Disclaimer: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha belongs to Seven Arcs and all respective license holders. The Persona Series belongs to ATLUS. I only own this fic and nothing else. I also own all the mistakes too.
Chapter 3: Clash & Burn
All was still as the four watched the opposing blonde magical girl with growing anticipation. Her wand-now-scythe held ready to strike at any moment. Ren was familiar with this moment. It was similar to when he and his friends faced off against particularly powerful shadows. The tension was palpable and suffocating. To not know what your opponent would do, to not know what to do next either, it was at these moments where they were tested the most. Suddenly, though without warning, the blonde girl flew forward, her target being the other magical girl in the vicinity.
"Evasion! Flier Fin!" Raising Heart was able to automatically cast spells before any of them could react. Only Nanoha was able to regain composure fast enough to make use of the spell to evade the slash that the other Magical Girl had made. Though she had missed her attack, she didn't seem nonplussed in the slightest. She simply stared up at Nanoha, who was still too confused about the whole thing to make any meaningful counterattack. The three of them still on the ground didn't move, still unsure as to what she was capable of. Ren himself also was cautious to find the right opportunity. Like last time, the blonde girl suddenly placed herself into a stance.
"ARC SABER!" Her device declared as she then swiped her scythe, creating a crescent of Energy that flew towards where Nanoha was.
"Nanoha!" All Yuuno could do was cry her name as he watched the attack fly towards the girl.
"Protection!" Raising Heart automatically used the defensive spell right before the attack struck. Despite the spell going off as intended, an explosion occurred when the strike collided with Nanoha's shield, kicking up dust and smoke in its wake. A second later, Nanoha flew upwards, coughing and somewhat star struck from the impact. She had no time to recover as the blonde girl quickly flew above her and swung her scythe down. Nanoha was only barely able to block the strike using Raising Heart.
"Dammit, we're sitting ducks down here," Morgana couldn't help but say as the three of them realized there wasn't much they could do. It was clear that Nanoha was being put on the run. Whether because she was outmatched or outwilled didn't matter. That didn't change the fact that at this rate, Nanoha was going to lose. Though it would only work once, he felt that this was his only opportunity.
"Why are you doing this?" Nanoha asked as their weapons clashed with one another, the energy scythe failing to cut through the staff. Though Nanoha was steeled to struggle, it looked like the other girl wasn't putting much energy into the fight at all.
"Even if I told you, it wouldn't matter." Nanoha became frustrated. Why wouldn't it have mattered, she wondered. She couldn't understand why the other girl felt the need to fight them. Wasn't she here to stop the Jewel Seeds from running amok? If so why wasn't she helping them. Though she wanted to ask these questions, before she could, the two disengaged their clash. Nanoha landed on the ground below in an area distant to Ren and the others, while the blonde girl landed on a different tree branch.
"Freeze!" The two of them heard off into the distance, turning to see who it was. The both of them turned to see Ren standing firm with a gun in his hand, pointed at the other girl. "One false move and I don't think you'll be in any shape to return home." Though he said that, it was just a fake. One of a few fake guns he still had from his Phantom Thief days. In the Metaverse, if the opponent believed it to be real, that it became real, which is why they got away with using fake guns in there that ended up just as effective as the real thing. At times it worked to a scary level given that Haru used a grenade launcher. Hopefully this would, at best, scare off the girl and make her consider leaving. At worst he could use it as a moment to let Nanoha catch her breath.
"Ren, what are you doing?!" Nanoha cried, wondering how and why he had a gun.
"It's just a fake Nanoha, don't worry. He's just bluffing. Hopefully it will make the other girl leave, or at the very least willing to talk," Nanoha heard Yuuno tell her telepathically through magic. Nanoha filled with relief when she heard as such. Ren wouldn't do something as bad as try to shoot someone, especially someone her age, right? Then again, she really didn't know much about him to be honest.
"A mass weapon?" Was all they heard her say. Ren's eyes narrowed at the remark. He'd ask what mass weapon meant later from Yuuno. The more pressing matter was that the girl wasn't phased in the slightest. Though it was a fake, it pretty much looked exactly like the real thing. Iwai wouldn't have let his guns pass muster otherwise. "No matter." Was all he heard before the girl rushed toward him. Without a word more, she swiped horizontally at him only to be surprised to see him duck under the swing. Without missing a beat though, she went for another strike, only to watch him dodge each one with minimal difficulty each time, like she was almost being played with. Though she could see that the sweat on his brow and staggered breaths that he wasn't going to last much longer. One more time, she swung again, this time at a diagonal angle. This was what he was waiting for however, the chance he needed.
"What?" she let out in surprise as he deftly caught the scythe by the handle mid-swing thanks to his larger limbs, and was now pointing the gun now directly at her forehead.
"Ren!" Nanoha cried when she saw the blade still digging into his shoulder. Though the young man had caught the scythe, the curved blade still managed to make contact with him despite his best efforts. The plasma energy emanating from the blade made a clear sizzling sound as it began to burn his shoulder.
"Looks like we have a game of chicken, and I'm holding all the triggers." Ren made sure to not let show the pain that was searing into him. He'd worn a mask pretty much all last year, he could do to wear another now. To emphasize his point to her, he made sure to tap the tip of the barrel on her head just a bit. To her credit she didn't flinch even the smallest amount. "Either you get off, or I shoot. I think you know what the beneficial decision for both parties here is." Though he didn't show it, he was surprised that the girl was able to maintain her scythe's position when he tried to push it off just then. It was taking all he had to keep her weapon from slicing his entire arm clean off.
"So, what do you say?" he asked, his old days of holding up shadows coming into play as he continued to maintain his façade of confidence. That wasn't to say he didn't have any confidence, more like an energy scythe burning his shoulder and threatening to cut off his arm wasn't exactly the best booster for that sort of thing. He thought he was doing pretty well all things considered, especially with a fake gun. Looking over to check the others, he saw just what he wanted to see before turning back to the girl.
"Neither," was the only response he was given before the girl suddenly pulled her scythe back to catch him off guard. Though he let go, he had enough reflexes to not stumble when she pulled the weapon back. Luckily so, since she then slashed at him again immediately after bringing it back enough for a full swing. This time, Ren brought up his combat knife to parry the blade rather than catch it. When the two collided, the knife held only for a moment before being slowly cut into by the scythe. Knowing a losing proposition when he saw one, he immediately let the knife go, and backed off, going low to the ground so as to avoid the arc of the swing that followed after. What was left of the knife dropped to the ground in two pieces, both red hot and melted at the point it was cut. He didn't have any spares on him, since he didn't expect a seed to appear today.
"Now Nanoha!" Yuuno commanded, as the girl turned to see Nanoha in Shooting Mode, her staff pointed straight at her. Though it was only a glance it was all the girl needed to see that the attack aimed at her would do an impressive amount of damage. The number of circles surrounding her, the ambient magic energy in the air, she realized that she couldn't afford to be hit by this, no matter what.
"Divine Bus-!"
"Not so fast!" Nanoha stopped her spell immediately as she whipped her view to the side to see Ren being held down underfoot by an unknown individual. The person who suddenly appeared had orangish, almost peach colored hair that naturally separated into two, reaching down to her thighs. On her forehead was what looked to be a small jewel that was the same color as her hair. Her white top was quite daring, showing a generous amount of her ample cleavage, tied by a neat red bow that failed to cover her midriff. Though she had a capelet similar in coloration to the one worn by the blonde girl. She wore purplish pink hot-pants, leaving it unbuttoned and partially unzipped but also had an extension of her capelet wrapped around her waist. The silver armguards and greaves seemed to be the only decent form of protection on her body, the heel of which was currently being dug into Ren's back. However the most striking thing about her was that she had ears and a tail, tipped white at the ends.
"Dammit…" Ren whispered, frustrated at having been caught off guard as well as being the second time he'd been pinned like this. When he wasn't paying attention she practically jumped him, knocking the gun out of his hand and putting him to the floor. He struggled a bit before the wolf eared girl dug her heel deeper into his spine.
"Quiet, you," she said as Ren still continued to struggle. While doing so, her arm was then surrounded by yellow magical circles before an orb of magic manifested itself at the palm of her hand, of which she pointed at him. "Now then, if you don't want to see him smeared across the floor, disengage your device and surrender," she let them know in uncertain terms, and unlike when Ren made the threat, this one could certainly be followed up on.
"Ren!" Nanoha involuntarily cried in worry as she saw her friend being held hostage. What could she do? She couldn't fire on them, or else Ren would be caught in the blast. She didn't have high speed. She didn't know any spell that could get him out of his situation.
"Nanoha, we might have to give up here…" Yuuno told her. There had to be something she could do. She couldn't let the Jewel Seed go, but at the same time, if Ren got hurt…
"Mrrawr!" they suddenly heard as Morgana leapt at the wolf girl from the trees, biting onto her shoulder as he did so. "Le ai frienn go you anjy utt!" he yelled through his muffled mouth as he bit as hard as he could to stay on.
"The hell!? Get Off!" The wolf girl swung around, trying to free herself of Morgana's grasp before finally just pulling him off with her enhanced strength.
"Leave him alone!" Morgana said, still defiant even after being held by the scruff of his neck. He struggled to get free, moving as much as he could. Occasionally he would try to claw at her in the hopes of scratching her up.
"Damned Cat!" Rather than deal with him any longer, she simply threw Morgana into the nearest tree.
"Oof," was the only thing Morgana let out on impact before landing on the ground. "Dammit, out done buy a mutt… how humiliating." Morgana then fell unconscious as his injury got to him.
"Morgana!" Ren yelled, now struggling even more underneath her heel.
"Well then, little girl? What say you now?" The wolf girl completely ignored Ren to ask Nanoha again what she would do. Unfortunately, they had them completely dead to rights.
"I… I…"
"Nanoha!" Ren shouted, trying to prevent what was coming. In his mind, surrendering still wasn't an option. If they were willing to go so far as to attack others for the seeds, then they had to be stopped. Whatever their motives were, their methods went too far. He spent too long fighting people like that, people who just did whatever they could for and with power, to just give up like this now. However, while that might have been the case for him, for a 9-year-old girl that only just recently entered this world, it was simply too much.
"I sur…"
"MEOW," she suddenly heard from the side, as the giant cat began get up, thus distracting her. That was enough for the other girl though.
"I'm sorry," the blonde girl whispered as she fired a blast straight at Nanoha. All she saw before impact was the flash of yellow flying towards her.
"Kya!" Nanoha screamed as she flew from the blast straight into the air. Though her Barrier Jacket protected her from that attack, it finally gave out before she began to fall straight to the ground.
"Nanoha-chan!" Yuuno proceeded to run over to where she was going to land and immediately began to cast a spell to dampen her fall. Luckily he had made it in time, Nanoha falling safely into his magic array like a feather. As he was doing so though, the other party made their move to capture the Jewel Seed. The blonde girl landed in front the cat and disengaged the scythe form of her weapon.
"Sealing Form Set Up!" Bardiche let out, opening up into a form similar to Raising Heart's own Sealing Form.
"Capture," she said as she struck the ground, the magical energy digging through the earth until it hit the cat, giving it a massive shock. In the midst of it, the Jewel Seed popped out.
"Order?" the device asked.
"Lost Logia Jewel Seed Serial 14, Seal!" She commanded her device.
"Yes Sir!" Raising Bardiche into the air, she then fired a barrage of magical energy into the air that proceeded to fall back down onto the cat, forming a magical array that completely encircled the creature. Once completed, a great light burst forth high into the sky. Within moments, the light died down, to reveal the cat, at its normal size, and the seed. The girl then approached the seed and proceeded to absorb it into her staff, like Nanoha did with the previous ones. Once she confirmed that she had it, she looked over to where Nanoha had been knocked out. She was completely out cold, laying on the magical array meant to catch her that Yuuno had formed, of whom was standing right by her. Her ears then trailed over to the grunts and sounds made by Ren, who was now struggling even more than before.
"Get off me!" He told them as he continued to struggle.
"Arf, let's go…" the girl told the wolf girl, inadvertently revealing her name in the process.
"Of course, Fate…"Arf confirmed, also revealing the name of the blonde girl. As she lifted her leg, she then quickly delivered a swift kick to the side.
"Argh!" Ren held his side as he slid a bit from the impact of the kick. Combined with the pain from his burn on his shoulder, it practically paralyzed him. Before he could even open his eyes he heard the sound of the two leaving, flying into the horizon until the two couldn't be seen anymore. "Dammit…" he cursed as he got up, his legs still fine.
"Ren, you shouldn't be moving!" Yuuno told Ren as he walked over to pick up Morgana, holding the cat in his arms, and then proceeding to walk over to where Nanoha and Yuuno were.
"I'll be fine," he said as he knelt down to see how Nanoha was doing. "Is Nanoha okay?" he asked as he began to check over her for injury. She seemed okay, but she being knocked out could hide a few other issues or complications.
"Honestly, you're worse off. She has a Barrier Jacket to protect her and mitigate injury. You on the other hand were taking hits directly, not even mentioning the plasma you were being exposed to. Here!" Yuuno explained as he began to use a healing spell. Within moments, Ren could feel the pain leave his shoulder as well as his stomach from where he'd been kicked. "It's not perfect so you have to rest afterwards, you hear me? You can't afford to be reckless. Morgana looks fine though, just knocked out."
"Yeah, thank goodness…" Ren let out a relieved sigh, happy to hear that his friend would be okay. He gave a Morgana another glance over, making sure he really wasn't hurt. As always he could rely on him when the going gets rough, even for car repair. That still left Nanoha, however. "You still didn't answer my question though. Is Nanoha going to be alright?"
"She'll be fine, but I need you to do something if she's going to make it." Yuuno apparently already had a plan in mind. Whatever it was it couldn't be that bad.
"Sure, what is it?"
-0-0-3-0-0-
"You had us so worried, Nanoha!"
"Yeah, you disappeared so suddenly we didn't know what to do." The two that spoke were Alisa and Suzuka, Nanoha's friends who she was playing with earlier that day. Currently they were gathered in one of the spare bedrooms of Suzuka's mansion. Aside from them, Ren, Morgana, and Yuuno, there was also Kyouya, Nanoha's older brother, Suzuka's older sister Shinobu, the head maid Noel, and Farin, Suzuka's Personal maid. Nanoha's two friends stayed at her bedside, one of her arms wrapped in bandages and her other wounds dressed as appropriate.
"I'm sorry guys, it's just I was so worried when I lost sight of Yuuno, I kind of panicked and ran into the forest after him. I guess I must have tripped and lost consciousness…" That was the story the four of them had agreed on.
"Thanks again for bringing her back here. You're Ren Amamiya, right? Nanoha's tutor that mom hired? I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Kyouya, Nanoha's older brother. Nice to meet you." Kyouya held his hand out to which Ren promptly shook.
"That's right, I've been generally tutoring her on pretty much any subject she brings up," Ren said to try and cover his basics.
"So, say again, you were basically fishing in the forest while doing so Yuuno found you and led you to Nanoha-chan?" Shinobu asked to confirm once more.
"Yeah, I was just coming to check the river fish since I was fishing at sea earlier today. That's when I ran into Yuuno who led me to where Nanoha was. Then he led me to back to the mansion."
"Where you ran into us," Kyouya finished for him.
"Right," Ren confirmed… at least to help bolster the story he was trying to sell. "Want some of the fish I caught?"
"Oh, I might be able to whip something up with these, they're quite the catch," Noel said, taking a look into the cooler of fish that Ren had. "Thank you"
"Hey! You said we'd have those for dinner!" Morgana cried indignantly, though it only came out as typical meowing to the rest of them.
"Aw, I suppose I'll leave a few for little Morgana then. The prince needs his fish I suppose. Besides you caught quite a lot here, and I can't possibly take it all." Noel closed the freezer box and began to walk out of the room. "Farin, stay here in case they need anything. I'll be in the kitchen preparing dinner then. If it's a real emergency do not hesitate to call me." Noel then exited the room with the freezer box in tow.
"I think the rest of us should also let Nanoha-chan rest, she's still injured after all," Shinobu suggested. "Come on, let's go." With Kyouya in tow, they followed after the head maid.
"Don't worry, if you're still tired later, I'll do something about it when we're going home," Kyouya said before following Shinobu out.
"Alright, onee-chan. We'll be sure to see you off later Nanoha-chan," Suzuka was first to say.
"Yeah, you need to take it easy for now Nanoha," Alisa followed. However, instead of leaving like the others immediately, they both walked up to Ren.
"Thank you for helping our friend, Amamiya-san. Allow me to formally introduce myself. I'm Suzuka Tsukimura. Nanoha can be reckless sometimes so it was lucky that you were around to help her out today. Please continue to look after her in her studies as well in the future." Suzuka was rather polite and soft spoken, but her care for her friend shown through. It reminded Ren of the tight knit bond between he and his friends.
"Yeah, she can be quite bullheaded about things, solving problems with brute force and lacking any finesse. I'm glad that she has such a dependable tutor around to help out. Ah, I'm Alisa Bannings by the way, it's great to finally meet you." Though she was blunt about it, she was honest with her assessment. It probably showed just how close they were that they were able to be so frank about one another. The two of them curtsied, to which Ren and Morgana returned a slight bow in return.
"Right, she does sometimes like a bit grace going about things," Ren agreed. The three of them shared a laugh that helped to lighten the mood just a bit.
"Hey! I'm right here you know," Nanoha reminded them, disgruntled by her friends talking about her in such a manner.
"Now now Nanoha, is that anyway to talk to the one who saved your life? Isn't there something you should say first?" Although Suzuka would have been right in most cases, it just so happened that this time was not one of them. Nonetheless the Nanoha had to play along.
"Um… I'll… I'll do it later when it's just the two of us," Nanoha, in a combination of nerves and being put on the spot, suddenly blurted out. Ren couldn't help but wish he still had his glasses, so he could have the excuse of readjusting them. He wondered if it was possible for her to have said anything that could have caused a greater misunderstanding. Probably, but luckily it wasn't today.
"Ho? Is there something you need to tell us? Wait, is he the one you were texting that time after the soccer game?" Alisa intuited quite sharply, though it seems her conclusion might have been way off the mark. Hopefully it was anyways.
"Oh my, really? Then I believe we must leave right now. Farin, let's go," Suzuka commanded as she, Farin, and Alisa began to head out of the room, not even bothering to hide their (not really) knowing smiles from them.
"Of course. Let's leave Miss Nanoha to properly convey her feelings," Farin said, whose wording Ren surmised was meant to fluster the poor 9-year-old. Of course, looking at Nanoha, it was clear that she wasn't ready to deal with such teasing, given how flushed she looked right now. Again, he wished he wore his fake glasses again.
"Don't take too long, now. You don't want to talk for as long as Kyouya-san and Shinobu-san, right? Unless that's exactly what you want." Alisa immediately closed the door, if only to avoid being hit in the face with a pillow. That just left the four of them in the room proper. After catching a bit of her breath, Nanoha managed to calm down. However, with a few glances around the room, she once again realized, that she and Ren were the only two humans left in the room. Nanoha, with all her years of experience did the only thing she knew to do in situations like this, twiddle her thumbs and do plum nothing. Ren wished he could help the poor girl, but anything he did would have probably just made things worse.
"Well, to bring things to a more depressing topic, today's operation was a resounding failure on pretty much all accounts…" Morgana was the first to say. "We were beaten pretty much as soundly as we could have been." His statement reminded the room that today wasn't a day to be taking things so leisurely. Both Ren and Nanoha were brought back down as they remembered what had transpired just a few hours ago.
"I must admit I hadn't expected someone from my world to have shown up, or at the very least I wasn't expecting someone as hostile. She's using the same magic system, the same technology, but it's clear she had much more experience than any of us in this regard," Yuuno stated, recalling their opponent today. "Not only that but she had reinforcements as well. Something we failed completely to take into account and paid dearly as a result."
"Talk about a rookie mistake. Fair enough that we didn't expect another magical girl to be roaming around, but to not expect more after that was an oversight. Had we not let our guard down, then maybe we'd have been able to mount some kind of counter offensive," Morgana noted, taking the analysis the two animals had begun further.
"Indeed, we now have a better beat on their abilities. We must, as soon as possible plan in the event that we encounter them again…" Yuuno noted, making a suggestion as to their next possible action, but before he could continue to speak-
"We'll run into her again, won't we?" Nanoha suddenly asked. The two animals turned to the two humans. Both of them had forlorn looks, clearly still devastated by the loss they suffered today.
"We probably will," Ren was the one to answer. "It's clear, given the fact they took one right in front of us, that they're after the Jewel Seeds as well. We find another Jewel Seed, we'll run into them for sure." Realizing he might have been too blunt, he immediately turned to see Nanoha looking downwards. Though he wanted to say something, this time was one of the rare moments where he didn't know what to say. He already a lot to make up for, and didn't want to add to the list so soon.
"Are you afraid to fight them Nanoha-chan?" Yuuno asked in his stead, placing a paw on her lap to try and soothe her. Today was the first time Nanoha had ever experienced such a loss. Ren had already gone through that sort of despair, that kind of regret, so he was used to it. However that would be a lot to absorb for anyone, let alone some as young as her. He wouldn't blame her if she became too scared to continue. However their fears were completely unfounded.
"No, actually. I'm not afraid. It's strange, but for some reason…" Nanoha paused to take Raising Heart in hand, looking deep into the device, she continued. "For some reason I want to see her again. For some reason, I feel sad, and I don't know why or how. I feel that if I see her again, I'll be able to find out why. " After saying as such, she enclosed her fingers around Raising Heart, her eyes, though still affected by today's events, still seemed to look forward into the future. "I have to meet her again." Ren was relieved to hear that, as were Morgana and Yuuno. Nanoha, was still okay even after such a devastating defeat, both physically and mentally. However, though he was still okay, Ren had to make a decision.
"That's great to hear, but I don't know how much help I or Morgana will be the next time we meet them," He finally admitted to them. "It's happened over time, but Nanoha-chan, you've very quickly come into your own. Though you lost, you held your own quite well, and I'm certain that if I wasn't there at the time, you might have been able to win."
"What do you mean, Ren?" Nanoha asked, wondering why Ren was saying this. Didn't they resolve to put this behind them last time?
"Nanoha, there's no sugar coating it. Today I was a liability."
"But-" Ren raised a hand to stop Nanoha from going further.
"Let me finish?" He asked, to which Nanoha could only nod her head. Not willingly though. All Ren could do was give an appreciative smile before continuing. "Alright let me ask you something else then, would you have surrendered had I not been there? If it was the two of them both trying to fight against you, and I wasn't there, would you still have given up?" Nanoha almost immediately wanted to say something… but when she had thought about it, if he weren't there, she wouldn't have stopped. She only stopped, because she didn't want Ren to die. Upon realizing this, she couldn't help but avert her eyes away from him. She felt shameful, knowing that if he hadn't been there she had a chance to win. After she told him that she wanted him by her side during their captures of the Jewel Seeds, she felt genuinely guilty. Just as guilty for having worried everyone, for making them so sad.
"It's okay Miss Nanoha, if the answer isn't one you like. Life's filled with that sort of thing. The what ifs, the maybes, the could have beens, you're not always going to like what you see," Morgana said, trying to console Nanoha of the answer she had arrived at. However, she wasn't going to leave it at that.
"Then a compromise," she declared, having made up her mind. She wouldn't back down on what she believed in. "I still want you to be there with me when I go after the Jewel Seeds, Ren. Honestly I can't imagine doing it without you or Morgana around, but from now on, when it gets dangerous I want you to leave it to me. I want to protect the both of you when the time comes. I still want us to be together." She stuck her hand with only her pinkie extended. "It's thanks to you that I've been able to come this far, thanks to you that I can try again and again, no matter how many times I stumble. You're my hero Ren, and I want to do the same for you. So promise me we'll be together to see this through to the end." The man who protected her again and again, the one who, without even the slightest delay ran towards the danger so that others didn't have to. She looked up to him, she wanted to be like him, to be able to one day stand by him, and not just behind him. She couldn't do that if she had to let him go like that. He had to be around so that she could show him.
"Nanoha…" Ren said, genuinely flabbergasted, by the resolve the young girl showed him. It was the kind of bullheadedness his friends knew him for. Perhaps his foolishness was rubbing off on her. He was also quite embarrassed to hear what she thought of him. He was more anti-hero than hero all things considered.
"She's right, besides though you may not be able to provide extra combat support, you can still play the role as an extra set of eyes, ears, and brains," Yuuno pointed out. "You've kind of become our leader in a sense."
"Ren's a natural leader, just as I've come to expect. We just have to be more careful next time. As long as we're not dead, we're not out of the game. Besides we've been hit by worse in the past remember Ren? And how would we live with ourselves if we just walked away," Morgana said, both encouraging and admonishing him at the same time. Yeah, what the hell was he doing?
"Man, I've really fallen far, to be told off by a kid and two house pets," he joked to himself. Before any of them could voice their displeasure however, without warning, he hooked his pinkie around Nanoha's. "Next time, let's make sure we come out on top," He told her, showing her a smile she'd never seen before. Confident, playful, so cocksure, but for some reason it made her heart skip a beat. She thought, did he always look so dashing, so handsome?
"Um… um… Ren… I… uh…" she stammered unsure of just what it was she was feeling. Before she could form an actual sentence however-
"Okay, Stop stop stop stop stop stop stop. That's as far you'll go today," Kyouya said as he barged back into the room. It was clear that by the way he looked he thought that something else was happening. Following him was the rest of the group at the mansion today as they then began to flood the room, the girls crowding around Nanoha asking what reaction she was having. Kyouya on the other hand was emitting a refined killing intent at the fool. Ren began to regret some of his life decisions at that moment.
-0-0-3-0-0-
The apartment was dark, save for the lights of the city outside and single dim light on the veranda that served as a second floor. It was fairly empty, lacking anything indicating the personality of the one living there. It had nothing but the very basics. There on a simple unadorned couch, sat the young blonde girl named Fate as she stroked the head of an orange wolf that looked worryingly at her. They had been like this for some time, simply sitting there in the dark, just the two of them.
"Thank you for coming today, Arf," Fate said to the wolf. "I probably would have been able to win on my own, but thanks to you, we were able to obtain Jewel Seed 14 without any issue." She let the silence permeate the room again, as she continued to stroke Arf's head. "That girl probably has more Jewel Seeds, doesn't she… we're probably going to run into her again then. We're going to have to fight again as well…"
"Woof," Arf went, though it was nothing but a wolfs bark to all but Fate.
"You're right, we're lucky the young man wasn't a mage. His gun was fake too on closer inspection. I suppose it's nice to have someone like that. Though he was foolish to try fighting a mage without a device or spells, he was a brave fool, kind of like a knight in shining armor. Thanks for letting him go …" Indeed, she was sincerely impressed by his display. He acted like a hero from old fairy tales with his valor and courage. It honestly hurt a bit to see him struggle under Arf's foot, fighting despite the odds.
"Woof!" Arf went again, seemingly pleased by the praise.
"But if he shows up again, don't hesitate to fight back. In some ways he might be more dangerous than the girl. I don't want you getting hurt if it can be helped…" It wasn't like he lacked skill either. She was genuinely surprised when he grabbed her scythe like that and putting her into that bargaining scenario. For a moment, she truly was unsure of how to handle the situation. Had Arf not interfered, she might have had to resort to more drastic measures. Not only that, he played her for a fool using a basic knife and a fake gun. He completely, with nothing but bluster, put her on edge and evened the playing field. She shuddered to think what might have happened if he was a full on mage, even a weak one. Regardless he wasn't going to be a threat now that they knew he was nothing but tricks. Like that she looked up at the photo of her and her mother that sat under the lone light that was lit in the apartment. "We'll be home soon, mom."
Author's Notes:
But that's his secret Fate, he's always tricks, and now for kids too. Anyways I'm cutting this chapter short here. Originally it was not only going to have a different name, be much longer as well, and end on a cliff hanger, but given how this followed the progression curve of emotions quite well (You know how a story has to escalate and deescalate at certain points to best capture audience attention), I felt that making it longer would have ruined that, as well as be unnecessary bloat. Too many events happening in one chapter and being un-cohesive as a result. Instead I decided to flesh out certain scenes and add some better fluff to more parts so as to at least have a decent word length for the chapter despite the lack of development. I suppose that's what happens when you're writing a chapter that's finishing something from the previous one.
Next chapter I plan to write will contain pretty much everything I had to cut that I planned for this chapter as well as other things to add on top of that. Based on what I'm outlining, it should be of decent length. Perhaps my standards are too high because to me, sub 6k words pre-editing was in my eyes, too small, but I had to struggle with the fact that what I wrote still went well pacing-wise. In the end, I decided pacing and proper partitioning of events made up for length, and will just post what I got. If that's not the case, the reviews will tell me otherwise, so wins all around in that regard. Of course then I sometimes find fics with large numbers of chapters but barely having 50k+ words and I'm just sitting here wondering what the hell I'm doing.
Anyways aside from that, in the original Nanoha anime, this was the first time Nanoha not only met Fate, but also lost to her. Like any good second act, many of the middle episodes for that season focused on Nanoha getting beaten or out done by Fate, only to the turn it around as the third act began. This is where most of the changes from the Persona side of things will start to seep in. How though? I'll show it off next time. Character-wise, It's finally shown that Ren can be a major liability in battles thanks to him being a quickly depreciating battle asset. Sure Nanoha would still lose the next couple of battles regardless, but he doesn't know that. All he knows is that Nanoha is talented, and that she lost because of him. That would hurt, but I also wanted him to be resolved to be better, but to also display Nanoha's bull headedness in this regard and her unwillingness to compromise in her beliefs, even if they come at the end of a magically charged laser attack.
As Always though, thanks for reading. If you have any complaints or things you'd like to point out, let me know in a review. Have questions? Remember I said they'll get their Personas at some point. Comments? Appreciated as it makes the reviews interesting and ups the numbers. Concerns? Thank you, but you don't have to.
Anyways, Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed what you read, and have a great day.
PS. Now I know why Amamiya bothers me as a name. It make think of Mama Mia, which while a good ABBA song was a terrible movie. Akira Kurusu was honestly much cooler sounding name.
