Elsewhere...
"Tell me something, Testarossa," Signum began as she and Fate made their way down the side of a mountain to check on something in the valley below, "your mother was against you, your sister and Scrya from entering the Bureau for a long time, even Hayate didn't enter the Bureau because of your mother's interference. So, why would she allow Erio and Caro to join the Bureau?"
"It... Took us awhile to convince her." Fate said softly, before shaking her head. "In the end, mother only agreed to allow it because she trusted us." Signum looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Mother trusted us to make sure that they would be taken care of properly."
"Properly?" Signum asked as they touched down and started looking around. "What does that mean?"
"It means, Signum," Fate narrowed her eyes at a rock that seemed to be melted somehow, "that because of Erio and Caro's unique natures, and the fact that we would be here, that their involvement in Bureau affairs would be kept to a minimum, plus, if things got bad, we could pull them out and keep them safe."
"Is that all?"
Fate shook her head as she moved some dust off of the rock and frowned at the glass she was seeing under the dust. "No, she felt that the fact that Erio, and likely Caro, are the reincarnations of Dark Star and Vorfeed, plus with Arisa having the Azure Dragon's soul inside of her, that they would need to learn to tap into their power more freely."
"More freely?" Signum moved her foot to move some dust and raised an eyebrow at the glass that cracked from the movement. "And what's with this glass?"
"I think mother is too paranoid sometimes, but considering how our lives have been in the past ten years, Signum, I don't blame her at all." Fate and Signum both flew up off the glass. "She's worried that, unlike us, something bad may come for the two of them. Keeping them close to us would help them out."
"So, even though she was against it," Signum looked at the side of the mountain and raised an eyebrow as the glass continued down the side of it until it got to the base, where it disappeared, "you went against her and brought them to the Bureau?"
"There's something mother once told me," Fate said as she looked at the glass, "that even if you don't want your children to do something, it's best to know where they're at, so sometimes, even if you would they rather stay at home, you bring them along. It's better to know where they are, than where they aren't."
Signum smirked at that and nodded. "I agree, as long as they aren't put into serious danger."
"It's more dangerous at times if you try to keep them at home, at least if they're invited along, you can direct them towards a safer place, rather than having them show up out of the blue and surprising you." Fate narrowed her eyes as she and Signum flew to the base of the mountain. "Okay, either this mountain is made out of glass, or someone was messing around with a powerful fire spell."
"I think the latter." Signum narrowed her eyes and took a closer look. "...This wasn't caused by fire, Testarossa." Fate blinked at her and Signum ran her finger over the edge of it, where the glass met the rock. "It's too stiff here, if fire caused this, the edges would be more melted. This was caused by friction... But, it's almost like..."
"Someone ran so fast that they left a trench." Fate finished for Signum and looked out across the water. "This had to be hours ago, how did..?"
"Something moving fast enough to demolish a mountain and leave nothing but glass behind? You think we wouldn't notice that?" Signum said, her eyes narrowed as she looked at the ground. 'But what could move that fast? Even Testarossa isn't quite this fast.'
"So, what now?" Fate asked as she and Signum turned to look out at the ocean.
"...Return to base and report this." Signum didn't like that thought at all. "There's nothing more that we can do here."
Fate could only nod mutely.
Seeing the four kids and Arisa sitting and chatting, laughing about something, Nanoha made her way over to them and nodded to Suzuka as she moved to join them as well. "Hello." The group looked at her and calmed down. "Oh, please, I'm not here to disrupt any conversation longer than I have to, I just wanted to talk to you four about your training from here on out." She looked at Arisa and then turned to Suzuka. "You two will have your own regiment, but all six of you will meet up in the afternoon to undergo training from both Vita and Yuuno when they're around."
"What?" Arisa blinked at Nanoha, who snorted softly.
"When I said that we were in a state of chaos around here, I wasn't kidding." Nanoha shook her head. "A lot of us are going to be on missions a lot of times, so we won't be around too often. So, in the morning, most of you will have myself and Zelgadis for training, after lunch until dinner it will be Vita and Yuuno training you. Arisa, Suzuka, you two are more advanced, so you'll be working on other skills in the morning." The two of them nodded and Nanoha looked at the other four. "Teana, Subaru, you two don't know, but Arisa and Suzuka both have had fairly extensive training before joining up, they just need some refinement."
Both girls nodded, though Teana personally wondered if everyone but her was connected to the staff of this Riot Force somehow.
"Um... What about Fate-san, Signum-san and the others?" Erio asked, mentally pouting that Fate wouldn't be training with them. If the pink midget got to have Yuuno around, why couldn't he have Fate?
Nanoha smiled at him. "Actually, that brings up my next part. While Fate, Signum and others will be running in and out on missions, don't hesitate, if they don't have to rush off, to ask them for some one-on-one training if you think they can help you with an area you think could use work on."
"Isn't that your job?" Subaru asked her and Nanoha sighed and leaned back in her chair.
"Technically yes, but Fate's better at using high speed magic than myself and Signum's far better with weapon techniques and Belkan magic than I could possibly be." Nanoha winked at Subaru and held up a finger. "I'm good at shooting, bombardment and the hybrid style magic. Zelgadis is better at teaching some of the finer points of the Spirit Style than I am. Yuuno can teach you more about barriers, support, binds and stuff in the hybrid style I haven't figured out yet. Vita's good with offensive and defensive skills," Nanoha smirked at the girls, "in fact, if you want to work on your defense, just ask Vita to wail on your barriers until they break." Other than Yuuno, no one had lasted too long against Vita's barrier breaking skills. "As for Reinforce and Hayate," Nanoha shook her head, "the two of them could teach you any Ancient Belkan skill you wanted to learn, but they're very busy, so try to remember that if you want to learn a new skill." The group nodded and Nanoha giggled softly. "Now that we all know what we're doing, I just want to tell you four that you're doing good. Keep it up and you'll soon be able to tear it up with the best of us."
"Nice speech." Nanoha turned around to see Reinforce looking at her, by her side, Zafira was walking along silently in his wolf form. "We got a mission request for some extra firepower, as Yuuno, Fate and Signum are out on missions, I thought to ask you to handle it."
Nanoha nodded before tilting her head. "I haven't seen Zwei around lately, where is she?"
Reinforce smiled lightly. "Zwei is busy helping Shamal set up her office." She nodded as Nanoha sweat-dropped heavily. Both of them knew that Shamal was a touch obsessive-compulsive when it came to getting her personal working quarters just the way she wanted it.
"Any idea how long it will take?"
"No longer than a couple of hours at most." Reinforce said as she, Nanoha and Zafira left the others at the table. "Just some extra firepower." Reinforce quickly shot to Nanoha telepathically. "There's some worry that there's a Lost Logia nearby, so they want the extra firepower in case something goes wrong." Nanoha nodded, since it was on Mid-Childa, it was best to get that dealt with quickly enough.
"I'll leave immediately." Nanoha saluted Reinforce, who saluted her right back.
See other episodes by Philip Weigel
(Posted Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:46)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.