Chapter 2: The First Day

Flight Lieutenant Charlotte Yeager knew that things were going to be interesting. Well, she didn't really know what was going to happen or when, she didn't have Eila's ability to predict the future. But she did have a feeling in her gut, she had also overheard Mio and Minna talking about a 'person of interest' and a few things regarding that disaster in Neue Eutin. However, she didn't hear the entirety of the conversation.

These little feelings in her gut started coming to life about two days ago, Minna and Mio went into town and then returned in the afternoon with the only hint of what happened was Minna smiling and saying 'You'll find out soon enough.' They had once again left at the crack of dawn and left a note saying they'd be returning in a few hours. So here she was, in the meeting room, with the other members of the 501st, waiting for the commanding officers to come back. She took in the sights of the others with a soft chuckle, Miyafuji was once again being groped by a hyperactive Lucchini while Lyn (fruitlessly) tried to pull her off, Hartmann and Barkhorne were having a conversation in their own native tongue, Eila was sitting in a chair with Sanya propped on her lap sleeping like a baby, and Perrine was watching Lucchini's antics with a hint of irritation on her face.

All in All, an ordinary day. She heard a knock on the door, meaning that the Wing Commander and Squadron Leader had returned to the base. Barkhorne and Erica instantly ceased their conversation, Eila nudged Sanya awake, Lucchini scrambled back to her seat while Miyafuji and Lynette did their best to recompose themselves. As soon as everyone was back in their respective seats, Minna entered the room followed by Mio and to Charlotte Yeager's surprise there was a blonde-haired boy walking alongside them.

'This ought to be good...' Was the thought that came to her mind as a smile curled up on her face.

Minna was watching everyone's reactions carefully, she noticed that everyone was paying attention to herself rather than Danniel. This was to be expected because she was their CO but at the same time she noticed a few of them flicker their eyes towards the boy in question but at this point she doubt that any of them would show any malice towards the boy. At least...that is what she hoped.

When Mio suggested that they'd take custody of Danniel as a person-of-interest in the Neue Eutin investigation, Minna thought that her long-time friend had gone insane. However, Mio gave a few good reasons why they should take him in. First being that if he remembered anything they could talk to him immediately and second is that it could help improve the morale of the other witches on-base. Minna couldn't argue with that sort of logic so when they returned to base, she filed a few requests to High Command and they approved of them. The next day, they managed to take custody of Danniel and take him back to base, they even had a spare room set up the previous afternoon in preparation of his stay. Now all Minna needed to do was to announce that the blonde-haired boy would be living on-base for the time being...that was going to be interesting.

"Atten-HUT!" When those words left the Squadron Leader's mouth, they stood up in attention to their superiors...

"At ease." And then they went back to their seats, all the while paying attention to their leader.

"I'd like to make this brief...Due to some circumstances beyond our control we'll be housing a civilian in our base..."

That caught the attention of a certain pair of Karlslander aces as well as a certain Gailian Noble. Minna gestured for the young boy to step forward and with little hesitation he stood in front of the others.

"Hello, my name is Danniel. It's nice to meet you all..."

Minna noticed that no one was speaking up about this latest turn of events, everyone was completely silent. Hopefully they're doing it out of respect... The Wing Commander REALLY hoped that she wouldn't get any complaints about their 'guest', he's only eleven years-old for goodness sakes!

"If any of you have anything to say, speak up otherwise you're all dismissed."

And with that Minna and Mio left the room, leaving Danniel behind to face the nine other girls on his own. Minna paused as soon as she was outside of the door.

"What's wrong?" Mio asked.

"Wait for it..."

They heard a squeal from the room followed by the sound of Danniel yelping, and that is when everything went downhill...Well, for him anyway.

"Hmmm...That went well."

"Indeed."

Danniel didn't know what to do at first when the two commanding officers of the 501st JFW left, but when he saw a blonde-haired witch wearing a black Karlsland military uniform running towards him with a wide smile on her face he braced himself for the worse...Only for her to grab him in her arms...then start rubbing her nose against his face.

"He's so cute!" Despite the fact that Erica was one of the aces of Karlsland, she had a bit of a...childish side to her, that included a love for anything that's cute or cuddly.

Her partner Gertrud Barkhorne couldn't help but let out a sigh and shake her head, why was she not surprised when Erica did this? She really didn't need this crap from her partner this morning, which is why she didn't try to save the lad from the bone-crushing embrace he was in.

Fortunately, Charlotte Yeager took the initiative to try and save him.

"Okay, Erica let the boy go before ya break something." she inwardly chuckled at the sight of Erica pouting about her fun being interrupted. Danniel took in a few breaths of air before thanking the young women in front of her.

"No problem, kid...the name's Charlotte Yeager, just call me Shirley." She held her hand out, but as soon as he grabbed her hands she squeezed hard on his causing him to wince at the feeling, the women from Liberion just laughed.

"If you don't eat, you'll never grow!" It was then that a Romagnan girl with black pigtails jumped on her and complained that she was bored. Are all witches this weird? He turned around and ended up walking into someone, he had accidentally bumped into another witch, this one being a Britannian judging by her clothing, and her light-brown hair in a braided ponytail.

"Hello there, my name is Lynette Bishop. It's nice to meet you." She had a very soft voice, one that actually made him feel comfortable.

"Nice to meet you too."

"And this is Miyafuji Yoshika." The younger teen from Fuso did a quick bow to him and he awkwardly tried to do one back to her, much to their amusement. He then noticed a pair of pale-skinned witches in the back. One was taller than the other and had dusty-blonde hair along with a uniform that bore light-blue and white, the colors often seen on squadrons of Suomus. While the shorter of the pair had unusually white hair, a white dress-shirt with a black tie, and a black leotard and skirt.

"Hey there, I'm Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen and this is Sanya V. Lityvyak. Pleased to meet you!" He was about to extend his hand out to her but he noticed that Sanya was in her arms. The smaller girl made small nods of her head as she breathed slowly in and out while her eyes were comfortably shut. Being smart, he pulled his hand back and gave a quick nod to the older girl, who in turn nodded back. He didn't want to disturb Sanya's slumber for two reasons, the first being that he didn't want to be rude and the second being that he had a feeling that Eila wouldn't be very happy if he did anything to the Orussian witch.

His thoughts were interrupted when the girl that was alongside Shirley jumped behind him, grabbed him by the shoulders, and turned him around to face her smiling face.

"I'm Francesca Lucchini!" Her face was very close to Danniel's to the point that he felt uncomfortable with the Romagnan Girl's presence, despite the fact they were about a year apart in age. He never had the chance to respond, because a certain blonde haired Karlslander decided to pop up from behind and cross her arms around his neck in a hug.

"And I'm Erica Hartmann!"

"Uh...P-Pleased to meet you both." Lucchini gave a short chuckle while Erica pulled him into her lap. He turned his gaze towards the Gailian noble with the glasses, but upon making eye contact, she turned her nose up with a hum of disapproval. When he turned towards the older brown-haired Karlslander she simply stood up and left the room without even a word, but when Erica noticed her wing-mates departure she decided to catch up with her.

Those two don't seem to like me. A frown appeared on his face, the first one to notice was Charlotte Yeager and she decided to quickly remedy that.

"Hey Yoshika, why don't you and Lynn show Danniel his room." Yoshika perked up hearing this and nodded, Lynette offered her hand to Danniel and he took it without much hesitation as they left the room. Leaving Charlotte Yeager with Lucchini, Perrine, Eila, and Sanya...Seeing that nobody else was talking she decided to start off.

"Well, this was an interesting turn of events. Don't you think?" Eila nodded as Sanya began to stir, the young girl letting out a small sigh from her lips.

"I wonder why they would bring a kid here anyway. Do you have any idea why they would do that?" The buxom witch from Liberion gave a quick shrug.

"Beats the hell out of me, he could be a relative of one of the higher-ups or maybe even a government official for all we know."

"If that is true, why would he be here?" Perrine decided to jump in, her eyes closed as if deep in thought. "It wouldn't make much sense for someone with that much authority to throw a child near the frontlines." Eila rolled her eyes at the young heiress.

"How would you know, four-eyes? For all we know he could be someone with magical potential." Perrine was fuming and it wasn't helping that Lucchini decided to stick her tongue out at the Gailian noble.

"Isn't that rare, though?" Everyone freezed and turned to Sanya who let out a small yawn, her eyelids half-way open yet still brimming with some amount of energy.

"What did you say?" Shirley asked with curiosity, the night witch tilted her head to the side...an action that Eila thought was adorable until the girl in her arms began to speak.

"I asked if it was rare for boys to use magic. Because I know that they tend to be weaker than us witches when it comes to combat." Sanya let out another yawn as Perrine sat stone-faced, she was trying to hide her pride from them. Eila on the other hand let out a sigh of defeat and Shirley's laughter didn't make things better.

"She has a point, Eila." It was true that both males and females could have magical potential, however it tended to be more prominent in females instead of males. The handful of male magical users that do exist have positions as researchers or engineers because they can't generate a magical shield. Historians and Scientists alike have been bashing their heads about the subject for decades now. Many of them made theories about the scarcity of males with magical potential but all of them were either ridiculous or downright impossible to prove. Therefore, the likeliness of Danniel having magical potential was slim to none.

"So what now?" Lucchini asked, her legs swinging to and fro on her perch next to Perrine. Her older wing-mate just let out a grin and shrugged.

"I say we go with the flow. Besides, I doubt that one little boy could cause too much trouble." The rest of the witches in the room nodded in agreement. What was the worse that could happen anyway?

By the time that the 501st's guest had finished settling in, it was time for dinner and as usual Miyafuji and Lynette Bishop were the ones making dinner in the kitchen while everyone else was waiting for their meal.

Charlotte Yeager was joking around with Lucchini, and Eila while the latter sat next to Sanya who watched their antics with a small smile of amusement. Gertrude Barkhorne was criticizing Erica over a small mistake she made during training much to the blonde's distaste. Perrine was trying and failing to keep her cool because of the commotion the others were making and it wasn't helping that Mio wasn't here.

As for Danniel, he was sitting down and quietly reading one of the books that he carried in his knapsack. He wasn't really ignoring the other witches but instead he had his attention focused on the lines of text that dotted the pages in his book. His eyes scrolled about the paragraphs as his thoughts echoed the words inside them. He could vaguely see every event, person, and place from the story as images that floated about his mind like a roll of film.

However, he didn't see Erica Hartmann sneak up behind him and before he knew it she had swiped the book out of his hands.

"Hey!"

Erica read a sentence or two before looking at the cover and after seeing the title she let out a chuckle of amusement.

"You're reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson? Isn't that a little advanced for someone your age?"

"Yes, but I like it and I was reading it. Now give it back!" He tried to jump and grab at it but Erica just raised her hand out of his reach.

"Come on, please!"

"Jump for it!"

"Just give it back already!"

"You're too sh-" Before Erica could try again, Gertrud Barkhorne grabbed the book by the spine and gave her wingmate a stern glare that actually scared the daylights out of her. Seeing that her energetic partner was pacified for the moment, she turned around and handed the book back to Danniel who reluctantly took it from her. She turned around and walked back to her seat but not before the young boy spoke up.

"Uh, thank you!"

The eldest Karlslander paused for a second before turning around and giving him a silent nod. He had a feeling that she still didn't like him but at least she tolerated his presence rather than ignoring him like Perrine. Speaking of the Gailian noble, she perked up upon seeing Mio entering the room alongside Minna but her face turned into a scowl when she saw Mio praising Miyafuji Yoshika for the meal she was making.

'God Damn that racoon-dog! How does she do it?!'

When dinner was served, she kept that scowl on her face...she'd have to deal with Miyafuji Yoshika tomorrow.

Charlotte Yeager quickly stretched her arms as she got ready for bed. She was wearing a baggy green T-Shirt that hugged her breasts and went down to her thighs. Her thoughts were elsewhere at the moment though, she continued to wonder why that kid was being housed here on base rather than with his parents or guardians but on the other hand that wasn't her decision to make because she wasn't the wing commander.

However, her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Danniel walking in the hall to his room in blue pajama trousers and a blue button-up pajama shirt. Curiosity getting the better of her, she decided to follow the lad back to his room without him noticing. She quietly strode behind him as he opened the door to his bedroom and left it cracked.

The red-headed young women from Liberion peaked into his room and saw that after he shut off his lights, he quickly went to his window and looked about...quickly turning his head left and right almost robotically before slowly pulling the curtains shut, and walking back to his bed. During that time she noticed he hadn't taken his eyes of the windows the entire time until he slipped under the covers and closed his eyes.

She thought it was strange behavior for someone his age, it was almost as if he were a sentry guard checking the area for intruders...and if that wasn't enough to chill her bones, she heard a shudder exit his lips as he slept. Was he having a nightmare?

She didn't know what to think about this, and she didn't have the energy to figure it out at the moment. She'd have to talk to Minna about this but for now, she decided to walk back to her room and get some well deserved rest even thought she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Just outside of the bridge to the base, an unnatural being watched the area from a distance...it could feel the young one's presence there...but it wouldn't strike now...the whispers from its brothers and sisters stirring inside of its mind. He will not escape us again...he has been marked...we must observe...he is not alone...he is protected...we must observe...for we are the swarm...we are eternal. And with that, the machine continued its watch all through the night.

I'm sorry that I've taken so long to get this chapter done, I've had issues come up in real life and unfortunately they've been getting in the way of things. I hope you all enjoyed this new chapter!

-Vent Xekart