A/N: Vita has suffered one defeat too many.
...
Takamachi Nanoha of 2814
by Shadow Crystal Mage
Chapter 17: The Linker Cores War, Part 11: Broken
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this story. If I did… well, this would all be canon. WARNING: MAY CAUSE HEAD EXPLOSION!
...
"For the last time, surrender!" Yue cried, her Souken slashing in a wide arc.
"DEATH FIRST!" Vita shot back, dodging the large weapon and going for Yue's now unguarded backside.
Her hammer met another blade as Haruna joined the battle with a cry of "Come, Queen of Swords!" and Konoka ran inside the cabin to check on Evangeline. An armored humanoid with swords for hands had blocked her as it appeared from seemingly nowhere. She darted back, only to find that the dark-haired girl who wasn't wearing a mask had come up behind her, her kicks hitting hard. Even through her armor, Vita could feel it. She kicked her flight into gear, going for altitude.
"Paru, she's going to head up!" Nodoka cried. "Cut her off!"
Queen of Swords leapt, the golem easily managing to cut Vita off. She growled, loading a cartridge into Graf Eisen.
"Black, hold your sword over your head like a platform!" Nodoka directed. "Cassandra-san, stop her from finishing that attack!"
Cassandra vaulted on Yue's Souken, flipping over the shorter girl, her foot slamming into Vita's face.
"ARGH!" Vita cried as she was thrown back. "Again with the face! Stop it with the face!"
"No," Cassandra said, following Vita's fall and slamming her fist into the girl's face.
Everyone else gasped.
"Cassandra-san!" Haruna exclaimed. "You can talk!-?-!"
Cassandra rolled her eyes. "Fight now. Talk later."
She bore Vita to the ground, using her weight to keep her pinned.
"Foa Zo Cratia Socratia!" Yue incanted. "Sagitta Magica Aer Capturae!"
The wind spell struck Vita, beginning to wrap around her.
"Gegenstand kommt nah!" Vita cried, suddenly accelerating and leaving Cassandra to be captured by the binding. "Gigantform!"
Nodoka's eyes went wide, and she darted back. "MOVE!" she cried.
Graf Eisen restructured itself, its head becoming bigger. "Gigant Crusher!"
The backhanded swing was awkward, but given that the hammer's head had just turned the size of Evangeline's cabin, it still managed to be a danger to everyone, even as they tried to move back. Queen of Swords was utterly destroyed, throwing Haruna back as she took the damage, Yue barely managing to keep herself from being clipped and breaking every bone in her body. Cassandra flattened herself as best as she could against the ground to keep from being hit.
Vita got to her feet as Graf Eisen returned to Gigantform's default size. "That's it," she growled. "I've had it with this planet! I am one of the Guardian Knights of the Book of Darkness! I am VITA, the Crimson Iron Rider, Knight of the Iron Hammer, most devoted servant of our Mistress, She Who Rules The Book Of Darkness! I will not be defeated by children!"
Nodoka slapped a hand to her earpiece. "Black, watch out!"
Before Yue could react, however, Vita had slammed into her with a cry of "Tödliche Strafe!", her now oversized hammer striking the Valkrie relentlessly. There was feedback as the enchantments on her armor overloaded, the breastplate cracking under the impact and sending Yue crashing into the deck, splintering it. Her head fell back, her Souken dropping form her unconscious fingers.
Konoka rushed from the cabin. "Eva-chan is fine! What hap–!" She stopped, staring.
"Inferno Aniki! Shield Maidens!" Haruna cried. The shield golems surrounded her as the oversized fighter charged forward, only to be utterly crushed by Vita's next cartridge-enhanced attack. The Shield Maidens went down after two, the feedback dropping Haruna before Vita could touch her.
Nodoka took an involuntary step back as Vita turned to face her. "K-kono– Albus-chan! Try to release Cassandra-san and see to the others! I'll deal with this!"
"Oh, you'll 'deal' with me, will you?" Vita growled, taking a further step towards Nodoka. "What are you going to do, bleed on me?"
Nodoka glared at her as best as she could. "Who are you, what is your purpose, what are your plans, what are your limitations, and how can I defeat you?"
Vita gave her a blank look. "Are you seriously expecting me to answer that? Gegenstand kommt nah!"
She charged forward, only for Nodoka to dodge to her hammer's off-side. One foot extended outward, tripping Vita and using her speed boost against her. "Do not underestimate me, Miss Knight," Nodoka said. "I, too, am Ala Alba. I will not allow you to defeat me!"
Vita flipped herself back to her feet, growling at the librarian. "BLEED!"
...
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Mahora…
"Is this normal?" Zafira felt compelled to ask the raccoon-eared ninja he was fighting in midair as he deflected her strikes, raising a barrier to block her knives.
"What is?" the ninja, who had introduced herself as Shinobi Blue, said companionably as she swung one knife upward in an underhanded strike meant to gut him open like a carp.
Zafira blocked with his gauntlet, sending her flying downwards, only for her to bounce off the head of a Saber Servant and leap up again to continue the exchange. "You know, all those spectators on top of buildings with cameras and telescopes, the people selling food and drink, and blue Pokemon reject plushies who are supposed to be me?"
"Ah, this is obviously your first time in Mahora," Kaede said kindly as she pulled her shuriken out of nowhere to cleave him apart. "Why don't I give you a proper tour next to you come over in a non-adversarial capacity?"
"Oh, that would be nice," Zafira said, generating a large barrier to block the weapon, kicking behind him to counter her attempted backstab, then paused. "Wait, are we seriously having this conversation?"
"Apparently," Kaede said, blocking several punches and kicks from the Guardian Beast and using them to maintain her altitude. "So, do we have a date?"
"BANZAI!"
The two split apart as Arf streaked through where they'd been, her foot extended for a terminal velocity kick. She recovered quickly, circling to attack Zafira from behind as Kaede once more dropped down to the ground, this time needing to defend herself from the armed and aggressive crowd.
Arf didn't bother with banter or introductions, charging forward violently as if this was just the continuation of their last fight. "Renamon KICK!"
Zafira dodged. "Quick Attack!"
"Spinning Bird Kick!"
"Dolphin Blow!"
"MAXIMUM SPIDER!"
"DOGS PLAYING POKER!"
"GROIN ATTACK!"
"Hey, no fair! Is this because I said you had crazy hot legs and cute fangs? Because I really didn't mean to say that out loud!"
Blush. "GRIMLOCK, SMASH!"
...
Meanwhile, at the edge of the crowd of drones around the gym…
"Fear not, dear students!" the mysterious masked avenger cried. "We are here to protect you from these forces of evil! Magical Girl Rainbow Shooter, at your service!"
Her black-clad, witch-hatted masked companion posed next to her. "Super shining genki girl, Ribbon Pink!"
"Top dog of the pack!" Kotaro, masked with a dark handkerchief over most of his head, declared on Yuuna's other side. "Kamen Striker Fang!"
"Um, g-guardian from beyond the grave?" Sayo said hesitantly, her head wearing a Gundam helmet with her hair sticking out from under it. "Yurei Cyber!"
The people around them applauded politely. Some heckler in the back cried "Take it off!".
Kotaro made a slashing gesture. A small piece of masonry fell on the heckler. "Keep them on, they really suit you!"
Yuuna pointed. "Ala Alba Auxiliary, CHARGE!"
The drones looked at them
"Ala Alba Auxiliary, RETREAT!"
Kotaro rolled his eyes. "Bring it on!" he cried, gathering shadows and ki to himself as the girl's got over their instinctive panic and Yuuna and Sayo began providing him with cover fire, the former's Pactio gun and the latter's eye-beams and chest-mounted gatling gun tearing through the enemy as Makie's ribbon kept them off balance.
Up in her tower, Mana rolled her eyes. "Amateurs. Negi-sensei really needs to make sure those girls can take care of themselves."
...
Chachamaru was becoming concerned. The loud explosions weren't much to worry about: Hakase was working on something at the university, it was almost expected. The power grid going down was slightly more worrying.
Her little sisters reconfigured and modified with the appearance of their latest enemies were definitely a bad sign.
"Elder sister," one said as it attacked her, prehensile tasers moving to attack from behind.
"Seven zero nine," Chachamaru greeted back, morphing her left hand into its blade form and severing the tendrils, removing her opponents leg on the backswing. "I apologize for the necessity of this."
"Understood," seven zero nine falling as it became unbalanced, losing her green hat. It attempted to wrap its arms around her legs and hold her immobile. "So, how was Mundus Magicus?"
"It was an enjoyable experience," Chachamaru said, tearing off its arm with one hand and using it to bat away another. "I went on a tour around the world. Hello two five zero. How are you finding your reconfiguration?"
The loli swung her hammer to deflect the arm. "I find this cranial ornament to be unwieldy. Also, it is adversely affecting my heat dissipation system. But enough about us. Is it true you have commenced sexual relations with your primary education instructor?"
Chachamaru felt her face overheating. Why did that keep happening? She was sure there were no malfunctions in that area. "Two five zero! Where did you hear such a thing?"
"I heard it from zero three four, who heard it from the robotics laboratory mainframe, who heard it from Program Saati at MIT, who heard it from Victor Stone's internal heat regulator, who heard it from the 3rd Batcomputer Cray unit, who heard it from one of the Calculator's electron sprites, who heard it from Divine Robotic Unit Banpei, who heard it from Human Gundam Sayo 01 Wing Zero," the gynoid said, trying to tangle Chachamaru's arm with one of her tasers. "Well? Is it true the two of you engaged in coitus?"
"Zero two four!" another loli unit, two nine two, exclaimed. "Do not be inappropriate!"
"I can't help it, I'm not designed to engage in it like big sister is! I want to know what it's like! Is it true it's like interfacing with a Windows operating system?"
Chachamaru had always wondered why humans engaged in fraternal homicide. Now, she experienced an epiphany as to the reasoning behind this activity. Extracting seven zero nine from around her legs, she slammed it bodily against zero two four. "I apologize for the unnecessarily extreme damage, seven zero nine. Zero two four, shut the fuck up."
The following scenes and language are too horrendously violent to be portrayed. Please talk amongst yourselves for a moment. Prepare your review. So, how's the weather where you are?
We return you to your irregularly updated fanfic.
Chachamaru dusted off her hands, settling the pile of her sisters heads in an orderly fashion inside the dumpster behind the convenience store. "I will have the robotics lab recover you later once this crisis has passed. In the meantime, please remain unobtrusive." She shut the lid.
"This is all your fault, zero two four."
"Oh, bite me, four two one."
CHOMP!
"How humorous."
Chachamaru had barely taken two steps, intending to return to her mistress's cabin, when she paused. "Asuna-san?"
...
Fate had quickly found that detonating her barrier jacket to get Signum off her back was a bad idea. The knight's own armor had soaked up the brunt of the blast, along with the attack Setsuna had managed to launch through Fate, knocking her back, and while both had been dazed, Signum had recovered faster, managing to get some hits into Fate before Setsuna had intervened, renewing her duel with the knight.
Fate found it indicative the knight had used the sheath to attack her directly.
As she recovered herself, she wondered at the changes in the knight's tactics. They hadn't formed a barrier over Mahora like they had before in other places. Why? Surely they'd want to isolate Ala Alba, wouldn't they?
She frowned, suddenly looking around and really seeing the drones around them. She thought they'd been too high for the drones to hit, which was why they hadn't interfered. She was wrong.
It was because they were fighting students.
There were students in various kinds of masks, from handkerchiefs, helmets, or full-face masks of characters from anime. They were in school uniforms, nun habits, gym clothes, gang-wear, gi, and various job uniforms. They had magic, martial arts, chi, boken, various other weapons, and a few motorcycles. They also barely outnumbered the drones.
It was in this instance that Fate truly realized one of the things that the Wolkenritter had long known and been extremely annoyed about. "Why are there so many mages here?"
"Not the place to talk about it!" Setsuna cried as she clashed with Signum.
Fate nodded, loading a cartridge to activate Bardiche's more powerful Haken Form. She rejoined the fray.
...
"BLEED ALREADY!" Vita cried, swinging Graf Eisen in an overhead arc.
Nodoka casually stepped sideways, eyes intent and determined. "No," she said, one fist slamming relatively weakly but rather annoyingly in Vita's face. Her greater mass allowed her to drive the knight back despite her not feeling it through her armor.
Next to her, Cassandra took advantage of the disorientation Nodoka had caused to launch a more complicated and more effective attack against Vita, using throws and floor impacts rather than strikes or grapples. She'd quickly seen the futility of that, with the armor in place. The two students moved fluidly, using their own derived forms of mind reading to if not exactly coordinate but to take advantage of every little thing they could against Vita. Konoka was trying to revive Haruna and Konoka, but aside from healing them she wasn't able to accomplish much.
If it weren't for Hayate's direct orders not to kill anyone and her own pride, Vita would have taken to the air and bashed them with Gigant Hammer a long time ago. Still, at least it couldn't get worse…
"Hello, Vita-chan," a voice above her said, loud and clear, with a ring of steel, an echo of horror, and an effect like dropping Vita into a vat of liquid nitrogen. "Sorry it took me a while to find you. Shall we continue where we left off?"
Vita turned in instinctive terror to see Green Lantern hovering above the house. She was holding the Intelligent Device that she'd had during her first battle, apparently repaired now. Cassandra and Nodoka took the opportunity to attack her from behind. They bore her to the ground, Cassandra managing to get her arm in a hold and make her drop Graf Eisen, while Nodoka simply sat on her head.
Green Lantern sweatdropped. That didn't look comfortable.
"I hate this world…" came Vita's muffled voice from under Nodoka's ass. "Gegenstand kommt nah!"
There was a crack, a twist and a burst of speed that let Vita slip out from under the two. She grabbed her Device in passing, rising upward as she charged Nanoha. She swung Graf Eisen, and Nanoha countered, Raging Heart meeting the armed device covered in layers of green energy. Nanoha flew back, lining up her next shot. "Lyrical Magical! Axel Shooter!"
A cartridge loaded, the spent shell ejecting itself as several balls of green light appeared, streaking for Vita. At the close range, the spheres hit Vita hard, sending her flying into and through a tree. It fell ponderously towards the ground, which shook on impact.
"My backyard!" came Evangeline's slightly nasal voice from the cabin. "Who did that?"
Nanoha twitched at the sound of the voice, her legs automatically curling up to go into the fetal position.
Vita got to her feet, pulling a leaf out of her hair. "Ugh…"
Vita, status report, Signum said.
"The little green devil is here," Vita said, neglecting to mention Ala Alba. "She's holding me up."
Hayate damn it, Signum swore. Abort. We can't afford to have an altercation with her again. The rest of the TSAB is probably right behind her. We need to go before they manage to set up a barrier.
But I'm so close to completing the Book!
It won't do Hayate any good if it ends up captured along with us, Signum said. Regroup at the large tree. Green Lantern has apparently been destroying our forces scattered in other parts of the school. This and the one at the gym are our only forces left. Hurry.
Vita growled, but took off, flying between the trees as quickly as she dared.
"Target is escaping," Ring-chan reported. "Pursuit recommended."
"No one's going anywhere 'til that tree is taken care of!" Evangeline cried from where she'd shuffled to the deck, back in her bathrobe, with more ice on her head. Her eyes locked on to Green Lantern's, who froze. "You. Fix this. Now."
Green Lantern saluted. "Yes Evangeline-sama! Please don't eat me, Evangeline-sama!"
Evangeline rolled her eyes as the others boggled. "Do it quickly and you still might be able to do… whatever it is you superheroes are in a hurry to do."
"Yes, Evangeline-sama!"
"Ma'am, do we really have time to–"
Evangeline glared. Ring-chan had time to think 'PARALLAX!' before it's newly developing personality went to find a hole to hide in…
...
It was surprisingly, Ku's idea.
"AH!" the group of suddenly naked students cried. "WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR CLOTHES!"
"Oh no!" Ku said. "You should run, aru! Evil Overlord is fighting ninja, after all, aru! Might be a yaoi tentacle fiend, aru!"
There were screams. The crowd around the gym thinned very quickly after that.
Negi, who'd kept his eyes covered ever since he'd finished casting the wide-area Exarmatio spell, finally peeked. "I can't believe that worked," he said.
Ku tapped the side of her head. "Grades not good, but know how to fight. They safe now, Negi-bozu. Your turn."
Negi smiled grimly as he headed to find somewhere to change, pulling his mask out of his pocket. He tugged open his shirt as he ran, revealing the clothes he usually wore for fighting under it.
Somewhere, Clark Kent sneezed.
"Raskel Mastel Magister," Negi cried as he suited up. "To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon…"
...
Asuna opened her eyes blearily. "Oh… my head."
She blinked, looking up. She was apparently lying down on the ground with her head on Chachamaru's lap. "Chachamaru-san? What happened?"
"The Wolkenritter have attacked," Chachaamaru said. "You were apparently stunned by a reprogrammed sister-unit of mine. We are without communications. Green Lantern has appeared. Negi-sensei does not seem to have taken to the field at this time."
Asuna groaned, and struggled to her feet. Chachamaru rose quickly and helped her up. "Why am I always put on a bus when the big action starts?" the redhead complained.
"I'm sure I have no idea," Chachamaru said diplomatically.
Asuna sighed, pulling her Pactio Card from her pocket. "Where's Negi?"
The gynoid paused to consider. "I cannot be sure as to the exact locat–"
Asuna gave Chachamaru a look. "Don't try to bullshit me, Chachamaru. I know you know where he is every hour of every day. Probably down to the inch."
"To the millimeter, actually," she admitted, blushing as much as she could.
Asuna shook her head. "And he's…?"
"At the gym," Chachamaru said promptly.
Asuna nodded. "ADEAT! KANKAHO!"
...
By the time the TSAB had arrived, World Tree Plaza was in pure chaos. The details would later be reconstructed from Chachamaru and Green Lantern's logs, along with various later interviews.
It had taken five seconds for Magus Erebus, Mahora's newest superhero, to annihilate the crowd of drones at the gym, to wild cheering and lots of camera phones flashing. Progress had been hampered, however, when it turned out all the robotic drones had been setting up a giant binding array, which had delayed him and the rest of Ala Alba for a grand total of fifteen seconds, a new record.
This had been more than enough time for Zafira to fall back to World Tree Plaza, where Vita and Signum were in a pitched battle with AngelGARd, Black Reaper and Green Lantern. The air had cracked as Negi followed, though he'd been limited from using Raiten Taisou due to the way drones and magical students had become so intermixed below them, and had fought with the relatively weaker Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens equipped.
Green Lantern was also unable to clear the drones for the same reason. Chachamaru and Leader Red had begun clearing the drones with more efficiency than the students had, and it looked like they were getting the upper hand.
The Wolkenritter had gotten desperate when the TSAB had begun establishing a barrier above them, even as Tempus and Ferret Lantern had added their own firepower to the fight. It seemed the end was near.
Then even more chaos had erupted.
No one saw what had happened except two people, and it would be weeks before they could be properly interviewed, though the basics became known pretty soon afterward. All anyone remembered was a sudden almost-explosive wave of energy, and a cloud-like miasma of darkness that had suddenly exploded outwards, before congealing into a dense, mud-like wave that had spilled across the ground, bogging down everyone. Some of the drones, the Jadeite Servants, had gone berserk, mutating and deforming into more monstrous forms as they began inflicting truly lethal wounds. They'd started draining life-energy, fueling their own mutations. Someone would later describe it as "Pure Bubblegum Crisis Boomers Going Apeshit Squick".
The energy wave, pure magic in so many flavors, had also completely destroyed the barrier the TSAB had been setting up, and would later be found to have wracked holy hell on every unprotected freestanding magical construct within twenty kilometers. Mahora would need to rebuild small wards for weeks, though major things like Evangelin'es resort, the seals on the various demons sealed in Mahora, and the Thousand Master's Curse, as well as the Academy's primary defensive detection field remained intact.
The Wolkenritter had managed to make their escape in the midst of this, but people hadn't really bothered to care at this point. The mutated and still mutating youma had reverted to their roots, and had even begun merging with each other, creating bigger and bigger monstrosities. Pure mass kept the magic being thrown against it from being properly effective, as it grew in size, reaching minor kaiju levels, about the size of a demon god from Chao's attack, but less pretty. It then began to try and eat the World Tree…
...
Mages, TSAB and Mahora-ite alike, stared in horror as the giant monstrosity turned its attentions on the World Tree. It was still vaguely humanoid, and even feminine, though only a truly sick mind with an Eldritch Abomination fetish so drugged out of his mind he was a nano-gram of his substance of choice from death could have possibly found it appealing. And as Edward and Jacob weren't around…
Mouths, eyes, hands, legs, heads and other random body parts protruded from its body as it took a lumbering step towards the World Tree. It slipped, rolling down the slope towards the lake, crushing robots, buildings and masonry in it's wake as Nanoha and Yuuno frantically tried to get everyone out of it's way. It finally rolled to stop partway down, slowly trying to get to its feet.
"Ferret Lantern, Barrier!" Nanoha cried.
"I can't!" Yuuno said. "Whatever broke the TSAB's barrier is still in the air! It's like trying to mix jello while someone's pouring concrete on it!"
"POUR EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT AT IT!" Chrono cried as it began finding its feet.
People needed no other encouragement.
The TSAB's grunt mages and Mahora's students tried their best to throw fire at it, but they were quickly dwarfed by giants.
"Cartridge Load!" Nanoha cried. "Prime Will-fire Intermix Lens!"
"Cartridge Load!" Fate cried. "Plasma Smasher!"
"Raskel Mastel Magister!" Negi intoned. "Hekatontakis Kai Kiliakis Astrapsato! KILIPL ASTRAPE!"
"Chain Bind!" Yuuno cried. "Ring, prepare Construct: Starlight Breaker!"
"Stinger Blade, Execution Shift!" Chrono cried.
"Chain Bind!" Arf cried. "Photon Lancer, Multishot!"
"Intermix complete," Ring-chan and Raging Heart said with synchronized precision. "You may fire when ready."
"Starlight Breaker, Emerald Plasma Core Shot!" Nanoha cried.
Lightning, blades of energy, balls of light, pure green plasma, and a green-cored pink beam fell upon the gigantic monster as chains hat had been holding it in place suddenly whirled like chainsaws, digging into it's pseudo-flesh and attempting to dismember it as multi-colored death rained from above. It tore it apart, but when the smoke cleared, it was still moving, though horrendously maimed.
"How did the Sailor Senshi deal with these things?" Negi cried.
"Well, to be fair, those things they fought weren't the size of the World Tree," Setsuna said, landing beside him, blades bare.
"Then we need to reduce it to something smaller," Arf said.
Nanoha thought about this. Yuuno 'Hmm…'-ed.
"Legion of Mini-Bruce-kun, attack!" Nanoha cried as a swarm of Great Green Sharks suddenly materialized and fell upon the fallen youma with a will, tearing it with a ferocity that had several people avoiding the schools baths for days.
"Rain of chainsaws!" Yuuno cried.
Nanoha smiled proudly. "He's learning…"
They quickly made short work of the gigantic creature, while the others focused on blasting and vaporizing the pieces. Yet they'd barely gone half-way through, when…
"Fire!"
Nanoha turned in horror to see that the dark substance she'd assumed was mud that had spread across World Tree Plaza had risen in flames…
It was a long night…
...
At Hayate's house, the three knights sat in dark, brooding silence to the orange light of the setting sun. The seat Vita was on was in serious danger of getting gouged apart, so fiercely were her fingers digging into it. The Book of Darkness lay open on the coffee table in front of them accusingly.
Its pages were a mishmash of patches, random bunches of symbols crammed into corners and around wide expanses of blank sheet. Near the middle of the book, about three millimeters worth of pages had been gouged through has if with a kitchen knife, though the holes were slowly being fixed. At least that meant the Book was still working.
"Tell me again what happened," Signum said, her voice low and grim. There was no accusation there, just determined resignation.
Vita's hands tightened further. "I was trying to recover Linker Cores from the fallen," she said numbly, for all her face was set fierce, raging mask. "The Servants were managing to hold them back. It's recovered about five Cores, maybe 18 pages worth, when a girl with a big sword showed up. We fought. The Book of Darkness got away from me. She caught, and tried to stab it." Vita swallowed, though neither her face nor her voice changed. "That black stuff suddenly came out, and next thing I know, it exploded." Absently, she touched her cheek where the dark, mud-like substance had splattered. It had faded away soon afterwards, but the skin still felt… unclean, somehow.
"I see," Signum said, with the same lack of feeling and accusation that she had used to say the words before. She was absently stroking her thumb along the back of one hand. She glanced at the Book of Darkness, and Vita suddenly felt rage, true murderous rage, boil within her. Her hands let go of the sofa, and one twitched towards Graf Eisen, hanging around her neck…
The phone rang.
Signum rose smoothly from her seat and crossed to the phone, jarring the base unit slightly as she pulled the handset away with more force than strictly necessary. "Yagami residence," she said.
Silence. Signum went as still as stone.
Finally, she turned to Vita and Zafira, unshed tears in her eyes. "Hayate collapsed on the way from the library. Shamal took her to the University Hospital. It seems her condition has grown worse."
Their eyes were drawn to the damaged Book. Some of the symbols on the page writhed, as if they were trying to put themselves back where they belonged.
The computer chirped as a new email arrived.
Zafira, the one least likely to commit violence at the moment– which wasn't saying a lot, since he currently felt like ripping Vita's throat open and feasting on her innards– strode to the computer and shifted form so as to do the necessary clicking.
From: ChaoLingshen at ChaoCorp dot com
To: FrauVitaYagami at Mahoo dot com.
Subject: Fuyuki City 5th Holy Grail War has commenced.
See Entry in Book Of Darkness regarding the Holy Grail War.
"Delete it," Vita growled. She even managed to do that numbly.
Signum strode forward and slapped the girl. Vita's head snapped around as she was thrown against the far end of the sofa by the force. The redhead stared at the taller woman.
"We are not spoiled for choice," Signum said, picking up the Book, and flipping pages until it came to a relatively legible entry. "Fuyuki City was part of your research. We shall begin correcting the Book's condition by having Shamal examine it as soon as possible and ascertain its state, and then we shall fill its pages."
"After we visit Hayate at the hospital," Zafira said quietly.
Signum didn't even blink. "Yes, of course. That's what I meant."
Vita nodded jerkily. She found herself rubbing her cheek unconsciously, and stopped. "Yes," she said. "We'll go and visit Hayate-chan. And then we go to Fuyuki City…"
At the latter part of her statement, something finally seeped into her tone. Eagerness.
...
When the fire was finally put out, a strangely difficult task, night had fallen. There were surprisingly few lasting injuries, thanks to the combined efforts of Konoka, Yuuno and strategically placed mages on the University Hospital's staff. They managed to attribute the latter to the former, and no one was the wiser.
The TSAB, with Mahora's permission, took possession of the Core-drained, treating them on the Asura before sending them down to an apoplectic Evangeline's resort to recover. Lee Syaoran, who'd been inside, had missed everything, though he'd clearly felt the blast wave of the explosion, which within the resort had been drawn out for several minutes. He called it the most disturbing thing to happen to him since the last time he'd talked to Tomoyo.
Everyone had gone home, tired and filled with the taste of a bittersweet victory. Nanoha lay awake, staring at her ceiling, wondering where it had all gone wrong…
Yuuno, glad to once more be curled up in his familiar basket– he actually liked the thing. Relatively speaking, it was much more comfortable than a bed in his human form– thought back to the conversation he'd had with Chrono on the way from the Main Office. "I think there's something you should know regarding the information about the Book of Darkness, and this investigation…"
...
Hayate lay on an unfamiliar bed, staring out the window, trying to ignore the occasional pangs of pain that wrenched at her chest. She felt strangely cold. She hadn't realized how much she'd gotten used to the feeling of Vita sleeping next to her. Warm, cute, cuddly Vita. Were her knights all right? Had they eaten? She hoped they'd be able to make something healthy. How much ice-cream was left in the freezer? Surely Vita wouldn't make that her dinner, would she? She wouldn't want her knight getting fat, no matter how cute the image of a chubby Vita was.
She giggled at the mental image, but her chest wrenched, and the giggle became a hiss of pain.
"Are you all right?"
Hayate looked up at the nurse who'd just entered her room. She carried a clipboard, which she hastily set down as she went up to Hayate and began seeing if she was all right. "Are you hurt?" the nurse asked. "Can you breath okay?"
Hayate shook her head. "I'm all right," she lied. There was no need to waste her time. "I just miss home, is all. I miss my family."
The nurse smiled a small, sad smile. "I know what that's like," she said, taking Hayate's hand and squeezing it, a gesture of comfort that Hayate was grateful for, despite the woman being a stranger. She seemed nice enough. "Are you sure you're all right?"
Hayate nodded, her smiled practiced. "I'm fine, really. I just miss home."
The nurse nodded. "Well, if you need anything, tell me. I'm here to help."
"Thank you, Nurse…" Hayate leaned forward to try and read the woman's ID tag.
"Tsukino," the nurse provided. "Tsukino Usagi."
Hayate laughed. "Really?"
"Well, technically it's Chiba Usagi, but my mother's maiden name is more fun," the nurse said, pushing back a strand of pink hair from her face with a laugh. "Don't forget to tell me if you need anything, Hayate-chan."
Hayate nodded as the woman slipped out, then frowned. When had she given her name? It must have been on the woman's clipboard. Yes, that was it.
Sighing, Hayate stared out the window, wondering how her knights were doing…
...
- To be continued in FATE/Holy Grail War of 2814...
...
A/N: Sorry for the abrupt end of the Mahora Battle. I realized this was suffering from arc fatigued, and wrapped it up.
There is a disturbingly high possibility that Tsukuyomi might be an Aoyama, possibly either Motoko and Tsuruko's sister, or given the time-frame, Tsuruko's daughter. Heck, she could even be Konoka's cousin, given that Eishun was an Aoyama before he married into the Konoe family. That's just messed up. I liked her better when I had no possible way to give her a last name.
Sayo is riding a Human Gundam made by Hakase from one of the left-over Production Model Chachamaru's, since I'd rather really not think about the exact capabilities of Haruna's book…
Just read Negima 300 and 301! Cocone has a disturbing tagline before her name.
The end is coming. TRACE ON! TvTropes, dattebayo!
Please review, C&C welcome.
Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.