglietti. Your release date has been moved forward."
A chuckle echoed from within the cell.
"And just about time, too. I was beginning to feel rather bored staring at the same walls over and over."
The figure waved a hand over the locks, and everything just disabled themselves, the door swinging open, as a thin man walked out. His maniacal looks burning as fierce as before.
"... So what do you plan to do first?"
"I would like to pay back those who put me in here in kind... but first, i have some traitors to deal with."
"Cinque... Cinque!"
She looked up at the call of her name, and saw that Ginga was leaning over her cubicle with a strange smile on her face.
"Ane-ue, you surprised me."
"Really? You don't look surprised."
Ginga replied cheerfully. Cinque smiled, before turning her attention back to her screen. She was about halfway through her report on the previous week's case that involved those so-called 'demons'. No evidence was found of any creature or third party. While Cinque would certainly like to poke around a little more, her direct superior decided to write it off as a case of hallucinations by drug addicts.
It was true that a certain illegal import from a non-administered world was getting more common, and the number of users have increased exponentially over the past few months. However these sort of illegal drug trafficking weren't part of her job description, resulting in her superior passing the case to the right department. Still, Cinque felt unsatisfied with how it ended. Too many questionable sources. There was something else behind all of this.
"Are you almost done?"
Ginga asked. Cinque typed out a few more sentences and leaned back in her chair. For now, the report of complete. She sent it to her superior's inbox before turning off her terminal. She had also made a copy of the entire report and all of the sources since she figured that there were still things she could poke her nose around in.
"Ane-ue, do you mind if i borrow your terminal tomorrow?"
Cinque asked her old sister, who cocked her head sideways.
"I don't mind, but what do you need my terminal for?"
"You have access to some of the other records that are related to the case."
"I can simply give your terminal clearance though, so why do you need mine?"
"Well, officially i'm not suppose to touch this case anymore. But i can't help but feel as though something is missing. I would like to find out the truth to put my fears down."
Ginga rubbed her chin in thought for the moment, before nodding.
"Sure, i can let you use it tomorrow. Ah, but didn't you have that training exercise tomorrow? If i'm not wrong, Nanoha-san if coming over."
Cinque nodded, not forgetting her schedule, but she could always accomplish both. Her superior had asked for some additional training exercises for the department, saying that due to the previous week's shoot-out by the storage bay area with some smugglers, their skills were all lacking. Cinque herself wasn't present during that particular event, being pulled by Ginga to investigate a separate case. Some people, including her own superior, had wondered why wasn't assigned directly under Ginga or Genya, since they were all family, not to mention Ginga constantly dragging Cinque away from her squadron.
However Cinque was the one who had asked to posted further down in the departments. She told Ginga that she felt more at ease doing hard physical work with the dirt and grim than sorting out paperwork. And so she was eventually posted to her current squad, with a fierce and strict captain Dino Berlinetta incharge. Dino knows about Cinque's history, and though he did seem to rather picky about it on the surface, in truth he doesn't care. He simply assigns cases according to abilities and attitudes.
In Cinque's case, she has a mage rank of AA, one of the highest in the entire battalion, and she was more than willing to take on any case. Dino's mage rank was only A+, which made him ordering around a mage who was stronger than he was slightly awkward. Or at least in his perspective. The training exercise was aimed at the other members of the squad, most who were only C ranked.
For Cinque, Nanoha had set up a training regime that was normally administered for officers, since officers usually had B ranks or higher. Cinque's official rank in the battalion was an enforcer, working close to Ginga most of the time, but with her station being constantly at the front-lines, her training exercises were slightly different from the normal officers training. Cinque's training actually involved facing off against Nanoha. Which wasn't exactly a pretty picture. Nanoha did not engage actively in combat, but used various shooting techniques and search probes for Cinque to practice on. Still, it was a very tiring exercise that even Dino didn't want to use.
"Maybe i should join in with the exercise training too."
Ginga wondered, with a slight hint of her looking down at her waist. Diet?
"I don't think you should. Nanoha's training is rather... tough."
"I know, i participated in one of her training sessions when Riot 6 was still active."
Cinque remembered Ginga telling her that story, of how the captains and vice captains of both Lightning and Stars squad faced off with all four forwards plus Ginga. And story ended with the complete and utter defeat of the forwards.
"Since your Blitz Calibre is similar to Nove's Jet, why not ask her to let you train with her?"
"Ah, i'm not very good at Strike Arts. I'm more of a Shooting Arts person, so Nanoha-san is the perfect person to ask to teach me... or i hope she is. Anyway, Nove is busy coaching Vivio and Einhart. I can't ask her to take more time off from her work."
Ginga replied, rejecting the offer rather frantically. Cinque knew that Ginga was more used to Shooting Arts, though she had potential for Strike Arts.
"N2R doesn't have any jobs or deployments recently, so i think Nove is rather free. But i don't think you need to do any training exercises. Just helping chichi-ue is tiring enough, i think."
At that, Ginga sighed, shaking her head and being slightly irritated. Mainly because what Cinque said was true and certain unwanted memories were resurfacing back in Ginga's mind. Cinque was sure she heard a nerve pop. Yes, heard it pop.
"That lazy good-for-nothing father. Always skipping meetings for drinks, then he has the nerve to keep pestering Hayate-san for shougi and tea! Can't he see that Hayate-san is already at an important position?"
Ginga was starting to crack her knuckles at this point. Cinque thought it would be best to drop the topic for now.
"Erm... shall we go? I'm sure the others are waiting for us to get home to start dinner."
At that, Ginga's intense atmosphere suddenly dropped, her scowl turning into a smile almost in an instant.
"Yes, let's go. Ah, tonight's sukiyaki! I forgot to go grab ingredients!"
Cinque smiled, getting to her feet and accompanying Ginga towards the garage.
"I'm sure Dieci and the others have gone to get them."
"Hmm... i hope so."
He took the weapon in his hand, inspecting it gleefully. It was shaped like a glove, not unlike his previous device. But this was different, far superior. He looked over to the figure standing in the shadows of the warehouse where they were in. The figure wore a cloak, covering the body and face. He had no doubt that the voice was distorted using some device. For now, he simply referred the figure as 'F'. For some reason, it reminded him of his halted project. He looked over to where tree of his combat cyborgs were, looking at their new weapons. Although Uno was a support type cyborg, she too was handed a weapon that resembled a bracelet. Tre took twin swords and Quattro took a ring type weapon. Tre looked at her weapons with a little confusion in her eyes.
"I'm not sure i'm suited for this. This style is more suited for Deed."
"Hmph, that traitor would never be able to use such grand make of a weapon."
Quattro snorted. He noted that among his three combat cyborgs who still followed him, Quattro was the only one who held a strong spite for the free Numbers. He, himself, did not hold that much of a grudge against his own creations who joined his enemies. But he knew that they would be one of the largest obstacle blocking him from his goal. Forget the cradle, he had a new plan, and this F person had given him the map to it. He turned to his mysterious benefactor, seeing the cloak figure apparently fidgeting with something under that cloak.
"These devices are wonderful, but do tell me. Why help us?"
The figure looked at him, the fidgeting stopped.
"It is for our own interest. I have no obligation to tell you more than that."
"Why you-"
Quattro pointed her ring to the figure, but he stopped her before she could do anything brash to their benefactor.
"Doctor!"
"Now now, Quattro, you shouldn't go around using weapons against the people who gave it to you."
"Yes doctor."
The figure seemed to find this amusing, as evident from the slight chuckle.
"Is something funny?"
He asked.
"... It is ironic coming from you, that is all."
"If you are referring to the fact that it was the TSAB who created me, yet i am the one who nearly destroyed them, i'll just say that i've paid my dues in full. I don't owe them anything."
"And that is true... Come, i'll show you to your new hideout."
The figure turned and left the warehouse. He sighed, shaking his head, before turning to his three followers.
"Well then, shall we go?"
"Should we really trust that person? This could just be another set-up."
Tre cautioned, and her suspicions were well founded. Ordinarily he wouldn't trust such a mysterious person. But when opportunity arises, he would be the first to take it.
"If it is a trap, then all the more we have to walk towards it. After all, with such a welcome mat, how can we refuse?"
Tre seemed a little surprised at first by his reply, but smiled.
"As you say, Doctor. But there is some place i wish to go before we go."
