Worlds Apart
by Cyberchao X

Chapter 3

CCX: …Wait, it hasn't been over a year? It feels like it has. I definitely still had ideas for this chapter right after writing the last one, to the point where I wasn't sure if I'd find a partially completed chapter when I went into my computer, but I just let it slip and…yeah.

…Oh, wait, now I remember why I let things slip. It's because my "ideas" were for something that, with proper pacing, would probably not happen until Chapter 5. Okay, I've reread the first two chapters a few times over and I think I've got an idea of how to proceed.

Well of course the plan to use an inconspicuous vehicle would only work for so long. Suzuka told Nanoha that she wouldn't need to be picked up today, and would be working from home. Then she thought about calling the police. She knew that the vehicle waiting outside her mansion belonged to the same people who'd shot up her limousine a few days prior. Why hadn't she gone to the authorities? …Because it would likely mean having to admit that she knew why they were there. She could try to feign ignorance, pretend that there were people who hated her for her own actions. It wouldn't even entirely be false; she knew that there were people who resented that a woman in her twenties held a position of power normally held by men over 50. But it would be implausible, and she'd likely have to turn on her father. She didn't want to do that. Wait, what was going on out there? Did someone else call the police?

"Are you okay, Tsukimura-sama?" Those weren't police uniforms.

"I'm fine. Didn't you identify yourselves to those guys as police?"

"Sure did," the other one said.

"Luckily they didn't call our bluff. We're both licensed to carry, but since we're not actually law enforcement, it could become troublesome if I had to shoot to hit."

Suzuka was a bit incredulous at this wording. "Oh, trust me, if Tea had wanted to hit those guys, she'd have hit them," the purplette told her, and at this point, Suzuka wanted to know just who these two girls were. "Nakajima Subaru," the one who'd last spoke said, "and this is my partner Lanster Teana. Were you not the one who triggered the alarm?"

"Someone who works for me must have. I'm glad they're looking out for me; I had forgotten all about the manual trigger." She hadn't realized that the security system they'd installed was backed by a private security firm, though—and these two looked to be around her age, possibly younger.

"Should we stay on alert?" Teana asked.

"Probably, but do so from wherever you were monitoring my property from before. Having armed security on standby on my property is probably not the best image." The two girls said nothing, as they knew better than to ask questions in their line of work.

Later in the day, actual law enforcement officers came by to ask her about the shots fired in the neighborhood that morning. Given how large her property was, however, she had plausible deniability on this one; she'd heard the shots, of course, but they were too far away for her to have seen anything.

"Fate-san! Fate-san is here!"

With that excited proclamation from the five-year-old, Caro looked up from her homework. "Hello, oneesan," she said.

"Don't I wish," Fate responded, as she always did.

"Aren't you almost done with college, though? And Arf-san is getting married soon. If you really wanted to, you could…"

Fate sighed. "The orphanage probably provides a higher quality of life than I could. It'd be so much easier if that woman had just died."

Caro looked down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

"It's not your fault, Caro-chan. I'd never wish that on anyone, not even her. But, you know, she's a very rich woman, and if she was dead, that money would be mine."

"And where would that put you?" Another girl, 14 years old just like Caro, walked over. "If you'd been technically loaded when you were still here, imagine all of the unsavory people who would've tried to adopt you just to get at your money?"

"Lu-chan…you know I still did have a trust fund set up for me when my mother was put away, right? Nothing near as large as what it would've been if she had died. That money was still untouchable until I turned 20."

"You did?" Both Caro and Lutecia seemed surprised by this. "Well, then, you should have no trouble providing for me/us." Upon hearing the latter, Caro added, "Wait, what's this 'us'?!"

"Oh, come on, Caro-chan, you're happy here. And Fate-san can relate to my experience." Like Fate, Lutecia had one living parent, institutionalized, though whereas Fate's mother was in an asylum, Lutecia's was in prison.

"So? You didn't even arrive here until neesan left."

"She's right. If I were to adopt anyone, it'd be Caro-chan. But like I said, that's probably not happening."

"You surprise me, Fate-san. I heard you were here for twice as long as I've been here, and yet you willingly come back to help out?"

"We can't all have your outlook on life, Lu-chan," Caro snarked. "Though I suppose that comes with the territory of having spent your formative years with your mother instead of under Gracia-san's care."

"How, exactly, is it a bad thing that I was actually raised by my mother instead of in an orphanage?"

"Because you're going to end up just like her. A criminal."

Lutecia slapped her.

"Hey! No fighting!" The young girl who'd announced Fate's presence came back over, carrying a stuffed rabbit in one hand and a pastry in the other.

"No need. She proved my point," Caro said. "Where'd you get the sweets, anyway?"

"Takamachi-san was here earlier! I think this was the most sweets she's ever brought!"

"Of course. You really like Takamachi-san, don't you?"

"Yeah! I wish she could be my mommy! …Though Fate-san would be a good mommy too." Fate had insisted that all the orphans, even the ones who hadn't known her from her own time there (which obviously included the 5-year-old as Fate hadn't been a ward of the orphanage for seven years), call her by her given name.

"Aw…thank you, Vivio-chan! But you know, too many sweets will spoil your appetite. You need to eat your vegetables too so you can grow up big and strong."

Vivio shook her head. "Veggies are yucky!"

"You know, rabbits eat lots of vegetables."

"Then Chris-chan can have all of mine," Vivio replied, and the other girls giggled. "Sure thing, Vivio-chan, I'll eat all your vegetables for you!"

"Wait, did she just…"

Caro nodded. "She treats that rabbit as if it's alive, and since it has its own 'voice' that's different from hers, we all kind of do, too." Seeing Fate's skeptical glance, she continued, "Yes, even Lutecia-chan humors her."

"But usually it's so much more obvious that the child is providing the voice for their stuffed animal. That wasn't true ventriloquism, but for a five-year-old…"

"I know. She's got a future in performing, for sure. Maybe she picked it up from her parents?"

Before she left, Fate talked to the matron of the orphanage, Carim Gracia. "I heard there's someone who's been volunteering their time here? And…bringing sweets?"

"Takamachi Nanoha. Her family runs a bakery in the city, and sometimes she goes off on a binge of experimenting with new recipes and has a lot of extra cakes, and she brings them here. Vivio-chan seems especially enamored with her."

"So I've heard."

"She brought more than usual today, though. I seem to remember you like sweets, too; if you want some, they're all yours."

"I couldn't…well, I won't say no to having one or two right now." She tried one. "Wait, a bakery in the city…a classmate of mine just brought me to a bakery yesterday. Is it, by chance, the Midoriya?"

"I believe that is the name of the bakery, yes. What a coincidence."

"I may have to go back there. Any friend of the orphanage is a friend of mine…especially if they make sweets."

"You came by anyway."

"Of course I did, Suzuka-chan! I was worried about you. Also I figured that whatever problem you'd been having would be taken care of by now," Nanoha replied.

"That was very risky. But you were right. I'm glad you're here, though; that way I can give you one of these to put in the bakery truck."

"What is it?"

"An electronic key to my 'actual driveway'."

"Nani?"

"I'm hardly the only one in this neighborhood with a, shall we say, very long driveway."

CCX: I'll leave it to you guys to guess exactly what Suzuka's about to explain to Nanoha, and then when those "ideas that probably belong in a later chapter" come around, you'll get to see her explain it to Arisa. Speaking of which, I have absolutely no idea what to do with Arisa in this chapter since there's really nothing of interest going on with the auto repair shop. When I came back in to try to start up this chapter, I considered actually showing the family dinner I mentioned, but I didn't really have much in the way of ideas and besides the end of Chapter 2 took place past 10 PM on the night of said dinner. So… Cyberchao X, signing off? …Yes, but not before adding another section prior to the last one.