As always, I will be relying on my readers to tell me where I messed up in this chapter. If something looks off, let me know about it so that I can fix it.
Chapter 7: Adjusting
29 May, 0065
It wasn't as if Fate had never been hugged before. Arf and Linith had never had any reservations about physical contact. Fate was somewhat troubled by her back, but it was mostly that her scars were related to… Regardless, she did not have issues with being touched.
Still, this was a bit much.
Fate proceeded to gently extricate herself from the pile of bodies on Nanoha's bed. Why they were sleeping together was a mystery to the blond. Between Nanoha's broken arm, Yuuno's bruises, and the fact that Nanoha's bed was sized for one child, not three and an adult, this was far from a good idea. As she moved Arf's arm off of herself, Fate corrected herself. Three children and a child-sized familiar, as Arf had switched to her more energy-efficient child form so that Fate could recover faster.
Finally free of the bed, Fate straightened her borrowed sleepwear. She had not had a chance to remove her belongings from her former living space, so she was wearing a large blue T-shirt that Miyuki had lent her. It hung loosely on her, and didn't so much cover her as engulf everything between her neck and her knees. Fate wasn't sure what she should make of Miyuki. The older girl seemed so flighty and silly, but from time to time she said and did things that showed she was a lot more aware than she acted.
It was like Nanoha's father when he had threatened Hayate, except Miyuki didn't go all cold and scary.
Fate hemmed and hawed, staring at the door. It would be uncomfortable, and possibly rude, to go out before getting dressed for the day. But her clothes were being washed, so unless she activated her barrier jacket she didn't have much choice. And that would wake up the others.
Eventually Fate snuck out of Nanoha's room in the hope that she could find her clothes before anyone noticed her. Unfortunately, Nanoha's mother spotted her as she walked down the hallway, and Fate soon found herself seated at the table as Momoko served breakfast to the elder members of the family.
"Did you sleep well last night?" Kyouya asked as he carried a plate to the table.
Fate blinked, and then nodded. In spite of everything, she really had had a good night's sleep, untroubled by nightmares or by her bedmates.
Kyouya stepped outside to take a telephone call, and Shirou consulted a daily planner on the counter while Miyuki and Fate ate. The three sleepyheads (Nanoha, Yuuno, and Arf) wandered in a little later, which made things a little crowded, but Fate didn't mind. Everyone was happy and safe, and while being thrown into the midst of things like this was kind of scary, Fate couldn't help but like it.
She did, however, sneak off to get her clothes and change into them at the earliest opportunity. She wasn't so comfortable with the others that she could wander among them partially dressed and not be embarrassed.
"Hayate…"
"Are you going to start supplicating and apologizing and beating yourself up over yesterday again?" Hayate looked pointedly at Signum, a touch of humor in her voice.
Signum twitched. She had screwed up royally. She had almost gotten Hayate killed. However, far from punishing them, Hayate had forbidden them from punishing themselves over the incident, smiling at them all the while. Hayate had actually thanked them for doing as she asked, and apologized for restricting them! Apologized! As if the Wolkenritter shouldn't have been able to win that fight blindfolded!
"Are you ready to go get breakfast?" Signum asked, outwardly unaffected by the prior day's events.
Somehow, Hayate's smile made it worth it.
"I'll need to see about doing some paperwork to give the three of you legal identities here." Shirou informed Yuuno, Fate, and Arf. Fate and Arf nodded, but surprisingly Yuuno shook his head.
Looking a bit sheepish, Yuuno explained that he had already done so. "I didn't want to get deported, or forced to get to school or anything, so I… set things up."
"Wait," Arf raised her hands. "That sheepish look, that squeaky edge to your voice… I sense guilt. Did you do that computer hacking thing?" She accused.
Yuuno flushed, flinching back from the familiar's jabbing finger.
"Didn't you say that was illegal?" Arf deadpanned. "I clearly remember you being reluctant to do it on the Garden. And yet, you did it to the Japanese government, just like that?"
"I did it eventually, didn't I?" Yuuno muttered, only audible to Arf's better-than-human hearing, then spoke louder. "It's standard procedure for my family. We go to a lot of Non-Administered Worlds, and on the non-magical worlds it saves us from awkward questions we aren't allowed to answer."
"Fair enough," said Shirou, apparently unbothered by hacking and forgery. "Who do you have as a legal guardian?"
"My grandmother. She has health problems, so I'm staying with some friends. I have intermittent problems with a chronic illness, so I have permission to be home-schooled. If anyone asks more about my family, I refuse to talk about personal matters."
"And that works?" Arf asked, somewhat incredulous.
"Japanese society is a great and noble thing to be a part of, but it has some notable quirks." Shirou said dryly. "It isn't as bad as it used to be, but family business still tends to stay in the family even when it shouldn't."
"I'm not great at lying, so it works well for me," said Yuuno. "Do you mind if I have my 'grandmother' disappear in the dislocation?" he asked Shirou. "I could then have you and your wife become my legal guardians, and I'm pretty sure I could bypass adoption stuff and the like if I do it right."
"Good in theory, but it is important to make the details work. How about…"
Fate and Arf watched on in awe and horror as the two schemed.
"Yuuno," Arf interrupted, "I'm almost afraid to ask, but are you sure that your family is made up of scholars, as opposed to, say, criminals?"
"We've been mostly legit for the past few generations," Yuuno said distractedly as he made notes. "Why?"
Arf bit back a comment about potential uses for his skill-set, and suppressed the urge to snark about his apparent willingness to run roughshod over the poor, unsuspecting local bureaucracy. While she had a sinking feeling that he wasn't being sarcastic with that statement, he had merely attempted to follow MidChildan laws regarding revealing magic to the local populace. It wasn't as if he was racking up a body count or burning down buildings or anything. It was a harmless, understandable thing to do. No need to bite his head off or make him feel guilty.
"…No reason."
Shirou, the very picture of integrity, had a suggestion. "How about you two take some time to think about how to describe your pasts without mentioning magic or cloning? It is best to keep your story as close to reality as possible to minimize the chance of you being caught in a lie."
He permitted himself a moment of smugness at how nobody had questioned his experience at this.
Auris firmly believed that Regius Gaiz was a great man. He was dedicated beyond belief, loyal beyond doubt, and the best leader that the Capital Defense Corps had had in living memory. His personal life had suffered for it, sadly, but it was a minor sacrifice.
"Zest, I need the best team for this job. And it is my belief that that is you and your team."
"Scaglietti is-"
"Not as important as this, and you know it."
Auris had little personal familiarity with Knight Zest, but knew of him. 'Knight' wasn't his actual rank, of course, but it was hard to think of the man otherwise. He was a practitioner of the Ancient Belkan magic system, a true rarity in the modern era. Strongly dedicated to honor, justice, and duty, he was widely considered the strongest mage attached to Ground Forces HQ. He was also an old friend of the Lieutenant General, although Auris knew that the two rarely had the time or opportunity to interact outside of official meetings these days.
"The Navy has indicated that it wants outsider help. If you pull it off, if you bring in whoever caused this Dimensional Dislocation, that one success could do as much good for the Ground Forces as all of the work I've done in the past decade," Lt. Gen. Gaiz continued. "And even if it is a joint capture, the fact remains that any criminal capable of causing a Dimensional Dislocation is the TSAB's first priority! I refuse to allow even the slightest chance that the same thing that happened to Non-Administered Planet 97 could happen here!"
"Scaglietti must be stopped." Zest pointed out, not quite disagreeing but not giving in so easily.
"Zest, I understand that Scaglietti has become personal for your team over the past year, but I need you elsewhere. I know that you haven't got any active leads at the moment. Pick a team, bring them up to speed, and hand the case off to them."
"Very well." Zest conceded reluctantly.
"Zest, if Scaglietti still isn't behind bars when you finish the Dimensional Dislocation case, I'll put you, Alpine, and Nakajima back on his case," said the lieutenant general. "You'll have my full support for as long as it takes."
Auris was proud of her commanding officer. He was a great leader who cared for his subordinates, and she was glad to be one of them.
Vita, no matter what anyone else might say, was not a child.
Many, many people had made that mistake in the past. Treating her according to her 'biological age' was foolish. She was a magical construct. Her flesh and blood was a facsimile, albeit one that extended down to the molecular level. Unless examined magically, Vita seemed to be a normal little girl.
But only seemed.
Food? Rest? Intact visceral organs? Completely unnecessary! Oh, they helped, but Vita had survived being stabbed through the heart. She had won battles while missing half her face. Her body count was larger than the population of Uminari! Vita had about as much 'little girl' in her as Hayate had meanness.
…She was just holding this plush rabbit for Shamal while she tried on some clothes.
"So is this everything?" Momoko asked the assembled movers.
"Sorry," Fate said, embarrassed. "I really don't have much."
It was true. The entire Takamachi family plus newcomers really wasn't needed to carry a few changes of clothing and some mementos, but they were there regardless. They had assumed, wrongly, that Fate would have a little more in the way of possessions.
Well, it was not quite the bonding experience Momoko had been hoping for, but it got everyone away from the TV and radio and newspaper.
Away from the casualty reports. The diagrams showing the devastated areas. The missing persons list.
She and Shirou had talked about it at length the previous night and come to the conclusion that it was impossible to keep such information from the children. But they might be able to blunt the impact somewhat. They would answer the children's questions honestly, and be willing to listen. Most importantly, they would provide a stable environment and deemphasize the recent crisis.
"Well, let's bring it all home. I can't imagine anyone is going to complain about a light load," Momoko smiled encouragingly at Fate.
"Don't worry," Nanoha chirped, "we can go shopping later."
"Ah…" Fate blinked. "I don't want to be a bother…"
"No way!" declared Miyuki emphatically. "You are much too cute to be a bother!"
"Eh?"
"I'll see if Suzuka and Arisa want to come…" Nanoha trailed off, frowning. "Yuuno, have you seen my phone?"
Yuuno thought about it. "Not today at least. I don't remember hearing the alarm go off either. When did you last have it?"
Nanoha considered. She hadn't had it yesterday, because she remembered that being why she didn't immediately put Hayate's phone number onto her contacts list. "Monday, maybe? Yeah, I think I had it when I left the house Monday morning…" Her face drained of color.
Arf scrunched up her face. "Today is Widnosday-"
"Wednesday," corrected Shirou.
"Wednesday, so that means… Oh dear." Arf hesitated. "Was it made of pink plastic?"
Nanoha nodded miserably.
"I might be wrong, but…" Arf scratched her head. "If it is what I think it is it wasn't, ah, lightning-proof. It didn't look very phone-like anymore. If you want to have I look, I think I hid it with the rest of the stuff we took from the Garden."
As Nanoha bemoaned over her slagged cellular device (She was never going to bring anything important into battle with her again!) Kyouya exchanged a glance with Miyuki. "I'm not sure which is stranger, the fact that my littlest sister's phone was broken by a magical lightning bolt or the fact that Nanoha can apparently tank a lightning strike and come out mostly unharmed."
"I just find it inherently unfair that Nanoha gets to have magical powers and I don't." Miyuki mumbled. "I always wanted to be a magical girl when I was that age."
"How could I forget 'Magical Girl Melodic Miyuki,' defender of justice and cakes?" Kyouya commented innocently. "I'll have to show them the pictures at some point."
"Don't you dare!" hissed the teenager.
Kyouya simply smiled.
"Admiral Graham?" Chrono blinked in surprise. "How can I help you, sir?"
Gil Graham smiled sadly. "I'm not sure you can. But I'm not here with a request. I'm here with a story. Consider it a last lesson from Aria, Lotte, and myself."
This much Nanoha had been able to figure out: Uminari City was kind of a disaster zone.
Her father took some time to give her an overview on the way home. Most of the city had power and water and shelter. Everyone had food, whether bought from the stores like usual or handed out to the displaced. School was cancelled for the time being, but there wasn't a curfew or martial law or anything and most shops remained open. The events of Monday had begun suddenly, and then ended so completely that there had not been much time or cause for panic. Those who were frightened opted to stay at home, as opposed to fleeing towards the mangled mountains or rioting in the notably intact city streets. The biggest problem was that there was no easy way to move significant amounts of goods into or out of the city by land. The roads and rails were disrupted by virtue of not resembling roads or rails anymore.
Air traffic was kept to an absolute minimum throughout Japan until enough satellites were launched. The GPS system required four satellites containing synchronized atomic clocks to be in range, and at the moment there was only one. Flights into Japan had been forced to rely on the frantic efforts of control towers, and while only one crash had occurred (The plane's right wing had been snapped as a consequence of being in the airspace over Uminari at exactly the wrong time.) there were plenty of close calls.
Fortunately, Uminari was a port city, and the bay was unblocked. It was annoying, but the Japanese could and had handled worse natural disasters in the past, and if they had to ship their supplies in then that's what was going to happen. The trains wouldn't be running for a while, but making sufficiently road-like pathways for vehicular use was simply a matter of days and weeks. Proper roads would, of course, require lots and lots of time and money. But that could come later. For now, the engineers and construction workers would just do their level best, and also to ignore the reshaping of the landscape. Uminari was still surrounded by hills and mountains, but you would be hard-pressed to recognize them.
Kyouya ensconced himself in his room with his laptop and checked various bookmarked websites.
In cyberspace, questions bounced between satellites, though there was a notable lack of them above Japan and the eastern edge of China. On forums, on networking sites, on messaging services, the same questions that radio and television hosts continually submitted to interviewee after interviewee resounded.
What happened? Why? Who did it? How did it happen? How can it prevented in the future?
And the answers, when lucid, were all the same: We don't know. We are trying to find out. We will do what we can.
And so life goes on, Kyouya mused. Science gives no answers, religion no concrete solutions. For most of the world, there will be no answers forthcoming.
For a handful of people in Uminari City, Japan, however… He chuckled.
Magic. The one thing that nobody would ever take seriously as an answer in the modern world. If Kyouya told anyone the truth they would never believe him. A thousand years ago, everybody on Earth would have arrived at the realization that there was something supernatural at work, though they would probably attribute it to some deity. But now nobody would be able to figure it out. There was something ironic about that.
"I'm kind of surprised that the moon is still in one piece to be honest." Yuuno admitted. "We're lucky that it was on the other side of the planet, in the shadow of our defenses. If it had been shifted out of its stable orbit… That would have been bad."
"Pity about the lunar landing site," said Arf.
"In related news, astronomers are examining the effects on the rest of the solar system. The most notable finding so far is the apparent fusion of Charon and Pluto into a single celestial body." The newscaster cued an image. "The resulting body is being tentatively considered the ninth planet of the solar system. Various names have been put forth, including Pluto, Hades, Kore, and Orcus."
"It's kind of scary," Nanoha said quietly. "Pluto is really far away. It's hard to think of the distance as more than just a number, it's so big. And the dislocation just…" She gestured widely with her hands, unsure how to describe the oddly-shaped lump that had resulted.
Yuuno nodded solemnly. "That's the scary thing about it. If someone somehow made a normal magical attack with that range and power, it still wouldn't do as much damage. A blast might be able to break a mountain in half, but it won't bury half a continent in magma or drop a city into the ocean. The effect of the dislocation is closer to that of millions of randomized city-sized Forced Transport spells than to a conventional attack. And if you think about it, that's pretty terrifying." He grimaced. "The shockwave that comes with it is a slap on the wrist, compared to the dislocation itself. A dislocation, even if it doesn't destroy a world, will make the planets it affects pretty much uninhabitable. Old Belka is still wracked by massive tectonic upheaval to this day. We got off lightly."
"It is the worst crime an individual can commit, according to the TSAB." Fate noted sadly.
"Are you alright?" asked Nanoha, giving Fate's hand a light squeeze.
She wasn't. Nanoha knew that, and Fate was sure everyone else did, too. But there are only so many ways to say 'How are you doing?', and Nanoha was really only asking about how she felt about Mother.
"The Mother in Alicia's memories and the Mother who caused this… are different." Fate said simply, and did not elaborate.
Fortunately for Fate, Nanoha's mother called them to lunch before she had to dwell on it further.
The Wolkenritter were excellent shoppers. They would get the most nutritious food for the lowest cost, and all Hayate had to do was teach them that taste was also an important consideration. However, cooking was not included in their skill sets.
Hayate was ashamed to admit that she felt happy about that. It was something she could do that the Wolkenritter could not. She could cook for them, once she had gotten the kitchen in their small apartment stocked. How Shamal had managed to find a vacant apartment and work things out with the manager in only two hours was a mystery to Hayate, but she certainly wasn't going to complain.
It was a good start.
Clothes were also a good start. The four knights didn't have many clothes, but they did have a few sets of normal clothes that looked good on them, which was quite an improvement from one set of plain black uniforms. Speaking of clothing, Hayate still needed to design armor for her knights. She needed to find out more about that, but she should probably wait until they were back at the apartment. For now, she could just enjoy the day.
So they sat themselves down in the park, and ate some food from prepackaged bento boxes without drawing too much attention to themselves. It occurred to Hayate that they had yet to cause a single explosion or catastrophe today.
When had her standards fallen so far? She mockingly bemoaned, her mouth twitching up at the edges.
But humor aside, Hayate felt she was adjusting to the presence of her knights rather quickly. It wasn't exactly a bad thing, quite the opposite, but it left her feeling that there was a sudden divide between her life before magic and her life afterwards.
And nothing symbolized the change quite like the 'Buch der Dunkelheit', the Book of Darkness.
Setting aside her bento box, Hayate flipped through the strangely weightless book. As usual ('Usual', after only two days!) the tome was empty. But as she closed the book, movement caught her eye, and she reopened it only to watch in puzzlement and trepidation as ink sped across the last page of the book. Or rather the first page; she should have realized that it was ordered left to right like western literature.
"The fight must have sped up the process," declared Zafira upon seeing the filled page. "The Book of Darkness must have reallocated power so that you would be able to use it to defend yourself."
"It's alive?" Hayate asked curiously. "Like Raising Heart and Bardiche?"
Signum frowned. "It reacts, it adapts, and it stores power and information. But I do not believe it is an intelligent device. I do not recall it ever showing more sentience than Laevatein."
"It has a good idea though," Shamal mused. "While the pages of the Book of Darkness are unfilled, the Book's functions are all dependent on your body's ability to fuel it through the linker core it implanted into you when you were chosen as our mistress. The curse of the Book of Darkness is that maintaining such output is hard on your body. You are showing no negative effects so far, but if you started casting anything but the simplest spells then that balance could be disrupted, putting your life at risk. But this way," she gestured to the filled page, "by expending the magic stored in the pages of the Book, you could cast any spell collected by the book in the past by reciting the incantation. There would be no negative repercussions."
"Of course, what spells you can cast are dependent on how many pages are filled." Signum added. "If the Book doesn't have enough stored mana, it won't work."
Hayate frowned. "But I don't need to use magic. I would rather just give you guys all of the power you need. Can I do that?"
Vita finished her bento and joined the conversation. "You get administrative powers when the Book's pages are full. But don't worry about it, we have over a hundred pages worth of magic between us, and our linker cores replenish our supply just like normal mages' do. One page every couple of days is less than nothing. I haven't felt any weaker."
"Just keep the Book with you in case of an emergency," suggested Zafira. "There are many spells within it. I am certain the Book will provide you with an appropriate one, whatever the situation."
"Well, then, little one," Hayate declared, raising the tome to eyelevel, "I'll leave myself in your capable hands. Thanks for looking after me."
The golden symbol on the cover gleamed in response.
Arf, still child-sized, slumped against the side of the house and considered a picture.
The picture was no more than a few years old, though as she had rarely seen clocks, let alone calendars, on the Garden Arf was unsure of the timing. Linith hadn't had a camera and Bardiche was unfinished, so Precia's familiar had repurposed a security camera and somehow preserved the captured image on the glossy stuff that photos are printed on.
It was a simple shot of the three of them (Arf, Fate, and Linith that is; Precia wasn't interested) with Arf and Fate clinging to either side of the catgirl (catwoman, really) in a maid uniform with big smiles on their faces. All of them were smiling. The only thing spoiling the memory was Arf's knowledge of what had made this the only existing picture of the woman who Arf considered a mother in all but blood.
Not so with Fate, sadly. Although Linith had been a mother figure to the girl, Precia had always been 'Mother' to Fate. If it weren't for that, maybe Fate would have seen the truth of Precia's feelings sooner... But 'what if' was a pointless exercise.
Arf sighed. Linith had not provided her with any useful advice for this sort of situation. It wasn't completely unexpected, but to say that she was unprepared was a bit of an understatement.
Not that she had much to complain about. She was alive, Fate was alive, they had a home, and Precia was gone. That was… pretty much all of her life's goals accomplished. And she was faced with the realization that she had completely based her life around Fate and Precia. So much was different now, and it was kind of… not scary but… unpredictable. It wasn't the sort of fear she felt when Precia had been alone with Fate. Nothing compared to that. But that didn't make this… nervousness any easier to deal with. There was nothing wrong with being nervous about the future, was there? She just had to not let it control her.
Dying wasn't something Arf got nervous about. She had been prepared for that for a long time, never really believing that Precia would let her live when the time came. Arf could remember bleeding out in the snow in her previous life as a wolf. Death happens to everybody, the inevitable conclusion. Dying? Dying was easy. Living was the hard part.
Arf the wolf knew, below the level of sentience, that that was the point.
Arf the familiar was nervous.
And the part of Arf that she liked to think was human got up and went inside to spend some more time with the most important person in her life.
As her allies were all healthy and their cartridges all charged, Shamal engaged in some 'reassurance'.
It's only spying if you get caught.
Thankfully, Shamal was pleased to find that her scrying was only confirming her initial impressions. The children acted almost like normal children. They were unguarded in their movements, and seemed to be operating under the assumption that the ceasefire with the Wolkenritter was permanent. That boded well, as it decreased the chance of a fight. Shamal knew that her own actions now might ruin that, but better to take the risk and know where everyone stood than to fumble blindly.
If it weren't for Nanoha's occasional use of whatever the MidChildan equivalent of combining Floater Field with a movement spell was (Miyuki quickly dubbed it 'Telekinesis' and refused to let Yuuno correct her) to compensate for her broken arm, Shamal would not have been able to tell that they were mages. The Takamachi family was clearly used to not using magic, which lent credence to Nanoha's claims about her training. Shamal hadn't really doubted, but it was good to double-check.
Yuuno had wisely chosen not to heal Nanoha's arm, she noted with approval. Magical healing should only be used for such injuries when absolutely necessary. For one thing, the healing spell disrupted the body's own efforts to deal with it. And it was better to let it heal on its own than to shove foreign magic into the bone. Flesh held magic for only a short time, but it would be months before the unnatural and invasive presence of the magic was finally gone from bone, and that would increase the difficulty of successfully using another healing spell on the arm by an order of magnitude. She could do it, but Yuuno didn't have the training.
Like most people, the Takamachi family had various little psychological issues. Only the children actually had serious problems though. Arf and Fate could use therapy, she felt, although simply being in a safe, supportive environment was already helping a lot. Yuuno had a mild case of survivor's guilt, but would probably get over it eventually if he talked it out with someone. Nanoha… she couldn't get a good read on Nanoha. The Takamachi was not unaffected by events, but she seemed to be running on the high from saving Fate, Arf, and the entire planet. Only time would tell with her.
The other person of interest was Shirou, who had a dangerous combination of experience and skill. He had come closer to killing Hayate than Shamal, than any of them, had thought possible, simply by using his talents and his wits. Signum had described him as highly intelligent and intuitive, but it was hard to catch more than occasional hints of his lethality. If his pleasant nature was a façade, it was a very good one. More likely, his personality during the fight yesterday had been similar to the emotionless masks normally used by the Wolkenritter in combat. But it was impossible to verify that.
There was only so much information Shamal could learn from a couple of hours of conversation and watching 'The Life and Times of the Peaceful and Ordinary Takamachi Family (No Mages Here, Honest!)'. Anyone less experienced than her would have found this exercise pointless. Further scrying was unlikely to yield more for the time being.
Not even the Book of Darkness had a spell that granted omniscience.
Perhaps there would be no further conflict. Shamal hoped so. After all, as the support unit she was not programmed to seek or enjoy battle.
"Why did you promise Grangeitz your support?" The councilor on the left demanded. "Scaglietti is too useful to be put behind bars. It would be better to assign a less effective investigator to his case."
"Scaglietti has nearly perfected his method of producing combat cyborgs by creating artificial mages and modifying them." Regius Gaiz rumbled. "But that isn't good enough for our purposes. I wish to encourage him not to rest on his laurels. He will have until Zest tracks him down, and no longer than that. After all, I am not supporting his criminal activities. If he has enough time to cause trouble, he isn't working hard enough."
"His… excesses are an unavoidable side effect of his genius." The councilor on the right cautioned. "It is doubtful that he will be affected by the threat of Grangeitz."
"Zest's team is the ideal one to 'discover' fully functional combat cyborg technology." Regius countered. "He is highly regarded, and additionally his team includes the mother of the future poster children for the combat cyborg project. The eldest will be entering training to join Ground Forces in a few years, and I'll be able to see to it that she gets a chance to shine."
"And if Grangeitz, Nakajima, and Alpine solve their new case, then they will be hailed as heroes. Any success following that will be all the more highly regarded." The central councilor mused. "Very well, we will trust your judgment. You are as sharp as we had hoped, and are willing to take the difficult path to perform your duty. You have done much good these past years. Keep it up and our goals will surely be realized within a decade."
He had failed Hayate.
Zafira had failed to stop Shirou Takamachi from reaching Hayate. There was no rancor or blame with that thought. It was simple fact. Shirou had protected his family, which was perfectly understandable.
Zafira would do better next time. That was all there was to it.
"I just don't understand why." Chrono said despondently, frustration warring with disappointment and anger. "You went against everything you ever taught me."
"I didn't teach you to be like me," said Graham. "I taught you to be better." The response came so promptly that it was obvious that the admiral had thought about the matter a lot. "I planned to commit a crime, and more importantly to do something terrible and wrong, in order to save lives. I lost sight of the fact that laws exist for a reason. Sometimes laws can, and should, be broken in order to preserve the purpose behind them…"
"But this wasn't one of them," Chrono finished.
"No. No, it wasn't. And I didn't see that, I refused to see that, until it was too late." Graham looked intently at his student. "You will, at some point in your life, encounter a situation where the course mandated by law may seem to be the wrong one. There is no one correct path in such cases. You will have to look at the situation and decide for yourself what the right course of action is. Laws exist for a reason, and that reason is not merely to follow them blindly. But neither should you forget that they do indeed exist for a reason, and probably a good one.
"I now know my mistake," Graham continued, "but I want to make sure that you do as well. I rationalized. I tried to convince myself that what I was doing was right. That what I was doing was good. That it was Hayate's fate to be sealed forever, a sacrifice for the good of all. I should have seen the truth: that if I had to rationalize my decision I was on the wrong path."
Chrono sat quietly, and did his best to treat this like a normal ethics lecture, but his mentor's emotions were visible and raw. And Chrono, knowing why, couldn't help but wonder if this was going to be the last time he saw Graham in uniform. But he didn't say that.
"I'll remember," promised the young enforcer.
Graham smiled. "For what little it's worth, I'm proud of you. And if your father was here, he'd tell you the same thing."
"She has to call soon, though." Suzuka assured Arisa over the phone. "I'm sure she's fine. She's probably just busy helping her family."
Shinobu entered the room, drawing her little sister's attention, and indicated that she wanted to talk.
"I'll call you back later, okay?" Suzuka took a few seconds to politely disengage from her conversation, while Shinobu picked up a cat and stole its place on the couch, bribing the feline with some petting.
"I don't know if you've heard from Nanoha yet," Shinobu began, only to be halted by the keen gaze of her sister.
"Haveyouheardfromher? I'vebeensoworried! Arisa'sbeengettingfrantic! Shesaidshe'dbefine butit'sbeendaysand-"
"Woah, woah, calm down," said Shinobu. "I called Kyouya this morning and he filled me in a little. Nanoha got a little banged up, but apart from a broken arm she's doing fine. They've taken in some friends who were left homeless, and they've been getting them settled. That's why I took over at the Midori-ya this morning, so that they could go salvage Fate's and Arf's belongings."
"Fate? Arf? Are they foreigners?"
"I don't know. Kyouya promised to introduce me to them in a few days, and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?"
Suzuka smiled brightly. "Sure! I'll let Arisa…" She trailed off.
"Is something the matter?" asked Shinobu.
"No," said Suzuka uneasily. "I just think I'll text her instead. She'll probably be really excited about this. And loud."
"Yes, that certainly sounds like her," Shinobu cheerfully agreed. "I'll make sure to let him know you're coming."
"Doctor, Due has returned." Uno called out to her father, stepping aside to let her companion enter the room first.
"Ah, Due," Jail's eyes gleamed. "It is good to have you back safe and sound. Were you successful?"
The blond combat cyborg smiled, and presented Jail with a large piece of cloth, smeared in places by dried blood.
Author's Note:
Much like Chapter 3, this chapter is primarily here to give you an idea of where everything stands, though it does advance the plot somewhat.
I suppose I should tell you not to assume that the characters are either correct or honest when they say or think things. Some of them are completely truthful, but for some of them you'll have to look beyond face value. Sometimes what they don't say is important as well. And sometimes they will get things wrong.
I introduced two new characters this time, Auris and Zest Grangeitz, and we will be seeing them around from time to time. Zest's team will be some of the active players on the TSAB side of the story. For those who don't know, Zest's team consists of him, a summoner called Megane Alpine, and Quint Nakajima, mother of two in a complicated fashion. I have a love-hate relationship with these guys, because information about them is somewhat sparse, or rather the information I have and the information I want don't correspond as much as I would like. Supplemental materials, here I come.
You also met some as-yet-unnamed councilors of no real importance to the actual operation of the TSAB, but of some small influence in matters of policy. Like their friends Regius and Scaglietti, they are warm, loving individuals trying their best to cut out the bureaucracy and fight for the good of the people. Those 5 are the unsung heroes of this story, folks. The kind of people that go out and work for 18 hours every day to make the world a better place, then run off to save kittens and give speeches at schools and work at soup kitchens during their spare time. Furthermore, they donate all of their income to charity and subsist on bread, water, and their conviction to bring peace to the universe.
These men are practically saints, let no one tell you otherwise.
On an unrelated note, thank you again to all of the people who are reviewing. Your support is a great help to me, especially those of you who pose to me your questions and suggestions. While I could, technically, do it without you guys, I don't think the story would be half as good.
Also, does the picture works with the story?
