Care Not, Save Lots 5 - (Magical Girl Xover, Akumatized!SI)
I woke up... and it was in a beautiful garden.
My body felt light, almost floating as I pulled myself off the ground. Groggy but still able to push my eyes open, I found my mind dulled by a deep sense of calm and quiet. It was as if this very place, this little heaven of a garden filled with so many familiar flowers and more that I didn't, was actually blessing me with a sense of absolute quiet I never thought possible.
I felt my body tense up as a potential reason for this to be the case was-
"Am I dead?" I questioned this very reality, expecting some ethereal voice to answer this, but what I got was a bit more 'grounded' in reality.
"You're not, sir," A little girl's voice called from behind, prompting me to turn around and then look down at the source of it. "At least, not right now."
Long blonde hair, giddy red eyes and a pretty sleeveless green dress. The young girl I was looking had felt familiar to my eyes and mind, but my brain couldn't pick up where I saw her and... and I just couldn't make any major thoughts considering how dulled my mind was at the moment.
"W-Who are you?"
She tilted her head. "I am Alicia."
"...John."
"Nice to meet ya, Mr. John. How did you get here?"
I felt like... this was my line of questioning she was relying upon.
"I was... I think I kind of almost died," I replied, my brain sluggishly reporting the last few memories I had before falling asleep. And it was a ugly pair of frames to be reminded of. "I guess that's why I am here."
"Hmmm, dunno. Still, it's been a while since I met someone. It gets very sad here after so long."
"Is that... so?"
She nodded, and her smile waned a bit. "Yeah but... you're now here. Not for long, but at least you are here, Mr. John. Wanna play?"
As Alicia said that, I frowned as she crouched a moment to retrieve a plastic ball.
"I-"
"Pleaase~?"
...What's with that adorb face?!
"Fine, but you tell me a bit more about this place."
"Deal!" She squeaked and soon we were playing a game of catch. I wasn't hurling it too strongly, but the girl seemed to have a bit of a mean throw at times with the kind of power she put behind her hits.
I asked some simple questions, and most of those were answered as 'I don't know' or 'I think yes' or 'I think no'. Alicia was familiar that this place was her 'resting place', yet it was also not a true place as this wasn't heaven. When prodded more on this subject, she would turn her attention elsewhere and force me to drop it.
It was a strange experience, I guess it could go down my curriculum as 'near-death experience hallucination', but I couldn't help but find it far too real for it to be just a trick of my half-dead mind.
As the game went on for a while, my body started to feel more active, my mind felt more attentive and... I felt I was close to waking up. Alicia seemed to pick up on this too and... she huffed.
"Huh, I wanted to play some more."
I blinked over her clear sadness. "I can try to visit again-"
"You can't," The little blonde admitted with absolute confidence. "You... I don't mind it. You know, I had fun, Mr. John."
"I had fun too, Alicia," I muttered quietly. "But how do you know that-"
"I am not alive. I... I don't know why I am here. I only know that mom is doing something bad and..." She closed her eyes for a moment and I felt my world growing a bit brighter all around. "Mr. John, can I trust you with a promise?"
"...Do tell?"
"Mom is not someone I think can be rescued. She is... she is no longer a nice person. But I have a sister and- and she doesn't deserve this. Mr. John, can you please save her for me?"
I felt the ground giving way as I found myself falling into a sea of stars and planet. A trippy return to my body, but one that was filled by Alicia's voice during the descent.
Can you keep her safe? Can you shelter her from dangers? Can you make her smile and laugh? Can you play with her? Can you give her many hugs and tell her she will be alright? And... can you be her family when mom's gone?
I blinked, feeling moments away from waking up as everything went black right as I muttered two words.
"I promise."
I gasped for air, pulling myself up as I woke up in a bush and-
"JOOOHN!" Duusu slammed herself against my face, almost smacking it back on the ground with how intensely she flung herself at me. "You're alive!"
"I-I told you that he was alive, he just- just needed to wake up."
Nooroo tried to sound 'uppity', but he was close to tears too. I sighed offering him a look that gave him a green light to join Duusu with the face-hugging.
After that interesting 'good morning' from both Kwamis, I found myself taking note of our situation. It's been about six hours since we came here, and it was evening- almost night. This explained the unpleasant chilling air of the hour, and why we couldn't exactly linger in this place for too long.
Despite my far-from-peak condition, I opted it was time to get moving as Duusu and Nooroo explained to me what they found out while I was unconscious.
"We are in Japan," The Peacock Kwami giddily remarked. "And we have gone back in time. It's 2004. I saw it in a newspaper."
That was not exactly much reassuring. Since the events of Miraculous unfolded around 2014-2016, I would say that this was an odd jump in the 'past' as Duusu remarked but-
"We are not in the past," Nooroo argued quietly. "Using your Akuma ability together with our powers made you phase through time and space. We are not just in a different time, but a different dimension altogether."
"I am sorry for that," I apologized, and Nooroo sighed.
"You are not to blame. The situation was critical and you did what you thought would work if... well, you hadn't used our powers to bolster your Shift ability."
"Speaking of my abilities-"
"It's complicated," Duusu interrupted nervously. "You... know how Akuma butterflies are meant to last as long as Nooroo and his users want?"
"...Yes?" Why I am feeling like I am about to get given some heavy news.
"I can't remove it from you," The Butterfly Kwami confessed with some displeasure in his voice. "L-Like, I thought I could give you a normal life, but the damage you suffered forced the form to mix more with your body. You... you are stuck with the Akuma Angelus form."
"It's not bad-"
"You don't get it," Nooroo snapped, causing us all to pause as I looked at him, tears flooding out again. "I-I thought that after what happened with Gabriel I wouldn't have to- to leave someone in this situation. But then you- you ended up hurting yourself. You broke your body in a way that it almost killed you and- and I could-"
"No."
My single word silenced Nooroo as he bowed his head and... I reached out to pat it.
"No one... No one could have picked up this would happen. Still, I am not mad at you, Nooroo. I am not going to hurt you even if I was."
It didn't fully appease him as he returned in his Miraculous, his brooch safely hidden in one of my jacket's pockets, Duusu's own being on the same pocket, so these two could be close when they would sleep. Speaking of this, Duusu decided to go to sleep too since she felt tired too and... it was just me.
I had so much to think about and I knew I had to pull my own weight in finding us a place to safely sleep for the time being. At the very least, I could speak all languages due to my connection to the Miraculouses. I nodded slowly at this, mind brought back to that peculiar 'hallucination' and the promise I made to Alicia. Her name felt somewhat familiar but- I couldn't remember.
It felt like someone was messing with my mind or something, but it wouldn't take long for more clues over our whereabouts started to come to my attention. It was as I entered the Japanese city, surprised by the intriguing amount of cleanliness on the streets, that something came to me.
It felt like a 'pulse' of energy.
I thought for a moment the ground shook under my feet, but it was actually something that sent a signal so intense and sudden that it almost made me trip on myself. I couldn't tell what it was, but I could tell the general direction it came from.
I started to pick up my pace, knowing that this wasn't just a random occurrence worthy of my 'ignorance'. I had to know what was up. And as I moved in the general direction of this energy source, I found two entities at work.
The first one was the easiest to pick up on and it was a young girl with brown hair put in a pig-tails and... she was in a magical girl white outfit complete with magical staff and all the usual gadgetry. She looked very- no, extremely familiar. And it was right as I saw her soft purple eyes.
Takamachi 'White Devil' Nanoha. Well, in the future she would be known like that, but the titular MC of Lyrical Nanoha was right now in her lil' 'I am getting started in the business' phase. Panicked, confused, nervous, and trying to make sense of the strangely technology behind her device.
She seemed to rapidly get accustomed with Raising Heart, the staff that was the catalyst for her spells, and while that was good enough to face this first monster in the series... I could tell she was struggling against it. Nanoha was doing all the right things but- the other entity in this scene, the monster created by one of the twenty-one Jewel Seeds, was moving way faster than it should.
It dodged a few attempts of Nanoha to seal it away, and it was slamming with vehemence against her shield- something about that confrontation didn't feel right and, as I tried to make sense of it... I actually realized what the issue was: the Jewel Seeds concept wasn't fully planned in the series, but in-universe the level of threat ended up growing more due to the importance these crystals had in the plot.
Going by a mere theory on the topic, I have a feeling that all early monsters were getting retroactively boosted to fit with the narrative of those Jewel Seeds. And the kid was struggling a bit too much for my liking.
Nooroo and Duusu said I could transform but that it would take some time for me to be at 'peak capacity'. Right now I didn't have much of a choice on the matter and, with some unease, I shifted in my Angelus form.
Before the feral monster could slam itself onto Nanoha's shield, I rushed up and kicked it away, forcing it to slam against the nearest wall. There was a tiny moment of pause at that, and I turned to the girl, spotting her glance aimed at my face and then away out of unease.
"You alright?"
The brunette tensed up, blinked, but produced a nervous nod.
"Okay, I get it distracted enough so you have that sealing spell ready. You tell me and I get it flying so you can hit it easily. Got it?"
"Y-Yes."
Turning back to the monster, I saw it rushing towards me. It clearly noticed I was the 'least protected', so it expected to have an easy time with me. However, as its frontal attack shifted towards me, I sidestepped and started to beat the fuck out of that creature.
One thing that I have to praise over my form is that I am 'modern' both in physical skills and meta-awareness of some stereotypical mindless mobs. This creature could be scary to a lil' kid that is starting her path about magic, but with someone that fit as a 'mid-tier' street superhero, this battle was a piece of cake.
That didn't mean the beast wasn't being quite aggro with its attack, but its nature as a mindless and senseless monster limited its understanding of planning and actually see beyond a single opponent. And it was why this battle was already won.
"I-I am ready!"
"Got it!" I exclaimed back at Nanoha, dodging another attempt from the monster's claws and grabbing it. Soon I hurled the creature up in the air, right as a beam of pink energy slammed onto it.
The process of sealing was an absolute winning aspect as Nanoha safely contained the beast, shattered its form, and soon retrieved the gem. I walked up to her and, as expected, the girl was quite stiff.
"A-Are you a bad guy, mister?"
I blinked, then remembered my form wasn't exactly that 'good-guyish' and... I shrugged. "Used to be a baddie, currently doing good stuff. How about you?"
"Oh, I just... got started. I think," The little brunette admitted sheepishly. "S-Still, thank you for helping."
"None of that, you did a fine job yourself," I assured and... turned back to my regular form. "And this should help, yes?"
Her eyes widened a bit at my human form, and she nodded as she slowly returned to her regular form too.
"Y-Yeah."
"I am John."
"N-Nanoha. Nice to meet you, John-san."
I snorted and soon reached out to ruffle her hair. She squeaked, instantly pulling away and pouting.
"W-What was all that about, J-John-san?!"
"You look silly with that super shy and super sad look. Nanoha-chan, you just did a fine job in beating that scary monster and you look as if you lost."
"I-It's not that," She whined back, huffing at my words. "It's just... I almost messed up."
"First time and going by instinct, you forgot to remember that."
"That's-"
"Important. If you were clumsy, you would be a goner even before I came by. I can tell you that you would have gotten the monster yourself on your own," I assured strongly and... yawned as I realized it was indeed quite late. "Still, it's not a good hour to speak of serious stuff. You should get back home and sleep. Any big explanation can and should wait for tomorrow so... I'll be in touch."
"Okay," Nanoha replied with a nod as I started to walk away. "Good night, John-san."
I nodded back, waving behind as I kept on walking ."Night, Nanoha-chan."
Good news, I found out where we are and that was going to help big time with the next few months and years. Bad news... my bed for that night was a sturdy and cold metal bench on a nearby park, one that was soon leaving my body sore and stiff by the next morning.
AN
Former villainous minion becomes uncle to first-time Magical Girl. More on the news later on. The biggest question, however, is... who's getting the first hug? The lovable brunette, or the abused blonde?