48Power of Time
Chapter 04
I don't own Nanoha! If I did, the dub wouldn't have been as ghastly! .
Yuuno could still feel his ears ringing as he cautiously made his way up the stairs and into Nanoha's bedroom. It hadn't been that Momoko was loud when she had chewed him out for what had happened, but the raw vehemence in her tone had made him flinch back until he was propped against the back-rest of the chair. Oh, she had shouted but it was when her voice had lowered that he had felt more terrified than any other time in his life.
He could still remember the icy rage on her face when they had both trooped in the door with Nanoha cradling her arm. The break itself had healed on the walk home but the bruising up and down the arm was enough to let anyone know exactly what had happened.
The look on Momoko's face had turned his blood to icy sludge and made him tremble in fear. A magi he was but he had no desire to test himself against Momoko, even if he had been at full power.
Flashback
Momoko smiled slightly as she heard the front door open and the soft tone of her daughter speaking to Yuuno. Turning away from the book she was reading, Momoko beheld her daughter standing in the foyer of the house, cradling her arm and Yuuno looking sheepish.
Cold fury filled Momoko as she caught sight of the livid bruises ranging up and down her daughters arm as well as the blood-stains and the slight wince that flitted across her face as she stepped tentatively forward.
"Nanoha. Go to your room now" Momoko ordered, her voice quiet yet vibrating with repressed rage. Much in the way a steel cable slowly grows taunt and begins to vibrate as it's pulled tighter and tighter.
Nanoha was about to argue or speak up in Yuuno's defense when she caught sight of Momoko's eyes.
They almost glowed with fury with the normal peaceful cerulean orbs turned to a stormy blue as if they reflected the chaotic maelstrom within the woman.
"O-okay" Nanoha mumbled, head ducked. Quickly making her way up to her room, she hissed in pain as her arm bumped the wall.
"Hey squirt, what happened?"
Letting out a yelp of surprise and freezing, her eyes quickly tracked upwards to find Miyuki staring at her in a mix of worry and wry amusement.
"Oh...thus? I...um...went for a walk and banged it into a telephone pole" Nanoha lied, the evasion falling easily from her lips.
"Huh...must have been running to bruise it up that bad. Want to come into my room and I'll look at it?"
Nanoha smiled gratefully. Given that both Kyoya and Miyuki sparred daily in the small dojo behind the house, it was inevitable that one of them would pick up medical skills in order to deal with the more annoying injuries such as dislocated shoulders and even mild concussions.
"NANOHA TAKAMACHI, GET DOWN HERE NOW!"
Both Miyuki and Nanoha winced at the thunderous yell that boomed up to them and Nanoha went pale.
"Nice knowing you, squirt. I'll make sure to say something nice at your funeral."
Glaring at Miyuki's back as her sister vanished into her room with more haste than was the norm, Nanoha turned and made her way back down the stairs.
"What were you thinking, putting her in that kind of danger? Did it seem like a brilliant idea to you, to send my nine year old girl into danger against something that could kill her?"
Nanoha peeked into the room and saw Momoko towering over a cowering Yuuno, the ferret curled into the cushions of the chair.
Without even turning, Momoko snapped a hand towards Nanoha and pointed directly at her.
"Get in here, now."
Gulping, Nanoha inched her way in whilst trying to delay the inevitable.
"Nanoha, Yuuno here tells me that you faced off against a monster this afternoon. Is that right?"
Nanoha froze at her mothers tone, her blood turning to sludge and her neurons slowing to a crawl. It wasn't an angry voice or even a calm voice.
It was a deceptively happy voice, by far the worst thing any mother can resort to.
"Um...yes."
Momoko frowned harshly at Nanoha.
"And why on earth did you think it was your job to deal with it, Nanoha?"
Taking a deep breath, Nanoha steeled herself.
"Because...I'm the only one who can. Yuuno is too weak and the police couldn't have done anything. And if the Government was called in, we'd be exposed."
Momoko wanted to be furious with Nanoha, to rant and rave and to hug and console her daughter. But she also understood Nanoha, far more than she would have liked.
"I see..." Momoko murmured and stared at Nanoha.
"I'm sorry mom but...it was the right thing to do, wasn't it? If I didn't confront it and beat it, more could have been hurt. And that goes against how we use our gift, doesn't it?"
Momoko's frown melted into an annoyed sigh but nodded.
"C-can I go now?" Nanoha asked, hopeful that nothing would reignite her mothers already short fuse.
"Yes, you can" Momoko answered, sitting down on a chair and massaging her temples.
"Alright. Come on Yuu..."
"He stays."
Nanoha blinked at the interruption before glancing warily at her mother, only to see the angry glare now being directed at Yuuno.
"I want to yell at him some more" Momoko explained.
Shooting Yuuno an apologetic glance, Nanoha quickly scurried out of the room with Momoko's shouts snapping at her heels.
End Flashback
Yuuno sighed in relief that he had escaped with only his ears ringing. Momoko had looked livid enough to hurt him. Crawling up the last of the stairs, Yuuno paused. Something odd had just touched upon his senses, like a soft breeze filled with the smell of something. Carefully proceeding down the hallway and casting about with his senses, Yuuno felt the air thickening with power as he made his way down the hallway and stopped at Nanoha's room. Lightly pushing the door open, Yuuno blanched.
The room was filled with power, pulsing with it. More power than any one mortal could ever hope to contain. And Yuuno instantly knew that this was not Nanoha's doing, even though it was focused around her. It felt older, older than the very bones of the earth...older even than the stars that burned in the heavens.
Magic usually felt either good or evil. The soothing touch of magic designed to help and defend or even to attack when proper, or the slimy, malevolent feel of black magic which felt like week-old fat from a deep-fryer.
But this felt like neither. It was simply pure magic, untarnished by humans or their perceptions.
Wading through the veritable storm of sorcerous power, Yuuno hopped up on Nanoha's bed and glanced down at her.
She was tossing and turning with sweat slicking her hair back. Rivulets of cold sweat oozed down her face and it was obvious that Nanoha was in the grip of...something.
The magic that enveloped Yuuno seemed to tense and he knew that if he moved to wake her, it would descend upon him with a fury unmatched in all of Mid-Childa's legends.
Lying down beside her, Yuuno wished he could help Nanoha.
Meanwhile, Nanoha dreamed.
The sky was screaming in agony and rage as fire consumed it whilst casting a hellish glow across the earth.
Nanoha looked about in terror. The asphalt around her glowed a cherry red and puddles of molten metal oozed about sluggishly as if in a crude imitation of lava. But even as she looked, her body began to float forwards as if pulled onwards by something.
As Nanoha glanced up though, something made her gape in astonishment.
An island floated in the sky, massive beyond reckoning and powerful beyond knowing. Defying the laws of physics and reality itself to hand there. As she floated on, her gaze flickered down and a scream escaped her.
The street gutters ran red with blood and corpses lay in the street. Blasted and scorched to the point of obscurity with their flesh charred black, they were locked in poses of agony and terror. Families huddled together, people trying to run away...it was as if Vesuvius had erupted once more except in Japan.
As she floated forwards and shuddered at the horror, Nanoha's eyes fell upon a tableau that stripped all horror from her and left her filled with shock.
She stood there...only different. Nanoha gazed at a doppelganger who stood ahead of her and glaring up at the floating island. Sheltered behind her lay a blonde, tresses matted with blood both her own and others.
"Talk to me Fate. Stay awake" the Dream-Nanoha ordered, clutching the smoke-stained Raising Heart before her in a guard position.
"Nanoha...I'm...I don't think I'll make it..."
The voice was quiet and soft, burbling with blood pooling in her lungs. Sanguine fluid trickles from both corners of her mouth but she looked oddly...happy.
"Don't talk like that Fate. You're going to make it out of this even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming" Nanoha replied.
"Nanoha...look at me..."
Turning slowly and kneeling, Nanoha gazed at Fate desperately.
"We both know...I'm not going to make it. You were my first...best friend" Fate whispered, her arms and legs rapidly growing icy-cold.
Tears trickled from Nanoha's eyes and she shook her head fiercely.
"Nanoha...I...love...you..."
The last four words escaped Fate in a tiny whisper as if she was already whispering from beyond the veil of death.
"Fate?" Nanoha asked quietly, praying that it was just a sick joke. "Wake up Fate, come on. We need to take down your mom and get you to Lindy."
Only silence and the snarling of the sky answered her.
"Come on Fate. Wake up Fate! FATE!"
"Stupid child."
The chilling denouncement filled the city and seemed to quell the nuclear fires consuming the sky for but a moment.
Nanoha felt tears trickle off her nose and splatter on Fate's face.
"That was the first time anybody has ever cried on you, isn't it Fate?" Nanoha asked quietly, ignoring the voice.
Reaching forward and gently closing Fate's eyes, Nanoha slowly rose. Meters away and in a crater, Yuuno and Arf lay dead, scorched black. They had fought, first against each other and then against the arcane assaults from the Garden. But both had fallen, their bodies burned beyond recognition.
"You fought till the end Yuuno. You were glorious...a true sorcerer."
Closing her eyes and allowing all the emotions she had been holding back to rampage through-out her, Nanoha glared up into the sky and her lips curled into a snarl of rage.
"Precia, I am going to send you screaming into oblivion."
The statement wasn't screamed in some misguided attempt to somehow gain strength nor was it said calmly. Nanoha's voice broke and trembled with each word but each consonant had the ring not of truth...but of prophecy.
Precia sneered down at the girl and lazily whirled her own Intelligent Device about.
"I whipped Fate with this. She was a worthless doll, so easily discarded. And now, so are you."
Leveling her device at Nanoha, Precia spoke one word and tapped into the Garden of Time's own power to annihilate the annoying little brat.
"Die."
A beam of magic ten yards in diameter screamed down towards Nanoha, black lightning snapping around it angrily whilst the sanguine-colored beam made the fabric of reality itself around it shudder.
Watching smugly as it hit and detonated in a small fission reaction, Precia nodded. Every inch of the blasted and molten city was slagged in a heart-beat with shockwaves turning everything else to powder.
"I won't die, Precia. I will make sure you die first!"
Spinning around and staring in both fear and anger at where the beam had struck, Precia saw the shield before the mage. Dim and shattered in places from the assault, it had managed to protect both Nanoha and Fate.
Nanoha discarded the shield and clutched Raising Heart tight. Wings exploded from her back, both a brilliant azure as if lit from within by a raging firestorm.
Nanoha flapped them once and shot towards Precia.
Fury screamed within her whilst grief consumed her.
Precia snarled and sent bolt after bolt of insidious magic at Nanoha only for the young girl to bat them away carelessly.
A single thought kept Nanoha on track.
Magic feeds your emotions and your emotions feed your magic. That's how you can keep fighting even after everything seems lost.
Nanoha had turned the process into an infinite loop.
With every micro-second that passed, her magic doubled and quadrupled her fury until she was howling in rage. And with every micro-second that elapsed, her grief was magnified four-fold until tears gushed from her eyes.
Precia could feel the power building within the child. More than enough to vaporize her, the Garden and far more.
"I will have my daughter back! You won't stop me!" Precia screamed and directed every ounce of power into the last assault, drawing as deeply as possible upon the Garden until her own flesh began to smoke and blacken with the power being drawn in.
And she unleashed it...a moment too late.
Nanoha crossed the last kilometer in the time it takes for a mortal heart to beat once and with a howl of both transcendent anger and soul-rending grief, ploughed into Precia.
Observer-Nanoha could only watch in terror as she watched herself collide with Precia and detonate. The fission explosion had simply passed right through her like a breeze.
This explosion felt like being hit by a train.
For just an instant, Nanoha caught sight of a roiling sphere of nuclear fury exploding outwards at the speed of light, a new star screaming into existence as it rendered every scrap of matter down to its base atoms.
A moment passed...and the Earth was consumed as a new star flared into existence the size of Earth.
Observer-Nanoha floated in the core of the star, sobbing. What she had seen was enough to almost shatter her completely.
"Nanoha..."
Whimpering at the sound of her name and looking about, she could see nothing. Only the endless fusion reactions taking place around her.
"These events should not have come to pass. There are greater things waiting for you than this end. It is up to you to change the future."
And with that, Nanoha woke.
"Nanoha! Nanoha!"
Momoko was hovering over her child, hands gripping her daughters shoulders. Kyoya, Shiro and Miyuki lurked outside the door, looking on in fear.
Yuuno had fetched Momoko when Nanoha had started to thrash and mewl in her bed and had been relegated to the box by Nanoha's bed.
Eyes fluttering open, Nanoha stared at Momoko. The stench of roasted human flesh and blood still filled her nose and mouth and with no explanation, she bolted from the bed and into the bathroom. Seconds later and the sounds of Nanoha vomiting into the toilet bowl filled the room.
"You three go back to bed. I'll talk to Nanoha" Momoko stated and quickly cut off their rebellious protests. "I'm serious. I need to talk to her and she's embarassed right now."
Nodding grumpily and trooping back to bed, they didn't hear Momoko talking to Yuuno.
"What happened Yuuno?"
Pausing to formulate an answer that wouldn't get him kicked out, he decided on the truth.
"When I came upstairs, I felt something odd. I thought it was just Nanoha playing with her magic like most young kids do. Like I still do. When I opened her door, I could feel something powerful. Far more potent than Nanoha. It reeked of magic and power, of pure sorcery and thaumaturgy. It was focused around Nanoha but when I climbed up on her bed to check on her, I could feel it watching me. And if I tried to wake her, I knew it would simply annihilate me."
Momoko frowned at Yuuno.
"This all seems a bit coincidental. Nanoha pushes herself too much, get's hurt..."
At that, Momoko leveled a look at Yuuno who had the decency to duck his head.
"and now has a dream this disturbing. I think she dreamt of the future. And it must have been terrible."
Yuuno frowned but nodded. Precognition he could buy into easily enough but long-range scrying like that was impossible.
Wasn't it?
Nanoha shuddered quietly as she clutched desperately at a warm mug. Sipping it tremulously and closing her eyes to fight back a wave of nausea, she whimpered as Momoko sat down opposite her.
"Nanoha...tell me what you saw. You can't keep it inside."
Shuddering, Nanoha met Momoko's eyes and glanced away.
"I saw...so much death. Everyone except me was dead. Tokyo was burning to the ground and..."
Nanoha trailed off before sighing.
"And then...I saw myself die in the dream" Nanoha finished, omitting the part about the blonde girl that her doppelganger had stood over. It wasn't that she didn't trust or love Momoko, but it was the fact that what had transpired had been private, had been far too close to her heart to share so soon.
Momoko nodded and looked down.
"Each of us experiences a dream like that. It shows us what could happen if we let our power control us. Nanoha, we could be rich beyond imagining. We could change the economy of every country with our gift. But if we did..."
"Then we would be feared and hated. And they would try to wipe us out. And when we tried to fight back, it would only get worse" Nanoha finished, having heard the same proverb time and again.
But the dream had felt different, the impressions far too poignant to just write it off as a warning. She had felt the shockwaves and the power that had been unleashed, the raging heat of a new star snarling into existence. Even now, an hour after the dream had passed from her mind and into memory, Nanoha could still feel her skin glowing as if with terrible sunburn yet when she looked down, only her pale pink skin greeted her eyes.
Nodding tiredly, Nanoha felt her head slump a fraction of an inch before she glanced at Momoko.
"Can I go back to bed? It's way too early and I feel better now."
Frowning at the apparent ease with which Nanoha shrugged off the dream, Momoko nodded her consent. Watching Nanoha rise and return to her room, Momoko knew that she wouldn't be able to return to the blissful embrace of Morpheus.
She's too young to have been cursed with this Momoko thought quietly as she rose to pour herself a mug of soothing green tea. Yuuno awakening my little Nanoha's powers must have accelerated the awakening of her powers. Most of our clan don't receive visions until we pass our thirtieth birthday.
Sipping the tea and leaning against the counter, Momoko stared into the depths of the mug as if seeking advice.
But only rarely have we received an apocalyptic vision of this magnitude. The last was in Nagasaki and that was seventy years ago yet if what Nanoha telling me is true then it will dwarf that outcome a hundred fold.
Taking a slow sip of the calming fluid, Momoko smiled faintly.
Nanoha is going to outstrip everything we've learned in the last two millennia by the time she finishes puberty.
Drawing out a pair of cards she kept on her constantly, Momoko set down the empty mug and began to shuffle them idly whilst clearing her mind of any extraneous thoughts or emotions.
Drawing the first card and laying it down, Momoko narrowed her eyes.
The Dragon. Something of immense power is here. Could it be Nanoha, this woman who destroyed Tokyo or someone else?
Laying the next card, Momoko frowned faintly.
The Shadow. Either something is being obscured or it relates to the first card, implying an evil presence.
With three cards to go, Momoko found herself nervous, dreading the reveal of the next card. The hand so far had been potent and troubling in the extreme.
Drawing the third card and laying it down, Momoko blinked in surprise and some consternation.
The love card. Depicted are two hearts connected by two threads or ribbons. Does this mean that Nanoha will fall in love with someone?
The Love card was rarely drawn and when it was revealed, it was the most mysterious and wrongly-interpreted card of them all. Everyone sought a meaning from it that suited them. The love card though represented true love though it didn't specify if it meant romantic, familial or religious.
Drawing the pen-ultimate card and laying it down next to the love card, Momoko pursed her lips.
The Cracked Mirror. Something lies broken and only reflects a distorted simulacrum of an individual. Will Nanoha have to repair it?
Finally drawing the fifth card, Momoko could feel the shadows in the kitchen lengthening as if trying to catch her or the card. Momoko could feel the air thicken like cold blood around her and the card itself seemed to wiggle in her hand.
Impossible! The Warp Card is never drawn when the Love card is on the table!
The Warp Card had been designed to illustrate a time of absolute chaos, carnage and destruction. But it had a second meaning that few were aware of even within the family. It also signified pure sorcery, the kind man was never meant to wield or even know of.
Slipping the cards away quickly and shuffling them, Momoko began to flip through them.
What the hell? Where's The Warp card?
Feeling an icy sluice of fear run down her spine, Momoko took a shuddering breath before slipping the cards back into her pocket.
There are forces at work here that haven't stirred in eons.
Nanoha yawned slowly as she trudged down the stairs, eyes bloodshot and gait clumsy.
"Still tired, Nanoha?" Yuuno murmured, head pillowed on the collar of her shirt and taking advantage of the heat she put out.
Turning her head slightly to give Yuuno a baleful glare that communicated that she was indeed still tired and it had been a stupid question, she kept trudging down the stairs and into the living room.
"Good morning Nanoha!"
At her mothers greeting, Nanoha barely managed a grunt of hello before collapsing into a chair at the table and sprawling on the wooden table-top.
"Aren't we loquacious this morning" Momoko murmured and ruffled Nanoha's hair. But what worried her more than the disheveled state was the fact Nanoha didn't complain as she usually did. All she did was bat ineffectually at the hand before giving it up as a lost cause.
"That's it. You aren't going to school today. Now eat and go back to bed" Momoko commanded, switching from the lovely mother persona to the clan matriarch persona in the blink of an eye.
"Yes ma'am" Nanoha mumbled and quickly reached for a few pieces of buttered toast and some warm bacon left over from her siblings and father breaking their fast.
"Now, I'll be at the shop today Nanoha so I'll let you sleep here. But after you're up, I'd like you to come to the shop so I can watch over you."
Blinking, Nanoha raised her head and stared at her mom questioningly.
"I drew the cards last night Nanoha. And…I'm not entirely convinced your dream was just a warning. I drew the Dragon and Warp cards."
Sucking in a breath and coughing as some crumbs went down the wrong way, Nanoha shivered as the air seemed to grow colder at the mention of the latter card.
"The Warp card? But…"
"I know, Nanoha. Don't speak of it" Momoko cautioned before smiling at Nanoha. "I've taught you well though."
Blushing faintly at the praise, Nanoha let out a burp and turned and even darker red, ducking her head as both Yuuno and Momoko snickered quietly.
"I'm off, Nanoha. I'll lock the door behind me so go straight to bed" Momoko ordered and quickly grabbed her hand-bag. Depositing a quick kiss on Nanoha's head and a firm look to Yuuno, she swept out the door with the click of the lock the only sound filling the house.
"Your mother is an…interesting woman" Yuuno stated, his spine still cold from the look she had given him.
"That's one way to put it" Nanoha murmured, a smile on her face.
"What's this Warp card that you and your mother are so worried about?"
Swallowing a mouthful of delicious bacon and toast, Nanoha pondered how best to proceed.
"The Warp card signifies violent change and sorcery so profound as to be beyond the ken of mortals" Nanoha explained.
"That wasn't much of an explanation" Yuuno replied, his curiosity now aroused at the concept of something new to learn.
"Alright. To warp something is to change it, but often in a violent manner. Sort of like how heat can warp plastic. This card therefore means that with the change coming, there will be a lot of violence, and the change itself will be sudden and violent. With the Dragon card preceding it, it means that the change will be massive and so will the violence. With the dual meaning of potent sorcery, it means that this change will be effected via magic and not normal means" Nanoha stated, extrapolating further on the subject than her mother would have liked.
But Nanoha had made herself a promise when her powers had been awakened.
I will push my powers to the edge and beyond it, not let my family…my blood stagnate. I will learn everything I can and push the Takamachi clan beyond the dreams of our progenitor.
It was a promise made in the heat of the moment, when magic had first screamed through her and ignited every sense, engulfed every nerve with her birthright.
But Nanoha was determined to keep it and had reaffirmed that promise to herself after the battle had concluded and the power high had left her.
Nodding, Yuuno closed his eyes.
"Your magic is so weird."
This drew forth a snicker and Nanoha shrugged, disturbing Yuuno an inch or so.
"Maybe so, but to me, your magic is strange. How do you manage to deal with not knowing the future?"
Yuuno frowned at that and ruffled his fur.
"Nanoha…I have to tell you something."
Gulping at the serious tone that Yuuno was using, Nanoha stood and began to make her way up to her room.
"I belong to a society galaxies away. And your talent is almost unheard of in most of the known galaxy. So I have to urge you to be very cautious when they come here to investigate."
"Investigate what?" Nanoha asked, through the growing pool of ice in her stomach told her she already knew.
"They've probably already detected your magical expenditure and classed you as a being needing risk assessment. They've probably also detected the reality fluctuations caused by the Jewel Seeds."
Nanoha sighed and entered her room. Collapsing onto her bed and staring at the ceiling, she found that all desire for sleep had vanished.
"Will I have to fight them too?"
Yuuno frowned, the question having been troubling him for a good long while now.
"I…advise against it. Quite likely they've dispatched a Destroyer-Class ship with a full compliment of crew. Just keep any use of your precognition or card reading to a very low level. You can probably pass it off as luck or instinct."
Nanoha closed her eyes and groaned.
"I hate having to suppress my talents around those who refuse to understand."
Yuuno shrugged and nestled in to the combination of blanket and pyjama top.
"It's suppress them or have them take advantage of you and never be free again" Yuuno remarked quietly.
Nodding, Nanoha allowed the warmth of the recently-vacated and even more recently occupied bed to soothe her to sleep.
Nanoha slowly awoke some four hours with a rumbling stomach and with no trace of her earlier tiredness. Glancing about the room after checking to see if Yuuno had moved during the nap, Nanoha's gaze fell on Yuuno who was lying on her desk and apparently absorbed in one of the encyclopedias Nanoha kept in her room.
Rising silently and padding out of the room, Nanoha quickly grabbed the camera from where it had been charging in her parents room and snuck back. Creeping in with a devilish grin, Nanoha quickly took a snapshot of Yuuno.
At the sound of the camera clicking, Yuuno leapt off the desk and went flying to land on Nanoha's bed with a thump that betrayed his small size.
"Nanoha! What are you doing?"
"Taking a picture" Nanoha replied slowly as if talking to a small child.
The irony of her being a small child herself completely escaped her.
Letting out a huff of annoyance, he squeaked as Nanoha began to undress from her pajamas.
"W-what are you doing?"
Blinking, Nanoha swiveled her head to stare at Yuuno in puzzlement.
"Getting changed. What's the big deal, you're not a human."
As the silence stretched after the last statement from Nanoha, Yuuno let out an awkward cough and glanced away guiltily.
Feeling her eyebrow twitch, Nanoha glared.
"Yuuno, you have three seconds to get out or I launch you out. After I shut the door" Nanoha stated.
A second passed and Yuuno had vacated the room, careening off the far wall to speed along the hall.
"Perverted ferret-boy" Nanoha muttered before continuing to change.
Yuuno could feel himself sweating bullets as he waited for Nanoha to come down the stairs. He was more afraid of Nanoha telling Momoko than of any vengeance Nanoha could possibly wreak. It was something instinctual within him, to fear women larger and angrier than himself.
Seeing Nanoha descend the stares and frown at him, Yuuno made his way over and looked up at her hopefully with the expression of a whipped dog.
"Oh fine."
Nanoha sighed and extended her arm for Yuuno to leap up on to. The moment he had landed and scurried up to her shoulder, Nanoha quickly made her way out of the house after making sure to lock it behind her.
"Where are we going? I haven't felt any Jewel Seeds" Yuuno inquired quietly with his head positioned close to Nanoha's neck so he didn't have to speak above a whisper.
"Midori-ya, it's a café my mom and dad own" Nanoha explained, her feet easily treading the same path she had followed for years.
"Will there be cake?" Yuuno asked, eyes glinting with childish hunger.
"Enough cake to make you explode and then some" Nanoha confirmed, a small smile tugging her pout away.
Entering the store and greeting the other people working with a smile and nod, Nanoha quickly headed into the kitchen and smiled at Momoko.
"Sleep well, Nanoha?"
Nodding happily and eying Yuuno, she grinned.
"Yuuno even promised to teach me more about you-know-what if I slept well" she stated, grinning broadly and with a reasonable facsimile of innocence.
Yuuno twitched but remained silent.
I hate getting blackmailed.
"That's good. We've going to get the after-school rush in a few hours so you had better help me" Momoko stated, grinning at Nanoha and eying Yuuno.
Quickly grabbing her apron off one of the hooks and tying it on, Nanoha grabbed Yuuno and placed him down gently by the oven so the warmth would keep him from freezing on the icy ceramic floor.
Nodding gratefully to Nanoha, Yuuno curled up to watch the two at work.
Retrieving one of the large mixing bowls from the stainless steel bench on the far side of the kitchen, Nanoha began to mix ingredients for a basic sponge with an ease born from endless practice.
Hours passed and Nanoha easily lost herself in the soothing act of baking cakes and all kinds of delicacies for paying customers. It was not amazingly exciting like learning magic or being able to consume said sweets but this was soothing and calming. There was no rush, no chance of the outcome being different if you followed the recipe exactly.
And all the while, Momoko talked with Yuuno over by the ovens.
"How is she holding up?"
Yuuno paused to consider the reply that would earn him, if not the love from Momoko then at least a reply that wouldn't earn him a glare.
"She is an incredible student. A prodigy one might say, especially given she has only been exposed to her awakened powers for under a week."
Momoko smiled softly as she crouched down to peer into the oven, losing herself in the heat permeating the steel door and glass window.
"She's always been smart, always been hungry to know more about our history and powers. Unfortunately, we lost a lot during the Dark Ages. It didn't hit Japan as hard as it did Europe, but we still lost texts dating back to Babylon."
Yuuno didn't know what the Dark Ages were, Babylon or Europe but he was determined to find out at a later date.
"She's incredibly powerful. Even now she could probably hold her own against a lot of the soldiers my culture has" Yuuno murmured, deliberately avoiding any mention of another planet.
"Do you think it will come to that?" Momoko asked, some sadness creeping into her tone at the thought of Nanoha having to fight and even having to kill.
"Her powers would be a boon to my culture. Precognition and prophetic dreams are practically unheard of except in legends and old stories."
Momoko nodded and smiled grimly.
"It's the same here, only a lot worse. Most don't believe in magic and those who do are usually new-age hippies with no respect for the powers they toy with."
Yuuno laughed softly in agreement.
"Please look after her, Yuuno. She's going deeper into sorcery...into magic than any of our ancestors even dreamed possible. How advanced is her precognition?"
Yuuno looked into the oven and prepared a response.
"From what I can see, it varies. In the heat of combat, no more than one or two seconds. Which makes sense according to what I've read on the subject. When out of it...anywhere up to a minute, but even that can be obscenely vague."
"What you've read of it? Do share" Momoko requested, burning with the same curiosity that filled her daughter.
"The further into the future you see, the more you need to seperate possible outcomes from the true path time will take. And the sooner you take action, the more the disruptions. Take the cake for example. If you get it out now to cool, it won't be fully cooked but you can serve it sooner. But people may get sick. But if you get it out when its fully cooked and risen, you will have a much better cake. Some may complain a bit about it being warm, but it trumps people getting sick."
Momoko turned an eye on Yuuno and smiled softly.
"You really are quite smart, aren't you?"
Blushing at the praise, Yuuno ducked his head.
"I just read a lot is all. Not much else to do except digging when I was out on an archaeology expedition, and I was too young to do anything massive."
Grinning at that, Momoko nodded.
"When I was first learning the ins and outs of reading the cards, I had to do a lot of reading to. But Nanoha…she picks up on concepts almost faster than I can teach them to her. She will make our clan great once more. Maybe not here but…"
At that, Momoko trailed off and a comfortable silence fell between ferret-magus and mother.
Nanoha wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and sighed in relief as the last cake went into the oven. The clang of the door closing was treated with as much reverence as one treats a school bell and the second the oven was shut, Nanoha stripped off her apron and hung it up.
"Alright, I guess you can stop know" Momoko stated dryly and laughed at the guilty expression on Nanoha's face.
"Sorry" Nanoha mumbled, straightening up the apron and brushing off a few clumps of flour.
"It's fine. I imagine baking wasn't what you had in mind when I said you could have a day off school, huh?" Momoko asked and grinned at the blush Nanoha had.
"Anyway, I guess you can head home. You've worked hard" Momoko stated, relenting on her daughter and getting a smile from her.
Nodding, Nanoha gestured to Yuuno and watched him all but waddle towards her.
"That's what you get for being a pig" Nanoha informed him primly, discreetly wiping away a piece of frosting from her own nose before Yuuno could see it.
"But it was so yummy" Yuuno whined in reply, leaping on to Nanoha's arm and landing with a plop. Scrabbling up to her shoulder and nestling there, he yawned.
"Lazy ferret" she grumbled and with a nod to Momoko, left.
"It's weird there haven't been any Jewel Seeds activating lately" Nanoha mused quietly as they left the shop and began to make their way through the mercifully-thin crowd of school kids rushing to Midori-ya.
"I thought you'd know better than to tempt fate like that" Yuuno remarked idly and got a frown and a nod in reply, conceding the point.
"I felt something today when you were baking but it was very minor. No where near what a Jewel Seed can create" Yuuno admitted and shuffled around a bit at the curious expression from Nanoha.
"Do you know what it was?"
"Felt like a bit of healing magic really. Was very soft and soothing. Didn't last very long though, maybe half a second. Probably just someone with a little bit of talent" Yuuno stated.
A moment later and the world exploded into screams and flying cement.
Nanoha had felt…something approaching. Like standing by the train tracks with your eyes closed and ears plugged. The air had hung heavy around her, stemming from the ether, as if she had been standing under the rock of Gibraltar or wearing a truly massive cloak.
Nanoha immediately reached for Raising Heart around her neck and willed it into action, the sphere of magic engulfing her within a second and shattering a moment later to reveal her in the usual battle garb, staff clutched tight in her right hand.
And it was just in time for merely a second after the garb had manifested, a massive green root slammed into her and sent her rocketing into the sky.
Yuuno barely had time to erect a field to slow his movement before he struck the side of a building and had it not been for the field which ripped the kinetic energy from his form, there would have only been a red streak.
Panting at the sudden rush of magic leaving him, Yuuno easily began to leap up the side of the building, utilizing small localized kinetic fields to halt and amplify his movement, mimicking zero gravity each time he stopped.
"Nanoha...don't die."
Nanoha felt as if her body had been replaced by an enormous bruise. Every inch of her body ached and throbbed in time with the beat of her heart whilst her vision was filled with nothing except blue and a few white streaks.
What...happened?
It began to trickle back to her. The massive impact from the street, the gigantic flash of green and the thunderous roar of shattering cement.
A kinetic field won't do any good here. I'm already starting to fall outside the city.
Slowly spinning in mid-air, Nanoha caught sight of the tree that had erupted out of the center of her city, buildings ripped in twain and streets sundered.
Raising Heart...I need to fly.
The gem in her staff shone with a soft red light, comforting her.
Request acknowledged. Activating Flight Protocol. Stand-by for instructions.
Brilliant blue wings exploded out of Nanoha's back, giving her wingspan of nearly twenty feet. Each feather was reminiscent of either steel or a royal blue, seeming to shift between hues from a grayish blue to almost purple depending on the angle of the light that struck them.
Commencing instruction download and adjustment of A-10 nerve cluster.
A lance of pain rammed itself through Nanoha's skull and a scream barely escaped from her as a whimper before it faded and left her skull throbbing with both the residual pain and new knowledge.
With an experimental flap of her new wings, Nanoha halted her upward movement and initiated a holding pattern above the city, wings keeping her stationary albeit wobbling somewhat in the air currents. Looking down, Nanoha could feel the stirrings of anger surging through her.
How dare this Jewel Seed do this to MY city?
Buildings had been ripped in twain with roads utterly annihilated; the roots which had done so leading back to an enormous tree in the middle of the town.
Nanoha glanced around the city with the aim of finding a building that was still standing. Finding one lurking on the edge of the roots range and zipping towards it, Nanoha focused on her precognitive abilities.
One of those root strikes will send me THROUGH a building. I need to be careful.
Alighting on the roof of the building and glancing around for Yuuno, a smile blossomed on her face when she caught sight of him at least ten buildings away, leaping cautiously between buildings every couple of minutes.
It was that which truly cemented in Nanoha's mind just how much more power she had at her disposal than Yuuno, and the vast gulf between their levels of control.
I have so much more power than Yuuno, but he's still able to leap between buildings with more accuracy and grace than I can manage.
So consumed in her thoughts was she, the sound of cracking concrete didn't register until it was too late.
Like an enormous wave, roots exploded into her field of vision and formed a massive cocoon around the top of the building, the roots woven so tight and accurately that not even a sliver of sunlight managed to penetrate the canopy.
And then the roots began to rush inwards, the sphere rapidly compressing whilst leaving no weak spot or gap for her to slip through.
Yuuno watched in shock and horror as the roots trapped Nanoha so perfectly. He had easily identified the introspective look on her face and had tried to shout out to her, to revert her attention back to the present but the sound of splintering cement had drowned him out.
As the cage began to rapidly compress, Yuuno knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was no way for her to escape. Every single barrier of the Mid-Childan style had been designed to deal with an attack from one direction since creating and holding a shield which covered all vectors was far too strenuous for most magi.
And Nanoha didn't know near enough to even begin to foray into that field.
So it was with sorrow that Yuuno watched as the vines continued their inexorable compression and the last thing he heard from within the cage was a shout, distorted by the groaning of the roots.
The cage of roots closed with strangle no sound or scream but Yuuno chalked that up to the hopefully instantaneous death.
"AEGIS: SHOCKWAVE!"
The scream of power tore through the city, sending birds hurtling into the sky and Yuuno scurrying for cover before his brain registered that it was Nanoha's voice.
Glancing back, his jaw dropped and his eyes almost rolled out of their sockets with awe.
A moment after the scream had passed, the roots were simply…atomized and a sphere of magic, completely transparent, blasted outwards from a panting Nanoha, vaporizing all the roots within a hundred yards of her position.
Wings erupted once more from Nanoha's back, having retreated as the sphere had closed in. With a violent down-beat of her wings and blasting upwards, Nanoha spiraled into an arc towards the tree with a contrail of air left in her wake.
As she began to curve downwards, roots and vines speared upwards with their tips glinting in the light.
Tilting to the side and skimming along the first, Nanoha spun away just in time to avoid another root which would have impaled her. Rocketing upwards and curving away from a dozen roots, Nanoha tilted back and dived past the roots, her spine curving to an almost painful angle to evade the organic spears.
As they rocketed past her, Nanoha took the advantage and blasted downwards, her wings pounding the air and accelerating her to speeds humans were never meant to go. Cruising alongside one of the larger roots and curving upwards to avoid a green missile, Nanoha found herself rapidly approaching the center of the city and hit the business district.
Dodging through crushed and broken streets, Nanoha shot through a small gap in a blaze with the heat deflected by her barrier jacket. Chancing a quick glance back and finding over fifty of the roots pursuing her, Nanoha nodded and sped up, curving upwards to dodge between the ever-growing buildings.
Doing a quick barrel roll to avoid what should have been an ambush, Nanoha felt the insane urge to stick out her tongue.
Maybe later.
Arriving at the base of the tree, Nanoha glanced up and caught sight of two children around her age encased in golden amber.
Turning towards the onslaught of roots tearing their way towards her, Nanoha called up every scrap of her magic and willed a barrier into being.
Static electricity arced across it as it swirled into being, every line reinforced and every rune inscribed with power until they glowed. Instead of simply throwing magic into the shield and hoping for the best, Nanoha was directly controlling the flow of the mystic forces, subtly altering it every second to ensure it stayed as strong as possible.
The massive wave of green struck Nanoha…and she stood firm against it, a bulwark against that which would seek to annihilate her and everything she loved.
A flare of light erupted and would have blinded Yuuno had he not been expecting it and had willed a filter into being. Mass was converted into energy as the tsunami of cement-like greenery crushed itself against the barrier.
Watching the gauges rapidly fill, Nanoha waited for the perfect moment to drop the shield and fire.
Now!
Crushing the shield into a null point, Nanoha willed a field into being around her and shot upwards at the speed of sound with a sonic boom scattering the greenery.
"BARRIER BREAK!"
Aiming her palm at the amber and specifically at the seed she could say, Nanoha allowed the containment around the energy collapse.
A veritable flood of kinetic-turned-mystic energy exploded forth from her hand with a howl and with a crunch of shattering crystal, ripped through the amber and began to spread through each of the hundreds of roots which had violated her city, vaporizing them and leaving only wreckage.
As the flood subsided, Nanoha extended Raising Heart towards the floating Jewel Seed, limbs shaking from the effort. Powerful as she was, even she had limits.
"Seal."
Ribbons of light erupted out of her staff and swallowed up the pulsing crystal, wrapping it up in magic designed to contain and neutralize the malignant object.
Watching the Jewel Seed get absorbed into Raising Heart, Nanoha allowed a satisfied smile to blossom.
This is the first time I went all out without Yuuno there to coach or help me. It felt good to push myself.
Carefully flapping over to the building where she had last seen Yuuno, Nanoha barely made it before both wings and battle garb faded. Falling to her knees with a tired groan, she smiled as Yuuno ran up to her and began to jabber.
"Not now…so tired…"
Slowly, Nanoha keeled over and didn't wake when she struck the ground.
And then she began to snore, a trickle of drool escaping her mouth.
She is a true mage. Never giving me any answers.
Yuuno sighed fondly.
AN: And there we have Chapter 04! I hope you all enjoyed the dream sequence. The particular divergence point won't come for a while yet. Or…maybe it has already happened. Only I know. And yes, I'm aware I'm being cruel :D
This chapter I wanted to illustrate some of the family dynamic between Yuuno and Momoko as well as what felt like a truly epic battle. I agonized for days over how to work Aegis: Shockwave. And don't worry, I'll be explaining this spell later.
Maybe. ;)