BATTLE FANTASIA

To say that Fate T. Harlaown was in trouble was an understatement. She was in a lot of trouble, so much so that terms to describe how much trouble she was in had yet to be invented. She was in such trouble that she had already given up calculating how long she would be grounded after she realized that the Earth's sun would likely burn itself out before she was a free girl again.

This was assuming she didn't get imprisoned as well. Her limited legal experience meant that she knew the TSAB actually had sentences in place for potentially immortal criminals - life sentences even.

There was a very good chance that what she'd done might rate one.

Did she regret the actions that were going to land her in all this trouble? If she was honest with herself then no, she didn't. There was a girl back on the bed in her room who was alive because of her. Alive because she had just broken every god damn rule in the TSAB handbook - at least the bits she had read so far - in order to snatch her out of the sky some three hundred feet above the ground.

In public.

On camera.

On live camera even, so the TSAB crew aboard the Athra couldn't even perform basic information control as the entire damn country had just seen her grab a self-confessed magical girl out of mid air!

Things had only gone further downhill when Nanoha had caught up with her... and had apologized to the gathering crowd of bystanders – most of which had spent their time taking photographs of the whole scene.

It had helped even less that the helicopters, both police and media, had tried to tail them as they left... and footage of that chase was even now being played on the television Fate was morbidly paying attention to. Thankfully the chase wasn't long as it had been fairly easy to lose both aircraft by dropping into a nearby park, setting up a quick concealing barrier for a while and simply hiding until they had a chance to sneak back to their hotel undetected.

Nanoha's parents, having seen the rescue live on television, had responded in their own way and had soon arranged train tickets to transport all of them back to Uminari... They were forced to take an early morning – or late evening depending on how one looked at it – train in order to avoid the public as best they could.

It had been perhaps an hour or two since they had arrived in Uminari, having caught what little sleep they could on the way. From the train station the two magical girls had flown, Akiko held between them, to Lindy's house while Nanoha's parents made their own way home. Within short order the poor rescued girl had been deposited on Fate's bed with Nanoha looking over her while Fate herself went to rustle up some food of some kind.

Given that the house was empty aside from the three girls it was clear that Lindy, Amy and Chrono were likely up on the Athra... where Fate quite frankly hoped they would stay for a while. Though given the mass information scanning capabilities of the TSAB vessel she knew that if they didn't already know about her big rescue by now then they would do soon enough.

This didn't stop her praying that they, Lindy especially, would remain ignorant of the situation for just a little longer.

It was as she was busy rooting around in the refrigerator that Fate heard a familiar cough, one that was less 'I have a problem with my throat' and more 'I wish to have words with you', coming from a little way behind where she stood.

Maybe if she was really lucky that would not be admiral and sort-of adoptive mother Lindy Harlaown standing behind her and instead be someone less likely to imprison or ground her for all eternity...

BATTLE FANTASIA

"The only thing, the only thing standing between you and a life sentence is the fact that we can just about claim the girl you saved displayed the existence of magic before you did!" Fate ducked her head as Lindy continued the verbal barrage she'd been putting out for the past hour. She had repeated herself, numerous times, contradicted herself occasionally and her voice had risen and lowered more times than an elevator in a busy building. The gist of her speech had been fairly simple: 'you are in the deepest of deep trouble, I'm proud of you for saving her life, I'm going to kill you if you ever pull anything like this again' and, thankfully 'you might not go to prison for life'.

That last point, Fate thought, was really the important bit of the speech.

"Aren't you going to ground her?" Came a male voice from the far side of the room where Chrono had been waiting since showing up part-way through Lindy's tirade. Fate made a mental note to murder him in his sleep or at least do something vengeful - she had been hoping Lindy had forgotten about the possibility of grounding after all.

She was fortunately spared the details of her being grounded until the end of all time by the sound of someone stomping down the stairs. Given that only two people had been upstairs, Akiko and Nanoha, and that one of them wasn't exactly in a condition to be stomping anywhere...

And yet, somehow, it still took everyone by surprise when Nanoha stomped into view. Nanoha didn't stomp! Nanoha was always calm and cheerful and Fate could count the number of times she'd seen the brown-haired girl angry on one hand!

Despite this the trio in the kitchen were treated to the sight of Nanoha stomping angrily across the room and towards the front door. It was only when she began opening the door that everyone realized she was in her full barrier jacket and had Raising Heart in shooting mode already.

"Ah... Nanoha?" Lindy called out, a little nervous because while she had nothing to fear from the girl she did rather wish for her home to remain in one piece. "Where are you going?"

The white clad girl paused and looked at the group, seemingly noticing them for the first time. "Ah." she exclaimed, suddenly looking shifty... well shifty for her at any rate. "Um... nowhere?"

Chrono simply raised one eyebrow as he stared at the girl. "Awfully well armed to be going nowhere, aren't you?"

"It's a dangerous neighborhood." Nanoha replied, puffing up in indignation, "Wild... ferrets... and... things... out there."

"While I fully support blowing Yuuno up," the boy countered, "I just can't shake the feeling that you might not be telling the whole truth."

The armed girl squirmed uncomfortably as Chrono glared at her. "It... just a place." she muttered eventually, "Miss Yamaguchi was telling me about it, called the nightmare factory."

"And what were you planning on doing there?" Lindy asked, her own raised eyebrow mimicking that of her son. Fate, behind her, just slapped her palm against her face - she could see where this was going even if Lindy and Chrono couldn't.

"Um..." Nanoha squirmed again and tried to hide Raising Heart behind her back. "I was thinking, um, maybe starting with divine busters and working my way up?" She shifted and fidgeted some more under under the less than impressed gazes of the admiral and her son. "But they deserve it!" The girl burst out eventually having cracked under the pressure already. "Miss Yamaguchi has been fighting them for four years! Before them it was the bloody carnival and before them it was some church of the eclipse! She was telling me all about it between tears!"

"Nanoha..." Lindy muttered, "You are not going to go waging war on some unknown enemy alone." The white-clothed girl frowned at that but a glare from Lindy caused her to hang her head in shame. "Look," the admiral continued, "Why don't you go home for now and we'll sort things out in the morning - okay? I'm going to be getting chewed out as it is already without having to deal with the fallout of any rash actions as well."

The girl just nodded glumly and dispelled her barrier jacket. "Yes ma'am." she mumbled, then looked up at Fate... who was likely the only person in the room to catch the tiny spark of something that flashed in Nanoha's eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay Fate?" she stated before pulling the door open and leaving.

The distraction dealt with, Lindy turned back to Fate and resumed her spiel - this time remembering to ground the blond girl until all life ended. Fate, for her part, simply listened patiently and nodded or shook her head at the appropriate moments in the dressing down. By the end of the 'talk' she was simply standing with a slight smile on her face - a smile which suddenly struck Lindy as being very suspicious indeed.

"Fate..." The woman murmured, a vague sensation of foreboding starting to develop. "What are you hiding?"

The blond girl smiled. "I was just thinking," she said, "that by now Nanoha has probably found that nightmare factory place and is busy wrecking it with Vita or Signum - maybe even both. You did say she couldn't do it alone after all."

There was silence as all the blood drained from Lindy's face in one go.

"Oh." She muttered weakly. "Oh dear."

BATTLE FANTASIA

When Nanoha had shown up at the door to Hayate's place, panting with the exertion of a high speed flight, Vita had known that something big was going down. She had seen the news report - not live as Hayate and Zafira had but a re-broadcasting of the event an hour or so later. At first she, like Signum and Shamal, had not really understood why their master was so insistent on making them sit down to watch the news broadcast. Usually only Shamal had any interest in such and it was pretty rare for Hayate to watch anything other than cartoons, so they had no clue as to what the girl had wanted them to see.

When that girl had stepped off the building...

Vita was able to see where she was coming from and she was pretty sure the rest of the knights did as well - life after life of theirs had been dedicated to an almost perpetual cycle of fighting and murdering and losing... until Hayate had come along and changed everything.

The knights had known that for that girl there had been no Hayate.

At least not until Fate had caught her.

Which was why when Nanoha showed up at their door fully armed and asking for their master the knights had left the two alone and quietly gone to talk amongst themselves.

Minutes later Hayate had called them back. Vita knew that the event had struck her hard as it had been on more than one occasion that she and the other knights had comforted their master when her fears over her paralysis had gotten on top of her. No doubt she was imagining what it would have been like had she not had those four friendly shoulders to cry on and support her - even someone as brave as Hayate could have had terrible thoughts in such a situation.

"Nanoha..." the wheelchair-bound girl began, "Nanoha has told me about the girl Fate saved." The Wolkenritter all perked up at that, an instinct in the back of their minds telling them that they would be seeing battle tonight. "I... We... About her enemies... that is to say..." Hayate seemed to struggle with what she wanted to say.

"Our Master," Signum had stated, surprising the young girl with her overly formal tone. "We know what you want to do and we cannot find it in ourselves to disagree - so please, will you command us?"

Hayate looked at her knights in surprise for a moment before a resolved look crossed her face and the knights caught the first glimpse of a woman who would someday lead them as their commander, their master and their queen.

"My knights," she murmured quietly, "Out there a girl has spent many years of her life in hell, a hell that could have been avoided if only she had not been alone." The brown-haired girl looked at her knights, her eyes bright with anger. "Find those responsible." she declared. "Find them... and show them that we will not let anyone fight alone anymore." Behind her Nanoha nodded in agreement, then hopped back in surprise as all four knights dropped to one knee simultaneously and practically roared their acceptance of the task their master, their friend, had given them.

BATTLE FANTASIA

Yuuki Yamaguchi had always worked hard. Worked hard to be an asset at his office, worked hard to be a good husband, worked hard to please his family and worked hard to honor and please his parents, especially his father. The man, rest his soul, was always distant and encouraged personal discipline, honor and tradition. He even married through a matchmaker (however, Yuuki strongly suspected that his mother made backdoor arrangements to get his childhood friend and crush, Aki, to be matched with him). Even after he passed, Yuuki would sometimes catch himself imagining his father's spirit watching him, his dispassionate eyes boring into him.

It was during such a moment when Aki and himself had considered what to do with The Girl. For years she allowed her grades to slip, and it was obvious that she was getting into the start of a harsh life. Scrapes and bruises that she would refuse to explain. Disappearing into the night and returning who knew when. She was reserved at first, looking suitably ashamed whenever her mother and he scolded her. But as she grew into a lovely young woman, the very image of his wife at that age, she started to speak up, then talk back. Finally full blown fights started, and Yuuki started to worry about his blood pressure. And then the police started visiting, asking odd questions about The Girl's activities.

Then, two years ago, he'd sat down with Aki one night after they heard The Girl leave; the topic being on what to do with her, this girl who by all evidence was somehow turning into some sort of delinquent. For weeks they had each prepared both mentally and emotionally for this discussion, gathering information and pamphlets about places and facilities that dealt with such problem children in a dignified, and most importantly quiet manner. They looked over the materials for what felt like hours, seeing where would be the best place to send The Girl.

Finally they settled on one place. It had a strong reputation, and boasted the dubious honors of housing the more horrifying of degenerate juveniles. Aki had looked him in the eyes, waiting for his say-so to send The Girl away. For a moment, he hesitated, and he could not imagine why.

Actually, that was a lie. He knew why. Even after five years of The Girl's descent into delinquency, Yuuki Yamaguchi refused, on a fundamental level, to believe his little girl, who always insisted on sharing her after-school snack when he came home from work, who had the laugh of a little bell, who always loved it when Daddy came into her room and told her bedtime stories of youkai and samurai and princesses, could become some sort of criminal scum.

For a moment he hesitated in making the proper, Honorable decision, and came within inches of tearing the brochure in two and burning it. And it was in that moment he could swear he felt his father's eyes from beyond the grave, drilling into the back of his skull in disapproval. And so, Yuuki Yamaguchi decided, for the sake of their family's Honor, to send The Girl away, to be out of sight and mind, never to be mentioned again.

And he hated himself for it, though no one would know it. One thing he had picked up from his father was the man's poker face. But even his stone-still face could not stand up against the voice of his mother over the phone. If there was ever a true Yamato Nadeshiko, an outwardly submissive and demure woman hiding a steel will, it was his mother, who never thought The Girl was what he and his wife had feared she had become.

'Why couldn't you have sent little Akiko to me?' she had said on the phone when he told her. 'You know she was always happy here.'

And it was true. As the years went on, it seemed that The Girl, Akiko, became more and more ecstatic at the news that she was visiting her grandmother in the mountains, even as she oddly became more and more conflicted about leaving their neighborhood for even a weekend.

But the situation was bigger than that. The family's honor was at stake, and Yuuki had to look after it, just like his father had done, and he told his mother so. She just sighed at that and changed the subject.

Yuuki knew that his father would be proud of him for his course of action. Honor was more important than mere emotional attachments.

Then why was it that he felt so awful at what he had done? Why was he haunted by The Girl's look in her eyes as he and his wife left her at that place? Why was he secretly elated when he got the call that she escaped later that year? Why did he wait expectantly for six months for her to come to their door, or for a call from mother saying The Girl was staying with her? Why did he spend more and more time with his co-workers at the bar, and less and less with his wife at home?

Like today for instance. He and his friends from work and a few of their more important clients would always come to this particular bar a few blocks down the street from their office building after work, talking shop and sharing a few laughs before calling it a night, and tonight the crowd as a little bigger than usual. Their boss, Mr. Kurosawa, let everyone off an hour early today to celebrate his secretary getting engaged.

Yuuki Yamaguchi sat at his usual stool, with old friend Ryo to his right and Mr. Kurosawa himself sitting on his left, the din of the crowd drowning out his secret regrets a little, the alcohol doing the rest, but for some reason, the news anchor announcing a jumper at the Tokyo Sky Tree cut through to conversations straight to his ear. But while a few turned to watch with morbid curiosity, Yuuki just focused on his shot of Jack Daniels, praying that it would drown out the sorrows of the world.

And then Ryo tapped his shoulder.

"Hey Yuuki, isn't that your little girl?"

If Yuuki were a swearing man he probably would have, the fact that his boss was right there being irrelevant. Ryo knew how sensitive the situation with The Girl was, and how he would prefer to keep it quiet. Damn Osakan bumpkins.

"Oh? Yuuki has a daughter?"

Yuuki winced at the sound of Mr. Kurosawa's voice.

"It umm… I'd rather not talk about it sir." He said, knowing the next question he would ask, and finding himself unable to lie to his face in light of the man's insistence on honesty. It was even on his door: 'An Honest Businessman, is an Honorable Businessman.'

Mr. Kurosawa nodded at that and turned around to the TV.

"My name is Yamaguchi Akiko! And I am a magical girl!" That caught even Yuuki's attention, his head turning to the screen.

She looked just like her mother at that age. Or she would have, were it not for the hair being cut too short, and the teary, emotionless eyes and dull voice. Oh, and the lights shooting around her and the clothes transforming into something out of a manga.

The next minute and a half had The Gi-… Akiko, lamenting her life to the world, a life full of impossible things like magic and monsters and the sort of horrors that should only exist in nightmares, and begging, begging for the possibility that there were others like her out there to come and save her.

And all the while Yuuki Yamaguchi, her father, watched with baited breath, a growing sense of horror and guilt forming in his stomach. Suddenly everything began to make sense, impossible as it was. Akiko was no delinquent, she was a warrior like those of old, fighting an evil that only she could see.

And he had cast her out in her hour of greatest need.

Then she jumped. Somewhere in the distance was the sound of glass breaking, and Yuuki suspected that it was his shot glass hitting the floor.

His only child, falling forever through time and space, racing for the cold hard cement below, and he was going to watch it happen.

Or he would have, when a streak of black intercepted the dot that was his daughter, and circles of sunlight caught her, slowing her down before she struck the sidewalk, dust and debris flying into the air.

Ragged breath returned to Yuuki, not realizing that he was holding it, his skin, he realized, was oddly cold, and suddenly the peripheral vision that he didn't notice was gone had returned. It was then that he saw Mr. Kurosawa looking up at him in the eye, and felt the older man's hands clenching his biceps, and heard his voice talking to him over the returned din of the crowd.

"Yuuki... Yuuki my boy, listen to me." He said, gently directing the man to lean forward as he put his mouth to his ear. "I think it would be best if you went home to your wife, and stayed there for a while, Mr. Yamaguchi."

Before Yuuki could say anything his boss raised a hand for silence.

"Now don't get the wrong idea, this is not a dismissal. I fully expect you to be at your desk at nine AM sharp come Monday morning. Now, I won't pry into your personal business, and I am more than willing to listen should you feel the need to confide in someone, but I can see that this should qualify as a family emergency, and you have more than enough vacation time built up. Now go, you need to be with your wife, both for her sake and your own. Now go."

A hand patted his shoulder, and Yuuki turned to see Ryo looking at him intently, nodding his head to the door without a word.

Turning back to Mr. Kurosawa, Yuuki bowed, and may have mumbled a thanks, he couldn't tell, and then turned around and made his way out the door

The next thing the man knew he was making his way down the stairs to the subway, the same station he always used to board the train home. This time his cell phone was in his hand, punching in the number for home.

No one answered the phone, and so on the forth ring he got his own voice on the answering machine.

"Aki, it's me." He said, his voice oddly thick. "I guess you saw the news jus-"

He was interrupted by the sound of the phone being picked up with obviously nervous and shaking hands.

"Yuuki?" From the sound of it she had been crying, and trying to hide it.

"Hello my Sakura Blossom." He said impulsively. Which was odd, when was the last time he called her by his pet name for her? Certainly since before things started falling apart.

He wanted to say so many things as he entered the train, not caring about the dozens of people around him. He wanted to joke about how his mother would laugh at them, saying a chorus of 'I told you so's, of how he knew she didn't want to send Akiko away anymore than he did, and how he loved her for her strength. Of how he loathed himself at what had just now become apparent. But even now he couldn't quite shake his father's stoic standards.

And so, after a moment's pause and a shaky breath, he said what he could.

"It would seem that we… I... was wrong. We did not raise a delinquent, but a True Ronin."

BATTLE FANTASIA

"So This is the place huh?" As she looked up at the black walls of what, up until a few moments ago, had been an ordinary factory-like building the iron knight Vita was forced to admit that it did look kind of cool in a sort of horrific den of evil way. She'd never really come across anything like this before during her service to the book of darkness and she was actually feeling rather excited at, well, at slaying monsters. The kind of work a real knight was supposed to do - the kind of work she couldn't remember having ever done herself. The fact that Hayate had commanded her to take part in this most noble of tasks only served to make her bounce lightly with barely restrained energy.

This... was a quest.

An honest-to-god actual real quest - against evil even!

Even the normally stoic Signum seemed to have gained an unmistakable air of energy about her, Shamal had been practically glowing with power since Hayate's speech and Zafira had slipped into a state of almost perfect focus. Given how Nanoha was treating the four knights as if they were unexploded bombs it was obvious even she could feel the excitement, energy, power and focus that the knights were currently filled with.

"How are we going to get in?" Shamal asked as she went through the motions of setting up an array of barrier and capturing spells to contain the structure. She had told Nanoha it was to prevent innocents getting caught in the fight... but the other knights knew that it was really to ensure that there would be no escape for their opponents.

"I think we should knock." came the suggestion of Zafira as he stood near Shamal and performed his own searching spells to assist the blond woman.

Nanoha looked at the wolf-man with some confusion. "Knock?"

"Explosion! Raketenform!" The white devil spun around at the voice of Graf Eisen, only to squawk in surprise as the front wall of the factory exploded under the less than gentle touch of the iron count.

"Oh. Like that." Nanoha smiled, "I can do that."

"Shooting Mode! Cartridge Load!"

"Divine..."

BATTLE FANTASIA