SonicANIME2010 here, bringing in another chapter of Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar. Gotten a lot of favorites and follows lately, so I'm glad that I'm getting these stories noticed. Not to be picky, but I'd like to have some constructive criticism too so I can see where I can improve. Anyways, here we go!

[Uminari City]
[Seishou Elementary School]
[Time: 2020 hours]
[No BGM]

Nanoha and Sonic, both clad in their respective Barrier Jackets, stood at the front of the large school on a beautiful, well-lit Saturday night. The two of them looked like they were in a little bit of a tussle of sorts as there was some dirt and marks on their jackets. Above the two of them was a Jewel Seed that looked ready to be sealed.

"Standby, Ready!" Raising Heart chimed, as it was ready to seal the seed.

"Lyrical Magical!" The girl declared out her magical incantation, staring at the seed, "Serial Seed 20, Seal!"

The spell did the trick, though at the same time it also made quite a bit of a light show with the streams of light flaring out from the vicinity of the school. If anyone was watching, they might have noticed, but at the time of night, that was doubtful. The Jewel Seed floated in front of the two; its roman numerals "XX" were visible in a red inscription.

The staff of Raising Heart let out a burst of steam from its head. Nanoha looked a bit exhausted from the whole ordeal as she had to lean on it to balance herself and catch the breaths she had been holding and releasing from that fatigue.

"Good work, Nanoha" Yuuno congratulated the girl, "You sealed another seed"

"Hey, whoa! Whoa!" Sonic grumbled, "Don't I get any credit for this?"

"…. Good job, Sonic…" the ferret corrected himself, and made no attempt to hide his annoyance in the tone he put into that congratulatory statement, more evidence of slight favoritism to the girl.

The hedgehog may have grumbled a bit, but made no other gestures as there was no sense in making an issue out of a non-issue. The three began their long trek home and it was on that route that Nanoha's fatigue showed more. The girl did not dismiss her staff and was actually using it to walk, drawing some concern from her hedgehog and ferret allies.

"Uh..Nanoha.." Yuuno asked in concern, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine" she breathed out, though her tired expression said completely to the contrary, "Just a little…just a little…tired"

If she tried to say anything else, she never had the chance to as she found herself collapsing all of a sudden. Much to the amusement of Yuuno, the girl landed right on her hedgehog familiar's back. She didn't weigh too much, but the way she was positioned combined with the fact that both she and Sonic ended up face down, made the hedgehog incapable of moving.

"Hey! Nanoha! Get off! I can't move! Oy!" Sonic whined and flailed his arms a little bit. The snickering and amused expression by Yuuno made the blue hedgehog glare at him in annoyance, "Oy! Tutorial Ferret! Stop laughing and get some help!"

[OP: "Innocent Starter" Nana Mizuki]

Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar
Chapter 5
The Town is in Danger?!

[Midori-ya Café: Takamachi Residence]
[Nanoha's room]
[Time: 0730]

Yuuno sat at the foot of the shared bed of Nanoha and Sonic. Both of them looked to either be sound asleep or at least trying to get another minute or two in. The bright morning sun shining through the pink curtains of the girl's bedroom windows did not help their efforts. However it happened, Yuuno managed to get the two of them back home and able to give the good news before they both slept the previous night away. Now the newly-nicknamed "Tutorial Ferret" was presented with his most difficult challenge yet, waking up the hedgehog and girl.

"Nanoha? Sonic?" The ferret called out to them, "It's time to wake up!"

"Yuuno-kun, it's Sunday…" Nanoha replied and turned over in her bed, pressing her face in the pillow, "Five more minutes"

"Yeah…" Sonic rolled right with her, "Five more minutes; we worked our tails off last night"

The ferret groaned a little bit and kept trying to get them up by calling out. They were both awake; but not so much interested in getting up and out of the bed. Finally they both rolled back over to stare at the ceiling. In doing so, they caused the ferret, who was on the top sheet of the bed, to get rolled to the side. Sonic caught that, but declined to give it any further thought; instead, he glanced at Nanoha, who was counting the five Jewel Seeds that they currently had.

'It's been a week since we started this thing, and we've already got five seeds out of it.' Sonic mentally recapped, 'I think that I've gotten used to this… being bound to this girl as her "Familiar". But… I can't help but worry that all of this is taking its toll on her. I'm living off of her with this magic bond and the only thing I've been able to do is convince her to help me bug the Tutorial Ferret to give us a day off. '

"You know what…" Yuuno let out a sigh after he freed himself of the mess of bed sheets, "You both have me convinced. It's probably for the best that you have a day off to relax. You've already collected five seeds this week"

"Two of those in the first two days" Sonic noted, "And we've dealt with the Tutorial monster, Demon dog that really disliked Alisa, some water monster with a weird interest in girl's swimsuits.."

"At any rate.. Today you WILL take a break" Yuuno noted in a declarative fashion, "Neither of you will be able to last as mage and familiar otherwise."

"Well.." Nanoha said as she finally sat up, "I guess a break today won't hurt."

"We've got something to do today as well" Sonic noted as he got up as well; though he went a little bit further and got off of the bed, "A promise or something you said that you'd keep, Nanoha?"

[Soccer Field]
[No BGM]

As Nanoha had said and what Sonic had alluded to earlier that morning; the two of them, with Yuuno on Nanoha's shoulder, met with Alisa and Suzuka at the nearby soccer field. The girls were all in casual clothes. Even Sonic was in clothing, albeit it was a pinkish short-sleeved sports-jacket. From what the girls had explained to the hedgehog and ferret, Nanoha's father owned and coached a youth soccer team called the Midori-ya JFC. They had a 10 o'clock am Sunday game; and Nanoha and her friends had promised to show up and cheer for the team.

"Wow, we've really filled out the stands today" Shiro informed his opposite number as a coach they were around the same age and knew each other well enough, so there was a sense of familiarity between the two, "Think we should start the game?"

"Sure" the other coach agreed, "I was thinking the same thing"

The game started and Midori-ya immediately went on the offensive side, moving the ball toward their opponent's side of the field. The full crowd helped with the morale of the team. In a rather enthusiastic way, Alisa and Suzuka cheered on the team from Midori-ya.

"So this is a sport in your world?" Yuuno, seated comfortably in Nanoha's lap, asked the girl and Sonic via the mind-speak, "The way they are playing with the ball?"

"Yup! It's a real fun game called "Soccer" Nanoha answered briefly

As she said that, one of the Midori-ya boys got the ball and drilled it right past the goalie and into the net, eliciting cheers from the fans from the Midori-ya side.

"You move the ball from one side of the field to the other, points are scored when the ball makes it into the other teams net, and each goal is worth one point." the hedgehog added, "But here's the real trick, the players on the field can only use their feet to advance the ball. Only the goalie, that's the kid in front of the net, is allowed to block with his hands."

"It sounds like a fun sport" Yuuno commented.

Sakuradai, the opposing team, made their own drive down the field following Midori-ya's goal. The forward got the ball and attempted his shot. The ball took a high bounce off a defender's head and looked like it was a sure goal on the upper corner of the net. But a great diving defensive grab by Midori-ya's goalie saved it!

"Oh ho! Nice play!" Alisa shouted in cheer

"Oh yeah" Sonic nodded, "if that shot went through, we would've had a brand new ballgame."

"What about you, Yuuno-kun?" Nanoha asked the ferret-archeologist curiously, "Don't you have sports like this on your world?"

"Yeah, but I'm also an archeologist, so whatever time I'm not researching in a library, I'm out on digs" Yuuno shook his head, "So I don't get a chance to play too often."

"You're kinda the same as me then, I'm not very good at sports either" Nanoha sheepishly giggled a little bit; that thought led her to curiously glance over at her familiar, "What about you, Sonic-kun? You seem very athletic, so I imagine you've played sports before"

"Actually, no, I don't play that much either" Sonic shook his head, "Sure I'm athletic, but I'm also short. I'll try a track race or two every now and then, but most of my time otherwise is spent napping under some palm tree or reading a book on aviation."

The loud volume of the crowd noise kept Yuuno and Nanoha from asking for any sort of clarification from the hedgehog. The game ended rather quickly after the two halves of regulation. The final score was 2-0 with Midori-ya getting the shutout win over Sakuradai. After the game, Shiro, in recognition for the youth's hard work, offered to treat them all to lunch at the Midori-ya café.

[Midori-ya Café]
[BGM: "Eeto Desu ne" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]

It may have been due to the full house of entire Midori-ya JFC soccer team leaving them little room, but the trio of girls plus hedgehog and ferret opted to eat their sweets outside. The three girls had strawberry shortcakes and glasses of juice in front of them each as they all were quite up to enjoying a sweet or two.

For some reason, though, the girls plus ferret were all staring at the blue hedgehog with exasperated expressions. It wasn't his choice of food, as Sonic had ordered exactly the same thing that they did; instead, it was a little slip of the tongue and a recent development that happened the previous day during the impromptu shopping trip.

"So, why is there an old airplane in the backyard of your house?" Alisa asked the question that came to her mind. It was a leading one, but called for as Nanoha let that slip her tongue in passing discussion.

"And it had Sonic-kun's name written on it in large letters" Suzuka added

"I was wondering the same thing." Nanoha sent a skeptical glance over at the hedgehog, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"

"I'm not going to get out of this one, am I…" Sonic let out a defeated sigh, "Alright, might as well talk. It's mine; I picked it up yesterday from the docks and took it to Nanoha-chan's house. I had to get some help from her family to get it in the backyard because the thing was so old it couldn't start up."

"Eh!?" the trio, luckily were not eating anything otherwise that would've been a mess, cried out briefly in complete surprise, "It's yours?!"

"Don't look too surprised" the hedgehog sighed again, "The plane is an old vintage-style biplane that I found on South Island; crashed and abandoned. I've been doing my best to try and restore the old thing on my own. So far though, I was only able to repair the wings, refresh the paint job and fix the propeller. The engine's shot dead, so I can't really do anything else unless I get that fixed up."

"So, the books on aviation?" Nanoha curiously asked, implying a need for clarification.

"I wanted to see what the engines on the older model of planes are made of and see if I could build it myself" Sonic explained further, "But, when Eggman attacked, I had to put the plane project on hold."

"How'd you get it back here?" Yuuno asked, figuring if no one else would, he'd try that one.

"Well…" the blue hedgehog went on to explain how he himself got to Uminari City; through the tour service. Yesterday, as it turned out, he went back to tell the captain that he was planning on staying at the city for a while longer as he had made a few new friends and wanted to help them out on something. The captain of the tour liner surprised him with the biplane, explaining that the authorities had found it in their investigation and planned to decommission it for parts, but she "sweet-talked" them into giving it to her for an antique collection, "It was kinda obvious what got her attention about the plane… I did print my name on it."

"What are you going to do about it now?" Suzuka asked

"Probably keep trying to restore it, and might as well add a second seat to it" the hedgehog shrugged, "I figure now that it may be of some help to us in case we end up having to go outside of Uminari City in finding the Jewel Seeds"

"If you want, we could help" Alisa offered, "Suzuka-chan and I come from wealthy families and I don't think something like what you're looking for is going to be affordable under the café's budget."

"You don't have to…" Sonic tried to dissuade them, but found any further attempt in doing so blocked by Nanoha's hand in a gesture of silence.

"Sonic-kun, we're friends now" the girl, despite not having the most confidence in herself to say that, still did so, "And friends help each other out when they're needed. I'm sure my family would like to help you too, but not with most of our budget going into the café and dojo."

If Yuuno had any ideas, which he probably did considering a connection or two he had with his job as an archeologist, he didn't voice them as he preferred to keep that connection quiet until it became important. Not that he had the chance to do so anyways, as the café began to empty itself of the boys from the soccer team. Shiro had excused them for the rest of the afternoon. One black-haired boy in particular caught Nanoha's attention, though not in any typical crush fashion. It was a blue diamond-cut jewel that the boy had taken from his bag and put in his pocket that shocked her with the familiarity, could it have been a Jewel Seed? Nanoha had thought of the notion, but couldn't find a way to ask the boy as he had met up with a girl with long sandy brown hair in a blue tracksuit who looked like she could've been a girlfriend due to how fond she was of him. Before Nanoha could do anything, her father came up to her and the hedgehog.

"Thank you all for coming to the game today" Shiro thanked the group of youth, "Are you guys calling it a day? Need a ride home?"

"No thanks" both Alisa and Suzuka shook their head in polite decline, as they both had rides that were due to pick them both up in a little bit.

"What about you, Nanoha-chan? Sonic-san?" her father asked, "Do you have any plans for today?"

"I'd like to go home and rest for today" Nanoha noted

"Same here" Sonic nodded in agreement, "Tutorial Ferret gave us the day off today from training."

"I was going to go home, take a quick shower and go back to work" Shiro said his plan, "I'll walk you two home."

Meanwhile, with the boy and girl from a few minutes ago; they both walked down the sidewalk, appearing none the wise to anything that was going on, not that anything interesting was going on during their trek. As the two were only focused on their way home, a familiar blue glow and shimmer emitted from the boy's pocket.

[Takamachi Residence}
[No BGM]

Nanoha must have been more tired than she looked because when she got to her room, Sonic and Yuuno were blessed with the rather humorous sight of the girl unceremoniously plopping onto her bed in exhaustion and fatigue that may have been just a bit exaggerated.

"Nanoha.." Yuuno scolded her, "If you're going to do that, shouldn't you at least change into your pajamas first?"

The girl, displaying that her fatigue and half-awake status was no act, sat up and slowly removed her top. The ferret, freaking out in record time, quickly made a complete 180 turn so he wouldn't be seeing the girl accidentally. Oddly enough, while Yuuno was shivering in comical fear and discomfort, Sonic just shrugged and watched with barely any interest; unsure of what the big deal was or why the ferret would freak out.

"You should take a nap too, Yuuno-kun" Nanoha droned out, again half-awake as she changed, "You too, Sonic-kun.."

"Uh, sure" the hedgehog shrugged and watched as his mistress changed into her orange pajama outfit; he glanced at the ferret, again confused as to why he still had his back turned

"I'm going to sleep until dinner.." Nanoha droned out and fell face first into her pillow, her hair still tied into the pigtails she had sported since she woke up, "Oyasumi…"

With a small sigh, Sonic watched the girl completely fall asleep on the spot. For some reason that he would most definitely question himself mentally about later, he softly untied the girl's hair ties and let her medium-length hair fall down to just below her shoulder level. Yuuno, thinking that it was safe for him to do so, turned around and approached the girl. He didn't do much else other than sit there and watch her.

"As I thought.." Yuuno said softly, knowing that the blue hedgehog would be the only one to hear him, "She looked exhausted… "

"Do you think that I may have something to do with that?" Sonic asked the ferret, just as softly and he too looked at the girl in concern; he didn't look nearly as tired as she was, but he was thinking of joining her in the nap, if only to rest up "Like the magic bond thing we have is draining her more?"

"It doesn't help her, if that's what you're asking, but that's not the issue. So you shouldn't consider yourself a liability" The ferret shook his head with a sigh, "It's the magic itself; using magic that you're not used to really takes its toll. I'm surprised that you're not as exhausted for that same reason."

"I'm not going to deny that I'm having my own share of growing pains here" Sonic shrugged, "But this isn't my first adventure, only the magic is new."

"If only I could help her out more…" Yuuno stared at his feet in regret, "If only I were stronger."

"Don't worry about it, you're already helping her out enough by just being there and teaching her about this magic" Sonic said calmly and kindly, "I know where you're coming from though. It bothers me that she's feeling this toll and I can't do anything to lessen it."

[Downtown Uminari City]
[No BGM]

Meanwhile, the boy and the girl from before stood at one end of a crosswalk. The two were side-by-side. There was a little bit of a peaceful silence between the two, and really nothing could have gone wrong. The girl turned to the boy and talked a bit as they were waiting for their turn to cross.

"You were really good today" the girl said softly, "At least I thought so.."

"Nah, I think I just got really lucky" the boy said modestly, "It helps to have a good defense backing me up"

"Still…" The girl continued on in her fondness, "I really thought you were cool"

"Aw…" the boy blushed a bit in modesty, or perhaps maybe in a bit of a crush. An idea dawned upon him to reach into his pocket. He pulled out the familiar diamond-cut jewel seed and held it out to her, "Here.. This is for you, I thought it was just an old stone, but it looked beautiful and I think you should have it.

"Wow! It's beautiful" the girl said in awe and admiration when she saw the gem glimmer a bit. She reached out to softly touch it. However, the second she did so, trouble stirred up.

The gem reacted violently and shone brightly, causing the two to scream in surprise as they were both engulfed in the bright light. Vegetation and roots started to sprout of from the ground, especially around the point where the couple stood. With nothing else they could do but squeal, they held on tight as the roots and vegetation took the form of large trees, one of them taking the boy and girl with it.

[Takamachi Residence]
[BGM: "Inflexible Determination" Final Fantasy X]

The activation of the latest Jewel Seed was the first thing that brought Nanoha wide awake from her nap as her senses went into overdrive. She quickly hopped up from her bed, changed her clothes back to the ones she was wearing at the soccer match and restyled her hair to their usual style.

"So much for the nap" Sonic grumbled and nodded to the girl as they quickly made a sprint down the stairs, alerting Nanoha's father, who was in the bath, in the process.

"Eh?" Shiro blinked and shouted out, "What's up, Nanoha-chan? What's up, did you want to come in with me?"

"Sorry, otou-san! Some other time!" the girl cried out hastily in response, "Something big just came up and I gotta go. I'll be back in a bit!"

"Alright.. Be safe" the father let out a rather defeated sigh, the context of his last question was a non-perverted one, just a father looking to bond with his daughter like they used to when she was much younger. His sigh was probably a sign that he was starting to feel is age and realize how much his youngest daughter had started to grow, "She's growing up so fast…"

[Nearby Rooftop]
[BGM: "Inflexible Determination" Final Fantasy X (continuing)]

Quickly, Nanoha made her way to the top of the roof of a skyscraper close to her house and café. She was followed closely by Sonic and Yuuno, the former easily able to keep stride while the latter was on the beginning mage's shoulder.

"Raising Heart" the girl called out to the device as she threw the red jewel up into the air, "Onegai!"

"Standby, ready!" The device declared and let out a burst of magic in which engulfed the girl and hedgehog together in the shared light. Instantly, their respective Barrier Jackets appeared and Raising Heart appeared in the girl's hand in the form of its Device Mode staff. Sonic's twin swords appeared in his grasp as well. Once all of that was over, the two looked at the scene before them in, well Nanoha's case, complete shock and horror.

Uminari City, at least over half of it, was a complete mess. Trees were seen everywhere, covering more than half of the buildings visible. The trees looked just about as large as some of the skyscrapers, maybe even bigger. If it could bring her some relief, the buildings that did not have the trees or roots coming out of them seemed intact for the most part.

"Uh… Yeah" Sonic shook his head a bit and softly quipped, "We're gonna need a bigger hatchet"

"This… this is horrible" Nanoha just stared at the scene in horror, most in part because she felt responsible for what happened.

"This must've been caused by a human" Yuuno explained, "If someone puts their strongest feelings and wishes into it, that's when the Jewel Seed is at its peak of power.

[BGM Insert: "Rydia's Theme" Final Fantasy IV ost]

"…" Nanoha let out a loud gasp in further realization and horror. Regret obvious in her expression, she stared at her feet, 'So that boy really did have a Jewel Seed… I saw it right there in front of me, and I didn't do anything about it. If I did something back then, I could've prevented this from happening!'

"Nanoha?" Yuuno stared at the girl, he had no idea what she was thinking. To his surprise though, the girl's familiar somehow did know what she was thinking and he could read her horror-stricken expression.

"Enough of this.." Sonic shook his head and placed a firm gloved grip on her shoulder, "We are not going through a drama scene here; not on my watch."

"Eh? Sonic-kun" Nanoha just stared at the hedgehog in confusion, only to comically wince when the hedgehog lightly tugged on the closest pigtail or her hair "Uwaaaah!"

"We have more important things to worry about than to have you start doubting yourself" Sonic lightly glared at her, "Let's get this seed taken care of and we'll talk later."

"…" the girl just stared ahead again, silently absorbing her familiar's words. Her face suddenly gained a serious expression. As if reading her thoughts, Raising Heart's head glowed a bright aura of cherry blossom hue. The girl finally said something after a moment of pause, "Yuuno-kun? What should I do in cases like this?"

"Eh?" the ferret glanced at Nanoha's face, only to flinch a bit at the dead serious look on her face, "Oh.. In order to seal it, you need to get close to the seed."

"Except we can't see it.." Sonic grumbled, "Forget a hatchet, we'll need a big telescope or something!"

"It'll be fine if we find the place it sprouted from" Nanoha, serious and dead set on fixing her mistake held up her staff and pointed it right at the large tree in the middle, "Ne, Raising Heart?"

"Area Search" The device confirmed in declaration as her master spun around in a circle, creating a large magic circle with herself in the middle of it.

"Sonic-kun, help me out here, please" the girl requested as she began her incantation, "Lyrical Magical! Search! Find the place where the growth is at its worst"

The search spell went off with a massive amount of spheres in the cherry blossom hue separate and spread out all over Uminari City. Sonic and Nanoha, linked to the spell, closed their eyes and were immediately assaulted with images of what the spheres had picked up through their vision. There was little doubt that the girl and hedgehog would most likely have a headache after it was all over. It only took less than a minute, but they found the source in the form of the boy and girl from before, cuddled close together in a defensive huddle. They were in the middle of a yellowish sphere. The Jewel Seed was right in the middle of the two.

"Found it!" the duo declared at the same

"Eh?" Yuuno blinked, "You did?! That was quick.."

[BGM: "Paradigm Shift" Final Fantasy XIII-2 OST]

"I'll seal it right away" Nanoha declared and held Raising Heart out.

"Eh? From this range?!" the ferret argued, "But you can't.."

"Yes we can.." the girl held her device up high, "Ne, Raising Heart?"

"Cannon Mode" The device declared in confirmation and shifted into that mentioned mode. At the tip of the staff a large orb of mana started to form, gathering mana; the device looked ready to cast a spell high power, but there was one thing that was missing. Raising Heart, with its intelligence was quick to point out a need, "Familiar assistance required!"

"Guess that's my cue" Sonic shook his head, sheathed his swords behind his back and held out his arms with the gloved hands open slightly. As he did so, the orb in the middle gathered more power, though it didn't show in the size, it showed in the concentrated amount of mana poured in.

"Go and capture the seed!" Nanoha called out, "Divine Buster!"

With Sonic's help, the Divine Buster was unleashed. The spell took the form of a large, long energy beam and, with incredible pinpoint accuracy; it pierced the middle of the large tree, right where the two civilians with the seed between them centered in the middle. The beam engulfed them, but caused no harm at all. The Jewel Seed's serial number was shown in the Roman numeral "X".

"Lyrical Magical!" Nanoha declared her incantation, "Serial Ten! Seal!"

"Sealing!" Raising Heart declared and, even from its wide range, shot off the sealing spell and engulfed the large tree in an explosion of pink mana. The central tree's explosion and destruction caused a chain of events that led to every other root and tree getting caught in the blast and destroyed along with the large tree.

The sun started to set and Uminari City quieted down a bit, though once again, the damage that the Jewel Seed had caused did not just disappear as cracks were all over the place, cracked concrete and steps littered the central point of where the large tree used to be. The boy and girl from before were both unconscious and the Jewel Seed, deactivated, flew from the boy's hand and up into view of Nanoha, where it then was captured and sealed inside Raising Heart.

[Jewel Seed Sealed]
[Jingle: "Zone Clear" Sonic CD (US) OST]

"Receipt No X. Sealed!" The device declared after the Seed was sealed. Once again steam was ejected from the vents along the side of the device's head. "Mode release"

Upon that declaration, the device returned to its standby form and, at the same time, dismissed the Barrier Jackets of Sonic and Nanoha, returning them to their civilian clothes. Yuuno just stared at the girl in awe, definitely unable to believe what he just saw.

'Incredible! To be able to use long range magic that even I can't use' The ferret thought as he stared at the two, 'Even though she had help from Sonic, how much magical talent does she have?'

[BGM: "Rydia's Theme" Final Fantasy IV OST]

In a sudden and deliberate movement that surprised both hedgehog and ferret alike, Nanoha crouched down and hugged her knees tightly. Both of them didn't miss the tears that threatened to fall from her face. The girl just sat there and let her regrets and feelings be known to the two about her mistake.

"I've caused a lot of trouble for a lot of people today…" the girl said softly, "That boy we saw, I noticed that he had one of the seeds, but I thought it was just my imagination, seeing something that wasn't there… I could've stopped it! I could've done something, but I didn't and all of this happened."

"Nanoha… You couldn't have known that this would've happened." Yuuno tried to console her, and though he got no dice, he kept trying at it, "You shouldn't look so sad. If anything, it's my fault that all of this happened in the first place."

The girl said nothing and just sat there, hugging her knees and letting her sad feelings show in her face. For her, it was a truly humbling experience; knowing that it was her mistake that caused so much trouble for everyone. It would've been completely natural and understandable for her to let the gravity of her mistake impact her hard.

Sonic, again with a sudden drive to do so; suddenly picked the girl up onto her feet and hugged her close and tight. He himself said nothing, but he had no need to do so and his feelings were easily shared in the intent alone. The familiar magic bond between the two, as one of the upsides to it, assisted the hedgehog in sharing his feelings with the contact. All Nanoha could do was return the hug with one of her own, her hand softly patting the hedgehog's back, thankfully the spines were not sharp at the time.

A little bit later, the three were on their way home when they passed by one of the recent after effects from the tree incident. On one of the sidewalks, there was a large chunk on concrete that was off the ground, no doubt leftover when the roots of one of the huge trees were there.

As they stared at the huge chunk, the three took notice of the boy and girl from before directly across from where they were positioned. The boy looked like he had an obvious limp in his step and relied on the help of his female friend to walk, but otherwise he looked fine. In fact he was joking with her a bit.

'It's a tough feeling to know when you're the cause of someone else's suffering. This is why I want to work even harder than before now' Nanoha frowned at the ground in deep thought, once again she was comforted by her familiar, 'Not just for Yuuno-kun or Sonic-kun's sake. But to make sure that this doesn't happen again.'

It would be this day that would live on in Nanoha's memory; marking the first time in her young start as a mage that she made a mistake, a mistake that led to disastrous results. If there was one thing to be thankful for, however, it was that things could have turned out much worse than they did.

[Ending: "Little Wish ~Lyrical Step" Yukari Tamura]

[End of Chapter 5]

Author's note: Ah yes, this was a sobering moment indeed for Nanoha Takamachi. Writing out Sonic's reaction wasn't as tough as it may have seemed. Watching that episode and that scene, Nanoha looked like she really needed a hug there. Yes, Sonic is in clothes. Kinda going with the color scheme inspired by his "favorite" clothes in the Sonic OVA; because.. Well.. REAL GUYS WEAR PINK! DANGUMMIT!