AN: Do not imagine, how Fate would be treated by her 'mother' here. Down that road, lies only grief, especially with the amount of Jewels she takes here. For this chapter, let there be comfort for Nanoha and Fate, both deserve it after this chapter.

For I am not kind. And actions have consequences not written.

Amount of hugs needed: 3013

Amount of hugs found: 867

Disclaimer: I do not own Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha nor any of the various seasons made after the original.

A week passed by and it came time for school to resume, a… pleasant yet unwelcome change after being able to wander around the woods, relax, and talk with Scrya-san a bit, he actually compliment her 'flight' spell when she finally showed it to him. There hadn't been any more Jewel Seeds in that week, a fact that she was annoyed with but only marginally. Both prior fights with both the fox-woman and girl had taught her that she wasn't… ready for a fight, not yet.

Moving from that, Onee-sama and Onii-sama returned from their trip two days after her fight with the fox-woman, they were happier after what she assumed had been a very nice and relaxing trip for them, and it stayed with them for a few more days before they were back to their normal selves.

Two days after they and everyone else came back, she was invited back to the café by Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan, an invitation she had accepted happily. It was a nice relaxation from the pain, stress and 'annoyance' of her job, one she'd have to partake in every so often, at least for now anyway, maybe if she enjoyed it enough she'd continue even after this job was over… Yes… that'd be nice.

They talked for a while, saying that it was an enjoyable trip, there had been a strange woman that Arisa-chan hadn't really liked but hadn't bothered them, they'd wished that she had come with them, etc. What made her almost twitch was when they said they had taken a stroll through the woods and found a broken bridge and a tree trunk in the water near the springs. 'Apparently', a 'freak storm' had come in during the night and threw a tree into the bridge.

After they were done talking she spoke about her time, she'd done chores, walked among the trees outside her home and played with Scrya-san… Technically she wasn't lying since she was only omitting some of the truth. Regardless the trip to the café was enjoyable, maybe not for Scrya-san as he was held a bit too much by Arisa-chan, and so she was in higher spirits than normal for the rest of that day.

She spent some time with Onii-sama and Onee-sama as well, nothing as… grand was far too great a word… as with Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan, but just as enjoyable, it felt… nice to be around them and 'play' like they had when she was younger… So very nice… She was going off-track again, but that was alright at the moment, anyway aside from her morning training and nightly training she didn't spend as much time training after they got back, she mostly kept to being around her family or friends for the time being.

And that led to where she was now, sitting in class as the clock slowly ticked away the last few minutes, idly recalling this was supposed to be history… She may have blanked out a few times during the class but the Teacher allowed her to… there were a few nice things about being a near-perfect student. The bell ringing tossed her out of her thoughts, just as Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan came over and they started chatting with one another. At some point she must have blanked out again, as Arisa-chan brought her out of it by shaking her vigorously by the shoulders… that hadn't happened before.

After quickly regaining her bearings, Arisa-chan stopping her shaking and herself shaking her head a few times she was brought back out of 'Lalaland' or… whatever it was called by other people, and was greeted with Suzuka-chan looking concerned and Arisa-chan a cross between angry and concerned. "That's enough! You've been spacing out more than usual since you got hurt at Suzuka's!"

She gave a sheepish smile at those words, she hadn't even noticed that she was doing it more than before, normally it only happened whenever she was thinking of training or Okaa-sama, and there was the shaking again.

Now Arisa-chan was more angry than concerned now… not good. "Stop! Zoning! Out!" Once more the sheepish smile returned, but before any words were said Arisa-chan continued with her near-shouting, "And don't you dare apologize either! I know you have issues, I know you can't talk about certain subjects or else you stay quiet for hours or until the subject is changed." Her face softened a bit back to its original angry yet concerned look before adding "So whenever you get done we'll talk again alright. Come on Suzuka."

And with that Arisa-chan marched off, Suzuka-chan making to move after Arisa-chan before looking back at her, a short "Nanoha…" uttered before she waved Suzuka-chan away, giving a dim smile and saying she'd be fine before her friend left. She sat there for a minute before she slouched slightly, her eyes dimming to a near-dead quality before she cupped her hands around her face…

Was this what would happen in the future with Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan, them leaving her alone for stretches of time simply because she wasn't allowed to speak about her profession?

What a lonely fate that would be… at least she'd have Otou-sama, Onee-sama and Onii-sama to alleviate the loneliness. Silently shaking her head of that line of thought, it wouldn't help her in the slightest, she adjusted her expression back to its normal look before continuing with the rest of school, which thankfully was only one more class before she was allowed to leave.

While making her way home she thought over everything that had occurred in the last week, mainly focusing on her job and training but also dipping into her overall life and studies.

Again, there hadn't been any other Jewel Seeds that she could find or sense, nor had she seen any trace of the girl or fox-woman going around either but that wasn't much of a concern… hopefully. Aside from that she'd talked a bit with Scrya-san while on their outings when it became apparent that nothing was going to happen, just a few clarifications on some of his prior lectures for the most part.

Training-wise with Scrya-san she'd tried, and succeeded in,… convincing him to teach her how to set up a shield, or at the very least give her the theory/steps to shield spells. Needless to say, she couldn't get any shield, or even the lesser barrier, up during the three days between when she asked and now, nor had she made her own off the top of her head like she'd been doing with most of her spells.

At the very least she wasn't blowing up into trees like with the 'flight' spell, she was just… missing something crucial.

Other than that she'd gotten a lecture on history from him, a very detailed one at that which she supposed was to be expected given his stated profession. Apparently Ancient Belka was an incredibly war-like nation that grew to empire status thanks to advanced technology, what kind exactly was unclear to her as she barely understood the terms he had been using. They had long-lived rulers, which Scrya-san attributed towards advanced technology rather than natural causes, that were incredibly strong compared to the average individual during that time.

The reason being behind them not being in charge now was rather simple, the Belkans' world became uninhabitable and most their people settled down quietly among the many worlds, the only exception that he knew of being a lineage called the Saint King. All Scrya-san could tell her about that line was they warred until their last descendent perished after ending the war and was worshipped by an organization called the Saint Church, an 'ally' of TSAB from what her employer told her.

Well there was a lot more that he had said and told her, but those were the major points that she could recall off-hand, which suited her fine for the moment.

Her other training proved only somewhat fruitful, she had finished making her other 'shooting' spell, though it still needed to be modified a little more to be both safe and viable. It was just too slow to be effective right now, and speeding it up would have the chance of making it explode whenever she tried to use it.

Other than that, she'd begun working on seeing what she could do with the mana coating around her blade when her augment was on, so far it looked… promising. Given time she could very likely make something extremely dangerous, but for now, she was settling for just changing the type of force a swing generated, which was more difficult than expected.

Ha… here she was distracting herself from the loneliness walking alone along the sea brought her by thinking of what she'd done… neither Arisa-chan or Suzuka-chan had met up with her after school, which was expected given what Arisa-chan had said… Even so it was depressing being alone again.

Perhaps she was too used to the company of others after the few years, or maybe she just didn't like being alone? She thought the latter more than the former, being alone brought on thinking, and thinking brought along memories best laid to rest if she didn't distract herself with other things.

Well, there was things to be done, and until she was finished she'd endure the loneliness, with only Scrya-san keeping her company. It was best to get used to it seeing as this would likely be her life in the future.

She didn't manage to make it home before the oppressive feeling of being alone brought her to a stop, her thoughts going through her various issues before focusing on the unintentional reason why she was here, Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan...

It'd been a long time since she was alone the entire way home, not since before she had met her friends… She stood still for a minute before she shook her head and looked around, finding herself having walked into the middle of a park among the trees, not a soul to be found anywhere near her, moving over to a random tree and gently sitting against it to rest and wait until the loneliness passed.

Two years she'd been in her friends' company, Suzuka-chan she'd met before school had started, while Arisa-chan… they didn't get along well back at the beginning, but both of them warmed up to the other after a while, even if a few of the other kids tried to warn them away from her… Something about her being creepy or unnatural because of her always smiling. Suzuka-chan paid their words no heed, she'd known her for longer than the other kids had and wasn't dissuaded from her, Arisa-chan… Arisa-chan got violent twice and that was the end of it.

Her friends were very nice to her.

She'd met Suzuka-chan at her home before the semester had started, about a week and a half before if her memory served right, Otou-sama had brought her and Onii-sama along as he went to speak business with Suzuka-chan's mother. Suzuka-chan and Shinobu-san had been there to greet them in the foyer along with Noel-san and Falin-san, Otou-sama had told both her and Onii-sama to behave and followed Noel-san to where Suzuka-chan's mother was.

Following that Onii-sama had gone with Shinobu-san to her room, which left her with Falin-san and Suzuka-chan. Suzuka-chan was quiet the entire time as Falin-san led them to her friend's room, passing by numerous maids that shrank away from them as they did before arriving at her door.

It had been… an awkward time trying to get Suzuka-chan to say anything to her throughout the entire visit, she acted very timid and wouldn't speak her mind… at least until they had entered her room, and one of the cats had almost immediately jumped and latched onto her face… That wasn't a pleasant experience to recall.

At least she'd managed to get Suzuka-chan to laugh at her flailing with the cat before she and Falin pried the cat away from her… still it'd made Suzuka-chan open up a bit, so that little misery was fine.

By the time she left with Onii-sama and Otou-sama, they were tentatively friends, and over two more visits, once more over to Suzuka-chan's home, and once by Suzuka-chan's family over to hers, they could be called friends. She never did ask or know what Otou-sama talked with Suzuka-chan's mother about, but that was between them, it was probably over some job in the past or a favor.

The first day of school of that year was when she met Arisa-chan for the first time… though not in a good way…

It had started with a walk along the rooftop with Suzuka-chan, Arisa-chan had come up and took Suzuka-chan's headband, and then in the attempt to get it back, she herself had slapped Arisa-chan and it had quickly escalated into a fight until Suzuka-chan had yelled at them to stop… Not the best way to be introduced to someone… even if they were smiling widely throughout the entire fight…

It had taken two more incidents like that before Arisa-chan stopped her bullying, at least on Suzuka-chan, and a quarter of the semester after the last time before Arisa-chan spent time with them as a friend. The few attempts to warn Arisa-chan away from them came a bit later after that, but Arisa-chan dealt with it in her own way, and eventually the other kids stopped, which lead them to how they were now, three friends uncaring of how others saw them.

Breaking her reverie abruptly with a sigh, Nanoha forced herself up from her seat against the tree, dusting her clothes off and stretching to remove the kinks in her bones from sitting against the tree. Somehow, and she'd likely never understand how, the loneliness receded from her as she thought about the past… she wouldn't question it too much, it helped make it bearable to move around again, the least she could do was just accept it.

Now back to home and Scrya-san, then onto walking around fruitlessly searching for a Jewel Seed, and perhaps a chance to meet with the pretty girl again.

Shortly after her… it wasn't big enough to be called a breakdown… she was bad at describing these things, she arrived home and immediately began preparing to go out with Scrya-san, grabbing a small snack for herself and Scrya-san before walking out with a short goodbye to Otou-sama.

That had been back when the sun was starting to set, around about an hour and a half she'd have to guess, almost two now, since then and nothing had come up like usual, Scrya-san telling her to go home and rest while he would continue searching for a bit longer. She nodded and gave her employer a wave of farewell, one that was returned somewhat tentatively before she was off.

Barely three blocks of walking away and she heard the chiming begin, the distinctive chime she hadn't heard for two weeks letting her know that a Jewel Seed was finally activating, though having two pillars of light and an abrupt weather change was not normal to an activation… A realization was made as she set off in a dead sprint towards the second light, Razing Heart and her katana brought out swiftly before her clothing changed.

A few moments later the world muted itself to grey from something, likely Scrya-san's doing to make sure no one else got involved.

One of the pillars, an orange one that seemed just a bit smaller than the blue one, gradually dissipated as she ran, mana coated her blade with a thought before she heard Scrya-san in her head, rather calm which was nice. "Nanoha. Can you see the executed Jewel Seed?" She gave an affirmative quickly while continuing to run, listening to Scrya-san even as her smile brightened just a minute amount at her realization being confirmed before confusion came. "That girl and a wolf are here, seal it before they do!"

Wolf?

Confusion was pushed aside to focus on the task given to her, a thought was given to the distance between her and the Seed, her smile fading back to normal slowly as the thought registered, given the distance and the fact that the other girl was proficient in ranged… she wouldn't make it in time…

…

… Unacceptable.

A platform formed beneath her, tilted enough that it would send her towards the Jewel Seed without her sliding down it, her 'endurance' spell turned off as it would only slow her down with the mana once directed at it instead gifted to the 'speed' spell. For all she knew that action could do nothing, to rapidly causing harm to herself or speed herself up drastically, or any combination and variance of the two, regardless of any consequences. A few injuries to obtain a Jewel Seed was a trade she'd take anytime.

A second passed by before she was off with an explosion, flying for a few moments before her legs touched the ground and an audible crack resounded through her body, pain lancing through her left leg that was resolutely ignored with a strained grimace. Another step and she only received a light amount of pain, a third sending worse up into her body, the fourth holding nothing as she fixed the initial issues, with the fifth doing a patchwork fix on her leg to dull the pain. Four more steps and a rushed incantation saw her approaching the Jewel Seed as a yellow beam from above came at it.

Her sword swung out, striking the jewel with a clang before sending it flying away from her and the incoming beam, one last step ending with a stumble and pain which led to her sliding along the ground after the Jewel Seed. Embedding her sword in the ground proved effective at slowing her to a stop by the jewel, her free hand grabbing her prize before finishing the incantation, "… Serial 19, Seal."

'Receipt: No. XIX.' Her smile returned after that confirmation, pained yet content, forcing herself back up to her feet shortly after, heedless of her leg's condition, before looking up at her opponents. Both of them were looking at her in what looked like shock, or at least the orange wolf was doing as good an impression as it could, though the girl looked to be recovering swiftly and focusing on her.

Pulling her blade from the ground she took a step forward… only to immediately almost fall back down as her leg gave out on her… she'd need to patch it more if she needed to keep going, even if that did more harm in the long-run.

Once again, she forced herself to her feet and pulled her katana from the earth, a look up letting her see the orange wolf descending from above towards her, a shouted "Nanoha!" barely heard before the wolf crashed into her, or would have had it not been a green-blue barrier manifesting over her. The wolf, or was it wolf-woman?, leapt off the barrier a few seconds later, sliding along the road as the barrier shattered and revealed the other girl staring stoically with a hint of sadness at her from atop a lamppost.

For a few moments neither of them spoke, then the other girl's device changed into its scythe form, a prompt that made her coat her blade in mana quickly before she let her smile soften as she finally realized something. "I don't know your name, and you don't know mine." The other girl didn't appear to react at those words, standing still and near lifeless much like a doll would with only her cape waving softly amidst the slow wind, so she continued speaking, "My name is Takamachi Nanoha, third child of Takamachi Shirō. What's your name?"

A second passed, then a third and the girl's expression didn't change, a fourth passing slowly before she answered blankly, "Fate. Testarossa Fate." She gave a happy nod at Fate's answer, and with those few words now passed they started their second fight.

It began with Fate rushing disappearing from the lamp and reappearing behind her, yellow scythe set on drawing blood before it was deflected by a pink-coated blade, the blonde-haired girl flying up quickly as she swung her sword at her. A platform was made and detonated on a moment's notice to send her after Fate, her opponent managing to block the upwards cut even as her face clearly showed she hadn't been expecting that action.

The scythe was pushed upwards with only a little effort, her sword redirected into a slash into Fate's chest, a gasp of air let out by her opponent at the hit before the swing was completed and she was sent hurtling away. Fate caught herself quickly with only a moment taken to catch herself before she was off again, flying away from Nanoha as the latter chased after slowly.

The scythe reverted to its default state, the head aimed back at her before multiple yellow beams were shot at her, none of which were paid any mind as she ran straight through them, trusting her 'endurance' spell to do its job. Just as she came close however, Fate seemingly blurred before she disappeared from where she was, a sharp pain along her back letting her know exactly where the other girl had gone, while a look back showed her flying away with another spell-hail sent behind her. She chased after the other girl as quickly as she could, using platforms to slowly catch up and turn through the streets after Fate on a dime.

Three times she got close to Fate, three times Fate rapidly got around her and sent a parting shot with her scythe, four times she went through a hail of yellow bolts without consequence, then came a huge beam that had several weeks prior sent her through a forest. The platform holding her exploded the moment she saw it coming, she had no wish to replicate that event with buildings instead of trees, another platform made as she reached the peak of her 'flight', no movement made as she processed what was happening.

She was still too slow to catch Fate, while she was too durable to be harmed by most of what little she knew of Fate's spells, and what few things Fate had that could hurt her she could either easily dodge or were used in melee. A bolt pinged off her cheek as she started walking towards her foe, taking her time since the small hail wasn't deadly in the slightest, at least to her it wasn't. Chasing her wouldn't yield anything, her first shooting spell wouldn't be fast enough and she didn't have anything to get close enough… which left her with the unrefined 'shooting' spell… could be worse.

Five of Fate's shots pinged off of her as she stopped walking and lifted her sword up with both hands before cutting diagonally through the air, a pink, crescent-shaped light flying from the blade as it ended the swing towards Fate's general direction… hard to tell where she was when there was a sea of yellow around Fate. Her spell lasted for a while, taking a few hits from the barrage before shattering after one too many hit it, but by that point several others were sent in its place to avenge it, yet they too failed to get through the wall of lights.

That tactic wouldn't work, far too many hostile projectiles and too fragile friendly projectiles… at least the spell worked.

Well, onto 'Plan B' then… her leg was going to be a mess by the end of this without a doubt.

Several more of the bolts pinged off her skin and clothing, oddly not even a dull pain gained from them hitting her, as she set about with a quick set of preparations, an idle thought given at why the bolts weren't hitting her platform before she dismissed it and focused. The platform under her was ready, and with a thought she was sent flying through the hail, another platform manifesting amidst the storm ready to take her above it.

A single step with her uninjured leg along the surface taken before she was directed above the storm, another waiting platform exploding as she reached it sending her towards where Fate should be. Two more platforms used to maintain momentum, the storm constantly redirected to aim at her instead of where she used to be as she went from platform to platform, and finally after a half-minute she could see Fate… her device aimed directly at her…

This was going to hurt a lot wasn't it?

Purple lightning dancing along yellow light came forth from the device, gathering at the head for several seconds before flaring out in its entirety towards her. Given she was currently in the midst of 'flying' uncontrollably towards Fate and a platform would take a second more than she had time to make it manifest, she had no viable options to try and get clear. Even still she made a platform in front of her, raising her blade as if to block despite knowing it would do nothing, and touched the platform just as the beam was set to plow through her.

She didn't know why, nor did she understand how, but the moment she set foot on the platform she heard the whispering of her device, louder than it usually was but still too quiet to make out the words. And with the whispers came light shaping itself in front of her, it took the vague shape of a triangle before it began to shatter from the strain of Fate's spell, but the two seconds that half-formed shield/barrier bought her was enough to let her get clear.

Another platform awaited her above, and with only a moment being spent upon its surface she was gone again, though the wild spinning was a vast down-grade from her previous straight line… Her flight was erratic, but she had enough control to keep going in the right direction… maybe… either way with the way she was spinning slashing was bound to miss… which left only one option.

A platform was made somewhere in front of Fate, as well as what looked like a shield spell… hard to tell with all the spinning… she was thankful she wasn't prone to motion sic-

And that was when she hit her platform back-first, a dull pain sent through her reinforced body that turned slightly sharp when it reached her leg, before the platform detonated amidst a shattering and sent her forward into another, her scrambling along its surface for a short time before pulling herself back to her feet. That platform too exploded, thankfully this time she had more control and could see in front of her, sending her back at Fate, receiving several bolts to the chest that stung slightly before she was in front of the other girl again.

A quick horizontal slash was deflected off to the side, the axe-head smashing into her side with an barely audible crunch, a punch dodged before she was uppercutted by the device followed shortly by getting hit by another shooting spell in the shoulder. There was a cross between a snap and hiss heard before a mechanical voice called out 'Arc Saber', and then before she could react or even look back at Fate she was hit and sent flying with a light boom.

An idea came unbidden as she flew and smashed through one of her platforms, a stupid idea but it had worked the first time so she was… hopeful it would work again.

The second platform managed to stop her momentum, albeit barely as it cracked to the point of almost shattering, it served its purpose though as she launched off the invisible 'wall' straight back into and through the smoke cloud. She felt a sharp pain in her left leg, enough to make her grimace before she impacted into something softer than what she was used to, and given the gasp she caught and audible cracking, somehow her 'aim' was accurate… it probably wouldn't happen a third time.

From the cloud they emerged, Fate gripping her scythe, still embedded in her now thoroughly broken leg, with one hand while the other was held out and gathering mana and lightning, a somewhat pained look on her face. Herself… she braced for the building they both were rapidly approaching.

Fortunately for Fate, her device made a barrier to absorb a bit of the impact before they both smashed through it and into the building, the impact jarring both of them away from one another, the scythe coming loose in a spray of blood in the resulting tumble.

In almost perfect sync, two weapons hit the ground and were used as leverage to hoist their masters back to their unsteady feet, herself falling to a knee a second later as her leg finally gave out on her after the hell she put it through. Fate stumbled several steps backward before catching herself and making to come over, only to stop as she cradled her stomach and let out a hiss of pain.

"Fate!" Both girls' attention was drawn to the hole to the outside, just as the fox-woman jumped through with a worried expression, taking in their states with a glance before grabbing Fate and jumping back out into the world outside. A few minutes passed by before Scrya-san managed to get up there, immediately looking over her as she sat amidst the rubble with a pained smile, and telling her that her leg was broken in multiple places.

…That… that was better than him just saying it was broken and stating the obvious.

Thankfully he had enough mana and was recovered enough to teleport her back home, unfortunately they arrived outside rather than inside her room, but it was close enough to her room that no one saw or heard her as they made their way in. It took a minute to take off her clothing and change into her nightwear, and another to bind her leg as best as she could with bandages before she went to bed exhausted and in pain.

She woke late the next morning, nearly two hours later than her normal wake-up… that was fine for today, given her rather grievous injury from last night. She couldn't let it happen another time though, otherwise she may start waking up at that time instead, which Otou-sama would scold her for… maybe.

Moving on from that, she got out of bed and winced as pressure was put on her foot, she'd need another roll of bandages… and the mana binding she had made up on the spot last night to move around for the day. Though given exactly what her injuries where, she was faring much better than most others would.

Scrya-san could only give her a preliminary… guess as to how bad the damage was, but from the way he acted when he was telling her, she was sure he was surprised that she was both able to move, and still be doing things 'normally'. The best result he got was her femur was broken into three pieces, thankfully still near one another, as was her tibia, also in the same condition. He couldn't get an accurate read on the fibula, but it was likely in a similar state, and that didn't even count the muscles…

All she knew was that she wasn't supposed to be using her leg… at all if it wanted to heal properly… which went against her job in trying to get the Jewel Seeds… it was an easy decision to make.

Despite Scrya-san's insistence, she went about the rest of her morning as normal, doing her morning chore, changing her bandages, sitting down for breakfast and listening to Onii-sama and Otou-sama talk to one another. Most of the time, one of them simply stated facts or requests to the other whenever it was necessary, the only time they actively had a conversation was whenever someone showed up for a meeting with Otou-sama… or was about to show up…

Either way that didn't concern her, those people were Otou-sama's old employers or friends and they would only be coming over if he called for them. They didn't have any reason anymore to call Otou-sama since he retired to raise her and her siblings.

She was roused from her thoughts as a chair screeched back against the floor, her and Onee-sama's attention given to Onii-sama as he got up and glared at Otou-sama for some reason… She really should pay more attention to conversations going on around her… but it was easy to tune it out when it didn't involve her.

Otou-sama gave a blank look at Onii-sama, not saying a word as he calmly stood and beckoned for Onii-sama to follow him with a single gesture, which Onii-sama did after a short moment standing, leaving her and Onee-sama alone. Onee-sama let out a sigh as she finished her meal and began to clean up, she herself finished a few moments later and helped clean the table and dishes, idly wondering what Otou-sama and Onii-sama had been talking about.

She stopped thinking about it after a while, it probably didn't have anything to do with her, so she wouldn't dwell on it.

The rest of the morning was spent normally, she went on her way to school, listened to Scrya-san tell her to 'take it easy today', which probably wouldn't work out well. A random pulse of mana brushed against her senses from behind her, yet she didn't turn to look at it, there wasn't a chime accompanying the feeling, along with it felt like it was a long way away, so it didn't matter at all to her.

With that last thought she continued towards school, leg aching with every step she took but otherwise not hurting, only two rolls of bandages and mana bracing keeping it together.

… Well school could have gone better…

Everything was fine until it came time for P.E., language had been good today, which should have tipped her off to something bad compensating for a decent time in that class, and every other class went as it always did. P.E. today, more than made up for her having a decent time in learning English and Japanese…

Today they played soccer… the quick version of what had happened was she stumbled and was hit by another student, and she fell straight on her injured leg. The game had stopped when she didn't get back up, and shortly after she was escorted to the Nurse's office, then after a check-up by the nurse that echoed Scrya-san's 'guess', Otou-sama arrived and took her home early.

Otou-sama had immediately taken her to her room and helped her lie down on her bed when they arrived home, coming and going to bring in common first aid materials. Another roll of bandages to swap out the old, now blood-stained ones, some painkillers and water to numb what the little pain there was to nothing. And finally, a 'simple' setting of every bone to roughly where it should be, and pushing one back in…

She was glad the painkillers were first…

Afterwards, Otou-sama went back outside before returning one last time with a second roll of bandages and proceeded to bind her leg back up, not once did he speak about or ask where the injury came from, and that suited her fine. Hmm… she'd probably get scolded by Scrya-san if she was to get up and wander, and Otou-sama seemed to want her to rest if he had put her here, so that left resting until there was a chime…

…

This was uncomfortable…

Fortunately for her the distinctive chime ended her discomfort about two hours later, and so ignoring Scrya-san's concern that she should be in bed, she grabbed her weapon and Razing Heart before walking out of the house.

Razing Heart went into its spot quickly, changing her blade to its other colors as it socketed into the metal, her bracing wrapping around her broken bones and binding them together again, and finally her flower-ridden kimono and hakama appeared over her bandages.

She… took her time getting there, she ran yes, but she didn't use any of her spells to aid her in getting to the Jewel Seed quicker… she just had a feeling that she had no need to use them to get there in time. Distantly she heard an explosion, and then the world became muted as Scrya-san did… whatever it was that he did to make the world void of others, followed by another explosion as they came upon a park and saw the Jewel Seed…

Why was it a tree?

She let confusion wash over her for a short moment, before shaking herself off and looking at the other two things worth looking at, wolf-woman, as a woman, sending shooting spells at the tree while Fate was flying around sending her own spells at it. With a near-silent hiss she drew her sword from its sheathe, taking a single step forward, covering her blade in light with a thought and letting her own spell loose at the strange… monster… thing…

Whatever it was, her spell did as much damage as the other two were causing, barely any dent at all in the barrier it had. On the bright side, for her anyway, the tree didn't acknowledge her in the slightest because of that, keeping its focus on Fate.

The thing sent roots towards the other girl, none of which came anywhere close to even hitting her before she tore them apart with her scythe, another of her spells was sent from the blade at the monster, where it too failed to hurt its target. Another volley of spells were sent at it, to no avail yet again… looking over at the other two, it seemed that the lack of anything happening was wearing away at the wolf-woman given her expression, Fate looked like she normally did though, even as her scythe reverted to normal.

The 'tree' gave a roar, or something close it, before sending another batch of roots at Fate, and a few lesser batches at the her and the wolf-woman, once more they were dealt with before any damage could be done. She cut them apart like Fate did, and wolf-woman just ripped them apart with sheer brute strength.

Shortly after that batch of roots, they all sent some spell at the Jewel Seed, Fate using the 'big gun' she reserved for her most times, wolf-woman using a volley of spells and herself using another slash.

It worked… somewhat well… the barrier went down after the bombardment spell rammed into it, the following volley splintered parts of the trunk and her own slash sheared a limb off the 'tree', but by that point the barrier was up again, and a host of roots were after them all. She dealt with the roots sent after her the same way as before, though unfortunately she couldn't get all of them even with her 'speed' augment up, which led to her receiving a root through her lower right stomach…

Thankfully it barely bit into her skin, but it still hurt and bled slightly. That offending root was cut off shortly after the pain registered, two seconds later having the last root sent at her taken care of before she performed another stupid idea, she charged.

Her spells were next to worthless at range, despite several being effective at their purpose, most of her spells required contact with an enemy to be useful, so standing back was… not a good idea. Even still charging straight in was probably the stupidest thing to do in this situation, the other method had worked, even if it was slow, and was likely safer…

Then again, she didn't care about safety if it meant her goal was accomplished, her leg was testament to that.

She didn't get far, four roots cut apart before being blindsided by a sweeping root and sent off to the side towards the copse of trees surrounding the Jewel Seed, a slash sent back cutting through the root bef. For once she wasn't sent through a tree, only tumbling across the ground until she stopped in front of one, her sword used to help her up before she looked back at the 'tree', then turned to the tree behind her… another stupid idea.

Another explosion and volley of spells alongside another roar from the thing before she was back on her feet without aid of her weapon, a shout of "Nanoha!" from Scrya-san as he saw her smash part of a random tree away with a hit, a creak sounding as the trunk tipped towards her. She didn't pay attention to another sound as it fell, backing up two steps before swinging and separating the top half of the severed tree from the other.

Then she stepped aside to avoid both parts of the tree before they could crush her accidently, watching it fall with a crash before kneeling down and picking up the lower portion of the tree with a light grunt. Even with a lighter… projectile she still had issues with picking up and holding the thing, mostly from the fact that her leg was held together by bandages and mana. Still she persevered and took a step forward with her injured leg, it'd be a bad idea to put all that weight on that leg, and threw the 'small' missile at her target just as Fate shot another bombardment at it.

The flying tree hit the Jewel Seed a moment before Fate's spell, hitting the barrier around it for a half-second before shattering the barrier and plowing into the thing's… face. A short pause occurred before Fate's spell hit the 'tree' and ended its life, the actual Jewel Seed coming out and floating between the two of them after a moment.

Neither of them moved or spoke, merely looking at one another, they both found cold eyes, one found a smile feigning happiness, the other a blank thin line. Both set themselves up for their next action, Fate's device setting itself into its sealing mode while she herself simply pulled her sword out of the ground and readied herself to charge forward, the Jewel gleaming for a second before both began the chant in sync.

"Jewel Seed, Serial 7, Seal!" She exploded the platform she made at the same time Fate sent a thin yellow beam, both her and the beam travelling quickly through the air at the Jewel Seed until they reached it and clashed somehow. And then she was engulfed by white and sent flying back into the ground with a crash, a wince made as her leg felt most of the impact before she gingerly got back to her feet.

Neither she or Fate said anything as they contemplated what just occurred, Fate's device changing back normal for a moment before turning into a scythe again, casually gripping the weapon with both hands as she did the same with her sword. A moment passed, then another four before she leapt at Fate right as the other girl flew down to meet her, both of them drawing their weapons back to slash before another light decided it wanted to get involved and blinded both of them.

She heard and felt something stop her sword with a crash of metal and a clack as something was caught, then came a voice that made her smile dim, a platform made under her to keep her afloat as she started to slide down. "Stop!"

The light faded shortly after the male voice delivered that word and she could finally see the interloper, a boy older than her by a few years with blackish-blue hair and grey eyes, wearing a black coat with metal gloves, with a single hand holding back Fate and the other holding her back with black staff-looking object.

… As for listening to the boy, who was sternly telling them that fighting here was dangerous and he was an Enforcer for TSAB, she stopped listening after that… He was after the Jewels as well likely… that wouldn't do. She was fine with a second person out collecting the Jewels, Fate was pretty and was probably quite nice, and she was confident that she could beat Fate given a bit of time and a long fight, but a new person? … No… they would have to be dealt with.

He was switching between looking at both of them with a stern gaze for a few seconds before she calmly looked around him at Fate, catching her attention rather easily somehow as she kept pressure on her blade. "Truce?" Fate looked over at her with a quick glance, eyes shifting from surprise to determination, back to surprise with a hint of confusion before settling back to determination, giving a light nod of her head before giving her answer.

"Truce."