Magic: Any reaction involving the usage of mana in order to create some sort of effect, often defying the laws of non-magical physics.
Many were well aware of its capabilities, most knew that it existed. Magic defied base logic and reason, at least at a superficial level. The more magic one could muster, the more they could bend the laws of reality to their will. However, it was hardly that simple though, as controlling the chaos of magic and mana took elaborate and often precise formulas. For anyone besides geniuses to have even a chance at attempting that, they would need a Computation Device to handle the sheer amount of information required.
Magic and Mana were not bound by the same laws of physics as normal matter was, and it was because of this that it was chaotic, almost random at times, and most importantly of all: extremely sensitive. A strong and disruptive enough burst of non-determinant mana could disable almost all magic within a certain range if it was weak enough, and stronger ones would be crippled or stunned. And for magical detectors meant to pick up even the slightest traces of magic, a large enough pulse would be enough to completely disable them momentarily, if not completely fry them, requiring either rebooting or replacements.
Of course, the range of which one could disable magical devices was only so far, and oftentimes just trying to disable one would only lead to another one slightly out of range detecting you. Thus, they were relatively few in number besides those working deep in espionage or highly sensitive magical research facilities.
But what if a pulse was so big and the range that it disabled magic detectors was so large that anything that could still pick up the magical signature were too far to pick up its exact source, even when triangulating?
Such a question was now on all of Ostania's mind. In an instant, a giant magical pulse had disabled most magic-detecting devices within the entire capital of Berlint. What's even more confusing was that it didn't seem deliberate. The few sensors that picked up the signal from outside of the capital itself didn't seem to portray a formula meant to disable tech, instead, it felt more like a random surge of magical energy; chaotic and uncontrolled. Even foreign espionage wouldn't do this due to its costs and theoretical inability to do so.
Everyone had their own theories, and a few candidates were tossed around. WISE seemed confident in SNAKE, an organization intent on advancing magic through any means possible, as the primary culprit. Unfortunately for WISE, SNAKE lived up to its namesake and was notoriously hard to track down. There were a few other possible culprits, but the chances of them having the resources and magical capacity to do this seemed unlikely.
The last time a magical outage like this happened, it had been hardly a year ago and it was ultimately due to a massive magical explosion at a facility later discovered to be SNAKE's primary HQ after some investigations. That explosion was believed to have led to SNAKE's collapse, but if there was another magical burst at play… perhaps they weren't as inactive as once hoped.
Unknown to WISE, however, even Ostania's own government was unaware of the surge's source. With their own sensors taken out as well in the blast, they had but a few leads on what it could be. Was it deliberate? Accidental? An attack from WISE? The lack of activity from just about every organization they had their eyes on seemed to imply that it wasn't. They would have been scrambling to take advantage of the chaos, not performing similar reaches into the metaphorical dark like they were. In such a case, just what the hell could cause such an outage? And who, or what, was behind it?
Yor, however, had the answer, even if she didn't know the question. She wasn't aware of the true extent of the surge. She was an assassin, she was only ever told what she needed to know about her targets, nothing more. A magical outage on a city-wide scale wasn't within a need-to-know basis with her, more for her superiors' superiors.
While she may have understood the full scale of the surge had she been far enough away, standing just feet from its origin point didn't allow her much opportunity to know how far it went, just that it happened.
While Yor may not have known the problem, and with Ostania pushing it under the rug, she may never learn, she did know what had caused it: Tanya.
The girl had let her emotions control her mana, and it had surged out in a sudden burst of magic. A trained assassin like herself knew how to hide her killing intent, but a young girl like Tanya clearly did not. With her supposed, albeit quite strange, computation jewel from her former mother, it became clear to Yor that Tanya was born with some inherited magical power, and a massive one at that.
She was ignorant to many things within Ostania, but the fate of most magical children wasn't one of them. Ever since the Second East-West War, children with magical aptitudes had often been made "useful" to the state, although the specifics of how and where vary based on the magical aptitude of the child and the interests of the state when they are taken. But most children never could regain the simple life they had before.
Yor had been fortunate, not only was she born with exceptionally high amounts of mana, ranking in at nearly 5.0, but she had found a way to avoid the worst fates of most mages. She was spared from the training camps that led mages to the front lines, and she was spared from whatever fate awaited those who were sent to the labs, and instead she wound up in Garden, where she became an assassin. At least it was better than what she had gathered from scraps in previous missions about the first two.
Since then Ostania had never stopped 'recruiting' children born of magical affinity, although Yor no longer knew what became of them. If she had to guess, most were sent to be indoctrinated and trained for military service as high-value pawns, although a rare few might find themselves into organizations such as Garden as she herself had.
Ostania was low on mages. The many wars reaching back to the days of the Empire and the Great War had left Ostania with a weird phenomenon. While Ostania and Westalis both had some of the highest ranking mages in the world, capable of rivaling even world superpowers tens of times their sizes, they also both had the least amount of mages in the world relative to their population due to so many having been slaughtered and buried.
It made sense then why Ostania was desperate to recruit mages for its own defense. Surely Westalis was doing the same thing, after all…
But then what to do with Tanya? Surely Loid knew of Tanya's magical affinity. Had he somehow faked her tests? Were the tests wrong? Or did the Ostanian government not care? Usually, such exceptions only happen for military children, sometimes politicians, individuals in which the government was confident would raise their children to become valuable assets to the state instead of having to step in themselves.
If Tanya had a magical affinity, the legal thing to do would be to inform the government so that she could be handled accordingly. But then… What would happen to her?
Yor thought for a moment, then recalled the amount of power she had sensed from Tanya for just that brief moment. Even unrefined and untrained, Tanya seemed to have quite a bit. She would no doubt grow to have equal magical power to herself someday, perhaps even more than her under proper training.
If she had that much magical power, then perhaps Yor could get her into Garden. Unlike the other paths, Garden still allowed children to live some semblance of a normal life between jobs, whatever that would be. It was how she was able to take care of her younger brother despite her current job's risks. If she got the Shopkeeper's permission, she could even train her and… Then Yor imagined Tanya's face, as adorable and cute as it was, stained with blood. Her entire outfit drenched in the fresh smell of death and decay, forever permanent. None of the blood was hers, and below her was a small mountain of corpses, a bloodied shovel in Tanya's hands as she just smiled at Yor, giving off the look of someone who had no remorse for killing. A killing machine.
Yor shook off the thought. It was terrifying, yet strangely fitting. She wasn't even sure why she imagined Tanya with a shovel of all weapons, but it fit surprisingly well considering the tool's versatility and innocuous appearance. Nevertheless, she couldn't do that to Tanya. What would Loid think if he found out? Perhaps that's why his wife was so insistent on getting them into Eden Academy. The school was full of elites, and often it was that group of people who were exempt from giving up their children if they had magical affinity. It was their one-way ticket to raising the chances of saving the children.
Perhaps just being in Eden Academy would be enough to protect them from the eye of the government, given that many, many resources were being poured into each and every child for the sole purpose of growing the nation's greatest families and their support. Yor wasn't sure if it was even legal, or if perhaps she was thinking too much of this, but clearly Loid cared a lot about his daughters. It would be wrong to take them away from him.
For now she would stay silent, Tanya's secret would be safe with her. Tanya would need to learn to control her mana a bit better, lest she accidentally unleash her power in front of another mage or a government official, or even in public. While Yor wished to help her with that, Yor also didn't want to risk revealing her own status as a mage either. If Loid found out, who knows what he'd think…
She couldn't afford to lose this family, so if it meant doing a little more lying to keep Tanya safe, then so be it.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Loid was having a massive headache at the moment. Operation Strix was stressful enough, even after they managed to succeed in the first step. But now there came some magical surge that wiped out all of the mana detectors in the city while he was busy caught up in an interview. If he recalled correctly, he did sense the change in pressure from the surge, but he was too distracted with his own frustrations to accurately pinpoint the source.
He needed to keep his emotions under control. He couldn't afford any more screw-ups. Now WISE was sending agents all over trying to find any clues on the surge's origins. It didn't mean anything for Strix, but considering how overstretched WISE was already, it was likely that he would have a handful of additional missions on his plate soon to complete. More work to do on top of his current mission.
Apparently, they were following a lead on a supposed SNAKE hideout now, and it was likely he would be the one sent to infiltrate it when they finally pinpointed the location. The next few weeks would bring a lot of work, that's for sure. But for the time being, he could just enjoy the small victories.
They had managed to get into Eden Academy without any major hiccups. Tanya got in with flying colors due to her high test score and presentation, and although Anya was barely put on the list, she was on the list. Loid would have to find some solution to her frankly abysmal academic problems, but that could come later, for now they had Franky to provide them with the answers to most tests going forward.
Speaking of Franky, almost immediately as they returned home after receiving Tanya and Anya's scores, he showed up to celebrate their acceptance. Loid knew better than to be surprised that he knew already, the man had more connections than he could ever pin down, but still, he arrived with wine and a bunch of fine food, already prepared for a small feast.
Anya had no problem with it, Tanya was a bit confused but went along with it, and Yor got drunk in two minutes and twenty-three seconds flat. Loid counted.
Half-drunkenly Franky muttered, "This is all thanks to me stealing those test answers!"
"Don't say that out loud!" Loid whispered to him loudly, albeit quietly enough that the children or Yor wouldn't hear as Loid stared at him, attempting to get him to shut up before Yor began questioning things. One glance over at Yor however seemed to indicate that she was too drunk to remember it later anyways, cheeks flushed. Tanya seemed to be the only one observant enough to notice, but she was quick to be silent about it as well, it's not like she used the sheet much at all anyways. She apparently only used it for checking her answers.
"Wha'd'a say?" Yor asked, swaying around in her seat, face looking like a tomato with how easily she had succumbed to the alcohol.
Franky meanwhile simply shrugged and glanced towards the children, at Anya who was devouring her food like a wild animal, and at Tanya who was eating like a relatively normal person who actually knew some table manners. "You know, isn't it great that Loid will give you anything you want for being accepted into the academy!"
"Don't make promises for me," Loid ordered, not that Franky was listening.
"I want coffee," Tanya stated blankly.
Loid made a confused look in her direction. She was a child, and she wanted coffee? He understood well and clearly that Tanya wasn't a normal child, but that was just plain weird. Perhaps she was trying to be seen as an adult? Either way, he'll get her some coffee, but she should be prepared for the bitterness she's going to face.
"Fine. But if you don't like it I'm not getting you anything else," he stated.
Tanya shrugged before returning to eating. Anya meanwhile exclaimed, "I don't want something, I want to do something!"
"I suppose whatever's fine so long as it's doable."
Anya quickly got up and ran over to the television, playing a portion of her favorite spy cartoon as the spy was sent to a castle to save a princess from her captors. It was a fairly basic episode all things considered, so much so that the plot for it was basically reused at least eighteen times and counting from what little he had seen of the show, just reskinned every time. They could change the villains and environment and perhaps a few bits here and there, but it didn't alter the fact that the story formula was basically the same for many of the episodes.
Whatever the case, Anya pointed at the screen and declared, "I want to play 'Save Princess Anya!'"
Loid looked at the screen, looking back at Anya and asking, "Does it need to happen in a massive castle?"
Anya nodded. "Yes!"
"Not happening," Loid declared.
Franky then came behind Anya, still visibly drunk, and muttered, "How cruel you meanie! Now I won't go to school!"
"You don't speak for her," Loid muttered.
Franky looked at Anya. "Anya, do I speak for you?"
Anya nodded.
"See!"
Loid sighed.
Franky continued, "That castle can be rented out, it's got the same traps and gimmicks the show usually has." Franky then got in closer, peering. "It's also in the middle of nowhere, as relatively speaking, the government's got no eyes out there. WISE uses the region as a rendezvous point for missions all the time."
Truth be told, Franky was right. It was one of many blind spots in the more open areas of Ostania. Whatever they chose to do there, the government would most likely not see it, especially at such a late hour. Although that could inspire suspicion in itself, if the government's officials in the region were vigilant. But the recent magical surge in the capital would help to keep their attention away as most resources would be recalled to assist.
With Anya now on the verge of crying, whether genuinely or pretending, Loid sighed again, resigning to his fate as a doting parent. "Fine. Only this once."
Tanya glanced up from her food, muttering "If I had known the price range was big enough to include renting a castle I would've asked for more than coffee! Like expensive coffee!"
Loid couldn't afford to deal with two absurd requests, instead turning to her and muttering "I'll let you go to the library on your own more often."
Tanya folded her arms and nodded. "I'll take it."
'Good, one child appeased, now for the other.'
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Organizing and setting up everything for the castle was a headache in itself. But within just about half an hour he had everything handled, all the bits and bobs. As it turned out, not that many people were vying to rent out a castle in the middle of the night on a random weekday evening, so setting up a time was a rather simple endeavor and the people owning it were more than happy to accommodate him.
Funds weren't a problem, pretty much all of the money was coming out of WISE's pockets anyways and could be considered as child-rearing costs. He'd probably need to explain his expenses later, but that was a mess for another day, not now. The castle wasn't too far from Berlint, but still, a plane was needed if they wanted to get there before Anya passed out for the night.
Thanks again to WISE, he was able to obtain everything he needed in a short amount of time, including more wine for Yor, before quickly getting everyone onto the plane less than an hour after Anya first requested to rent a castle. Anya seemed to have no problem going along with him having somehow gotten a plane in a short span of time, and Yor was probably intentionally too drunk to care.
Keeping Yor drunk this long would normally be best avoided, but if it meant she wouldn't question how he managed to get all this stuff and the money for all of this, it was probably for the best if he didn't stop her. Thus, he ordered more booze to be drunk along the trip and at the castle as well.
Tanya was the only one who was shocked by how he was able to pull it off. She was smart and observant, almost problematically so, but she also learned quickly to just stay quiet about it all. It seemed she planned on using this family as much as he was using it for his own interests and didn't care what Loid's intentions were. He'd have to inquire about her intelligence later.
Soon the five of them, Franky included, were up in the sky as Loid flew the airplane towards the castle. Fortunately, the plane could take off and land in water, so a runway wasn't needed.
Out of everyone on the plane, Tanya seemed the least phased by the fact that she was flying. In fact, she appeared entirely unimpressed, bored even.
'Has she flown before? She doesn't seem at all surprised to be in the air, if anything she seems disinterested. I wonder what kind of life she had before I met her at that orphanage, or maybe she just doesn't care for flying.'
Anya, curious about her sister's apparent lack of interest, peered into her mind to find what she was thinking.
'How the fuck does Loid know how to fly?! Actually, perhaps he served in the Air Force during the war? That's a logical explanation. Or maybe he just has some strange and frankly expensive hobbies… For a psychiatrist, I don't know when he'd find the time, though…'
Unfortunately, it would appear that Tanya's thoughts were once more focused on trying to find logic in everything instead of anything interesting. How boring. Couldn't she be more excited for the big spy castle? Then she remembered, Tanya cared little for her spy show. If she wanted to get Tanya invested, it would be a lot trickier, but she may have just the idea.
Soon the floatplane landed on the river next to the castle, docking in at a port that led up to one of its many entrances and exits. Once inside, the scale of the castle truly revealed itself and the family soon led themselves to a massive empty ballroom.
As Anya ran around the vast open space, that openness soon became glaringly obvious and disappointing. Sure, she had a whole castle to play around in, but there was nobody to play with in the castle. Sure, Loid, Yor, Tanya, and Franky were all here, but only five people in a massive castle? What kind of spy mission involves only so few people? Of course, there may still have been a solution to that!
Anya eventually stopped her running, looking sad and mumbling, "What's the point in a castle if there's no servants in it… I'm sad… I don't think I can go to school now."
Tanya planted a face in her hand abruptly as Franky leaned down to 'console' Anya, "I can't blame you, daddy better step up his game." It seemed Franky was on Anya's side yet again in pushing Loid's limits.
With a groan, Loid excused himself and left for another room, as he returned a few minutes later he explained, "I've called some contacts from work, they should be able to get a few people here quickly."
"What kind of contacts do you have that will send people out to a castle in the middle of the night?" Tanya questioned, folding her arms as she leaned against a nearby wall, visibly bored.
"Well I… Called in a few favors, you could say…" Loid muttered. Sometimes he wished Tanya was more like Anya, too ignorant to question anything he did. At least Yor was a mess when she was drunk and wouldn't remember any of this. Keeping Tanya from being alerted was a lot trickier, though she would probably stay silent with something like a candy bar or a few more books. Seriously, since when were children capable of being bribed with history documents?
Within just twenty minutes, Tanya watched in shock as the entire ballroom was filled up with people dressed in formal attire befitting of an actual ball that one would expect in a castle such as this, down to the nines. Tanya was all the more confused when neither Anya nor Franky seemed surprised either. Yor, she quickly understood, was far too drunk to rely on for any logical thinking anyway. Another reason why she preferred coffee over alcohol.
Anya was probably just too happy to care, she assumed. Franky meanwhile probably just assumed Loid had such contacts, hence why he backed up Anya to begin with. Where Loid got these 'favors' was Tanya's question. Perhaps he was a psychiatrist for some powerful people? You gotta trust someone quite a bit to tell them about some of the things that's impacting your mental state. For average people, the amount of trust needed was minimal since the worst thing the average person did was call someone a mean name behind their back or at most bullying. For high-ranking politicians and individuals, no doubt they would be placing a lot of trust in their physiatrist, given the networks that flowed throughout politics. Perhaps that's why Loid has so many connections and strange hobbies…
Tanya didn't have a clear answer, but she also lacked a lot of information, and that annoyed her. She was trying to find a solution to a formula she didn't have the variables for. Or perhaps she was trying to find the variables for a problem she didn't have the solution to? She didn't really even know what she was thinking about at this point, and for some reason Anya was giving her a confused face as well. Was she making a strange face as she was thinking all of this? Or did someone say something and she was being silent?
"What's wrong?" She asked Anya.
Anya, having attempted to read into Tanya's mind only to be hit with a wave of words she couldn't understand, simply brushed off her confusion, playing it off with, "Why aren't you excited! C'mon, we're playing Spywars! I'm gonna put you with Papa!"
"I barely know anything about that show, I don't watch as many cartoons as you do, Anya," Tanya stated in response, sighing.
Anya simply made a wide and somewhat smug smile as she proclaimed, "I know, don't worry about it!"
Tanya was growing increasingly concerned, especially since she had seen her and Franky discussing amongst each other for the last ten minutes. Just what did they have prepared?
As the last people seemed to arrive in the ballroom, the lights dimmed, leaving only a single spotlight on Loid as he announced to the crowd, "Thank you for coming here today on behalf of my daughter. I understand this comes at very short notice, but I thank all of you who could arrive for being here. I would like for each of you to play the part of the enemies of a spy who is coming to save a princess. Thank you again for doing this for my daughter."
As Loid spoke, he made sure to tap out Morse code on his legs for each of the agents in the room. Him gathering this many people wasn't because of any 'favors' as he told Tanya, he was instead stretching WISE quite thin by requesting so many agents to this place on such short notice. The morse code effectively just said 'This is essential for Strix, just trust me on this,' although he knew that he was for sure going to get a lot of flak for all of this once he reported to HQ about this. It was yet another headache, but unfortunately a necessary one for Operation Strix. They would understand.
After he was finished, the spotlight on him turned off and a second one appeared above Franky as he spoke with far more energy and excitement than Loid, announcing, "All right! Let's announce the cast! Starting with our star for tonight, Princess Anya!"
Anya did a happy twirl as a spotlight appeared on her. She had at some point acquired a tiara to wear to fit her 'princess' role, even if the rest of her clothing was unchanged and thus unfitting of her supposed position.
Anya, now with a microphone that Franky had discreetly handed her, pointed to Loid as a spotlight appeared over him as well, proclaiming, "Here is the spy man that is going to save me!" She turned and pointed to the area to the other side of her where Franky quickly dashed to as the spotlight appeared again on him as well. "And here's the big bad guy, Count Scruffy Head!"
The spotlight then turned on Tanya who moved her arm to block her eyes from the light, squinting for a brief moment. Anya continued her announcement, "The uh… Assistant to the spy man, Tanya!"
Tanya rolled her eyes, lowering her arm and folding it with her other. "Really running out of ideas there, huh?" She muttered, though not loud enough for it to be heard well over the microphone and speakers.
The spotlight then appeared on Yor who still held a bottle of wine and a glass in her hand. Why anyone was letting her drink was beyond Tanya's knowledge, but to Loid it was quite convenient. Anya announced, "And Mama… Mama can uuuh… Be whatever."
Yor gave a shocked expression as Tanya again mumbled, "Yep… She's out of ideas…"
Franky returned to the microphone. "Now then, my very capable subordinates. I need you all to put on your best performances and get in Loidman's way as much as possible! You all can decide for yourselves how you're going to get in Loidman's way, I am not exaggerating when I say the success of this plan is in your hands!"
Loid was getting concerned, muttering, "Uh Franky, you do know that Tanya's supposed to be with me too ri—"
Franky ignored him, continuing, "Make Loidman suffer as much as possible! Spare no effort for the sake of Princess Anya! Now go get to your positions!"
The entire ballroom impressively cleared out in mere seconds. Franky, Anya, and Yor were already within one of two carts as it lifted out of the room through the roof.
"Ahahaha! Princess Anya is mine!" Franky declared with an overly dramatic flair.
"Save me Loidman!" Anya yelled relatively calmly, a staunch contrast to Franky's dramatism.
Tanya and Loid were left standing on the floor below, Tanya lifting her head as she slowly watched the cart lift upwards. "Just what kind of castle is this? How come I just get coffee and some trips to the library and Anya gets all of this?"
"Now's not the time Tanya… Just get in the cart." Loid grumbled, getting in the second cart that remained.
Tanya followed him and sat down on the seat inside of it as it began to lift upwards much like the first. Tanya folded her arms again and shrugged, "I will be expecting equal compensation to this beyond just coffee and the library."
Loid sighed as the cart continued moving up, "I'll see what I can do, Tanya. But don't get any ideas from your sister, I'm not making a full-scale reenactment of the Great War."
Tanya scoffed and looked out the window, pouting, "Well there goes that idea…"
Loid really hoped that was sarcasm. He really hoped so. Even HQ wouldn't accept that no matter what he could argue.
With her dreams of being able to boss around a bunch of people pretending to be soldiers like she used to be able to now crushed, Tanya immediately began scheming other ways to abuse Loid's seemingly endless finances. Perhaps access to more expensive literature and resources would do.
Eventually, the cart stopped moving up and started moving left, now facing across from the other cart which was seemingly elevated above another track by a fake balloon of sorts attached to a firm cord track above it.
Tanya looked out to her right to see the massive courtyard as well as the other cart across from them on the other side of it. She turned to Loid with confusion. "Just how much did this cost?!"
Loid groaned in response as Franky continued to speak into a microphone that relayed his voice throughout the entire castle, likely through a bunch of hidden speakers that weren't easily visible. Whatever the case, he loudly announced, "You shall face several obstacles in order to save Princess Anya! To begin, we have a quiz that the princess created within the last 25 seconds, so listen up! If you get it wrong, you have to put on the outfit!"
Loid turned to see a fairly simple cosplay for the Bondman character from the cartoon show that started all of this on the seat next to Tanya. It was basically just a mask and gloves, but still humiliating enough to annoy him a bit.
"Hey, how come it's only for me?!" Loid retorted. He didn't really care that Tanya wasn't forced to put on anything, but it really seemed that the main focus was to just torment him in particular. More annoyances.
Franky glanced at Anya who glanced back at him before explaining into the microphone, "Bondman doesn't have a sidekick, so Tanya doesn't have an outfit."
"Answer the questions right and you won't have to worry about it anyway. Simple, right?" Franky explained, a smug look on his face.
Tanya leaned against the side of the cart, uncaring for the events unfolding around her. She honestly just wished she could go to bed soon, even if she could probably fall asleep here. She had no desire to partake in this farce of a roleplay of a show she knew nothing of. Though to be fair, neither did Loid; she at least seemingly had more of a choice.
"Question One!" Franky shouted. "What does Princess Anya like most about Bondman?!"
Loid turned and looked at Tanya, who lifted her head from leaning it against her arm simply to shrug. "I don't watch that show, how would I know the answer to this?"
Loid sighed, he'd have to make a random guess it seemed. "Uh… His face?"
Anya held her arms up in an X shape, shouting, "BZZT! It's that he has a pistol with a silencer!"
"Eh? Really?!" Loid stammered, realizing now that that's where she got the idea to ask for such a thing …
Franky scoffed into the microphone, "You're her dad and you don't even know that?!"
"Next question!" Loid shouted.
"What is Princess Anya's favorite food!" Franky asked loudly.
Loid needed no hesitation with this one. "Peanuts!" He answered suddenly.
"Ooh, papa's correct!" Anya declared happily.
Franky, annoyed, shouted again, "This is the final question! If you get it wrong, you're putting on the costume, Loidman!
"If," Loid stated.
"Fine, here's your question, then. What does Princess Anya want the most right now?"
Loid thought for a bit, looking at Tanya briefly as she again shrugged. "I don't know, probably a pistol with a silencer or something like that."
Loid sighed again, shouting out, "She wants a pistol with a silencer!"
Franky turned to Anya who, after a moment of suspense, simply blurted out, "I'm a bit thirsty, so I'd like some water."
"Looks like you're wrong again, Loidman!" Franky eagerly declared, pointing at Loid.
"HOW THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?!" Loid shouted, his voice drowned out by the booming speakers surrounding them.
"Now put on the outfit!" Franky demanded, Anya watching with wide sparkling eyes, peering through a pair of binoculars.
Loid sighed and put on the mask and gloves, much to his embarrassment and Anya's glee.
"Now then, onto the next stage!" Franky eagerly declared as the cart suddenly slammed to a halt, nearly knocking over Loid in the process. Tanya was still sitting like nothing happened.
Loid quickly got up, running inside the tower the cart had stopped at, finding the entrance of a slide as the only thing in the room. Clearly there was only one direction to go. Tanya followed behind, equally as unenthused about all of this as Loid was, but similarly knew it was probably best that she played along.
Loid slid down the slide as it curved around the pillars of the castle, soon ending up in a glorified ball pit where the balls were nearly the size of a full-grown man. Bouncing off of one of the balls, he landed safely on the ground, looking ahead to see all of the agents dressed up in black outfits in front of four massive cannons. Franky and Anya's cart rolled overhead as Franky explained, "You'll have to make it up here to save Princess Anya! Ahahaha!"
The cannons began to fire as the agents dashed forward. Loid quickly dashed ahead, swaying from side to side to avoid the balls bouncing around him. The agents running at him proved a more tricky obstacle, but one which he was able to evade with relative ease due to his expertise and their acting, dashing past and around them without much trouble.
At that moment he realized he was missing something. He looked around, realizing that Tanya wasn't with him. All of these balls would no doubt be too much for a child, especially considering how large they were. He needed to make sure Tanya was fine!
In searching for her, he turned to his left only to see Tanya soaring above one of the balls, turning her body to land perfectly on the ground before dashing forward upon touchdown. As more balls were launched her way, she avoided them with even more efficiency than he did, dodging like the wind.
More agents came after Loid, and while he was worried that they'd be too rough on a child-like Tanya, a quick glance over to her showed her evading each agent with ease, not giving any of them even a chance to catch her. Whether it was them going easy on her or if it was just her using her small size to her advantage was unclear, but either way, it seemed she would be just fine without Loid for now. With him being the primary target of all the agents, he had a lot more on his plate now anyways as he dodged another ball aimed at his head.
Knocking down agents as they came at him, he continued dodging the obstacles as he began to use the impending agents as leverage and platforms. Launching into the air, he was easily able to avoid most of the obstacles now, even as the balls erupted into smoke around him.
He finally got to the top of the stairs above the cannons as the cart began moving up to the top of the tower, the entrance to which was right in front of him. Tanya was already there, leaning against the wall next to the door. She tossed him what appeared to be a gun of some kind, although obviously not one made to shoot bullets. Likely some type of ball launcher, albeit miniature.
"Where did you get something like this?" Loid inquired, inspecting the weapon.
"A bunch of the henchmen-looking guys began running inside as you got close. They started to hand out these guns to em' so I just took some for myself," Tanya explained.
"And they just let you take them?"
Tanya shrugged and answered, "Who said they 'let me' do anything?"
"I-I see…" Loid responded.
"I got a good look in there before they got set up, it's a giant spiral ramp up to the top. It'd be faster if we could find a way to go up via a different method, but still, there's a lot of walls there we can use as cover. They won't be able to see us if we stick low to the ground near the walls. However, that method is slow. So we can either go guns blazing and try and take them out for an easier push to the top, or take the stealth method of hiding out and slowly taking them out on our way to the top."
"You're putting a lot of thought into this…" Loid muttered. "Still, I'm pretty sure your sister wants a spectacle. Going stealthily will not only take long, but it'll also bore her with how little is happening."
Tanya nodded. "Unfortunately, you're right. We have no choice, then."
"God, this is a pain…" Loid groaned.
"God is a pain, Loid," Tanya responded as she dashed inside, pressing the triggers.
"What does that even mean?" Loid of course had no time to question Tanya's strange descent into the realms of Nietzsche as he could already hear the guns inside firing rapidly at each other.
Running inside he found three agents already collapsed on the floor, Tanya hiding behind one of the walls and occasionally firing through a broken-off bit of it that provided a nice place for her to shoot whenever possible.
Loid ran up near her, balls shooting past him as a smirk appeared on Tanya's face. "There they are!"
Tanya turned, unleashing a barrage of her own, hitting each of the firing henchmen right in the head, knocking them down within seconds. The accuracy she had was impressive, especially to be firing at such a great distance, even more so for a child. Loid was almost startled, but came to his senses as more balls kept firing upon him, often from places where he was unable to properly return fire.
"Keep your head down! You're a massive target like that!" Tanya spat out almost commandingly, glaring at him.
She was right, but Loid didn't need a child to tell him that. Whatever the case, the two dashed forward, making their way up the ramp with increasing speed. Tanya seemed to actually be enjoying this to an extent, even though Loid imagined she'd deny it profusely if asked.
Running out of ammo in her gun, she tossed it at one of the henchmen in front of her, sprinting forward at speeds even Loid couldn't easily keep up with. She broke into a slide as she approached the next group, reaching them in moments. Now suddenly low to the ground, the balls fired at her passed right over her head. In the next second she had dashed behind them, tripping them and grabbing their weapons as they fell, kicking them in the knees.
Passing one of the weapons to Loid, he took it as he was left in awe at how easily Tanya had just taken out two WISE agents. Was she just that skilled, or were they going easy on her? The latter made the most sense, but her movements and speed made it possible that the former was also true. She was just a girl from an orphanage, a very smart girl from an orphanage, sure, but it made no logical sense for the former to be true. He must be tired, surely. Surely he was just seeing things from all this nonsense.
The two tore through the rest of the tower. Half of the agents they passed had already been taken out from a distance, most by Tanya herself sniping here and there. As they reached the top, the cart once again began to move away, heading to another tower at the other end of the courtyard.
Loid glanced around for a means to follow them, but only had one real idea. Wrapping a belt over the wire, he then shouted towards Tanya, "Find another way over there, I'll follow them directly!"
"Huh? Wha—" Tanya was cut off by Loid flinging himself along the wire like a zipline, using his belt to keep himself up. Although curious as to what Loid's belt was made of to keep himself up like that, Tanya turned and ran.
Soon she returned to the downward spiral she and Loid had just fought up through. A brief run of all of the formulas related to tracking down targets she knew of revealed that the room was empty, its former guards having likely fled to the courtyard.
"Perfect."
Tanya leaped over the railings, letting herself fall to the very bottom floor below. The wind soaring against her skin and hair was a sensation she had nearly forgotten, a reminder of one of the only good aspects of being an aerial mage. The sheer bliss of adrenaline and wind.
She didn't have time to savor it unfortunately as she soon neared the bottom, intentionally tearing through the net meant to catch anyone who fell accidentally through some careful positioning. Activating flight spells, she rapidly slowed her descent, landing safely on the ground seconds later. Rushing outside, she leaped out the entrance and dashed around the tower, arriving on the other side of it. Leaping up onto a light pole, she swung around, propelling herself with brief bursts of flight spells to launch herself over the wall.
She landed in the courtyard, stopping for a moment to gather herself and analyze the situation before her. Above her, she could see Loid nearing the tower, large explosion effects erupting from the other towers he passed by or through. Ignoring her obvious questions about the budget of this whole ordeal, considering the effects here were being spent like pennies, she focused on her own path towards the main tower.
Various henchmen were now moving across the courtyard, most still with the guns they had used to fire at her and Loid. Unfortunately, she hadn't brought her weapon with her, otherwise this would've been a far simpler matter of just mowing them down.
"Whatever. It won't be the first time I've had to steal a weapon from my opponent," Tanya mumbled to herself before dashing forward into a set of bushes behind the closest person.
The man noticed the noise, turning out of curiosity. Unfortunately for him, Tanya seized the moment, launching out of the bushes with the added force of her flight formulas and almost tackling into him. Nabbing the gun she pulled back, rolling onto the ground before landing on her feet and firing upon the man and the others behind him. Faced with a hailstorm of small colorful balls, the group fell to the ground, Tanya scoffing as she continued forward, "Such soldiers you are, can't even hold onto your damn weapons."
By now, just about everyone in the courtyard had heard the firing. Tanya was now the prime focus of just about every henchman there still with their weapons, who immediately began firing.
By now, though, she knew exactly how many balls were in each gun. As such her movements focused on evasion, slowly gaining ground while not pushing herself too close to anyone, particularly those with ammo to spare, as she picked them off one by one.
"Five, four, three, two, one… He's out!"
Tanya dashed at the now startled henchman, closing the gap between them in seconds. Although he was quick to get Tanya in his sights, he was left defenseless as all that came out of his gun was the sound of the firing mechanism clicking. He tried to fire again, this time relieved to hear the sound of a ball being fired only to then fall onto the ground as said ball hit his face.
Tanya looked around, having kept track of the ammo of several people, most of whom were now low or out.
"Such inefficient guns, and an equally inefficient waste of their ammunition. Regardless, with so few bullets left, do you really have enough left to hit me?" Tanya's face twisted into a wide grin as she quietly giggled. In seconds, this giggle evolved into a maniacal laughter, "Gahahaha! This is nothing!"
The henchmen, confused, blinked to see only a cloud of dust where the child once stood, only to turn back in horror quickly as they heard the familiar voice behind them, "Even the Dacians had better reaction times than this!"
A hailstorm of bullets soon flew at the henchmen. Unlike their own fire, which had been aimless and chaotic, each bullet was perfectly aimed, even despite how quickly the little girl was shooting them. For most of them, aiming the weapon was difficult due to how different it was from shooting a regular bullet, however, Tanya had already adjusted. Adaptation was critical for survival on the battlefield, after all, you couldn't guarantee that the gun you had taken was the same model you were used to. Unlike most of these henchmen, Tanya had experienced that fact firsthand under smoke and metal.
Tanya was now between two groups of henchmen who hadn't yet been knocked down. While Tanya had used all of her bullets on her last attack, the two groups flanking her hadn't, and soon a hellstorm of giant bullets launched themselves at her, aiming for her weak points.
However, for someone who was used to dodging much-faster magical bullets, moving around giant, relatively slow-moving balls was a breeze even with her relatively untrained body. She dashed at the group to her right, the one closest to the tower she was supposed to be moving towards. Tripping the soldier at the very front closest to her, all the man could see was the wide grin on her face before his own planted into the dirt below, his weapon flying upwards. Tanya was quick to snag his gun, leaping up into the air with a formula-enhanced backflip as she fired her weapon into the crowd of men as she fell back to the ground.
Yet again all of them fell down upon impact, Tanya picking up two of their weapons as they did. Turning and aiming back at the group now to her back, she dodged out of the way of their next onslaught of bullets and fired the weapons in each of her hands, blasting them away.
All that remained in the courtyard were a few remaining scattered groups, each of them readying their weapons as they waited for a more optimal moment to strike together. The route to the main tower was now open and clear with none of the remaining henchmen in any position to stop her, but at this rate, she didn't really care. Whether it was the formulas giving her a sense of intoxication yet again or just the feeling of letting loose once in a while didn't matter. She was having too much fun with this, especially now that real lives, particularly her own, were no longer at risk. All of the violence, none of the risks.
Those that remained in the courtyard were left to stare in silent horror as the seemingly golden eyes of the forgotten devil pierced through the darkness, a wide grin on her face as she decided her next victim…
The minutes passed as the courtyard was turned into Tanya's personal hellscape for any of the henchmen that remained standing. It wasn't long before Loid and Anya had completed their game at the top of the tower, returning down to witness Tanya having way too much fun subjecting WISE agents to what could only be compared to a battlefield.
Several resignations were filled in the following days at WISE, leading to another round of questioning for poor Loid on what the hell happened. Suffice it to say, he wasn't allowed to run such a scene again, and his allocated budget was reduced.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Being the Director of WISE was no minor position. Just having it painted a massive target on Elya's back, even despite how much effort was put into keeping her identity a secret. She was a woman who lived in the shadows, ruling them like they were her own personal kingdom, an empire for her to control and command at will. WISE was officially operating solely in Ostania, however, that was a coverup for its true scale, an intelligence network spanning most of Europa and even bits and pieces of other continents. Even despite that, Ostania remained the one place where the shadows weren't ruled by her. No, the shadows were a battlefield, not unlike the Rhine front she once served on decades ago, at least in a metaphorical sense. The battles had merely changed from screaming men and flying bullets to blackmailing men and singing assassinations.
Three factions ruled the shadows of Ostania, at least as far as she knew, and she knew a lot. The first was WISE, her own organization. The second was Ostania itself, through its various organizations but most notably the SSS, their secret police, and their current main rival. Though if some leads were to be believed, SNAKE may even still be sticking its head around too, even if its actual connection to the Ostanian Government was heavily debated.
The last and the most significant to the Director at this moment was the resistance organization 'Shovel.' They had been a power that WISE had largely let be for the most part, given that they conflicted little. Cooperation would occur from time to time as situations called for, however, it had never been in Westalis' interest to aid them further. WISE and Shovel had two different goals. WISE wished to maintain peace between east and west at all costs. Westalis, and WISE by extension, had no intent to try and subversively push the idea of revolt, let alone unification, in Ostania. Doing so would only start a war if it was discovered. As such, WISE hid in the shadows, taking out those who wished to start that war.
Shovel's ambitions, however, were to do away with the Ostanian government entirely. While unification did not seem to be their primary goal, rather a likely byproduct of it, their main ambition was to 'liberate' Ostania from tyrannical oppression. While the Ostanian government had thawed in the last decade or so, it was still a very corrupt and tyrannical place to live under. Its democratic government was flawed at best, and outright fake at worst, as the government was little more than a facade for Ostania's oldest and richest families to continue their reign, albeit through unofficial elections instead of public oligarchies. Shovel was aware of this, and sought to remove it entirely. It seemed they cared little if the result was a unified Germania or simply a democratic Ostania, they just wanted the current government removed.
WISE has more or less always seen them as being morally right. While ultimately a keen potential ally should things with Ostania turn south, the fact has always remained that any form of significant help to Shovel, if discovered, would likely lead to the start of yet another East-West War. As such, Shovel has been left on its own. Still, the fact it had continued onto this day was impressive.
Just a mere decade ago, the organization had been a loose network of weak resistance groups, scattered by wave after wave of SSS crackdowns that left their leaders imprisoned. The flaw of their past leaders was that they still had civilian lives they clung onto, giving them moments of weakness that enabled Ostania to execute them like chickens. The leader of Shovel was above that. She had no civilian life, not anymore at least. She was more than invisible. Legally, she was dead. It was a better cover than even Elya could hope to make, however, she knew better than to call any of it intentional.
It was this leader that she had arrived to meet. In the midst of Ostania, the two people the SSS feared the most would meet right under their noses. While under normal circumstances, one might consider this a foreshadowing of a grander war, the truth is this affair was far more personal than the petty politics of the nations themselves. Even leaders are still people.
It didn't take long for Elya to find her way to the compound through a series of encrypted messages and hidden middlemen. The entire facility Shovel operated out of was deep underground, with the actual complex being surrounded by a labyrinth made to narrow attackers into easily defendable chokepoints. It was apparently originally some bunker a paranoid official built after the possibility of nuclear war became evident. It had since been repurposed and expanded for the organization's intent, and thus to this day no undercover SSS member had ever left the place alive, not that the SSS likely even knew where it was to begin with.
Soon she would be brought to a large room, several monitors elevated above a control panel and keyboard below. It seemed that Shovel had some advanced and expensive tech on their side, clearly having been blessed with generous sponsors for their cause. The tech seemed to rival even WISE's own various bases and headquarters, though it was visibly a lot more rugged and less neat looking than WISE's standard. Good enough to get the job done, considering their humble origins.
A few of the monitors were lit up, but Elya paid no mind to them, instead sitting down at one end of a short table in the center of the room. Everyone else in the room had left, likely hearing of the impending meeting.
A few moments later, a lone woman entered the room. Her hair was brown with strands of silver, a clear sign of her aging, even if slowed by her clearly excessive mana. Those with more mana in their blood could theoretically live longer, their aging slowed by the sheer power of magic, so long as they weren't killed in a war first. This woman had been among the best mages in the world, it didn't surprise Elya to see that she hadn't aged a day since they last spoke years ago.
The most notable feature on the woman's face was a massive scar going down and blinding her right eye, the color of the iris noticeably grayed out because of it. The rest of her appearance could be considered… 'nostalgic' in a way, at least that was the nicer way of looking at it. The outfit, or rather uniform, was that of an Imperial soldier from back in the Great War. She had been a war veteran after all, it wasn't surprising. Around her neck was a rectangular Computation Jewel, a Type 97 from the Great War, although Elya knew personally that it had been upgraded to meet modern standards while preserving all of the memory stored within it. An expensive thing to do, considering it was usually cheaper to just manufacture a new one.
Two weapons hung at her belt, a single luger pistol and a shovel. Most would assume a shovel to be a simple gardening tool, maybe a construction tool for finer details, yet it appeared Visha had taken its supposed utility as a weapon to heart, and insisted on wielding her sharpened shovel everywhere she went. Elya had never seen her seriously use it, but she had heard she was surprisingly effective with it. To call it a weapon in her hands would be a dramatic understatement, as it had supposedly slain dozens during the Great War alone and even more once she went underground.
The woman sat down across from Elya, a faint smile on her face, though there were obvious signs of the stress that came from leading the single largest resistance organization in all of Europa. Not that she didn't have similar.
"Been a while Elya, it's not often you come to visit," The woman muttered, placing two cups of coffee on the table for the two of them to drink.
Elya wasn't sure why her go-to was always coffee, but a drink was a drink, and the woman at least made it well. "I've got to make up for all the lost time I missed out on before you became this big-shot resistance organizer, Viktoriya. Sorry again that I wasn't able to keep up with you after east and west were split. I was busy trying to secure my then exploding career as a spy."
Viktoriya sighed, swirling the coffee mug around as she spoke, "It's fine, though I would've liked to have seen you at my wedding at least. I tried to invite as many people I knew from the Great War as possible."
Elya sighed and shrugged, "Sorry again, as I believe I've told you before, I was completely cut off from the outside world before and after that. By the time I was able to hear from you again, it was after well… you know…"
"I understand, I know that we don't meet much, but we don't need to keep repeating ourselves. The Second East-West War is over, my husband is dead, and now I have to try and make sure Ostania still has a future tomorrow. It's all exhausting… I wish I could take a vacation, but I can't risk being vulnerable for so long. For all I know, Ostania knows exactly who I am and is just waiting to strike."
Elya scratched her chin briefly before asking, "You just go by Serebryakov, yes? I'm surprised your husband chose your name over his, usually it's the other way around. You must have quite a way with men."
"He didn't. I adopted his name before he died but stopped using both my first and last names to help hide my identity after I faked my own death. Now I just go by Serebryakov. You'd be surprised how many Serebryakovs there are in the eastern countries."
Elya groaned, "Tell me about it, I keep hearing of some 'Serebryakov' doing something in some random country every month and get confused. There aren't that many of you, but there's certainly more than I thought regardless."
Viktoriya laughed briefly before sighing, her smile dropping as she appeared more serious. "You don't usually show up without a reason. While I enjoy our chats quite a bit, it's hard to enjoy your company when I know you're about to fill my life with more stress five minutes later. So let's just get this over with… What do you want from me?"
"What I want from you is your compliance. I'm going to tell you some top-secret WISE stuff, but I trust you enough to not spill it. I'm telling you in hopes that neither you nor your organization gets in our way," Elya explained, taking a sip of the brew.
"Fair enough, though it's rare for our organizations to even cross paths, but if you're asking for me to not get involved, something about it must interest us, then," Visha muttered, staring into Elya, who sat unfazed.
Elya slid a folder across the table. As Viktoriya picked it up and began to read through the contents, much of which was blacked out for obvious classification reasons, Elya explained, "Operation Strix. A critical intelligence-gathering operation on the upper crust of the nobility. One of our longer-term missions. We've situated an agent to play the father of a pretend family of civilians. He has enlisted two children into a school which we will use as a method to get into contact with the target. Once in his inner circle, we can learn more about his plans and ambitions. Though as for what I want you to not interfere with—"
Elya stopped as Viktoriya slammed the folder and her hand against the table, cracking it in the process. Elya sighed, she had known this was coming.
"There is… So much wrong with this photo…" Viktoria mumbled, arm shaking as it held the folder down, the folder being opened to where it showed a photo of the full family, including the children and mother.
"If you're upset about it, then it must be the Type 95… Nobody seems to know what it is if they didn't know Tanya personally, so I doubt anyone will do anything about it. However, as for how the child got it, we don't really know, and it's not worth risking Strix to investigate. I please ask that you don't go messing with the child that has the jewel, it's likely she doesn't know herself. Who knows, maybe there's another Type 95 somewhere in circulation… Perhaps Degurechaff had a spare…"
Viktoriya went silent. She didn't move, she didn't speak, for several minutes, giving even Elya some slight shivers. Instead, she stood there for a few moments before muttering, "If that's all, I kindly ask that you leave… I won't interfere with whatever this operation is, but I have my own matters to attend to now."
Elya nodded, leaving moments later, leaving Viktoriya alone in the room with the folder. She silently picked it up, closed it, and placed it on the console below all the monitors.
She then turned back to the table, staring down at it in silence for a few more seconds.
"GOD DAMNIT!"
Viktoriya kicked the table, flipping it up into the air until it slammed into the wall in front of her, shattering upon impact into splinters.
Viktoriya walked over to the wall, slamming her fist into the hard metal, making a noticeable dent as she kept slamming into it. "DAMNIT! DAMNIT! DAMNIT!"
Her hand was now shaking, although not from pain, instinctive magical reinforcement protected her from that. But rather, of memories long past.
"How… Why…" Viktoriya sighed, "No, I can't get mad at Elya, I doubt she knew anyway. It's an unfortunate coincidence, and one I'll deal with later. However, that child…"
Viktoriya walked back to the folder, grabbed it, and pulled out the family photo again.
"She looks too similar to be a coincidence. Elya probably didn't notice. She may have seen the Jewel's similarities, but she doesn't remember Tanya as vividly as I do… If I had seen that child without the Jewel, I may have been convinced to consider it a coincidence… But when you add the jewel…"
Viktoriya sighed and walked a few steps to her left to begin typing at the console, "I can't rely on this alone for information. I'm sorry, Elya, but I need to conduct my own investigation. I do hope you'll forgive my intrusion."
Viktoriya pressed a button on the console, causing a buzzer to go off in the next room over. A few seconds later a lady with a clipboard and a uniform rushed in. "What are your orders, Miss Serebryakov?" She asked, making a quick salute as she came in.
Viktoriya made a slight grin, "Find out everything we can on SNAKE, it appears that Shovel needs to do a bit of digging."
The woman blinked a few times and sighed, "Very well, Miss Serebryakov. But please… Don't say that again…"
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
This chapter has been sitting at like at least 60% done for months now. About a month or two ago I bumped that up to 80% done, and over the last few days I've finally gotten around to completing it. So yippee. Sorry if it's rough around the edges, I wrote parts of this entire months apart, so keep that in mind. On another note, along with this chapter is the new cover art made by my friend Rimupon who also makes the DailyDegurechaff blog on tumblr, check them out or I will find you.
Anyways, onto the basic stuffs. Discord invite link is ( /Ghn8qtkaFz ) or ( Ghn8qtkaFz ) if your fanfic website of choice chooses to break the link for some reason. You can apply to be a beta reader there which grants you early access to completed chapters in exchange for looking over them for grammar mistakes, possible rephrases, or giving suggestions on the story. Now below are the Beta Readers who read for this chapter:
Half_Baked_Cat - Doing Beta reading on his 34th birthday. Still got over half my life before SHOVELING off this mortal coil.
The_Lady_Lupine - Genuinely surprised Tanya didn't go all out Devil of the Rhine on them. She's learning to show mercy, good for her :D
U2Donyz - Tanya is about to permanently stunt her growth by drinking coffee
LuckCrusader - My first beta read! Yippee!
Yert - "The shovel is truly an implement born of civilization."
Arvedur - Must be fun living life like that.
Dr. Rx - Gotta DIG DIG DIG!
Fish Tank - Tanya finally gets to let loose a bit.