Nanoha woke early, as was her custom now and carefully extracted herself from Fate's embrace. She stretched languidly and did what parts of her morning calisthenics routine she could manage without making too much noise. Fully awake after her light workout, she grabbed a change of clothes and went to the bathroom to take a shower. Fate was awake and running through her own set of exercises when Nanoha exited the bathroom, clad in the same knee length skirt and loose short sleeve shirt she'd worn the previous day. Fate glanced at her quickly before finishing her set of pushups and standing. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, I was pretty tired after trying out all of those wands yesterday. Of course, it could have been all the running around and shopping too. How many people did we have to buy souvenirs for?"
"Twenty seven. My last paycheck is now but a memory," replied Fate, a bit mournfully. "So what's on the agenda for today?"
Nanoha tapped her chin thoughtfully, "After breakfast we'll head back out to Diagon Alley, pick up all of the text books on the first year reading list and whatever else we can find that looks relevant. We'll need to pick up some periodicals as well, to get a feel for what's blowing in the wind currently. Then we'll head back up to the ship to do our research."
"Alright. I'll take a shower and then we can head down for breakfast." Fate left for the bathroom and Nanoha headed downstairs to stake their claim on one of the tables. She ordered for both herself and Fate and was sipping on her tea and waiting for the food to arrive when she was joined by her friend.
"That was a quick shower," stated Nanoha blandly as Fate approached the table.
"I get the feeling that I'm going to miss having a furo while we're here," Fate said grumpily as she sat ungracefully in the seat Nanoha had saved for her.
"Just think of it as a deployment. I don't think that any of the ships in the fleet have one, except maybe in the captain's quarters."
"True, but there's a reason for it in that case. I get the feeling I know why Europe had a bigger problem with disease in the middle ages than Japan did," murmured Fate into her tea. She winced slightly and made a face as she took a sip.
"Ahaha, now Fate-chan, be nice," scolded Nanoha jokingly. She pushed a sugar bowl and small container of milk toward her friend. "They drink black tea here, you should use the milk and sugar. That's probably where Lindy-san got the idea."
Fate was still experimenting with the milk and sugar and Nanoha was flipping through what looked to be a tabloid paper called "The Quibbler" when their meal arrived a few minutes later. A steaming plate loaded with eggs, bacon, pancakes, and sausage was laid out on the table before each of them. "Nanoha, are you trying to fatten me up or something?"
"I just ordered what they called an, 'English Breakfast' on the menu," replied Nanoha, her expression slightly dismayed. "If the food at school is like this every day maybe I can try to get my family to send some rice and nori for us."
"No natto?" inquired Fate, supressing a smile.
"No. No natto." Nanoha replied quite firmly, giving Fate a friendly kick under the table. She froze suddenly, as she flipped through her news paper. Curious, Fate stood and leaned over to see what article Nanoha was reading. A bold headline declared, "Mysterious Objects Sighted in Diagon Alley! What Are They, and What Do They Want?" Fate frowned as she noticed the picture under the headline and the reason Nanoha had fallen silent. Playing in a short video loop was an image of what could only be a gadget drone flying quickly down a street and then vanishing down an alley way.
"Well this changes things," said Fate soberly as she reseated herself. "If there are gadgets around we may need to intervene. It also means that there must be lost logia around to draw them here."
Nanoha nodded as she read through the rest of the article. It was, she noticed, definitely written like a tabloid and there was very little real information provided. There were theories of government conspiracies and muggle spy technology, but no specifics regarding the time or location of the sighting. The photo offered little help, the image was slightly out of focus and blurred as it followed the movement of the drone so that the surrounding storefronts could not be identified. Fate sipped her tea as she waited for her friend to finish reading. [Raising Heart,] thought Nanoha.
[Yes, my master?]
[Can you enhance this picture enough to read any of the signs on the shops?]
[I am sorry. I cannot do it.]
Nanoha let out a sigh of vexation, [Please forward copies to Shari and Amy then and see if one of them can do it with the ship's computers. Please ask them to hurry.]
[It will be done, my master.]
"Fate-chan, let's collect our research materials as soon as the shops open and get back to the ship. Maybe Shari will be able to figure out what these signs say before we have to get back to the ship. We need to send a request to high command for revised mission parameters."
They ate at a relaxed pace, Nanoha having noted the previous evening that most of the shops would not open for almost another hour, but finished quickly, the heavy foods being far more filling than they were accustomed to. They thanked and paid Tom at the bar, then made their way out the back door and into the small yard. It took them two tries to get the door way to open to them before they were able to set out on their way, followed unobtrusively by a grey and black striped tabby cat.
The pair quickly made their way to Flourish and Blotts, a book store they had passed the night before. They quickly found copies of all of the books that had been assigned on their list, and spent another half hour browsing for other books that looked interesting. Fate had come across a discarded copy of the fourth year student book list and picked up one of each of those as well. Both women quickly noticed that none of the texts had anything to do with non-magical history, science, or technology. They took a copy of each of the periodicals they could find before paying for their purchases and exiting once again into the bustling market place.
"Fate-chan, were there any other shops you wanted to visit?" asked Nanoha, turning to look at Fate over her shoulder and smiling winsomely.
Fate returned the smile and paused to think for a moment, looking around at the store fronts nearby to see if anything piqued her interest. There was a sweet shop nearby, but it looked like it hadn't opened yet, and the breakfast was still sitting heavily in her stomach. There was a broom shop, which she was curious about, but based on what she could see of the prices in the window the brooms weren't really impulse buy material. The owls, while cute would likely become cumbersome. "No, I guess not. I'm pretty well tapped out anyway," she said a bit mournfully.
Nanoha was about to suggest heading back to the ship when Raising Heart chimed. [Nanoha,] came Shari's voice in her head, [I've analyzed the image that you sent me. The quality was pretty bad, but the the sign on the store next to the alley way says something like, "Quality Quick Ditch Supplies."]
[That's great, thank you Shari. I think I know where to look now,] replied Nanoha before turning to Fate. "The sign in the picture said, 'Quality Quidditch Supplies.' I think we passed there on our way in, didn't we?"
"Yes, I believe we did," replied Fate after a moment's thought. "Do you want to head there now?" She received a nod in response and quickly matched pace with Nanoha as they set out toward what they hoped was the store in the picture. They found a small crowd staring in through the front window of the shop as the approached, but the group seemed not to be paying them or the alley next to the shop any mind. Fate nudged Nanoha gently, "It looks like something cut the corner a bit close there," she said, gesturing vaguely to the corner of one of the building opposite the Quidditch shop.
Nanoha approached the alley first and pretended to take a rest against the wall, running a finger along the scuffed, broken bricking along the building corner Fate had pointed at. [Fate-chan, I'll go in first, come in after me if I call for you,] she mentally instructed her friend as she ducked into the narrow alley, leaving no opportunity for Fate to argue. The alley was quite narrow, probably with barely enough clearance for the drone figured Nanoha, noting the scuff marks on both brick walls where the drone had flown too close. The alley turned sharply to the right, obscuring its end from her.
Walking as quietly as possible, Nanoha approached the corner and took a quick peek around it. There was no sign of the gadget drone. Feeling a little relieved, she stepped around the corner and assessed the area. The alley widened out a little back here and there were stacks of crates near some of the buildings' rear doors. She proceeded down the alley until it came to an abrupt end against the side wall of another building, deeper than the others. There were no signs of the gadget here. Deciding that it must have flown off after losing its pursuers Nanoha messaged Fate, [It looks like the drone probably flew off after going down the alley. There are no signs that it...] her thoughts were cut off as she turned around to see the drone dropping down to land in front of her, close enough to envelop her in its Anti Magilink Field.
Fate had been leaning up against the wall of the building next to the alley, weighed down now by both her and Nanoha's bags, when Nanoha's transmission was suddenly cut off mid sentence. After a cursory glance to make sure that nobody was paying too much attention, she jetted down the alley as quickly as she could go without using Bardiche. As she rounded the corner to find Nanoha dodging attacks from a single gadget drone. A magical circle unfolded on the ground around her as she summoned down a single bolt of lightning without even bothering to activate her device.
Nanoha could see what Fate was doing as soon as she arrived and managed to duck behind a stack of crates just as the gadget was struck down. A brilliant arc of electricity cored through the floating mechanical ovoid leaving molten holes at its top and bottom. The now useless hunk of machinery crashed to the alley floor, its lenses shattering as it impacted but thankfully not detonating. Before she could even pick herself up, Fate was there pulling her to her feet. "Nanoha! Are you alright?" she demanded, checking her for any visual wounds. Finding no obvious injuries, Fate pulled Nanoha into a tight embrace.
"I'm fine Fate-chan. Really, I'm alright. Thank you, you saved me again," Nanoha spoke softly to Fate, whose head was now resting on her shoulder. She heard Fate's shuddering intake of breath as her companion's shoulders quaked and felt a warm, wet spot spreading on her own shoulder. "Mou, please don't cry Fate-chan. Really, I'm fine."
"Dammit Nanoha!" Fate cried into Nanoha's shoulder, her hands balling into fists around the fabric of her shirt. "You're too reckless, always just running headlong into situations we don't know enough about." Her knees quaked under her, and she found herself being partially supported by Nanoha's embrace as she sobbed. "Don't you know how much I worry about you? I don't know what I would do if I lost you."
Nanoha gently stroked her girlfriend's hair with one hand while she supported her with the other. "I'm sorry Fate-chan. I don't mean to make you worried," she spoke in a soothing voice. "My superiors in the Instructor Corps tell me the same thing. I promise I'll be more careful for you. I don't want you to have to cry over me." She continued to soothe her friend for a few moments more before going on, "I'm sorry Fate-chan, we really need to go before anyone comes to investigate the explosion they heard."
Fate sniffled as she worked to compose herself. Though she had stopped her crying, her eyes were still red and puffy. Nanoha pulled a small packet of tissues from her purse and handed them to Fate who quickly dabbed at her eyes and blew her nose. "Did you mean it? Your promise I mean."
"Yes, I promise I'll be more careful from now on." She leaned in and kissed Fate lingeringly on the lips. Fate tried to hold on to her to deepen the kiss, but Nanoha gently, regretfully pulled away. "We'll have time for that later. We need to go now," she said, gesturing backward down the alley way where the sounds of tentative footsteps could be heard approaching the corner. [Amy,] she called out mentally, [we need immediate transfer to the ship. Set the transporter to pick up any metallic or plastic debris larger than a hundred grams within a two meter radius of my position.]
[Nanoha, I read you, initiating dimensional transfer in five seconds.] Nanoha took a glance at the magical geometry which had appeared to encircle them, making sure that most of the large wreckage left by the gadget would be taken along as well. Then, in a brilliant flash of white, she found herself and Fate back on the dimensional transfer platform on the Asura along with the still smoking remnants of the drone Fate had destroyed.
Amy stared open mouthed at the wreckage of the gadget, "What happened down there?"
"This mission just became a lot more complicated is what happened. Can you get Shari to come down here and see if you can get in touch with Mari at HQ, she might want to take a look at this." She shook her head as though to clear it for a moment before continuing, "Admiral Chrono, in light of this new information," she said gesturing at the remains of the gadget, "I would like to request updated mission parameters."
Chrono nodded, "Yes, if this was not an isolated incident we may need to intervene more directly. I expect that command will want you to try to hunt down whatever lost logia it is that attracted this gadget drone to the area. For now, hand over your books to the librarian so we can start getting their contents scanned into the computer and start reviewing those periodicals." Nanoha and Fate both saluted before leaving the bridge, burdened down with the bags containing their books and school supplies, to head to the ship's library.
***
Minerva McGonagall was one of the most experienced and educated witches in Europe, but she was left stunned by the display of magic she had just seen from the two mystery girls Professor Dumbledore had her tracking. She waited until she was sure that all of the people who had run back to investigate the sudden lightning strike had gone from the alley. "By Merlin's Beard," she murmured to herself as she returned to her human form and walked over to the place where the two girls had vanished a few minutes earlier, "what have you gotten us involved in, Albus?"
She searched the area for any trace of the strange machine that had been destroyed, but found nothing except a few useless scraps of glass. Unable to find any hint as to where the two girls had vanished to, she pulled out a scrap of parchment and quickly sketched out all that she could remember of the incredibly complicated magical circles they had been using. Quickly replacing the parchment, she disapparated, destined for the outskirts of Hogwarts, where she could get a report to Professor Dumbledore wherever he was...
***
Author's Note: Thank you everyone who has taken an interest in reading this story. Thanks to summer break and a massive storm, I've had the time over the last few days to post three chapters including this one. Unfortunately this pace isn't going to be practical to continue with between school and work. I will try to get a new chapter out every week or so though.
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Thank you to all of you who reviewed the first two chapters of my story.
Privatesargent: Thank you for your input. I'm trying very hard to successfully reconcile to two magic styles. Subaru and Teana are taking the C to B rank test at the beginning of StrikerS, so I used their ability level at that point as sort of an index I could judge the lower mage rankings by. Based on what I've seen in the Nanoha sound stages, manga, and anime, I believe that the mage ranking system actually goes up following either an exponential curve or a very steep linear one. Dumbledore is generally recognized as the most powerful wizard in the Harry Potter continuity, so by placing him at C or C+ rank, I figure that there will be a select few wizards who are slightly less powerful, falling in the C- to D range, with the remainder of the wizarding population residing in the E to D- area. I figure a mage ranking of F would be equivalent to either a muggle or a first year student.
An Oni Mouse: Thanks for reading, I hope I manage to keep your attention.
CrazyLikeAnko: Thank you for your compliments. I already know how I'm going to handle the intelligent devices, based on a few obscure hints from the HP novels. I'll probably get to explaining it somewhere around chapter 5.
Ragnarok: The title actually comes from a discussion I had with my friends on a road trip, basically picking apart the terrible adult leadership throughout the Harry Potter series. I'm going to tone it down somewhat so as not to be too offensive to the HP fans. I intend on following a lot of the plot as written in the book, but from a different perspective. Harry will probably still get the lessons, but I don't know if I'll cover them at all. Thanks for the review
drinker: I know what you're saying and I agree with it fully. I've been out of writing for a while now, so it's taking me a bit to get back into my pace. Thanks for reviewing, I hope you enjoy what's yet to come.
SonicAnime2010: Honestly, the first chapter probably got past you because I posted it all of about 15 minutes before the second chapter. Nanoha continuity wise, this story takes place between chapters 3 and 4 of the StrikerS manga, so a few months after the airport fire where Nanoha rescues Subaru. Thanks for the review.
Guard-y nut: Thanks for your compliments, I hope you continue to enjoy the story.
