And here you go. The TSAB's investigation. Send me your queries, and I will try to provide answers later. Tell me where the plot holes are so that I can fill them.

In other news, this story is officially over 100,000 words long! Also, there is a tvtropes page, courtesy of jgkitarel! If you have some spare time, fill it up!


Chapter 12: Investigation


Two weeks into the investigation.


"I normally would not even think of doing this, given the need to maintain confidentiality during a case, and also due to the risk of letting a half-formed theory mislead us, but, first, we essentially have no information that we need to keep confidential, and second, we have so little information that this does not really increase the risk of us getting mislead. So if you have any idea that you think might be helpful, please speak up. It could just give us the break we need. Alright, let's lay everything out on the table. Harlaown, Nakajima, you have the floor. Tell everyone what we have so far."

The investigation had been going on for a full two weeks now, and Zest felt that it was time they figured out where the clues were leading them. This was rather unorthodox, and under most circumstances Zest would not have even considered it, but their initial efforts had amounted to little so far. So Zest had given Harlaown and Quint two days to pull together all of their data into one presentation, and for the whole day they would be going over everything they had with a fine-toothed comb until they found something. They had appropriated the bridge… command deck… whatever the term for it was… for the day in order to use the wall-sized screens to display and manipulate information, and Zest had decided to allow the ship's crew to participate, as well as Admiral Graham and his familiars. The more perspectives, the better.

Did he mention that they really needed a breakthrough sometime soon?

It took a little over an hour just to cover the basics, but it was well worth it to have a complete picture. Quint and Enforcer Harlaown started with a very thorough timeline of the dislocations, and explained at length why it was believed that Non-Administered Planet #97 was at the center of the dislocation.

97, or 'Earth' as they were calling it out of deference to Admiral Graham, was the next topic. History, politics, and geography were discussed in detail. In the end, the message was simple:

"Earth does not have a magic-using civilization, and in fact has not had a civilization that has had magic play any role at all in the entirety of its known history. There is no magical flora or fauna, no significant deposits of magically active substances, and while the number of potential mages on Earth is unknown, it is small enough that the prevalent view is that magic is impossible." Quint took a breath, and spoke the obvious conclusion: "While it is impossible to be certain, we are as certain as we can be that the dislocation could not have been intentionally caused by the native population. Either someone on Earth accidentally activated a Lost Logia of vast power, or a non-native party is responsible."

"Are there any Lost Logia capable of such a thing?" One of the bridge crew asked uncertainly.

"And how would it get to Earth in the first place?" another chimed in.

The young enforcer nodded to both speakers, and manipulated the display as he answered. "Not many. There are only two known Lost Logia that we know are able to cause dislocations. Both are Belkan superweapons confiscated several decades back. They are kept under strict guard at all times. The two of us," he nodded to Quint, "were allowed to verify that both were still locked up like they are supposed to be. We can attest to their continued presence at their respective storage facilities. Having ruled those two out, the next suspect was this."

The images displayed on the screens, of course, were of the Book of Darkness. Tables of data, scans, and numerous graphs and charts, courtesy of Graham and his familiars, were spread out across the screens. This was actually the first suspect, but they couldn't say that in public.

"The Tome of the Night Sky, better known as The Book of Darkness," Harlaown announced. "Not only is it extremely powerful, it has a unique trait that could explain its presence on Earth: when destroyed, it reforms elsewhere, binding itself to a new master which it selects itself."

"The Book was last encountered in 0054," Quint picked up the story, displaying relevant information as she went. "The Book was eventually captured along with its master, but it overpowered the seals placed on it and attempted to take over the ship transporting it. When containment efforts failed, Admiral Clyde Harlaown ordered his crew to evacuate the Estia while he held it back. Admiral Gil Graham, at the request of Admiral Clyde Harlaown, destroyed the Estia, and with it the Book, by arc-en-ciel before the Book could fire the Estia's own arc-en-ciel."

Chrono took up the lead again. "The Book's destructive capabilities, adaptability, and its ability to transport itself throughout time-space, make it look like a likely culprit. Furthermore, it can be used to the fullest by even the weakest of mages, regardless of their knowledge or skill. Also, the Book is known to go out of control once it accumulates enough power. In other words, anyone can use it, and regardless of who uses it or what their intentions are, destruction is the inevitable result."

"However," Quint said, "we eventually concluded that the Book's abilities make it unlikely to be the culprit. The Book does have enough power to cause a dimensional dislocation when it is fully charged: it has a mana storage capacity of 666 'pages' which becomes self-sustaining when they are all filled. To give you an idea, of how much this is, an average C-rank mage's linker core might fill about five pages. Releasing that much mana at once can, under the right conditions, cause a dimensional dislocation. But while the Book of Darkness has caused dislocations in at least two recorded instances, it did not use such a method to cause the dislocations.

"In the first case, during the Saint-King Unification War, the Book took control of an experimental facility in a similar way to how it took control of the Estia. We have not been able to determine exactly what was within the facility, but using the resources it took control of the Book caused a dimensional dislocation that resulted in the immediate loss of a quarter-sphere of the world in question, severely damaging the biosphere."

"In the second case," Chrono said, "in 0007 of the modern calendar, the Book took control of a factory which produced I-Class mana cores, which was the current version of the power source used by navy warships. Again, it seized control of those resources provided, and used them to cause a dimensional dislocation. Thankfully, the factory was on an uninhabited, remote world. The planet in question is now uninhabitable."

"However," Quint continued, "in both cases, if the Book of Darkness had used its own power, the dimensional dislocation would have been larger by several orders of magnitude. Similarly, if the Book of Darkness had used its own power to produce an arc-en-ciel blast, it would have been able to destroy the escort fleet accompanying the Estia. Instead, it went through the process of charging the Estia's own main cannon, which Admiral Graham could easily monitor. In either case, the Book of Darkness should have been able to do much more damage before being destroyed."

"After much analysis, the conclusion we came to was that it did not, because it could not." Chrono said. "The Book of Darkness has three, and only three abilities: First, it can manifest itself and four guardian programs in physical form, similar to familiars. Second, it can reincarnate itself and the guardian programs if it is destroyed. Third, it has the magic Collect and Use. By absorbing the linker cores of its defeated foes, it stores up mana for later use, and also attains the ability to cast any spell its victim has ever used. A user of the Book can then use the mana stockpile to cast any of those spells by simply reciting the full incantation for that spell – if the spell does not have an incantation, the Book designs one."

The whole room shivered. Zest was not afraid of much, but that ability had the potential to be utterly terrifying. But then…

"How does that make it unlikely to be responsible for the dislocations?" Admiral Graham asked.

"Because the logical result is this: the Book only knows spells taken from linker cores." Chrono explained. "The Book had access to all of the information a human would need to cast arc-en-ciel, and it had all of the necessary power, but it is not human. It can't use a spell unless it drains the linker core of someone that has cast such a spell. It could not cast arc-en-ciel, because nobody 'casts' arc-en-ciel, the power core and the main gun of the ship does that. It can't cast a spell to cause a dimensional dislocation, because it would have to absorb the linker core of someone who had actually cast such a spell. And that is impossible."

"Is it actually physically impossible?" Amy asked. "I mean, maybe none of us could do it, but is it really impossible?"

"Well, technically, it isn't impossible, but we had a talk with the scientists who are studying the dislocation, another talk with the scientists studying the Belkan superweapons we mentioned earlier, and we ran everything by some people in R&D just to be sure." Quint explained. "Everyone agrees: an organic being can't handle that much energy all at once. I mean, if someone got really creative, they might be able to come up with workarounds, like, say, making it a magic ritual that took a couple of days, but considering that you can get the same result in a shorter time by literally just dumping a huge amount of mana into a small area, nobody would bother. And it has to be an actual spell, cast by one person, or the Book of Darkness won't be able to learn it."

"Can't it use the same method?" Admiral Harlaown asked. "Just releasing a vast amount of mana?"

"Oddly enough, no." Quint shook her head. "See, the Book of Darkness is all about storing mana and information. It was designed specifically with that in mind. Again, it only has those three functions. The only way it can release mana is by the 'use' part of Collect and Use, by casting spells. And while that could cause a dislocation… Here, this should help explain why it doesn't use that method. Take a look at this."

She pulled up a flow diagram onto the main screen.

"We put together a list of spells we know it knows, and compared the spells it actually uses in each situation to the spells that, say, you or I might use." Chrono said. "When I am in combat, I always choose my spells based on my goals. Sometimes the secondary effects of a mediocre spell make it a better choice than a more powerful spell. But in every case on record, the Book of Darkness chooses spells based on the primary effects."

"For example," Quint said. "The Book of Darkness knows a high level binding spell that causes the target to suffer severe frostbite within five seconds of a successful cast. Which, if you don't care about the target, is really useful for making sure the target stays out of the fight. But it never casts it, preferring to use a slightly stronger one that has no useful secondary effects at all. Now, just one example is hardly proof, but this is a persistent trend."

"It took a lot of analysis of previous incidents and what we know of its code, but this is what we came up with." Quint highlighted the first box in the flow chart. "Upon activating, the Book of Darkness examines its surroundings and decides upon a plan based on available resources and the spells it knows, seeking to cause as much destruction as possible."

She moved on to the next box.

"It then attempts to execute the plan, destroying anything that gets in its way, using the most powerful spell that has the primary effect it seeks to accomplish its goal."

The diagram split into two paths which rejoined immediately.

"Only if power levels are equal does it consider secondary effects, including the release if mana into the atmosphere."

A small loop led back to the second box.

"It continues in this way until its goal is accomplished or becomes unobtainable, at which point it decides upon a new plan."

Quint moved back to the first box.

"This continues until it is destroyed."

"If it was able to consider secondary effects at any point during the planning process, we estimate that it would take approximately three minutes from the Book's activation to the occurrence of a dimensional dislocation of a magnitude similar to the one which occurred at Earth." Chrono informed them grimly. "As the Book always causes less damage, over a longer period of time, while we can't say for sure that the Book is not responsible, if the Book is unchanged from its previous appearances then it is exceedingly unlikely."

Everyone mulled that over, and Harlaown and Nakajima fielded several more questions, but in the end no one disagreed with the analysis.

"So where does that leave us?"

"Either an unknown Lost Logia, or someone was distorting the fabric of reality, purposefully or otherwise, for unknown purposes." Chrono answered. "Possibly a combination of the two."

They were right back where they had started, Zest thought despairingly. No tips, no clues, no anything. They had investigated a few possible connections, but they had come up empty. The entire TSAB had their ears to the ground for clues, yet there was still nothing substantial.

"Why Earth?"

Everyone turned to look at the speaker. Admiral Lindy Harlaown stood up straight from where she had been leaning against the wall.

"Why Earth?" She repeated. "We've been avoiding committing to the belief that this was a criminal action, but given what we've ruled out, I think there is a very good chance that criminal activity is involved here somehow. So, if this was a crime, what is the motive?"

That… was a very good question.

"Well, that depends on whether or not the dislocation was intentional," Megane mused. "If we assume it was, then why would someone want to destroy Earth?"

They brainstormed for several minutes without much success.

"A weapons test?" offered one of the crew, and try as they might it was the most rational idea they had.

"What if it wasn't rational?" Lotte Liese suggested. "We can't assume that the person or persons responsible were sane."

"Good point," Amy Limietta said. "I mean, this was an entire planet full of people. Even if there was a reason to create a dimensional dislocation, why not out in the middle of nowhere? The universe is literally mostly empty space."

It was hard to argue with that.

"A personal connection maybe?" Chrono posited. "Even if they were insane, they would still have needed a reason to be on Earth in the first place. It wouldn't necessarily be a good reason, but Earth is kind of out of the way."

"For all we know, they might have just randomly picked it out of the database of Non-Administered Worlds," Quint pointed out. "But it is something to look into, at least."

Eventually, they started to run out of ideas, so Zest shifted the conversation over to the other possibility: What if the dislocation had been unintentional?

"Secrecy," Graham said immediately. "For magic-users, Earth must have been very inconvenient, especially if there was high-level research involved. As much as it pains me to admit it, Earth was a magical backwater. The TSAB had absolutely no foothold. For a criminal, secrecy is the biggest resource Earth would offer."

They spent another half an hour coming up with ideas, but nobody topped Graham's. The only thing Earth would have offered a criminal was a place to hide. Quite a boon for someone on the run, but an average criminal would have little to no chance of causing such a disaster. Whoever the perpetrator was, they were probably in possession of quite a bit of resources… enough resources that they probably wouldn't need to hide out on Earth.

"What is they were connected to that thing that attacked us?" suggested another crew member. "Or if not, what if they moved around like it did after we found it?"

"Definitely possible, but that doesn't help us much," Chrono said.

"We should keep in mind that the perpetrator almost certainly wasn't on Earth their whole lives," Lindy pointed out. "Whether they had a base which moved or they moved bases, either way they must have left some sort of trail behind."

"We haven't had much luck finding the trail, though," Megane responded.

Either way, every bit helped.

Quint brought up another good point:

"Well, regardless of if it was unintentional or not, there was either a Lost Logia or the perpetrator was messing around with time-space. Or both. What sort of equipment might they need and could we find out where it came from?"

Nobody knew off the top of their heads, but it was at least something to look into.

"They might also need an expert." One of the Arthra's Enforcers suggested. "Someone who understands time-space manipulation really well. There can't be too many people like that, given how advanced that area is."

Eventually, after hours of exhaustive analysis, reasonable suggestions, and wild guesses, Zest called the meeting to a close.

"Thank you for your time and effort. Hopefully we will have a breakthrough soon."

Not the best pep talk, but that was Regius's forte, not his. Now all he had to do was go over his notes, and assign the team to look into the most hopeful leads. With a little luck, or a lot of it, they might manage to crack this case by the end of the month.


"How are you holding up?" Lindy asked her old friend.

Graham sighed. "Honestly? I'm not sure. I've been keeping myself busy, but…"

They sat together in silence.

"I don't feel better," he eventually said. "Now that I know that I am not the man who single-handedly destroyed Earth. I don't feel any less guilty. And it doesn't hurt any less."

"No, it doesn't work like that, does it?" Lindy asked rhetorically. "I don't think you will ever stop feeling guilty. Not fully. Do you know why?"

"Because I don't deserve anything else?" Graham answered tiredly, exhaustion showing in his sunken eyes.

"No, Gil." Lindy smiled sadly. "For the same reason I made your promise not to resign: because you are a good man, even when you try not to be. You will always feel guilty, not because you were caught, or because it turned out badly, but because what you did, what you planned to do, was wrong. You feel guilty for the right reasons. And that is why we refuse to give up on you."

"…Good men don't do what I was going to do to Hayate."

"And bad men don't give thirty percent of their salary up to try give a wheelchair bound little girl a happy childhood." Lindy countered.

Graham scoffed.

Lindy looked her old friend in the eyes. "Gil, the measure of a man is not his actions. Nor is it his reasons. It is both."

"I was going to sacrifice a little girl." Graham retorted. "It doesn't matter what my reasons were. I hardly think it balances out."

"Perhaps not," Lindy agreed. "But if Hayate appeared before you today holding the Book of Darkness, would you go through with your plan?"

Graham sighed. "…No. Not anymore. I don't think I could bring myself to sacrifice her."

Lindy nodded. "I won't lie. You screwed up. Things will never go back to the way they were. But you need to stop focusing on the man you used to be. You need to stop worrying about the man you are now. You need to start thinking about what kind of man you are going to be."

"…A better man than I was, I hope." Graham said eventually.

"Good enough for now." Lindy said approvingly, seeing that Graham was more focused than before. "For now, just take it one day at a time, and don't give up. You'll get there eventually. Now get some food and some sleep. You look half dead."

Graham nodded.

"And Gil, for the record? You're already a better man than you were before the dislocation."

Gil Graham did eventually get some sleep. But he had a lot to think about first.


"Nakajima," Chrono called out, catching the investigator's attention. Quint turned and waited for him to catch up. "Thank you for talking about my father," he said quietly when he got close. "I don't think I could have kept a strong front if I had had to do it."

"No problem," Quint assured him. "…Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

Chrono hesitated, but agreed. "I can't guarantee I'll answer, but I won't bite your head off."

"How are you dealing with the… issues with Admiral Graham?" Quint asked. "I can't imagine it's been easy for you."

Chrono sighed. "Honestly? I'm more worried about him than the… investigation."

The inflection he used made it clear he was talking about the less official part of the investigation.

"I don't… things…" Chrono searched for the right words. "I don't think that our relationship can ever be what it was. It is… tarnished, maybe? I don't know what he is to me anymore."

"But you still care about him," Quint noted gently. Chrono scrutinized her, but could find no accusation or rebuke.

"…Yes," he admitted. "I can't hate him. I pity him, I suppose. He hates himself more than I ever could."

Cases like this always got messy, Quint thought sadly. Even the most evil people could have loved ones. When it was someone admired, someone trusted, someone wasn't all bad… well, everyone involved got hurt. Harlaown's voice cut into her thoughts.

"Could I ask you about Alpine?"

"It isn't really my story to tell," Quint said apologetically. "But without getting too specific… She's hurting, and she's much more self-critical than she should be."

"Can I do anything to help?" Chrono asked. "Or is there anything I should avoid doing?"

Quint shook her head. "It's nice of you to offer, but more than anything else she needs time. Just… when in doubt, be supportive. In the end, none of us can do much more than that."


The next day, Zest addressed the other three members of the team.

"First, Harlaown, does the navy have any way of tracking dimensional tranfers?" He asked.

"Not if the, uh, 'transferee' casts the spell themselves. Or has someone do it for them," Chrono said. "If they use public facilities… maybe?" He shook his head. "I'll look into it if you want."

Zest nodded. "It might be a long shot, but it is worth checking. I'll leave that to you. Second, Quint." He turned to the purple-haired woman. "I want you to talk to your friends in R&D. Try and put together a list of specialized equipment that would be needed for working with dimensional distortions, then see if you can track down our hypothetical mad scientist that way."

"Yes, sir!"

"Alpine, I want you to work on the personal connection angle," Zest continued. "Try starting with immigration. You might have to go back a generation or more. Check TSAB records as well, criminal and otherwise – odds are, if someone left 97 it is because they had enough magic to look for a career using it. Be creative, I doubt we'll be lucky enough to find a simple connection. You might not find anything, but…"

Megane nodded understandingly. "Yes, sir!"

"I'll be putting feelers out into the academic community," Zest concluded. "I can't imagine there are that many people who have the right skill set for working with dimensional distortions and dislocations, so if our hypothetical criminals brought in a specialist I might be able to find something. Now, all of these could turn out to be dead ends, so use your own judgment. Let me know if you think your lead has petered out, and I'll reassign you. Hopefully we'll find something. We will keep using the same roster for tips as we have been. Let's get to work."


"No, we haven't transferred anyone to that destination… ever, actually."

Chrono sighed. "Alright. Thank you for your time."

He crossed that one off his list and moved on to the next.

"Hello, I am Enforcer Harlaown, assigned to the Arthra. Do you have any records of transferring anyone to Non-Administered Planet 97?"


"There have only been five immigrants from 97 in the modern era," Megane informed Zest. "Three are Admiral Graham and his familiars. The other two are dead. Neither had children."


"No… I'm looking at the transactions for the past seven years, and the only groups that have bought that from us are universities and, well, you."

"Me?" Quint asked, puzzled.

"You as in the TSAB, I mean," the secretary clarified.

"Do you have any records past that?" Quint queried.

"Um, no, we did not make that product before then. I can send you the list if you want?"

Quint drummed her fingers on her desk. "Yes, please do so. Thank you for your time."


Chrono ducked beneath the fuchsia projectile launched by the enemy mage. With a cry of "Break Impulse!" he slammed S2U into her gut with a flash of blue, sending her reeling back towards Alpine, who slapped a Struggle Bind onto the mage with practiced ease.

The last of the attackers dealt with, Chrono looked around the warehouse, which was liberally littered with unconscious bodies. In the middle of the room was a truck, the door open to reveal crates of hallucinogenics. He sighed.

"Great. A drug deal. I'll call it in, you tie them up."

"You can't prove anything!" The mage growled from her spot on the floor.

Megane rolled her eyes. "We told you, 'if you don't resist you'll be granted the right to plead in your own defense.' Attacking us immediately afterwards is practically a guilty plea."

"It wasn't very convincing, though! There were only two of you! How were we supposed to know to take you seriously?"

"I'm sure the judge will be very sympathetic to your plea of 'they didn't look scary enough.'" Megane said dryly as she divested the unconscious mages of their devices.

The sound of approaching sirens let them know that the local law enforcement was on its way.

"So, another bad tip?" Chrono asked.

"Looks like it, but maybe they'll be able to tell us something useful." Megane shrugged.

They didn't.


"Actually, this is the first time in years that I've been contacted by someone not affiliated with the university or in the field."

Zest nodded resignedly, a little in awe of the… impressive… lack of social interaction. "I don't suppose you have heard of anyone in the field dropping out of contact for a significant period of time?"

"No, I can't say I have."


"Criminal records come up empty," Megane told Zest, stifling a yawn. "And other than Admiral Graham and his familiars, there is nobody in any branch of the TSAB that officially lists 97 as their homeworld. I'll start looking at other connections tomorrow."


"If there was some sort of researcher doing illegal experiments on Earth, they didn't get their equipment from the places I'm looking." Quint said. "I've checked for thefts as well, and while there have been one or two thefts the people responsible were caught quickly. Well, except for that one time when Scaglietti raided a truck depot. One of the trucks had some measuring devices."

Zest groaned. "Knowing Scaglietti, he either threw them away, or he reverse engineered them and is supplying the entire underworld with them."

"Or both," Megane muttered darkly.


"Sorry." The tech scratched his head. "We can't access the buoy's cache from here. They aren't designed to monitor traffic, just to make dimensional transfers safer by helping people determine their location in standard coordinates. If you could get it for me I could access the data manually, but I wouldn't be able to get you anything more than a time stamp for when it was last pinged."

Chrono sighed. "It was a long shot anyway. Thank you for your time." They didn't even know if the buoy closest to Earth was still intact.


"If there was some sort of researcher doing illegal experiments on Earth, they didn't get their materials from the places I'm looking." Quint said. "I'm moving on to raw materials."


"Pretty much everyone either stays in academia or joins the TSAB," the professor informed Zest. "If there's some other group working in the field, it's the first I've heard of it."


"Caffeine~" Quint cried out zombie-like, reaching for the pot with glazed eyes.

Megane knocked her friend's hand away. "Wait for it to finish steeping, Quint. Tea takes time."

Chrono looked up at that. "Tea? Do you have any cream?"

Quint looked at him like he was crazy. "Cream? Who drinks tea with cream? It's supposed to be water and tea leaves, nothing else!"

"Hey, at least I can be patient," Chrono jabbed back.

Zest rolled his eyes, and drank his water.


"Okay, so there was an entire truckload of high quality magical crystals that might be useful to a hypothetical researcher that was stolen. Bad news, it was 15 years ago, no eyewitnesses, no physical evidence, nothing." Quint grimaced. "I'll have a look, but I'm not hopeful."


Three and a half weeks into the investigation.


Megane swallowed her tea wrong, and broke out in a fit of coughs.

"You alright?" Quint asked from her workstation, but Megane waved her off and looked back at the screen.

She turned away, rubbed her eyes, and looked again.

"I think I found something," she said, stunned.

In short order, all four of them were gathered in front of the room's large monitor.

"Nanoha Takamachi," Megane read aloud. "Date of Birth: March 15, 0056, so she's nine years old. Place of Residence: Nakaoka Town, Uminari City, Japan, Non-Administered Planet #97." She smiled triumphantly. "Name of Device: Raising Heart, Type: Intelligent Device."

"This was entered into the system the day before the dislocation." Zest noted.

"There is no way that is just a coincidence." Quint said. "Well, it could be, but… oh, you know what I mean." She paused. "Why would someone give a nine-year-old from a non-magical world an intelligent device?"

"I don't know," Megane shrugged. "The second page of the document hasn't been filled in."

The four looked at each other.

"Let's visit the records office." Zest suggested.


As it turned out, they had to go to MidChilda, as the paperwork had been submitted at the Cranagan office. Zest was famous enough among the Ground Forces that the team was ushered through to see the woman in charge without a second thought.

"Good to see the three of you again," she said cheerfully to the Investigators. "I don't recognize your companion…"

"Enforcer Harlaown, assigned to the L-Class ship Arthra." Chrono supplied. "I'm working with them for this case."

"Pleased to meet you," the woman replied happily. "I'm Clarity Argent, ruler of all things in this city that are both TSAB-related and bureaucratic. Call me Clary."

'Clary' was young for an upper level administrator, being at most in her early thirties. The most remarkable thing about her was that the first thing you noticed about her was her smile. The reason this was so remarkable was that she was over seven feet tall, and even seated at her desk her stature was easily seen. She was, Chrono felt, entirely too cheerful for someone whose job presumably consisted of such things as doing paperwork about people doing paperwork.

"So what can I do for you today?" Clary loomed amicably.

"We want to know about the device registration paperwork for Nanoha Takamachi," Zest said. "It seems as though the computer copy is not fully filled out."

As he spoke, Clary's fingers flew across her keyboard, bringing up the document in question.

"And you would be right. Let me have a look… Aha!" She exclaimed. "Franklin was the last one to edit it. That explains it." Seeing confusion from the mages, she explained. "Franklin went out to lunch and got run over by a car. Got multiple compound fractures, so he's been out ever since. He must have been working on Takamachi's paperwork. I guess he never finished it."

"Do you still have the original document?" Chrono asked.

"Either that or a copy," Clary assured him. "Rule #1 around here: make sure the first thing you do when you get a document is copy it and file the copy in the stacks. You would not believe how many documents we've saved from 'death by spilled coffee' thanks to that policy. I'll go get it for you."

Sure enough, not two minutes later Clary returned with a stack of papers.

"Here you go," she said, handing them to Quint. "I stopped by the photocopier and ran that lot through, so feel free to take those with you."

"Thank you," Zest said, but was cut off by Quint.

"Uh, there's more than one form here."

"Yes, that's the paperwork from the Scrya clan that week," Clary informed her. "They send someone around about once a week with all of the forms that the clan has sent back to the family property just outside of Cranagan. I figured that you might want the whole stack, since most of it isn't in the system yet."

"And this one isn't a form at all," Quint said as she flicked through the stack. "Let's see, 'Report on Jewel Seed Incident at Non-Administered Planet #97' by Yuuno Scrya…" As she spoke, her eyebrows climbed higher and higher, and she trailed off as she read further.

She looked up at her team.

"I think we just got our lucky break."


"Jewel Seeds, Jewel Seeds… here we go," Megane announced. "Unearthed by Yuuno Scrya, who turned them over to the TSAB for transportation. Only they never got to their destination… neither did the ship they were on, actually. Search and rescue operations were eventually launched, but they never found anything and have now been canceled indefinitely due to the dislocation."

"Well, the story fits that," Quint said. "As do these diagrams of the Jewel Seeds. Well, they match the pictures, at least. We should get an expert to look at these, they're a bit more technical than I can handle."

Zest nodded absently, not looking away from his copy of Yuuno's notes. The Scrya was clearly a meticulous note-taker. There were 19 pages, filled on both sides by the small neat writing, interspersed by occasional diagrams.

Chrono spoke up. "Yuuno Scrya, nine years old, male. He is apparently a fully accredited archeologist. He's a ward of the Scrya clan, no parents listed. That's pretty much everything we know about him… He's never been involved in anything criminal, so we've never had any reason to collect information about him."

Zest finished reading and set the notes aside. "Alright, let's trust but verify where possible. Do we know anything about a 'Fate Testarossa'?"


As it turned out, 'Fate Testarossa' might as well have been a ghost. But 'Testarossa' lead them to Precia Testarossa and her dead daughter Alicia, who coincidentally bore a stunning resemblance to a picture of 'Fate' that Yuuno had included in his notes.

"Okay, how's this for a theory," Chrono suggested weakly. "Precia puts Alicia in stasis of some sort, develops a way to heal her daughter, then resuscitates her. That explains how young she is. And the scars are from the accident that killed her."

Of course, none of them really believed that.

Eventually, after perusing Precia's psych profile and criminal record, and looking over the records from the disaster that had befallen Precia's laboratory, Quint spoke it out loud.

"Alicia is dead. But Precia is a known associate of Scaglietti. She uses his technology and grows a body physically identical to Alicia's. But she can't bring back the dead. The clone is a clone of Alicia, it isn't Alicia. And looking at Scrya's notes and the profile the criminal psychologists put together… Precia takes it out on Fate, physically. There doesn't seem to be any inclination that might lead towards sexual abuse, but this profile isn't exactly recent and I doubt Scrya would know how to look for signs of that so… I can't rule it out."

Megane nodded reluctantly, cringing at the thought. "That seems plausible. There's no way to verify it though. Still, the question becomes: Why is Precia Testarossa on Earth? Why does she care about the Jewel Seeds?"

"A power source, maybe?" Chrono suggested. "They don't seem to be good for much else unless you want to damage time-space or create monsters."

"Not necessarily," Zest disagreed. "Each of the activations Yuuno describes grants the wish of the activator in some way, and he specifically says that the Jewel Seeds respond to desire. No sane person would try to use that to their advantage, but for a woman obsessed with bringing her daughter back to life it might seem like an opportunity."

And suddenly it seemed very plausible for Precia Testarossa to want to activate a Jewel Seed. Or several.

Megane licked her lips nervously. "We need to run this by an expert but… Let's assume for a moment that activating all 21 Jewel Seeds would definitely cause a dislocation. Now, Nanoha and Yuuno don't have our resources, so they have no way to realize Precia Testarossa is involved. We know from these notes that in a gesture of good will, they gave up several Jewel Seeds. Not knowing what we know, when it seems to work and Precia offers to meet with them, they accept. And then… two nine-year-olds trapped in a room with an insane SS-class mage…"

She could not bring herself to continue. But no elaboration was needed.

"Precia activates the Jewel Seeds. And the dislocation occurs."


Of course, a theory is just a theory. But their investigations into Yuuno and his notes left them with no substantial reason to doubt his words, and what evidence they could get their hands on seemed supportive.

There were a few oddities though.


"Fifteen?"

"If Scrya's analysis of the Jewel Seeds is right, then yes, 15 Jewel Seeds is the right number to cause a dislocation this size."

"So what happened to the other six?"

The scientist shrugged. "Maybe they were used in earlier experiments? Maybe they were held in reserve? Maybe whatever they were used for worked long enough to use up six before it went wrong? There could be any number of reasons."


And not everyone accepted the likely conclusions.


"Yuuno will be fine," the Scrya clan elder insisted.

Quint and Megane exchanged glances.

"It is possible that he is alright, ma'am, and we hope he is, but with every day that he remains missing-"

"Hmph!" The old woman cut her off. "Yuuno is strong! And smart! If anyone could survive, it would be him. So that is the possibility I believe in. I will keep faith until I see his body with my own eyes."


In the end, they presented their information to their superiors.


"…Therefore, Precia Testarossa is wanted for questioning on suspicion of causing a dimensional dislocation at Non-Administered Planet #97. Should she be sighted, we ask that you do not approach her for your own safety. Instead, please contact the nearest law enforcement personnel at the first opportunity…"


And life went on.


"No mention of 'Fate'?" Zest asked Regius once the press conference was finished. He nodded to Regius's assistant, Auris, in greeting.

Regius shook his head. "No, but we'll quietly pass the word around. No need to reveal everything we know to the whole universe. If Precia doesn't think we know about Fate, she might be more inclined to let her go out in public. We can't count on it working, but we might get lucky." He shrugged. "And, well, we'll need to tread carefully with her."

Zest nodded in agreement. Powerful child mages, especially ones raised in bad environments, could be… volatile. The last thing they needed was a pint-sized, electricity-spewing wrecking ball turning downtown into rubble because someone tried to take her in for her own good. Or, on the opposite end, tried to knock her unconscious for her own good. Best to find her, observe her, get a psychologist to give them some advice, then decide how best to handle things.

They got in the elevator to go up to Regius's office. Zest looked out the window, enjoying the view of Cranagan's skyline in the evening.

"Do you think we'll be able to find them?" Auris asked suddenly. "How likely is it that they are alive?"

Zest shrugged. "I do not know nearly enough about dislocations to give an educated answer. But I did ask around. When I asked them for the odds of surviving one, they all but laughed in my face. When I asked them if Precia Testarossa could have, they gave me a solid maybe. Before the accident that took her daughter's life, she was the genius. The brightest mind the TSAB had. Losing her and her work set us back years in dozens of fields. We cannot afford to assume that she is dead until we find her body."

The elevator chimed as they reached their destination, and the three of them disembarked.

"And Scrya and…" Auris searched her memory. "Takamachi?"

Zest grimaced. "Scrya is supposed to be quite talented at teleportation and defense, so there is some hope that they managed to escape Testarossa, but with every passing day it gets more and more likely that they are dead. I still hold out hope that Scrya is recuperating on some far-flung world under the care of an absentminded relative that never checks their mail, but…"

Regius rumbled in agreement. "After the first few days, the likelihood of a missing person being found alive drops sharply. It has been weeks."

Zest stifled a grimace as Regius unlocked his office. Regius could at least have sounded more sympathetic. Well, Zest was hardly one to talk considering that he did not use much inflection, but Regius used to be much livelier. Time and responsibility weighed down upon his friend.

"First and foremost, I have to thank you for your hard work," Regius said as he settled into his chair. "You and your team started with practically nothing, yet in less than a month we have a warrant out for the prime suspect. Good job."

"There was a significant amount of luck involved," Zest said truthfully.

"I want you to be there when we send a ship to 97," Regius said, "but that won't be for over a year. Closer to two years, actually, if I remember correctly. If you want, I'll put you back on Scaglietti in the meantime."

Zest considered. It was nice of Regius to offer to put him back on the Scaglietti case like he had promised, but he doubted the team that had been moved to the Scaglietti case would appreciate being tossed around like that. It had been only four weeks since they had been reassigned, and Zest did not intend to inconvenience them just because he wanted to be the one to catch Scaglietti.

"That will not be necessary," Zest decided. "Let that team keep the Scaglietti case for a while, perhaps their approach will yield more results than mine. We seem to have a good rapport going with the crew of the Arthra, so I would not be averse to maintaining the joint task force until this case is resolved."

Regius blinked, surprised. He chuckled, and a smile slipped onto his face. If Zest didn't know better, he would think Regius looked almost relieved. "Well, I won't argue with that, even if 'task force' is a big name for me lending the navy three of my subordinates. Our relationship with the navy has improved over the past few weeks…" He nodded, coming to a decision. "I have a meeting with Admiral Crowbel tomorrow, so I'll discuss the subject with her then. I'll let you know as soon as we decide on a course of action."

Zest nodded, and left upon Regius' implicit dismissal.

Regius activated the projectors built into his desk. As the screens flickered to life, he grimaced slightly at the time. "Auris, go ahead and head home for the day. Tomorrow we will likely need to stay late, so make sure you are well rested."

Auris saluted. "Yes, sir."

Regius waited until he could no longer hear his subordinate's footsteps, then got out of his seat, walked to the door, and closed and locked it. He closed the window shutters and dimmed the lights slightly, then activated the secret function of his desk. He sat at his desk as the room was swept for cameras and microphones, and a soundproof barrier rose up to ensure nobody could listen in.

Then, and only then, did the three familiar screens appear. The High Council awaited his report.


Zest held the elevator open for Auris when he saw her heading his way.

"Going back down already?" He asked.

Auris nodded. "He dismissed me for the day."

They stood together in silence for several seconds as the elevator descended.

"So, how is it being your father's assistant?" Zest asked.

Auris sighed. "Better than I had worried. Worse than I had hoped. I work hard, but… I do wonder if I have really earned my position. On the other hand, I'm finally being helpful instead of just being an annoyance. Not that he would ever say that, but…"

Zest nodded sympathetically. "How is he doing, really? I hardly see him outside of work these days, so it is hard to tell."

"Work weighs on him, but he seems to be handling it well," Auris said. "Pretty good, all things considered. He finally made it to the top, and now he can slowly start to make changes like he always wanted to." She smirked. "I think that's part of the reason he chose me to be his assistant. He kept going through one after another, but they kept whining whenever he did something different from his predecessor. He doesn't have to worry about that with me."

Zest smiled faintly. Good to know that Regius hadn't changed completely. "Do not let the opinions of your peers get to you," he advised. "Once you go up a few more ranks no one will question your right to your position."

Auris gave him a wry look. "I rather think it will take more than 'a few' ranks. As if being fast-tracked by my father wasn't enough to make people question me, I'm also several years younger and a foot shorter than anyone else at my level, and people do care about that even if they aren't supposed to. Maybe once I'm a Major, but I'll be lucky if that happens inside of a decade."

"Nothing worth doing is easy," Zest told her. "Your father has no tolerance for incompetence. You may have his eye because you are his daughter, but he would never have chosen you if you were untalented. Given his high standards, I have no doubt the promotion board will also look favorably upon you."

The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open.

"Thanks," Auris said quietly.

Zest simply smiled.


"So, it seems you are going to be with us a while yet, Gil." Admiral Crowbel observed.

"If you want me," Graham agreed.

"You won't be allowed to continue in your current duties, but I do have a new position open." Crowbel informed him. "It's a liaison position. We feel that we need better coordination between the Navy and the Ground Forces. It will likely be an utterly thankless job with an absurd amount of politics involved, but if you do it well it will do a lot of good."

"And allow both the Navy and Ground Forces to keep an eye on me," Graham noted.

Crowbel nodded, and Graham was unsure whether to be pleased or worried by her honesty. "It is a stressful position, so if necessary we may have to have you retire if we find any issues," Crowbel warned him. "And we both know I'm not just talking about health complications. You keep your nose clean, understood? Don't make us feel we misplaced our trust."

"I won't." Graham promised. "I'm grateful that you are giving me a second chance. I have no intention of requiring a third."

"Very good." Crowbel said, pushing a small stack of papers across her desk. "Read these over, they should give you an idea of what your job will entail. Ask me if you have any questions. You start next Monday."


"So, it seems you will be with us a while longer," Lindy observed. "My orders boil down to 'take them with you, play nice'. I assume yours are the same?"

"More or less," Zest acknowledged. "I am not quite officially under your command, but as we will be living and working on this ship I will treat you as my superior in order to streamline the chain of command."

"And I have no problems with you acting as Chrono's superior in combat." Lindy said with a smile. "It is rather nice to work with reasonable people, is it not?"

Zest smiled in agreement.

"So, did you turn down the offer to go back to the Scaglietti case because you don't want Investigator Alpine to fight those cyborgs while pregnant?" Lindy asked curiously.

Zest blinked. He blinked again. A look of chagrin spread across his face. "Actually, I did not even think about it. I completely forgot about that."

Lindy giggled.

Zest frowned. "Wait, how did you know about that?"

"Woman's intuition," Lindy said piously, then smirked. "Also, I know you were promised the Scaglietti case. As you are still here, it was a safe bet that you decided not to take it back."

Zest wondered how she knew Regius had promised to let him go back to the Scaglietti case, but he wisely decided not to give the Admiral another chance to make fun of him. She would no doubt have plenty of opportunities over the coming months. No need to give her one for free.


Author's Note:

Here you go, the investigation in one chapter. I could have dragged it out, but that would have been pointless and annoying. You probably won't be seeing much of the TSAB for the next several chapters, but don't worry, they'll be back later.

I had fun with this one. I wrote the first scene by pretending I didn't know what happened on Earth, and just throwing random ideas out. Of course, this universe being what it is, the only real options are 'ancient artifact', 'mad scientist', 'lab accident', and 'all of the above'. Well, there is always normal criminal activity, but that doesn't generally cause massive damage to the fabric of space-time.

Read through carefully, and try to figure out what the TSAB got right, and what they got wrong!

Now, in every chapter there is always a scene or two that just adds itself in at the last moment. In this chapter, I initially had no plan for Auris to show up, but I decided to include her because she is a recurring minor character, and it was easy to add her to the scene with Regius and Zest. I also realized that when I previously used her, she was Regius' assistant. But, well, she probably shouldn't have been. After all, that is what she is doing ten years down the road in StrikerS. Also, going by how old she seems to be in StrikerS, she is probably in her teens at the moment, further making it unlikely.

Fortunately! The TSAB seems to accept people in at rather young ages. So I wrote up the scene with Auris and Zest, turning a minor plot hole into a minor plot point. Yay me!

If anyone is wondering, 'Clary' is not going to be a major character. I just wanted someone a bit less faceless to deliver Yuuno's notes to the investigators. In true Nanoha fashion, her name was created by going to a random car website, (Honda, if I remember correctly) grabbing the name of a vehicle, picking another name out of a hat, and slamming the two together. She is now my go-to character if I need a non-obstructive bureaucrat, but I currently have no plans to require one of those.

For those of you who wondered where Nanoha's device registration form and Yuuno's notes magically appeared from, I mentioned both briefly in Chapter 5. Why have I not mentioned either since? Well, because neither Nanoha nor Yuuno have given any thought to the matter since the Garden of Time. They have had numerous other things to worry about.

You know, I'm not sure when I decided on how this chapter was going to go. Was it before or after chapter 5? I can't remember. I suppose this is either good planning or a significant amount of luck that everything worked out.

A couple of people asked last chapter if the Infinity Library can be used to determine if Earth is still there. This is what I told them:

Why the library can't get books from earth:

Because it only collects books from Administered Worlds. The Library was created during a tense period between the final dissolution of the Belkan Era powers and the TSAB becoming the widely acknowledged power. If the Library didn't have limits, it might have been seen as a sort of Big Brother like in 1984. Just imagine, the capacity to obtain any written document from anywhere. The mere THREAT of such a thing might have kick-started a war. This isn't the sort of thing I can fit into the story easily, but the way I envision it is that there is a sort of 'register'. It's rather user friendly. The way it works is that publishing companies and Administered Worlds code in a set of coordinates corresponding to a location where they place, at least briefly, a copy of each book/document/whatever (think something like the Library of Congress). The library, somehow, creates a copy of its own and puts it on one of the shelves.

As Earth is not administered, the Library can't get books from there.

And now you know.