I do not in any way, shape, or form lay claim to either of these works.
This is just a work of admiration from one fan, to those others that share the same interest.
The only characters or places I lay claim to are those solely of my own creation.
Time and Time again, Book 2.
Time waits for no one.
Chapter 2:
Monday, September 26th 2095. 6:00 AM.
Doctor Yoshiko Nishina's residence.
Tanya stretched then blushed as she realized why her movements seemed to be hampered. The reason being was the fact that Visha seemed to have decided that she would make a good body pillow. The two of them had obviously passed out on the futon in the living room in front of the television.
What also was obvious was that Dr. Nishina had noticed, and taken care of them. The fact that there was a blanket placed over them, and the futon being lowered clearly pointed to that fact. There was no sign of the good Doctor, but Tanya was confident that she was somewhere close at hand, more than likely in her study.
How had they ended up like this, you might ask? Well, the answer was pretty simple, just like things like this always ended up being.
At the good doctors suggestion, Tanya and Visha had taken the previous day to acclimatize themselves to the Japan of this day and age. So, they had surveilled the locations that were popular for people around their age, and had thus ended up roaming the local malls and even somehow ended up at an amusement park. Tanya had to admit to herself, it had been worth it to watch Visha as she had pretty openly gawked at everything that she had seen.
Getting used to modern Germany had been a shock to the young woman who was only on her first life, and second world and time. The vastly different culture and cultural norms had taken a bit more adjustment for Visha, but Tanya had to admit that seeing the natives' reactions when Visha and Tanya had responded to them in fluent Japanese had been well worth every minute that had been spent to get Visha to speak like a native.
OF course, it would have been sad if Tnaya had not sounded like a native since her first language had been Japanese, after all. And, if Tanya was going to be honest with herself, seeing how life for a teenage Japanese girl in this day and age differed from her memories of her first life as a Japanese boy was more than a little eye opening.
After they had visited a few of the local shrines, they had made their way back home to be greeted with a home-cooked meal from Dr. Nishina. It had been more than a little surprising, but Tanya guessed it must have served some sort of purpose, since she could not imagine the Japanese scientist finding any other reason for the activity.
Once the three of them had eaten, and then cleaned up for the night the two teens had retreated to the living room while Doctor Nishina had made her way to her study. As good as further studying would have been, Tanya had given in to Visha when she had suggested that they find something to watch. A good way to further their cultural immersion, as Visha had said. Tanya could not fault her in that, and somehow they had ended up watching anime, of all things, from when Tanya had lived her first life.
The fact that the shows she had remembered from her first life existed pointed to even more similarities between her first world and this one that they had ended up in. Factors that Tanya would keep in mind when it came to formulating their future plans.
It had surprised Tanya when Visha had expressed more interest in the more romantic shows, especially the ones that featured same-sex relationships over the more action oriented ones that had been popular when she had been alive in that time. Perhaps Visha had merely hoped to learn more of the interactions that were considered normal between two young ladies in their situation.
Of course, the media from a more contemporary age would prove more helpful, so she would have to investigate the shows that would be more appropriate for their reference. A bit of research was never a bad thing, after all. And Visha had already proven to be an adept student who's drive to further her knowledge seemed to know no bounds.
Now, Tanya just had to figure out how to extract herself from the full-body clutch that Visha had placed her in while the taller young lady had used her as a body pillow.
A means of escape drifted into the room from the kitchen, the smell of miso and broiled fish. The classic smells of a Japanese breakfast.
And things that Visha had seemed to take to quite handily.
When Visha stirred, Tanya managed to slip free from the embrace of her girlfriend and smiled down at the face of her girlfriend as she blinked and looked up at Tanya sleepily, then down at the still warm spot where Tanya had been only moments ago. Visha looked back up at the smirking face of her girlfriend and blushed bashfully.
"I guess we fell asleep?" Visha said and slowly got up.
"That is a safe assumption, yes. Now, let's go eat so we can get ready for our test. We have to make sure that we end up where we are supposed to be, after all." Tanya said before she led the way to the dinner table
It was going to be a busy day.
The pair of former soldiers skated along quickly, using short, efficient uses of spells. They had seen one of the students doing something similar the previous day while they had been out on the town, and it had seemed like a good exercise to Tanya, so that was how they had decided to make their way to the school for their testing that day, much to the amused consternation of the good doctor. For whatever reason, she had assumed that she would be taking them to the school that day. Perhaps she had more business to attend to at the school in relation to their enrollment? Regardless, it had seemed prudent to start this routine as soon as possible. The fact that the route was close to the route that their target took was a convenient excuse, of course.
Neither of them had their school uniforms, so they had dressed in a subdued, conservative manner so that they would make a good impression on the teachers that would be administering the tests today.
Normally, their tests and results from their previous school would have been used to place them, but their circumstances had made it necessary for them to be tested and placed all over. Which would be convenient, since their target was a course two student, as impossible as that seemed.
Still, if you wanted to hide yourself, being one of the secondary students would do that very well. Why, then, you would draw attention to yourself was something that Tanya could not understand.
Perhaps the reason would make itself evident in time.
Both of them had been carefully taught where the break points one, course two, and failure were .they could land in course two with Tatsuya, but they had to be prepared for any circumstances that might arise.
Several hours, and many, many tests and exams later the pair met up outside of the gates and made their way back home. The results would be sent later that night, and they should be able to start classes as early as the next day.
The pair exchanged looks, then Tnya looked away for a moment as Visha rather possessively took the smaller blonde's in her own. Tanya cleared her throat as she glanced up at the taller young woman next to her.
"I guess we have the rest of the night to ourselves, then?" Tanya asked as she glanced up at the taller girl next to her.
"We do. Think we could visit that sushi place we passed on the way here? I have to admit that I am a bit curious about it…" Visha said, then blushed as her stomach voiced its opinion.
After the two exchanged another amused look, they started to make their way towards the restaurant, unaware of the curious look they had gotten from the second floor windows of the school by a student who wore a course two uniform, and watched them through her glasses.
The young woman's attention was pulled away as a male student stopped behind her and politely cleared his throat. "Are you ready? If we don"t hurry we will be late for class." He said in his quiet, reserved voice.
The young woman jumped a little, then turned and smiled shyly at him before she nodded and followed after him, the two girls who had caught her attention forgotten for the moment.
Little did she know that soon she would become very acquainted with both of them.
Tanya and Visha returned home some time later, after they had enjoyed the city a bit more. All for reconnaissance reasons, of course. They entered, and Tanya looked at Visha before they both choroused out. "Ilm home."
They heard a "Welcome home." come from the living room, and made their way there to see the doctor sitting in her chair with a cup of tea at her side as she looked over the news on her handheld terminal. She raised an eyebrow at the two of them, and gave them an inscrutable look before she asked. "How did the tests go?"
Tanya narrowed her eyes as she became certain that the doctor knew the results before they had been informed of them, and wondered for a moment just what the good doctor had thought of the results. After a second, Tanya relaxed, as she knew for certain that not only would they be informed of the results presently, they would also learn of their guardian's thoughts on the matter as well.
"They went well, I am sure. As long as we passed the written sections, the practical was all that truly mattered. I am confident that we achieved the desired results." Tanya said as she cocked an eyebrow and made eye contact with the doctor.
Doctor Nishina nodded and laid down her terminal before she pointed at the same couch that the two young ladies had woken up on before she reached for her tea. Once they had sat, she proceeded. "Yes and no, actually. One of you achieved the goal, and one did not."
Visha clutched at Tanya's hand tightly and bit her lip. "I messed up, didn't I? I…. Didn't make it into the school…."
Tanya gave her partner a firm, reassuring squeeze of her hand and looked at the doctor intently. "If that had been the case,she would not be beating about the bush, nor would she look so amused. Now, would you kindly explain, even if I think I have an idea already."
Doctor Nishina had the good graces the blush a little before she took a sip of her tea and cleared her throat. "You both made it into the school, but only one of you is in course two."
Visha smiled and looked at Tanya. "Congratulations on becoming a course one student."
Tanya shook her head and gave Visha's hand a gentle squeeze. "No, congratulations are in order for you, Visha.". She looked at the doctor. "May I explain?"
Doctor Nishina nodded and motioned with her hand. "Please do."
Tanya turned to regard Visha, and took her other hand I to hers. While Visha turned red and came to a halt for a moment, Tanya started to speak without noticing that had halted.
"I had no doubts about your performance in the written sections of the exam, since I have always known you to be a diligent student and a quick study, but the issue at hand is twofold. You have very high magical aptitude, otherwise you would never have become an aerial mage, and the experimental CAD you have is, honestly, too well designed and efficient for you to be able to fake your results well enough at a lower standard." Tanya explained, while Visha felt herself growing warmer at the unexpected praise from her reincarnated girlfriend.
"There is also the very real possibility that one or more of the faculty that know about your implanted CAD wanted you where they could observe you directly, as well. Not that I am saying you did not earn your place, because you most certainly did, but that there are probably a number of other factors at play here. Things that we had best all keep in mind, when you two start your classes tomorrow." Doctor Nishina said, as she sent along their schedules from her terminal to theirs. "Now, the plus side of this is that Visha does have a chance to observe the other possible target, and that is Miyuki Shiba directly. We can't overlook the possibility that the two of them might be like you two, in fact. That perhaps her family did not just take in Tatsuya, but that everything about those two could be fake. It's a possibility that we must consider going forward, as we decide on what course of action we will take."
The two young women exchanged a look, and then nodded. "We will have to be able to improvise a fair amount for this operation to succeed, and perhaps having us able to operate somewhat separately will be of some benefit. Now, that does leave how we present ourselves and how we know each other to the student body…." Tanya said thoughtfully.
"How… We present ourselves? And how we know each other?" Visha said as she felt an odd twisting feeling in her gut.
Doctor Nishina sighed and cleared her throat to get the attention of the two teens before she placed her cup down and gave them both a very serious look. "I think it would be best if you two were open and honest about your relationship to your classmates. It will serve to allow you two to interact far more often and closer than otherwise." What she doesn't say is the fact that there is no way that anyone who spent any amount of time with the two of them will not think that there is something going on between them. It was better to be open, even if she knew that even today, Japan was not completely accepting of non-traditional relationships. Still, it was going to be better to be honest about things, rather than have it be some big scandal when they were found out. Say, about an hour after school started if the two had any contact with each other. They might make it til the end of their first school day, but that was doubtful.
"The uniforms will be delivered before too late tonight, I hope that you two don't mind that I took the liberty of placing the orders? I do have your size, after all." Doctor Nishina said, and smiled as the pair shared another quick look and Tanya nodded.
"Thank you, Doctor. Once the uniforms arrive and we have a chance to try them on, we will continue our planning for our first day of school." Tanya said, then stood up with Visha literally a heartbeat behind her as the pair of young women walked out of the room, already wrapped up in animated discussions of what was to come.
Doctor Nishina sat back in her chair and continued to read as she contemplated the chaos that her life had become ever since she had met the pair, and realized she would have it no other way.