SonicANIME2010 here, bringing in a new chapter to Lyrical Familiar. New story, new possibilities, and I plan on getting deep into the content of this arc. Going even beyond the Nanoha movie AND the anime with the Sound Stage coverage, which this chapter specifically gets into. Anime and movie can only cover so much; the Sound Stages help that out. I may also cameo a few more characters too. Let's go!

[Uminari City, Japan]
[Time: 0530]
[No BGM

Barely a few days have passed since Nanoha and Sonic's own first day as a mage and familiar. Neither of them seemed bothered by the fact that they were dragged into helping the young archeologist, Yuuno Scrya, in his search for the Jewel Seeds. To Yuuno's greater surprise, Sonic, who, if not for Nanoha becoming a mage, would've been dead, did not hold any ill will against the ferret; and the teasing, witty and sarcastic streak the hedgehog seems to have only came with his carefree attitude. So far, they managed to seal two Jewel Seeds in as many days, and, counting the seed the ferret had already sealed prior to his coming to earth, their count was up to 3. Out of 21, that left 18 unaccounted for, but they at least made some progress.

To give Nanoha and Sonic their first taste in magic training and because there were some lessons that could only be learnt in a hands-on lesson; Yuuno had taken the two to a vacant lot close to the café. They all woke up early so, in theory, they wouldn't cause much of a ruckus and be able to sneak out of the house without the family noticing.

Sadly, the trio, not being the stealthiest of early-risers or mages, had also woken up the rest of Nanoha's family. Instead of stopping the three, they instead decided to tag along for the shared reasons of the reasonable curiosity, much to Yuuno's chagrin. The ferret, wisely so, didn't voice any reservations against the family tagging along, and he couldn't stop them anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered if he tried.

They all watched as Nanoha, clad in her Barrier Jacket, stood on the ground with a large glyph circle of magic at the center of her feet. The circle was inscribed with rings and squares; and at the corners of the rings were the Greek letters Pi, Delta, Omega and Vu. The humans couldn't help but look at the circle in awe. Nanoha would have as well, if she wasn't already focused on the target dummy Yuuno borrowed from the Takamahci family dojo.

To Nanoha's right was her familiar, also clad in his Barrier Jacket, though his swords were sheathed and his arms were folded. The Tutorial Ferret had strongly requested that the hedgehog save his wit for after training as it could be dangerous if Nanoha were to lose her focus. Much as he'd like to have fun with his mistress, Sonic obliged, the magic was kinda important to him too.

"Alright, concentrate in your mind" Yuuno instructed, not fazed by the glyphs as he was used to seeing them on a daily basis, "Make an image"

"Hmmm.." Nanoha obliged and tried to focus in her mind about an image, it didn't take her long to get one.

"Good, now take that image into your hand" The ferret continued his instruction, "And transfer it into Raising Heart"

"Okay" the girl nodded and held the staff out in her left hand, "Raising Heart, Onegai!"

"Alright!" The red orb of her device chimed in affirmation. If Nanoha's family were surprised, only Miyuki showed it; albeit only a small reaction at that, "Standby, ready."

'Okay… Did they just take the fact that Raising Heart talked in stride?!' Sonic thought to himself as he just stared at Nanoha's family.

"Now you need to gather the magical energy for that image" Yuuno finished instructing, "Recite your incantation and cast it out all at once."

"Image for the magic…" Nanoha looked awkward as she tried to focus, and then managed to recite her incantation, "Lyrical Magical! Um…. Binding Spell Activate!"

Her spell did not quite work as it sounded. Instead of the target dummy getting wrapped in a binding spell like it should have been; it was blasted in a large, uncontrolled burst of pink mana, courtesy of the mage. While the binds were present, the spell's power was just a bit overcharged and it ended up making the practice dummy target explode. At least she got the spell off, whatever it was; may the target dummy rest in peace.

"Yatta!" Nanoha cheered at that part, "Did I do it right?"

"If "doing it right" means "exploding your target and causing an avalanche of debris and dirt to head right for us", then I'd say you aced it!" Her blue hedgehog familiar quipped and gave her a thumb-up gesture for emphasis. That said, he had little choice but to watch as he and his mistress were about to crash into debris that the backfired spell made, "How the…"

"Eh?" Nanoha blinked, only to gain a comically surprised expression on her face as she noticed the small mix of debris and dirt heading right for her and him, and a little bit too fast for either of them to react to it, "KYAA!"

In a last ditch effort to spare his mistress from at least some of the debris, Sonic took her in a headfirst tackle. His effort didn't get the results he would've liked, as they both were caught up in the mess.

"Nanoha! Sonic!" Yuuno, who just so happened to be on higher ground, rushed down to check on the mage and familiar caught up in the mess. When the dust settled, the sight it revealed made him stare and blush a bit.

[BGM: "Eeto desu ne" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]

The two were in a rather embarrassing position; Nanoha, looking a bit dazed if the swirly signs comically replacing her eyes were of any clue, was seated flat on her butt. Sonic, a little bit more aware, was curled up in her lap.

"That could've gone better." Sonic groaned as he stood up and dusted himself off. Showing some concern for his almost-friend's wellbeing, he offered the girl his hand, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, somehow" Nanoha took it. She used the offered hand to stand up, "You too, Sonic-kun?"

"Yeah" the blue hedgehog shrugged, "That was interesting"

"Hmmm…" Nanoha agreed with a sigh; she looked down at Yuuno and lamented her mistake, "It doesn't look like I'm doing too well…"

"No, you're actually quite impressive" Yuuno admitted in complete honesty, "It's only been a few days and you're already able to do this much."

"Is that so.." the girl had her doubts and she hung her head low; a gloved hand suddenly patted the top of her head a few times, "E-eh?"

"Don't worry" Sonic chimed with a supportive tone, "You're doing great; keep up the good work!"

"I kind of understand how to use attack and protection spells now" Nanoha thought out loud with her familiar nodding in agreement.

"You both seem to be really good with the high energy spells, and possess a great amount of mana reserves when you combine them together. However, you both lack in concentration and finesse" The ferret explained.

"Umm… Does that mean we're the type that relies more on brute force?" Nanoha asked, not quite sure if she should be proud of that.

"E-eh?! Ah…" Yuuno blinked rapidly. Uhoh, quick! Backpedal! "T-that's not what I meant."

"Guilty" Sonic only needed one word to counter.

"A-anyways, you both don't need to worry about that." The ferret said in encouragement, "I can support you both with the Barrier and Capture spells, even if I am still in recovery."

"That doesn't let her off the hook. She still needs to learn them so I can use them too." Sonic noted, "You said the other day that I'll need to be able to cover for her weak points."

"That's true…" Yuuno hung his head low; much as he disliked the hedgehog's blunt statements, they still bring up solid points.

"Nanoha-chan!" Momoko called out to the group, getting their attention, "It's time for breakfast!"

"Hai!" the girl brightly chimed back. She turned to her device and called out to it, "Thanks for today, Raising Heart. We'll train again soon"

"Goodbye" the device chimed back and shifted back to standby mode. At the same time, both Nanoha and Sonic disengaged their barrier jackets and, with Yuuno Scrya in tow, met back up with the family so they could go in for breakfast.

[OP: "Innocent Starter" Nana Mizuki]

Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar
Chapter 4
Big problem at the pool with swimsuits?!

[Midori-ya Café]
[BGM: "Honobono" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]

After the training was over, Nanoha and Sonic took turns in the shower before, at least more so on Nanoha's part, getting dressed and eating breakfast at the family dining table. As for Sonic, it had only been a few days since he first started living in the household, so he was considered a "guest", and given some slack about some of the minor customs. However, if the hedgehog plans on living there much longer, he would need to follow the customs and rules of the household as he would, rightfully so, not be considered a guest.

"Sonic-san" Shiro addressed the hedgehog politely. The head of the Takamachi family had a need to discuss something with his guest, but took a less in-your-face approach to it "Mind if I ask you a question?"

"Uh sure.." Sonic nodded awkwardly, feeling a tad bit uncomfortable with the formal talk, but chose against voicing that opinion, "What is it?"

"We've let you stay in this house freely for a few days, mainly because of the circumstances involving you and our daughter" The man calmly and neutrally informed the boy, "However, we cannot let you stay here like this for much longer."

"Eh? Otou-san" Nanoha looked at her father in surprise, quickly drawing an assumption, "You're not going to kick him out, are you?"

"No, rest assured, he can still live here" Shiro quickly corrected her, "I'm just saying that we cannot consider him a "guest" for too much longer if he is going to be living here for a long time"

"Oh, yeah, when you put it that way" Nanoha nodded in agreement and turned to face the hedgehog familiar directly, "Um, Sonic-kun, you are going to be living here for a while, right?"

"Yeah, I'm not going to back down on my promise" the hedgehog nodded firmly; his attention shifted back to the father figure, "So, I take it that means I can't be warming up your couch every night from now on?"

"It wasn't really a healthy place to sleep in anyway" Miyuki noted as she sat down, hearing most of the conversation anyways, "But, we don't really have a guest room either"

"He'll have to room with one of us" Shiro concluded quickly, sending a knowing glance at Nanoha, "You don't mind sharing your room, do you Nanoha-chan?"

"E-eh?!" Nanoha just blinked, and gazed at Sonic, who, like her, was just as shocked as she was. She turned back to look at her father, "Um… I don't, but why?"

"In my experience with this sort of situation with you and the hedgehog, I think it's fair to say that he can be considered a guardian or a bodyguard, and in order for that partnership to work out, you both need a good relationship" Shiro noted, "For that reason, you two will need to spend more time with each other and develop that relationship."

"He's right, a good relationship between client and guard help in the long run. Clients will be more likely to enlist our services if the first job goes well and they feel like they can trust us with that relationship." Kyouya nodded in agreement, still remembering his last job.

"I'm not really looking for money or anything" Sonic argued a bit, "But, if you want me to do some of this stuff, I will. If you want me to, I'll also try to work around here and kinda "earn" my stay."

"I'll talk to Shinobu about getting you to work in the café" Momoko noted

"Anyways" Miyuki, deciding to change the topic, turned to her younger sister, "Are you ready for today?"

"Today?" Nanoha looked up in thought, trying to recall if something was important

"You know that new pool that opened up past the bus station?" Miyuki explained to refresh her memory, "You promised to go there after school today with your friends."

"Oh yeah!" Nanoha smiled, "I'm ready"

"Huh?!" Yuuno piped up in the mindspeak, reaching out to Nanoha and in the process dragged Sonic into the conversation as well, "What's going on Nanoha?"

"Oh, it was a promise that we made before Yuuno-kun and Sonic-kun came here" the girl quickly explained away the confusion, "We're all going to the new pool together"

"Oh, a pool.." Yuuno nodded in thought

"Since you two are here as well, you're both going to come as well" Nanoha innocently said, "Right, Yuuno-kun, Sonic-kun?"

"EH?!" the ferret blinked a few times and looked between Nanoha and Miyuki, "Uhmmm.."

"Not exactly a big water fan because I can't swim" Sonic, instead of answering in the telepathy, opted to speak out, "But, why not? It sounds like fun and I don't have anything to do today anyways."

"You're coming too, Onii-chan." Nanoha asked her older brother, "Right?"

"Yeah" Kyouya nodded, "But I'll be there working as a life guard."

"Ehm.. Nanoha.. uh.. Nanoha?" Yuuno tried calling out to the girl, but his attempts were futile as she didn't listen.

"This will be exciting!" as the girl got more excited for the pool trip, she paid less attention to the ferret, who tried so hard to get her attention, "I'll have a lot of fun with Alisa-chan and Suzuka-chan there too. Maybe we can get Sonic-kun to swim too"

"I'll need a lesson or two first" the hedgehog, eager to join in on the fun, chimed in, "But, yeah, I think I can have some fun"

"You're not listening to me…" Yuuno hung his head in comical defeat.

[Seishou Elementary School]
[Time: 1500 hours (3 pm)]
[No BGM]

The end of the school day found Nanoha, Alisa and Suzuka discussing the upcoming pool day while waiting outside of the campus for their ride.

"You both brought your swimsuits, right?" Alisa asked the two

"Yup!" Nanoha chimed cheerfully in reply and held up a bag that had her swimsuit in it.

"I read that the pool has slides and they allow tubes too" Suzuka added, "So I asked Farin to bring one"

"Oh!" Alisa's grin widened at that statement, "That sounds really fun!"

"Swimming with a tube in the pool sounds nice" Nanoha agreed to the statement.

For a few minutes they waited and talked a bit more, while she couldn't deny it when she was asked about how she would be sharing her room with Sonic starting tonight; she was surprised to hear that her friends didn't mind it. Though she couldn't help but laugh when Alisa commented loudly that if the hedgehog tried anything perverted, he'd have to answer to the dirty-blonde girl. Although it could be argued that such thoughts never occurred to Nanoha, and she didn't peg Sonic to be that type either.

The honking of a car horn dragged the three schoolgirls' attention to a limo that just parked next to a nearby curb. If the appearance wasn't familiar enough to Suzuka, the sight of a teenage-looking girl with long light-purple hair and wearing maids outfit was.

"Suzuka-chan!" the girl called out to the trio and waved them over

"Farin!" the heiress addressed her apparent housemaid and, with her friends in tow, went over to greet her. As they did that, out from the driver seat came another girl in a maid uniform. Though, unlike the fist, this one looked like she could be the older sister, her hair was a lighter purple and cut much shorter, just to the end of her neck.

"Alisa-ojou-sama, Nanoha-ojou-sama" the older maid addressed the two, "We've come to pick you up"

"Ah, Noel-san!" Alisa looked quite happy to see the older maid and addressed her like an older sibling figure, a sentiment shared by Nanoha as well.

"Arigatou-gozaimasu" Nanoha politely bowed in gratitude and, with Alisa and Suzuka behind her, went inside the limo before it drove off to the pool.

[Takamachi Residence]
[Time: 3:10 pm]
[No BGM]

While waiting for Miyuki, who was going to take them to the pool when she got home from an errand, Sonic decided to try and get some cleaning done around the house so that way he'd make a bigger and more favorable impression on the host family; Yuuno, having a major need to research some of the things about this world, turned on the TV to watch the mid-day news.

"… And now for a recent development that we reported last night about the sudden wall collapse in Misaka town in relation to the incident at Makibara animal hospital." The news broadcaster reported, "Upon further investigation, authorities have still yet to find the cause of the incident, though it's been confirmed that no people… excuse me… animals, were reported to have been injured"

"I'd argue differently to that last statement" Sonic quipped as he mopped the wood floors in a pair of borrowed slippers due to having his shoes, gloves, socks and scarf washed with the laundry, "But I technically should've been dead."

"Please be serious about this, Sonic" Yuuno requested with a sigh, "Although I can say that they probably won't be able to find any evidence of magic, the questions raised about the damage will have the authorities keep a better eye around here, and enough people already know about our magic than I would've liked."

"In other news, another day has passed and still the search on South Island has led to no results" the female news co-host reported on the next incident, this one catching Sonic's attention, "A few weeks ago, a once world-renowned genius scientist, Doctor Eggman, announced his declaration of world conquest. He started it by taking over the once peaceful South Island, just south of the harbor here in Uminari. He captured many of the island's inhabitants and used them as power sources for his machines."

Yuuno, stoically and neutrally, watched the report and took note of Eggman's appearance: Human male, bald head with a comically large dark-brown moustache, comically obese, but built much like an egg, red and black outfit, big red and pointed nose with small glasses. The loud, sudden splash caused by the mop jammed inside the bucket that held the water and floor-cleaning mix did not go unnoticed by the ferret, as he noted the blue hedgehog's obvious negative reaction to Eggman's appearance. Instead of commenting on it, however, the ferret chose to continue listening to the news report

"Days later; his base, which he called "Scrap Brain", was destroyed in a mysterious explosion. Authorities have spent the last week searching around the island for clues about the explosion and the whereabouts of Doctor Eggman; neither bearing any results." The news anchor sighed for a moment to gather her breath before finishing the report, "The Uminari City police reports that they will extend the search for another two weeks before recalling their investigative team. While there has been no interference from the island natives, there has been no short of the understandable mistrust. The authorities are currently redoubling their efforts to resolve this incident and retreat from the island before the situation escalates. We'll have an in-depth report on this incident, Eggman and South Island later tonight."

"For an old geezer who looks so much like the human's model of fitness, he can be slippery when he wants to be" Sonic snarked and mopped, "If he doesn't want to be seen, finding that guy's a lost cause."

"You've seen this man in person?" Yuuno questioned, 'Does that mean you've seen what they are reporting about?"

"I had the best seat in the house for the show" the hedgehog merely shrugged and kept working. His silence on the matter was the ferret's golden hint that it probably wouldn't do much good to keep talking about the incident with him.

'So he does know… maybe he was one of the captured inhabitants? If he was, how did he break out? And if he wasn't how is he able to speak of the incident like he was so close to it' Yuuno tried to think hard about the mystery, 'The local authorities are currently handling the investigation, but if I'm right about this feeling I have; and I hope I'm wrong, they're going to need some "outside" help. And a mysterious incident like this, plus the Jewel Seeds, would be the perfect reason for the TSAB to start getting involved. I just hope that I can be a big enough help for Sonic and Nanoha to resolve this incident before it escalades to that point'

"Tadaima!" Miyuki called out as she entered the house, which quickly led Yuuno to turn off the television and start his best attempt of acting like an actual ferret. While the girl and her family know about him, others do not so he had to practice the cover of a house-pet.

"Welcome back" Sonic acknowledged the girl as she came in, "uh, watch your step, I just mopped there"

"I noticed" The girl nodded, no short amount of impressment on her face, "You did a great job here"

"I know how to clean up a mess or two" the hedgehog shrugged.

"Anyways" the teen addressed the two, "Are you ready?"

"Yup!" Sonic nodded with a small grin, "This should be fun"

"Kyun!" Yuuno, though as embarrassing and degrading to him as it was, made his best impression of a ferret cry.

"Well I can say he's ready" Sonic shrugged in reference to the Tutorial Ferret, "But if you're looking for a translation, he literally just said "Kyun"…. Nothing else"

The ferret once again sent another dirty look in the hedgehog's direction, but nothing came from it as the hedgehog just shrugged it off again.

[Pool]
[No BGM]

The grand opening of a pool certainly can drag a lot of attention and people out to have some fun, especially after a long day of hard work. The pool itself was structured quite well for a crowd with diverse tastes. There was a play/wave area for the youth, a lap pool for some competitive practice and a stage for some reason.

For Kyouya Takamachi, one of the life-guards on duty to ensure the safety of the children around, his work day would prove to be busy. He had one takeaway from the job as his family and their friends would arrive soon.

"Kyouya-san!" And just on cue, out came the mostly female party to have fun, led by Alisa Bannings.

With the obvious exception of Sonic and Yuuno; all of them were wearing a variety of swimsuits. The type of suit ranged from the two piece suits like Alisa Bannings had donned, though hers was a mix of a two-piece and a swimsuit with frills on the top and bottom and her mid-drift on full display; the one-piece suits like the cute ones that Nanoha, Suzuka and Farin had worn; and finally, for the more grown up and risqué there were the bikinis that Miyuki and Noel had sported, neither of them quite too modest about their looks.

"Hello girls" Kyouya took a small detour on his patrol to meet with them. He suppressed a chuckle at seeing the humorous expressions that Sonic and Yuuno, the only other males present in the party, had. Yuuno looked embarrassed and uncomfortable, and as did Sonic, but for different reasons, "And hedgehog and ferret"

"Y-yo.." Sonic weakly waved, and grew a bit weaker at the sight of the rather deep pool. Some past memories and experiences may have influenced his condition.

"Kyun…" the ferret didn't look any better, and he was thankful that his short size made it easy to hide the red-tint of his cheeks.

"That lifeguard look really suits you Kyou-chan" Miyuki complimented, using a rather cute nickname for her older brother. Feeling a bit happy and somewhat of a tease, she got the three boys' attention and directed them to the choice of swimsuits, "What do you guys think of our choice of swimsuits?"

"We were really excited to choose them" Farin chimed, the younger of the two maids for the Tsukimura household. They gave Sonic quite a surprise when he first saw them as he almost mistaken them for robots or machines for some reason, but he quickly quashed that theory upon seeing how kind they were.

"Well.. they um…" Kyouya looked around a little bit, trying to find the right words, while Sonic and Yuuno were speechless; though the hedgehog was more uncomfortable with the water than he was of the girls, but no one, aside from him, could honestly have been able to tell the difference.

"Sexy~?" Alisa teasingly chimed and made a cute pose in an attempt to flaunt that aspect.

"Y-yeah.." the older brother figure had an exasperated sweat-drop at that suggestion, though he couldn't deny that appeal worked for the two in bikinis, though that also could've been influenced by the typical hormonal male mind.

'I don't think Sonic or Nanoha have noticed this..' Yuuno thought to himself as he tried desperately so hard not to stare at the girls in swimsuits and distract himself with more serious thoughts, 'But I'm sensing a weak magical power here… could it be from a Jewel Seed?'

At any rate, the pool adventure started off quite smoothly. After some kicking, whining, and tricking, Alisa got Sonic to get into the pool, where he almost sunk right away and it was the quick thinking and the surprising amount of strength that Suzuka had that she was able to get him to the shallow end of the pool to start with the basics. For Alisa, while she, Suzuka and Nanoha started to teach the young boy hedgehog on the basics of swimming, she took notice of what looked to be a stage of some sorts close-by with a microphone in the middle of it.

"Kyouya-san?" the girl asked, "What's that stage over there for?"

"Singing" Kyouya answered without missing a beat, "I saw some girls using it earlier. Since it was put in, it seems to be getting popularity"

"Hmmm! Say who wants to sing?" Alisa asked amongst her friends at the pool

"No way" both Nanoha and Suzuka declined, they weren't quite willing to give it a try

"Count me out" Sonic shook his head in decline as well while Yuuno didn't need to answer. Not only would he be bad at it... but also a singing ferret? That would be something that the blue hedgehog will NEVER let him live down.

"Miyuki-san? Farin?" the girl turned to ask the older girls

"No way! I'm bad at it" Miyuki quickly declined as well

"I'll be worse!" Farin shared that sentiment

"If I may" Noel offered, no small amount of amusement and teasing in her tone, "Shouldn't it be the one who suggested it be the first to try? Ne, Alisa-ojou-sama?"

"ugh" the girl just blinked, while everyone else just seemed to gain a rather dangerous aura about them

"Who wants to hear Alisa-chan sing?" Miyuki called out

"Me!" Everyone except for Yuuno chimed out all at once

"Kyun!" The mentioned Tutorial Ferret, still under his regular ferret cover, tried to voice his agreement

"Geh?! Is this some sort of trap?" Alisa, with shades of a tsunderish tone to her voice, groaned, "I should've kept my mouth shut!"

"The receptionist is over there" Kyouya directed the 9 year old to where she could go to sign up for a song.

"Fine then!" Alisa said after going through all the embarrassment of signing up for singing. She took center stage and called out to her friends, "I'll give it my all and show you guys how I can sing!"

[Alisa's song: "Precious Time" by Rie Kugimiya]
(AN: Sorry, no lyrics for this one, I can't find them, therefore skipping!)

At the end of her song, Alisa was mildly surprised to find that she had drawn more to the crowd than her close friends. The reception she got was pretty good too, a few claps, cheers and such.

"Wow! Sugoi!" Nanoha voiced her excitement and enjoyment with her clapping

"How cute" Noel voiced her approval

"Well I guess it felt pretty good" the dere-dere part of Alisa's personality briefly showed in her modesty

"Encore! Encore!" Sonic called out, though he meant it as a joke

"No!" and the tsun-tsun part returns for Alisa's response

"S-sorry…" The hedgehog quickly took the statement back and flinched, 'Lesson learned, don't mess with her'

[BGM: "Tanoshii Kyuujitsu" MGLN OST]

After all that was said and done, Alisa rejoined her friends in the pool. During the time when the trio of girls were at the wave pool, their resident ferret finally had something to be proud of. Something that FINALLY gave him an advantage over his blue hedgehog rival: the ability to swim! The girls found it rather humorous and cute that Yuuno was acting in a proud/flaunting manner over something that he held over Sonic's head, while the hedgehog was doing his best impression of a tsundere pouty schoolgirl.

"Of course, Tutorial Ferret now has something to hold over my head…" the hedgehog pouted, "He probably won't let me live it down.."

"There there, Sonic-kun" Alisa, the resident tsundere, shared the hedgehog's feelings, and did her best to cheer him up "We'll teach you how to swim, ne girls?"

"Hai!" Suzuka and Nanoha chimed

"Be careful about your belongings" Kyouya called out to the girls\

"Eh?" they all, Miyuki aside, blinked, curiously wondering what the issue was.

"Well." Miyuki voiced an explanation, "Apparently, yesterday, there was this guy who was stealing swimsuits and clothing from the changing rooms."

"And we already caught a boy inside the girl's changing room today" Kyouya added, his tone matching his concerned expression, "There hasn't been any incidents yet as far as attacks or anything, but there's a lot of young female customers here.. so we have to be careful."

"Say, Nanoha" Yuuno asked the girl via mind-speak, "Do you mind if I have a look around?"

"Um.. sure," Nanoha replied positively, though she couldn't help but voice her worries, "Will you be alright though? Like afraid you could get lost?"

"I'll be fine" the ferret waved her concern away and took off for another direction.

While Nanoha and Alisa, with the help of Noel, helped Sonic in learning how to swim, Suzuka and Miyuki decided to have a race of a few laps in the lap pool. Even though she was much shorter, Suzuka still gave the older girl a run for her money. Nevertheless she came up short and Miyuki won. What neither of them knew was that Alisa had talked with Farin about a little penalty for the loser, and that penalty was the loser would have to sing. Much to her reluctance and embarrassment, Susuka walked up to the stage and gave her song.

[Suzuka's song: "Definitely Stand by You" by Ai Shimizu]
[AN: Due to an already high word count, the lyrics will not be shown]

For Suzuka, it was embarrassing, but she managed to sing the whole song, and much like Alisa, she too drew a nice crowd and response.

[Boiler Room]
[BGM: "Inflexible Determination" FFX OST]

Elsewhere, things were not so peaceful, as Kyouya, off of his shift in the pool, had patrolled the Boiler Room in search of any trouble makers. Little did he know that he would indeed get that trouble; as there was something brewing in the boiler room, but it wasn't entirely human.

"What the?!" Kyouya stared ahead of him in confusion, he couldn't see what the thing ahead of him was due to the dark shadows, but what he did catch looked more liquid-like.

'Oh no! This power… it's activated' Yuuno detected the growing power and quickly rushed to the boiler room to check it out, calling out to Nanoha and Sonic, "Nanoha! Sonic! A Jewel Seed has activated!"

"We know… We could feel its power" Nanoha replied back from the pool area and quickly got out with Sonic in tow to dry off and head off to the source of the power they felt.

"What is tha- ugh!" Kyouya's thoughts were immediately interrupted by a harsh impact with the metallic side of one of the boilers and he was rendered unconscious. Luckily for him, the blow wasn't really all that hard and he wouldn't suffer any permanent injuries aside from a headache he'd wake up with in the morning.

"Kyouya-san!" Yuuno rushed inside to check on the unconscious young man. Seeing the lack of injuries, the ferret tried to see the Jewel Seed monster. With no success, he moved onto plan B, "Standard Barrier! Expand!"

The sudden expansion of a barrier caught Nanoha and Sonic, both clad in their Barrier Jackets, a bit off guard and made them stop for a moment. That in turn also allowed them to get a good look at just what they were facing.

The monster looked large and entirely made out of water. Despite the animal-like growls it made, it didn't seem to have any distinct features aside from the pinkish-red eyes. The Jewel Seed looked like it was in where the monster's forehead would be if it had a face.

"Uwah!" Nanoha shouted in shock and surprise, "It's big! Is it a water monster?"

"Looks like it" Sonic just stared, holding his blades in a neutral position, and much to his and Nanoha's surprise, the monster took one look at them, but turned away and headed for the pool.

"Nanoha! Sonic!" Yuuno called out to them as the ferret managed to catch up to his allies, "Thank goodness I caught up.. I managed to make a barrier, but the range is so huge that there are still some people trapped inside"

"We better help them out" Sonic declared and, after grasping his mistress's hand, revved up his Super-Peel-Out and rushed for the pool. When they got there, they were greeted with yet another surprise, as if one wasn't enough.

[Pool area]
[BGM: "Enemy Attack" Final Fantasy X OST]

Sure enough, there was panic caused amongst the pool-goers with the loud growls. The lifeguards were really busy in evacuating the area, so that way no one would get hurt. All but two managed to make it out safely. The two that couldn't were Alisa and Suzuka as they were trapped in the wave pool with the monster inside of it.

"Alisa-chan! Suzuka-chan!" Nanoha rushed over to the two with Sonic right behind her. Much to their surprise and Yuuno's shock-but-soon horror, the monster didn't appear to be attacking them.

"W-what is that thing?!" Alisa struggled against its grasp

"It's trying to take our swimsuits off!" Suzuka squealed out as the monster was indeed doing just that.

"Eek! Get off! Don't touch there!" Alisa flailed but her attempts were futile and she, like Suzuka were soon caught and stripped of their suits by the monster.

"Geh!" Yuuno quickly turned his head and body away from the sight of the two nude 9-year-olds. The poor ferret was blushing up a storm and fidgeting, "M-must not look.. m-must not look!"

The monster, after it had stripped the two girls of their swimsuits, spit them out of it and released them into the wave pool. Sonic and Nanoha both watched as it happened; while Nanoha was concerned for her friends, she couldn't quite resist subtly staring at them and blushing a bit in her face.

"H-how mean!" Suzuka cried out as she covered her private areas in an attempt of modesty

"Stealing our swimsuits and spitting us out! Give it back! Give it back!" Alisa pouted and instead of mimicking her friend's modest actions, she flailed her arms and glared at the monster. However, the monster suddenly showed a lack of interest in the two girls and sent a huge tidal wave in their direction, "Uwah!"

"Protection" Raising Heart chimed in as Nanoha stood in front of her friends with Sonic in tow. With the protection spell canceling out its attack, the monster moved on to another pool in search for more prey.

"A-alisa-chan. Suzuka-chan" the Barrier Jacket-clad girl, trying and failing to suppress her slightly-pink cheeks, addressed her friends after saving them from the wave, "A-are you alright?"

"H-hai" Suzuka stuttered out, embarrassed from being naked in front of her friends, "T-thanks"

"I'm fine too" the other girl was a bit embarrassed of her naked state, but not so much as Suzuka was, and in fact, she had a bit of a smirk when she noticed the crimson tinted cheeks of the only girl currently wearing any clothes, "Oh, Nanoha-chan? You like what you see? You're staring"

"E-eh?" Nanoha stuttered and sputtered, her blush contradicted her denial, "N-no!"

"You look like you are. I didn't know you liked me that way, you little perv~! I wonder, what happens if I lower my hands" The dirty-blonde smirked a bit more mischievously and slowly started to flaunt her body's childish features in a teasing fashion and attempt of sex appeal. Hoping she'd give Nanoha a little tease of a show. While her efforts did have some success in darkening the poor girl's blush, despite the attempts of Suzuka to stop her; her show didn't last any more than thirty seconds before a thrown towel pelted her right in the face. The force of the impact almost threw her off balance, "Uwah! Hey!"

"Yes, as much as I hate to interrupt your fun. There's still a monster out there and I think it's trying to find a changing room or something, so can we focus?" Sonic deadpanned as he softly gave Suzuka a towel to wrap around herself for modesty. The blue hedgehog stared flatly at the girl and that gave her the message to put the towel on. After watching her doing so, Sonic sighed, "Thank you, now will someone tell me what the heck is up with that thing?"

"Ah! Uhmmm.." Yuuno, finally able to turn and look at the group of thee girls plus hedgehog in the eye, "This is just a guess…but that Jewel Seed may have been activated by a human, and that specific human's desires and interests are influencing its actions."

"So apparently, somewhere in this pool, or wherever that seed was; there was a human who had the desire to collect girl's clothing?" Sonic deadpanned in question, quickly face palming when Yuuno nodded in agreement, "Okay…. Now who was close when that thing activated?"

"Kyouya-san was in the Boiler Room and that was where I sensed the seed's activation, and he was the only one in the room too when the seed activated from what I saw.." the ferret recalled, and quickly tried to defend the apparent culprit of dirty thoughts, "B-but he was unconscious when I found him and the monster was gone before then."

"Kyouya-san is ecchi!" Alisa said firmly

"Onee-san won't like this.." Suzuka shook her head

"Onii-chan." Nanoha was equally disappointed in her brother, who thankfully was unconscious but will definitely have an earful when everything's all said and done

"Uh hello? Girls?" Sonic interrupted them again, "There's still a weird monster over there"

"Say, Sonic-kun…" Alisa leered at the blue hedgehog, making him feel a bit uncomfortable, "Why are you so awfully calm about this? Eh?"

"Where I'm from, clothes are kinda either a luxury or just worn to look cool. Either way, they are optional." the hedgehog shrugged, "I don't really get the whole point of this anyways."

'Wow he's innocent' the trio plus ferret thought in observation.

"Again with the staring, can we hurry up please?" the hedgehog's impatience was starting to show.

"Since it doesn't appear to be doing anything violent or aggressive, it should be easy to seal" Nanoha made an assumption as she, plus Sonic behind her, started to approach the Jewel Seed beast, "Raising Heart?"

"Cannon Mode" the device chimed out and morphed into the specific mode. After her device did so, Nanoha focused her attention on the monster and sent out streams of mana to hold the monster tight. The spell did the trick, but there was one little issue, the Jewel Seed did not show its Serial Number.

"Uh.. There's no number to this one.." Sonic observed, cautiously holding his blades in preparation for any trouble.

"I'm going to try and seal it anyway" Nanoha pointed Raising Heart right at the monster, "Lyrical Magical, Jewel Seed. Seal!"

"Sealing!" the device chimed out and unleashed a burst of magic. While the attack hit the monster dead on, it did not seal, and instead a small explosion occurred, and when the dust settled, the monster was nowhere to be seen, instead there was only the girls' underwear and swimsuits it previously stole in its place, including Alisa's and Suzuka's.

Nanoha had to fight off a blush and keep from staring at all of the different types of underwear lying around. Sonic, on the other hand, figured he could do something productive and took the swimsuits that belonged to the duo of currently towel-draped girls and return them to her.

"That's odd… the seed isn't here, but I can still sense it's aura" Yuuno, who just so happened to be looking in another direction, thought out loud about the odd occurrence, "Could the seed still be hibernating?"

"EEEH?!" Nanoha blinked

"Anyways, we've got to hurry and find it!" The ferret started towards the direction of the aura, but only made about four steps before he collapsed hard onto the ground

"Whoa, easy there Tutorial Ferret" Sonic was the first to check on him

"I'm all right…" Yuuno may have said that, but the way his head was spinning in dizziness seemed to say otherwise, "I just feel a bit dizzy.."

"Yuuno-kun, you've used too much magic, didn't you? You've been looking for the Jewel Seeds all by yourself up until when we found you…. And you've only just recovered from your injuries so…. Oh!" Nanoha suddenly had a genius idea, "My shoulder!"

"Eh?" the ferret blinked and suddenly found himself being lifted up into Nanoha's grasp, "Wha? Shoulder?"

"From now on, my shoulder is your reserved seat" the girl declared firmly and softly placed Yuuno on his reserved seat.

"You make it sound like you're going to give him popcorn up there, Nanoha" Sonic quipped, "But wait, if he gets your shoulder, than what do I get?"

"A-ah….can I get back to you on that?" Nanoha comically paused, "A-anyways! Let's go!"

"Hai!" Sonic and Yuuno agreed as the trio quickly confronted the source of the aura

[Versus: Ecchi Water Jewel Seed Beast]
[BGM: "Paradigm Shift" Final Fantasy XIII-2 OST]

They found the monster, or more appropriately, monsters; as the beast was dividing into multiple copies of itself and they all scattered across the pool area, searching hard for the sacred treasure that was a girl's swimsuit and undergarments. Panties, bikinis, bras, one-piece, two-piece, they were all found from some of the bags left behind by the female customers in their haste to leave.

"Grr.. there's too many of them!" Sonic groaned as he launched himself into the fray to try and take out at least some of the nuisances, "Is there anything we can do?"

"An enforcement bind is beyond your abilities…. And there hasn't been any support spells already active on you either so that can't help.." Yuuno thought out loud, "I'll have to gather them up in one place and bind them all at once."

"No good, Yuuno-kun" Nanoha quickly shook her head, "You can't do that in your condition."

"But!"

"No buts!" the girl would have none of that, "I'll try out that new spell I learned this morning in practice. We just have to get them gathered all at once and bind them, right? Sonic-kun!"

"Ma'am! Yes Ma'am!" Sonic agreed with a mock salute, "One package of lots and lots of weird water monsters gathered up in one spot, coming right up!"

Teasing, strikes, taunting, anyway that Sonic could, he gathered the attention of the water monsters that he was fighting. With his trademark speed, he ran circles around them all and made use of the water's waves to drag a majority of monsters towards a central point.

"Make an image, put magic into it" Nanoha told herself as she began to focus, the pink magic circle shined at her feet like it did earlier that morning. The magic must have been as obvious to the monster as it was to Yuuno because it started to rush right for her.

"Uh! Nanoha! The monster noticed the magic, it's after you!" The Tutorial Ferret, though pointing out the obvious, alerted the girl to the beast's upcoming attack, "Evade it with a flying spell!"

"Uh… Yuuno-kun…" Nanoha, in her best impression of her familiar, deadpanned, "You haven't taught me any flight spells yet..."

"Oh…" To say Yuuno was embarrassed would be a mild understatement, "T-that's right.."

The monster rushed quickly for the mage and ferret, intending on stopping them from getting in the way of its perverted ambition of stealing girls' underwear and swimsuits. Just before it got to them, Sonic cut right in front of it and bared its path.

"Oh no you don't" the blue hedgehog, smirking in confidence despite his size disadvantage, stared up at the beast, "You want an opponent? I'll play with you"

While Sonic did his best to multi-task in keeping the Jewel Seed beast away from his mistress as well as keeping them gathered in one place for Nanoha to come up with the appropriate binding spell to wrap them all up. From then on she'd try to seal it again.

"Binding Spell…" Nanoha said in deep concentration as she focused hard on an image ideal of the spell she wanted, once again she found the image and focused on it, "Lyrical Magical, capture and paralysis magic… RESTRICT LOCK! (she said that in English)"

Once again, Nanoha's spell was unleashed, and this time around it had much different results. Ribbons of pink mana, combined with bursts in the shape of wheels, literally collected all of the copies of the Jewel Seed monster and bound them in place with the original also held.

"Whoa!" The blue hedgehog quickly jumped out of the way to avoid getting caught up in the binding spell himself, "Good girl"

"Wow… It's completely paralyzed!" Yuuno gawked in amazement, "That's a high level spell."

"Lyrical Magical!" Nanoha called out her incantation again

Once again the sealing spell was initiated, and this time the Jewel Seed's serial number was revealed with the roman numerals "XVII"

"Lyrical Magical, Jewel Seed Serial 17, Seal!" Nanoha called out and unleashed her spell.

The monster roared in pain as the binds tightened and exploded in a huge flash of light. The monster was gone and all that was left of it were the lingerie and swimsuits it collected as well as the Jewel Seed itself. Anxious to put an end to the incident once and for all, Nanoha touched the tip of her staff to the Seed.

"Receipt number Seventeen" Raising Heart declared, "Sealed"

[Boss Neutralized]
[Jingle: "Act Clear" Sonic CD (US) OST]

The two only had time for a short victory pose and cheer before the magic barrier set up by Yuuno had disappeared. Much to the two's surprise and relief, all underwear and swimsuits that were stolen by the monster were returned to their rightful owners as the magic that caused the incident had been dealt with.

"Well it's good that we sealed the seed and everyone's going to be happy now" Nanoha noted as she released her Barrier Jacket and Raising Heart's device mode, "We only have 4 seeds now and there's 17 left"

"Think on the positives, Nanoha" Sonic grinned up at her after releasing his own jacket, "That's one less problem to worry about and we're getting momentum on our side."

"Yeah" Yuuno tiredly agreed

"Yuuno-kun?" the girl asked as she and Sonic started back towards Alisa and Suzuka to check up on them, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah…" The ferret nodded, though deep in his mind, he pondered the magic potential that he saw from that last fight, 'I wonder about their magical senses… I can sense potential in Nanoha and Sonic that is far above my own, though I can't tell if they are either clumsy with it, or just unskilled. Either way, looking at it now, there's no way it can't get dangerous. Even though she has a familiar, he's just as impulsive and I can't help but worry that the both of them are going to get hurt. No matter what, I'll do my best to help them seal the seeds.'

[30 Minutes later]
[BGM: "Honobono" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]

Almost like nothing had happened, peace returned to the pool. Kyouya, who initially was confused as to what knocked him out in the Boiler Room aside from the Boiler bursting and drenching him in water. But he shrugged it off and returned to his rounds. Hopefully his moment of lax wouldn't cost him his job.

Much to the young man's shock and for reasons unknown to him; Nanoha, Alisa and Suzuka dared not look him in the eye. When they did look at him; they looked just a bit miffed at him and their faces showed that. That, honestly confused him, whatever did he do to earn their wrath?

As for Sonic and Nanoha; either he copied her or she copied him, either way, the two of them were out in the wave pool, relaxing on matching tube rings. It was quite a cute sight; and they probably only needed a can of soda or something for the finishing touches. Alisa couldn't resist the urge to take a picture of it with her phone; she'll send a copy to Nanoha later on of course.

Meanwhile with Suzuka, Miyuki and the two maids, it was all fun and games in the pool; they all had the opportunity to sit back, relax and just simply enjoy the feeling of the cool water on their bodies. The girls had also dragged Yuuno into the pool and away from his thoughts. After Miyuki, Noel and Farin had heard about the ferret's talents, they wanted to see him swim, and he did not disappoint.

"One of these days, we really gotta ask him how he swims" Sonic said to Nanoha via the mindspeak as his tube softly bounced off of hers. Since the two had gotten them there was something that the blue hedgehog couldn't help but feel was missing and he had been trying to figure it out since the thought came up. Well, finally he figured out what was missing, "Nanoha! Next time we're doing this, we are so buying sunglasses!"

"Somehow, I knew you were going to say that" the girl, with humor evident in her childish face, replied back with a cute grin, "Although, I can't disagree…"

'Well, one thing's for sure' Yuuno thought to himself in observation of the mage and familiar, 'these two are really starting to get along well.'

[Takamachi Residence]
[Nanoha's Room]
[Time: 8:30 pm]
[No BGM]

At the end of the day, Nanoha and Sonic had dinner with the family, where they were given quite the humorous display of Miyuki lecturing Kyouya on a few things. One of them being not to have dirty thoughts when close to a powerful jewel that may perform actions based on those thoughts; apparently she got the story from Sonic and Nanoha. In Kyouya's defense, there were a lot of girls at the swimming pool, so any guy, save Sonic, would've probably been thinking along the same lines.

After dinner, the two took turns in the bath with Sonic going first to clean up all of the chemicals, dirt and whatnot that the pool adventure had given him. When he finished, Nanoha took her turn, and for a few obvious reasons, she took a little bit more time. But it didn't matter to Sonic or Yuuno as they had a chance to use that extra time and talk a bit.

"You know, she really surprised me" the ferret, now seated in a basket on Nanoha's desk, said to the blue hedgehog about the girl, "I didn't think she would have been able to pull off a binding spell of that high level"

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't agree with you" Sonic shrugged, "But, I think she's like me in the way that neither of us give up, even with the odds against us."

"Yeah, that's true" Yuuno nodded, "In a way I kind of envy you both; When I first met you, I wasn't sure what you could do, and the first monster really hurt you, yet you still had a laugh, how do you do this sort of thing? Face danger head on and treat it like nothing?"

"It's just what I do" the hedgehog shrugged, and just at that time, Nanoha came in, her hair let down from the usual pigtails style and she was in her pajamas.

"What are you two talking about?" the girl questioned in curiosity

"My apparent lack of fear" Sonic answered honestly.

"Yeah, I'm amazed by that too" Nanoha added to that, "And today, you really surprised me. Even after all that was going on, you still kept your cool."

"What can I say?" the hedgehog shrugged, "I'm good with pressure"

"Well, we have a nice weekend ahead of us, so I think we can relax a bit" the girl brightly chimed as she started to climb into her bed, close to the end, as if to send the hedgehog a message, "I think it's best we go to sleep now so we can wake up early."

"Uh.. time out there" Sonic, quickly getting the hint, shook his head, "You're not gonna try to share that bed, are you?"

"Well I can't have you sleeping on the floor, that's even worse than the couch" the girl countered, "Besides, even though we don't know each other that well yet, I still get this good feeling that I can trust you, so please don't let me be wrong."

"Well.. I guess if you put it like that.." the hedgehog sighed in defeat and crawled in to the open space. Luckily, due to his small size and build, he could easily fit inside and not even take up half of it. With a yawn to show just how tied he was, Sonic leaned against the second pillow, "Good night…."

"Good night" Nanoha soon joined him for a long, peaceful night's sleep to put an end to the long day.

[Ending: "Little Wish ~Lyrical Step" Yukari Tamura]

[End of Chapter 4]

Author's notes: Wow! Talk about long chapters, this one gets well over the 8,000 mark. Talk about a high quality gem with a lot of content.. Well, this is what happens when I use a drama cd / sound stage for basis. Get a lot of scenes and dialogue in.