Yuuno watched as Nanoha used the long pole with the carved wood with increasing ability. He knew she was good with a sword, as he had watched them fight with the bokken (which were apparently practice swords). So he was confused why her father had switched her to this weapon, which she wasn't familiar with. Sure it increased her range, but it was clear she wasn't used to it.
It wasn't until he saw her battle yet another jewel seed, this time inside a small dog, that he realized the truth.
Nanoha was treating her staff like the practice naginata. The way she swung the staff, and used the cannon mode, which if he squinted did resemble a spear...it almost made sense for her to learn how to use such a weapon. The question that bugged him the most was why her father had switched them without a word.
So he asked her.
"When I was five, I was almost kidnapped. So the next year my dad got me started on our family's sword style so I would have some idea of what to do with common items like pipes and large branches. Then almost four years later a business partner of a friend's family tried to kidnap her, except I fended him off. I was almost shot because he had a gun and didn't like the fact a mere kid had stopped him."
Nanoha grimaced.
"Of course the way Kyouya chewed me out for overdoing it in training soon after..."
Yuuno stared at her.
"You trained until your fingers bled, so they put a watch on you, didn't they?" said Yuuno, guessing.
"...I collapsed during gym and they took me to the hospital. I was put on restricted exercise for three months and my parents and older brother kept a close eye on how much I trained for nearly a year after. It wasn't until I was almost eleven before I was allowed to train on my own again."
Yuuno winced at the implications. So he tactfully changed the subject.
"What's an animagus?"
Nanoha's head whipped around to look at him oddly, before she remembered that he technically fit the definition of an alien.
"We are so having a movie night if you've never heard that term," she grinned wickedly.
Yuuno stared at the movies, then looked at an amused Nanoha and her family and stated flatly "Magic does not work like that."
"I don't know. The magic you talked about sounds an awful lot like someone using Arithimancy," said Miyuki with a straight face.
"What's arithimancy?"
"It's using math and equations to break down spells down to their base, and then altering them," said Nanoha without thinking. Seeing the look on Yuuno's face, she looked sheepish. "If I had known that using math to create magical spells was possible, I would have been using magic a long time ago. It's pretty much one of my best subjects, next to physical education."
"Yeah, Nanoha's taking college-level math classes. It's pretty weird having your baby sister help you with your calculus homework," Miyuki piped up amused.
"I guess she's one of those rare natural mages, who have a knack for using Mid-Childa magic," said Yuuno. Some people took to using the heavy-on-the-math style, others didn't. And those that did were generally snatched up by the TSAB after a certain point.
He found watched these Harry Potter movies fun, and he felt more at home with the Takamachi clan than he had with his own aunts and uncles.
Even if he found himself helping around the bakery as 'payment' for borrowing their guest room until they collected the seeds. Since he looked about sixteen, and therefor old enough to be out of compulsory schooling, no one questioned his presence in the shop.
"...What is she doing?" asked Yuuno baffled. Miyuki was watching her sister, just in case her bad habit came back.
"Baton practice. After the...incident...the only way she could be pushed to the absolute limits was to become a cheerleader. She's currently the vice captain of her squad," said Miyuki cheerfully. She left out the fact that Nanoha could terrify her squad mates into practicing whether or not they were in the mood to do so.
There was a reason why Nanoha had earned the moniker "White Devil".
Seeing her use Raging Heart like a baton with expert ease, before smoothly switching to a stance her father showed her with the staff, Yuuno had a revelation.
He never wanted to be on the wrong side of Nanoha in close combat. She could decimate a rookie in seconds, never mind what she could potentially do with her cannon.
He had seen the effect of her sealing cannon. He had no desire to be on the WRONG end of such a massive magical blast first hand. He didn't know what sort of power Nanoha harbored within her, but it was blatantly clear the longer he spent time around her that she had the ability...no, the compatibility...to utilize Raging Heart to it's fullest extent.
The only reason the TSAB allowed him to keep such a potentially powerful Intelligent Device, despite where he got it, was because it simply refused to work for any of their mages, even if they had the power requirements. Eventually they dismissed it as a broken tool, so they gave it back.
"Ah! A jewel seed just activated downtown!" said Miyuki, seeing a massive tree appear in the center of town. Fortunately it was nowhere near the bakery.
~Cannon mode.~
Yuuno and Miyuki stared at Nanoha, who wasn't playing with Raging Heart anymore. No, there was a deadly serious look on her face.
"Can we hit it from here?" asked Nanoha.
~You have the range, my Master. Once the target is locked, you may fire at any time,~ replied Raging Heart blandly.
"Hey wait a minute! How are we going to explain a beam of light from the hill?!" said Miyuki.
"Let me handle that. I can create a displacement barrier, which should minimize the awkward questions from the authorities," said Yuuno. Though having to create one after everyone saw that massive tree was going to be a headache and a half.
The air around them changed, and it almost looked like they were in the Twilight Zone.
"Okay! Displacement barrier is up and running, so you should be able to blast that tree without being seen!" said Yuuno.
Nanoha carefully leveled the cannon at the tree, taking into account the angle and the level of the hill they were on. Such calculations were easy for her...she was in the advanced placement at school for math after all.
~Divine Buster~
"SHOOT!"
A beam of girlish pink appeared from the opening of the staff, and Yuuno watched with some measure of horror as a fifteen year old girl sealed the tree from several miles away, at an angle, from on top of a hill when she couldn't even see the target.
If she was like this as a rookie...he was almost terrified/excited to see what she could do once she had more experience under her belt. It was almost like she was born for this sort of battle.
"Wait, so you have elemental spells preloaded into your spell matrix?" said Nanoha.
~That is correct, my Master.~
"What spells do you have?"
~The three most basic of basic elemental spells. Fire, Thunder, and Blizzard. All who pass through the Station of Awakening will eventually learn these three, though some have a personal affinity.~
Nanoha decided to try them out after school.
"Do they need to be vocalized, or..."
~There have been those who learned to cast the most basic variations with a mere thought.~
"Something tells me I'm going to have a lot of hours training ahead of me," said Nanoha.
Later, after-school...
"FIRE!"
The massive stream of heat nearly scorched her eyebrows off.
Yuuno wasn't just staring, his mouth was dropped open in an unflattering gape.
"What. How. WHAT?!" stammered Yuuno.
"Raging Heart said she had three basic elemental spells pre-loaded in her repertoire."
Yuuno stared at her.
"What are the other two?"
Nanoha's grin did not inspire confidence. Far from it.
"Blizzard!"
Yuuno was somewhat terrified. If this was what Nanoha could do with basic spells, he dreaded to think what she could do with advanced ones. The heat from the previous fireball combined with the freezing cold of the sudden ice spell. Clouds began to form in the sky above.
"Thunder!"
A massive lightning bolt hit the sky, sending out an unusual peal of thunder. It was too much for the sky to take, and without warning a sudden deluge of water started pouring, with peals of thunder and lighting.
"I think we can safely call this a night," said Yuuno, absolutely drenched.
"Nyahaha."
Nanoha had forgotten the most basic of weather science. Hot and cold air combined to make rain, and adding lightening turned it into a thunderstorm.
And since the skies were clear until she accidentally overpowered basic spells (she wasn't expecting them to be that powerful to begin with) they were completely soaked through by the time they returned home.
"Nanoha, you think maybe next time you play with those spells you could cut back a bit?" said Yuuno.
~My master's use of basic elemental spells was comparable to a second level elemental spells. She should be able to learn the higher level spells very quickly.~
Yuuno whimpered at the thought of Nanoha overpowering spells of a higher level. Nanoha was scary. And that was before that time of the month.
It was the dream again. Nanoha had been having it off and on for years, but she could never remember it afterwards. Recently though, it had been coming to her quite frequently.
In the dream, she saw the woman who saved her ten years ago. Only she was floating in a sea of darkness.
Blue eyes met blue eyes.
"Ready for tonight's lesson Nanoha?"
"Yes Master Aqua," replied Nanoha.
If one were to look at Nanoha's outfit, they would see she was in her barrier jacket.
"So what do you want to learn tonight?"
"Well I seem to be overpowering some basic elemental spells. Raging Heart said that they were on the same level as the secondary variations," said Nanoha.
The woman known only as Master Aqua smiled, as if pleased with the news.
"In that case, perhaps we should start on the more advanced aspects of magic, rather than blade mastery for a while," she replied.
Nanoha perked up.
The next morning...
Nanoha woke up with a yawn. Strangely, she found it easier to remember her dreams lately.
Though she did draw some odd looks from Yuuno when he heard what she was mumbling over breakfast, still half-asleep.
"Why are you working advanced spell calculations at the table?" he asked.
And it was a very advanced application of basic elemental-type spells. He knew elemental derivatives when he heard them.
"Just trying to figure out how to add to my spell repertoire," said Nanoha cheerfully. She was hopeful to figure out how to add them to Raging Heart before school was out.
Most of her teachers learned to ignore when Nanoha was doing a complicated math problem that was way above their heads by this point. She liked numbers.
Yuuno looked at the paper and paled.
"Nanoha, you do realize that if you use this formula you'll..."
"I like big booms," said Nanoha cryptically. The bigger the better.
Her friends wondered if she was doomed to become a bomb tech or something, considering she was always tinkering with mathematical formulas to create bigger explosions. She was so good at it that last summer she spent time with the Self Defense Force's research division working in the science department.
She had freaked them out so much with her calculations that she had earned the moniker the "White Devil", not that they called her that within her hearing.
No fourteen year old girl should be that enthusiastic about creating big explosions.
Arisa and Suzuka took one look at the calculations during class, and promptly decided not to ask. Like Yuuno, they had become very adept at recognizing when Nanoha was plotting a massive explosion.
Fate landed on Non-Administrated world #97. Almost immediately she felt a shiver of foreboding, which was weird.
"Is it just me or is there some sort of ominous presence on this planet?" said Aruf. It was kind of terrifying.
Fate shivered.
"It's not you. It doesn't feel malevolent though. Let's just find those stupid jewel seeds, so Mother can be happy. Or at least not notice when we leave for good," said Fate tiredly.
This was the last job Fate planned to do for her mother. Once this was over, she was leaving.
It was close to nightfall when Fate and Aruf ran into a barrier. Most people wouldn't notice it, but there was a clear sense of "DO NOT ENTER!" around it.
"Aruf."
"Yes Fate?"
"Somehow I get the feeling something very bad or very good would happen if we barged in there."
"How so?"
"Just a feeling."
Inside the barrier...
"DEAR SWEET MERCIFUL GODS, MAKE HER STOP! MAKE HER STOP!" shouted Yuuno over the loud roar behind him.
Nanoha was cackling wildly as she used her favorite outlet.
Explosions.
Unlike normally though, these explosions weren't just fire. No, now they were laced with freezing cold ice bombs that fell from above and lightning.
"Poor Yuuno-kun. Just be glad this only happens once a month," said Miyuki with sympathy. She had noise canceling headphones, and had long since come to terms with the fact her sister was a psychotic maniac who loved to blow things up.
Fortunately for the world at large, Nanoha hated hurting others.