Higher Powers by Wordsworthy

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own the Suikoden series, or the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Series for that matter. This is, after all, just a fanfiction written for the sole purpose of entertainment and no profit motive whatsoever. So please just enjoy the story and do not sue me for this. If you wish to know more about the series, please support the companies producing them directly and purchase their merchandise if you like.

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Chapter 10: First Blood

Lunch wasn't too bad. Not that I ate much though. I was too busy watching my fill of Vivio and her vivid blushes. I really liked her, I realised. But preparing them for the eventuality of the calamity takes precedence. Perhaps afterwards. Perhaps after she knows all there is to know about me. Perhaps after she knows all that I have done throughout the years. Perhaps she will still have me. That well-trained weight in my heart threatened to flatten all these thoughts as trivia and irrelevant, but I resisted. Perhaps it's human nature to protect what hope there is for the future. Or perhaps it's human nature to protect your source of happiness. As I watched my Vivio, I realised something else. Perhaps she just makes me human again, that's all…

Noisy footsteps filled the air along with cheerful chatter as a new group of people entered the training field. Leading the pack was our blonde captain.

"Alright guys, I would like you to meet the new members of Section 6 under the second Forwards team. I think you might know some, if not all of them." she started.

"Cinque! Sein! Minah! You guys really made it!" exclaimed an elated Lutecia-san as she ran to hug some of the new members.

"Ya! What a surprise! I didn't hear anything about you guys joining us!" exclaimed an equally excited Agito-san.

"Haha. We didn't expect it when Fate-san showed up too. She's offering us the same probation scheme as Lutecia here and so we accepted." explained who I presumed was Cinque-san, a young girl with an eyepatch over her right eye. My stomached churned a little upon the similarities with another…

"It was Lutecia's idea. Thank her, not me." Fate-san said with a smile.

"It's good to see you guys anyway!" said Lutecia-san grinning ear to ear.

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It was after Fate-san's introduction that I found out that the new Forward team was made up by some of the combat cyborgs from the Jail Scaglietti incident. There were eight of them in total, Cinque-san, Sein-san, Sette-san, Otto-san, Nove-san, Dieci-san, Wendi-san and Deed-san. It appears like the Forwards 2 will consist of two additional members compared to our team. I had some nagging suspicion that it was deliberate to avoid breaking up another "family", but not that I minded. We had very kind captains and that was a peculiarity that I liked. Team 2 isn't joining us for training just yet as Fate-san had brought them only to settle into their new dorms for now. Soon after they left, Nanoha-san made her appearance. She didn't have a third group of Forwards with her though. Instead, she brought back a couple of guys who carried a rather large package into the middle of the field.

"Hi guys. Sorry I took so long. I managed to weasel a HiDEC2 from Chrono-kun and the Navy. I hope its going to be useful though, for the sake all the arms that I had to break."

The Forwards looked at her suspiciously, wondering whether she meant it literally. One could never know when the other person just happened to be a rather trigger-happy lady with too much power on her hands, also known as the "White Devil" by most eye witness accounts.

"What is with your expressions? Come on, let's try it out. I'm itching to see how far Lazlo-san here can go."

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The HiDEC2 was set up at one corner of the field. The device works by generating first a high quality barrier over the general area, before forming a large box-like cell made up of super-high density energy barriers. The tester will be able to fire spell in one direction into box and, but the energy will be trapped within the cell and not allowed to escape in the other direction. The energy barriers will then siphon out the energy and dissipate it into the atmosphere as harmless photons, all the while measuring the energy output. I took a deep breath as I stepped into the firing area. Everyone else watching from outside the safety field was giving me a bit more pressure than I had liked.

Let's take it slow. Fifty percent should do.

I charged roughly half of my linker core energy into my Halo Blade circuit and expelled it towards the cell. The bluish white light crashed into the cell and rebounded helplessly against its walls, creating multiple flashes of light before it disappeared… I let my breath out and began to look at the readings on a monitor, not knowing what to make of the numbers until Nanoha-san sent me a telepathic message.

"Nice going! Was that your full power? I know your power isn't limited like ours, but you scored almost as high as a real Arc-En-Ciel!"

I smiled. I figured I shouldn't say anything about me holding back just now. Once the cell has been reset, I got ready to test the Unrestricted version of Halo Blade that I had just designed during the wait. I lowered the input power to a mere ten percent, just to be sure. However, as usual, my control seems to be non-existent at lower levels and a significantly stronger flash of light shot into the cell before colliding violently against its barriers, ricocheting several times before slowing down.

Woah! Was that true full power now? What's with that insane energy reading? That was almost the equivalent of 2.4 Arc-En-Ciels!

I made a slight mental calculation.

When I used the Belka type Halo Blade at fifty percent, I managed the score of one Arc-En-Ciel unit. So my full power with normal grids will be two Arc-En-Ciel units max. Later, when I shot the Unrestricted version at around thirty percent power, I think, I managed close to 2.4 Arc-En-Ciel units, so my full power at Unrestricted version should be around six Arc-En-Ciel units… That means that switching from Belka to Unrestricted version would amplify the spell by at least three times. I should keep that in mind. But more importantly… I messed up the low level input pretty spectacularly over there…

"Nanoha-san, could you please help me with my control? I think it's high time I did something about it before I blow anyone away by accident again."

The other Forwards and the Wolkenritter Knights nodded emphatically. No doubt seeing someone having the same destructive potential of several warship-class magic cannons can be quite unnerving. Especially if his aim happened to be off.

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(Moments later, the sound of clashing and duels resumed on the training field, though interrupted intermittently by loud explosions, as though a cannon was being shot periodically.)

"Nanoha-mama, are you sure about this?" asked a concerned Vivio.

A loud explosion sounded out.

"Not really. I've only seen them do this in old Chinese movies, but don't go telling Lazlo-san that. It might work as long as he thinks it will." replied Nanoha-san with an crooked smile.

Another explosion sounded out.

"Mo… movies? What do you mean you have only seen it in movies?"

Yet another explosion.

"Shush, Vivio. Look, I think we're running out of candles. Why don't you make yourself useful and go get some more from the emergency supplies? That would help."

"Mama, you're not just getting him to blow things up are you?"

And another explosion…

"Of course not, sweetie. Now go get those candles okay?"

"Alright…" mumbles Vivio as she sets off.

The captain then turned towards the blonde young man snapping his fingers in training and a big grin lit up her face.

"That's right Lazlo-san. Try your best to light those candles with the simplest Spark spell. The goal for today will be to get those craters down to the smallest size possible."

The blonde young man nodded and carried on trying to light those candles with cannon-like bangs. The brunette sighed contently.

It's like the next best thing to having my very own Arc-En-Ciel. Guess I can stop bothering those poor higher ups now. Yay!

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And so the time passed… the Forwards' training have been progressing rather smoothly. Their individual combat skills have levelled up to the point whereby I felt they could hold their own against most enemies. As such, I began teaching them combination attacks so as to increase our combat ability as a unit, specifically the tactics necessary to take down a much stronger opponent with any given combination of members. I had to give my team credit. They almost managed to take me down once. Well, almost.

With regards to my own training, barring the fact that the HiMAT provided me with an easy way out with regards to aerial ability and that my combat skills haven't really dulled to the point that necessitated sharpening them again, the main concern was with my lack of control as usual. However, even that seems to have gotten better with time due to Nanoha-san's training regime, odd as it may have been. Even Vivio and Nanoha-san herself seemed genuinely surprised at my progress, before bursting into giggles every time I asked why. They never did tell me though.

As I was also supposed to be the magic trainer for the squad, I figured I teach them some of the safer Unrestricted spells that I had crafted over the months. Through my own research and experimentation, I came to the conclusion that Unrestricted spells derived from Mid Childa magic circuits were generally safer that their Belka counterparts. The reason was deceptively straightforward; the Mid Childa spells required very little magic energy to initiate while Belka spells required significantly higher base energy input. Therefore, when the Unrestricted versions triple energy requirements and output, the former allows the mage greater energy management concerning the desired inputs and outputs while the latter types will bleed a mage far too quickly, even with the possible compensation from the use of cartridges. Some of the spells that were popular among the Forwards were strengthened versions of previous spells, such as Divine Buster UE (Unrestricted Elective) and Sonic Move UE, as well as several of my original spells, the Gigan Barrier which gets progressively stronger with each attack that couldn't break it, and the Dispersion Shield which actively distorts and disperses energy attacks, fully negating those below its maximum capacity. Suffice to say, I was quite pleased with the overall progress of the squad.

Progress between Vivio and me seemed slow by comparison, but that is just fine by us. While we meet in training everyday, we kept things professional since we were technically still on the clock. Even so, we had taken to meeting in the lounge every evening just to be with each other for a little while. Little things like being able to lean unto each other were all that mattered. We didn't even talk much either, save for my occasional teasing so as to see my favorite blush. I'm incorrigible I know, but we really didn't need anything more than each other's presence at the moment. Eventually the other Forwards caught on, but they didn't tease as much I thought they would. Perhaps they were hoping to avoid being the one to shock a particularly dense, yet trigger-happy captain.

Days like these continued for a good six months. Surprisingly, there hadn't been a call for a response so far. Seems like all the evil villains and mad scientist wannabes were all lying low or something. Not that I was complaining about the peace and quiet, but actual missions would give us better operational experience. Nevertheless, I began having a bad feeling about things out of the blue one day. This felt too much like that proverbial calm before the storm. Something big was about to happen, and I was tired of being right. Why? Because a big red flashing monitor appeared before me.

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(Meanwhile, prior to the red flashing monitors, a sequence of events occurred on Terra Dionysus, a low-technology planet close to Earth by TSAB standards.)

"Captain, this is Recon Leader. We have located the site of the energy anomaly. Sending visuals now." accounted an unnamed aerial mage.

"What the…? A perfectly cylindrical column of cyclonic air currents in this atmospheric system? That can't be possible. How are the readings?" inquired an unnamed Captain.

"Negative. The sensors are being blocked by the swirling winds. We nearly lost one mage when he got too close to the air currents. The only reading getting through the winds is a moderate energy signature."

"Hmm… an energy signature than can penetrate a disruptive influence like that has to be pretty substantial… Communications! Relay the message that we have a possible Lost Logia to the Saint Church. Recon leader, please secure the site until backup arrives."

"Roger that. Securing perimeters…"

(The dying screams of several men interrupted the instruction.)

"What the… Captain, this is Recon Leader. We are under attack! I repeat! We are under attack!"

"An attack? Recon Leader, can you identify the enemy forces?"

"It's a single man in black armor. Please send reinforcements. Recon force down to four."

(Three more bloodcurdling screams rang out before a chilling voice was heard.)

"Corrections. None is left."

"Argh!!!"

"Scramble all mages! Prepare for battle!" barked the unnamed Captain.

"Captain, there is an extreme high energy signature gathering some distance off the planet!"

"What? Give me a visual of that!"

A monitor showing a black humanoid laminated with a growing mass of dark energy in one hand.

"What in the world is…"

Their world goes black.

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"That was disappointing. They didn't put up enough of a struggle. Well, at least their dying cries were pretty entertaining. Hahaha."

He looked around but frowned when he can see no other signs of life.

"I should've kept some alive for torture. This place needs the sounds of more life after all. Or death. Hahaha."

Realising a lack of anything else to do, he turned his head around to face the column of wind while a black rune glowed violently on his left hand.

"I know, I know. I'm on it. Besides, it's always nice to see an old friend."

He flew and charged into the wind barrier before being repelled. Snarling, he pointed his black rune forward and the wind barrier began to dent before its power.

"Now, now. Open wide."

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Within the meeting room of the Claudia, the members of Forward 1 was being briefed by Nanoha-san,

"The Saint Church received a message relayed from the patrol ship Leah off the planet Terra Dionysus with regards to a suspected Lost Logia some two hours ago. Since then, all communications attempt with the ship had come to naught, the ship is feared lost. Hence, upon arrival on the planet, you forwards will be split into two forces. The first will investigate what happened to the Leah, while the other will investigate the planet for traces of the Lost Logia and recover it. I will remain on the Claudia and assume overall command for the mission. Is everything understood?"

The other Forwards straightened and saluted in agreement. "Hai." I quickly followed suit.

When it comes down to it, I guess these guys can still be pretty professional soldiers. I'm impressed.

"Prepare yourselves for now. You will move out immediately upon arrival. Dismissed."

After the other forwards dispersed to do their own preparations, I went up to Nanoha-san for more information.

"Madam Captain, is there any other information available with regards to this incident?"

"Not that I know of… Oh wait, I think the last transmitted log mentioned something about Leah investigating a case of atmospheric anomaly and an unidentified energy signature. That's all I'm afraid."

"I see…"

"Is anything amiss?"

A faint glow of black and scarlet went unnoticed under my glove by anyone else other myself.

It's time.

"We might be in for a fair bit of trouble today."

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As I turned to my fellow Forwards, I realized that they had changed into clothing of a generic white scheme. Well, I didn't really notice the other Forwards so much as I did Vivio actually. I was looking at her for a while until I was caught.

"Lazlo, why are you looking at me like that?"

I grinned mischievously.

"I was just noticing how much you had grown in the past few months."

"Huh?" Vivio uttered before following my gaze up her slender legs towards her white miniskirt and further up towards her…

My smile got wider.

Mission accomplished. There was that blush I liked so much.

The red-faced blonde began hitting my arm with all her might before turning away, trying to hide that brilliant shade of pink. I chuckled at that cute sight.

Old habits die hard.

"Mou… we're on a mission you know."

"I won't let anything happen to you. Nor anyone else for that matter." I said in all seriousness.

"Where do you get that absurd confidence from?"

"Because, I am the strongest mage in the world." I said puffing out my chest theatrically.

That's not too far off.

"One man can't change the world you know."

"I know. But what's the use of all the power in the world if you can't at least protect those you care about?"

Even if I can't say it yet, you're definitely the one I care for the most. There is no doubt about that at all.

"You're impossible…" she said exasperatedly, but with laughter in her eyes.

I pulled her waist in closer in a half-hug. "But you're incredible."

You're worth it. You're worth any risk. You're that incredible.

We stayed that way for a moment.

"Aren't you going to change into your barrier jacket? Don't tell me you want to fight in those training fatigues?"

"Barrier Jacket?"

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"So I just have to give tell Yukishiro to activate the barrier jacket when I set her up?"

"Her?"

"Ya, since Snow White is a her after all."

"You figured it out I see. That's not really important right now."

"Okay. Yukishiro, set up."

A bluish white light enveloped my body and I felt articles being materialised on my body directly. A black breastplate adorned with an insignia made up of red lines appeared over my torso together with black trousers of matching design. A long white coat with a single long sleeve over the left hand followed suit, before an ornate black and scarlet gauntlet covered my left hand. The process ended with a single raven bracer forming on my right arm while a white glove covered my right hand. Quite an eclectic look I'm sure… but then again…

"I make this look good, don't I?"

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As we approached the drop-off position, Vivio approached me with a box of cartridges.

"Here. I didn't see you load up just now."

"Excuse me?"

"Mou…" she took Yukishiro from my hand and ejected a long slim case from the hilt. Pointing the empty spaces where the cartridges were meant to be loaded in at me, I gave a soft "Oh".

Despite all this, I watched happily as the girl started loading the clip up for me carefully. I felt my affection swell before getting squashed a little later by that familiar weight in my heart. The weight made up of fear, guilt and apprehension. I hate this. It's time to do something about it anyway.

There's a rune nearby… I can't hide it much longer. Might as well… I can't proceed without letting you know. We can't proceed without letting you know…It's better if you know. When you do, you can decide. I'll put myself in your hands for a change.

"Here. You're pretty hopeless for the world's strongest mage."

"You're right about that."

As she turned around, I called out.

"Vivio."

"Yes?"

"Mind spending some time with me after this? I want to tell you things."

"Are we at that stage already?"

"That's up to you really."

"You better don't die on me then."

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Arriving on the planet, Claudia's sensors picked up two points of interest; Leah's distress signal and the atmospheric anomaly. Being the fastest flyer, I volunteered to check out the beacon on my own as well as the anomaly, freeing up the other Forwards to carry out a wide area search for the suspected Lost Logia. I suggested that Nanoha-san coordinate the area search in order to increase its success rate. After all, I doubt I can get lost tracking a beacon. The suggestion was accepted and I was given the coordinates for the anomaly as well.

Great. I better make this quick so I can search for that rune.

Blasting off with my HiMAT, I reached the source of the distress signal quite quickly. That's one mission objective down. I was planning to just go straight after the anomaly when I happened to take a better look around. The debris strewn in the area was few and fairly widely spaced apart. There were no larger chunks around, nor were there many burnt remains.

That's strange. If the patrol ship was attacked and sunk by, say, another ship, the remains should remain more or less gathered closely in the same area, but the evidence is against it. So the ship was likely struck from the surface of the planet. The lack of large debris also suggests that the weapon used was powerful enough to obliterate a ship into relatively small pieces, for the lack of burning implied that no further secondary physical decay was experienced by any debris. So something powerful enough to obliterate an entire patrol ship directly from the surface on a low-technology planet would suggest… an active True Rune… one who had chosen its bearer, who had no qualms knocking out a TSAB ship directly… Shit.

I opened a transmission link directly to Nanoha-san.

"Madam Captain, gather the Forwards together for now. It's too dangerous for them to be dispersed."

"Why would you say that Lazlo-san?"

"Someone obliterated the Leah from the surface of the planet. Someone armed with a True Rune. They don't stand a chance on their own."

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"Do you know why they regrouped us again Erio?" asked Vivio.

"No idea, it was a command transmission. Whatever it was, it seemed urgent." replied the redhead.

"Hey look, it's Caro. But who's that on her tail… Caro!" Lutecia screamed out as she saw the pink summoner get struck on the back by that black figure.

"He'll pay for hurting Caro. Let's get him!" growled Erio as he loaded several cartridges into Strada. Vivio followed suit.

"Sonic Move UE." two digital voices rang out.

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The male lancer arced forward in blinding speed towards the falling summoner and caught her before impacting the ground.

"Erio…" greeted the wounded girl weakly.

"We really should stop meeting like this." replied the redhead wryly as he patched up the wound as best he can with a healing spell. Apparently her barrier jacket and her auto-shields being at full power was the only thing that stopped that blow for severing her spine…

"Sorry…"

(The sounds of gunfire and clashing continued behind them.)

"Come on. It's time to return the favor."

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The female lancer arced towards the black figure who had just fell her friend from behind, growling in fury as she unleashed a flurry of slash and thrust variations. The purple gunner followed suit with a barrage of magic projectiles. However, the black figure was equal to each and parried with familial ease, smirking in glee.

What the…

"Oh good. Feisty ones. Much better than the other ones. Shall we play?"

The flow of attack suddenly reversed and our young blonde was forced on the defensive from the sudden surge in the speed and power of the black figure's strikes. The mad grin got wider as his moves became wild with a perversely cheerful abandon.

"Oh! You're still standing! Well done! "

Gritting her teeth, Vivio defended as best she can against the two black blades, but she felt herself get blown back even when she had parried the blow fully. The cuts and bruises on her grew as she got knocked around like a rag doll of a spoilt brat.

What's with this guy's strength! I'm getting hurt even though it's not getting through my defense! Hyabai. He's beyond me. But even with his mad slashing, there should eventually be an…

There it was. A rare opening presented itself after the black figure overcommitted to a particularly heavy attack that hurt even though it was turned away with the shaft. Nevertheless, she spun the lance as she turned her back on the enemy, gaining a precious few seconds from the unexpectedness of that move. That was all that she needed to thrust her spear past her sides in a reverse thrust that met a solid thud and a slow depression. Twisting the blade slightly, she quickly withdrew and connected a second horizontal sweep with her blade, opening a gash on his chest and knocking the man back. Lutecia followed the attack with several well placed shots that generated small explosions upon impact, blowing the man back further.

There. Tear the flesh to hit the bones. Just like Lazlo said. It's when the enemy is certain of winning you that you get the chance for a critical strike.

The smoke cleared in a short while revealing the black man just floating there. He looked at the spear wounds on himself and laughed maniacally. Discoloured eyes widened as his injuries began to close on their own.

"Hahaha! I can't remember the last time I was hurt this bad since that island boy. This has gotten so damn fun!"

By this time, Erio and Caro had pulled up beside the other two forwards and looked in incredulity at the mad visage in front of them. Grips on their devices tightened.

"Well, let's do this."

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Author's Notes:

I must apologize for the quality of this chapter. It's somewhat disjointed with technical details, trivia, romantic progression and teasers for better fight scenes ahead. The theme remained "warming up" but really, I should have separated them in different chapters with more specific themes. But I'm a bit lazy and with two philo papers pressing down on my poor head, this is the best I can do for now.

With regards to the progression of Lazlo and Vivio's relationship, it might seem like I'm jumping the gun a little; but really, the two of them are just starting to cement their relationship on more official grounds. While I understand (theoretically of course.) that immortals might have their own baggage to deal with, the most immediate ones should be the fact that he hadn't been totally truthful with himself, about himself and finally about his pasts. So I decided to write it in this sequence. Besides, I think I'm falling in love with the character that I'm giving Vivio too, so I'm impatient for her to "settle down", so to speak. On a very trivial note, I modeled her on an ex-girlfriend, one who I still care greatly for, so that explain things… though I doubt it's healthy to fall in love with your own characters… That's almost like being one of the Narcissists… never mind, scrap that thought. Pretend that I never said it.

Not much reference in this chapter, except maybe for Hyabai, which I hope means "this is bad" owing to my incomplete training in Japanese. And I'm terming the Unrestricted versions of old spells with a UE behind them for the sake of differentiating them with the original spells. I hope the technical part of that is still comprehensible. At times I really wonder if I should be writing guidebooks instead of these stories. Oh well.

The next chapter will carry on the fight with our favourite demon and the long awaited debut of our favourite rune as well. It's gonna blow him and you away. Hopefully.

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Omake 7: Fetish

(During the test-firing of Lazlo's UE spells…)

N: Atta boy Lazlo! Pump more juice into it!

(F walks into this scene just for the omake.)

F: Haiz

V: What's the matter F-mama?

F: It's nothing dear. It's just that I feel inadequate.

V: Why mama? You're a legend in the Enforcers!

(N squeals again at another particular high damage reading.)

N: Come on, put some back into it! Harder!

F: Haiz… it's not about that. It just that well…

V: Well?

N: That's good. Now try to draw out the process longer. It might go higher!

F: Haiz… it's just that I've never heard N this enthusiastic and excited before

V: Huh? Really?

F: Yah, she's really loud and vocal now. But when I'm with her, she always get very soft and mewy.

V: She mews?

F: Yah, and she doesn't look at me with the same desire in her eyes and salivates like she does now either.

V: Erm… mama? (Turning red slightly.)

F: Haiz… Sometimes I wonder if big guns and earthshaking explosions turn her on more.

(N smacks the two of them on the back of their heads.)

V & F: Ow.

N: Fate!