I had two major problems that delayed this coming out. First, I realized that I wanted at least one more scene with the Wolkenritter, since I had almost none. Second, after weeks of trying to think of ideas, I got hit by a bunch all at once and, ironically, couldn't fit them all into this chapter properly, so I spent days agonizing over how to move everything around to fit as much as I could in. Which was an exercise in futility, so I just eventually threw in the towel.

So now it's like two or three months late, with a slightly below average word count. Sheesh.

Anyway, whoever can tell me where the chapter title comes from without googling it gets a metaphorical cookie.


Chapter 14: In This Haze of Green and Gold


"If it's casting speed you worry about the most, you should just use simpler approximations," Fate suggested.

Nanoha shook her head as she shoveled fried rice into her mouth. "I-"

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Momoko chided.

Nanoha swallowed. "Sorry Mom. Anyway, I don't really want to have a trade-off."

"Don't get too bogged down in the math," Yuuno counseled, gesturing with his chopsticks. "It's a guided shooting spell, not a barrier or a transport spell. It doesn't really make much of a difference if it is a little off, and you can compensate on the fly if you need to."

Nanoha nodded thoughtfully.

"I've been wondering," Kyouya said. "What exactly are you doing with all of these equations? What exactly is magic?"

Yuuno munched on his food for a few seconds before he realized that everyone had turned to him expectantly.

"…Why are you all looking at me?"

"You're the exposition guy," Arf said bluntly. "Exposit."

"What? Seriously?" Yuuno sputtered incredulously. "I do other things!"

"Yeah!" Nanoha agreed. "He does… pretty much everything other than shooting magic, actually."

"Ah, right." Arf said with a smirk. "Sorry, Nanoha, I didn't mean to insult your familiar."

"He's her familiar?" Fate asked curiously. "But I thought-"

"I'm not!" Yuuno insisted. Nanoha nodded in agreement, her mouth full of rice again.

"Of course, ferret boy, of course." Arf smirked.

The 'ferret' shot her an annoyed glare, then turned his attention to Kyouya. "Well, to be honest I'm not really sure how to answer. I guess, if I had to define magic…" Yuuno thought about it for several seconds. "The capacity for an entity… no, a sentient entity… to psychically manipulate… hyperdimensional energy… to affect the world around them. Something like that." Yuuno shrugged, chagrined. "The thing about magic is that while we can use it, measure it, even understand a little about how it works, we don't actually know what it is. That's why we call it magic, I guess. But I'm hardly an authority on the subject. I'm an archeologist, not a scientist."

"Well, the most important thing is that we can make it work safely and reliably." Arf paused, looking upwards reflexively. "Usually," she self-corrected.

"It is…" Yuuno considered, then brightened. "Like electricity. If you are careful, you can do all sorts of things with it, but you don't want to start chewing on the wires or sticking things in wall sockets."

As Yuuno stopped to grab another bite of his meal, Fate hesitantly spoke up.

"…I can try to explain about the equations…" She fiddled with her chopsticks. "If you want…?"

"Certainly," Momoko said immediately, making sure to smile brightly as Fate looked her way. Fate's nervousness dampened down almost instantly upon seeing the small gesture of approval, and once again Momoko dearly wished to punch Precia's lights out.

"We don't actually need to do any calculations to do magic," Fate explained. "Just… wishing?... is enough." She bit her lip. "There are no words that are quite right for it. It's willpower and desire, mostly. Once you do it the first time it just… comes naturally."

Nanoha, Yuuno, and Arf all nodded in agreement.

"And that's fine if you want to do simple things, like this." Fate concentrated, and floated one of her chopsticks in the air. "But if I wanted to lift several chopsticks, and then move them around, that is starting to take a lot of focus. The more complicated what I want to do is, the more likely something will go wrong. People can multi-task, a little, but it's really just switching focus quickly back and forth. It's rare to actually be able to parallel process. So we make a spell."

Fate produced a basic Mid-Childan magic circle over her plate: A ring, bounded by two squares rotated 45 degrees apart, which in turn were surrounded by another ring. In both rings, the Greek letters pi, delta, omega, and nu were displayed. The concentric rings and squares rotated at various speeds.

"A spell is essentially a program. We include everything we need into it, and it shows up in the circle. Even a basic shooting spell needs feedback so I know what is happening, containment fields to maintain each of the bullets at the proper densities, path descriptors, power modifiers…"

As she spoke, symbols began to fill in the inner ring, quickly forming two overlapping layers of rotating notations.

"Putting everything into one diagram gives a single thing to focus on," Fate explained. "Instead of focusing on all of the individual parts of the spell, I can focus on the spell as a whole. To be useful a magic circle has to be intuitive to the user, so there can be vast differences in how it looks due to personal modifications."

"So the circle isn't the spell itself, it's a mnemonic?" queried Shirou.

"Yes, I suppose that's a good way to put it." Fate nodded. "But it isn't just an aid, it's also a workspace, and it can be modified while in use. It's also possible to supplement with concentration aids such as arias and specific movements that help trigger the spell. None of them are necessary, but it does help.

"It is possible to 'brute force' a spell, just pushing lots of mana into it to make it work, but that's extremely inefficient. So in addition to maintaining focus, I also have to calculate how much energy the spell needs, and more specifically, how much energy each part of the spell needs and how to direct it."

The outer ring of the circle filled in then, completing the magic circle.

"Then you calculate and cast," Fate said in conclusion. "Um, that's about it, I think."

Yuuno nodded. "More or less. There are… about 900?" He considered. "A little less than 900 documented magic systems, so there is lots of variation possible. We all use the Mid-Childan magic system, while Hayate's…" He groped for an appropriate word.

"She calls them her family," Momoko supplied. "She's rather insistent about that."

"Hayate's family uses… Ancient Belkan, I think. I haven't asked but I have gotten a good look at Shamal's circle and I'm pretty sure it's Ancient Belkan. Does that answer your questions?" He asked Kyouya.

"Indeed it does." Kyouya responded with a smile. "Thank you, Yuuno, Fate."

Fate flushed and turned her attention to her meal, unsure how to respond.

"I have a question," Miyuki spoke up just when Yuuno was about to start eating again. He suspected that was no coincidence. "What's Ancient Belkan?"

Yuuno gave her a dirty look, and made a point of taking several more bites before answering.

"Ancient Belka was the dominant superpower before Mid-Childa. They controlled a significant number of worlds, but their careless use of mass weapons led to their home planet becoming uninhabitable and in the chaos their empire collapsed. Their rulers, the Saint Kings, attempted to regain control of their former territory after migrating to their peripheral worlds, but their former subjects opposed them, resulting in the Saint King Unification War…"


Shamal stared disconcertedly at Shirou and Momoko. They wanted her to what?

"We wouldn't ask, but, well, you are the best option available to us," Momoko said apologetically.

Shamal rubbed her forehead. "Look, while, yes, I am capable of acting as a psychologist in theory, I am not a therapist. My prior experience consists primarily of exploiting psychological issues, not fixing them. I am, first and foremost, a support unit. I'm a battlefield medic. Child psychology is about as far removed from that as you can get."

"But," Shirou countered. "Fate can be honest with you. Any other psychologist and Fate would have to stick to her official history here. A history that does not include magic, being raised by a catgirl and a mad scientist on some sort of hollowed out asteroid, or being a clone created in a failed attempt to bring a dead girl back to life."

Shamal grimaced. "Good point. With so many limitations, I can't imagine much would be accomplished."

The knight consulted her comrades, their telepathic network a constant presence as always.

"They would owe us." Vita pointed out.

"It would decrease tensions if all goes well, but may escalate to conflict if it goes awry." Zafira sent. "But given Shamal's capabilities, the risk is negligible."

Shamal frowned slightly. "As I told the Takamachi's–"

Signum cut her off. "While you may not be able to help much, I do not believe for an instant that you will make her situation worse." Zafira and Vita chimed in their agreement.

"How much time would this take?" Signum asked.

"I won't be able to get a good estimate until after a few sessions," Shamal said. "Maybe a few hours each week? It would be a long-term commitment though. Months probably, maybe years? I'm not sure. If I've done something like this before I can't find it in my memories."

They considered.

"…Hayate would want us to help, I think." Vita sent.

Signum agreed. "Zafira, please convey the situation, and our recommendation, to Hayate."

As Zafira spoke with Hayate, Shamal returned her full attention to Shirou and Momoko. They were still waiting patiently, though Momoko fidgeted occasionally.

A minute or so late, Zafira transmitted Hayate's orders. Well, 'Of course she can' was not an order per se, but it was about as close as they were going to get and though they still found it hard to deal with that they were learning to cope.

"Very well." Shamal said. "I am willing to try to help."

"Thank you," said Momoko earnestly.

"I will need time to prepare, and I also need to know as much as you can tell me about Fate's past." Shamal's mind raced, pulling together a list of things she would need to do. Read a few books on child psychology, locate a therapist who dealt with child abuse, spy on several sessions, search the internet for practical advice, check to make sure the advice was good…

"Well, you would need to talk to Arf to get the details, but we can tell you the basics," Shirou began.


Fate watched, fascinated, as Miyuki and Kyouya sparred in the dojo. Back and forth, their wooden practice swords lunged forward to strike, parried, retreated. It was an inspiring sight, especially impressive as both combatants were using two swords. Rather than tangling their blades together like Fate would have expected, the two sword style they were using actually worked quite smoothly.

All too soon, Kyouya slipped a blade past Miyuki's defenses, scoring a glancing hit on Miyuki's chest. While in a real fight it would not have been immediately incapacitating or fatal, it would have drawn blood, so the bout ended there. Fate stayed silent in the hope that they would resume, but it soon became evident that their morning practice was complete.

"Up early today, Fate?" Miyuki said as she tossed her brother a towel.

"Mm." Fate nodded. "You are both very good." She complimented them.

"Eh, I'm pretty good, but Kyouya's the really amazing one." Miyuki said modestly, then sent a teasing grin Kyouya's way. "Godly, even."

The two swordspersons exchanged looks that clearly meant something, but Fate's weak grasp on social interaction left it flying far above her head. Fate bit her lip, wanting to ask them questions, but not wanting to pry.

Of course, being about as transparent as glass, Fate's internal dilemma was obvious to both Kyouya and Miyuki.

"Are you interested in swordsmanship?" Kyouya asked with deliberate pleasantness.

Fate hesitated, but ultimately nodded. "When I'm bigger, I want to make a sword form for Bardiche," she confessed. "Scythe Form is useful, but it only has about as much range as Nanoha's staff because the blade curves inward." She traced the general shape of the scythe in the air and Miyuki and Kyouya nodded, understanding.

"Well, with an energy blade like yours, the outside edge must also be dangerous, right?" Miyuki guessed, but Fate shook her head.

"The blade is set at a ninety degree angle from the handle, so I can't swing and hit with the outer edge properly."

Kyouya nodded. "Yes, a ninety degree angle gives you no extra range at all… Can you change the angle?"

Fate shook her head. "We have a small supply of repair materials, but it was Linith who made Bardiche. She never got the chance to teach us…" Fate trailed off, suddenly melancholy.

"Well, I won't risk modifying Bardiche under our current circumstances." She concluded.

"What sort of sword were you thinking of?" Kyouya asked, distracting Fate from thoughts of the past.

"A giant sword with two edges." Fate tried to show the dimensions, but her arms were too short.

Miyuki sighed ruefully. "You know, that really puts in perspective how much magic changes combat. Without energy blades and flight spells, you wouldn't be able to use something that big effectively. I doubt I would be able to even lift a metal sword that size."

"Well, an energy blade wouldn't get stuck in things as much as a metal one," Kyouya mused, "so it wouldn't be completely useless on the ground. But I have to agree, using a sword in flight runs into a whole slew of things that ground-based fighters like us never have to consider."

"Sorry," Fate said dejectedly, eyes drawn down to her feet.

"Don't be," Miyuki said insistently, reaching down to grasp Fate's hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. "Never apologize for your gifts, Fate. Don't regret being the way you are, okay?"

"…Okay," Fate said quietly, smiling nervously.

"You know," Kyouya considered, "I bet Dad could give you some good advice if you ask. Dad's been around the block a few times, so to speak; I'd be surprised if he couldn't help."

Fate nodded hesitantly, unsure if she would be able to work up the nerve to ask.

"Anyway, if you want to learn our family's two sword style, just let me know." Kyouya said seriously. "I'd be happy to teach you."

Miyuki chuckled. "I'd offer to teach my style, but I don't think I'm quite skilled enough yet."

Seeing the quavering look on the girl's face, Kyouya chuckled and patted Fate on the head. "It's an open-ended offer, so don't feel like you need to answer now."

Fate flushed slightly, but nodded. "I… don't think I want to do more fighting right now."

"Fair enough," said Kyouya.

"But… if you don't mind me asking…?"

"No, go ahead," encouraged Miyuki.

"Why do you have different styles? You are brother and sister, right?" Fate asked.

"Well, I've been living here so long it certainly seems like it, but I'm actually Nanoha and Kyouya's cousin." Miyuki explained. "There was a family incident, and my mother had to leave to take care of something, so I came to live here. Her work is done now, but, well…" She laughed awkwardly. "I've lived most of my life here. Even if they're technically my aunt and uncle, Momoko and Shirou are 'Mom' and 'Dad' to me, while my biological mother is a more like a distant relative. I mean, I love her, but I think we're better apart like this than we would be together. We can't just pretend that she didn't basically abandon me for years…" Miyuki blanched. "Um, sorry, this is probably a sore topic for you right now."

Fate exhaled slowly. "No, it's alright. I don't want everyone to dance around it. And… I… think I understand. A little, anyway." She grasped Miyuki's hand and squeezed, a small, sad smile on her face. "But… someday I'll figure it out, I'm sure."

Miyuki squeezed back. "Then I'm sure you will."

"Shall we go help with breakfast?" Kyouya suggested.

"Mm."


"So, Hydra Theory is that there are multiple universes, and the Dimensional Sea is the buffer zone between them, and Dimensional Theory is that there is just one universe, which is… crumpled? Or something like that, from a 4D viewpoint." Nanoha frowned. "But, that doesn't seem quite right."

Yuuno nodded, pleased. "And you're quite correct. Neither theory successfully explains everything, and there are some things that both get wrong. The Dimensional Sea isn't a classical null state like Hydra Theory predicts – among other things it is possible to make meaningful measurements of it. But the Dimensional Theory is often inaccurate at predicting energy costs. And according to both theories my Temporal Force Field should be impossible – I actually use an entirely different set of equations for that."

"So…" Nanoha mused. "Why don't we just use the parts that work together, then?" She asked.

"Well, we do." Yuuno said, a little sheepish. "I'm actually going to teach you a really good approximation later on, but that's based off of empirical data rather than theoretical derivation, which is what we're looking at right now. I've skimped a little on the theory in the past…"

Nanoha snorted, and Yuuno had the decency to look ashamed.

"Okay, I've basically skipped over the theory entirely in order to teach you how to make things explode in the shortest amount of time possible." He admitted. "But in my defense, it worked."

Nanoha found it hard to refute that.

"Anyway, I want to give you a good theoretical background for this because if you screw up a transport spell you'll probably die in some horrifying manner, like splattering pieces of your corpse over the better part of a square kilometer."

Nanoha shuddered. "Theory! I love theory. Let's do more theory."

Yuuno smirked. "Glad to hear it. Anyway, since theories are based on assumptions from which derivation begins, the end results can sometimes be… uncorrelated with reality if the assumptions are wrong. And," he rubbed the back of his head, "well, there's a lot we don't know, so all of our current theories have some problem or another. There's something fundamental to the Dimensional Sea that we just don't understand yet, and it's throwing us off badly. Still, we know enough to make transport spells and barriers work, even if we have to kind of fudge it a bit."

Nanoha bit her lip in thought. "This isn't going to be easy to learn, is it?" She asked somewhat rhetorically.

"It'll take at least a month before you're ready to teleport," Yuuno informed her. "And I'm not even going to let you try barriers until after Christmas. And, of course, it'll be years before it will be safe to try out dimensional transfer spells. But it isn't like there's a rush."


Hayate sighed exasperatedly at the tense form of the swordswoman. "Relax. Nobody is going to try to knife me in the back. It's just a shopping mall."

Signum almost grimaced, and forced herself to offer her opinion without being asked, because this was a horrible idea. "There are an extremely large number of unknown persons within the complex. Upon entering, I will not be able to adequately protect you from all of them without revealing my abilities to the world at large."

Hayate smiled at Signum. "Why, yes, I suppose you are right." And she continued to roll her wheelchair forward.

Signum grimaced. Clearly she hadn't made her point properly. "It would be inadvisable to enter the complex."

"Hmm… Perhaps." Hayate acknowledged… without slowing down in the slightest.

And she smiled at Signum again.

Signum's eyes widened. Oh, she thought. Oh dear. Instinctively, she looked around for some solution, but nothing was forthcoming except the nearly unthinkable. As the doors to the mall neared, Hayate looked up at her and smiled at her again, and as Signum looked in her Mistress's eyes she knew there was only one thing she could do to stop them from entering.

Signum stopped walking and took a deep breath. Hayate stopped and turned to face her expectantly.

"Could we please…" The words ground out painfully. "Not go in there?"

Hayate grinned, and clasped her hands together in joy. "Yay!" Then she blanched, realizing that she had made her manipulations obvious. "Um, I mean, sure. No need to go in there right now."

Signum relaxed ever so slightly.

"We'll meet up with everyone else and make it a family outing," Hayate concluded happily.

The tension instantly returned.


Nanoha stuck her head into the kitchen, and upon spotting her brother she traipsed in, followed by her three magical companions.

"Kyouya, do you want to come to the park with us?" She asked.

Kyouya looked up from his computer. "Ah, sorry Nanoha. I need to finish gathering evidence for my research paper."

"You're going to the library?" Yuuno asked curiously, seeing that Kyouya had no books with him.

"No, I'm going to use the internet," Kyouya answered absently.

Nanoha, Fate, and Arf nodded, but Yuuno looked puzzled.

"I think I've heard of that, but I wasn't aware it was a database. I was under the impression it was a communication system."

"It's both," Nanoha said, confused, then understanding dawned. "Ah, you must not have had a reason to go online before you got hurt, and since I'm not allowed to go online without supervision anymore…"

Arf smirked. "Oh, this story I have to hear."

Kyouya said nothing, but twitched violently at the prospect. Before Arf could press for details, Nanoha continued as if the familiar had never spoken.

"Have you ever been online?" Nanoha asked Fate and Arf.

"We used the internet to find the apartment building we were using." Arf said, then raised a querying eyebrow. "And seriously, why can't you go online?"

"For the same reason I'm no longer allowed to watch Gundam," Nanoha informed her. "It Gives Me Ideas."

"What's with the emphasis?" Yuuno asked suspiciously.

"You know, I think you should introduce Yuuno to the internet," Kyouya suggested loudly, not even trying to pretend he wasn't changing the subject. "You can use Miyuki's laptop if you want, I bet Yuuno could get past the password protection."

Yuuno frowned. "I'm not sure I should-"

"We'll do it when we get back," Nanoha told Kyouya.


"So Mid-Childa doesn't have an internet?" Nanoha asked curiously.

Yuuno shook his head. "We have databases accessible to the general public, but nothing remotely like what you seem to be talking about."

"No forums? No games? No Youtube equivalent? No Wikis?"

"Nothing like it." Yuuno confirmed. "This is just speculation, but from what you told me, the internet started out as a communication system, then just kind of exploded, right?"

"Yeah, at some university I think. I don't know much more than that though."

"On Mid-Childa we just use magic to communicate, so we never had any reason to develop email, and so I guess we just use our servers for data storage. We never developed websites."

"You know," Arf said uncertainly, cutting in on the conversation with a completely different topic. "I don't really have anything to compare with, but… sometimes I get the feeling that your family is a little abnormal, Nanoha."

"Really?" Nanoha asked curiously. "How so?"

"Your sister uses a 68 character alphanumeric passcode." Yuuno pointed out as he tapped away at the keyboard.

"Electronic security is very important," Nanoha countered.

"Your mother carries a Taser, your sister carries some sort of razor wire, your brother carries at least three knives, and your father carries so many weapons I'm surprised he doesn't clink when he walks." Arf said dryly.

"And I carry Raising Heart!" Nanoha added on agreeably. Arf gave her a disbelieving look.

Fate blinked. "How do you know that?" She asked Arf.

"Never mind that," Arf said deflectively. "Anyway, Nanoha, I haven't seen other people who are quite so… security-conscious."

"Safety is important," Nanoha said blithely.

"So I just… type a question in?" Yuuno asked, bringing them back to the original topic.

"Well you can, but it works better if you just type in some keywords." Nanoha turned to Arf and shrugged. "Nobody wants me to worry about it, so I don't ask."

"Okay, now what?" Yuuno asked. "No, wait, I think I get it, blue underlined text opens a new 'page'… Why are there so many pages for 'magic'?" Yuuno's eyebrows rocketed up towards his hairline at the ludicrous number of 'hits'. "I mean, 'About 979,000,000'? This planet doesn't even know magic exists!" Though he had to admit, that was a truly impressive search engine that could find all of that in less than a second.

"Even though most people can't use magic, pretty much everybody wishes they could." Nanoha said. "It's all fictional… I think?" Nanoha looked thoughtful, but eventually decided it didn't matter. "It isn't like we have a good way to check out that kind of thing." She explained.

"And you don't have great luck meeting new mages," Yuuno said dryly, then, realizing how Fate might take that, turned to her. "Um, no offense."

Fate fortunately took it fairly well, and just smiled wanly. "None taken."

"Well, so far everyone has had a good reason… for a certain value of good… except Yuuno." Nanoha said 'idly'.

Yuuno, having learned to pick up on this sort of thing, looked at the Japanese girl warily. "I didn't attack you."

Nanoha sniffed. "No, you just woke me up in the middle of the night and tricked me into running towards a monster attack-"

"It wasn't a trick, it was a cry for help."

"Because of you, I was targeted by a tentacle monster!" Nanoha accused him with a jabbing pointer finger.

"It was a bush, those were branches!"

"Bushes don't reform when they go splat. It was definitely some kind of slime: tentacle monster. It must have been made out of mud or something."

"I saw it activate! It was a shrubbery!"

"Tentacle monster."

"Plant."

"Tentacle monster."

"Plant- No, we are not doing that." Yuuno glared at Nanoha. "You utterly destroyed it. It doesn't matter."

"Without Raising Heart, my innocence might have been lost!" Nanoha paused, uncertain. "Or something. It's related to sex, I think, but I'm not sure how."

"Ask your mother." Arf said instantly. When Fate looked at her curiously, Arf spoke before the question could leave her creator's lips. "It's nothing important, I'll make sure to tell you if you ever need to know. And Yuuno-"

"Has already had the talk." Yuuno assured her. Arf sagged in relief, then doubled back – Yuuno was only nine, why did he have to be given the talk?

"What talk?" Fate asked, confused. "I don't understand."

"It's a biology lesson about human reproduction." Yuuno said blithely as he tapped away at the computer.

Arf would have buried her face in her hands, were she not using them to cover Fate's ears since the word 'biology'.

"Really, I'm not sure why it's such a big deal." Yuuno frowned. "Sex, I mean. It just sounds somewhat disgusting and more than a little painful. Uncle says I'll understand when I hit puberty, but-"

"Enough!" Arf all but shouted. "We're done with this subject."

Nanoha and Yuuno exchanged looks, but complied. Arf removed her hands. Fate, bless her sweet, innocent little heart, just continued to look adorably confused. If Arf had anything to say about it, she would remain confused on that particular subject for the foreseeable future.

"What were we talking about again?" Nanoha asked.

"Me, Master." Raising Heart prompted.

"Right, thanks Raising Heart!" Nanoha chirped, then sniffed haughtily at Yuuno. "Anyway, since you gave me Raising Heart and taught me how to fly, I forgive you."

"You're so kind."

"Wait," Arf said slowly. "You just… don't ask?"

Nanoha looked at her blankly. "What?"

"About your family?" Arf prompted. "You just… don't ask?"

"What's there to ask about?" Nanoha cocked her head to one side in a way that was just slightly more innocent than was readily believable. "We're a completely normal family that runs a café."

"Really." Arf said flatly.

"Yes, Dad makes sure to remind us of that whenever guests come over." Nanoha said solemnly. "He's very emphatic about it, just like he is when he says to never talk about his side of the family in public."

"Any particular reason for that?" Arf said coaxingly, trying to get as much information as she could.

"I don't ask." Nanoha reminded her. "It's just easier for everyone if they don't have to come up with lies for me."

"…Are you really okay with that?" Yuuno asked dubiously, exchanging uncertain looks with Fate and Arf. "I mean, don't you ever want to know?"

"Of course I do, but I trust them." Nanoha smiled serenely. "I decided a long time ago that I would wait for them to be ready to tell me. I think they want me to be a little older first. I get the feeling it isn't a very nice story, the kind people aren't supposed to tell children because it's bloody and scary and doesn't necessarily have a happy ending. They're just trying to look out for me, even if it doesn't work very well since I'm not as childish as they think I am."

Arf nodded slowly, not really sure how to respond to that, as saying something like that was either very mature or very naïve; it wasn't exactly a baseless trust, but it was close to it as far as Arf was concerned. And in that moment, Arf realized for the first time that, in her own way, Nanoha was really very strange and not normal at all. Which she really should have figured out sooner because, really, Nanoha only acted her age when she was playing around with her friends and family and sometimes not even then… Arf thought back over Nanoha's actions before the dislocation and the more she thought about it the stranger it seemed. It wasn't that she wasn't childlike, not quite, but there was an underlying, unnatural sort of maturity that seemed to poke through from time to time.

Which, incidentally, was creepy as-

"What are you all doing in my room?" Miyuki asked, and her eyes widened in horror as she saw the opened laptop. "Oh no, please tell me you didn't let Nanoha use Google!"

Yuuno blinked incredulously. "Okay, now I really want to know what the story behind this is."


It was well past nightfall, and the Yagami apartment was silent, the lights turned off. Hayate slept on a futon, with Vita on one side and Zafira in wolf form on the other. As their little mistress dreamt the dreams of the innocent, her Wolkenritter dozed, senses sharp. Vita's fingers tightly wrapped around the hammer charm on her necklace, ready to rip it off her neck and activate Graf Eisen at a moment's notice.

In the kitchen area of the apartment, Signum and Shamal hunched over a small cluster of softly glowing triangular windows. Shamal's device glimmered, rings and gems shining in the celadon light of her Mirror of Prospection. Through several portals, the inside of the Takamachi household could be seen, while through another three glowing figures, one yellow, one green, one pink, flew up through a bank of clouds.

"They aren't casting anything other than their flight spells right now." Shamal murmured over their mental link. "Or running a search pattern."

"They might be practicing their flight skills, but there's no reason for them to do so outside of a barrier." Signum muttered back. "The familiar isn't with them either," she observed, looking into another triangular mirror.

"Do you want to go out and confront them?" Shamal queried.

Signum seriously considered it, but eventually grudgingly shook her head. "They are far enough away that if I went out to meet them I would be hard pressed to return fast enough to be of aid if this location is attacked. As long as they stay on the other side of the city I will leave them be, and remain here in defense of Hayate."

But that said, it did bother her. Just what were they doing?


"So what are we doing?" Fate asked curiously, having to raise her voice to be heard over the wind whipping past them.

"Well, there's good cloud cover tonight, so it seemed like a good opportunity to go flying." Yuuno said as they broke through the clouds, slightly damp from accumulated moisture.

"Where are we flying to?" Fate queried. She wasn't aware they had something they needed to go do at the moment.

"Nowhere!" Nanoha cheerfully informed her. "We're flying just for fun. Flying inside a barrier isn't bad, but out here we have the whole sky and we can go as far and as fast as we want."

Fate considered this pensively. "I've never done anything like this before," she admitted quietly. "I'm not sure what to do."

Nanoha, with relentless enthusiasm, brushed her worries aside. "If you want, just follow me for now! Try to just enjoy the experience of flying!"

And with that, Nanoha streaked off into the night, Yuuno soon following. Fate, caught off guard, scrambled to follow the wings of pink light.

At first, Fate was very nearly panicked. She was used to much more structure in her… well, her everything. 'Fly and have fun' might as well be no help at all. So she latched onto Nanoha's trail like a lifeline and followed.

It didn't take too long to catch up – her barrier jacket was modified to boost speed while Nanoha's was modified for additional defense – and once she pulled even with Nanoha the brunette turned and winked at her.

And vanished.

Fate, having learned from her previous fight against Nanoha (and wasn't it a shock to think that that had been months ago now) looked down, then up, and spotted Nanoha blurring upwards with a grin on her face that signified an insane stunt was incoming.

With an absurdly sharp U-turn, Nanoha rocketed down towards the clouds, vanishing into them with an odd sound that signified that while Nanoha had not yet punched the sound barrier's lights out, she was at least seriously considering kicking it between the legs. Fate stopped and gaped for a moment, before mentally shrugging and attempting to imitate the feat.

It wasn't a perfect imitation (for one thing, Fate wasn't nearly enough of a daredevil to pull those kinds of turns; high speed is one thing, insane G-forces is another) but as she dropped into the clouds at speeds above her normal comfort zone something suddenly clicked.

And Fate realized that she was flying.

Technically she had always known this, but it had always been something casual and unimportant. She just did it, she didn't really think about it. But now, for the first time, she really understood what that meant. Before now, flying was just a way of moving quickly in any direction she wanted. But now, as the air whipped past her and she soared at great speeds through banks of clouds, she understood.

She had wings. And the whole sky to fly in.

This was what it meant to be free.

An hour later, Fate giggled joyfully, if almost inaudibly, as she pulled out of a kilometer long dive to alight daintily upon the doorstep of Nanoha's home, her windswept friends close behind her.

Arf opened the door to let them in, a pleased smile on her face. "It seems you've had a good time, haven't you?"

"Mm," Fate's eyes sparkled. "It was lots of fun. You should join us next time."

"Ah, maybe I will." Arf smiled. She'd finally gotten the chance to have a nice long talk with Shirou and gotten some questions answered to her satisfaction, so she was happy with how the night had gone on her end. "But it's late, and there's school tomorrow, so let's get ready for bed."

Fate nodded happily. The wind was in the sky, the stars were in the heavens, her friends were by her side, and for the first time in a long time, she felt that all was right with the world.


"Sure, go ahead," Hayate said absently as she leafed through the Book of Darkness. Fireball spell, irrigation spell, wide area bombardment spell, paint-stripping spell, petrification spell, healing spell, flight spell… Hearing the silence of the room, she looked up to find her family staring at her. "Is something the matter?" She asked curiously.

"Are you sure?" Asked Shamal.

Hayate blinked. "Um… About what?"

Shamal coughed, and wrung her hands nervously. "About letting me scan you."

Hayate closed the Book with a confused frown and looked at her family. "Of course I'm sure. Why wouldn't I be? Really, it's like you think I don't trust you."

Hayate didn't quite manage to comprehend the significance of the brief pause following her words. Precocious she might have been, but Hayate was still only nine, so the Wolkenritter with their comparatively vast experience in social matters were able to more or less conceal the shame they felt at Hayate's words. Shamal fumbled her deflective response slightly, however.

"No, we know you trust us, we just don't want to take it for granted." Shamal spoke truthfully, though somewhat misleadingly. But Hayate gave her a piercing look, picking up on the fact that the statement might imply that her family had some worries that she might not trust them at some point in the future.

"Well, I trust you, so cast any spells on me that you want to," Hayate said bluntly with a smile, figuring that you couldn't go wrong with bludgeoning people with niceness until they got the idea.

Shamal nodded, blaming herself for her foolishness. Were it not for the ingrained reticence that the Wolkenritter had around their masters, she would have asked months ago, but instead she had tried to diagnose Hayate without doing something as potentially offensive as casting a spell on their master. They had learned long ago that that could be taken… badly… by more volatile masters. Shamal should have known better – Hayate wasn't like that at all – but after so much time spent acting one way it was easy to just keep doing so out of inertia. But Shamal had been unsuccessful for two months now, and that conditioning had yielded and she had asked at last.

Still, she didn't let it show, and simply began her examination.

And almost immediately realized something was wrong. Or rather, something was right.

"Hayate, I don't understand, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your legs."

Utterly surprised, everyone stared at Shamal in total incomprehension. Hayate turned her attention to her legs, and tried to move them. They didn't even twitch.

Hayate shrugged helplessly. "They don't work. I'm not sure what else to say."

"But that's just it," Shamal said, distressed. "That's the only problem. There is absolutely no physiological reason for you to be unable to move your legs. All of the nerves, muscles and tendons, all of the bones and tissues… There is absolutely nothing wrong with them! Well, they're not as strong as they should be, since you aren't using them, but that's it! And it isn't psychological either; there isn't so much as an involuntary twitch! This shouldn't be possible, Hayate."

"Except, evidently, that it is." Zafira pointed out.

Shamal's glare could have scoured barnacles off a ship's hull.

"I just don't understand," Shamal repeated to herself as she tried spell after spell. "There has to be a reason. Why can't I find it?"

The Book of Darkness pulsed, another page filling.

If Shamal was human, she might have missed it. If Shamal was human, she could have lied to herself and convinced herself that she was mistaken. If Shamal was human, she would not have to face the truth.

But she wasn't.

Pale, trembling, Shamal sunk to her knees, the horror she felt echoed back at her as the rest of the Wolkenritter comprehended what she had seen.

"Hayate…" Shamal said softly. "Your paralysis… it spread a little just now."

Hayate clutched the Book tightly and sat in silence for a few moments. "And just now… a page filled."

Shamal nodded, tears prickling at her eyes. A crunch from behind her signaled Vita smashing something in frustration.

"How far will it spread?" Hayate's voice was barely a whisper.

Saline droplets rolled down Shamal's cheeks, and she had never wished to lie to Hayate as much as she did right now.

"Too far." The words were tortuously dragged out of her throat. "If something is not done, the Curse of the Book of Darkness will take your life."

[137/666]


Author's Note:

When I first planned this chapter out in my head, it had a larger number of shorter scenes. Somehow it didn't turn out that way. I don't think I've done a very good job with the timescale, as looking over it this feels like it could all be happening over the course of maybe a week or two rather than two months. But I suppose that's to be expected, as this is my first time trying to accomplish this particular sort of writing.

I really would have liked more Wolkenritter scenes, but I just had a hard time coming up with them for some reason. I suppose it isn't really a problem; what I'm doing doesn't require a great deal of character development to occur in this chapter, so I've just perhaps nudged them a little rather than make any significant changes. Hopefully at this point the readers have a pretty good idea of their mentality.

We are now getting into the meat of A's. Much like canon, we have the Wolkenritter (who want to save Hayate), Hayate (who doesn't want anyone to die because of her), and Nanoha and her friends (who want to save everybody). Just like canon, right? Well, from a certain point of view, perhaps, but I think everyone can see that this is quite a different kettle of fish. For one thing, we've basically traded out the TSAB for Nanoha's family, whose role is entirely different. And Hayate's relationship with the Wolkenritter is more of a 'princess and knights' sort of relationship than the near-worship that the Wolkenritter seem to have for her in canon. And everybody knows each other, which cuts out basically all of the run-around from A's.

And as for Reinforce… well, you'll have to wait and see.

What can be easily missed when watching the Nanoha anime is that Nanoha's character is arguably rather static after the first season. There's some off-screen maturity that is obtained between A's and StrikerS, but that's about it really. Fate, on the other hand, confronts serious personal issues in every season, giving her a much more interesting character arc (I think that's the right term). Though I must say, Nanoha's sheer awesome makes up for a lot, and she always has an important role to play, so I'm not putting her down in any way.

I'm not sure at what point I decided I would be doing things differently, but I have plans for Nanoha, I do. One of the important differences between Graceful Degradation and canon is Nanoha's family, who are now minor characters rather than background characters. While Triangle Heart 3 is not completely absorbed into my backstory for a variety of reasons (most importantly Shirou surviving the bomb) I am including major elements of it, and for that reason Nanoha's family is a little… odd.

But not as odd as Nanoha herself.