Nanoha Takamachi was an ordinary girl. At least until she picked up an innocuous looking jewel on the way home from school. What happened two days after still left her head spinning.
Her ordinary life took a jump off the deep end to something far more interesting.
Primarily because of the two who came to claim the odd jewel she had picked up.
It started like this...
"Hurry up Shirou! I want to get rid of this stupid stick as fast as I can!" said Rin.
"I take offense to that! I'm not stupid!"complained Ruby.
"Shut it you perverted stick! If it weren't for the fact Shirou can't fly worth a damn I wouldn't have had to drag you out of whatever hole you came from!"
"..."
Shirou would like to dispute that claim, but the truth was that he still felt uncomfortable flying. At least he wasn't crashing into trees anymore, and he had learned how to fly...more or less...though it was embarrassing he had to rely on Rin to go faster than a moderate walking pace.
Rin had insisted on joining them, and when Yuuno saw how she contained the jewel seed she had picked up, he agreed she could help.
The container she used had the strongest barriers against jewel related artifacts from going berserk inside the box. It meant that in the event Shirou was out of commission, Yuuno and Rin could retrieve the Jewel and transport it safely.
Rin just wished that didn't mean she had to rely on Ruby.
Landing in the nearby town, Shirou and Rin split off the find the Jewel seed. Apparently Ruby could sense the things within a good distance, unlike Raging Heart.
"There!" said Rin, as Ruby began letting off a weird pinging noise.
A girl with auburn red hair and pigtails was walking alone on the path.
Shirou took charge, just in case Rin said or did something to insult the girl and make things much harder.
"Excuse me, have you see a weird jewel thing lying around?"
The girl looked at his weird outfit and had to ask "Are you a magical boy or something?"
Shirou sweatdropped.
"Unfortunately. There was an incident somewhere and a whole bunch of these jewel seeds were scattered and I was given the job of collecting them until the proper authorities showed up. My partner and I detected one nearby," said Shirou, knowing instinctively that daring to call Rin his 'sidekick' was a horribly, painful bad idea.
Rin discreetly lowered her left hand which was fully prepared to shoot a Finn shot at Shirou if he had dared to call her his sidekick.
The girl took out a jewel seed.
"Is this what you're looking for?"
Shirou looked relieved.
"That's it."
"I found it outside my house embedded in a tree."
"Another pesky jewel seed collected. Go team!" said Ruby.
Rin's temper snapped.
"Shut up you useless staff! You didn't even do anything!"
Ruby had had enough of Rin, and it could sense this girl had the potential to become a magical girl.
"You know Rin there is a point where people say enough to attitudes like yours!" said Ruby suddenly.
"Ruby, what the hell are you..."
"And luckily for me, there is an available replacement right here!" said Ruby.
"WHAT?!"
Ruby freed itself from Rin's grip, before flying to the surprised (and very confused) red head.
"What's your name?"
"Ano... Takamachi Nanoha."
"Ruby, what the hell are you doing...?!" said Rin in a half-shriek.
She had to put up with this stupid thing just to help, and now it's abandoning her? At least it wasn't mid-air or with someone she absolutely hated, but still...
(And why did she have the sudden feeling of deja vu to Ruby doing this?!)
"So miss Takamachi, how would you like to be a magical girl? You could help us collect the jewel seeds and learn magic~!"
"Ruby, isn't that a bit much to ask?" said Shirou, scratching his head.
"Not at all~! This girl has a lot of magical potential!" said Ruby.
Rin fumed.
"Well then how exactly are we supposed to get home? Shirou still can't fly very fast, and I can't fly at all without you!"
"I can teleport us back to Shirou's house. I can do that much at least," said Yuuno.
"Seriously? Teleportation? But I thought you needed a device or whatever to do stuff like that!" said Rin to the ferret boy.
"Not really. Devices are more or less short cuts, but the sheer amount of math and power requirements are a nightmare, which is why most just get the basic models. I can do a limited amount of spells without one, but I can't really fight without something to boost my power," explained Yuuno in lecture mode.
"...You are so teaching me these spells of yours later," said Rin finally. To not have to rely on that stupid Ruby to fly...
While they were talking, Nanoha forged a contract with Ruby, unaware that the stick was an annoyance to anyone with any sense.
It looked like Shirou's group had grown by one. Then something completely unexpected happened.
Ruby tried to store the jewel seed the same way Raging Heart did...and accidentally absorbed it.
"Wha... What just happened?"
"It would appear that my desire to see if I could store things like Raging Heart resulted in an unusual side effect. I'm not entirely sure I can remove the jewel seed," said Ruby embarrassed. Suddenly the device perked up.
"What is it?"
"A message from the creator. The one who made me and my sister Sapphire," said Ruby. She suddenly turned into a strange sort of projector.
"Well isn't this an interesting turn of events?"
The man could have been in his fifties. He had white hair, red eyes, and clear fangs. He was obviously a Dead Apostle Ancestor.
"YOU!" shrieked Rin.
"Rin who is that?"
"Zelretch, Master of the Second True Magic and known troll. He's the bastard who made Ruby and left it to my family," said Rin through gritted teeth.
"How amusing. It would seem that fate has somehow gotten so mixed up it's impossible to untangle."
"What do you mean?" asked Shirou.
"You, Shirou, were supposed to stay in Fuyuki, not become a magical boy. And Takamachi-san was supposed to be the one who found the ferret and become a magical girl. However something seems to have gotten your destinies switched around, which is quite odd now that I think about it. If Ruby hadn't assimilated the Jewel Seed I never would have picked up on the fact something was off," explained the rather annoying Magician.
"I hate you so much right now," stated Rin.
"In any case Rin...you now officially owe me for losing Ruby to someone who has never experienced magic until now," said Zelretch, pointing at the pig-tailed girl.
"EH?!"
"And before you say anything, you can't use Shirou or Nanoha to do your work for you."
"WHAT?!"
"And your first task is to find something to do with the jewel seed you've no doubt acquired by now before the TSAB finally gets to Earth...and act as Shirou's support unit without a device."
"How long until the TSAB arrives?" asked Yuuno.
"Well if things go as they have before, a few weeks after the appearance of the rival. Good luck children...and if you manage to impress me I might show up to train you personally~!" said Zelretch before the message cut off.
"That...That...THAT DAMN BLOODSUCKER!"
"What just happened?"
"It would seem Rin has annoyed someone powerful, and now has to act like his 'toy' for a while," said Shirou.
"Is that a bad thing?"
"For Rin maybe. He did specify we weren't to do all the work. In the mean time, why don't we exchange numbers so we can contact each other in an emergency?"
"Ah! Good idea!"
Sakura Matou was staring at her double in shock.
Dark Sakura, the voice she had in the back of her head for years, stared back, before flipping her hair away from her face. It was a shade or two darker than Sakura's hair. In fact, everything about her double was a shade or two darker.
"Who are you?"
"I am you. The dark voice in the back of your mind. If you are Sakura, you may call me Arukas."
"If you're my darkness, can I call you Yoru instead?"
"Fine by me. Not like I care what you call me by... However, there is one thing I want to make very clear before I start going to school with you."
"Eh? What?"
"Shinji is a dead man if he tries to touch me. I will not suffer that idiot or the thing you call Grandfather. In fact, why don't I dispose of them both right now?"
"And go where, Yoru?"
Yoru had no answer to that.
"Well until we find somewhere to stay, we leave them alive. However I give you full permission to traumatize Shinji so much that he wouldn't dare touch us with a ten meter pole," said Sakura. Yoru's smirk became a little fanged and evil.
The next morning Yoru managed to get into Sakura's class and claimed she was her distant cousin from France. When Shinji tried to press matters... he ended up a pile of broken bones and blood on the floor.
Yoru wouldn't suffer his arrogance anymore.
The addition of Nanoha to the group, ironically enough, actually helped Rin find a way to use the Jewel Seeds in a productive manner.
Hopefully she could do so before the deadline Zelretch set for her, though Shirou had the distinct feeling that once she did, she was in for a world of migraines and humiliation.
As it turned out, Nanoha was four years younger than Rin and Shirou, and a year younger than Yuuno was. Which caused her to call the two of them 'sempai'. It was undeniably adorable.
However Rin sensed some sort of dark side to the smiling girl. Like she was a world of pain just waiting to be unleashed on some poor unsuspecting bastard. She got the same vibe from her former sister Sakura, that weird double Yoru, and Shirou, strangely enough.
It made her gravitate that much more to Yuuno, the only normal seeming one of the group next to her.
"Fuji-nee, what exactly is World of Warcraft?" asked Shirou. He only asked because Yuuno had seen an advertisement and was curious.
What would happen next would give Shirou and Rin nightmares for weeks.
Fujimura Taiga, relieved Shirou was finally acting normal, brought over her entire game collection along with her spare laptop.
Yuuno was soon playing games like League of Legends, Hellgate: London, and World of Warcraft while Shirou and the others were at school. However games confused the two Magi born since they didn't have much in the way of diversions. Even Nanoha had played games before.
Which lead to this.
"Yuuno...what exactly is this?" asked Rin.
"It's one of those new Playstation 4 things. Taiga-san dropped it off earlier as a birthday present to Shirou...along with a ton of the more popular games," said Yuuno. "It can play music, videos, all sorts of stuff. It can even connect to the internet!"
"...So it's basically a really fancy computer like device that plays on the TV? I don't think my TV model can handle it..." started Shirou, having overheard it, before he realized there was something off about the room. "Yuuno...where's my TV?"
"Taiga had some men remove it to the storage shed where you keep your workshop. It still plays, but they got a weird vibe from the place."
"...And what's this thing?"
"A new flatscreen that's already hooked up to the Playstation. There's some sort of application that allows you to pick up on local channels and the radio," said Yuuno.
Seeing Rin struggle to figure out how to turn the thing on, Yuuno quickly added "That Zelretch character showed up after Taiga left...he did something to the console and the TV's."
Rin froze.
"He did something?"
Yuuno handed her a note.
She took it...and when she read it aloud she started to tremble with suppressed rage.
"DAMN THAT BLOODSUCKER!"
No matter how frustrated you get at the games, any magical or physical attack on the console or TV will be reflected back at you. Have fun learning to loosen up, Tsundere-chan.
Zelretch.
Rin hated video games. She could tolerate the radio and the satellite TV, but when it came to anything more advanced than that she was so out of depth it wasn't even funny.
Shirou, however, became instantly addicted to anything that let him fight using swords or bows. Needless to say he became the man to beat in those games. He was seriously considering learning how to code...it might come in handy someday.
And thus began Rin's slow (and extremely aggravating) education in modern technology courtesy of Taiga who was aghast the girl had no idea how to even turn on the console or the new flatscreen.
Nanoha, of course, listened to Shirou's descriptions of that with a nervous laugh and some amusement. She would be joining them soon enough for Golden Week.