1 Chapter 1: A Magical Girl
Beta read by Opal
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Space held many hidden dangers to the myriad of planets and trillions of living beings in a single galaxy alone. From nightmarish monsters that tear through space and flatten lands without effort to groups of people causing havoc on certain civilizations just to further their own goals and the unknown horror of worlds disappearing into the void of space and time. Keeping track of all of these dangers was nearly impossible for a normal planet, let alone some of the weaker civilizations that hadn't achieved space travel yet.
For this reason, many worlds banded together with a union to form the Time-Space Administrative Bureau, officially Administrative Bureau and commonly abbreviated as TSAB. Sworn to protect the galaxy and different worlds as a military-like force, keeping track of a planet's technological advances and providing relief in case of disasters — especially the ones caused by Lost Logias or happened to be magic related.
Lost Logias, magical items with varying potential for power where even the weakest one held power beyond anyone's imagination. To be described in a few words, one could describe them as legacies from lost civilizations — most originating from the lost civilizations of Ancient Belka. Weapons of mass destruction that the TSAB swore to keep away from the wrong hand.
Their duties never ceased, there was no break or resting for even a minute of negligence could mean the difference between life and death for millions of living beings. And this day wasn't different, for one of the spaceships belonging to the bureau, Maia, hovered right at the border of a red planet classified as hostile and dangerous due to being infested by ghoul-like monsters recently.
All units were warned of how the majority of the civilizations inhabiting the planet K7498-n7 in sector 7 were killed off in a matter of days, leaving only a fraction of the population alive and in need of immediate rescue.
The higher-ups issued an order for mages only B-ranked or above could go on this mission and find out the root cause of this disaster. Officer Nanoha Takamachi, a nineteen years old S-rank mage and battle instructor who specialized in air combat and user of Raising Heart volunteered for the particular mission.
"Agent Nanoha, we have discovered a Mana reading in the northern hemisphere at coordinates 48.8584 N and 2.2945 E. We have detected multiple presences of the infected monsters, please be careful. We've deployed A and B-ranked mages to rescue any humans they can find." On a large screen, a girl with blue hair appeared talking directly to their sole specialist on board capable of dealing with such cases by herself. "We've gotten permission from the superiors to remove your limiter and let you operate freely. Are you ready?" She asked the woman sitting all by herself inside the hangar.
Watching the state of the planet coupled with casualties and corpses of people she was too late to save, the brunette shook her head. This wasn't the time to get distracted with grief and sorrow for the people below, she needed to focus on saving those that still needed her help.
"I'm all good to go, Rein." Taking a deep breath, she grabbed her intelligent device and walked to the loading area waiting for the doors to open.
"We have entered the atmosphere, gates are opening in 3… 2… 1… Good Luck, Takamachi Nanoha."
The metal doors opened with her being greeted by a red sun and dark clouds blanketing the sky below her. She could already see the smoke and fire all the way up here coupled with the extreme heat from the dying planet.
"Let's go, Raising Heart!"
[As you command, master. Activating Device Mode.]
The small red marble flashed with a bright white with the device activating. Her previous white suit disappeared before getting replaced with a barrier jacket and her ponytail hair changed into a twin tail. As the transformation ended, Nanoha didn't waste any more time before immediately flying out of the spaceship with Raising Heart held firmly in her hand.
…
(August 8th, 0075)
Safe to say, Shirou wasn't having a great day. One could even say that his last week had been nothing short of hellish. A reality that was further reinforced when a ghoulish monster rushed towards him with a cry that sent goosebumps all over his skin. With nothing but hunger and thirst for blood visible in its eyes — it was clear to him that all trace of humanity had vanished from this person.
A nearly desolate land one filled with the past traces of humanity and a prosperous civilization now turned into a version of hell itself overrun by these creatures that feasted upon the flesh of the living.
"Trace, on!" With the familiar sensation of Magical Energy coursing through his 27 Magic Circuits coupled with Magical Energy gathering around his palm, Shirou held two dao swords which with a single strike cut the monster's head cleanly off of its body.
"..."
Did he feel remorse? Of course, he did, these ghouls used to be regular humans from what he understood. People he couldn't save in time and was pushed to the corner… forcing him to take extreme actions.
Shrk!
With another swing with his other arm, the redhead threw Kanshou through the air, the blade rotating with great speed and killing two more ghouls with ease. A few seconds later, it came back without much trouble.
"Dammit Rin, just where did you send me!?" Shirou shouted for the nth time in an hour. This couldn't have been Earth, with the few regular people he could find, he quickly realized the truth.
An alien planet!
He found himself somewhere that really shouldn't have been possible yet here he was. Though the Mana was a bit denser, it wasn't to the point of overloading his circuits and cooking him from the inside out.
He had long since given up finding questions like; How did he survive for so long? Where was this and contacting Rin? All that mattered now was protecting the handful of still normal people to survive whilst also doing his best to stop the advancement of these creatures.
"When are these reinforcements coming!?" Shirou asked one of the people he kept safe behind him, having found them not a few hours ago grouped with other survivors all heading towards a newer location for safety reasons as more of these monsters kept appearing. He encountered them soon after arriving at this place where he saw them fending off a horde of ghoul-like monsters — so of course, he helped.
At first, they believed him to be a member of the Administrative Bureau, sent here to save them and fly them away from this planet. Though his confused stare and question of where this planet was ended up crushing their hopes within seconds. Fortunately, seeing him handle more creatures with ease they grew happier. One of the elderly men, grateful for his action, decided to answer his questions to the best of his abilities. It was after hearing this that Shirou truly realized how dire his situation was.
At first, he wanted to deny it, call it a bluff, but the evidence and a clear look around him were more than enough to force him to accept the reality that this wasn't Earth.
"Did she somehow end up sending me outside Earth!" He exclaimed angrily, putting the matter there was human-like life on other planets that were technically real aliens by his understanding to the side. He knew that Rin messing with that particular spell she learned from her mentor on him was a bad idea.
There wasn't much he could do aside from accepting the current situation and moving forward whilst also trying to find a way back. It wasn't long before the group was getting stalked by a strange creature from the shadows, hiding like a predator ready to attack its prey. His senses were telling him to run to a more open area as quickly as possible, so he urged the group to rush forward while keeping watch on the surroundings.
"Trace, on!" Repeating his aria, Shirou Traced both Kanshou and Bakuya. Grasping their handle and slowly retreating with the group. It wasn't until his eyes spotted a shadow on the ground did he turn around swiftly and throw one of the blades in the sky — which ended up beheading a ghoul mid-air in one fell swoop.
Shirou and the rest of the survivors made haste, the latter telling the boy that if one of these was present then it meant more would come soon. Still having many questions about these things, he focused on the present and made sure to keep these ghouls at bay as more of them showed up. Again and again, he was forced to put his uncomfortableness at how closely they resemble humans aside and slash his blades.
"Look, over there! More are showing up!" Shirou was brought back to his present thoughts with that one person screaming in fear at a sight far in the distance. A large number of ghouls composed of easily hundreds if not thousands of them all rushing like an army of ants that just spotted food. A chill ran up Shirou's spine.
'How am I going to take them all out without endangering the people behind me!?'
During his time at the Clocktower, he realized that despite the knowledge and experience he basically stole from that man — he still couldn't reach his level. He couldn't even deploy his Reality Marble without Rin's help due to his low Magical Energy reserves.
But given his current situation, he had no choice but to use something else. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he recalled a singular weapon that was ideal for killing targets at a distance while using as little of his Od as possible. "I have no other choice." Light flashed in his hands before a large black bow materialized into the world.
One would believe the weight to be too much but its material had yet to exist making it as light as a feather and many times stronger than any steel. He still hadn't gotten fully familiar with western archery, but Shirou was confident that he would cause some damage to the horde.
{Break}
Flying through the red clouds, Nanoha looked at the spot marked on her map. She discovered that near the trace of Magical Energy was also a beacon set up by most likely the remaining survivors.
Passing past the red clouds, the woman gasped at the sight before her. A ruined city with fire and carnage everywhere she looked, not a single trace of any living being. Quite the opposite in fact, there were thousands of corpses on the streets.
Some were so gruesome to look at that she avoided her head.
"Raising Heart, did you find any living being nearby?" She asked her trusted device, watching the red gem glow as it began analyzing the surroundings.
[I have found no living entity in our general radius. But there are signs of people having passed through this location.]
The robotic female voice of Raising Heart answered her master, making the latter sigh in relief as she wasn't too late.
"I need to find them quickly." With her heart further hardened by the resolve to save anyone she could find, Nanoha poured more Magical Energy into her Flier fins and burst through the tattered city skyline. She noticed a figure moving down below, her heart skipped a beat when she believed to have finally found a living person.
"Wait, something feels wrong here…" the moment she descended from the sky, she noticed the darkened and rotten skin of the 'human', upon further inspection, she noticed bits of flesh stuck on what looked like claws and even heard a low growl.
"Is this one of the monsters?"
She didn't have to wait for long to get an answer, the ghoul turned around with its haunting crimson eyes staring right at her with hunger.
"Raaaargh!" The monster jumped in the air, almost reaching her if she hadn't reacted in time.
[Protection!]
A red shield formed around her body which successfully blocked the attack, she backtracked a bit and watched in disgust at the creature in front of her… no, calling it a moving corpse would be more appropriate.
"What… what is this thing?"
[Scanning… this entity is of foreign nature and not of this world. Categorized as ghouls who consume human and other living species' flesh and are known to attack planet from planet for more food.]
A ghoul huh, looked more like a zombie if she were honest.
"Is it an entity from a Lost Logia?" Just hearing its origin made her very wary, Nanoha watched as another one of these ghouls appeared from the streets.
[Negative, the likelihood of it being the case is below 0.001%. Extreme caution is advised when facing this creature as they travel in large groups.]
Having confirmed its origin, Nanoha's face turned into a frown as she decided to quickly take out these two monsters. Mana gathered around her palm, concentrating into a single ball of light which she shot straight to the first ghoul.
Bang!
It killed the monster effortlessly, blowing up its upper torso to smithereens. The second one tried to scale a building to land an attack on her which she easily dodged. "Shoot!" Another small ball of energy was shot from her hand and obliterated the ghoul's head.
[I have found a large concentrated signature of ghouls in the southeast area at about two kilometers.]
"Thanks!" If these things were attracted to humans then a large horde would definitely go after the remaining survivors. Nanoho flew for a few minutes till the dense city started to give way to a desert willed with more corpses. But what she saw shocked her, thousands of ghouls are rushing at a single man with a bow and arrow. Facing all of these monsters without a trace of fear on his face as he pulled the string, the black material bending slightly while green circuit-like patterns covered his hands.
"He's planning on handling them all by himself!?" She observed in disbelief as he stayed behind while the group of people behind him continued to retreat.
Pa!
The arrow was released, traveling faster than she expected as it nearly became invisible to her eyes. What followed was the projectile hitting a ghoul with enough force to carve a large bloody hole in its torso before doing the same with four more monsters behind it.
"—!"
Nanoha was speechless at the show of power, that single arrow was as strong as a sniper! She watched in fascination as the red-headed boy's hands already pulled the string of his bow with another arrow already read to be shot. It appeared out of nowhere and looked like it was formed out of magic?
"This man is a mage…" Was it a transformed device like hers? No, if that were the case then he would have had a barrier jacket around his body. Now, all he wore was a white shirt with a blue jacket and a tattered pair of pants. Even calling him a mage seemed odd, not a single magic circle appeared as he used his bow, but it was a form of magic of some sort. She began to suspect this man to be a rogue mage who was not registered in the Time-Space Administrative Bureau.
"He'll die if he doesn't move!" Even if his attacks killed a handful of ghouls every second, there were just too many of them rushing like an endless crimson tidal wave. Yet he didn't seem to care, holding his position while shooting continuously.
Then as she was about to intervene, the boy waved and stopped.
"Oh, no! His Linker Core must be out of mana!"
She was immediately proven wrong as with a wave of his hand, something unexpected happened before her eyes.
Swords.
Not just one, dozens of swords of many different shapes and forms appeared around him — floating in the air as their pointed tips aimed at the monsters. It was an unusual spell, but then again, every planet had its own unique type of magic. Not to mention, Chrono had a similar magic with his Stinger Ray spell.
"What… What is he going to do with these swords… He can't wield them at the same time, can he?" For some reason, Nanoha thought he would summon puppets or use telepathy to control multiple weapons at the same time — but none of that happened.
Then he grabbed one of the swords between his fingers as if it was an arrow. "Using a sword as an arro—what?" The sword in question started to change, bending and twisting into an abnormal arrow-like shape. Becoming thinner with cracks spreading around the surface.
Fwish!
The arrow along the many swords around him were fired simultaneously.
At this point, Nanoha gazed at the bow with slight suspension. That thing… could it have been a Lost Logia? She didn't dismiss the possibility that all of this was his own personal magic. It lacked in power in her opinion, but it more than made up for it with speed and accuracy. Nevertheless, she wasn't here to just stand by the sidelines.
"Raising Heart, we must help him." She issued a mental command to her device, feeling the Magical Energy within her Linker Core flow from her chest to her hands and then the device. It grew brightly before it spoke again. "Scan one last time for any signs of unaffected local lifeforms presence inside the city."
[Of course, I have checked everything and have found nothing. Proceeding to deploy Shooting Mode.]
The gold section of Raising Heart's head dematerialized and reformed into a more squared shape with two prongs. Far more mana started being sucked from her core, an amount that could have killed any regular mage.
Swish!
An angry red aura enveloped her body, with a large magic circle platform forming beneath her feet. She aimed Raising Heart straight at the horde, a dense and steady stream of Magical Energy gathered at the tip of the weapon which grew bigger every passing second.
From a small marble to a fist sized sphere to then growing larger than a ball and becoming half her size. The space around her shook, the winds created by the power causing her hair and clothes to flutter. Her magic showed no sign of slowing down, continuing to grow at an astonishing rate without even exhausting her Linker Core.
She held her breath.
"Divine Buster, Full Power!"
The entire sky turned pink.
{Break}
"They just keep coming," back on the ground, Shirou commented helplessly as he continued to fire another nameless Noble Phantasm without stopping his rate of fire with his bow. His body started to burn with the heat of his Magical Energy flowing through his circuits without stop.
He wondered if in the end he would be forced to attempt firing Caladbolg II. Ever since the Holy Grail War and his battle against Archer, Shirou had gained plenty of knowledge from that hateful man. One of these beings using the Noble Phantasm belonging to Fergus Mac Róich, twisting the beautiful weapon into a warped arrow before pushing his reinforcement on it to the point of creating a Broken Phantasm.
Having never been forced into such a situation after leaving Fuyuki, Shirou never attempted to try this technique once. He couldn't even use his Reality Marble without Rin's help and his body couldn't handle the strain for long even if he could. Even if he could, it wouldn't have lasted more than a few seconds before crumbling due to his still developing reserves.
Twitch!
His nose twitched, goosebumps spreading all over his body with an acute sense of dread filling his being. "W-What… is that?" Up in the sky, a red light shined brightly to the point of casting a red haze across the ground below. It grew in size which further made his heart beat harder.
Shirou dismissed his bow, at this moment, he knew something far more dangerous was upon him and all he could do was defend himself.
"I am, the bone of my sw—" Boom!
Unable to even finish the first verse of his aria, the red light turned into a giant wave of pure energy that covered a large chunk of the city in front of him and the horde itself. With his own shocked eyes, Shirou witnessed what was a calamity that could ruin an entire civilization and turn into ashes in a matter of seconds. The shockwave itself sent his body flying, nearly rupturing his eardrums if he hadn't covered them. The people behind him were far away to not have suffered from the aftermath but many still fell to their butts.
"Wah!"
Shirou landed a few meters away from his initial position, heart racing and with a pale face he couldn't help but wonder how he was still alive.
"What the heck was that!?" An attack of this scale was no different than something a Servant could produce! It went even beyond what he had seen caster use during the war — not that he doubted that she wasn't capable in the first place. The large ghoul army he was sure to overwhelm sooner or later was gone.
Under the dense cloud of smoke, sand and fire, Shirou coughed as he tried to make his way out of the area. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long before the dust was forcefully removed by an unknown force.
"Don't worry, I'm here!"
Out of nowhere, the voice of a woman reached his ears. Looking at the source, Shirou was at a loss for words when he found a young girl around his age in what could only be described as a magical girl outfit flying above him with a… sniper?
"My name is Nanoha Takamachi, I've been sent by the Time-Space Administrative Bureau to rescue any surviving locals. Are you a mage?"
"..."
Hundreds of questions popped inside his mind from those words alone, he couldn't even begin to imagine where to start with and stood there with his mouth agape. Not to mention, what was this Time-Space Administrative Bureau thing she was talking about? Was she talking about the Clocktower? Atlas? He heard the people he was accompanying just now mention it, but the man didn't expect that members of this organization would be dressed in such a manner. Not to mention, Shirou was certain the Clocktower hadn't expanded to other worlds at all.
There was no shock in her finding out about his identity as a Magus. Just the attack earlier trumped anything he could output and the fact she was flying without any sort of jet propulsion system attached to her body whatsoever. On top of that, she must have seen him using his Tracing a few seconds ago, so the worry of a regular civilian witnessing magic didn't even cross his mind once. Still didn't stop him from growing speechless.
'Rin, really… where the heck did you send me!?'
"Hello?"
{Break}
"Hello?"
Nanoha waved her hands near his face, confused and worried about his lack of response.
The man looked like a human from Earth with the clothes she saw on him — which wasn't that uncommon with different worlds having the same style of clothing — and resembled someone in his early twenties.
"Are you okay?" She asked, checking his body for any signs of injuries or burns. Her attack was powerful, even though she took every precaution to avoid injuring any innocent bystander — the girl still worried she might have accidentally bruised him. Though she didn't have a choice, the horde was getting closer by the second and if she hesitated any longer then his life would have truly been in grave danger along with the people behind him.
"Y-Yes… I'm… I'm fine." He whispered, coming back to his senses then slowly getting up from the ground.
'Tall…' was the first thing Nanoha thought when she was forced to lift her head just to see his face. Even going so far as to notice his amber coloured eyes. She wanted to move and help him but it didn't seem like he needed it.
"Um, who are you exactly? And the Time-Space Administrative Bureau?" Now he was the one who asked her a question, not surprised by this given not everyone knew about her or the TSAB.
Raising Heart returned to standby mode, gaining the attention of the redhead, his eyes widening at her device — a reaction she has grown used to seeing from many denizens of different words. Just from its general appearance, one wouldn't expect such a harmless looking staff would hold so much hidden power and abilities that rivaled battleships and even surpassed them. A weapon of mass destruction some would call it, but she preferred to see it as a tool and companion of sorts who helped her save the lives of her friends and the countless people in the galaxy.
She made a light salute, "I'm Nanoha Takamachi, a S-Rank mage and member of the Time-Space Administrative Bureau who are responsible for the safety of the people in the galaxy and the one in charge to find and contain forgotten weapons from fallen civilization among many other responsibilities." The girl paused a bit, not wanting him to get overwhelmed by her explanation and giving him time to digest the information. "I came here to bring back any surviving locals to safety as well as containing, or in this case, eliminating these creatures."
The shock on his face grew, with a trace of disbelief flashing across his face for a split second.
"Is this Time-Space Administrative Bureau associated with the Clocktower?"
Nanoha tilted her head in confusion. Clocktower? True there were other smaller and recluse organizations around the galaxy that basically had the same goal as the TSAB. But in most cases, they were not officially recognised or were just considered as a small group ruled over by a single planet. This Clocktower did not sound familiar to her whatsoever, maybe Zwei, Hayate or Fate would know something about this.
But before they could continue with another topic, there was one thing she wanted to know.
"Are you from this planet… K7498-n7 perchance?" She wanted to confirm his identity given he could be a mage sent here from another planet.
"K74…what? No, I'm from Earth. Oh, and my name is Shirou Emiya." Despite everything that had happened so far, the man… Shirou Introduced himself politely.
"Eh?" Nanoha wasn't expecting that answer from him, so he was from Earth…
"Right, I still have some questions but this is not the place and time."
He nodded, "Yes, more of those ghouls could come at any moment. We need to bring these people to safety."
Not long after that, a passenger spaceship descended from the sky followed by the main ship which she came from as well. The near hundred people started crying from joy from the fact that they were going to survive and not get eaten or starve to death — everyone boarded the ship with haste.
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.
She couldn't leave the planet yet, there were still many cities to scout and search for other survivors. Fortunately, she wasn't the only one dealing with such a duty, hundreds of mages just as capable as her scoured the many regions across the planet this very second. just in case they needed help or reinforcement, then she would rush to help them. For now, Nanoha waited aboard the spaceship, Maia, awaiting further orders and also caring for the mage that followed her; Shirou Emiya.
From his name and mention of being from Earth, Nanoha guessed that he should have been from Japan like herself.
The entire time since they boarded Maia, her mind returned to bow and his swords. She witnessed the bow breaking down into motes of light, leaving nothing behind. It didn't transform into a smaller form similar to Raising Heart like she expected. Was it a magical construct from the beginning?
'He must be an A-Rank or AA-Rank ground mage.'
Following protocol, he was checked from head to toe by the guards but they didn't find anything on him aside from a phone, a wallet and a red ruby necklace. Nanoha's attention was drawn to that last item in particular as she believed it to have been his original device. But she soon filed that thought for later, this wasn't the most important matter at this moment.
"Thank you again, if you hadn't been there then…" the man spoke, making her slightly flush from the gratitude.
"No, no, you were doing amazing yourself. It takes a lot of courage to stand your ground against a horde of monsters." She both admired and respected people with such conviction to save lives, so safe to say, Nanoha already had a good impression of Shirou despite only knowing him for less than an hour.
She then saw him gaze at the window worriedly.
"Listen, it's nice to meet you and all, but is it alright for us to talk like this instead of scouting for more survivors?" He asked worriedly. Nanoha understood his reasoning, she herself couldn't sit still until it was certain everyone else was saved. But, as a member of the TSAB, it was vital for Nanoha to trust her colleagues and be certain that they would accomplish their duties.
"Nanoha-chan!" A small girl flew inside the room, making Shirou jump in surprise by her appearance — his reaction making Nanoha giggle. "I'm so glad you're okay! I never thought this planet would be filled with those scary monsters! Good thing we have plenty of mages working all around the globe to secure any survivors. But so far, you've most likely dealt the most damage to them as from the reports we've gotten so far, there aren't more than a hundred of these monsters in each city." Rein said she noticed Shirou looking at her weirdly and decided to introduce herself first.
"Hello! My name is Reinforce II but you can call me Rein. I am an Air Sergeant Leader and examiner working for the bureau — nice to meet you!" The small girl gave a small bow which Shirou returned.
"I-It's nice to meet you too." He said, returning the bow.
"From what I've heard, you're not from this planet. We're more than happy to help you but can you answer a few questions?"
Nanoha nodded her head. "Yes, I was about to ask, how did you get here and your purpose?"
{Break}
Now this was a dilemma.
After spending so long living with Rin and working with the Clocktower, Shirou came to understand that keeping the existence of magic and information about the Mage Association as a secret. If broken, death would be the most likely punishment.
Yet, these people certainly weren't regular people and actually used magic of some sorts. Especially the staff that resembled something straight out of a magical girl cartoon he had seen on TV a couple of times in the past. Even the clothes Nanoha herself wore at this moment just further increased his confusion over where the heck did he end up!
When he tried to use Structure Analysis on the staff, Shirou genuinely felt fear over this… thing. The material itself wasn't anything originating from Earth, it was ancient and held an immense amount of power. Other than that, everything else was just an incomprehensible jumble of data; he couldn't make heads or tails of it whatsoever. He quickly averted his eyes from the staff and grew even warier of these people. They weren't evil or had any bad intentions as far as he could see, but that didn't stop him from keeping his guard up.
Realizing how his increasing paranoia was threatening to take over, Shirou stopped and took a deep breath.
'What am I doing? Maybe spending all this time with Rin in the Clocktower messed me up a bit…'
Now out of nowhere, a small girl flew by and once again made him experience a sense of wonder and shock as she looked straight up like a fairy from those children's books he had seen in the past.
Shirou was beginning to wonder if all of this wasn't just a dream of some kind and Rin was outside messing with his mind as an experiment to relieve some stress. He once caught her trying to influence his dreams by whispering to him when sleeping!
"Um, Shirou?" Nanoha called him, breaking him from his train of thoughts.
"Oh, sorry about that, I was getting lost in my thoughts there…" he remembered the questions asked and carefully formulated an answer in his head first. How did he end up here? Mostly Rin's fault, she was experimenting with a spell she had learned recently and he ended up getting caught in it.
"Umm, it was a freak accident. I was… teleported? Yes, teleported to whatever planet this is and as for my purpose… I don't technically have any. I was confused the entire time and couldn't stop myself when I saw those people needing my help — I had to save them no matter what." His stern voice coupled with his conviction made Nanoha unconsciously smile, she out of everyone here could understand his feeling. She herself recalled the first time she saved Yuuno and wanted to save him and the people in her town from the jewel seed monster despite not having known about Raising Heart.
"I do have a request, if it's not much of a bother to you." Shirou said awkwardly while scratching the back of his head. "Can you… drop me off on Earth?"
It felt weird saying that, as if he was asking someone for a ride home with a car rather than cruising through space with an alien ship like this.
Then again, not like his request would be accepted so easil—
"Of course!" Nanoha answered without hesitation. "I am from Earth as well, Japan to be precise. Which town are you from exactly?"
"Fuyuki." Shirou answered without missing a beat. If they could drop him off then he would be immensely grateful. Though, the matter about human life on other planets with civilization and advanced technology existing made him wonder if he should reveal it to Rin. Furthermore, would she even believe him?
A chill crawled up his spine thinking about the danger he would be in if other Magi groups were to find out about this event. Would they slap a Sealing Designation on him and study his body for any possible changes? Not like they would listen to him if he said that nothing happened. No, keeping this entire thing a secret was his best option.
"Fuyuki?" Nanoha's eyes narrowed, thinking about any town with such a name but nothing coming up in her mind. "I'm afraid I'm not familiar with such a place."
"Eh, really?" Well, Fuyuki wasn't that big and popular to begin with. So it wasn't that surprising that Nanoha wouldn't have known about it. "Though no need to worry, you can drop me off in London instead. I was there initially for my studies before ending up here."
"Leave everything to us!"
…
After everything was decided, Shirou was escorted to his room in the ship. Of course, he was once again checked for any infections or pathogens he could have carried on his body from the infected planet. Shirou complied with every procedure and soon found himself alone in a white room with a single bed, a small table with two chairs and a large screen? He wasn't sure as the technology seemed very advanced so it could be anything else, not to mention the weird language he couldn't read made everything that much harder for him.
His blank eyes watched the ceiling for the next few minutes. A small window of peace his mind was given after everything that happened so far. A small moment of silence where he didn't feel in danger or close to death.
He didn't know what to do now, Nanoha mentioned that wandering around the spaceship on his own would be a bad idea and she needed to return to the planet to help out the other mages. But when he asked if he could tag along, she refused. He tried asking her again and again yet it failed in the end.
Minutes turned into hours, yet he remained in his room. This time, Shirou was practicing his magecraft, tracing both Kanshou and Bakuya as they became second nature to him. They were his most common weapons, barely used any of his Od to trace and didn't use any Magical Energy to use for what it offered offensively. The combat style he gained from Archer grew more polished, he still had room to grow and hadn't reached his limit yet. Yes the situation around his origin and nature of his body made it little to impossible for him to practice anything else other than his tracing he discovered, but that didn't mean the redhead would stop training at any point in his life.
When they found out about his particular case, he remembered Rin giving him a weird stare. Muttering something about, "Someone like you managed to take on a Lancer Servant, somehow."
Shirou awkwardly reminded her that it technically wasn't really him, but the girl just ended up dismissing him. Admitting Archer's identity still left a bad taste in his mouth, he was sure that the bastard would start laughing the moment he did so.
"Oh right, I'll be late to help Luvia…"
Luvia Edelfelt was an old friend and rival of Rin, both were gifted magi who excelled with gem related magecraft. It would be natural to believe that in a normal situation they would have had a friendly relationship going on between them. But no, those were like ice and fire butting heads at any chance they got and generally leaving a trail of destruction whenever they fought. He ended up cleaning up after their reckless behavior more often than not — condemning him to a glorified cleaner.
"I promised her to help out with some other experiment she had. Guess we'll have to reschedule that for another date." To be honest, Shirou suspected that the woman just wanted him to spend a day with her wearing a butler suit. She was surprisingly quite nice towards him, much to Rin's dismay.
Nevertheless, this was just a small part of his daily routine, the majority of it was spent keeping those two at bay.
"Yes, he's definitely laughing at me right now." He could feel it in his soul, that white haired idiot was having the time of his life watching him having to deal with such things on a daily basis! Now stranded on an alien planet with the revelation that human life somehow spread outside the Earth and successfully formed an advanced civilization? Yeah, even Rin would join him and end up laughing as if his life was a comedic show.
Ding~!
Suddenly, he heard a sound coming from his door.
Ding~!
It was like a doorbell, was someone waiting for him outside?
"Yes… come in."
The metal door opened, and standing there was Nanoha holding a platter filled with food and a drink. But what caught his attention was the change of clothes, she now wore a sort of tight fitting secretary clothes? Or maybe it was a business suit for the people here… regardless, it looked quite good on her. The previous magical girl dress as he liked to call it made it hard to discern anything really.
Not that he would ever mention such a thing. Ever.
"Hello, Emiya-san, I brought you some food. Sorry about how long it took, we found many survivors and having a ship prepared for them took a while." She walked inside and placed the tray on the table, though instead of leaving, she took a seat and showed that she had a small sandwich for her.
Did she want to have lunch with him?
"Um, thank you for the food." He sat down, tasting some of the dishes and finding it average at best.
"I never got the opportunity to ask, are you a mage part of some organization on Earth?"
Should he reveal information about the Clocktower? Well, she wasn't a civilian and could use magic so it wasn't against the rules.
"You can say so, I'm more a user of magecraft than a true Magus, but I still conduct my studies at the Clocktower with a friend of mine. You can think of them as the Mage Association on Earth."
"A Magus? Mage Association? I honestly never heard those terms when on Earth. Not to mention, finding someone who could use magic is quite rare. I only know one other person like me born with a Linker Core. With you, that'll make three people."
The more she spoke, the more confused Shirou got. The part about her not knowing about the Mage Association was a bit weird but not uncommon. There existed practitioners of magecraft who weren't that informed of the world outside their small bubble. Though the term 'Linker Core' was completely alien to him, there was a possibility she was referring to Magic Circuits and this was another name for it.
"May I know how you managed to learn magecraft?" Shirou asked, feeling curious about how people outside Earth viewed magic and how Nanoha was able to use it.
"Ah, that was many years ago, more than a decade now that I think about it. I was still in primary school when I first met Yuuno-kun and got handed down Raising Heart." She caressed the small red orb pendant around her neck. "There was a monster attacking Uminari city and I was given Raising Heart to seal it away."
What? For so long? He remembered the name of the staff, so seeing Nanoha mentioning her pendant made Shirou wonder just what the heck this weapon was. It could change forms and then become an unassuming piece of jewel. Certainly technology or a form of magecraft beyond anything he had seen so far. Also, he never heard of Uminari city at all. Shirou was confident of his general geographic knowledge about Japan and the many different small towns and prefectures — but this name didn't even sound familiar.
Just what was going on here?
"Going back to Earth will take a couple of hours, I'm sure your family is worried about you."
The moment she said that, Shirou looked away slightly, "Umm, that won't be a problem, I'm an orphan." It was a simple way to describe part of his story without having to go into unnecessary details.
To his surprise, Nanoha reacted more emotionally than he expected.
"I-I-I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have brought up such a tragic past."
He waved her worries away and tried to lift up the atmosphere. "Don't worry, that happened many years ago and I've moved on from it. It's not a big deal."
"You shouldn't say it like that!" Nanoha couldn't help but scold Shirou over how easily he put the matter to the side. Having been Fate's friend for so long, she knew how hard it could be for someone to move on from their past. His response didn't seem right to her.
"E-Eh?" Shirou was caught by surprise, was his answer that bad? He was just telling the truth, Kiritsugu died very early on in his life while he couldn't remember his past life due to the fire. Shirou never really stayed hung up with his death, as he promised his dad to one day fulfill his dream of becoming a hero in his stead. Even after everything that happened during the Grail War, he never stopped pursuing this path.
Now coming back to Nanoha, Shirou didn't know how to respond to her. If he brought up the Fuyuki fire would she be even more emotional?
"It really is not that big of a deal, Nanoha-san." He tried to placate her with his arms held up coupled with his still present smile. "I do miss my father, but his teachings still remain with me to this day. So instead of being hung up with his death, it would be better for me to become better every single day and live my life like he would have wanted."
"I see, then I'm glad for you, Emiy—wait. What about your mother?"
Ah, damnit he should have kept his mouth shut!
"Oh, I forgot to ask you. But what kind of Magecraft do you use, Nanoha-san? And please, call me Shirou, Emiya sounds too formal." He tried to divert the topic before he could dig a bigger hole and trap himself. He wasn't trying to gain pity with his past, so better to keep it hidden.
"Eh, magecraft? Oh, you mean the magic I've used against those ghouls?"
It worked!
"Yes, yes, that one!"
"Well, since I am a user of Raising Heart, most of my spells come from it. My magical device helps me to cast spells without going through a near endless amount of calculations and also protects me from all sorts of danger. That attack you saw me use, Divine Buster, is one of my most powerful attacks in which I pour my mana from my Linker Core onto my magical device and unleash it all at once. Raising Heart, please greet our guest."
[It is nice to meet you, Shirou Emiya.]
"It spoke!" No wonder this thing felt weird, there were so many things hidden inside it, even an actual AI or a spirit of sorts. Still, that big attack was all her!? Just thinking about the ridiculous amount of Magical Energy required for such a thing made him dizzy, not to mention how Nanoha didn't even seem tired when she found him afterwards.
Could Rin be capable of such an output? He didn't know, but Luvia was said to be even more superior in that aspect than her rival.
'Yet here I am barely capable of firing a few Broken Phantasms and nameless swords before feeling exhausted and overheated.'
He couldn't even use his Unlimited Blade Works without an external battery of Magical Energy to assist him. The last time he used it was against that arrogant King of Heroes which he got help from Rin.
"You really are amazing,I have never seen someone as powerful as you…" Rin did teach about the existence of a certain person known as the director. Barthomeloi Lorelei, a freak of nature said to have something called Blue Blood which allowed her to channel a monstrous amount of Mana. He heard stories about how a simple spell which would normally slightly injure a person could obliterate an entire house in her hand.
Of course, Shirou never saw her once nor did he wish to do so.
Rin and Luvia were a big source of headaches already. He even had to deal with keeping a low profile with how much infamy his name carried in the Clocktower. Being the son of the Magus Killer was a trouble magnet which would attract the attention of Kiritsugu's old enemies. Even though more than a decade has passed since his death, Magi were known to keep their grudges.
"Fufufu~! No, I'm not that amazing, there are many more mages who surpass me. For example, the superior of Rein is classed as an SS-Rank mage."
"SS-Rank? I heard you mention you being an S-Rank. Are there more above an SS ranking?" This was a good opportunity to get a general grasp of the system these people were used to.
"Given you aren't familiar with our system, I'll give a basic rundown. A mage is put into one of 11 power grades, designated with letters: F, E, D, C, B, A, AA, AAA, S, SS and SSS. If you want to be more precise, then the plus and minus symbols mostly refer to an upper or lower rank. Does your Mage Association have a system like this?" She asked curiously which Shirou was about to decline at first before remembering that there was indeed a ranking for mages.
"Yes, but it's not based on your lettering system and is more complicated to explain. I myself don't have a rank since I am but an assistant to another Magus." To be fair, he counted as a Frame which was the lowest rank. But he never was recognized or has any documents proving it, so he just didn't bother.
Nanoha dropped her nearly finished sandwich. "You're unranked? How's that possible? I've seen you use powerful magic back there! You should at least be equivalent to a Rank-A or B mage."
That sounded more impressive than he was willing to admit. Shirou didn't think he deserved such a high evaluation from her, his Tracing was powerful but it had limitations.
"Hehehe, you're overpraising me, Nanoha-san. I'm really not that good with magic, you could even call me an extremely poor mage. I can't do much aside from the very basics."
Nanoha felt her eye twitch at how he kept denying his capabilities. Did he really think himself that low? That didn't sit well with her, she wanted to show him just how powerful he was. She could see this man was a humble soul, a kindred spirit who shared a similar origin that she could relate to like with Hayate.
"Shirou-kun, if you consider yourself as a poor mage who could only do the very basics then I should count as a below average mage." She looked at him with a deadpan face.
Kun? He didn't expect her to get this familiar with him.
"I didn't mean that, you're obviously a talented mage with immense potential."
"Then so are you!"
"I wasn't joking when mentioning my lackluster spell repertoire. I can only use less than a handful of spells…"
"You literally bombarded a horde of monsters with a bow and arrow." She wasn't going to let this slide, her cheerful eyes now narrowed as her smile remained. Which honestly started to scare the boy.
"That… was a special case. I'm magically inep—"
"Don't demean yourself!"
"I'm really not…" he was being truthful.
"Muuu, why must you be this stubborn?" She pouted, which made the boy flinch.
Shirou sighed, there was no point arguing with her. Calling him stubborn? She was being the stubborn one in this case! Really, he had a hard time dealing with such women in his life… It didn't help that there were plenty of them as well.
"Haa… Fine, you win." He relented, smiling bitterly when he saw her pouting face return to its cheerful state.
"There you go, it wasn't so hard, was it?"
"You didn't give me a choice there."
"Well you were being too humble, which can be detrimental for your confidence in the future, Shirou-kun." She said that with a stern face, giving him the impression as if he was facing Taiga who was teaching him a lesson. Her posture coupled with the white suit made her look like a teacher as well.
And so, they continued to talk for the entire journey. Nanoha talked more about her childhood and a little more information about her role as a mage and the Time-Space Administrative Bureau. To Shirou, this organization sounded more like a space military than anything. He on the other hand didn't have much to say about his life.
His childhood wasn't exactly the best, his life after that was quite boring until the Holy Grail War. And during his time in London, he only trained and aided Rin with various projects. Though there were times he helped some enforcers for certain missions across the globe, those were rare instances.
'I'm going to miss her, she's a good person to talk to.' In the Clocktower, he barely socialized or even made any friends other than Luvia. There was Lord El-Melloi with whom he had certain conversations from time to time but nothing to show they were on friendly terms. Some Magi hated his guts for a few reasons, some understandable while other reasons being completely nonsensical.
It truly was a den of snakes as Rin liked to say.
[We are approaching the Solar system, please proceed to the cargo bay.] An announcement came over the radio, startling both of them.
"Oh my, it seems like we've been talking to each other for quite a while." Nanoha said in disbelief. It felt like they had only been talking for half an hour at most.
"Looks like this is my final stop, I want to thank you again, Nanoha-san. Without your help I would have been stuck on that planet for god knows how long."
"Hehe, don't mention it, I'm glad we managed to help you out. In fact, I have a proposal for you!" Shirou raised an eyebrow as he watched the woman excitedly retrieve a card from her pocket and hand it over to him. "This is my contact details. If one day you ever decide to become part of the TSAB or just want to explore outer space, then don't hesitate to get in touch with me!"
Shirou didn't decline and gratefully accepted the card, he saw her watch flash with a blue light before a holographic projection of a large screen appeared before her.
'Wow, they really are very advanced.'
She tapped a few times, before having the screen turn into a timer. "We still have about 10 minutes. I would be glad to accompany you to the cargo bay but I need to talk with my colleagues for a bit."
"Sure, no problem."
{Break}
-England-
Standing near the window at the ship's lowest level, Shirou gazed at the city below passing him. He was a bit worried that people might start pointing at the sky at the flying spaceship which could catch the attention of the Mage Association.
To his relief, he learned that Maia, the ship's name, had a cloaking system that hid it from view.
He was dropped off near a wheat field a few kilometers away from London at his request and to find a landing area large enough. It was better this way as he could just walk back.
"Goodbye! Thanks again!"
He waved at Nanoha and the little Air Sergeant Leader floating near her face. Both girls waved back, watching his distant figure growing further away, Nanoha felt like this day had been quite interesting.
"I can check up on him later when I have some free time." Nanoha was curious about this Mage Association on Earth, namely to see how different they were from the mages of the TSAB.
Jiiiiiiii~
She felt someone staring at her, looking around she found Rein suspiciously looking at her.
"Is something the matter, Rein?"
"I should be asking YOU that question, Nanoha-chan!" Rein exclaimed out loud, flying around her head. "You've been alone with him for 5 hours in his room!"
"Eh, it couldn't have been that long…" Nanoha had the decency to look a bit embarrassed, she couldn't help it. Their conversation was going well and she lost track of time. "I was curious about this Mage Association from where he came from, I never knew there existed such a thing on Earth."
Rein crossed her arms before giving the girl a skeptical look. "And that was enough for you to speak for so long? You even handed him your card… I didn't know you had one in the first place!"
The brunette tilted her head, confused at Rein's weird behavior. "I always had one on me, what are you saying? And I wanted to give him a way to contact me if he ever needs some help. You're overthinking things, Rein." Nanoha said before walking back to her quarter.
"..."
.
.
.
"Here it is." Shirou said, walking in front of a large apartment complex where he and Rin shared a single bed apartment. "Did they repaint the whole complex?" Something felt off, the entire street looked cleaner and renovated from the last time he'd been here. Could they have cleaned up the area during the time he wasn't here?
He got inside, then saw another change. The notice board was different from what he remembered and the janitor inside wasn't the person he remembered. He wasn't gone for that long, barely a day had passed since the incident.
An unsettling feeling came to his heart, Shirou rushed upstairs reaching the fifth floor in a matter of seconds. His complexion turned progressively pale when he began finding more and more unfamiliar sights. He recognized none of the neighbors as well.
Many of the people he knew were Magi like him and Rin, yet all of these people he came across the halls were just regular citizens.
When he reached the fifth floor, Shirou ran to door 5B, picking up the keys in his pockets and trying to open the door. But to his horror, they didn't work.
Bang!
Bang!
"Tohsaka!" He shouted, hoping to see a frazzled girl open the door and throwing him an annoyed glare for waking up so early in the morning. "It's me, open the door!"
Click…
A smile surfaced on his face, but it quickly died the moment he saw an elderly lady face him. Not only that, the inside of the room was completely different and looked like someone had been living inside for years.
"Can I help you, sonny?" The old lady asked.
He didn't want to believe it…
"E-Excuse me… d-do you know a certain Rin Tohsaka who used to live here yesterday? Did she move out?" He knew it wasn't possible, they lived together and she couldn't have moved out while having someone else move in so quickly.
"Rin who? I think you have the wrong apartment. I've been here for a decade and never heard of this person. Have a good day."
Bam!
The door slammed to his face, his current reality soon settling inside Shirou's mind. His legs became weak, forcing him to have his back lean against the wall and slowly descend to the ground. A few minutes passed, and the people passing by him didn't pay Shirou any attention.
"No…" he grabbed his phone and dialed her.
.
.
.
[The number you've composed does not exist.]
He called Taiga.
[The number you've composed does not exist.]
Then Luvia.
[The number you've composed does not exist.]
Even Issei, that boy always picked up his calls.
[The number you've composed does not exist.]
"Why… Why me?"
With his head covered with his hands, Shirou slowly muttered.
"Just where did you send me, Tohsaka?"
At this moment, Shirou never felt so lost in his life.
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