30. Out on the Town

The crater was not the worst part. In fact, it wasn't that bad at all, construction barriers across the streets around largely blocking their view of the wreckage beyond. The worst part was a quarter of an hour later, when their route took them through one of the affected neighbourhoods that were not walled off.

It had not exactly been an up-market place to start with; more a temporary shanty town with aspirations. Now, though, it was something far less pleasant. Buildings had been ripped apart, their contents exposed to the skies and their structural integrity often maintained only by the faint, ambient glow and bars of multicoloured light that indicated magical reinforcement. The tidy little prefabricated shelters erected in every available space had been smashed into pieces, their contents scattered across the road. The streets themselves had fared no better, their smooth surfaces ripped apart by uncountable explosions. Pools of sewage were dotted here and there, the legacy of ruptured pipes beneath the ground, but even their collective stench could not wholly mask the richer, more troubling smell of decaying human interwoven with it. Dark stains marked the walls and pavement here and there, their shape and colour making their nature brutally obvious.

Gina stared around, horrified. She had seen the footage from the Bureau combat logs, and gained a few inklings from helping with the attack on the central office, but that in no way compared to the real thing staring you in the face.

"Where are we?"

"The outskirts of the Suzumiyaverse enclave," Teana said, her face pale. "It was a staging area until we could get them some proper housing – integrating fifteen thousand people into a city in a month or so isn't as easy as it sounds, especially when they weren't the only ones on the way. I knew they got hit in the attack, but I thought they drove them off. I thought this would be another safe zone! I didn't expect something like... like this!"

The assassin just nodded. Everywhere, she saw the marks of daemons – a wall partially dissolved by a Reigling's acid, the massive, charred paw-prints of a Blood Hound, a door caved in by a Valkyrie's axe – on buildings that could only have been used to hold civilians. Nowhere was there any regard for the gods' prohibitions – their supposed prohibitions, anyway – just a silent hymn to the joy of slaughter.

"And what's with the people?" Subaru asked. "They're like... like..."

'Zombies', I think, is the word you're looking for. There were people here, but it was easy not to notice them. Gina had thought the ones they had encountered before lifeless, but compared to those they now saw, the people in the safe districts had practically been hopped up on amphetamines. These men and women moved listlessly, purposelessly, as if in a dream, apathetic to what lay around them. It was not uniform – some, standing out like splashes of colour in the grey cityscape, were almost normal – and the manner of its expression varied from person to person, but it was a trait shared to some extent by most of the population. Gina had once eaten a psychologist (one of the few kills she didn't regret to some extent these days – some people had really unpleasant ideas about how to supplement their income), and she was pretty sure that acute shellshock, by definition, wasn't supposed to last this long for so many people at once. The area's wounds might have dated back to the invasion, but its populace's seemed considerably fresher.

"What happened to them?" she asked, putting her puzzlement into words. "This can't just be the result of the attack."

Teana shook her head. "I don't know. I heard their universe got liberated lately – frankly, I'd have expected street parties. Maybe there was a catch? Whatever the case, let's get out of here. This place is creeping me out."

"No argument here," Gina agreed.

They set off, trying to ignore the devastation around them. Though the streets were difficult to navigate in their ruined state, they were met with no real interruptions by either geography or inhabitants until they were almost at the far edge of the enclave, when Subaru started to head towards the entrance of a many-storeyed apartment block that was little more than a fire-gutted shell. The assassin stepped out in front of her, extending her arm to block her path.

"Trust me – you really don't want to go in there."

"But... I heard someone. They were crying, they sounded so alone... I thought maybe I could help. I've done work with Disaster Planning and Rescue – that's what we do. Help people."

Though the cyborg's emotions were, as always, hidden from Gina's mindsight by her implants, she would have had to be blind and deaf as well to miss the note of desperation in her eyes and voice. Travelling through somewhere like the Suzumiyaverse enclave and being able to do nothing for the people there could not have been easy for someone like Subaru.

"You didn't hear anyone. See those claw marks in the pavement? The really fine ones the concrete's all shiny around? A Siren of Mislaato was here. Possibly several. Best-case scenario, you'd find a pile of her handiwork in there, and that's not much of a 'best' by any means."

"Siren?" Teana asked. "Let me guess – they use illusions to lure in prey."

"Sometimes. Most of the ones I worked alongside seemed to favour the more direct approach – drag their victims off and play with them for a few hours. Or days. Doubt that's why they got the name, though. The gods have this habit of calling their creations whatever they think sounds cool. Exhibit A – the Black Pharaohs."

She looked up at the building, feeling the charred, empty holes where the windows had been seemingly stare at her.

"Lanster, you're the one with links to the CDF, right? Get in contact with them, and see if you can get this place demolished. There's some taints that don't just go away with some scrubbing and detergent."

The gunslinger raised an eyebrow. "You said you worked with these... creatures, whatever they are, and now you want us to flatten a place they've visited? Quite the turn-around."

"It's because I worked with them. It was bad enough when they sent them in against a smuggling operation during my enforcement days, and that's coming from someone who ate people on a regular basis back then. Valkyries? Sure, I get it. Asukhon's the goddess of warfare. Pharaohs? Fine. Tzintchi's the leader of the gods. Of course he's going to want a stake in the operations. Sirens, though? In a fucking civilian district? There's no excuse. Just what the hell's happened to us?"

She slammed her fist into the wall, white-hot pain lancing up her arm as the pseudo-bones shattered and slowly began to heal. It shouldn't have been nearly as satisfying as it was. The two mages glanced at each other, but said nothing.

"Like you said, Lanster, let's go. You can't help anyone here."


Thirty-five minutes later, they were sat eating ice-cream on a small park bench in a leafy quadrangle in the middle of a pleasantly sleepy safe zone... and Gina was experiencing exactly the level of bewildered disconnect that sentence implied. She knew from the downloads on military history she had received that the distance between bombed-out warzone and peaceful safety was often remarkably short, and she knew that it was often considerably faster to travel from staggering wealth to crippling poverty in any given city (sometimes, in fact, you just had to turn the corner), but such a vivid demonstration was still unnerving. To be honest, she'd been unnerved by a lot of things lately; yet another piece of evidence that mind-wiping, gratuitous mental and physical torture, and isolation from the rest of human civilisation except when called upon to reduce it by a member or two were not the ideal methods for creating a perfect, adaptable infiltrator.

When the most intimate, personal interaction you have on a regular basis with other people is absorbing their memories, slitting their throats, and devouring their corpses, you know you've got a problem.

Trying to take her mind off things, she examined her ice-cream once more. It really was very good – the owners apparently knew her two guards well, and had greeted them cheerily as soon as they had walked in. Their demeanour had not changed when they discovered that the third member of the party was a prospective rehabber – in fact, the tubby, jovial man managing the counter had immediately decided to make it his mission to demonstrate the wonders of Mid-Childan culture to her via the medium of frozen dessert, and it had only been by the exercise of all her cunning and willpower that she had managed to talk him down to a conservative two scoops of chocolate. That had not prevented the sprinkles or wafer from creeping in uninvited, though.

The combat mages had fared no better, though they had offered considerably less protest. Teana had ended up with an overstuffed Neapolitan combo, whilst Subaru... well, Subaru apparently held the entire edible contents of the shop in a single, gigantic cone, which she was currently going through with the gusto of an industrial vacuum. That had not, however, stopped her from pausing to pop a scoop into her comrade's mouth, which Teana took with the sort of automatic precision that spoke of long-held custom. Their nominal prisoner, for her part, just wished she had a camera.

Her hand still stung a bit, but it had mostly regained its original shape. Subaru had asked if she could have a look at it, but Gina had politely declined (insofar as she did politeness, anyway). She knew from past experience that the regenerative properties of a Callidus were more than enough to deal with it – she wouldn't have broken the damned thing otherwise – and besides, the notion of a super-strong war machine probing her injury, no matter how well-intentioned, was enough to cause her to break out in a cold sweat.

"Hey, Tea, mind calling up the net?" the cyborg asked around a mouthful of pineapple sorbet. "I heard Nanoha's giving an interview today."

"Sure thing, Subaru." The redhead seemed more relaxed than Gina had ever seen her – it couldn't last, of course. "Aww, it's with Platina? Do we have to watch this rubbish?"

"Pleeeease?"

Subaru's face was the very image of piteous entreaty. Her colleague twitched and went bright red, whilst the assassin had to lean back to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

"Fine, fine, if you say so. Someday, though, we are going to have to have a talk about that tactic."

Teana summoned her Device, the huge pistol she called Cross Mirage, and muttered a quick incantation. A holographic screen appeared in midair before them, showing what appeared to be a television studio, or at least the Mid-Childan equivalent thereof. A manufacturedly attractive, middle-aged woman was sat in a large, comfortable chair at its centre, the text at the bottom of the display identifying her as one Thalia Platina.

"Hello, and welcome back to Eye on Clanagan, the chat show that gets to the heart of politics both in our capital and beyond. Our next guest for today is something of a diversion from the norm – the youngest combat instructor in the TSAB Air Force, a soldier known across Mid-Childa for both her heroics in battle and her controversial personal life, including associations with former criminals such as..."

Teana made a disgusted sound. "Controversial? Where? New Goatfuck on Varduk Prime? Kaiser's blood, it's like that bastard General Gaiz is still running the show. Always playing to the cheap seats, huh, Platina?"

"So what's her stance, then?" Gina asked, indicating the screen.

"Whatever the current government's isn't. Easy way to get viewing figures, that. At the moment, that means iron-hard social conservatism – she wouldn't like you much, that's for sure. Not that I do either, but that's beside the point. That nasty little passive-aggressive anti-military bent of hers is all Platina, though. Closest thing to an actual opinion of her own she's got. She was the first one to jump on the 'support our troops' bandwagon, and you know what that means."

"...Exactly the opposite of what it does in the rest of the known multiverse?"

"Hah, yes. Think your Orwell had a monopoly on doublethink? You're about to get a masterclass."

"Why's Takamachi taking an interview from her, then?" Gina asked, confused.

"Because the good captain, for all her myriad merits, has the political acumen of a dead chicken. Stop looking at me like that, Subaru, you know it's true. She probably thought it would be a smart way for the armed forces to reach out to the general public – for her next trick, I presume, she'll climb on top of the ruins of GovCentral and publicly denounce the Chief Administrator's memory in order to get government support."

Subaru's brow furrowed. "But... why would Nanoha want to do that? She voted for him, didn't she?"

"Sarcasm, Subaru. Learn it. Just sit back and watch the show, will you?"

By this point, Platina was winding down to the end of her lengthy introduction, which had essentially amounted to a summary of her guest's life history entirely via stealth insults and backhanded compliments. Gina was rather impressed.

"...And so without further ado, allow me to introduce... Captain Nanoha Takamachi!"

Nanoha walked in to polite applause, wearing a conservative navy-blue suit. She and her host exchanged pleasantries for a moment, and then sat down.

"Oh, no uniform?" Teana asked wearily. "So she went for the 'out-of-touch armchair general' look rather than 'fascist oppressor'. Good choice. Belka's fall, but I can't watch this."

The next few minutes passed uneventfully as the two women in the studio discussed the extent of the raids, what countermeasures the Bureau was currently taking, and the general state of the multiverse. Nanoha remained calm, friendly, and professional throughout, the very image of a seasoned veteran. With Teana now sticking her fingers in her ears and closing her eyes, Subaru and Gina were left to watch the interview unfold. The former remained oblivious to her friend's dire prognostications, instead just drinking in the captain's words with an expression of rapt heroine-worship, whilst the latter was busy waiting for the other shoe to drop... and drop it did.

"Now, captain," Platina said, smiling sweetly, "it cannot have escaped the military's notice that a significant number of its casualties during the attack were under sixteen years of age. Some people have been wondering whether we ought to reconsider recruiting child soldiers for the armed forces, and I was wondering how you might address their concerns?"

"Child soldiers?" Nanoha asked. "That's a rather loaded term, isn't it, Thalia? The Bureau hasn't fought a war in decades – combat mages are used for police duty more than anything else. The most action they will see in normal circumstances is a small-scale, low-lethality skirmish on occasion. Magical combat presents a relatively low risk of permanent damage to its participants, after all. Even then, our officers ensure that the younger recruits are kept away from front-line combat as much as possible, and supervised by more experienced mages or summoned beasts at all times. Really, recruitment at that age is more about training powerful young mages in how to safely handle abilities that might otherwise present a serious danger to themselves and others than turning them into weapons for the Bureau."

Platina nodded as if receiving wisdom from a passing deity. "I see. Could it not be said, though, that as a former underage recruit yourself, you are somewhat biased on this matter?"

"Well, yes, it could, but then what would be the point of 'them' asking me?" Nanoha replied, placing a certain ironic emphasis on the pronoun. "I prefer to think of myself as having the necessary experience to answer the question. Every time I went into battle as a child, it was either on my own initiative due to a complete absence of other agents in the area – hardly an unlikelihood, given that our organisation's jurisdiction covers a good portion of the multiverse – or because the people in command knew that I had the physical and emotional fortitude to deal with the level of combat I was going to be sent to. That second option is what we have been trying to encourage as the only criterion for deploying underage recruits – you'll notice that most of the higher-profile ones were either at a minimum double-A-rank to start off with like myself and Colonel Yagami, or tactical and strategic prodigies like Admiral Harlaown. Magical power can compensate a great deal for a lack of combat experience – the artillery tends not to get shot at so much."

"And yet a lot of children in uniform died when these 'Chaos' creatures attacked us," Platina pointed out. "What went wrong?"

"Put simply, we were ambushed by a completely unknown enemy armed with the weapons, intelligence, and numbers to reliably take down combat mages. That doesn't happen very often, and we were completely caught off-guard. It would be foolish to blame Command for this – the closest thing they had to draw experience from in recent years was the Scaglietti Incident, and when it comes down to it, that was really just a dozen or so cyborgs and some mass-produced drones versus an entire planet. What we encountered when Chaos launched its assault was what Intelligence operatives call an 'out-of-context event', something we had absolutely no way of preparing for, and so our usual measures for ensuring the safety of our recruits couldn't be put in place in time. There's something about heavily-armed commandos teleporting into your living quarters that does that, you know." Even through the screen, Gina saw the tightness around Nanoha's eyes. This... is not going to end well.

"So you believe that the deaths in battle of over fifty thousand underage recruits on Mid-Childa alone, including two of your own children, were unavoidable?" The reporter's smile could have dissolved molars at fifty paces.

Nanoha went very, very still. When she spoke, it was little more than a whisper.

"My children did not die in battle. They were attacked in their own room, they were captured, and they were murdered. I don't know what your agenda is here, Thalia, but I advise that you find some other mascots for it."

Gina had seen enough. She tapped Teana on the shoulder, causing the redhead to open her eyes and unplug her ears.

"Hey. Lanster. Turn it off."

"Isn't that supposed to be my line?"

"I'm serious. Turn it off."

"Fine, fine..." Another incantation, and the screen vanished. "So what was the problem? Did Platina get it to look like the captain admitted to being the illicit lovechild of Jail Scaglietti and the Agriculture Minister or something? Because seriously, she does that to everyone."

"She brought up Erio and Caro," Subaru replied simply.

Teana's eyes widened. "Oh, shit."

"Pretty much, yeah," Gina agreed. "Look, I know emotional trauma. Back when I was with the Keeper of Secrets, it had this nasty habit of showing me my own face after a particularly intense run-around. Now, I'm not saying she looked that bad, but I don't know what was stopping her from opening fire on that studio, either – and believe me, I'm not kidding."

"Nanoha wouldn't do that," Subaru stated, her voice laced with a certainty that would brook no argument.

"Maybe that's the case, but I doubt she's the only one who lost people she cared about – hell, you said as much yourself. How many others are in the same state? How many of them have the same level of willpower? I mean, it's not as if you lot are that used to this sort of thing, far as I can tell – at least, not on this scale. Not to tell you your jobs, but you could have a serious problem on your hands here."

"We're not as fragile as you think we are, assassin," Teana answered coolly. "We can deal with that."

"I hope you're right – mid-combat breakdowns aren't pretty. Take it from someone who knows." And if you aren't, don't say I didn't warn you.

The small party was rather quiet for a while after that.


Since nobody was terribly interested in walking back to the monorail – once through the Suzumiyaverse enclave had been more than enough – the uniform consensus was that a taxi should be found. Unfortunately, having half the city flattened did little for the available transport options, and so it was that Subaru headed off to chat with a family friend in the area who ran a small company of her own, leaving Gina and Teana to stand around and be awkward at each other. After a few abortive attempts at small-talk, the former decided to take a leaf from the cyborg's book and go for the direct approach.

"You know, all things considered, my hand healed a lot faster than it should have back there. When did you turn the collar off?"

Teana, as usual, looked entirely unimpressed at this fantastic leap of deductive reasoning. "Bit after we left the enclave. Figured if you were going to turn on us, you would have done so by now. You've had, what? Six opportunities? Seven?"

"Fifteen. You spend way too much time covering Nakajima. So, this trip. Trust exercise, right? Wanted to see if I was ready for the rehab program?"

"Pretty much. I'll admit it wasn't exactly planned in advance, but when Subaru's around, you sort of learn to operate on the fly. So, interested?"

"Maybe. I don't know. I know I need some help adjusting to normality, and I'm pretty short on other options, but I don't want to be a tool either. Atoning's fine. My lot've dumped a whole bucketload of crap on the multiverse at large, and it only seems fair that I redress the balance a little. I'd like it to be on my own terms, though, thank you very much – just doing the same thing all over again for a different side does not appeal."

"That, I think we can agree on. Doubt the military's quite up for employing cannibalistic shapeshifters as a tactical asset either."

"Pfft. You Bureau-types – so squeamish. Mind if I take out my eyeball now?"

"... Excuse me?"

"My left eyeball. It's a bionic implant – that recording device I mentioned earlier. Has some stuff on it that you lot might find useful. So – may I?"

"Umm... sure, go ahead."

"Sure you don't want to look away? I mean, it's going to be kind of icky."

"Thanks, but no thanks. Command would have my ovaries in a sack if I let you transform unsupervised."

"Fine – your call. Here goes..."

There was a deeply unpleasant, organic sound.

"... Kaiser's nodes on a platter, don't you have bones?"

"Nope – they're made of the same stuff as the rest of my body, just hardened into a support structure for whatever shape I'm in at the moment. How'd you think I fixed the hand?"

"Can't say I'd given it much thought. What's on the recorder, then?"

"Everything I know about the gods' military capabilities, just in case your Inspector Acous missed something, plus a little propaganda vid I cooked up which might come in handy. Here you go."

Teana looked down dubiously at the small, spherical, and slightly slimy object the assassin had deposited in her hand. "So how do we use it?"

"Well, duh. Shove it in your eye-socket and download the data. Thought that'd be obvious." Gina saw the mage's appalled expression and grinned broadly. "I kid, I kid. It's got a USB port behind a hatch in the back. Check with your Earthborn friends if you're not sure what that is. Apart from the warp-sorcery and the blueprints from the far future, we're actually pretty low-tech, you know."

"Anyone ever tell you your sense of humour needs work? Anyway, thanks for the data. We'll see what we can do with it. Anything else?"

"One other thing, yes. You two shoved a metric tonne of unsolicited advice in my face today, and I figured I might as well return the favour."

"Go on."

"Nakajima. You care about her a lot, don't you?"

As expected, Teana went bright red again. "Well, of course I do. She's a friend."

"Right. Sure. That's not what I meant, and you know it."

"Then I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about."

"Shall I stop you there, or do you want to keep lying to the empath? I mean, seriously now."

The mage's shoulders slumped. "Look, it's complicated, all right? Really complicated."

"Complicated how? I mean, you're attracted to her, she's definitely attracted to you, and this shiny, permissive society you seem to have here doesn't seem too likely to object. Forgive this simple ingénue of an assassin if she misunderstands, but if you aren't screwing that girl's cybernetically-augmented brains out on a regular basis, then one of you is doing something very, very wrong."

"'Shiny and permissive'? Yeah, I bet you'd think that. OK, let me give you some background on this place. It's been four years since they bulldozed through full marriage rights for same-sex couples, and the screaming from the family-values crowd still hasn't abated yet. Eight years since Field Marshal Sandero got booted out of the service when one of his aides found him in bed with a wing commander from the Air Force. Nanoha Takamachi. Fate Testarossa-Harlaown. Poster-girls of the military. Any idea how long they had to keep their relationship under wraps? Me neither. There's a reason such a statistically-improbable number of us work for the government anyway, though. Even with stuff like that 'don't ask, don't tell' policy some of the departments used to have before they finally figured out it wasn't serving its intended purpose, it was still the friendliest employer we could find." She sighed. "Still, at least we didn't have it as bad as the offworld artificials. Not that long ago that familiars were legally considered property, for a start. I know the old government gets a lot of flak these days, but it's amazing the changes it made. Lucky the new crowd were smart enough to keep up the good work."

"So what was your story?"

"Me? I'm from Wilhelmsburg. Little place a few hundred klicks from here with a real big Belkan influence. Famous for its moonleaf sauerkraut – tastier than it sounds. Anyway, it's an old military town, and not the good kind. Parents died when I was a kid, so my brother was the one who mostly brought me up. Hotshot combat mage with the CDF – even got a few decorations. Then he managed to get himself and his whole team killed when a routine mission went sour, and suddenly no-one wanted to know me. My specialty's illusions and ranged attacks – know why I picked it? Because when some hulking melee specialist's decided the orphan from a family of screw-ups would make a nice target to work out their issues on, you don't want to be in arm's reach." She made a face. "Now imagine what it would have been like if I'd admitted to liking girls. Wouldn't have lasted three minutes."

"And the Bureau was a way out?"

"Bingo. I was a real model recruit, too – couldn't afford to show any weakness. Oh yes, I'd learned that lesson all right. Things got better, though, especially after me and Subaru joined Section Six. Some ways, that place was more like a family than a military unit. Started getting some real confidence going, started not to give so much of a damn about what the folks back home might think of me... hell, by the time I'd made sergeant in the CDF, I was even starting to rehearse these silly little hypothetical invitations to a certain blue-haired idiot. You know, for a proper date, not just a get-together like we usually have. Yeah, daft idea, I know. All I'd have had to do was ask – Subaru isn't big on the subtleties, in case you hadn't figured that out already. It was progress, though, and that's what mattered to me."

"So what happened?"

"The Cerberus Incident. The fucking Cerberus Incident. The shit was raining down for weeks afterwards, and I didn't have a defence or even an excuse. I was at fault, and that was all there was to it. Before, I could just tell myself that it didn't really matter what I was or who I... cared about because hey, I was a Bureau enforcer, and a damned good one. Why should anything else matter? Afterwards, though? Not so much. Still had the job, at least, minus a bar on the epaulettes, but I was back to square one confidence-wise. Look, I know it's stupid, and I know it's irrational, but that doesn't make it easier to get over." She smiled. "I'm still trying, though."

"Smart move. Nakajima's a good kid – you'd have difficulty doing better, I think."

"Think I don't know that? Besides, what's with the 'good kid' stuff? You're the same age we are!"

"Not the years, honey. It's the mileage. Gods, there's a cliché I've always wanted to use." She stretched an arm to wipe Teana's eyes, drawing a flinch from the mage. "Hey, no getting weepy. I swear, next person to pull a teary hug on me is going to have a phase blade administered to their pancreas."

Another irritated blush. "I wasn't – oh, forget it. That it?"

"Sorry – said I was done, but I suppose there's something else after all. Message for the 'blue-haired idiot', as you so eloquently referred to her. Mind telling her the unit's not going to fall apart just because she stops smiling? Like you said, you lot are tougher than you look."

The anger was back, and as with Subaru's overenthusiastic immaturity, Gina was inexplicably pleased to see it. "Wait, she's doing that again? After all I said to her about it last time? That's – I – ugh!"

It was, of course, at that point that the cyborg returned, only for the wrath of Teana to strike her like a verbal Claymore mine. For the second time that day, the assassin just wished she could sit back and take pictures.


The taxi was a sleek, bullet-like affair that gleamed in the afternoon sun, but it was still recognisably car-shaped, to Gina's surprise. Even with the extra memories, she'd really expected anti-gravity units to be in more widespread use on somewhere like Mid-Childa. It served its purpose, though, the driver skilfully navigating them through the city-world's endless geometric web of streets. They had to stop off halfway to the terminal in order to grab a meal – regenerating body parts always made Gina hungry, even one as small as an eye, whilst Subaru's formidable metabolism needed no excuse.

Whilst they were eating, the assassin decided to ask about the other members of the First Expeditionary Force – specifically, the ones she herself had killed. It was an awkward way to apologise, and the resultant conversation was unsurprisingly strained, but it still wasn't as bad as she had feared. In fact, she even managed to get some good information out of it, which she intended to add to her evening prayers – even if she wasn't that sure any more who she was supposed to be praying to.

Eventually, they returned to the cell, resulting in grudgingly amicable farewells between Gina and Teana and yet another organ-mashing embrace from Subaru that entirely failed to result in phase-blade-related unpleasantness. Once they had left, the assassin lay back on her bed, staring at the ceiling and recalling the gunslinger's words.

So this place isn't that perfect after all. Good. I don't think I could live in a utopia.

She picked up the leaflet they had handed her, and started to examine the appointment times.


Author's Notes: Yeah, this chapter got a bit political, but not just because I wanted an excuse to jump on the soapbox. Honest.

Given the composition of the TSAB military and its relative concern for humanitarian issues, I can quite easily see it seriously reconsidering the age of entry for its recruits if it were faced with a major military setback, and the Chaos assault certainly fulfils that criterion. For the record, no, I don't approve of child soldiers, especially as they tend to end up in real life, though the underage mages of the Bureau are a very big grey area indeed. It's for that reason that the debate was purposely left without a proper conclusion... though the fact that one of those involved was a stunningly tactless sensationalist and the other a recently-traumatised veteran might have had something to do with that as well.

As for Teana's back-story? Well, it all sort of fitted into place on its own with surprising ease, given what we already know about her childhood. The Belkan influence came from her unusually weapon-like Device and vaguely Germanic name, and managed to fill in the rest of the blanks quite nicely. Nothing like an ancient, conservative, and heavily-militarised society for a bit of good old-fashioned prejudice, after all.

See you next week!