Chapter 3 - Benefactors (Part 2)
Subaru had positioned herself inside the city, standing in the middle of a wide road. Bathory took his place further down the road, directly facing his opponent. Around them, the damage from before had repaired itself, and the city looked pristine and untouched by any battles.
"You haven't fought a Siban before, have you?" Bathory yelled. "I'm sure you'll remember this."
Grinning, Subaru returned the volley. "Try your best to keep up."
Back on the side, Signum watched the two from the screen.
"Both of you, get ready."
The two combatants stood, ready to begin, and almost simultaneously activated their devices.
"Revolver Knuckle, Mach Caliber, set up!"
"Aphelion, go!"
Both mages disappeared into a white haze and returned in their barrier jackets. Subaru looked as she normally did - headband tied above her eyes, white and blue jacket ending above her midriff, her devices attached neatly around her wrist and on her feet. Across from her, Bathory appeared sporting significantly more chest and leg coverage than the girl, but with a similarly simple look. His basic color was gray instead of white, the color highlights were dark green instead of blue, and there were more prominent bits as stripes of the color ran from the front of his jacket down to the sides of it.
Coincidentally, his device was also wrapped around his right arm, though it had several firing ports that stuck out around his hand and a groove that ran along the right side of it. Another gauntlet was around his left wrist, and this also had a groove on the outside. The firing ports on his main weapon readjusted themselves as Bathory looked down the road at Subaru.
"Nice," he shouted, noticing Revolver Knuckle. "Around the arm - best place, I think. It can't just get pulled out of your hands there."
"Ehhhhh," replied Subaru, "thanks?"
Again, Signum's voice echoed through the city. "All systems are ready. You may begin."
It began as all good battles do, with both parties charging at each other to meet in the middle. With Subaru's extra speed, however, she covered most of the distance and surprised her opponent with the first attack.
"Revolver Shoot!"
A blue ball of energy shot out from her device, traveling forward until it was blocked by a dark green triangle that formed in front of Bathory. He planted his back foot into the ground and stood firm, thinking to himself that Subaru did hit a little harder than he thought she would.
"Aphelion," he yelled, "return fire."
The green shield vanished and Bathory swung his arm up to face Subaru. Bursts of energy shot forward out of his device, causing Subaru to tuck low and skate from side to side. While she did that, she continued to fire back herself, forcing the Siban to worry about his barrier as well. As she got within melee range, Bathory held off on attacking and barked an order.
"Aphelion, we're going melee. Razor Form activ-"
Subaru surprised him again by lunging the final distance, grabbing Bathory's arm and using her roller blades to spin around. She smacked him on the back with her left hand and then used her momentum to throw Bathory out of the road, over to one of the buildings. As he bounced back up, Subaru stood with her hands on her sides.
"Tag! I win."
Bathory stood there, staring at her. The only sound that could be heard was Revolver Knuckle spinning away, having built up quite a bit of energy already.
At the control panel, Teana sighed loudly. "Subaru," she said, "this wasn't tag. You haven't won yet."
"But...if this were tag, I would have won, right?" asked Subaru, scratching her head.
"This is a standard match," said Signum. "Both contestants will battle until a clear victory is established by one of them. Please continue."
Bathory groaned. "Minasa," he said, "if you can hear this, I'm just a bit rusty, okay? Give me some time to get going."
[MASTER] asked his device.
"Yes, Aphelion?"
[WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO CONTINUE TRANSFORMATION INTO RAZOR FORM]
He groaned again. "No, Aphelion. Remain in standard."
Subaru brought her hands up, making two fists and punching them together. "Well, then, if you're ready to go, then let's go. Are you ready, partner?"
[LET'S GO, BUDDY]
Subaru got ready and rushed towards Bathory, Revolver Knuckle almost screaming from the energy built up. Bathory took a quick glance behind him at the building, and then spun around, holding his device against the building.
"Aphelion, Flight Driver!"
A thin blade of energy shot up out of the groove on the weapon's side and dug itself into the wall. As Subaru went for another attack, her opponent flew up along the wall out of the way leaving a green trail of energy along its path. Almost as soon as he had begun, Bathory detached from the wall, flipped himself over, dug his feet into the side, and lunged back down onto Subaru, dropping both of them onto the ground. He quickly got to his knees and aimed his device at the other mage as she lied on her back. It was silent for another few seconds, with the only sound again coming from Subaru's device.
A grin slowly formed itself on Bathory's lips. "Rule number one," he said, "a ground mage always has a way to get off the ground."
Subaru smiled back at him.
"Indeed, they do."
Her face suddenly changed back to being serious, and she clenched her right hand into a fist.
"Revolver Cannon!"
She swung her fist up at her attacker, putting all the energy stored from before into an attack. With another shout, Bathory's device put up a shield, but it still took in a lot of energy and its master was still tossed backwards off of Subaru. Quickly, she got back up and looked at her opponent.
"Indeed, they do" she repeated. "Wing Road."
She took off down the street, but flew to the side of Bathory and then left the ground, propelled along by a road of blue energy that followed her into the sky. The Siban mage jumped up and watched her go, taking in the sight. Looking down at the road, he took a hesitant step onto it, wondering if it would support him. When his question was answered and he was standing on it firmly, he held his device in front of him and looked up at the rest of the road.
"Aphelion, let's follow her. Flight Driver."
He rushed forwards as the blade appeared again, leaned down, and dug it into the strip, shooting across it and following it along. The road went high into the air and then curved back down, turning sharply to the left and winding down around a building. Bathory stopped himself and rested on the lane, his magic drained a little more than he would like and his breathing a little shallow.
"Aphelion, get me a Charged Multi-Shot. If I go forward, I'm playing along with her. Now she'll need to adjust to me."
[UNDERSTOOD - BEGINNING TO CHARGE]
The firing ports on Aphelion all began to glow together, starting from deep inside the barrels and expanding out as Bathory put more and more mana into it. At the same time, he kept watch for Subaru's return, checking around him for any sight of the girl. He was slightly above to top of the buildings, though, and so most of the city below him was out of view.
[MASTER] cried his device, [INCOMING FROM THE LEFT]
Bathory snapped around and saw Subaru barreling towards him again.
"Hello!" he yelled, diving to the side. Subaru crossed the previous road, speeding past it and her opponent. As her opponent got back up, Subaru formed the road in a twisting loop so she could turn around, and the road began to materialize in between her and Bathory. The previous road glowed once or twice and vanished, leaving the man with nowhere to escape except for leaping off into the city below.
"Aphelion, what's the status on the Multi-Shot?"
[CHARGING COMPLETE] said his device. [READY TO FIRE ON YOUR COMMAND]
"Okay, here we go. Now we're working."
He dropped to one knee and watched the blue speedster close the distance, arm ready to strike again. Soon, the collision was inevitable, and Bathory raised his device up, supporting it with his left arm.
"Fire!"
Several shots of green energy burst out of his device, seeking a target in his opponent. Subaru moved to slow down, and another barrier formed in front of her. The multiple shots were enough, though, to break the shield and throw Subaru off balance. She crashed into Bathory as the entire Wing Road disappeared and they both soared through the sky with as little grace as they could manage. After falling like a stalled plane for a second or two, they landed on the top of a tall, circular building. Bathory landed on his back and Subaru skidded along on her face, but the two eventually came to rest right by each other on the edge of the roof.
"Ahahahaha, sorry about that."
Subaru laughed meekly as she got up to her elbows and knees. Meanwhile, Bathory was staring right up into one of Midchilda's suns, and for some reason, he really didn't mind it. Still, he accepted Subaru's hand when she offered it, and the two fighters pulled themselves back up.
"You two," said Signum, "this session ends in two minutes. If you're going to finish the battle, finish it fast."
"I got it, I got it" said Bathory, nodding along. With another sigh, he looked across at the city at the edge of Cranagan, where Signum and the other mages were.
"Hey Minasa, seriously, can you hear me?"
Next to Signum, the girl looked up at the screen. "I can hear you" she said.
"Alright. The next thing you should learn from this is to be unpredictable."
As soon as he finished, he grabbed Subaru's arm, spun around her, and did the same thing she'd done to him earlier. As he guided her right off the roof, Subaru cried out in surprise and flailed around.
Teana's eyes shot open.
"Subaru, hold on!" she yelled, rushing over to the control panel. She frantically looked through the safety options as her friend fell.
"Tia, I'm good!" Subaru replied, flipping back around. She reached out to the building, and the blue road of magic shot down from the top of it and continuing down to the ground. Trying to slow herself, Subaru slid onto her side and dug the sides of her skates into the road. Still, the road was almost vertical, and she wasn't slowing down very quickly.
Her eyes still racing to catch up with her hands, Teana typed rapidly into the console, trying to stop her friend from hitting the ground. Hoping she wasn't too late, Teana finally found what she'd been looking for, and slammed her hand down onto the panel.
"Got it!"
Below Subaru, a bright white net of magic appeared above the ground. Startled, Subaru leveled herself out right before she hit it, even though this meant slamming into the road and skidding off the side of it. She reached her hand up and held onto the side for dear life, struggling to hold on. The seconds ticked by and as she continued to do so, Teana dropped from being worried back to being annoyed.
"Subaru," she said, "it's just the net."
"I know. I got scared."
Subaru began pulling herself back up, and Teana got to watch the whole thing. She closed her eyes, sighed, and turned around to suddenly find herself with an audience. Four more combat cyborgs were in front of her now.
"Gah!" she cried. "Where'd you come from?"
A purple-haired woman, the tallest of the four, smiled.
"Hello, Teana. We weren't expecting this."
"Yeah," said Wendi. "She said she'd be out here, and you'd be in there. What did we miss?"
Teana stammered. "Um...well..."
As the safety net dissipated, Subaru heard her sisters' voices and turned towards the entrance to the simulation. "Gin-nee! Wendi!" she shouted, waving her arm in the air.
Outside the arena, Signum walked over to the console and cut the audio going into the arena.
"Teana," she said, "it isn't nice to distract others during their session."
The orange-haired girl's jaw dropped and she froze in place, absolutely stunned by the knight's actions.
"Bu...bu...but Signum. She was doing that EXACT THING to me, and you just let it happen."
An almost-mischievous smirk appeared across Signum's face. "Distractions are an important enemy in battle. An Enforcer must learn to deal with them and tune them out."
"We...well look at Subaru. Completely distracted." Teana continued to stammer and she motioned towards the cameras as it showed Subaru still waving off into the distance. "She probably forgot she was even IN a battle-"
Teana froze mid-sentence, and shot a glance back at the cameras. With her friend like this, it would be all too easy for the other mage to get the upper hand.
Inside the arena, Bathory had dropped off the other side of the building, falling headfirst towards the ground. Holding his left gauntlet against the wall, the blade of energy shot out of that and propelled him downwards as gravity also helped in his descent. He continued descending, gathering as much speed as he could before leveling out on his opponent's elevation.
"Aphelion, now it's time" he said. "Razor mode."
Teana shot forward over to the monitors, grabbing the sides of it and screaming at the camera.
"Subaru! The battle, you idiot - the battle!"
Bathory came soaring around the side of the building with his device at the ready. The thin blade on his main device had been replaced by several sharp spikes that shot back at an angle, ready to tear into his opponent. He screamed and launched himself into the air, spinning around to give a bit of extra power into his attack. Subaru heard him at the last second, but couldn't react fast enough. The spikes slammed into Subaru's personal defenses and did a hell of a job against them, launching the younger mage violently off of her road and into the side of a building across the street. She left cracks in the side where she impacted it, and then fell the rest of the way to the ground.
Bathory landed as well, stumbling along the road and trying not to fall over. He finally stood on two solid feet and paused for several seconds, trying to catch his breath. He looked at Subaru, and she was just beginning her struggle to get back up. Looking back down the road, he noticed that he was almost in front of the entrance to the simulation. Exhausted from the fight, he put one foot in front of the other, slowly making progress down the road.
Out by the entrance, the air had been still ever since Subaru fell, and the expressions on the audiences' faces ranged from Signum's unfazed look to Teana's look of fear. She slowly reached to unmute her audio, and called out worriedly.
"Subaru, you okay?"
As Bathory continued along, he stumbled once and fell to his hands and knees. Between breaths, he began to smile and looked up at the audience.
"Who...who said...that I was going to lose?"
Teana gritted her teeth and stared daggers at Bathory as rose to his knees and looked into the sky, staring back up into Midchilda's suns.
"Ohhhhh, that was awful. Really awful. But still. Hey Minasa? Did you get all that?" he asked. He laughed weakly at his own comment. "That's how you fight. And that's how you win. And that's how a Siban does it."
Minasa and Teana both moved to respond, but Signum stepped in front of them and faced the screen as it cut back and forth between the two mages.
"Does a true Siban forget to check if the battle's really over?"
Bathory quit smiling and looked back out at the group.
"What...what do you mean?"
Behind him, Subaru was preparing for one more attack, back on her feet and still very much able to battle.
"Diviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine..."
She pushed off and her skates propelled her towards her opponent, who only just now realized what Signum meant and was trying to get up. Everything else became a blur in Subaru's vision as she focused only on her target. A blue sphere of energy gathered in front of her, and she reached back to strike with her own punch.
"BUUUUUSTEEEEEEEEER!"
Bathory got to one knee and spun around only to find himself mere inches away from being hit. Time came to a crawl as Subaru's hand moved towards him and seemed to slow down more and more as she drew closer.
And closer.
And closer.
And closer.
And contact.
The explosion rocked her opponent and Bathory went flying backwards, rolling head over heels out of the digitized city, through the entrance to the arena and into the back wall of the walkway, leaving a nice crater in the side. He was alive and awake, but his mind was temporarily gone and everything was a massive blur of sounds and colors. Things began to clear, and finally he was able to make out words and sentences.
"...a little much, don't you think..."
"...no...didn't see what she did before..."
"...sounds like her..."
"...should I perform an evaluation on him? His potential assumed injuries are predicted to be severe."
"No, no, I'll go over and check."
Bathory could clearly make out that the last voice was Teana's, and he saw her walk over to him and kneel down. His vision was still woozy, and the girl danced back and forth across his sight. He groaned.
"Ngh...what happened?"
"Karma, I'd say. Now, how many fingers am I holding up?"
Bathory looked around. "I don't know, but she...ugh...she hit me so hard that you two turned into six."
"Oh, no, Subaru's sisters arrived sometime after the two of you started. It's just them."
Bathory's sight rested on Minasa. "And...and she just turned into four."
"No, no, Cinque really is that sma - wait, four?"
Just then, Teana was interrupted by loud cheering as Subaru wheeled herself outside the facility and into the group of Nakajimas.
"Subaru?" asked Wendi, "what happened?"
The blue-haired girl laughed again.
"Well, Tia kinda ended her thing early, sooooo..."
"I only 'ended my thing early' because YOU couldn't let me do anything" said Teana, heading over to join the circle. As she got closer to Subaru, her angry demeanor dropped and she looked closely at all of the girl's injuries.
"You're not hurt too bad, are you? Do we need to get you to Shamal?"
"Ne, Tia, I'm just sore, that's all. It doesn't- OW! - it doesn't hurt too bad."
"Subaru," said Dieci, "if you are feeling sore, perhaps a nice bath is in order."
"And what is this?" added Nove, inspecting Teana as Teana did Subaru. "You're looking a little dirty yourself."
Teana's eyes shot open and she backed away from the group. "Now wait a second," she said, "wait just a second..."
"I can even run a bubble bath if you want" said Ginga. "You know how much Subaru likes them."
"No- no no no, hold on, hold on!" Panicking, Teana backed away from the group of Nakajimas, who were all slowly advancing on her. "You set this up, didn't you? I don't even know how, but you set this up so-"
Teana bumped into someone behind her and froze as she felt the person's hands massaging her shoulders.
"Oh, Teana," said Signum, "you seem a little - hmm - off today. Perhaps some quality time with Subaru and her family is what you need."
"No...please, Signum, I-"
The flame knight smiled and shoved Teana forwards into the group of wild Nakajimas. They surrounded her like a pack of animals and began to carry her off, ignoring the girl's struggles to get free.
"No!" she screamed. "No! Why, Signum, why?"
"Yaaaaaaaay!" said Subaru. "Now I get to bathe with Tia!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Teana cried, her voice fading into the distance. "I HAD PLAAAAAAAAAAANS!"
Every so slowly, Bathory got back to his feet. With his hand on the wall, he was able to support himself and he began to regain control. Minasa offered her hand in support, but it was rejected.
"I'm fine, really. I'm fine."
Signum stood nearby, still watching the Nakajimas carry Teana off.
"Rank A Plus, huh?"
Bathory took a deep breath. "You know I'm lying, don't you?"
"Well, if I didn't before..."
The defeated mage pounded his fist on the wall and grunted. "If I was only at full. If only."
"Careful," said Signum, "you don't want the girl learning how to be a bad sport."
Bathory looked down at Minasa and her eyes were wide open, filled with curiosity and wonder. The older mage smiled. At least he'd fulfilled something.
"You liked what you saw, didn't you?"
Minasa smiled back. "She had her own Divine Buster! I can make one too, and show it to Nanoha."
Bathory's smile dropped, and with a sigh, he put his hand back on her shoulder. "Whatever," he said, "I'll be here at least another week or two. I'll get you up to a C."
Signum turned around, and Bathory felt her cold eyes settle on him again.
"I still wonder if Instructor Takamachi would best be suited to help her."
"Well, let's see what happens" replied Bathory. "Again, it was nice meeting you. You're a real inspiration to all Modern Belkans. And, I mean, like, more than 'metaphorically' an inspiration - like, LITERALLY an inspiration. 'Cause, you know, they didn't call it 'Modern Belkan' back in your time - it was, like, the real thing. So, uh, you know what I'm - what I'm getting at - again, big fan."
Bathory ran out of steam again, intimidated by the flame knight's piercing stare, and began to make a quick exit from the facility. Bringing Minasa along, he headed back along the walkway, unsure of what to do next. On one hand, he wanted to get back to his own room, seeing as he was tired and sore and looked a little beaten up and no doubt someone would notice this and ask what he'd been doing and actually now that he thought about it more, he'd rather stay out for a bit longer.
"Minasa," he asked, "what are you going to do next? Keep watching that movie?"
"Oh, right!" the girl shouted. "It was getting to the best part too."
"Well, how about you DON'T watch that, and instead, I'll see if I can get anything from Siba. Especially if I could get the last season of SCDU - I obviously missed the whole thing."
"S...SCDU?"
Bathory stopped in his tracks, right in the middle of the walkway, and slowly looked over at Minasa.
"Siba Capital Defense Unit! How do you NOT know about SCDU? It's only, like, the greatest show ever made! It's got everything - action, drama, awesome battles - real intense - plots pulled from the headlines of today. Everyone watches it."
Minasa stammered. "I...I know it, just...we never watched it in my house. It looked really violent, and my parents said that-"
"Oh, please. It's only as violent as, you know, real life is. If you want to hide under the covers, then sure, watch Midchildian TV. But SCDU is where it's at." He took Minasa by the hand and kept walking, deciding that he had to get her to watch some of it.
"And actually," he continued, "I was on that show once. Well, in the background somewhere. And it was, like, season two. But still. I always thought that was cool."
It wasn't there. Nothing from Siba was.
Bathory looked up at the list of shows that Minasa could load up, and SCDU wasn't there. There was everything ever that had come out of Midchilda, and a few of the biggest things to come from the other prominent planets, and that was it.
"I...I kind of figured that would happen" said Bathory. "Siba is far, far away, and the two planets have very, very little interest in each other. But honestly, that's for the better. I can't imagine having to play by this planet's rules - nothing would ever get done."
He stood there while Minasa sat on her bed and his thoughts, once again, went to his limiter. He'd entertained the thought of just ripping it right off of himself ever since it was locked onto him, but every attempt he'd done had not been that serious. It felt like he'd only been 'testing' it before - checking to see that it was still there, and stopping as soon as it began to fight back. But he lost the battle earlier, and he didn't even know if that Nakajima girl was trying or not. What if she wasn't? What if he was just that weak now?
It was time for him to try a little harder in making that limiter come off.
He sat down next to Minasa, rested his right leg up in the bed as well, and got both hands around the device.
"Bathory," asked Minasa, "what are you-"
"Shhh. It's none of your concern. Don't say anything."
He braced himself, took a deep breath, and pulled. Like normal, he felt it immediately begin to resist and stay attached, producing a steady pain as a deterrent. Already sore from his fight, it hurt a bit more than usual and his linker core stung from the countermeasures. But he could take it if it meant freedom.
"Come on. Come on and break, you..."
He pulled a little harder, and a sudden jolt of more intense pain rushed through him. His hands reflexively flinched and shot away from the limiter. He gasped and then lost his breath for a second, bracing himself against the bed and letting his right leg drop back to the floor. As the limiter realigned itself and the pain went away, Bathory continued to take deep breaths, his hands trembling. His arms shook, and finally, he slammed his fist down.
"Son of a bitch!"
As soon as he did that, he felt Minasa's eyes on him, and realized she'd probably been watching the entire thing. Once he'd recovered enough, he looked over at the girl and patted her on the shoulder, hoping to ignore what just happened.
"I'm going back to Siba tomorrow for a quick little verification or something. I'll see if I can get some shows transferred to Aphelion or something. Maybe I can show you SCDU. Again, I've missed a whole season, so I'd like to catch up on that."
Groaning, he began to get up, but stopped when his device started to flash.
[MASTER - INCOMING CALL FROM ENFORCER HARLAOWN]
Bathory looked down at his device and ran his fingers through his hair, trying not to look like he'd just lost a battle spectacularly.
"Go ahead, Aphelion."
A screen appeared above the device, showing the blond Enforcer.
"Bathory."
"Oh, Fate, nice to see you again."
Fate smiled and leaned towards the screen. She was out of her uniform and looked like she was back at home. The 'natural sunlight' lit her from the side and she sat on a light brown couch. Behind her was a kitchen, and in the very back of that, Nanoha could be seen working on something.
"The Siban TSAB wishes to push our meeting up to better fit its schedule. Our visit has changed from tomorrow to today."
"Today?" asked Bathory. "I...okay, I'll go get ready."
"Well," Fate said, "you don't need to rush. It will now be held during the mid-afternoon in Siba Capital's time. Which means that we will be leaving Midchilda at around midnight."
Bathory paused, letting that soak in. He'd forgotten how the two planets' time zones were related to each others'. Siba Capital was always about six hours behind Cranagan. As he kept looking at Fate, he began to notice that her smile was hiding a bit of annoyance as well.
The Enforcer finally sighed and looked off camera. "I know," she said, "but sometimes the rules aren't in your favor. If you need to contact me again or have any questions, I'll be at home for the day. Nanoha would like me to eat at least one meal here today."
Behind her, Nanoha walked out of the kitchen and stood behind Fate. Fate leaned back and looked all the way up at Nanoha as the Instructor put her hands on Fate's shoulders. Next to Bathory, Minasa had been quietly watching the call, but as soon as Nanoha had taken her position, the young girl bounded in front of the screen.
"Nanoha!" she cried.
Bathory tried pushing her back out of the way, but Minasa was going to stand firm. Nanoha leaned down so she was visible on the call, and Fate looked forward again.
"Minasa - a pleasure to see you again. You did a great job yesterday."
"Oh thank you thank you THANK YOU! You're amazing, Nanoha! But...ehhhh...Axel Shooter is really hard to dodge..."
Fate looked back up at Nanoha.
"Axel? You went with Axel?"
Nanoha laughed. "This class is a strong one, Fate. I couldn't be as lenient as normal-"
"Lenient?" Fate asked, wrapping her arms around Nanoha's neck and pulling her in. "You cannot talk about being lenient, Nanoha."
The Instructor laughed again. "Well..."
Fate let go of the other woman and looked back at the screen. "It's nice to see you again, Minasa. I'm glad we could get you to Midchilda."
The girl beamed. "Thank you so much. I love it!"
"I need to get back," said Nanoha. "But Minasa - I'll see you later at the next class, right?"
"Okay," replied Minasa. "See you!"
Nanoha smiled again and left to get back to the kitchen. As her presence in the call waned, Bathory was finally able to push Minasa back and return to his conversation.
"Okay, Fate, I'll be there tonight."
"Actually, one more thing" said the Enforcer. "Right before I contacted you, I noticed a spike of activity coming from your limiter. Is there anything I should know about?"
Bathory sat there, confused. "You...you noticed? What do you mean?"
"For your duration in the rehabilitation program, I am able to monitor and receive data from your limiter to make sure it is in working condition and isn't causing any issues. Many times over the past six weeks, there have been small increases in activity, but those have never been anything that could cause any continued amount of discomfort. But this one was bigger than the others - probably enough to be extremely noticeable."
"Fate, I don't really know why you got that," Bathory lied. "Nothing's happened to it. I've just been walking Minasa around, taking her for a bit of extra training."
Minasa looked up at Bathory and was about to contradict him, but Bathory put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed firmly.
"Don't," he told her. "Don't say a word."
Nervously, Minasa complied. During this, Fate had taken a quick look at the man.
"I need you to be serious about this, Bathory. I want to make absolutely sure that your limiter is not being defective in any way."
"Okay, I got it. If it does something weird-"
"Bathory, listen." Fate leaned back in so she filled the screen. "I know how painful it can become. If something does go wrong, and if the limiter thinks it's in maximum danger, it will respond. And it will be more painful than you can imagine. I do not want you with a defective limiter."
The words hung heavily over both of them, and Bathory took a while deciding what to say.
"O...okay," he said slowly, "I got it caught on something, and it got pulled on a little. Yes, it shocked me a bit, but I was fine a couple seconds later."
Fate looked away and nodded softly.
"It might seem like a burden, but it's in your best interest to keep it maintained."
"Fate, I just said that it got-"
"I take this very seriously, but I am on your side. I believe you. I want you to have a pleasant, painless visit on Midchilda."
"And I have been, okay? I'll...I'll see you tonight. We'll go to Siba, and I'll see how things are looking."
Fate looked back at the camera. "See you tonight. I'm sure thinks will be fine."
Bathory ended the transmission and slowly leaned back so he was lying on the bed. He wanted to be naive and believe that everything on Siba would be fine - that they'd welcome him with a parade of open arms and smiles. But, again, he left the planet as an unrepentant murderer, and it was the Midchildian TSAB who found reason in his actions and cleared him. Siba would have to agree with Midchilda here, and Bathory knew his own planet's track record with that. But still, maybe they could put that aside and let a Double-A rank mage who was ready to fight for them rejoin their forces without harboring bad will.
He looked over at Minasa. Since the call ended, Minasa has turned back to the TV, activating it again. Groaning, Bathory got up from the bed.
"We can do this again, same time tomorrow, if you want."
Minasa looked up at him.
"G...good luck tonight."
Bathory smiled, and the overwhelming pressure of that night was reduced by a little bit. Slowly, he turned around and headed for the door. As he left, Minasa began to play the Nanoha movie again, right from where it had stopped before.
He took on a shade of green long ago. And many a fool
along the way have been lost to this. I know you can't
afford to be wrong. And we can't either. We want it
back. I can't afford to lose you. But that's not what
this is about. If love ever had a second name it's
attachment. And if you had an ounce of common sense
you would be witness to this.
Coalesce - On Being A Bastard