The twenty ninth chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!
* Review Response:
Jose19, just to remind you (and everyone else) once again that Harry's Earth and Nanoha's are different worlds here. As for the rest of your question... Harry and Reinforce are going to eventually drift apart a little, not too much, though, and the two of them will still be doing it every once in a while.
davycrockett100, FateBurn, god of all, Opinr, vampireharry the 2, Ranmaleopard, Penny is wise, thank you for your reviews, folks!
roughstar333, no idea why. Maybe because aside from knowing who will win there, you also could easily predict how (the sealing of Alicia's curse)?
ultima-owner, the previous chapter haven't shown all of the curse's nastiness.
Joshua The Evil Guy, I've answered your review via PM.
A Brilliant Loser, I wasn't aware of that.
* AN: The pictures for the runic circles - Harry's, Hedwig's and Alicia's - as well as the image of Alicia herself (sans the visor) can now be accessed through the google doc linked in my profile.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" or "Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.
"speaking"
"telepathy"
'thinking'
"spells / devices speaking"
written messages
Bureau Agent Potter
chapter XXIX: The sisters
"Ugh..." Alicia groaned as she slowly regained consciousness. And even if she were to ignore dull pains all over her body and the throbbing headache, her body still felt wrong somehow... It just wasn't quite the same she was used to over the course of her admittedly-short life. Letting out another groan, the blond girl tried to open her eyes. Only to close them a moment later as the sudden light caused an explosion of pain in her head.
A few moments passed, and she heard some approaching footsteps, along with a hushed conversation that she couldn't quite follow but likely was the topic of. Another few seconds went by, and someone drew the curtains. Waiting for a little, Alicia dared to open one of her eyes again. Everything was so blurry, but at least not painfully-bright anymore. Opening the second eye made the image a bit more in-focus, though she was still seeing nothing but swimming color blobs. Yet, even like that, she could tell that there was an adultish woman with gray or silver hair and a much younger blond girl standing next to the bed she was in.
Pushing herself to raise her head off the pillow, Alicia tried to ask for some water. And even though it came out as unintelligible rasps, she was still somehow understood: the silver-haired lady placed a hand behind her head while bringing a glass of water to her lips.
"You should rest some more." The woman said once Alicia was done drinking. Given how her body felt like it was molded out of lead the blonde girl wordlessly agreed. And so, as soon as her head was lowered back onto the pillow, she drifted back into the soft darkness of unconsciousness...
When Alicia woke up again, she felt much better. No, she was still aching everywhere and moving even a finger was quite a labor, but... Daring to open her eyes, she was pleasantly surprised by the fact that this time around she could actually see things pretty clearly now. And so, pushing herself to sit up a little, she looked around the room she was in.
Wherever she was, it was without any doubts a girl's room. Though, unlike what one might expect, it wasn't painted pink or finished with excessive frills. Truth to be said, the room was actually rather abstinent actually... As she sat up a little bit higher, Alicia's eyes fell on the framed photo depicting a blue-eyed with brown hair made into twin pigtails. However, as it didn't look like this girl was there the previous time she woke up, the blonde assumed that it was a very friend of whoever had taken her in.
Further inspection of the place was put on hold as the silver-haired lady from before opened the door and stepped into the room. And now that she could see her as something more than almost-shapeless blobs of colors, Alicia noted that this woman had red eyes, which was not a very common trait.
"Are you feeling better now?" The silver-haired lady asked while giving her a glass of water. Nodding slowly, Alicia took the glass and took a few sips out of it.
"Yes." The blond girl replied. Her voice was still quite raspy, but at least now it wasn't bad enough to make her words unintelligible. "Thank you." She added then as she handed the still-half-full glass back to the red-eyed woman, who then placed it on the bedside table.
"Good." The lady said then. There was a pause, before she spoke again: "What is the last thing you remember?" Alicia thinned her lips as she concentrated on her recent past. Unfortunately, it looked like her latest memories got damaged to the point where the only things she could recall were various explosions of light or bursts of pain flashing through otherwise-impenetrable haze. And even before that many many things were foggy... Actually, her last clear memory was of her incredibly boring and lonely days at the Mid-Childan hospital following the... uh... reactor explosion.
"I... I remember being put in a hospital... And mom wasn't visiting me often... She was looking for a way to cure me... And..." She trailed off here, before asking a very important to her question: "And... Where is my mom?" The silver-haired lady's face quickly went through a few emotions, before she schooled her features back into a neutral expression.
"I see..." Something was telling Alicia that some important events had taken place between then and now. And whatever those were, they probably weren't of a good kind. Yet, it didn't look like she'll get to know about those events anytime soon... "As for your mother..." The silver-haired lady meanwhile continued: "I'm sorry to say, but she's not with you, she's most likely dead. Officially, she was listed as missing and presumed dead for over thirty months."
Two and a half years? - the blonde girl wondered inwardly. Did really that much time pass since she last remembered herself clearly? No, even with her recent memories being so hazy, Alicia could tell that it wasn't yesterday or even a week ago, but still...
The two of them then fell into an uneasy silence, which lasted for maybe half a minute. Eventually, it was broken by another person entering the room, carrying some sort of soup in a rather simple white dish. This person, apparently, was the other girl that was there when Alicia woke up the last time. And now that she could see her clearly... more clearly, the revived blonde was shocked by how similar this girl looked to her. If not for their ages, the two of could have been twins!
"W-Why there is another one of me?" She asked as soon as her shock wore off a little. The same shock also somehow prevented her from perceiving a small dark whisper at the back of her head that was telling her that she, for whatever reasons, needed to kill this girl...
"You haven't told her yet, Reinforce?" The lookalike asked the silver-haired woman. And Alicia was quick to note that this was not quite a normal name; this lady must be really special somehow... Meanwhile, her not-clone let out a sigh upon hearing the 'Not yet.' response from Reinforce. Placing the bowl she was holding onto the bedside table, the blonde finally introduced herself: "My name is Fate and I'm your... uh..." Fate paused, trying to decide on which word would best describe her complex relation to the girl in front of her. Eventually, she settled on the simplest, though most vague, one: "I'm your sister, Alicia-nee-chan."
"A-Are you really, really my sister?" The older blonde asked a little bit disbelievingly after a few moments of silence. Fate nodded affirmatively, deciding that the discussion of her complicated origins could wait until another time. The younger girl was then greatly startled when her sister suddenly moved in an attempt to reach out towards her: with her enforcer training kicking in, she jumped backwards, ready to fight for her life. Reinforce too shifted into a fighting stance, though she was far more subtle about it.
However, Alicia wasn't attacking anyone. If anything, she was actually hurt a bit by sister's reaction: she just wanted to hug her... A few tense moments passed, and, having relaxed a little, Fate realized that herself. Still ready to fight back, she nevertheless slowly approached the older girl and guardedly allowed her to embrace her.
"I... I've always wanted a sister." Alicia whispered emotionally as she snuggled against her sister's chest. "And now... I have you now, Fate-chan." Here, a dark whisper of the curse tried to tell her that she should be choking the dear life out of the other blonde rather than hugging her, but Alicia was so happy to finally meet her sister that didn't even notice that 'voice'.
"There, there..." The young enforcer-in-training whispered back as she finally returned her sister's embrace properly. The two of them remained like that for a while; then Alicia leaned back a little and raised her head to look at Fate's face.
"I want... I want to know more about you, imouto. Tell me about your life, please!.. " She asked with such a face that it was just impossible to refuse her. Not that her sister was even thinking about that: while it was true that Alicia was the reason for her less than perfect childhood, it was not the girl's fault. No, it was their mother, Precia, who was responsible for that, and even then, Fate had somehow found it in her to (mostly) forgive the woman. Forgive, yes, but never forget...
"Sure." The younger blonde said as she gently lowered her sister back onto the bed. Then she telepathically asked Reinforce to give the two of them some privacy.
"Are you sure about that?" The silver-haired avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky asked back as she reminded Fate about the battle that took place yesterday: one on one, she would have lost there.
"It'll be alright." The red-eyed enforcer-in-training replied. "The magic limiters we've placed on her are still on. And if they all fail somehow, you and Hayate-chan and Yuki-chan will be in the room next door, right?" The Lady of the Blessed Wind let out a sigh, before walking out of the room, giving the two Testarossa girls some time to bond with each other privately.
Despite being alive for less than a decade, Fate's life had been quite eventful – even if one was to forget about the Jewel Seeds incident and everything preceding it – so she had more than a few stories to tell to her suddenly-revived older sister. And that girl certainly was very eager to learn more about her adventures. Alas, it looked like the world was conspiring against them once again...
It's been roughly an hour and a half since the silver-haired Lady had left the two of them to their own devices when Alicia finally 'heard' the curse's dark whisper. And they scared her a lot. Yet the thought of estranging and losing her sister, even if she had just met her, scared the older blonde even more. Thus, after a few minutes of hesitation, she finally told her about the 'whispers' that kept haunting her.
This 'confession' caught Fate by surprise; nevertheless, as soon as her shock wore off, she abandoned her storytelling in favor of thoroughly inspecting her sister for any signs of the curse or whatever else influencing her. And what she found didn't make her happy: while still thin enough to remain unnoticed if one wasn't looking specifically for them, the lines of corruption were already appearing on Alicia's skin. And that was definitely not a good sign... Deciding that someone more knowledgeable about magic should confirm her findings, the young enforcer-in-training contacted Reinforce telepathically and asked her to take a look at the limiters she and Harry had placed on her sister yesterday in order to seal the curse away.
"I'm afraid, I have only bad news." The avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky said, once she finished her inspection. "Whatever this curse is, it is even more dangerous than we've originally thought. In addition to the effects we've observed yesterday, it also appears to be capable of breaking apart any power blocks placed over it. To make the things even worse, it also has an adaptive ability and no limiter will work against it more than once or twice." Yes, these certainly were bad, awful news, Fate agreed. Her further thoughts were interrupted when Alicia fearfully asked a question:
"W-what had h-happened yesterday?" After a lengthy moment of silence, Reinforce finally delivered the answer, and in a very straightforward manner.
"You've been controlled by the curse and came this close to killing Testa-... I mean, Fate-chan." Alicia certainly looked shocked to her core by this revelation.
"I... I don't want to... to hurt my sister." She said with tears appearing in her eyes. "Please... Please tell me... that there is a way to... to stop this curse! I... Please, do something so that I... so that I don't hurt my sister ever again!" She begged.
"I'm afraid, there isn't much we can do about it at the moment." The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind. "I'm sorry." Indeed, even though she was a living library of magical knowledge, Reinforce couldn't even 'read' the curse, much less find a way to break it at the moment. And with how quickly it was eating though the limiters they tried to contain it with, it looked like they had less than a day before it took over Alicia once again...
"Then kill me!" The girl in question stated in fake confidence as tears kept streaming out of her eyes.
"W-what?.. But... I can't..." The younger blonde replied almost immediately.
"If you don't, then... I'll hurt you again and... It's better if I go than you, Fate-chan." Alicia pressed.
"And still..." Her sister began, only to get interrupted by a telepathic message from Reinforce:
"Pretend to agree with her." The silver-haired beauty 'said'. "We can place her into stasis instead of killing for real. It should give us an extra month or so to look for a way to break the curse... But if we fail, I'm afraid we will have to do just as she asks." A momentary pause later, she continued, answering Fate-chan's unspoken question: "Your sister suffers from a severe case of mana poisoning, Testarossa; I'm sure you know what it means. Using magic is slowly killing her, yet the curse pays no heed to that. Instead, it is actually pushing her magic beyond its natural limits. You remember how Alicia-san was yesterday, right? That is the toll she paid for fighting a single battle... I don't think she can survive another one so soon." Fate furrowed her brows. She really had no reasons to doubt Reinforce's words, but that didn't mean that she was happy to 'hear' them.
"Alright..." She finally said with a deep sigh...
~/ *** \~
"Arthra" finally arrived to the non-administered world #97 late in the next afternoon. And as soon as the battleship settled on the planet's geostationary orbit, Lindy Harlaown teleported to the surface in order to make sure that Fate-chan and everyone else were alright after the whatever mess they had found themselves in two days ago... Once she verified that everyone indeed was fine, the teal-haired rear admiral finally decided to find out what exactly why her adopted daughter had so urgently summoned her to this world.
"So, tell me guys, what had happened there?" She asked.
"My sister – Alicia – showed up." Fate-chan replied, actually catching her adoptive mother by surprise with this: it was certainly not what the rear admiral was expecting. And it also something quite important as everyone in the TSAB believed that the girl had perished when she and her mother fell into the Imaginary space surrounding their last know base, the Garden of Time.
"And she was controlled by a curse of Al-Hazardian nature, which forced her into attacking Fate-san with intent to kill." Reinforce added then. "We however were able to temporarily seal it away before there were any casualties. Alicia-san herself appears to have no recollection of that fight and has shown no aggression towards Fate-san herself."
"I see..." Lindy said after a long pause. There was another pause, before she spoke again: "And, can I please have a few words with her?" She asked.
"Unfortunately, that is not really possible." The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind replied. "We've placed Alicia-san under a powerful stasis spell yesterday evening to prevent the curse from taking over her again – that piece of magic is capable of breaking the standard magic limiters and evolving to be immune to their effects in the future."
"That's..." Lindy breathed out, not even capable of finding a word to precisely describe her thoughts about this curse and its powers. Taking a deep breath, the teal-haired rear admiral finally asked: "So, what are you planning to do next?"
"I'm definitely going to save my sister!" The blond enforcer-in-training proclaimed.
"I plan on helping Testarossa, however I don't particularly share her optimism." Reinforce said then. "This curse is an exceptionally masterful piece of nastiness and breaking it might take way more time than we actually have..."
"I want to help Fate-chan too!" Hayate quipped enthusiastically, while Yuki-chan who was sitting on her shoulder nodded eagerly. "But I have no idea what I can help her with..." The brunette added then in a much more downbeat voice.
"Well... I'm not sure what I can do, but I'll do everything in my powers to help you." Lindy said. There was a short pause, before Harry, who had been quiet up until now, finally decided to take the word.
"I've been thinking about for the last two days." The green-eyed teen said. "And I believe that the people capable of breaking the curse might actually exist back on my home world. The likelihood of that is pretty faint, however, and even if they really do exist... Paying for their services with actual money might be beyond our capabilities. Alternative methods of working it off will most likely require us to take up arms and assist the lawful side of the civil war." And providing military assistance of any sort to the governments of non-administered worlds without an explicit order from the TSAB commanders was, well, a big no-no.
"There are mages living on the non-administered world #138?" Lindy asked. Up until now she, just like everyone else in the Bureau, believed Harry to be a one-off son of that, otherwise completely devoid of magic, world.
"There are hidden magical communities there." The young Potter admitted reluctantly. "But I'm asking you all to keep this a secret. While I can't really speak for all of them, the one existing in my home country is, well... Conservative and Xenophobic, sometimes to a rather ridiculous degree. Because of that, any open first contact will likely end in a disaster."
"I see..." The teal-haired woman said with a sigh. "If it is indeed so, than you are probably right and that magical community should remain a secret from the Bureau until their ways have changed." A small pause later, she continued: "But are you really sure that it might be possible to find someone capable of breaking Alicia's curse there – you make it sound like the mages of your home world are stuck in the dark ages or something like that."
"Well, I'd put them a little bit closer to 'present', but otherwise you got it quite right, Lindy-san." Harry replied. "That said, the magic they wield is probably closer to occult and 'wishcraft' than to the formal spell systems you are familiar with. Thus, I think that it is possible that someone there might be capable of breaking the curse." And after a few moments of silence, the green-eyed teen added added another argument to why it would be beneficial to sneak onto his home world. "And even if we can't find anyone that can help Alicia-san there, we should still be able to acquire some medicines to significantly speed up Nanoha-chan's and Megane-sensei's recovery."
"Hmm..." Lindy hummed. It was quite a dilemma she was facing here. On one hand, as a high-ranked Bureau officer it was her duty to dissuade them from taking an absence without leave to fight in a war the TSAB had no business in; on the other hand, though, she really wanted to help Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan,.. In the end, her human side won. "Very well." She said. "Maybe you really should go there. However, please make sure you don't attract the unnecessary attention. I might be a low-tier admiral, and I'm willing to offer you some political protection, but there isn't much I can actually do in case the commanders learn about your adventures."
"Thank you, mom." Fate-chan replied. Then she turned her attention to her companions: "Shall we start packing?" She asked.
"Maybe." Harry responded. "Though, I say, we should rest tonight and head out tomorrow morning. God knows, we won't get a chance to relax properly for quite a while once we do the dimension hopping." After a small pause, he continued: "And speaking of the necessary preparations... Someone will have to watch over Lu-chan until we're back; taking her with us is just too dangerous."
"I can do that." Lindy volunteered.
"Thank you, ma'am." The young Potter replied. "It'd probably be much better if someone Lu-chan is familiar with would stay behind and help you, though." And since he was the only person here who knew where to look for the magical communities on the non-administered world #138, the choice here was essentially between just Reinforce and Hayate-chan... There was a long moment of silence, which was eventually broken by the little Queen of the Night Sky:
"Fine, I'll do this. But you really owe me for this one, Harry-kun." She said, stressing his name in a way that made him at least a little uncomfortable.
"Of course." The green-eyed teen replied. "And thank you, Hayate-chan." No, he really didn't like the glint in the brunette's eyes: she definitely had some plans for cashing the favors he owed her in... There was a pause, before he continued, now addressing to everyone: "Anything else important that we must discuss right now?" As it turned out, there was a lot...
~/ *** \~
Harry sighed as he leaned back against the edge of the bath. The last couple of days had been quite hectic, and, like he had said to his companions earlier, they might not be able to get a chance to rest properly while seeking the way break Alicia's curse on his home home world. And there were absolutely no guarantees that a curse-breaker good enough actually existed... At least this 'expedition' wouldn't be a total waste of time even if they failed to break the curse: they still would be able to procure some phoenix tears to heal both Nanoha-chan and Megane-sensei.
That said, there still were many many things to worry about: the Dark Lord and his minions; the corrupt politicians that were technically on the side of Light; keeping their activity a secret from the Bureau... Hell, if the situation in the Magical Britain had significantly changed since his last contact with them seven months ago, this whole plan for saving Alicia might fall apart!
His further thoughts on the subject were interrupted when Reinforce walked into the bathroom, clad in nothing but a towel. Which was soon discarded as the silver-haired stepped under the shower. For awhile neither of them said a word; then the Lady of the Blessed Wind finally broke the silence:
"Harry-kun." She said softly. Upon his murmur of acknowledgment, she continued: "The past few days have been rather crazy, so I couldn't just find a good time to talk to you about it, but..."
"Something happened?" The green-eyed teen asked then.
"Well, no, not really..." Reinforce replied as she turned the shower off and joined him in the bath. "It's just,.. Well,.. My master is getting more and more curious about us, or, rather, about the sensual side of our relationship." Harry wasn't even sure how he should respond to this. His red-eyed lover, who was now resting against his chest, meanwhile, continued: "She... Well, my master seems to want to know more about how different lovemaking between a man and a woman and between two women is. And she might have even hinted that she wouldn't mind getting some personal experience."
"Isn't Hayate-chan a bit too young for that?" The young Potter asked, referring to the fact that the brunette in question wasn't even thirteen yet.
"Probably." The silver-haired avatar of the Tome replied. Indeed different societies had different norms. And by the standards of Early Belkan kingdoms, her master would have been considered a full-fledged adult already... But they weren't living in those times; on the administered worlds or here, on Earth, Hayate-chan was still but a child in the eyes of law. "But you know my master – she can be quite persistent and stubborn about something that has caught her attention."
"Yeah." The green-eyed teen agreed agreed: there was no denying that Hayate-chan could indeed be very willful when she wanted to. "Still." He continued. "What shall we do about this?" Reinforce was silent for a few moments, before finally shrugging.
"I don't know." She said. Truth to be said, Harry himself couldn't think up any good way to deal with this problem right now either. On the second thought, there were no indications that the brunette in question would actually go ahead with that idea of hers in the near future, so...
"Maybe we shouldn't worry much about that right now?" The young Potter suggested. "If it indeed comes to that, I'm sure we will be able to think something up." Reinforce hummed quietly under her breath as she thought about it.
"Maybe." She agreed finally. This was followed by another few moments of silence, which were eventually broken by Harry:
"We should get some rest now." He said, wrapping his hands around his silver-haired lover. "Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day..." Reinforce nodded, snuggling closer to him, as the two of them drifted into relaxing silence.
~/ *** \~
Around nine in the next morning, everyone gathered in the Yagami residence's backyard as the expeditionary group was going through the final preparations before they would depart towards the non-administered world #138 on their quest to find a way to break the terrible curse Alicia had been placed under as well as to get the cures for Nanoha-chan and Megane Alpine.
The said group included consisted of Harry himself, Hedwig, Reinforce, Fate-chan and Arf – the orange-haired wolf-girl, as it turned out, arrived here with everyone else, but Lindy-san, fearing that she might act rashly and screw something up, had her staying aboard of "Arthra" yesterday. Judging by the way she clinging to her mistress, those fears might not have been entirely baseless... Alicia, who had been moved into a recovery pod taken from the battleship's medical bay, was there as well.
"How's it going? Are you ready, guys?" Lindy asked as she observed Reinforce prepare the specialized version of the Dimensional Transfer spell that would let her transport the entire group and their, however small, luggage in one go.
"Will be in a few moments." The silver-haired beauty replied, still contacting on her spell. The rest of the group, meanwhile, nodded, signifying that they were as ready to embark the journey into the unknown as they could be. "All ready." The avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky said a couple of seconds later as she finished setting the spell up.
"Alright then, have a successful trip! Remember to stay under the radar and good luck!" The teal-haired lady said. "Hope to see you all soon!"
"Thank you, Lindy-san, and we will!" Reinforce replied, before turning her attention to her companions. "Let's get going then?" She asked then. Once the others confirmed that they were ready to depart, she activated the spell: "Dimensional Transfer!" And so they disappeared from the non-administered world #97 in a flash of light.
That's all folks!
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