Cloud Knight Ranma.
Summery: It was a very small wish, to have a way to put my skills and abilities to use, to have something to fight for. What I got were friends... a family that I would give anything to protect. What happened... I don't think I can ever forget.
Disclaimer: I do not own Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha or Ranma 1/2.
Opening note. While this fic is the sequel to "Spiritual Mage Ranma," I have decided that it should work well enough as a stand-alone story, and will therefor include necessary details as the story goes on. You don't have to read that fic, though it will mean you'll be confused for a bit longer until the scenes that explain come around.
""Spoken ancient Belkan.""
["Telepathic communication."]
I hope you enjoy this. Happy reading.
Chapter 1: Fateful Encounter.
June 6, 9:45 PM. Yagami Residence.
Hayate Yagami looked over to the center of her bedroom in shock, as the old, chain bound book that had always sat on her dresser floated, a soft golden glow emanating from its corners. it said something, but she was too surprised to catch the words, before it snapped open, the chains flying off, to reveal hundreds of blank pages fluttering past. It stopped on one, and the young girl's body began to tingle strangely, before a pulling sensation came from deep within her chest, and a ball of light floated up in front of her face.
Over the next few seconds, the ball of light grew brighter, until Hayate was forced to shield her eyes. When it dimmed again, she carefully lowered her arm, and blinked. Now, instead of the book, four figures stood before her, each in different poses.
"Book of darkness startup has been initiated," spoke a dark haired young man who knelt on the floor in the middle of the group,
"We come for the gathering of the book of darkness," a blonde woman to his right continued. "We are the guardian knights, and our duty is the master's protection."
"The clouds that gather under the master of the night sky," a white haired man standing behind the black haired one said, a pair of obvious dog ears poking from either side of his head.
"We are the Wolkenritter, please give your command," a short redhead on the far right side finished, before the group fell silent, obviously waiting for something. Unfortunately, they were likely to be waiting a long time, as Hayate had fainted dead away.
HR. December 1, 7:25 PM.. Uminari City Back Streets.
He was being followed. Ryoga Hibiki knew this, even if he wasn't sure how it was being done, given his sense of direction. As he turned another corner, he quickened his pace, but a tickling sensation still crawled down the back of his neck, informing him that he hadn't lost his pursuer. Moving from a fast walk to a jog, and then from there to a run, he flew down the street before noticing a small, narrow alleyway nearby. Turning into it and leaping over a toppled garbage can in his path, he abruptly skidded to a stop as a figure seemed to fall out of the sky in front of him. They took the landing without a pause, despite the fact that the buildings on either side of the alley were at least six stories tall, and looked at him quizzically. "You almost lost me a couple'a times," the dark haired man said, batting at a black pigtail that ran down his back with one hand.
"Who... who are you?" The lost boy stuttered, getting somewhat freaked out.
"Sorry, can't tell ya that," the man said, before raising the arm that he'd been holding at his side, hidden slightly by the folds of what looked like a blue uniform coat with white piping. "Just to warn you, this is gunna hurt."
Ryoga reacted quickly, reaching over his shoulder and drawing his re-enforced bamboo umbrella into position, but this did no good as the book sprang open, its pages ruffling in an unfelt breeze before stopping on a blank page. As the page began to glow, Ryoga began to scream.
HR.
Hayate Yagami smiled as she heard the front door to her large house opening, before a male voice called out "I'm home!"
"Welcome home, Mustang!" She called, and heard the echo from her other three housemates, before returning to the preparation of the vegetable soup she'd been making. Moments later, she heard footsteps in the kitchen doorway, and looked back to see a pigtailed man standing there, sniffing intently.
"Smells pretty good," he observed. "Need help?"
"It's almost ready," Hayate confirmed. "Could you help serve it when it is?"
The man nodded agreeably, before slouching against the doorframe.
"So, did you get done what you wanted to?" Hayate asked, before lifting a spoonful of the soup to her lips, blowing on it for a few seconds before having a taste.
"Erm," Mustang said, fidgeting.
"I think it's ready," the brown haired girl replied, deciding that whatever he was trying to be so secretive about was probably none of her business. "Can you help serve it?" He quickly took the opportunity presented, going to get bowls and utensils, as she called that dinner was ready.
The sounds that announcement inspired were very different. The blonde that first walked into the dining room had been quiet, unhurried, as she usually was. Of course, it helped that she'd been watching Television in the next room. Behind her, the guardian beast Zafira walked in, the claws on his canine form's feet clicking against the hard wood.
A second later, the sound of loud thudding came from the ceiling, and then the staircase, as Vita charged down, her red hair somewhat disheveled from where, Hayate supposed, she'd been laying on her bed reading manga.
"You don't have to rush like that you know, Vita," The brown haired girl giggled.
The redhead only grimaced. "Of course I do. If I don't, eats-like-a-horse over there would take my portion."
"Hey, I'm not that bad," Mustang said, his hands raising slightly before he obviously thought better of holding them up in protest when they held several bowls of very hot soup.
"Sure, sure..." Vita replied, settling into her place. Mustang irritably placed her portion in front of her, before distributing the others and sitting at the table himself.
He began eating, and then nodded. "Tastes about as good as it smells," he complimented.
"Of course it does," Vita agreed, taking her own spoonful. "No one cooks better than Hayate!" Mustang opened his mouth for a moment, and then shook his head.
"What?" Vita asked, sounding equal parts curious and irritated. "You know someone who cooks better?"
"I... I think so," the black haired man said, though his expression looked off.
"Is that another thing you can't quite remember?" Shamal asked, gently.
Mustang nodded, and Hayate frowned. It disturbed her how often that sort of thing had cropped up for him in the few months she'd known him and the others. While all of her housemates were rather odd, apparently being guardians magically bound to a book she possessed, he was especially strange, mostly because of the memory issues. Mustang wasn't even his real name, but one she'd given him since he didn't know his own. "Maybe we'll meet this great cook one day?" She asked, trying to lighten the mood.
"Someone that cooks better than you?" Vita replied, "I'll believe it when I taste it."
The others just smiled, before going back to their meals for a few minutes.
"So, what do you have planned for tomorrow?" Shamal asked, looking over to Hayate.
"I was thinking of going to the library after school," The brunette replied. "What about all of you?"
"I'm going to go explore the city a bit more," Vita said, quickly.
"I wanted to do some training with Shamal, but if you call us and tell us when you're ready, we can come and pick you up," Mustang said.
The blonde in question winced a bit at the thought of training with Mustang, but then nodded. "Yeah, that should be no problem."
Hayate looked oddly at the dark haired man. "I really don't understand why you guys train so hard."
Mustang shrugged. "Just in case. We are your guardians, after all."
"Plus, the sadistic jerk likes beating on us," Vita replied, smirking.
"So, you're saying you can't take it?" Mustang shot back.
"Hey, I could beat you with a hand tied behind my back!" Vita replied, indignantly, and Hayate sighed long-sufferingly. The two were at it again, as usual, but she had to smile as she watched them start to taunt each other in earnest.
Shamal mirrored her sigh, while Zafira, who had taken on human form for the meal, raised a hand to poorly disguise a snicker as a cough. Even with some of their... stranger... quirks, Hayate was happy to have her new family.
HR.
Shamal leaned against the ledge of one of the windows that ran along the hallway, looking out as the sun began to set. She could see Mustang standing outside, looking around for threats. Paranoia of that level really wasn't healthy, she was pretty sure, but then he was the combat leader of the Wolkenritter, after all, and it seemed somewhat appropriate.
Hearing the sound of the wheels of Hayate's chair, the blonde turned back to see her mistress being pushed down the hall by another girl who was around the same age. She tilted her head, somewhat surprised. Hayate didn't spend time with other kids much, but they seemed to be getting along rather well, as the brunette exchanged a few words with the blue haired girl who had been pushing her, and then started moving forward towards Shamal on her own power.
"Are you ready to go?" The Wolkenritter asked, moving up to grasp the chair's handles. Hayate nodded, and the two began to move out of the building. "Who's your new friend?"
"Her name's Suzuka," Hayate said, excitedly. "She's very nice."
"I'm glad," Shamal replied, carefully maneuvering the wheelchair down the ramp next to the library's front entrance. "It's good that you're making a friend your own age, rather than hanging around with us older people all the time."
"Oh, I don't mind being with you and the others!" Hayate replied, as if she were apologizing for something. "You're really great!"
Shamal shook her head. "I didn't mean it like that," she said, with a little laugh.
Hayate blushed slightly at her own over-reaction, before looking around at the bushes she was being wheeled past, until the parking lot came into view. " "Oh, Mustang, hi!" she called, seeing the pigtailed man staring off into the distance.
"Hi," he replied, shortly, before moving to join the other two.
"So how was your training today?" The wheelchair bound girl asked, looking up at the taller man.
"It went pretty good," he replied. "Shamal's getting better at keeping mobile."
"That's good," Hayate responded, somewhat uncertainly. "So, what do the two of you think we should have for dinner?"
Mustang just seemed to stare off into space again for a moment before answering, "Anything's good for me, 'long as it's food."
"Why don't we go to the grocery store and see what we can find?" Shamal offered.
"That sounds good," Hayate agreed. "Is Vita back from exploring yet?"
"No, but Zafira's with her, so she should be fine," Mustang replied, before looking over at Shamal. ["You're keeping an eye on them, right?"] he telepathically projected, making sure to keep the signal controlled enough that Hayate couldn't pick up on it.
["I'll tell you if anything goes wrong,"] Shamal replied.
Mustang nodded, and the three continued along.
HR.
The small group had been shopping for over an hour, being rather leisurely about it as they conversed, when Hayate's chair lurched to a sudden halt, and Shamal seemed to space out for a moment. "Shamal? Are you all right?" Hayate asked, looking up at the blonde.
"I'm fine," Shamal responded. "I just thought we were going to hit something. Sorry."
["Something up?"] Mustang projected, as he studied several cabbages, ostensibly trying to find a good one.
["I picked up Vita's barrier about a minute ago, and a second ago there was a large energy spike from the same location,"[ she responded.
["Large enough to worry about?"] Mustang asked, deciding on a cabbage and putting it in the basket on Hayate's lap.
["I'm not sure..."] Shamal replied.
"Um, sorry, Hayate, but I just remembered something I forgot to do earlier, I'll meet you at home, all right?" Mustang suddenly said aloud,
"All right," Hayate nodded. "Will you be late for supper?"
The dark haired man grinned. "Not if I can help it," he replied, before starting off away from them at a fast walk. ["Tell me where I'm going,"]
Shamal responded with a street intersection, and the male Wolkenritter exited the store as quickly as he could. Ducking around the side, he bent his legs before leaping to the roof and raising his left hand, the sigil of the Belkan Knights visible in gold on the white glove that covered it.
"Okay Weissritter, set up," he ordered.
""Set Up,"" the device responded, and Mustang found himself in his armor, the gloved hand he had previously raised up to his face now covered in a white armored gauntlet, three small barrels running across the top, over the back of his hand. The rest of what he wore didn't look nearly so formidable, a set of blue military looking clothing, apparently inspired by the same animated television show where Hayate had gotten his name from. Fortunately, he'd persuaded her to drop the long flap of fabric that came off of the jacket near the back.
Dismissing that thought, he flew into the air, and initiated a teleportation spell to the coordinates he'd been given. When he appeared, he looked around rapidly, and caught sight of the problem. Vita was there, though she was being attacked by what looked like another mage and a guardian beast. As she deflected a spinning blade technique from the mage with her shield, the guardian hit it with some sort of barrier breaking attack.
As he continued to study the fight, he felt a presence join him where he stood, and looked over to see Zafira studying the battle as well. "What have we got?" He asked.
"You see the mage and the guardian," Zafira replied. "There are two more mages in that building over there, but one is injured and the other didn't have a device."
"Got it," Mustang replied, tracing the other man's pointing finger to a building with a rather noticeable hole in it. "If Vita gets in over her head, I'll take the mage with the scythe, you get the guardian and keep an eye on the other two."
Zafira nodded. "Where's Shamal?"
"She's got to get Hayate home first," Mustang responded, watching as Vita smashed away the Guardian with her hammer, and then used a speed boosting technique to dodge an incoming attack by the mage. "Huh, never saw her use that one before," he muttered.
When the two got their devices locked together, trying to overpower each other, Zafira spoke up. "I don't think these mages have cartridge systems, or she would have used hers by now."
"Inclined to agree with ya," Mustang nodded, before wincing. "And she's forgot about the guardian..."
Zafira's eyes widened as he noticed what the dark haired man was talking about, the enemy Guardian Beast holding up a hand to weave a complex spell unopposed, as Vita charged at the mage with a battle cry. Abruptly, bindings appeared around her hands and feet, stopping her dead. "I think it's about time we interfere," he spoke up.
Mustang just grunted and the two flew forward. The enemy mage was saying something, and as Mustang approached, she mentioned something about Vita defending herself in a trial, before he reared back with his gauntleted hand, gathering all of the magic he could into it and blindsiding her.
She flew back several feet, but was recovering quickly. "Thanks Mustang," Vita said, though it sounded like she wasn't very pleased at having to say it. The dark haired man only nodded, before raising his device. "Cartridge load," he ordered, and a small bracelet of cylinders that wrapped around his wrist spun to lock one into a small chamber, which then contracted quickly. Instantly, two of the three barrels that projected over his knuckles began to glow a fiery red.
Charging forward at his still recovering opponent, he reared back his right hand in an obviously telegraphed blow, to which she responded with a barrier. He smirked as he hammered at it with his ungauntleted fist, studying the weave of the magic intently, until he saw a tiny opening form. Lightning fast, his left fist smashed into the opening, and the built up magical charge in the barrels lanced through the shield and into the mage's barrier jacket, sending her flying backwards, unable to recover in time to avoid plowing into a building.
Noting that the enemy guardian was engaged in a fight with Zafira, he turned towards Vita. "Need a little help?"
"I would have been able to handle this on my own!" the redhead replied, hotly.
"Hmm? So you can get out of there by yourself?"
Vita growled, struggling slightly against her bonds. "Of course!"
"Good to know," Mustang replied, starting to turn away. "But just so you know, this battle was basically two on one, and coulda become three on one pretty easy. Even for one of us, there's no shame in acceptin' help in that situation, especially since our master'd get pretty upset if you got hurt."
"Yeah, I know," Vita replied, irritated, before realizing that her leader was preparing to launch himself towards the mage he'd been fighting before. "Hey, aren't you going to let me go?" He kept on moving. "But what about the..." She tilted her head slightly, and her eyes widened. "Where did the book go?"
Mustang shrugged, and attempted to summon the book of darkness, however it didn't come. ["Don't worry, I've got it,"] Shamal's voice came into his mind.
["Shamal? How'd you get here so fast?"] He asked, surprised.
["I convinced Hayate to let me teleport her home because I was worried about the cold making her sick,"] the blonde replied.
["Good,"] Mustang nodded. ["Try and get any Linker Cores you can here, these mages seem pretty strong."]
Shamal responded, but Mustang missed the request, as his flight down to intercept the enemy mage he'd been fighting had just been met, as she'd finally recovered. He caught the shaft of her weapon, spinning it away from him viciously, before punching her several times. She veered away, curving around on a long arc, before her device spoke. "Photon Lancer."
For a brief moment, Mustang wondered what that technique was, before four orbs of golden power formed around the girl and flew towards him, lengthening into bolts surrounded by crackling energy. Immediately, he darted forward, passing between the four projectiles before they could join together and detonate. Even so, he could feel the blast wave they released. "That was pretty strong, especially without cartridges," he muttered, "But let's see how ya like this!" As he spoke, the cylinders around his wrist circled again, loading another cartridge. This time, he was still too far away to perform his previous attack, so instead, he pointed his gauntlet at his opponent, before it announced ""Firestorm."" Abruptly, two of the three barrels on his gauntlet began to spit out small magical bolts at a machinegun pace, before the central one released a sharp beam of golden energy.
His opponent braced for the impacts, but was surprised when most of the magical attacks sailed right past her, only the central one contacting her shield. Her surprise turned to pained shock a moment later when the attacks that had passed turned around, smashing into her open back. This caused her to lose control of her flight spell, and she crashed down on a building roof.
["Hey you two, in case you haven't noticed,"] Vita's voice rang in Mustang's ears. ["The male mage without a device is preparing a pretty big spell, looks like he's trying to deal with the barrier."]
["Why don't you stop him? Haven't you broken out of that bind yet?"] Mustang asked, briefly diverting his attention from his opponent to the boy, who clearly did have a large magical circle around him. He then looked towards Vita, and tried to restrain a snicker. Her four bindings had somehow multiplied, to the point that not much could be seen of her through chains, and she was tied face first to a building.
["I was just about to when he slapped some more binding spells on me,"] She grumbled, irritably.
["I'm moving to assist,] Zafira cut in, though even he sounded somewhat amused. [It might take a while though, this guardian beast is tough.[
Mustang nodded, and then turned back to his opponent, who was still laying on the roof, seeming to be content with staring at him rather than attacking. For the first time, he let himself notice the fact that she was a young girl, no older than ten, and she looked pretty beaten up. He grimaced. He hated seeing kids fighting like this, and the only reason he didn't raise a fuss about it with Vita was because he was fully aware that she was a good deal older than she looked, as were all the Wolkenritter.
"Just stay down," he called, calmly. "If you don't interfere in the rest of the fight, I won't attack you again."
"Who would do that?" She asked, forcing herself to stand.
He shrugged. "Stubborn, ain'tcha? Look, you really don't stand a chance against me and Weissritter here," he raised his gauntlet to show it to her. "I am the leader of the Wolkenritter, and we don't lose."
"Well, maybe you're going to start now," the girl replied, bringing her device up to a combat stance. "I am Fate Testarossa of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, and this is Bardiche."
"Hmm, Bardiche, huh? Knew I recognized the shape of that thing from somewhere," Mustang replied, going a little off track, before shaking his head clear. "But I'm afraid we're done here." He immediately bolted backwards, but Fate was right behind him, determined not to let him. He'd really been hoping that she would be willing to stand down, as he could feel a few very slight indications that the barrier Vita had put up was failing, and he really needed to take out that male mage.
Unfortunately, Fate wasn't letting him get away with anything, sticking close, but doing her best to bolt away whenever he tried a serious close quarters attack. As it was, the two of them were in a bit of a stalemate, and he didn't want to use any more cartridges to solve it. Two in a battle was pushing it, but three or four would just be a waste.
His moment finally came when Fate got frustrated with the stalemate first. She suddenly flung herself backwards, throwing that spinning blade attack that she'd used against Vita in order to cover her retreat. Mustang let her do so, watching her carefully as she began to prepare a circle for a big attack. She'd apparently used a lot of magic on her flight spell when she retreated, since she'd gained distance incredibly fast, but the pigtailed man didn't bother pursuing, as a much larger, much angrier version of her Photon lancer formed.
He immediately grinned like an idiot, and hoped that the attack wasn't homing, as he positioned himself very carefully. The girl let it loose, and Mustang didn't repeat the trick he'd used to dodge it last time, simply dropping out of the sky like a stone.
The roiling energy passed over his head, before smashing into something with a tremendous explosion. "Yuuno!" He heard Fate call, and he supposed that was probably the name of the boy who'd just taken the full force of her attack. At least now, he felt Vita's wide-area barrier solidify, as he was no longer working the spell to destabilize it. "How could you do that?"
He smirked, giving the TSAB mage a quizzical look. "I dunno, if I knew how ta make an opponent's aim suck that bad, I would have used it before now." This had the desired effect, as Fate's teeth clenched, and she reactivated her device's energy blade before charging him. He marveled at how quick she was as she closed the gap. True, he could match the speed, but he knew he was the only Wolkenritter likely to do so without a support spell. Bringing his right arm up to grasp her pole-arm before it could attempt to cut his head open, he moved his left to catch a foot she'd tried to raise up into his stomach, and then heaved.
The TSAB mage started away from him, but he kept a hold on her device, sharply tugging it as she reached her arm's full extension. As he expected, Bardiche came free of its owner, and he pitched it as hard as he could in the opposite direction. Fate managed to land reasonably well from her uncontrolled tumble, but without her device, Mustang knew it would take some time for her to mount an attack, either because she went to retrieve it, or because constructing complex attack spells without one wasn't exactly easy.
Surveying the battlefield, he noted that Zafira was still fighting the other familiar, a female with reddish-orange hair and similar features to his own, while Vita had reduced the number of bindings holding her to a more reasonable level, but wasn't about to get free any time soon. As he continued looking, a bright glow caught his eye and he turned to see that another mage had shown up, standing somewhat unsteadily in the hole the deviceless boy had emerged from, and she was preparing something big.
Deciding that he couldn't let an attack like that go off, he started towards her, only to barely dodge out of the way as Fate flew through his path. "You aren't getting near Nanoha," She growled, determined.
"You still don't have your device," he responded. "This ain't gunna work." ["Shamal, do you..."]
["I see her,"] Shamal replied, her voice tense with concentration.
Mustang gave a short nod to both, finding himself repeating something he'd said the night before. "This is probably gunna hurt."
Fate only nodded resolutely and charged. The fight actually lasted a surprisingly long time, considering. Granted, most of that was due to the fact that Mustang didn't want to hit his opponent too hard for fear of collapsing her barrier jacket and truly hurting her, but Fate still managed to move surprisingly well, and even managed to get a photon lancer off once. As Mustang distanced himself from her for a long distance attack, he heard shamal announce ["Linker Core captured!"] right before a blinding light exploded across the sky, a central beam of magical energy surrounded by waves of semi-controlled power that buffeted the Wolkenritter leader where he flew.
Vita's wide-area shield almost instantly collapsed, and he cursed, realizing that the enemy could now send in any re-enforcements they had. ["Damn! Everyone, pull back. Vita, you still stuck?]
["I got free, no thanks to you,"] the redhead grumbled, before invoking her teleportation spell. Mustang, Zafira and Shamal followed suit.
HR.
"What do you think you were doing?!" These were the first words out of Vita's mouth, as she materialized with the others on a rooftop across from Hayate's house. "Why didn't you let me free?"
"You said you could handle it," Mustang responded, appearing unbothered by the shout.
"Well, I did, but it took me forever," she complained. "The least you could have done was helped."
"You told me you didn't need me," he spoke calmly again. The other two seemed to watch this exchange like a game of ping-pong, though there was significantly less head turning as it went on, and Vita stomped towards her leader angrily.
"Yes, but I was..." She stopped, evidently not wanting to continue.
"Ya were bragging, I know," he responded. "And in spars against us, or every day situations, that's fine, but if you say you can handle something in the middle of combat with our enemy, you'd damned well better mean it!"
Vita stopped, stepping back as Mustang's voice rose. "What are you talking about?" She stammered, defensively.
"Look, if we were all fighting, and I looked like I was bein' overwhelmed, you'd help, right?" Mustang asked, apparently calming down. When Vita nodded, he continued. "Well, if I told you not to, because I had it under control, I'd be doin' it for two reasons. One, I had a plan that you could screw up if you butted in, or Two, I was too egotistical to accept help, and that'd mean that I deserved any pounding I got so I'd hopefully figure that out. In that last battle, I was pretty sure you were just bein' proud, but I was also pretty sure we could handle it without you, at least for a little while. We can't afford to second guess each other in combat. It's too fast paced an' it'll get us killed."
"Yeah, whatever," Vita grumbled, "Can we go back in and see Hayate now?"
Mustang laughed, dropping his serious expression. "Sure, I'm hungry."
Vita snorted, before jumping off of the roof and shutting down her device, the hammer shrinking down into a small pendant around her neck. She was followed by Zafira, who took his canine form on the way down, and Mustang was about to join them when Shamal cleared her throat. "Did you have to go about it like that?" She asked, quietly.
"She'll probably never forget it now," Mustang replied. "Best way ta teach a lesson."
"Maybe, but it certainly isn't gentle," The blonde observed, frowning down at the two making their way towards the house.
"Fighting never is," Mustang replied. "It's why ya only really find it fun if you're kinda nuts."
"You seem to enjoy it," Shamal replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Never said I wasn't nuts," he replied, before jumping down himself. The blond just sighed, following.
END.
End Notes.
First, I'll note that this chapter follows A's Episodes 1-2 very closely. This won't be continuing very long, as there is a major turning point coming up in a few chapters.
Second, I'd like to repeat that this story uses the Anime titled "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha" and "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's" as its sources for the Nanoha side. There are heavy inconsistancies with the lore and events of StrikerS and Force, and we're aware of them, we simply don't care.
Finally, and slightly spoiler-ish, I'm aware Ranma's acting a bit odd. It will be explained. Also, yes, he still has the curse.
Thanks for reading, including the author's rambling if you bothered with it, and please drop a review to let me know how I'm doing.