Beta read by Opal and FabledLife
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-Earth-
"Where is Shirou?"
From the moment she saw Leticia come back all by herself, the same girl who refused to leave a certain redhead's side at all times. Immediately, she knew something was not right. Soon enough, Nanoha's concern became increasingly difficult to hide.
"Well, he was just with us at first and then..."
Lutecia's explanation had immediately drawn the attention of the other three. Fate wasted no time lowering her tablet slightly while Hayate looked toward the surrounding area, as though the missing redhead might somehow reappear if they simply searched hard enough. "Did Shirou go out somewhere on his own?" The brown-haired mage suggested; it wasn't that odd given he used to live here and probably could have just gone off to meet someone.
Lutecia shook her head. "No. I'm serious, he was just behind us a few seconds ago, and then he vanished almost instantly. He wouldn't go away without telling me... but if that's the case, then he shouldn't be far away, though. He wouldn't normally leave us alone like that." Her expression tightened as she glanced back toward the path they had taken, clearly trying to retrace the moment when she had last seen him. "I also thought maybe he had gone ahead, but I couldn't find him anywhere."
Nanoha nodded; Earth was supposed to be one of the safest places they could be standing. The Time Space Administrative Bureau had enough security and surveillance throughout the area that she should have had little reason to feel uneasy over someone like Shirou being out of sight for a few minutes.
Yet the concern refused to leave, with her trying to convince herself that she was simply becoming overly cautious after everything that had happened recently, but the more she thought about it, the less convincing that explanation became. The brunette turned toward her friend, intending to ask whether she was worrying over nothing, only to stop when she noticed the blonde had already begun working through several security feeds on her tablet with an unusually worried face.
"..."
Nanoha stared at the screen for a moment, then at Fate, going back and forth several times. There was no point asking whether she was being too worried for the person before she was already taking the situation seriously enough to start digging through cameras the TSAB probably had not intended her to access so casually, and the fact that such actions were most definitely breaking several rules...
"I found something strange."
Then again, as long as it worked, one could always turn a blind eye.
That was enough to make everyone move closer. Fate turned the tablet so the others could see the footage, bringing up a recording from only a few minutes earlier. The image showed Shirou walking along the street near where Lutecia had been shopping for vegetables and fruit with the elderly woman. At first, nothing appeared unusual; the latter simply walked along until something caught his attention.
"Hm?"
She observed as his head turned toward a point farther ahead, and after a brief moment of apparent recognition, he changed direction and approached whatever he had noticed. Then, without any warning, his entire body simply... vanished?
All of them stared at the screen with a similar expression of confusion. "Did he just disappear? Was the footage tampered with?"
"It can't be," Fate replied, already checking the recording information. "This was captured only a few minutes ago, and nobody has edited it. The file is intact."
Hayate leaned closer to the screen, studying the surrounding area rather than Shirou himself. "Then he must have seen someone. He wouldn't just walk over there for no reason. Fate, can you show us whoever he was talking to?"
A strange sound escaped the blonde as she worked through the footage. "That's the problem. I can't."
She enlarged the relevant portion of the recording. The location where Shirou appeared to be looking contained nothing unusual. There was an empty table, an empty seat, and enough open space around it to make the situation even stranger. There wasn't even a partial figure that could have been removed from the recording. "Look at this. There's nobody there. The table appears to have been empty for quite a while, and there's no indication that the recording itself has been corrupted."
The four of them stared at the footage again while Fate replayed it several times. She slowed the recording down further, examining each frame around the exact moment Shirou disappeared. Nanoha watched the sequence repeatedly, following the position of his feet and the way his body moved. He hadn't reacted as though he had encountered a wall or a barrier. He had simply continued walking forward as though there were something completely ordinary in front of him.
"Wait," Nanoha murmured, pointing toward the screen. "Go back there. Look at how he moves." Nanoha leaned closer, her eyes narrowing as the footage crawled forward frame by frame. "It looks like he walked through something. Like a veil, except we can't see it."
Fate immediately focused on the same area. Hayate watched alongside her, and even Lutecia moved closer to get a better look. Once the recording was slowed down enough, the distortion became slightly more apparent. Shirou's outline seemed to shift for an instant as he crossed an invisible boundary, almost as though the space around him had briefly changed before swallowing him completely.
"You're right," Fate concluded. "There's some kind of spatial distortion here. From our perspective, there's nothing to see, but from his perspective..." Her finger paused over the screen. "There could have been someone standing there the entire time. Something made him perceive a person or location that the rest of us couldn't."
Nanoha's concern deepened. "So someone can hide an entire person from our perception, create a spatial distortion, and make Shirou walk straight into it without realizing what was happening?"
"That's what it looks like."
That sounded worrisome already. Whoever had done this possessed either advanced magic, some kind of specialized device, or an ability none of them had encountered before. Nanoha searched her memory for anyone who might be capable of such a thing, but only one name came immediately to mind.
"Was it Jail?"
Fortunately, Fate shook her head. "Unlikely. Jail would have gone for something much more direct. His previous methods were far less subtle, and I haven't seen him use anything this advanced before. If he wanted Shirou, I doubt he'd bother or even be capable of creating something this advanced. His speciality more or less focused on cloning and artificial life creation."
That answer did little to ease Nanoha's concern. If it wasn't Jail, then they had no obvious suspect at all. The unknown was far more troubling than facing someone they already understood. She immediately looked toward the others. "We need to search the surrounding area. Find anything that might connect whoever did this to Shirou. Footprints, magical residue, anything unusual. If someone managed to take him without any of us noticing, I want to know how."
Lutecia, who had remained quiet while watching the footage, nodded and finally stepped forward. "I'll search too. My insects can cover places we can't."
The four had barely begun to move when Nanoha suddenly stopped. "-!?" Something in the distance had changed. She felt it before she could properly identify what it was, a sensation like fabric being pulled apart somewhere nearby. Her expression changed immediately. "Watch out!"
Everyone turned toward the same location. The air itself appeared to buckle.
Space folded inward and twisted around itself, colors bleeding into one another until the distortion resembled a kaleidoscope turning through impossible patterns. The strange colors gradually aligned, forming the shape of a mirror-sized gateway suspended in midair. On the other side stood a familiar red-haired man, perfectly unharmed and looking as though he had simply stepped through an ordinary doorway.
Nanoha's shoulders immediately loosened with relief. "Shirou...?"
He raised a hand and waved toward them, apparently having no idea how much concern his disappearance had caused. The sight of him safe should have been enough to settle everything, but instead it left Nanoha with even more questions. Someone had drawn him through that distortion. Someone had created a gateway sophisticated enough to hide itself from their perception.
Then she noticed the woman standing beside him.
Long dark hair like a waterfall framed an unfamiliar face, and nothing about her appearance gave Nanoha any immediate clue as to who she was. The mystery grew when the woman moved closer and wrapped her arms around Shirou.
"..."
Strange, that... felt odd, different from when it happened with those she knew like Fate or even Hayate, not quite knowing what reaction she was supposed to have. It wasn't even jealousy now that she dug deeper to try and understand these emotions - fear. Shirou had spent enough time around them that she believed she knew most of the people important to him. Someone this familiar should have been recognizable, especially if she possessed the ability to create gateways like this.
'Could she be from Earth? If so, why did we never encounter her before? Was she deliberately hiding herself? Or did she come from somewhere else entirely?'
The woman eventually looked directly toward the group. "Huh?" Even though she couldn't hear what she said through the gateway, she could read her lips.
"I'll let you keep him for a bit longer."
For some reason, that sentence bothered Nanoha far more than it should have. Her expression tightened before she could even understand why, the strange irritation lasting only a moment before Shirou was pushed back through the gateway. He stumbled into their world safely as the woman remained on the other side, and the distorted opening immediately began collapsing in on itself.
The colors twisted together once more before the gateway disappeared completely, leaving the group staring at the ordinary space where it had been. Nanoha looked at Shirou, then at the empty air behind him, her thoughts still circling around the mysterious woman and the words she had silently delivered.
For the moment, however, there was one thing she knew for certain. Shirou was back, but whoever had taken him had left behind far more questions than answers.
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Afterward, Nanoha and Fate remained inside the spaceship, sitting across from one another as the conversation they had just shared with Shirou continued to linger between them. Neither seemed particularly eager to speak, leaving the two of them to sit with what they had learned about the mysterious girl and the spell that had brought him back to his original world, if only briefly. It was difficult to reconcile the story they had heard with what they had actually witnessed. For years, Shirou had spoken about the incident that had sent him here, explaining that one of his friends had been experimenting with what he called magecraft, only for Nanoha and the others to eventually understand that the ability being studied was something far more unusual than that.
"It's shocking to actually see it happen."
Nanoha glanced toward her friend. "What is?"
"From the moment Shirou arrived here, he has always mentioned the incident that sent him here. He talked about his friend practicing her magic, or magecraft, as he calls it. Hearing him explain it is one thing, but watching that spell open right in front of us is completely different."
"Wasn't it magic rather than magecraft?" Nanoha recalled. "From what I remember, he explained that magecraft is something that can theoretically be reproduced through science in his world, while the thing his friend was studying was actual magic because it couldn't be replicated that way."
"Right, magic." Fate looked down for a moment, remembering the portal that had appeared before them. "It's just strange seeing something like that happen in front of us. I always imagined it would look far more complicated, especially considering how Shirou described it. Instead, the spell was so simple when it appeared, and honestly, it was beautiful."
The thought brought Nanoha back to what she had seen. "It really was. The spell looked beautiful, and yet I couldn't sense anything from it. Even when the portal opened, I didn't detect any mana or distortion. The only thing I noticed was that brief feeling right before it appeared. My instincts told me something was wrong for a second, but after that, there was nothing."
"But wasn't she supposed to still be practicing?" Fate pointed out. "If she's still learning, how was she able to open something like that so easily?"
Nanoha folded her arms, considering the possibility. "Perhaps it wasn't the girl herself who opened it. Maybe her teacher was responsible."
"Perhaps." Fate lowered the tablet onto her lap before another concern came to mind. "Did something happen to him? When Shirou came back from his time in Japan, he looked a little down. Almost like he was lost."
"I don't know." Nanoha's expression softened as she considered what he must have experienced. "Maybe it was because he couldn't find his house or anyone he recognized. You can understand why that would affect him. Knowing you're in another world is one thing, but actually going back and seeing that the place you remember is gone and that the people you expected to find aren't there is completely different. Being told that something has changed and seeing the consequences of that change for yourself aren't the same thing."
Fate nodded slowly, accepting the explanation. "Then the party we're planning should help him feel better."
That reminder lifted some of the heaviness from Nanoha's thoughts. She remembered the date written in Shirou's report and realized that his birthday was coming the following day. They had gone to considerable effort to keep the preparations hidden from him, with several people contributing throughout the weekend so they could put together something enjoyable without giving away the surprise. It would not be some enormous celebration, but that wasn't really what mattered. If most of the people who knew him and considered him a friend were there, Nanoha was certain he would appreciate it.
"We should make it so amazing that he won't have time to think about anything else. I want him to be completely surprised."
Fate studied her for a moment. "Nanoha, is something wrong?"
The question caught her off guard. She looked away, suddenly aware that her enthusiasm had sounded a little too forced. "Was it really that obvious?"
"Not at the beginning, but your last few words made it pretty obvious." A faint, knowing smile appeared on Fate's face. "We've known each other for years. I can tell when something is bothering you, even when you try to hide it."
Nanoha let out a slow breath and lowered her eyes. "It was never going to be permanent, was it?"
The realization had been sitting somewhere in the back of her mind for a long time, but she had never allowed herself to fully confront it. For a while, she had fallen into the comfortable assumption that things would simply continue as they were, that Shirou would remain here, that they would keep spending time together, and that whatever future awaited them would somehow sort itself out. Yet there had always been one simple fact that could not be ignored. Shirou had not originally belonged to this world. She had heard that fact repeatedly, understood it on an intellectual level, and even accepted it whenever the subject came up, but seeing him return to his original world had forced her to understand what it actually meant.
Fate seemed to recognize the thought without needing it explained. Her expression became more subdued as she nodded. "I feel like I forgot about that too. Maybe I got a little too caught up in everything."
"Do you regret it?"
"I would have regretted it if nothing had been said." Fate's answer came without hesitation. "Keeping everything hidden isn't going to help anyone in the long run. At some point, people have to be honest about what they want and what they're afraid of."
"It could potentially avoid a heartbreak."
"Would it?"
Nanoha had no answer ready for that. The question was simple, but it struck directly at the problem she had been trying not to face. Avoiding something did not necessarily prevent it from happening. It could simply leave everyone unprepared when the inevitable finally arrived.
Fate stood and gave her friend's shoulders a gentle tap as she passed. "It's probably better not to spend too much time thinking about the stressful parts right now. Instead, we should make sure that no matter how long he stays here, whether it's a few months, a year, several years, or even only a few days, he gets to enjoy his time with us. We should spend as much time together as we can while we actually have the chance."
She walked away, leaving Nanoha watching her go. She knew her friend was being mature and logical, and more frustratingly, she knew Fate was right. Most of her agreed completely with what had been said. Yet a small part of her still resisted, refusing to accept the possibility that everything she had become accustomed to might eventually come to an end. Those selfish thoughts had begun to creep into her mind before she immediately shook her head and gently slapped both cheeks with her palms.
"Get your mind out of the gutter."
Still feeling embarrassed by where her thoughts had wandered, Nanoha went into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. She practiced smiling several times, adjusting her expression until it looked natural rather than forced, then took a deep breath and finally stepped back outside. Her eyes soon found Shirou speaking with Lutecia, the two carrying on their conversation as naturally as they always did. Watching the young girl made Nanoha wonder if Lutecia was dealing with some of the same thoughts herself. Even if she was, she continued behaving as she normally would, choosing to spend the time she had with him rather than allowing uncertainty about the future to ruin the present. In its own way, Nanoha found that admirable.
{Break}
(A few hours later)
The journey back itself ended up being short enough for most to not even notice the passage of time, still engrossed in their emotions to notice Midchilda in the distance, their spaceship eventually settling into one of the spaceport's designated landing areas. As everyone began making their way out, Nanoha had only taken a few steps before she heard Shirou calling after her.
At the corner of her eye, the woman saw Shirou step closer, most likely wanting to talk, but the moment she looked at him, the thoughts she had been trying to push aside came rushing back.
The earlier conversation..., the portal that had appeared..., Rin's presence, who had taken him away for a brief moment, and the realization that Shirou could eventually leave all came back at once. She knew herself well enough to realize that her mind was not in the right state to speak with him normally without eventually giving something away.
"Hey, Shirou. I just have something I need to take care of. I'll talk to you soon."
Before he could ask anything else, she turned and hurried inside the nearest building, her pace just quick enough to keep from looking suspicious. Once finding an empty office, she slipped inside and closed the door behind her before leaning against it and shutting her eyes. "Hah..." An exhausted breath escaped her as she tried to settle herself, but her heartbeat still refused to calm down. She pressed a hand against her chest and frowned at herself, frustrated by how strongly the conversation had affected her.
"What am I doing?"
The question lingered in the empty room as she pushed herself away from the door and eventually returned to the apartment she shared with the others. The moment she stepped inside, however, her eyes landed on the cardboard boxes scattered around the room. Several of her belongings had already been packed away, making it obvious that she was in the middle of moving out. It had seemed like a perfectly natural decision when she had made it. Shirou was supposed to receive a new accommodation with more space and additional rooms, which would make it possible for her to live there as well. Looking at everything packed away now, though, she began wondering if she had been rushing things. Perhaps some part of her had understood that if she did not take the opportunity when it appeared, she might never get another chance.
"This isn't like me."
She shook her head before dropping onto her bed, allowing her hair to fall loose after removing the ponytail she usually wore. For several moments, she stared at the ceiling and tried to stop thinking about things she could not control. Eventually, another thought came to her, simple enough that she could actually do something about it.
"I should get him a gift. I can't believe I forgot to get him one when we were on Earth."
His disappearance had completely distracted her, and by the time they were halfway across the galaxy, she had suddenly remembered that she had not prepared anything for his birthday. By then, it was already too late to do anything about it while they were away. She sat up and looked around her room, deciding that if she focused on something practical, perhaps the troublesome thoughts would finally leave her alone.
"What should I get him?"
She began searching through her wardrobe and dresser, pulling out one item after another and examining each possibility before rejecting it. "Not this one. Not this one either. This looks terrible." Nothing seemed suitable, and after several attempts, she finally grabbed her phone and started searching for something she could buy or have delivered on Mid-Childa. The search lasted far longer than she expected, yet everything she found either seemed too impersonal, too expensive, or simply did not feel like something Shirou would appreciate.
"This isn't right. Maybe something more personal?"
Her phone suddenly rang with a message from Fate. Opening it, Nanoha found an image waiting for her. It was a photograph taken before they had left for Earth, showing the entire group together. She stared at the picture for a while, her expression gradually softening as her eyes settled on Shirou. He was smiling, not broadly or dramatically, but with the quiet happiness she had become familiar with whenever he was surrounded by people he cared about. Everyone else was smiling as well, and for a moment, the picture made the room feel considerably less empty.
"He is happy here, right?"
The question came quietly as she continued looking at the photograph. His time with them had hardly been perfect. He had been kidnapped once, and there had been another situation where things could have ended terribly if he had not relied on his magecraft. Even with all of that, he continued to smile whenever he was around them and was always willing to help whenever someone needed him. It was almost strange when she thought about it from that perspective. Shirou was the one who had arrived in their world without knowing anyone, yet he constantly behaved as though they were the people who needed his help rather than the other way around. Maybe that was one of the reasons she had become so attached to having him around.
Nanoha lowered the phone and pressed it gently against her face, closing her eyes as the realization became harder to ignore.
"I'm so selfish."
She remained that way for a moment before finally getting up and deciding to focus on something she could actually control. She walked into the kitchen, opened one of the cupboards, and retrieved a small plastic bag that had remained unopened among her belongings. Inside was an apron that was a size or two larger than what she normally wore. She looked from the apron to the photograph still displayed on her phone, then back again, and an idea formed.
"I know what to give him."
Shirou had never seemed particularly concerned with the price or luxury of a gift. If someone gave him something simple but sincere, he would probably appreciate it just as much as something expensive. Nanoha also knew how much he enjoyed cooking, and that made the apron feel far more appropriate than anything she had found during her search. It was something he could actually use, something connected to an interest he genuinely enjoyed rather than merely an expensive object that would end up sitting somewhere untouched.
She placed the phone beside the apron and looked at them together, already imagining how it would look when she finally gave it to him.
"This is perfect."
A voice suddenly came from behind her. "So that's what you're going to give him? Not bad."
"Ah!"
The brunette's eyes widened, having not even sensed a single soul inside her own apartment. Instincts immediately took over before she had even processed the words. Raising Heart activated in her hand as she spun around. Before she could fire, however, a finger gently pressed against her lips.
"-!?"
"Calm down. I'm not here to fight you."
Only then did Nanoha properly look at the intruder.
The brown-haired girl was calmly squatting behind her, dressed in remarkably neat clothes despite having somehow entered the apartment without making a sound. This time having a twin-tail hairstyle, unlike the first time she saw her face framed, one briefly glimpsed through the portal. The girl was looking at the apron with a lazy expression, as though she had simply walked into the room.
Nanoha slowly lowered Raising Heart, though her eyes remained fixed on the unexpected visitor. The familiar face finally connected with the memory from the other side of the portal, and disbelief spread across her features.
"Tohsaka... Rin?"
Rin smiled slightly, a hint of amusement appearing on her face. "Oh, so Shirou actually told you about me after all. I admit, I was a little worried he might have kept his mouth shut about me, but the more I think about it, the less likely it seems for someone like Emiya to lie. He's not that good of a liar... for now at least."
Despite the casual tone, Nanoha found herself taking a few cautious steps backward, trying to reconcile the person she remembered from Shirou's explanations with the one now standing inside her apartment as though they had known each other for years. "Um... What is going on here? How are you... here?"
Rin rose to her feet and stretched her arms above her head, looking far too relaxed for someone who had just appeared inside another person's home without warning. "No need to look so suspicious of me. I'm just here for a talk."
"A talk?"
"If you're wondering how I'm here, I actually had two requests from my teacher. The first was to meet Emiya, tell him what happened, and make sure he understood that he was okay. The second was to take a look at the people he's surrounded by. I figured I'd save that part for later and hear his side of things first. After that, I thought, who better to meet than Nanoha?"
She wandered around the apartment as she spoke, behaving less like an unexpected visitor and more like someone who had been invited inside. There was no hesitation when she picked up one of the framed photographs scattered around the room, looking over the pictures of Nanoha and her friends. Some showed her alongside Fate, others included members of the TSAB, while a few featured Shirou among them. After examining the frame for a moment, Rin returned it to its place and moved toward the large window overlooking the capital, her attention shifting to the enormous city beyond the glass.
"This place ain't half bad. It's not exactly what I pictured for a space-traveling futuristic setting, but it's close enough."
The casual remark did little to ease Nanoha's uncertainty. She still wasn't sure what to make of this woman, especially with how naturally she was acting around someone she had only just met. For a moment, she considered calling Fate or even Shirou, but the thought quickly became unnecessary. If this really was simply a visit to speak with her, there was little reason for Rin to have appeared in such a roundabout way, and if she wanted to meet the others, she could have gone looking for them herself. Nanoha eventually cleared her throat and decided to at least make an attempt at being a proper host.
"I'm sorry about the mess. I wasn't expecting guests."
Rin waved the apology away almost immediately. "It's not a problem. You should see my room right now. It's an even bigger disaster than this, and there's barely any space to walk around. I had to shove everything into that place at the last minute after my apartment got burned because of the explosion from the spell."
That answer only gave her more to think about. The woman was speaking to her with such ease that it almost felt as though they were old acquaintances catching up after years apart, yet there was no reason they should have that kind of familiarity. Logically, there was no obvious reason to treat this meeting as anything other than an amicable conversation, but some part of Nanoha still refused to completely lower its guard. She kept that uncertainty to herself and moved toward the machine to prepare some tea instead.
For several minutes, neither of them seemed bothered by the lack of conversation while Nanoha prepared the drinks. There was no awkwardness to the quiet, only the ordinary sounds of the machine and the occasional movement around the apartment. Eventually, she glanced over at her guest and offered another choice. "Do you want something else? Coffee, maybe?"
"Coffee. I've had enough tea for now, and I'd like to change things up a little."
"Good. I have one of the best blends I got recently." Nanoha prepared another cup and handed it over, receiving a polite nod in return.
"Thank you." Rin took a sip, then gave an approving little nod. "This is quite good."
"I got it from Fate."
"Fate? Oh, your blonde-haired friend?"
"Yes, her."
The redhead took another sip before setting the cup down. Her attention then shifted to the apron Nanoha had been holding for some time. She picked it up, examining the fabric before looking back at its owner with an expression that suggested she had already figured out its purpose. "Is this a gift for Shirou?"
"Yes. It's his birthday tomorrow, and I want to prepare something special for him. Everyone else is preparing gifts too, so I want mine to be something he'll actually enjoy."
Rin tilted her head, looking at the apron once more before her expression softened with understanding. "His birthday? Tomorrow? Eh... Oh! I see... that's the date he... nevermind. Well, I think it looks good. It certainly fits his style."
Clearly, there was something behind Rin's words that she was choosing not to explain, and Nanoha was not sure whether pressing the matter would make her more forthcoming or simply encourage another round of teasing. Still, given that this woman had known Shirou for far longer than anyone here, and had apparently been close enough to him in his original world to know things about him that Nanoha had never heard, asking for her opinion seemed worthwhile. She lifted her teacup and studied the other woman over its rim before finally deciding to address what had been left unsaid. "Do you believe the gift is not good enough?"
"You really don't need to put that much thought into it," Rin replied, leaning back comfortably. "Emiya is the kind of person who'll be genuinely grateful for almost anything someone gives him, especially if they put some thought into it. An apron suits him perfectly. But if you want to take the bold route, well, apparently the two of you are in a relationship now."
"Huh?"
The remark immediately made her composure falter. Until that moment, she had been perfectly comfortable discussing the gift, but now she became painfully aware of the woman sitting across from her and the fact that she was someone who had shared a considerable part of Shirou's life. There was no way of knowing whether anything romantic had ever existed between them or whether they had simply been close friends, yet the uncertainty alone was enough to make her fingers tighten around the teacup. "What do you mean by bold?"
"Shirou has always been polite, stubborn, and so oblivious that sometimes you wonder how he manages to notice anything happening around him. He also has a tendency to act like a perfectly respectable young man right up until his teenage side decides to make an appearance every now and then. That part of him hasn't changed much from when we were in high school."
Nanoha's eyes widened. "I... don't understand what you're talking about."
The other woman gave her an utterly casual look before delivering the suggestion as though she were discussing another ordinary present. "Go with a naked apron. He'll be all over you."
"Naked what!?"
For several seconds, Nanoha's entire face remained frozen in disbelief before the color rushed into her cheeks. Her eyes widened, her mouth fell open, and the carefully maintained composure she had been trying to recover disappeared completely. The image had already formed in her mind before she could stop it, and that only made everything worse!
"H-He... he likes that?" Her voice came out unevenly. "I suppose it would make sense. He is still a man, after all. Maybe I could try it, but only when it's us alone... I mean, that's still... but..."
"Oi, I was kidding."
Hearing Rin's words, the young woman's realization hit her a moment later, and her expression collapsed into an embarrassed pout. "Hey! That was not nice... Now I understand where he got that habit of teasing people."
To have someone else tease her so easily when she usually was the person to do the teasing was certainly a novel experience.
"It's actually the other way around," Rin countered, looking far too pleased with herself. "Shirou is the one with that side to him. He can be a bit of a pervert, or at least he has his share of lewd thoughts. Those were things he admitted to me privately years ago, though he's made a pretty convincing effort to act as if he's grown out of it. I'm not entirely convinced."
That earned a small laugh from Nanoha despite herself. "Are there any other quirks or habits of his that I don't know about?"
"He has a secret interest in guns."
"Guns?" The answer caught her completely off guard. She had seen Shirou use swords, bows, arrows, and magecraft, but firearms had never once been something she associated with him. The idea of him suddenly becoming fascinated with guns was strange enough that she had to wonder whether she had somehow misunderstood. "I did hear him helping out Teana, but I've never seen him use one."
"I had the same reaction. He went on a trip with some enforcers once, came back, and suddenly couldn't stop talking about guns. It lasted for several days before he finally calmed down. He kept going on about how beautifully some of them were made and how he hadn't expected them to look that good. For a while, it sounded like he genuinely wanted to try using one."
Nanoha shook her head, still processing the revelation. "That's definitely something I never knew."
"There are plenty of little quirks he tries to keep hidden. They have a habit of surfacing sooner or later, though, and you'll probably discover them yourself just by spending enough time with him." Rin's gaze shifted toward the cardboard boxes scattered around the room, and her expression became slightly more knowing. "You've got plenty of time to figure those things out."
Nanoha understood that they could continue exchanging harmless stories about Shirou for only so long. Eventually, they had to address the reason this woman had appeared in their world in the first place. She lowered her teacup and looked directly at her. "Um, Tohsak-"
"Just call me Rin."
Right, Rin, if this is about Shirou staying in this world and eventually finding a way back...
"You're sharp. Yeah, that's why I'm here."
The response made Nanoha close her eyes for a moment as she gathered herself. She had spent so much time trying to help Shirou find a way home, knowing that his life belonged somewhere else even while a part of her had grown accustomed to having him around. Whatever else she felt about his eventual departure, she could not deny that having someone from his own world here, someone who understood where he came from, was a good thing. "We've done everything we could to help him find a way back, and we never intended to stop. So if you're here to help him return, then I'm genuinely glad. More than anything, I want Shirou to be able to go home."
"There is a misunderstanding here."
Confused, the brown-haired mage stared back at Rin, who raised one finger as she leaned back. "First, I didn't come here through my own abilities, so I can't just open another portal whenever I feel like it. Even if I wanted to take him home myself, I couldn't. Second, I promised my teacher that I'll accomplish it myself. And third, I didn't come here to take Shirou away. I came here to look at you and the others, make sure things are actually safe for him, and be certain he isn't going to get himself into trouble."
The clarification brought some relief, although one part of the explanation immediately caught Nanoha's attention. "What did you mean by that last part?"
Rin's gaze moved toward the window as she considered how to explain it. "I didn't come here completely unprepared. I managed to get a basic understanding of what the TSAB is and what it does. Frankly, it's not all that different from one of Shirou's dreams. You people have the means to protect not just a single planet, but several worlds spread across an entire galaxy - that's exactly the problem."
Nanoha's brow furrowed. "How can that be a problem? He's doing quite well, and if you're worried about his safety, I can guarantee that Riot Force 6 and I will always do everything we can to keep him out of danger. I'll use every ability I have to make sure of that."
"That's not what I'm worried about." Rin shook her head. "I'm not worried about him getting killed or hurt. With Shirou's personality, getting hurt is practically guaranteed anyway. Spending half his life at death's door because he did something stupid to help someone else used to be a regular occurrence, although he's gotten better about it lately. What concerns me is the environment itself. Keeping him here for too long could make him even more involved in this whole business of saving people. It could potentially reinforce the part of him that thinks he always has to be the one doing it."
So she said, but Nanoha still failed to see the issue with that. "There is nothing wrong with helping people."
"Urgh!" The reaction was immediate enough that Rin nearly choked on her coffee. She lowered the cup and stared at Nanoha as though she had just heard something completely unexpected, her eyes narrowing as she studied the girl across from her for several seconds. The scrutiny became uncomfortable, with her wondering what exactly she had said wrong.
"Holy shit. Another one." Rin lowered her voice, more to herself than anyone else. "Maybe you... No, it's not something you heard from him."
"What?"
Both hands went to Rin's face as she rubbed her temples. "Great. There are two of them. As if this couldn't get any worse."
Nanoha's expression tightened with growing frustration. "I don't see the issue. Why are you so frustrated about the idea of saving people? The TSAB and I have been doing that for years. I'm not saying there aren't downsides to it, but helping someone who needs help isn't something I consider a problem."
"Unfortunately for you, Shirou isn't your typical mage or some random goody-two-shoes with a heart of gold who simply wants to help people. There's more to it than that, he wants... no, he wanted to save eveyone." Rin lowered her hands and looked directly at her. "I've spent years trying to pull him away from that mindset, and now I find out he's surrounded by people who might actually encourage it."
Nanoha's confusion only deepened. "What is going on? Why could this be bad for him? For Shirou? He won't be alone, we are all striving for a similar goal."
"What do you actually know about him?"
The question caught her off guard. Nanoha took a moment to organize what she knew before answering. "Only what he's been willing to share with us. I know the basic story of his childhood, that he grew up in his hometown with a stepfather, that you were classmates, and how we eventually got to know each other. Beyond that, there are things he hasn't really talked about."
Rin gave a quiet hum of understanding. "So he didn't tell you much. That makes sense. It's not like there's some simple revelation that he can drop into a conversation and suddenly make everything about him understandable."
She rose from her seat and walked a few steps away, her expression becoming more serious as she continued. "Shirou wants to be a hero. That has never changed, not from the moment he was a boy. What I'm trying to prevent isn't him accomplishing that dream in the way you're thinking. It's the way he might accomplish it. When I was with him, I could at least put the brakes on him when he started going too far. I could stop him before he convinced himself that sacrificing everything he had, including his own life, was simply the price he needed to pay to save everyone."
Rin turned around, her expression unusually grave. "There's a future I'm trying to prevent. A future where he actually accomplishes his dream of becoming a hero, but does it in such a way that he spends the rest of his life regretting what it cost him."
Nanoha gave her a strange look, still trying to understand how someone could reach such a conclusion while supposedly achieving the very dream they wanted. Rin noticed the confusion and continued before she could interrupt.
"Becoming a hero in your world has a very different meaning from becoming a hero in ours. It's complicated. All you need to know is that I'll do whatever I can to keep him from becoming like a certain future version of himself. I want him to learn that his own life has value too, instead of always treating everyone else's life as more important than his."
The words settled over Nanoha, and although she still did not understand everything Rin was keeping from her, the point itself was something she could accept. "I will never tell him to abandon his dream or reinforce any bad habits, and I won't stand against him simply because I don't agree with the path he chooses. But I will make sure he values himself. I don't know exactly what happened to him, and I don't know what you're keeping from me, but if there's something that could harm him, even if that something turns out to be himself, I'll make sure to protect him from it. Whatever it takes."
A giggle escaped Rin; the latter looked genuinely amused by the answer, as though Nanoha had just confirmed something she had already suspected.
Before either of them could continue, the air beside her distorted. The familiar portal began forming in front of Rin. She glanced toward it and let out a quiet breath. "Looks like I'm already out of time. Can't have my teacher get impatient."
She turned back once more with a softer expression. "I can understand, to a certain extent, why he likes you."
Nanoha barely had time to react before Rin continued. "Shirou is stubborn. He can be hopelessly dense despite how competent he makes himself look, and he's perfectly capable of making some incredibly stupid decisions when someone else is in danger. He also has this annoying habit of forgetting that his own life matters whenever someone needs help. But he's capable of changing. I've seen him do it. So I hope you'll keep sharing that goal with him, not just with the man you know, but with the man he's becoming. Keep him safe, and make sure he remembers that he deserves to be saved too."
With that, she turned toward the portal and stepped through it. The opening folded in on itself behind her, leaving Nanoha alone with everything she had just been told and several questions that still had no answers.
"Hah..."
She eventually collapsed back onto her bed, more exhausted than she had expected to feel after the conversation. Rin had caught her completely off guard, yet despite everything that had been said, Nanoha couldn't help feeling that the conversation had gone well. Hoping that she left a good enough impression on the other woman, and perhaps more importantly, she now understood that Shirou's desire to help people was not quite as simple as she had assumed. Even so, she didn't intend to let that ruin what was coming next. She pushed herself back up and made herself a promise. "I'll make sure this is the best birthday he's ever had."
...
Or so she thought.
The next day, Nanoha went to the party with exactly that mindset. For an entire day, she managed to have fun, taking part in the various activities arranged by everyone while Shirou joined in alongside them. The others had come up with their own ways of celebrating, and for a while, Nanoha's worries seemed distant enough that she could simply enjoy being around him.
Somewhere along the way, however, she began drinking. One cup of alcohol became another, then another, with each drink making the concerns she had been carrying since meeting Rin feel less important. By the end of the day, she was happier, more relaxed, and far less concerned with the questions that had been bothering her. At least, that was what she thought. When she finally found herself standing in front of Shirou, the alcohol had already lowered the restraint she normally kept over her emotions, and the words escaped before she could properly consider them.
"I don't want you to leave."
Only afterward did a small, painfully sober part of her mind finally catch up with what she had just admitted.
'I'm really the worst.'
{Break}
This was... awkward?
Shirou stood frozen in place, completely unsure of what he was supposed to say or do after hearing those words. He knew perfectly well that the alcohol was responsible for lowering Nanoha's inhibitions, but he also couldn't convince himself that the feeling had come entirely from the drinks. Alcohol could make someone more willing to speak, but it couldn't simply create a feeling that had never existed.
He slowly turned toward her, finding that she was still holding onto him. Her arms remained around his body, and he could feel the warmth of her through the layers of clothing separating them. For once, the normally dependable redhead had no immediate solution to the situation in front of him, because whatever answer he gave now had the potential to mean far more than either of them was prepared to admit.
"What is going on?" Shirou asked, looking down at her. The question sounded almost redundant the moment it left his mouth, considering the answer was written plainly across her face, but he still reached over and gave her a gentle pat on the back, hoping to ease whatever had been troubling her. "I'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. Not that I can anyway, even if I wanted to." He tried to lighten the mood with another joke, only to regret it almost immediately. Given the way she was looking at him, this hardly seemed like the right time for humor.
"You say that, but at the end of the day, you do plan on going back, don't you?"
The question left him thoughtful for a moment. "Do you want me not to? Do you want me to stay here?"
Nanoha's expression tightened as she struggled with the answer. "I want to say yes, but I know that's a selfish request. If I asked you to stay when you have people waiting for you back home, I'd only be hurting you."
He could tell from her expression that she did not entirely believe her own words. Rather than pressing her further, he raised a hand and offered an easier alternative. "How about we go outside for a walk? We could use some fresh air, get some water, and maybe work some of the alcohol out of our system."
She agreed, and the two of them eventually made their way outside. The streets were unusually quiet, with only a handful of people moving through the area, and Shirou found himself glancing around as they walked. "It's strange. I didn't realize places could be this quiet. Whenever I go outside, there barely seems to be anyone around."
"That's pretty normal for Mid-Childa. People here are disciplined, and most of them work for the TSAB, so you don't get the same kind of crowds you'd see in other places."
She took another step and suddenly swayed, her balance giving out for a moment. Shirou caught her before she could fall, one arm wrapping around her waist as she leaned against him. Once she had steadied herself, he looked down at her with concern. "What's going on?"
"It's nothing. I've just been thinking too much lately." She looked away before quietly adding, "I'm sorry."
"Why?"
"I keep telling myself that you're having a good time here and that we'll make sure you're always safe, but you keep ending up in dangerous situations. Even when you tell me that you chose to put yourself there, I can't stop feeling responsible for it." Her voice became quieter as the thought she had been avoiding finally surfaced. "I wonder how much time we have left."
The question caught him off guard enough to make him visibly flustered. "You mean... you want me to stay here forever with you?"
The blush already lingering across her face from the alcohol deepened immediately. She cleared her throat and looked away, but she did not actually answer him. She did not need to. The expression alone made her feelings obvious.
He looked ahead, his own expression becoming more thoughtful. "I've asked myself that question several times too."
"What answer did you come up with?"
"I don't know. I'm honestly not sure." He rubbed the back of his head, trying to put the thought into words. "Even if I left this place, I've made too many friends and connections here to just forget about everyone. I don't think I could leave without missing them."
"But you also have plenty of friends and precious people waiting for you in your own world, right?"
He could not deny that.
"Yeah. There are times when I really miss them. It's been a long time since I checked up on Fuji-nee, and sometimes I wonder if she's been doing all right. The last thing I heard was that she was talking about dating someone, so I at least want to make sure my disappearance hasn't affected her too badly. I'm not too worried about that, though. The cover story should keep people from learning what actually happened, and Rin definitely made sure there was nothing obvious left behind that would draw attention to my disappearance."
His thoughts continued as he considered the people he had left behind. "It's also been a while since I've checked up on my old high school friends, like Issei and Ayako. Then there are the people I met through the Clocktower. Some started as acquaintances and eventually became friends. Now that I think about it, there are actually quite a lot of people I'd consider friends."
"Exactly. We can't ask you to abandon all of those people just to stay here forever. I know I wouldn't be able to do that either if our positions were reversed."
"It's a bit of a conundrum, isn't it?" A faint smile appeared on his face. "But I'm not that worried about it right now."
She looked at him with obvious disbelief, as though she could not understand how he could say that so easily. Yet there was nothing forced about his expression. He genuinely meant it. "Rather than spending all my time worrying about what happens later, I'd rather live in the present. There's no point in wasting every day thinking about something I can't control, wearing myself out over how much time I have left when I could be spending that time with you all and enjoying whatever time we actually have. Maybe I'll be here for years, or maybe I'll have to leave tomorrow. I don't know. But while I'm here, I want to make the most of it."
He glanced toward her before continuing, his tone becoming more certain. "And just because I want to see the people from my world again doesn't mean I'm going to abandon everyone here either. I'll find a way to come back. Somehow, I'll make it work."
The answer finally brought a small laugh from her. "Are you planning on turning Rin into your personal taxi driver between worlds?"
The thought brought a smile to Shirou's face as he considered the woman in question. "She would probably agree if I gave her what she wanted. She's surprisingly agreeable when someone knows how to offer her something of equal value, something convenient, or simply something she happens to need at the time. But I don't want to use her like that." There was a certain temptation in taking advantage of such an arrangement, especially when his goal was something as important as finding a way home, yet doing so would leave him feeling as though he had treated an ally as nothing more than a convenient tool.
"If there is a way to cross worlds and reach my own home through magic, then there should probably be something similar here. Whether it's true magic or some kind of device, there has to be a method I can use."
Nanoha considered his words before shaking her head. "In all my years working as a mage for the TSAB, I've never heard of a device or a magic spell capable of crossing between completely different worlds like that. Even with ancient Belkan technology, I've never encountered anything that could accomplish it."
That only made his smile grow. "Who's to say that just because you haven't found anything doesn't mean it doesn't exist? I haven't seen everything this world has to offer, and considering how ridiculous some of the magic users here can be, I still believe there's a way. We just haven't found it yet."
A small laugh escaped her. "You're being very optimistic. At this point, you're basically hoping for a miracle."
Shirou's response was immediate. He reached over, gently took her face in his hands, and kissed her. The unexpected gesture left her startled for only a moment before she leaned forward herself, returning the kiss instead of pulling away. When they finally separated, he kept his gaze on her with a faint smile. "If you're calling it a miracle, then I'll just have to find a way to make it happen. Miracles can happen."
The sincerity in his expression softened her features. Nanoha reached down and took his hand, intertwining her fingers with his as she looked at him with quiet affection. "If that's what you believe, then I'll trust you. And if you're willing to keep believing in it, I'll do everything I can to help you find that miracle. The others will help too. We won't stop looking until we've done everything we can."
Shirou was just about to lean down for another kiss when something caught his attention. A brief glint flashed somewhere above them, so faint that he initially wondered whether it had merely been a reflection. "Eh?"
His expression changed as he looked upward, and Nanoha followed his gaze. The glint appeared again, this time much closer, a tiny silver point rapidly growing larger as it descended toward them.
"-!"
It took Shirou only a moment to realize that it was not sunlight or some harmless reflection. Something was flying directly toward them, and whatever it was had enough speed to make his instincts immediately react.
Nanoha moved first. "Barrier!"
Raising Heart materialized in her hand as she thrust it forward, a dome of mana forming around them. The timing was almost right, but not quite. The projectile had already crossed too much distance before the barrier could fully establish itself, and the moment it struck the forming shield, the magical surface began to crack apart under the impact. Nanoha's eyes widened as the barrier gave way faster than she had expected, but Shirou was already moving.
"Watch out!"
Kanshou and Bakuya appeared in his hands, and he crossed the two blades in front of himself, using their flat sides as a makeshift shield just as the projectile reached them.
Bang!
The impact produced a deafening bang. Shirou's entire body was driven backward, his arms jolting from the force as his feet nearly lost contact with the ground. Before the impact could send him tumbling away, Nanoha caught hold of him and braced herself against him.
"I've got you!"
He gritted his teeth and pushed forward with everything he had, forcing the incoming projectile away from their bodies. The two blades finally redirected it enough for the object to shoot past them, tearing through the air before striking the ground some distance away. Both of them lost their footing in the aftermath and fell, but Shirou immediately pushed himself back up and looked toward the direction of the attack.
A drone hovered in the distance. Before he could make sense of what he was seeing, the machine suddenly detonated, destroying itself in a violent burst. The remains scattered through the air before falling out of sight, leaving Shirou staring at the empty space where it had been.
"Um... Shirou?"
Nanoha's voice drew his attention back. He turned toward her and noticed that she was staring at the place where the projectile had landed. Following her gaze, he looked down at the object more carefully, and his expression changed as he finally understood what had nearly struck them. This had not been some kind of magical beam or energy blast. It was a physical projectile, and its shape immediately caught his attention. The object resembled a twisted sword, or more accurately, the blade of one, lacking both a hilt and a guard.
Shirou's eyes narrowed as he studied it. At first glance, the shape seemed unfamiliar, but the more he examined its form, the more a strange resemblance emerged.
A weapon made out of pure mana, yet it resembled a physical weapon. A spell...
The closest comparison he could make was to the Nameless Noble Phantasm he remembered using before. The similarity was not exact, but it was far too close for him to dismiss as coincidence. That alone would have been strange enough, but what happened next disturbed him even more.
Before his eyes, the blade began to break apart.
The material fragmented along lines that looked strangely familiar, the entire object disintegrating in almost the same manner as the projectiles created through his own abilities before fading away completely. Shirou stared at the empty space where the blade had been, his mind struggling to reconcile what he had just witnessed with everything he knew.
"What?"
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