Disclaimer: I do not own anything concerning Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
This chapter would have been up so much faster if I hadn't dumped it halfway through because of some problems. I apologize for that, but hope you enjoy this anyways.
Nanoha snapped awake and looked around, observing her surroundings. When she did, she quickly came to the realization that this was the room that the hooded man usually appeared in.
"So, Mr. Hoodie wants to talk, eh?" The girl mumbled to herself, waiting for "Mr. Hoodie" himself to show up.
My my, impatient, are we? Remarked the snide voice of the hooded man, who had suddenly appeared behind Nanoha, walking up to the brunette leisurely. Instantly, Nanoha tensed up, ready to take action at any moment.
"What do you want?" She threw out cautiously.
Nothing much, but here, catch. The man quickly threw a white gem at Nanoha, who caught it warily, still not trusting the man. Keep it with you, it might help.
"Why are you doing this? If you wanted me to survive so badly, then why'd you send me here in the first place?" Nanoha slowly questioned.
We'll see, won't we? Anyways, bye bye. The man waved as Nanoha once again fell unconscious.
Nanoha awoke, and the first thing that entered her line of vision was Yuuno watching over her. Quickly the girl sat up and tried to piece together the situation, thinking about what had happened before she had her encounter with the hooded man. When memories of falling unconscious after the battle above the ocean, she gasped and scooted back, wary of anything that might come from Yuuno.
"Heh, worried, are you? Don't fear me, we're just going to go give you your punishment now. Follow," the boy calmly spoke as he stood up from his chair and opened the door, awaiting Nanoha to stand up and follow him. Unable to think of anything else that would help, the brunette complied and got of the bed she was laying on and tailed Yuuno, with silence in the air as they proceeded through the hall.
Suddenly, the white gem that Nanoha received from the hooded man began glowing, letting out a light that blinded both of them. When the light died out and the two regained their vision, they saw three white forms of energy facing them, looking ready to attack. Without any warning, the first one lunged towards Yuuno. Acting instinctively, Nanoha jumped in front of Yuuno, taking the hit, knocking her over as the energy jumped back. The second one then jumped in, also towards the boy, and Nanoha pulled him away, while quickly attempting to shoot the being, but missed due to its speed.
When the second one pulled back and the third one went in, Nanoha decided to try something else and aimed for it while it was coming towards her, but the shot simply went through the being, splitting it in two before it finally merged back together. When it finally got to Nanoha, it landed then jumped up once again, ramming into the blue-eyed girl and knocking her back. Moaning, Nanoha stood up to find Yuuno about to be hit in front of her, and quickly shot once without thinking, firing it through the white thing. Once again, upon collision, it split in two, moving back together. However, this was long enough of a window for Nanoha to warn Yuuno to dodge, and dodge he did.
Once again facing the three forms of energy, Nanoha and Yuuno stood back, at a lost of what to do. Suddenly, Nanoha pulled out the white gem that had called them in the first place, and held it out. Without warning, all of the energy went for the gem, carrying it with them as they disappeared. Letting out a sigh of relief, both of them tried to piece together what had just happened.
"Nanoha... What was that?" Yuuno questioned, thinking that the brunette had more answers than he did.
"I don't know," Nanoha answered, panting.
"But you had the gem that summoned them! How do you not!" Yuuno reasoned, trying to make his case.
"I'm honestly not sure," Nanoha said. "All I know is that they were only after the gem."
"Dammit! What's going on here, Nanoha! You've been spending most of your time off on your own, doing things that nobody knows anything about! Tell me what's going on!" Yuuno snapped, annoyed at how Nanoha was acting.
"It's a long story." Nanoha answered truthfully, looking away from the one in front of her.
"Tch! Fine. You'd better tell me later," Yuuno threatened, motioning for Nanoha to follow him to where they were heading before the energy popped up.
Arriving at the spacious room, Nanoha met with Chrono and Lindy, who were standing on the side opposite of her, and took a deep breath.
"Hello there, Nanoha," Lindy greeted with a sharp edge in her voice. "I trust you know that what you did would not come without unfortunate circumstances. As such, you will be forced to stay on Earth, Non-Administered Planet #97 until further notice. We will have Yuuno watching you just to be safe."
"All right," Nanoha agreed calmly, realizing that this would be beneficial to her. Now, if there was only a way she could get Raising Heart with her. She doubted that they would let her run away with it. Before she could come up with a plan, however, Yuuno started dragging her away, over to where they would be sent back down to Earth. Before she could protest, however, Nanoha noticed that Yuuno was holding something with the hand he was pulling hers with, and thinking it through, Nanoha was able to recognize that something as Raising Heart. Looking straight into Yuuno's eyes, Nanoha understood immediately, and left without a word.
Back on Earth, late at night, Nanoha and Yuuno arrived at the blue-eyed girl's house, half-asleep, with Yuuno in his ferret form. Opening the door, Nanoha yawned and walked in.
"Hello? Mom!?" Nanoha hollered.
"Eh!? Nanoha!" came the voice of Nanoha's mother, quickly rushing to see her daughter. "Why are you at home?"
"Well, they said I should rest at home for a bit. I'm tired, so can I sleep now?" Nanoha lazily droned, staggering with each step she took. This was no lie, as the events of the day had left Nanoha quite tired.
"All right," rang out her voice as Nanoha was already half-asleep, stumbling as she walked.
In Nanoha's room, the girl in question threw down her bag and jumped on the bed, falling asleep hastily. Yuuno, noticing this, sighed. It looked like he would only get his answers tomorrow.
On board the Arthra, Lindy and Chrono were worried. No matter where they looked, they couldn't find Raising Heart anywhere. As they continued searching, both of them were getting closer and closer to accepting that it was with Nanoha. The only thing they couldn't figure out was how the girl had gotten it. Deciding that they would worry about that later, they contacted Yuuno to check.
Hey, Yuuno! Chrono's voice rang in the ferret's head. He had figured they'd contact him sooner or later, and he was prepared.
Yes? What is it? I'm trying to sleep...
Pay attention! Raising Heart is missing, and we need to make sure it isn't on Nanoha!
What? Is that true? Oh well, I'm sure it's nothing.
Are you serious!? "Nothing"? That's crazy! You've seen what she can do!?
Look, I'll tell you when something's gone wrong. Until then, I'm going to sleep... Yuuno ended his contact with the two in dimensional space and pretended to sleep, leaving the two on the ship even more worried.
The next day, Nanoha awoke and stretched out, feeling refreshed. Getting ready, she planned out her day. 'Let's see here... I have to go meet Alph in front of Suzuka's house, which means I have to go meet up with the two of them. Of course, in order to do that, I'd have to go to school... Well, that's set.'
Nanoha got on the bus as usual, but when it came time to meet up with Arisa and Suzuka, the future Ace of Aces cringed. Still, knowing that this was something she had to go through, the girl steeled her resolve and moved to the back of the bus, where her two friends were.
"Ah... Arisa, Suzuka. Hello," She greeted calmly. In response to this, both had a shocked look on her face, but what happened after that varied. Arisa, being stubborn as ever, just turned her head from Nanoha, while Suzuka greeted the girl in return.
"Nanoha! We didn't know you'd be back," Suzuka waved, smiling.
"Ah... Yeah," Nanoha said as she rubbed her cheek, trying to think of a decent explanation. "I ended what I was doing a bit early, so I headed back."
"Does it matter?" Questioned Arisa defiantly.
"Don't be like that," Suzuka scolded. "Anyways, Nanoha, do you want to head to my house after school?"
"Sure." Nanoha responded simply, while the two girls trailed on to other topics.
Stopping by her house to pick up Yuuno, Nanoha ran over to Suzuka's house, expecting to find a certain orange animal there. Still, it wouldn't be a good thing if she made it too obvious she was looking for it, and just walked along with her two friends who were waiting for her outside, patiently waiting for one of them to bring up the familiar. As it turns out, there was no need to, as they passed by the dog while walking through the yard. Walking up to the cage Alph was currently in, Nanoha let out a quick greeting.
Hello.
Hmph. What do you want?
Why are you here like this? Where's Fate?Although Nanoha already knew, she had to ask, just to try to stay consistent, even though it wouldn't make much of a difference.
Nanoha, I'll listen to the story, you go play with your friends. Yuuno interrupted, jumping off of Nanoha's shoulder and in front of the cage
But...
No buts. Besides, I'm closer to everyone on the Arthra, they'll listen to me more than you.
Okay.
Nanoha left Yuuno and Alph to work things out, as she focused on keeping as much of her energy as possible in case something unexpected happened.
Sitting peacefully, Nanoha relaxed with her two friends when a voice entered her mind and quickly interrupted her.
Nanoha Takamachi. It took Nanoha less than a second to recognize the voice, and respond correspondingly.
Yes, Chrono?
We heard Alph's story from Yuuno. We're willing to excuse you of what you've done in exchange for helping us capture Fate.
Depends, what are you going to do when you capture Fate?
We've heard how she's just following her mother. We just need to take away Precia's main method of obtaining Jewel Seeds. Don't worry, we'll work as hard as we can to excuse her of her crimes after this incident.
Fine. That sounds agreeable to me.
After coming to a truce with Chrono, Nanoha let herself just act normally like herself for the rest of the day, and not on guard like she had been for most of the time since she had faced whatever the hooded man's intentions were.
Night fell quickly, and Nanoha knew it was time to act. Getting out of bed, the brunette took Raising Heart with her out of the house, while at the same time motioning for Yuuno to follow. They had agreed to meet up with Alph at a certain point soon, and had to get going if they wanted to be there on time. Running down the streets, Nanoha and Yuuno both dashed, getting ready for the inevitable confrontation with Fate.
"Hey, Nanoha, you said that you'd tell me what's going on, right?" Yuuno brought up along the way.
"Yeah, I'll do it after we have Alph and Fate with us." Nanoha assured the future librarian. Yuuno nodded in response.
Upon meeting up with Alph and arriving at the spot where Fate would appear, Nanoha took a deep breath and threw Raising Heart into the air.
"Raising Heart, Set Up!"
Alright. Standby, ready. Set Up.
The light of Nanoha's transformation dissolved at the same time Fate descended from the air, already fully clothed. Seeing this, Nanoha pointed Raising Heart towards Fate. Many thoughts were rushing through both of the girls' heads at the time, but there was one thing that they both knew right then. That a fight was inevitable. For Fate, this would be their first and final confrontation. For Nanoha, this would be the second time that they had a fight in which they were both truly against each other.
And this chapter's done. Next one we have the Nanoha and Fate fight. Thoughts on how this is going now that we're differentiating from the show a bit more and reviews are appreciated.