Of Assassins, Samurai, and Magic

A/N: And the next chapter is up! I've tried to keep everyone as close as possible to their characters in the anime though I'm sure there will be a few OOC moments. Comments and reviews are much appreciated. Thanks to everyone who has left comments already! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The characters and the worlds I write in do not belong to me. The stories that I write are intended for entertainment purposes. I do not make any money from them.

*** ~ Chapter 3: The Start of It All ~ ***

"Welcome to the Midori-ya Café!"

"Thank you." A smile.

The short blue haired girl looked at the man before her in a bit of shock. He wore long green robes with a matching green scholar's hat. Large round spectacles adorned his face. Waist length blonde hair was tied together by a green ribbon halfway down the length. Subaru half expected a long beard to complete the outfit, as it was custom for nobles, but the man didn't sport any. Nor was there that aura of arrogance or the look of condescension. This guy dressed like a noble, but certainly didn't act like one. Subaru continued to peer at him.

"Um… Is something wrong?" The blonde haired man pulled at the collar of his robe nervously.

"Yuuno-kun! It's been a while!" Takamachi Miyuki emerged from the kitchen in the back, wiping her hands on her white apron.

"Takamachi-san, it's good to see you."

Yuuno extended his hand to the older woman. But rather than take his hand, Miyuki threw her arms around the scholar, half tackling and half hugging him. The blonde blushed noticeably, Subaru chuckling at the scene.

"Subaru, that's rude!" a voice hissed in her ear, Subaru receiving an elbow to the ribs.

"Ompf! Sorry Tea, I couldn't help it" Subaru said, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.

It was past mid day at this point, the lunch crowd having come and gone. Midori-ya Café was quiet now, the only customer being Yuuno. Subaru and Teana were the servers at the moment, Nanoha having disappeared roughly an hour ago. Miyuki manned the kitchen, preparing any orders that came through. It was a bit of a struggle during the peak times with such little staff, but all of them made out just fine.

"So what brings you to this side?" Miyuki said, waving a hand at one of the empty booths indicating for Yuuno to sit. "You're usually pretty busy in the palace."

"P-p-p-palace?" Both Subaru and Teana gawked. The two servers looked at each other and then back to their customer.

Yuuno chuckled, taking a seat in the closest booth. "I'm a scholar at the imperial palace" he told the younger girls. He smiled seeing their eyes almost pop out of their heads in shock. "I came by to see how Nanoha-san was doing actually" he said turning back to Miyuki.

The older woman's eyes darkened and she looked down at the table. "Ah… Nanoha…"

Sensing the change in atmosphere, the servers took it as their cue to get to work and be… elsewhere.

"How are you holding up Miyuki-san?"

Green eyes looked up at the man. She gave him a small smile. "I've been managing" she said softly. "Nanoha… Nanoha is still having a hard time about it though…"

Two mugs of tea were placed on the table, one in front of each of them.

"Thank you Tea-chan" Miyuki said.

Yuuno also thanked the orange haired girl. Teana merely nodded with a smile and went to the back again where Subaru was hiding out. Yuuno stared down at his steaming mug of tea.

"She's gotten good at hiding her pain behind the smiles" Muyuki continued. "If you didn't know her well enough, you wouldn't have noticed it. But I do. We all do."

Yuuno nodded. Nanoha would do that. She didn't want to burden anyone with her troubles or her pain. So she would put on a smile and pretend like nothing was wrong.

"She's with them right now, isn't she?"

"Who's that?"

Two pairs of eyes turned to the newcomer in the graveyard. Long blonde hair draped over the shoulders of the cloaked figure that was now approaching Nanoha from behind. The smallest of the pair instinctively reached for her Graf Eisen strapped to her back. A hand on her shoulder made Vita look up at the pink haired samurai.

"We should head back to the Empress now. She'll start to worry."

Blue eyes looked back at the mysterious person. "Fate Testerossa Harlaown" Signum said.

Testerossa. That name sounded familiar to the smaller Wolkenritter. Why? Testerossa. Testerossa… Vita's eyes widened. "You mean-"

"Yes. As in Precia Testerossa from the Garden of Time incident."

Vita gritted her teeth, blue eyes darkening as they narrowed at the intruder. Her hand tightened around the grip of her hammer.

"We should go."

"But-"

Signum paid no heed to her companion and proceeded to drag the red head out of the graveyard by the nape of her cloak. The pink haired samurai sighed inwardly, her eyes narrowing slightly as she thought about the events from ten years ago.

The Garden of Time incident. That's where it all started, wasn't it? No. It had started way before that, but only then were the effects of it all, of magic, starting to show. Precia Testerossa was a budding archaeologist, researching the emergence of magic into the world.

Over her travels, she had discovered many dormant magatama jewels, which would later become known as the Spirit Seeds. Ancient texts wrote of them being the key to unlocking what would be the world's biggest discovery into the emergence of magic. Al Hazard.

The texts Precia had discovered however, were incomplete. She had only fragments of them. And while it was true the Spirit Seeds were key to reaching Al Hazard, what Precia didn't realize was that a sacrifice must also be made to open the door to the legendary land. The land where magic first began.

Stumbling across the Garden of Time, said to be the portal between our world and Al Hazard, the Spirit Seeds she collected awakened, triggering the ceremony to open the door. In the process, Precia's team as well as her only daughter Alicia, lost their lives as the sacrifice to open the portal.

In her last ditch effort to save her daughter, Precia managed to interrupt the ceremony, releasing demons into the world, as well as scattering all the Spirit Seeds she had already uncovered. Also scattered were the weapons of legendary magical power, including Signum's very own Levantine and Vita's Graf Eisen.

Having lost her only daughter, the daughter she vowed to protect and cherish since the day the bastard of her husband walked away those many years ago, Precia completely lost it herself. From then on, she worked tirelessly, acquiring Spirit Seeds through any means necessary in an attempt to revive her daughter from the dead. Sadly, such a feat was not possible, even if one had unlimited magic at their disposal. But blinded by her guilt and loneliness, Precia continued to pursue Al Hazard, believing it key to reviving her lost child.

Precia traveled to Japan in secret, for some reason Japan having the most concentrated gathering of magic in the entire world. There was only one other place to have such a magical concentration. The Garden of Time. Precia believed that there was another door to the Garden of Time hidden in Japan and sought it out to complete her daughter's revival.

Many lives were lost in her insane attempt to call forth the second door. Only through the power of the Book of Darkness, an ancient magical tome passed down throughout the generations of Emperors, was Precia stopped. But it was at the price of the current Emperor's life, as well as that of the Emperor's guardians.

Signum sighed. Vita had finally escaped from her grip and was now yelling at her. They were in the market now. The people around them could only stare in wonder as the pair continued to walk towards the imperial palace, Vita yelling the whole way there. Signum was not affected by this one bit, and that only aggravated the smaller knight even more.

The samurai would apologize to her friend later, her thoughts currently still caught up in the Garden of Time incident. That was ten years ago. Much had changed since then. The Empress grew up. Even at that young age, she reestablished order over the country. But even so, the captain of the samurai could not but worry.

Things were far from over. Nanoha's weeping reminded Signum of that. Until all the Spirit Seeds were found and sealed away, and the struggle for power stopped, the suffering would continue. Clutching her Levantine tightly under her cloak, Signum made a silent vow. She would help her Empress stop the bloodshed. The suffering. And the pain inflicted upon this country's people. Even at the cost of her life.

A/N: For those of you unfamiliar with the non-English words, I have translated them below.

Wolkenritter = Cloud Knights (German)

For an explanation of Japanese honorifics (eg. [name]-sama), please check out: http:/en[dot]wikipedia[dot]org/wiki/Japanese_honorifics