AN: Quick notes, first, old chapters were updated to be less 'wall of text', Nanoha's incantation for her device is different and as of the current chapters incomplete, that will be addressed during the next arc.
Second, this chapter, and likely the next would be considered… 'filler' I believe it's called, normally I'd just make what would be this chapter into the start of the next arc… but given the amount of time that passes between the two, there was a need to do this, otherwise I'd be doing a flashback scene or a long exposition on what happened. Frankly, this was the easier option in the long run.
Third, I've been working on things farther in the future for most of the time in between this chapter and the last. Nothing important enough to share now, but a few scenes are already made for the next arc.
Now then, on to the story, and a break from the near-nonstop action that's happened.
Amount of Hugs needed: 9,542
Amount of Hugs found: 4,375
Disclaimer: I do not own Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha nor any of the various seasons made after the original.
Once again she found herself in the company of the black-haired girl with a red-winged dress, only she was… on the edge of a very strange field of flowers seemingly at the edge of a massive cliff. The other girl was sitting at the edge of the cliff with her legs dangling over the side and a merry tune playing from her throat, strangely she wasn't a giant this time, but she really didn't pay much attention to that.
What she paid attention to, was the fact that fog covered everything but a few rays of moonlight and the field of flowers… there was no sky, there was no horizon, no whatever was below the cliff, no field's edge… just a wall of fog. She didn't move anywhere… it felt unnecessary, nor did she say anything for the same reason… she really didn't understand these dreams, even with a few weeks to properly recall and look over the few she'd seen…
"Was denkst Du über sie, - -?" The girl was speaking… no, not the girl, just someone that looked like her. The other person's voice gave it away, too mature to be the girl, nor holding the same boundless excitement despite the similar size they had… despite that, they both spoke the same language, one which she was still incredibly terrible at understanding still, let alone speak.
For a second she stayed quiet and seemed to think, or rather she seemed to think heavier than usual, before her own voice came out… distorted for some reason and speaking the in the exact same language, strange. "Der Seraph des Krieges? Sie ist jung und muss von der Welt lernen. Sie muss an ihrer Schwertkunst arbeiten und ihr Studium abholen. Sie ist dasselbe wie alle Seraphs vor ihr, abgesehen von dem Seraph des Todes und des Seraph des Lichts." She only knew enough of 'the King's language' to spot the titles and understand what said titles were, most everything else was unfortunately lost on her.
The Seraphs of War, Death and Light… Of the three, she had only heard of Death and Light from Razing Heart, the former of the two had been the first Seraph and had carved out a kingdom for his descendants and those that followed him. Razing Heart had never said if that man had made her or just found her, really all she had said was he used her to carve his kingdom, and he was one of three men who'd been Seraphs.
The other, the Seraph of Light… she'd been the closest to a physical angel out of all the Seraphs from what Razing Heart had said, she'd managed to make an enemy of almost every other kingdom and fought off multiple combined forces over the course of her life. Of the few other Seraphs she'd learned of, the Seraph of Light was the one Razing Heart had regarded as the greatest and the strongest... with her only faults being arrogance and a desire to rule. It was probably for the best that the Seraph of Light fell after numerous assaults, and her daughter took the mantle of Seraph after her.
"... Glaubst du, sie wird bereit sein?" … She was certain that the dream either should have played a lot quicker, or it stopped whenever she was thinking, but she didn't pay it much attention, focusing back on the woman the moment she spoke again.
Once more she took a few seconds to think before deciding to turn and walk four steps towards the fog silently. "Nein ... sie wird nie bereit sein." Her voice sounded… disappointed and 'upset' over saying that line, whatever it meant… she would need to really work on her 'King's language, at the very least to understand the dreams. Anyway, she seemed to pause for a moment before continuing to talk to the woman, a tinge of sadness in her voice if she heard right. "Nur ein Seraph war bereit für einen wahren Krieg, und das war nur, weil er es durchgemacht hatte, bevor ich ihm Flügel gab."
Silence descended upon them, a strangely comfortable one as the woman got up from the cliffside, turned and walked towards her, giving a blank face up until they were face-to-face. Another moment passed by before the woman walked forward and embraced her, whispering into her ear the moment she returned the gesture. "Schütze sie mit all deiner Fähigkeit, - -. Ich fürchte für sie und das Überleben unseres Königreichs."
The fog began creeping forward the moment the woman finished speaking, signaling the end of the dream was coming… the dreams were predictable in that way. "Wie du befehlst, mein Seraph. Ich wünsche Ihnen morgen einen schönen Tod."
A 'tinkling' laugh sounded out in response to those strange words, and then she was awake again, confused by whatever event that dream was and why she dreamt it. She had to thank the dreams though, they managed to get her awake and alert the moment she came out of them despite the… strangeness they usually gave off.
Regardless, she pulled the simple blanket off of her and got out of bed, going about her early morning dressing before walking out the door, Otou-sama didn't need to get her for training anymore since her job was finished.
She spent the early hours of the morning doing as she'd done before in the three weeks since the end of her first job, she did two chores, mostly the menial ones, and then moved on to the forest outside to continue furthering her spells. Without the constant anticipation of her job calling her, as well as being out from the inadvertent oversight of Harlaown-sama, she could create and test 'new' spells on her own… provided the woman wasn't up and moving. That woman's sleep schedule… it was easier to say she didn't have one.
Thankfully for the second time since the Admiral and her crew took up residence she managed to avoid the tea-obsessed woman and make it to the woods. And so she went on with her major self-assigned project, 'upgrading' her augment spells, because while her augments were certainly effective given their apparent mana cost to performance, they weren't particularly… strong.
Sure, they had managed to make her a match for both Chrono-san and Fate-san, but that was all they did, aside from making her apparently extremely difficult to take down. Against opponents in the sky, which she'd been informed was a skill that only the 'Aces' really had and were able to use in combat, she was stuck with not being able to catch up to their sheer speed, which essentially meant that her strength had little role to play and her durability was all that kept her in any fight. All of this together painted a picture that showed her that she was on the right direction, she just needed to keep going down that path
Which would likely lead to conflict with Harlaown-sama, and by extension Chrono-san and the crew, since apparently her created spells were banned from being created and used, or at the very least the spells that affected her body's composition were. She didn't understand why they were banned, sure those spells hurt her whenever she pushed them to far, but their usage far outweighed the risk each time.
That said, she hadn't disclosed that she'd even created those spells to any of their guests… or her family, the latter because they'd never asked about it, and the former due to pragmatic reasoning or they could be enemies in the future again.
And because of that, she and Lindy had… 'issues' during their first few sessions of training, which resulted in a few hours of both of their time being wasted with nothing but a pointless 'argument' that ended exactly as she expected. Thankfully they had sorted that out during the second to last session five days ago and had actually started teaching her a 'simple' spell… and once again just like with the flight spell she was terrible at it. Though once more, thankfully she had someone who could help her through it and it wasn't as bad as the flight spell had been.
Today's agenda was simple, at least so far, work on an improvement for one of her spells for the early morning until the light peeked through the trees, go back and do another chore before eating breakfast with everyone, then move on to training with Harlaown-sama. After that it was time for lessons with Razing Heart, then some random task for Otou-sama, and finally end the day with a history lesson from Razing Heart about an event, kingdom, king or Seraph.
The spell she picked to continue working on was probably the one she didn't need right away, it didn't matter if she could hit once and take someone out if she couldn't hit them in the first place or survive long enough to get there. Though… with that said it would probably be the easiest of the three to work out what to do to improve them, and it wouldn't show the inevitable injuries as easy.
As of present, the only thing she had managed to work out, with a bit of help from a rather… 'irritated'… no, that wasn't right… Regardless, she had a bit of help from Razing Heart, and had found that there… really wasn't much of a limit on how much mana she could put in, though more mana meant a much higher chance of getting injured, as well as a much worse injury. What said injury was, she had only a vague idea given her prior 'experience' with overloading an augment, but she could only guess that it would be far, far worse.
Well, there was little point to continue thinking over it, otherwise she'd be wasting time, and have Razing Heart be annoyed over being woken up with nothing being done.
She learned nothing that she didn't already know, and her practice… she needed something more durable than trees since her basic augment was already strong enough to break trees, especially after Razing Heart started regulating mana to it and the others. So with that, she finished far quicker than she would have, and proceeded to make her way back through the trees to home, only to stop momentarily on the edge of the clearing as she spotted Harlaown-sama wide-awake looking up at the drifting moon in the middle of the grass.
Quietly and quickly she decided against doing her after-training chore and made her way over to her guest, crossing the several meters without issue before standing at her side. "I don't like being forced to do nothing." She didn't say anything in response, only waiting patiently for the woman to inevitably say more or to move 'unexpectedly', those were the only two likely options that the Admiral would take given she'd started the 'conversation' in the first place.
"I made a promise long ago…" She was proven right when the Admiral began speaking again, a soft, wistful note taking the place of her normal playful voice. "… to never stop fighting until there was peace on each world administrated by the Bureau. … It's been so long since I got to fight again." Harlaown-sama stopped again after saying those words, continuing to look at the moon without even acknowledging her presence, this time however she decided to give a response.
"There is war where you come from?" Lindy jumped immediately after she spoke, twisting around and swinging with a still-forming hammer only to stop millimeters from her head.
For a few moments there was silence… maybe she should have announced her presence before speaking right next to her… Another moment passed before the hammer was calmly moved away from her head and swiftly remade into the teacup, a step taken backwards before the fear-etched face turned back to its usual, amused self. A light laugh left Lindy's mouth for some reason that she probably wouldn't understand, before the woman spoke again. "Ah, Nanoha-chan… I'm sorry for that… You should have said something when you got here."
Oh… she… she wasn't good with doing that… she was normally the one who waited to be addressed or be told to do something, the only time she'd ever been proactive was with Suzuka, and that had been largely accidental due to crazy cats. Anyway, she gave a bow to her guest along with a firm "Yes ma'am." before turning and walking back into the house, she still had one more chore to do before breakfast came… she needed a broom.
The rest of the morning was largely uneventful, Lindy avoided her for the entirety of that time and she cleaned the halls without much sound. Breakfast came and went without issue, less lively than it had been the last few days, but still better than before the end of her job…
Really the only other notable thing that happened that morning was Otou-sama letting her know that her blade's tamahagane had been produced and was beginning the process of becoming a sword. That information sent her into a satisfied daze for the rest of the morning, one that managed to last until midday and caused her to… casually go through the day without focusing too much on what she was doing.
She only managed to get out of the daze when Harlaown-sama came and got her, absent of whatever strange thing had affected her, for their sparring and likely exhausting lesson. It started out well enough.
They went to the yard between the dojo Onee-sama used, the farthest one from the 'main' house, and the house where Fate and her family were being… 'held' for right now. She hadn't gone to visit Fate yet, the only reasons being she was busy training, and she was sure Fate… probably was better off without her around, she wasn't exactly the best person to be comforting others.
Anyway, both she and Lindy made their way over to that area of the property and stopped, being passed by both Onee-sama and Chrono-san as they went into the dojo itself to do… whatever it was hey did, she was sure it was something important given that Onee-sama wouldn't allow him into her 'sanctuary' without a reason. She soon disregarded that thought and focused on Lindy, her guest bringing out her Device again as she did the same with Razing Heart and her blade, emerald and pink covering them for a brief moment before they were in their Jackets again.
A light hum sounded out before the Admiral stamped her hammer into the ground and placed her free hand up to her head in thought, "You still want to work on Bind Break Nanoha? Or would you rather learn something else and put that aside for now?" Hmm… so that would be how they start the day's training… honestly, she didn't care too much right now, she wasn't in a hurry like with… Luftschritt, nor did she have anything that needed to be attended to, which meant she could afford the time to take things 'slower'
With that decision made she simply gave a nod before socketing Razing Heart into her normal place before making ready, Lindy giving another hum before raising her weapon up. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a few men and women come out from the building, no more than ten by the looks of it, and in that moment she was wrapped in emerald chains… she either needed to stop looking at her surroundings, or she needed to look a lot faster, otherwise she'd likely kill herself someday.
"Back to where we left off then, breaking out of an advanced bind~." There was enough time for her to let out a voiceless sigh before she started doing what the spell required of her, find the 'code' of the bind and then make the 'counter-code' to destroy it. At least with that, it was mostly 'find the numbers' in the spell, why there was mathematics involved she had no idea, and following that 'find the numbers that kill the other numbers'.
The practice… didn't go well, not when it began nor when it was about to end, though with that said progress was still made. Given mainly that Razing Heart… didn't do much for her outside of combat, she was forced to figure the 'code' and 'counter-code' out on her own, yet again she was thankful that it was mathematics and science that dictated spells and not language, otherwise she'd be in a much worse position.
For the rough… hour and a half, she managed to get out of there once… partially. She'd managed to get one part of the mass of chains off of her, which only allowed her to take her left hand out before the allotted time for this part of her lessons was done. By that point however she managed to get the base 'code' for the bind, on top of making a working 'counter-code', the issue lied in getting the two to interact.
That was where the entire difficulty laid in this learning.
Regardless, the chains disappeared and they finally moved along to the next part of her practice, sparring. Lindy wasn't as skilled as Otou-sama was, her weapon was much more… 'clumsy' than a normal sword, that didn't mean she wasn't as deadly with the warhammer as Otou-sama was.
Which translated to her getting beat senseless by a hammer bigger than her, in a 'fight' that had no real rules to it aside from no killing, magic was allowed, wounds were allowed, flying was allowed… pretty much everything but killing. And given that she had no real 'drive' to win this time, just one to improve and learn, which again meant that she wasn't giving her complete best and so was getting absolutely… destroyed… not that it mattered since her pain tolerance was steadily getting higher and higher, and higher.
She managed to land a single hit before the next hour and a half passed, an unorthodox headbutt into Harlaown-sama's chin… Lindy landed a total of 169 blows on her, ranging from whacking her in the face with the hammer's pommel, to sweeping her feet out from under her, and smashing the hammer's head somewhere into her body, as well as the final counter-headbutt.
It was an improvement on the first few sessions, though unfortunately her guest was holding back, so the benefits were largely drawn at learning how an 'Ace', 'Mage' or whatever it was Lindy was, fought, and improving her base speed, power and endurance. Though the second one… she wouldn't see results for that for a long time, probably not until she was into her twenties at the least, which was hindsight probably a reason she'd made her augments in the first place.
Anyway, it was nearly time to g-
He'd learned several things since coming here.
First, the family he was staying with were… very different from what he expected of a normal family, though to be fair they probably weren't one or even cared that they weren't. Second, even if only one of them could use magic, they all could kick a mage's ass without really trying if no flying got used… as he had first-hand experience in understanding. Though with that said, only Nan… yes, Nanoha was her name, was able to keep up with Aces… probably.
And lastly, he learned that he really needed to work a bit more on learning how to defend himself in close-quarters after having Miyuki help him test out his arm… a mistake on his part.
"Sixty-three." Miyuki retreated a step and let him get back up to his feet, humming something with a gentle smile etched into her face… it was hard to say he wasn't getting used to her somewhat-strange behavior. S2U was stamped into the ground for the twenty-third time during their little… spar, and he forced himself back to his feet, breathing heavily and sweating just as bad as he got back into stance.
While he had been making his new arm she'd often been around watching him… kind of… and so he saw… he honestly had no idea what to call it, though the closest thing he'd seen resembling it was whenever mother was remembering something 'bad'… Ignoring that, he sometimes got to see her, whenever she wasn't lost looking into the flames in the forge or helping him out by holding something, doing exercises with her swords, which had prompted him into asking her for help testing his limb… Again, it was a mistake, one he was living with and hoping paid off.
The new limb didn't have everything he wanted it to have yet, the reactor didn't give enough mana to suit him, the metal was worse quality than he wanted, there was no way to discharge mana if he needed it urgently and there were no… 'special parts' anywhere near here for the time being. Barring that, he had just wanted to learn if the actual design worked as intended… thankfully it did, it would have been a massive pain to graft another layer on top of the other three, and then put in the inner-workings after that.
His stave swung through the air while his new hand rose in time to deflect the blade, just as her other sword slid along S2U's length. The first blade hooked back in sync with its sibling, and for the fifth time he was stuck looking at two weapons reach for him, just before the both retracted, and yet another number sounded out. "Sixty-four." Once more she backed away with both of them getting back into a ready stance… well, his was more of him bracing himself rather than a 'stance'.
And then they were at it again, stave moving upwards, a blade sending it careening to the side, a hand blocking the other sword, a backstep taking him out of range of the first swinging again only for him to stumble. Unlike the prior seven times, he managed to grab one of Miyuki's swords and parry the other away, twisting his body and throwing the girl behind him, only to be struck immediately in the face by a kick…
"Sixty-five." He hated hearing those numbers… he hated them so much. S2U gave a click as he held her at his side, while the prosthetic let out a light hum as their inner workings slowly ticked away ready for mana to go through them… which wouldn't happen. "You're gripping too tightly still, loosen your grip a bit and you'll move your stave around faster."
He knew she was just trying to help, so he wasn't angry… instead he was extremely frustrated at both himself and his inability to grasp what she was trying to help him with, as well as the fact that she didn't help him aside from pointing out the mistakes… continuing to just kick his ass around. "I'm trying." What he said came out as a hiss, as it had usually become in the wake of these spars, and as usual she took it in stride and continued.
"Good, if you weren't you wouldn't have taken as few hits this time." His stave clicked against the floor as Miyuki relaxed minutely, letting him have a break for however long she would be… Saint-king, he didn't have enough stamina to keep sparring for the several hours that Miyuki preferred… he barely lasted the hour that they did daily. "That said, you aren't improving nearly as fast as any of us did… Hmm…"
"How about a shift in focus, just try blocking and dodging rather than trying to hit me. Kaa-sama's training was meant to be started younger, so you may…" She got out of her stance for a few brief seconds and took a pose he'd seen Lindy use a few times, thinking over something before returning to her stance and nodding once. "Yes, you're too old to learn our way, so we'll just focus on what'll keep you alive."
… He had no idea how to respond to that, other than raising his stave up again and bracing himself, so he just remained quiet and waited, regaining his breath as Miyuki finished thinking over… whatever it was she had been going over. And so they started again, and he tried his best to follow the difficult task she gave him.
The first thing he had learned from Miyuki specifically, was there were no rules besides what was laid done at the start, which was usually 'no magic', 'no killing' and 'no breaking weapons'. The second and more important of the two… he learned while she was polite, gentle and kind, she was absolu-
A fist unexpectedly darting out and hitting him square in the face stopped his thoughts and sent him reeling, quickly placing S2U in the path of left sword before trying to get away from the other by backing off. "Focus, Sixty-seven." Surprisingly, amidst the flurry of swords that was after him he didn't get struck once, mainly from a combination of continuing to dodge and block everything. At least something was improving that he could see immediately.
"You're getting better at defense, still not enough though for Nanoha, but enough that you can last half a minute with her." He didn't say anything in response, first of all too tired to actually say anything coherent, and second, focused on making sure there wasn't any-
Faster than he could react to or even see, Miyuki crossed the few meters between them and placed her swords at his neck, staying there for a few seconds before being withdrawn and sheathed, then he returned to finishing her words. "It also isn't enough to last me if I decide to stop holding back, but you'll get there in a year or seven Chrono-san. Probably."
"You didn't reach a hundred this time, good job." … A compliment… an actual compliment without a unintentional barb… That was new. Anyway he followed Miyuki's lead and let S2U return to its default mode, storing it back at its home at his side and prepared himself for what was to come next. Even with a prosthetic made of metal hitting hard, it didn't matter much if you couldn't hit the target, which was the entire problem with Miyuki.
As Nanoha herself demonstrated, just because Miyuki didn't have a weapon in her hands didn't meant that she couldn't and wouldn't kick his ass, even if she was much 'worse' without her weapon. Because apparently on top of being a swordswoman, she was also 'decent' in her words in martial arts… which was far better than his own lackluster ability in the arts, there was a reason he preferred longer-distance spells to close-combat like mother.
Regardless, he received another beatdown without once hitting her, though it was much better than the ones he'd been subjected to before, given he wasn't trying to hit her, just not be hit by her.
He ducked under a 'light' jab, twisted out of the way of a kick, rolled under another kick and immediately was nailed in the face by a punch. Despite being nowhere near as strong as Nanoha, Miyuki still hit a lot harder than he expected, making him reel back for a moment and barely make out the next number before getting his legs swept out from under him. Pushing himself back up with a groan and a much clearer head, he heard her back away a few steps and calmly call out, "Seventy-five."
Bringing his hands up again, he was barely ready when Miyuki was already on him, moving the prosthetic to block the incoming jab, a hollow clang ringing as she immediately moved the limb away and kicked at his head, and yet again more ducking 'saving' him from another number and a likely concussion. Then he tried to hit her, making a very sloppy punch in comparison to her at her chest, an action that she easily avoided due to him being out of breath and in terrible at this before following with another number as she replied in kind. "Seventy-six."
When one of Miyuki's sheathes were brought up directly into his forehead several seconds later, he was of course caught off-guard, a few fast-paced moments later, he was somehow airborne and sent soaring towards the 'wall' of the building. He should have seen that coming… 'there were no rules' and all that idiocy, he was tired of following the 'rules' only to get hit out of nowhere.
Crashing through the 'wall' of the building was far from the worst way a spar ended between them, it was probably one of the three best so far if he was truthful… landing on Nanoha on the other hand… that made things far, far worse than the prior times. For several, long drawn-out moments he didn't do anything, even though he heard mother trying to stifle a laugh and Miyuki call out, "Seventy-seven." … He hated those numbers with a passion.
Finally Nanoha, still with that unnerving, dead smile that never went away, decided to say something before 'lightly' shoving him off her. "Chrono-san, get off." Of course… 'lightly' to her was relatively strong to the normal person, so he was treated, yet again, to being sent flying away… at this point he really should just get used to it.
His body stopped moving after making contact with a tree, not hard enough to hurt, but still enough that he felt the impact, a low groan let out before he slowly got back to his feet, stretched his back to try and get the aching out and started walking back towards the building. Might as well try and repair the damage he and Miyuki had made… or at least rest a bit
He'd probably just rest, Miyuki's sparring he could handle, Nanoha? The girl had enough force to rival bombardment spells even when she was just being light, and he'd rather not have anything broken or strained for tomorrow's practice… Yeah… rest was much more preferred, the 'wall' could wait.
After the… lack-luster training and sparring of yet another day, the rest of the day's light was spent in… a relaxing way. She went on a trip to with Onee-sama to the store a few minutes after they finished cleaning up and storing everything, they'd fix the broken screen later when the light began to fade, until then though they had groceries to get and a meal to cook and serve at least.
Nothing noteworthy happened during the trip, aside from her and Onee-sama talking minutely about Chrono-san's 'inability' to change and how Onee-sama was going to address that, since what she was doing wasn't working well enough. Aside from that there wasn't much else to say, they bought groceries, Onee-sama dragged her into a clothing store shortly after and made her try some dresses on, and an hour later than they should have been, they were home again.
Once there, they deposited the groceries on the counter and Onee-sama got to work, while she went over to the table and waited for Onee-sama to call her for help or get meals. She wasn't allowed anywhere near kitchen and its appliances, a good thing since she had zero talent in cooking, unlike Okaa-sama and Onee-sama who were quite skilled. Instead she'd be bringing the meals over a few at a time, and after that was done, go around and tell those that weren't there already that it was time to eat.
Simple tasks compared to what Onee-sama was doing.
Otou-sama had opened up another of the buildings, rearranging the panels so that there was a large dining room that accommodated them and their guests, since the table their family used was far, far too small for everyone.
…That said they didn't have anywhere near enough chairs to actually sit everyone, so they resorted to the older way of seating and low tables, which had been slightly amusing to see every member of the crew except Harlaown-sama 'stumble' about unsure what to do. It quickly lost amusement when they still weren't sure how to do it five days after, but that was expected.
"Nanoha-chan." Her focus snapped back to Onee-sama, immediately getting up from the chair she had waited on and went over, collecting a few of the plates before making her way out of the little 'kitchen' they were in. Considering the distance between the 'main house', which had the only functioning kitchen right now, and the… 'cafeteria', Otou-sama had also gone and bought a few basic appliances and moved the panels around to make a cooking area next to the dining area.
The thing could only accommodate the appliances jammed against one another, two chairs by the 'door' and her and Onee-sama 'comfortably', but that was all that really needed to begin with. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't efficient, it wasn't even really effective, but it worked well enough and that's all that mattered.
Coming out of the little 'kitchen' let her immediately hear the groups of people wandering in and sitting down, thankfully kneeling as they were meant to on the cushions, so she went around to those currently sitting and placed down a meal in front of each. She received thanks from those she served on the first round, and in turn she gave permission for them to start eating, it was better since the meals were better when they came out.
Quickly she went back to the 'kitchen', idly listening to the noise slowly increase in volume as she waited for Onee-sama to finish the next set. A few minutes later, she went out again and immediately was hit with a mass of even more noise.
The atmosphere in the large zashiki was quite lively when she went out again, there were conversations going on animatedly, soldiers sharing stories to others, crewmembers going over plans for the next day, some 'jokes' that she wouldn't understand and some hushed conversations about something they seemed 'anxious' about. Either way, none of that was her business to know, so she tuned it out and just served the food, before going back again to fetch more meals from Onee-sama.
Several more rounds of taking meals out to the guests were made before she went on a short walk to see if there was anyone in particular missing… namely Harlaown-sama, Onii-sama and occasionally Yuuno-san and some of the experienced Enforcers. The first of those three… mainly was from the terrible sleep schedule she had alongside losing track of time, Onii-sama she wasn't sure about, but he seemed to be out of the property more often than not and when he was he was always with Onee-sama or her. The others mostly lost track of time like Harlaown-sama while thinking over something, nothing else really.
Somehow, the two that usually were the ones she had to go and fetch came in just as she exited the building, which was a relief for her since she wouldn't be searching high and low again this evening. That said she still went on her little round-up, checking the open buildings and knocking on rooms to see if they were occupied, before heading back herself to get her own meal from Onee-sama when she found no one else.
It was less lively when she got back, several groups having finished quickly and left by the time she got back, leaving only a few people remaining, alongside Otou-sama and Onii-sama, Yuuno-san, Harlaown-sama and Chrono-san at the middle-most table. Of course, despite being mother and son, Chrono-san and Harlaown-sama rarely got along well, which resulted in the zashiki still being lively despite the lack of people, since they went at one another constantly for whatever reason it was that day.
Today was no different, seeing as they were already in the middle of some 'passive' argument, which she promptly ignored in favor of getting food.
Thankfully, Onee-sama was just coming out of the 'kitchen' with two last meals, one of which she took from Onee-sama with a slightly brighter smile before both of them made their way over to the table and sat down. She sat down at the end of the table, with Yuuno-san at her left and Otou-sama to her right, while Onee-sama on the other side of Yuuno-san beside Chrono-san, quietly they both said thanks and joined the others in eating.
It wasn't an elaborate meal, mostly just meant to be filling and good for the body. That said, Onee-sama still did a very good job and made it taste good in addition to those two qualities, which she was quite thankful for. While it was possible to subsist off of food that tasted bland or terrible while still being good for one's health, she'd much rather have something that tasted good, as she was sure most other individuals would agree.
Roughly sometime after a minute Onee-sama stopped eating and looked over at Otou-sama, who stopped eating the moment she looked at him, and asked a question she'd asked a few times already. "Tou-sama, can you please give me more space to prepare meals?"
Otou-sama deliberated for several seconds before giving his answer, very likely it would be the exact same as the one he gave before, with maybe a bit added to it o Onee-sama would stop asking. "As I've said three times before now, unless you are going to make a temporary building, the answer is no. There's not enough space to accommodate that size and the number of people we're hosting." A light hum was Onee-sama's response as she closed her eyes, tilted her head slightly and nodded, returning back to her regular posture after a moment before sighing gently.
"Alright Tou-sama. It just is quite time-consuming cooking in that small area is why I asked."
With that both Onee-sama and Otou-sama lapsed into silence, letting both Harlaown-sama and Chrono-san remain the only ones speaking to each other… or was it 'at each other' since they were arguing? Anyway, she tuned them out and continued to eat, finishing shortly after Yuuno-san did so… that said she didn't have anything to do at the moment she decided to just sit and try to understand what they were talking about. Which meant first asking what they had talked about to begin with… and since the only one to finish was Yuuno-san…
"What is Harlaown-sama and Chrono-san arguing about this time?"
The sudden question caught Yuuno-san off-guard, the boy her age jumping slightly at the sound of her voice and whipping to face her before stopping, processing the question and giving a half-hearted shrug and answering. "It started with something about cartridges, then went into safety risks, and somehow tangented into Chrono not respecting her… I got lost on the second sentence."
Well… so much for that, she got a basic summary, but that's about it… oh well, might as well just listen and try to understand then.
Chrono-san was the one currently talking, 'glaring' at the Admiral while she was smiling 'sweetly' and waiting for him to finish before inevitably replying in kind. "-nd why would I respect a woman that gets drunk off of copious amounts of Tea?"
"For the same reason that you respect your Aunt and Miyuki-chan." Harlaown-sama's smile didn't lessen or grow as that was said, staying the exact same as she took a sip of her ever-present teacup. After a slight pause, she brought the cup down again to the table and continued as if she hadn't stopped speaking. "I can and will beat you up in training to make sure you learn the lesson/spell properly."
The admiral stretched lightly at the end of her reply, either missing or ignoring the incensed glare at the end of her reason, before looking back with the same sweet smile she had since the beginning. At this point both Onii-sama and Onee-sama finished and watched with either disinterest or amusement as mother and son continued to go at one another. "Considering that the only things you taught me were Stinger Blade and Blaze Can-"
Not waiting for him to finish, the Admiral looked over at the rest of the table, noticing that all but one person was watching them argue, before promptly cutting Chrono-san before he could finish his reply. "We can continue this later Chrono-kun, we're causing everyone at the table to stop and look over at us."
For several drawn-out moments Chrono-san looked straight at Harlaown-sama, mouth closing in response before bluntly pointing out, "… We do that on a daily basis Admiral…" Of course as usual the Admiral took that in stride with a smile and replied with barely any time spent to think what she was going to say.
"Yes, and it's still rude to interrupt everyone else's meal to have an argument and the food will get cold by the time we finish our argument. You were raised better, weren't you?"
Chrono-san stopped for a moment to just blankly look at Harlaown-sama, staring at her as she drank another cup of tea until after several moments he sighed and gave a reply. "… I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that from you, and start eating then."
"See, there's your manners~" Her response was quick and light-hearted, eliciting a stifled laugh from Onee-sama, a heavy sigh from Chrono-san and Onii-sama, confusion from her and Yuuno-san, and nothing from Otou-sama as usual. And then dinner continued on without anything else happening.
… Harlaown-sama was strange sometimes, but she made things far livelier here and that was welcome so long as it didn't go too far.
She should probably go and meet Suzuka-chan and Arisa-chan soon, now that everything was settled and everyone was in… a semi-good routine, it was alright for her to ask to go and meet them, Suzuka-chan in particular would be quite happy to meet up again. She'd do that tomorrow if Otou-sama would let her go, maybe surprise Suzuka-chan as well.