When Huo Lin left the publishing house, she discovered that a light rain had started outside.
She had not brought an umbrella, but a little rain like this was no problem.
Summer rain was not cold. Instead, it brought a faint scent of earth as it fell.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the street, a blonde girl was walking along with a boy.
Another week had passed since their investigation began.
They had received support from the Asura: the boy beside Fate, named Yuno Scrya. Though still very young, he had already spent years excavating ruins and was an expert in ancient magic and identifying Ancient Belka Relics.
Yet a week had gone by without any progress in the investigation. Nothing else had happened, either.
Admiral Lindy had already ordered them to return.
The Eighth Battleship was responsible for responding to emergency combat missions and dealing with dangerous fugitives and magical criminals. Investigative cleanup like this was never supposed to be the work of their elite unit.
The Time-Space Administration Bureau had more specialized departments to handle the follow-up.
Still, Fate hesitated.
This place was too close to Nanoha's home. She really did not want to leave any potential danger unresolved.
Just then, Yuno suddenly stopped.
"What is it, Yuno?"
Yuno did not answer. His eyes turned toward the other side of the street, where a short man was walking past. He looked like an adult, yet stood less than 160 centimeters tall.
Yuno had not detected anything unusual about the man. More precisely, he could not sense him at all.
He could see him with his eyes, but as a mage, he was more accustomed to sensing things through magic-and that spot was empty! There was a magic-free zone roughly two meters across.
Something's wrong. Very wrong! Earth was supposed to be a nonmagical world, not because its environment contained no magic, but because most humans living there were born without a thought-moving core and therefore could not construct spells.
There were exceptions, though. Whenever an Earthling possessed a thought-moving core, they were almost always a top-class archmage.
Someone capable of creating a magical vacuum certainly could not be an ordinary person. He might well be an archmage.
Fate had also spotted the middle-aged man. More importantly, both of them noticed that he had turned his gaze toward them.
He had noticed them, too!
There was something off about this person. He might even be connected to the incident they were currently investigating. Yuno had no evidence, but that was what his intuition told him.
Fate and Yuno exchanged a glance, both quietly going on guard. Fate rested her hand on Raising Heart in its standby form, ready to activate it at any moment, while Yuno prepared to deploy a defensive magic circle.
But the man merely glanced at them before looking away again, continuing unhurriedly through the rain.
"Should we follow him?" Fate was already preparing to cross the street as she spoke, but Yuno stopped her.
"Wait. Contact the Time-Space Administration Bureau first!"
Fate was currently a provisional enforcer with the Time-Space Administration Bureau-in simpler terms, a trainee.
During the Jewel Seed Incident a year earlier, she had still been a suspect, and she had indeed caused considerable destruction.
Only after Admiral Lindy vouched for her and she was subsequently acquitted had she passed the assessments and joined the Bureau. She had yet to grow accustomed to her official position and still had not shaken her habit of acting alone.
By comparison, Yuno was much more mature.
"Wait-ah, he's gone!"
The man really was gone, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye. A moment later, Yuno ducked into an alley and activated a wide-area search spell, but found nothing unusual.
Naturally, he had no idea that Huo Lin was directly above him, at an altitude of over two thousand meters.
She was already beyond the search spell's range.
The rain had stopped, because she was now above the clouds.
Huo Lin did not know any flight spells, but that did not stop her from flying. All she had to do was hold herself up with magic.
An airplane needed to account for aerodynamics, but even a brick could fly with enough thrust. That was exactly how Huo Lin was doing it. She had enough magical power, so she did not need any technique.
This was not in the Book of the Night Sky. It recorded sophisticated spells, not a brute's reckless antics. Huo Lin had worked this out through her own experiments.
The disguises from her hair clip and bow tie had already been removed. The girl standing high in the sky now looked just like Hayate-Huo Lin's original appearance.
The sun had already sunk in the west, leaving only a final glow along the distant horizon. The sky was filled with stars, free of smog and light pollution-a sight that could never be seen from the ground in Tokyo.
Huo Lin suddenly felt that this was what magic was truly for.
With her powerful magic, she could also hear the voices of the two mages on the ground.
Time-Space Administration Bureau. Admiral.
Those terms made her realize that the two of them were probably officials on this world's magical side, though they looked awfully young.
From the way they addressed each other, she learned their names. The boy was Yuno, and the girl was Fate. They looked about the same age as Huo Lin.
It was hardly surprising that there was an official magical organization. Although she had brought the magical girl system with her, it was also a fact that this world contained magic.
That meant she could not possibly be the only person who could use it. The fact that she had never encountered it before, and that it remained unknown in the ordinary world, meant there had to be an official organization regulating it.
She did not necessarily have to avoid the authorities.
But she needed to learn about them first. Their attitude toward civilians who could use magic outside their organization, the restrictions they imposed-all of that mattered.
Huo Lin would only approach them once she was certain they meant well.
Maybe suddenly turning into a magical girl like I did isn't all that unusual on the magical side?
With official help, I wouldn't have to hide the discrepancy between the sex listed in my household registration and my actual sex anymore.
In modern society, errors in one's identity records that left one effectively undocumented were a real headache.
Humans were social creatures, after all. They could not live apart from society.
Taking it a step further, could I land a civil-service job with that Time-Space Administration Bureau?
With a permanent position, she would not ask for wealth or glory. At least she would have stability and could take better care of Hayate.
Half an hour later, after a fruitless search, Yuno had no choice but to give up.
"Let's head back. The admiral wants us to return to the Asura first."
Fate was still reluctant to let it go. If she had ignored Yuno and chased after the man right away, would they have avoided losing him?
"You need to look after yourself too, Fate! That matters more than the mission." Yuno knew what she was thinking. "If anything happened to you, Nanoha would be heartbroken, too."
Only when she heard Nanoha's name did Fate's expression soften.
Nanoha was the only friend she had ever had, the first person to make her feel warmth. She had shown Fate that she was not a weapon or a tool, but a living, breathing girl.
Fate had no choice but to give in. She took one final look at the crowded street, but could find no one suspicious.
Several hours later, in the admiral's office aboard the Asura.
Fate had come here of her own accord.
"You're saying you want to transfer schools?"
"Yes. I want to go to Nanoha's school."
"I understand that you want to see Nanoha, but transferring there outright..." Lindy had no objection to the two children being friends, but Fate's circumstances were unusual. She had never received a structured upbringing. As a clone, she had been treated from birth by her biological mother as a tool for resurrecting her own daughter.
There were many things she had missed out on, such as familial affection.
Admiral Lindy felt obliged to make up for those things.
"Fate, it's not that I don't want you to be with Nanoha. It's just... to be honest, I've been thinking about applying to adopt you as my daughter."
"Your daughter?"
"Of course, what matters most is what you want."
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