The First Page

[book_o_phile]

[After what felt like hours of negotiation with Hadou Ruri Kurou was able to talk her (With the help of a few Chalice members and her butler.) into letting him serve as the pilot of Demonbane. As much as the Princess disliked it their situation had gotten dire, although she was able to convince everyone that keeping Demonbane in Arkham was a

Comments

1. It just gets better and better

[white_deviling]

[Have a Nanoha, Kurou. Despite what happened earlier, she seems to be glad to see another magic user around.]

Kurou-san, then.

I'm Takamachi Nanoha, a mage working for the Time Space Administration Bureau. It's nice to meet you.

[book_o_phile]

Ah you're that little magical cannon from earlier.

[Well that was one way of putting it. Kurou kind of felt embarrassed right now though, this elementary school girl was a mage? At best Kurou could only be considered a Dropout Mage. This bothered him way more than it should have.]

N-nice to meet you also Nanoha.

[white_deviling]

Ah, yes...I guess you could say that.

Um, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a few things about what happened back there.

[book_o_phile]

You know you're the first person your age that I've met that is actually polite.

But sure go ahead I don't have much to hide anymore.

[white_deviling]

[The first? Just what kind of kids did Kurou spend his time around? Oh well...]

Mm, then...

How did you wind up piloting Demonbane? It sounded like you didn't want to be there.

[book_o_phile]

Long story short, that book girl found me while I was looking for a grimoire for the Hadou Princess. I got into a fight with the Black Lodge and then found Demonbane. You know the rest.

[A sigh.]

This was supposed to be such an easy job for easy pay.

[white_deviling]

I see. You're lucky to have found both in the same day.

[That's a nice string of coincidences...but Nanoha can't say much about that considering how she got into magic herself. What Kurou mentions though, brings up something else.]

What did you work as before this happened? And...have you ever used magic before?

[book_o_phile]

Ahahaha...well my luck had to change at some point.

[Although he still wasn't sure that he was making the right decision going along with all of this.]

I'm a PI and well...no at least never in practice. I mostly just learned Magical Theory.

[He was visibly shivering a bit]

[white_deviling]

A PI...like one of those old movies, right?

Even so, that's more than what I knew when I met Raising Heart. A good friend of mine had to teach me everything from scratch.

[And she pauses when she notices that shivering.]

Did...something go wrong?

[book_o_phile]

Yes, just...a lot less luxurious compared to them and...no I just wasn't cut out for the whole magic thing.

[white_deviling]

Are you sure? I did feel a lot of magic earlier...

[An idea.]

Actually...I'd like to check your Linker Core for a bit, if you'd allow me to.

[book_o_phile]

Um sure go ahead.

[He stands still, not exactly sure what Nanoha was going to do.]

This isn't going to hurt is it?

1/2

[white_deviling]

Not at all! It'll just take a second. [And she looks down at the small red pendant of hers.] Raising Heart, can you start a scan please?

Alright. Beginning scan.

[A horizontal beam of light shoots out from the sphere and proceeds to move across Kurou's body, going from top to bottom...]

2/2

[white_deviling]

Scan complete.

[...As soon as that's mentioned, Nanoha takes a look at the results via a small holoscreen of her own...]

Ah--!?

[book_o_phile]

Eheh...that doesn't sound good. What's wrong?

[white_deviling]

No...it's just...

[She pauses, looking confused. What's showing on the screen are just a bunch of jumbled up digits, instead of a clean result like she'd expected.]

I don't think there's supposed to be a number like this...

[Maybe that's something to get the others to look at later...]