"No," indicated Lindy Harlaown. "So why is the boy asking for her?"
"Because his device was damaged?" suggested one of the bridge crew.
"When he regains consciousness, assure him that we will repair Bahamut," decided Lindy.
"Nanoha will take a week to heal by estimate," said another of the bridge crew. "The doctors state that the boy Naruto has remarkable recuperative powers to be awake after merely three days."
Edna Mode stared at the screen for a full two minutes, thinking that this might be a prank by one of her subordinates or possibly some sort of malfunction. When nothing changed, she swiveled her chair towards the repair box. "What exactly ARE you?"
[Name: Bahamut. Title: Storm Regent. Conquerer]
[of the Skies. Wielder: Naruto Uzumaki.]
Edna blinked. Yes, the Intelligent Devices were sentient to varying degrees and could give limited responses. Even Nanoha's Raising Heart, which was an exceptional Device, was very limited in the responses it could give and sounded fairly stilted. One could never forget that it was an artificial intelligence. Edna realized that these four were fundamentally different in that they appeared to have spiritual essences bound to them. The idea that she could simply ASK the Device and get answers directly had not been considered until she'd seen that.
"Who made you?" asked Edna.
[Information not found. Admitting curiosity.]
"You don't know who made you?" asked Edna.
[As stated - no data on origin found.]
"Don't get testy, darling," said Edna, holding a hand up. "I'm merely confirming that I understood your reply."
[Acknowledged. Apologies if tone was overly... brusque.]
"You are able to grow and adapt on your own, even heal on your own though we are able to speed the process up a bit," stated Edna. She brought up and highlighted a tube on the display that hadn't been previously there. "What about this function?"
[Wielder has control issues over energy output. Filter]
[and storage circuit will enhance Bahamut performance]
[levels while maintaining normal energy flow.]
"So it's basically a magic surge protector," said Edna, turning back to the display and typing away. "Hmmm. We have a similar design but ours is slightly more efficient. Do you want the specs?"
[Please. That would be helpful.]
Edna turned back to the Device and flashed a grin. "Darling! This might be the beginning of a most interesting set of trades between us."
[Intriguing.]
"What is... Titan doing with its wielder?" asked Edna, bringing up displays.
[Sakura Haruno has insufficient magical reserves for]
[activation. Titan is attempting to stimulate the]
[development of linker core as Haruno's core was not]
[a target due to undeveloped state. All injuries to]
[Haruno were physical and psychic in nature.]
"Yes, it looks as though her injuries are entirely due to blunt force physical trauma," said Edna. "They are rebuilding several of her bones otherwise she would have been crippled in that attack."
[Devices are adapting to individual owners.]
"You sure this will do anything?" asked Sakura.
The giant shifted a bit, remaining silent otherwise.
"Cut that out," grumped Sakura. "I meant this is just sort of a genjutsu, right?"
[Yes.]
"That's about as much of a reply as I can get until my reserves are up, right?" asked Sakura.
[Yes.]
"Fine, but I doubt this is going to work," complained Sakura. She went back to the knee lifts. "It's not like I can do anything else at the moment."
The wind ruffled her hair briefly.
"Thank you, Alexander-sensei, but I am unsure that my father will approve of such manuevers."
[Prove yourself, hime.]
"I- I don't think I can..."
[Uzumaki will fight again. Will you assist?]
"I d-didn't do so well the last time."
[Your performance was better than the Uchiha or the Haruno.]
"It was?" asked Hinata.
A tactical display appeared on one of the walls of the classroom. It switched to images of each of their battles.
"You saw all this?" asked Hinata, thinking that even her bracelet was better at the Byakugan than her.
[Devices are designed to handle multitasking and]
[provide computing power better than their human]
[partners. Tactical recordings are a part of this]
[as well as teaching function.]
"Fire Shuriken!" cast Sasuke.
[Flame Arrow has better penetration and triple the range.]
"I can throw three of these shuriken at a time," pointed out Sasuke.
[Understood. Question?]
Sasuke paused. This was the first time that Ifrit had sounded uncertain. "Go ahead."
[Life goal of wielder Sasuke is to be an avenger. Wielder]
[indicates that Enemy is drawn to slay Uchiha other than]
[wielder.]
"Yes," snapped Sasuke. "How do you know all this?"
[Observing dream-state until able to achieve this]
[dream-state for communication. Question. If goal]
[of Sasuke Uchiha is to draw that individual to]
[attack range and repopulate clan - why is wielder]
[rejecting potential mates?]
"Because I'm twelve," stated Sasuke. "And weak girls are annoying. So far I haven't run into any strong ones. You didn't get that from 'observing my dream state'?"
[Memory fragments displayed were incomplete and motives]
[not registered.]
"Why would you even bother with such things?" asked Sasuke of the fiery demon that spoke so unemotionally.
[Ifrit is an Intelligent Device. Purpose of such is to]
[assist the wielder attain their goals. Understanding ]
[such goals required to properly assist wielder.]
"I see," said Sasuke, thinking seriously about it. So, find a strong kunoichi to court. One that could hold her own against his brother long enough for Sasuke himself to arrive and finish off his brother. Such a one would likely draw Itachi to Konoha just so that she could be killed. Hmmmm.
So if he chose someone weak, Itachi would come and kill her and then he could ambush Itachi? No, he wasn't ready to face his brother. Yet.
"Fire Shuriken!"
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(Posted Wed, 22 Jul 2015 16:53)
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