Deva 02: Academy Blues

by Daishi Prime

Deva Series 02. Sequel to On The Path of Vengeance. With their probation ended, Hayate and her Knights return to Earth to pursue a more peaceful life. Unfortunately, power brings responsability, which Hayate cannot let go.

25. 25 By the Pale Moon Light

Academy Blues

By: Daishi Prime

- Chapter 25 – By The Pale Moonlight -

While Noriko had not experienced as many teleports as her classmates, she had experienced them mostly in the past few days. Still, teleporting to the Asura after the attack, and back and forth a few times to help smooth over relations with the JSDF, had given her a fair idea of what they were supposed to look and feel like. So she fully expected the odd tingling and fluttering sensation, accompanied by the large circles of runes, when Fate teleported them down for their attack. Instead, she was treated to a sickening twisting sensation, accompanied by a horrible wrenching sound and a feeling like someone just flipped her ears without moving the rest of her.

Staggering sideways slightly, she caught herself on a snow and ice covered boulder, then gasped, "Gah, what was that?"

"Something I'm normally not allowed to do," Fate replied with a grimace. "Apologies, but unlike our normal methods of teleporting, it is almost impossible to detect." Her grimace twisted a little further, "I learned it from Takashi, it was how Akira always managed to teleport in without giving us warning."

The only member of their party who did not seem affected, quirked an eyebrow, then commented, "a most disconcerting method of travel. I would not care for it normally. Are you all right, Hime-sama?"

Noriko gave the man a flat look, "I am fine, Hidan, just a touch of vertigo from a very abnormal spell." He presented a study in contrasts, and she was distinctly uncertain of whether or not she was comfortable with him. He was small, only a centimeter or so taller than Fate and only a little heavier, possessed of a disarmingly unassuming demeanor. Yet, where she had first seen him in civilian clothes, he was now decked out in black from head to toe: cargo pants, long-sleeved black shirt, black cargo vest, black gloves, black backpack, and a tight black hood, leaving only his narrow, weasel-like face exposed, though a cloth mask hung loose about his neck. The only spot of color on him, and the only obvious weapon, was a silver-gilded tanto in a matching scabbard shoved through his belt.

He had simply appeared the afternoon after the attack, and attached himself to Noriko, under the pretext of being her new bodyguard. A politely furious conversation with her father failed to remove him, but he had gone out of his way to be unobtrusive and solicitous... until they began planning the rescues. At that point, he had quite insistently forced his way onto Fate's team, and the Admiral had caved immediately following a private conversation with him. Noriko had been less than pleased, having expected to escape the watchful presence and demonstrate that she no longer required a bodyguard. The final straw had been when he showed up aboard Asura in his 'mission clothes', and she saw the tanto on his belt – one she distinctly recalled seeing last in a photograph provided by one of her researchers, noted as having been a 'gift' from the Imperial Family to 'a loyal and trusted servant'.

Containing her annoyance, she left aside her repeated study and turned back to Fate, "Should we not be moving, Testarossa-san?"

"I can see the castle," Niranjana told them, from where she was standing atop another boulder, leaning on a large one, "East of us, up the ridge. The village is on the other side?"

Initial scans from Asura and the limited information Allina had been able to provide had given them an initial idea where to look. A series of more detailed scans had given them three potential sites, all shielded against magic. One had been a remote cabin deep in the Carpathian Mountains, another was a modern office building in Odessa, while the third was a castle just north of the Ukraine-Romania border. While Subaru and Vita had argued that the Odessa site was most likely, Niranjana had insisted it was the castle, and Allina had agreed with her, reporting stonework outside her cell. Accepting the castle as their primary target, Fate had dropped them into a fold in the ground, half-way down the low, rugged mountain, just outside the perimeter Asura's sensors detected.

Staring up at it, Noriko was again struck by how unassuming it was. It had quite obviously been built as a medieval fortification, but it was far from the most impressive such structure she had ever seen. There was only a single tower, maybe twenty meters the top of its conical roof, the main building was built right into the defensive walls and was barely shorter than the tower. The walls themselves were unimpressive, maybe seven meters high, and the only gate was barely three meters wide. Admittedly, she was only seeing it by moonlight, with a few exterior lights over the gate and parking lot, but still. It was hardly the 'grand redoubt' she had expected the Circles to hole up in.

There was a small and much newer parking lot in front of the castle, with several local vehicles parked in it. A moderately maintained road snaked around the ledge the castle was built upon, wending around to the far side and then through a small village before striking out to a nearby highway. The village had given them some concern, as it was fairly modernized and might very well have contained Allina's prison. But careful detailed scans had demonstrated that while the castle was heavily shielded, the village buildings carried only minimal magical defenses, probably personal shields of Circle mages living there.

"We'll have to be careful," Fate reminded them, "move slowly, keep your heads down, stay behind cover, use no magic."

From disconcertingly close behind Noriko's shoulder, Hidan asked, "Would you like me to lead off, Testarossa-san?"

Fate glanced at him, then nodded, "cautiously, please. We lack your experience at this sort of movement."

"I'll keep that in mind," Hidan promised. Then he promptly vanished, ghosting away into the pre-dawn gloom like a shadow.

"Noriko, remember to keep our spacing," Fate ordered, then began stalking up the mountainside in Hidan's wake.

Noriko reached out and grabbed Niranjana's hand, and began pulling the other girl along, letting a little distance open up between them and Fate. The gap made her a little nervous, but would prevent all of them from getting caught in one trap or attack. "Stay behind me, 'Jana-chan," she ordered, "and stay close. I'm going to have to call up Senbonzakura quick if we can't get in quietly."

"I'll stay close," Niranjana whispered back, "just get me inside."

Like Zafira's plan, Fate's depended on a certain level of practicality in the Circles' defenses. Any wards set up where mages were going to be passing in and out had to be calibrated to ignore inactive mages, or any magic below a certain threshold, or they would be triggered just by a 'friendly' crossing their range. Similarly, it was unlikely they would have attack-wards set up, for fear of injuring their own, and any such wards were even more likely to react only to magic above certain thresholds. They probably could not approach all the way to the castle, but should be able to get significantly closer.

In furtherance of being undetected, Noriko and Fate were both going in with devices in storage mode. The magic they could access as such, plus Niranjana's, should suffice to gain them enough time, once they were discovered, to activate both devices. It still made Noriko nervous, not having Senbonzakura ready and her armor up. Creeping through freezing cold darkness over snow-covered rocks did not help her nerves, either, since the 'no magic' included dropping the 'personal air-conditioning' Niranjana had created.

They paused again at the edge of the leveled area around the parking lot, where the broken angled ground of the mountain suddenly gave way to artificial flatness. Fate and Hidan carried on a brief whispered conversation, then he rolled over the lip, came up in a very low crouch, and began ghosting around the parking lot towards the gate. Noriko had to admit that he was very good at it, disappearing into the semi-darkness at the edge of the gate's flood-light.

"Be careful here," Fate warned them, "the strongest wards start right to the edge of the level ground."

Noriko glanced at her, then at the ground in front of her. As far as she could see, there was nothing to differentiate it from the ground she was standing on, other than the fact that it was level. "how can you tell?"

Fate shrugged, "a combination of things. There is a sharpness to my vision starting right there, a tingle in the wind, a sense of hazard, a vague feeling of being watched... all tell me, even without magic, that the wards begin right here. I am curious as to why they did not trigger for Hidan-san, though."

"She also has access to the best sensors in this star system," Niranjana commented, "and a wizard of a sensor officer."

"Subaru is quite good," Fate admitted, "though everything I told you is also true."

Try as she might, Noriko could not detect any of the signs Fate had told her. She could see no change in vision, feel no sense of threat or observance, it still looked the same as everywhere else. But she took the Admiral's warning as valid, and shifted back just a bit, for insurance. When we go, she thought, those wards are going to go haywire instantly. "Devices?"

"Not yet," Fate said, "there's a small chance that, like Hidan-san, we can get to the gate without setting them off."

Hidan appeared just then, a deeper shadow that occluded a lighted panel next to the gate. He pulled something out of his pack, fiddled with the panel for a minute, then half-turned and gestured towards them, beckoning. "Wait for me to cross," Fate ordered, shifting from waiting to a sprinter's rest, "if the wards trigger..."

"I'm to bull straight in, get to Allina, and get out," Noriko finished for her. "I know, Testarossa-san, I'm not here to fight."

Fate nodded. "It's not just a matter of capability, Noriko," she said, trying to be reassuring. "I am not familiar with your magic. If you tried to help, I could very easily mistake you for one of them in the heat of battle."

That had not occurred to Noriko, and she paled slightly at the thought of being mistaken for an enemy by this woman. While Fate had not taught at the academy, Nanoha had, and it was well known amongst the students both what Nanoha could do, and that Fate could match her. "I won't get in the way, Testarossa-san," she replied.

Fate nodded again, then shifted, focused her gaze on the gate, and bolted, running flat-out. The reaction of the castle's wards was curiously delayed. Noriko felt a shiver of power as they woke, then nothing for a few moments. Just as Fate reached the gate, however, there was a shrill of alarms, and suddenly the entire place was bathed in lights from up on the battlements. More lights appeared a second later in various arrow-slit windows, and more alarms started wailing.

Noriko felt the first alarms trigger, and did not wait for Fate's order. "Senbonzakura, set up!" She was running across the pavement herself before the war-fans appeared in her hands, Niranjana a bare step behind her. Her armor came up without command, just as Fate took to the air, spiraling upwards, holding Bardiche in one hand and a yellow charge of energy in the other. That charge detonated against the tower a moment later, causing some sort of shield to fluoresce, then collapse, just as Noriko reached the gate. Hidan had it open, and was waving at them to hurry.

Noriko took to the air before reaching it, and exploded through the gate in a swirling cloud of petals, reaching out behind her to scoop up Hidan and Niranjana in cocoons of the same. "Stay still and stay calm," she ordered as Hidan began to fight the sudden motion instinctively, "they won't hurt you, but struggling makes it harder to do that."

"It is impolite not to warn your soldiers when doing such things, Hime-sama," he replied.

She was tempted to giggle at his overly polite tone, but shrugged it aside. The entrance corridor was coming to a rapid end in a double-door, and no other doors had presented themselves. She was about to carve the door out of her way when Hidan half-shouted, "the last tapestry on the left, Hime-sama! Take the door behind it!"

She pulled up her flight sharply, and a single petal cut the designated cloth free of its hanging cables. Sure enough, there was a door hidden behind it, a jarringly modern powered sliding structure. "Buzz-saw," she ordered, and a ring of petals set themselves about the edges of the doors, and began whirling along the frame at high speed. The obstacle lasted a couple of seconds, then failed. Before it could hit the floor, Noriko sent a wave of petals through the opening, blasting the door into the room beyond and filling the space with her weapons.

The room itself had a single occupant, who was still trying to figure out what was happening when Noriko burst in. The woman was wearing a uniform that vaguely suggested 'guard', but the torrent of petals slammed her into a wall and pinned her there. Noriko took a moment to study her, unconsciously directing more petals to settle over all three doors leading from the room. "Be silent and still," she ordered the guard, "you are not our objective here."

"Hime-sama, what's going on?"

Hidan's question was a surprise, and she glanced at him briefly. "What do you mean?"

"Noriko, you use your petals for everything," Niranjana told her, "including senses. You can see through them easily, we can't. What's happening?"

Blinking in surprise at her classmate, it took Noriko a second to understand that, but she had no time to really puzzle it out. "Ah, we appear to be in a security office," she explained. "I've got all three doors blocked, and a guard pinned to a wall."

"Get me to the computer," Niranjana ordered, "I've got Allina's hacker-pack with me."

Noriko separated the petals from Niranjana, and cleared a path for her to the security terminal. A moment later, she similarly released Hidan, throwing him an apologetic glance before moving to stand watch over the guard. It took an effort, but she managed to push most of the petals back to the walls, leaving the small room relatively clear. The guard, for her part, stood as still as possible, glance shifting from the now-hidden door they had entered by to Noriko to the petals holding her in place, sweating profusely.

"Got it," Niranjana said after a minute, "access up, cameras... cameras... where are the cameras?"

Hidan listened to her mumbling trail off, then turned to Noriko, and gestured to the guard, "If I may, Hime-sama?"

Noriko considered it for a moment, then shook her head slowly. "Thank you, Hidan-san, but no. I can handle this." She stepped closer to the guard, and caught her gaze. She debated for a moment, uncertain if the guard could actually understand her, so she shifted to English. "You understand this language?" The guard nodded after a moment, ever so slightly. "Good. You saw what I did to the door, yes?" Another nodded, accompanied by several blinks. "You know what I am, then? What the Circles call me?" A third nod. "Good, then you understand what I will do to you if you do not tell us how to access the internal cameras from here, and where our classmate is being held?" A thought peeled back the petals covering the woman's lower jaw.

"Vis-window," the guard rasped in heavily accented English, "it's a shortcut on the desktop, but this station won't access all the cameras. The girl is in lower cells, can't see them..."

"Got the program," Niranjana interrupted, "IDs are unique to the user, not the station, that limits what cameras she can see, but I can circumvent. This'll take a minute."

"Response time on other security," Hidan said, "what is it?"

"Alert is already moving," the guard replied, "ten mage-guards, two wolf-packs. There are four more wolf-packs on rotation. Ten minutes at most before they are ready."

Noriko followed about half of that, but asked, "What's a wolf-pack?"

"A circle loaning power to one member," the woman replied, "the strongest. There are six here."

"Thank you," Noriko told her, then reached for Fate. Testarossa-san? We have a guard, who says there are six 'wolf packs' here, two of which should be active already. She says they are circles combining their magic to enhance one member. Telepathy was still difficult for her, but after the attack on the campus, she could mange it if she was not distracted.

Already fighting two, Fate replied rapidly, sounding more amused than concerned. They are really quite good, for lacking devices. Not flexible enough individually, but not bad, not bad at all. Six will definitely give us trouble.

I'll find the ritual circles and disrupt them, Noriko told her, we'll need to do that to get out, at least.

Be careful, Fate warned her, and don't risk the break-out to get them. There are other ways to evade them than eliminating them.

I know, Noriko agreed, but I've only seen two rooms, and this castle's already making me nervous. Which thought reminded her of a question. "Hidan, how did you know there was a door there?"

He looked at her, and frowned slightly, almost as if he were disappointed, "I accessed the floor plans, Hime-sama. This may be a private building, but it is also an historical sight, and the Ukrainian government keeps floor-plans for all such buildings, among other things. I had a glimpse of the hall before your arrival, enough to know what was hiding the door."

She looked at him for a moment, then nodded slowly, "We should have thought of that."

He actually grinned at her, "It's all right, Hime-sama. This is your first B and E, after all. No one gets everything right, and you've done well so far."

She gave him a sour look, then turned to Niranjana. "Any luck?"

"Well, I think I've found the rooms where the rituals are being conducted," she replied without looking up, "Lots of people in funny robes headed to the same place, at least. I've also found the cells, but I'm still checking them. There are... a lot more than I would have expected."

"Map me a route to the ritual chambers, please," Noriko asked, "I'll handle them while you and Hidan-san get Allina."

"I'll go with you, Hime-sama," Hidan offered instantly.

She looked back to him, and quirked an eyebrow. "No, you won't, Hidan-san. I realize Father sent you along to keep me safe, but you are not equipped to keep up with me now. Niranjana will need your help more than I will, anyhow."

He frowned for a moment, and began to argue, "Hime-sama..."

"No," she cut him off. "You have your orders, Hidan-san. You want to keep me safe? Make sure Niranjana and Allina get out safely, or I will have to come back for them again. The wolf packs will send their fighters outward, to deal with Testarossa-san. Even if one or two of them remain, I can overwhelm or bypass them to get at the circles that power them. I cannot do that if I am simultaneously trying to protect you from dangers you have never before encountered."

"I have encountered magic before, Hime-sama."

"Like this?" She waved a hand, indicating the shifting petals along the walls. "Like what Testarossa-san is unleashing out there? Energies fit to shatter a battleship?" A timely rumble shook the walls slightly, as one of Fate's spells detonated. "No, Hidan-san, you have not encountered anything like what is being unleashed here today."

"I've got the route," Niranjana interrupted, "same as ours for the first little bit."

"You found Allina?"
"I think so," Niranjana replied. "At least, I found the one cell that is not currently receiving a camera signal. Remember, she's been burning them out once in a while for fun?"

"I remember. Let's get moving, then."

"About the prisoner," Hidan interrupted, "shall we deal with her now?"

Noriko looked at her, then at the door Niranjana was moving towards. "No," she decided, "we'll bring her with us, and leave her in Allina's cell." She turned to the guard, and drew back the restraining petals into a cloud around her. Switching back to English, she explained, "You have two choices. You can come with us, and cooperate, or I can kill you here and now."

"With you," the woman rasped.

Noriko nodded, and a cluster of petals floated up to form a ring about the woman's neck, rotating slowly just where she could see them. "Those will be our insurance of your cooperation. Give me reason to doubt you, and that ring will constrict, while spinning faster than a car's tire on a highway. You understand?" The woman nodded, and Noriko turned away, walking over to Niranjana. "Let's go."

"Straight down the hall to the lift at the end, then down two floors for Hidan-san and I, four for you," Niranjana explained, then opened the door, moving back as it swung away to clear the path for a blast-front of petals. Noriko had no interest in finesse here, sending the swirling cloud screaming down the corridor. Anywhere she found a door, she piled petals in front of it, spinning out more as necessary, until the twenty-meter corridor was sealed. No one was in it, fortunately, and they jogged down it quickly.

Noriko intended to simply blast through the lift doors, but Hidan stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "I've got tools," he said simply, "safer not to leave too much wreckage in our exit-path." From his pack, he produced a pair of narrow wedges that he shoved between the doors. Once they were parted, he forced them completely back into their rests, then snapped a telescoping rod in between, locking it in place with pins at each join. "This will hold the doors as long as we need," he said, "The only problem we should have on exit is if the lift car blocks us."

Noriko looked at him, then into the bare concrete of the lift shaft. A thought sent two petals whipsawing through the shaft, snapping the lift cables. A moment later the lift plummeted down from above, rumbling and rattling in an uncontrolled descent until it crashed at the bottom of the shaft. "No longer a concern," she commented, then stepped out into the emptiness, "Let's go, this is taking too long."

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Niranjana found the entire place an annoying study in contrasts. Most of the construction was old middle-ages stone work, but entire sections had been covered over with dry-wall and fitted with modern doors. Then there was the relatively modern lift, installed in place of an old spiral stairwell. Down here it was worse, as the bare stone walls were marred by water pipes, piped wires bolted to the corners of the ceiling and walls, and wire-shaded lights strung from the ceiling. Capping the strangeness, there were symbols carved here and there, radiating small amounts of magical energy, though she did not recognize any of them.

"Third corridor on the left, second door on the left," she muttered as they passed a second cross-corridor. A glimpse of movement caused her to pause, but it was someone running the other direction. Whether they had been seen or not did not concern her, since the individual was not attempting to stop them, so she resumed her course, trotting just short of a run. Speed would have been nice, but she could not discount the chance of running into another guard, or an enhanced mage.

Behind her, she could hear their prisoner, but not a whisper from Hidan. The guard no longer had her necklace, but Hidan was right behind her, and she appeared almost as afraid of him as she had been of Noriko. The man himself had made Niranjana nervous from the start, despite the fact that he carried no weapons beyond a little knife. Something in his stance, his eyes, his presence, told her he was ridiculously dangerous, and utterly unscrupulous. When he joined their team, he had given her a brief emotionless look, seeming to stare straight through her. Noriko had apparently kept him in hand until now, but having him following her while Noriko went after the circles was... unsettling.

She pushed that aside, however, in favor of focusing on Allina. She rounded the third corridor without slowing, and literally ran into an armed man covering another pair, one of whom was unlocking the second door on the left. She bounced off, stumbling back, shock freezing her mind as she took in the scene. For a terrible moment, she flashed back to the stairwell, trapped with enemies all around her, and unable to call up any magic past her own fear...

Then Hidan's hand latched onto her shoulder, and she found herself whirling about madly. She was unprepared to hit the corridor wall, and slid limply down it. As she watched, the unsettling little man demonstrated just how dangerous he was, exploding amidst the still-reacting guards like a grenade. She watched Hidan slam the first guard into the wall and stun him with a blow to the lower chest. He then slid up to the other armed member of the trio, felling him with a rapid flurry of blows to chest and face, before back-handing the last man hard enough to break his concentration, terminate his spell, and send him spinning to the floor. The truly frightening part was that, when Hidan turned back towards her, he still had the same flat expression he had maintained since Noriko gave him his orders, and was not even breathing hard.

Unfortunately, watching him distracted Niranjana, who suddenly found a gun to her, then heard the distinctive ratcheting sound of the hammer locking back. "D... d... don... don't move!"

Niranjana froze, naturally, and saw Hidan's eyes narrow into a glare. "You do not want to do this," he commented softly, "drop the weapon now and I will continue with our original plan. Harm her, and you will not leave this building alive."

The woman was apparently made of sterner stuff than Niranjana had given her credit for. The pistol was rock-steady, despite her stuttering repetition, "D... don't move! You stay there until they recover. You're our prisoner, now." Niranjana began to turn, trying to get a look at the situation, and the pistol was suddenly jammed tighter against her skull. "Neither of you move!"

Twisting her head around got Niranjana enough of a view to confirm that the hammer was back, and that the woman was twitching her head back and forth between the two intruders. The shock and fear of the situation was finally wearing off, and her familiar speed of thought returned. She's too nervous to last, Niranjana decided, she'll pull the trigger in a minute, even if she doesn't mean to. The thought woke surprisingly little fear, though it took her a second to realize why – her subconscious had already determined a way out of the situation. She focused on the pistol's hammer, and very carefully built a shield around it, between it and the body of the gun. Then she looked up at Hidan, and said in Japanese, "I'm impressed, Hidan-san, I have never actually seen anyone move that quickly." Then she stood up, as calmly as she could manage, and dusted off her pants.

As she began to move, there was a small snap from the pistol, and she glanced over to see the woman staring at it in surprise, finger pulling the trigger back to the stop. The woman looked up at her, then over at Hidan, then did precisely what she should have done from the start – she bolted, dropping the pistol in the process. Hidan started after her, but Niranjana was quicker, borrowing Noah's trick from the attack on the school to form a small shield just about ankle height, sending her sprawling in the corridor. Hidan had her hands twisted behind her back a moment later.

"Bring her along, please," Niranjana told him, "I'm going to get Allina."

The door was half-unlocked, a pair of physical dead-bolts matched by magical security. The dead-bolts were simple enough, a matter of using the keys on the unarmed man's belt. He was starting to come around, so she formed a simple energy packet and left it hovering over his face, where he would see it when he came too. Puzzling it out should keep him still, and it required very little of her energy or attention as she turned to the shields.

Those proved more difficult, and by the time she was willing to admit defeat, Hidan had returned, using the woman's own handcuffs to bind her, and the straps from the other two guard's larger weapons to tie them together. Their fourth prisoner, conscious by then, was apparently afraid enough of her energy-sphere not to move. Turning to Hidan, she asked in English, "how long would it take you to get information from one of them?"

He quirked an eyebrow before replying in kind, "that depends, Miss Konoth. Primarily on the time available and how far I am permitted to go."

"As far as you like, and a few minutes," she replied easily. "I need this one," she tapped the unarmed man with her foot, "to tell me how to open the mage-locks on this door." She paused to give a superior sniff, "They're too primitive compared to what I'm used to, too crude. It's like going from Linux to ENIAC, I can't manage it in the time available."

"I'll see what I can do," he said, shoving off the wall where he had been keeping watch. "You might want to step around the corner."

"Oh no," she told him, staring at the now-sweating Circle-mage, "I'll help. Magic can do so much more, so much faster, after all, if you'll just give me some pointers..."

"Wait! Wait... I'll open the door," he rasped, "jus... just keep her away from me."

Hidan gave her a surprised and amused look, but she just nodded, stepping back to stand beside the door. She dismissed the energy-sphere, and the mage visibly relaxed. A moment later he struggled to his feet, and began shaping his energies into the shields. Niranjana watched him like a hawk, taking very careful note of everything he did, but he limited himself to undoing the locks. Once they were done, he stepped back, obviously intending her to go first.

Niranjana shook her head, but it was Hidan who told him, "you open the door, you go in first, and you do not give me any reason to use any of the nasty little weapons I just pulled off your guards."

The man hesitated, then slumped a little, and opened the door. He walked in, and for just a second, Niranjana was overcome with joy as she heard in a familiar voice shout in half-amused, half-serious Japanese, "Hey! You don't just walk into a girl's room without warning! Hentai! Get out!"

"I don't think being forced in at gun point counts as being a pervert, Allina-chan," Niranjana called out. "I think that qualifies as 'duress'."

There was a moment's silence, then a rumble of things shaking, thundering feet, then Allina caromed off the door frame and froze just outside it, looking around wildly. Her gaze settled on Niranjana, and the Indian girl suddenly found herself falling backwards under her impact. Allina's shout was painfully loud, but after a second she could make out the shortened version of her own name. Seeing Allina still alive and unharmed took such a weight off Niranjana's shoulders she felt light-headed, and thought she might have fallen down even without being tackled.

It took a few seconds to work her way free of Allina's grip enough to hug her back, then a few more to get her calmed down enough to actually talk. Once she did, Niranjana was unsurprised to see tears in Allina's eyes, or feel them in her own. She had not realized how scared she had been of Allina being harmed or not there until the proof of her presence and safety was right in front of her. "Hello, Allina," she finally got out, "I'm happy to see you, too. But we really should get moving. Noriko-chan and Testarossa-san are buying us time, but I do not know how long they can do so."

"Okay, 'Jana-chan," Allina sat back, then frowned. She looked briefly around the hallway, taking in the disabled guards, Hidan's watchful posture, and the mage once again standing in the door, then turned back to Niranjana, frown deepening. "'Jana-chan?"

Just beginning to get back to her feet, still crouched, Niranjana paused, "Yes?"

"What the Hell are you doing here?" Allina actually punched her, lightly but still a punch, on the shoulder, sending her back to the floor with a thump. "I go to all the trouble of keeping you safe, getting you out of harm's way, and you just come waltzing into the enemy's lair with just John Doe Random watching your back?! The Hell are you thinking?!"

For a moment, Niranjana felt a matching anger billow. How dare she? She left me alone at the school, then I came all this way and risked everything to save her, and she's yelling at me? How dare she?! I've been worried sick about her, and she's... The reminder of her own concern cooled her anger instantly, she's as worried about me as I have been about her. Instead of yelling back, Niranjana just reached out and put her had over Allina' mouth. "We need to go, Allina-chan. You can yell at me later, once we are safely away. But Hidan-san is looking increasingly unhappy with our current situation, as the guards he disabled are regaining function. Shall we go?"

Allina frowned at her a second longer, then pulled back a bit, released an insulted huff, and agreed, "yeah, yeah, sure. Let's get these guys inside and make sure they don't follow us, ne?"

They had the two semi-functional guards retrieve the woman, as she was apparently too petrified now to move, and placed all four in Allina's cell. With their own weapons in Hidan's hands, and the two girls holding glowing spheres of power, neither guard was willing to offer too much of a fight. Once again, survival won over loyalty, and Niranjana actually took it as a good sign. Everything they had seen to date showed the Circles as too fanatical to be bargained with, but if their rank-and-file, and non-mage support such as the guards, were willing to surrender rather than die, she thought they might have a chance to resolve whatever was going on, if they could just get out of the current predicament.

Once the door was locked, Hidan surprised her by dumping the guards' collected weapons right at the door. He grimaced at the pile, fingering the tanto on his belt, and muttered, "filthy things." She had a momentary impulse to claim one for her own protection, long habit almost convincing her that she would need one to balance the weapons of any other guards they ran into. Then she remembered a few comments from her teachers and classmates, and the momentary impulse faded away. Her magic would protect her far better.

As they headed up the hall, Allina practically dragging her by one hand, Hidan a few steps behind, she commented, "you made the right choice, Hidan-san."

He hesitated a moment, then asked, "made what right choice, Konoth-san?"

"Letting Noriko-chan go on her own."

"Her points were well made, and she gave me an order," he replied, "there was no choice."

"You could have tried to insist," Niranjana countered, "but you would have ruined any chance of working with her again. She doesn't like people protecting her, and would never have put up with you if you had pushed. She might have obeyed her father's orders to accept you as a bodyguard, but she would have done everything she could to escape your presence and have you removed."

"She's doing that just fine as it is," he replied, though he sounded amused rather than angry.

"Nah, Riko-chan's not that bad," Allina told him without looking back, "if she didn't trust you, or wanted you gone, you'd still be cooling your heels in Japan with no idea where she'd disappeared to. Letting her go on her own, you're showing you trust her to look after herself, just like letting you come down her with 'Jana-chan shows she trusts you to look after her friends. Question I've got is, you know how we're supposed to go up? I don't see an elevator in that shaft."

"Noriko-chan broke it," Niranjana told her.

"Tche, typical. Those three are all supposed to be so smart, but they all jump in first without thinking, devices blazing."

"I've got a rope," Hidan told them, "and it's already in place. Can you two climb?"

"We'll fly," Niranjana answered, "but we cannot carry you, even between us."

Allina suited actions to words as they reached the wedged open doors, leaping into the shaft to float there. She spun for a moment, smiling in obvious pleasure at the sense of freedom, then blinked, and asked, "You got a computer, 'Jana-chan?"

"The front guard station has one on their network," Niranjana replied, taking to the air herself. "Depending on the situation when we get there, you may be able to use it. Why?"

Allina smiled at her, "You brought my hacker-pack, didn't you?"

"Of course."

The smile grew wider, then Allina explained with one word. "Gatecrasher."

------------------------------
Noriko paused at the level she was supposed to exit the shaft, looking up to be sure Hidan followed Niranjana, and did not try to follow her. Once she was certain he was doing what she told him to, she nodded, then tried to put Allina and Niranjana from her mind. She had to trust them to get themselves out, trust Hidan to watch over them, and focus on her own job.

She was tempted to simply bull her way through the floor, relying on the brute power she could channel through Senbonzakura to overcome any obstacles. But that was more Laura's and Yussef's style than hers, and with warning given and the facility penetrated, speed was less of a factor than it had been getting in. So she slid a column of petals in between the leaves of the shaft door, and used them to force it apart, rather than using Buzz Saw again.

The doors opened onto a fairly substantial room, a reception area of some sort, with a single corridor leading further back into the building from behind a wide desk. It looked weirdly like a corporate office, with mellow gray colors, abstract paintings on, and comfortable chairs along, the side walls, and potted plants in the corners. Only the absence of anyone behind the desk made it look odd, and the corridor beyond was empty.

Something about that emptiness set her nerves on edge, as she settled onto her feet gently, her petals floating out of the shaft to swirl around her. The situation was odd enough that, rather than proceed further into the room, she settled into a loose tessenjutsu stance, unfolding both fans slowly as she scanned the room again. Signum had not been able to teach her much since winter break, as neither of them had used the style before, but what she knew was better suited to Senbonzakura than her normal unarmed stances.

Someone is here, she decided, hiding themselves from mundane senses. Allison says her Cloak of Shades is not a real shield, that the two can't combine, so if whatever these people are hiding under is at all similar, it shouldn't stop an attack. Suiting actions to thoughts, she spun out her petals, causing them to explode silently away from her in all directions to fill the room.

Two figures appeared almost instantly, flickering into view and surrounding themselves with shields just before the cascade reached them, and she took a moment to study them. The further of the two, standing in the corridor entrance, was a large, massively muscled young man with a distinctly military air about him, from his buzz-cut hair to his muscle-stretched t-shirt to the camouflage-pattern cargo pants. He stared at her with a fixed gaze, one hand up to seal the corridor with a shield. The other was a smaller woman, in a severe business suit, blonde hair drawn back tight behind her narrow face. She was also looking at Noriko, but where the man looked at her as an enemy, this woman stared at her as if she was looking into an open sewer.

"You must be the one Allina has been entertaining," Noriko commented in English, matching appearance to Allina's colorful complaints. "She has been having quite a lot of fun driving you crazy. She asked a few hours ago if we could leave her here long enough to finish the job, but she has missed too many classes as it is. We would not want her to fall behind, would we?"

The woman's sneer became more pronounced. "She will learn her place, as will you, heretic. Drop that... thing... and surrender. Your continued resistance is an affront to God and Gaia. Your only options are surrender or death, we will not permit anything else."

"Confident, aren't you," Noriko commented, "yet for all your numbers and knowledge, you have only captured three of us, and yet we have already regained one." While her team had left minutes after Zafira's, she was fairly certain his team would have succeeded in his mission already, "and the other two will soon be returned to us."

"Arrogant brat," the woman spat, "you aren't leaving here, and neither is my apprentice. I'll give you one more chance to put that thing down and behave yourself, before I have to punish you. You don't want that."

The woman's absolute confidence was shocking, her utter refusal to even acknowledge the difference in strength beyond arrogant and into blindness. Despite that, the woman was quite obviously prepared for combat, her shields steady, her power gathered. The same was true of the man behind her, though he at least appeared less blithely overconfident. Noriko thought she could take either one easily, but the two of them would be difficult.

Tactics, tactics, she reminded herself, separate them and fight one at a time.

It took only another thought to set things in motion, the gentle floating of her petals abruptly altering to dangerous speed. The wave swept around the room, swirling about the woman in a chaotic pattern, but slamming into the man's shield across the corridor. They layered themselves deeply over his shield, closing off his view and, hopefully, taking him out of the battle for a while. Under cover of that confusion, Noriko slid across the room, closing on the woman, waiting for the shield to drop.

It came down, but not in the manner she expected. The woman detonated her own shield, causing it to explode outwards, blasting back Noriko's petals. The pink razors slid past their creator without touching her, but did reveal her position. She was close enough by then, however, not to be concerned, and merely covered the remaining distance in a single leap.

The woman snapped her hand out, power glowing in her fingers, as Noriko charged, but the younger girl snapped her right fan closed and swung it in a short, sharp arc. The solid block of metal and composites slammed into her wrist, knocking it sideways and twisting the woman into an open position, and Noriko swept her left, open, fan in a slashing arc aiming for the woman's face. Break her concentration then bring the petal's down, she thought, smiling as the woman reacted exactly as she expected, stumbling backwards with a surprised cry.

Before she could follow up, however, the shield over the hallway detonated as the woman's had, and a moment later a ravening bolt of energy blasted through the scattering petals, missing Noriko by centimeters as she lunged back herself. Even diminished by the petals in its path, the buster spell had been more powerful than she expected, powerful enough to have tested her armor, had it hit. Her petals swirled in from the room, whirling around her protectively, as she re-evaluated the situation.

The man who had been standing in the hall was now striding into the room, glaring roughly in her direction, apparently unable to distinguish her precise position for her petals. More worrisome, a mousy little man was standing in his shadow, wrapping the both of them in a faintly visible shield of purple energy. The larger man stopped at the side of the desk, glared at her a moment longer, then turned to glare at the woman who was now getting her checking her wrist for injury. "I warned you, Adept Rostov," he growled in Russian, "wait for our third and engage at the ritual chambers. You will stand on the defensive, with Master Adept Dostoyevski. I will handle the child."

"Dammit, Karchev, new apprentices are my responsibility!"

"She is not a new apprentice," he countered, returning his attention to Noriko, "she is a heretic and an enemy."

Noriko took the opportunity of their continued argument to focus on newcomer, 'Dostoyevski'. He was a slight, nervous looking man, but he was also, she realized, generating two shields simultaneously, one protecting himself and Karchev, the other still sealing the corridor against her. Unlike his comrades, his attention was entirely on her, and he looked just as frightened of her as the guard upstairs had been. It was plainly obvious to her that he was the weak link in this trio, so she tried to experiment, reaching out for his mind.

I can hear what you're thinking, she sent telepathically, and he twitched violently, eyes going wide. You're right, she continued, you cannot stand against me. If you fight here, you are going to die here, to keep me from a friend I have already rescued.

He was actually quivering, stepping back slightly, when Karchev spun around and grabbed his collar. "Markov! Get yourself together, man! She's playing with you! Ignore her, block her out!"

Noriko took that moment to strike, aiming the folded-fan at Rostov and calling, "Amaterasu!" The bolt of pink energy leaped from the fan. She reacted fast, snapping up a glowing hand to raise a shield, but while she did that, Noriko swept her petals forward again, spinning out more and more of them. As they began to fill the room, she ordered, "Sakura Typhoon!"

The sudden whirlwind shredded the desk, tore through the plants and furniture, and blasted the drywall from the ancient stonework. Even the stonework began to show scoring. But the three shields showed only a few signs of weakening under the assault. Unlike the conglomerate shield she had overcome at the campus, the three she was up against now were stronger, contiguous units, with slightly greater total power behind them.

Noriko was not prepared for the trio's reactions. Rostov, the angry domineering woman, moved swiftly into the corridor, taking over shielding it from Dostoyevsky. The two men, in contrast, charged for her position, the smaller one on shield, the larger launching a series of buster spells at her. They mostly wasted themselves against her petals, but served to get her attention. Distracted, she hesitated, unable to decide which was the more important threat, and that distraction cost her as Karchev came close enough to find her through her petals.

He actually leaped at her, a flying tackle that confused her for a moment, until she noticed the energized shield wrapped skin-tight about his head, shoulders and arms. She ducked under his attack, rolling to one side. She came up facing him as he tumbled, and a sweeping gesture sent every petal she had raging at him in a massive column. It slammed him into the wall hard enough to shake the stone and draw a pained grunt, but she did not think he was down, and flowed closer as her petals fell away from him, planning to break his shield.

Before she reached him, though, a hand came from behind her. She ducked her shoulder to avoid the grab. Dostoyevsky was not aiming for her, though, but for Senbonzakura. Her shift brought the fan closer, and he seized it in both hands, forcing the blades closed. "Judgment of the Fallen," he whispered, as she tried to continue her dodge.

She had no idea what his spell was supposed to do, but it felt like he dipped her hand in lava. Sheer heat and pain swept up her arm and into her brain, drawing a scream from her throat. She could feel his spell eating its way into Senbonzakura's structure, and the damage reflecting itself in her, and for just a moment was terrified out of her mind, knowing her precious device was going to be destroyed.

Even in the face of that certainty, however, she would not admit defeat. She fought back against the pain, the spell, channeling more and more power from herself to her device, guiding the child of her mind in its own defense, severing conduits and connections Dostoyevsky's spell followed, ruthlessly sacrificing parts of the device to try and save the core of it. It was brutal, it hurt to do it, but her efforts worked, preserving Senbonzakura's heart and soul, and her own, cutting off and blocking the assault until it faded away, deprived of the targets that fed it.

She came back to herself on the floor, panting with effort and pain. It still felt like her entire body was aflame, and she could not move her right arm at all. But she still had her armor, still had her device, and was buried under a shifting cloud of her petals. For a few seconds more, she lay there, curled up, trying to get past the shock of it. The pain, the damage, had come so fast and so strong, it was outside anything she had ever experienced or imagined, and she needed those precious seconds to get herself under control again.

"I told you, Karchev," the voice was unfamiliar, a little shrill, but masculine, "heretics mindlessly rely on their machines. They are nothing without them."

That was Dostoyevsky, she realized, they're close, standing over me. Not good. Not good at all.

"She still has those discs," Karchev rumbled back, "and they're still preventing us from reaching her."

"Really," Dostoyevsky snapped, sounding quite miffed, "and you wonder why I have continuously out-tested you. You never pay attention to the details, Karchev. The vast majority of her weapons are gone, and she is injured. This continued shield is probably an unconscious reaction, and the discs will fade as she does, mere minutes."

"Fine," Karchev snarled back, "but while we're waiting down here, that monster up stairs is having a field day with our comrades! You know how to get through this shield... do it!"

There was a thud sound, a cut-off yell, then, "Oh, boys! You might want to rethink that."

Noriko felt the shift in their attention, and realized from the angles and shifting of the two men that something had just happened to Rostov. Taking advantage, she dropped the shield, and lunged, trying to go sideways to get out from between the men and whoever was in the corridor. Karchev tried to grab her as she tumbled past him, but her petals were still with her, a swirling flock that forced him to abort his attempt.

She regained her feet, staying crouched, and realized that she had a problem with her right leg as well as her arm. It was not as bad, she could still sense it and control it, mostly, but it was weak and off-center, not quite answering her will as it should. The sluggishness made her unsteady, even worse than the limp weight of her arm and Senbonzakura's shattered right fan. But she stayed on her feet, and no one made any further move to attack her.

Looking to her right, she spotted the woman who had interrupted the Circle mages' debate. She was tall, very well built, and apparently quite comfortable showing that off. The only substantial clothing Noriko noticed was the black half-cape and armored gauntlets and boots. From one of those gauntleted hands dangled the Rostov woman, apparently unconscious. It actually took Noriko a moment to realize that the woman was not human, she was so used to the appearance of familiars, for the woman sported a bushy red tail, and large white-tipped fox ears.

The woman as smirking widely as she wave Rostove in the air, but her next comment was addressed to Noriko. "You all right, Riko-chan? You look a little worse for the wear."

The insultingly familiar form or her name threw Noriko, "Uh, who are you again?"

The woman chuckled, shaking her head slightly, "Forgot, I was already out and about when you came aboard. I'm Arf, Fate's keeper, though she prefers the usual title of familiar. While you were crashing the front door, she had me slip in the back. These kids aren't very good at magical security. Too much 'quantity', not enough 'quality'. I slipped down here to have a look-see, and low and behold, everyone came running. Oh, by the way, cover your ears." She suited actions to words, an orange shield appearing about her ears.

Still not entirely trusting this woman, but liking her more than the other options, Noriko formed small shields over her ears, and noticed the two Circle mages doing the same. A moment later, the world shook, the lights flickered, and a wave of dust swept blasted into the corridor. Even through the shield, the blast was painfully loud, making her stumble and flinch away from it, unconsciously drawing her petals back between herself and the corridor. All of them except Arf were coughing as the dust settled, though most of that was shaken loosed from the ceiling and walls, rather than coming down the corridor.

Karchev got his voice back first, demanding, "W... what did you do?!"

Arf just grinned wider, "Oh, just a little something Chrono-kun and I cooked up for crowd control, sonic bombs. Knocks people out and messes up their hearing for hours. You should be feeling the side-effects any second now, since they went off next to your buddies in those ritual circles providing you with all that power."

The two men looked horrified for a second, then Karchev charged Arf, yelling something unintelligible. Arf just grinned, and slung Rostov at him, tripping him up, then lunged forward to slam him to a stop with a palm on top of his head. "Struggle Bind," she snarled, orange lines swept out from her hand to wrap around him before he could recover. He slammed to the ground as she let go, struggling, but unable to break the binding.

Noriko saw the motion, saw Arf's counter beginning, and took what little energy she could spare from holding herself up to cover Dostoyevsky. As the mousy little man began building a spell, she sent a quartet of her petals flying at him, flashing them just past his face, then looping them around to circle at neck height. "Don't move," she ordered, "you have no shield any longer, and those petals are razor sharp. If I twitch, they'll take your head off."

He froze, long enough for Arf to wrap him in a binding as well. Once she had all three tied up, and set them to floating along behind her, she finally turned to Noriko, walking over to gently take her dangling arm and check it over carefully.

"I can't feel it," Noriko admitted.

"What happened? It doesn't look like you actually took any damage, there's no wound, no obvious damage..."

"The mousy one attacked Senbonzakura," Noriko explained, holding up the damaged device. "We're closer to our devices than is safe, the damage he inflicted echoed back to me. My leg's affected as well, and I think my entire right side. I'm having trouble talking," she admitted. Then she grinned, "I need to see Shamal-sensei, or Cid-chan. Can you get me to China?"

Arf arched one exquisite eyebrow, then chuckled. "Nanoha-chan told me what you kids were like. I didn't believe her 'till now. But no, we're not going to China. We need to grab Allina and get out of here. Fate'll be happy to have some more prisoners. Happy enough not to yell at me too much for letting you get hurt."

"I made good distraction, though," Noriko countered as she shuffled into the elevator shaft, "kept them busy while you placed your bombs."

"Oh, you certainly did that," Arf agreed, "though I think you need to work on your tactics. Close combat is not your forte."

Flying up the lift shaft was difficult, but she managed it. Arf's ability to drag the three prisoners after her while maintaining the sort of acrobatic ability Noriko had become accustomed to in flight was depressing, but she put it aside and kept flying. Arf shot down the hall for a moment when they reached the prison level, then returned reporting that the others were already out. They reached ground level a minute later, and she remained airborne, finding her speed slightly greater in the air than shuffling on the ground. In the guard station, however, she found a most-unwelcome surprise.

"Allina!" The Brazlian girl shot her a quick glare, before turning her attention back to the computer monitor. "What are you still doing in here?"

"Shush," Allina muttered back, "gimme a minute."

Recognizing the girl's focus, Noriko looked at Niranjana, recognized that she was just as concerned but unwilling to argue with Allina, and turned on Hidan. "Hidan! Why didn't you drag them out of here?! I told you to get them out!"

"All due respect, Hime-sama," he replied, with a perfectly straight face, "you ordered me to help Konoth-san retrieve Maricopa-san. I am in the process of doing so. Maricopa-san was quite insistent on using the computer. She promised no more than five minutes, of which she has used approximately four. I'd suggest giving her that last minute, Hime-sama. The potential benefits outweigh the risks."

Allina cut off further argument, "Done! Ha! Suck on that, you Circle bastards! I own you!"

Niranjana touched her arm, "Allina!"

"A'righ', a'righ'," Allina muttered, ejecting the CD with her programs, before letting Niranjana haul her out of the room and into the hall.

Watching them go, Noriko felt a moment of pique. They didn't even ask what happened to me, she thought, Kami-sama, spare me from ever being as oblivious as those two...

With Arf bringing up the rear, they exited the castle far more calmly than they had entered, to find Fate reeling in the last of her opponents. The Admiral floated down to look them over, glancing quickly over them and their prisoners, then fixing Noriko in place with an almost-glare. "What happened?"

"Device damage," Noriko replied, "echoed in me. I'm functional, enough to keep moving under my own power. Can we go now?"

"We'll have to march to the edge of their barriers," Fate reminded her, "about where we teleported in."

Ten minutes later, they were back on the Asura. Getting through her worried classmates to the medics proved to be almost as challenging as fighting the Circle mages had been.

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Hayate woke slowly, feeling surprisingly little pain. She had, in the course of her years at the Bureau, been rendered unconscious several times, and was used to the usual throbbing headaches and associated other pains that normally accompanied waking from such events. This time, it was just a transition, as her senses slowly came back to her, filling the darkness around her with the world she had let behind.

It was quiet, the soft susurration of artificially circulated air and the beep of monitors telling her she was being cared for somewhere. The specific tones of the beeps, the pattern of the air, were also unfortunately familiar, and even before her eyes opened she knew she was in the Asura's medical bay. Doctor Siang had once offered to have her name inscribed on one of the beds, to reserve it for her. The feel of magic and shields about her just confirmed the location. That confirmation alone was enough to calm some of her waking fears, that she had lost her magic. It was still there, weak, but there.

When her eyes did open, she found Signum sitting in a chair next to her bed, head hanging as she dozed. "Signum," Hayate whispered, "my children?"

Signum's head snapped up, eyes going wide for a moment, then she leaned forward, taking Hayate's limp hand in both of hers. "Mistress? How are you?"

"Weak," Hayate admitted, "but getting better. My children?"

Signum frowned at her for a minute, obviously arguing with herself, then sighed slightly. "Mariachi, Allina and Cid-chan were captured. Megan had some minor injuries, as did Laura. None of the others were harmed. Rescue missions are already under way, and I believe Mariachi has been rescued."

"Are my children part of it?"

"Yes. It was safer than trying to keep them out of it, and with Fate and her crew backing us up, they should not be in any special danger."

Hayate thought that over for a few minutes, pausing only to accept the small cup of water Signum made her drink. If only three of her kids had been taken, and rescues were already under way, she found she could be remarkably calm about letting the others participate. She trusted her Knights and her friends to look after her kids, which left the source of the problem for her to deal with.

She held up a hand to still Signum's running report, smiled at her in silent apology, then ordered, "Akira. Report."

A distortion appeared in the air, then a gaping wound in reality opened, for just a moment, and the infamous program stood there, the Hellblade slung over his back. He looked around as Signum lunged to her feet, taking in Takashi's unconscious form and the state of the medical bay, then he quirked an eyebrow at her. "I was wondering when you would call on me, My Lady. I must admit to being somewhat disappointed you did not figure out sooner that you could."

"I reasoned it out as soon as he told me you existed," Hayate countered, frowning at Akira, "but I have no desire to deal with you, and there was no cause great enough to force me to. Now, however, you have been out seeking to destroy the Circles, and I need to know how far along you have progressed. Report."

He frowned back at her a moment, then shrugged, settled into a parade rest formation, and began, "through the auspices of the good Colonel Master Adept Hughes, I was placed in contact with another Circle mage of his stature, who, while less cooperative, provided me with the location and basic information concerning a member of what they call the Grand Circle. Enough information for me to locate the woman, locate members of her family, and use the second piece of information to induce her to provide more information."

Signum sucked in a breath at that, "You bastard."

"Calmly, woman," Akira replied, "I took no hostile action, not against her, merely let her believe I would. Taking such action immediately would have removed the ability to threaten that action, as well as attracted your interference, which would have delayed my mission. In return for my agreement not to harm her or hers, and to limit your counterattack to those directly involved in the attack on your school, she provided me contact information for two more of their 'Lords'. I have since used that information to determine the locations of each of their lords, twelve in all. I was debating how to put that information to use when you summoned me."

"You put all that together in two days?"

He shrugged. "A reputation for monstrous inhumanity does wonders. Even here, the Circles believe me to be capable of anything except mercy, and are thus justifiably terrified of me. Admittedly, the second mage I approached is no longer amongst the living, nor are several of those who attempted to protect their Lords. But thus is determination proven, and others convinced to cooperate."

The casual ease with which he admitted that sickened Hayate, but not enough to stop her. She needed him, however monstrous he was, to safeguard her children, and she had long since determined that, to accomplish that end, she would compromise far more than this. "Find the Lords," she ordered, "tell me who they are, where they are, how they are protected. I will give them one more chance to talk, to exist peacefully, but if they will not accept my presence and leave my children alone, I will not permit them to remain. Keep track of them, Akira. When next I call you, you will bring them to me. You understand?"

He nodded slowly, "Find them, but take no action until you have regained your strength and called for them. Worry not, My Lady. When you call, they will appear before you."

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Spells

Buzz-Saw: using a small number of petals arranged in a ring formation, Noriko can cut her way through most physical obstacles.

Amaterasu: Noriko's version of the traditional buster spell. She lacks the efficiency of Yussef's Buster Cannon or Laura's Zipper, however the bolt is somewhat more powerful when used in direct sunlight.

Judgment of the Fallen: One of the Circle's few 'standard' spells, this is used to directly attack an artificial magical construct. Against non-magical structures, it simply eats away at the material. Against objects designed to channel magical energies, it creates a destructive feedback in those channels, which is normally sufficient to destroy the object.

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Author's Note: Tessenjutsu is an old form of hand-to-hand combat utilizing an iron fan, usually with eight to ten ribs. While I have not been able to find detailed descriptions of the form, I have found enough independent sources to confirm that it does exist, and is still taught. Noriko is not formally trained in it, but between her 'normal' martial arts training (remember the 'master' mentioned during the Kyoto visit?) and Signum's abilities, she knows the basics.

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Baughn: I agree, Natalia is creepy. I still haven't decided if the 'ghost' really is, or if he's a beginners-version of a sentient-program (like Akira), or if he's something else. But... I'm not planning on using her again, at least not with her vision ability. But it was the best way I could come up with to break Yussef's fight – that was the sixth version, and each of the preceding ones always logically ended up at a stalemate. Apologies, but Natalia's part will now return to background. Oh, and I'd argue that Precia failed spectacularly – she made a good reflection of her daughter, but there is no way to recreate a specific human being. Had she been sane, then yes, Fate would have been a new daughter for her, but never the daughter Precia lost.

seaotter: Yussef's definitely a soldier. Megan's dislike of the Siamese cat form is two-fold – one, she doesn't like the small size (compared with her liger form), and two, she grew up watching Lady and the Tramp, which does not paint Siamese cats in a good light:). As of right now, there is no fundamental limit to how many forms Megan can take, it's just a matter of learning the form first. I'm a little confused about what spell you were asking about Zulfiqar holding? If it was all of them, as I see it the devices operate in concert with their wielders to shape any spell. If you're talking about Soldier of Heaven, it is created in concert, but yes, maintained by Zulfiqar. Akira is a lot of things – as far as canon goes, he is precisely what Signum, Shamal, Vita and Zafira started out as – independent programs given physical forms and life. His personality is definitely drawn from the darkest aspects of Takashi's, and he truly is amoral. Now for the depressing part – at present, I have three or four more chapters, and one more Side Story, planned. On the other hand, that is subject to change without prior warning.

TheWhiteMonk: thanks for the compliment, and yes, Akira is a lot of fun:). You'll see just how scary the kids can be next chapter, I think.

pfeil: yeah, not easy at all. I've actually found myself contemplating scrapping last chapter and re-writing, but then I'd confuse my continuity, and probably have the same problems, and delay the rest of the story, but it would clean things up... bad. I'm not sure if I'd detail either battle you requested, mostly because, cool as it would be, I'd have a hard time justifying it in furtherance of the story. There may be mention of such, but probably no details. And I'll fix that error when I toss up re-edited versions of all the chapters, thank you! Probably after I complete the story.

CrimsonDX: Glad someone liked Natalia (still not comfortable with her myself). I'm not sure if the twins Akira mentioned would actually be invited to the Academy, but... maybe, maybe. I've had ideas for a follow-on story, but I'm worried I might be pushing this plot-line too far as it is. Again, maybe.

stormturmoil: who says Natalia doesn't see something when she looks at the Wolkenritter? They are alive, just not the usual sort we're all used to, which means they can die. The part that's going to be most difficult for her to deal with is always, every day, knowing precisely when those around her will die – all her friends, all her family, random people in the street... sure, you could argue "she'll know when to say goodbye," but is that really better? Having the inevitable loss of her precious people shoved in her face every moment of every day, including when she looks in a mirror? It's more than a teenager should have to deal with.

Kell Shock: Yes, Mariachi's becoming a bard, though more like the traditional (i.e. - cool and effective version) than the joke D&D came up with. Yes, the Circle still has tricks up their sleeves, and the balance of forces was what kept giving me trouble with Yussef's battle. I couldn't figure out how he could get around those two in a remotely believable fashion. I'm not happy with Arf's appearance above, for much the same reason. Akira's no world-class shirt-off-your-back corporate shark, but he knows how to get information, and remember – he had Hughes' advice to work from as well to find Lord America's weakness. As for the results of those negotiations, all will be revealed in due time.

Sheo Darren: Thanks for the compliments, though... not Basara Nekki. I had to go look that reference up, and... no, sorry, not in a million years. I never liked the Macross variants 'music conquers all' approach. I'm ok with music myself (I can read the notes, carry tunes pretty well, and have good pitch), but no music is as powerful as the Macross variants like to think. Sound can be (it's one of the second-tier favorites for non-lethal weaponry development at the moment), but a couple songs winning over violently opposed enemies? Sorry, ranting, moving on! Luke's an Aussie, he can get away with saying things like that (especially since it's true, Megan's liger form weighs significantly more than her wolf form), though you're right, it isn't polite – just funny. Mariachi's song was, (per my probably-misnamed copy) 'Metal Gear Solid Guitar Ending'. Personally, I'd argue that one song over and over is not as bad as a double-handful of insanely convoluted and meaningless but scarily puzzling lyrics (though, 'Come On Eileen' is pretty bad). I don't know why people are surprised when Akira doesn't go right for the throat... except that's what I originally wrote him to do, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Thanks for reviewing.

Natimus Prime: Guilty confession – I have no Betas, and probably never will. I'm too lazy! I agree with you about the sadly limited use of spell check & grammar check these days, but then I was taken in hand by an English teacher who was a real stickler for grammar (and I'm just that much of a perfectionist Type-A). There were errors, I've found them myself on further re-reads, but not too many. My only suggestion for getting a good 'flow' going is – work on multiple stories at once. I've found that (last chapter being a painful exception) when I get stumped on a story, working on an unrelated one helps. As for the any similarities between this and StrikerS, I plead ignorance – still haven't watched any episodes, and only read the very first manga. Feel free to watch the anime (not like I could stop you:), and hopefully the next chapter will come out sooner – I've had snippets of it floating about in my head for months now (since before I started last chapter, which was part of my problem, I think).

ariel stormcloud: Thank you.

TK3997: First off, thanks for the compliments. I'm glad you're enjoying this, and thank you for the no flames (I agree, if I don't like something, I just leave it...). I'll admit that Laura's Positron Buster should have more side-effects, but there is a question as to whether it is truly anti-matter, and I would also argue that if she can generate and contain it at all, she can contain harmful side-effects (I mentioned this in a prior reply, I think). As to the beam, that was the original intent, but there's just one problem, which is going to take a bit to explain. By creating a distinct packet, she can expand a containment field from a geometric point (no dimensions, therefore containing nothing) to the sub-atomic scale she needs (only a couple of positrons are needed for the blast effects she needs). That way, there is no chance of a stray electron floating into the containment and triggering a reaction while it's floating next to her hand. Generating a beam, she would have to cleanse the path to target of any possible particles, which is simply impossible in atmosphere, or even in interplanetary space. It might be possible in intergalactic space, but not this close to a star. So the chances of the stream of anti-matter in a 'beam' reacting prior to reaching the target would approach unity. Also, a single-size, stable, spherical containment field would be easier to create, easier to maintain, and stronger than a cylinder. Thus, all my logical arguments for Postiron Buster over Positron Beam. All that being said, however, I'm going to fall back on my favorite excuse... it's magic!:) You made some good points, but the above is the logic I'm most comfortable with.

PM Reviews (I hope?): Thanks for taking the time, and once again my apologies for losing your PMs. One of you offered to send me a list of all the typos – thanks, but I've probably found them all already. I do go back and re-read my chapters repeatedly, I just don't repost them. I probably will once I finish the story.