Disclaimer: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Don't own.
Wow. I really didn't expect to get this out today. Guess there's surprises for everyone, eh? I figured that since the disc was in my DVD player, why not?
In other words, my hands smell like garlic right now from helping my mom in the kitchen.
I'm really uncomfortable with the middle of the chapter, seems a bit rushed, but it might just be me. What do you think?
In other news, if I were to write a sequel to this that followed Nanoha in A's, how many of you would read it? I need to know soon so I know if I need to keep any plot points unresolved or not so I don't have to start from scratch.
Enjoy.
A bright dome of light began to expand before focusing all its energy into shooting upwards and dispersing. Fate jumped back quickly and returned Bardiche to device mode before jumping towards the Jewel Seed. Nanoha, who was expecting that but still didn't want it to happen, reacted quickly. As Fate grabbed the Jewel Seed with her hands and attempted to stop the energy, barely being able to keep it from overflowing and taking her over. Nanoha silently released a spell that would discreetly soak up most of the spare energy, making Fate's job easier. She couldn't exactly let her get that hurt after all. Remembering something else, Nanoha put another spell on Fate, this time going through the trouble to put some extra energy into it for precautions.
When Fate collapsed after securing the Jewel Seed with her hands, Alph ran over and barely managed to catch the girl. Ignoring the remnants of a spell around her, she shot a deadly glare towards Nanoha and Yuuno before jumping off.
Later that day at the Takamachi residence, Yuuno sat next to Raising Heart as it was recovering, thinking.
'Normally, the Raising Heart can take high amounts of damage. Yet... For one attack to cause this... Could Nanoha and that other girl's power possibly be able to cause all this? No, that amount of energy wouldn't be able to do this alone... then again, maybe it is. I just get this feeling Nanoha is... hiding something from me, but what? Could she really have enough energy hidden to actually do this? Or is the Jewel Seed responsible?'
As he was thinking, Yuuno was interrupted by Nanoha opening the door, bringing in a couple of crackers along with her.
"Yuuno... is Raising Heart going to be okay?"
While Nanoha knew that under normal conditions, Raising Heart would be all right, Nanoha was worried. She had tried to use as much of her own energy as possible to lessen the strain on it, but Nanoha didn't know if Raising Heart was able to withstand those two spells she had cast after it had broke without any of the technology they would have ten years into the future.
"Don't worry, Nanoha. It'll be all right, it's just injured right now. The Repair Function is going on full speed, so it should be all right for now."
"All right."
Nanoha spoke no more words after that, nor did Yuuno bug her about it. It was clear to both of them that Nanoha was feeling many feelings of guilt over Raising Heart's injuries. Although Yuuno didn't want to acknowledge it, he felt that Nanoha was hiding something, and that something probably would be able to have protected the device. Knowing that, it was hard to feel as bad for Raising Heart as he did the first time.
At another place in Uminari City, Alph was treating Fate's wounds. Fate was thinking about a couple of things at the moment, with one of them being why exactly a spell with Nanoha's energy in it would help her capture the Jewel Seed. More importantly, why would Nanoha be helping her get the Jewel Seeds? She thought of that time at the hot springs, and how Nanoha was so willing to give her the Jewel Seed. Fate would have laid back if she was able too, for everything that was going on right now was just too confusing to bear. She knew one thing, however, and that was how if everything else failed, it would be a fairly good idea to go to her for help. Right now, however, that would be last resort, as she wouldn't betray her mother so readily. Not yet, anyways. She did have to go give a report tomorrow, and no matter how much Alph, protested, she was going to go.
The next day, Nanoha stood in the dojo, waiting for Miyuki to come. Although she knew she should be resting and trying to conserve as much of her energy for what she had planned, this was what she had done last time, and must be what she will do this time. As she watched Miyuki practice and held a conversation with Yuuno telepathically, Nanoha used whatever time she could right now about how she could set things so that the end result would be the same yet she could keep both her and Fate from as much injury and pain as possible. She had figured that she would try to do as much as she could while still keeping it in the area where she knew what would happen. This, of course, meant she was limited to little things, like dialogue and attack changes. That wasn't much, but if she wanted to at least try and stop the hooded man's plans, this was what seemed like a good idea in her head. Suddenly, Nanoha winced in pain, and quickly cast a slight spell on her own to try to minimize the damage of what was about to come. As she finished, she went over to her room and changed into her uniform quickly, and began to walk to school.
On board the Arthra, Lindy sat, accepting her tea from Amy and warned Chrono to be ready to transport at any time. As Chrono confirmed that this would be the case, holding his device in his hands, Fate was currently somewhere else, having a "talk" with her "mother".
As Fate was there getting whipped by Precia, while she was busy apologizing to Precia with fear in her eyes, she was wondering why it didn't hurt as much as it did before. Not knowing why, she bore through all the pain. And when the bonds dispersed, Fate fell to the ground, with Precia leaving without a word. As the woman walked away, she felt her hand was as good as broken. Cursing her luck at how someone on that cursed world was powerful enough to put such a protection spell on Fate, she walked away, as this would require much healing for use.
Back on Earth, Nanoha was feeling quite exhausted herself, as even with a spell on to transfer most of the damage to draining her magic power instead, she had still been hurt a bit by all of Precia's whipping. Wondering how exactly Fate had lived through it, Nanoha just hoped that the counterattack portion of her spell was enough to stop Precia before she went too far.
Upon getting off the bus, Nanoha was greeted by Yuuno and Raising Heart, and had just stapped the device around her neck when she sensed another Jewel Seed coming. With all the chaos lately reminding her of where she was supposed to be, Nanoha remembered how she had wanted to punish Yuuno for not helping Vivio with her homework. Figuring this would be as good a time as any to finish it up and thinking that her senses were a bit more acute than Fate's, Nanoha grabbed Yuuno and ran to where the Jewel Seed would awaken, where Yuuno quickly put up a seal. The monster itself slowly moved forward, eventually summoning its roots as a weapon. Without Nanoha's warning this time, Yuuno was caught. As the thing slowly began to squeeze Yuuno, Nanoha felt some inward satisfaction for some reason and began to try to defeat it. When Divine Shooter proved to be of no use, Nanoha quickly flew up high and began shooting Divine Buster, and as it turned out, Fate had also arrived on the scene. As the tree began to start juggle Yuuno, who was wondering why Nanoha hadn't used any stronger spells yet, Fate shot Thunder Hammer at the monster, and the shield was quickly broken, making it drop Yuuno, who was in pain and currently held some mild resentment for Nanoha.
'Maybe I went to far...'
Nanoha had that thought cross her mind for a second before remembering to proceed with what she was supposed to be doing. Setting up Sealing Mode, Nanoha shouted out the words she had used so many times once again.
"Jewel Seed Serial VII! Seal it!"
As the two flew into the air and had a stand off.
"Come on, Fate. Why can't we talk? You can trust me. I'm not some spoiled brat, so if you want to fight, then fine."
"Very well then, if you win, I'll gladly talk."
As the two charged towards the other, Nanoha was awaiting Chrono's arrival. And, just like last time, it came just as the two were about to make contact. Catching Raising Heart in one hand and using his device to block Bardiche, Chrono demanding to know what the situation was.
Well, the end of chapter 8. Please review.